"Hm, Political reasons..."

Peck was slowly and leisurely reading the letter that had flown into her hands moments ago. She did it slowly because she was sure that she couldn't read well the language Ronan had chosen for the letter. To add more trouble, she was in the middle of a tavern brawl that started when a couple of drunks were disputing over a dice game that his opponent had cheated.

The little girl with big eyes remained seated at the bar counter. Even though she didn't wish to get involved in the conflict, the little girl had to impart a couple of blows to several arrogant men who didn't think she could defend herself on her own. Slim and in simple, sober clothes, the little girl was a fast martial artist, and many drunks suffered his quick blows.

"Mizuna... where is Mizuna?" she wondered aloud as she continued to read, sitting on the tavern's bar.

Quickly a troublemaker lashed out at her, holding the timbers of the chair he had used to hit someone else.

Peck, with unparalleled dexterity, circled in place and delivered a simple kick to the man's head. The kick crossed like a whoosh; The man fell against the bar, hitting his head on it and falling to the floor.

"L-Little lady," the bartender, a thin man with a bushy mustache and a wavering voice, was heard to say from behind the bar. "I-I think you should leave now."

"Oh, just a moment," the girl indicated with a smile, "I want to finish reading this, but the person who wrote it used a language I don't quite understand..."

"M-Miss, please," pleaded the man, "I must insist that you retire..."

"Hm? Why?" turned on her place the girl, sitting down opposite him.

"W-Well, It is dangerous for you to be here..."

The bartender saw beyond what this girl showed; whoever saw her for an instant would only see a slender girl with a brown with long braided hair and big blues eyes. She wore exotic but simple and sober clothes similar to the yushams, a monastic quasi-hermetic society. Anyone who could observe her more closely would notice that an intricate tattoo was drawn from the center on the back of her left hand.

The mark of the trickster.

"Could you please leave from here?" insisted the bartender again, fearful and hesitant.

The girl watched him immutably for a few moments. The man, staring fearfully into her eyes, a bunch of brawling drunks, was nothing compared to what a demon could do in that place.

Peck smiled cheerfully and diligently, "Oh, Very well! I'll leave right now."

Like that, the girl turned toward the exit. However, she noticed a small problem.

"Hm, how will I get there?" she wondered aloud as she saw the exit of the crowded place.

"There's a back exit if..."

As she stood over the bar counter, Peck didn't let the tavern owner finish his words. Then, the long staff perched on the bar with a gesture and reached for his hand. The wooden staff was adorned with a metallic pattern throughout. The bartender could see how it wasn't a simple piece of wood; he saw how the girl began to shift several of those metal pieces, and several cracks could be heard.

The bartender wasn't prepared for what would happen. The girl jumped off the bar counter and slammed the staff's tip hard against the floor. Her quarterstaff, full of symbols and holes, sent a sweeping tempest into the place. People in the bar were swept by the wind into the walls and windows, with all the furniture.

"Done, I have a way out now!" she exclaimed cheerfully before turning to the bartender. "Bye, have a good day!"

The bartender shivered in place.

Peck left the tavern, reading the last words of the letter with difficulty. The girl barely understood things like entry points or Ronan's theory of randomness. Were strange and meaningless words to her.

Once outside, she had time to think correctly and came to an inevitable conclusion.

"If Ronan sent this letter to Rawani... and it didn't reach her hands... It's because something happened to her!" the girl was startled as she continued to dialogue with herself. "Kyrus didn't get the letter either. So it means he must be hiding somewhere!"

The girl monologued alone while the audience on the street, who heard the massive rumbling inside the tavern, was getting closer. Some stood watching her, and listening to her speak sentences without context was something that attracted curiosity.

Peck was south of Baeria, in a city called Scezi. The girl moved freely around the continent's east and often traveled with Kyrus and Rawani, her primary mentors.

"Hm, I should fly to Adwar. Then maybe I should go..."

"She's a marked one!" shouted one of the villagers, pointing to the hand with which the girl held her staff. "Guards!"

Because of the commotion, a dozen local militia members arrived toward them.

Peck quickly realized that she shouldn't be in that place, for in her despite, she had only just realized that she had let herself be seen too much.

As the group of people moved away and gave way to the guard, the girl took a very high jump, tripling her height. Then, in the blink of an eye, the girl took the form of a bird and swiftly lost herself in the blue sky.

Fynn's plan had been ruined very quickly. He had thought of stealing the carriage with Yue, but he soon saw the consequences; Yue could kill him, the fellow could have been a better opponent, and then they would have been injured.

Fynn was the worst thief in Artia for overthinking the situation.

However, Ronan's conscience acted for them, and now the subject would rest all night in an alley, manacled.

The disguise was good but not perfect, so Ronan spoke the less he could at the door.

"Someone looks more bitter than usual," exclaimed one of the guards at the fortress door. Of course, Ronan hadn't prepared for his role; he didn't even know that guy's personality.

The guards let him in, but the suspicion was planted.

