Jewel Cities:
Soulcatcher heard almost immediately when the Black Company arrived in the city of Opal, on the south shore of the northern continent. She'd been hiding out there herself, slowly recovering from the attempt to kill her. Well, perhaps it was better described as a successful murder. She wasn't even quite completely alive again yet. She was reduced to carrying her own head around in a box, and her decapitated state significantly weakened her, though her magic preserved the condition of both her body and her head.
Since digging herself out of her grave, Soulcatcher had plundered various hidden caches of useful items. Mostly she retrieved items she'd left behind herself but she'd found a few belonging to other wizards who had fallen in the long war. One of the Eighteen had protected his hidden base with a talisman that repelled spirit walkers. Many wizards avoided spirit walking because of the risk that something might happen to one's body while one's spirit was out exploring. But for those who practiced it, spirit walking could be an excellent way to spy, and certain magical effects were easier to detect and influence in spirit form. Thus, being able to keep spirit walkers away was hardly useless. Still, the greatest prize was an imp who'd been surprisingly well bound to this world. Soulcatcher didn't bother giving the imp a nickname, but the Black Company wizard One-Eye would eventually call him Frogface. Frogface needed her help if he was ever going to go home, so Soulcatcher was easily able to arrange a reasonable deal for his services.
She also had other resources. Though her trick of reaching out and possessing minor wizards as a means of communication and intelligence gathering wasn't working very well (her weakened state reduced the range to the point where it was practically useless), another feat remained easily within range of her diminished abilities. She developed a habit of taking control of most of the local crow population wherever she went. She found the birds to be effective spies and messengers.
She'd also slowly removed the effects of Lady's magic. Taken could rebuild themselves from almost anything. There were a tiny number of exceptions; Hanged Man, Limper, and Howler had all been cursed by the Dominator, and could never repair the damage that had done, even if they could repair lesser injuries. But Soulcatcher had only been cursed by Lady, and whatever she might think, Lady was never anywhere near as powerful as the Dominator. Now all Soulcatcher needed was a surgeon, and the healing magic she'd studied up on during her long period of recovery, and she should be able to reattach her head and be as good as new.
The arrival of the Black Company triggered a lot of mixed feelings in Soulcatcher, and as usual this meant more than a little talking to herself. "They were very useful back in the day," she said in a serious voice.
"But they turned on me and murdered me," a child's voice complained.
"Well, Croaker did, anyway," a rich baritone commented.
"And he was acting on orders from my sister, who was the one I'd hired them to serve," the serious voice mused.
"Did I really expect Croaker to be able to say 'no' to my sister?" she asked in the voice of a very catty woman.
The one person argument continued at some length, but in the end the conclusion was that blame should really be placed where it belonged, on Soulcatcher's troublesome sister, the Lady, ruler of the empire. Besides, Croaker was an excellent surgeon.
Croaker was now the leader of the Black Company. He had been their physician and annalist when they had worked for Soulcatcher. They were very much diminished in numbers. The only other members of significance seemed to be two minor wizards, a little old white man with an idiotic grin who was called Goblin, and an even older little black man with an eye patch who was unimaginatively called One-Eye.
Soulcatcher noted with interest that they had become high-ranking imperial officers. Croaker was a general, and the two minor wizards were colonels; the handful of men traveling with them also all held imperial commissions. Soulcatcher hadn't kept up on all of the developments in imperial politics, but she knew that a couple of years after the battle of Charm, the Black Company had turned against the Lady and her empire and become the personal bodyguard of the White Rose, the rebel leader. Much more recent, and much more confusing, reports had the White Rose finally defeated by the Lady's forces. Apparently the Black Company had managed to worm their way back into imperial favor quickly.
It wasn't initially clear what they were doing in Opal, but Soulcatcher had Frogface follow Croaker around, and one evening Frogface saw Croaker visit the Gardens, the most elite dining establishment in Opal. The interest in fine dining seemed out of character for him. No doubt it had to do with his very interesting guest. On the basis of Frogface's description, Soulcatcher quickly identified her as the Lady. The appearance of her sister in town piqued Soulcatcher's interest.
