Reminder: Text enclosed in / / is italicized.
-----
The daedra Alexastra rode back into Euper in the guise of a simple black cat
perched upon the tailgate of a caravan wagon. A slightly bedraggled-looking
stray, the gatekeepers had grown used to seeing her like this, occasionally
entering and leaving town aboard trader wagons, and had jokingly dubbed her the
Caravan Cat. Some of the teamsters had started to consider her good luck, for
Alexastra saw to it that no caravan she rode on came to harm during its
journey. Besides the obvious self-protection and the chance to listen in on
unguarded conversation, it also encouraged some teamsters to trust more in luck
and talismans, and anything that distracted mortals away from the aedra was, in
her opinion, effort well spent. After all, even a small slip here and there
could leave openings for later enticements.
She should have been pleased with her return, especially when the guards
spotted her and pointed her out, but instead she quietly seethed as she jumped
down from the wagon and slipped out of sight down an alley. The past two days
had been nothing but frustration for her. When Drift had set out for his
thrice-accursed mission, she had, of course, followed. The shape of a falcon
had seemed the best way to keep track of her mark, and she had nearly homed in
on him when she felt scrying eyes upon her. A moment later, she was set upon
by a pair of eagles and had to flee to maintain her cover as a simple animal.
She could have easily slain both birds, but with aedra eyes on her, she knew
that would only invite more powerful opponents. If the watcher wasn't certain
she was a threat, the odds were good that they would only react proportionally.
It was an easily exploitable aedra weakness. She'd tried two other shapes, a
squirrel and a small bird, to try to approach, but ha
d been balked both times without even getting close enough to set eyes on the
white Keeper. When an arrow narrowly missed her while she was shifting shapes
into a doe, she knew it was time to leave. Whatever Drift was doing, it was
important enough to the aedra that they were taking no chances about
interference.
Alexastra the black cat slipped through a hole in the foundation of a
ramshackle house well inside Euper, slipping past several traps that would
discourage anyone other than their maker from noticing the small passageway.
When she arrived at the inner rooms, her first act was to check the room with
magesight for any scrying eyes. That done, she shapechanged back to her Keeper
disguise and lit a small candle for light before thwumping down on the soft
sofa with which she had furnished her safehouse. The opulence of the room put
a lie to the house's outward appearance and, after a few minutes of sulking,
she got up and produced a wineglass and a bottle from a nearby cupboard.
Pouring herself a drink, she pondered her options. They were not many. She
could do nothing about Drift for the time being, either for good or ill.
If Drift came to harm doing whatever he was doing out there, she thought as
she settled back on the couch, wineglass in hand, it wouldn't harm her lord's
plans much. She had, as a matter of habit, laid contingency plans five ranks
deep. The damage to her carefully crafted reputation, however, was something
that she would not abide. She was a daedra spymaster, and even among the most
secret and secretive of all daedra kind, there were expectations to be met.
Having a mark escape from her sight and control, even if just for a short time,
was bad enough: that the reason for his escape involved several of the high
aedra made the affront just barely tolerable. Absolutely nothing was worth
getting caught over. If something happened to him under the guard of those
interfering aedra minions, she would certainly take her vengeance on the aedra
and the Lothanansi… Alexastra paused and unclenched her fists, forcing herself
to be calm, to be patient. Yes. She would be patient
. She would wait. For now..
/I hope nothing happens to him/, a small voice whispered unbidden in the
back of her mind. /I would miss him/. The regret that came with that thought
nearly startled her into dropping her wineglass. It wasn't that she felt
regret over losing him that alarmed her- Drift was hardly the first mortal she
had found intriguing while she wove her nets around him. Her interest in
mortals was what gave her the edge as a spy among them. She had spent almost
her entire existence studying them, trying to get inside their minds, to learn
to see things from their viewpoint. It was, she felt, the only way to have a
chance of predicting their often erratic behavior.
No, what surprised her was the depth of that feeling. She would have
expected that deep a feeling of pain and loss from the persona she'd adopted to
shield herself from detection by Kyia, but to feel it from herself? It was…
It was unprecedented. It was absurd!
It was dangerous.
/He -has- to be an aedra counterspy/, she thought, her heart starting to
race. /He has to be. Him or someone near him. That has to be the reason.
One of Velena's minions. But how could they possibly have-/? The alternative
explanation was too impossible to be believed, and she discarded it
immediately. Draining the rest of her wineglass in a single gulp, she
marshaled her emotions back into order and mentally chided herself. /Be calm.
Keep your guard up. Only fools panic./ She set the emptied glass down on the
table and steepled her fingers in thought. The intervention of an aedra minion
of sufficient skill both to affect her and to evade her detection while doing
so was not a development she had expected, but she felt certain it was a
manageable complication. The prospect of unveiling and besting such a skilled
opponent was tempting, but she admonished herself with a phrase that she had
picked up long ago from a Suielman legionnaire. "She who chases two rabb
its will lose them both," she said aloud as she walked out of the room and up
a flight of steps. Stepping out on a small balcony, she stayed there just long
enough to drape a piece of red cloth over the railing before retreating back
inside.
Having set up the signal for Thestilus to contact her, Alexastra settled
back onto the couch to wait, plucking up a small pillow from the cushions and
holding it close. The cool darkness of the room helped settle her thoughts,
and she nixed the idea of ferreting out the counterspy. If she managed to
uncover him while working with Drift, wonderful, but ensnaring both Arkos and
Snow was complicated enough without adding another target. As much as she
hated to agree with the little nuisance, Thestilus was right: Lord Agemnos was
grasping for too much at once this time. A contract closure was fine, but
using a Marked of Akkala to do it? What in the Nine Hells had induced her lord
to offer such an open contract in the first place, anyway?
Alexastra sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose, shooing those thoughts
away. What Lord Agemnos wanted, Lord Agemnos got. If he wanted her to get it
for him, she would do it or she would be killed and he'd get someone else to do
it. Glancing around once more in magesight to make sure she wasn't being
scryed upon, she cursed and tossed the couch pillow across the room. "What a
horrid waste. Drift is too entertaining to be used up like this, and much too
smart. There's more profit to be made from harnessing that brain than there is
from making him into a sword for killing." The mental image of Drift's
delectable body in a Suspira-charmed harness (and not a stitch else) improved
her mood enough for her to pick up the pillow and take it back to the couch,
cuddling it against her and imagining it was him. That fantasy lasted until
she saw his dull, glazed eyes, and she flung the pillow away again with a
snarl. Suspira's touch would take away what she found the mos
t enjoyable about him. "What a waste," she growled again and faded back into
sullenness. For a long while, all was silence, her mood gone as dark as the
room around her. "Thestilus had better not have made a hash of things while I
was away," she finally grumbled, and got up to light more lamps. She didn't
need them, but why make that brat Thestilus feel any more welcome? Drift would
be fine, she assured herself. What harm could he possibly come to in just two
days, without her there to instigate it?
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