There is no document relating the subject of Firante magic. After a whole century of on and off war between Men and their mortal enemies, this lack of recorded information brought out numerous conspiracy theories. All historic texts theorise that Firantes could modify their appearance, but some say it is through an adaptative biological phenomenon, like Jourdin’s cameleons, while others say it is through their magic. I prefer the first explanation, as, if Firante magic follow the same rules as miracles, only a few individuals should have gotten the gift, but records show that every single one of them showed this ability. As such, there is no clear proof of the existence of Firante magic, even though it is commonly believed that the Firante could use it.

A few examples of conspiracy theories over time, to be taken with a pinch of salt, of course:

Firantes are an invented thing, and never existed. This lie served the purpose of uniting the Empire.

The Firante magic gives the illusion that this magic exists.

The Firante magic is a gift of some god and is not reserved to the Northern monsters. To avoid humans being corrupted by it, the Imperatrix destroyed all documents related to the magic.

Sage-Brother Berth’s lesson.

Nay slept peacefully. Since Joanna’s death, the dreams had ceased. The Legio knew that the nightmare was still there, deep down, but after the typhoon, it stayed hidden. Nay liked to believe it was the shadow of her friend protecting her. Joanna was happy in Trayx’s Hell of Lull Seas, the place where all innocents rest, and she helped Nay fight what haunted her.

The young Legio had never asked herself the question before, if she really believed about Gods of Ja, and even now, she did not really have an answer. Still, imagining her friend dancing on the eternally calm sea was comforting.

Her sleep was not interrupted by the eyes anymore. What woke her up that day though was another pair of eyes, beautiful ones, colour of the sky after the passage of the northern wind.

Nay had sensed, even asleep, the Rreico of someone in her room. But as the feeling wasn’t unpleasant or wanting her harm, it did not wake her from her dreamless sleep.

The water on her face though, woke her up so suddenly she immediately reacted with a Harakos ground technique.

No one was there to be hit by it; the one waking her up having intelligently taken a few steps back.

“Ouah. Understood, I shall not do this again. Too bad, it’s funny.”

Trinne was looking with marvel in her eyes the series of strikes aiming to break the opponent’s neck.

“Trinne…what the…?” Nay did not know what the most surprising thing was. Trinne’s current clothes, a nightgown very much inappropriate to wear outside your own room, her forced waking, or the daylight. She had forgotten at which hour she had gone to sleep and was not used to see the column of light pouring out of her large window.

“H-i” Said the Duke’s daughter as hello.

“How are you…” Nay did not finish her sentence, realising it was a stupid one just in time.

“How am I here? Your door is always unlocked. And I have your key anyway. Not a smart question.”

“I didn’t ask.” Nay removed the sheet on her body on the ground. “What are you doing here?”

Silence.

“Trinne?” Nay examined her red-haired friend. She was doing a weird face.

“Trinne!” The Legio repeated.

“…I didn’t know you were sleeping in the nude.” Finally said the Duke’s daughter with an indescribable expression.

One year prior, Nay would have been horrified over her lack of modesty. But she had been at the Soi a lot since then.

“It bothers you?” She teased before getting the glass of water on her nightstand. It was empty, what had been inside was now on her bed, and on her face. She took a jug and filled it back up.

Her comrade observed the morning routine.

“No, it doesn’t exactly bother me.” She gave the Legio’s body a long overt stare, then grinned. “I just thought I had come here to seduce you, not the opposite.”

Nay, quenching her thirst, spat out the water, close to choking. She internally admonished herself. Even with her training at the Soi, how the hell could she believe one second she was capable of outdoing Trinne’s provocations.

“WHAT?”

“Oh, calm down. It’s part of the plan. My father is furious since your profligacy in the diverse bars of Lower-Gite. He just needs a bit more of a push, and then he’ll make a mistake. Knowing him, rumours of his daughter in a relationship with the monster of Gite should be more than enough.”

Nay took some time to manage to emit a normal sound again. Trinne had omitted this part of the plan during their briefing the previous week. She cleared her throat before finally asking: “You want to piss off the Duke? If I get the character well, that just means he’ll do everything in his power to kill us.”

