Having dealt with the Primalist and his monsters, Faye swiftly moved on, taking a route to the west. She kept her senses strained for other monsters, but it seemed that the barrier across the road had been the biggest bastion of the enemy’s presence in this part of the town.

Slowly circling around to the south and then back to the east, Faye patrolled a section of the town that was untouched by the Primalists. She quickly realised that was entirely due to its emptiness. None of the buildings here were occupied, nor showed signs of strongholds of Lóthaven townsfolk, either.

It took Faye over an hour to skirt back toward Taveon and the others. In that time, she enabled her notifications again and was pleased to find that her control over the system was as easy as thinking it.

As she approached, her [Mana Sense] picked up on some magic that seemed different to the Primalists. Hurrying, Faye approached from the southwest into the small cluster of buildings that she had left them in.

From the shutters and doorway of the building, bolts of energy flew out with unerring precision to smash into brick and wood as Taveon and Maggie defended against two attackers.

Faye’s [Mana Sense] told her that the attackers were using a similar kind of magic to hurl blasts of energy back, which was why the door and shutters had massive holes smashed in them.

More assassins? she pondered.

It did not matter. They were attacking her friends. The aura surrounding these folk was denser than the Primalist she had already encountered. She figured it had something to do with their level, but this was not the time to figure out the metaphysical aspects of the world.

Keeping a tight grip on her own mana, Faye did not use magic until she was close enough to guarantee a hit on the attacker closest to her.

They had covered their face with a black facemask and hood, and their armour was similarly sombre. If Faye had to guess, this group of assassins were trying hard to channel their evil through their fashion sense.

The assassin realised that Faye was there the moment she unleashed her mana to form the [Fire Dart] that spiralled through the air to impact near the assassin’s head. Faye cursed at the near miss. She had wanted to test its ability to fly straight without extra encouragement on her part.

Despite her new skills, the spell was the same as ever.

The assassin turned to Faye, throwing out two blasts of energy.

The first one caught Faye on the thigh, pushing her leg out from under her. The second flew over her head as she stumbled forward.

The pain in her leg was enough to bring tears to her eyes, but she threw another two [Fire Darts] at her assailant, this time forcing their paths to curve exactly as she wanted them to; each flaming parcel of mana burst on the assassin’s body, exploding into force and fire.

With that brief respite, Faye got back to her feet and pushed through the pain to reach the assassin’s hiding spot behind a sturdy wall. The assassin was still moving, but all they could do was stumble backward. Their eyes were wide, and their hand scrambled at a pouch on their hip.

Launching forward into an extended lunge, Faye aimed a cut at the assassin’s hand. Whatever they were trying to get hold of would only benefit the assassin.

“Who are you?!” the assassin hissed out in a breath of pain.

Faye did not answer as she leapt forward again, this time bringing the short sword around in a slash that aimed for their face.

The attack tore off the mask and slashed open the hood, revealing the stunned face of a tanned woman. She looked up at Faye with hatred and a healthy dose of fear.

Faye did not enjoy the feeling that evoked.

I can’t let an assassin go.

Holding out her hand, Faye launched [Fire Dart]s at the assassin until the notification pinged.

Congratulations! You have defeated a level 13 [Black Rose Mage].

Trying to hold her breath to avoid the stench of burnt and crispy leather and human meat, Faye ducked behind the house the assassin had been using as cover.

[Mana Sense] told her that the second assassin had felt the way the winds of Fate were turning and was trying to leave. A few more bolts of force flew out from their aura, but Faye ran to cut them off.

As she tore through the garden of the house, a lesser briar flung itself for her face. Instead of being surprised, Faye’s reaction was enough to flick her blade up and through the monster with barely a thought.

She vaulted the fence at the far end of the garden and emerged into a small green clearing of grass and flowers — ordinary plants and flowers that the residents had planted before the Primalists had attacked, thankfully.

The second assassin’s aura was about to emerge into the same space, and Faye ran toward the area they were going to arrive from.

Their hidden face was too covered for her to see their reaction, but it was gratifying to hear a muffled curse from the recesses of their hood.

She swung her sword in a short arc, but the assassin dodged backward in an acrobatic move that let them avoid her swing and kick her under the chin.

