Rebirth of the Nephilim-Chapter 616: Hand in Hand

“Well, we can safely assume Senator Celsa has no connection to the cult.”

Syd raised one eyebrow in question as she walked with Maeve back to the temple.

“You think she was lying about that?”

“Jadis, I know she was lying about that.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because Yaz told us Celsa was a cultist,” the Fetch rolled her currently green eyes.

Upon leaving the tea house, Maeve had taken on a different shape, this time of a dark-haired lady with green eyes and dimples. Jadis wasn’t sure why the woman wasn’t sticking with her previous form, or why she wasn’t just using her personal shape, but since they were technically on the job, she didn’t question the choice. She trusted Maeve to know what she was doing. What she didn’t understand was the Fetch’s certainty about the information she had gathered from the untrustworthy informant that they had been chatting with for the past couple of hours.

“Look,” Maeve said after she noticed that Syd didn’t look any less confused. “I told you. Yaz is a liar. And she knows that I know she’s a liar. She told you that Celsa was a cultist because she knew that it would sow doubt. She doesn’t expect me to believe it, but she does expect you to have questions now. That’s her only goal. She wants to create distrust and confusion as much as possible. It’s the whole reason why she lives here in Volto. The senate is a perfect hunting ground for her flavor of chaos.”

“You sound like you’re pretty familiar with her tricks,” Syd commented as she slowed her pace. “Have you spent a lot of time with Yaz?”

“I’ve worked with her in the past,” the Fetch admitted.

“Worked together? Doing what?”

“Sowing chaos, of course,” Maeve stated bluntly. After a few seconds of hesitation, she continued. “Look, she had her ways, I have mine. When we overlapped in the past, we collaborated. That doesn’t mean I like or trust her. But when it comes to Fetch, we don’t often have the luxury of liking or trusting our kin. That’s just how it is with us.”

“That sounds like a sad way to live,” Syd murmured.

“Maybe so,” Maeve shrugged in an effort to appear nonchalant. “But that’s chaos for you. You can’t expect the same person to be there the next time you see them. Or that they won’t change their mind about working with you, or keeping your secrets, or how they might feel about you…”

As the shapeshifter spoke, Syd felt Maeve’s hand grasp hers, holding on as they walked together though the quiet alley between tall buildings. The Fetch didn’t look up at her, instead keeping her gaze straight ahead, and her posture was immaculately confident. Confident except for the insistent squeeze she was giving Syd’s hand.

Just before they reached the end of the alleyway where they would need to duck out onto a side street for a moment, Syd stopped in place, causing Maeve to jerk to a halt.

“Something wrong?” the Fetch asked as she blinked her borrowed green eyes up at her.

“Yes,” Syd stated simply. “I want to see you.”

“You’re seeing me right now,” Maeve pointed out with clear confusion.

“No, I’m seeing the persona you’re wearing because talking with Yaz has you muddled. I want to see you.”

Maeve flinched, her brow knitting, as she considered Syd’s words. She opened her mouth, shut it, then. Shook her head. After looking around them, searching for any watching eyes, the shapeshifter’s visage melted. In a matter of moments, she had turned back into her flamboyantly orange self, though she was quite a bit taller than normal, just to make it easier to hold Syd’s hand.

“Happy now?” Maeve asked without quite meeting her gaze.

Leaning down, Syd placed a kiss on Maeve’s cheek, right at the corner of her mouth.

“Much happier.”

Squeezing the Fetch’s fingers a bit more tightly, Syd led Maeve out onto the side street. Most of the buildings around them were dark, since it had grown quite late during their long talks with the other Fetch, but there were still plenty of people walking on the main street a few dozen yards further down the road. The turn for the next alley that would continue their quiet and unobtrusive trek through the back paths of the city was only a few steps away, but Syd ignored it as she passed it by.

“Wait, you missed our—”

“We’ll get back to the temple just fine this way,” Syd cut her off. Giving the other woman a playful grin, she continued, “Unless you’re saying you’re embarrassed to be seen in public with someone like me hanging off you?”

“N—No, I—” Maeve stuttered, utterly and completely flustered. “I mean, you—with me, and you and I—we aren’t—”

“You’re with me now, Maeve,” Syd stated firmly as she walked out into the brightly lit main road. “That means in public, just as much as in private. Don’t you ever think otherwise.”

There were more than a few stares that came their way as they walked down the street. Understandable, really, since one of them was a giant and the other was orange and translucent. Still, Syd strode forward confidently, walking hand in hand with Maeve without any worry that anyone would dare to get in their way. Sure, the crowd would gossip behind their backs, that was inevitable, but the talk was also harmless to them. Jadis had no fear of the opinions of strangers, and she needed Maeve to know that she didn’t need to hide from those opinions, either. Maeve had every right to be as confident as Jadis was. She just needed to learn that fact for herself.

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Maeve was quiet as they walked back to the temple together. But by about half way there, Syd felt the shapeshifter’s head leaned against her arm as she pressed herself closer to her. Glancing down, she saw the small smile on Maeve’s face, and her heart glowed.

When the two returned to Lyssandria’s temple and reunited with everyone else, Jadis took the time to explain where Maeve and her Syd self had been and what they had learned, though she was careful to avoid revealing any of the proprietary secrets that her spymaster had revealed to her on their little outing. While Yaz’s claims about Senator Celsa were a fabrication, that didn’t mean Maeve hadn’t been able to glean other pieces of information from the weave of lies the other Fetch had told them.

