Edited by: tommyjl7

Jason kept throwing papers from one pile to another in a hurry. The secret room in the noble mansion was pretty much a hidden library, yet instead of books, it was filled with documents, notes of transactions and correspondence letters. What’s the problem then? Do I have to once again point out that someone bothered to hide all these papers? These were transactions of illegal goods, notes of bribes, letter to private thugs and much more.

Yet nothing that would connect House of Redfeathers with Church. At least not now. The time was running short, so photomancer decided to fit as many documents into his leather bag as he could and leave the place. He would study notes later, in some safe place. He would hope to find something useful. Oh, there was plenty of USEFUL things here, just not useful for him. Later, he would send them to the Arthur, he could use them to strengthen his position on the court.

Still, that’s not what he is paid for.

He started moving past narrow tunnels as he tried leaving the place he was not supposed to be in, just as he walked back to the private room of head of the house, the sound of a key being turned in the door could be heard. Jason jumped to the side of the room and clinging to the wall he cast illusion once again, becoming pretty much transparent.

The door was open and owner of the chamber walked inside. It took him just a second or two to notice opened passage to his secret room. The man froze in place and became pale all over his face.

- “GUARDS!” he yelled as soon as he regain his calmness

The room was stormed with four men in the leather armor, and the sound of dozen more feet hitting the stairs afar could be heard, as even more of the people were approaching.

- “Lock the mansion! I want all servants to be gathered in the main hall for inspection. We may have an intruder. No one enters and leaves this mansion until I would learn who is responsible for this!”

That was bad. Very bad. He couldn’t hurt them, otherwise, a simple burglary would turn into sabotage or even “an assassination attempt”. Knocking one of the servants down and stealing his identity was one thing, fighting with a squad of private guards, completely different.

For now, all he could do was holding his breath, for “invisibility” spell did not make him invisible, only completely transparent. If he would move, everyone would notice his silhouette moving across the room. He needed to await until everyone would leave the room.

Head of house send his men to secure the whole building, then, cursing under his nose he went into secret passage to check what intruder was looking for.

That was Jason’s chance. Moving slowly he started leaving the room. Despite being an “illusionist”, he did not like sneaky attack. He used visualization to hide his attack, keeping this form of magical formula was draining. He only hoped that he would have enough mana to leave the area.

Meanwhile in Guild

- “W~rong!” Aiele almost sang as she once again send Elana on the floor “… seriously, kid, you are thinking too much. Unless you would become magician-sage, this will be useless to you, you have to feel it!”

- “I-I don’t get it.” Girl admitted massaging her bottom, which got hurt during her fall.

- “We are training your reaction time! In real battle your enemy won’t stop his attack in the middle to give you time to consider from which side he would attack. Thinking is pretty much useless in battle! Action and reaction followed by reaction for previous action! This is what melee battle is! Look at Giselle! She is a great fighter… yet thinking is a crime she did not commit.”

Elana liked her “older-sister”, despite being a thief that stole her angel, still that remark made her chuckle a little. Then she froze a moment.

- “Bad Elana! Bad Elana!...” she yelled at herself slapping a little her own cheeks “… That was mean! I should not laugh! And you, Miss Aiele…”

- “Call me Ay damn it!”

- “… should not offend other people!”

- “Come on! She is not even here!...” Assassin just rolled her eyes “… no one except us are here!”

- “That’s still wrong! Is crime not a crime only because no one saw it?!”

- “Whoa-whoa-whoa! Easy there girl! What crime!”

- “You are being mean for no reason! Despite the fact that Giselle is such a good person! I heard stories about her! She always protects kids and people that can’t defend their self ! When a village can’t afford to hire an adventurer she does her job for half or even less of the money required! She is a good person, and calling her that is simply not just! We should act more like….”

Aiele had many skills in her sleeve, one that was in the form of acting, that she needed to learn as an assassin, she attended many boring political or business meetings, as well as she took place in many boring religious rituals. Her mind could not process so much boring and uninteresting information, so it found a way to protect herself. She started sleeping with her eyes open.

The lecture lasted for over 20 minutes, during which El pointed out every moral, ethical and religious reason why such mockery is simply evil.

- “… reaching conclusion I would just want to add, that mocking people that do good deeds in counterproductive! Even more, if they would be for their deeds, they would learn that their wonderful actions are meaningless and stopped doing them! That would be a tragedy! So please, Miss Aiele, restrain yourself from speaking badly about other people!”

Blonde girl ended her passionate lecture. Her checks were still reddened from excitement.

- “You are right.” Aiele snapped back to reality.

- “Y-yes?” noble girl was caught off guard by sudden submission of her teacher

- “I have been doing wrong things my whole life, yet now, you made me see, I have been purified! I already feel the goodness of yours

knowledge reaching my heart! It touches my soul! I repent! I repent for sins I commit! I shall cut my ties with underworld of crime and will dedicate my life to live as a nun, feed homeless, treat sick…”

- “R-Really?!...” Elana’s eyes sparkled with finest joy “… Teacher, that’s wonderf…”

- “ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID!?”

Assassin hit blonde’s head with a wooden ruler

- “OUCHIE! That hurt!... and where did you take that ruler from!?”

- “I was role-playing in bed as a teacher before I came here to train you!”

- “I-I-I… I have no idea what it means…”

A single vein started pulsing on her head.

- “Elana, what do you hold in your hand?” Great Ay, just like that, step by step

- “A dagger?” El blinked twice rapidly, not knowing the reason behind this question

- “And what is dagger used for?”

A total, pure dullness covered El’s eyes

- “IT’S USED FOR KILLING, GOD DAMN IT!...” in the end killer from syndicate lost her patience “… This is what I am teaching you! The art of manslaughter! You will be using it, to put the sharp part of the blade into guts of your opponents! And you would repeat the action until they would stop moving!”

