Four days. Four days until Talia’s betrothal ceremony, and here she was, still scrambling to build sothing worth a damn.
The twins cornered Aegis in her study.
Kai’Lin had perched herself on the edge of the desk, her tail flicking behind her like it had its own opinions about things. i’Lin had draped herself across the armchair like she owned it, her tits damn near spilling out of her top. Both of them wore expressions that said they had news and they were very, very pleased with themselves for having it.
"House Goldspire’s been busy, nya," Kai’Lin said.
Aegis looked up from her ledger.
"Busy how?"
"Weapons." i’Lin stretched, and yep, there went the tits, nearly escaping entirely. "Enchanted ones. They’ve placed orders with three different smiths in the past week alone."
"Big orders," Kai’Lin added, her ears twitching. "Enough to fit a small army, nya."
Aegis set down her quill.
So, Darius wasn’t just sitting around waiting for his betrothal to Talia to go through. No, he was actively strengthening his position, building up House Goldspire’s military capacity while Aegis was busy throwing dinner parties and fucking noble daughters.
[Okay, that’s not entirely fair. The dinner parties were productive. And Lord Rain’s daughter was really, really hot.]
Still. She couldn’t afford to fall behind. Especially not now. Especially not with four days left on the clock.
"How’d you two find this out?"
"i’Lin flirted with one of his servants, nya." Kai’Lin’s whiskers twitched with amusent. "Got the whole supply list out of him."
"He was very cooperative," i’Lin added, examining her nails like she hadn’t just admitted to seducing information out of so poor bastard. "Very... eager to please."
Aegis snorted.
"Good work. Both of you." She leaned back in her chair, her mind already racing through options. "If Goldspire’s arming up, we need to match them. Better yet, exceed them."
The problem was money, of course.
Enchanted weapons weren’t cheap, and House Starcaller’s coffers were healthy but not bottomless. She could buy maybe a dozen quality pieces before Evelyn started giving her that look. The one that said "my lady, we need to have a conversation about fiscal responsibility" without actually saying it out loud. Aegis had seen that look three tis this month already, and she wasn’t eager to see it a fourth.
Unless...
[Heh, I know this world in and out,] Aegis thought, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. [So... how about we skip the middleman entirely?]
The answer ca to her imdiately.
[The Stormrend Vaults.]
A hidden cache beneath the old mining tunnels just outside Rosevale. In the ga, it was a quick side dungeon, maybe two hours of gaplay. More importantly, it contained Pre-Unification weapons that so long-dead noble family had stashed away during the civil war and never ca back for. Enchanted blades that would make anything Darius was buying look like sharpened butter knives.
Most players never found it because the entrance was hidden behind a collapsed wall that required a specific explosive compound to clear. But Aegis had made that compound last month for an entirely different reason, and she still had three vials of it sitting in her inventory.
[Ti to go shopping.]
"New mission," she said. "I need you two to keep watching Goldspire. I want to know every purchase, every eting, every ti Darius takes a shit."
"Gross, nya."
"But thorough." Aegis grinned. "I’ve got my own shopping to do. Well, not personally. I’ve got people for that now."
Kai’Lin and i’Lin exchanged one of those twin looks that probably ant they were communicating telepathically, or whatever it was that catgirl sisters did when they shared a single brain cell between them. Then Kai’Lin hopped off the desk, landing silently on her feet, and i’Lin rose from the armchair with the kind of lazy, fluid motion that made Aegis’s cock twitch in her pants.
"We’ll find out what color his morning piss is if you want, nya," Kai’Lin offered.
"That won’t be necessary."
"You said thorough, nya."
"Thorough doesn’t an urological."
"Make up your mind, nya."
They left, and Aegis turned her attention back to the map on her desk.
Two hours to get there. Maybe three hours inside if they ran into any trouble. Two hours back. Scarlett and Kanna could be ho before sunset with enough firepower to make Darius’s weapon orders look like a kid’s shopping list.
[Let’s do this.]
She got up and went to find her retainers.
---
She found Scarlett and Kanna in the training yard.
They were sparring, or rather, Scarlett was attacking and Kanna was making her look like an amateur. Every swing got deflected with minimal movent. Every thrust got sidestepped by about an inch, no more than necessary. Kanna’s brown eyes tracked Scarlett’s blade the whole ti, and Aegis could practically see her reading the attacks before they happened.
Which, knowing Kanna, she probably was.
Scarlett was drenched in sweat, her red hair plastered to her forehead, her muscles straining with every strike. anwhile, Kanna looked like she’d just woken up from a nap. Barely a hair out of place. It was almost insulting, honestly.
