The Zen Manse, now known to the public as Misfit Manor, felt like it had been built for the Misfits. The egregious wine cellar played into Aribis's brewing tendencies, the sizable vault made Bash feel right at home, and the extensive kitchen was often home to William over the next few days. Enna spent many hours in the gardens, and even Sooka seemed to make herself cozy as she studied for long hours in her bedroom.
They had each been quick to claim a room, Sooka and William with adequate lodgings on the second floor, and the rest taking up the third. Even with all their belongings strewn about, the giant house felt spacious enough for all of them. Mostly. Bash still wished he could have had a floor all to himself, but sharing a wall with Aribis and a hallway with Enna was something that he quickly got used to.
Much to his pleasure, he was able to take up residence in the largest room in the Misfit Manor, the master bedroom on the third floor. He had a balcony all to himself, and so much space that he longed to fill with intricate furniture. The basic bed and chair would suffice until he could find better.
The first morning after Colosso, as Illia had promised, a human with a monocle appeared on their doorstep, eager to discuss their financial situation. After some discussion, the Misfits agreed with the good Oswald to hire guards, a cook, a groundskeeper, two housekeepers, and a stablehand. In addition, they agreed to invest some of their money in Oswald's recommended ventures, and soon enough, they were left with ample free time on their hands for the first time since they had arrived in Agneward.
William began busying himself with the gardens, using magical climate stones to grow summer herbs even in the cool of approaching Snowset, and Enna helped him with establishing a small field of winter wheat. Sooka took to her room, and every day or so, Bash would notice her returning to the manor with another handful of various wizarding materials. To his dismay, Bash also saw Aribis flying back to his room with small bottles of things, and a couple times in the evenings, small clinks of glass could be heard through the walls. Hopefully, nothing would explode any time soon.
Bash spent two days searching Agneward for some fine furniture for his room. On the second day, he found his prize and was promised that a full suite, including bed, desk, nightstands, lounge chair, couch, and balcony chairs would all be delivered by the end of the week. That same day, he hired someone to come paint the walls, and by midweek, he was surrounded by royal red accented with gold trim. He grinned when he saw it. Only a couple days and the furniture would match.
One night at dinner, Enna mentioned her worry about the remaining doppelgangers and what they could be doing around the city. The group decided to tackle this problem, and the next day, they asked the Knights of the White Orchid if they had managed to apprehend Rustler. To Bash's disdain, the White Orchid claimed that Rustler was nowhere to be found, but Lord Kirin gave them permission to do whatever needed to make the city safe again.
This time with his blessing, they made their way back to Rustler's shop.
The Misfits stood together looking over the paper shop, now ragged and abandoned. A small part of Bash mourned the loss of the establishment, as his best information had come from here for the past couple decades. Still, that only increased his drive to find the real Rustler and dispose of the detestable doppelganger.
"Let me just…" muttered Enna, and she whispered something and motioned with her hands. A wave of energy washed over her, and a moment later, her eyes popped open and snapped to the ground. "He's in the Well."
"No problem," Bash replied.
He led them quickly to an alley where he opened a sewer grate and climbed down. The rest followed, and Enna stood close by.
"Which way?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," she replied, lips pursed. "Just down right now."
"Can do."
Following his mental map, he led them this way and that, ducking under pipes and turning corners, slinking down ladders and splashing through puddles. Every so often, he would check in with Enna, and she would nod or point, guiding him farther. Whenever he was unsure of a decision, he would turn to Sooka, and she would direct him one way or another. Finally, Enna's directions pointed across instead of down, and he led them with more confidence until they hit a wall. He turned and followed the path left, and Enna followed her spell, and eventually, they found themselves walking around a large, twisted circle.
"He's under Rustler's shop," whispered Enna. "Has to be."
"There can't just be some random basement down there," said Bash. "There has to be a way in from down here. A way to surprise them."
"The spell is fading, but we know he's somewhere on the other side of this wall."
Bash frowned and placed his hand on the stone. This wall was fairly smooth, the floor well worn. He began around the circle once again, keeping his hand on the wall and feeling for any abnormalities.
After twenty minutes of searching, he almost shouted to find the tiniest sliver of space in the wall, nearly imperceptible to the eye.
"Found it," he announced. "Probably."
