Retaliation

It was nearly noon when Brianna wandered out into the taproom. She had awoken from a dreamless sleep long after her shift had started, but she didn't care. She'd need the rest very badly. What had happened couldn't be changed, and either she'd get in trouble for missing her shift or she wouldn't.

The front door had been wedged open. She caught a glimpse of Duncan standing on the steps outside and went to join him. Every inch of her body hurt as she walked, but it was a benign kind of hurt. The sort she could bear and that she knew would heal.

The sky was covered in thick gray clouds. The air was foggy, dense, and when she sniffed the air she realized why.

"What's burning?" she asked.

Duncan turned towards her, as though seeing her for the first time.

"The Watch, lass," he said.

Oh.

When she stepped closer to him, she could see the tall column of dark smoke standing out over the roofs, drifting lazily to one side. Duncan was staring at it.

She stood with him quietly for a while. There was a cold breeze tugging at her clothes, but she didn't mind it.

It reminded her that she was alive.

"I gather that's why you didn't wake me."

He nodded, after a moment's pause.

"You were running late last night. I checked in on you in the morning, but you looked like you needed the sleep."

"I did."

There weren't very many people on the streets. Some were going about their business, others were looking up at the column of smoke just like she and Duncan were. But most of the district's inhabitants seemed to have decided that this was not the time to be out and about. Or, maybe, they were busy gawking at the damage up close.

"It'll be mostly out by now," Duncan remarked. "They were forming chains earlier, to fetch water from the harbor. I didn't want to leave the inn, but I sent Sal to help."

"How bad?" she asked.

"It's nearly burnt out, lass. Not much left except walls."

It took her a long moment to digest this. The station, gone.

"Do they know who did it yet?"

"Word on the street says Moire."

Moire.

The weapons shipment Cormick and his men intercepted.

This is retaliation.

"She's declared a war, hasn't she?" Her voice was blank. She was still too drained to feel much of anything.

Duncan put his arm around her shoulders, standing next to her.

"Yes lass, she has."

She'd never actually entered the tall, grey stone building that marked the center of the merchant district. While she knew that this was where her reports were read and where most of her orders originated, she'd never actually had to report to headquarters for any reason, and there hadn't been time for sightseeing.

The building was buzzing like a beehive. Watchmen hurried along the corridors, asking questions and exchanging information. Others were moving along with grim determination. There were worry and anger in every face she passed. Not that it was a surprise, after what had happened.

It was a bit intimidating. The outpost, back in the docks, had soon been familiar, and she had known most of the faces after a only few days. She'd quickly had a feel for the station. Now, most everyone was a stranger to her and she was feeling rather out of place. On top of that, her body was still weak from the ordeal it had been through, but it helped her confidence a little that both Neeshka and Khelgar had insisted on being by her side.

"Wow," Neeshka repeated for the third time, looking around. "I never thought I'd see this place from the inside without having been arrested."

"Don't take this the wrong way," Brianna said, turning to her, "but try to stay low-key. I don't have nearly enough pull to get you out of trouble."

"Don't worry," Neeshka assured her. "I'll keep my tail in line."

"Thanks."

They turned a corner and found yet another bit of corridor. Brianna immediately searched for a face she recognized, Cormick, Lieutenant Roe or even just one of the sergeants that usually oversaw the watchposts in the docks. Word was going around that there had been casualties in the fire, but she hadn't yet found anyone who might have been able to tell her names. The thought of Cormick possibly being among the dead made her feel distinctly funny.

"Hey, recruit! Storm!"

She was rather impressed that the man who addressed her so knew her name, because she had no idea what his was, and she wasn't usually bad with names.

"Yes?" she asked, peering up at him and trying to determine his rank. His cloak was devoid of insignia, just like her own.

"Captain's been asking about you," the man said and nodded towards a door.

"Brelaina?"

"Yeah. You should go see her."

Without another word, she turned and marched in the direction he was pointing. Captain Brelaina was one woman she did not want to keep waiting.

Two watchmen, officers, were leaving the office just as Brianna approached. One of them held the door open for her.

"Careful," he warned her, looking rueful, and Brianna realized what he meant by that once she heard the raised voices from within.