"Ladies."
They paused mid-exchange. Scarlett lowered her sword, her chest heaving.
"Boss." She wiped sweat from her brow with her forearm. "Co to watch get my ass kicked?"
"Tempting, but no." Aegis walked closer, her arms crossed, taking a mont to enjoy the view of two very fit won in tight training clothes. Because why wouldn’t she? "I’ve got a job for you both. There’s a place called the Stormrend Vaults, about two hours outside Rosevale. Old mining tunnels with a hidden cache inside. I need you two to clear it out and bring back whatever weapons you find."
Kanna’s eyebrow rose a fraction of an inch. For her, that was basically a dramatic gasp.
"The old mining tunnels." She tilted her head slightly. "There have been reports of monster activity in that area."
"I know. That’s why I’m sending my two best fighters." Aegis smiled. "Think you can handle it?"
Scarlett’s grin was instant and blinding.
"Handle it? Boss, we’ll make those tunnels wish they’d never been dug."
"Tunnels don’t have wishes," Kanna said.
"It’s a figure of... you know what, never mind." Scarlett waved a hand. "Yes. We can handle it."
Aegis pulled out a map she’d sketched earlier and handed it over.
The location was marked, along with so notes about the general layout. She’d kept it vague on purpose, since she couldn’t exactly explain how she knew the dungeon’s floor plan without raising so very awkward questions. "Hey, how do you know there’s a secret room behind the third collapsed pillar?" "Oh, I played through this area about fifty tis in my previous life." Yeah, that conversation wasn’t happening.
"The entrance is blocked by a collapsed wall," Aegis continued, fishing three vials out of her inventory. The liquid inside was an ugly greenish-brown color, and it sloshed around in a way that seed almost angry. "This compound will clear it. Just throw one at the rubble and stand way, way back. And I an way back. Like, ’you might want to cover your ears’ back."
Kanna took the vials with the kind of careful respect one gives to things that might explode.
"Understood."
"Once you’re inside, prioritize weapons and armor. Enchanted stuff especially. Leave the decorative crap unless it looks really, really valuable."
"Got it." Scarlett took the map and studied it for a mont before tucking it into her belt. "When do we leave?"
"Now."
Scarlett blinked.
"Now? Like, right now?"
"Right now. I want you back before sunset with a cart full of pointy things." Aegis grinned. "Goldspire’s been buying up weapons all week. We need to match them, and I’d rather not drain our coffers doing it."
Kanna was already moving toward the armory, her mind clearly running through logistics.
"We’ll need a cart. And soone to drive it while we handle any threats."
"Take one of the laborers. Tell Evelyn I authorized it."
"Understood."
Scarlett punched her own palm, practically vibrating with excitent.
"Finally! A real mission. I was getting so bored just training all day."
"You were losing," Kanna pointed out without turning around.
"I was warming up!"
"For three hours?"
"I’m thorough!"
Aegis left them to their bickering and headed back inside, her mind already churning through what she’d do with a cache of Pre-Unification weapons. If everything went well, Scarlett and Kanna would be back by evening with enough firepower to make Darius’s shopping spree look pathetic.
And if everything didn’t go well...
Well, she’d cross that bridge when she ca to it.
[House Goldspire wants an arms race? Fine. Let’s race.]
---
{Scarlett}
The Stormrend Vaults were closer than Scarlett expected.
Two hours of riding through rocky terrain outside Rosevale, with Harvin, one of the laborers Evelyn had assigned to them, driving the cart behind them and complaining about every bump in the road. By the ti they reached the entrance, a collapsed mine shaft half-buried in a hillside, Scarlett was itching to hit sothing.
"This is it?" She squinted at the rubble, deeply unimpressed. "Doesn’t look like much."
"It’s collapsed," Kanna said, dismounting without a sound. "That’s the point."
"I know it’s collapsed. I have eyes."
"Do you?"
Scarlett decided to ignore that.
They approached the collapsed entrance, and Kanna pulled out one of the vials Aegis had given them. The liquid inside was an ugly greenish-brown, and it sloshed around like it was angry about being contained.
"Stand back," Kanna said. "Far back."
"How far is far?"
"Further than that."
Scarlett took another ten steps back, dragging Harvin with her. The poor guy looked like he was regretting every life choice that had led him to this mont.
Kanna threw the vial.
The explosion was... significant.
Rocks flew. Dust billowed. A sound like thunder rolled across the hillside, and when it cleared, there was an actual doorway where the rubble used to be. Scarlett’s ears were ringing, but she was grinning.
"Okay. That was pretty cool."
