Shalin, p.2
Shalin, page 2
“What did you get?” Ireni asked as she accepted the copied documents the Shadebow handed her.
“Slave manifests, accounting ledgers, contracts, documents concerning various business partners and side businesses.” Gad nodded respectfully to Seris. “Lady Seris found a hidden safe full of compromising evidence on highly ranked officials and wealthy residents of Sarov. Blackmail material.”
“Big sis is good at sniffing out hidden compartments and rooms!” Selis said proudly, stroking her twin's midnight tail.
It was true. Seris had proven to be one of their best spies for finding what they were looking for, while Selis excelled at determining where they should search and copying over what they found swiftly and accurately, then leaving everything exactly as they'd found it.
The two made a formidable pair.
“Given how Sarovians obsess over their image, it's small surprise blackmail is prevalent,” Dare said, reading over his redheaded wife's shoulder. Although she was short enough he could practically read over her head. “Hmm. An archon, two high magistrates, and a well known merchant.” His already grim mood darkened further as he read some of the vile deeds they were being squeezed for. “They have reason to fear this going public.”
“Some of the actual upright citizens would beat them in the streets for this,” Ireni agreed, lips thin. “We'll investigate these people for deeper ties to the Consortium. And see that they face justice for their deeds, when the time comes.”
If the time came, and they were able to defeat Malin. Sometimes it felt hopeless when practically the entire continent was under his thumb and could be turned against the Shadow Crusade, which numbered a bit over 150 fighters, with less than a third of them over Level 50.
They perused the documents the spies had found until Koru finished the portal, bathing the darkening alley in its bluish-white glow. They hurried through, then his orc consort immediately began uncasting the portal in case the light had been noticed.
Dare felt the tension in his shoulders ease as he looked around Independent. It was far more spartan and utilitarian than Laketown had been, geared towards producing weapons and armor and the logistics of Ireni's spy network, as well as the leveling and training fighters in Sia's Crusade.
Still, it had a rough sort of beauty in the carefully planned buildings, and the flowerpots in windows, vegetable gardens, and other touches to make the place a home. Particularly for families with children.
Then there was the garden growing next to the longhall where Dare and his family lived, which was truly beautiful; Leilanna didn't have much time to tend it with her focus on leveling and helping Ireni, but she spent a few hours every day working on it with their daughter, Velissa, and often the other older children.
Although Dare's breath caught as he saw the most beautiful thing he'd seen in a long time, and his heart soared.
Ireni followed his gaze and gasped in delight, and Seris and Selis squealed happily and bolted away hand in hand. Koru shouted in triumph, looking a bit frustrated that she had to wait to finish closing the portal.
Standing around six feet tall on a thick green stalk, a tulip-like flower with beautiful pink petals was bathed in the setting sun. The last time he'd seen it the flower had been a tightly closed bud, and while they'd all eagerly anticipated this day, now that it was here he couldn't help but laugh for joy.
Eloise had bloomed.
Dare activated Cheetah's Dash and left the others behind, bolting down the street to greet his daughter. He passed Seris and Selis and continued on, looking eagerly for his first view of her. His vision was obscured by his family gathered around her flower, though, his wives and children all there to greet her.
A happy shout alerted him that his approach had been spotted, and his fox girl daughter Elien ran out onto the street to meet him, four snowy tails with black tips fanned out and waving independently of each other in their excitement.
“Elo's here, Daddy!” she shouted. “Elo's flower bloomed. She's so cute!”
Like most of his children she was learning to talk early, although of course she still struggled with words. She was also nimble on her feet for a two year old, even a fox girl one. In spite of that, in her excitement she tripped and fell headlong, and Dare reached her just in time to catch her before she face planted on the crushed gravel.
He swept her into his arms, returning her hug as she wrapped her little arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “Want to introduce me to your sister?” he said.
“Yay!” she said, pointing eagerly towards the flower. “She's over there, Daddy!”
Darga and Trias had followed their sister out onto the street, identical in appearance to the point that even some of the family confused them. Although Dare never did.
Darga was the older and always wanted to play, although he followed his more thoughtful younger twin's lead most of the time.
His sons made a beeline to plop down on his boots hugging his legs, laughing and cheering as he gave them a ride on his feet. He made a show of grunting with effort with each step, even though with his incredibly high strength stat he could've given Koru a ride on his foot without effort.
The mental picture made him grin briefly, although he continued to look eagerly for his first view of Eloise.
The rest of his family had seen his approach, his other children swarming around him with the older kids all shouting at once that their new sister had bloomed, and the younger ones laughing and clapping at the excitement.
His wives, as well as his consorts Marona and Harannia, helped shoo a few of the toddlers and babies to clear a path so he could keep going to meet his daughter, while Seris finally arrived to snag her sons off his feet. Selis saw he was content holding Elien, so she helped her sister wrangle her nephews.
Finally Dare was able to see Pella standing beside the flower, cuddling a toddler wearing an adorable pink jumper.
Eloise.