Frogface did not report that the woman was any kind of sorceress, and Soulcatcher's spying and scrying soon revealed a very surprising fact; either her sister was doing an excellent job of concealing her powers, or her powers were somehow gone. As she continued to watch, and listen in when she could, it became increasingly clear that, extraordinary though this was, the latter was the case. This would make Soulcatcher's revenge much easier. Too easy, really; even in Soulcatcher's weakened state, killing an ordinary mortal was pretty much effortless. It wouldn't be any fun at all. So Soulcatcher just watched.
Soulcatcher soon discovered that Croaker and Lady were planning to make off with her ship. Well, the empire didn't consider the ship to be hers, but Soulcatcher disagreed. The Dark Wings was an absurdly large galley with five banks of oars, almost three hundred feet long, and with a colossal sail bearing Soulcatcher's symbol, a fire-breathing skull with one empty eye and one eye of flame. A wooden ship the size of The Dark Wings would ordinarily leak so much it would need more men manning the pumps than the oars, and it would break apart in even slightly bad weather. The Dark Wings was only seaworthy because it was built more with sorcery than wood. Specifically Soulcatcher's sorcery. And she was a bit resentful at it being co-opted by others.
Any galley was always crowded, with the huge crew of rowers, but The Dark Wings was big enough to have a few hiding places, especially for a stowaway intimately familiar with the ship's magical structure. It was easy enough for Soulcatcher and her imp to tag along when The Dark Wings left port. It wasn't especially comfortable staying hidden for the duration of the crossing, but Soulcatcher had developed patience in her years buried under the Barrowlands.
The Black Company crossed the Sea of Torments, and disembarked at Beryl, on the north coast of the southern continent. Lady gave the captain of The Dark Wings a rather vague, open-ended mission; Soulcatcher briefly considered continuing to tag along with the ship. She could reclaim it, and with that mission it would be a long time before anybody missed it. The ship was an elegant way to get around. Of course, she'd have to find another surgeon besides Croaker, but that could certainly be done. Still, she remained strangely curious about Lady and Croaker's quest. Though she couldn't really explain why, even to herself, she instead chose to continue to watch and follow them southward.
Gea-Xle:
Lady had brought several magically enhanced horses from Charm, so the Black Company moved quickly. At first, it wasn't easy for Soulcatcher to keep up with them, though her crows kept her informed of their movements. Soulcatcher wondered if she should have tried to steal one of those horses her sister had made, though a horse was much harder to conceal, and to feed, than an imp. Perhaps it was best to travel light. In any event, the Black Company stopped for several weeks at the Temple of Traveler's Repose, a stronghold of ancient scholars, which enabled Soulcatcher to catch up and even get a little ahead. She anticipated that if they were going to continue southward, they would want to follow the Great River, which they would meet at the city of Gea-Xle. Soulcatcher arrived at the city before the Black Company, and discovered that the residents of the city anticipated the Black Company's arrival.
Soulcatcher made preparations of her own. She sent Frogface to a local magic shop to speak the owner, while she set some subtle spells to ensure that One-Eye would wish to visit the shop.
Frogface popped into existence next to the shopkeeper. "So, want to make a bit of easy money?" he asked.
The shopkeeper was startled; he rarely saw magic that actually did anything significant. But he was quick to focus on what was important. "How much money? And what do I have to do?"
"It'll be the easiest money you ever made," the imp replied. "I'm going to hang around this shop for a few days, until an old wizard comes by to see what you have. He calls himself One-Eye, as he's got an eye-patch. He's a native of D'loc Aloc, and he's got an ugly, smelly hat; I'll make fun of his hat if you somehow don't recognize him and he doesn't introduce himself. All you need to do is sell me to him. I expect he has some clue what an imp can do, but you can mention that I can speak any language if he doesn't immediately jump at the opportunity. Whatever he pays, you get to keep, and I'll go off with him and you'll never see either of us again. Pure profit for you."
"Why do you want him to buy you?" the shopkeeper asked suspiciously.
"Will knowing that make you any more money?"