"Mm." Kanna was already walking toward the newly opened entrance, her black blade drawn. "Stay alert."
"I’m always alert."
"You tripped over a root on the way here."
"That root was sneaky. It had ambush tactics."
Kanna didn’t dignify that with a response.
Inside, the air was stale and cold and slled like dust and sothing that had died a long, long ti ago. Their torches threw shadows across walls covered in carvings Scarlett couldn’t read and didn’t particularly care to. The passage sloped downward, leading deeper into the hill.
They left Harvin at the entrance with the cart and instructions to scream very loudly if anything ca up behind them. He did not seem thrilled about this arrangent.
The first chamber they entered was empty except for dust and broken pottery. Boring. The second had so kind of altar covered in faded symbols that Kanna spent way too long examining while Scarlett stood guard and tried not to fall asleep on her feet.
"Can we move it along? I’m getting old here."
"You’re twenty-two."
"Exactly. Ancient. Decrepit. Could die any second."
Kanna gave her a look that said she was considering helping that process along, then finally moved toward the next passage.
The third chamber, though...
"Contact," Kanna said, her voice going flat.
Scarlett saw them a split second later. Shapes in the darkness ahead, skittering across the ceiling and walls. Too many legs. Too many eyes. Way, way too many of both, actually.
"The fuck are those things?"
"Cavern stalkers." Kanna’s tone shifted into that analytical mode she got sotis, like she was reading from a textbook in her head. "Pack hunters. Venomous fangs. Weak point is the thorax, between the second and third leg joints."
"Great. Love fighting giant spiders. My absolute favorite activity."
The creatures attacked.
Scarlett t the first one mid-leap, her sword cleaving through its ugly head before it could sink its fangs into her face. Ichor sprayed across her armor, hot and foul-slling. She pivoted, caught another one trying to flank her, and kicked it into the wall hard enough to hear chitin crack.
Beside her, Kanna moved like she was made for this. Her black blade cut through the air, each strike landing exactly where it needed to, each movent using only as much energy as necessary. No wasted motion. No hesitation. Just cut and move and cut again, bodies dropping in her wake.
[God, she’s gorgeous when she fights.]
The thought ca unbidden and Scarlett shoved it down hard. Not the ti. Definitely not the fucking ti.
More stalkers poured from the shadows. A dozen at least, maybe more, their legs clicking against stone as they sward forward. Scarlett planted her feet and started swinging, carving a bloody arc through anything stupid enough to get close. One of them got past her guard and she felt fangs scrape against her pauldron, skidding off the tal with a sound that made her teeth hurt.
[Thank fuck for good armor.]
"On your left!"
She spun. Three stalkers, coming fast. She took the first one’s legs out at the joints, crushed the second under her boot with a satisfying crunch, and Kanna’s blade took the third through its thorax from behind.
They ended up back to back, surrounded, breathing hard.
"There’s a lot of these things," Scarlett observed.
"Very observant."
"Shut up and fight."
The next wave hit them hard. Scarlett lost track of ti after that. It was just swing, dodge, kill, repeat. Her arms burned. Her lungs burned. Sweat stung her eyes and ichor coated everything and still they kept coming, wave after wave of skittering nightmare creatures.
Then, finally, they didn’t.
The last stalker fell twitching at Kanna’s feet, its legs curling inward. The chamber went quiet except for their ragged breathing and the steady drip of ichor from Scarlett’s sword onto the stone floor.
Scarlett slumped against a pillar, her legs shaking, her chest heaving.
"That..." She sucked in air. "Was a lot."
"Mm."
Kanna flicked ichor off her blade, barely winded. Because of course she was barely winded. Of course she wasn’t even breathing hard after fighting off a small army of giant murder spiders. That was just how Kanna operated.
[Smug bitch. Hot, frustratingly competent smug bitch, but still.]
"You fought well," Kanna said.
Scarlett blinked.
"I... what?"
"Your footwork has improved. You’re reading attacks better than you used to." Kanna sheathed her sword with a soft click, those brown eyes eting Scarlett’s. "I might actually have to try next ti we spar."
Scarlett’s brain stopped working entirely.
Was that... did Kanna just... was that a complint? From Kanna? The woman who’d once told Scarlett her stance "wasn’t entirely pathetic" and acted like that was high praise?
She couldn’t help it.
She grinned and said:
"Keep looking at like that and I might think you’re interested in more than just sparring."
Kanna rolled her eyes, naturally.
But, as she turned away toward the door at the far end of the chamber, Scarlett caught a tiny smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
[YES!]
This was shaping up to be the best mission ever.
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