Cultivation, page 36
::You know Aspen. I bet he reinforced the wheels or something first. They’ll slow down after they’re in the pass. How long do we have?::
Silus nuzzled Rouge’s hand. ::Half an hour or so, I think. I don’t really know how well humans can see, but if it was me, I’d be able to see them from the tower in around thirty minutes. Then it’ll probably take another thirty minutes before they’re completely through, even at the speed they’re moving.::
Rouge thought about the object she’d stolen from the officer’s tent. It was just a small thing, but it could make all the difference between success and failure.
Hand-carved Button – This wooden button is one of a set carved for First Lieutenant Majors by Artisan Crosscut of Bright. Weight - .1oz. Rarity - Unique
One thing a lot of people forgot was that item rarity didn’t always track with item value. A mass-produced solid gold statue was likely to be worth some money, but was also Common or Unusual rarity at best. On the other hand, a corn-husk doll hand-made by a mother for her child was probably Unique, but worth nothing to anyone except mother and child. For Rouge’s current purpose, the only thing that mattered was the rarity, not the value, so an individually crafted button was perfect.
Rouge pulled up her spell list as Codswallop ran toward the guard tower, which was supposed to be only about a half mile away. Wally was following Silus, who was flying ahead of them on her swift little wings, so Rouge could afford a moment of inattention.
[Substitution]. You may take on the outward appearance of any sapient you have touched within the last hour. Duration up to fifteen minutes. Spell can be canceled voluntarily, or if you are attacked. Skill [Steal] found. Skills may be used in concert. If you are able to [Steal] an item from your target, the duration of [Substitution] will be increased depending on the Rarity of the stolen item. You must keep the item with you in order to use this Skill boost. This boost will end when the theft is discovered, leaving a maximum of fifteen minutes remaining on the Skill.
Fifteen minutes wasn’t long enough to distract the guards for the entire time the caravan was within their sight. However, Rouge had been leveling up the spell for the last few days (by [Stealing] things from members of the caravan, and then wandering around as them), and she had discovered that even an Uncommon item could as much as double her time, depending on its level. Unfortunately, level was a hidden stat, and only a person with the [Examine] skill ranked up to Master could see it, so the only way she was going to find out her little button’s level was by using it.
All of which meant that she was depending primarily on the fact that the wooden trinket was Unique. She’d snagged a few Unique items (mostly from the kids, who had to make their own stuff, but she always gave it back when she was done with it), and they added a minimum of half an hour to her spell duration. So, fifteen minutes, plus thirty minutes, plus 5% from Lyrec’s buff…
Forty-seven minutes? Ish? She had to start her plan before the caravan came on the scene, but not too much before, which was where Silus came in. With her little friend’s help, Rouge should be able to time this well enough to be in and out while she was still under the influence of the spell. If she was right about the kind of person First Lieutenant Majors was, the tower staff would never even know they’d been tricked. If she was wrong, however, and Majors was actually a competent officer, she might have to settle for a partial success, and just knock the guards out in order to delay the inevitable as much as possible.
The tower was clearly visible now, which meant that the watchmen should be able to see her, too, though not clearly enough to distinguish more than a figure on a horse. Thanks to Wally’s newly acquired [Confabulation] skill, anyone who saw him had a 95% chance of thinking he was just a really ugly horse. Unless, of course, someone in that tower had an Intelligence higher than one hundred twenty, but Rouge was pretty sure she was safe on that front.
::How’s it looking, Silus?::
Rouge slowed Wally to a walk and Silus flew up higher, rapidly shrinking to nothing more than a speck in the sky. ::They’re coming in fast. You have about… twenty minutes? Maybe a little less.::
Rouge nodded. ::Okay. Can you stay up there until they’re clear?::
The little bat sounded uncertain, but said, ::I… Yes, I can. It’s mostly just gliding. As long as there aren’t any hawks or anything.::
Rouge swallowed hard at the idea of her friend being chased by a relentless hunter of the sky. That was exactly why Aspen rarely used Silus as a scout during the day. The bat was basically defenseless against flying predators, and her dark copper fur would make her stand out in stark relief in an empty sky, at least to any hungry birds looking for prey.
