Chapter 27: An Unnerving Find

(Eve Solaris)

I walked out onto the roof of the inn we called home last night, having changed locations several times during our stay. I looked up at the night sky and felt myself being enveloped by the beautiful starry expanse.

There was just something about looking up at the stars. Something magnificent. Their innumerable beauty was one that I would never be able to forget. The gentle breeze blowing against my skin on the warm night lulled me further.

“Quite the beautiful sight.” Amelia said, appearing behind me as she silently closed the door.

“Very, reminds me a little of someone.”A funny feeling in my heart as the words left my mouth.

“Oh? Do tell.”

“You wish,” I stuck my tongue out at her.

“You know I’ll eventually find out, right?”

“Yeah, eventually, not now.”

I watched as her face changed, her expression slightly annoyed.

“We should get going.” She gave my shoulder a slight reassuring pat.

“Yeah, it would suck if we missed the guards changing shifts because of some beautiful distractions.”

Shrouding ourselves with our cloaks, we descended off the roof and merged into the ever-lively crowd beneath towards the off center ‘base’ where we were planning our infiltration.

No matter the time of day, the streets were filled with a somewhat chaotic yet organized group of travelers and merchants.

Even the crowd seemed to know to steer clear from the rather unnatural looking woods with the oh-so-normal three story building hidden within. The brisk walk we paced led us to the planned entry point into the woods after about ten minutes. There were a few overgrown bushes between three trees that were perfect for losing oneself in..

I motioned towards the brush and on a practiced count, we walked along the edge. A pace or two away, I released a gust of wind that tore through the crowd at eye level, blinding most with their own cloaks covering their eyes in surprise. We slipped between the trees without hesitation and hid ourselves within the shadows.

We held our breath as we waited, listening for any sign of alarm, the sound of approaching figures, or any use of mana directed at us. Seconds passed as we waited, suspicious of the smallest of details. After what felt like hours, we breathed a collective sigh of relief.

I met Amelia's eyes and nodded, motioning for her to go first as I continued to monitor for any suspicious movement from the street. After a few meters, I began to follow after her using her scent in the wind as my compass.

Once we were far enough in, I was able to move a little more freely. I decided to climb a tree to get a better vantage point.

‘Based on our scouting we should be a little over a third of the way there.’ I thought.

I called to the wind as I jumped, extending my range enough to grasp onto a low branch. I pulled myself up with only arm strength and quickly hobbled up a few more branches, mentally thanking Ryla for all the muscle training she had forced me through.

Once I deemed myself high enough, I focused and enhanced my vision with mana.

Apparently A rank and higher could constantly keep this enhancement constantly active, making it so that there was little difference between night and day. Mine wasn't at that level yet. It took more of my focus than I expected and only turned a pitch black forest into a candle lit room, but it was still more than enough.

Feeling a bit more free, I began leaping from branch to branch using my wind mana to soften my landing.

As I leapt from branch to branch, I knew I should feel more nervous about what was to come, however I couldn’t help but feel a bit more 'at home'.

I didn't mind cities, in fact I was still enchanted by the sheer size and complexity of the capital every time I saw it. There was just something that clicked into place while I was in the wilderness.

The feeling of being able to do anything, with natural mana all around me, beckoning for me to join it. The feeling of the warm night, the beautiful starry sky, the wind- my wind. The feeling as it blew through my hair as I jumped to each branch. It was intoxicating.

My life has changed a lot since that day. I've become someone and experienced things I never could have dreamt of before. And while I would have given up everything to go back and change it, a growing part of me, that I was ashamed to acknowledge, didn't want to lose what I had now.

I had gained the ability to use mana, I had enhanced my bow, physical, and combat skills, and I had gained people important to me. One who was like a father, one who was like a mentor, and one who acted as my other half, as my sister.

I know we haven't known each other for very long, but the base of our friendship is stronger than maybe any I've experienced. It's to the point where when I think of a future, Amelia is there. It's not an expectation or anything, it's just how it is.

‘She’s a lot like Gabi…’ I thought, her face flashing into my mind.

Yes, certainly for better or worse, my life had changed and so had I.

Mom, dad, everyone, this is my first big step to finding the truth. I promise once I’m back, I’ll find out exactly what happened, with my new family at my side.

