AO 5 Ch 28

Uncle Valken let out a long sigh as the carriage bumped along. I had given him the rundown of what had happened since he had left us and he wasn’t my biggest fan at the moment.

"Let me confirm I have this correct. You met with rebels. You completely failed to hide your identity. You then attacked a Garrish supply depot, stealing supplies, hid them, and then snuck back to town where you pretended to be drunk last night. And you're mad at me?" He pointed a finger at himself.

He might have the right of it, but he didn’t have to say it like that.

I scowled at him. "Because I think you've set all of this up and you're playing me like a fiddle. And also, where have you been?"

"I told you last night. There was a growing gap in my information network, and that gap was centered entirely on Fargo." He glanced out the window of the carriage. "It'll take us five days to get to the city by carriage. I was only able to reach the outskirts to manually contact some of my connections. I managed to confirm that my spymaster in the city has been arrested."

I leaned forward in the carriage. "Arrested, she couldn’t escape?"

"Yes. She is not magical by any means. She is a normal person, hiding amongst the rabble.” He stared out the window of the carriage.

“Did they find out she was a spy?" I asked.

"I wish." Uncle Valken sneered. "No. She was arrested." He rolled his eyes. "For being too pretty."

I sighed and leaned back suddenly at ease. "Ah, yes, I myself have had a few such troubles with the law." I flicked my hair. "Sometimes being really attractive is quite the crime."

“Ard,” Emlyn rubbed her forehead. She hadn't slept very well and was particularly grouchy today.

"What? I am just relating with this woman's experience." I responded.

"She is rather fetching," Uncle Valken admitted. "You would be surprised at how being attractive loosens tongues."

"No, I completely understand," I said with a straight face. "Happens to me all the time. You're just attractive and bam, all of their secrets spill right out. Almost better than magic, I would say."

"Ard, I am going to stuff Aurelia's old socks in your mouth to keep you quiet. Let Uncle Valken talk.” Emlyn stated, the bags under her eyes looking particularly dark.

Aurelia slowly turned to Emlyn. "Why my socks?"

"You’re kidding me." Emlyn deadpanned at Aurelia. "As a fire anchor, I love you Aurelia, but you run hot as can be. You have sweaty feet."

Aurelia’s face dropped from humorous to downright dangerous. "I think you need to get some more sleep, and if you're having any trouble, I will happily help you find a way to help you sleep in the carriage." She reached for her battle axe. Aurelia's hands tensed, veins stretching across them, and I realized we were just about two seconds from this entire carriage exploding.

I jumped over next to Aurelia, switching sides of the carriage, and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, bringing her into a snuggle. It was my best move to disarm the woman by turning the manticore into the mantikitten.

"It seems everyone didn’t get enough sleep last night. Anyways, Uncle Valken please continue. You were saying that you've been busy not plotting and planning and moving me like a piece at a game of keeps and mages, instead you've been trying to figure out this hole in your information network."

"Correct. With the spymaster down, a lot of information stopped accumulating up to her and being spread back over to me. While some of our agents are aware of each other and able to communicate peer-to-peer, it is far more effective for everything to work in a hub-and-spoke model. The spymaster's being said hubs."

I nodded along, only half understanding but pretending I was getting more than I was so he would not keep repeating. Eventually I would catch up. The method of faking it till you make it had worked well enough during Maribelle’s tutelage.

Eva bit at her nail. "So are we going blind into Fargo?"

"For the most part, however, it seems these rebels of yours might be there and able to help patch some of our knowledge. And while we are in Fargo, I would like to get my spymaster freed in the least disruptive way possible." He said the words while staring dead at me, as if I was going to disrupt everything.

Emlyn raised her eyebrow, staring at me. She totally thought I would do something rash. 

Looking around, Aurelia, Zuri, and even Eva were the same. Maribelle was the only one who was studiously looking to the side as if the conversation didn't exist, though at least she had an ever-present smile on her face today after our time together in Soulgard.

"All of you, you really think I'm going to be some sort of disaster.” I stated incredulously.

“Aren't you a walking disaster?" Emlyn said without hesitation. All of my anchors nodded along. Even Maribelle.

"I'm really starting to understand this hidden fifth sphere theory." Eva said.

"Fifth sphere?" Uncle Valken perked up.