Trinne did a contemptuous pout, then countered Nay’s argument with a simple: “That’s already the case.”, and after that, she loudly moaned in pleasure.

“Trinne. In Ja’s name, what the hell?”

“I’m adding some realism.”

Nay, now very uncomfortable about her not wearing any clothes, walked straight towards her wardrobe.

“Oh? I told you, it doesn’t bother me.” Trinne repeated. She then moaned again.

Nay looked at her fearfully: “You are enjoying this.”

“You have no idea. If you could see your own face, ooouuuh, I really don’t need to work hard on those moans. By the way, don’t you want to produce some yourself? It would help and make my ‘guards’ run straight to my father. There are only a few days before my deadline. Every second counts.”

Nay did not answer, she was looking in absolute horror at the piece of clothing she had just taken out of her closet.

By a terrible stroke of luck, she had taken out Veridienne’s gift.

“Are you seriously wearing that? No way. Let me guess, Veri? She truly has great taste.”

Trinne had come closer, much closer. Nay felt naked flesh against her own.

She turned around, now seriously angry.

“Stop toying with me.” She threatened.

Trinne, not impressed in the least, continued. “And you did not answer my question. Could you give out a few screams? For the plan.”

“I…I don’t know how to…”

Nay felt her friend’s Rreico slightly change. Her anger vanished.

She saw Trinne’s eyes and gulped.

“I hate you.”

“Why? You love climbing! The Duke’s daughter countered, looking spectacular despite the abandoned house’s obscurity.

“Yes. On a cliffside, with good lighting. Not potentially at night on a rotten wooden building.”

“It is not rotten. Be honest with me, you’re still blaming me for this morning, that’s it. I was joking.”

“No.” Nay firmly answered.

Trinne gave her a puzzled stare.

Nay did not answer to the provocation and concentrated on the task to come.

“If your plan works, your father…”

“The Duke, not my father.”

“…the Duke will enter the Assini building with his private guard’s armada. Then what?”

“You’ll be bait. Every guard, the Duke, the Assini high-ranked members, everyone important will be inside those four walls.” Trinne pointed at the building they were currently spying.

Standing on each side of a barred window, they looked outside through a gap between two wooden planks.

Nay had never seen Gite’s wood in such deplorable state.

She did not try to know more about how Trinne had found this perfect location. Her friend’s information network was quite large.

“We have lost our ‘guards’, do you seriously think he will come here while not knowing where we are? Is he seriously dumb enough to lead us directly to the Assini headquarters?”

Trinne looked at her, then sighed.

“Yes. And Yes. In other circumstances, maybe he would have listened to his advisors and bodyguards. And even then, he rarely does. But now? He’s furious and not scared of us. Two young girls, even Virnyl guard apprentices, are nothing. Especially if they were seemingly abandoned by the Commandare. This plan wasn’t made in one day. I’ve been thinking a long time about how to get out of his grip, Nay.”

Nay only nodded.

“Do you trust me?” Trinne asked.

It was the young Legio’s turn to sigh. “Yes. Unfortunately for me.”

The road, illuminated by the sun at its peak, was completely void of people. The building across the street was quite normal at first glance. There was only a few things distinguishing it from the other.

It was freestanding, having no direct neighbours, a lone construction in the middle of the crossroads of four alleyways. In the tight Borealis district, this was more than unusual.

Moreover, all the windows were barricaded, which was normal in this season, but with a closer look, you could notice it was too perfect. There was no openings, planks very thoroughly stitched together.

Climbing the house without being spotted was impossible, but the narrow alleyways of Gite would give Nay an easier way. She only needed a bit of a run up, and she could use the roofs to jump across the street. No more than five feet, it would be easy.

“And so, what’s the plan?” She asked.

“You need to get to this window there.” Her friend pointed at a window just under the roof of the Assini building. “With that around your body. Put it on like a harness, not just around your waist.” Trinne gave her a long rope. “I will come with you on top of the roof, and I use the rope to get you out of there fast. It is imperative for you to stay there, at this window, on the same floor. If you don’t, it will not work.”

“How? Wait, I remember this somehow. Wasn’t something like this done in one of Herr Grindenbask’s stories? He catapults a chest full of golden ingots in the air through a rope and a pulley.”

