Making the conscious decision to plan the end of another human’s life weighed strangely heavily on me—more so than I would’ve imagined. I had been on the verge of doing it once before with Eissen, but I was barely able to think straight at the time. This was very different.

Standing in a circle around a patch of dirt, the Fighters and I listened to Reurig explaining the High Priest’s typical daily routine, illustrated by simple schematics of the temple’s layout he drew into the earth.

“In the past, Orthur had a rather strict schedule,” Reurig said. “He stood up at the same time every day, he worked the same hours, and was always in bed by midnight. His tasks would lead him to varying places within the temple, but basically, it would have been possible to pinpoint his exact location at all times. We can’t rely entirely on that, because he has new tasks on his mind, but someone who kept such a rigid schedule for so long is unlikely to deviate entirely from it. Come what may, I believe he will be in his chambers by midnight.”

“Midnight will work well for us,” I said. “What was the guard situation typically like?”

“The usual guard detail,” Reurig said. “Two in front of his room and two at every entrance. At times he would task agents with patrolling the building stealthily if he felt paranoid, but the temple agents are no longer with us...” He paused for a moment, remembering his fallen comrades before continuing. “He certainly didn’t manage to get replacements already, which means we can expect little to no actual resistance. The main problem will be getting there undetected.”

The temple was a large structure with a rather inconvenient layout. To get from the entrance to Orthur’s bedroom, you would have to walk through the entire building on a long, fixed path. There were no shortcuts and very few opportunities to hide. The risk of being seen would be especially high if we walked inside through the front door.

I took a stick and added a new section to the plan in the dirt—a rectangle north of the temple. “If we enter the grounds through the hidden gate in the garden, we’ll be closer to the staircase leading upwards,” I said. “There also won’t be a lot of priests wandering around that area, and there will be no eyes on us from the main square. We’ll also come out relatively close to the gate if we use the eastern tunnel.”

“Hm, hm. That works.” Reurig nodded. “I haven’t checked that tunnel, but if you’re with us, we’ll get through any potential blockages without a problem.”

“Alright...” I said. “I need Reurig and Berla with me in his room. It’s very unlikely that someone is going to visit the garden at that time, but we do need a lookout. And the guards in the hallway need to be replaced while we’re inside, in case someone else strolls around.”

“Taul and I will take the hallway then I presume, as we’re less likely to be identified?” Bren asked.

“Yea,” I said. “And Grym will stay outside. That way it won’t matter who turns up, even if it’s more guards.”

“Very well,” Grym said curtly.

These were the first words he uttered since we began. Covert missions weren’t his forte, but I still found it surprising just how willing he was to let other Fighters call the shots despite his seniority.

“Okay. We have a plan then, and we can refine it on the way,” I said. “It’s about five now, so we have eleven hours to get to the tunnel and through it. If we get going soon, we can make it comfortably.”

Determination on our faces, we nodded at each other, ready to embark on our mission. Though the mood shifted slightly when an innocuous, young voice asked “Go where?” from behind me.

I turned around and found Riala looking at me curiously, having woken up at some point. She proceeded to scan the other people standing there. “Hi!” she said happily. “Did they throw you out too?”

“Miss Riala. Good morning,” Taul replied with a smile. “We’re here to talk to Miles.”

There was not one person here who didn’t understand the reason for my decision, but I felt like I had to explain it to Riala. It was a bit of a deviation from how we had handled things in the past after all. Looking at our team, I instructed them to prepare and then turned to Riala, joined by Berla.

“Listen, Ria. Bren and the others came to tell us about the current situation in Alarna,” I began.

No reference for what I was supposed to say or expect this conversation to go like came to mind. How do you tell a child that you’re planning to kill someone? And what would her reaction be? I didn’t have much of a choice but to simply tell her what was going on.

“The High Priest was released from prison, and he’s desperately trying to create mana users. It’s not going well though... He has already let five priests die, and I worry what will happen if we don’t stop him.”

“Oh...” Riala lowered her head, frowning. “He’s Oryn’s boss, right? The one who told him to research us.”

“That’s right,” I said.

The way I had explained it to her, Oryn just did his job back then, and it was primarily Orthur who wanted to see us probed like lab rats. That wasn’t the full truth, but I thought she might have had trouble forgiving Oryn otherwise.

“He was mean to Aelene too,” she said in contemplation. “And if he’s hurting people, he’s bad...” Having come to this conclusion, she looked me in the eyes again. “Are you going to kill him?”

I was taken aback by her question. She might have been perceptive, but for the first thing on her mind to be this... I wondered how that had happened.

“I don’t see another way to finally make him stop,” I explained. “He’d just keep going, no matter what. And he’s not doing it to help people either, unlike Oryn or the king. He just wants power. I need to do it to protect ourselves and others. Do you understand that?”

“Mh.” She nodded immediately. “Berla explained it to me.”

A second passed before I realized when this must have happened. “After Cerus?” I asked Berla.

“Yeah...” she said sadly.

While I was god knows where, the others had faced Fighters from Alarna and had no choice but to kill to defend themselves. It made sense that they had to talk Riala through the reasoning behind using deadly force.

“I see. Yes, it’s similar,” I said. “He’s hurting people to get what he wants, and he’ll keep doing it. We can’t let that go on.”

Riala thought for a moment, but then nodded once more. “Okay, I get it.”

Looking at her innocent face, I was starting to doubt myself again. Was this really okay? If you taught someone with as much power as her that it was okay to kill people, where would this lead her down the line? Did I not have a responsibility to avoid even showing her this path?