"It's not a real thing." I held my hand out to caution him. "My anchors have a theory that I have an extra sphere. That is, the sphere of luck. Good luck on one side, bad luck on the other, and I get lots and lots of both."

Uncle Valken rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't even consider it. There is no way this is a real thing."

I absolutely refused to believe I had a fifth sphere of luck, or that such a sphere could ever possibly exist. I was the agent of my own destiny, damn it.

"That aside," Uncle Valken continued, thankfully not pressing the concept of my imaginary sphere of luck any further. "We will have to be careful about how I can extract the Spymaster without upsetting her place in the city. Staying average is a critical part of her performing her roles. She runs a local inn where she can easily talk to, gather, and distribute information along our spy network. So breaking her out or killing the people trying to charge her for example, would be too disruptive. Anything that would bring King Martin's men in to investigate could potentially lead back to the spy network."

"Really? If we just, like, kill this local lord, she would get found out?" I said in disbelief.

"When they checked the prisons and found that she was among the ones freed, they would follow up. They would most likely look into her. And King Martin's Inquisitors are all members of the Council and capable of soul magic. A normal person, like her, without any magical or soul defenses would easily be stripped of all of her secrets."

"Seems kind of a precarious situation," I admitted. Then again, spy rings were probably terminally precarious, that’s what made them so exciting.

Uncle Valken rolled his eyes. "It is. But again, hiding in plain sight is incredibly effective for these matters. Much of our spy network are common people that have been inserted into important locales, or those who have been dissatisfied with the kingdom and willing to assist us for coin. Those, however, end up with a very narrow scope in who and what they communicate with. Half of those dropping off or receiving information from her tavern don't even know she is the one managing the information. A good chunk of our spies actually write notes and leave them in the rooms they stay within. She acting as the barmaid and not the owner, is the one that then cleans them and finds the notes, or leaves notes for others."

I let out a whistle and leaned forward, letting go of Aurelia, even though she had already gotten a full mantikitten on me and followed me snuggling close. "You're telling me she's like the queen of secret messages?" My eyes practically shined. Secret spy messages!

"Yes, I suppose.” Uncle Valken seemed reluctant to agree.

“And in order for her to keep being the queen of secret messages, we have to be secretive." I nodded along. "Alright, alright, that makes sense. That makes perfect sense. We have to be very careful, everyone." I glared at my anchors as if to make a point only for Emlyn to smack her head against the side of the carriage repeatedly.

"Anyways, besides Emlyn going crazy," I addressed the rest of the carriage, "it sounds like we have a solid plan forward. At Fargo, we will meet the rebels. Uncle Valken, I'm unsure what you think would be the best course of action there.”

“We need information to make an intelligent decision. It sounds like that supply depot was fairly large. I have high hopes that we disrupted a fair number of military troops. With that, however, I would caution you. Such a move does tend to draw attention. Now, I haven't heard much of King Martin lately, but if he gets directly involved, the situation could get rather dangerous." He replied.

I nodded along, keeping my face neutral. I hadn't told anyone yet about my conversation with Missy, or the revelation that Missy was Hecate. Having guessed she had been a voyeur in my life, it wasn't like I could have a casual conversation with someone about this. But half the reason I had come out and admitted to Missy that I knew who she was was so that I could move forward and begin to include Emlyn, Maribelle, and my other anchors in the secret so that we could work together. After all, I didn't much like keeping secrets from my anchors, and this was a rather large secret.

However, in terms of Uncle Valken and Eva, I still wasn't entirely comfortable telling them Missy's secret. My anchors had sworn themselves to me as a partnership. On the other hand, Uncle Valken and Eva had recently made me feel like a piece on the game board.

I still thought there was a chance that the old man, the strategist, would use me as a piece on the board sooner or later. To me, it was just a matter of ensuring to him that I was a self-aware piece on the board, though that would be conversation for another day. This trip would be long, and there would be plenty of time to pull out what he knew. I would charm him and then get all his information. I smiled, turning to look out the window and take in the scenery.

***

So far three days had passed into our journey to Fargo.

Eva was biting her lip, trying to summon the courage to talk to Emlyn. She had wandered over with the anchor, having taken up the task of searching for firewood near their campsite. Emlyn was Ard's first anchor, first love, first a lot of things. She was the person who understood Ard best. If Eva needed help figuring out the mind of the mage, there was no one better than Emlyn.