“Yes. Fredere talked about it in such length in class, it stuck. And it was a chest made of gold. The historical version tells that he actually paid five native children to jump in his stead.”

Nay grimaced.

“Surprising, isn’t it?” Trinne said. “When it’s not written from the -hero’s- point of view, it is suddenly very much less of a heroic tale, isn’t it?”

“Don’t say that to Fred.”

“Don’t worry, you’re the only one I really talk to.”

Nay did not know what to say to that. She met her friend’s gaze and gave her a saddened smile. The red-haired teenager did not seem bothered by her admission.

After a short moment of silence, their conversation continued.

“What do we do if he doesn’t come?” The Legio asked.

“We try again tomorrow.”

“…Trinne, I don’t believe I am able to kill anyone.” Nay revealed out of the blue.

“You told me already.”

Nay’s eyes widened. “When did I say that?”

“After you told me about your dreams of mountain climbing.”

“Oh.”

Nay did not know what else to say, embarrassed.

“Honestly, it complicates things. But I like a challenge. If that were not the case, I would simply have sent you inside to murder everyone. Quite boring really.”

“With the Duke’s private guards and Assini high-ranked? I wouldn’t have gotten far.”

Trinne raised her eyebrows.

“Neither have been trained by professor Marke or the Commandare, and you have. I think the results would have been a coinflip.”

Nay grimaced.

“What exactly do you take me for? A Carradinoris warship?”

“No. I consider you the protegee of the world’s most dangerous man. So, let us say, two Carradinoris warships.”

The derelict room was suffocating. Nay and Trinne were keeping guard, one at a time. They talked about everything and nothing. Nay recounted the story of how she was adopted, and Trinne told her about life as a noble.

Opulence, luxury and the power of her place was not so attractive when hearing Trinne talk about her aunt deceased in dubious circumstances, her cousin exiled, and herself, imprisoned her whole childhood inside the gigantic Ducal palace.

“A prison, whether a quarter of a mile square, or ten feet square, is still a prison.”

“The one a quarter of a mile big has to be more enjoyable though.

Trinne’s stare changed her mind.

“…How did you manage to convince your fa…the Duke to let you attend the Legio school?”

She smiled.

“I convinced him that a prison or another would not change anything. Moreover, I would not stand in his way if I spent half my time in Lower-Gite.”

“Smart.”

“Did you doubt that?”

Nay did not retort anything to her friend’s arrogance. She would not please her like that.

A movement caught her gaze.

“Trinne.” Nay’s tone of voice changed.

The young woman stood up. “As expected, sun is setting and Kriks come out of their holes. He can move without much gossip at this hour of the day. He can always use the excuse of yet another mistress if he gets seen.”

“Five guards, a servant and the Duke.” Nay stayed professional.

“Let me see.”

Nay backed away, letting Trinne get to the window. Her red hair was exceptionally not combed.

“Correct. Everything is going as planned. The servant is a woman, she’s named Yaesha, and is with us.”

“Understood.”

“In any case, you shouldn’t be meeting with her. Do you recognise the guards?”

“No. Most likely not Virnyl.”

Trinne nodded, a cruel smile growing on her flawless face. “So predictable…we’re on the move.”

The wind was going strong on top of the dark wood roof. The rope was hampering Nay in her movements, but not enough to compromise the mission. Nay knew she was bait, but not why she was bait exactly. She trusted her friend’s plan and didn’t try to know more about it or why this Yaesha was there.

“I’ll stay here, on the lookout. If something is wrong, just moan loudly and I will let you out.” Trinne informed her of that while pointing at the simultaneously complex yet simple apparatus that would catapult her out of the house: A counterweight that she and Nay had carried on top of the roof, a robust rope linked with Nay, and a pulley system situated on the same level as the window the young Legio was aiming for.

“Really? That’s our signal?” Nay protested with dark eyes, though she wasn’t really trying to change Trinne’s mind. She sighed, then focused on more pressing matters. She looked over to the opposite roof.

She took some distance for a run-up, checking the tiles for solidity and grip, then turned around. She started running.

“Good luck.” Trinne encouraged her.

The Legio ran past her, took two large strides, then jumped.

And landed a solid five feet past the gap.

