PreCursive

  “He wants to WHAT?!” Azarus shouted, actally smming his hammer down onto his thumb in surprise. With a shouted curse, he hurled the hammer away from him into the er of his fe before turning to face me.

  I was leaning up against the doorway looking in, my arms crossed. I had woken up ter than I usually did these days, and by the time I had everyone was already at work. Last night’s versation with Grey had id heavy on my mind, so I hadn’t felt very hungry and skipped breakfast. I was more ied iing Azarus’s take on Grey’s pn and had go back to expin it to him in his fe. When I found him, he had been w on what looked like what might be a dagger of some kind.

  I wi the g sound of the hammer rattling to a stop in a far er of the fe. I expined myself again, telling Azarus about how Grey wao break both the sve trol ste that Magnus held, and the wards around Addersfield. How he wao iionally trigger what he called a ‘Breakage Effect’, calling down a horde of monsters onto the town, potentially killing everyone in it. How he wao do this primarily to keep the guards occupied from chasing us down after our escape auring us.

  Azarus listeo my expnation with a mouth gaping open in surprise. When I finished, a plex series of emotions fshed across his face, too fast for me to decipher. Bonelessly, he walked over to his workbend slumped backward onto the short, squat stool there. Azarus csped his huge hands together tightly and hunched over to stare at them bnkly. “It…well…it would work, I think…” He said tonelessly, after a moment.

  I was shocked, and holy a little angry. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say? Grey wants to kill everyone in town, and all you say is ‘That’ll work’?”

  Azarus looked up at me and shook his head a little helplessly. “Don’t know what else to say. It would work, all right. It would be dangerous for us too, what with all the monsters about, but I think we could do it. If we mao break both the ste and the ward-stone.”

  I threw my hands up in disgust. “Fet if it would work! What about the fact we might be killing aire town of people in order to escape?! What about that?!”

  Azarus shook his head again, slowly. “I don’t know about that. Do you remember the knight that kicked my arse a few weeks ago? Stonebreaker?”

  I did remember who he was talking about. That knight had taken Azarus out in one swift punch to the gut like we were in a cartoon or something. Azarus had stayed down as well, due to something he had called ‘afflis’. I Azarus.

  “He’s no joke, if that weren’t bleeding obvious. He’s one of my uncle’s stro knights, known as the ‘Blightguard’. Don’t know his level, but it’s got to be at least two hundred above my own. There ain’t nothing this area could throw at him that would pose a threat, even with a Break.” Azarus said, sitting up and crossing his arms unfortably.

  My eyebrows rose, as well as my spirits. “Would he help in the defense of the town?” I asked hopefully.

  Azarus grunted and uncrossed his arms to wiggle a hand bad forth in a ‘so-so’ gesture. “Maybe? He might be here to guard Magnus, but the dwarf is still a knight. That es with oaths about proteg people sworn to his lord. Unless Magnus specifically gave orders to not help in the defense, I ’t see him not helping.”

  “He certainly seemed to have no problems about kig your ass and trussing me up so Magnus could throw me to the forest.” I said to Azarus, doubtful of these ‘oaths’.

  “Nah, in the eyes of the w, and his oaths, he was ag in the right.” Azarus shook his head for a third time in as many minutes. “My uncle sent him here to proted follow Magnus’s orders in his absence, and Magnus’s orders were to be a little shite. In the eyes of the w, I was defying my ‘rightful lord’, and got beat down for it. As for you? You’re a sve, aher Stonebreaker nor Savoy knightly oaths give a rat’s arse about sves.”

  I hummed. “If he’s s, would a Break even stop him long enough for us to escape?”

  Azarus let out a short, mirthless ugh at my question. “You’re only saying that cause you don’t uand the scope of a Break. It’ll st for weeks, and that’ll be weeks of non-stop fighting. It’d be tough, but with the guards, he’d be able to ha. But they’d all be too damn tied up in the fighting to even dream of chasing us.”

  I studied Azarus for a moment. “You still don’t look too enthused by this, even if the town isn’t doomed.”

  “That would be because you don’t uand the cultural stigma associated with iionally instigating a Break, Nathan.” A voice said from behind me.