Her head flung back, but it was a minor distraction rather than a heavy attack. She snapped back down to follow her opponent. They had drawn a dagger and were watching her approach carefully.

She threw out her left hand, which made the assassin roll off to her right. She darted forward instead, bringing her sword down in a savage overhand chop.

Catching the assassin on the back of the head as their roll ended, the man — his grunt of pain deep enough to suggest a male — scrambled back before launching into a savage assault that had Faye retreating in turn.

His blade had been covered in a black paint so that it did not reflect light, and as it needled her, Faye was beginning to suspect this assassin was not a mage at all.

Igniting her sword, which caused the man to flinch backward momentarily, Faye darted in for more cuts to his body. When he avoided each one by throwing himself backward, Faye activated [Blades of Flame].

The bursts of fire magic were enough to overwhelm his expectations and each one hit him; two, then three, in quick succession. The heated air blackened the grass and flowers around the assassin’s feet as he stumbled backward and fell on his arse.

Faye bore down on him, not letting up her assault for a moment.

She brought the flaming blade down on his neck, cutting through his windpipe with the first attack and finishing him with the second.

Congratulations! You have defeated a level 12 [Black Rose Rogue].

Experience awarded.

Congratulations! Your spellcasting has improved. [Fire Dart] is now level 4. [Blades of Flame] is now level 2.

Pushing the notifications aside, she was tempted to suppress them again. But a part of her grew excited every time the words came up that told her she had increased a level of something again and she did not tell the system to stop informing her of small progress.

As she approached the house Taveon and the others were holed up in, she waved from afar and did not approach too quickly. She did not want the others to waste mana on attacking her.

As a blast of force mana surged past her head, Faye blinked and turned to the house and held her hands out in the universal sign for ‘what the actual hell, guys?!’

Which she followed up with an eloquent, “Hey?!”

Maggie ducked through the hole in the broken door, with a sheepish expression on her face.

“Sorry!” she called. “I didn’t realise it was you.”

“I should hope so, too,” Faye retorted, “or you and I would be having words about what kind of greeting friends deserve.”

Maggie ducked her head in embarrassment for a moment but waved for Faye to come inside the house.

The children were all clustered together in the back, which turned out to be the kitchen. Faye could see them down the short corridor, peeking out of the open doorway.

“It’s all okay now,” she said to them. “Don’t worry.”

“We weren’t worried,” one of the older boys protested. “We’re not scared at all.”

Faye smiled and nodded. “I know. It’s just something grownups say sometimes.”

Maggie smiled.

“You have a way with them,” she murmured. “I don’t think anyone else talks to them that way.”

Faye cocked her head for a moment. “They have to grow up quick, don’t they? Do you think they think I’m talking down to them?”

Maggie shook her head, smiling a little. “No, and if they do, they probably don’t mind too much. It’s nice, sometimes, for them to feel like kids rather than little recruits.”

Faye nodded, then smiled tightly as Taveon and Hoza came into the hallway, too.

“Hey,” she said. “Everything okay?”

“Mmm,” Hoza hummed. “Not really, those assassins turned up a while back. Waited us out for a while, gave us the creeps.”

The woman shivered, and Taveon nodded.

“Aye, I knew they were there… and that there was little we could do about it. You promised you would be back quicker,” he said, eyeing Faye.

She shrugged. “Fast as I could, old man, there were some briars to take care of. Oh, and their Caller master. They have set up rings of defences at regular points on the roads. Moving into the centre of town is going to be difficult. With the children, impossible.”

Taveon winced. “I thought you would say that but could not help but hope.”

“Aye,” Faye replied. “It’s not all hopeless, though. The routes through to the west are clear. They’re more concerned with stopping people moving north to south. They know that some of us are trapped on this side, at least.”

“Makes sense,” Hoza said. “The majority of our forces are in the north of town already.”

“Exactly,” Maggie said. “So, what’s the plan? I assume you have a plan.”

Faye nodded. “We take the wall.”

The others blanched.

“What?” she asked.

“The Primalists will be guarding the gates extensively, I’m sure,” Taveon said. “Controlling egress is the best way to ensure they get… whatever it is they want out of this assault.”