Emlyn cleared her throat and looked over her shoulder at Eva, but when Eva said nothing, Emlyn went back to picking up small sticks. Even if Ard could do just about anything with magic, keeping a fire going overnight required dry wood, or at least wood that Ard could dry.

Eva bit her lip again as she worked on the words, then she forced herself to stop. It was an old habit, one that more than a few royal tutors had tried to break. They never quite got her to stop completely. But when she caught herself in the habit, she tried to stop.

"I like Ard," Eva spat out, finally giving up on any subtle way to start the conversation. This just was too far outside her royal training.

"Duh," Emlyn reached down and picked up another piece of wood for the fire. "That's plainly obvious to me and the other anchors. Ard, however..." Emlyn waffled her head. "He can be a little dense."

"Well, how do I undense him?" Eva got to the point. She had noticed that Ard remained entirely friendly with her. However, he didn't look at her the way he did the other ladies. Even around random women they met in town, his eyes lingered on them longer than they did on Eva.

Emlyn frowned before wrinkling her lips back and forth. "How do I say this nicely… you have been friendzoned."

Eva wasn't familiar with the term as Emlyn let out a sigh.

"You know, like, when you're teenagers or you're young, and you and a friend are friends, and you think of them as friends, or, in this case, a better term might be colleagues, and you stop thinking of them, potentially, as romantic interests."

Eva blinked. "So I've been friendzoned."

"Yep," Emlyn said, going back to picking up sticks. "Is that what you're worried about?"

Eva had a small bundle of sticks herself, but she had a free hand and squeezed at her chest. "I mean, I was a little worried."

Emlyn barked with laughter. "Oh, come on, they're not that small. They're still a good handful."

"Barely," Eva said.

"Did we hit a little bit of a sore point when we teased you the other day?" Emlyn had turned, the serious turning more vulnerable.

Eva took a deep breath. She was woman enough to admit the truth. "Yes, you did. Well, that discussion just compounded with the fact that I'm apparently friendzoned." Eva said the word like she was tasting it for the first time. "I really dislike that word."

Emlyn laughed. "Well, I think you're not alone. Also, Ard coined it."

"Of course he did. He makes up a lot of words." Emlyn could only shrug at that with a smile that said she knew that all too well.

"So how does one get out of the friendzone?" Eva asked.

"Well," Emlyn paused thoughtfully. "I think it's a death sentence for romance. Honestly, I can't think of one example where someone's made it out of it successfully."

Eva's face fell into despair. "Shit. Really?” Eva was okay with a slow pace, but the idea of Ard never seeing her differently made her gut sink to the bottom of her stomach. 

Ard was special.

Her life in the royal palace, as a princess, had been catered to most of her life. She wasn't approached nearly as much as other ladies. She'd heard maids gasping about men at the bar talking them up. However, most of the men that Eva met were servants or guards worried about other people seeing them alone with her. After all, a princess's virtue was somewhat important to maintain. Only someone as respected as Uncle Valken could be alone with her without damaging her image.

"Oh wow," Emlyn said. She'd been staring at Eva. "You're really torn up about this."

"I'm not torn up. Nevermind. I don't need anything with Ard," Eva said more forcefully than she had intended in an attempt to convince herself.

"Oh come on. You are clearly upset. I mean, Ard is Ard. And this whole four-sphere thing is probably an important political relationship to you, but is it more than that?" Emlyn asked.

Eva paused and then nodded. "Obviously, that was part of the initial interest to at least be closer to him from the start. It can't be ignored what Ard is and what he would represent, especially to a princess of Zenovia," she gestured to herself. It would be vital to their country and the royal line to bring Ard into the fold even if marginally to produce a few heirs.

Emlyn held up a hand. "Wait, but because you're a princess of Zenovia and he's... does that make you two…?" Emlyn was hesitant with her words. 

Eva sighed. "No, we are far more separate than that. His father was from a distant branch. Meanwhile, I am from the main branch."

"Ah," Emlyn nodded. "Glad we got that cleared up. Wouldn't want any, uh, cousin-fucking, would we?" 

Eva even made a distasteful face. "We have rules. We are not barbarians. Anyways," Eva continued not wanting to think about that any longer than she had to, "That was the start of pushing for proximity, and I was always open to the possibility. But the more I've gotten to know him, the more the interest has grown."

