Kairos 71: Cloak & Daggers

The night was cold on the docks and dawn hours away.

Under the cover of darkness, Kairos and Nessus observed Teuta's flagship from afar. The Unconquered was a warship whose size rivaled that of the Foresight and the veteran of countless raids. Pirates had grown drunk on the tales of its daring attacks against Lycean slave ships, of its adventures across the Sunsea's uncharted waters, of its epic battles against abyssal monsters in the defense of Travian cities. It deeply saddened Kairos that the Unconquered and Foresight would end up fighting each other, rather than sailing side by side.

But Nessus had been right. If you committed to everyone, you were faithful to none.

Though Teuta participated in Hadad's hunt and her officers had rooms in the palace, the Pirate Queen had left most of her crew with her ship. Dozens of raiders occupied the deck, most of them killing time with gambling and booze. Most of them were [Fighters] and [Rogues], but Kairos noticed a few cowled witches too. They kept their distance from the rest of the crew, instead forming groups of three and offering prayers to the gods. Kairos had already crossed paths with these people in the past, to his dismay.

Achlysian witches.

Though Medea perished, she had already sent sorceresses to support her descendant before her demise. The minions had remained loyal to their witch-queen's last directives, serving Mithridates as magical advisors. The Poison King had loaned a few to Teuta, and their spells suffused the Unconquered. Every inch of wood packed a ward, [Water Resistance] buffs, or a magical protection of some kind. It took Kairos minutes to examine them all with his [Magical Knack] Skill, and he probably missed a few.

"That place looks more like a fortress than a ship," Nessus said.

No kidding. Any uninvited guest would trigger an alarm the moment they took a step on the deck. Kairos' [Sneak] allowed him to bypass land-based traps, but it didn't make him undetectable to the wards. I have something that might help, Kairos thought, as the trident's shard rested around his belt. The pirate had left most of his magical items with Andromache for the sake of mobility, so he had few ways of defending himself if they were caught.

Nausicaa and Andormache patrolled the waters, ready to intervene if the worst came to pass, though Kairos hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"Does it count as a violation of Xenia if I enter their ship uninvited?" Kairos asked.

"I don't think so. I mean, Vali is the one hosting you, not Teuta, and they only asked us to get along with them." Nessus crossed his arms. "If we get into a fight with your rival's men though, we'll have to contend with the Furies."

"I worried as much." If detected, Kairos intended to run away.

It was a risky plan, but at this point, the Travian King had few alternatives. His dalliances were starting to interfere with each other, and as a king, he couldn't separate his public and private life. Andromache had made many sacrifices for the sake of his political ambitions, and unlike him kept to one bed. Now it was his turn to make compromises for her.

Kairos hoped that Prince Hadad would accept an alternative match, but the cynical part of his mind knew better. Vali's heir shared the same dream as Sertorius, to see his dynasty achieve hegemony over the Sunsea. Lesser marriages to Cassandra and Tiberius wouldn't help him achieve his goals.

At this point, the best Kairos could do was to prevent Hadad from allying with Teuta and through her Mithridates.

Wherever Kairos went, he couldn't escape the Poison King's shadow. Romulus might have been a [Demigod] and Circe's posthumous plans more disastrous for the world, but neither had come close to causing Kairos half as many headaches as Pergamon's insidious ruler.

"I don't see any way in except the bridge," Nessus said while pointing at the planks linking the Unconquered's main deck to the docks. Unfortunately, a shieldmaiden stood in the way. She looked tired, but vigilant. "You won't slip past her while invisible. I can distract her if you want, give her the full Nessus experience."

"If she recognizes you then Teuta will suspect something." Kairos could charm the guard with his [Telchine Sorcery] gaze, but she would remember the brainwashing the moment the Skill stopped working.

"Shame," the satyr replied. "Then you could try to leap on the deck, but if you miss you'll fall into the water."

"I have a better idea." Kairos bravely pulled down his underwear, and started to disrobe before his officer.

Nessus had to put a hand on his mouth not to laugh at the spectacle. "My, did you refuse the Vali match because you wanted to save yourself for me?" he teased his captain. "Good for you, it was about time you added some variety to your royal harem."

