Chapter 90 What To Do…

  Irah had fallen asleep in his chair, in the middle of a conversation, and neither of the duo had wanted to wake him. It was long past the old man’s bedtime after all. It was, however, finally time for Isaac to play a game with the Queen of Altia.

  Isaac moved to get up and Lenna met his eyes. They gave each other a nod that sent her well wishes and prayers of good luck along with him. The light of the moon felt as though it looked the other way to allow him to work without having to push through Lua’s light. Lua was only a crescent in the sky, so the stars could be easily seen, but less light was always better for Isaac.

  “Would you kindly draw me a bath?” Isaac asked the solitary servant, who was on call for them overnight, right before he vanished. The servant’s eyes widened at Isaac vanishing without a trace but then he immediately schooled himself and got to work.

  As soon as Isaac was out of sight, he appeared on the other side of the front door of the guest building. His eyes scanned the courtyard in front of him, the high walls with their guards, and the guards stationed in front of each door. Isaac rubbed his wedding ring with his thumb and then slipped his headband on. He felt the mental magic degradation enchantment rub against the outside of his wedding ring and Isaac had to take off his most prized possession for a minute for his headband’s effect to solidify over his soul. Once that was done, Isaac replaced his wedding ring and then had an idea. He had to wonder if the Queen was timing him, or if it was just supposed to be an impossible effort.

  Isaac knew that there were traps that he could trigger, Jala was queen of them after all, but those kinds of traps would be incredibly specialized. Most likely, they would first attempt to dispel some form of protection from divination, which Isaac had from his wedding ring, and then dispel Invisibility or something similar. Once the target was out in the open, then plenty of other traps could trigger.

  Most magical wards only had a middling ability to actively sense around them, that was usually how they were triggered in the first place, but there were always the specialized ones like the dispelling wards. Due to their low level of perception, Isaac was decently sure that he could just walk right past all of the actual problematic ones. The issue would be if there were traps that were designed to piggyback off of the revealing ones.

  Isaac’s biggest fear would be a high powered, ninth levelish, dispel that targeted the location that a more sophisticated but weaker protection from divination dispelling rune targeted. Then he could get hit twice in just over an instant. If he was boosted then he would probably still be able to get out of the area in time from his increased cognitive abilities, but that was entirely out of the question. The royal guards were too high of a level to not notice something like the faint leakage of the feeling of Isaac’s death flames escaping through his shadow-cloak. In fact, Isaac was pretty sure that there were a few guards who would notice if he just walked past them, even without any bloodlust or active death flame usage. Some people, especially guardsmen, were extremely sensitive to those kinds of things and the royal guard definitely had at least one level fifteen guardsmen on patrol in each of the most vulnerable entrance locations. That was why Isaac was going to go in the front door.

  Isaac didn’t move from where he was but instead just cast his senses out and closed his eyes. His perception switched to the shadows at his feet and he guided them as they made a connection to the stone wall of the main building. His shadows raced along the dark corners until they reached the edge of the doorframe. The torchlight sent the natural shadows fluttering away and then allowed them to return time and again. Now, Isaac had a decision to make. There was a small gap, only around the length of his finger, where his shadows would have to cross open space to get to the shadows on the other side of the door. The risk was that someone observant enough could notice the slight discoloration of the stone around the bottom edge of the doorframe or, if they were mana sensitive enough, they could feel the almost non-existent flow of mana and potentially sound the alarm.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Isaac could have tried to find another way in, and he was sure of at least one, but going through the front door would actually give him far less chances of being noticed. The Queen’s office was down three hallways from the front door. Each hallway was patrolled constantly, day or night, and there were guards at multiple checkpoints that even checked the servants, but there weren’t any other doors besides the one to enter her office, and of course the barricades that were always kept open.