Cormick was standing in one corner of the room. His jaw was clenched, and he looked positively ready to murder someone. Despite that, she had to admit she was glad to see him alive. He turned his head as she entered, and Brianna felt the blood rush to her face as she blushed worse than she could ever remember having blushed before.

Well. Probably should have anticipated that.

Cormick didn't blush, but he looked just about as uncomfortable as she felt.

"You must be Brianna Storm, the recruit I've heard so much about."

The voice, though melodic and feminine, could have cut through steel and mercifully interrupted their moment of awkwardness. Brianna turned and focused her attention on the woman it belonged to.

Captain Brelaina radiated competence and the sort of no-nonsense attitude that was a boon to the leadership position she occupied. She was wiry but elegant, with closely cropped brown hair and eyes that gave Brianna the impression that this woman could see right through her. She realized at once that this was not someone who could be easily played.

She saluted hastily, and Brelaina was already speaking again.

"You'll be aware of the situation, of course," she said, and Brianna felt obliged to nod. She hoped the captain was referring to the obvious.

"The Watch is in turmoil. Moire and her gang made a bold move, one that cannot go unanswered if we are to have any hope of retaining control of the docks district. Already, the citizens' trust in our forces is fading."

"Because half of our men are turncoats," Cormick spat.

Brelaina's head snapped around, and her eyes narrowed as she regarded the marshal.

"And as I have already discussed with you, we do not have the luxury of making this our primary concern at the moment. With funds being diverted to reconstruction, we do not have the means of paying salaries that would curb a watchman's need to look for coin elsewhere."

"Greedy cowards. If found, any turncoat should be executed for betraying their city and their fellow watchmen!"

Brianna's eyes kept darting from one to the other as she realized that this had to have been a continuation of the argument she had walked in on.

"If we did this, we would be fighting a war on two fronts, and our forces would be crushed. I sympathize with your frustration, marshal…"

"Frustration? Lieutenant Roe and three recruits died in that fire! I don't only speak for myself when I say that feelings are getting to be more than mere frustration, captain."

"All the more reason to keep a cool head," Brelaina snapped. "Moire wants us in disarray, in a panic, and some kneejerk reaction is not going to help our cause. And that is enough, marshal," she emphasized when Cormick opened his mouth to reply.

Brianna felt distinctly uncomfortable between her two bickering superiors. She half-wondered whether she had been forgotten about, but after a short pause Brelaina turned back towards her and regarded her once more with that measured gaze.

"I'll be blunt with you, recruit. On record, you have been effective and dependable, and you come highly recommended."

She knew, of course, that this was exactly what Cormick had been working on for her all this time, but it still felt rather strange to hear this sort of praise from Brelaina's mouth.

"Moire's aggressiveness, as I said before, calls for immediate action from our side. I have hand-picked a number of watchmen I consider trustworthy and competent and taken them off their regular duties in order to deal with this matter. I want you to be part of this initiative."

Brianna's throat was dry as she regarded the woman.

This sounds dangerous. It's an opportunity, certainly, but it seems dangerous as hell.

I don't think I'll be able to refuse this one without destroying everything I've worked for.

Brelaina's hand closed around a small object on her desk.

"I want you to take Lieutenant Roe's place," the captain said and stepped closer. "Do you accept?"

Oh.

What?

She stared.

"Uh…"

I don't have a damn choice, do I?

"Yes?" she said tentatively. Her voice sounded strangely high-pitched to her own ears.

Brelaina reached out for a fold of her cloak.

Lieutenant? Seriously?

Gold glinted in the torchlight as the symbol of her new rank was pinned to her uniform. The captain stepped back.

Did this really just happen?

"Well then, lieutenant," Brelaina said, sounding satisfied. "Welcome aboard. Time is of the essence, so I will be brief. We need to get to Moire as soon as possible, before she has the chance to cause any more deaths or disruption. We also need to keep the damage she can do under control."

Brianna felt her heartbeat accelerate.

"You want me to find Moire?" Her voice was still sounding squeaky like that of a little girl, damn it all. But she'd just realized that there was a serious problem looming before her. Her body was still healing and not exactly in good enough shape to be doing the sort of tasks Brelaina was expecting.

She calmed ever so slightly when the captain shook her head.