Faye shook her head, “No, sorry, you misunderstood me. I meant that we take the top of the wall. As far as I could tell, there were no Primalists on the wall itself. Sure, they’ll be at the gates, but from here we can reach the wall by following the paths west. Once up there, we can skirt their defences leading north. I suspect they’re mostly concentrating on the northeast of the town, anyway. Doesn’t that carve out the Guild and the Guard in one place?”

Hoza nodded. Maggie looked pensive.

“You could be right,” Maggie said.

Taveon sighed. “It’s a shame that we cannot get the children to one of the strongholds nearby, they’re so much closer.”

“I was always told they’re sealed during emergencies,” Hoza said, with a frown.

“They are,” Maggie said, “it’s why the Guild is the place to go if you don’t make it to a stronghold.”

Faye grimaced. “There are so many things wrong with that plan. What about people who can’t move as fast as others? If they’re on the south side of town, they’ll never make it to the Guild.”

Maggie nodded. “This is probably the first real test of the plan, Faye, there were bound to be kinks.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I’m not trying to complain. Any plan is better than no plan, but it hurts me that so many kids are outside the protection of the strongholds.”

“These are only the ones that live in my district,” Taveon said. “Their parents are all Guilders or Guards, hence not being ferried to a stronghold straight away. In future, we’re going to change the way this works. I was not fast enough, and without backup… I am only one man.”

Faye slapped Taveon on the shoulder.

“Yeah, we improve for next time. Let’s go.”

Faye and the adults had impressed on the kids the need for silence. She was thankful that they all understood, but it was a painful reminder that the reason they understood was that they did not live like kids should.

Should is such a loaded word, she thought.

Kids could not just play and figure out life like they did back home. They needed to learn and work hard to not become monster meat. Especially if they aspired beyond ‘do what my parents do’.

Faye shook her head.

She never considered her childhood to be particularly nice, but it was infinitely better than being worried about being eaten or attacked by literal monsters.

Most kids just had to think about the ones they thought hide under the bed.

Following the same route Faye had taken to get back to the house they had holed up in, they did not encounter any other briars, hounds, Primalists, nor assassins.

Hoza had grumbled once or twice about their decision not to move through the barriers towards the Guild. She was worried about taking the kids across the town so openly. The sun was still relatively high in the sky, but it was mid-afternoon and if they took too long to get back, they would have to wait with the kids through the night.

Faye understood the militiawoman’s arguments. She did not deny that it was a risk. But the further they got to the wall, which they could see getting closer and closer, without any encounters with the enemy, the more Hoza simmered down.

A few streets away from the wall, Faye quietly called for a halt. The kids had started to mumble about being tired, but a few encouraging words was enough to make them carry on. That was almost reason enough to stop for a while.

The real reason was that her [Mana Sense] had caught something near the wall.

In most places, the buildings of the town did not abut the wall, and there was a clear gap that circumnavigated the town. Faye had not come all the way to that open space on her scouting trip, because at the time her Sense had not shown any mana present on her intended route at all.

Now, there were four thick mana presences huddled around Faye’s destination.

Hustling the children into a house’s courtyard, similar to the adventurer’s house, she asked them all to stay quiet, and for Taveon and Hoza to stay with them.

She and Maggie then stole forward the final two streets, taking the corners carefully and slowly; watching as they went for anything untoward.

Maggie had said they could wait for the group to pass, and Faye agreed, but she still wanted to know who or what the group was to ensure that they were prepared.

Hopping over the final house’s small fence and into the tall grasses and bushes of the garden, Faye and Maggie drew closer. Maggie was hesitant, staying further back than Faye was willing to go. But being this close to the enemy she could not say anything to stop Faye, despite her wide eyes and pleading gestures.

It’s too important to know what we’re up against, Faye told herself.

Voices filtered through to her.

“—waited long enough! The job is not paid handsomely enough for this.”

The voice was of a woman, and Faye’s suspicion was confirmed in that moment. Her stomach clenched, hard.

“You continue with the same argument; it does not matter. Our instructions were to wait for—”

“Waiting for someone who is not showing is idiotic, and you are not the one in charge. I am leaving.”

Faye’s stomach knotted further when she realised what they were saying. The assassins had been contracted to do a job in Lóthaven, that much she had already learned, but now they were saying they were supposed to meet with someone in the town?

Betrayal.

Faye knew a thing or two about betrayal. It was possible that the betrayal of one you thought you knew was the worst thing a person could feel.