“Pfuh. Too easy.” She said out loud.

“Such arrogance.” Trinne responded from the other side.

“Coming from you…”

Nay saw the sparkles of tease inside her friend’s eyes. She concentrated on her mission. Her friend did the same and went to fix the other end of the rope.

To leave with the harness around her torso, Nay would need to leave through the same window she came in. So, if she made knots or got her rope stuck somewhere, the situation would turn comical for everyone except her. Nay would rather avoid that. She could always undo the harness then redo it, letting her create chaos more effectively, but she was not sure she would have the time to put on the harness again. So, she would need to create heavy disarray all the while being unable to move around.

She was certainly being expected, the noise on the roof and her talking with Trinne had not exactly been discreet.

Which was to her advantage, she wanted everyone to be on high alert.

She stepped towards the edge. She gracefully dropped from the roof, hanging by one hand to dangle in front of the barricaded window. The wood was worm-eaten, and the nails rusted.

She got her dagger out with her free hand and cut through the wet wood around the nails. Once the dagger re-sheathed, she gave the window a push with her feet, and it was undone.

In one swift jump, she was inside. The air was full of dust, the location quite clearly not having been cleaned often, or at all.

She found herself inside a long rectangular corridor, leading straight to stairs going downstairs. The place was nothing special, floor and walls naked of everything except a discreet wood polish typical of Gite.

No one was there, or at least, no one alive. The Legio was not feeling any Rreico on the floor.

She unsheathed her weapons, checked if the rope was not stuck anywhere, then moved towards the set of stairs.

No one had noticed she had entered the building, even though she had purposefully tried not to be sneaky.

She sighed. Her next move would break all infiltration mission rules at once.

“I AM NAY, DAUGTHER OF RA’FA AND MARKE. YOU TRIED TO KILL ME!? WELL, COME AND GET ME!” She shouted as loudly as she could.

This move was dangerous. Her objective was to make everyone inside, stay inside, the Duke in priority. She was to stop him from being escorted outside, and now that he knew she was there, he could get cold feet and flee. Trinne had explained how to prevent that from occurring though.

“Your daughter is delicious by the way; I will accept her as collateral for your murder attempts.” She shouted less loudly, as her throat hurt.

Then, she simply waited.

She heard swearing, orders commanded, and doors opening and closing in the lower floors.

A man, dressed in all black, his face covered by a terracotta mask holding on only by a ridiculous thread, was the first to emerge from the stairs.

His stance showed he was not prone to dialogue.

Nay let him get up to her floor. She stepped back as he moved towards her, keeping a reasonable distance between them both.

He started insulting her.

Nay did not listen to the litany of bad words coming out of his mouth, not that she understood any of them, his accent was rather heavy. Nonetheless, she understood his last threat: “You will pay for my master.”

The corridor was barely wide enough to let the man pass. Nay though, was slender, and her movements would not be impeded as much as her opponent’s.

“Wait, she’s mine!” She heard a shout downstairs. She was almost certain it was the Duke’s voice. He had not fled. Trinne, astute, had guessed his reactions right.

Reassured that the plan was going as expected, she forgot the Assini facing her for a second.

Who attacked.

Obviously, he was not listening to the Duke’s orders.

Taking advantage of the distraction created by the Duke’s shouting, he had taken two knives, one in each hand.

Nay only saw them when his Rreico changed abruptly, and that he swung his wrists in a very characteristic way.

Two blades escaped his fingers.

Without thinking, she repeated a well-trained move, the same one used by her father during their very first duel.

The two daggers bounced off her sword. Fallen on the ground, Nay noticed they were covered in a weird viscous liquid.

Her adversary gave away a shocked expression, but his hands were already going back to his belt to get more throwing knives.

Nay would not let him. Her own dagger pierced his arm.

She took two steps forwards, then interrupted his painful screams with a roundhouse kick perfectly aimed at his right temple.

He crashed on the ground, unconscious.

Marke would not have approved of the kick. But that was probably true for the whole plan.

“I am to keep them here, not make them flee.” She argued out loud to no one. “I couldn’t let him scream like that and scare the others; the kick was necessary.”

She had just enough time to recover her dagger and check for any knots or problems with her rope before the fallen Assini was joined by his comrades, the Duke, and his guards.

