The basement had a couple rooms, mostly intended for storage. There were about 30 to 40 members in the rooms at a glance. Some of them peering over maps, some of them sharing equipment, some simply watching with an intent eye. The guard that let her in whispered to the one that was indoors, who then motioned her to follow him. She did silently, attracting a few disinterested but wary gazes. She was brought into a taller room. It was a wide and tall natural rock room. In the center at the back, a slightly raised platform housed three thrones. The middle one was taller than the others. Three figures were sitting, one woman on the left, two men center and right. The three wore white and red robes, solemnly eyeing her as she came forth before them. On the sides were about a hundred figures, standing silently. Six guards were placed at various spots in the room.

“What do you bring, new face?” asked the man on the right.

“News and a request”, confidently replied Keela, standing as tall and straight as she could.

“Go on. Speak.”

“First, the news. Jeremiah the Sentinel is dead.”

Whispers went about in the crowd.

“How and why are you aware of this?” asked the woman, furrowing her brows into a look of distaste.

“Because he should die within the next twenty minutes from the poison I put in his wine glass”, replied Keela, causing gasps in the audience and spears to be put to her throat.

“Bold of you to kill one of our members and then show up to make a request of all things”, said the man on the right, anger clearly showing on his face.

“Because I wanted to join and needed a ring.”

“And why would we allow you to after what you pulled?”

“Allow me to demonstrate.”

In a blink of an eye, she crouched under the spears and dashed behind a guard, knocking him unconscious with a quick charged hit to the neck. The other guards attempted to turn around but she slid between one’s legs, shocking his ankle and causing him to fall to his knee before fainting from a 360 jump kick to the temple. A spear was thrust her way, which she gracefully parried, shocking him square in the chest. She grabbed the closest next spear, quickly wrestling it out of the guard’s hands. Using the pole, she knocked two unconscious and threw it at another guard, hitting him violently in the neck. The last guard, spearless, came in for a punch but was palm striked with such power that he flew backwards seven meters. Dashing towards the platform with a dagger in hand, she stopped the point inches away from the man on the right of the platform’s neck, tapping his chin with the flat of the blade.

“That’s why”, she said, smiling.

Clapping broke the silence as the center figure congratulated her, soon joined by the entirety of the crowd. She turned around and bowed, turning back towards the three figures.

“Let her join”, said the center figure in an old, weary voice.

“But… grandmaster I don’t--” tried the man on the right, still under shock.

“I won’t repeat myself.”

Keela then was led to another room where she took the oath, wholeheartedly lying through the whole process. While chanting, the religious razor had been brought forth to carve her flesh in a location of her choosing. Hiding her chest, she slipped half of the dress off her shoulder and asked to be branded on her flank. Aloud, unflinching from the pain, she recited as ordered:

“Our Father of the Razor, bringer of all that is good, I come before you to join the brethren. I swear loyalty and to bring absolution to sinners. Absolve me of my sins, grant me another chance. Pass your judgment so I may feel your divine power and you shall have a loyal follower.”

The razor was made of two parallel blades an inch apart from each other, heated to the point of cauterizing instantly to create a scar. As soon as the whole process finished, she thanked them and left to go back upstairs to the party. She was given a location to attend to by next week to get her first assignment. Slipping back to Bertaut’s side, she explained to guests around that she had a restful nap and was feeling better.

“How long was I out dear?” she asked Bertaut, latching on to his arm.

“Roughly an hour. Shall we head home? It’s getting late”, replied Bertaut, reading her signal while pulling out his pocket watch.

“If you would.”

The both of them excused themselves and went back to their usual spot within the hour. As soon as the door was closed, she flopped down onto the floor and sighed out all the air in her lungs. Bertaut turned around on his seat, looking down at her on the floor.

“That bad?” he asked, looking at her tired gaze.

“The absolute worst”, she replied, looking at him.

“I appreciate your help though.”

She went out of view and got out of the dress, switching to a black long sleeved shirt. She went up next to him and lifted the side of the shirt, showing the two bright red fresh scars on her flank.

“I sure hope it’s worth the effort because I am in a lot of pain”, she said putting the shirt down.

“I could heal you”, he said, offering a hand.

“No, it has to scar. Honestly, I need a drink right now if anything. I had to almost have sex with a guy to get this stupid ring, knock out six guards and lie during a whole oath while getting literally branded.”

“Just go upstairs and sleep, you need it.”

“Yeah, thank you.”

She hurried off to her room and closed the door. As she was about to fall in the bed, a knock came from her door. She sighed and went over, opening it. Before her stood Velka in simple clothes, who looked surprised to see her.

“Keela?” she asked, confusedly looking around.

“Well, yes, this is my room”, said Keela, cocking her head to the side.

“Sorry I didn’t recognize you with the make-up. Can we talk?”

“You wanna go see Murphy’s grave?”

“Yeah…”

“Alright, let’s go.”

The two of them walked in the city, led by Keela. As they arrived to the city wall, Velka pointed to the side.

“The gate is that way”, she said, looking puzzled.

“We’re not going through the gate, formalities are a hassle”, replied Keela, getting closer to Velka while looking up at the wall.

“Then how are we--”

Velka was interrupted by Keela sweeping her off her feet in a princess-style carry, causing her to let out a tiny yelp. Keela motioned her to be silent and jumped on to a nearby roof and then jumped over to the top of the wall and then off the other side. Sprinting while carrying Velka, Keela arrived at the spot she had buried him.

“Velka we’re here, you can stop strangling me now”, said Keela, tapping Velka’s shoulder who apologized before letting go.

A tall fir stood on top of the lonely hill, surrounded by smaller trees. The moonlight filtered through the leaves left a series of dancing shadows on the floor around them. A small mound was right in front of the fir tree, a roughly fashioned wooden tombstone at the end of it.

“It’s the best I could do with my nails”, said Keela, leaving Velka to her grieving.

Velka slumped to her knees, sobbing into her hands. Her throat feeling tight, Keela turned away. She knew the two of them had had something of a close relationship but she hadn’t pried, deeming it personal business. In this moment though, the possibility made it incredibly more difficult to witness.

“We can’t stay here too long, I’ll bring you again whenever we can, yeah?” said Keela, resting her hand on Velka’s shoulder.

Velka simply nodded and latched onto her, holding tight as she ran to the wall and scaled it, heading home quickly by the rooftops. Getting to the house, Keela tried to undo Velka’s grasp, to no avail.

“I have to sleep, I’ve training to do tomorrow”, said Keela, looking at Velka, whose ears were slumped in a display of depressive sadness.

No answer came from Velka who simply wouldn’t let go. Keela sighed and brought her to her room, attempting to lay her in bed, but she simply wouldn’t let go. Keela finally caved, opting to keep her company, at least providing some sort of warmth for when she felt the coldest.