"Oh, shut up," Kairos replied while shuddering. While hot during the day, Vali's wind felt icy at night on his naked skin. "My items don't transform with me when I use [Skinchange]."

"It's a real design flaw if you ask me."

"I didn't make the Skill." Once he was naked as a worm, Kairos activated his [Skinchanger] Skill and started to transform. His body shrank, his skin turned into red scales, his tongue split in half like a fork. His legs fused into a long tail and his arms with his torso.

With the transformation complete, a viper slithered atop a pile of human clothes.

"How does it feel to be a snake?" Nessus asked. From Kairos' point of view, the satyr had turned into a giant capable of smashing his transformed captain under his hoof.

"It's weird." Everything was so much bigger, and while he could hear Nessus' voice the rest of the world had turned silent. He could taste the wetness of the stone and the vibrations with the tip of his tongue, and the loss of his limbs made him feel crippled.

"Wait, aren't snakes deaf or something?" Nessus asked. "How can you hear me?"

"Magic and [Beastongue]," Kairos replied with a hiss, before grabbing the trident's shard in his mouth. Damn, it was a lot heavier than it looked. He tried to speak words, but the item between his fangs muffled the sound. "Wish mish lush."

"Of shoursh," Nessus mocked his speech impediment.

Kairos promised himself to bite the satyr after completing his mission. Here goes nothing, he thought as he activated his [Invisibility] spell. The magic covered him and the shard, letting the snake slither unseen on the docks. He would have raised his [Luck] stat to maximize his chances as well if he could, but he was short a few SPs.

It took Kairos a few minutes to get the handle on this method of locomotion, but he eventually slipped between the shieldmaiden's legs. His [Sneak] Skill negated all noise as he slithered, so the guard didn't notice him.

The viper held his breath when he reached the Unconquered's deck, preparing to throw himself into the water the moment an alarm sounded.

But none of the magical wards triggered, and the crew remained blissfully unaware of his presence.

Andromache had theorized that the shard's immunity to divination made it invisible to most wards and magical detection systems. Only one's natural sensitivity to magic could pick up its power. After testing her theory on privacy wards, she had given the shard to Kairos in the hope that it would help with his infiltration.

As he slipped past three pirates playing dice under the moonlight, Kairos' mind wandered to Andromache. Watching her cry had made him feel more ashamed than he was, and he needed to make it up to her somehow. Perhaps he should take her on a romantic trip? Andromache was a private person, and she enjoyed quiet time with her paramour more than social activities. However, the two had been glued to the other since they left Histria.

Maybe he should buy her a ring to go along with her necklace? No, she wasn't materialistic. Gifts meant nothing to her without a romantic gesture attached.

I'll craft her something, Kairos thought, with my own hands. Something that will help soothe her.

A part of him knew that Andromache struggled with her curse, but he hadn't understood how much she fought against her bestial nature until recently. If Agron's songs could calm her violent urges, then Kairos' magic could do the same. And if he could weaken Andromache's curse, he could perhaps do the same with Julia's and his mother's.

Kairos banished these thoughts as he looked for a path leading below deck. It took longer than expected, as he had to zigzag between sleeping crew members and even step out of a raider's path. Though Teuta's men couldn't see the infiltrator, they would certainly sense him if he bumped into them.

As the viper found the stairs leading below the upper deck, Kairos froze as he noticed a coven of witches stop their prayers close to the mast. His heart skipped a beat as one of them looked in his direction, and he wondered if she could notice him. Fortunately, her fellow spellcasters quickly admonished her for interrupting their ritual and her attention turned away from Kairos' location.

Had she sensed the trident's magic? If so, Kairos couldn't waste time.

The invisible infiltrator suppressed a sigh of relief as he slowly descended a sharp set of stairs. The smell of griffins assaulted his nostrils as he entered the cargo hold, and Kairos noticed an unoccupied nest of straw next to arrow chests and shelves full of bladed weapons. Teuta's mount probably slept there under normal circumstances; his absence meant that Kairos didn't have to fear the beast noticing his scent.

