Unedited.

Like super unedited.

~

Sophie smacked away Eira's hand as she struggled to scramble out of her boat. Their small boat was docked on the hidden side of the bay, a short walk away from the far side of Renisanca, where the guildhall resided. Eira and Sophie draped shadows over their boat to sneak past the barricade of Neverseen ships. Now, all they had to do was grab the artifacts and get out.

"Do not fall, my savior!" A voice hissed from the water. Sophie spun to stare at the sirens surrounding the boat, trying to hold it steady for her. A siren with black hair poked her head out of the water, her sharp ears dripping down her pale face. Her eyes were dark and empty, but had a certain shine to them that made her seem almost... cute?

(By Poitbuts on DeviantArt)

"What are you doing here?" She snapped at them.

"We saw the savior sneaking away in the middle of the night while residing in our caves beneath the island. We followed to make sure you remained safe!" One of them explained, their sharpened and filed teeth gleaming in the moonlight.

"Send them away! We cannot have anyone risking getting in our way!"

"We would never get in the way of our savior, you witch!" One of the sirens snapped, launching from the water to claw a few inches from Eira's face.

Eira huffed with anger, blueish shadows dripping from her fingertips, "How dare you-"

"Hurt them, Eira? And I will feed you to them myself." Sophie hissed. Eira growled, but the shadows slithered back into her fingertips.

"Just... wait here. Protect our boat. We will be back soon."

"Should we tell the Savior Maha of your whereabouts?"

"No." Eira snapped, crossing her arms and turning to Sophie, "You agreed. We do this alone."

Sophie ground her teeth, but she nodded to the sirens, "Just for now, stay here please."

The sirens slunk into the water, glaring viciously at Eira until they disappeared entirely.

"They call you their savior? A bit egotistical if you ask me." Eira scoffed.

"I didn't ask them to call me that, they just started to after Maha removed the Mirthless influence over their minds."

Eira's face contorted, "She can do that?"

"Mirthless infused people have high iron and calcium in their blood since the Mirthless are made out of shadows, metal, and broken bones. If Maha removes the high iron in their blood from their body, they have a small chance of regaining their own free will. Their bodies will never return to normal, and their brains will always slightly be cracked. That is how Maha explained it to me, at least." Sophie explained, fully hitching their boat to a nearby tree before waving Eira to follow. They walked through the Inalian jungle in Silence, Sophie knowing this area like the back of her hand. The Inalian jungle wasn't as thick as the Carianan jungle nor as humid. The trees were more spattered about, the dirt beneath them sometimes covered in long grass and wildflowers or completely barren besides twigs and the prints of the many animals stalking the forest.

Soon, the guildhall came into view.

"Sneaking into my guildhall. This is ridiculous Eira, let's just walk in there!"

"Until you figure out who your spy is, we are doing this my way." Eira snarled.

Sophie grumbled, but she scanned over the guildhall. Her assassins were stalking the perimeter, ready for anything. Just as she trained them.

"The safe is in my office in the east wing on the upper floor. Follow my lead." Sophie grumbled.

The Assassin leaned against the wall just outside the covered back porch the inner circle eats brunch on. He glanced from side to side, pursing his lips.

"Come on..." The Assassin grumbled, checking his pocket watch.

Eira began to get fidgety, "This is taking too long,"

Sophie held her arm, "Wait."

Right on time, the Assassins watch ticked two am on the dot, and he stretched, "Hell yeah! Time to go to bed. Maybe drink some off that wine the Mentore bought for the guild."

Eira turned to Sophie with a look, "You buy them wine?"

"I buy them anything they may need. And I mean anything." Sophie watched as the hooded figure walked inside, and she stood. The two of them quickly snuck through the back porch and into the door right behind the Assassin. Eira, who was never trained in the ways of stealth, stepped on the creaky board not covered by the carpet.

The Assassin froze, spinning on his heel and staring at the empty space behind him.

Sophie held Eira against the wall behind the long velvet curtains lining the ceiling-high windows. Sophie's hand was clamped over Eira's, the two of them silent.

The Assassin pinched the bridge of his nose, "I need sleep. Leto needs to let up on the early morning training."

Sophie stiffened when he said that, arching a brow as she watched him leave.

