CREDIT
She turned back into the small room, thinking through her options. Sintra and her group of operatives, known as Webspinners, was after Val and had already sent two assassins after her. She escaped from Etzos and tracked down Drivia, a Sintra operative undercover in the Military Intelligence office here in Bolstrum. Drivia now lay on the floor, unconscious, and Val held a stack of correspondences between the operatives. There was a scheduled meeting in just over 36 breaks that
Val needed to infiltrate and the rough edges of a plan were beginning to form in her mind. It was risky, but if she didnt do anything, Sintra would win, and she couldn't let that happen.
Val returned to the street, an idea growing in her mind, and headed for the nearest frippers. As shed hoped, there was only one man guarding the hand-rolled wagons, and he seemed half asleep in the warm, sunlight-filled courtyard.
Val walked up, keeping a smile on her face, and waved to him. He frowned and blinked slightly, unsure why this avriel was waving to him. As Val got closer, she pulled a small needle from her pocket and stuck it into a vial on her belt. A quick and dirty knockout drug, it would put the target out, but only for a few breaks, and give them a hell of a hangover.
He stood, and his hand dropped to the crude club at his belt. "Hold the-," he managed to get out before Val threw herself forward and jabbed the drug-soaked needle into his shoulder. She felt it grind against bone and he let out a small cry as he fell. She covered his mouth with her hand as they tumbled together, but he clamped his teeth around her fingers, biting down hard. She yelped and pulled her hand free, taking her half-talons across his face in an unconscious reaction. He grunted again and his eyes crossed and shuddered closed.
Bright red claw marks across his face would leave nasty scars, but it couldn't be helped. Val shuffled his unconscious body against the wall and leaned it up in a rough estimation of what he had looked like prior to her arrival.
A cart liberated, Val hauled it back to Drivia's house and loaded the unconscious woman and half her wardrobe into the bed of the wagon. Satisfied that no one could see the woman, and that her deception would be passable, Val changed the colour of her cloak, and switched forms into that of the old woman. Hunched over and pulling the cart, Alex made her way through town to the rented warehouse.
When she arrived, she quickly pulled the cart inside and shut the door, sealing them away. Switching back to Val, she dragged the woman's body into the office, and tied her down to the chair.
She organized her gear, settled down on the edge of the table, and began to study the woman's face. Her eyebrows were meticulously plucked and arched elegantly over her closed lids. Val glanced in the mirror at her own thin brows. She shifted her form slowly, letting her body hang in that formless middle ground. She had to focus to stay here; letting her thoughts stray from this point could violently throw her into a random form and had knocked her unconscious before. It was like holding a boulder on the peak of a pyramid- she had to hold it in perfect balance, a difficult mental exercise.
She crafted the general shape of Drivia's face, aiming to capture the arc of her chin and the curve of her cheek. She worked her way inward, filling in the full lips, relaxed in her unconscious state, the nose, and the eyes. Drivia relaxed, releasing her tight mental reigns, leaning back on the table and examined the mirror. It wasnt quite right, but not bad at all for a first try. The eyes were slanted wrong, and the iris was formless and blotchy, likely due to being unable to see unconscious Drivia's eyes. The chin was good, but her lips were over full and slightly pinched at the corners.
Drivia sighed, and changed back to Val, readying herself to try again. This time the effect was far better. Focusing on the curve of Drivia's mouth helped her ingrain the feeling into her mind. Likewise, the eyes were right, but she had let characteristics of Alex's mouth creep through. Drivia sighed, reverted back to Val, and began to try again.
A full break passed this way before a headache began to form behind Val's eyes. She leaned forward, elbows on knees, and rubbed at her temples. Drivia would awaken in the next break by Val's best guess, though predicting individual responses to knockout drugs was tricky. She glanced at a mechanical hourglass in the corner, and saw that she still had twenty breaks till the meeting. Plenty of time.
