The Adventurer’s Guild Master assured me that no one else needed to come, and the four of us traveled back to Arturii. Having been excused from the exercises, Rhea wanted me to recover from that point on. Fortunately, they allowed me to witness the interrogation of the assassin.

Despite her struggles, she could not move in the slightest under the restraint of the Adventurer’s Guild Master. I was sure now that if he wished it, my body would stop functioning under his control. The strength of this world’s strongest Adventurer was no joke. My heart, my lungs, my thoughts… all would stop if he wished. A scary thought, but I was thankful he was on my side.

The assassin was seated in a bare room, with the Adventurer’s Guild Master seated in front of her and Rhea and I standing further back behind him. He looked into her face and started talking casually. “You’re the second sister of the assassin’s guild, right?” This was not a question, it was an assertion. The assassin’s face and body showed not the slightest change, but her eyes flashed in surprise. Her mouth never opened at all. “You shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve met your master before, I have a good memory.”

We waited for a while in silence. I was growing frustrated because of it, but the Adventurer’s Guild Master never lost his cool at all. “I understand the training assassins go through before you are allowed to wear the garb.

“Fortunately for us, we don’t need you to speak at all.” The smile on his face was haunting, and that was enough.

“Please, don’t,” she muttered. Her words disappeared with the wind as Mind Link was cast. Her eyes turned a lifeless grey and her body slumped slightly forward as if she had fallen asleep. I studied the Adventurer’s Guild Master carefully.

His appearance was calm, but his face grew more red and flustered as time passed. Perspiration dripped down his temple and patches of sweat appeared on his robe. Beside me, Rhea’s calm countenance shifted into uncertainty as well. The Mind Link was taking an extraordinary amount of time.

It felt like thirty minutes passed before those lifeless grey eyes returned to normal. The assassin gasped like it was the last breath of air she would ever take. Her dark hair was matted with sweat that clung to her face.

Her chest heaved up and down rapidly as she struggled to maintain her composure. There was real fear in her eyes now, and she couldn’t take her view away from the Adventurer’s Guild Master.

His eyes remained closed for several minutes as if trying to regain his composure. It seemed everything was well until the most guttural sound came from his throat, “You… foolish girl!” He growled.

Her body trembled before she squirmed like a trapped animal. Regardless of how she moved she could not free herself from his grasp. I heard a crack like thunder and then a heart-wrenching scream from her mouth. “Don’t try to move again,” he hissed.

I had not seen this side of the Adventurer’s Guild Master, but whatever he witnessed in her memories must have been worse than I could imagine. “I won’t kill you, but you are evidence, for now.” The anger was still audible in his voice. It was obvious he was restraining it as much as he could.

He looked at me then Rhea, “the Tyrant guild has the dragon egg.” He then turned and looking back at the assassin, “this one stole it.” The assassin shivered in shame once again. “It’s also as you expected Joseph: the Tyrant guild wanted their blood debt.”

“Where is it?” Rhea asked. There was urgency in her voice.

“I don’t know. Only that she used a special artifact to break my barrier and steal it. The egg was delivered to the Tyrant guild after that.”

“What will you do?” I asked him. I remembered his promise to everyone that day at the portal.

“Don’t worry,” he smiled. “Dominik is a dead man.” The bright white smile was as sinister as any demon or ghost. This was a relief to me and I must have shown it in my expression because the Adventurer’s Guild Master put a small damper on my excitement, “The training event shouldn’t last more than two or three days, after that all the guilds will meet. I will do it there.” He spoke calmly.

“Then what should I do in the meantime?” I asked.

“You should recover, and maybe find some way to master that skill you used to escape assassination.” He eyed me curiously but didn’t ask what the skill was. From experience, he definitely knew more than he was letting on.

The streets were lonely and desolate on the way back to Valkyrie’s guild building. The words the Adventurer’s Guild Master said repeated in my head over and over again. My feud with Tyrants was coming to an end soon.

Relief filled me as I realized my goal for this past year was within reach. Dominik would die, the Tyrant guild would lose its guild leader and would never be the same again. The threat on my shoulders would disappear. A weight had been lifted off my back that I hadn’t known was there. It had been there so long I had taken it as normal.

I slept like a rock for two nights in a row—up until the training exercise concluded. I could barely stop myself from jumping from bed for what I thought would be a fateful morning.

I made my way to the city square where the meeting would take place. The Adventurers’ hall was just off it and had none of the rustle and bustle of my previous visits. The rooftops nearby cast a shadow over the ground that filled me with an ominous gloom. Would all that pain I’d been carrying since the murder of my friends end today?