I wanted to at least say something to underline that this was an exceptional situation, but nothing came to mind. This was not something you typically had to explain to children. Phrases I could think of, like “That’s only something adults may do!”, naturally sounded completely ridiculous in context.

Berla appeared to sense my uncertainty flaring up again, as she placed a hand on my shoulder in support. “For the greater good,” she said with a heavy voice.

“Mh,” Riala nodded.

This was really all that mattered. That the world would be a better place afterwards. And what other options would’ve been there anyway? Do nothing? Difficult to justify, given his actions. Maybe build a prison out here and kidnap him? Then we’d look even more like villains in the eyes of the people of Alarna and we would start a whole new thing. Convince the king to take action? Even if a miracle happened, he believed us, and decided to act upon it, Orthur would still be executed.

In the end, I didn’t change my mind.

“Alright,” I said. “We will leave in a minute to get to Alarna in time. I need you and Hati to watch the camp.”

“Aw, I can’t come?” Riala said, disappointed.

She was presumably thinking about other aspects of going to Alarna, but the exchange seemed somewhat comical.

No, Ria, I’m not going to take you on an assassination mission until you’re at least eight years old. Obviously, I thought, but said, “No, Ria. If, against all odds, a beast attacks the camp, Aelene and Hati might not be enough to protect the others.”

I was actually a little nervous even with her here, because we didn’t have her new mana fully under control yet. But her main issue appeared to be regulating it, which wouldn’t cause too much of a problem when it came to blasting beasts into smithereens.

Riala wasn’t happy to be left behind, but she understood why there was no way around it. With that out of the way, I turned to the others, who were raring to go. After Berla and I grabbed a few things Reurig had brought, such as fresh clothes and a set of writing utensils, the six of us were off. The last thing I heard before we were out of hearing range was a bewildered and enthralled outcry from Fae. “He built a house?”

Dispirited, I looked behind us as we went on. I’m going to miss the reveal. No way are they going to wait until I’m back. Ugh...

***

Only moments after Miles and the Fighters had left, Hayla asked what his secret project was and Riala proudly announced it for everyone to hear. It took mere seconds before those left behind were on their way there, both to get their minds off things and out of deep curiosity.

After examining every inch of the building, Fae stepped out of it with a wide smile. “This is amazing!” she said. “He did this in just a day?”

“Yup!” Riala said happily.

It was an impressive feat. Especially since, to the best of Fae’s knowledge, Miles was not a craftsman. Surveying the clearing, she also saw a lot of leftover material and some shoddy woodwork, indicating that this was new to him. He was still experimenting, and yet he had gotten this far in such a short amount of time.

“This building technique is completely new to me...” Fae said. “How did he even do this? I don’t see any tools.”

“They’re over there!”

Riala pointed at a series of larger and smaller wooden plates with scripture sigils carved into them. They were neatly arranged on a makeshift table, as tools might be, but they looked more like scrap wood.

Oryn had looked at the house with mild interest while the women explored it, but the moment his gaze fell on the tools, his eyes practically fell out of his head. “He created more holy instruments!?”

The two watched in awe as Riala took one of the saws and showed it off to them, cutting a broad branch in half with little to no resistance. It would’ve taken a Worker a solid minute to get through it with a traditional saw, and even longer with an ax.

“Marvelous!” Oryn exclaimed. He immediately went to take a closer look at the scripts.

“It really is...” Fae said, impressed. “That explains how he got all this timber. Hm... Can anyone use these tools?”

“Not yet,” Riala said. “Miles said maybe later.”

“Unfortunate. But still...”

Inside the house, Hayla and Aelene approached the windows and leaned on their sills, watching the others fawn over the tools on the outside.

“I can’t believe he actually built a house...” Aelene said in disbelief. “Do you think he did this for me? I mentioned not being entirely happy with the living standards...”

She would feel bad if this was the case, seeing how much work this must have been. Hayla was able to alleviate her worries slightly though.

“Maybe it was part of it, but there was probably more going into this decision. We wouldn’t have needed an entire building right away.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Fae meanwhile was hard at work scanning her surroundings once more, taking stock of the remaining materials and the room available in the clearing. An idea popped into her head, inspired by the fact that a divine messenger, mana user, or whatever she should call them, had built a house.

“Maybe I’ll try to start construction of a second house for the rest of us,” she mused. “We’ll need a place to sleep after all.”

“You’re staying?” Aelene asked in surprise.

“Of course,” Fae said. “We couldn’t all just disappear and return some days later. It was a matter of either getting you guys to come back or for us to stay outside. I guess the decision was made.”

“Right, that makes sense,” Aelene said.

Excited by the situation, Fae walked over to a stack of bars and began examining what she had to work with. While she began to plan out the layout of her own home in her head, she smiled in amusement over Aelene’s question.

As if I would go back, now that I’m finally this close to the action, she thought.

A spring in her step, she lifted up a handful of long, heavy bars and started carrying them to a space next to Miles’ house, while calling out to Riala. “Could you help me out with those tools?”

“Okay!”

Oryn looked after the girl with a disappointed frown as she grabbed the wooden plates and ran away. He heard the wood clattering to the ground loudly as Fae dropped it on the other side of the house. He would’ve preferred to study the scripts, but deciding to make do with seeing them in action for now, he followed the two.

Hayla was left alone with Aelene on that side of the house. She wore a confident smile as she glanced at the woman next to her. “And so it begins,” she said.