Intermission
The farmhouse was fairly isolated, an hour's journey from Magnimar and several miles from any other farmland. Weathered blue paint, boarded up windows, and the wilted remains of crops in the fields made it appear long abandoned – but only to the untrained eye. Raz noted the soft imprint of footprints in the dirt as he approached, and the lack of dust on the door handle. If he looked closely, he thought he could see shadows moving behind the boards on the windows.
He cautiously approached the wooden door and knocked – two times, pause, and then once more. After a few moments he heard the sound of locks being undone, and the door opened ever so slightly. The chain was still on the door, keeping it from being opened more than a crack. A brown-haired man who looked to be in his twenties peered out at Raz, frowning.
"Who are you?"
Raz quickly shapeshifted his hair from blonde to brown and back to blonde. The man blinked and then nodded in understanding.
"Oh, I see. Aren't there usually three of you guys?"
Raz stepped aside slightly so the man could see the two changelings standing behind him.
"Alright. What do you want?"
"I have a message for your mistress." Raz edged carefully to one side, trying to get a view of the door guard's shadow in the room inside, but the man moved as well, blocking Raz's view.
"What is it?"
"The message is…" Raz leaned in conspiratorially. The man leaned forward as well, and Raz was finally able to catch sight of the man's shadow behind him.
Raz winked at the door guard, and then melted into his shadow.
Liaison Kevri sat at her desk, drafting a message to be sent to her Vernai superior back in Ilizmagorti. As she dipped the quill into the ink, she heard a knock at the door.
Kevri picked up her vision gem and looked into it, allowing her to view the group standing outside her office: the door guard Aiven, a changeling in leather armor, and three of her Red Mantis assassins behind them. She frowned.
"Enter," she spoke. The sealing runes deactivated, and the door creaked open. The group entered the room, the last Mantis assassin closing the door behind them.
"What is the meaning of this? Aiven," Kevri asked, looking at the door guard, "you know the changelings are never allowed to come in here!"
"I can be very persuasive," said Raz with a smirk.
Kevri glared at him. "Unless you want to see your precious enclave destroyed, you had best turn around and leave right now."
"No thanks."
"You insolent…wait. You changelings never travel alone. Where are-"
"You are correct," said Aiven. With a respectful nod Raz stepped aside, and the door guard moved up to stand across the desk from Kevri.
The door guard's tan skin turned to pure white, short brown hair flowed out into pale blue locks, and the body changed from short and stocky to the slim female form of Councilor Jin. She regarded Liaison Kevri with a feral grin.
"The family is never alone."
Kevri stared at her in disbelief.
"Now," spoke up Raz, "This is probably the part where you say 'Get them!' to your guards here, and then I inform you that they're changelings too and that the real guards are bleeding out in the hallway. And since that leaves you pretty much backed into a corner, I suggest you listen very closely to what the esteemed Councilor has to say."
"Let's make this quick." Jin rested her hands on the desk and leaned forward until her face was only inches from Kevri's. "Who in your organization knows where the enclave is located?"
Kevri stumbled away from Jin, backing up against the wall. "Everyone! All the Vernai know, even the Blood Mistress herself knows!"
Jin stared at her for a second, and then rolled her eyes. "By the gods, humans are such terrible liars. What do you think, Ayva?" She glanced back at one of the changelings dressed as a Mantis assassin.
Councilor Ayva removed the mantis head shaped helm of her disguise, dropping it to the ground. She stepped forward to stand next to Jin. "She hasn't told her superiors. She's using it to keep her position. As long as she's the only one who knows where we are, they need her to control us."
"Well, that's convenient. Do we need anything else from her?"
"We do not."
Jin drew her falchion and stepped around the desk, advancing on Kevri as the liaison frantically tried to pull something out of her belt pouch.
"Norgorber is displeased that the Red Mantis has been trying to control his servants. He requires your blood as repayment for this affront," Ayva spoke calmly.
"I'm not going to kill you quickly like I did your men," hissed Jin. "I'm going to make this nice and slow."
As Jin got within a foot of Kevri, something in the liaison's expression changed.
"Jin, caution-" Ayva began, but before she could continue Kevri's hand whipped out of her pouch, throwing a knife into Jin's shoulder. The changeling stumbled back with a grunt of pain. Jin growled and shot a burst of lightning at Kevri, but the woman easily ducked out of the way and started running for the door.
"Stop her!" Raz yelled to the changelings behind him, but as he moved to intercept Kevri the woman pulled out a vial filled with inky blackness and shattered it on the ground. The area around Raz was flooded with darkness.
Raz felt Kevri shove past him, and though he tried to grab her, the woman managed to escape his grasp. By the time the darkness lifted, the liaison was out of the room. Raz glanced over to the two Councilors. Jin had pulled the knife from her shoulder and tossed it aside, but convulsions were going throughout her body, and her skin was starting to shift color.
"Shapeshifter's Bane," said Ayva gravely. She turned to look at Raz. "Go after the human and stop her. I can cure this." Raz nodded and motioned to his two squad members, and they sprinted out of the room. Behind him he heard Ayva begin to cast. "I call upon the power of Norgorber to banish this poison from you-"
Raz got into the hallway just in time to see Kevri dart around the next corner. He chased after her, leaping over a puddle of blood pooling out from one of the slowly cooling bodies on the floor.
When he finally caught up to Kevri, she was waiting for him in a sparsely decorated bedroom, coating a dagger with poison. He could guess what type of poison it was.
