"You have chosen, and spilled the blood
Of innocence for power. I pity your folly,
But still more do I pity those whose lives you have taken
In pursuit of selfish goals.
No more will you bear the Light.
To darkness flee, and be gone from My sight!"
-Canticle of Silence 3:7
"I've found Lucius."
Leon blinked. The words took a while to sink in; perhaps it had something to do with the incessant pounding in the back of his head. The headache had been there for three days now, though he was given to understand that he still had it better than Vesryn. His brows furrowed—perhaps he should have been trying to summon the wherewithal for more complex inquiries, but at the moment, the only question that would come to him was the glaringly-obvious one.
"Where?"
Shifting her weight so that it was even over both feet, Ophelia crossed her arms over her chest. She still wore a heavy traveling cloak, covered in a fine layer of road-dust, dulling the olive-colored fabric even further, until it was a muted taupe. Likewise, her armor was still in place, save the helmet. That hung by two of her fingers, hooked into a gap in the visor. She studied him; Leon tried to erase any indication of the discomfort he was in, but he wasn't sure if he'd succeeded. Ophelia could be almost as difficult to read as Rilien, at times.
She made no immediate comment, however, perhaps in deference to the other presences in the room. He'd been in the middle of a strategy lesson with Khari and Captain Séverine when Reed had shuffled in and announced he had a visitor. Ophelia's eyes flicked to each of them once, then settled again on him. "Kasos."
Hardly a wonder he'd been so difficult to track down. It would have been impossible to close in on him by sightings—no civilians had any reason to go that far outside Cumberland. Still... it wasn't all that far. Straight across the Waking Sea from Jader. Grimacing, Leon reached down to his lowest desk drawer, sliding a key from his pocket and unlocking it, shifting aside the false bottom and withdrawing a slim file.
Moving away from the desk and towards one of the cork-bark slabs mounted on the wall, he opened the file and extracted what he was looking for—a rather small square map. The parchment was only perhaps a foot wide, and the layout of a keep depicted on it was more a sketch than anything a proper cartographer would have done. He had one like it of every major Seeker outpost, though the hidden ones like this were unlabeled, useless to anyone who did not know what they corresponded with. Leon pinned it to the board and stepped back.
"Any idea what he's doing there? It's a well-built fort, but it's certainly not the most defensible location he could have chosen." It was small, for one, its siege defenses minimal, and though its location would likely preclude direct attack... there were other options.
"At a guess? He was after something in the repository, though I've no idea what. Otherwise, Kasos's primary advantage is being small, out of the way, and unlikely to be checked. No one knows of it but us. Maybe some elves. They won't bother him, I'm sure." Ophelia pursed her lips. "As long as he doesn't know we're coming, he's probably counting on being hidden."
"We should act quickly on this, then," Séverine offered. "Before he gets wind that we're coming." She looked visibly more uncomfortable than usual, but then high ranking Seekers other than Leon typically had that effect on templars. There hadn't been any time to prepare for the visit, either. Séverine was out of her armor and in training gear at the moment, but news of Lucius obviously took precedence over training, tactical or physical. "A small group, perhaps?" She shrugged. "Whatever the plan is, I'd like to be there. Finish the job Cullen gave me."
Leon nodded slightly, frowning as he took a closer look at the map. The details of the location came back to him in flashes of memory—it had been quite a while ago that he'd visited Kasos, and they hadn't stayed long. Ophelia had wanted him to be at least somewhat familiar with every location the Seekers kept hidden from the rest of the world. Considering the state of things now, he was grateful for that foresight. "The exact location of the fortress is in the mountains east of Cumberland," he said, tapping a finger on the right spot where it appeared on his larger map of the continent. "Where they touch the Planasene Forest."
Several possible strategies came to mind, all with various groupings of people that would make for the best execution of the strategies. He discarded several right away, then turned to glance over at Khari. He supposed this was as good an exercise as any. Serious, yes, but that was all the more reason to ask her what she thought. "Khari, suppose that you were in charge of planning a strategy for this. The fortress is surrounded by mountains on two sides, walled on the other two. There is one gate on each wall, guarded at all times by no fewer than three people. Probably Red Templars or trained Seekers. The number of other combat-ready people in the fortress is unknown, but it probably can't hold more than a hundred." He stepped sideways, and gestured for her to approach.