  I turned around in surprise to find that Grey had mao wheel his way along the path between the house and the fe in plete silence. He had snuck up on Azarus and me while we were stu versation.

  “Grey!” I said, startled. “How long have you been there?”

  Grey smiled wryly at me from his wheelchair. “Oh, long enough to hear you begin speaking about Sir Stonebreaker.” He Azarus iing. “Azarus.”

  Azarus nodded back. “Don’t see you out here often, Grey. What brings you?”

  “Oh, I suspected Nathan would be speaking to you. As it turns out, I was quite right. Speaking of.” Grey turo face me. “I’d like to apologize to you, Nathan. I’m afraid the alcohol caused quite an outburst from me, and I didn’t manage my expnation well enough. I believe I’ve caused you some distress, and for that, I apologize.”

  “Oh, uh, it’s all right,” I said, shifting unfortably. I spicuously hat he didn’t apologize about the tents of what he said, only about how he said it.

  “As I was saying, the stigma associated with instigating a Break is…quite severe, within both Herztal and Vencia. The geional trauma that was inflicted due to its misuse in the past was so severe that the act has bee quite taboo indeed. I do not bme Azarus for balking at the idea of it.” Grey expined.

  His words made Azarus look away in disfort and scratch the back of his neck.

  Grey hummed. “As it is, I wasn’t aware of Sir Stonebreaker’s capabilities. The fact that there exists a guardian capable of repelling a Break within Addersfield only reaffirms my belief in this pn.”

  I took a deep breath befng at Azarus. He still looked unfortable, but he wasn’t speaking up against the pn. “Well…how do we even do this? If we’re going through it, that is.”

  “e inside, both of you,” Grey said, nodding slightly to himself. “I believe it’s time we discuss the particurs of this…pn.” He wheeled himself around and began to roll back along the path to the house. I followed him but stopped after a moment when I heard that Azarus wasn’t. Turning around, I saw that he was still sitting on his workbench stool, this time staring down at his hands. I couldn’t see his face.

  “ing?” I said quietly, only loud enough for Azarus to hear.

  “Gimme a minute,” Azarus grunted. “I’ll…just give me a sed I’ll join ya.”

  “Yeah,” I said simply. I left him where he sat, and made my way into the house.

  ……………………………………..

  Grey seemed to have been anticipating this versation because he had prepared the table for it. It had been cleared, and the only things on it were a rge rolled-up scroll, as well as an ink well and a fountain pen. While Grey and I waited in silence for Azarus to join us, I idly toyed with the pen. Grey didn’t seem to care. When I had first seen one, I had been mildly surprised. I’d been expeg the people of this culture to be using quills or something, but apparently, they’d had pens like this for decades. I’d tried it, and I wasn’t particurly great at using it.

  And…

  I was distrag myself. Damnit.

  I was broken out of my daydreams by Azarus entering the kit. I carefully sat the pen back dowo the inkwell. It looked like he had ed some of the soot that often stu after a stint in the fe. He sat down at the table without a word.

  Grey the both of us, before wordlessly unrolling the scroll so it y oable. Getting up, I could see that it was a rough, overhead map of a town.

  “With Azarus’s help,” Grey began. “I’ve been w on this for some time. I’m certainly not a cartographer, but I believe I’ve put together an accurate enough map of Addersfield for our purposes.”

  I suppose so. I could see the rough shape of what I knew.

  “It’s not a rge settlement. There are two entrao the town. The main gate in the front, and the gate behind the manor for forest access. The main thhfare extends from the manor he rear all the way to the front gate. Oher side of the thhfare, there are residential areas intended for use by servants, merts, and guards. Not many, of course, as only the richest of those in tow simply living out of their shops, barracks, or the servant quarters ihe manor. I believe this includes your friend Vandimar, correct?” Grey said, looking up.

  Azarus was silent for a moment. “Yeah.” He said roughly. “Van lives above the shop with Bleddyn and that woman.”

  “Rachel,” I spoke up quietly. Azarus nodded slightly in aowledgment.