::If you even catch a glimpse of anything coming after you, Silus, just run. Head for the caravan or Wally, whichever is closer. We’ll just have to do our best from there. Got it?::
::Got it.:: Silus sounded both relieved and worried, which was fair enough, because Rouge felt the same way. Swallowing hard, Rouge triggered [Substitution].
You have cast [Substitution: Lv3]. You now appear to anyone viewing you as the sapient being Lieutenant Majors. This illusion will last 52.5 minutes (15 base + 35 minutes for Lv.2 Unique item Hand-carved Button + 2.5 minutes for Extended Duration buff.) If your theft is discovered while you have more than 15 minutes remaining on your illusion, time will be reduced to a maximum of 15 minutes. Spell will be canceled if you take damage or if someone with a high enough [Illusion Break] skill attempts to Identify you.
Fifty-two minutes! Yes! Hopefully, she only needed forty-five, so the ‘extra’ seven minutes would allow her to finish up her mission with a neat and tidy little bow. ::We have fifty minutes, Silus. We can do it!::
Silus’ little mental whoop made her grin.
As Rouge pulled Codswallop to a stop outside the tower, two men were already standing outside waiting. Rouge climbed down from the saddle in as dignified a manner as she could, carefully brushing at her clothes as soon as her feet touched the ground. She looped Wally’s reins over the hitching post nearby, ignoring the rolling eyes of the horses already hitched there, who were well aware that their new companion wasn’t the small-headed, barrel-chested equine he appeared.
By the time Rouge turned to the two men, who had saluted her as soon as she came into view, and were still standing there, stiff as boards, they were starting to sweat. Rouge scowled. “The Captain sent me to do an inspection. Which one of you messed up and attracted his attention?”
Taller Man gave Short Guy some side-eye, and Rouge turned her glare on him. “Drop and give me twenty.”
The two men exchanged glances, and then Short Guy said, “Uh, what? Sir?”
Darn! Looked like that wasn’t a thing in Veritas Online. Rouge noticed that they were both still holding the salute, and belatedly realized that she probably had to do something in response. What? Salute? Tip her hat? Wave at them dismissively?
She went for the salute, making it the snappiest one she could manage, thanks to the military flicks her dad watched every now and then. The two dropped their hands with relief, and Short Guy said again, “What? Sir?”
Rouge started to suppress a growl, and then decided to let it go. Both men flinched. “You’ve never done a push-up, soldier?” She desperately wished she had any clue what the two pointy stripes on their uniforms meant, so she could call them by their ranks, but at least she did know they were both mostly out of uniform. She reached out and flicked the open button at Short Guy’s throat. “What is this?”
He reached up and clutched his shirt closed like a Victorian maiden caught out wandering in her negligee. “It makes me feel like I’m choking if I close it up all the way, Lieutenant.” His voice was a nasal whine that was already starting to grate on her nerves, and she wondered how his fellow soldiers stood it without throttling him.
She leaned in close, like the drill sergeants on old vids. “Then choke,” she growled, and the man paled.
Turning, she walked to the door of the tower, throwing it open and striding inside. A wave of musty body odor assaulted her nose, and she felt sick for at least the third time in the last hour. Waving her hand in front of her nose, she yelled, “When was the last time you cleaned this place?”
The two men, who had scurried in after her, and now stood blinking stupidly in the swirling dust, just looked at each other and shrugged. “I… don’t know? Sir?” Taller Man finally said.
She clapped her hands together sharply. “Get to it, then! I want this room shining like, um,” she hesitated, since ‘the top of the Chrysler building’ wouldn’t make any sense to these two village idiots. “My boots,” she finished lamely, but the two just cast despairing glances at Rouge’s feet (which to her still looked like her usual soft cloth boots, but to them would look like Lieutenant Majors’ spit-shined black leather footwear) and scurried off, presumably to find cleaning implements.