He felt around for a minute and defined the outline of the door. Right in the center was the smallest of protrusions, which he pressed in, eliciting a grinding sound as the door began to open, sliding to the side.
With caution, Bash eased forward, and he heard the light whoosh of Aribis's magic as the shadows began to cling to them. Bash's footsteps became silent as they eased forward into the darkness, their presence unnoticed by even the smallest of creatures. The dark gray of their surroundings pressed in on them, until at last, they reached the end of the hallway. Bash gingerly pressed his hand against the wall before him and felt grains of wood. Perhaps he was on the backside of a bookcase.
I love a good secret passage behind a bookcase, he thought.
He pushed cautiously, and it gave way, just enough to show a sliding mechanism at the top. Then he pressed his ear against it and listened, eyes closed in his focus. A moment later, he felt Enna move up and do the same.
Opening his eyes for just a moment, he saw her concentrating face a foot from his, her hand mere inches away. Her tongue stuck out just slightly through her teeth, and he grinned slightly before refocusing his mind.
From what he could tell, the room beyond was large, but full of… something. Boxes, maybe?
Makes sense, he considered. Maybe Rustler kept his extra stock down here.
Voices flitted around the room, quiet voices and raucous voices, gruff voices and soft voices. Footsteps followed the voices as they walked around the room, and after a moment, Bash was able to discern that there was a veritable army on the other side.
His eyes flashed open and met Enna's, and he grimaced. They slowly backed away from the door and turned to the others.
"That's a lot of people," whispered Enna, the darkness absorbing her voice so that it did not echo.
For several minutes, the group exchanged furious whispers about how to enter the room without detection, find Rustler, and escape. In the end, Sooka cast invisibility on herself, and Bash extracted his invisibility cloak from his bag. Bash and Sooka sidled up to the door, and Bash placed both hands on the door before tugging. As the door began to slide open, he swung the cloak over his shoulders and held out one hand, which Sooka grasped tightly. A moment later, the two stood invisible in the face of the lit room full of mercenaries wearing the badge of the Black Rose. His hand tightened around Sooka's.
Crates lined the wall on either side of the entrance, and another five were stacked in the middle of the room. Immediately to the right was a soldier who seemed to have noticed that the door was now open.
"What was that?" he called before edging his way forward. Others began to shift their attention toward the door, and Bash lurched forward with Sooka in tow.
They rushed past four guards wielding spears and turned a tight corner where they saw two heavily armed soldiers who had been leaning on crates and talking. Following the path between the crates, they turned left, and at the far side of the room was a table with three people around it. One was a red half-dragon with a long tail dressed in metallic armor, another an elven woman with a white cloak and crossbow, and a tall human man with a great crossbow slung across his back and a longsword at his hip. On the right were two hooded figures deep in discussion, though they were quickly turning their attention toward the commotion by the door.
Bash glanced behind him, but Sooka was still invisible. However, he noticed some of the soldiers glancing about as if they had heard their footsteps.
His decision had to come quickly. Turning back to the three oddities, he eyed the sharp jaws of the half-dragon, amazed that one like him should be in Agneward right now. And Bash didn't like the look of him. Running up, he dragged Sooka with him until they were planted right behind the half-dragon. He released her hand, drew his rapier, and slid the blade over the front of the creature's throat. It let out a gurgling sound as blood poured from the wound, splattering the others around the table, and the half-dragon collapsed to the floor even as Bash's invisibility faded.
The body shimmered for a moment, and then the bug-like eyes of a doppelganger stared empty at the ceiling.
The elven woman shrieked, and all eyes turned to Bash. One of the heavily armored thugs began his movement toward him, and Bash began searching for a quick way out even as six bolts of energy came whizzing toward him from the hooded figures on the left. They struck him forcefully in his side and chest, and it was all he could do to keep from toppling over into the table.
A commotion began near the entrance, but Bash had no time to pay attention as he was suddenly engaged in combat with the thug who now swiped his longsword at his chest. Bash managed to leap backward, but before he could even raise his rapier in defense, he felt the sting of sharp metal as it sliced his right arm and his left thigh.
"Sooka!" called Bash desperately as the wizards began focusing on him once more.
