To reach the main entranceway of the Foundry, you had to pass a statue. Had to, because the causeway was raised, and took great pains to wind around the eighty foot tall monument.
"Subtle as a cannon shot," Agrias said, ahead of the others. Tabitha could see the woman was staring up at the statue, just as she stepped into its immense shadow. Agrias didn't bother to turn around to see if her comment had been heard.
The statue they walked around depicted an impossibly beautiful woman, her right arm raised into a fist, staring up into the sky defiantly. She wore a long coat over military issue clothing, and the hems of her coat were inscribed with the the seal of the Guild of Flamecrafters.
"And galling," Agrias added.
"That you have to be reminded of a Crafter's heroism, even when you go to kill one?" Tabitha asked.
"I wish it were just one." One of the other shadows said. Tabitha didn't recognize the voice, but the tone was definitely a man's voice. Gaharm, then.
"It's not offensive, it's shameful to us," Mathias explained. "Olivia Polden is one of our Bureau's greatest failures."
"Her shadow kept his nerve and stayed his hand until he had to, even as she fought the invasion. How is that a failure?" Tabitha asked.
"Because the woman that killed Olivia Polden wasn't a shadow."
That was a surprise.
Not just to her. All three shadows turned back to Mathias. "I didn't know that,"Agrias admitted, after a silent moment.
"It's not public knowledge." Mathias answered. "So rule eleven applies."
The other three shadows nodded, and returned to their march. Tabitha scratched her head, and turned to Trisha. "What's rule eleven? Is it part of your Bureau's rule book?"
Trisha laughed. "Rule eleven is 'secrets are secrets for a reason'. It's not the Bureau's rules, it's his," she pointed to Mathias for emphasis.
"What division is he chief of?" she asked, seriously.
Trisha laughed again. "He isn't. We're the people who get called when things goes sideways. We call ourselves the nannies, for all the shit we have to wipe up. He's the guy who teaches the nannies."
"I figured the four of you were some kind of elite force. You're wearing enough cold-stone that I could cap off a minor distribution line by pushing you into it. I could buy almost anything in the underground markets with your crossbow bolts. You must have some sort of official sanction," Tabitha said.
"Sure. We save the day, the Bureau looks the other way when we forge a requisition request or two. Otherwise, we're usually farmed out into the divisions. Hell, Mathias was on Final Evaluator duty until a couple of months ago."
Evaluator duty was the Bureau's term for a shadow assigned directly to a Crafter, to evaluate their condition. A final posting was because the Bureau felt a Crafter was close to losing themselves to their power. It only ended with the Crafter's death.
Trisha saw her come to that conclusion, and her eyes widened. "Right, sorry."
"It was Roenall Carrahe, wasn't it?" Tabitha asked, accusingly.
Crafter Roenall Carrahe, Tabitha recalled, was a pioneer in researching cold-stone applications. Theo went to work for him after his apprenticeship. He was a magnificent Crafter, endlessly patient, and surprisingly soft-spoken for someone with willpower like his. Even Brenda respected his strength.
She had attended his cremation a few months ago.
"Yeah. We don't get cushy assignments." Trisha admitted.
"Adams," Mathias said. He didn't look back, but from the way Trisha flinched, that must be her last name. "Rules seven and eight."
"Understood." Trisha responded, with a sense of unhesitating obedience even the Military would envy.
"Rules seven and eight?" Tabitha asked.
"Rule seven: don't use the truth to be cruel. Rule eight' is don't do things you have to apologize for'. And sorry, Madam Crafter. I shouldn't be upsetting you right now."
Tabitha gritted her teeth, but she nodded, and replied "it's just as well. I work better angry."
They passed the statue, and marched on to the entrance of the Foundry. The immense doors were open, still, and over a dozen people stood around the entranceway.
All of them were dressed in black, looked like they only knew how to be grumpy, and Tabitha could feel the icy pinpricks of their heat swallowing knives. Shadows, the lot of them.
Two of them were crouched over a third figure, who was lying on the stone, breathing in shallow, ragged gasps. As they approached, Tabitha could see the seared, badly damaged flesh, and the torched tatters of his clothes.
"Abyss below." Trisha muttered.
"Bad burns. Over half of his body. That poor boy is dead." Tabitha said, just loudly enough for her four companions to overhear. Each of them nodded, without looking back.
"The Crafter can wait over there. I don't need him seeing one of them right now." One of the shadows said, fiercely. Her face was twisted into a fierce sneer, tears were in her eyes, and a knife was already in her had as she put herself between Tabitha and the dying shadow.
Agrias moved first, advancing ahead of the group and stepping up to the angry shadow. "You're part of the hit detail. One of its leaders. Why are you still out here?"
She didn't answer for a moment, and failed to meet Agrias' gaze. Tabitha grimaced, and shook her head, already knowing what happened.
"You ran when you saw him like that," Mathias said, stepping forward.
"We didn't-" she began, but a look from Agrias caused her to stutter and trail off.
"You saw his two companions carrying him out, and panicked. You seized on the idea of escorting them to the entrance to excuse your fear." Mathias explained. He didn't sound angry, or even particularly bothered by the knowledge.
