I step back into the room that were resting in and there is another person that I didn't find, so that leaves three more to find. I ignore him and the lead instructor and I go across the room and out into the hall.

The stairs are fairly close so I head towards them and decide to start on the third floor this time.

“Wait,” Shiva calls out as I step up onto the landing, “There is a spell on the other side of the door.”

“Oh what does it do?” I ask as I come to a stop in front of the door to the attic, and I feel Shiva stretch out and pluck at the Magik around me. I focus on the door as well but I don't have anything to go on if the Sigils are on the other side.

“It looks like it will make a loud bang and a bright light when the door is opened,” She says after probing it for a while.

“How miserable,” I groan at the thought of tripping it and shake my head, “How do I break it?”

“Can that knife hold an edge?” She asks after pondering it for a bit more time. I draw the blade again and try to coat the blade in energy and it takes it, but it is messy and not uniform in its coating.

“Yes but I wouldn't want to use it for a delicate task,” I nod my head and look back at the door.

“It should do,” Shiva assures me, “The Sigil is on the floor.” I kneel on the floor and angle the blade at the bottom of the door. “More to the left,” Shiva corrects me and I glide the knife and wait for Shiva to tell me where it is.

“Right there,” She says and I stop moving, “Give it a quick thrust, then brace yourself and burst the energy on the blade.”

I take a breath to steady myself and flatten my ears to my head to get ready for a loud noise and I do as Shiva suggests. Almost as quickly as I burst the bubble around the blade there is a loud bang that is somewhat muffled by the thick door and I can see a flash of light all around the frame.

“What was that?” one of the instructors steps forward and breaks their silence.

“A disorientation Magiks,” I offer them my guess as I sheathe my knife and rub at the base of my ears to chase away the light ringing, “Mostly harmless noise, and a bright light. Plenty enough to slow down pursuers.”

“It would be good for an ambush as well,” I continue on silently as I push the door open and look around at the attic. It is a lot cleaner than the one I hid in at first and I let my gaze go up again. The rafters are all clear again and I step into the room and take a look around.

This space looks like it was set up to entertain guests instead of being used for storage, and I walk towards the center of the room. There are a few large cabinets and wardrobes that I open along the way and I ask, “Do you sense any more sigils?”

“I can't feel any,” Shiva answers quickly and I nod my head and walk to the counter against the far wall. There are several cabinets above it, and they all have glass doors and are filled with bottles of what I presume is alcohol and several glasses for serving.

There is also a single cork sitting on the counter so this is presumably where that man obtained his drink. I turn away from the cabinets and instead look around the room and take a moment to listen, “How exactly was that Magiks supposed to be triggered?”

“It would have gone off as the door went over it.”

“So that means the door had to be closed before they drew it then,” I nod my head, “And wouldn't have been able to be opened so they could leave.”

“That's fairly likely. Assuming they didn't break the rules and go out the window,” Shiva throws a wrench in my logic but it is perfectly reasonable, after all if I wont follow all of the rules why would anyone else.

I walk over to the window and press it open and lean my head out. There is a gutter that is within easy grabbing distance and it looks sturdy enough to support someone's weight. I decide to ignore it for now and do a thorough sweep of the room.

After a couple of minutes I don't find any traces of anyone so I can only assume they went out the window and I walk back over to it and push it open as far as it will go. “What are you up to now?” one of the instructors asks me and I look over my shoulder at him and raise an eyebrow.

“I thought it was obvious,” I give him a look that hopefully conveys that he should have been able to figure it out, “I'm hunting.”

Before anyone can say anything else I step up on the frame and swing my torso out and attach myself to the pipe and after making a quick decision I climb up to the roof, while ignoring the calls of the instructors.

I reach the top of the gutter and I reach around the corner and grab a hold of the tiles on the roof and I give them a sharp tug. They don't move so I take a tight grip on the ridge and move my other hand up and let my body hang around the corner of the building.

I don't stay there for long and I pull myself up and hook my foot on the edge of the roof to give myself a better boost up onto the tile. I take a moment to find a good balance before I stand up and take a look around before I walk towards the peak.

I easily reach the top and I straddle the peak and have another look around and from up here it is easy to see the man sitting on the edge of one of the chimneys on the other side of the roof. He puffs on his pipe slightly and raises his hand up and I nod to him in return.