Then he felt her hand wrap around his, and a crack of thunder ripped through the tiny cavern. Bash flinched, and when he opened his eyes, he was on the far side of the room, perched on top of some crates, holding hands with a now-visible Sooka. She flicked her wrist, and Bash watched her spellbook appear where they had stood moments earlier, surrounded by the aftermath of the veritable explosion of magic.
Bash sheathed his rapier and drew his shortbow as Enna burst into the room as a dire wolf and growled at the many enemies. He grinned at her entrance, the menacing sound nothing more than an endearing howl to Bash.
He glanced around to determine a target and saw William to his right in the corner of the room, engaged with three thugs, a tiny owl summoned by Aribis pestering a gladiator-looking man, and the chicken himself perched on a crate on the other side of the entrance. Bash drew an arrow and quickly fired at one of the thugs striking at William, and the bolt landed deep in the back of his thigh.
Just as he was preparing to draw another arrow, the two wizards appeared on the crates in the middle of the room, moving in unison as they called out some spell and pointed with their fingers. Tiny sparks shot from their hands, and Aribis and Sooka both cried out in fear and warning before flinging their hands out desperately. The sparks touched the ground, and Bash tensed his body, ready for the inevitable explosion, but the waves of magic from his friends settled over the sparks, and they disappeared.
Bash let out a sigh of relief as he retrieved a small potion from his bag and began to uncork it. Enna was now engaged with four men brandishing spears while Aribis flew up to one of the wizards, firing bolts as he went. One landed in the wizard's hand, and the second through his eye, and the wizard crumpled to the floor. William's fists were a blur as they struck his enemies over and over while he simultaneously dodged what had to be a thousand attacks. Then just as Bash was swallowing the healing liquid and his wounds stitched together, he heard the woosh of a projectile headed directly for his heart.
Yelping, he pushed off the wall, but he was too late. The hefty spear sunk into his side, right above his hip, and he let out a howl of pain as he collapsed to one knee.
He removed the spear, panting as the pain rippled through his body, and watched lazily as Sooka flipped her hand and her spellbook moved. Then she spoke, and Bash flinched as a massive wave of fire erupted from the book, sweeping over the crates in the middle of the room and splashing toward the far-left corner. The remaining wizard, the man with the longsword, and one of the thugs were swallowed by fire that spread out, engulfing the crates in flames before dissipating. Screams rang out as the wood burned, and smoke began to fill the heights of the room.
"You!" screamed the man with the longsword, and he ran up toward Sooka and leapt onto the crate before her.
Oh, no, you don't, thought Bash, and he quickly drew his rapier and dug the blade into the man's thigh.
"You're all dead!" shrieked the wizard, and suddenly Bash was struck by an incredibly cold blast of air. At the last moment, he ducked, and much of the cold blew over his head, but he felt as if he had been traveling through a tundra for the past hour. His nose, fingers, and toes seemed to have their heat sapped in an instant, and he stood cautiously to see that others were not so lucky as him.
Sooka beside him had tiny shards of ice dangling from her feathers, three of the thugs around them had been frozen solid, and Enna had popped back into elf shape. Most off-putting, however, was the man before them. Not only had he been frozen in a stance trying to hide his face, but his features had transformed, revealing him to be another doppelganger.
Aribis, who seemed to have avoided the worst of the cold like Bash, fired at the wizard before speaking healing to everyone, and Bash was relieved to feel the worst of his hip wound dissipate.
"You traitor!" shrieked one of the thugs, and two of them jumped onto the crates and worked together to detach the remaining wizard's head.
As chaos reigned around him, Bash suddenly realized that he could not see the last of the doppelgangers. William, Sooka, and Enna danced and magicked their way through the other thugs, but then Bash saw an arrow fire from the far corner, over the burning crates, and lodge itself into Aribis's side.
The bird squawked and looked around for the source, but apparently not seeing it, he returned his focus to the thugs. Seeing that his friends had things well in hand, Bash dropped off the crates and ran to the other side of the room before pausing to peek around the crates. There, on the other side of the room, was the doppelganger, still appearing elven, furiously trying to pick the lock of a door that Bash had not noticed before.
Shaking his head slightly, he pulled out his shortbow, nocked an arrow, and fired at the easy target. The arrow sank just below her left shoulder blade, and she screamed, her terror evident as she cast glances behind her.