  Isaac sighed and took his gamble. Slowly he pushed his shadows around the trim of the doorframe and then they connected to the shadows under the door. Once he was there, he felt like everything was easier again. Natural shadows didn’t take any of Isaac’s mana until it was time to shadow-step which meant that he would be leaking less shadow-attuned mana back into the world. Isaac’s shadow connected directly to the shadow under the interior guard’s boot and then to the shadow of the sconce itself on the inside of the door. That shadow was weak and unstable, courtesy of the sconce on the opposing wall, but it still existed. Every now and then, Isaac would feel it tug at his mana pool to maintain its integrity, but Isaac was making sure to keep his connection points as close to the walls and corners as possible to help the slightly darker areas go unnoticed.

  Isaac now had another decision to make. There was a decent chance that the guards would feel something, like a breeze, from Isaac appearing close to them. The reason why he would even entertain that option was because there were no other good points to appear in that hallway and if he extended his shadows too far then someone might notice. As Isaac deliberated, one of the patrolling guards approached the door at a steady but quiet march. He stopped in front of both guards, they shared a nod, and then Isaac appeared behind him. Isaac had used his shadow, as soon as it connected with the one under the sconce, and had taken that opportunity to appear. With the guard’s back to him, and his full body armor and flipped up visor, there was an almost nonexistent chance that he could feel the air from Isaac’s appearance behind him.

  With a few casual and slow steps forwards, Isaac moved to stand between two of the sconces to allow the guard, who had given him his way in, time to pass him. Isaac then followed behind the patrolling guard at a distance of about five paces until the guard suddenly stopped and turned around. He squinted down the hallway towards the two guards he had just exchanged pleasantries with. His eyes narrowed like he was trying to see something that wasn’t there.

  Isaac took that cue to stand perfectly still and not even breathe. One second, two seconds, three seconds… then the guard turned around and Isaac slowly let out his held breath. Isaac followed the guard to the end of the hallway and then moved out of the way so the guard could continue his loop. He was through the main entrance and down the first hallway without too much trouble, yet, but he could feel it building. The chances of him getting caught were going up with every step he took forwards and every bit of mana he used to shadow-step or shadow-cloak himself.

  The second hallway was much more crowded as servants were cleaning it. After everyone else went to bed was always the best time to clean and at present there were only two guards patrolling through their working zone so it was bearable. That was why Isaac now had to find a way to slip past all of them without alerting them or the guards. Eight servants wouldn't have been that bad if they weren’t all working in almost the same place. Isaac had thought about climbing upwards and using the rafters to get over them but they also had a ladder and were making sure to clean every nook and cranny under glowing stone light of all things. Each of them had their own glowing stone that they wore like a pendant and Isaac could only silently curse his luck. On one hand, so many light sources would cast a ton of shadows; on the other, the shadows would all be incredibly weak and need reinforcement if he was going to try and shadow-step through them. ‘What to do, what to do…’ Isaac thought to himself.

  Isaac eyed his newest situation with concern. The lights were all moving around too much and… the workers got off the ladder so they could move it further down the hallway. Isaac took off at a run towards them. It was only twenty feet so he covered the distance just in time for both workers to lift the ladder and start to waddle further down with it. With the workers no longer in the way, there was an open space on either side of the top of the A-frame ladder, an open space that Isaac was aiming for.

  Isaac leapt onto the wall and ran along it for three quick steps as he passed over one of the servants’ heads and then fell back to the ground in a roll. His enchanted boots had done wonders to help his feet find purchase on the smooth stone walls. He had gotten some work out of them while they were fighting King Millen on his onyx and obsidian disc that served as his dais, but this time, they might just have saved him. The stone walls were polished to a mirrored finish and there was no way that he would have been able to get good traction on them for even a brief wallrun. Isaac had to quickly get out of the way of the patrolling guard and found himself sitting against the wall with his heart pounding in his chest.

  ‘The worst part is not knowing anything about the traps.’ Isaac mentally grumbled to himself. Every single ward was hidden and disguised to a point where Isaac had yet to feel a single one. He had seen what looked like a few on one of the open barrier doors that segmented off the hallways, but he had no idea if it was active or not. With another steadying breath, Isaac got to his feet and waited for the guard to pass once more. ‘Halfway there.’