I do not own Legend of Dragoon or any of the characters.


Infiltration

Cade watched the Sandorans patrolling he street. There were a lot of them. Five in view currently, but he'd seen about another four when they first arrived before they ducked into the pub. They had unanimously decided against assaulting the Black Castle as they had Hellena. Time may have been pressing, but they had agreed to be careful this time.

"What do you think?" Rose asked, holding out a pint of ale as she joined him at the door. "Any ways in?"

"Well, the castle's still a ways off, but it looks like we could fly in the top if we were really desperate," Cade said quietly.

Rose nodded, sipping her drink. "Probably not the most subtle method."

"Can't be any less subtle than Hellena," Cade said, he glanced at the others. "They're holding together better than I expected."

"They're not weak," Rose said. "They won't let something as little as someone dying stop them."

"The death of a friend isn't something little," Cade said. "You know that."

Rose looked over at him for a moment before letting out a near-silent sigh. "Maybe."

He looked back at the others who were talking to a guy in white armor with a red cape, who had figured out they were adventurers and began to try and tell them his own adventuring stories.

"Between you and me," the guy was saying in a hushed tone, "I defeated the Dragon, Feybrand."

Cade raised an eyebrow, seeing Rose do the same as they walked over to the others. "Did you now? How'd you manage that?"

"Well, once I got blessed to be immune to its poison, it was just another fight," he boasted, puffing out his chest. "Its scales were like iron, though, and its attacks shattered stone! More than once I thought I'd be killed by that monster."

Cade glanced at Rose, who narrowed her eyes.

"You must be incredibly powerful and brave to face a Dragon," Rose said. "However did you kill it?"

"Funny you should ask," the man grinned. "I used this amazing drug right here. It's so powerful it even slays dragons. I call it the Dragon Beater. Normally, I'd have to charge quite a bit for this drug, but for a lady as beautiful as you, I'll give you a fifty percent discount."

"You're too kind," Rose said dryly.

"Yes, for only ten thousand, this amazing drug could be yours," he said. "Simply coat your blades in it and nothing will be able to stand in your way. And for the lovely lady, I'll even throw in this feather that I took from Feybrand himself." He held out a green feather about the length of Cade's hand from wrist to his fingertips, the man holding the feather with a tissue. "Careful not to touch it, though, or you'll be poisoned by it."

Everyone simply stared at him in silence.

"What?" he asked just as the door opened and a Sandoran walked in.

"Is there a guy who defeated Feybrand in here!?" the Sandoran demanded.

Cade pointed at the guy trying to con them and he went pale instantly. He tried to run, but the Sandoran grabbed him and slammed his upper body down on a table.

"Wait!" the man shouted. "I'm just a business man! I was lying about the dragon! Honest!"

"Shut up!" the Sandoran spat, picking standing him up and shoving him toward the door, holding his arm at an awkward angle to keep him from making a run for it.

"I feel a little bad," Shana said.

"I don't," Cade said, sipping his drink. "Try to con me, mother fucker." He glanced at the things the man had left behind and stopped. "Hello, what are you doing here."

"What is it?" Dart asked as Cade picked up a small stone, barely bigger than the last segment of his thumb.

"That's stardust," Rose said, staring at the small black stone with tiny pinpricks of white spread over it like stars in the night sky.

"Stardust?" Dart asked.

"It's a type of natural magic stone," Cade said. "According to legend, if you collect fifty, you'll be able to have any one wish granted."

"What are the chances we find forty nine more?" Albert asked.

"Basically zero," Cade said. "But it's better that we have at least this one than a tyrant with forty nine others."

"Fair enough," Dart said as Cade slipped the stone into his pocket. "We should get going."

The others nodded, and they all headed for the castle. However, they stopped at the cliff before it. There was a drawbridge from their side of the cliff extended toward the castle, but then there was also a second from the castle out to meet their bridge. If they had tried to assault the castle, they'd have never reached it on foot. They also wouldn't be going in the front because there were two soldiers walking back and forth on the bridge, and Cade could see at least four more inside the gate.

"We'll need to find a different way in," Albert said.

"There's a town down there," Shana said, pointing off the cliff to the left.

Cade looked where she was pointing and saw a town carved into the side of the cliff on their side. "That might work."

"Worth a shot," Dart nodded. "Let's go."

They all nodded, walking left along a path following the cliff and soon came to an ancient, repurposed fort. It looked like a bunch of wooden houses stacked on top of one another and fused to the side of he cliff, and as they made their way through it, they were forced to follow staircase after staircase, taking ladders from one level to the next, and getting lost a couple of times as they made their way down the fort. Cade felt bad for whoever had had to defend this fort.