Another crack of thunder pealed through the room, and Bash flinched as Sooka appeared next to him. He recovered quickly, however, and fired another shot, this one piercing the doppelganger's arm. She cried aloud again, and Bash heard the familiar sound of a snapping lockpick as she spun around in terror.
Aribis appeared over the burning crates and fired another bolt, this one hitting the doppelganger's right shoulder perfectly so that she was now painfully pinned against the wooden door.
Between pained breaths and terrified glances, the doppelganger transformed.
An eerie silence came over the room as the battle came to an end, and Bash heard muffled voices of Enna and William across the boxes. He, Aribis, and Sooka approached the doppelganger, Bash keeping an arrow ready to fire, and the creature's head began to droop as blood pooled on the floor.
A stream of magic emanated from Aribis's hand, seeping into the doppelganger, stifling the flow of blood, and slightly reviving it. It awoke with a start, glancing around in terror and still pinned in place.
Bash eyed the foul beast, a decrepit creature that he had come to wholly despise over the past couple weeks. A strong part of him longed to sink just one more arrow into its eye, but he knew that they needed information. They needed to find Rustler. And only Enna would be able to pinpoint his location.
"Enna!" he called behind him. "Where's Rustler?"
"Frozen, I think?" she called back. Then quickly she added, "Oh, wait, the real one. One second!"
He chuckled as he waited.
The wait was oddly long, and he began to ease backward to see if he could see her. She appeared around the crates, an odd look on her face. She beheld the doppelganger with disdain before meeting Bash's eyes with a furrowed brow. He cocked his head to the side, trying to discern her emotion. Then she turned back to the doppelganger.
"How long," she began slowly, "has he been in Rustler's position?" She pointed back to the other side of the room.
Realization dawned on Bash. Her magical search for Rustler had come up short because Rustler was now dead. He had been a doppelganger even when Enna had known him, before all this had happened. When had it all started? He turned expectantly to the doppelganger, who now panted in fear and anger.
"It wasn't supposed to go like this," it whispered.
"How many years?" demanded Enna as she drew near to it.
Bash put away his bow and drew his rapier, taking his place behind Enna. He noticed Sooka waving her hand in a magical fashion, and he assumed she was delving into the creature's mind to detect any lies it might try to spew.
When the doppelganger didn't respond, Enna's voice grew lower, and she edged closer.
"Are you the one who pretended to be Althea?" she asked, a dangerous component in her voice that Bash had never heard before.
"What does it matter? Everything is over!" growled the doppelganger.
Enna's face contorted in rage, and she drew her silvered scimitar slowly, menacingly.
Reaching out, Bash placed a hand on Enna's shoulder, urging her to keep her calm. She was trembling.
She placed the flat of her blade on the creature's exposed arm, and the skin began to sizzle and burn in response to the silver. The doppelganger began to screech, even as Enna repeated her demand.
"Did you take over Althea?"
"Yes!" screamed the doppelganger, eyes twisted closed in pain. "Yes, alright! I did!"
Bash squeezed Enna's shoulder and pulled lightly, but she shook him off.
"How long has that doppelganger been Rustler?" she asked.
"I don't know! Twenty… thirty years? Just—" The doppelganger squirmed again.
Bash blinked. Thirty years spanned the entire time that Rustler had been in Agneward. Not only had the doppelganger been here before the Ghost had ever hired it, it had been here the entire time Bash had known Rustler. The doppelganger was Rustler.
Suddenly all of it made sense. A kenku with the ability to speak almost normally – it was all a farce. An intricate lie spanning decades. Bash glanced to Sooka, who appeared frustrated in the same realization.
"Just kill me already," growled the doppelganger.
Enna's brow was furrowed with indecision. She hesitated, her soul still intact, the shining opposite of how Bash had reacted outside the Sour Apple. And yet… now there was no need for such hesitation. The information had been gathered. They had succeeded in their mission. Rustler had been found. The doppelgangers had been stopped. There was no reason to wait any longer.
"Do it," urged Bash.
Her kill would not be like his. This creature did not deserve to live. It had offered no plea. It had not begged for mercy. Why wouldn't she do it?