In the courtyard of the place, Ronan left the hay wagon near a corner, and quickly the pair of marked children came out of hiding and concealed in the shadows.

"Well, we're in!" exclaimed Fynn whisperingly.

"Good, now what?" asked Ronan.

"Now we look for Idda and the others."

"How and where?" asked Yue, looking up at the place.

From inside, the fortress looked even much more extensive. At least three-floor heights with watchtowers and three dozen men patrolling over these and the walls. There were also groups of armed men in the courtyard, though security seemed much laxer there.

Ronan gestured and crouched down along with the children; the light from a lamp exposed them.

"Making our way through will be a pain in the ass..." exclaimed the marked man, still wearing his local guard face.

Indeed, moving inside a place where whoever crossed their path wished to attack them was difficult, even for a trickster like Ronan.

The marked group entered through a door near where they left the cart. From there, they made their way down the numerous corridors.

"Are you sure we're not moving in a circle?" asked Yue.

"Oh, I'm not sure!" exclaimed Ronan, whispering. "I don't have a map of this place, and I can't just open a door like that either."

"We're taking too much risk here..." said the akajsi girl with a sigh.

"We must keep ascending until we find them," replied Fynn.

"We're on the second floor, Fynn!" whispered Fynn angrily, "We'll run into the guard and their guard patrols on the next floor." Ronan pointed out the window to the patrols at the other end of the wall.

Fynn watched Ronan for a moment, and that made sense.

"How about underground?" the boy asked.

"Underground?"

"We haven't heard any screams, no people asking to be taken out of there."

Yue peered cautiously out the window, still fearing someone would discover them there. However, as she listened to them, she looked down at the floor of the fortress courtyard, and that's when she saw some barred spaces.

"There, what's that?" asked Yue.

Ronan peeked out and saw one of the akajsi girl's places mentioned.

"So if they're underground..."

"We know where we need to go. So let's go!" exclaimed Fynn.

The fortress gates opened once more, and the attention of the three rested on it; At least ten men entered the fortress, wearing white tabards and robes adorned with a flaming eye in the center of their robes.

Ronan clicked his tongue, "Tsk, the Order detachment arrived..."

"What are they doing here?" asked Yue.

"Surely they'll go to get information out of those they captured," Ronan gritted his teeth and then exclaimed angrily. "This is what I was afraid of! So now we're stuck here with them!

"Then we have to hurry!" exclaimed Fynn, hurrying down a dark corridor.

Ronan and Yue followed him, and soon they were descending the stairs to the place. With no set path, everything seemed to indicate that the entrance to the site would be through the fortress courtyard once again.

Ronan was becoming increasingly paranoid.

"I don't know if they have a Tracker with them," Ronan mumbled, hiding with the children in the dark. "If they do, they'll soon know we're here."

Fynn and Ronan kept an eye on the guard's movements. Then, they would run back to a shadow when all was clear. It was slow, but it was the best they could do to avoid being spotted.

Yue followed them but constantly turned her head to look behind her. It was strange to do, and she was distracted by it.

"Yue, come on!" whispered Ronan, and she refocused.

In the pitch dark, Yue felt something strange. A whisper was constantly calling to her.

This way...

The voice was similar to the whispers she had listened to the first time in the woods.

"Once we get past that boy, we'll jump towards that shadow near the door..."

"I shouldn't have come with this," Fynn pointed to his armor, which scales sounded every time he moved.

This way...

Yue heard the voice again.

The girl finally approached, where whispers told her to enter the darkness. A wall shrouded in darkness. The akajsi girl instinctively brought her hand to the wall and pressed it.

Abruptly her hand sank into the wall, and as if someone pulled at her hand, the shadows devoured her.

She let out a scream of fear that quickly silenced itself.

Ronan and Fynn turned quickly toward the corner where Yue was supposed to be.

"Yue?" exclaimed Fynn, frightened and worried.

As they approached, she was no longer there.

Yue fell down the wall, collapsing on a stone floor.

"Yue?"

The girl gritted her teeth and said, "I'm here."

Her voice sounded echoey.

"Where?" the scarred boy asked.

The girl looked around and saw a window light up at the top of that room. The dim light from outside dimly illuminated Ronan and Fynn.

"Here!" exclaimed Yue.

Ronan saw that hole in the wall, shocked to see her there. Then, crouching in front of her, he noticed that the akajsi girl was tucked inside one of the cells.

"How the hell did you get in there?" he asked.

"I don't know!" the girl turned her gaze to the cell where she now was.

"We'll come to get you, don't worry!" said Ronan.

"Ronan, now!" exclaimed Fynn in whispers towards her mentor, taking the opportunity they were looking for to be able to enter through one of the doors.

"Shit..." exclaimed the girl, sighing in anguish. She clung to the bars, "Just, hurry..."

"Oh, they'll get there..." a voice in that cell was heard to say.

Yue wasn't alone; two yellow eyes lit up amid the darkness.