"All the Inquisition's resources are available to you, and in any case, the four of us are going. What do you suggest?"
“Uh." For a moment, Khari was unable to mask her surprise. No doubt at being consulted on something this obviously important. But to her credit, she rallied quickly, approaching the maps and tilting her head back to get a better look at the small one, where the fortress itself was sketched out. “Well, like Sev said, our big advantage is probably that no one knows we're coming, and I'm guessing Lucius probably has people scouting on a pretty regular basis. It's what I'd do." She reached up to pull at the shell of one ear, humming under her breath and rocking back on her heels.
For a moment, she was silent, pensively so. “I probably wouldn't take that many people. Better chance of not running into those scouts and keeping it so he doesn't know we're around. But if there could be a hundred guys in there... I dunno. I think we'd want to stay sneaky even after we got there. So... sail to Cumberland, go in through the Vimmarks. How tall are the cliffs on the mountain-sides? Could we go in from above?" She paused, then backpedaled. “I mean, I'm assuming we want to know what he's doing first, but that we might also need to fight."
"One of the cliffs is short enough to climb down, I think." Ophelia seemed interested in the fact that he'd asked Khari what to do; by now she'd no doubt caught on to why. "Of course, if you needed to make a quick escape, going up is much slower."
Leon made a vague sound of agreement. "It might be the best way in, but it would almost certainly not be a good way out. Is there any way to mitigate that, or would it be better to try another method of getting inside?" He put that question to Séverine.
She stood as well and approached the sketch of the outpost's layout, squinting slightly. "If these were bandits or other untrained fighters I'd suggest a feigned frontal attack and then retreat. Just a distraction to split them up while others get inside. But I don't think anything like that would work against Red Templars or Seekers. Still..." She crossed an arm over her chest, bringing the other up to rest a finger on her lip momentarily.
"We have excellent scouts, and they've already proven their ability to operate and provide information without being detected by Red Templars. Perhaps there's a way inside from below, rather than from above." She gestured to the two sides of the outpost uncovered by mountains. "Only two walls makes a place defensible, but also easy to surround and besiege. If I were defending a place like that, I'd want a more subtle route that supplies could be brought through in emergencies."
"Sound," Leon replied, smiling at the both of them. "A small party overall is a very good idea, and some of those are going to be from our scout corps. We'll rely on them to get us more detailed information on the building and any potential modifications Lucius has made to it, and then enter from either above or below as the parameters allow. We will also keep them stationed nearby the gates, in the event that we're made and need to exit in a more direct fashion. That way, they'll be able to help cover our retreat with ranged fire."
He glanced once at Ophelia, who nodded slightly. "Now, as for the composition of this smaller group, what makes the most sense?" That one went back to Khari; Leon trusted she understood that the arch of his eyebrow was her cue to attempt it.
The elf crossed her arms, taking a step back from the maps. “Well, we need people who can adapt to whatever strategy turns out to be the best one at the time. That means Irregulars. No mages, since there are Reds and Seekers pretty much exclusively. We want someone strong, but quiet enough not to risk discovery any more than we already are. Not both Inquisitors, for the obvious reasons. Ves is in bad shape right now, so the obvious pick is Rom. And I think we run it with just the five of us. The difference between five and fifteen isn't gonna matter if it turns into a brawl, and five is easier to sneak places." She seemed relatively confident in that one, at least, perhaps because it wasn't exactly uncommon logic, for some of the Inquisition's smaller-scale operations.
"Agreed." Leon stepped away from the group, picking up a piece of blank parchment from his desk to draft the orders for the scouts. He'd also have to write Rilien a memorandum—much of this was bound to be of interest to him as well, and they'd need his agents in Cumberland to make preparations for their arrival, including horses. "I'll take care of asking him, but we need to act before this information is too old. We'll leave tomorrow morning. Pack lightly, please." He paused, in case there were additional questions.
"Looking forward to it, Leon," Séverine said, her tone matching her words. She turned to face their visitor, pressing her first to her chest. "High Seeker." With that she took her leave, nodding to Reed on her way out.