There is a quite bit of scrabbling behind me and I turn and watch one of the instructors rather noisily clamber up on the roof and I almost question how he ended up with a position with sanctioned enforcers, before I realize that Melodiana doesn't have a good background for it either.

“But even then,” I still complain, “She is at least more graceful than him.”

Shiva doesn't say anything and she just laughs at my observations as he shakily tries to stand up before he crouches and keeps himself low to the roof. A woman quickly follows him up to the roof in a much better manner and she looks around before her gaze locks with mine.

“So what are you hunting out here?” she asks with a sly smile like she has been expecting us to play against their rules, and I point across the roof.

“One of my targets of course,” I give her a tiny shrug before I walk back down the roof. Neither of us says anything else and I sit on the edge of the roof and let my feet dangle before I twist around and lower myself back down.

I have to slide down a little to get back in a good position to make my descent, but once I am there I make sure that I've still got a tight grip on the tile before I move my right hand back to the gutter. I hug the corner with my knees and I quickly move my other hand onto the gutter and then rest my feet on either side of it.

I stretch out with my foot and find the frame easily before I reach in and grab the side of the frame and I step back into the room and head back to the door. I walk back out onto the landing and down the stairs with most of the instructors in tow, the only one that is missing is the man who climbed out first.

I almost ask if it is alright to leave him on the roof, but after a moment I decide it is probably fine, and if nothing else there is plenty of scaffolding for him to use to get down. We get back to the second floor and I peek my head into the room and spy the pair that I gave a scare to has joined the others that have been found.

“I think that's everyone now,” I point into the room and one of the instructors looks in passed me, “With the one I just found.”

“I do believe so,” she says and she walks into the room and says something to the lead instructor. He nods his head and pulls out his whistle and lets out a shrill bird call signaling the end of the round and I walk back into the room and sit down and wait.

It doesn't take long at all before Melodiana and the other instructors come back into the room, followed by the roof hider, and once everyone has taken a seat the Lead instructor claps his hands and starts again.

“All right that's enough hide and seek,” he says and looks around the room, “Next we will split you up into two groups and preform mock raids. Both sides will take a turn defending and attacking, We will let you all decide who you want to work with though.”

“Oh how interesting,” Shiva whispers as I look at the others. The five boring ones quickly gather around each other and look at the rest of us with disdain and I almost laugh at them.

“We volunteer to attack first,” The woman I scared earlier stands up and shoots an angry glare at me.

“Is that fine with the rest of you?” the lead instructor asks as he looks around and none of us say anything against it so he nods his head, and turns towards them “All right. Then Elwyers will act as the hostage this time. Everyone will be armed with paint weapons but don't try to hurt each other with them. The five of you can head next door and discuss how you intend to rescue her. You will begin in ten minutes.”

They all nod and quickly leave the room and are followed by some of the instructors and once they all leave one of the other instructors steps over to the table and rolls out several sheathed weapons. It looks like there is something for everyone to use and the Elfin woman I watched earlier steps up and nods her head.

“I'm Elwyers,” she bows and clasps her hands in the typical Elfin greeting, “We used your information to provide you with suitable tools that you should all be comfortable with today. If any of you have any other request now is the time to make them.”

We all meander over to the table and grab a respective fakes and I draw the blade and take a look at it. It is a wooden blade covered in a thick blue liquid that doesn't drip. I give it a gentle swing but even that doesn't cause any of the paint to spray off.

“Do you have any we can use to make fake spells with?” the sleepy Elf yawns slightly, and Elwyers nods her head and place several small balls onto the table as well.

“So what do we do now?” the drinking man asks.

“I suppose we should be preparing to be attacked,” Melodiana responds as she looks around the room, and then her gaze settles on me, “Do you have any suggestions?”

“Oh that means I don't have to be team leader,” the man from the roof nods and sits down in his chair.

“I second that,” The sleepy Elf turns toward me and looks at me through half lidded eyes with a small smile playing on her lips.

“That's fine with me as well,” the last man responds and nods his head.

I give them all a sideways look for throwing me to the front like this but I just sigh and shake my head and point up, “Lets go to the attic. It should be a better place to defend.”