Silence and confusion. The Auction Host turned around to see what had just shifted the curtains behind them, but there was nothing there. Even if just for a moment, Emma's cloaking device on her suit had malfunctioned, but it went back online at just the right moment and time. Safe! Emma yelled to herself in her head.
Emma scampered back under the cover of the curtains, the Guard's body on the floor, dead, Caspian standing over them.
Sebastian let out a long sigh, crossing over to the body of the Guard splayed out on the ground below them, and crouching down to grab an earpiece. He cleared his throat, and it changed to the most neutral tone he could muster. "We took care of it." And with that, he took the earpiece back out, handing it to Caspian so he could crush it with his palm.
Sebastian sighed again. "Now, for the next steps." He whispered.
After taking a few minutes to recover, they crossed over to the gate mentioned in their plans for this heist. Emma is given the device she needs to crack the gate itself, sitting straight down right in front of it, and messes with the dials until she gets the answer she needs.
Sebastian speaks up. "And now, for the next steps."
He begins speaking to his party in whispered tones, Dahlia crossing over to Emma as she works, sitting right beside her, exhaustion seeping into her bones.
Emma looked to Dahlia. "Are you alright?" She whispered to her. "I know I'm the one who helped patch you up, but..." Emma chuckled.
Dahlia smiled. "I wanted to ask you that, but... You seem fine."
"Better than normal, ironically enough." Emma looked to Viana, barely holding on, propped against a wall. "I'm more worried about her. She got fucked up pretty badly in the last fight. You'd mistake her as an old punching bag at this rate, cause of how shitty of a state she's in right now."
Dahlia scanned their party, and out of all of them, from what she could see, Hero was the only one who looked like he wanted to help, giving glances to her, not being sure if he should approach. "Not exactly the most unified party..."
Eventually, Qicy crossed over to her party members, Emma and Dahlia, who were chugging down water. "G-God! I'm so tired!"
"Be a little quieter, please?" Dahlia chuckled.
"Oh! S-Sorry."
Past the curtain. "Next up, we have this brilliant set of armor~!"
"If it's behind this fuckass gate, how are they getting all of the items with so much ease?" Emma asked out loud, soon licking her lips as she came to a realization. "Maybe..."
Dahlia noticed Emma's look. "What's up?"
Sebastian put a hand in the air, signalling that his party was going to leave for a distraction, telling them to stay where they were before heading out. The instant they went behind the curtain, the crowd gasped in unison, and Emma unlocked the code. "Got it." Emma stood up, gliding the machine lightly against the gate's door before finding a spot to insert the artifact. She pushed it in with a click, the entire mechanism of the gate moving in tandem with her own. "It's a red herring."
"Wha-What?" Dahlia stood up.
"This gate, it's a 'red herring'." Emma put it in quotation marks, the gate opening up for her group. Soon, screams erupted from outside the curtains, right on the stage of the auction floor. "There's more to uncover." Emma smiled. "You know... this is the shit I became an adventurer for."
The gate opened itself up, a collection of interlocking stone slabs that gave way to an empty room. Qicy ran inside, perplexed. "W-Where is everything!?"
Viana stood up, bleary-eyed. "What...?"
Emma sighed. "Now, for the next steps." Emma looked to Dahlia. "You got a hair tie?"
Dahlia rummaged through her belongings for a moment, grabbed something, and handed it to Emma. "Yep."
"Thank you~!" Emma tied her hair up, scanning the room as she entered. "It's time for the second test."
"Second test?" Dahlia questioned, searching the room for anything that might reveal a secret.
"Okay, so, that guy out there-- this includes the guards, but they're so focused on keeping the auction going-- even now, you can hear him hold the auction while he's fighting!" The armor from before was sold to an older Draconian man, given the context clues from what the Auction Host had said, which included phrases such as, '20,000 to the man with golden scales,' and similar expressions. "He also just keeps somehow pulling more items out from wherever he is, which makes me think... there's a catch."
Viana pinched the bridge of her nose. "Gods damnit! We've been duped! H-Have we--" She winced, clutching her chest.
"Nope!" Emma pointed back at Viana. "We have not been duped! Well, they think they've duped us. They wouldn't have set up such complex machinery if they didn't have something to hide, right? I think..." Emma rubbed her chin, scanning her surroundings once more. "I know what they're doing!"
