"Praise progress!"
The members of TU-BV14 clinked their wooden mugs together with a cheer, sloshing the cheap swill carelessly. They sat in a booth of the tavern, somewhat isolated from the rest of the rabble. Though they wore uniforms and sat apart from the other patrons, Jackie, Lauren, and Brutus behaved eerily similar to the rest of the drunkards.
Yakob attempted to join the revelry of his faux comrades, but everytime he looked at the opposite end of the table, he saw the white flour caked into the creases of Lauren's uniform. The dampness of Brutus' hair. The mania in the side of Jackie's eye.
The mischief in Jackie's gaze manifested in a scream: "CHUG!"
Lauren and Brutus smiled slyly at each other and lifted the mugs to their lips.
"Last one to finish has to pay!" Lauren said.
At this, Brutus leaped into action. He tipped the entire mug into his cavernous maw, completely perpendicular to the gigantic opening in his face. The yellow liquid rushed down in a waterfall and met no resistance, sliding down his gullet effortlessly. The entire mug of ale was gone in less than a second.
Yakob stared.
Jackie and Lauren laughed with aplomb and began chugging their own drinks, taking large gulps. Yakob really couldn't afford to pay for everyone's drinks, so he joined in just as Brutus let out a gigantic belch and called the waitress for another mug.
He drank too fast, but it wasn't fast enough. By the end of it, Yakob was coughing, spluttering, and woozy. The others egged him on, jeering as he finished the last drop of the mug.
The world was spinning.
Lauren laughed that same hitching laugh as when she had slashed Arria's flour. Her smile was villainous. Twisted. "Looks like Yak's gonna be coughing up his chimes tonight!"
"Not the only thing he'll be coughing up," Brutus said trying to keep away from Yakob as his face slowly turned green.
"He'll be yakking that all up tomorrow!" Jackie said, slapping her knee. "Get it?"
Something inside of Yakob steeled. Until this point, he was conflicted about whether the mission was a good idea. He could've just killed all these people and been done with it by now, but he decided they deserved a slower death. More painful. For what they had done to Arria. For what Darian had done to his father. They deserved worse than drowning by his water.
He would make them suffer. But he would wait. The mission came first.
"Don't call me that," he slurred.
"Aw, we're just having a bit of fun," Lauren teased, then added, "...Yak."
"I said don't," Yakob said flatly. All his effort went into maintaining that stony facade that hid his pure hatred of the Empire's cronies. The killers of Drai, his brethren. Hunters of his brother. People who would hang him in an instant if they knew who he was.
"Oh, lighten up, Yak. We're just having a bit of fun!" Jackie said.
Yakob stood, bumping the table. He swayed slightly and slammed his hands down on the wooden surface to steady himself. The alcohol forced bile and emotions up his throat. He could taste them, and he couldn't keep them at bay. He threw the contents of his stomach onto the table, filling mugs, and spraying onto uniforms.
"Do you ever stop and think?" Yakob wiped his mouth with a dark sleeve. He looked at it and held it up to them. "We're Trenmir! Extensions of Maur's will! Protectors of the Empire! Don't you have any standards? Or will you just go around, poking and prodding, hoping to find Drai hiding under someone's bed? You should be ashamed of yourselves," he pointed at each of them in turn, "you do not live up to my expectations, and you will never live up to the Emperor's. You are bullies. You destroy and take from citizens without a second thought. Don't you see how they live in fear of us? Because of us? It is your fault! Yours! You hunt the starcursed because it lets you pretend you aren't monsters, but deep down? You know what you are."
Yakob stopped for breath. He had been shouting, louder than he had ever done. The tavern had quieted around them, listening to Yakob's fury. They had never seen an agent of the Trenmir turn on itself before. They had never seen an agent of the Trenmir that wasn't corrupt.
Lauren wiped some flour from her coat. She couldn't get it all off and shrugged. "It's just a bit of fun," she said. "No need to get so worked up."
Yakob leaned forward so the rest of the tavern wouldn't hear. "You are pathetic. You are a snivelling pup at Darian's heels, begging for the chance to be a Putresco. He wanted me instead of you. I bet that just grinds your gears, but it shouldn't. No, it shouldn't, because you've never done anything to make yourself worthy of his attention. You are a leech feeding off of others. You have no morals, no purpose, no truth. I see you. I see through you, and unlike you I have honour. So, I will pay for your," he gestured at the ale, "failures of faith.
But you will not catch my brother. Even as a farm boy, he was smarter than you are. Better than you. I will be the one to find him and bring him to justice, mark my words. You will be behind me, licking my boot just to see if I might have left any greatness on my heel.
Then you will call me by name."
"You talk too much," Brutus said, spitting to the side.
Without another word, Yakob turned his back to TU-BV14 and made his way to the bar, where he jingled his string of chimes to call the bartender over. The mutagem necklace Arria gifted him felt cold on his chest.
The barkeep charged him triple. Yakob was too drunk to care. He sat on a stool, with his head on the sticky wood, so alone among the throng of people. Even the blackout drunks avoided him because of his Tomb Trenmir uniform.
He deserved this. He couldn't help Arria when she needed him. Except... what was that page with the runes on it? Why did Arria have it? Only a learned scholar could write something that extensive, perhaps someone that had studied in Port Ryndem... A Drai?
"Don't look up. Just keep your head down and act your natural, depressed self," came a voice from beside Yakob. "Yes, exactly like that! Stunning! Amazing! Perfect!"
"Shanty?" Yakob mumbled into his arms, keeping his head down like she had asked.
"Yep, its your bestie!"
Yakob turned his head slightly sideways to glance at Shanty from the corner of his eye. She was wearing her mask as she always did in public, as well as that ridiculously sized hooded cloak. Her staff was leaning on the counter, the topaz glistening in the candlelight.
"Told ya not to look up, goofball. The pigs are watchin'. Speaking of pigs, what a speech you gave! Truly inspiring, I mean, my heart was moved! So anyway," she turned the mask with the ouroboros eyes towards him. "Any news?"
Yakob sighed. "You're too casual, Shanty. This is a spy mission."
Shanty flipped a hand back and forth, as if waving away Yakob's caution. "Yeah, yeah, just gimme the juice. The Institute's getting ants in their pants waiting for you and Enoch to give them something to work with."
Yakob lowered his voice. "They're not just looking for Amos. There's posters for his friend, Ink."
"Oh! I remember him! Muscly guy, tattoos, a bit dumb?"
"Yeah..." Yakob blinked, "I guess so. Only, the posters aren't being shared with the Trenmir as a whole. It's Tomb business only. They don't want anyone else to know."
Shanty nodded eagerly. "Xae asked me to bring him to you, but you were off doing Trenmir business when I got to your farm so I spoke to your family and left the dumb guy with your brother."
"What was I supposed to do with him?"
"Xae wanted you to bring him to the Institute. She said something about 'someone she can trust' and kept talking about how there's nothing between my ears. Anyway! Ink must be pretty important, hey?"
"I'd say so. You should let the Institute know to keep their eyes peeled for him as well, and make all efforts to hinder their progress towards finding him."
"Uh huh. Oh, also, Vanii's here."
Yakob stopped short. "Vanii? Where? Why would you bring him?"
"The Institute said I should have someone to help fight because of 'increased security risk in the target area' or something like that."
"But Vanii? That's a recipe for disaster!"
"I know! He's so strong! Isn't it awesome?"
"No!"
"Oh, calm down, mister hoity toity. I left him outside."
"Shanty..." Yakob gave up all pretenses of a discrete conversation and grabbed her by the shoulders. "That's even worse. He's going to expose us."
"Uh oh," Shanty said.