I had never been as happy to wait in silence for several hours as I was today. When the sun was mid-way in the sky, people started to appear in the distance, slowly making their way down the streets and revitalizing Arturii.

Guilds I recognized and guilds I hadn’t previously seen filled the streets. Some were mostly cheerful, other seemed filled with exhaustion, or had anger in their faces. The training event must have heated up quite a lot, as these people were clearly in need of a good rest and recovery.

In moments I was surrounded by a sea of people and those guild leaders in charge of running the event made their way onto a platform just outside the Adventurers’ Guild. They started to speak about the lessons of the event and somehow I couldn’t care in the slightest at all.

Their voices seemed to be muffled and the sound of cheering and applause as the winners were announced seemed distant. The words they spoke went in one ear and out the other—none if it mattered to me at all.

Only when the Adventurer’s Guild Master started to walk on stage did my senses come back into focus. There was also the fully cloaked figure following obediently behind him. Faces looked back and forth in confusion as well as unease.

“Congratulations to the winning team.” A raging applause surged up again. He raised a hand and slowly lowered it as if turning down the volume. A pin drop could be heard. “It’s good that everyone is so excited. What is coming will be much harder, more dangerous than what you can imagine. Everyone here will be risking their very lives.” He paused. “Look around you. Your allies or your enemies during the exercise—all of them will be on your side—a helping hand, a shield, a life saver when you’re in dying need. Remember these faces well.”

People couldn’t help but take a glance around them with solemn looks. This was a war the likes of Yetera had never seen. Defeat meant total destruction and extinction. There was no turning back.

Those looks lasted several silent seconds, as if to at least preserve the memory of this moment, to never forget the faces. “Unfortunately, not everyone here wishes for humanity to succeed, to prevail.” His voice took on an ominous undertone. The excited and eager faces grew confused before turning to the cloaked figure moving towards the Adventurer’s Guild Masters side.

Gasps rang out across the crowd as the cloak was removed. Underneath was a ragged woman. Her body was covered in a half-garb splattered with black blood spots. It was torn and sliced in several places.

Her eyes that seemed so full of life before now appeared completely dead: defeated. Her left arm was now healed into a stump just below the elbow. She had been cleaned up at least a little bit for presentation.

“Dominik, will you join me on stage?” The Adventurer’s Guild Master eyed him from the crowd without hesitation. There was a tinge of annoyance, fear and hesitation on Dominik’s face before it turned into a bright smile.

“Absolutely.” Yet his steps were heavy, and with every one of them I could hear my heart beat in my chest louder and louder. I started to move my feet along with his until I found myself just a bit under the stage. Close enough to jump up if called.

“Everyone, this is an assassin.” He ushered the young woman forward. Her feet stumbled and almost tripped as she moved to the edge of the stage. “Most of you here do not know that during our expedition we gained a powerful ally: a dragon.” He paused. “This was under one condition, that we protect its egg.”

His face turned to Dominik who was now having a very difficult time keeping his composure. “Unfortunately, that dragon egg was stolen. But, fortunately for me this assassin here was the one to steal it. Isn’t that right?” he asked.

As if on cue she raised her face and shouted out loud. “I stole the dragon egg!”

Several excited voices appeared from the side of the crowd, all members of the expedition. “You’ve found the dragon egg?”

“Where is it?”

The Adventurer’s Guild Master didn’t miss a beat, “I don’t know where it is, but Dominik knows. Isn’t that right?” he asked with that sinister smile.

The confusion among the crowd cleared in an instant as everyone realized exactly what was being suggested. “What are you saying? That I know where the dragon egg is? Don’t be foolish!” His calm demeanor instantly turned to anger.

“My sweet little assassin,” the Adventurer’s Guild Master said with a honeyed voice. “Who hired you?”

She struggled for a moment before releasing the tension built inside of her. “He did…” She muttered.

“Can you say it louder, for everyone, please.”

“The Tyrant’s guild leader… Dominik. He hired me.” The crowd grasped in shock as everyone remembered the words the Adventurer’s Guild Master had spoken previously. The Tyrant guild wanted humanity to fall? Could that be true?

“Preposterous! This is just heresy. You’re trying to set me up!”

“You know better than most my abilities. Are you suggesting I want to frame you? To what end? I just want the dragon egg back.”

“It’s your words against mine.” There was no venom in Dominik’s voice.

Some of the Tyrant members in the crowd could read the situation, “We know he wouldn’t do that! This is a setup!”

Several members of the guilds that had been latching onto the Tyrant coattails started to shout out. Even some of the higher levels from the expedition started to murmur falsehoods.

“Silence!” The Adventurer’s Guild Master yelled, then turned to the Tyrant leader. “Will you submit to a Mind Link or not?”

