“No matter the race, once ambition reared its ugly head, taking another’s life to advance your own desires became commonplace. Many philosophers had theorized how people could be a far more noble entity if they were to embrace noble qualities, but reality proved that all too often their ideas were more wishful thinking than anything.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

Elfriede was the first to notice the would-be assassins.

To sense their surroundings with the air itself as the medium was something any Wind affinity mage was capable of doing. Most of them never truly trained in the technique, however, and even when they do use it, they often only receive a general impression of their surroundings. Most of the detail went unnoticed as the mages tried to prevent themselves from succumbing to sensory overload.

Unlike them, she noticed every little detail around her.

Then again, she had been using her wind-bases senses as a substitute for sight since she was young, and over decades of constant usage, had grown extremely skilled at its use. As such, she noticed right away when a few of the nearby “citizens” seemed to tense up in a different way upon noticing the Crown Prince, including how their hands went beneath their cloaks, to the hilt of the daggers at their belt.

Sure, it was not strange to be wearing cloaks in the city, nor was it strange to carry weapons. Many of the citizens did either or both. To have that sort of reaction while looking towards the Crown Prince, however? That was a warning sign to her, and one she wouldn’t fail to miss. As such, Elfriede quietly notified Reinhardt with hand signals used by the Company.

Not a moment too soon at that.

Mere moments after she warned Reinhardt, the twangs of crossbows reached her ears, from the opposite side of the assassins she noticed. She noticed how the Crown Prince’s guards immediately moved to cover him, their thick shields taking the bolts fired at him with ease. At the same time, she also noticed how the assassins she noticed moved closer, taking advantage of the distraction from the other side.

Most of those assassins never even reached them, as Reinhardt blew into his whistle to notify any member of the Company who happened to be nearby.

Both Karenina’s and Cassie’s families happened to be right nearby, and the experienced mercenaries only needed to take a glance at the assassins trying to rush towards where the Crown Prince was standing to know what they had to do. They drew their weapons and immediately struck down several of the assassins who had not expected to be attacked from the side.

Only two of the assassins even came close to the procession, and while most of the Crown Prince’s guards were busy covering him from the crossbowmen who rained bolts on them from the other side, Reinhardt and Elfriede already awaited the assassins. The first one had just drawn his dagger when Reinhardt’s polemace smashed down and crushed the assassin’s shoulder.

The other lost his hand to Elfriede’s blade, and the only reason they were alive was because the Crown Prince had asked for them to capture the assassins alive when it was possible. He likely intended to interrogate them and use them as proof of his uncle’s plots, in order to topple said uncle from his position. After all, dwarves generally frowned upon scheming of that sort, and to be caught red-handed basically spelled the end of one’s political career, if not their life.

As for the crossbowmen who were shooting from afar, the Crown Prince’s guards rendered them ineffectual, while Elfriede knew that Reinhardt’s whistle did more than just warn those nearby. Above the city, Hannah and the rest of their flying scouts were patrolling as well. They had also heard the whistle, and even then Elfriede could hear their screeches – indistinguishable from bird’s screeches to those unfamiliar with them – as they guided the rest of the Company’s people stationed in the city to flank the assassins.

Others were already stationed near the entrances to the underground city, with permits from Varsha to temporarily restrict access in and out from the underground. All was done to prevent any of the assassins from taking refuge there, as the Crown Prince had a certain surety that his uncle, being the dwarven supremacist he was, would mostly use dwarven assassins.

Their interception of the assassination attempt went flawlessly, and perhaps that made them relax their guard a little bit.

Once again, Elfriede was the first to notice. Perhaps because she never had a sense of sight, her hearing was particularly acute for a human. As a result, she heard Hannah’s warning cry from above before the others. Her ears also caught the tell-tale twang of a crossbow being fired, from the side she and Reinhardt were on.

Instinctively she moved to cover the Crown Prince’s back. Her senses detected the bolt a moment later, which gave her a brief window of time to react. She flicked her right wrist, striking the bolt mid-air with the blade of her weapon.

Had it been a regular bolt, her strike would have been enough to send it to the ground, but the bolt proved to be something more, and it deflected her blade instead.

Caught off-guard, Elfriede did not let herself panic. Instead, she raised the blade she held in her left hand in the brief moment she had and used the crescent blade of the handguard in an attempt to deflect the bolt away. The impact was far heavier than what a crossbow bolt ought to be, and even with her utmost efforts, she only managed to divert the bolt slightly off its path.

The bolt went through her left shoulder, punching through her clavicle and out from her back before it expended its momentum. The pain made her grit her teeth, while her left arm hung weakly from the injury but she took solace in preventing the clearly enchanted bolt from reaching the crown prince.

Elfriede opened her mouth, about to tell the others the direction the assassin was shooting from, when she noticed how she couldn’t make a sound. More than that, she noticed how she lost most feeling over the left side of her torso, and how breathing suddenly became much harder all of a sudden.

She lost all feeling in her legs next as her knees gave way and she felt herself falling.