Tala followed in the wake of her soldiers, her feet easily cracking through the thin layer of ice to find purchase, even with the increased surface area of her steps.

She heard the sounds of brief clashes, but rarely any screams of pain. They’d brought true professionals.

Tala took the main corridor to the left, towards the more elite common areas.

Be-thric was heading towards the more guest centric section of the hold, as one of the candidate Eskau who was supposed to be inside was supposedly a guest from another city.

Meallain took the path straight ahead. That way led to the main services for the average guild member. That way was also the audience hall. So, if anyone encountered a full Eskau or Pillar it would be her.

Tala was the next most likely, but as they were striking during the middle of the day, the upper echelon shouldn’t be taking advantage of the facilities, leaving them to be utilized by the candidates. Or, at least, that’s what Tala hoped.

She strode down immaculately cleaned, wide corridors, done in beautiful motifs of sunlit vistas and beast-folk cavorting in the wilderness.

She passed servants bundled to the sides of the hallway, wrapped in one-use magical restraints. The net of metal formed to the target and held them comfortable but immobile for the span of two hours, or until released.

They couldn’t be used again after that.

Tala had a dozen with her as well, though she shouldn’t need to use them. The House of Blood soldiers were clearing out the innocents and bystanders.

A cry came from up ahead, “Banner!” The call agreed upon to indicate a significant threat.

Tala launched forward, cracking the stunning floorboards beneath her heavy, rapid tread as she followed the echoes of the voice, and the brief sound of the clash of arms. Moments after the shout, she burst into a room in chaos.

Four House of Blood soldiers were backing away, their weapons raised, and various magics flickering.

On the other side of the room stood a man in simple clothing, framed by light coming through the doorway behind him.

He had a badge of office, indicating he was a master servant for the House of the Rising Sun. Even so, he was Honored. A gardener?

As she entered, magics struck out from the gardener, none aimed at her as she’d only just arrived.

Her soldiers were able to block, but even so, great, jagged rents were torn through the room, and one of her soldiers cried out, bleeding from a savage cut.

“Ma’am!” The soldiers acknowledged her.

The gardener straightened, seeing her as a true threat and taking a moment to pause and assess her properly.

Tala kept her focus on the opponent. “We are here for one thing only: a candidate’s protian weapon. Will you stand aside, and let us pass, or must we continue with the violence?”

He scoffed, his furry skin becoming more apparent as he stepped forward. “You have invaded my home, the home of my master, and the Hold of my House. It is you who have chosen violence, white devil, or whoever you are. Death is the only result for such a crime.”

A mole-man? Interesting choice for a gardener.

She didn’t have time to contemplate that at the moment. “I’m Eskau Tali, of the House of Blood.” With a flick of will, she changed the target of one of her scales to the man’s head.

With a whisper-crack, the leading edge of her scale drove through his forehead, dropping the gardener in an instant.

“If death is required, it will be yours.” She smiled ruefully. I would have liked to say that to him, but you don’t warn your enemies with a line like that.

-Yeah, solid choice of timing.-

The soldiers goggled at her for a moment, but she snapped them back into action. “Wounded, retreat. Remainder press on. We need to be in and out fast. Time’s wasting.”

They snapped into action, obeying her without question or hesitation. Two went past the downed enemy and into the rooms beyond.

As for Tala, she walked over to the dead gardener and placed her hand over the wound.

With a rather greater effort of will, she reached out to the scale of metal and changed its target to the metal on her palm

It cracked into her armored palm, breaking several of the bones in her hand. She let out an uncontrollable whimper at the pain that caused.

Still, it had worked just like in practice.

I never practiced with one amplified to this extent though…

She moved her hand to where the scale had come from and did another transfer, grunting at the pain of it striking her side, even from the short distance away.

Oh, that rusting hurt.

-It is a weapon.-

She stood, ignoring Alat. Her body had already healed from the self-inflicted damage.

Onward!

As she stepped past the gardener, she noticed the room he had been in. It was a small sitting room with a fireplace, a bookshelf and a chair.

That’s a nice looking chair. She didn’t have time to test it out, but it looked incredibly comfortable.

She glanced around, not finding anyone watching.

After all, why not? Why shouldn’t I keep it?

-Tala?-

Tala tossed Kit on the floor, the pouch opening to a hole large enough for Tala to quickly drop the chair through.

I have time. I can take some things.

Then, it was as if the whole world paused. I’m planning on getting banished. They’ll have no use for Kit, but they will want some of the other things back. If I want to ensure I come away with a bounty I shouldn’t just take some things…

Tala’s face broke into the biggest grin that she’d had in quite some time.

I can take everything.

She knew just what to do. With quick motions, she snatched up Kit, and the pouch reformed as she stepped up to the bookshelf.

With a quick motion, Tala swept all the books from each shelf, dumping them straight into Kit. The shelf was built into the wall, so it stayed, but the side table and the gardener’s body went in next.

I won’t take any of the living. She didn’t want to deal with prisoners, after all, but the dead. They might have things of use on them. Some might even have dimensional storages or magical items of other varieties.