In the tight corridor and stairs, a dozen men, armed to the teeth, were trying to reach her, sticking awfully close together. No one came near her though. She backed off so the unconscious body could be taken away.

She looked, with an uncaring expression, at the events unfolding. Internally, she was scrutinizing the men one by one, checking their weapons, their posture, their Rreico.

Those at the back were older, standing proudly, and looked at her with either hatred or contempt. With their high-quality clothes, it made little doubt that those were high ranked Assini. Either former assassins or unscrupulous merchants, hard to say.

The ones closer to her were at their peak. Their posture was seemingly nonchalant, in truth, they were ready to pounce. Joanna used that stance often.

The disciple that Nay had knocked out was clearly nothing like them. With no shadow of a doubt, those men were true killers.

No-one moved, tension was palpable.

“Let me through! I order you to let me through!” Could be heard from down the stairs.

“Duke…she is dangerous, we have to…”

“Yes…I am the Duke! And you shall let me through. It is not some Lebe sucker who will scare ME.”

“I apologize my Duke…”

Nay waited patiently, hearing a Hmph and a Grmph. She could see a man with a bland physique try to go through the mass of Assini. Behind him, his bodyguards were following him, all on high alert, as if they expected any of the Assini to turn on them.

“Shouldn’t we move to a location more suitable for conversation?” Asked one of the old assassins. He had a long grey beard, and that was his only notable characteristic, as the rest of his face was hidden behind a dark hood.

“Nah, I’m fine here.” Nay answered.

“Get out of the way!” Commanded the Duke.

Finally, he pierced through the mass, followed by his guards. Nay back off to the window. She noticed that night was falling, but more than that, there was a weird smoke outside coming from downstairs. She had to look away, as she felt a weird pull from it, trying to grab her attention.

‘What the hell is Trinne doing?’ She asked herself. She did not doubt her friend would get her out, but at the same time, she had this weird image of Trinne, looking at her from a gazebo, a glass of wine in one hand and an olive in the other.

“You! Yes, you! Do you have any idea of the humiliation, the mockery I received because of you! You disrespect my laws, then my daughter! No, worse, you are corrupting her! You put dreams of glory and women inside her head, while she should be thinking about serving her father and her city. Then you dare. You DARE come here and taunt me!? I’ll enjoy watching you get dismembered and raped, then I’ll keep the memory preciously for when I’m having a hard time to sleep.”

She did not say anything back, letting him continue his apoplectic rambling.

“But after all, you are Gite’s Monster, aren’t you? Maybe you’ll like that. You have a family though, right? Maybe I’ll do the same to them…”

Nay winced at the words ‘Gite’s Monster’, but when he mentioned her family, she froze.

Marke had told her some nobles would target her family if they could not reach her.

She stayed calm. She would not lose initiative; she would not crumble under the threat. The Rreico would stay hers.

She answered, a carnivorous smile on her lips.

“I believe Yarrin told you what would happen if you ever target my friends or my family. Didn’t he?”

Her sentence chilled the room. She felt anxiety settle, doubt.

What if Gite’s Monster truly was one?

To the Duke though, it only reaffirmed his anger.

“Does the Church know that the Commandare is hiding a God-Touched in his ranks? Oh, I’ll get him, thanks to you, I’ll get him. I do not know why you came here alone, but, power or not, you will not get far. You will....”

He was cut off by an erotic “Haaan”.

“What the…” He said. “Trinny?”

Nay flexed her knees, standing ready for what was to come. “I did not come here alone. Haven’t you noticed something?”

One of the guards stepped in front of the Duke, taking a defensive stance.

“What are you doing?” He asked. “What have you done, Firante? Why the rope?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Honestly? I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask Trinne.”

“So it was her?” The Duke asked, shocked. He then stared behind Nay, outside the window. He froze, his face becoming increasingly horrified. “By Ja. The powder. That is why she…”

Nay did not hear the rest, as the rope suddenly tensed, digging the harness painfully in her shoulders, stomach, and upper thighs. Reflexively, she curled up, saving her from a fractured head on the top of the window’s frame.

She flew fast.

Too fast.

