--Evelynne--

The early morning sunlight danced around the dew-covered landscape. This place seemed to have been created perfectly, where everything natural worked in harmony to create a stunning picture, unlike anywhere else. We were trekking across fields of Tel, a peach-colored grass that can only be found in Rithveer’s uninhabited plains. Lewis wanted to leave straight away, so the horses weren’t prepared. The whole trek’s been absolute pain for my legs.

“Evey~ why the unhappy face? Are your legs starting to hurt?~” A playful voice asked from behind me.

“Kane, don’t tease her too much.” Another voice retaliated.

“Wha- Angela? I was just trying to chat~” Kane replied.

“Sure sure, we all know what you’re gunning for…”

“Shuddup.” I shot at them a steel glare.

My gaze intensified as I moved my eyes up to match Kane’s. “If you ever try it – Even accidentally – I’ll disintegrate you slowly, starting at your limbs. I dare you to try and carry me.”

Kane’s cheery smirk was stolen by Angela and replaced with an expression that could only be described as if someone had poured freezing water over his head.

“Cheer up Kane! You’ll get your chance soon~” Angela said while providing an encouraging slap on his back.

“Ang, your personality is frightening.” Kane shuddered

“It’s like a chameleon, always changing,” I add.

She chuckled and sped up ahead.

“Lewis~ You don’t think-”

I cut her off with a quick hand to the head.

“Oi, it’s C a p t a i n.”

“There’s no one here but us Evey, no need to be formaalll”

A sigh escaped the captain's mouth, drawing my eyes to the weary expression that he wore so often. Yet he spoke no words, they weren’t needed.

We continued to travel in silence. I could understand the captain reaction, he was still affected by it. The others and I had resorted to drowning away thinking about it, straining ourselves to try to keep one another in decent spirits. Lewis, however, had yet to recover from Jordan’s death. For a party of assassins, we sure were mentally weak when it came to losing friends. We relied too much on each other for emotional support, but it was needed. Otherwise, most of us would’ve crumbled under the strain of our actions. I looked back to see Angela and Kane chatting cheerily and cracked a smile. Even if this cheerfulness was all faked or forced, I relished it, I loved them, I savored every moment with the people who I leaned on, the people I considered to be my family, and the ones who kept me sane.

--Unnamed Commander--

Beep, Bop Bop. . Beep, Bop. .”

They were moving at a standard speed, party contained three people, one... no two Light-vins and a Dark-vin holder. The infused communication device began beeping again, signaling that they were drawing near, only about 105 verids eastwards from the forest camp. Time for barking orders, again. I was getting too old for this, 37 years in military service does wonders for you. Not. Luckily I was getting discharged after this one operation. Yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling from earlier, and what was up with the “Don’t think, just follow your orders exactly as told” message that came in the scroll from Command? Who ordered this? why do they want these people chained and killed? So many questions, so little answers.

“You see some nice lady you want to settle down with? Or are you thinking about how lonely it’s gonna be without one?~”, a familiar voice called, startling me. I had walked out to ‘The Post’ as we called it, although it was just an outcrop overlooking the training fields, used for giving orders.

“Aren’t you supposed to be with a ‘nice lady’ down in Sumtiravi these days, Tristan?”

“Who? Samatha? We stopped seeing each other years ago, you sure your memory isn’t going Commander?”

“Service does things to your mind, child.”

“Hey, you’re being discharged after this, right? It’ll be a bit too quiet without you, you know?”

“Yeah yeah, listen, you may miss me, but it’s my time for a break, it's been thirty-seven years after all. Now, I have orders to yell, hopefully for the last time.”

I walked up to the tip of The Point, by now most of the men had assembled on the training field.

“The targets are about ninety verids out! I repeat the targets are about ninety verids out! Everyone get into the Final Phase’s positioning immediately! Make sure that group A actually looks like captured rebels, we need everything to be perfect, I want this to be like a play!

Group B, Mages! Most of you should already be setting up the chains and the spell configurations! If you’ve got nothing to do, then go make yourself useful to the others!

Group C: You’re our main force, COMPLETE THE FINAL SETUP!, NO SLACKING LIKE LAST TIME, OR DEMOTIONS WILL BE HANDED OUT. LETS GO PEOPLE, NOW NOW!”

Time for inspections, let’s just get this over and done with.