B2 Chapter 266: Grand Larceny, pt. 1

Kaius stood up, his knife sliding free from the dead guard’s skull with a wet squelch.

The sound cut deeper than any blade, revulsion crawling up his spine as competing thoughts bounced around the inside of his mind.

They had to do it—even if they’d bound the man, taken the time to back track to the cells and lock him up properly, there was no telling what skills the man might have had—nor what the simple delay could mean for their escape. Keeping him alive was a risk they couldn’t afford. A mercy that could have killed them faster than any spell or arrow.

And yet, never in his darkest days, nor in the highest heights of his fury, would he have ever thought he would have been capable of killing an unarmed—defenceless—man who was begging for his life.

Ever.

He hadn’t been a boggart. Wasn’t some monster out of a children’s tale, who slavered after brutality and blood. It was a man. Who had begged. Begged with tears in his eyes.

And yet, why did he feel so little?

That was what truly sickened him.

He should have been shaking. Wailing at the world for forcing him to such acts. Instead he felt nauseous and cold—disgusted at his own lack of mind for the cost to his humanity.

Kaius stood, stuck in place like iron stakes had been driven through his feet, staring at the weeping hole he’d bored in the man’s skull.

A hand clapped him on his shoulder, giving him a firm squeeze he wasn’t sure he deserved.

“It had to be done,” Ianmus whispered. “No matter how black of a deed it might be.”

The mage’s words rolled over him like wind against iron. Even if he had withstood the torturer’s blade, it felt like a part of him died in that operating room—one that cared far more about things like honour, mercy, and righteousness. In its place was only a rousing fury, and a growing disappointment at the rising cost in human life.

“I know. It’s why I did it,” he said slowly, feeling Ianmus give him one last pat on his back before he stepped away.

Tearing his eyes away from the magnetic sight beneath him, Kaius turned and offered Kenva his hand. She clasped it firmly, rising to her feet with her jaw set tight—determination shining bright in her eyes.

Porkchop, at least, said nothing. With their bond, his brother would feel that he wanted to move. To set this day behind him in history—consume himself in the advancement of their escape, to return to the memory later.

When he could better process.

Instead, there was just the low and constant warmth of their bond—an insistence that no matter what, he had made the right choice.

Kaius took a deep breath, emptying his mind. He had no time for rumination. Letting his thoughts consume him would distract him—worsen their chances of success.

Looking back down, his eyes slowed as he took in the corpse’s undamaged chain tunic, and the sheathed shortsword that had fallen to the ground after he had shattered the bunk.

“Help me strip the bodies.”

…

Halls passed by in a haze as they left the site of their ambush behind. New chainmail armour, only slightly bloodstained, lay heavier on Kaius’s shoulders than its physical weight could ever explain.

Oversized as it was, it still fit him well enough—though it didn’t reach anywhere near to his knees like it was supposed to, and the belt he’d used to cinch it to his waist was more than a little uncomfortably tight.

At least he had a proper weapon. That was one small comfort.

He’d taken one shortsword, Kenva the other. They were both shit—middling steel with the barest of durability and honing enchantments to make it serviceable, but he hoped that with a standard issue kit he’d be able to sell his disguise for a few extra moments.

Other than their grizzly ambush and execution, there was little else in the way of trouble that they ran into as they cautiously hurried through the lowest level of the compound.

Once or twice they had heard concerned yelling, and occasionally the patter of running feet from adjacent and adjoining halls, but those guards had moved on quickly.

More interested in rushing to join the ongoing battle above than to investigate. Not that they were stupid enough to give them a reason to do so. Other than that, the floor was totally empty.

As they walked, Kaius peered through the open doorways that lined the walls. After so long of being hauled past their closed frames, it was nice to finally get to look into them to his heart’s content. Even if the hanging weight of ever-burning time meant he never spent more than a cursory glance.

Most of the rooms seemed mundane in their function, though more than once they passed by something more interesting. Large sparring halls, with walls adorned with wooden weapons. A large kitchen, with enough equipment to cook for dozens of men—still spotless from the night before.

That one was a pleasant find—letting them scavenge some more food and water to keep their strength up. A few half eaten meals wasn’t enough to fully remove the remnants of their malnourishment, no matter the fortitude their enhanced stats gave them to such mortal maladies.

They didn’t linger. Curiosity wasn’t enough to drown out the hanging knife of urgency that he could feel on his neck, nor the anger that he was struggling to manage.

Thank the gods for his Glass Mind. It was active constantly—always feeding him knowledge of their best course forward. Plotting his way to freedom and victory.

The closer they got to the stairs the more the sounds of battle from above grew audible—still nothing but blunted rumbles and the faint roar of yells melding together.

His senses might have been heightened to over a dozen times his natural baseline by his mental stats and Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus, but the fight above had to be truly calamitous if it was loud enough to reach so deep into the earth. It would have to be a pitched battle for the noise to reach so deep.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Still, the growing noise heightened his anticipation. If they were drawing closer to the stairs, they were getting closer to their target.

“The vault is growing close—and it will almost certainly still be guarded.” Kaius said softly, before he poked his head around their next corner to make sure the coast was clear.

“Even now? With the fighting so fierce?” Porkchop replied.

Kaius nodded. “I’ve never seen it with less than two guards. Sometimes it was as much as six. If it truly does contain storage artefacts, there is no way that it would ever be left undefended.”

“What’s our plan, then?” Ianmus asked. “Since I assume you’ll want me to be preparing my spell to break the formation while we attack them.

“Our approach will be hidden from them until the final bend, but the last eighty strides will be a straight shot down an open hallway with nowhere to hide.” he replied, picturing the right angled hall with the vault’s door in the corner. The stairs up would be only a couple more bends past it, giving them an easy path onwards.

“So what, we’re just going to charge them like some sort of startled dosteon?” Kenva said, referencing some steppe animal he’d never heard of.

“No,” Kaius shook his head. “I’ll approach alone—I’ll have plenty of reason to be running, and with this red light they won’t be able to see my face easily. I’m confident I can handle them, and I doubt they’ll be able to tell how tall I am until I’m too close for it to matter.”