Invasion of the Fortress

Throughout our travel back to the continent, everyone has been in a very cheery mood... Singing happy shanties while the ship accompanied the movement of the waves and the strength of the wind. The rebels did know how to make boring days aboard a ship to become much more eventful, or at least happy.

It was very contradictory... They lived in such a harsh place and the ship was probably even worse, given that things like food weren't properly prepared beforehand, forcing us to fish our meals. I suppose that's what actually makes them want to sing, it's a way to forget about their realities for a moment at least and enjoy their time...

We arrived at the continent through the Waterkill port... The situation looked since the criminals came here to attack, but it seemed like there were still many injured people in wait of medical or magical assistance. But as we had nothing we could do for them and our time was tight, we left the city in search of the criminals' fortress...

The rebels stayed, however... They were going to seek the help of the Waterkill first and then would proceed to ask for the assistance of the Coventry in taking down the Roseblood... They might just have a chance, with the military strength of Coventry, the economical power of Waterkill, and the rebels' experience in fighting the Roseblood... And I am not even counting other possible nations that will want to help.

"Hey Dagger... You are spacing out, that's the fifth time... And only today... Is something the matter?", Jeffrey suddenly asked as we walked to the fortress, just as he indicated in the map.

"Uh?", I shook my head to return to reality and then looked at him. "Ah, well... I am just wondering about the rebellion... It kind of makes me happy to know that they will finally have the edge they needed for fighting the Roseblood Empire now..."

"Right? But I am afraid this is only the beginning... I mean, the rebels and the help they get will enter in full war against the Roseblood. It will be very bloody for both sides before one can proclaim victory..."

"That's probably the biggest problem... But I suppose it's inevitable for helping the people there, it's not like the Roseblood will simply stop to do what they have been doing through the years..."

"Well, whatever happens with them next, I think we should focus on our mission... The bottle...", he said and at the same time pointed out to the construction in the middle of nowhere... It took a few days to find, but it was worth it, the fortress was there and the bottle was soon going to be back in my hands.

It was huge construction, however... Build with great walls that fortify their position, towers for extra vision, and better archery places. Those towers might even hide ballistae in there. In a way, it resembled Coventry's palace and its walls, the difference was that there wasn't a city build around those walls.

"Well... I have experience with this fortress and it's not easy to get in... How do you want to do this, Dagger?", Jeffrey asked, giving a glance while I thoughtfully examined the walls.

"I guess it would be best to fly over it with pegasi... But since the only one that was on our side is with the rebels, we can possibly only get through the gates... Infiltrated. Climb is dumb, after all, and we don't have any kind of siege weapon to break the wall", I opined... But it still sounded dumb in my tongue.

"Well, I am almost sure they will at least notice we don't belong here... Especially me, as a traitor...", he said, while I sighed... I should've known it wouldn't be that easy.

"Well... What about secret entrances?", I asked curiously, but he tilted his head

"Secret entrances?"

"Yeah... This place resembles a lot the Conventry's palace, in terms of military fortification at least. They must have some sort of secret entrance as well, in case they are caught off guard, unable to escape conventionally..."

"Well... Now that you mentioned it, I remember something like that... Yeah, a secret entrance through the nearby desert, I used it to escape their grasp when I betrayed them... I was lucky to have found it in the Inner Circle's room... But are you sure? it will lead directly to Inner Circle members of the criminal organization..."

"Huh... Well, I am not seeing any better way in and, after all, the bottle will most likely be in this Inner Circle's room, if its members are so important... Let's just go with it, lead us to the desert", I said and then smiled a little, slightly confident that we would be able to get the bottle from the criminals.

Very much like Coventry's secret entrance in the forest, the desert entrance of the fortress was very poorly illuminated, and dusted, mainly since it was only used when they have absolutely no way to win a battle and this is the only way out...

"This place gives me the creeps... I was kind of hoping to never have to go through this again...", Jeffrey commented as we carefully walked, the fox looking behind us to make sure no one was after us.

"Don't worry, it will be quick if we're lucky...", I said and then we reached a wall... It was probably the secret door that led inside the Inner Circle's room.

The silence fell upon us as we started to get tense... I looked at the two first and they nodded at me, confirming they were ready for this... And taking a deep breath, I pushed the fall, reveling that it was a camouflaged door that led inside a large circular room, with three mezzanines, where the Inner Circle members probably stayed...

"It's empty here...", I commented and just then, my eyes fell on the bottle in the middle of the room, just on a table. We weren't fools, however, it was clearly a trap... They were expecting us to come after the bottle.

"So... What do we do?", Jeffrey asked as we looked at the bottle. Wanting or not to trigger the trap, we still needed to get the bottle... So I slowly, carefully moved towards the bottle, looking in all directions to make sure I would notice the trap as soon it was triggered...

"Well, well, well... Very impressive of you, Dagger...", a voice echoed through the large room, accompanied by the wound of long slow claps. "I didn't think you would even make out of Roseblood, to be honest, but I still hoped and kept your little bottle as bait... It seems like you never fail to amaze me...", he said.

"Jacob...", I said while looking at him appearing from one of the mezzanines while the other two members of the Inner Circle appeared in the other two mezzanines.

"Yes... I touched you remembered me. You shouldn't be so surprised if your name is known by all of us, however... You have gotten in our way more than once by now... Stopping us from punishing traitors, interrupting our business with the convoy, and destroying a good part of our naval force. I am glad there are still good loyal people who know what they must do, getting this bottle from you at the moment you had it complete..."

"You were careless, though", I said, grabbing the bottle and making a run for the secret entrance. Of course, they weren't actually careless, criminals wielding axes stopped us out tracks...

"Careless? You were the careless one for even stepping inside this fortress, don't you realize that? Now you shall pay for everything you have done to us...", he said and jumped from the mezzanine, falling on his feet with his sword in his hands.

"A duel again?", I asked, getting my sword ready for it but he smiled... And smiled devilishly.

"Don't get your hopes up on it", he said and suddenly a few arrows hit us, precisely on the knees, forcing us to fall on the floor... The fox was the only one unharmed in the action.

"What... What will you do, then? Get us in the prison? Send her to Coventry?", Jeffrey asked while struggling to stand up... And the smile continued on Jacob's face.

"Prison? Give her to Coventry? Don't make me laugh, this is a special situation just for you... I will give you the ultimate price for defying us... Actually, I will do it even worse than that, you will maybe even beg for dying at the very", he said and I started to think... Was he going to abuse me? Was he going to torture me? It seemed like the latter, but I didn't think how far this torture would go...