Emlyn chuckled. "There was another princess that Ard turned down. And we joked that Ard was like mold. He spread and infected everything if you got too close."

Eva snorted. "I'm not in favor of that comparison. I'm not infected.”

“Sure, tell yourself that. You're getting mouthier, you're getting a little rebellious, and you like him. Art's the kind of guy that people either hate or love," Emlyn stated. “There’s no mild like or dislike.”

"Well, I don't love him. I am just interested. Very interested," Eva said again after a second. 

Now Emlyn had a giant smirk on her face. "Well, if you're very interested, as you put it, then there's a very simple solution.”

“I thought you said no one's ever gotten out of the friend zone." Eva leaned forward.

"No one has, and I have no idea how to get out. But there's someone who might." Emlyn replied.

Eva squinted at Emlyn. Was she going to play game with her on this? “Zuri?”

Emlyn nodded exactly. "I mean, if there's someone who knows Ard well enough to develop a tactic to get back into a romantic viewpoint, it would most certainly be Zuri."

Eva nodded, taking a deep breath. "All right, I thought you might be the one who knows Ard the best."

"Oh, I am. And if we want this to work, you probably want my opinion as well as Zuri's.”

“You just want to sit in and listen." Eva stared downEmlyn.

"Of course. If you want my help, that is the bare minimum."

"Fine, fine," Eva nodded, unsure what she was getting herself into. But she understood her best chance to get Ard’s attention was through Emlyn and Zuri.

Eva, without realizing it, had already turned around like she was going to head back to camp. "Heading back already?" Emlyn asked.

"Yeah, I think we're about done," Eva glanced at the piles of wood they both held. It would probably get called lazy by Lord Valken when he saw the amount. However, she had summoned up the courage to talk about her situation to Emlyn. While she still had that courage, she wanted to extend the conversation to Zuri. 

"Fine with me," Emlyn started walking back with her. "I want to hear what Zuri says too."

Eva closed her eyes and groaned. "This is not going to be easy on me, is it?"

"Oh, it's fine. Just think of it as a battle. You just have to win Ard's heart, right? It's all tied up in this fortress behind the wall of friendship, and you need to pierce it with love's arrow."

Eva groaned and covered her eyes with her free hand. "You're even worse than Ard."

"Uh-uh. Never say that again. Especially not when you’re asked for my help. I’m ten times better at least." Emlyn replied.

"Sorry. I'm so sorry," Eva said quickly, not wanting to lose the help that Emlyn had already offered. 

"It's fine," she chuckled. "Just don't do it again." She patted Eva on the shoulder and continued to move a touch quicker than her, heading back to camp at a brisk pace. 

Eva's shorter, non-magically powered legs couldn't quite keep up, but she managed to be just a few steps behind Emlyn as they reached the camp.

Ard was laying in Maribelle's lap as she ran fingers through his hair. The camp was almost completely set up except for a cooking pot that was waiting for a warm fire to be stoked that could then be put upon. 

Eva put the logs down next to the fire where Aurelia quickly began making a teepee with the sticks.

"Hey, Zuri," Emlyn called out to the Trevis family anchor. "Come with me." She tipped her head to the side. 

Her request had gotten the attention of everyone else in the camp, and Eva fretted for a moment, only for absolutely nothing to happen.

Zuri pushed off where she was keeping watch by the wagon and followed Emlyn, who then glanced at her to come with them. Zuri raised an eyebrow at Eva as she followed them into the woods. The tall woman leaned over to Emlyn, whispering something that caused her to snort.

"Yeah, me, a mediator. Got any more good jokes?" Emlyn chuckled to herself, only making the other anchor roll her eyes. 

"Well, she wanted us here for a reason. I can only assume you're aware of what is happening." It was clear to Eva that Travis's anchor's patience was already quite thin. 

"Oh, well. You see, she's got a crush on Ard.” Emlyn kicked off the conversation.

“Obviously." Zuri shook her head. "Is that all?”

Do all of them really see it? Eva bit her lip, feeling vulnerable amid the anchors.

“Well, I told her that I think she's in the friendzone. As in, you know, when someone is a friend and you don't really look at them as a romantic option anymore?" Emlyn offered, and Eva wanted to melt into the surrounding forrest.

