As she turned to walk away I had Lydia read my notifications. I noted some skill gains and a level up to twelve gaining a choice between two abilities:
“Choose between these two abilities!
Essence of Health
Use your health to supplement your Essence! At the expense of a two to one ratio you may expend your health to maintain your dwindling Essence to keep fighting.
Health of Essence
Use your Essence to supplement your health! At the expense of a two to one ratio you may expend your stamina to maintain your dwindling health to keep fighting.”
I only considered the two options for a moment before choosing Essence of Health. A lack of Essence had been a challenge so far, even with the increased efficiency of my pool due to a climbing Vitality. I glanced at the Mist Valerie ahead of me marching down the stairs and Analyzed her, prompting Lydia to describe the strange creature:
“Mistchild Swordmaster
Level 12
Weakness: Fire
HP: 450 hp
MP: Unknown
Special Ability
Blade of Swirling Mists: The Mistchild Swordmaster fades into a cloud of mist as it moves around the target attacking from every angle.”
Small victory that it was not as powerful as Valerie but I had only just managed to match its level. It would be a challenge in single combat, much less surrounded by an entire contingent of Mistchild guards. I followed after with no complaints, still receiving a violent blow to my side for good measure. My health only dipped a small amount and I shrugged it off.
They dragged me past the door where I had left the real Valerie, my picks still hanging from the lock and the mist pooling around the base. They pushed me along through two halls before my captors wrenched open a door to a room that Valerie and I had not searched.
It was much like the others but with a simple cot, a wardrobe, and a prominent desk facing the door. The mist was so high in this room that it pooled near the top edge of the desk, occasionally pooling over it and sliding over the top. Mistchild Valerie stood behind the chair of the desk regarding me with her arms crossed.
One of the guards cuffed me on the head, causing my HUD view to wrench downward, and offered a snide, “Apologies,” before binding me to a chair in front of the desk. After a moment I noted that the ‘bindings’ either were never present or had faded after the Mistchild creature had released them.
There seemed to be a dissociation these monsters suffered when attempting to create objects out of mist that left their direct contact. For safety’s sake I left my hands where they were.
Mistchild Valerie removed her helm to free her thick dark hair and set the heavy metal object on the desk, where it too dispersed into mist without her registering it.
When the door behind me closed she regarded me for a long tense moment. I chose to speak up first, “So, when did you arrive, Lady Lafontaine?”
One of her eyebrows shot up and her mouth opened slightly. Her golden eyes briefly turned to mist once again, swirling quickly before resolving back to their brilliant hue as she answered, “How do you know my name? What do you know of the creature that haunts this fortress?”
Glancing around me at the mist I shrugged as I told the varnished truth, “It has the power to put a target to sleep and then mimic it. It can mimic a large number of targets that it has either put to sleep or consumed. It feeds by sowing confusion among others and causing them to attack each other. I think that it needs a target to be dead before it can consume it. When it does consume a victim, it leaves little but their armor and weapons behind.”
She tapped her heavy metal-encased fingers on the desk and regarded me with suspicion as she said, “You know a surprising amount about it. Did you have something to do with its attack on this border fort?”
Rolling my shoulders, I shook my head, “I’m pretty sure this creature serves no master. I was sent here by a noble house in Lothin to deliver a message to another house in Braithe.”
“What house?”
Eyeing her with interest I said, “Cardienne?”
She tapped her fingers a few more times and then grumbled with confusion on her face, “I’ve not… I’ve not heard of that house.”
As I regarded the confused creature I sat forward toward the desk, scooting to the edge of my chair as if I were still bound and said in a conspiratorial tone, “You mentioned I seem to know a lot about this creature.”
“You do.”
“I can help you kill it before your people are killed one by one.”
Her expression hardened as she stared into my eyes, “You want me to trust a spy who dispatched one of our guards? By your very own estimation you could be a part of this creature trying to confuse us and throw us into disarray.”
