Planning
She always did regard Rebecca with some fondness, Eigengrau thought to herself. She prevented this kalpa's Sirene from descending too far into well-intentioned extremism, and always lusted for power as a means of imposing order and not for her own megalomaniacal tendencies.
"You have always displayed remarkable restraint, Duchess." Eigengrau said, to see how Rebecca would react.
"Noblesse oblige, Lady Eigengrau." Rebecca answered. "A noble must always act a certain way, no matter their predicament. I always led my adventuring parties as a vampire, because a noble must lead. They were my subjects, and I had a duty of care to them. I trusted them all with my life, because they could have so easily killed me. Right now, I view Southern Karand as my subjects, and right now they suffer under bloated nobles, rent-seeking parasites who do nothing to ensure their charges are safe. I will take control, through any means necessary, and save them both from the bloated aristocracy, and themselves."
Heather always liked these moments, it showed Rebecca at her best, in the element she belonged. A raging inferno consuming a tinder dry grassland. How much would she burn down? All of it, he hoped.
"Then I wish you success. The Ashen Empress has a nice ring to it, does it not?" Eigengrau asked, as she disappeared from her robes, and they fluttered to the ground, dispersing with the fog.
"Ashen Empress, huh." Rebecca said, rubbing her chin, before smiling. "I like it! Marvin, Jacob, as you no doubt heard, there's a change of plans. You two are still coming, but so is Victoria and Serge."
"A classic crash and stab?" Marv asked, getting more into his element.
"Remember the Dwarven noble we were hired to kill? Something more like that."
"Serge knows displacement magic like nobody else, but ain't no point in just teleporting us inside to kill the King and leave unseen." Jack said, scooping up what remained of the fog and looking at it as it fell through his fingers.
"You'll love my little plan. We're showing up fully armoured." Rebecca said, snapping her fingers and watching her vines pull apart the floor, until a staircase appeared. "To the armoury, gentlemen."
The four of them followed Rebecca in silence, wondering where this secret staircase would lead, and Hamlin was quite amused to discover it led directly into a large storehouse, full of armour and weaponry.
"Duchess, what is all of this?" Jack asked, looking around.
"Exactly what you think." Rebecca replied. "Now come on, I have a good idea of what we'll be expecting in Stonekeep tonight. The Kingsguard is around 400 to 500 men so we should be expecting to be terribly outnumbered. That's why once the King is in a pool of his own blood, we'll run to escape the grounds and Serge will use displacement to get us out of there as fast as he can."