"Oh, yeah." Zuri seemed to get the picture faster than Eva. 

"So, she wants to figure out how to get out of it and back in the romantic sphere for Ard," Emlyn explained. 

"Oh, no one gets out of it." Zuri wrinkled her nose. Her words caused Eva to despair. "It's not that bad." Zuri hurriedly corrected herself, glancing over at Eva. 

"Bad enough for you to say that no one gets out of it," Eva insisted. 

"Well, nothing is absolute," Zuri tried to backtrack and tapped her chin.

"She thought if you and I put our heads together, because of all we know about Ard and clearly I'm brilliant," Emlyn said, "then we could figure out a way to get Eva out of the friendzone." 

That statement caused the Trevis anchor to rub her chin in thought. "Well, that is an interesting problem to solve." It seemed they had Zuri's interest, at least.

Eva could count that as a good sign. After all, the Trevis anchor would be the most likely to figure out a plan. And if it had her interest, then that probably went doubly so. Eva licked her lips in anticipation.

"Think quicker. You're killing her," Emlyn gestured at Eva. 

"How about I think aloud," Zuri said.

Eva found herself nodding along, thinking aloud would certainly be helpful. 

"Okay, so if Ard doesn't view you romantically, then we need to make him start thinking of you romantically. I mean, the obvious is we could dress you up a little more. Make you look pretty, maybe put a necklace on you or something. That makes his eyes drop to your chest. But I think it's going to require more than that," Zuri spoke thoughtfully.

"Like what?" Eva asked, unsure.

"Men are simple creatures," Emlyn said. "Ard is no exception. But the friendzone is pretty absolute." 

Zuri nodded in agreement. "It's like how a guy never looks at his mother or sister in that light. It's just completely removed, no matter how much they do." Zuri drummed her fingers. "Perhaps…no, that wouldn't work either." She started and stopped, only making Eva fret more. "Maybe we could..." Zuri started again. "No. No. Ah. We should blitz." 

"Blitz?" Eva asked with a frown. 

"Yeah. Blitz. We don't give him a chance to think of you any other way than romantically." She might as well be speaking in riddles at this point. She cleared her throat. "So, what is something romantic that you could do to break Ard out of the thought pattern completely and only see you as a romantic option?" 

Eva stopped to seriously consider the question. "Perhaps if I slept with him?" She hesitated. 

"Yeah, that's a touch too far." Emlyn was first to react, not giving Zuri a chance to even comment on that idea. "I think if you went all the way with Ard from the start, he would just be..." She hesitated. 

"Confused?" Zuri offered. 

"Confused," Emlyn agreed. “He’d probably over think it from a Zenovian royal line perspective and get bitter or confused.”

"Well, I don't want to do that. I want to make him see me as a romantic option again," Eva emphasized. 

"Yeah, we're working on it," Emlyn waved her complaint away. "So, if that's too much, maybe just kiss Ard?" Emlyn offered. 

Zuri waffled her head. It seemed that she didn't entirely disagree with the thought. "I mean, if you do that, can he think of you as anything but a romantic option?" Zuri seemed to continue to like the idea. "I don't really think he can. Once you kiss, that kiss will be on his mind. I mean, even when I first kissed Ard, whenever I saw his lips move after that, I couldn’t help but think about the kiss." 

"Very interesting point," Zuri pursed her lips and tapped at them. "Kiss. It would work. Shock him out of it. But what about his reaction?”

“He’ll probably be confused maybe a little surprised, but it’d get the wheels turning. She certainly can’t do something less. She needs to be bold." Emlyn crossed her arms and nodded along. 

"That’s true.” Zuri continued to tap her lips, "I think it might be the best option, though." 

"Best," Eva emphasized. "Meaning there's more to come?" 

"There can always be more options," Zuri said. "One never ceases strategizing. However, how many more good options are there?" She shrugged. "That's a matter for debate." 

Eva closed her eyes and sent a silent prayer up to whatever god or goddess Ard seemed to always pray to. She asked for them to lend her a hand as she made the next move. Because already the short conversation was frying her nerves. Her imagination suddenly went wild, and she wondered what Ard would say when they got back. She could imagine him suddenly asking where they went, and Eva freezing up at the simple question. This whole thing was causing her far too much of a headache.