“By that logic, so could you,” I said with a shrug of my shoulders and a sad smile.
She chuckled and shook her head as she returned my smile, “So great expert, how would you even begin to hunt them?”
Considering all of the video game logic and real world knowledge I could I finally shrugged and said, “This creature has to eat, so it has a body to maintain. It has a body to attack. These shapechanged creatures are just vestigial body parts,” I paused to consider the analogy and said, “like its hands or feet.”
Studying her serious expression, I glanced around at the mist that was eddying through the chamber. She seemed intent on what I was saying and oblivious of the surrounding vapor. A dawning fury that I had found the true nature of herself and the Mist guards did not come. Was it possible that it really only was capable of mimicing the ways it had seen others speak and act? Was there no real intelligence here?
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Now that it no longer sensed a target to consume, had it gone back to fidgeting with its vestigial parts, waiting for another oblivious target to stumble into its misty web?
I spoke up, resolving two options from my previous ‘experience’ with situations like this, “Is there somewhere in the fortress that the guards no longer go? Where is the Guard Captain?”
She studied me for a worrying amount of time before saying, “There is nowhere off-limits but,” she trailed off into thought before finally saying, “the Guard Captain is in the west tower.”
Her expression grew distant and mist swirled behind her eyes before they once again took on their previous luster as she said, “He has been in seclusion considering the attacks of the beast. I was given command until he returns.”
“When was that?”
Her eyes snapped to me and she seemed genuinely confused before saying, “Today… it was today.”
Glancing at the door to the chamber and then back to her I said, “You seem like a just person Lady de Lafontaine.”
Her eyes flickered again and she nodded, “I live by a code of honor.”
“If I show you proof that this creature has infiltrated the ranks of your soldiers would you help me defeat it?”
“I don’t think that is possible.”
Holding up my long nailed hands I smiled innocently, “What can one unarmed spy do against such a formidable noblewoman such as yourself?”
She considered me and finally nodded, calling out in a commanding voice, “Sergeant!”
The door opened in short order and a guard forming out of the mist appeared snapping to attention, “Yes Ser!”
She gestured to me and said, “Unbind our friend. We are going on a short walk.”
The guard complied and to my relief seemed not to register that I had not been bound. Mist Valerie followed me back toward the closet where I had left the true Valerie snoozing. I added as we went, “I think once I show you what is inside the closet where your men first encountered me, you will understand.”
As we neared the doorway we caught the sounds of wood cracking.
Upon opening the door to the small room we were greeted by the sight of two Mistchild guards using their axes to try and hack into the closet. Catching sight of the noble, they snapped to attention and said, “Ser!”
Mist Valerie paused before the men and surveyed them before turning to the damaged closet door with a raised eyebrow, “Why are you trying to dismantle this door, soldiers?”
The two men regarded each other as if prompting the other to answer the noblewoman. Finally, one of them, the one I had mentally labeled as the ‘Stupid One’, had a swirl of the eyes indicating a message from the beast at the wheel and answered in a thick voice, “Commander sent word we was to search room to room and this one was locked! We found thievin tools and we figured…”
Valerie cut him off with a dismissive wave, “That you would destroy the keep’s property?”
The man bowed his head with a grimace, “Sorry Ser!”
She narrowed her eyes at the man and asked, “Does the Commander not have the key for every door in the fort?”
The men looked at each other again and I chose to chime in, “If you want, I can open the door?”
She studied me for a long moment and finally nodded. The two men scowled at me as I gave them a cocky grin and a little finger wave. Kneeling next to the door I gathered my tools that lay strewn around the stone floor.
Glancing over my shoulder at the doppelganger of my comrade glaring down at me I started to set my tools as I asked, “Remember how I said I could prove all this to you?”
“I remember being dubious.”
“All I ask is that when I open the door, you give me time to explain,” I said as I worked the tools in the lock hearing a pin click.
“No amount of convincing…,” she trailed off as the lock clicked and I pushed it open to allow in the mist and reveal a sleeping form in the chamber crumpled next to the form of the still crying shade.
