Emily sat on a bench in Juest’s tower as she fastened the buckles on her boot. She had been grumbling for a while now but the time to act was fast approaching. The meeting had adjourned pretty soon after Nox had invoked his favor. Emily had not expected the teen to even remember he had it, let alone have enough sense to use it here.

  The exchange of services did not at all match one another. Emily had been a little cocky when she had extended the favor, but what’s done was done.

  Some might question her sanity to change her mind at Nox’s request. But to Emily, this was not something she would compromise on. A deal was a deal and she would uphold it, even if it killed her. But hopefully, Emily could worm her way around Nox’s request before it did, because the more she heard of their odds, the more malleable her ethos was looking.

  From the sounds of things, the armies at their walls had grown to over two thousand strong. A huge jump from the couple hundred souls waiting outside a week ago.

  To make matters worse, there were rumors that another core had arrived. Now, the number of souls in Lorthil greatly outnumbered the armies outside, but their fighting force was not even a tenth of that. To make matters worse, Juest's worries were more focused on a group of people called the Cardinals.

  They was a group that mainly resided within the capital city itself, but on occasion, they had been known to leave their seat of power to enact their god’s will.

  The Black Cardinal was known as a wanderer so it was no surprise that his core had arrived first, but now from the sounds of things another Cardinal had arrived. This was also another reason Lorethil had decided to mount an attack while their numbers were still low. If they could kill these two titles then it would take years before they resurfaced, and greatly weaken their power in the coming war.

  Juest been nominated by the council to mount the attack on the enemy camp along with another Mage. They were supposed to be an answer to the Cardinals but Emily would like to see that in combat.

  Supposedly he was a match for them.

  The image of the skies darkening with black light flashed through Emily’s mind. If a battle of that level took place here, it may well be a city-destroying event. Which was one of the main reasons Emily had wanted to put a large amount of space between them and this city. Sadly that turned out to be more difficult than she had hoped.

  The plan –If one could call it that– was to sneak in under the cover of night and break out the prisoners. Ideally as many as possible and make a grand spectacle to draw as much attention as possible for the main force to sweep over their defenses.

  Emily had heard they were bringing three thousand troops so this would happen anyway, but if her guess was correct then Lorehil probably couldn’t raise a much larger offensive force than that. So they were trying to get as many advantages as possible.

  It made sense that a city that relied so heavily on its defenses would not have a ton of trained guards.

  Emily’s train of thought was interrupted when a familiar set of pants stepped into her vision.

  “We’re heading out in five, are you ready?”

  Glancing up at Alex she nodded.

  “Let’s get this over with.”

  “Agreed,” he said as he handed her three small metal golf balls.

  “That's a gift from Mr. Juest. It's a confluence orb. The moment you start moving Source into the device a countdown will begin. After five seconds it will release all the stored charge at once.”

  Emily's eye fixated on the three mundane-looking balls of metal. Had he just handed her the equivalent of a grenade?

  Emily smiled and put them away but then she looked up at the man with a more serious expression.

  “Out of interest, have you thought of what we’re going to do if he’s already on their side?” Emily asked.

  Alex shot her a confident glare.

  “He won’t be.”

  Emily shrugged, but she could see a flicker of concern enter his eye.

  Activity went on all around them and when Ashe arrived next to them with Nox in tow, she looked rather sheepish.

  “Emily, thank you for coming. It means a lot.”

  Emily's mood darkened but she shrugged.

  “After he twisted my arm, don't sweat it, I can respect the loss. But Nox, if you ever try this again, I’ll drain the blood from your body and use it to cut up what’s left.”

  Nox’s pale face helped to lighten Emily's mood somewhat.

  Ashe took a step in front of Nox subconsciously.

  “We should get going. Mr Juest has carriages ready for us.”

  Emily glanced over at Umbra’s men, and, like a sixth sense, he turned to look at her and smiled. They would be following them and breaking off after they found what they were looking for.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  As they began to head to the door Emily spotted Juest waiting near the exit with Cupcake wagging her tail at him.

  “These men will take you all across the veil to the waterways.” he pointed to three drivers. “From there, you’re on your own. Let’s go.”

  The doors to the tower opened and everyone saw the awaited carriages. They all began to climb on but Emily heard a voice calling her name from behind. Glancing back she saw Genevieve running from from the lift.

  “Emily!? Emily!”

  Turning, she watched the woman approach.

  “Here, take these notes, in case you can’t come back this way, I wish you the best of luck and again I’m sorry for what happened.”

  Emily nodded and fell in beside everyone else as the older woman waved them off.

  Alex was one of the last to board the carriage and Emily was about to follow him when a cloaked Umbra pushed ahead of her nearly causing her to fall backwards. She was about to swear at the man when she noticed a line of guards gathering up ahead.

  Emily squinted and she could just make out the several guards in uniform. Having seen him less than two hours ago Emily could recognize the outline of the Captain approaching Juest.

  The Mage watched the man's approach with a skew grin and nodded for Emily to get on the carriage. Realizing it would not be a good idea to be seen by them she ducked into the carriage and had Cupcake hide as well.