  “We,” Grey tinued, pointing to a small stylized copse of trees to the left of the manor with the dry fountain pen. “Are here. As pointed out previously, there are walls encirg the etlement. Not terribly impressive walls, as they’re not meant to keep out determitackers. In this case, they mainly mark the edges of the ward boundaries. The sve quarters exist right outside these walls, just barely within a weakened outwardly radiating effect that wards typically provide. These quarters extend oher side of the wall, and slightly outwards.”

  I didn’t know that. I had wondered why the sves were kept outside of the walls.

  “Our objectives lie within the manrey said, dipping his pen ihe ink. He made a small, bck x mark on top of the manor. “Both the ward stone and the trol ste are likely to be inside of it. Break the ward stone, and the wards colpse, signally a start to a Breakage Effect. Break the ste, and our colrs will be rendered useless, along with the death and trag entments.”

  Azarus spoke up. “Magnus doesn’t usually have the ste. Orin, that is Orinbar, typically has it. Magnus swipes it for his damn hunts, and Ori care as long as it gets returned.”

  “Then one of our objectives must be to steal the ste from Steward Orinbar.” Grey Azarus. “The other must be to somehow sneak into the manor aroy the ward stone.”

  Both Grey and Azarus turheir heads to look at me.

  “What?” I asked, fused. “What are you looking…at…Wait. Wait wait wait. You don’t mean me, do you? You wao sneak into the manor and break this ‘ward stone’? You guys do remember that I’m not even level twenty, right? I don’t even know what a ‘ward stone’ is!”

  “Well, ya do have a stealth css.” Azarus pointed out.

  “Not merely that.” Grey picked up. “Remember, Nathan, that you possess a skill to veil your Status that is difficult to peer through. It would take a certed effort by a very high-level individual to pierce it. It would avail you well if you were questioned while inside.”

  “Okay, one,” I said, raising a finger. “There is a high-level person in the manner, remember? Stonebreaker? If he’s so much strohan Azarus, then he should be able to break my veil. Two,” I said, raising a sed finger. “Even if I ge my Status, it doesn’t ge what I look like. There are tons of people that have seen what I look like, including Stonebreaker.”

  Grey waved my points away, literally. “I teach you some subterfuge teiques to physically disguise yourself as a sve-servant before your entry into the manor. I have some experien this manner.”

  “And Stonebreaker ain’t here to guard either the ward stone or Orin,” Azarus said, cupping his in thought. “He’s only here to guard Magnus. He might stop ya if he found ya in the process of breaking the stoher than that he probably wouldn’t give a shit.”

  I looked betweewo of them desperately, mentally grasping for straws. “Wait!” I said desperately. “Why ’t Azarus do this? He goes to the manor all the time!”

  Azarus shook his head. “Yeah, I go there. But only to drop shit off or bitch at Magnus. I haven’t even spoken to Orin in months. Even then, I’m ly wele in the manor proper. I have guards on me every sed that I’m inside.” He smirked slightly. “It’s like Magnus doesn’t trust me, or something.” He seemed cheered up at the thought.

  Fuck.

  Grey must have seen the rising ay on my face because he raised a hand. “Calm yourself, Nathan. I have no iion of sending you ihe manor anytime soon. We’ll o struct the Ward Breaker first, and that will take some time. Plenty of time in order for us to teach you the basics of subterfuge and infiltration. Why, you’ll likely pick up the Skills for them as well!”

  He did mao calm me down, but only a little. I took a deep breath. “Are we really doing this, then? We’re going to go ahead with the pn for the Ward Break?” I said, lookiween Grey and Azarus.

  Azarus grimaced but seemed more certain than he had earlier. Grey was still unphased.

  “I will not force you into it, Nathan, but I believe we should,” Grey said seriously. “I do not believe we have a better option than to go forward with this one.”

  I was quiet for a moment, thinking. I was still a little leery of involving the eown in a Break. Even if most of them wouldn’t spit on me if I was on fire because I was a sve, I was sure there must be some people that didn’t deserve the danger in town.

  Right?

  But…

  “All right,” I said, uainly. “Okay. I guess we’re doing this then.”

  I suppose we were going to do a heist after all.