She now had a new goal, even as she continued the hunt for a candidate Eskau.

Tala swept through any empty room she found, cleaning it out with the finesse of a tornado. If it wasn’t nailed down, she dumped it into Kit.

Ironically, this utter lack of discretion made it take way less time than if she took only select things.

Paintings came off the wall as she passed.

Every book was taken.

Silly little statues of precious metals or even just stone were dropped into Kit.

And throughout, her smile only grew.

She was gaining a bounty that might be useless, or it might hold unknown treasures.

She couldn’t expect to be able to raid the House of Blood, but she could raid this hold, and if she was really lucky, it might just incense the House of the Rising Sun enough that they took vengeance on the House of Blood, after she’d left.

She even found quite a few training aids ranging from magic nests to what seemed to be a deactivated sparring golem. Even Tali had only gotten access to one of those on rare occasions. Magically expensive to operate.

She moved deeper into the hold, responding to several other calls for aid.

Most surrendered, some didn’t, and those she killed were dropped into Kit along with the first master gardener. All in all, only one opponent put up a true fight.

Frustratingly, it was in the garden right outside the library that she met the problem servant.

Tala dove into a low roll, while she cut two large thorns from the air. The soldiers who had called for her help had already moved on, searching deeper elsewhere while she dealt with this issue.

They were fighting around an artificial pond. What is with these gardeners?

This one was a sort of green snake-woman, and she was also a master gardener like the unnamed mole-man from earlier.

The House of Blood forces had only been in this hold for less than a quarter hour, but it was already pushing on too long.

Tala’s initial attack, the willing forward of two scales, had been thwarted somehow.

The woman’s concept had washed over the scales as they’d approached, and they’d simply fallen to the ground.

Now, Tala was fighting her way forward as the creature used the flora around them to assault her.

She’s like that big bear I fought to become an Eskau…Ogi? Yeah, but she’s way more powerful than he was.

As if to emphasize the point, a vine burst from the ground, wrapping around Tala’s leg and tripping her up.

It didn’t stop her, as Flow severed the offending plant with little difficulty, but it did slow her.

The snake woman was retreating but not leaving the courtyard beneath the fake sky. She’s trying to hold me here…and it’s working.

Tala growled. You know what? Rust these plants.

She pulled in a huge lungful of air, and filled it with power to an extreme level. She manipulated the spell-form, flipping it to dissolution magics as she exhaled, spinning in a circle.

The very air broke apart under the assault, along with the plants which had surrounded her.

The powdered plant mixed with the temporarily divided air, before it all reacted, blossoms of fire rolling out, away from Tala and across the garden, carrying more of her dissolution magic with it.

She felt the familiar sizzling within her mouth as those same magics obliterated anything not protected by inscriptions within her as well.

Hmm, refreshing. The heat radiating back towards her was a nice counterpoint to the tingling across her throat, teeth, tongue, lips, and gums.

-You’re kind of scary sometimes.-

I aim to obliterate.

Alat snorted a chuckle…somehow.

The snake-woman let out a hissing screech. The fire hadn’t reached her directly, but this garden had clearly meant something to her.

Tala took the moment of distraction to sprint forward.

Great, I’m resorting to destroying someone’s life work for an edge.

-And that’s worse than killing them…how?-

Fair point.

She thrust with Flow as a knife, forcing it to transform at the last instant into a glaive.

As the blade came within a handsbreadth of the woman, a powerful force tried to take ahold of Flow’s form, somehow.

Tala locked her will in a vice grip, and tripled the power going into maintaining Flow’s current form.

But the power had never tried to actually stop Flow, just change it.

Thus, the glaive took the woman in the center of her chest, punching through her sternum and into her heart.

She died instantly.

Rusting finally.

Tala quickly gathered up the white scales that had failed to harm the woman. They were completely without gravitational amplification. I’ll fix that, later.

She dropped them into Kit, followed by the woman, herself.

With glee, she then turned to the library.

This was not the public library of the sanctum. No, this was the more exclusive library for the Pillars, Eskau, up-and-comers, and high officials.

Tala kicked in the door and found the spacious interior empty of people.

It was massive, honestly. There were two stories packed tightly with shelves full of books.

With a manic chuckle, she began.

The shelves around the outside of the space were fixed to the walls, but with quick, powerful jerks she broke them free, dumping the mostly intact shelves and all their contents into Kit.

In less than three minutes she’d cleared the first floor.

Gotta go faster.

Two minutes later, she’d cleared the second floor, and she was practically giggling with glee. YES!!!

The books would be added to her secret library in the underbelly of her Sanctum.

She was about to leave when she noticed an oddity to the flows of power around a seeming random part of one wall.

She moved closer to investigate. Something is…hidden? Yeah. Something is hidden here.

-I don’t think we can breach that, Tala. Not without using a siege orb, and that will call far too much attention to us.-

Well, no reason not to try something. She pulled Flow to her hand, altering it to a void-sword.

With powerful cuts, she struck the wall all around the odd magics, severing the connections of power, before she drove Flow, now in the form of a void-knife, into the wall.