Rouge looked around the dim room. There were no windows, and the only light came from a single glowstone and the open door. Two cabinets stood off to the side, and their open doors showed a haphazard mess of half-eaten rations and piled water skins. “I want an inventory of your supplies, too!” She shouted this into the air, since Tall and Short were nowhere to be seen, but she had a feeling that writing anything down would take them the rest of the day, so that was all right.
Turning, she looked at the winding stairs leading upwards. There was a heavy wooden hatch at the top of the first full turn, but it was also open, and looked a little crooked, like maybe it had broken and had never been fixed, just leaned up against the wall. She set her foot on the first step, and it creaked loudly. Well, at least no one would be able to sneak up on the person or people above, at least not without an excellent [Stealth] skill.
Martialing her courage, Rouge marched up the stairs, keeping her steps even and confident. After all, Lieutenant Majors had every right to be here, and she was Lieutenant Majors, right? Still, she winced a little as her head cleared the hatch to the area above. That would be the perfect moment for someone waiting there to simply remove her head from her neck with a single stroke, and she could almost picture the surprised expression on her own face as the two parts of her body parted ways.
Nothing happened, however, except that a third man snapped her a salute, holding it until she returned the gesture. This soldier had a hard face and a tidy uniform, and his eyes were calculating as he looked her up and down. A small sneer touched the corner of his lips so quickly she almost missed the expression, but she’d been expecting it, and almost felt relief that things were going as she’d anticipated.
::Rouge! The caravan is going to go over the last hill any second. They’ll be fully visible after that.:: Silus’ voice was a little frantic, and it was all Rouge could do to keep her gaze from shooting over to the northwest, where the wagons were coming from. With a valiant effort, she kept her eyes locked onto the watchman’s, and forced a scowl to her lips.
“What the hell is that, soldier?”
The guard’s gaze turned toward the open view surrounding them, and Rouge shot out her hand, pointing at his boots. They were clean but visibly scuffed, and the hems of his pants were frayed and worn. “That!” she said curtly. “Your uniform needs repair, and your boots are absolutely disgraceful! What do you do with your time, soldier? You lot just stand here staring at grass all day. There’s no excuse for the disgusting condition of your duty station or the state of your uniforms!”
You have learned the skill [Intimidation]. [Intimidation] successful.
Your [Acting] skill is now level 3.
The soldier winced and looked guilty. He tucked one toe behind his other foot, as if trying to hide the condition of his footwear. Rouge forged ahead. “Where is your boot polish, soldier? If you’re sitting up here with nothing to do, you might as well buff those shoes!”
“Ah, I don’t… I don’t have any polish, sir. I’m sorry, sir!” The man snapped another salute, this time dropping his hand right away, and Rouge had to force her hand to stay at her side. She had a feeling this wasn’t a ‘salute back’ kind of a situation.
“Do you have a cloth and some spit, soldier? It’s not much, but it’ll have to do. Now get to it!”
The man hesitated, eyes darting toward the skyline, and then he saluted once more and scurried down below. Rouge hesitated, wondering if she was pushing her luck, but then shouted down, “Help those two miserable excuses for soldiers clean up while you’re down there! I’ll keep an eye out up here, in case a rabbit with particularly sharp teeth decides to hop by.”
Crossing quietly to the edge of the open room, Rouge glanced toward the stairwell and then looked toward the northwest. Sure enough, the small but distinct shapes of carts were moving quickly to the east. A tall flagpole marked the beginning of the only known pass through the mountains, and the caravan was heading straight for it. It was obvious even from here that they were moving unnaturally quickly, and Rouge desperately prayed to Gina that no wheels or axles broke while they were visible and so very vulnerable.
The creak of the wooden stairs warned her she was about to have company, and she moved back to the southwest side of the tower, staring out toward the encampment around the contaminated watering hole. From here, it still looked peaceful, and she wondered if she’d ever know what the results of her little experiment were.
Competent Guy came up the stairs, eyes darting around. Even though Rouge was sure he couldn’t see anything from the top of the stairwell, she’d still be happier if he wasn’t up here at all. “What part of ‘help them clean’ did you not understand, soldier?”
