25 Stirrings of Trouble

Heidi Morgan was incensed as she left Roland's office. How dare he reject her generous offers, He should be the one honored to even be able to speak to her. Instead, he treated her as though she was worthless. Even more jarring was the discovery that Roland was working closely with the church. To spurn her offers of help yet turn to the great enemy, that is outrageous.

After Heidi returned to her room, she began to mull over her options. She decided that she would have to take matters into her own hands. She called over the rest of the Bloodfang Association to speak with them.

"Sisters, I take it that you have enjoyed your time here in Neverwinter", she said. "However, we must not lose sight of what is important. Life may be better now, but it wasn't always this way. Remember how we suffered. Remember who hunted us down and forced us to flee. The church is the enemy of all witches, and it must be destroyed!"

Murmurs of agreement spread throughout the room. One witch spoke up and said, "So what are our plans to finally take down the church? Have you managed to secure the king's support?"

"That is where the problem is", said Heidi. "The king does not want to work with us. I have learned that he is actually working with the church!"

Gasps of shock were heard throughout the room. "Why would he do such a thing?", one witch asked.

"Clearly he is trying to benefit himself", Heidi said. "He clearly does not care about the wellbeing of witches."

"But didn't he stop the church from hunting down witches?", one witch questioned. Doesn't that mean he is on our side. And maybe the church has changed."

"You think that the church, which has hunted down witches for hundreds of years, can change so easily", sneered Heidi. "Don't be naïve. There is clearly a plot afoot. Roland and the church must be colluding together to do something. Perhaps they just want to draw us out and get rid of us in one fell swoop."

The room soon gained an atmosphere of fear as the witches were afraid that they might have been lured into a trap.

Another witch spoke up, "but didn't Tilly tell us that Roland is good and wanted to help witches?"

"Tilly is Roland's sister", Heidi said. "She is clearly biased and could have been hoodwinked by Roland. She might even be in on the plot too."

"We have to take action now", said Heidi. "We must destroy the church, even if Roland doesn't help us. In fact, I suspect he might try to sabotage us. He is on the church's side and is an enemy. He should be removed by us. Then, we can take over Graycastle and then attack the church. Roland is weak, he doesn't value combat witches. There is no way he will be able to stand up to us."

"What about Tilly and the rest of the Sleeping Island witches", a witch asked. "Are we going to involve them in our plan? Also, how are we going to deal with Ashes the Extraordinary?"

"We will have to convince them about Roland's evil intentions", Heidi told them. "All of us witches have suffered at the church's hand and none of them will be happy that Roland is working with the church. I am confident that we will be able to sway at least some of them to our cause. We might even be able to gain a majority of their support. Ashes is going to be a problem. We will try to convince her that Roland is not good for us witches, but it may be difficult to convince her. We are going to have to resort to some underhanded tactics."

The rest of the witches looked quite shocked and they were quite uncomfortable with what their leader was saying. One witch said, "You mean… we are going to kill her?"

"Unfortunately, we might have to do that", replied Heidi. "She is too much of a threat to our plans. But that will be our last resort, we will try to convince her with words first. As long as she is reasonable and listens to us, no harm will come to her."

"Won't it be difficult to catch her off guard?", said one witch.

"Have you noticed that Ashes seems to have started acting differently when she got here", Heidi said. "While she was always very tense and wary on Sleeping Island, she has relaxed here in Neverwinter. It seems that this place has caused her to let her guard down. This place has caused her to become weak. There will be many ways to deal with her. Furthermore, during her time here, Iffy has been collecting information. She has given me maps of the castle and information about the movements of the guards. Iffy has been very loyal, her contribution will be valued."

Heidi Morgan began making plans for the takeover. She planned on removing Ashes by assassinating her during her sleep or by poisoning her food. Once she was gone, the Bloodfang Association can attack Roland and easily overpower his witches. Meanwhile, they would work on gaining support with the other witches.

Roland's witches that he raised were deemed too loyal to him so their efforts focused mainly on the Sleeping Island witches. The members of the Bloodfang Association started talking with the other witches and sounding out their sympathies. Quite a few of them still nursed a strong grudge toward the church and were willing to agree to fight the church. The full details of the plot were not told to anyone outside the Bloodfang Association.

As the recruitment continued, news of it eventually reached Roland, who knew they were plotting something. Iffy told him what they were planning and he also sent Nightingale to spy on their meetings. Roland would not stand idly by while people were plotting against him. He had already made plans for this eventuality. Annie had been hidden before the Sleeping Island witches arrived. She would be an important part of his plans. Soon, Roland made his move.