The two of them slunk out from behind the curtain, Eira pushing Sophie off.

"What was that for?!" Eira hissed.

Sophie stayed focused on the door the Assassin exited through, "He heard you... why is Leto doing early morning training? I told him he was just watching the guildhall, not running it. I set up the training regiment with Nour myself. I don't want it changed." Sophie complained.

Eira rolled her eyes, "You can deal with it later, come on."

Eira dragged Sophie forward, and they continued through the guildhall. Sophie held Eira back, glancing around the corner as two Assassin's changed posts on the stairs.

"Get close to me, don't make a damn sound," Sophie whispered. Taking Eira's shoulder, Sophie draped the two of them in shadows. Her crest tingled on her shoulder from the effort of it. Sophie was still recovering, and a secret mission probably wasn't the best choice for her health. Together, Sophie's darkness blended them into the shadows lining the stairs and allowed them to slip past the stationed Assassin.

Soon, they approached the mahogany door. Sophie began to slide the key into the lock but stopped when Eira held a hand out.

Lifting a finger to her lips in Silence, Eira pointed to the door where a muddled voice could be heard.

No one was supposed to be in her office. No one had the key but her.

Sophie nearly barged in, but Eira carefully placed her ear to the door to try and pick up the words.

"I cannot find them..." A male voice muttered, "Are you sure she hid them here?"

A staticky voice answered. Probably a caller from over the minyama. Eira looked down at Sophie with a grimace.

Their spy.

Sophie pointed to the balcony on the other side of her office from the window. "I'm going to climb in through that way." Sophie placed her key in Eira's palm, "When I give the signal, unlock the door and come in."

Eira's eyes widened at the key, "You are trusting me with the key?"

"I need to see this traitor for myself, and we need to surround them if they do try to run. And if they do need to fight, I hate to say it, but I'm going to need your help since I'm in this state." Sophie straightened, "Please promise me you will listen? Don't just barge in there?"

Eira thought for a moment before nodding, "Alright."

Sophie opened the quietest window carefully, trying to avoid the loud hinges. Engaging her core and built arms, she pulled herself out the window with ease, carefully holding onto the marble carvings lining the walls.

The people and lights of Renisanca blended together in the night as Sophie climbed, no one noticing her scaling the side of the building.

She needed to pull aside Leto and lecture him for the security being so loose. No one should be able to sneak in here, even her.

She toed her balcony, yelling internally to remember to keep her balance and don't pull any of her clumsy bullshit now.

Otherwise, she would be a puddle on the concrete beneath her.

A growing dark figure approaching the window made her instantly begin to wobble. The balcony doors flung open, and Sophie grabbed the balcony fencing and swung, grappling to hold on as she held on for purchase.

"She is going to be back any moment now. I don't know how long your ships will serve as a distraction!" The voice was no longer muddled. And she knew it. She knew that damn voice.

"I'm not your dog, Vespera. I can't do that to her-" Silence as she answered.

"I know that, but.."

Sophie fought the tears as she heard the next words, "I know I'm her Rastus father, but I think she is catching on to what I'm doing."

Leto's voice.

It was Leto.

Leto left the balcony to continue his pacing.

"I pretended to be dying for her to not even think of me, and now you want me to fucking tell her? I'm not doing that! Now, tell me where the damn artifacts are before they figure out I'm in her office."

Sophie waited as Leto drifted back inside and pulled herself up and over her balcony edge. Leto prodded behind her desk, quietly murmuring with Vespera.

Sophie whimpered, "Leto?"

The man froze, quickly hiding his Minyama underneath her desk as he popped up smiling at her.

"Amalia, I didn't hear you come in!" Leto glanced at her closed door and the small bell he attached to it. He then saw the open window.

"You climbed in? What are you, breaking into your own home?" Leto laughed. Sophie didn't reply, just stared at him with a blank look.

"Who were you talking with?" Tell me the truth, Sophie silently begged. It was a misunderstanding. It had to be.

"I was talking with Luram Bak. He wanted the updates on the weaponry load out our Assassins carry."

It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Leto?"

"Yes, Lia?"

"Luram Bak is dead. Has been since the Battle of Foxfire."