"Fair enough," the shopkeeper replied. "What should I tell him if he asks where I got an imp? None of my other stuff is remotely in the same league."
Frogface sighed. "Make something up. Be mysterious. Do you ever tell any of your other customers the truth when they ask you where you get your stuff? Why should this mark be any different? I told you this is easy money for you; don't turn it into something complicated."
The shopkeeper was a little uneasy. The imp was not merely more powerful but also a good deal more sinister than most of the goods that usually passed through his shop. But he expected he could get a very good price indeed, and after all he didn't know this One-Eye character and certainly didn't owe him anything.
While her imp was arranging to infiltrate the Black Company, Soulcatcher investigated the rest of the city. Someone called Eldron the Seer turned out to be the source of the predictions that the Black Company would come soon. He was an old man, with a young woman as his apprentice. Both he and his apprentice were northerners. In appearance, both were strangers, but something about Eldron seemed very familiar to Soulcatcher. By the time the Black Company arrived in town, she'd become almost completely convinced he was her old friend Shapeshifter. Soulcatcher had never found the reports of his death at the battle of Charm believable.
Between the reports from Frogface and from her crows, Soulcatcher was well-informed as the Black Company was enlisted to clear out some pirates who had blocked off river travel to the south. Eldron spent a lot of time talking to Lady, further strengthening Soulcatcher's suspicions as to his real identity. He was certainly someone Lady knew well.
Some of the locals signed up with the Black Company. These new recruits, who called themselves the Nar, were impressive warriors, but none of them had any magical talent so Soulcatcher didn't consider this development to be particularly important. Her main concern was avoiding attracting the attention of Eldron. If he was Shapeshifter, he might still be resentful about being pressured into helping with the murder of Hanged Man, and she wasn't feeling strong enough to defend herself against one of her fellow Taken yet.
The leaders of Gea-Xle hired the Black Company to clear out some pirates that were blocking river trade. Croaker was unenthusiastic about taking on missions that might distract from his quest, which was apparently to find Khatovar, the place where the Black Company had supposedly originated. But as Soulcatcher expected, Croaker wanted to follow the Great River southward, so he needed to get past the pirates anyway.
The Black Company was provided with a huge barge, and many merchants from the city planned to follow behind in smaller barges, optimistically hoping that this effort to break through would succeed. Eldron also boarded the main barge, so Soulcatcher decided to follow the Black Company in one of the smaller, following barges, since she still didn't want to be too close to him. The smaller barges ended up following several hours behind, which worried her a bit; her crows kept her informed on how the lead barge was doing, but there was no way she could intervene if anything went wrong.
Fortunately, nothing did go wrong. After the pirates lost a couple of minor skirmishes, their leader took the field; from his power, and the noise he generated, it was clearly Howler, another of the old Taken. But Eldron dropped his disguise and joined in the fighting, and Shapeshifter's magic proved sufficient to chase Howler off. All of the barges made it to Thresh.
Taglios:
There was little additional excitement as the Black Company continued to make their way southward, though Frogface noticed one development of extreme interest. Lady seemed to be very slowly regaining her powers. A development that needed to be watched. Still, she was progressing at a snail's pace, so it did not seem to be urgent.
Soulcatcher went on ahead as quickly as she could, and found the situation in Taglios quite interesting. Apparently Taglios was under threat by a group of wizards called the shadowmasters. There were four of these shadowmasters, called Longshadow, Moonshadow, Shadowspinner, and Stormshadow. The last aroused Soulcatcher's suspicions, and further investigation confirmed that Stormshadow was almost certainly yet another of her old Taken friends, Stormbringer.
These shadowmasters were working together to conquer Taglios. Their long term goals were unclear; apparently they had spent a lot of time fighting one another in the past, and had only recently put aside their differences for the war against Taglios. In the previous year, the shadowmasters had launched a small, probing attack.
