Chapter 21. Artefact

The Summer Festival was in full swing, but Xiao Hong couldn't afford to be distracted by the tonnes of paperwork that had piled up.

Thank goodness two units of their order had returned to Faerun at once, and now they didn't have to accompany the Lord to official and unofficial events. The care of his cover had finally fallen on the shoulders of those better suited to it.

Her main job of bookkeeping had returned to her, where she was currently tasked with conducting a documentary audit and double-checking all the financial records, as her expenses had skyrocketed recently for some reason, even though her organisation was not conducting any major operations at the moment.

As she thoughtfully bit the tip of her brush to fill in another ledger, there was a soft knock on the window.

"Who the hell is it?" grinned Xiao Hong, who couldn't bear to be distracted from her work.

When the knock came for the third time, she couldn't stand it any longer and went to the window. It turned out that she had been distracted all the time by a postman's crow.

As soon as she opened the window, the specially trained raven held out a paw with a tethered cap containing a folded note.

Quickly scanning the text, the girl poured some grain from a jar specially prepared for such occasions onto the window sill beneath the crow's paws and hurried off to her master.

But no matter how hard she searched the residence, she could not find him.

The matter was rather urgent, especially since it was originally her master's order, and at the same time she didn't want to take all the responsibility for the decision.

After some deliberation, she set off to find the cute black-haired couple, who were either with their master or chilling somewhere in the red light district, picking out clothes or buying cosmetics for the theatre department they were in charge of.

With a fair amount of energy, she found them sitting on the summer veranda of the diner, enjoying the unbridled merriment around them.

Corbu, smoking his usual pipe, raised an eyebrow in surprise at Xiao Hong's appearance.

"What is our lovely book moth doing on the streets of Faerun at this hour? Has she finally decided to reconsider her attitude to fun?"

Shuka, on the other hand, only glanced at her half-turned with a slight grin.

"Wow, how they piss me off." The girl thought.

From the beginning, it was as if a black cat had come between her and those two men [No, not Stipa x)], but what can you do in the name of serving Lord Akihiro. You'll even have to deal with two horrors.

"Enough, do you know where the Lord is? I have an urgent report for him personally."

"I'm afraid your report can wait. He had to leave yesterday. We thought you already knew." Korbu said slowly.

"Damn, bad timing as usual. I guess I'll have to take responsibility after all."

Coldly she said goodbye and walked slowly back to the residence, thinking about which of her subordinates could be assigned to this risky task.

***

"Imperial Treasury, huh? I don't get easy jobs," the man mused as he stood on a thick branch of an old oak tree, taking in the atmosphere of the evening imperial complex, which consisted of the main palace, the harem section and related rooms.

While the main military forces had been sent to maintain order during the festivities, the imperial residence was not well guarded, the guards consisting of a reserve garrison of mostly new recruits, since there was no one left in the territory entrusted to them except for a few concubines, it was easy to get in without being seen.

But it was another thing to invade the territory of the Secret Treasury, which was guarded by God knows what kind of morlocks and barriers.

He didn't want to take any chances, so he sent his subordinates to scout for him, and they should be back any minute.

"And here you are, my good men. " said a man of medium build with long dark hair and thick eyebrows, carefully picking up two small rats that were nestled in the palm of his hand.

His ability to subdue small rodents was enviable, and his clan's secret techniques allowed him to do unthinkable things with the help of his little friends.

"Have you found a weakness? On the eastern side of the wall? Good. " The man's monologue would have sounded wild to an outsider, but that's the way it is in their world.

Silently, he jumped down from the tree, hiding in the shadows, and quickly reached the wall he wanted. Like a cat, he climbed the uneven, moss-covered surface, scampering from ledge to ledge, using the clues of his wards, who were very sensitive to such things, to escape the uneven boundaries of the poorly placed energy barrier.

Climbing to the top, he looked around. Several buildings disguised as abandoned barracks and a whole underground maze of unknown traps separated him from the treasury.

 Of course, he could have got there from the palace side, avoiding a great expenditure of internal energy, but the risk would have been many times greater.

As he lowered the rats, who immediately ran off to show him the way, he sealed the main points of his power so as not to give himself away to any craftsmen who might happen to be around.

Stepping silently, he skilfully avoided the patrol and made his way to the first room, which was covered by a large barn-lock for the entourage.

Deftly wielding his lockpicks, he carefully removed the lock and bolted the door, placing a light barrier in the form of a frost to indicate the presence of the lock.

Sneaking into the abandoned rooms, he found a trap door, and before opening it, he disarmed an insidious trap that would pierce anyone who dared touch the lock with poisonous needles. Then came the ancient lock itself, which was not as easy for him as the entrance lock.