I felt the doubt that had been eating me up since my loss at the tournament fade away, and pushed the thoughts to the back of my head. Knowing I needed to concentrate on this mission fully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had taken several cautious minutes of leaping from branch to branch before I finally started to see the building emerge into my sight.

It was a rather bland looking place, if you ignore the fact that it's alone in the middle of an unnaturally silent and dark forest. It was made of a glossy dark wood with steel metal doors on two of its sides. Three stories high, each the height of an adult tree. It had several large windows on the bottom floor, which I had to assume were purely decoration as they remained pitch black no matter the angle I viewed them from.

I looked down to make sure Amelia saw it as well and found her a few feet ahead bunkering behind a tree.

I conjured a mini twister beneath my legs and lowered myself off the branches, barely making a sound. I made my way over to a huddled Amelia, staring towards the building and resisted the urge to try and startle her.

‘Not the time for that.’ I thought as I imagined her reaction.

“Alright, this is where the real mission starts. We’ve probably got a five to seven minute walk to get into position.” Her voice barely more than a whisper.

I nodded. “Let’s get moving. Be careful to not make any noise.”

She looked at my legs, I assume at the pillow of wind I was stepping through and nodded. We quickly and quietly made our way towards the position we had planned to watch the door from.

As I moved through the forest, I finally felt the nervousness start to build within myself. As we reached our position, I could hear my heart beating so loudly that I couldn’t help but feel worried it might give our position away. I even eyed Amelia to see if she could hear the thumping.

Minutes crawled along like a one legged rat as we both watched the door intensely, waiting for the moment the guards would finally switch.

After a few moments, we heard a bell chime four times and on cue, the guards began to head inside.

Our moment had finally come and we both darted towards the door.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

As we reached the door, I felt my heart drumming in my ear. I gave Amelia one quick look and we both nodded. We slowly pushed the large wooden door open.

As we made our way into the building, I quickly drew my bow and stayed along the wall, arrow nocked and string pulled tight as we waited. Amelia had rope loosely tied around her arm with kunai in hand as she held the door open just in case we needed to make a quick getaway.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

But, as our eyes adjusted to the inside of the building, we noticed no one was here and let out a collective sigh of relief. Amelia let the door close, holding it slightly so it didn’t slam.

The inside was vastly different to what I imagined. Dark wood was replaced with a muted gray stone for the walls with pearl white marble for the flooring. An ever-present draft made the interior a little chilly. Luckily, the draft helped mask sound as well as my own wind still revolving around my legs.

As I looked down the stone halls, I saw barrels lined along the walls with some wooden doors here and there and light artifacts lined along the walls.

“Follow me, we don’t have much time.” Amelia whispered in my ear before swiftly going into one of the halls.

I quickly followed behind, keeping my footsteps in sync with hers. I kept my bow out, occasionally turning around to check behind us.

We paced through the halls, making turns here and there. I was never lost as we both had memorized the entire layout long ago. I saw Amelia hold her hand up and look around the corner. She froze for a split second and looked back at me and held up two fingers.

Her grip tightened around her kunai, ice forming out from her hand. I belatedly nodded and put my bow on my back and pulled out my dagger from within my cloak.

Right before she was about to turn the corner, I quickly grabbed onto Amelia’s shirt, suddenly unsure.

‘I’ve never killed anyone before, can I really do this?’

Nausea built up in my stomach at the thought, but I knew I had to do this.

‘What's the difference between killing an animal and a human? No, humans are terrible creatures, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.’ I thought as my grip strengthened around the dagger.

Amelia's hand wrapped around my shaking one and I realized that she too was shaking. I looked up at her and met her eye. Her hardened look softened and she gave me a reassuring nod and mouthed the word 'together'.

A warmth spread from inside that calmed my nerves. I mirrored her look and nodded and mouthed 'always'.

Her grip tightened for a moment as she resisted a smile.

'That's right, these people have already tried to kill me. Mercy or hesitation would be foolish.'

‘Plus, what if these were the people that killed my parents and friends? Would I sit here and ponder on what to do? No, I’d kill them without a second thought.’

It would be childish to think I’d never need to get blood on my hands with my goal, my mission. It’s either I kill them or I get killed.

I let go of Amelia’s shirt and patted her hand. I looked her in the eyes for a while before giving her a quick nod.

‘No more hesitating.’

We both dropped down in a crouching stance and slowly rounded the corner. The guards were making their rounds down the halls. We paced behind them, my wind masking our steps as we got closer and closer to them.