Honestly, seeing Maeve pump the unpleasantly sweet woman for secrets and info had been an interesting experience. Jadis had always considered herself to be a good judge of character, and she still held to that truth, but she was also quick to admit that she was neither the most diplomatic nor the most socially skilled person in the world. She was good at flirting and talking with people who she liked, but she wasn’t good at hiding how she felt about others, either, so she never did well with politicking. Maeve, on the other hand, was a dazzling conversationalist, when she wanted to be. More importantly, she was amazing at manipulating the course of a conversation to go to the topics she wanted. Or at least, she was good at doing so with Yaz, which was probably a significant indictment against the other Fetch’s skill as a spy.

Yaz did not, in fact, have any direct contact with the Cult of Samleos. But what she did have were lots and lots of rumors she had gathered from the various senators, soldiers, and merchants who frequented the Garden District. Among those many rumors were claims that ranged from plausible to outrageously ridiculous, though there were some that Maeve put more stock in than others. The most important of which were the myrmidon tunnels.

“There used to be a nest of myrmidons that lived in the hills to the southeast of Thracina,” Maeve explained to the whole group of Jadis’ lovers. “The nest was exterminated and the tunnels were collapsed decades ago.”

“Hold on,” Bridget held up her hand. “What’s a myrmidon? I’ve never heard that word before.”

“It is a species of magic beast,” Meli answered from where she sat shoulder to shoulder with a blushing Thea. “They are giant ant-like insects that some describe as uncomfortably humanoid in appearance. You can find myrmidons all across the northwest area of the central continent, but they hate the cold so you will not find them in the south.”

“Most people don’t like having them around since they can cause a lot of property damage,” Sabina chimed in. “They dig lots of tunnels, big mazes of them, and that’s fine most of the time, except sometimes they dig under houses or into mines or right through farms and then things will just collapse! The myrmidons don’t care, because they live underground and they can just dig more tunnels, but it’s bad for anyone who was above the tunnel that caved in. I’ve heard lots of stories of how cities have had their walls fall down all because a myrmidon nest moved into the area.”

“Yes, that’s right,” Maeve said, taking back control of the conversation. “But there aren’t any myrmidons in that area anymore. The point is, not all of those tunnels were collapsed, according to certain informed individuals. Some of them were left intact, and have been used by smugglers to run illicit goods and avoid paying taxes on luxury imports from the empire.”

“Those tunnels reach all the way to imperial borders?” Severina asked with a severe expression on her lovely features. “That would be an incredible distance.”

“No,” the Fetch shook her head. “They are just one leg of a much, much larger network of smuggling and subterfuge. The point is, if smugglers were using those tunnels to avoid detection, it’s likely that any cultists in Thracina would be using those tunnels to keep their movements hidden as well. They might not be advertising their affiliations to the smugglers, but they’d have to pay to keep using the tunnels to avoid conflicts.”

“Or they could have infiltrated this smuggling ring,” Aila pointed out. “So that they have some measure of control. I wouldn’t put that possibility past the Playwright. It would certainly be more efficient than having to pay a toll.”

“Possible,” Maeve shrugged, “but I doubt it. If there’s one thing I trust about smugglers, it’s their greed. The Cult of Samleos is bad for business. If they knew who they were letting in through the back door, they’d be just as quick to kick them out as anyone else. And there are too many people involved in a ring like the one here in Volto for all of them to be cultists.”

“Ha!” Kerr snickered from the sidelines. “You said they’re letting them in the back door.”

While the therion elbowed Jay repeatedly, the Fetch maintained her air of competence while ignoring Kerr’s silly jibe. Jadis knew that it took effort on Maeve’s part to not shoot back with an even more ribald comment and was sincerely impressed by the self-control. Just to show her appreciation for the dedication, Jay grabbed hold of the disruptive archer and shoved her face between her legs, muffling her crude remarks while Maeve finished her presentation.

“I have some contacts who should be able to get me in with the smugglers who have claim to those tunnels,” the Fetch stated as she cocked her hip to one side and crossed her arms across her chest. “I’ll need some coin to grease the wheels, but I should be able to get some good information on who they’ve been moving through the tunnels within the next couple of days. I’ll need some muscle, though.”

“What kind of muscle?” Dys questioned as she leaned forward, pressing her breasts into the back of Eir’s head. “And why?”

“Not your kind,” Maeve waved a hand at her. “You’re too noticeable. Bridget would work, and maybe Kerr if she can avoid talking about sucking cocks for a few hours. Humans would be better, though, since orcs and therions stand out in Thracina no matter what.”

“Perhaps the Hero or a few of his companions would be willing to aid you?” Eir suggested as she contentedly leaned back into Dys. “Wilhelm may not be able to pass with anonymity, but Ludger and Halvor might be better suited to the task.”

“Good idea,” Maeve nodded in thought. “Amarantha has some illusion potions. She might be able to give those boys some less recognizable looks. Maybe even for Kerr and Bridget, too. I’ll ask her and see what’s possible.”

“I can use my transparency wand on you or the others, if you need it,” Sorcha offered uncertainly.

“That wouldn’t be helpful at this stage,” the orange woman shook her head at the goblin’s offer. “But depending on how things go, we may need your magic later. We’ll have to see.”

As the shapeshifter continued to discuss her plans and information with the group, her eyes met with Jay’s for a brief moment. When Jay gave her a cheeky smile and a thumb’s up, Maeve grinned before sticking her tongue out at her. The Fetch turned back to answer one of Aila’s questions in the next instant, and Jay watched on with pride.

“Hey, Big Stuff?” a muffled voice came from below. “As much as I love being down here, I do need to breathe at some point.”

“You and I both know you’ve kept your head down there for a lot longer before.”

“…got me there.”