"No, Lieutenant. You will not be part of the main force tracking her down. I have another assignment for you, one that is nonetheless important. During the recent development, one of our best informants was compromised, and we need to get him to safety here in headquarters before one of Moire's gang can get to him."

"You want me to escort him?"

The captain nodded.

"Now that he has nothing to lose, he no longer has to withhold information from us in order to keep his cover. He could doubtlessly be useful in hampering Moire's operations, but he needs to be alive to help have posted a guard by his house, but that alone may not be nearly enough. I need you to get him, and I need you to do it now."

She found herself walking from the room before she'd even had time to process all that had just happened, and pushing her way past the watchmen in the hallway so fast that Khelgar and Neeshka had to break into a run to keep up with her.

Lieutenant.

What in the hells?

It suddenly occurred to her that the target painted on her had just gotten to be about twice as large as a result of this battlefield promotion.

"Well, fuck," she muttered under her breath, and began to walk even faster.

Through weeks of patrolling, Brianna had more than a passing familiarity with the streets and alleys that made up the docks district by now. When it came to the merchant quarter, however, she hadn't a clue where she was going and what was the fastest way to get there, so she let Neeshka lead the way through streets that looked much cleaner than those she walked every day, past houses surrounded by decorative hedgerows.

"So, not that I'm complaining," Neeshka said while they hurried along, "but I thought that you throwing your lot in with the Watch would mean they'd send plenty of backup."

Brianna smiled without humor. "I wish. Well, you heard her, with all the turncoats we have running loose, there wouldn't have been any guarantee that whoever she sent with me wouldn't attempt to cut my throat and abduct this man we're going to save."

"But, sending you alone?" Neeshka tilted her head.

"I'm not alone," Brianna pointed out. "I've got Khelgar, and you too, I hope."

"Oh, I'm not going anywhere," Neeshka assured her. "The only time I've ever gotten to see any of these houses from the inside was during a break-in. This'll be fun!"

"I hope you're right about that."

Brianna threw back her head and looked at the house in front of which they had stopped. It was a two-story building, and beautiful, if a bit ostentatious. The front lawn was immaculately kept.

"Who is this guy again?" Neeshka asked.

"Merchant," Brianna answered curtly, because time was short and because she didn't know a whole lot herself. "Name is Fihelis."

"Never heard of him," Neeshka admitted. "But hey, I don't know everything."

Gravel crunched underneath their boots as they approached the wide entrance. As soon as Brianna spotted the single uniformed watchman slumped over in a dark corner, she knew that this mission would not be as simple as she'd hoped.

It never is, is it? Why does this always happen?

She stepped close and determinedly shook the man's shoulder, on the off chance that he had only fallen asleep. The watchman tipped to the side and sprawled on the ground. She searched for a pulse and found none.

"Probably poison," Neeshka said in a low voice. The tiefling put her hands on the man's face, and she was peering into his dead eyes and opening his mouth with her fingers. "He can't have been dead for longer than… hm, only a few minutes, if it was poison. I think."

"You'd know this better than me," Brianna deferred to her. "I haven't a clue about poisons."

"I've used a few different ones in my life, but the thing is, well..." Neeshka let go of the man's head, and the body slumped back to the ground. "For some of them, I'd have to cut him open to prove it was what killed him. If we found a dart or arrow wound on his body, or even a nick from a dagger…"

"No time, tiefling," Khelgar grunted. He had his axe drawn, and looking at him, Brianna realized that there might still be time to save the merchant. If Neeshka was right about the watchman's time of death, the thugs had only just entered the house, and if Fihelis was smart and hid, or had barricaded himself in a room, at least…

On the other hand, entering the house, just the three of them, was madness. They had no idea how many people might be in this house, waiting to kill them. They had no idea what the layout of the house was, where Fihelis might be, no idea about anything.

However, as always, I do have a pretty good idea I'll be screwed pretty good if I return to Brelaina empty-handed.

"Alright," she said, after she had mulled it over, and drew her weapon. The hilt hummed quietly against her palm. "Here's the plan. We'll go in slow, Khelgar in front. Neeshka and me will be sticking to the shadows but ready to fight once we run across whoever poisoned the guard. Also, let's try not to die."