She was a darker green than her mother, like the rich grass of a well-watered lawn, with paler green vines like hair growing down to her shoulders, small pink flowers growing among them. Her face was small and delicate, deep green eyes sparkling curiously as she looked back at him. As a plant girl she had a vine connecting her to her flower like a tail, although it was proportionally longer than Rosie's had been, a good ten feet.
Could she choose to grow it longer, and had wanted to have more room to interact with her family? He supposed he could ask Rosie when it was safe to talk to her again.
He could also tell her that her daughter was absolutely adorable.
At first Eloise was a bit wary as he approached, as if he was a stranger, and he paused. “Hi, Eloise,” he said with a smile, vision blurring with tears of happiness. “I'm your-”
“Daddy!” she said, lighting up like a sunrise as she recognized his voice, which she'd heard nearly every day of her life as she'd grown to this point. She began squirming in Pella's arms while holding her little hands out for him to hold her. “I want Daddy, Aunt Pella!”
Dare laughed and let Selis take Elien, then gathered Eloise in his arms and hugged her tight. “It's good to meet you, baby girl,” he said, kissing her little head.
“You too, Daddy,” she said, little arms hugging him back tightly. “Thanks for visiting me so much so I wasn't lonely, and always talking to me.”
Speaking of talking, she was by far the most eloquent of all his children, even his oldest Gelaa. Although Rosie had told him that plant girls got a lot of instinctive knowledge passed down to them, including language.
Which was good, since most grew up alone in a clearing out in the middle of nowhere and would have trouble finding people to teach them to speak.
“This is a big day for you,” he said, smiling down at her beaming little face. “Your first day able to talk back.”
“And play with my brothers and sisters!” As if that had reminded her, his daughter began squirming to get down. “We were just about to play tag!”
Laughing, Dare set her down as the other older children gathered around her, then all ran off together giggling and shrieking as the younger babies crawled or toddled after them.
As well as she spoke, she was still very much a two-year old. Although assuming she developed at a similar rate to the other kids in spite of going dormant every winter, she'd be three in about a month and a half.
For that matter Gelaa's birthday was in less than two weeks. Time really flew.
He felt a pang for how much time he spent away from his children leveling up and preparing to move against Malin, missing these precious moments. Although he was grateful for the time he had with them, usually around an hour a day with the family during breakfast and dinner and before bedtime.
Eloise abruptly zoomed back and tugged his shirt. “Daddy, Gelaa says you'll throw me high if I ask!”
Laughing, Dare stooped to pick her up, tossing her into the air while she squealed in delight. “Again!” she shouted, so he did it again several times while she giggled and looked around happily at the gathered family to see if they were watching.
Of course that opened the floodgates, and around twenty of his kids descended on him for their own turns.
He happily spent time with his kids, grateful to be distracted from his duties and the looming shadow war for a time.
An even more precious reminder of what he was fighting for. So his children could grow up safe and free of fear, in a better world where their futures would be bright.
Chapter One
Pay Dirt
Dare leaned over the map table in the Crusade's war room with his core team, mulling over strategies.
The team included Ireni as his Spymaster, Marona as Logistics Officer and Mayor of Independent, Ashley as Weapons Developer, Sir Carnon as Stealth Element Commander, Jurrin as Battle Healers Commander, Leilanna as Ranged Element Commander, Linia as Melee Element Commander, Rek as Chief Sapper, Buttercup as Head Scout, and Le'nim as Intel Extraction (ie interrogation).
Harannia was also in attendance, since she was basically their entire defense as well as their host.
“I say we take the information we've gathered and start systematically dismantling his organization from the ground up,” Rek said, crossing his arms. “Either Malin shows up to fight, or we smash the organization he relies on for his power.”
Marona grimaced. “We'll never catch Malin going from the ground up. We probably won't even get any of his lieutenants or mid-level flunkies. Probably all the attacks the Consortium have suffered over the decades have been to their base infrastructure . . . they know how to handle them.”
“And if the bastard does poke out his head, he's going to show up with an army of up to 99 Level 60 or higher thugs at his back,” Sir Carnon said mildly. “Failing that, they'll figure out we've gained extensive information into their operation and change things up, making our information useless. The latter would be a major setback, the former would be a disastrous defeat. We've got under 50 people above Level 50, and maybe another 60 above Level 40. Not enough.”
Jurrin pursed his lips, looking even more irritable than usual. “So we keep leveling up. Build our numbers with Outsider fanatics.”
“I'd appreciate if you didn't call my people that,” Ireni said, tone mild. “Our goddess teaches learning and self-improvement, in the purpose of exploration and furthering our understanding of the world. We're the opposite of fanatics.”
“You shouldn't be calling them that even if they were,” Carnon growled. “They're our allies.”
“There is no “they,” Ireni pressed. “There's us, the Shadow Crusade.”
The surly priest waved a grudging acknowledgement.
“There is something to drawing them out,” Dare said. “Although not a full response. If we strike the right target, high profile but not critical, Malin might send a party of his high level thugs. We can kill or capture them, especially their Phasewarper.”
“And then I can finally get to work,” Le'nim said, her too-wide smile revealing her pointy teeth a bit unsettling.