“Never! I’ve done nothing wrong.” Dominik hissed.

“You were always a greedy idiot. Restrain him!” And several other high ranking Adventurers’ Guild members came forth to stand surround the leader of Tyrant.

“You intend to forcefully read my memories?” Dominik yelled as his arms were seized, “this is an attack on all our rights. On every guild.”

I was expecting the Adventurer’s Guild Master to launch a Mind Link but instead, his eyes shifted to the area in the crowd that Dominik had walked from. They focused on a man a few years Dominik’s junior. His younger brother.

The man immediately realized the danger and wanted to run. His feet started to move but he suddenly could no longer move his body at all. Instead, he was lifted directly into the air by an invisible force. His face was turning red as his hands scrabbled at his neck.

“You were also involved.” The Adventurer’s Guild Master spoke calmly. “Will you die or speak?” His voice held no emotion; it was as if he was about to smash an ant. That dispassionate tone alone seemed to amplify the fear the man was feeling as he flailed in mid air.

“I’ll speak!” He managed to get out the words. All the same, the grip around his throat didn’t lessen at all. Instead, it grew tighter and tighter. His eyes were bulging from his sockets when the words everyone wanted to hear left his mouth. “We did it! We conspired with the assassin guild to steal the dragon egg!”

Only after those words left his mouth did the pressure lighten. He was carried to the platform and restrained along with Dominik.

“A tortured man will say anything!” Dominik shouted. “You can’t mean to convict us on this alone!” He screamed in defiance.

“Oh no, I am not going to convict you just on this.” He said calmly. “But everyone here should agree that we have now heard enough for us to search your memories. If you have nothing to hide then I will find nothing, right?”

“It’s still your word against mine!”

“But if you did steal the egg, I will discover in your thoughts where you have hidden it, no? And that alone will be proof that what I read in your memories was truthful.” Dominik’s face grew sour. The dragon egg would be the ultimate proof needed to sentence him. “If you truly hope humanity to succeed than this should be no issue at all.” The Adventurer’s Guild Master said sweetly.

The crowd looked on nervously while Dominik refused to give the go ahead for the Mind Link. Fortunately, it was not up to him. “Protect me,” the Adventurer’s Guild Master said. Rhea immediately summoned a barrier around him. Others took up defensive stances around him as he forcefully cast mind-link on Dominik.

Dominik struggled to fight it for mere moments before his eyes took that lifeless grey color. Several upper-level Tyrant members rushed forward only to be stopped by the masses. Some didn’t like what they saw but others clearly had seen enough of the Tyrant guild. They pushed back with obvious satisfaction.

Those on stage looked around nervously as the crowd grew more rowdy. A riot could form any second if this didn’t wrap up quickly. The Adventurer’s Guild Master could quell the masses in a moment, but he was busy battling Dominik. It was obvious from both their expressions that Dominik wasn’t a pushover.

Fortunately, it was only a matter of a few minutes before both of those locked in battle gasped out. It was evident that the Mind Link was broken and the rowdy crowd calmed slightly out of curiosity. No one wanted to miss what the Adventurer’s Guild Master would say.

“You’re quite crafty aren’t you? I almost feel like you expected this development on some level.” The Adventurer’s Guild Master spoke.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Dominik spit on the platform in disgust. “Tell them what you saw already!”

And the crowd couldn’t hold it in anymore, “Tell us what you saw! Where is the dragon egg?”

The Adventurer’s Guild Master slowly wiped his brow, “I can say for certain the Tyrant guild did take the dragon egg. But, I don’t know exactly where it is,” he confessed. “You conveniently instructed your secretary to hide it, even from you.”

“So you don’t know? Without the dragon egg, how can we believe what you’re saying is even truthful?” The younger brother of Dominik didn’t miss a beat. His neck was still red from having been squeezed with such great pressure.

The crowd seemed to eat up these words, and those Tyrant members that were already upset raised their voice louder.

“SILENCE!” The Adventurer’s Guild Master yelled. “Your secretary, I believe his name was Louis. Where is he?”

“Don’t know. He disappeared just a day or two ago. No word at all,” Dominik spoke with a smirk.

Suddenly the Adventurer’s Guild Master looked in my direction, as if I was his trump card. “So even now you claim you don’t have the dragon egg. Your secretary conveniently disappeared, eh? It should be fine to search your headquarters then, right?”

“We gave you an inch and now you want a mile!” A random tyrant member shouted from the crowd. Others started to echo his sentiment, and it didn’t seem like things were going well.

“Right, I’ll be fair.” The Adventurer’s Guild Master said. “Everyone is here, so I’d like the guild leaders to make a vote. I’m only going to look, not tear the place down.”

