Insurrection
When they reached the city gates, Rebecca was already thinking about what some good last words to say to the King would be. Something about her family? Seemed a bit cliche, but appropriate. However, Kate was clearly annoyed about something, and so she went over to her first.
"Reb, this won't do at all!" Kate said, shaking her head.
"What won't?"
"The atmosphere, of course! It's a clear night. You can't do an assassination on a clear night! It needs to be foggy, or raining heavily, or after a heavy snowfall." Kate said, lecturing Rebecca. "Aesthetic is the most important part of regicide!"
"And what do you expect me to do about the weather?" Rebecca asked mockingly. "Wait?"
"Come on Reb. Show these kids why you're the Witch of Whitemire." Kate said, flashing a grin.
"Oh, that's what this is about?" Rebecca said, shaking her head. "Oh very well. Give me a few minutes."
Rebecca stepped away from the rest of them, and crouched down on the ground, before beginning to mutter in something that definitely wasn't words, from what Victoria could hear.
"Enjoy the show, kid." Kate whispered into Victoria's ear.
"What do you mean?" Victoria whispered back.
"Wanted to show you what the Witch of Whitemire was capable of. Appeal to her ego, you know?"
Choosing to watch, Victoria was amazed as within a minute the entire city was blanketed in fog so thick Rebecca nearly disappeared from sight. Stepping out of the fog, Rebecca winked.
"How's this for some aesthetic? It'll cover our escape quite nicely, too."
"Hah! I never get tired of seeing you at work." Kate said with a barking laugh. "This eye," she continued, pointing at her eyepatch, "saw it all."
Victoria inquired, but Kate refused to explain, and so they went on their way. In the fog, Jack and Marv finally had a chance to get up close to Kate, and Marv tried some conversation.
"I've heard of you, but I'm kind of surprised you're a Halfling." Marv said, talking to Kate.
"Oh, why's that ratboy?" Kate asked, as she checked over her shotgun. "Expecting a human?"
"Rat?" Marv asked, annoyed. "No, your tales seemed very Dwarven."
"Bunch of geniuses she's got." Kate muttered. "Alright kid, what made you think Dwarf?"
"Everybody knows Bloody Catherine's signature weapon is the shotgun." Marv said. "Dwarves invented shotguns. Doesn't take much to put two and two together."
"Besides." Jack added. "Rapid fire is a Dwarven invention, dating back to the earliest crossbows."
"You a bunch of fucking scholars too?" Kate damn near shouted. "Lemme guess, the skinny guy here is fucking Hamlin DeFountain and he's gonna give a history lesson!"
"Funny you should say that..." Victoria said.
"Oh nevermind!" Kate shouted, smacking Victoria on the head.
As they neared the palace gates, Rebecca stopped, and motioned for them to all get close. Speaking quietly, she gave her final orders.
"This is to secure a future for all of Southern Karand. Getting in will be easy. Getting out might not be. Serge, I know for a fact his palace is warded against displacement magic until we get into the courtyard. If we have to fight our way out, we are fighting and shooting to kill, understood? No half-measures."
Seeing nods all around, Rebecca turned and walked into history by entering the courtyard. She was pleasantly surprised to find spell runes reacting to her presence, aiming specifically at her.
"Oh, he's been expecting me! Change of plans!" Rebecca shouted, her irongrip vines exploding from everything as she demolished the courtyard. "Kill fucking everyone!"
Vines exploded from under the stones of the courtyard, covering everything in sight. Rebecca didn't even look at her targets, crushing runes placed decades ago with a thought. Statuary, some of it hundreds of years old, was crushed under the strain of Rebecca's magical vines, concerns for art ignored.
"I love this part!" Kate shouted, as she started shooting wildly, instantly taking out seven guards in her first salvos. Reloading the magazine in a swift move practiced thousands of times, she kept firing. "Keep moving Vicky! I'll stay balanced just get me targets!" Kate stood up on Victoria's shoulders and Victoria nodded, starting to run toward the palace doors.
Marv and Jack meanwhile teamed up, occupying the two dozen guards rushing out of the towers with combined mastery of dagger and water, cutting them down in a few seconds, most of them dying before they even comprehended what happened.
"Serge, stay with Marvin and Jacob!" Rebecca shouted as she finished off the defensive spells the King had set up. "I'm joining Victoria and Catherine!" Rebecca ran off into the castle, as the three outside prepared to dig in. Seeing reinforcements coming from outside the palace, Jack froze the water in the air, creating an ice wall at the gates.
"That'll hold them for awhile. How long you reckon the Boss will take?" Jack asked, as he wiped his forehead.
"We'll be ready to blast at any time." Marv said, as he scanned the parapets for archers. "Serge, see anyone?"
"Not yet."
As Jack, Marv, and Serge dug in, they heard shouting coming from the palace as Kate, Rebecca, and Victoria their way through the place. That was soon overtaken by the sounds of fighting in the streets outside, though.
"Hoy, who's that fighting the Kingsguard out there?" Marv asked.
Jack peered into the fog, but was quickly annoyed. This fog was too cumbersome to make out what was going on. Instead they had to wait for the fighting to die down, but as it did somebody blew a huge hole in the ice he erected at the gate, and not only County Lichfield soldiers poured in, but so did Baron Andrew's men.
"Reinforcements have arrived!" The mage leading them shouted, running up to Jack. "You must be Jacob O'Malley, I'm Captain Mirai with County Lichfield, the Baron of Thorns got wind of what was going on and got us here post-haste!"
"How? We only just started!" Marv shouted.
"The message only just arrived less than 2 hours ago in Point Thoryn, Mister Marvin." Captain Mirai said, saluting Marvin. "Seems Duchess Ashe is quite the planner. She knew the Baron had access to airships, wanted us to drop in as unexpected reinforcements. We're killing the King tonight no matter what he throws at us."
"Alright come on fan out!" Marv shouted, pointing at the parapets. "Kingsguard is estimated 400 strong, orders from the Duchess is a full burn! No prisoners, lots of witnesses!"
"How many you got?" Jack asked as he swept his hand, clearing the courtyard of fog in an instant.
"Total size is one company worth of troops, and a strike group of fire mages including myself, Mister O'Malley."
"Duchess is already tearing the palace apart inside, start blowing out windows. If anybody tries to flee, let them." Jack said, gesturing at the palace and the shouting coming from inside. "Word of warning to anybody who ventures inside, Bloody Catherine is here."
"Affirmative. Men, nobody is go inside the castle, Bloody Catherine is present!" Captain Mirai shouted. "Apologies to the Duchess but Catherine is well known to shoot indiscriminately."