"I deeply apologize for Sergeant Throq's behavior." Eman unconsciously took a step back before giving Lith a deep bow. "He acted on his own without my permission."
'That damn idiot!' He actually thought. 'His stunt cost us one of our best set of equipment, a good soldier, and it destroyed what little was left of our morale. Even I can't stop looking at the bloody mess of what's left of him.
'If Ranger Quaron abandons us, we are doomed.'
"I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and I'll let this slide." Lith said. "Yet if any of your men try something funny again, I'll hold you responsible and start the attack immediately. You have two days and twenty-three hours left."
He left before the Commander could reply, collecting the corpse with a hand-shaped hard light construct.
"Status report." Lith asked Estar while putting the precious equipment inside his pocket dimension.
"Rudra is currently heading west. The messenger doesn't seem to have noticed his presence but he is changing his trajectory often so we have no idea where his destination is." The Captain replied. "Also, with all due respect, you are an army officer."
"So what?" Lith replied in confusion.
"Your assailant wore military-grade equipment so is reasonable to assume that it came from the city vault."
"And?"
"And if I'm right, those things are the Kingdom's property, not loot. If they are not returned, you might end up in trouble." Estar cleared his voice multiple times in embarrassment.
"Dammit!" Lith checked every single piece of equipment, finding the Royal Seal etched into every single one of them.
'Yeah. I'm sorry to say this, but they also have a tracking spell so we can't "accidentally" pocket some without being caught the moment we use them.' Solus sighed.
"I'm sorry for your loss, sir, but I'm sure that the Kingdom will compensate you properly for your valor." Estar felt stupid apologizing for doing his duty, but Lith scared him too much. "By the way, your tent is ready."
"Excellent. Lead the way."
"Isn't it dangerous to set your living quarters so close to the city? You are still within attack range." The Captain was happy to change the topic.
"It is, but this way I'm creating a diversion that will increase my chance of success during the infiltration." Lith replied. "Get inside first."
Estar did as instructed while Lith stood on the entrance, looking at the city with an intense expression. A split second later, he turned around and walked into the tent as well, yet a second Lith remained in plain sight while staring at Zeska.
"You can split?" The Captain fell onto his knees from the shock.
"Don't be ridiculous. That's just a hard-light construct with my appearance." Lith replied with a smirk. "The assassination attempt worked in our favor. As soon as the news spread, Quaron's accomplices will panic and do something stupid.
"Now that all the eyes are fixed on my tent, it's the perfect moment to sneak in unnoticed since no one is looking at the sky anymore.
Send someone to speak with my double at regular intervals and make sure that no one touches it."
Lith chanted a brief spell that conjured the array needed to fuel the Light Mastery spell in his absence and then opened a Warp Steps leading to the sky above Zeska.
The air coming out the dimensional door was so thin and cold that Estar became dizzy and fell to the ground again.
"If you need to contact me, send three rainbow-colored fireballs high in the sky and I'll get out of the city as soon as I can." Lith jumped through the Steps, closing it behind him before activating a Spirit Spell.
His ability with Light Mastery wasn't enough to land safely from such an altitude, not even with his enhanced body. Spirit Magic, however, was another story. It used only the mana from Lith's mana core, making it immune to the effects of elemental sealing arrays.
Lith simply conjured a float spell that allowed him to take his time changing his appearance with Body Sculpting and another Steps that brought him to the ground level without anyone noticing.
'My best guess is to start our investigation in the City Hall's palace.' He said via the mind link. 'Even in the unlikely case the City Lord isn't involved with the rebellion, if we get our hands on the records of all the past transactions and of those who visited Zeska during the winter we can discover who's behind it.'
'By my Mom, what's wrong with your hair?' Solus replied.
The man who had walked out of the dimensional door was in his mid-twenties, about 1.78 meters (5'10") tall. He had the haircut of an IRS employee on a windy Monday morning and the friendly eyes of someone whose entire family had been slaughtered just an hour ago.
Lith couldn't risk shapeshifting into a body he wasn't comfortable with so he had just mixed his Abomination and Human side together to obtain the appearance he had back on Earth.
'We are in the middle of a covert op and all you can think about is nagging about my hair?'
'First, that do is a crime against eyesight. Second, no one uses it on Mogar.' Solus replied.
She checked with mana sense that they were alone before using Spirit Magic and a pair of scissors to give him a less conspicuous look.
'Now stop glaring or you'll get reported to the city guards and our mission will end before even starting.'
Lith needed several deep breaths and quite some coaching to soften his expression. His face as Derek McCoy seemed to be stuck in a perpetual frown and it took him sheer willpower to alter it.
As he had predicted, Zeska was in a state of panic. The citizens had abandoned their daily activities and had assembled in the streets to discuss the events that had taken place in front of the city walls.
They were too busy pointing at the mages floating in the sky that had surrounded the city to notice Lith.
"Where the heck is Lord Quaron when we need him the most? He should have known that Zeska would be targeted first!" Most people said, receiving nods in reply.
"If he doesn't get here quickly, I'm going to surrender. I'm not risking my life for someone who abandoned us nor for his noble friends." Knowing that their lives would be safe even in the case the rebellion failed made the commoners unwilling to spend three days in fear.
Lith walked briskly toward the city hall, located in the city's inner rim.
Zeska was one of the most important agricultural hubs of the Kingdom and the majority of its inhabitants were farmers. Their duty was to cultivate the hundreds of acres of fields that surrounded the city and they were well paid for it.
The outer rim consisted of the living quarters of the soldiers and mages that protected the city. They were the nearest to the city walls so to minimize the response time in case of an emergency.
Farmers and merchants lived in the middle rim, respectively producing and processing the food for their daily necessities.. The food storages were located in the inner rim along with the noble households.
