Hiya, been a hot second since I posted. Ran into a brainfart trying to come up with a good riddle for the next Secret Seeker meeting, which has held that up, and had too many cool ideas that wouldn't fit with the plot. So many half-finished things, but I've got this one at least.
~~~
Keeping his eyes down, he listened to the description of the schematic he's supposed to help build. The large siege weapon is overcomplicated, overengineered, and overly expensive, even disregarding all the redundancies.
If this project was his idea, he would have suggested some ways to cut down on the expenses or increase the efficiency, but very few of the skilled enchanters who will work on this are here by choice. They all know better than to scorn a higher Tier's command, so despite how it ruffles their feathers, they came.
Despite how out of the way his retreat is, and how little he interacts with other Watchers, he still got the message informing him that his presence is expected. Not requested. Expected. As one of the few relatively nearby Watchers skilled at enchanting and crafting, his services are highly sought after, so to be ordered like this grates on his nerves.
When he's shown to the room he's expected to stay in while not working, his eye twitches, and he carefully pushes down the urge to snarl at the lower Tier in charge of guiding him. This room is barely tall enough for him, with no amenities to be seen apart from a single table, a lonely chair, and an empty wardrobe.
Higher Tiers may show very little respect towards those lower than them, but even they will usually provide marginally better rooms than this, especially once providing for someone above Tier 3. For a 'guest' here to assist in a project, treatment like this is an easy way to find no help when it's actually needed.
Waving his hand dismissively, he lets the lower Tier Watcher leave, which it gladly does, having likely sensed his growing irritation. Taking it out on them, while it may be an outlet, would be beneath him. No, he'll just have to think of some petty way to get his revenge.
Taking a minute to properly examine his room, he grimaces when he finds a literal hole in the wall, hidden behind the table. Did they think he wouldn't notice? Maybe they're hoping that, by giving him such a worthless room, he'll spend more time on the siege weapon instead of hanging out here.
Examining the hole more closely, he notes its resemblance to a mouse hole, though it's much bigger than a normal mouse would need. How bad was the original reinforcement anyway, that some kind of rodent was able to dig through the walls like this? Utterly garbage, clearly.
Well, he may have no interest in spending more time in here than is necessary, but he fully intends to keep whatever free time he gets for himself, regardless of how useless this room is. Consider it his own brand of spite, to inconvenience himself in order to express his irritation towards another.
~~~
It's been a couple days now, and he's getting quite curious about that hole. Whatever made it seems to still be around, if the faint noises he occasionally hears are any indication.
To see if he could bait whatever it is out, he left a single large tree nut on his table, and waited outside the room until he could ever so faintly hear the noise. Pushing the door open, he catches a brief glimpse of a tail retreating into the hole, and the nut is missing. His senses reach out, but he doesn't find the animalistic mind he's expecting. Instead, there's a faint, slippery mind of what he believes might be a mortal.
Has a mortal really managed to get into the walls of this facility? Honestly, he's almost impressed, except the hole's in his room. The strength of the structure of Watcher buildings is no joke, even if botched, and to manage to dig a hole is quite an achievement.
If this little mortal has managed to make more holes in other parts of the facility, then he might actually have a way to get some petty revenge on the facility's leader. Sating his curiosity about it is just a side benefit.
First things first, he has no idea how wary this mortal will be, and he has no idea how self-sufficient it is. After thinking for a few seconds, he decides to leave some food on the table, though he doesn't make it obvious that it's for the mortal. It's just a couple slices of a large fruit (We're talking pumpkin-sized here) on a plate, and he did eat a few slices before abandoning the plate, to give the impression that he got it for himself.
Next time he goes back to his room, he sees that a slice of the fruit has disappeared without a trace. Good, good. If nothing else, this should mean that this mortal isn't about to starve.
Apart from that one glimpse, he's seen neither hide nor hair of the little mortal, and even its emotions haven't given it away. Quite intriguing, is it not? Somehow, it's managed to evade detection quite thoroughly.
Gradually, he starts 'accidentally' leaving little things lying around in his room. He doesn't actually want a mess, so the food is always on a plate, but he wants to see if he can bait this little mortal out into the open so he can get a better look at it.
It never takes much. Only after a few days does it begin taking the most out-of-the-way scraps of metal, and anything that looks even mildly useful is completely untouched.