  From the looks of things, Juest was not happy to have been caught by these men but he was a council member so she could only hope for the best.

  Emily shut the door behind her, the sharp clack of the axle turning the only sound as they took off down the road.

  Emily tried to discern what was happening behind them, but the bleating of the winter mules drowned out the voices. All she could see were the backs of Genevieve and Juest as they faced the guards.

  Genevieve glanced back just once and Emily saw her look of concern but then the carriage rounded the corner and the sibling duo was gone.

  By the time Emily turned back to the carriage interior she could see everyone else looked rather grim.

  Snorting Emily spoke up

  “Come on everyone, you signed up for this. How about a little more cheer”

  Emily got a lot of dry glares and Svent even tried to snort at the half-hearted humor. But people like Alex just shot her a scowl.

  “I suppose I should have expected a tough crowd”

  Emily glanced out of the slatted windows again as the scenery passed by. The sun was a mix of gold and orange, but by the look of the skies, they didn’t have much time to get into position for the battle.

  The winding path the carriages took didn’t help any either, but from what Emily could understand Juest was keeping their involvement on a need-to-know basis.

  Not that Emily minded.

  Their path through the inner campus was eventually brought to a halt when they arrived at a large building. Emily was surprised to find out that the warehouse was an entrance to an underground tunnel that led to a set of private lifts. They were only usable for certain individuals but they offered the perfect escape from the city undetected. The carriage eventually came out about level with the waterways on the edge of the city. The very same shoots of water Emily had first entered the city form last week.

  When they got there the driver asked them to disembark and then left. Emily blinked in confusion when a Sand Raven appeared on the ledge next to them.

  Seeing the birds with mounts was to a surprise but amongst the four large creatures was a platform of sorts. It could easily accommodate all of their men but no one looked thrilled to ride what was essentially a plank of wood suspended above a gorge.

  Emily looked up at the riders but they never said a word.

  If anything, Juest's ability to get things done quickly and quietly was impressive. When did he have the time to arrange all of this?

  Emily sighed and was the first to step onto the platform, followed closely by Cupcake. Umbra came next, followed by Alex and Svent, and then the remnants of the Wandering Fangs.

  The men from the Weeping were the last to step onto the platform, but from the looks of things, they were unafraid as the platform began to move. What Emily did notice was how each of them wore something different as though they were from all walks of life.

  Emily leaned over to Umbra.

  “Hey, I thought you guys were Blood Mages.”

  Umbra smirked at Emily.

  “No, in fact, there is not a single Blood user among this group. Their kind are not the most covert people and I need only the most subtle men for my mission in this city.”

  Emily frowned.

  “I was under the impression the Weeping was made mostly of Mages that use blood.”

  Umbra nodded

  “Because that’s what we want people to think. But as you will have no doubt realized there is more than just Mages that use blood as a medium.”

  Emily glanced at the other men from the Weeping again. They were all carrying either a sword or a bow or both.

  “So you, what? Trained these men? Why?”

  Umbra snorted.

  “Some of them. But the reason is not all that important. Right now, getting out of this city was probably the best I can ask for right now.”

  Emily tilted her head.

  “So you’re not intending to return? I thought you had ‘vested interests’ in Lorethil.”

  The man nodded as he stepped closer, placing himself between Alex and herself. Almost as though he was trying to monopolize her attention.

  “Yes, it's interesting how one can get a first-class escort out a wartime city with a simple agreement.”

  Emily pursed her lips.

  “Then why stick around, you have no need to once we reach the other side right?”

  Umbra sighed like he was disappointed.

  “That’s obvious. For the fun of it. Even down in that pit, I heard rumors of a brewing war and the fact that I couldn’t join in kept me up at night.”

  Emily looked at the man up and down.

  “You’d fight a war for fun?”

  Umbra shrugged.

  “To an extent yes, but after a certain while, the only way one can increase their skills is to test them against those of equal strength. Otherwise how else will you know who is better?”

  Emily rubbed the back of her neck because she found that opinion both ridiculous and intriguing.

  “I have a question for you though” Umbra started. “It's obvious to me that you are one hell of a woman. Why do you stick around these people?”

  Emily tilted her head at the man but he continued.

  “Someone like you would be welcome where I’m from and valued quite highly. Why do you come to work for me? You could leave this battlefield behind and I could make sure you never wanted for anything again.”

  Emily grimaced and watched the roaring water as it fell into the gorge below.

  “My current deal makes that impossible, but there if we were to team up you made a mistake. It would be you under me, not the other way round.”

  Umbra’s eyes turned into crescents as his smile became radiant.

  “And that’s why I think you would be perfect for my world.”

  Emily patted him on the shoulder.

  “Maybe, but we’ll never find out,” she said as the platform arrived at the open mouth of the waterfall. The railing was brought level with the platform and they all hopped off the wooden board.

  Once they were inside the chamber, Ashe moved to the front of the group. She was looking for something, and when she found it, she hummed pleasantly. Activating a line of wards caused a previously hidden doorframe to appear in the stone wall.

  From here Emily could make out a massive spiral staircase.

  “Alright, everyone inside. We should come out somewhere with cover but lets not get complacent,” Alex said.

  Blood points: 310