The evening had been going well for Cara, she had cleared two of the suspected spies from her list and gotten some interesting intel concerning additional troop movement towards the farms in the east of the City.

Now, however, the dark side of her master's spy game. The little festival she and the other new spots were attending had run it's course, the only remaining people were the drunks and most likely one or two spies acting the drunk part to see if someone would try to get information out of them.

Cara was still talking to a retired guard when she noticed a young man trying to talk to one of the drunks, the boy was not doing a good job at hiding his excitement and was obviously trying to lead the drunk into a dark ally.

The only thing she had to see now was if the man was a thief or a spy.

When she and Bartholomew had arrived in the small town of Winehill, they had set up shop and then her master had given her the rules for this game.

To make sure the students were ready for the task at hand they would compete with each other for fake information. Each of them had been given one true information and one bait.

If a spy found more than two real informations he would be considered ready, if he thought two fakes were real he would lose his position.

So far Cara had found five pieces of information, however she had yet to confirm them and time was running out. By now she was pretty certain about the troop movement to the east but she had no clear second piece of information.

one was about the steady rise of iron prices and the cause being a riot in the mines. Another was talking about an army five thousand men strong marching on Blackriver. The other two were less groundbreaking, a general had been dishonored after losing a battle against rebels where he had outnumbered them three to one and the young prince looking for a princess to succeed his dying father.

If anything Cara hought the general was the most likely story. Rumours about a daring troop of rebels spread among the civilians, they were said to have ventures deep into Goldhills territories and so far eluded every attempt to bring them to justice. But as far as she knew one of the other spies had the job to do exactly that, spread a rumour and see what happens.

Bartholomew was acting the part of a concerned father and wealthy tailor and so it did not surprise her to see him charging at her with a finder raised in front of him like a sword.

"Young lady, what do you think you are doing this late out of bed?" a new accent and the strangely forced way of nobletalk made the illusion of him borderline perfect. She flinched on purpose and turned to him trying to get some blood into her cheeks to look like a kid caught with the hand in the berry jar.

"What? Dad! What are you doing here?" she stuttered with surprise the teenagers next to her turned and started laughing at the sight. Just the way the two of them wanted.

"don't act so surprised! Warren's parents told me about the little party their son was having and their surprise I let a young girl attend to it! You are in big trouble pumpkin!" his nostrils flared, his voice vibrated with anger, the man was a genius.

"You never let me do anything! All you care about is your image, I hate you!" she screamed at him while desperately trying to get some tears into her eyes, it worked and a blurry mist rose to her eyes as she turned and ran past her target crying.

The man was about twenty years old and had displayed his complex to be a hero numerous times. If their little performance didn't get him to chase after her and cheer her up nothing ever would.

She could her Bartholomew yelling after her, "Come back here! You will be sorry about this young miss!" She made her way through the streets crying and making al sorts of noises to help young Waren find her in the dark. every now and then she took a deep breath interrupted her niis breadcrumbs and listened for footsteps. He was still after her, perfect.

With one last turn she exited the streets and found the place she had been looking for. A small hill bathed in moonlight and overlooking the orchards spreading to the horizon. She had hoped for rain but the weather here was unpredictable.

Either way the place was romantic and had was the highest point around with no windows overlooking it. She let herself fall to the ground aiming at a small puddle of water from last nights rain. 'Perfect' she thought, if this did not trigger his protector instinct she would have to seriously talk to Bartholomew.

A couple of minutes passed, the crying was getting annoying and Cara started to wonder if the idiot had managed to get lost. Finally she heard his breathing from behind her, he had taken a break to settle his breath. 'Way to go selfish prick, let a girl cry her eyes out so you don't ruin your perfect appearance'

He settled his hand on her shoulder and she threw himself at him with a wailing noise. He caught her and even managed to stay on his feet, not his first chase then.

"Shhh, it's alright now. I'm here for you and I'm not gonna leave you." his voice was calm but Cara could hear he was enjoying this.

"I don't know why he still treats me like a kid! I am a woman now and should be allowed to do as I please! Spend my time with whom I want without him acting like he owns me. I hate him!" she cried into his ears, she would need to enact revenge on Bartholomew the next time she saw him. This persona he had created was annoying.

Warren embraced her in a hug and continued to comfort the now shaking Cara. Trying to calm her down he whispered phrases like "All parents are like that" and "Soon he will see you for the grown woman you are." while talking his heartbeat quickened and Cara slowly let herself settle down. The next part would be the hardest, she needed to confide in him and feed him wrong information.