“What she said." Khari reached over to smack Leon's bicep in a friendly manner, then nodded to Ophelia too. “Should be an adventure." She followed Séverine, clearly eager to get to her own preparations.
"She's quite different, the elf," Ophelia noted as Reed closed the door behind himself, the last out save Leon and his teacher. Without bothering to ask, she crossed to a small cabinet next to his book shelf and opened it, taking down the dusty bottle of whiskey Verena had sent him more than a year ago now. Pouring herself a few fingers, she repeated the same for him, setting his on the end of his desk and pulling her cloak off by the clasp, tossing it over a seldom-used chair and taking one of the more comfortable ones in front of his desk. She hadn't worn the armor to travel, though no doubt she had it with her.
Leon sighed, taking his own chair and obligingly moving the glass closer to himself, though he felt no particular temptation to drink from it at this point. He kept a flask on his person, but that was because alcohol had many purposes, only one of which was to be consumed. "She is," he said with a short shrug.
Ophelia looked unimpressed with the answer. "You like her. You like both of them." She took a swallow of the amber liquid in her glass, narrowing her dark eyes at him over the lip of the glass. "Enough that you haven't explained things to them."
Leon grimaced. "Is this really the time for this discussion, Ophelia?"
She arched an eyebrow at him. "If it were up to you, Leon, it wouldn't be time until it was too late. I'm not saying you have to tell them; you do what you like. But don't pretend you're waiting for the right time to say it." She paused, taking another slow drink. "Which one are you training to replace you? I'd have thought the Templar, but now I'm not so sure."
This was why he hated talking to Ophelia. He'd never learned how to hide anything from her, and she knew his mind better than anyone ever had. Probably better than anyone ever would, sad as that thought was for reasons that had nothing to do with her. "Neither," he said, though he wasn't sure it was true. He'd thought about it, certainly—about who would command the army if he expired before the task was done. "Maybe. Captain Séverine has goals and interests that extend too far beyond the Inquisition itself. She'll be a good leader someday, but not of this. And Khari... I don't know." He struggled to find the words.
"She's... different."
Ophelia snorted, a small half-smile flashing across her face for a moment. "Fair enough."
Leon blinked. The words took a while to sink in; perhaps it had something to do with the incessant pounding in the back of his head. The headache had been there for three days now, though he was given to understand that he still had it better than Vesryn. His brows furrowed—perhaps he should have been trying to summon the wherewithal for more complex inquiries, but at the moment, the only question that would come to him was the glaringly-obvious one.
"Where?"
Shifting her weight so that it was even over both feet, Ophelia crossed her arms over her chest. She still wore a heavy traveling cloak, covered in a fine layer of road-dust, dulling the olive-colored fabric even further, until it was a muted taupe. Likewise, her armor was still in place, save the helmet. That hung by two of her fingers, hooked into a gap in the visor. She studied him; Leon tried to erase any indication of the discomfort he was in, but he wasn't sure if he'd succeeded. Ophelia could be almost as difficult to read as Rilien, at times.
She made no immediate comment, however, perhaps in deference to the other presences in the room. He'd been in the middle of a strategy lesson with Khari and Captain Séverine when Reed had shuffled in and announced he had a visitor. Ophelia's eyes flicked to each of them once, then settled again on him. "Kasos."
Hardly a wonder he'd been so difficult to track down. It would have been impossible to close in on him by sightings—no civilians had any reason to go that far outside Cumberland. Still... it wasn't all that far. Straight across the Waking Sea from Jader. Grimacing, Leon reached down to his lowest desk drawer, sliding a key from his pocket and unlocking it, shifting aside the false bottom and withdrawing a slim file.
Moving away from the desk and towards one of the cork-bark slabs mounted on the wall, he opened the file and extracted what he was looking for—a rather small square map. The parchment was only perhaps a foot wide, and the layout of a keep depicted on it was more a sketch than anything a proper cartographer would have done. He had one like it of every major Seeker outpost, though the hidden ones like this were unlabeled, useless to anyone who did not know what they corresponded with. Leon pinned it to the board and stepped back.
