"How would you know that, Gabriel?" Tania looked behind him back and forth. "And where's Rielle?"

"Rielle's scouting too. Don't worry, we will actually do some work here." A lovesick smile blossomed on his face just at the mention of Rielle's name. "And I studied the layouts too, remember?"

"Yes, you lovelorn fool. Gosh." Tania rolled her eyes and laughed. "Well, let's get to work now."

"Yes, let's," muttered Gabriel, and determination replaced the lovey-dovey gaze in his eyes.

In her short life of twenty years, there were only three things that she trusted in.

Herself.

Poisons.

Kismet.

Her life motto was that everything happens for a reason. Perhaps she lived by it because if she didn't, then she wouldn't know how to cope or fathom why those unspeakable things happened to her.

She was born into an affluent family, and her father was a trusted advisor to many authoritarian Governors, making his occupation an exceptionally risky one. He was always on constant vigilance mode and treaded waters with them prudently and was very circumspect.

Her mother was a doyenne amidst influential Governors' wives. She wielded power expertly, causing everyone to fear and admire her at the same time. Brites de Allura was not one to be messed with as though she may appear to be a petite trophy wife, the true extent of her connections and stature certainly knew no boundaries and its depth was unknown.

Therefore, Brites de Allura was greatly respected- and her reputation as a generous woman skyrocketed when she donated her firstborn, Tania de Allura, to the Governors' Children Cause (GCC). Till now, people were still so brainwashed that they believed that Tania de Allura lived there, helping and improving the stolen children's lives.

Except they wouldn't address those children as 'stolen', rather, they called them 'gifts' or 'blessings'. A 'gift' would be a stolen child from the rural or middle-class towns of Excidium and the preferred age was around four to eight years old, whereas a 'blessing' would either be a newborn baby or at most, a nine-month-old.

Only the most privileged and high-ranking families of the upper-class received blessings as the Governors held a belief that when a child was just born to the world, he or she was filled with an immeasurable and invaluable purity. Thus, the newborn would bless the fortunate family with light and prosperity as long as the child lived.

A blessing must never be exposed to people of the middle-class ranks, all else their bright innocence would be tainted by coming into contact with dirty scum from the rural and common areas- and people- of the country.

A gift, while not as wondrous as a blessing, was extraordinarily useful to the Governors. Since a gift's age range varied from four to eight, to the Governors, their natural innocence would already be tainted. Thus since they were frugal people, they simply couldn't let a gift waste away into ruin.

Therefore the Governors' twisted mindset was that Amorals' job was to retrieve children from that age range so that they could lessen the taint and save them from their toxic childhood environments. The same concept goes for blessings.

After the magnanimous and benevolent Governors retrieve them, they can opt to claim them as their own or even use them for unconventional purposes such as spying and interrogating them.

Majority of gifts became 'biological' children of the Governors which greatly and drastically increased the population and children of Exicidium yet there was a tiny proportion of gifts that ill-fatedly ended up used for the latter.

And that was what Tania was taught by her prestigious family, that she must serve them faithfully till the end of her life.

And soon, I will die. She fingered the blue vial, smiling humorlessly. Let the Queen win.

His heart was beating rapidly, and he was sweating profusely. He could feel his heart in his throat and his fingers and hand were shaking and trembling.

Am I really going to do this? Can I do it?

He glanced at the drive and thought of Rielle.

Yes, I must. I'll do this and take him down, and leave with my love to a safe place.

Now was the time for her to show off her favourite dress- the navy pink champagne dress with a ruched skirt halter. It was simple and classy, and since the fabric was of satin it was silky against her skin. Its short length made it challenging to hide weapons but she managed to slip in the copper blade by strapping it on her right side and dual wield daggers on her left. She had decided to unleash her dual daggers last to throw the Governors a bone. She had even daringly worn the same distinctive small teardrop-shaped diamond earrings as Alara had her vengeful heart set on seeing the immoral, evil Governors' faces wearing expressions of pure shock and surprise when they recognised her.

And they would, because she had even danced and small-talked with some of them, and all the ladies had worn dangly or showy, tasteless earrings unlike hers.

When they finally do recognise her, they'll be rotting and suffering arduous ordeals in the scorching, fiery pits of Hell.

However, time was especially tight now as somebody had spilled the beans about the operation, increasing the tension of the situation. She couldn't understand why anyone would commit such folly- after all, they were doing a good thing, and most importantly were saving the lives of children. But what's done was done, and it was left for them to deal with now.

"Huh," harrumphed Maren skeptically, eyeing her heels. "You're wearing your five-inch heels to battle. Curious choice."

"Huh," parroted Alara sarcastically. "You kissed me with so much passion, Mare, that I wondered if it was just to get the guard off his guard or because of... something else."

At that remark, his cheeks turned pink. "Ahem, I..."