Literally catapulted in the air, she fused straight towards the abandoned building, crossing the gap in a fraction of a second. The rope, stretched to its extreme, was passing through a tight gap between two wooden planks. Nay was going straight towards them. Fortunately, they exploded on impact and after twenty feet of sliding on the ground, Nay stopped.

“Lebe’s harlot.” She swore.

She did not really know how, but she was completely unscathed. The rotten wood had not hurt her. If she had not been ready and curled up though… After a quick check up, she only found a shard of wood inside her right arm. Nay was slightly too large for the window, and the piece of wood had pierced the apprentice garb’s leather. Wasn’t big or deep, but considering the place, she would need to put plentiful of disinfectant on the wound. She sighed.

She stood up and used the dagger in her hands to cut away the harness digging in her ribs.

“This building is a mess.” She whispered.

“Nay?” A feminine voice called to her from an opening in the roof.

“Trinne?” She noticed the red hair.

“You all right?”

“No thanks to you.”

“Later. Get down!”

“Get what?” The Legio asked.

Then there was an explosion and she heard nothing more.

She regained consciousness a bit later, being carried on Trinne’s back. She looked around, confused. She recognised this alleyway; it was near the city centre.

“You awake?” Trinne felt her wake up.

“Erm..”

“Thank Ja! I don’t know what I would say to professor Marke if I had had to carry you to the school. That and my back hurts.”

Nay slowly got her bearings. Her sword was in its sheathe, and so was her dagger. She was missing no arm, leg, or vital organ.

“How long since…?”

“Ten minutes, at most. We could not stay in the house, Gite’s whole army is going to be there. I assassinated the Duke, better for me not to be found on the crime scene.”

“You what!?” Nay let herself fall flat on her ass. She needed to get away from her friend’s fruity smell, as it was giving her auditory hallucinations.

“I killed my dad.” She almost spat out the word. “Can you stand?”

Nay got her feet as only answer.

“But…why?”

“So we can stay at the Academy. We have successfully finished both of our Missions.”

The Legio tried to recollect her thoughts, everything was slowly piecing itself back together.

An explosion. Something had exploded. Black smoke.

“You blew up the Assini headquarters? Powder is banned in the whole kingdom!”

“That is true. But let’s get going, and don’t talk so loudly.”

Nay obeyed, but her brain was boiling.

“But why kill them? Why not just call the guards?”

“You thought that was why you were doing bait.” It was not a question.

“Of course. They were going to get caught red-handed, no one could have gotten out of…”

“No one could have gotten out free? No, no one…except the Duke of Gite. He’d even manage to turn the whole mess to his advantage: you were trying to recruit the Assini, and he was there to stop you.”

Trinne exited the alleyway, mingling with the crowd of rowdy patrons of the Borealis district.

“Trinne, wait.” Nay caught her hand.

Deep inside the Duke’s daughter’s Rreico, behind her apparent calm and stoic demeanour, the Legio felt something else.

Her friend turned around, squeezing her hand. “You know Nay, he wanted to kill me and hated me. But he was my father.”

“Oh, Trinne. Why? Why do this?”

They walked, hand in hand.

“Because this is what had to be done. He murdered people, Nay. He killed Joanna. Drugs, assassinations, slave trading and weapons, he was the evilest man I ever met.”

“Why not tell me you were planning to kill him?”

Trinne laughed softly. “You had your doubts, you’re not an idiot. I think you just didn’t want to realize that, so you would not feel responsible.”

“I…”

“Sorry. It is not your fault. And in truth, maybe not even mine. We are only obeying orders after all. Even though those orders were in my interests as well.

“Orders? We were asked to dismantle the Assini organization, not to kill the…”

“That’s not it, Nay. That was your Mission. I had another.”

Finally, she understood.

“Redrick. Redrick asked you to get rid of the Duke.”

Silence.

“…A terrifying man, the Commandare. He couldn’t have the Duke’s daughter in his ranks. He would never have been able to trust her. He knew his ranks were corrupted, that soon, the Duke would move against him. If he had killed him himself…”

Nay finished her sentence. “…It would have been a civil war. The mob and the Virnyl guards against the nobles and the Imperial army.”

They did not say anything for a while.