Taglios was ruled by a prince in early middle age, the Prahbrindrah. He had as yet no heirs, which seemed to have the potential to create problems in the future, but that only mattered if they survived the shadowmaster threat. He had an older sister, the Radisha, who seemed to have a great deal of influence over him. He also employed a respectable wizard, Smoke; nowhere near Soulcatcher's level, but well beyond Goblin and One-Eye in strength.
The three leaders of Taglios had seen how unsuccessfully others had tried to oppose the advance of the shadowmasters in the south, and Taglios had no military tradition that seemed to offer any better prospects. So they'd turned to foreigners to organize their defense. They'd found two deserters from the wars of the far north, Willow Swan and Cordy Mather, and another man that the two had met on their journey south (from Gea-Xle, perhaps? Soulcatcher couldn't identify his ethnicity precisely) who only called himself Blade. The three foreigners had remembered enough military tactics from the north that were unfamiliar in these southern lands to be able to lead an effective defense against the first, probing attack, but it was clear that the shadowmasters would send a much larger army this year.
Thus, the leaders of Taglios, who somehow also seemed to know that the Black Company was coming (probably thanks to Smoke), decided that their only option was to rely on more help from foreigners. They wanted to hire the Black Company to fight these shadowmasters. Smoke and the Radisha went upriver to intercept the Black Company and lead them to Taglios, and when they arrived in the city the Prahbrindrah tried to enlist them.
The Black Company relied on Frogface as a translator, so he was able to report to Soulcatcher in detail on the lengthy and tedious negotiations. Croaker didn't want to take on a contract, but he still wanted to go to Khatovar. Soulcatcher had still not been able to figure out why Croaker was so obsessed with this quixotic goal. Regardless, the shadowmasters were in the way. Thus, as with the pirates, Croaker found himself with no choice. Helping the Taglians with their war seemed to be the only way he could get past the shadowmasters.
The Taglian leaders weren't the only ones who had anticipated the arrival of the Black Company. Soulcatcher's crows told her of a small group of Longshadow's troops that had been sent to Taglios to capture Lady and/or Croaker. They were led by a small group of shadowweavers, minor magicians who served the shadowmasters. The shadowmasters were so-called because they commanded shadows, nasty magical creatures of darkness. Small shadows could spy and carry messages; larger shadows could kill. This group seemed to have mostly the small shadows. They also seemed to use bats as supplemental scouts and spies, so Soulcatcher had her crows begin a campaign of killing bats.
As if to make Longshadow's job easier, Croaker and Lady decided to go out scouting, escorted by only a handful of Black Company veterans. They rode the magical horses from Charm, which apparently gave them unjustified confidence that they could escape any trouble. Soulcatcher didn't want Longshadow capturing and questioning Lady.
She debated with herself at length about what to do. "It's probably for the best if my sister just dies," said the deep, chill voice of an assassin.
"But the shadowmasters are clearly up to something. I probably don't want them to succeed. And Lady might be able to interfere with their plans," a serious woman's voice pointed out.
"Besides, if Lady dies, how can I ever get my revenge on her," a catty voice asked.
"Rationalizations!" a baritone voice complained. "How could it ever be best to leave someone alive when she knows my true name?"
"Since the battle in the Barrowlands, it seems that many people know my sister's true name," a scholar's voice pointed out. "Do I intend to kill all of them? And do I have any plan for how to do so? It's a short step from that to my name, after all."
"There are other ways of protecting myself," a deep, bass voice interjected. "Suppose I were to cease to be Soulcatcher? Perhaps I could even have others play the role. Then anyone who knew my name and tried to use it would be unpleasantly surprised!"
"And who cares if revenge on Lady is a petty goal? Who remains that is more powerful than me? If I want to be petty, who can stop me?" the catty voice asked.
"My power is still somewhat limited until I can get myself reassembled," the scholar's voice pointed out.
Though the voices couldn't come to any agreement, the argument eventually petered out, and Soulcatcher found herself working to save the Black Company from their impending disaster.