Even Tyrant members couldn’t find fault in his words. Dominik, who had looked like he was going to protest, seemed to calm down quite a bit at the mention of a vote. His venomous eyes looked over to the sidelines. Many of the guild leaders were on his side, by friendship, or force, or otherwise.

“I’d like everyone to remember though,’ The Adventurer’s Guild Master warned, ‘if we do not find the dragon egg we will be doomed regardless. Maybe we can take the teleporter to West Abithos, but to return? The dragon will destroy it. There is even the chance it will fly across the ocean to destroy us.”

His words caused a few of those on the fence to draw a line between friendship and survival. “Also, if you side with the Tyrant guild and the dragon egg is recovered from them, I will consider you an accomplice. You will die along with Dominik.” There was no emotion in the words that came out of his mouth, just cold, detached, monotone.

“You can’t do th—” before the words could even be finished the Tyrant member who had spoken was picked up into the air. Just like with Dominik’s younger brother, his face turned red as his neck was constricted. It almost seemed like he would be strangled to death. His eyes glazed over and then the pressure released. His body started to fall as someone caught him. He had only passed out.

“Very well; let’s vote!” The Adventurer’s Guild Master yelled. “All for searching the Tyrant’s headquarters, raise their hand!” He raised his hand immediately, as did Rhea and a few other guild leaders opposed to the Tyrant guild.

Many guild leaders, however, did not raise their hands; enough that the vote would not pass. The Adventurer’s Guild Master looked around and carefully locked eyes with one of them before making a cutthroat motion with his hand.

Each time, the guild leader under scrutiny blanched and immediately raised their hand. As the Adventurer’s Guild Master’s eyes reached each and every guild leader who was not voting yes, more and more hands flew up. No vote changed for around fifteen seconds before he spoke again. “Are these the final counts? We have a majority here in favor of the search, so don’t die for nothing!” On these words a few final hands went up, as the guild leader realized there was no point risking their life on a lost cause.

By the final count, every other guild had voted in for the search. The Tyrant guild had been abandoned in full on this day.

It was obvious that the stress from this encounter and the earlier training event was building anxiety. The Tyrant members in the crowd were seething and I could see that everyone else felt as if they were walking on egg shells. This gathering could spark an all-out battle at any time. The Adventurer’s Guild Master was walking a fine line.

It was a sad reality that humans were greedy without limit. They always wanted more, and sacrificing others was not an issue for some. The Adventurer’s Guild Master knew this already and didn’t want to push the issue farther. “Everyone should return and rest for the day. The search for the dragon egg will happen tomorrow and a verdict will be handed down that night. We leave in three days for West Abithos, be prepared!”

His words relieved the tension in the air and the people around me seemed to relax a little. The guild leaders were no exception as several wiped the sweat from their brow and pulled at their sticky clothing. Group after group departed without a word, hoping to get away from this mess as soon as possible.

Eventually it was only the Tyrant guild remaining there waiting. They all looked up at Dominik who was still restrained by the Adventurers’ Guild. Rhea was behind the Adventurer’s Guild Master with her barrier still summoned. The Valkyrie guild had left without her as well.

I was below the stage on the side, staying out of the way, waiting for the results. “Alright Dominik, we will not keep you restrained any longer. You are to return to the Tyrant guild and patiently wait for our arrival tomorrow. No one is allowed in or out until after the inspection.”

Dominik scoffed at his words, “Just put guards on us and be done with it!”

“Don’t worry, there will be guards as well as my special barrier. No one is getting out,” the Adventurer’s Guild Master said.

“Good! You’ve shown your true colors!” Dominik turned on the stage towards his guild. “Let’s all return and prepare for our departure in three days!” His voice was strong but I could tell there was an undertone of uncertainty.

Only after the Tyrant guild completely left our view did Rhea and the Adventurer’s Guild Master turn to me, “Let’s go back,” he said. It was a quiet walk back to the Valkyrie headquarters and it didn’t seem like they were interested in filling me in on their exact plans.

“I’ll come see you later. You’ll play a crucial role in all of this,” the Adventurer’s Guild Master said before sending me to my room.

His words should have put enormous pressure on me and made me nervous, oddly enough, they didn’t. Instead, they took a huge weight off my shoulders. I wanted revenge so badly that the thought of not being a part of sending Dominik to the gallows made me sick to my stomach.

It had been my sole goal for so long now. Taking down the Tyrant guild had seemed so far away, and yet now it was so close. The possibility existed that tomorrow Dominik and his brother would no longer be alive. What would I even do after? That thought train hit me like a ton of bricks and I fell asleep soon after.