Amelia held up her hand with three fingers raised and slowly lowered them one at a time. On zero she threw a loop of what looked like pure mana over their heads and pulled. The mana string landed on their mouths and on contact expanded into a small mask of ice, covering their mouths.

I leapt forward without delay, pulling my hand back on the first guard’s forehead just before I slid my blade across his throat. I held him tightly as his body jerked for a few minutes, much longer than I expected, before he fell still and the life left his body.

I looked over at the second guard, completely frozen in place, any hint of life gone from his body as well.

I dragged the lifeless body around the corner, dumping him between a couple barrels. As I took a look at him, I noticed he couldn’t be much older than me, with shaggy brown hair and facial features that were clearly not finished developing.

However, looking into his lifeless eyes, I couldn’t help but notice how numb I felt. I had seen the same look from animals I had killed many times.

From the lifeless eyes, the motionless body, and blood that now stained my hand. I felt I was right, it’s really just the same as killing an animal. No, maybe even less for I held no respect for the boy.

I turned to find Amelia had done the same with her body and we quickly went back to what we were doing.

We kept passing through the halls, no other inner guards in sight. Turn after turn made me question if we had somehow turned around since everything appeared the same.I was about to ask Amelia until, finally, something new stood out.

A large metal door, at least twice as large as all the others, came into view at the end of the current hallway. A small wooden plaque on top of the doorway also stood out. As we arrived closer and closer, I was finally able to make out the engraving,

“Main Office” I murmured under my breath.

After exchanging glances we scanned the adjacent hallways and retreated a few paces to check for any new tails. Clear. With tentative steps we returned to the door and gently began opening it.

My bow was drawn with an arrow nocked, just in case, but it proved unnecessary. While void of any people the room was far from empty.

The round room was massive. Without a roof it easily could have passed for a large courtyard. Bookshelves that were around four times my height lined the entire wall of the room, they were made from the typical dark wood of this place and were absolutely packed with scrolls, books, miniature statues and even some maps, fully displayed. A marble pathway full of wheeled ladders followed the many bookcases around the room. Right in the center of all this was a frosted glass dome with several pathways leading out with a charcoal black desk inside.

“This room is enormous, this must be an information gold mine ” I mumbled taking it all in.

“You start on the bookshelves, I’ll start at the desk. Find whatever you can, we’ll be leaving soon.” Amelia said, already running towards the glass dome.

I raced to the right side bookcase and look over all the labels. History, old maps, and population jargon I knew I couldn't grasp given the time constraint, ignoring my zero desire to even open them. After the fifth bookcase I thought I found an interesting section but quickly sighed. While learning about rising paladins 50 years ago was interesting, it wasn't something I needed.

Changing my approach I stopped going in a line and ran straight to the other side. If this side was all historical information then only a monster wouldn't keep it all organized separately. The opposite side must be more recent information, right?

Turns out the person who organized these wasn't crazy after all. All these reports were from a year or two ago. Following my progress I continued to head left until I found one dated last week. Maps of current supply routes, current spy rotations in church cities and even names of new recruits. Curious, I opened the recruit log from a couple months ago and scanned through the lists. What was his name? Ah here it is, Westin Amana-

I was about to move on when the sound of papers falling behind me made me jump. I turned drawing my dagger, ready to fight, but only saw Amelia just standing there. She was as pale as the marble floor and shaking again, her eyes locked on me.

"E-Eve.. i-it… "

I made it to her before she finished speaking. The desk was a mess now after she knocked so many things over but the large map underneath a few loose papers instantly drew my attention. The shape of the forest, the mountain positionings, the way the opened and worked portion of land was settled cozily on the edge of the forest. I didn't need labels or names. I'd recognize my old home anywhere.

"Wha..?" I tried to ask.

My eyes met Amelia's and she stiffly motioned for me to read the red lined document in her hand. I grabbed it and tried to read but most of it was covered by a fuzziness I couldn't wipe away, a small amount of mana in the words. As I skimmed down I realized it didn't matter.

Report. Classified. Urgent mission. Highest priority. Assassination.

Then as I saw what was at the bottom of the report, I finally understood what had shaken Amelia up. As I looked at her again, it seemed we both were now sharing the same feeling.

In big bold red letters at the bottom of the report, were three words that changed everything.

Target: Eve Solaris.