As soon as he opened the hatch, there was a smell of rancid mould and something very unpleasant, like sewage combined with garbage.

He put the rats on his shoulders and stepped inside confidently.

Sliding along the walls, his silhouette was barely visible in the dim interior of the labyrinth that stretched both inside and outside the imperial complex. Had it not been for his assistants, who warned him from time to time of traps and the direction to take, he would have been lost long ago and might not have made it out of here alive.

But now a bright light appeared, heralding the beginning of an inhabited area with many doors behind which lay both untold riches and pure destruction for the uninitiated.

He remembered from his childhood how rumours of torture had spread through the Imperial family. His grandfather and uncle, who had served the Emperor before him and had been disgraced for suspected treason, had probably ended their lives here.

The only thing that saved the rest of the family was that there had been another palace coup.

It was not a good feeling that tore at the man's heart as he travelled at the speed of the wind through the ancient catacombs built in the time of the ancestors.

At times, his imagination pictured wild screams behind the rusty locks of the old doors and rustling noises behind him.

Turning another corner, he stood like a stumbling block.

Fear ran through his mind as he saw the guards lying prostrate on the steps to one of the many rooms, their necks slit from ear to ear.

"Ts-s, is someone else looking for the treasure?"

Silently, as if afraid to awaken a wild beast, he slipped through the ajar door and into a large room, in the centre of which a sword with a gilded hilt and a pure emerald crowning the hilt shimmered coldly in the torchlight. The intricate pattern on the hilt caught his eye.

The concentrated energy radiated from it in waves of melodious vibration.

Such a stunning artefact would have dazzled even a sophisticated thief who had seen a lot in his life.

A female figure, dressed all in black, leaned over the sword, her hands reaching out in reverence to the graceful blade.

He could not let that happen. With a powerful slash, he sent several sharpened cogs flying.

The girl immediately jumped back, snatched the sword from her sleeve and turned towards her opponent.

"My lady, it seems our interests overlap with this sword. I'm afraid I can't let you keep it."

With a viper-like hiss, she lunged at him, but he was no match for her, and her blow only cleaved the air.

Armed with a stiletto, the man brought it up for a blow, but the girl blocked it instantly, their crossed weapons showering her with sparks.

Taking turns to strike and block, they danced wildly in circles around the glittering artefact, which seemed to have changed its tune from their fight.

After exchanging several dozen blows to no avail, they dispersed to different ends of the room, glaring at each other angrily and analysing their opponent's possible weaknesses.

A guard appeared in the doorway, taking them both by surprise. From beneath the leather visor of the light armour worn by all the local guards, he surveyed the situation with a surprised stare.

Realising that the intrusion had been discovered and that the man would now run to raise the alarm, perhaps attracting more ferocious opponents, they threw their weapons at him, remembering to arm themselves with new ones immediately.

But instead of fleeing, he dodged the weapon thrown at him and lunged at the sword with lightning speed.

The girl was the first of the two to react to the bold attempt of the man in the guard's uniform to get to the sword first, and darted after him like a shadow bringing the weapon, but what happened was something that none of those present had expected - as soon as he touched the sword, there was a menacing roar, accompanied by a bright flash, followed by an explosion and an impenetrable wall of dust.

When the dust cleared, the man saw no sword, no man in armour, no shadow girl, just a huge hole in the ceiling of the room, through which he could see the night sky.

"Haaaaaah?! What a disaster, how am I supposed to report to my precious boss now?"

Two of the little assistants who had been lurking earlier ran up to him.

"I know, I know, let's get out of here before everyone else gets here. Yeah."

***

Cornflower had had a plan to get into the treasury for weeks, when he had compared his skills with what he had heard from one of the tavern's patrons about the reserve garrison that would guard the Imperial Palace when all the dignitaries were away from its walls.

Of course, it was naive to expect the treasury to be guarded as well as the main territory, but Cornflower was willing to take the risk, since one of the goals of his long journey was almost in his hands.

The fact that someone had started a rumour about the Emperor's sword, which he was going to display for the aristocracy gathered in the Reserved Forest, was disconcerting.

But his inner compass kept calling him beyond the high palace walls, and his headache became unbearable the closer he got.

So, having infiltrated the garrison of the reserve with the aid of a slight darkness, he was halfway to his goal when he surreptitiously left his post at the wall and moved in the direction suggested by his inner instinct alone, which led him to the premises of the Emperor's personal harem.

It was a place Cornflower did not want to go and get caught, for the penalty for such an offence for anyone other than the Emperor or a few eunuchs working here was death.