"Any idea what he's doing there? It's a well-built fort, but it's certainly not the most defensible location he could have chosen." It was small, for one, its siege defenses minimal, and though its location would likely preclude direct attack... there were other options.
"At a guess? He was after something in the repository, though I've no idea what. Otherwise, Kasos's primary advantage is being small, out of the way, and unlikely to be checked. No one knows of it but us. Maybe some elves. They won't bother him, I'm sure." Ophelia pursed her lips. "As long as he doesn't know we're coming, he's probably counting on being hidden."
"We should act quickly on this, then," Séverine offered. "Before he gets wind that we're coming." She looked visibly more uncomfortable than usual, but then high ranking Seekers other than Leon typically had that effect on templars. There hadn't been any time to prepare for the visit, either. Séverine was out of her armor and in training gear at the moment, but news of Lucius obviously took precedence over training, tactical or physical. "A small group, perhaps?" She shrugged. "Whatever the plan is, I'd like to be there. Finish the job Cullen gave me."
Leon nodded slightly, frowning as he took a closer look at the map. The details of the location came back to him in flashes of memory—it had been quite a while ago that he'd visited Kasos, and they hadn't stayed long. Ophelia had wanted him to be at least somewhat familiar with every location the Seekers kept hidden from the rest of the world. Considering the state of things now, he was grateful for that foresight. "The exact location of the fortress is in the mountains east of Cumberland," he said, tapping a finger on the right spot where it appeared on his larger map of the continent. "Where they touch the Planasene Forest."
Several possible strategies came to mind, all with various groupings of people that would make for the best execution of the strategies. He discarded several right away, then turned to glance over at Khari. He supposed this was as good an exercise as any. Serious, yes, but that was all the more reason to ask her what she thought. "Khari, suppose that you were in charge of planning a strategy for this. The fortress is surrounded by mountains on two sides, walled on the other two. There is one gate on each wall, guarded at all times by no fewer than three people. Probably Red Templars or trained Seekers. The number of other combat-ready people in the fortress is unknown, but it probably can't hold more than a hundred." He stepped sideways, and gestured for her to approach.
"All the Inquisition's resources are available to you, and in any case, the four of us are going. What do you suggest?"
“Uh." For a moment, Khari was unable to mask her surprise. No doubt at being consulted on something this obviously important. But to her credit, she rallied quickly, approaching the maps and tilting her head back to get a better look at the small one, where the fortress itself was sketched out. “Well, like Sev said, our big advantage is probably that no one knows we're coming, and I'm guessing Lucius probably has people scouting on a pretty regular basis. It's what I'd do." She reached up to pull at the shell of one ear, humming under her breath and rocking back on her heels.
For a moment, she was silent, pensively so. “I probably wouldn't take that many people. Better chance of not running into those scouts and keeping it so he doesn't know we're around. But if there could be a hundred guys in there... I dunno. I think we'd want to stay sneaky even after we got there. So... sail to Cumberland, go in through the Vimmarks. How tall are the cliffs on the mountain-sides? Could we go in from above?" She paused, then backpedaled. “I mean, I'm assuming we want to know what he's doing first, but that we might also need to fight."
"One of the cliffs is short enough to climb down, I think." Ophelia seemed interested in the fact that he'd asked Khari what to do; by now she'd no doubt caught on to why. "Of course, if you needed to make a quick escape, going up is much slower."
Leon made a vague sound of agreement. "It might be the best way in, but it would almost certainly not be a good way out. Is there any way to mitigate that, or would it be better to try another method of getting inside?" He put that question to Séverine.
She stood as well and approached the sketch of the outpost's layout, squinting slightly. "If these were bandits or other untrained fighters I'd suggest a feigned frontal attack and then retreat. Just a distraction to split them up while others get inside. But I don't think anything like that would work against Red Templars or Seekers. Still..." She crossed an arm over her chest, bringing the other up to rest a finger on her lip momentarily.
"We have excellent scouts, and they've already proven their ability to operate and provide information without being detected by Red Templars. Perhaps there's a way inside from below, rather than from above." She gestured to the two sides of the outpost uncovered by mountains. "Only two walls makes a place defensible, but also easy to surround and besiege. If I were defending a place like that, I'd want a more subtle route that supplies could be brought through in emergencies."
