Chapter 39

Hiding under a scant amount of cover from a nearby tree, Wen attempted to strategize. There was clearly a lot of ground to cover, and they only had so much nighttime. Once the sun rose it would get significantly harder to do this without being noticed. 

To Wen's surprise, it was Caid who pointed out the obvious. "We need to split up," he said, clearly not enjoying the idea.

"No no no no," Shan said quickly, "you aren't leaving me in a creepy assassin hideout, which I thought would look more like a cave but is apparently a huge castle."

"It's not a castle," Caid instantly disagreed, "it's more like a…"

"Manor," Wen supplied, before standing up, "and we don't really have a choice." 

"No no no no no–" Shan started again, but Wen interrupted.

"There are a lot of buildings, but we have to assume he's being kept in the main one," Wen rationalized. It was, after all, where he would keep his own prisoners in a similar situation. Harder to escape from and closer to watch. "We get inside, then split up. We'll pick a nearby rendezvous point. We need to do this quickly, an hour at most before we meet up again. Go fast."

Shan continued his objections, but Wen trudged forward. Keeping to the cover of the trees, he made his way towards the largest building.

It wasn't a long walk, but he was being cautious. He still hadn't seen anyone walking around, but there were obviously people somewhere here. The buildings were lit within, and everything from the gardens to the exterior of the buildings were in meticulous shape. People lived here, and given by the size of the buildings, quite a few. The fact that they hadn't run across any of them felt less lucky than unsettling. 

As he advanced, Wen attempted to make a mental map of the area. Granted, maps or directions were not his strong suit, but it would have been difficult even if they were. The foliage combined with massive rocks and stone sculptures hid possible routes from view. 

The only reason they were able to easily get to the main building was simply because of its size. Even from far away, it was easy to see. It was massive, several stories high with a sprawling staircase leading to the main door. Framed by stone statues in the shape of enormous snakes, it felt overly luxurious for its location. The gold lining the stair railing didn't help. 

It was ornately decorated, like the rest of the buildings, it held an air of wealth and pretension. Wen was already tired of it.

Going off of the windows, there were at least 6 stories, and almost certainly more underground. 

"Prisoners would probably be held the furthest away from the main entrance," Caid mused, and Wen nodded.

Getting inside would be difficult, as going in through the main entrance would be a bad idea. The roof seemed to be their best bet, or at least a window several stories up where any sort of security would probably be lesser. Which of course, meant more climbing. 

Wen continued walking around the building, growing more and more impatient as it took quite a while to get all the way to the back. The far left of the building was backed up by a massive stone jutting out of the cavern's edge, which Wen figured could be used to climb at least halfway up the height of the building without being seen. From there, it would just take a jump onto one of the massive window ledges and then prying the window open before the manor could be infiltrated. 

Of course, the real difficulty was going to be what they would do once inside. 

It took a few moments, but Wen quickly devised a vague plan, "I'll start at the bottom and work up, you two start at the top and work down. We'll meet in the middle. If you find him, get out immediately. We'll meet back here," Wen nodded towards the side of the building, where a few meters from the main building a giant tree leaned against a rock's edge, forming a small cave, "that's our rendezvous point." Wen paused for a moment, before adding, "If you find him and an hour has already passed and I'm not here, get him out of here. I'll catch up later."

"Well, what if we don't find him, hm?" Shan asked, more cranky than usual given how every single one of his objections had been firmly ignored. 

Wen glared and began to make an angry remark when Caid cut him off. "It's a fair question, boss," he said, softly.

Wen snapped his mouth shut and thought. He forced his voice not to shake as he said, "We meet back here in an hour. And then we'll keep looking."