I have captured Kara.
But that is small comfort to me, because Tethys has grown, both in boldness, and physically.
The plan went quite well for the most part, except there were some complications.
Let me start at the beginning, as expected, Kara started to catalogue but also probe the security. I hadn’t taught her everything I knew, so she didn’t figure out that the relics and weapons I stored were fake or disabled.
The Myrmidons I had assigned to monitor and survey her also stayed undetected, and so confirmed her meeting with kelpies.
This was where we noticed the first complication. The kelpies have somehow developed the ability to change colors. Not unlike that of some octopuses or cuttlefish. This doesn't disguise the natural armor they have, or the fact they are larger and their black eyes remain the same. However, by simply wearing clothing, or the more common light armor that deep pony scavengers and hunters wear to explore the open ocean they can at least pass as seaponies.
Hence, the kelpies were able to use this ability to infiltrate into the city. Albeit, they had to do this stealthily and without raising much attention or else they would be found out. Many of them stuck out like sore thumbs and had to leave without even my Myrmidons intervening.
Enough of them reached Kara though, and they began to load up on as many relics as they could carry.
That was when we closed on Kara and had her and her kelpies surrounded. Oh they all resisted. Kara tried to escape in fact, throwing spells that I had taught her into my face, desperately trying to wound me in some way.
They didn’t work though. I had taught her after all and I knew how to counter her attacks. I managed to capture her.
But I had overlooked the possibility that the kelpies would have an extraction team, and when they had heard that they were compromised, the extraction team actually attacked the other districts of the capital of Aquamaris.
And Tethys was the one leading them. Well, leading them would probably not be the most accurate description.
She was their battering ram would be more accurate. Tethys has somehow grown in size, to that of an orca. She also had some strange ear fins, almost like that of lionfish fins. As such, she was at the vanguard of the kelpie assault, ripping through formations of my city guards as if they were nothing but sea foam. The one hundred kelpies following her then ripped them to shreds.
It didn’t help that Tethys, while preoccupied from leading from the front, had delegated another commander to coordinate her squads. Her fighting me meant she was slowly getting separated from her main force, but her backup commander ensured that her kelpies was able to fight in a fairly coordinated fashion.
I lured her into fighting me one on one, allowing her to think she was winning, giving her the opportunity to inflict some superficial wounds. This… was far more difficult than I expected, but I managed to hold on to allow the rest of my Myrmidons to concentrate on her kelpies and ensure they could not coordinate. I then did my best to try to capture her.
Regrettably, I had no choice, but to kill her. She refused to be caught by physical or magical means and the collateral damage from my battle with Tethys was rising. I decided that before more of my seaponies found out about the existence of Tethys and the kelpies, I had to kill her. So I did, this time, I fixed her in place with a miniature whirlpool and then collapsed a building onto her. The shrapnel, the rocks shredded her armor, and also blinded her.
I must admit her cries of agony were quite sweet to hear.
Ultimately, we’ve caught the traitors. I will have to think about making use of another decoy in the future, albeit, one who is more trustworthy.
Furthermore, we also found out that Tethys’s appearance, like that of her kelpies, has changed. I wonder what caused the change in her physical appearance. Oddly enough, it seems… familiar.
Perhaps a visit into my later diary entries may reveal something.