Chapter 65 – Plans within Plans

There was a real and non-negligible risk in not killing Maxim. But Isolde was equally aware that killing him would doom them in the long run.

Constantine was no newcomer to the underworld. He would find the situation deeply suspicious if she killed Maxim, regardless of how justifiable the reason was.

And when he grew suspicious about one thing, that suspicion had a way of spreading and it could reach the entire plan surrounding Horus and Anesthesia.

That was something Isolde could not allow.

She needed everything to be believed. Not completely, but to a degree high enough that any doubts that surfaced would come to nothing.

That was the logic behind sparing Maxim and bringing him under her.

’This is something Constantine would never see coming.’ She thought with a dark, quiet satisfaction. ’The reason is simple: he knows me.’

Yes. Her leader knew her identity. He knew what she was: a reserved woman who operated in the shadow of her sister, taking assassin missions for a sect.

A woman who had long since decided she was unworthy of company, who refused it out of cynicism rather than choice.

That had been true. It was no longer.

Three days with Cassius had turned her life and her perception of it entirely upside down.

Constantine would never guess that Maxim had pledged loyalty directly to her, making him her own subordinate.

’And it’s better that way. He must not know. I’ll redirect his attention to Horus. He will like the old man.’

Constantine had always been drawn to wretched people.

With the plan confirmed once more inside her head, Isolde picked up the Fangs’ phone and sent the report she had prepared on the whole situation.

Before doing so, she made sure Horus was chained, and told Aissatou to give him some convincing wounds and burn marks.

Three minutes after sending the report, Constantine was already calling.

Isolde drew a slow breath, her stress quiet and controlled. Everything depended on this. She answered.

"Are you certain of this report, Olympias?" He said directly, his tone flat, making clear he had no time for pleasantries.

"I am, Lord Constantine." Isolde said, rising to her feet, pacing the wide room, her footsteps quiet on the stone. "This is what the culprit — Horus Skygazer, former soldier of the Revolution — told me after I interrogated him. And you can verify the claim by checking whether Anesthesia actually withdrew that amount from her account."

"Why shouldn’t I believe this is simply you trying to frame your sister?" He retorted. "You have every reason to want her downfall, Olympias."

Isolde’s body gave a small shudder, but she steadied herself immediately, jaw clenching.

"You monitor most of my activities. How could I possibly make contact with a former Revolutionary Army soldier? How would I obtain my sister’s bank codes? Why would he want a deal with me? You know well the side effects of my power."

Each question was sound and logical making Constantine fell silent, thinking.

He knew how thoroughly helpless Olympias had always been in her sister’s presence.

And knowing the buried history between the Revolutionary Army and the Plague King of Hood, he could already begin to guess what Horus might want from Anesthesia beyond a cure for his tumour.

"Did you kill the man?"

"No." She shook her head, fighting to keep the relief from her voice. "He managed to survive the explosion through his Aspect: Sky. He is burned and wounded. I captured him and administered poison to suppress his Essence. I believed he could be a useful asset."

"For once, I agree with you completely." Constantine’s voice warmed with something pleased. "You have no idea how right you are, Olympias. A man like this would do anything for a cure. And if we deliver it, his loyalty would be absolute. We need men like him: men with deep, rooted grievances against the Hood. They are always welcome."

"Shall I recruit him?"

"And ruin everything?" His contempt was audible. "I will handle him personally. Leave him where he is. I’ll send someone to collect him."

"And Anesthesia?"

"Does she know the location?"

A short pause.

"I... don’t think so." Isolde said, her voice tight with obvious displeasure.

Constantine smiled audibly. "Then it’s more than sufficient, Olympias. Only the old man knows. I’ll deal with him. Your sister will lose her money and whatever she was after. That is consequence enough."

"I don’t think—!"

"I don’t care what you think." He cut in coldly. Isolde stopped mid-pace. "The primary reason you are in this sect involves your sister. You think I would have her removed...for your sake? Don’t be a fool. If you wish to kill your sister, do it yourself."

He laughed, sharp and without humour. "But are you capable of that?"

Without giving her the chance to answer, he pressed on. "What about the Third Fang agent?"

Isolde’s voice came out colder than ice. "I severed his left arm for his failures. He is still alive."

"Kill the useless thing."

"I believe he can still be of use. We don’t have many agents in this Kingdom."

"Do as you wish. A failure belongs with a failure." He said. "Is that all?"

"Ye—!"

BIIPP.

He ended the call before she finished the word.

Isolde stood there, phone gripped tightly in both hands, her anger rolling cold and slow inside her chest like a boiling kettle kept under a sealed lid.

She drew a slow breath, white steam poured from her mouth. She turned toward Horus.

"You better play your part." She said, voice hard as stone. "You do anything that puts Cassius or me in danger and I will kill you even if it’s the last fucking thing I ever do."

Her eyes glowed. "Understood?"

Horus nodded simply. He was too old to be provoked by someone venting their anger on the nearest available target. He recognised it clearly for what it was.

Isolde snorted and turned toward Maxim.

"Get up, useless bastard. Go back to Sect headquarters, report your failures, and take the consequences." She grated, already walking out of the hideout with Aissatou close behind. "Once you’ve done that, come find me. I have tasks for you."

Relieved to be alive yet dreading what awaited him at headquarters, Maxim nodded reluctantly and followed with his burned feet. "Understood, my Lady."

They disappeared, leaving Horus alone in the silence, cursing the pain of the tumour and the fresh wounds deliberately left on his body.

’Ah, Horus Skygazer. Here we go again. Another wild run.’

And once again, under the clutch of a devil.

’I curse them. But I can’t deny it anymore, can I?’

He smiled. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

’I love these devils.’

Only with them could he truly be himself. The smile widened, his wrinkled face a sight built to give children nightmares.

He closed his eyes and waited. Waited for a new Chapter of his life to open.

Or perhaps...

’A whole new volume?’

His smirk deepened.

...

The place was wide, shrouded in a thick, boundless grey fog that rolled endlessly upon itself, turning and turning like a wheel that had forgotten how to stop.

A man sat within it, on a tall stony chair with a strange mark inscribed behind it, purposefully swallowed by the fog, as if the man himself understood the value of wary eyes, even in his own realm.

Nothing of him was visible except a vague, wavering shape as the fog shifted around him. But one thing was unmistakable even through that obscurity: his left eye glowed a brilliant yellow.

He raised his left hand slowly and closed it around a lump of fog, squeezing it into a fist.

The fog twisted.

After a moment, he opened his hand: a small grey-coloured bird sat on his palm.

"Tell Omar Ibn Haku to go to the Outskirts." Constantine said. "His task is to use his Time Power to verify the truthfulness of Olympias’s words about the destroyed base, and to bring me the man named Horus Skygazer."

He paused, then added with a faint smile.

"And tell him to check the evidence in this report concerning Anesthesia. If it holds, kill someone close to her as a warning. Everyone except Emrys Stormblessed. He is pointless to touch and his gods are numerous. I have no interest in their attention."

"Kill... who?" The grey bird asked in a strange, monotone, cracked voice.

"Play a game of cards." Constantine murmured, settling more comfortably in his seat. "Use the people close to her as the cards. Draw one. Kill whichever card fate lands on."

The grey bird gave a stiff nod and dissolved into a puff of fog.

"Now, Horus Skygazer..." Constantine breathed quietly into the grey silence surrounding him. "What shall I do with you?"

His mind began to turn. Plans upon plans upon plans bloomed inside it, spreading like roots through dark earth.

—End of Chapter 65—