I don't need to tell you how shocked he was when he saw the man who had assumed the role of his commander for the day coming out of the backyard of one of the concubines.

Lurking behind one of the wide columns of the building opposite, Cornflower held his breath as he watched the drama unfold before his eyes, as the man was followed by a beautiful woman whose snow-white hair shimmered softly in the moonlight. She looked like an enchanting porcelain doll.

"Stay with me a little longer, just a little longer."

"You know I can't, I have to go back, otherwise when they notice I'm gone... I can't. Believe me, Leanna, I'll do anything to get you out of here before the truth comes out..."

"Don't worry, the Emperor knows."

"What?"

"Our Emperor, he's... He's a good man, and one day he came to see me, and I... I was so frightened that I told him the whole truth, right on the doorstep. Everything " how I was taken from you by force, and how I was made to look like your daughter to be sent as a gift, knowing that the Emperor would behead me if he knew I wasn't a virgin." The woman's voice was sing-song, but sometimes stumbled with emotion. "He promised not to touch me. And that he'd do everything he could to help us and... Our baby."

"Leanna?"

"Perival."

And the two of them locked in an embrace.

Shaking his head and suppressing the heartbreak that threatened to break out, he hurried forward, silently avoiding the kissing couple.

"Good thing no one can see them but me," Cornflower thought as he analysed the state of the energy flows in the area.

He dashed across the floor, trying not to be seen by the patrol, and jumped through a small, ajar window at ground level. If he hadn't been so puny, he would probably have gotten stuck in it.

Once in some sort of back room, he wandered the corridors, surprised that he felt no aura at all, though he learned that there must be a lot of servants here.

His internal compass stubbornly pointed down, so he had to run around the rooms, sneaking like a cat, until he found the spiral staircase leading down to the basement.

He went downstairs and found an open door, unguarded. The door led into a labyrinth of intricately woven branches. After wandering around for a while, as he had all along the way, he met no one.

After a moment's hesitation, he released the energy that had given him the sense of direction he needed and hurried to answer the call that was already making his head spin.

From a distance, he could see two figures sprawled on the ground by the open doorway, the source of the foul energy and the sounds of weapons. As he approached the door, he froze, or rather was blinded by the brightness of the sword.

"How can you fight in such brightness?" he thought as he noticed the weapon flying towards him in synchronisation, causing him to dodge as he made a decisive dash towards the blinding sword.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the blade was aimed at him from behind, but he was so close to his cherished target...

At the moment he reached for the hilt of the sword, it seemed as if someone had grabbed him by the hand where the sword was, and this obsession did not subside even after the succession of events that followed: When the rumble sounded, the thief's blade penetrated deep into his right shoulder, from the sharp pain his energy was completely released and immediately swirled to join the energy of the sword through the ceiling, he couldn't move his right hand anymore and the thief tried to take the weapon away from him, but the sword seemed to be attached to his hand. And then, as if someone had pushed him upwards, he broke out of the dungeon's confinement, unknowingly dragging the thief, who was hanging lifelessly on his arm, her eyes wide with surprise. It all happened so quickly that there was no time to fully comprehend.

Only as he soared into the vast night sky did Cornflower realise that he was being held aloft not by the external energy of the sword, but by his own, in the form of two glittering wings.

An alarm was sounded in the Imperial Palace and the horns blared incessantly. Torches began to blaze and arrows began to fly in their direction.

Seeing that the situation was going badly and that the sword could not be taken away, even though the man was trying to throw it away in a state of confusion, the girl took out her last remaining weapon - a thin needle filled with poison - and plunged it into the man's arm with all her strength, and having freed herself, fell down and disappeared as a shadow near the surface of the ground.

"Nothing, he will die soon, and through the remains of the poison I will find him and take the sword," the thief thought at that moment.

Cornflower was shaken to the core, and only a nudge from the bitch brought him back to his senses. Flapping his wings inefficiently, trying to remember everything he knew about flying such things, he dodged the arrows and beams of compressed energy shot in his direction, almost getting caught in an energy net made by the two warriors who had joined forces.

After breaking through the dome-shaped barrier with great force, he tried to fly as far away from the Imperial Palace and the capital as possible, until his strength left him and he fell into a rather turbulent river.

He felt himself drowning, but it felt like he wasn't doing it alone - the gleaming sword was wrapped around his arm with its energy threads, sitting stubbornly in his limp hand. Then, at the edge of his fading consciousness, he heard a splash and felt someone grab him by the collar like a cat by the scruff of the neck, trying to pull him out of the water.

"Thank you..." he tried to say, but all that came out of his mouth was a string of bubbles.