I am making some pancakes. The first one is currently cooking away. Nilla and Tiff are eyeing it hungrily, silently measuring each other at the same time. When the pancake is done, I pick it out of the pan and stuff it in my mouth, barely managing to cackle while chewing. Harrn shakes his head at the two dwarves' disappointed groans. I cook up the rest of the mixture.

When we finish up breakfast, I say, "Right. Nilla, be a good lass and drop me off in an alley somewhere."

She looks confused. "Why? What's wrong?"

"City's gonna be locked down soon. And you are going to have some visitors." All three tense at my words. "Relax. We knew this was the likely outcome. Follow the plan. It will blow over soon."

Harrn turns to me. "Be careful, Belhir."

Tiff echoes his father's words, "Be careful."

Nilla stands up. "Okay. I know a place." She walks closer to me, I wave bye to the other two, and we blink away.

"Go back quick," I say. She nods and disappears.

I am in a relatively secluded part of the city, near the center. I start walking. Might as well make the best of it while I'm here and explore. Something to compare to after we're done. Hopefully, the outcome will be an improvement.

There's this golem fighting arena I wanted to check out. I wonder if they have any fights scheduled for today...

"Hey, you!" a dwarf calls out to me, his gold and red armor glinting in the sun. When he approaches me, his tone turns calmer. "City's on high alert, Grandfather. You should head on home. Might be dangerous."

Before I can speak up, another dwarf shouts at me, his armor bearing a crest—a black golem core, "Identify yourself!"

The first dwarf tries to placate him, "It's alright, sir. I can—"

The imperial officer interrupts the imperial conscript, "Search him." The two golems accompanying them box me in.

The young conscript looks apologetic and motions for me to lift my arms up.

I glare at the officer, spitting out, "Come search me yourself, you prick. Might actually find what you're missing."

He looks at me with indignation, waving at the other dwarf to stop. "Why are you out?"

"Beautiful day, innit?"

"Go back home and stay there. Make the day much more beautiful."

"Ain't got no home here anymore. Had one before it turned into a shithole."

"Present your tag before I drag you to a station to cool off."

I pull out my identification and hand it to the younger dwarf with a smile. He quickly checks it and then returns it.

"Happy?" I ask the officer.

"I will be when I'm not forced to look at you anymore. Go find an inn."

"Will do, youngster."

The officer sighs out, beckoning the golems and turning away to leave, "Be careful I don't catch you out again."

I make an offensive gesture behind his back, forcing the younger dwarf to suppress a chuckle. I give him a wink.

They aren't that concerned with the attack it seems. That's good for us. It looks like my plan to severely downplay our forces and resources worked out. What was a couple-hour operation, they think was a multi-year campaign, taking great effort to execute. They won't be thinking that when I hit them again and again, will they.

While I am walking to my favorite inn, I check up on the food reserves empire wide. Practically destroying the transportation network for a time will have some consequences, but I have been discreetly growing some stockpiles and diverting some shipments where they are most needed. Shouldn't leave anyone hungry for now. My goal isn't to collapse the empire, after all.

***

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

[<ELISA>: How's it going? *excited*]

[<LUCIUS>: According to plan, but this bed is really killing me.]

[<ELISA>: I swear to the Goddess, if you complain about that bed one more time, I am going to teleport there and bring you a better one. See how you cover that up. *angry*]

[<LUCIUS>: Please do, Elisa. I beg you.]

[<ELISA>: ...]

[<ELISA>: Stay strong. *clenched fist*]

[<LUCIUS>: I refuse.]

[<ELISA>: *eye roll*]

[<ELISA>: Up for some games?]

[<LUCIUS>: Always.]

***

[<ELISA>: Shit. *despair*]

[<ELISA>: Guess we found out why the cultists were so determined to stop us.]

[<LUCIUS>: I am as shocked as you are. What a monumental discovery.]

[<ELISA>: Har har.]

[<ELISA>: Let's get the fuck out of here before we get subsumed or whatever it is that thing wants to do to us.]

[<ELISA>: Hey.]

[<LUCIUS>: Yes?]

[<ELISA>: How are you holding up?]

[<LUCIUS>: I'm okay.]

[<ELISA>: And now the real answer please.]

[<LUCIUS>: I'm scared. I'm scared that I will fail. That we will fail. Balance can be so easily broken.]