Viana shook her head, and with a sigh, she asked. "What? What are they doing?"
"A vault."
"No shit it's a vau--"
"I mean~!" Emma cut Viana off. "A Vault of Holding! An incredibly expensive artifact that only the most experienced of mages could create!" Emma couldn't help but laugh. "Holy shit... they made a Vault of Holding!"
"A Vault of Holding?"
"N-No! It's a combination of things —it holds people, after all, which means they'd have had to create a demiplane of sorts as well. There has to be a connection somewhere here. They wouldn't have locked this area down so hard if there wasn't!" Emma seemed more like a giddy schoolgirl rather than an adventurer at the moment, going from one end of the room to another.
"What are we looking for?" Dahlia asked, feeling if there was something in the walls.
"We're lookin' for a sigil that looks like... uh... the ankh! Something like that, it's a cross with a circle on it-- something like that!"
As they search for any way to open the Vault of Holding, on the Auction floor, Caspian is sent flying into the seats, armor dented from a strike of the Vampiric Host of this Auction. "We're all havin' a fun time, right!?" The Vampire laughed. "Sorry, sorry! I want to introduce myself to our newest guests! I'm Andrei--" Hero's blade passed through their body, causing them to wince. They flick their hand out, knocking Hero a few feet away from him. "Rude! As I mentioned earlier, I am Andrei Cioban at your service." He bowed to the audience, which either attempted to escape or moved according to where the combat was heading, enjoying the show of power from this small, Vampiric man.
Any escapees, though, were met at the door by more of the guard that resides within this cathedral of an Auction House. Caspian charged in again, swinging hard into the Vampire's body. It felt like hitting concrete, but it dealt damage, sending "Andrei" a few feet away, just as he had done to Hero earlier. "You truly are annoying, y'know?"
Caspian felt numb, then soon realized a sharp pain jutting into his shoulder. He looked down to see a hole straight into his clavicle, blood pouring out of his mouth. He dropped to the ground, unconscious. Sebastian slammed down his banner. "Pull Caspian away! We can win this!"
Aeora ran over to Caspian, who was dying on the ground, attempting to drag him into the backrooms of the Auction House, where the only healer seemed to be.
Back at the gate, or rather, the supposed "storage room", Emma had that artifact that was made to unlock the gate to begin with, attempting to see if she could use it as some scanner since it only seemed to activate around Code Signatures for magic.
Viana held her head in her hands; the pain was getting to her. "Th-This is pointless."
"No, it isn't!" Emma chuckled to herself. "Come on... don't fail me, this has to be right. They wouldn't have so many precautions set in place for this one damn room otherwise. They're money-hungry assholes. This is too much of a diversion, especially for such complex sigils." Emma whispered to herself.
"AH!" Dahlia exclaimed, the party whipping around to look at her. "I found something!"
They all surrounded her, trying to see what she had found. She paused for a moment, Dahlia then turned to the wall and slammed her fist straight into it. Dahlia then proceeded to pull the wall open enough to see whatever was inside.
Emma crouched down, activating a flashlight on her suit, and lo and behold, the symbol in question. "Yes!" Emma attempted to reach inside and failed.
"Is it too far in?"
Emma pulled back. "You get it."
Dahlia reached in herself, grabbing the symbol. Before she could pull out, though, she stopped. "Uh oh."
"What?"
"My arm's stuck."
"Gods," Emma scratched her head.
"We need help!" The party turned to look at Aeora, dragging Caspian's body before tripping over herself and falling on her back. "Ow..."
Qicy ran over to them to tend to Caspian, whilst the others were left to figure out how to get Dahlia's arm out of the hole.
Andrei is thrown back by an arrow from Eaudix, soon ambushed by a jab of Sebastian's spear, and blocked by Andrei's arm. Sebastian's attack bounced off the Vampire's tough skin, and just as confidence built up in the Vampire again, they were cut by Hero. "Ah!" The monster clicked its tongue, "That ability of yours, it's annoying!" With a single strike to the gut, Hero is sent flying into the backstage area, half-dead.
"Do not falter!" Sebastian shouted. "We must hold out!"
"What the hell are you people planning!?"
