Charlotte's PoV

Charlotte was having a wonderful dream about a time when she was still a child. It was one of those dreams where you knew you were dreaming, so she took advantage of it. Her grandfather was teaching Charlotte and her brother how to fish. She still never liked fishing, but she loved it when her grandfather taught her new things. Then she looked over and smiled as her brother caught a fish but struggled to bring it in. Grandfather just watched patiently but then her brothers footing slipped and he was pulled into the water. She really did love this memory.

As her brother got back on shore and started drying off she asked her grandfather "Which would you choose: a hard and dangerous job that paid more or an easy job that paid less?"

Taking his time as he always did he finally said "I would pick the one that made me happy."

Was she happy? Working for Jim was challenging. About the most dangerous thing she could do before was make a mistake and get fired. But now she was juggling three hats, she had the silver project but that was about finished.

There was the current couple deals in the works for Jim's new drug and finally she was making preparations to hire their team from 3D tech back. Did that make her happy? Kind of, yes. Charlotte felt like she was doing meaningful work that would lead to the advancement of humanity.

She was enjoying the amiable silence with her grandfather when the radio came on and made this god awful repetitive screeching noise. With a sad realization she knew what it was. Damned phone, should have put it on vibrate. As her vision shifted over to her room she started flailing around to find her phone. It was too bright for her eyes to see the display so she just picked it up and said in a croak "Hello?"

"Hey Charlotte, it's Jim! I found a new employee that I am going to bring around soon, but she kind of isn't here legally. There anything you can do about that?"

Charlotte tried to kick start her brain but it wasn't working too well. Glancing at her clock she saw it was 4am. Why was it always 4am?

She asked "Do you really need this person? Getting citizenship takes a while."

Jim said "Remember you were talking about how it would be nice if we could create more of our product?"

Charlotte said slowly "Yes..."

"Well I found an expert on the process!"

Perking up she said "That's great! What kind of degree does she have? What school? Work experience?"

Jim cleared his throat and said "Yea, about that. Nothing. None. Nada."

Confused she said "How can she be an expert without going to school?"

"School of hard knocks? I don't think they give out degrees."

Annoyed she exclaimed "Jim! Seriously are you sure this woman is qualified?"

"Very!"

Sighing she said "Well, at least she has some paperwork where she is from right? We need something. Passport?"

Clearing his throat he said "About that paperwork. Uhh.. dog ate it?"

Angrily she said "Seriously?"

"No. She doesn't have any."

Like a mantra Charlotte repeated in her mind "Hard and challenging but rewarding. Hard and challenging but rewarding."

Finally calming down she said "How much time do I have?"

"Two or three days and I'll bring her over."

Dejectedly she said "Fine. I'll do what I can. Hopefully I can find a headhunter that might know this process a little better."

Jim said happily "Thanks Charlotte! I am totally going to give you the employee of the month award!"

Annoyed she said "I am your only employee right now."

Then she thought about the deal she was brokering with Mr. Montgomery and said "We finally hammered out the deal and everything is signed. Can you drop off one of the good versions of the drug later today?"

Jim said "Sure, How much are we going to get for it?"

"Depends, but we had a good idea that we ran with. Basically for every extra year of expected life we get a million dollars."

"How will you know that?"

Charlotte said "He just got an exam from three separate doctors. He will get one again the day after taking the drug. Then the number will be averaged and that's what we get paid in millions of dollars. That way everyone is happy that the pay is based on how effective the drug is. We also get 4 million up front no matter what the results are."

"Nice! Oh wait actually there is a problem."

Of course. There always seems to be a problem. She asked "What is it Jim?"

"My car died. Can you come pick the potion up? I'll drop a pin at my hotel."

She repeated her internal mantra "Hard and challenging but rewarding."

"Fine Jim. I'm on the way."

Charlotte got out of her warm and comfy bed and started getting dressed. What bad timing to have car trouble.

Forrest's PoV

Forrest couldn't get back to sleep. Getting up he saw that Scarlet had the watch so he made his way over to her.

"How goes the watch?"

Scarlet shrugged and said "Not bad. Only a couple of those large centipede things. Fairly easy stuff."

Forrest examined her and she still had that distracted and worried look from the other night. Steeling himself he asked "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Why? They were easy. You've killed some too."

Shaking his head Forrest said "No, what you're really worried about. You seemed more carefree before. But these past couple days you seemed worried. Do you want to talk?"

She turned her gaze and held him with her emerald green eyes and finally said "I am different than you Forrest. Different from the rest of you. Some would consider my sense of right and wrong evil."

Seeing that this was a serious conversation Forrest put some concern in his voice and asked "Why?"