First, she sent flocks of crows to try to warn them. Unfortunately, Croaker figured out too late that Soulcatcher's crows were trying to divert him away from an ambush. The warning probably helped by making him more alert, but he and his companions still rode right up to the woods where Longshadow's troops were hiding. The shadowmaster troops jumped out to attack them, and confusion reigned; some of the Black Company fought, and some fled, scattering in all directions. The shadowmaster troops also split up, trying to pursue one or another of the escaping Black Company people. The weather also turned, as it began to rain off and on, reducing visibility and slowing travel. It wasn't clear whether the rain did more to help or hurt the Black Company.
Croaker got it into his head that he wanted to track down whoever was commanding the crows, and this proved most inconvenient. Soulcatcher couldn't evade him, hide herself, and direct her crows as the situation demanded all at the same time, so he repeatedly came close to finding her by tracking the greatest concentrations of crows. Eventually she took an arrow, attached a note saying "It is not yet time, Croaker," and from hiding shot it past his ear into a nearby tree. He wasn't quite stupid enough to miss the obvious hint that she could have shot him dead if she'd wanted to, and he finally gave up the chase.
With Croaker no longer being a pest, Soulcatcher tracked down the shadowweavers. Goblin had also found them, but probably couldn't be counted on to handle them. The shadowweavers were minor wizards, but Goblin wasn't that impressive himself and there were six of them to only one of him. Further, the shadowweavers had their shadows, and any shadowmaster troops that might be close enough to join a fight. So Soulcatcher removed the danger to Goblin and eliminated the communication and scouting network of the shadowmasters by using a bit of her own sorcery to burn the shadowweavers to death.
This drastically reduced the effectiveness of the shadowmaster force, but Soulcatcher's crows told her that her sister, who had fled in another direction, was already surrounded by shadowmaster troops, and seemed to be in serious danger. Soulcatcher rushed to the scene, and discovered that Lady was unconscious and badly wounded. Soulcatcher slew the shadowmaster troops, making sure to use spells that were extremely loud and flashy. As she'd hoped, Croaker saw the display, even through the rain, and so quickly found Lady and was able to take care of her while Soulcatcher again faded away.
Frogface caught up with her the next day to report on the status of the company. "It looks like your sister will be fine. And surprisingly enough, you don't seem to have given yourself away. They think it must have been Shapeshifter who rescued Lady. Goblin claims personal credit for killing the shadowweavers, though the others suspect Shapeshifter is really responsible for that deed as well."
Soulcatcher laughed. "Of course, Shapeshifter will know something is going on if they ever thank him. But I doubt they will, and if the subject does come up, I doubt he'll mention that he wasn't the one. In any event, keep watching them, and as usual I especially want to know how my sister is progressing at getting her powers back."
"As you wish, oh Great One," Frogface replied, and vanished before Soulcatcher could scold him for his sarcastic tone.
A/N: This is an alternate universe, but I haven't gotten to any of the significant departures from canon yet, which is why I've gone over events fairly quickly, mostly just retelling them from a Soulcatcher-centered perspective. One thing may be worth noting at the outset. If it were possible to use true names the way Cook describes at the end of The White Rose, they'd be used that way far more often. Since that would be inconvenient, and they aren't used that way on any other occasion even by Cook, that's one of the things that's changed in my universe. The effects of whatever happened at the Barrowlands are the same in my universe. Both Lady and Darling are stripped of power. But why it happened is different. True names are involved (and they're still powerful in my universe, just in more varied and usually more subtle ways), but also other factors, some of them unique, unprecedented, and unlikely to be repeated. That one of those involved in the events was a major magical null is probably one of the key, unlikely to be duplicated factors. As a result, wizards in general don't have to live in constant fear that they'll suddenly be rendered powerless by a simple incantation, though true names can still be used in enough other ways to make wizards highly motivated to keep them secret. Another result is that nobody really understands what happened to Lady. For all anyone knows, her slow recovery is what should be expected after what happened to her.
Criticisms, suggestions for improvement, thoughts on what worked (if anything) and what didn't (and especially why) welcome! I have considerably more material already written, but it needs rewriting and expansion, which will be influenced by the reviews I get (if any); still, updates should be fairly frequent until I run out of pre-written material. I also think I know where I want this to end, though some aspects of how to get there remain quite murky to me.