Caspian gasped as he was jolted awake by Qicy's healing magic. "I-I need to get to the Prince." He forced himself up to his feet.
"Come on!" Aeora ran back into battle with the nearly dying Caspian.
Qicy watched in shock. "W-What!? Hey!?"
Viana shook her head. "Don't, they're almost slave-like in their loyalty, you won't get to them." She licked her lips. "How's it going?"
Dahlai reeled her arm back, slamming it against the surrounding wall, making a gap big enough to remove her arm. "Got it!"
"Fuck yeah!" Emma cheered.
Boom! Another dent in Caspian's shield as he's sent flying back, but still standing. "You all are getting really annoying, y'know!?" He snapped his fingers. "Next up on the auction! The Legendary blade, Cosmere!"
Sebastian's eyes light up. "We're here!"
Hero's eyes widen as he's woken up from a near-death state, lying on the floor in pain. "P-Please sit still!"
"I-I will..." He wheezed, looking up at Viana. "Hey... I... I need to get back in the fight..." He looked back over to Qicy. "Please heal me... t-they'll die without me."
"We got it!" Emma screamed, throwing the insignia in the air, the bits and pieces that made up the artifact splitting into pieces before revealing a dimensional rift in space. "O-Oh... Fuck... how the hell did they even get anything like this working!?" Emma laughed like a mad scientist, perplexed by this invention. Emma clapped, "Alright, next step, we get everything the fuckout of there!"
"Let's go~!" Dahlia cheered, both of them jumping into the dimensional rift, Viana following.
As they step inside, they're met with a stone platform, behind them, a gate. Viana's ears sank. "This doesn't feel right, we should--"
"This is our job, no!? Then let's do our job, it's quick, in and out. We get the slaves, including your sister, out of here and maybe some items along the way, and we're out of here!"
Viana shook her head. "You're right." Followed with a huff.
Set on this stone platform within this dimensional rift in space was a labyrinth of items, along with caged mythical animals or ancient statues thought to be long lost. Eventually, they arrived at the slave section of the facility. Emma rushed over to the locks, breaking them open one by one, Dahlia helping her whilst Viana searched for her sister.
After a minute or two, she finally found her. Viana approached the cage, jumping as the young drow woman jumped up, grasping onto the bars of her containment. "Oh Gods! Finally, you guys arrived!"
Viana let out a sigh of relief. "Yes, we've come to rescue you."
"No! The sword! At any rate, it was gonna be sold off!"
Viana stood in silence for a moment before unlocking the cage itself.
"I've been watching that thing for weeks now! Luckily, nobody has been able to buy it yet, okay?"
"Wh-What are you even saying?" Viana unlocked the cage, and the slaves inside flooded out, rushing to the gate leading outside, while Viana's sister remained. "I thought you got kidnapped?"
"Well... kinda?" She shrugged. "I have ways of getting out~." She snickered.
"Paela, what do you mean? You have ways to get out?"
Paela pointed to a rune at the back of her teeth, opening her mouth wide enough for Viana to see. "This. Teleportation rune. It's coated in a countermagic so that the anti-magic field doesn't affect it. I gotta bite down on it and I'm outta here~!"
"Wait, then... if you aren't in danger, what are we here for!?"
"Huh!? Rescue!? You went to rescue me!?"
"The Coven personally asked me to do so."
"Oh dear..." Paela snickered.
A bit of a way away, within the Vault, Emma is throwing random artifacts she finds into a pack, and Dahlia is doing the same. "I wonder if," Dahlia started, "I wonder if they have, like... a magical pan or something? Something that enhances the flavor of a dish."
"Isn't that when you use a pan a lot and don't wash it? Like... all the burnt shit gives it flavor or something?"
Dahlia scratched her chin. "Fair point..."
Emma swiveled around, stopping as she spotted something that caught her attention. "Dahlia!"
Dahlia's ears flicked. "What is it!?"
"Come here!"
Dahlia rounded the corner, looking up at the display Emma was staring at. Dahlia's eyes widened. "Oh... dear."
"Yeah... it's one of those fuckin' Berserker Suits..." That rotund bit of armor, completely red. "Should we... steal it?"
"I... I dunno, don't you already have something similar? Isn't that how you made your current armor?"
