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Description
Infiltrating Exilvania had always been one of Lara's more disliked assignments, the dictatorship known for its inhospitable environment and strict security measures. Which was why she had made her reservations against this particular assignment known, vehemently. Still, command would not budge and she could guess all too well why. With chaos in the Dune Sea it was prudent to know just what the regime directly to the north was planning and in how far it was actually involved in this entire affair.

So far things had gone smoothly. Insertion into the country via submarine, infiltration of the city of Schreckensburg by scaling the walls, heck, the intel on the secret passage into the Count's castle had also been correct. Everything had gone absolutely perfectly up to this point which was why Lara had really only been waiting for there to be some sort of hitch in the entire ordeal.

That hitch came fairly quickly in the shape of an absolute lack of orientation within the secret passages. The entire castle and the mountain it sat on seemed to have been beset by maggots burrowing into it, what with all those secret passages crisscrossing each other. Their intel hadn't shown even a tenth of this entire system of passages and within 10 minutes of entering she was hopelessly lost.

Still, this was alright, Lara told herself as, stopping for a moment to take some deep breaths and calm herself. She luckily didn't suffer from claustrophobia else this all could've been a lot worse and she still had plenty of supplies to perhaps even spend one or two entire days hidden in the secret passages. With her skills however, she doubted that it'd take her that long to find her way as well as a way out.

Speaking of supplies, her stomach audibly growling reminded her that she had been traversing the passages for hours at this point, her body demanding nourishment now. Under normal circumstances she'd have kept it in a while longer but well, she was perfectly safe her, not like any Exilvanians would come snooping in here and if they did she would hear them long in advance.

Using the wall as backrest, Lara slowly slid down along it into a seating position while unpacking some of her rations, her water canteen being the first to come off and find its way to her mouth, her lips greedily greeting the mouth of the canteen, water flowing freely down her throat. Ah, it was such a wonderful feeling to feel some water wetting her throat after all this time spent in old, dusty passages full of cobwebs. Still, she had to be mindful not to drink too much. If this mission would indeed be longer then she'd be hard pressed to find new water.

click

Her butt met something, some sort of resistance as she slid down the wall. It gave way almost immediately however, giving her no time to stop her descent or anything, removing itself with a click that sounded way too loud in the otherwise dead quiet passage. It certainly caused Lara to freeze almost immediately, her ears perked up to listen for any other sounds.

Crap, what was that? Maybe just some twig lodged in the wall? Or maybe a lever to turn on the lights? Oh how she desperately hoped that it was just that and nothing worse like-

There was a low, rumbling sound and with an initial jolt the wall behind her suddenly started to move. Lara, leaning against that very same wall and having already gotten rather low in her attempt to get seated was immediately affected by that jolt, the wall just vanishing upwards behind her back, causing her to topple backwards in a rather comical fashion and hit her head on the floorboards behind.

"Ow! Crap, who builds levers all the way down there?!?"

It was only a second later that she realized what this meant. She was outside of the secret passage. She was in the castle proper. She was where hundreds if not thousands of servants, guards and VIPs walked daily. She was in plain view.

Lara hesitated for a moment, unwilling to confirm the suspicion that was rising to the top in her mind. However, she couldn't put it off forever and slowly turned her head upward, turning her gaze from the ceiling towards what lay ahead of her.

Jupp, alright, she was screwed. She gulped as she returned her gaze to the ceiling again, trying not to think about what she had just seen. Oh why couldn't it have been some maid or perhaps one of the Xers in a compromising position or heck, even a torture chamber full of horrors. Any of these scenarios would've been much better for her. Much, much better.

"You are quite possibly the worst spy I have ever seen."

, a muffled voice came from ahead and slightly above, the speaker clearly talking through a gasmask. Lara stifled a sigh before trying to smile and make some sort of witty comeback like the agents normally did in the movies, saying:

"Ah, but you have seen me."

It sounded way more retarded than it did in the movies and Lara wanted to curse herself immediately after uttering it. Rarely had she said something more embarrassing, all the more so when the muffled voice replied with a scathing:

"Yes...yes I have. And soon you will wish I hadn't."

On that part they probably both agreed, though Lara wished much, much, much more that she had never ever accepted this particular assignment in the first place. When entering the lion's den there was of course always the risk of coming face to face with the lion himself. And she had come to face with not just one but three lions, possibly the worst sight she could have seen in the entire nation safe for a plethora of gun muzzles pointed at her...and even then there were some who would argue that meeting these people was worse than that.