Eventually, he does get it to take a tool, and he can't help a sly grin when he sees the missing item. It's nothing much, just a mortal-sized sewing needle, but it means his tactics are working.
After another week, he decides to see if he's managed to lull it into a false sense of security. When he leaves his room, he instead makes himself invisible, going so far as to cover his magic traces with his rock and then returning to his room.
It takes an hour before he hears a quiet shuffling, and he gets his first good look at this mortal. It's small, though that appears to be because of its species rather than its age. Large mouse-like ears lay flat against its head as it warily observes the room, searching for any abnormalities while staying within the safety of its hole.
When it doesn't see anything amiss, it carefully crawls out of the hole, and its ears swivel to listen to the door. Once it's satisfied it can't hear anyone approaching, it takes slow, stealthy steps towards the plate of fruit, sniffing each piece before choosing a single one and drawing back from the plate.
While it eats the fruit, he takes the opportunity to observe it without moving. Definitely some kind of mouse/rodent hybrid, but it doesn't look to be immature. It does, however, appear to have had some difficulty getting enough food, if its skinny frame says anything. Its clothes have definitely seen better days too, but that's not all that surprising.
Waiting for it to venture further from the safety of its tunnels, he takes his time, standing perfectly still while observing its movements. Only once it's crossed half the room does he move, and its ears immediately swivel towards him as its eyes widen in alarm.
It bolts for safety, but his strides have already taken him over to the hole, and he puts his hand in front of the path of escape, letting his invisibility drop. Despite its clear desperation, he can barely sense a whisper of emotion from it, which is interesting. The corner of his mouth quirks up, and it frantically looks for another exit.
He speaks. "It seems you've gotten careless, little mouse." A little magic lets him lift the mortal up into the air, despite its attempts to break free. "Such a thing is rather dangerous, is it not?" Crooking his finger, the magic brings it closer to him, and its breathing grows even more panicked. It hasn't actually said anything yet, sadly.
Sitting down in the sole chair provided, he remarks, "You've been quite elusive, I'll have you know. Never touching anything I might miss, and only taking what you can't bear to leave behind. Your self control is rather impressive."
He brings it to float in front of him, watching it quiver under his gaze. He's not actually weighting his gaze, but with the way it's acting you'd think he was. Tipping its chin up with a claw, he grinned. "No more hide and seek, though. As fun as this little game of cat and mouse was, it would never have lasted forever. So, little mouse..." Propping his cheek up on his fist, he didn't bother pushing away his grin while he laid out his plans.
"I'm not going to kill you." Fear flashes through its eyes. "Nor am I going to use you as a test subject." The fear dims slightly, but he wouldn't be surprised if it didn't believe him. "Instead, I'm going to have you do a little something for me."
His grin gains a dangerous edge to it. "Not only do I not want to be here, I'm not even being paid well for my work. I'm sure you've seen how prideful my kind are, and tales of our revenge have been told many a time. So, listen, and listen well, and you may even come out of this better off than you started."
It's not clear, but he can sense a certain level of cunning in its gaze, and he knows it's trying to figure out how to leverage this to its advantage. Mutual benefit is something all species understand, regardless of their differences.
"I want you to start causing problems. It doesn't need to be anything major, but depending on how much you do, I'll be more inclined to offer you greater gifts. Of course, most will be things that allow you to better cause trouble, but you're in no place to turn down a useful tool. I'm sure you would have no objections to getting your own revenge on the one in charge here, is that right?"
It nods carefully, and he decides to see whether his words actually had any effect. Releasing the magic holding it in the air, it drops to the table with a surprised squeak, quickly backing away from him on all fours. Its eyes flick towards the unobstructed hole it could try to escape through, but despite the clear path, it stayed in place, watching him warily. His grin grows.
"Good. Don't expect me to go out of my way to save you if you get yourself caught, and don't mess with the siege weapons until I've been released from this unpleasant job. If I end up stuck here longer because of you... Well, you won't like the consequences. Do you understand?"
Still mute as a mime, the mortal nods, and slowly retreats to its hole in the wall, never turning its back to him. He doesn't move to stop it, letting it leave unhindered. It'll be back.
~~~
Another week has passed, and he's noticed the growing irritation of his superior. He's maintained his facade of innocence, helped in no small part by the fact that he has a flawless alibi whenever things have gone wrong.
