Curse of the Crystals

Chapter 7: An Unstable Alliance - part 1

The moment he brought up working with the Liberators in front of Hedgefield, it was clear that he didn't want to have anything to do with being part of a meeting. Even trying to tell him that he'd get to known some of the Liberators for the sake of catching them later didn't convince him, nor did telling him that the one he'd be meeting was a former Corporal contribute anything to his willingness to play along. Instead, Hedgefield was dedicated on trying to find out how he could turn this into a way to trap these Liberators. That's why Itzal felt forced to play his trump card.

After mentally preparing himself, he brought up the bluff. "You know, I'm pretty sure the third party wishes to cause enough chaos between the Forest Elves and the guards to take down the city during resulting chaos."

Hedgefield sighed. "You haven't even convinced me that there is a third party. Of course, the Liberators would claim innocence with regards to the murder of the General Guard. Those slimy bastards would never admit to something like that in public."

Itzal decided to be more confrontational. "This kind of thinking is exactly why the third party will succeed."

Hedgefield slammed his fist on the table. "Alright! Fine. How would you prove to me that there's a third party? Give me one reason to believe that you're not just working with the Liberators to set me up."

This was where Itzal was going to have to take the most risk. "From what you told me, the group of people that assassinated the General Guard had a lot of cloaked members in the tunnel, but an uncloaked person committed the actual assassination."

Hedgefield was confused. "Yes, we concluded that it was due to there being an insider."

Itzal nodded. "Even so, you haven't found anyone suspicious among those that could've been insiders. All of them have alibis that seem to hold up."

"I'm afraid that's correct."

"So what if the actual assassin and the cloaked group were different factions? The cloaked group was made up by Liberators, the actual assassin was a third party. Although the Liberators might've planned to attack the General Guard, or maybe even assassinate him as well, the end result was that they were beaten to it." The heavily twisted version of truth was hopefully convincing, although Itzal going to have some trouble remembering which person he told what lies at this rate.

Hedgefield sighed. "Alright, fine, let's assume, just for a second, that you are correct. What would you have me do?"

That was all the encouragement Itzal needed. "Go to that meeting, but don't make it a set-up for the Liberators. Make it a set-up for the third party. Whoever that third party is, the most dangerous to them is a team-up between the guards and the Liberators. If they notice such a thing might occur, they'll be eager to crush it. Attacking the meeting and making it seem like the guards and Liberators killed each-other would instead only fan the flames between them, furthering the goals of the third party instead."

Hedgefield was silent for quite a some time, before he finally made up his mind and spoke up. "I'll do it one condition."

Itzal was eager to agree. "Sure."

"You'll come with me."

"Gladly." Itzal smiled, as he was surprised that he had somehow weaselled his way out of this. If his current streak of luck kept up, the third party might actually show up. Of course, there were a few things that would help his luck a bit. "I'll spread a few rumours about the meeting, so that the third party might learn of it. If you're able to muster up some troops to keep on standby..." Suddenly, Itzal had an even better idea. "The Liberators aren't fools, so it'll be really difficult to hide troops close enough to be effective. After all, they'll think we're trying to double-cross them, rather than the third party. However, neither the Liberators nor the third party will be able to check the sea. A good enough ship can reach the shores and a trained crew can land a lot faster than troops would traverse through half the city."