"Y-yeah, but... those pieces were all fucked up. This is like... pure."
"I can... try to carry it?"
"Yeah! Yeah, do it!"
Dahlia chuckled, breaking open the casing and throwing it into her bag, already packed to the brim. At this rate, the bag looked as if it were about to explode. "Alright, I think we've spent enough ti--" Emma was gone. "Huh?"
After a moment, Dahlia began to scan her surroundings to find Emma quickly, and it wasn't too hard, spotting her a few feet away, staring at something.
"Did you find something else?" Dahlia approached from behind.
No response, Emma just stared, wide-eyed. She blinked, reaching out to the case, cracking it open, and lifting it. Dahlia looked over Emma's shoulder to see what it could be. As the container was lifted, inside was what looked to be some sort of floating parasite, red like Emma's hair. She seemed entranced by the creature.
"E-Emma?"
"What is this...?"
"I-I dunno?"
Emma reached for it, cupping it in her hands, and as she made contact with the creature, her hands flowered, similar to the rotting she had inflicted on Rogier before: those flowers, the decay of it all. On contact, it spread throughout her body into a brilliant light. It spread throughout her body, imprinting itself into her.
"Emma?"
Emma blinked, breaking out of her trance, and in front of her was... nothing. There's nothing there. "What was that...?" She whispered to herself.
"Are you okay? You started touching their weird light and spaced out. Speaking of..." Dahlia looked around, noticing the light was gone.
"Let's get out of here."
"What happened?"
"Not a clue, but it's better we think about it later."
They go to meet up with Viana, and by the time they arrive, she is scowling at a person they could only assume is this supposed "sister" the mission debrief was referring to.
"What's going on?"
"So it was a ploy, but in the opposite direction," Viana spoke, Dahlia and Emma seemingly catching them mid-conversation.
"What's a ploy?"
Viana clicked her tongue. "This operation wasn't to rescue a sister of my Coven, but instead it was to retrieve a legendary artifact. Preventing it from landing in the wrong hands, which means making a deal with my Coven to recover a legendary artifact that can benefit both Draudilythill and Agnesta." Viana sighed.
"I don't get why you worry about us so much. It's not exactly a part of the Matron Mother's teachings. This loyalty of yours." Paela teased.
"We're done here..." Viana sighed again, rushing back to the gate.
"O-Oh!" Emma exclaimed. "Let's go!"
After a minute, everyone managed to leave the Vault, Emma shutting the gate behind her.
"Oh Gods!" A slave exclaimed, looking out to the Auction Hall from the curtains.
Emma looked to find Qicy and Hero, but neither of them was there. One could only assume that they went to assist in the fight against the Auction's host. Emma, Dahlia, and Viana rushed out to the stage.
Andrei smiled, holding Caspian by the neck. "This time... I'll make sure that you're gone for good~!" He had taken substantial damage from the fight, but he still had that vigor from when it had started, with only scratches and some bruises here and there. The Vampire smiled, spearing the young man, throwing him to the floor. "Alright~! The finishing blow~!"
The others were injured and beaten. Hero was barely keeping it together, holding himself up by his sword, Sebastian holding his banner as tightly as he could, already broken from the constant abuse he had taken throughout this battle—Qicy unconscious on the ground.
Eaudix was practically rendered immobile, pinned to the rafters with one of his own arrows, Aeora missing an arm.
"I don't even need the Skysinger for this either! I can just use my bare hands for fools like you!" BANG! Suddenly, he felt lightheaded, his vision becoming a blur as blood spilled across the ground, pooling around him. "W-What the hell? Was I just sho--" BANG! He fell, blood filling his lungs. "M-More~!?" Soon, he stood back up, gasping for air. "W-What the he--" Blood flowed out of his mouth like a river.
Emma's eyes widened. "Hey, Dahlia... is this what you were talking about?"
Dahlia nodded. "Yeah... that rot."
Where Emma had shot the Vampire, red flowers bloomed, feeding on his body like a parasite. "W-What is this?" Andrei grasped at the roots of the flowers, attempting to tear them away from his body. "What is this!?"
Emma took a deep breath. "Let's fuck this guy up!"
Dahlia took a step forward, fists at the ready, Viana readying her rifle, both saying in unison. "Alright!"