Scarlet looked out into the horizon that was starting to brighten up and said "I protect my home. I protect it in any way that I can. Even if that means killing so called innocents."

Still trying to project concern he asked once again "Why?"

Scarlet blinked and said "I've never actually thought about it too much. It was how I was raised. Those with gifts get sent to special schools. Everyone there thinks like that. Even so I don't think they're wrong. Xalross is the smallest of the trio of city states."

Then Scarlet started cursing and covering her face. Forrest asked "What's wrong?"

She laughed and said "If you were an agent from one of the other cities I would give you an A+. One of the first things we are taught is to never disclose our origins. I screwed up."

"Why is that so important?"

Seeming to go into a dull lecturing tone she said "If the opposition does not know the origin of the enemy it makes it very hard to retaliate. Not only are there agents like us but there are political factions that have their own agenda. You can not strike those you can not find."

Glancing back over at him she pulled something out of a pocket and handed him a letter. After Forrest got finished reading the letter he was angry. Furious. Not only was Scarlet a target but the destruction of their village was an afterthought!

Controlling his anger he asked "Where did you get this from?"

She smiled and said "That middle age woman that you were so concerned with. The first night I overheard them planning to poison all of us. They were talking ever so excitedly about getting ahold of my head. And not in a kinky way."

Forrest gulped. He would have never known. The people that he had caused the deaths were actually trying to kill them! Knowing that actually made some of his guilt go away.

Then Scarlet said with feigned annoyance "I was planning on taking my time with the pair too. If only our awesome tracker didn't leave us all alone and defenseless."

She raised a mocking eyebrow at him. He laughed. There she was, the always mocking jester.

"So what do you plan on doing?"

While examining her dagger she said with a smile "I want to have a little chat with this Aaron fellow. I am going to have the same pointed conversation that I was going to have with the pair that had that letter."

Of course when she said "pointed" she made a thrusting motion with the dagger. He gulped.

Forrest nodded and said "I'll help."

"Davis wouldn't like that. He wants peace."

That was true. Anything that would create hostilities between themselves and Jacksberg would not be looked on kindly. Especially after learning that the merchant circle caravan got obliterated. What should he tell his friend?

After considering it for a few seconds he realized he had to tell him the truth. Davis won't like it, but he would not stop him. Davis had his family to protect and he wouldn't rob him of knowledge that could cost them their lives. Finally he looked over to Scarlet and said "I'll come with you. Davis won't like it but he will understand."

She nodded and then with a wicked smile she said "I'll make it up to you."

Then Scarlet planted a kiss on his cheek and whispered "Later."

Damn evil jesters. Still, this one wasn't too bad.

Scarlet's PoV

As Forrest walked away her eyes lingered on him. Most people would run away screaming when she told them that she would kill innocents to protect her citystate.

Shaking her head she scanned the camp and saw that everyone was starting to pack up. Jim had returned late the other night and they had a new addition to their party. The woman had been caked in dirt and fell asleep immediately after reaching the camp, she still hadn't got her name.

Looking over to Gwen she saw her preparing breakfast. She was even using her new lightning spell to test how it worked with cooking. Absolutely insane. Jim started to move and said "Morning everyone! We have a new member for now! This is Milly!

The dirt caked girl started waving nervously to everyone. Then Jim's eyes locked on Gwen and he shouted "No fair! You got a new spell?"

Gwen cleared her throat and said "Yea, after the battle near the temple."

Jim had an annoyed look on his face and said "You are so lucky! Do you know how many times I've used Sense Lv2 and I still haven't gotten a new spell?"

Gwen said "Umm.. you can always try some more?"

Jim sighed and started gesturing at people one at a time.

Then Jim exclaimed "Yes! Gwen you are a lucky charm! I got a new spell!"

Everyone started looking towards Jim and she watched his eyes read something only he could see.

Then Jim said dejectedly "I got... Sense Lv3."

Scarlet was impressed. He already had so many other spells and now he had Sense Lv3. She had no idea what that even did. Scarlet said "What does it do?"

Jim muttered darkly "Activating this spell will inform the user of all magic and projectile attacks for one minute. Range is based on total intellect."

Wow. Any mage should be ecstatic at adding such a spell to their catalog. Ranged attacks were usually one of their biggest weaknesses, but maybe because Jim already had such a good defensive spell it wasn't that great.

Maria said happily "Try it! Try it."

Jim made another gesturing move and then his scowl got even worse.

Gwen asked "Well? How is it?"

Jim said annoyed "Spam. Endless spam. Seriously I can't even read the text it's going so fast."

Scarlet got a sense of foreboding and asked "Can you tell what direction it's coming from?"

Jim pointed. Just as she feared. Jim was pointing directly to where Xalross was. Her home was under attack.