As it turns out, giving the mortal proper enchanted digging tools has let it get into many places it hadn't been able to reach before. He's found another hidden hole in his room, but having a second escape route for if things go wrong isn't entirely unreasonable.
The little mouse has been careful to not let him catch it away from its hidey holes again, but now that it's accepted his deal it's not bothering to be careful with what it takes from his room. Anything he feels like giving it to use he just leaves on the table, and it doesn't leave a single thing behind, not even the fruit. He has his doubts on whether it can actually eat that much fruit all by itself, but he has a sneaking suspicion it's used the tools he gave it to free a few other mortals as well.
Too bad it's not his problem. Such a shame, it looks like the Watcher in charge is having quite a few problems with the normal running of the facility. Good thing he's only here for this one job, right?
Intricate details form on the little unfinished bracelet under his watchful eye, and he even makes a magnifying glass so he can properly see all the little details. He may have been forced to assist in the creation of the siege weapons, but in no way did he make use of his full expertise for them. Not a single touch of his knowledge of imbuing was used to enhance the weapons, and he hadn't even mentioned his research into that aspect of enchanting.
Why is he making a bracelet? To further the little mouse's sabotage efforts, of course. He's aware that it'll most likely pull back once he's no longer providing it with the incentive to take risks, but he's hoping to do more than just inconvenience his unwanted superior.
What he wants, is for this entire facility to burn.
It's a shame he won't be associated with its destruction, but he'll be satisfied with the knowledge that this was his doing. He'll need to be quite generous in what he gives to his little saboteur, though. That, or it'll need a way to contact the Listeners, but even he considers that to be playing with fire.
Bringing the Listeners into the mix before he has the chance to get out of the crossfire could get him killed, so it's best to leave that idea for once the siege weapons are done. Of course, no plan survives first contact, which while not quite an applicable saying in this situation, is still somewhat relevant.
Letting the mostly finished bracelet rest in his palm, he contemplates what he should do for the enchantment. An imbuement would probably be best, considering he's not sure exactly what he wants of it, but if it's too weird he'll have to start again. He doesn't want to dip into his own reserves of materials, and there's only so much he can subtly siphon while working, so it would be best to get this done first try.
Letting his eyes trail over the images of crumbling castles and poisoned daggers, he leaned back in his chair, debating whether or not he should just let his intent guide it. On one hand, that should make the end result stronger, to match his simmering displeasure. On the other hand though, if he does that, it might not work like he actually wants it to, and he'll have wasted the materials and effort put in already.
Hmm...
You know what, let's take a chance on this one. The little mouse doesn't need to know about this bracelet if it doesn't work, and if it does then it'll be useful to it.
It's a bit risky to be imbuing with spiteful intent, but he's hoping his practice will let him guide it to the desired result. He's not scheduled to work for another hour, so he can use up a good bit of magic and regenerate it before he needs to show up.
His magic flows into the bracelet, carrying his intentions of spite and revenge. The carved lines light up with violet magic, and words begin to engrave themselves on the inside of the band.
"When ancient swords succumb to rust, and towering castles return to dust, kingdoms fall, destroyed from within, the mighty brought low under the Harbinger's grin."
When the words stopped forming, he gave it another minute before cutting off the flow of magic. The imbuement set, and the light dancing across the engravings settled down and went dark. Now he just needs to hide the magic signature, and it's good to go.
Ooh, now that's interesting. The words engraved by the imbuement have faded back into the bracelet, and apart from a bit of an indent he can't find any signs of their presence. With his rock making it appear like an ordinary, magicless object, few should suspect anything of the bracelet with strange engravings.
Placing it down on the table, he leaned back and closed his eyes, meditating a bit to help regenerate his used magic a bit faster. He has to show up to work on the weapons in less than an hour, and being low on magic will make him look suspicious.
~~~
That little mouse has to be more kitted out by now than a kingdom's favorite Hero.
Oh sure, he's never made actual armor for it, since armor would get in its way when it's moving around in its tunnels, but what he has given it is quite good. Leaving aside the bracelet, he's made for it several other accessories, though with more ordinary uses than the bracelet. Several rings with various utilitarian abilities, multiple pairs of earrings with enhancements, and a necklace with an emergency shield.
Suffice to say, it's now wearing several things that would be a kingdom's prized possession.
He had wanted to make some bigger things, but when he's stuck using only what he can safely siphon, it's not easy to make anything bigger than a bracelet. It's a shame, but he knows how to work around it.