They made their way across the entrance hall, through a sitting room and all the way to the stairs leading up without running into any opposition. They did, however, come across the lifeless body of a woman dressed as a maid at the foot of the stairs. This one hadn't been killed with as much finesse as the guard outside. The lace of her apron was stained red with her blood.

"Tiefling! Stop tryin' ter fill yer pockets!"

Khelgar tried hard to keep his voice down, but his dwarven brawl didn't lend itself to such a thing. Instead of a whisper, it resembled a low growl that made Neeshka jump back from the door she'd been inching towards. Brianna watched as she fingered the lockpicking tool in her hand, looking only slightly guilty.

"Come on, this is such an opportunity!" Neeshka protested.

"We haven't got the time," Brianna pointed out, and at this precise moment, as though to underline her words, they heard a dull thumping sound from upstairs. Neeshka pouted.

Brianna mouthed 'later' to the other girl, who looked slightly mollified and hooked her tool back onto her belt, next to the assortment of things she seemed to have collected during the time she'd been gone.

They stepped over the corpse and made their way up the stairs after Khelgar, and just as Brianna cleared the last step, a warning shout rang out. She barely managed to raise her sword before a man and a woman dressed in leathers were upon them.

They weren't well-trained, more than likely just scouts. It wasn't a very long fight, thanks to Neeshka's sneaking up behind Brianna's opponent and plunging her dagger into the woman's neck. The man, who was fighting Khelgar, didn't last long, crowded by the three of them.

The thumping sound continued. Now that they were closer to it, Brianna thought it sounded rather like an axe on wood. Like someone was trying to get through a door, or through some sort of barricade.

She approached the doorway the sound seemed to be coming from. Motioning for Khelgar and Neeshka to stay back, she inched forward, keeping a wary eye out for more possible attackers.

A crossbow bolt promptly embedded itself in the biceps of her sword arm.

She cried out and threw herself backwards, scrambling for cover just as another bolt hit the door frame. Neeshka pulled her back against the wall, and she sat, swearing under her breath as colorfully as she knew how.

I'm a damned idiot. Of course they'd know we're here, with all the noise we made. And they had plenty of time to prepare for me stepping into that room, too.

"Here, let me." Neeshka knelt next to her, healing kit in hand. She plucked at the fabric that covered Brianna's upper arm around the hole the bolt had made, and pulled a face.

"Ugh, acid. That's got to sting."

"It does," Brianna admitted through gritted teeth.

While Neeshka doctored her arm, she finished berating herself and tried to think of a way to approach the situation. There was no question that they had to get into that room somehow, but she was at a loss as to how they could accomplish it.

"Any ideas?" she finally asked her companions.

Neeshka was nearly finished covering up the entry wound with a cool paste that soaked up most of the sting. The tiefling tilted her head.

"I may have one," she said in a low voice, sounding reluctant.

Brianna raised her eyebrows expectantly.

"I can sort of… make it go dark for a short while," Neeshka elaborated. "Another ancestry bonus."

Brianna stared. "How do you mean, dark?"

"Really, really pitch-black dark in the room. Won't last long, but they won't be able to see anything for long enough so we can make it through the door. Problem is, of course, you wouldn't be able to see anything, either."

By Cyric's blood, that cursed lack of darkvision again.

""I suppose if I move quickly and take out whoever's got that crossbow, you could come in after the spell lifts," Neeshka thought out loud. "Bit of an insane plan though, you know. We don't even know how many of them are in there."

Yeah, welcome to my world of never having a damn choice in the matter.

"Do it," she told Neeshka.

She heard surprised yelps from inside the room as soon as the unnatural darkness descended. Neeshka and Khelgar plunged through the doorway into the swirly mass of black without hestation, leaving her to wait and hope that the two of them were fighting harder than they ever had before. Their advantage was bound to fade just as soon as everyone could see again.

There were two screams in close succession, then some sort of a choked gargling sound. Much sooner than Brianna had hoped, light came flooding back through the doorway. She raised her sword with her good left arm, silently thanking Cormick for his insistence that she train with her left as well as her right hand, and entered the fresh battlefield.

