"Thi- this one sent the girl to the capital!" He stammers, looking frigtened.

"Why!?" I want more information.

"This one is already loyal in the succession war! This one wanted favor for eliminating a competitior!"

"Who!?"

"Wiyam! Wiyam, the count from Aseel!" I vaguely remember hearing about that candidate from Atna and Bosir.

"And the others! What of those that escorted her!?" He pales and shakes more in response to this. Did something happen to them?

"The woman was bought off! The woman wouldn't betray the clan, but took money and agreed to leave the matter alone!"

Mynie, shit, what the hell were you thinking, not even informing the others of this guys ill intentions!?

"And the twins!?" He turns his face away.

"AND THE TWINS!?" I repeat, pressing the blade slightly more against his neck.

"de-dead" he lets out in a small voice. Shit! Fuck! I didn't have the closest relationship with them, but they were pretty funny and livened up whatever requests we went out on together. In addition, they were pretty competent as a team, leaving me thinking I may be in trouble as soon as I don't have my knife to the throat of the count, and the knife I created will only last a minute more or so.

"You, come with me, somebody quickly run and fetch my sword and shield and meet me at the entrance." I order the count and one of the standby guards.

I move relatively quickly, all the while keeping my knife close to the count's throat, which ends up scratching it a little. He is crying, but he is following my pace without trouble, and I even manage to get him to guide me. At the entrance, the guard, who is faster by the nature of not escorting a hostage is already there. I hold one hand around the count, pointing the knife at his throat, while extending the other to receive my equipment.

The guard drops it, and I try to fetch it quickly, leaving behind the count for only a moment, but as I turn around, the count is further removed and behind a person clad in leather armor and a wrap around his head.

"Kill the bastard!" The count screams, and both guard and the masked man move towards me, probably with more incoming, I can't fight this.

I kick open the door, channel bestowal with a huge investment of mana into my legs and run like the wind.

"Stop that man by order of the count!" I hear some scream, and guards come out from the other manors in the area.

I have to get back to the others as soon as possible.

As I arrive at the gate I spot the group hanging out. The shouts from behind me alert the guards, but Kamas seems to quickly grasp the situation and knocks them out swiftly.

"Shit went wrong, hurry and run!" I yell. And so we do. Running through the city, through the guards at the gate. I could cancel my bestowal since I had to keep pace with the others. What I expect is several miles away from the city, we can't see our pursuers anymore and even my read picks nothing up.

"Shit, what happened?" Bern asks.

"Mynie was bought off, Atna sent to the capital and... Caper and Toben killed."

Faces that could be interpreted as a range of emotions form on the groups face, but they are definitely negative ones.

"What do we do now?" Bern one again asks.

"We head to the capital of course. If we run, we should catch up with them before they make it there."

"Can I... Can I quit?" is heard from Larn. We all turn around, a little stunned and face him. It is Kamas that takes up the rebuttal.

"This situation is probably more and worse than you had thought or hoped, but we are enemies of the local lord now, we can't go back."

Larn makes a grimace "Shit, I know. I just wanted to complain. I thought my job was just gonna be a little posturing and escorting, but now we are fucking on the run. Shit!"

That last shit was not part of his rant, but rather him stepping forward and blocking a javelin aimed at Kamas' back. It pierces his left arm and cries of agony ensue . Fuck shit, someone is here and read isn't picking them up, which can only mean one thing.

"At least one gift user is after us" I inform the crew, as I quickly properly equip my sword and shield that I was merely carrying earlier. My read only registers living things without mana vessels or with full mana vessels. Since I get no signal, it means that the perpetrator is someone who has a mana vessel, with some spent mana.

We take up position, but I quickly feel uneasy. We are used to fighting as pairs of two, one sword and shield, one spear, but all three of us are sword users and our only spear user already heavily injured.

"That can't be" Kamas makes a worried statement. "I spotted someone moving, but they unnaturally disappeared from my view"

This may be an annoying battle.