“Good job, by the way, Nay. Except two Assini carrying a third one, no one left. They won’t make good witnesses. Nothing shows anything else than a powder trafficking accident. Yaesha is going to make herself forgotten, and we are untouchable.”

“Was she the one in charge of lighting up the explosives?”

“Yes. My father was overjoyed when I told him I would help him with his powder trade last year. He may not trust me, but he loves gold too much to refuse my help. No one beats me in business.”

“You’ll find someone who does one day.”

Trinne gave out a sad chuckle.

After a few minutes of silence, they finally reached the eastern lifts.

At this hour of the day, they were closed to the public, but the guards could occasionally still use them.

Nay worriedly asked: “Trinne, getting back up from Lower-Gite after a coup against the Duke, won’t it seem suspicious?”

“It would. Except if no one knows we have taken the lift and that the records show us on top of the plateau for the whole week. After all, our Mission should not have started yet.”

With that foreboding answer, Nay, her wits completely recovered, knew exactly who she would find at the bottom of the cliff.

In front of the metallic gates, one shadow, illuminated by the dancing flames of torches, was guarding the entrance of one of the most strategic locations in Gite, alone.

More guards would have been superfluous.

“Nay. Trinne. You seem exhausted.” Redrick looked at their hands, still holding each other, then gave them a fake reprimanding stare. “I usually close my eyes on my guards’ private affairs, but not if it impedes their performances.”

“Very funny, Red.” Nay replied.

“Nay!” Trinne shushed her.

The Commandare clenched his teeth.

“I am still in service, and if you talk to your commanding officer like that I will have to punish you.”

“But I’m not. I am not in service anymore. Your rules. I am allowed a leave since I finished my Mission, isn’t it? Time to write a complete report.” The young woman with cloudy eyes retorted.

“Oh. That is true. My mistake.” He apologised, a large smile on his face. “By the way Trinne, I have to give you my sincere condolences.”

Nay felt her friend’s hand grip hers tightly.

“You are as sensitive as a dead mollusk.” Nay was furious, even though she did not understand why.

His smile did not falter. “Nay, succeeding your Mission does not give you the right to lack respect.”

Nay wanted to say something back to him, but Trinne, wisely, stopped her by speaking in turn.

“I thank you for the words, Commandare. But coming from the one who organized the crime, I find your condolences of bad taste. I hope I proved myself and that you will abstain from testing me again.

“My apologies, dear.” He gave an exaggerated bow. “So sad that a Virnyl guard can’t take a ruling position in the City, except the Commandare title of course, you would have been an excellent Duchesse.”

“There are only Dukes, and I do not want this position.”

“Which is another reason why you would have been so great.”

“Could we go up?” Nay cut him off, tired and angry.

“But you are up. Didn’t leave in a week.” The Commandare stepped back and let them go inside the large wooden structure.

He pulled a lever and the bronze and tin cogs began churning and turning.

“By the way, Nay?” He had to shout to be heard over the sound of the machinery turning on.

“Yes?”

“Are you aware that the northern villages stopped showing any signs of life?”

Nay looked at him, puzzled.

“Erm…The villages near the Unbroken Ones and the Canyon of Sables? It has been a week, has it not?”

The lift began moving, she and Trinne rose.

“I’m talking lower, more south than that.”

“Then no, I did not know. Why?”

“Nothing!” He smiled, but for the first time since that day at the Soi, Nay perceived his Rreico. Just a flash. She had seen fear. The sensation vanished as quickly as it had appeared, the Commandare’s silhouette had disappeared in the night beneath them.

“Was that a coded message for something?” Trinne was looking at her, herself taken aback by the Commandare’s weird question.

“No, I have no idea what it was all about. But for an instant…I thought he was scared.”

Trinne gave out a mocking laugh.

“The Commandare, afraid? Ja protects us.” Nay understood perfectly well why her friend had this sarcastic tone; the thought was indeed ridiculous. Trinne continued: “I will still do some research about what’s happening, the abandoned village stories are intriguing.”

The Legio nodded simply: “Thank you. Marke talked about it as well, but he did not seem scared.”

Trinne shrugged her shoulders.

“Proof you were imagining it.”

That was what must have happened. Because, really, what could have scared Redrick Darkstar?

Who?

Or what.