For the better part of the week she had gathered information leading her to believe Waren was another spy. He was too smart to be a butcher and dressed to well for it. His schedule was irregular and he switched rout to work every day like he expected someone to follow him.

All in all he was acting too unpredictable to be a normal citizen. The only thing throwing her off was Bartholomew had denied his employment of the rebels. As well as she knew her master however, he could be testing her tenacity to stay on target.

"I want to run away, just leave everything behind and start over somewhere nobody knows me. Somewhere I can be who I really am and not what my father wants me to be." she whispered in Warren's ear, hopefully he would take the bait.

For one awful moment iz seemed like her target would chicken out, if this failed she would need weeks to get him into an equally good position.

Waren softly pushed her at arm's length and Cara could feel the disappointment rising in her.

"Angie, there is something I need to tell you." it took her a split second to remember her own fake name.

"Okay Waren, you can tell me anything." she said with some light sobbing noises.

"I am not really a butcher's son. The truth is-" he paused for effect and looked Cara deep into her eyes, "I'm a spy for the kingdom of Goldhill." Cara had to compose herself not to drop out of character, to meet an enemy spy here of all places was just her luck.

"Oh... ah" She was grasping for anything she could say right now befitting Angie's reaction,she had not planned for this.

"Please, dear say something. I know I have betrayed your trust but the secret was of utmost importance." while Cara was thinking about what to say Waren looked as comfortable as a sheep stripped of it's fur.

Which was a lot more comfortable than she felt, with a hostile spy in front of her.

"Don't be, our kingdom need your service my love, I uhhh was just surprised..." she ended, Cara needed to calm down, clearly Waren had not figured out she was a spy yet, or he would have tried to stab her by now. That meant she could try to figure out what he knew, or at least try to see if he had discovered any of her fellow spies at least. Their unsuccessful attempt to hide from her would imply a trained spy like Waren had discovered them for sure.

"But why are you here? What is a spy like you doing in a small village like this?" she asked, trying her best to sound innocent as she did. As Cara asked she moved a hand to her chest, trying to get a hold of the sharpened scissor half she kept strapped to her side.

Waren calmed down, his breath went even now and he managed to look her in the eyes again.

"I shouldn't be telling you this but I feel like you deserve and answer. The empire has received word a group of spies is stationed here for training purposes." his eyes changed from the caring look into something different, cold. Cara drew a sharp breath and covered her mouth with the right hand while the left still tried to get a hold of her weapon to bury it in Warren's throat.

"No need to be alarmed my love." he tried to calm her with one hand reached towards her, a terrible position for her to stab him as her left arm found the grip of the scissor half.

"I have already discovered the three spies that are stationed here!" his hand touched her softly grabbed her shoulder to pull her into another embrace.

She closed her eyes and thrust her scissor half into his stomach she was pulled in, Cara thought it would be quick, had hoped for something clean and painless but Waren hissed painfully, a scream stuck in his throat.

He pushed her away, trying to get to his feet as he grabbed for something under his cloak. Cara leapt at him blood smeared scissors in hand, the blade tracing over his forearm as she tackled him to the ground. The wound weakened the boy and after two lashes she was past his blood covered arms and stabbed into his chest, the blade scratching over ribs rarely finding a gap between and sinking further into him.

Blood sprayed as she desperately tried to keep his struggle at bay, when it was finally over, the corpse was barely recognizable.

Cara's dress was covered in mud and blood, her mind racing as she clasped the grip of her scissor knife tighter, her mind raced, any moment someone could find her.

Her shaking hands made putting the knife away hard and she cut herself as she hid it under her clothes again.

A noise made her freeze, it could not have been more than a rustling of clothes but to her it sounded like the scraping of metal along a stone wall. Her senses were in high alert, the heart beating so fast and loud she thought it would explode in her chest.

Cara had no illusion about the state she was in, if anyone found her like this she wouldn't even be able to fight back let alone run. So she sat upright and looked towards the corner where she had heard the noise.

A man stood in the shadows, a knife in his hand, the long and thin blade just like the one Bartholomew wore at his side, an assassin.

Her hand instinctively found the blood soaked patch her knife was in, her body beginning to shake as desperation tore into her.

"By the Sobs of Fire! What have you done?" Bartholomew's voice sounded from the shadow.

Relief flooded through Cara, the knife slipped through her fingers and buried itself in the bloody mud.

Bartholomew would know what to do, he had to.