Dare would need to remind her that with her Truth Sense, all they needed to do was get their prisoners to talk and parse the truth from their words. He wouldn't oppose harsher interrogation methods if needed, since even Ireni and Sia acknowledged their necessity to get prisoners talking, but he wanted them to be careful not to go too far. And only with just cause.
“They'd have real information for us, if we can get it out of them,” Marona agreed. “Especially the Phasewarper . . . he might lead us straight to Malin.”
“I say there's no rush,” Ireni said. “Our slow, careful spying is yielding results without alerting our enemies, and eventually we'll uncover more critical information. Everyone makes mistakes, and our enemy is overconfident and thinks they're untouchable.” She nodded to Carnon. “And the longer we wait to strike, the higher level our forces can get.”
Le'nim hissed angrily. “Miss Marigold and Marcus are languishing in captivity, suffering only the gods know what. We can't simply twiddle our thumbs here for years getting everyone to Level 60.”
Dare felt a surge of frustration. His kidnapped consort and son were always in his mind, and he held those same fears about how long it was taking. They all did.
“We need to be careful, but I agree that we're strong enough now to win this if we strike strategically,” he said. “Defeat our enemy in smaller groups, ideally in surprise attacks. We just need to know where to strike or lure them out.”
Ireni shook her head grimly. “For everything beyond the lowest tier of the Shalin Grand Consortium's criminal operations and unsavory businesses, they use direct communication with enchanted stones or couriers with spellwarded, coded messages. We've yet to capture any of the former, and even if we did the enchantment probably has attunements or other security measures we can't get around.”
She grimaced. “As for the couriers, I've instructed my spies to hit couriers if the opportunity presents itself, capturing their messages in the guise of a mugging or robbery. But so far we haven't caught a break.”
“What if I help?” Dare asked. “The couriers are probably Stealthers, so I can use Adventurer's Eye to see if any are coming and going from businesses where we wouldn't expect to see those sorts of classes. Or maybe Messengers for their speed, in which case I can identify those too.”
Carnon cleared his throat. “So is that the consensus, Judiciar? Continue leveling and preparing as we focus on finding couriers that'll lead us to the Consortium leadership?”
Dare bit back a grimace at the title. That was the official rank for those who led crusades, which gave him Sia's divine authorization to seek justice on her behalf. Including the right to arrest Consortium members and their allies or fight them if necessary, interrogate prisoners for information, and judge them. Even execute them if their crimes warranted it.
A lot of power for one person to have, and it weighed heavily on him. Especially when he had to fight to keep his hatred for Malin and the vile organization the gnome led from overcoming him and sending him down a dark path.
Luckily he had family and friends to support him, and the women he loved and their children to keep him grounded and remind him not only of why he fought, but how he wanted to win.
“We'll push harder on getting the information we need, even if it means risking exposure,” he agreed. “Let's give it another few weeks, get the 6th Party up to Level 50. If we have no developments by then we'll discuss choosing targets to strike to draw out Malin's higher level enforcers.”
“The crafters would like another shipment of cloth, leather, and ingots to try to push to get a few more high quality items for your party, consort,” Marona said. “The Consortium's goons have the resources of the entire continent to draw from when gearing up, and we don't want you to be at a disadvantage.”
He wasn't sure whether to be amused or exasperated by that. Crafters could create items up to 10 levels higher than them, although at significantly lower chances for the higher quality gear. Even so, now that some of the crafters had gotten close to Level 50, they insisted on working overtime trying to make gear for him, Lily, Koru, Thorn, Veressa, Jurrin, Linia, Leilanna, and Pella.
There was a chance to craft an Exceptional or even Master quality piece with every attempt, but it was a small one. And crafting at reduced level it could take over a thousand attempts to get an Exceptional item, and potentially over ten thousand to get a Master item. They weren't high enough level to even try to make Fabled.
It felt like a waste of time and resources, but they did need the gear.
Besides, the crafters were noncombat members of their parties, so they could craft items while soaking up experience and leveling up. Killing two birds with one stone, so they lost nothing busying themselves when they went out with their parties.
Aside from the ruinous cost, but that was just one of many expenses of their shadow war. And with the Shadow Crusade in exile there was only so much they could spend their gold earned from loot on anyway.
Lily was high enough level she could've had a better chance with her main class Leatherworking, but she just didn't have the time for it. She lamented the fact that she'd already used her first class change, which cost 10% of her total experience, or she would've simply changed to main class Archer since she wasn't using Leatherworking anyway.
The second class change cost 30%, an agonizing loss, and they couldn't afford to have her lose that many levels. Especially when at Level 60 she'd be able to pick a second class, although the specific details of that ability weren't yet known.
“All right,” Dare said, straightening briskly. “We'll give it two more weeks before we consider targets. I'm thinking a few businesses in the same city that bring in over 10,000 gold a month. Not big enough scale to make the Shalin Grand Consortium drop the hammer, but enough to demand a response. Spread the hits out over a few days so they feel like they have to stop us before we cost them too much.”
“Should we have our lower level fighters stage the raids, so the enemy's overconfident in their response?” Carnon asked.