Other sailors had gone to bed early, which complicated his task immensely. Kairos counted at least ten warriors snoring in the hold on mats and hammocks, while a few couldn't find sleep at all. One even read a scroll to the light of a lantern. It halted Kairos' progress, especially once he found himself face to face with the bane of all invisible infiltrators.

A locked door.

One very well-guarded at that. Two soldiers in heavy steel armor kept watch over it, each of them carrying a powerful double-edged axe. Kairos' [Observer] identified them as capped [Elite] warriors, more than enough to repel any intruder. Worse, the door was locked and shielded by stronger wards than the rest of the ship.

Kairos would have bet his kingdom that the door led to Teuta's private cabin. If she kept any evidence against Mithridates, he would find it inside.

But how could he enter the room? The [Rogue] could easily disable the lock with [Lockpick] if he had arms, and the shard would prevent the wards from detecting his intrusion... except the guards would notice the door opening on its own, not to mention the rest of the crew. Transforming back into a human wouldn't disrupt the [Invisibility] spell, but the hold's tight space made discovery inevitable.

He had to find another way in. Ships always had holes or cracks that allowed rats to slip in.

'Rook,' Kairos contacted his [Animal Companion] through their telepathic bond as he scoured the deck for a hole, any hole. 'I'm inside the hold.'

'Do they keep yummies and shinies?' his partner asked with a hint of interest. Kairos had asked him to discreetly observe the area from afar and to coordinate with the others.

'Mostly arrows and weapons.'

'Nothing golden? We should scold them for their lack of taste!'

'We will,' Kairos promised, as he finally found a crack in a plank behind one of the weapon chests. 'Where are you?'

'High above. Andro and Nausi are in the waters nearby.' Kairos struggled not to chuckle at the griffin's nicknames. 'Do you need help?'

'Maybe. Do you see a window south of the ship, near the stern? That's where the captain's cabin should be.'

Kairos had to wait a moment before Rook answered. 'I see a porthole, but it looks locked.'

As Kairos suspected, Teuta's cabin had a window. But considering how well her soldiers protected the door, opening or shattering the porthole would probably start an alarm. 'Signal Nausicaa to position herself near it and to wait for my signal,' Kairos said. 'She is to catch anything that falls into the water through it.'

'Can't we rip a hole in their ship and grab what we need? If they don't have shinies, nobody will miss them.'

'Maybe later,' Kairos replied as he crawled into the hole. It was hard to do so while holding the trident's shard between his fangs, but the rogue was nothing if not persistent.

The Unconquered was a powerful ship, but an old one too; perhaps as ancient as the Foresight. Small cracks had spread through its woodwork, though thankfully not in the hull. Kairos regretted not having taken a fire rod with him. He could have stashed it in a hole, ready to detonate at a moment's notice in the future. But that would have been too dangerous, even for him.

Nessus had compared this adventure to leaving a gambling table with their winnings still intact, and Kairos had to admit it was an apt metaphor. The captain had pushed for the Vali alliance because he had trouble accepting that this diplomatic visit looked more and more like a net loss. A part of him simply refused to accept defeat, even if it meant taking more and more risks. The Sellsword King needed to reel himself in, lest he lose what he already had.

This is my last roll of the dice for this party, Kairos thought. Carrying the trident’s shard was enough of a risk as it was, and he only went through with it because Andromache insisted he carry it for added protection. Afterward… I’ll accept the outcome, however it goes.

Kairos smelled the presence of rats, and they noticed his scent too. Their instincts made them run away from his approach, so they didn't disturb him. The [Rogue] could only hope that they were savage scavengers rather than a [Beastmaster]'s allies or a witch's familiar. The smell of stolen cheese and grain on his tongue confirmed that the rodents had stashed away stolen rations in a small hole.

It took him a few minutes of crawling between the planks, but Kairos finally found a way into Teuta's cabin. The viper squeezed through a crack in the woodwork and nearly swallowed the shard by accident as he did so.