Her sword was outstretched, but her hand trembled violently. Her face contorted into an image of strained anguish as she stared into the eyes of the doppelganger.
"Or just let me go," resigned the creature. "Whatever won't haunt your conscience."
"How long were you Althea?" asked Enna, her voice somewhat more collected now.
"I don't know. The Ghost told me to take her personage."
"When?"
"A couple weeks ago, maybe?"
Enna paused.
"Althea is my mother," she said, her voice low and dangerous again. "I really want to treat you to the same pain that she had to go through."
"Then do it already," it snarled.
"No," she whispered. "I'm not like him."
Then she drew her blade across the doppelganger's neck, and its head thumped to the floor, the lifeless body hanging from the bolt in its shoulder.
Enna exhaled, and her shoulders slumped forward. Bash reached for her, but she turned and moved away, muttering something to Aribis before moving over to the table and staring at it, eyes distant. Bash glanced at the others before following Enna to the table.
Something had deeply troubled her about this encounter. He'd never seen her so upset or angry before. Even now, he thought he saw the glimmer of tears in her eyes, and all at once, he realized that he hadn't been paying any attention to her for the past several days. He knew that she had suffered in their time in Agneward, but he had never stopped to think past his own suffering. How long had he spent thinking about his problems and ignoring those of his closest friend?
Were they even friends anymore? They had spent so long at such a distance. How many times had they been in the same room and yet felt alone?
He considered the last time they had spoken to each other, the night she had died.
She had died.
He shook his head slightly at the thought. And what had he done to comfort her?
Nothing.
He had withdrawn from her, pushing her away so that he could nurse his own wounds.
Quietly, he sidled up to her and glanced at the table. A map of Agneward took up most of the space, but what caught Bash's eye was a map of the Well. He reached a hand out for it, and Enna pushed it closer to him without lifting her eyes. She leaned on the table and stared, but it appeared that she was not really looking at anything.
Bash glanced over the map and quickly surmised that there were no secret passages that were not known to him before tossing it back on the table.
After watching her for a moment, he fought with himself. He wanted to help her. The only way he could think to do that would be to just talk to her about whatever was bothering her, like they had before. Like when they were friends. She didn't have to be closed off like this.
"Enna," he whispered, and she turned to him, eyes lined with tears, brow furrowed in frustration. "We can still be friends," he urged.
She said nothing but shook her head and turned away. Then she sat on the floor, back against a crate, burying her face in her knees.
Now you've done it, he thought sourly.
But he wouldn't give up just yet. Maybe she didn't need to talk; maybe she just needed someone to be there.
So, he sat next to her.
For several minutes, he waited, and Enna hardly even moved.
Eventually, Aribis approached, Sooka trailing behind him.
"Sook and I are going upstairs to meet some Knights of the White Orchid," he explained. "They're coming to round up all the ones that are left. You want to come?"
"Some are left?" asked Bash.
"Aye, some of them surrendered."
Bash chuckled. He couldn't remember the last time that had happened.
"William is going to wait here if you want to join us."
Glancing at Enna, Bash saw that she still hadn't moved. Frowning, he nodded at Aribis and made his way over to the door. After moving the body, Bash made quick work of the lock, and they followed the passage until they came to a trap door that opened right under Rustler's desk.
To Bash's amazement, the room had been stripped. Whereas his last visit had shown a thousand valuables scattered on every surface, the place was now laid bare. There was nothing more than a desk and a chair left. The bookshelves were all empty.
They glanced around in disbelief, Bash slightly disheartened to learn that there was nothing to be gathered. But then Sooka huffed and kicked Rustler's desk in frustration.
Bash sighed. Every time he'd ever come here, Rustler had been one of those fiends. Rustler as he had believed him to be hadn't really existed.
After a half hour, the knights arrived, and the trio directed them downstairs to the mercenaries of the Black Rose, who were rounded up and taken to the nearby prison. Then at last, the Misfits were free to leave and head back to Misfit Manor.
It did not escape Bash's attention that Enna had disappeared long before he, Aribis, and Sooka had returned with the knights.
That night, he waited for several hours to hear Enna's arrival, but it never came. Though he remembered that she often spent the night outdoors, he knew that this time was different. Something had shaken her. He hoped that she would eventually trust him enough to tell him.