"It's for the best that you tried to do this," said Kevri with a smirk. "You creatures were outliving your usefulness; we would have needed to put you down soon anyway." She lifted a mantis head shaped helm from the dresser and placed it on her head. The eyes of the helm glowed forebodingly.
Raz ignored her taunt, instead speaking to his squad members behind him. "Daevin, Pax. Fight cautiously. One hit from that dagger and you'll go down."
The other two changelings nodded.
Raz started to charge towards Kevri, but then suddenly shadowstepped into his own shadow and out of hers. Her reflexes were fast, however, and she managed to block the slash from his dagger with her own. She lunged in with a quick stab, but he swiftly dodged out of the way.
Daevin and Pax moved in, circling around Kevri to keep her attention split. The liaison drew a handful of throwing knives and threw them at Raz's squadmates. Daevin ducked aside; a few hit Pax, all but one bouncing off his armor. Raz's eyes widened in concern, but Pax shook his head. The throwing knives were not poisoned, at least.
With Raz distracted, Kevri took the opening and swept her leg under his feet, knocking him to the ground. She drew another vial of shadow and shattered it on floor, filling the room with darkness. Raz felt her pin him to the ground, and place her dagger against his throat. All he could see was the creepy yellow glow of the eyes on her helm.
"Can't teleport when you can't see, can you?" she hissed. Even without the dagger cutting him, Raz could feel the touch of the poison starting to affect him. His body began to shake, and the dagger sliced slightly into his neck.
"I think I'll just leave you here to enjoy the poison while I kill your friends." The weight of her body lifted from his, and the yellow eyes moved away into the darkness.
Raz tried to force himself to get up from the floor, but it was like he was glued to the ground. His head felt like it was on fire, and he could barely stop himself from passing out. He heard a cry of pain from across the room, and the sound of another body falling to the ground. There was nothing he could do, he realized, closing his eyes.
It would have been nice to get to see her one last time…
"-by Norgorber's will, be cleansed!" Raz's eyes flashed open. He saw Ayva kneeling beside him, her hands pressed down onto his chest.
"Ayv- I mean, Councilor! I thought I was…"
"You serve well, Raz," said Ayva with a smile. "Norgorber is happy to reward your service."
Raz sat up, his head still spinning. "Forgive me, Councilor, but the human was able to escape…and my team…"
"Raz, did you seriously think we couldn't take on a single human?" came Pax's bemused voice from behind him.
Raz turned and saw Pax and Daevin leaning up against the dresser. Daevin was carefully holding the poisoned dagger. On the floor in front them lay Kevri, her helm rolled off to the side and a slash across her arm.
"Is she dead?"
"Actually, no," replied Pax. "We learned something very interesting today."
"While the human was ranting and you were busy taking a dirt nap, we were able to pinpoint her location. We only meant to disarm her, but in the process she got cut with the dagger," said Daevin.
"When the darkness went away she was on the floor – alive, conscious…and completely paralyzed." Pax poked Kevri with his boot.
"It would appear," said Ayva, "that in addition to skin contact with the poison being fatal to us, the poison entering the bloodstream will paralyze a human."
Councilor Jin suddenly stalked into the room. "Ayva, what's the deal with just leaving me lying on the floor- oh. You killed the human. Damn."
Raz stood and staggered over to Pax and Daevin, resting his weight against the dresser. "You'll be delighted to know, Councilor, that my squadmates managed to paralyze the human without killing her."
"Your squadmates did? What about you?"
"I…" He shifted awkwardly. "I was taking a dirt nap." He shrugged in embarrassment.
Jin made a scoffing noise but otherwise did not comment. She moved over to Kevri and dragged the liaison to her feet.
"So, human, do you want to go ahead and beg for mercy or something?" asked Jin, smiling viciously.
"Jin," said Ayva with a sigh. "She's paralyzed. She can't talk. Just kill her so we can go; Raz needs to rest in order to recover."
Jin ignored the last statement, keeping her attention focused on Kevri. "Alright, that's less fun, but fine. Let me guess what you want to say." She shapeshifted to look like Kevri and switched to a mocking, high-pitched voice. "How dare you do this! You'll pay for this! The Red Mantis will hunt you down and kill you all blah blah blah blah!" She switched back to her normal form and voice. "Yeah. Good luck with that, human."
She let go of Kevri, dropping the human so her head banged onto the floor. With a wicked grin she turned to Raz and his team. "Burn this place to the ground. I don't want a single map, book, or scrap of paper left for anyone to find." Raz nodded and pushed himself off the dresser, moving to follow her order.
A high plume of smoke rose from what used to be the farmhouse. The five changelings walked through the wilted fields, Pax and Daevin supporting an exhausted Raz.
"That was fun," said Jin, sighing in satisfaction.
"You got poisoned and passed out," said Ayva with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't you dare tell the others about that," Jin snapped.
"I wouldn't tell a soul," said Ayva serenely. "What you really should be worried about is how you're going to convince Raz and his team to keep quiet…"
Jin's eyes widened and she sprinted to catch up to the other three changelings. "Raz! Daevin! Pax! Did I ever tell you about how you're my favorite squad ever?"
Ayva smiled slightly, but she found herself preoccupied by other thoughts. This was a dangerous move they'd made. Even with all the evidence burned away, the Red Mantis would eventually find out that it was they who had killed the liaison. And when they did, they would surely want retribution. She could only hope that the family's skill and the strength of Norgorber was enough for them to win this.