Teuta’s cabin was a spartan place, with the walls covered with the heads of animal trophies, navigational maps, or swords; some magical, others purely ceremonial. The Pirate Queen had no desk or table, while her mattress was no more expensive than that of her men. She only allowed herself a privy and a chest as luxuries, while the porthole Rook detected let some of the moonlight in.

Kairos landed on the bed without a sound, and looked around for magical traps. One of the trophy heads, that of a Travian lioness, hid a divination ward allowing a specific person to watch through its eyes. The chest was booby-trapped with lightning spells, while wards shielded the porthole. As Kairos suspected, anyone breaking the glass would trigger an alarm.

The transformed [Rogue] didn’t immediately shapechange back into a human. The obvious course of action would have been to unlock the chest, but Kairos knew better. Teuta would never put anything truly important in such an obvious place. Kairos wouldn’t have done it, and he respected his rival’s intelligence enough to assume she had chosen a different hideout.

The viper instead exploited his enhanced snake senses to gather information. He tasted everything in the room with his forked tongue while coiling around the trident shard, interpreting the smell and taste. After a few minutes, Kairos confirmed that Teuta’s smell was all over the mattress and the privy, but she hadn’t touched the chest in a very, very long time.

A decoy, Kairos thought. But then, where did Teuta keep incriminating documents if she even had them? Beneath the mattress? If not, then where else? What spot would be so beneath notice that nobody would think of examining it?

Kairos glanced at the privy and shuddered.

‘Kairos, Kairos, are you alright?’ Rook panicked through their telepathic bond. ‘I sense much disgust in you! Did something happen?’

‘I’m about to get my hands dirty for the cause.’

‘Oh, it’s fine! Just wash them before you eat anything!’

Kairos let out a long, unhappy sigh. ‘I can’t be mad at you.’

‘Of course not, I’m your friend!’

Still under the veil of invisibility, Kairos skinchanged back into a naked human. Holding the trident’s shard in one hand, he searched the privy with the other. The pirate held his breath as his fingers sank into dried feces and warm mud. The things I do for love and country, Kairos though. Teuta, I swear, you will pay for this.

After a minute of wading through the excrements, the infiltrator thought he would find shit… until he sensed something cubic at the bottom. Kairos pulled out a featureless wood box no larger than his palm.

With one of his invisible hands now brown as dirt, the pirate checked the container. It only had a normal lock, probably to reduce the risk of outsiders noticing a magical aura. It was child’s play to open it with [Lockpick].

Only then did the device’s true nature make itself manifest. For as though the box was so small that Kairos could barely squeeze a hand inside, its bottom appeared far deeper than its outside appearance suggested. A spell-alteration spell made the container’s content as large as the trapped chest, allowing it to contain half a dozen sealed scrolls.

As it turned out, Teuta did dare to hide important documents in a toilet. Kairos didn’t know whether to feel disgusted by her method or impressed by her resolve. It had to take extraordinary willpower to use such a hideout on a regular basis.

Kairos examined the scrolls. Most of them bore the purple peacock seal of Mithridates, and others an eye symbol that probably belonged to Zama. The former were broken, the latter not. Mithridates’ letters to Zama, and the unopened answers, Kairos guessed. Had Teuta made copies of the former, to keep incriminating elements against her employer? He would have to read them in-depth, but not here.

One scroll stood from the rest, in that it was made with high-quality papyrus instead of parchment. It had already been opened, but bore multiple seals; Mithridates’, Zama’s, the same symbol as Teuta’s flag… and the picture of a golden pyramid.

Kairos couldn’t resist the urge to examine the content. Instead of a letter, the text detailed the worrying encroachment of Lyce on other countries, the determination of other powers to oppose its expansion, and the means they were willing to use to do so.

It was a defensive pact, written in ancient Greek.

The signatories included Mithridates’ Pergamon, Antipater’s Orthia, Teuta—who had dared to sign as Travia’s queen, multiple city-states, and a certain country that Kairos had intended to visit soon…

‘In the name of the goddess, the Priestly Council of Alexandria pledges its support to the alliance.’

Shit.