The man gestured toward a small mound of rocks off to one side. Rouge had thought they were there to be thrown down on attackers below, but now that she focused, she could see trails of smoke staining the air around them. “It’s time to send the ‘All’s Well’, sir. Unless you want to do it?”
Rouge hesitated, then wrinkled her nose. “And get the stench of smoke in my clothes? I think not.” She waved dismissively. “Do it, and then get back down below.”
The man nodded, then went over to the rocks. He picked up a hooked metal implement from behind the stacked stones, and used it to pull out a metal grate that had been hidden down inside the pile. Instantly, the trickle of smoke turned into a flood, and Rouge and the man both went into fits of coughing. Quickly, the soldier pulled a bag of something from a pouch at his waist, and tossed it into the hole. The smoke pouring out thickened and turned an emerald green that made Rouge blink. Using the hook and the grate, the man created several puffs of the colorful smoke that lifted to float in remarkably cohesive clouds above the tower.
Finally, as the green shade was fading, the soldier dropped the grate back down onto the rocks, where it clattered into place. He covered his mouth and nose with a cloth and blinked streaming eyes at Rouge. “I’ll just,” he choked out, “go back down then, sir.”
She nodded, her own burning eyes squinting against tears, and waved at him dismissively. Whatever was in the pouch that made the smoke green was caustic, and Rouge wondered how anyone could stand doing that on a regular basis. It probably explained why the camp had grown up so far away, though. Not only was the water there, but they wouldn’t get a whiff of that smoke even when the wind blew in their direction.
The coughing soldier disappeared, and Rouge could just make out the sounds of voices from below. The few words she could catch sounded like employees complaining about bosses everywhere, so she let her attention drift as she pulled up the countdown timer on her skill. Nearly half an hour left, so there should be no problems as long as…
Your theft has been discovered! Time remaining on [Substitution: Lv3] reduced to fifteen minutes!
Rouge cursed under her breath, then looked around guiltily as if her dad was going to pop up from nowhere and threaten to wash her mouth out with soap. ::Silus! How are they doing?::
Silus sounded tired. ::The first of the wagons has just entered the pass. They have to go in one at a time because it’s so narrow, so they slowed down a little, but they’re still moving along. I think they’ll be through in ten minutes or so.::
Rouge puffed out a sigh of relief. They were ahead of schedule, so she could still pull this off. She peered down through the hole into the smoky dimness below. There was no movement, much less any cleaning going on, so she jogged to the side of the tower to peer down toward the door. She could see that it was still wide open, and all three soldiers were standing there. Tall was sweeping the doorstep in a very unmotivated fashion, while Short leaned against the wall scratching his… well, he was scratching. Only Competent looked like he was really trying at all, and he was sitting on a stool out of range of Tall’s dust cloud as he repeatedly spat into a dirty rag and then rubbed futilely at his boots.
Rouge spent the next ten minutes going back and forth from staring at the men below, to watching her clock, and then scurrying over to glance at the disappearing caravan. She broke up this fun little dance by peppering Silus with requests for updates, until even the sweet-natured little bat started to sound slightly cross. Finally, though, Silus said, ::That’s it, Rouge! They’re through! I’m heading back toward the caravan. I’ll meet you there.::
Rouge pumped a fist, then brushed off her clothes and hurried down the creaking stairs. Tall and Short had moved back inside as soon as the smoke cleared, and Tall was reorganizing the pantry in slightly neater stacks, while Short sat at the small table eating something that somehow managed to both crunch and squish at the same time. Rouge stared at both of the men until Short noticed her and nearly knocked over the chair he was sitting in as he scrambled to her feet.
“Did you finish that inventory?” They shook their heads, and she looked around disdainfully, taking in the dust on the tables and cabinets, which, to their credit, did look like it might have been disturbed a little. The floor definitely looked better, so she shot Tall a look that might have passed for approval. “Well, get to work, and turn it in to the quartermaster next time you’re in Vargo. It’s clear that this place needs to be restocked. Now, where’s-” she broke off, realizing that she had no idea what Competent’s name was.