With the weapons approaching completion, a lot of the things he's been leaving for his little saboteur have been more oriented towards keeping them alive and relatively safe. He's going to leave the moment he can after all, but he wants this facility to be reduced to rubble, so he needs his little saboteur alive.
Looking for a bit of a change in scenery, he wanders into the lounge room, standing in a corner to observe the interactions of the others. He doesn't feel any desire to join them, but there might be some interesting information floating around.
The higher Tier enchanters conscripted to work on the weapons are just gossiping, while the lower Tiers actually living here do their best to stay out of the way and out of sight. Not too strange, when it's clear that none of the enchanters want to be here. Their superior wouldn't care about the loss of one or two Tier ones, not when it would temporarily sate the simmering anger of the unwilling participants.
Listening in on the quiet conversations, he hears something quite interesting. Apparently there's a Listener that's just been brought into base, and the one in charge is quite pleased about that. Losing that Listener would be quite unfortunate, wouldn't it?
He sticks around for a while longer, just in case there's anything else of interest, but nothing he could turn against his superior comes up. Too bad, but he hadn't been expecting anything to begin with.
Making his way back to his room, he sits in his chair quietly, listening to the sounds from outside. When he's sure no one is nearby, he says, "I have heard something quite interesting, little mouse." He's not sure exactly where it is right now, but its sense of hearing is quite keen, and it should be able to hear his voice if it's somewhat nearby.
"Apparently there's a Listener in the facility, brought in after being captured. It would be quite a shame if that Listener were to somehow go missing, wouldn't it?"
His ears pick up a quiet shuffling noise from the newer hole, but he doesn't turn to look at it. Let the little mouse have its fun, believing itself to be sneaky.
"The Listener's devices may even be lying around somewhere, if you're lucky. Oh, and I have nothing to do with this, of course. The weapons are almost finished, and if nothing goes wrong, I should be leaving in about a week. If anything happens to those weapons after that... Well, it's not my problem, is it?"
There's no response, but he wasn't expecting one to begin with. He's never gotten the little mouse to speak, which could be due to inability, but could just as easily be due to a lack of desire. No matter. If it won't speak, that's not his problem.
"The security is bound to be greater around the Listener, so do try your best to avoid getting caught. Like I've said, I won't go out of my way to save you, so consider the risks carefully."
Having said his piece, he starts playing around with a chunk of stone. He can't imbue it to turn it into a living statue, since that might catch someone's attention, but he can make a sculpture to decorate this boring empty room with.
He'll be gone from here soon, and soon can't come soon enough.
~~~
Sitting back on his heels, he goes over the part he'd just finished. No impurities in the metal itself, and the enchantment is as good as it'll get without dipping into imbuing, so all that's left is to put it together with the other parts.
Striding over to the mostly assembled siege weapon, he handed the piece to one of the lower Tiers responsible for assembling the hulking monstrosity, rattling off the number assigned to this piece on the schematic. They bow their head and hurry off, flitting up to where the piece is to go, and he turns away. Not his problem if it's badly positioned.
Heading back to the area he's been told to work in, he takes a small amount of pleasure from the observation that he's the one who's finished first. Despite there being two others of his Tier, they've still got two or three unfinished pieces, and he can even see a slight flaw in the shape of one. It's minor enough it shouldn't require a complete reshaping, but none of his pieces would be done so lazily. He may not want to be here, but he has standards.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the facility's leader walk into the room, and he inclines his head in a slight bow. Not that he wants to bow, but he knows that showing respect to a higher Tier is the safest way to do things.
They slowly walk past their tense subordinates, and he can feel their gaze sweep across the room. Their gaze isn't weighted right now, but he can feel the slight irritation present within grow when they look at the slower enchanters. With the same slow, measured stride, they continue walking until they're right behind the slowpokes. They lean down.
"Are you still not finished yet?"
The two bow their heads, though he has no doubt that they're seething at the tone taken with them. "No, sir. We should be finished by day's end." Things aren't even going that slow, if he's being honest. They're already a week ahead of schedule, so being confronted like this is clearly just impatience crossed with a power play.
His eyes are focused on those two, instead of his superior, to avoid drawing attention to himself, but he quickly bows his head again when the leader's gaze falls on him. "Oh, are you done already?"
Calmly, he answers, "Yes, sir. I have finished my quota, and the last piece is being installed now." He doesn't like addressing them as 'sir', but if he doesn't then they'll just assign him more work.