She made herself a cup of Brainberry tea and drank it down. She had a half dozen more cups of it ready to be brewed, but hoped she wouldnt need them. She could remove most of the nasty side effects of overindulgence, but lack of sleep was going to hit her hard no matter what.
Ready to move on, Val slipped a thick cloth glove on her hand, picked up a clean rag, and poured onto it a vial containing only a tiny amount of brown liquid. The smell of nutmeg filled the room, and Val wrinkled her nose as she carefully dabbed the wet cloth across Drivia's neck. It was a concoction of several compounds, including a derivative of nutmeg, which cleanly sliced away an individual's societal and moral inhibitions, while leaving the rest of their mental faculties intact. It was a tricky bit of work to make, but Val was confident in her abilities. If made incorrectly, it would likely poison Drivia, and cause her bones to weaken over the next arc, ultimately killing her as her muscles tore themselves free. Val carefully dropped the glove, rag, and glass vial into the fireplace without letting any of the liquid touch her skin. The effect was, unfortunately, permanent, and she had no desire to test if it was effective against Yludih.
A groan came from Val's left, and Drivia woke, her eyes flying open as she felt the bonds holding her to the chair. She said nothing, her eyes memorizing Val's face and then darting around the room, gauging her situation. They lingered on the tools and vials placed in neat rows on the desk beside Val, though Drivia's thoughts were a mystery to her. She met and held Val's gaze.
"What do you want?" She finally said after nearly a bit of silence.
Val watched the way her lips moved, and her brows pinched together and smoothed. She adapted quickly, that was for sure. She expected nothing less from a double agent like Drivia.
"You know who I am and who I work for. Tell me everything and I might let you live," Val said, her voice deep. It was a lie, and not a very convincing one, but depending who she thought Val was sent from could reveal plenty of information. It was a long shot, but if it meant Drivia gave up any info, itd be well worth the bluff.
Unfortunately, Drivia saw right through it. "I dont think I know what you're talking about. I work for the Military Intelligence office here in town, and my disappearance will be noted, I promise you."
Val memorized the haughty tilt of her chin as she spoke, and admired the woman's confidence and self control, even awakening in such a state. Closer to the truth, then, she thought.
"I work for the Military Police, and you, Ms. Trueman, are in quite a bit of trouble."
Drivia's eyes flashed and dangerous smile came across her face. "Ah, that's where I know you from. You're the delivery girl, arent you? I never forget a face. Well I promise you that whatever scheme you lot in MP have cooked up wont work. You bastards got Kelvid on a technicality, and I'll be damned if I tell you anything".
Val frowned slightly, surprised that the woman recognized her. She hadn't spoken a dozen words to her, and had been wearing a hood and an Etzori uniform. Aelig's face, but that made things difficult. The woman had a bit of fire in her voice when she spoke about the Military Police, potentially a sign that her inhibitions were coming down. One good push then."I merely needed to confirm who you were, and that you were the leak into Sintra's operatives. How long have you been betraying our country, Sister?" Val asked, making her eyes hard and pretending to feel betrayed. A little twist of her lips on the last word, reminding Drivia of her oath, should help weaken her mental state.
Drivia jerked upright and nearly snarled as she spat, "I did this for Etzos! How long do you think it wouldve been before Lisirra waged war against us? How many countless lives have been lost in this pointless struggle. With Sintra on our side we could've crushed Lisirra once and for all, and save countless generations of Etzori soldiers from dying a pointless, painful death." The tirade seemed to take some of the wind from her sails and she collapsed backwards, seeming hollow all of a sudden.
"How could I have known she'd move so slowly against Lisirra, or that Lisirra would move in with such strength. It was never supposed to kill so many." Her voice trailed off, lost in thought. The drug was working and Val was surprised by the remorse in Drivia's voice. She let the silence stretch as she considered her next move. It was time for the harder part.
"There is only one part left. Where is the meeting tonight? What passcode or confirmation phrases do we need to enter?"