"Sound," Leon replied, smiling at the both of them. "A small party overall is a very good idea, and some of those are going to be from our scout corps. We'll rely on them to get us more detailed information on the building and any potential modifications Lucius has made to it, and then enter from either above or below as the parameters allow. We will also keep them stationed nearby the gates, in the event that we're made and need to exit in a more direct fashion. That way, they'll be able to help cover our retreat with ranged fire."
He glanced once at Ophelia, who nodded slightly. "Now, as for the composition of this smaller group, what makes the most sense?" That one went back to Khari; Leon trusted she understood that the arch of his eyebrow was her cue to attempt it.
The elf crossed her arms, taking a step back from the maps. “Well, we need people who can adapt to whatever strategy turns out to be the best one at the time. That means Irregulars. No mages, since there are Reds and Seekers pretty much exclusively. We want someone strong, but quiet enough not to risk discovery any more than we already are. Not both Inquisitors, for the obvious reasons. Ves is in bad shape right now, so the obvious pick is Rom. And I think we run it with just the five of us. The difference between five and fifteen isn't gonna matter if it turns into a brawl, and five is easier to sneak places." She seemed relatively confident in that one, at least, perhaps because it wasn't exactly uncommon logic, for some of the Inquisition's smaller-scale operations.
"Agreed." Leon stepped away from the group, picking up a piece of blank parchment from his desk to draft the orders for the scouts. He'd also have to write Rilien a memorandum—much of this was bound to be of interest to him as well, and they'd need his agents in Cumberland to make preparations for their arrival, including horses. "I'll take care of asking him, but we need to act before this information is too old. We'll leave tomorrow morning. Pack lightly, please." He paused, in case there were additional questions.
"Looking forward to it, Leon," Séverine said, her tone matching her words. She turned to face their visitor, pressing her first to her chest. "High Seeker." With that she took her leave, nodding to Reed on her way out.
“What she said." Khari reached over to smack Leon's bicep in a friendly manner, then nodded to Ophelia too. “Should be an adventure." She followed Séverine, clearly eager to get to her own preparations.
"She's quite different, the elf," Ophelia noted as Reed closed the door behind himself, the last out save Leon and his teacher. Without bothering to ask, she crossed to a small cabinet next to his book shelf and opened it, taking down the dusty bottle of whiskey Verena had sent him more than a year ago now. Pouring herself a few fingers, she repeated the same for him, setting his on the end of his desk and pulling her cloak off by the clasp, tossing it over a seldom-used chair and taking one of the more comfortable ones in front of his desk. She hadn't worn the armor to travel, though no doubt she had it with her.
Leon sighed, taking his own chair and obligingly moving the glass closer to himself, though he felt no particular temptation to drink from it at this point. He kept a flask on his person, but that was because alcohol had many purposes, only one of which was to be consumed. "She is," he said with a short shrug.
Ophelia looked unimpressed with the answer. "You like her. You like both of them." She took a swallow of the amber liquid in her glass, narrowing her dark eyes at him over the lip of the glass. "Enough that you haven't explained things to them."
Leon grimaced. "Is this really the time for this discussion, Ophelia?"
She arched an eyebrow at him. "If it were up to you, Leon, it wouldn't be time until it was too late. I'm not saying you have to tell them; you do what you like. But don't pretend you're waiting for the right time to say it." She paused, taking another slow drink. "Which one are you training to replace you? I'd have thought the Templar, but now I'm not so sure."
This was why he hated talking to Ophelia. He'd never learned how to hide anything from her, and she knew his mind better than anyone ever had. Probably better than anyone ever would, sad as that thought was for reasons that had nothing to do with her. "Neither," he said, though he wasn't sure it was true. He'd thought about it, certainly—about who would command the army if he expired before the task was done. "Maybe. Captain Séverine has goals and interests that extend too far beyond the Inquisition itself. She'll be a good leader someday, but not of this. And Khari... I don't know." He struggled to find the words.
"She's... different."
Ophelia snorted, a small half-smile flashing across her face for a moment. "Fair enough."