"If you're accusing me of abandoning my duty, you-" she began to say, but Agrias cut her off. "You fled," Agrias said, her voice a harsh rasp of poorly controlled fury. "If I drew my knife on you, right now, do you think your unbloodied squad would rise to your aid? Think about that, long and hard, before you deny what my commander just said."
The shadow flinched and bowed her head, as Mathias and Agrias passed. But she still put herself in Tabitha's path. "He still shouldn't see you." She hissed at Tabitha.
Trisha gave Tabitha a small, placating wave of her hand, but her words were directed at the other shadow. She spoke loudly, enough that no one could fail to overhear. "Address my Crafter again, and you're a corpse."
They passed her in silence, and as Tabitha's eyes met the shadow's, she saw the girl fingering a knife beneath her coat, and mouth an obscenity silently. Tabitha smirked as she passed, and didn't bother to look back.
Of the nine shadows gathered at the door, only the two kneeling near their dying companion looked unkempt. Both had torn clothes, burn-holes through their shirts, and singed hair. One of them had a burn on her left arm that ran from the wrist to halfway up the elbow.
"We ran." One of them admitted.
"Carried him with us. We couldn't leave him like that, in there. I don't think the rest of the squad survived," The other said.
"Do you know who you were fighting?" Mathias asked, as they approached.
"We were sent after Crafter Olman. Caught him at a machining station, near the east entrance. The two of us were flanking, when the explosions started. We fell back to keep out of the fire, and found him like this when we backtracked to find another way in."
Tabitha glanced over the broken form, and asides from the burns, noticed his limbs were jutting out at unnatural angles.
"Did he fall?" Mathias asked.
"No, sir." One of the pair replied.
"Can he speak?" Tabitha asked. She knelt down next to the poor boy's badly burnt hair, flinching at the smell of scorched hair and flesh, and forced her stomach still.
"Aye." The boy hissed, slowly, as if the effort were the hardest thing he had ever done.
Tabitha realized it might well be the hardest thing this boy would ever do. This was pain no one should have to endure.
"Okay. I'll try to stick to yes or no questions. Blink once for yes, twice for no. Is that easier than words?" Tabitha asked.
One blink. Brave boy. Tabitha wiped at her eyes with her sleeve and carried on.
"Did you see what he hit you with?" Tabitha asked.
A single blink.
"Was it just that one hit?"
The boy made no response. He was still aware, and struggled to speak.
She carried on before he could try. "You don't know?" She asked.
One blink.
"Was it fast?" She asked.
He blinked once. "It felt," he began to say, and his eyes were hard and angry when Tabitha tried to cut him off. "Felt like I was hit by a train." he finished, slowly.
By the abyss and its fires. Of everything the poor boy could have possibly said......
"Olman is a Battle Crafter." Mathias said, beside her. The others hissed and cursed.
"Hellfire and ash, please be kidding." Gaharm said to Mathias.
"He's not. Hitting with force takes training. There aren't a lot of people who can make rapid explosions." Tabitha said. She looked at Mathias. "Fires below, you didn't know. Why didn't you know? You said you help maintain the list."
"I don't know why. If we survive, I may kill people because of it."
Tabitha glanced down at the broken figure between them, and flinched. He may have just saved their lives. "Thank you," she said to him.
"Are you here to finish this?" the boy asked, and his broken, trembling hand drew his knife. She didn't need to see the obsidian pommel stone to know it had a cold-stone core. He held it in his open hand, offering it to her.
She reached with both hands, took part of the handle in one hand, and wrapped her other hand over his. "I am'" she said. Hearing it, the boy let his hand slip from the dagger, leaving it in her grip.
Gaharm knelt down beside the boy, to her right. He had a knife in his hand. "I'm sorry," he said to the boy. "This is all I can offer."
The boy nodded. Gently, almost reverently, Gaharm placed his knife over the boy's chest, above the heart, and seemed to simply let it sink between the ribs.
As the hilt of the knife met his chest, the boy let out a small sigh, and closed his eyes.
His chest didn't rise again.
They all stood, and spent only a moment before Mathias returned them to the present.
"If the two of you are still functional, I want you to scout for the rejects employed here. There might be another Crafter, and more than two dozen rejects. Don't engage unless you can both approach a target unseen. It will be enough to keep tabs on them until help arrives," Mathias said first to the fallen shadow's companions, who nodded silently and, surprisingly, stalked back into the Foundry.
He turned to Tabitha and the others. "A Battle Crafter changes things. They're trained to sense heat and will through the flame, so they can feel our cold-stone if we're close. Which means stealth is only an option while he's preoccupied. Stay under cover and away from open flame until Tabitha and I engage. Stick to bolts, but don't try a shot through an explosion. Rapid explosions can easily knock a shot off course. Do not close unless you can approach without being seen. Rule one applies."
"Rule one?" Tabitha asked.
Mathias smiled. "Don't half-ass anything you decide to do."
"What about us?" The squad commander asked. They looked back to see that her squad was still scattered around the entranceway, and were making no move to return to the fight.
"Your courage is broken. You're of no use to us." Mathias said. There was no anger in his voice, no animosity. Not even grief. He may as well have been describing the weather.