The next break provided Val with all the information she'd need. Without inhibitions, and with Drivia's inherent guilt playing on her side, she got the location and passcode phrases, along with several bits of ranting about Lisirra and her plagues. Val gathered that a previous battle had claimed Drivia's lover, and the woman had never forgiven Lisirra. The problem came when Val began to copy Drivia's face and emotions.
The woman had clammed up, her disgust and disdain for what Val was quickly apparent. It was then that Val had been forced to start using torture. That had mixed results, as she only really learned and memorized 'pain', and the woman refused to show any other emotion despite Val's best efforts. To be fair, Val realized, showing joy or happiness while under a knife would be equally concerning.
As Val switched into Drivia, she began to practice her emotions in the mirror, her voice and inflections, and all the little signs that might otherwise give her away as an imposter. But she didnt have enough time, and she knew it. Drivia needed a full season to let the intricacies sink into her body, the inflections become second nature.
The original Drivia stared in horror, her mouth slightly ajar. The woman seemed completely disoriented by the transition.
Drivia thought as she experimented and quickly realized that she'd need the original Drivia alive. How better to show proof than to parade Drivia in front of the Etzori. She rose, unsteady and awkward as a newborn calf, and fed the original Drivina several bites of food, and half a waterskin. She resisted at first, but as Drivia rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation, the original reluctantly opened her mouth and swallowed.
She then examined the clothing she had stolen from Drivia's secret wardrobe, and found the robes. With her taller height they fit perfectly, and she quickly dressed, running over the various passcodes and responses needed to enter their secret meeting. When at long last she was satisfied with everything, she cleaned up her supplies, double checked the manacles and ropes restraining Drivia, and left the warehouse. After this she'd be able to return home and exact her revenge against Sintra. She couldn't wait.
Date: Arc 719, 25 trial of Saun
Time: 1st Break
Location:Bolstrum, Drivia's House
Val sighed and glanced outside. The bright sun overhead meant there would be no sneaking across town. Shed have to come up with something else. Time: 1st Break
Location:Bolstrum, Drivia's House
She turned back into the small room, thinking through her options. Sintra and her group of operatives, known as Webspinners, was after Val and had already sent two assassins after her. She escaped from Etzos and tracked down Drivia, a Sintra operative undercover in the Military Intelligence office here in Bolstrum. Drivia now lay on the floor, unconscious, and Val held a stack of correspondences between the operatives. There was a scheduled meeting in just over 36 breaks that
Val needed to infiltrate and the rough edges of a plan were beginning to form in her mind. It was risky, but if she didnt do anything, Sintra would win, and she couldn't let that happen.
Val returned to the street, an idea growing in her mind, and headed for the nearest frippers. As shed hoped, there was only one man guarding the hand-rolled wagons, and he seemed half asleep in the warm, sunlight-filled courtyard.
Val walked up, keeping a smile on her face, and waved to him. He frowned and blinked slightly, unsure why this avriel was waving to him. As Val got closer, she pulled a small needle from her pocket and stuck it into a vial on her belt. A quick and dirty knockout drug, it would put the target out, but only for a few breaks, and give them a hell of a hangover.
He stood, and his hand dropped to the crude club at his belt. "Hold the-," he managed to get out before Val threw herself forward and jabbed the drug-soaked needle into his shoulder. She felt it grind against bone and he let out a small cry as he fell. She covered his mouth with her hand as they tumbled together, but he clamped his teeth around her fingers, biting down hard. She yelped and pulled her hand free, taking her half-talons across his face in an unconscious reaction. He grunted again and his eyes crossed and shuddered closed.
Bright red claw marks across his face would leave nasty scars, but it couldn't be helped. Val shuffled his unconscious body against the wall and leaned it up in a rough estimation of what he had looked like prior to her arrival.