Silence settled between the two of them, and Sophie's focus turned to the minyama tucked beneath her desk. Leto followed her eyes, opening his mouth to explain. But he saw her eyes. She knew, and he knew that.

"Lia-"

"Don't. Don't call me that." Sophie ground out, tears welling in her eyes.

Leto's face dropped, "Please, be reasonable! I'm your Rastus father, you are my everything! My Moonlark! I would never do anything to hurt you!"

My moonlark. All those years in the Lost Cities working for him and the Black Swan, the years before that where he helped raise her.

"Dear gods, it was all a lie, wasn't it?" Sophie sputtered.

Leto pursed his lips, "Nothing is a lie, Amalia. I'm just doing what Allesandro would've wanted!"

"Which is lying to his daughter and backstab everything you two worked to create together?!"

"Amalia, no-"

Sophie pushed past him, pulling the Minyama out from beneath her desk. Vespera's face glittered in it. She looked down at Sophie's face on the screen the sighed to someone off-screen.

"Agent 872 code name Swan has been compromised."

Leto whipped his head towards the Minyama, "Wait, no-"

Vespera cut the connection, leaving Leto and Sophie alone. Sophie threw the minyama to the floor, crushing it beneath her foot. Letting out a sharp whistle, Eira barreled into the room. Sophie grabbed the dagger hidden beneath her desk. Twice in the last 24 hours, Sophie had to grab her hidden weapons.

Pointing the dagger for Leto's neck, she started, "Under the authority of the Cyevan Guild and the Assassin's pact, you are under arrest for treason."

Eira stepped forward, "Don't move. The Mentore and I won't kill you if you comply." Eira glanced at Sophie's snarling teary face, "At least I wont."

Leto's face darkened, "Amalia, be reasonable. I did this because I wanted to protect the public. If you had just stayed with the Black Swan-"

"So I could stay under your thumb? So that you could keep a closer eye on me? The Black Swan was a branch of the Cyevan Assassins, Leto! So why are you defying the Cyevan Assassins? Defying me?!"

Leto's eyes narrowed, "Amalia, I am the Cyevan Assassins!"

Sophie's face dropped, "Excuse me?!"

"I was at the beginning, I was there through it all. Yet your father always insisted doing it his way, the Black Swan was just a pity grab he gave me so I would leave him alone! I should be the Mentore- Me! I made the Moonlark, I made the weapon!"

The. He called her The Moonlark. She was nothing but The Weapon, The Moonlark.

"I am Mentore Amalia Morretti! The Moonlark is dead, Leto! And after this? So is the Black Swan."

The math was all checking out. The spy activity started after the Battle of Foxfire. The battle that Leto came home. She thought he was bedridden for weeks! He must have been sneaking around all along.

"Eira, in the armory down the hall are restraints. Take him in and alert the other Assassins of our presence. We need to sweep the guild to see anything else he may have done."

"Lia, I'm warning you, don't do this."

"Or what, Leto? You will stab me in the back? Hurt me and the Cyevan family beyond repair? You already fucking did that, your traitor." She snapped.

Eira was back with the metal restraints quickly, slowly approaching Leto.

"I won't let you destroy what I've worked for, Amalia." Leto spat.

Sophie lunged for him, but his hand was already in his robes. He flung the smoke bomb right beneath her feet, the same smoke bombs Maria gave the rest of the Assassins.

Sophie dropped, coughing and swinging wildly in the smoke. Warm metal dribbled down her eye. Her wound must have reopened.

"Amalia!" Eira called from the corner of the room.

Eira's silhouette was muddled in the smoke filling her office, but her arms lunged out for the gasping Mentore. Yanking her back with one arm, Eira lifted the other and snapped her fingers. The smoke shuddered and stopped as if she pressed the pause button on time. The smoke turned purple and blue, and with another snap, the smoke condensed into sand and dropped to the office floor.

But Leto was gone.

"Amalia, your eye! I told you to take it easy!" Eira snapped. Sophie pushed herself off Eira and ran to the window, watching Leto sprint through the main courtyard of the guildhall.

Grabbing the fake curtain tassel, Sophie yanked it with all her strength. The hidden emergency bells toll through the guildhall. She sprinted to her door and flung it open.

"Escaped traitor! He's going through the courtyard!" Sophie screamed through the halls.