He gets a sinking feeling when the leader gets a contemplative look on their face, gaze still directed towards him. Or more accurately, towards his empty workspace.
They pick up one unfinished piece from each of the other two, and drop them on his space. "Finish these. Get it done by day's end, and you may even get a bonus."
Closing his eyes to keep his seething gaze from touching them, he bows his head further. "Yes, sir." He knows that, if he were to look at them now, they would feel the anger roiling behind his gaze, and he would get more work. "I will start working right away."
"Good."
Listening to the footsteps walking away, he slowly opens his eyes, keeping what's visible of his expression schooled into calm indifference. Giving him a bonus? Ha. They're barely even paying him to begin with. It wouldn't surprise him if this 'bonus' is just a handful of ordinary iron, or even a rusty, broken sword. Useless, just like the actual pay.
Turning back to his workspace, his eye twitches when he sees the flawed piece sitting there. Of course he had to get this one.
He ignores the irritated glares he can feel from his unwilling coworkers, simply sitting down to work on what they had taken too long to complete. The sooner he gets this done, the sooner he can leave.
~~~
Apparently the egomaniac in charge wants all of them to witness the test firing of the siege weapon, allegedly to improve morale. Whoop dee doo.
Like everyone else, he makes a token noise of appreciation when the target mountaintop gets hit, though he can't help but scoff in his head. That's it? He's seen idiots with swords do more, and some of those idiots hadn't even needed swords to do it. This was such a waste of both time and material.
Lower Tiers are handing out the 'payment' to each enchanter, and he can almost hear the grinding of their teeth when they receive the box handed to them. One comes up to him, and he takes the box, opening it to see... A single, cracked dragon scale. He's gotten better pay from a Watcher half this guy's Tier, and that's saying something. This scale is barely usable, and it's clearly from a dragon that hadn't even reached adolescence.
Oh, and then there's his 'bonus'. A bottle of clearly expired dragon's blood, likely from the same dragon. He doesn't dare try to force a smile, lest it turn into the bared teeth he wants to direct at the scrooge. They know just how little this is actually worth.
Like everyone else, he bows his head, doing his best to maintain an even tone while saying, "Thank you for your generosity." Some of them don't quite manage to keep the indignation out of their voice, but that just seems to amuse the leader.
"Of course, of course." They wave a hand dismissively, not even bothering to face them. "You are dismissed. I look forward to working with you all next time."
Ha. Next time, they say? Next time, he's not answering the door. Let them think he's not home. They won't be able to tell.
Filing back into the facility to collect the few things he doesn't have on him, he silently promises his vengeance. The seeds of the end have been sown, and all that needs to be done is to wait for the crop to grow.
Standing in the cheap room, he frowns at the box in his hand. He doesn't even want to bother bringing the paltry sum back with him, it's so useless.
Well, maybe he can do a little something with it and leave it for the little mouse.
Shaping a small basin out of stone, he pours the blood into it, wrinkling his nose at the smell. Very expired. Next, he gingerly picks up the cracked scale, afraid he'll break it fully if he's not careful, and places it into the blood.
Channeling his own magic through the basin, he bares his teeth in a feral grin, having had a thought as to just what he could do with this. The blood seeps into the scale, sealing the crack with a thick, vividly red paste, and the whole thing gains a sinister aura. He's not done yet though.
Giving into a whim, he starts channeling magic into the scale with pure intent, not even bothering to consider specifics, and whispers, "One taken before your chance to soar, scorned and left to crumble to sand, the time for vengeance comes once more, the world set right by Harbinger's hand."
He doesn't know why, but it felt right to say that. He also doesn't know what this scale will do now, but with the amount of magic he channeled into it, it had better do something.
Erasing the magic signature, he sets the scale down, letting the now purposeless basin vanish. Whatever comes of it, it's not his problem anymore. Glancing at the hole in the wall, he smirks.
"Farewell, little mouse."
The eyes watching him blink, and he sees it nod. Silent up until the end. Ah well, it doesn't really matter.
He leaves the facility, taking the box with him in case anyone's watching, and teleports away. Not to his retreat, not directly, but to a distant mountaintop. The box crumbles as he lets his irritation strike it, and he sneers at what little of the facility is visible on the surface.
He'll have his revenge, one way or another. All he has to do... is watch.
~~~~~~