The other man, the smart one by default, wheezed, “The Beast!”
Mist Valerie drew her sword and the two men beside her prepared their axes. Holding up a hand and turning to the three of them I looked into the woman’s golden and anger filled eyes. I could tell she did not recognize her own form sleeping against the closet wall. Gently, I said, “I can prove what I told you.”
The mist creature seemed furious but only drew her sword and glared down at me as she raised a hand to forestall the two men. They seemed confused and were almost poised to rush forward despite her orders.
Reaching in I shook the sleeping form of Valerie and the woman started with a growl as she opened her bleary eyes and reached for her weapon. She seemed certain to fall back to sleep at any moment but her anger with me kept her awake, at least for the moment.
“Why did you push me in here,” she yawned so hard her jaw cracked, “I can’t… what…”
Pushing her again I got her attention back as I asked, “What is your house’s name?”
“You know…”
I snapped my fingers and gave her a pointed look. Valerie finally focused on me and muttered, “Lafontaine…” She seemed to finally notice the furious copy of herself, now looming over my shoulder, and she hissed, “What in the seven leagues, Florin?!”
Mist Valerie spoke with a growl, “This creature has taken the face of someone from my house?”
Turning to the angry mist woman and the two wild eyed guards who seemed to be drooling as they wrung their too large hands on their ax handles I raised my hands as I gave the doppelganger a pained look, “What is your first name Lady de Lafontaine?”
Her eyes started to swirl and she stepped forward causing her connection with the hive mind to stutter as she refocused and tried to answer, “My… of course I…”
Horror started to dawn on the creature’s face. She looked down at the true Valerie with wide eyes and nearly dropped her sword.
The Stupid One spoke up now, his voice barely recognizable as it became more guttural, “We can handle that one Ser.”
The Smart One added, “The Commander says, yes he does.”
Mist Valerie snapped between myself and her true self and her lips formed into a hard line as she gripped the hilt of her sword. She spun, and decapitated the Stupid One in a single stroke, sending a stream of mist into the ceiling as the headless mist figure staggered backward.
Activating Crimson Dance I jumped forward, summoning my two hammers into my hands as I flowed around The Smart One, bringing the Guard’s Hammer down on its clavicle before sweeping the Weeping Hammer into the side of its head, tearing it from the creature’s shoulders with surprising ease. The fountaining mist spilled down over me and activated Abstract Feeder to refill some of my depleted Essence reserves.
Inside the closet Valerie was standing but struggling to keep her eyes open. I rushed to the confused looking Mist version of the woman and shook her as her eyes started to swirl once again. Hearing shouts down the stairs to the second level I stared in her eyes and regained her attention, “Lady Lafontaine! We need you! Where is the Commander? Can you take us to him?”
She glared at me for a long moment, anger and no small amount of fear on her face and then nodded.
Grabbing Valerie by the arm I pulled her out of the closet. She yawned and I slapped her forehead. She blinked angrily and glared at me, “Do you,” she yawned, “know who I am?”
Chuckling, I pushed her toward the stairs as I hurried to snap my fingers in front of the swirl that had once again entered the doppelganger's eyes. She blinked and nodded, “I… I don’t know how long…”
When I stepped intimately close to her, the mist woman blinked in shock and stuttered, “How dare…”
I pulled away with my recovered blades from where they had been stashed on her belt and winked at her.
Mistguards started to form near the base of the stairs and I charged to attack as I said, “Maybe fighting will distract you.”
Bleary eyed true Valerie glared at me as I turned to her. She grumbled, “Yeah, yeah,” she said in a snarky approximation of my voice.
Valerie and her mist double shared a reaffirming nod and the two of them proceeded to charge down the stairs and tear into the mist creatures like a devastating wave of steel.
I followed in their wake and jumped planting a hand on one of their shoulders, not sure which, as I ran along the wall and jumped past the next Mistguard in line.