Thanks to Exil for commission and description

Description
Infiltrating Exilvania had always been one of Lara's more disliked assignments, the dictatorship known for its inhospitable environment and strict security measures. Which was why she had made her reservations against this particular assignment known, vehemently. Still, command would not budge and she could guess all too well why. With chaos in the Dune Sea it was prudent to know just what the regime directly to the north was planning and in how far it was actually involved in this entire affair.

So far things had gone smoothly. Insertion into the country via submarine, infiltration of the city of Schreckensburg by scaling the walls, heck, the intel on the secret passage into the Count's castle had also been correct. Everything had gone absolutely perfectly up to this point which was why Lara had really only been waiting for there to be some sort of hitch in the entire ordeal.

That hitch came fairly quickly in the shape of an absolute lack of orientation within the secret passages. The entire castle and the mountain it sat on seemed to have been beset by maggots burrowing into it, what with all those secret passages crisscrossing each other. Their intel hadn't shown even a tenth of this entire system of passages and within 10 minutes of entering she was hopelessly lost.

Still, this was alright, Lara told herself as, stopping for a moment to take some deep breaths and calm herself. She luckily didn't suffer from claustrophobia else this all could've been a lot worse and she still had plenty of supplies to perhaps even spend one or two entire days hidden in the secret passages. With her skills however, she doubted that it'd take her that long to find her way as well as a way out.

Speaking of supplies, her stomach audibly growling reminded her that she had been traversing the passages for hours at this point, her body demanding nourishment now. Under normal circumstances she'd have kept it in a while longer but well, she was perfectly safe her, not like any Exilvanians would come snooping in here and if they did she would hear them long in advance.

Using the wall as backrest, Lara slowly slid down along it into a seating position while unpacking some of her rations, her water canteen being the first to come off and find its way to her mouth, her lips greedily greeting the mouth of the canteen, water flowing freely down her throat. Ah, it was such a wonderful feeling to feel some water wetting her throat after all this time spent in old, dusty passages full of cobwebs. Still, she had to be mindful not to drink too much. If this mission would indeed be longer then she'd be hard pressed to find new water.

click

Her butt met something, some sort of resistance as she slid down the wall. It gave way almost immediately however, giving her no time to stop her descent or anything, removing itself with a click that sounded way too loud in the otherwise dead quiet passage. It certainly caused Lara to freeze almost immediately, her ears perked up to listen for any other sounds.

Crap, what was that? Maybe just some twig lodged in the wall? Or maybe a lever to turn on the lights? Oh how she desperately hoped that it was just that and nothing worse like-

There was a low, rumbling sound and with an initial jolt the wall behind her suddenly started to move. Lara, leaning against that very same wall and having already gotten rather low in her attempt to get seated was immediately affected by that jolt, the wall just vanishing upwards behind her back, causing her to topple backwards in a rather comical fashion and hit her head on the floorboards behind.

"Ow! Crap, who builds levers all the way down there?!?"

It was only a second later that she realized what this meant. She was outside of the secret passage. She was in the castle proper. She was where hundreds if not thousands of servants, guards and VIPs walked daily. She was in plain view.

Lara hesitated for a moment, unwilling to confirm the suspicion that was rising to the top in her mind. However, she couldn't put it off forever and slowly turned her head upward, turning her gaze from the ceiling towards what lay ahead of her.

Jupp, alright, she was screwed. She gulped as she returned her gaze to the ceiling again, trying not to think about what she had just seen. Oh why couldn't it have been some maid or perhaps one of the Xers in a compromising position or heck, even a torture chamber full of horrors. Any of these scenarios would've been much better for her. Much, much better.

"You are quite possibly the worst spy I have ever seen."

, a muffled voice came from ahead and slightly above, the speaker clearly talking through a gasmask. Lara stifled a sigh before trying to smile and make some sort of witty comeback like the agents normally did in the movies, saying:

"Ah, but you have seen me."

It sounded way more retarded than it did in the movies and Lara wanted to curse herself immediately after uttering it. Rarely had she said something more embarrassing, all the more so when the muffled voice replied with a scathing:

"Yes...yes I have. And soon you will wish I hadn't."

On that part they probably both agreed, though Lara wished much, much, much more that she had never ever accepted this particular assignment in the first place. When entering the lion's den there was of course always the risk of coming face to face with the lion himself. And she had come to face with not just one but three lions, possibly the worst sight she could have seen in the entire nation safe for a plethora of gun muzzles pointed at her...and even then there were some who would argue that meeting these people was worse than that.

Thanks to Exil for commission and description