"I knew it! You wanted to-" Maren cut off by pulling her into his arms. "You're too overwhelmed by how dashing I am. I know what that's like. Sometimes, I cry at my own reflection because I can't believe how perfect I am. Rein the sass in and hug me tight."

"You're an idiot." She flicked his ear and he laughed peals of laughter.

"No, I'm a striking debonair." He grinned ear-to-ear when she laughed carefreely. Stalling for a longer moment as he was fearful of what may happen next, he embraced her tightly.

Let her be safe. Please.

It was time. There had been several times where the Ascendancy Agency had attempted to take down the Governors but they had usually failed- not on her watch though. After they had scouted the area diligently, they realised that there were more children on both the first and third floor. The gala was held in the second and hence Alara had to rescue them before Maren executed the final stage of the plan- setting the palatial mansion ablaze.

Since she was part of the back-up group, her main job was to kill and disarm guards while her side-job was to save children when she was able to. The challenging part was that all she had was two hours to get them out by herself. When she had five minutes left to complete her mission, Maren would sound the alarm, which was the signal that he would set fire to the mansion, making it nearly impossible to escape.

Right now, she was in the ballroom, putting on a pretense that she was felicitously dancing away. Just as she made a right twirl, she found Maren beside her and quickly mouthed to her, "It's time" just as the music transited into a rapid crescendo. As soon as she finished the last three twirls, she left her dancing partner's hands by informing him that she had to relieve herself. Flashing him a coy wink, she swiftly headed for the third floor.

Just as she reached the entrance to the third floor, she saw two guards there. "Ma'am, you can't-" they started, and she pretended to leave but returned rapidly enough to trip one of them. "Oops, sorry!" She grinned lopsidedly and stealthily took her dagger out. The moment he saw it, he lunged for her and fell into her trap. Once he grabbed her neck, the dagger was plunged into the front of his head. He gasped, and she pushed him off her before he could ruin her dress with his blood.

The guard's partner was stunned and he unsheathed his sword. "Who are you?"he exclaimed, flabbergasted.

"I'm Venge," she responded while aiming her heel and aiming it at his groin. The guard fell onto the floor, moaning in pain while valiantly trying to reach his sword. "Here, I'll help you," she smiled winningly and proceeded to take him out with his own blade. "Now why did you stab yourself in the heart?" she grinned mercilessly as she patted his cheek. The guard was now as white as a sheet and blood oozed out from his mouth.

"I am Venge... commonly known as Vengeance. You took my brother, so I'll kill you. An eye for an eye."

Seven more bloodthirsty and difficult kills later, Alara had successfully brought all thirty of the kids from the second floor and handed them to Tania. She was lucky that she succeeded in preventing blood being spilled over her as if the kids had seen that, they would surely have been traumatised by it.

While she gathered the children, Alara had tried desperately to search for a boy with freckles, but to no avail. Admittedly, she was still hoping to find Ren amidst the horde of children but Tania's abrupt shout startled her out of her daze.

"ALARA! Stop daydreaming! Go to the third floor quickly! You've only fifty minutes left."

Fifty minutes?

"Yes, yes," Alara nodded and rushed there, sweat lining her forehead. To her abject horror, Rielle and Gabriel were ferociously engaged in battle.

"Good, you're here! The kids are safe- Maren saved them. Help us!"

They were cornered by armed men everywhere. Wrecked by panic, she forgot the possible routes to flee. With her sudden memory loss, there was nothing they could do but fight off the men. They attempted to outflank them but when the nearest one neared her, she grabbed him by the neck and forced the enhanced version of Nerium oleander poison down his throat. She had perfected this version thus the man would be paralysed first and dead in a minute.

Rielle stabbed and gutted two men at once while Gabriel fired arrows coated with botulinum. Even with Gabe's toxic arrows, they were still on the losing end. With every passing minute, the sorer her biceps felt.

And then the alarm rang.

No, she thought. NO!

As she and her companions fought their way through, she felt sharp pains emanating from her back. Her attacker was ruthless as he stabbed her repeatedly in a relentless fashion. She was overcome with dizziness and could feel the metallic taste of blood gushing out of her mouth. Is this how I'm going to die?

No. Not without a fight.

Blocking out the pain, she recalled Maren's teachings.

Don't give up, once you give up, it's over.

Ignore the pain. Pain is temporary; death is permanent.

Knocking the dagger out of her attacker's hands, she ignored flashes of white hot pain as the knife grazed her bare hands. With both hands, she squeezed his neck roughly while he flailed helplessly. While the attacker tried to strangle her, she kneed him in the stomach and finished him off by piercing his heart.

Suddenly, an iron object hit her neck and her world turned black.

"ALARA!"

"Help me..." she muttered and the last thing she saw was a woman in a velvet gown flee the room.