[<ELISA>: No, you won't fail.]

[<LUCIUS>: How can you be so sure?]

[<ELISA>: Because you won't let yourself fail. I know it.]

[<LUCIUS>: Failure has many forms. Most of them out of my control.]

[<ELISA>: Then you will have to take the good with the bad. But whatever happens, I will always be by your side. I promise you that.]

[<ELISA>: No matter what needs to be done.]

[<ELISA>: I also have things I want to protect.]

[<ELISA>: They might be fewer than the things you want to protect, but there is one thing I'm confident we don't share.]

[<ELISA>: I want to protect you.]

[<LUCIUS>: Thank you, Elisa.]

[<ELISA>: You sure you can't warp back for a bit?]

[<LUCIUS>: Unfortunately, no. But I will be permanently back as soon as I can.]

[<ELISA>: You better.]

***

I spend the rest of the day cooped up in my room at the inn, reluctantly trying out the bed again. No luck on that front. But there is some luck on the other front.

The sweep of the city has finished up. The imperial soldiers have, somewhat reluctantly, given a cursory glance inside each residence. The same could be said for most cities in the empire too. Dwarves aren't the biggest fans of spread settlements, preferring to congregate in larger groups since long ago. That fact definitely helped with the coverage of searches. Not that they found anything. I've infected the rebellion with my paranoia thoroughly. No physical records of any communication between individual rebels and rebel groups. No storage of any materials used in the construction of the explosives anywhere near any of them. Nothing to link any of them with what just happened. Plus, they've been preparing for this for quite a while. I am the finishing touches on top.

I'll give the empire's forces a few days to stew on it. Decide if this was a desperate strike or a sign of what is to come. But first, they need to decide if this was an act of war or not. And I've thrown so much fake information at them, they won't be able to make that choice for a while.

Before going to sleep, I pass along a message for Nilla.

***

Yeah, I am not getting used to this. Whatever. I hope you combust, bed.

I exit the inn and leave the city, heading off toward the horizon. My cover character's melancholy has been soured by recent events. A few hours into my solitary journey, Nilla abducts me. Rude.

Safely teleported back to the house, she asks, "Hey, old man, enjoy your walk?"

"Fuck no. But forget about me, do they suspect anything?"

She shakes her head. "No. Most of the soldiers were disinterested in actually doing a good job. I even heard some of them whispering to each other that it was obvious the demons did it. I'm impressed." Not my proudest achievement, but I'll help clear the air after we are done. Can't have a war start right after a rebellion, can we.

"Aye. Where are the other two?"

"Delving a blue. They'll be back late."

"You know what that means, lassy?" She throws me a questioning look. I smile at her. "You get to decide what we're having for lunch and dinner."

She chuckles. "Thanks."

"Everything to get your mind off of the incredibly stressful and highly volatile situation you are currently in."

Nilla pins me with a stare. "Subtle."

"I've not been called that before."

"How surprising... Make something you like. Maybe something from your home?"

"Aye." I can certainly do that.

Both Tiff and Nilla are relatively young for dwarves, only in their late twenties. For people that live close to a millennium, that is almost nothing. A life just started. That does not mean they are not independent adults, though. Tiff is a dwarven warrior, managing dungeons for the empire, and currently under Harrn's tutelage. And Nilla is a practiced artisan, producing all manner of fasteners for clothing. Buttons, clasps, and surprisingly, zippers, precise magic control making the construction trivial. She supplies a lot of tailors in the city with basic and custom orders. The dwarf also dabbles in the occasional accessory. Her working space is actually a room in the house. Quite convenient when you need only a few tools and some storage space for materials.

On the surface, two warriors managing low-grade dungeons and a mundane crafter. But down below is an unseen malice, bidding its time. All three have been hiding their strength and capabilities. Harrn has always been a warrior, but losing his wife pushed him to the very pinnacle. And the two are his children, following closely behind.

I understand them. The pain and anger from a loss that could have been avoided. An outcome out of your hands but firmly gripped in the hands of another. I might know almost everyone on the planet intimately, but there is still a difference between knowing of someone and knowing someone. What would I do if I lost...

The pasta's ready. I hope Nilla will like it. For dinner, I am thinking a Beef Wellington. Meat, bread, and mushrooms, the three main dwarven food groups. Well, the dungeon equivalent of beef, at least. And I did not forget to include beer. That one is a given.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.