Finally, they reached the bottom and met a young boy named Popo, apparently a member of a group called the New Serdio Party, who wanted to help people on both sides of the war, and who were hoping for an end to the war, regardless of who won or lost. He asked them several questions about what they believed in regards to war, specifically who should win, what children who couldn't fight should do, and they personally fought. They answered the questions honestly, and the boy was apparently satisfied with their answers, because he led them to a back room and welcomed them to the New Serdio Party. Albert introduced himself properly and the boy instantly began to scramble to make him comfortable, though Albert tried to assure him it was okay. After a conversation that began to drag on between Albert and Popo about whether or not six people could take the Black Castle, Rose finally seemed to run out of patience.

"We're not here to babysit," Rose said. "You should be trying to figure out how to get into the castle."

"Oh!" Popo said. "I can get you in!"

"You can?" Cade asked.

"Yeah!" Popo nodded. "This place used to be a fortress connected to the Black Castle, so there's a secret path in that nobody remembers! Follow me!"

He sprinted up the stairs he was standing in front of, then along the raised walkway they led to. The others all followed after a moment, and gathered around a hole in the floor with a stone tunnel inside, a rope hanging down the middle of it to serve as a method for getting down safely.

"When I heard Bale was taken, I lost hope," Popo said. "I thought all my campaigning was for nothing. But then, I found our you were alive, King Albert, and there was still a chance! Please, defeat Doel and liberate Kazas."

"Yeah," Dart nodded. "I'll defeat Doel and put an end to this war."

"To avoid a repetition of you and Seles," Shana nodded.

"I guess I'll be serious for the first time in a while," Haschel said.

"For those who have suffered in this war, I will fight," Albert said.

Rose groaned, turning tot he hole. "I'm going on ahead."

She gripped the rope and began to to slide down. The others all sighed.

"Cold as ever," Cade sighed. "Well, can't just leave her alone. See you down there."

He slid down after Rose, finding her waiting at a wooden pole extending up through another hole at the other end of the small chamber they were in. He walked over to her and glanced back at the rope.

"They're being naïve again," Rose said.

"They're trying to give a young boy hope," Cade said. "Why do you fight, Rose?"

"Because there is no other way," Rose said. "Not for me."

Cade nodded, then smiled. "Then I'll have to get to work finding one for you."

Rose rolled her eyes. "You just can't help yourself, can you?"

"Only when it involves you," Cade said. "Maybe if you'd give me a big smile I'd be satisfied."

"Somehow, I seriously doubt that," Rose said as the others finally slid down into the room. "This way."

She climbed the pole, followed by Cade, who was careful to keep his eyes on the ground in front of him when he found they had to crawl through the tunnel they were in. The others followed, Dart struggling a bit from his armor, and eventually reached a spot where there was a hole leading down and the tunnel continued on.

"Popo said it's the last hole," Albert called up to the front.

"Thanks," Cade said, Rose continuing past that hole and the next.

Finally, they came to the last of the three and she slid down the pole, the others all following. They followed the tunnel, once again having to crawl, to another pole, which extended down into a passageway that looked much more like the inside of a castle. They walked along it, everyone readying their weapons as they went, and soon came to a set of ladders leading up several levels. They all climbed them quickly, Cade taking the lead this time and Rose waiting to go last with Shana. As Cade stepped off the last ladder, he found himself in an area with several rectangular platforms connected by stairs and patrolled by Sandorans, one of whom saw him the moment he stepped off the ladder. He launched himself across the small gap to that platform, stabbing the Sandoran in the throat before he could warn the others. He ripped his sword back out and sighed, glancing back at the others as they hurried over, all of them crouching behind the low wall taking up the middle of the platform.

"What's the plan?" Albert asked, glancing over the wall at the other Sandorans, a couple of which had war dogs with them.

"We'll have to kill them to get past," Cade said. "Shana, can you take out the dogs from here?"

Shana nodded. "I can't promise it'll be quiet, though, and the guards will sound the alarm instantly."

"You're going to wait until we get close enough to stop them doing that," Cade said. "I'll signal you when it's time."

Shana nodded and everyone else moved up, getting as close to the guards as they could before Cade nodded to Shana. She nodded and pulled her bow back, then loosed the arrow, a second following a moment later. As soon as the first arrow hit a dog, which yowled in pain, then fell off its platform to its death, Cade and the others swarmed the guards. It wasn't quiet, but it was short. After barely a minute, they'd finished the last of the guards and headed for the door into the castle, Shana joining them on the way.


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