- “I… I know that…” El grabbed her weapon with both hands, looking at it conflicted “… mr. ang…, Mr. Zariel told me that world is not as it is described, that if I want to live this life I will have to kill, that many times I would kill an innocent, either because I would be mistaken or because someone would trick me…”

- “Is killing an innocent a thing that you are afraid off?” so that was her trigger. The reason why she was so conflicted and lost her focus every few minutes.

She nodded shyly.

- “Then I will tell you something, there are no innocent people, there is only a degree of guilt. The creature that would be the closest to pureness I ever saw, would be you, but even you are not innocent. You were, pardon me, you are weak. Pathetic. Fragile. Because of that, you were used a puppet. Because of you, your sister was forced to hunt Zariel. She spent months in the forest risking life of her and her people, not to mention Zari actually getting captured and tortured. It is your sin. On top of that…”

- “I know…” El whispered “… I know… I know… I know…”

She felt on her knees, covered her ears with palms as she started crying.

- “I KNOW! I KNOW! I KNOW!”

Yet Aiele did not stopped, she did not kneel next to her nor did not tell her that everything will be alright. No, she kicked the girl, not very hard, she wanted to cause pain, not break anything.

- “And look at you now. Feeling sorry for yourself. Want someone to hug you? To give you a candy? Life does not work this way, when you show that you are vulnerable, it will hurt you even more. Feel bad? Feel exhausted? Damaged? Get up, smile and ask life: . Sometimes killing one means saving hundreds, sometimes saving one means sacrificing thousands. Which one is wrong? Which one is just? Only you will know. Kill a tyrant if it is necessary. Kill a village if it means saving the one you love, there is no such things as good or evil deeds, only you can view them as one. So get your sorry ass up, and train.”

Aiele raised her leg in order to stomp on girl, yet girl managed to roll to the side and get up.

- “This is what I meant. You are thinking too much, instead of considering if something is good or bad, just do what you feel is needed.”

A sparkle of resolution appeared in girl’s eyes, seeing that Aiele licked her lips lustily. She knew what to do to break people, to change their mind. Elana could be called a terrible case, but maybe with right persuasion, her innocence could be re-forged into something different. A pure murderer? Why not. That was a challenge, and Ay loves challenges.

POV change

After few kilometers we “parted” our ways with soldiers, precisely – after falling in first ambush that I did not notice because of noise of dozen armored feet hitting the ground. I couldn’t hear my own thoughts!

Nothing serious, for now. A group of bandits just jumped from the bushes, shot once or twice with arrows and ran back. They were wearing leather armor which colors blended with forest. No one died, Capitan Blackwater yelled a command in split of second. Her men were better than just Well-trained. Shield of wall that was raised in next moment left the squad with almost no damage. Almost.

Two men were slightly injured. I knew were this was heading. Before we would reach the castle we would encounter dozen of such traps, if each of such encounter would end with two soldiers getting “slightly injured”… The outcome would be terrible.

We agreed that the main group would keep traveling using the main road (not that they have any choice in that matter, have you ever seen regular army marching through the swamp? Bad- idea.), while we would move bit ahead of them by the forest. We would take down ambushes.

I looked in the sky, checking position of my familiars. Sebastian flew toward castle, to check how the defense of the garrison looked like. Walter was scouting our current location from above while Gilbert and Remus were flying through the woods. Kaito was roaming somewhere near sniffing the area, and Greg… Was not here. I did not summon him. I mean come on! He is a fucking treant! Have you ever seen the speed of walking treant? If I would summon him, I would do it already under the castle.

Remus and Gilbert flew back to me, sat on both of my shoulders as they shared their memories with me. They found group of bandits preparing another ambush near the main road.

I whistled quietly drawing attention of Giselle and Lanelle. I raised my hands in the air before I started gesticulating orders. I stretched hand previously curled in the fist shoving four times all fingers, then direction.

Information was clear: enemies ahead in two hundred matters.

Giselle hit her chest with her fist and then pointed in direction of enemy – “I charge”

I crossed my hands on my chest before rapidly throwing them apart – “no fucking way”

Giselle pointed at us, then she hit her fists together, then once again – her chest with fist and direction of enemy – “You stay, I charge”

I pointed at her and poked my forehead with pointing finger thrice – “you are fucking nuts”

Lanele got between us, pointed with her hands at us, then she bumped her fists together, brushed her lip with her thumb and pointed on index finger, the place where ring should be placed – “you guys argue like an old marriage!”

Our silent conversation lasted for about two more minutes during which we were waving our hands like madmen.

“If you are lacking guts, then let me handle this!” Giselle waved

“I am not lacking any guts, you moron, I just want to be sure that they would not run away! If you would just jump in, half of them would flee!” I gestured

“We are wasting time here! Few more minutes and soldiers would walk into another ambush!” Lanele pointed out obvious

“So….” Giselle brought attention back to herself “… I CHARGE!”

“GOD PLEASE NO! NOOO!” I hysterically throw my hands in air “GISELLE NO!” I brought my fist to my open palm

“GISELLE YES!” dragoness ended her sentence showing me middle finger. I bet that this gesture does not requires translation.

“Then at least wait for us to secure sides!” I dropped my arm resigned

“Fine! But you have one minute!” Giselle smiled showing thumb up.

Fuck. Sweet Jesus, Mighty Allah, Wise Odin, Enlightened Buddha please, give me patience, because if you give me strength I will fucking strangle this woman!

Calm down. Calm down, dear me, one of the reasons why you came here was for Giselle to “relax”.

I walked toward the area while cursing with gestures. Shit was about to go down.