The Assassins all stared at her in shock, not even knowing she was in the guildhall.

"Move!" She snapped.

Everyone hauled ass, dispersing out of the guildhall in massive hooded packs. Assassins lined the windows, bows drawn and guns aiming. One elder Assassin barked out, "Mentore, I have eye on him!"

The elder Assassin handed Sophie his sniper rifle, and Sophie peered through the scope. Her finger was on the trigger and was slowly getting him in range. But pulling the trigger? She couldn't stop hesitating.

Traitor. He lied. Lied. Lied.

But she kept stopping herself mid-pull of the trigger.

Leto was now almost at the gate, which was slowly closing in hopes of cornering him. Sophie watched as the golden gates slammed closed, but Leto didn't slow his pace.

"No-no!" Sophie watched as Leto took a running start before running upside the gate and grabbing the top, quickly throwing himself over the other side.

Sophie cursed, slamming her fist on the window sill. Sophie handed back the rifle. Her adrenaline was wearing off, and she was now aware of the searing pain of her eye wound reopening.

Filomena came running down the hall, her skirts and aprons hiked up, "Amalia?! What is going on-" Filomena froze at the blood pooling down Sophie's face.

"Dear gods," Filomena surged forward, grabbing Sophie's face and turning to look at the wound.

"What... how-where?"

"Leto is the traitor." Sophie mumbled.

Filomena paled, "W-What?"

"Leto is the traitor, Filomena." Sophie repeated herself, her voice distraught and quiet.

Eira slammed her fists against the gates, but the minute Leto hopped over the top of it, he was long gone.

"Amalia, sit down. You are losing a lot of blood!" Filomena gasped, leaning Sophie down against one of the chaises. Filomena barked to the nearby Assassin, "Get a healer! She needs stitches!" Filomena panicked. Eira came back up the stairs and turned to Sophie, and her face dropped.

"I told you to take it easy!"

But Sophie couldn't stop saying one thing.

"Leto is the traitor. My Rastus father betrayed me. Leto is the traitor. My Rastus father betrayed me."

Eira cursed, hiking up her sleeves.

"I'm a Dunmer healer, I can keep her pulse and vitals steady until we get this wound stiched." Eira explained.

Filomena's hands were shaking, "She's pale, and she is delusional! She said-"

"That isn't the blood loss talking. It really is Leto. I was there." Eira answered.

Filomena pursed her lips, kneeling in front of Sophie and taking one of her hands, "Oh my little Passerota. Oh no, no, no... how could he?"

The words began to get muddled again, and Sophie felt the familiar sleep want to wash over her.

"Oh no you don't!" A sting seeded in Sophie's cheek, her brain registering a few moments too late that Eira slapped her.

"What the hell!" Sophie snapped, finally coming to.

She didn't even realize, but her eye was stitched up. People huddled around her, Assassins worriedly chewing their nails or muttering to their colleagues.

"Son of a-"

"Amalia." Filomena warned.

Sophie forced herself up, "What just-"

"You were waning in and out. We just got you stitched up." Eira explained. With help, Sophie scampered into her office. She shoved books off her middle shelf to reveal a small scanner. She held her eye open as a blue light shone over her retina.

The wood hissed and clunked open. Sophie opened the safe and sighed as she saw the three artifacts.

Kassandra's crown.

Cynna's Key.

And the broken glasses.

The three godly artifacts she has collected.

"Since the rope is destroyed, the only other ones we need are the goblet and the sphere." Eira breathed.

Sophie nudged her, realizing Leto might've bugged her office. She had no idea what he possibly did.

"We need to get these back to Kephalonia."

"Amalia, the Assassins and I would love a little bit insight into what the hell is going on? Uh, please." Filomena cut in.

Sophie glanced at Eira before sighing, "I can't."

"What?"

"Let me just get these to a safe place." Sophie took the artifacts and carefully placed them in the waterproof bag they brought.

Until a smell made her freeze.

"Is that.." Sophie whipped her head to Eira.

"Smoke." Eira confirmed.

Sophie couldn't move, couldn't breathe. The smoke could be seen now, quickly overwhelming the halls. Those around her hacked the smoke quickly filling the air, and Sophie scrambled to the window, swinging it open.