Her weapon ate the power, gobbling it up with abandon.

Less than thirty seconds later, the illusion and security scripts were broken. That wasn’t designed to keep out intruders. It was meant to hide it, to keep such methods from being needed.

-Good thing we have such amazing mage-sight, then.-

Oh, absolutely.

There was even a divot that served as a nice little handle. Be careful, Tala. Someone might have decided to take shelter in here.

She pulled it open, eyes searching for anyone hiding inside.

There wasn’t anyone in there, but she gasped at what she did find: More books.

-Unexpected! Books in a library!-

Hush you, this is clearly their equivalent of a restricted section.

As she moved to step inside, she heard an echoing chorus of voices. “Forward!”

It was a silly subterfuge. The command for a retreat sounding like the opposite only gained the smallest of hesitations and most minimal of confusion.

That was enough.

She had apparently missed the call for gathering to claim the weapon, or the protian weapon had been gained before such could be issued. In either case, ‘Forward’ was an indication of success.

Tala echoed the call even as she ignored the command.

She lunged into the secret library and took everything.

Just as she had been.

A few titles grabbed her eyes as they fell into Kit.

Some would likely be worthless to her: Archival ledgers and records for the house.

Those will be a perfect ‘find’ to turn over to the House of Blood.

-Continuing to build your worth to them? Fantastic idea indeed.-

While many were interesting, some... some made her shake with anticipation and long to sit down and start reading immediately.

She couldn’t do that, however, no matter how much she wanted to read: ‘Advancement and the Unbroken Road to Sovereignty.’

There’s no way it’s accurate, but it likely contains some truth.

-All of these are likely just partial truths, if that. This is but a minor city for this House, so there won’t be anything world-shattering, but it will still be useful.-

The only other text that grabbed her attention in the moment was a simple one: ‘A primer on the creation of Risen Sun Protian Weaponry.’

And with that alone, we’ve struck gold.

But it was beyond time for her to be gone.

Tala turned and sprinted from the secret room, making straight for the exit.

Tala wasn’t the last one out, but she was near the back.

A few of the soldiers were being carried by their fellows, but when she checked with a captain who was helping hold the retreat, she was greeted with pleasant news: No fatalities on their side and no one left behind.

The last of the soldiers were counted and as a group they executed a jogging retreat.

As soon as she was free of the enemy hold, she used her will and power to retract the metal from over her head.

She blinked her eyes as they adjusted to the light. She was getting more and more used to seeing with only her mirrored perspective. Eyeslits are a weakness I can avoid.

Meallain was holding a bracer that positively blazed with light and power. “Victory to me, little Be.”

Be-thric was shaking his head. “With that? We all won.”

The elf laughed. “So we did, so we did.”

They called out a greeting to Tala as she joined them, and it was a triumphant, if slightly bedraggled, group that made it to the House of Blood’s hold a short while later.

There, they debriefed, and Tala turned in three of her binding constructs. No one even questioned her. It was simply assumed that she’d used the other nine.

More bounty for us.

She did turn over the ledgers, claiming to have come across them in a locked room while searching the hold.

That had the benefit of being utterly true. The best lies are true.

-I feel like I should be concerned by that line of thought, but I also can’t find fault with the logic.-

Tala grinned, turning towards Meallain to cover the expression’s true cause. “Thank you, Eskau Meallain. Without your assistance that operation would have taken longer, and with a longer timeframe, we would surely have suffered greater casualties.”

It was still odd to her that casualties meant both hurt and killed.

The elf grinned languidly in return.

“Oh, Eskau Tali, it was a pleasure. Those beast-folk have been getting uppity all across the continent. It’s nice to strike a blow against them, and this?” She held up the ledgers and accounting books. “These aren’t recent, but they will give amazing insight into the workings of the House. We’ll take them down a peg or two.”

Be-thric joined them, even as the soldiers were dispersing to receive healing and be fully debriefed by their commanders. “Meallain, you cinched the victory, but I think those documents will be more valuable to the House as a whole in the long run. Incredibly well done, Tali. You prove your worth yet again.”

Tala felt a genuine smile at her lips. “That was my genuine hope, Pillar Be-thric. I wish to be invaluable to the House of Blood.”

Until the moment I make my move.

Be-thric shivered and looked towards the gate. “Lock down the entrance. I feel something in the air. If they retaliate, let’s make them work for it.”

“Yes, Pillar!” The gate guards engaged the more extensive defenses, and the air positively hummed with power.

Meallain frowned. “Be? Is everything alright?”

He frowned. “It’s gone now, but I felt…I don’t know. Like someone was digging my grave.”

Tala stepped forward. She carefully held her thoughts neutral towards Be-thric, instead pulling conviction from her desire for freedom. “If so, I’ll be there when they try, Pillar Be-thric. I think underestimating me will be the last mistake my opponent ever makes.”

-You walk a fine line, Tala. Don’t let your arrogance ruin us, now.-

Be-thric shivered, glanced towards the gate, then shook his head, turning to smile her way. Even so, there was still a tension in his gaze. “Thank you, my Eskau. That is a comfort.”