“We do not abandon a job once we have accepted payment!”

“Payment or not, your contact is not showing. They are either dead or have left this forsaken place already. It’s high time that I do the same.”

From her location, Faye struggled to see the people standing in the street. But her [Mana Sense] had no such trouble. If Faye tried to look directly at their mana aura, it was impossible to make them out with the interference of the mana that floated naturally through the plant life of the garden. However, her sense also gave her a perception of the weight of mana concentrated in one spot.

It was like standing at the edge of a trampoline or bouncy castle, when someone much heavier was in the centre, you could feel yourself being drawn into the centre of the depression regardless of what you wanted.

One of the mana auras moved now that the argument had ended.

As the woman whose voice Faye suspected belonged to the assassin she had fought earlier had stopped talking, she moved to the thin staircase cut into the side of the wall.

Faye froze.

The steps would take the assassin high enough to spot Faye and Maggie in a moment.

She spun on the spot and moved as fast as she could the way they had come, keeping one finger on the mana of the aura to gauge the assassin’s progress.

She bumped into Maggie and practically picked her up to get her to move.

“They're climbing the wall!” she hissed.

They rounded the wall of the house a moment or two after the aura had reached a mid-point on the wall. Faye’s heart pounded in her chest. The assassin could have easily seen them scuttling along if she had looked out.

Faye prayed that she had focused on her steps, instead.

As they waited anxiously for a sign that the assassin had indeed seen them, Faye kept her [Mana Sense] focused on the three other forms in the street. After a few minutes where nothing happened and their words were too soft to carry back to the back of the house, the three other mana auras ascended the steps to the top of the wall and jumped down to the ground outside the town.

Faye let out a breath.

“They’re over the wall,” she said.

“Who was it?” Maggie asked, her voice small and carefully controlled.

“Assassins,” Faye muttered. “Black Rose, or something.”

Maggie made a sound that could have meant anything.

“You never told me about your class,” Maggie said, quietly. She sounded exhausted.

“Oh, right,” Faye said, “how could I forget? I’m a Spellsword.”

Maggie blinked and turned her head lazily to look at Faye.

“A what?”

“Spellsword. You’ve never heard of it?”

“Safe to say I have not,” Maggie replied. She laughed, quietly. “I should have known you’d get something rare. You’ve levelled faster than anyone I’ve ever heard, Faye.”

“I’ve got experience boons,” she replied, “I’m sure I’m not the first one to do so.”

Maggie shrugged. “No, maybe not. But those are extremely rare. That I know. Your class might not exactly be rare but is certainly not common. I’m guessing a split between melee and spellwork.”

“Of course,” Faye said, “I don’t want to give up the blade. But magic is amazing. I’ve relied on these few spells so much already.”

“Mages take a lot of training to get where they are, usually,” Maggie replied.

“I guess I’m lucky,” Faye said, with a tired smile.

They stayed still, sitting side by side with their backs to the stone of the house’s foundations, for a few more minutes. A couple of minutes of silence.

It felt like weeks since Faye had last stopped to just sit.

But, soon enough, she roused herself. If she stayed put much longer, she would never want to stand up again.

“Let’s get the others.”

Faye and Maggie had arrived back to the courtyard they had left the children in to find them missing. A spike of panic lurched through Faye’s soul. Hoza stepped out of the shadows at the back of the house to say that they had moved the children inside.

It was testament to Faye’s fatigue that she realised she could sense their mana, as diffuse and weak most of it was, inside. She tiredly followed Hoza as she entered.

They saw that the children had all piled upon one another in front of the fireplace in the main living room. Taveon had sat down in a large chair with two of the smaller children, one curled up against each shoulder, both fast asleep.

In the flickering firelight, Faye saw the small smile that played on Taveon’s lips even as he quietly snored. She grinned and gestured back to the door for the other two.

Hoza closed the door as quietly as she could.

“Sorry,” she said, quietly, “they were falling asleep on their feet out here. We couldn’t just watch them drop to the cobblestone.”

Faye nodded. “Absolutely. I agree, it’s been a hard day, for us all.”

“You can say that again,” Maggie said, rubbing her stomach through the slice in her armour.

“We rest here for the night. We can move in the morning.”