While Gideon seemed very open as he told me about his family I couldn't help but notice how he remained vague about those expansions of his brother. He didn't trust me enough to reveal information that was considered a secret of the empire.
I would have to earn his trust in order to find out how many worlds they were currently trying to invade or had already successfully invaded.
So I listened to the prince's woes as he went on and on about how his elder brother would try anything to place obstacles in his path. Half of his entourage was cringing while trying to keep up their forced smiles. They must have been forced to listen to this whining before.
While they struggled to keep up their facade of smiling I had no trouble doing so. I had a lot of practice in keeping a smile on my face when met with endless whining.
Despite their annoyance at the prince's ramblings, the escorts did a good job. They cleared out any animals or small monsters that came too close and kept a lookout for assassins.
We reached the foot of the mountain without incident but the boreal forest seemed to continue forever. There was no road in sight and dusk was setting in. Navigating through the forest at night would be unwise.
"We'll have to make camp here. Lord Raven, will a simple tent be alright with you?"
The way prince Gideon cared for my well-being was kind of cute. It had been a long time since someone last worried about the quality of my sleep.
"No need for such considerations. I will keep watch throughout the night. At my level sleep is a secondary concern so you can rest easy."
"If you too keep watch during the night that will indeed be a great load off my mind. Is there anything else we can do for you?"
"In what direction does the closest city lie? If any assassins do come they'll likely come from that direction so I'd like to be prepared."
Prince Gideon went to discuss with some of his people and finally pointed me in a direction. Then as they got busy with setting up camp I took off into the trees and started setting up some things myself.
I placed multiple sentry spirits along with a sentry formation to protect the camp. I couldn't let the prince die on my watch, could I? Then I conjured an illusion of myself sitting in a tree scanning the area. That was enough to keep up appearances but just to be safe I placed an instant exchange rune below the illusion. Sure, teleportation was fast but there was a certain delay that could be eliminated by setting a rune.
My preparations complete I resumed bird mode and flew into the direction prince Gideon had said the closest city was in. To stay blended in I shifted into a dusk owl. Desert birds didn't live in forests after all.
I flew a couple of hours into the night while scanning the boreal forest below. The forest was quiet except for a few wandering animals and monsters. No second group of assassins to be seen.
Then I reached the city. It was the dead of night so barely any lights were on anymore. Only one small part of the city was still brightly lit...
Yes, the red light district was fully lit and I could see a bunch of people stroll around in that area. But those few were of no concern to me.
I set up an anti detection formation and started to carefully invade the minds of all those sleeping. Large scale information gathering like this was very reliable since any information could be double-checked multiple times but it wasn't very rewarding.
The resulting knowledge wasn't much and only concerned things related to common knowledge but that should still allow me to tell if prince Gideon was trying to fool me.
I had also tried to ascertain if this Tristan fellow had passed through the city but no luck, no one had seen him.
Had he perhaps given up?
No, I didn't believe that a loyal subordinate of the crown prince would so easily give up his mission. Prince Gideon being alive meant a complete way block in their plans. Not making a second attempt would be foolish.
With primary information gathering out of the way I proceeded to fly back to the prince's camp at a more leisurely pace. I didn't need to be there throughout the night so was free to take in the night scenery. I spotted a few other owls but none of them looked like me.
My tranquil flight through the silent night was rudely interrupted by a giant condor that somehow felt it was a smart idea to attack an owl by night while it was flying above the treeline without cover.
Admittedly, the condor was much larger than usual and based on just my size it would be able to take me. But really? Did that oversized chicken trade in its brain for a bigger body? If yes, bad choice!
I shifted into a small dragon of maybe five meters in length and let the condor attempt to dig its claws into me. Big surprise, it didn't work. How's that for easy prey you oversized chicken?
I grab the bird and dig my claws into it. This dragon form didn't have wings and the condor's wings were certainly not strictly ng enough to carry us both. Drawn by gravity we both plummeted downwards at increasingly high speeds. What was the terminal velocity of a giant lizard and an oversized chicken combined?
I didn't know but when I spun around and brought the condor beneath me the resounding crack made me believe that we hadn't reached it. At such a speed the birdy would have splattered all over the forest ground.
Having dealt with this minor annoyance I resumed my flight to the prince's camp.