A cart liberated, Val hauled it back to Drivia's house and loaded the unconscious woman and half her wardrobe into the bed of the wagon. Satisfied that no one could see the woman, and that her deception would be passable, Val changed the colour of her cloak, and switched forms into that of the old woman. Hunched over and pulling the cart, Alex made her way through town to the rented warehouse.
When she arrived, she quickly pulled the cart inside and shut the door, sealing them away. Switching back to Val, she dragged the woman's body into the office, and tied her down to the chair.
She organized her gear, settled down on the edge of the table, and began to study the woman's face. Her eyebrows were meticulously plucked and arched elegantly over her closed lids. Val glanced in the mirror at her own thin brows. She shifted her form slowly, letting her body hang in that formless middle ground. She had to focus to stay here; letting her thoughts stray from this point could violently throw her into a random form and had knocked her unconscious before. It was like holding a boulder on the peak of a pyramid- she had to hold it in perfect balance, a difficult mental exercise.
She crafted the general shape of Drivia's face, aiming to capture the arc of her chin and the curve of her cheek. She worked her way inward, filling in the full lips, relaxed in her unconscious state, the nose, and the eyes. Drivia relaxed, releasing her tight mental reigns, leaning back on the table and examined the mirror. It wasnt quite right, but not bad at all for a first try. The eyes were slanted wrong, and the iris was formless and blotchy, likely due to being unable to see unconscious Drivia's eyes. The chin was good, but her lips were over full and slightly pinched at the corners.
Drivia sighed, and changed back to Val, readying herself to try again. This time the effect was far better. Focusing on the curve of Drivia's mouth helped her ingrain the feeling into her mind. Likewise, the eyes were right, but she had let characteristics of Alex's mouth creep through. Drivia sighed, reverted back to Val, and began to try again.
A full break passed this way before a headache began to form behind Val's eyes. She leaned forward, elbows on knees, and rubbed at her temples. Drivia would awaken in the next break by Val's best guess, though predicting individual responses to knockout drugs was tricky. She glanced at a mechanical hourglass in the corner, and saw that she still had twenty breaks till the meeting. Plenty of time.
She made herself a cup of Brainberry tea and drank it down. She had a half dozen more cups of it ready to be brewed, but hoped she wouldnt need them. She could remove most of the nasty side effects of overindulgence, but lack of sleep was going to hit her hard no matter what.
Ready to move on, Val slipped a thick cloth glove on her hand, picked up a clean rag, and poured onto it a vial containing only a tiny amount of brown liquid. The smell of nutmeg filled the room, and Val wrinkled her nose as she carefully dabbed the wet cloth across Drivia's neck. It was a concoction of several compounds, including a derivative of nutmeg, which cleanly sliced away an individual's societal and moral inhibitions, while leaving the rest of their mental faculties intact. It was a tricky bit of work to make, but Val was confident in her abilities. If made incorrectly, it would likely poison Drivia, and cause her bones to weaken over the next arc, ultimately killing her as her muscles tore themselves free. Val carefully dropped the glove, rag, and glass vial into the fireplace without letting any of the liquid touch her skin. The effect was, unfortunately, permanent, and she had no desire to test if it was effective against Yludih.
A groan came from Val's left, and Drivia woke, her eyes flying open as she felt the bonds holding her to the chair. She said nothing, her eyes memorizing Val's face and then darting around the room, gauging her situation. They lingered on the tools and vials placed in neat rows on the desk beside Val, though Drivia's thoughts were a mystery to her. She met and held Val's gaze.
"What do you want?" She finally said after nearly a bit of silence.
Val watched the way her lips moved, and her brows pinched together and smoothed. She adapted quickly, that was for sure. She expected nothing less from a double agent like Drivia.
"You know who I am and who I work for. Tell me everything and I might let you live," Val said, her voice deep. It was a lie, and not a very convincing one, but depending who she thought Val was sent from could reveal plenty of information. It was a long shot, but if it meant Drivia gave up any info, itd be well worth the bluff.