So Alexandria already signed on with Mithridates, Kairos thought. It made sense. They were the main rivals of Lyce, so Mithridates probably approached them first and kept the alliance a secret. Queen Alexandria hadn’t signed herself though, letting her underlings do it for her. Perhaps a pact with Lyce’s Senex prevented her from taking part directly.

But that meant the two superpowers of the Sunsea each backed a different side of the coming conflict.

The following lines of the treaty explained in detail the support provided by each party. Pergamon offered to fund a third of the alliance’s total budget, and Orthia its phalanxes. Alexandria promised the most with a sum of two-hundred thousand gold coins, two-hundred fifty war galleys, twenty-thousand infantrymen, and three thousand horsemen, chariots, and mounted archers. If a war looked inevitable, they also offered the use of one of their major ports, Isistopia, as a naval base.

At least Kairos knew where Zama went. The general had pledged twenty-thousand troops of his own, though only as a mercenary rather than an official representative of Vali. His signature was the most recent one.

Zama’s sudden departure made sense now. He must have gone to Isistopia to join up with the Alexandrian fleet there, and perhaps lay a trap for Kairos. If the [Eye of Athena] had warned him of the Foresight’s next destination, he must have thought he could ambush the ship in his ally’s territory.

We avoided a disaster here, Kairos thought. The absence of other powers in the treaty also warmed his heart. The late Medea had signed on Achlys’ behalf a while back, but her seal had been barred by her co-ruler Thalestris; the amazons wouldn’t support Mithridates. The city-state of Thessala was also noticeably absent among the signatories.

Though it wouldn’t help disrupt Teuta’s efforts to win Hadad to her cause, the document was a priceless asset. Not only did he know who supported Mithridates, he had the numbers of soldiers each nation pledged to the war effort. And all the [Heroes] and [Demigods] that signed the document probably belonged to the [Diadochi]. If Kairos’ allies could target these members before the war-

“—let me in,” Kairos heard a female voice on the other side of the door.

The infiltrator held his breath and listened.

"It's forbidden to go inside the captain's cabin," said another voice, a male one. One of the guards probably.

"The aura comes from here,” said the woman. Kairos recognized it as the same witch who had been arguing with the others on the deck. “I sense powerful magic at work inside.”

Damn it. The shard might prevent wards from locating him, but it was still a [God]-Ranked artifact and radiated power like a beacon.

“No one gets in without Teuta’s orders,” the guard insisted, to Kairos’ relief.

“No, she’s right, I sense it too,” said a third voice. “Something is happening behind that door.”

“Let us check the area with spells,” the witch insisted. “You can watch if you want.”

Realizing it was only a matter of time before they annoyed the guards enough to let him in, Kairos put the scrolls back in the box, closed it, and then looked through the porthole. Though it was dark outside, he noticed bubbles rising from the seawater.

Nausicaa.

Staying in the room or the ship was suicide. Now that they had picked up the shard’s aura, the witches could probably pinpoint his position even if he transformed back into an invisible animal. At worst, they might get their hands on the trident.

“Alright, alright,” the guard said, “but if you touch anything, I’m cutting your head off.”

No time to disable the wards.

Seizing the trident’s shard with one hand while holding the box with the other, Kairos shattered the porthole’s glass with Poseidon’s broken weapon.

A high-pitched alarm immediately echoed across the ship, and a guard’s axe slashed into the door. Thankfully, the same spells that protected Teuta’s cabin also made it difficult to enter by force and the weapon’s steel struggled to cut through the wood.

The invisible Kairos tossed the box through the porthole, and though he couldn’t see Nausicaa grab it, he didn’t hear the container hit the water. Unable to go through the window in human form, the pirate skinchanged back into a snake and slithered through the opening right as a witch blasted the door apart with a lightning bolt.

Holding the trident’s shard in his mouth, the translucent reptile changed again the moment he hit the waters. Fins grew out of his scales, his poisoned fangs multiplying into a fearsome jaw of pointed teeth.

And so a shark swam away from the Unconquered, delighting while Teuta’s followers shouted and screamed behind him.

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