Two men were laying on the floor, both of them bleeding and dying. Another was cowered in a corner, surrounded by a cloud of greenish dust and coughing his lungs out. Neeshka was dodging a bearded man's sword, and Khelgar had his hands full, facing three men at once and deflecting blow after blow with his shield. Brianna started moving across the room to help him, but before she'd gotten three steps far, the tip of a rapier just about pierced her midsection.

She twirled in an attempt to evade it, but while the movement might have saved her life, it wasn't enough to evade the weapon entirely. There were two dull popping sounds as her armor was pierced just above her hip, front, then back, but she didn't feel anything until she finally managed to bring her sword up and the rapier was pulled back. Even then, her side only stung a bit.

The woman she now turned to face was thin and wiry, and wearing a decidedly self-assured smirk. Her stance and the way she held her weapon were enough to trigger the alarm bells in Brianna's head as she realized that this woman had vastly more experience in combat than the average thug she had faced up until now.

Ste stumbled back as attacks were suddenly coming at her with dizzying speed. Somewhere to her right, Neeshka was yelping with pain, but she didn't have a chance to check whether the tiefling was alright, couldn't afford to take her eyes off the expertly wielded weapon that kept coming at her. Steel clashed with steel, and Brianna grit her teeth and tried to ignore the cramping of the muscles in her weaker left arm.

Focus. Improvise. Think of something, or she'll sink that thing to the hilt.

She tried to analyze the situation while still remaining alert to the fight. It was obvious that, just like Cormick had taught her, the woman she was facing was used to beating opponents with her speed. Worse, Brianna realized as she barely prevented tripping over a fallen chair, her opponent was playing with her. Maneuvering her around, trying to get her to make an obvious, lethal mistake.

Another attack parried, and then another, and Brianna tried once again for a counter and failed, but the woman seemed to take personal offense to her even trying and snarled viciously, mouth pressed into a thin line. Brianna felt a pearl of sweat running down the side of her face and resisted the temptation to wipe it away.

Something's going to have to happen to turn this in my favor, or else she'll tire of this game and find a weakness and cut me down like nothing.

Something appeared in form of a dart to the face.

She watched, dumbstruck as the tiny object pierced the woman's cheek, and her opponent gave a gasp of pain and surprise and clawed at it with her free hand until she was able to rip it away. Brianna used her distraction for a series of offensive swings, and while the woman parried each one, her movements were slowed almost imperceptibly.

Poison.

It had to have been Neeshka who had thrown the dart, so the tiefling wasn't out of the fight. Encouraged, Brianna risked one more attack before she was forced back into a defensive position. The woman's eyes were blazing with fury now, and even though her body seemed to be moving more sluggishly, Brianna knew that she was still far too dangerous to take lightly.

Another attempt at a counter, and this time, it worked. Brianna guided her sword underneath her opponent's arm, and even though she managed only a nick to the upper arm, it felt like a triumph.

But the woman appeared to be sick of fighting fairly. Brianna's eyes registered the movement, the free hand dropping to the belt and grasping something, and even though she knew what was coming her reflexes weren't good enough to save her when a bottle was flung at her feet and exploded.

She managed to shield her face. The rest of her was doused in acid.

The woman laughed.

Brianna simply refused to consider what had just happened, and while the damned bitch was giggling at her shock and allowing herself a moment of inattentiveness, she lunged forward and sank her blade into a conveniently exposed thigh.

Her lower body began to tingle, then burn. She couldn't stop the tears from falling, tried to keep her vision clear and failed.

Have to finish her now, while I can still think. Otherwise she'll do it to me.

The woman had sunk to one knee, but she was still in the fight. Brianna tried to look for another weakness, but the pain was making things go foggy. She blinked. The rapier was coming at her in a sideways arc, and her muscles reacted.

She derailed the other weapon upwards with her own and followed through, crashing her blade down and cutting through armor, breaking the woman's collarbone.

A grunt of pain was her reward. Her opponent pitched forward, tried to catch herself with her hands and only barely succeeded. Brianna stumbled forward and slipped her blade in between two ribs.

Finally.

Then she sank to the floor herself as her body remembered being in agony and shook so bad that her sword slipped from her grasp. She couldn't see very well, but it appeared that nobody else in the room was moving any more.

So now we're all dying, are we?

At least I took her down with me.

Or maybe she took me down with her. Whichever.

Things went dark.