Unfortunately, Drivia saw right through it. "I dont think I know what you're talking about. I work for the Military Intelligence office here in town, and my disappearance will be noted, I promise you."
Val memorized the haughty tilt of her chin as she spoke, and admired the woman's confidence and self control, even awakening in such a state. Closer to the truth, then, she thought.
"I work for the Military Police, and you, Ms. Trueman, are in quite a bit of trouble."
Drivia's eyes flashed and dangerous smile came across her face. "Ah, that's where I know you from. You're the delivery girl, arent you? I never forget a face. Well I promise you that whatever scheme you lot in MP have cooked up wont work. You bastards got Kelvid on a technicality, and I'll be damned if I tell you anything".
Val frowned slightly, surprised that the woman recognized her. She hadn't spoken a dozen words to her, and had been wearing a hood and an Etzori uniform. Aelig's face, but that made things difficult. The woman had a bit of fire in her voice when she spoke about the Military Police, potentially a sign that her inhibitions were coming down. One good push then."I merely needed to confirm who you were, and that you were the leak into Sintra's operatives. How long have you been betraying our country, Sister?" Val asked, making her eyes hard and pretending to feel betrayed. A little twist of her lips on the last word, reminding Drivia of her oath, should help weaken her mental state.
Drivia jerked upright and nearly snarled as she spat, "I did this for Etzos! How long do you think it wouldve been before Lisirra waged war against us? How many countless lives have been lost in this pointless struggle. With Sintra on our side we could've crushed Lisirra once and for all, and save countless generations of Etzori soldiers from dying a pointless, painful death." The tirade seemed to take some of the wind from her sails and she collapsed backwards, seeming hollow all of a sudden.
"How could I have known she'd move so slowly against Lisirra, or that Lisirra would move in with such strength. It was never supposed to kill so many." Her voice trailed off, lost in thought. The drug was working and Val was surprised by the remorse in Drivia's voice. She let the silence stretch as she considered her next move. It was time for the harder part.
"There is only one part left. Where is the meeting tonight? What passcode or confirmation phrases do we need to enter?"
The next break provided Val with all the information she'd need. Without inhibitions, and with Drivia's inherent guilt playing on her side, she got the location and passcode phrases, along with several bits of ranting about Lisirra and her plagues. Val gathered that a previous battle had claimed Drivia's lover, and the woman had never forgiven Lisirra. The problem came when Val began to copy Drivia's face and emotions.
The woman had clammed up, her disgust and disdain for what Val was quickly apparent. It was then that Val had been forced to start using torture. That had mixed results, as she only really learned and memorized 'pain', and the woman refused to show any other emotion despite Val's best efforts. To be fair, Val realized, showing joy or happiness while under a knife would be equally concerning.
As Val switched into Drivia, she began to practice her emotions in the mirror, her voice and inflections, and all the little signs that might otherwise give her away as an imposter. But she didnt have enough time, and she knew it. Drivia needed a full season to let the intricacies sink into her body, the inflections become second nature.
The original Drivia stared in horror, her mouth slightly ajar. The woman seemed completely disoriented by the transition.
Drivia thought as she experimented and quickly realized that she'd need the original Drivia alive. How better to show proof than to parade Drivia in front of the Etzori. She rose, unsteady and awkward as a newborn calf, and fed the original Drivina several bites of food, and half a waterskin. She resisted at first, but as Drivia rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation, the original reluctantly opened her mouth and swallowed.
She then examined the clothing she had stolen from Drivia's secret wardrobe, and found the robes. With her taller height they fit perfectly, and she quickly dressed, running over the various passcodes and responses needed to enter their secret meeting. When at long last she was satisfied with everything, she cleaned up her supplies, double checked the manacles and ropes restraining Drivia, and left the warehouse. After this she'd be able to return home and exact her revenge against Sintra. She couldn't wait.
