The crescent moon was high up in the sky shining its light upon the dark and empty streets at the corner of the Edion. The first night of the Lacerta Festival was the highlight, when the seven stars of Lacerta shined the brightest. Most people, even the commoners had already gathered in the center of the city, or tried to get as close as possible. Every year on this first night, the King himself gave a speech. Then as the night reached its climax, all the light in the city would be cut off for a brief moment so that all the citizens could see the stars and make their wishes upon them.

But not all participated in this event, every here and there were beastmans of different species covered in hoods walking around, doing their “business”. The minstrel was one of them, he stood there at the turn of the alley, green eyes squinted to a line, carefully watching the surroundings of a worn-out house in the middle of the street, just right in between two flickering lights, where it was the darkest. After making sure that there was no one in the vicinity, the fox man swiftly entered the house without even the slightest of noise.

Inside of the house was quite empty with only one bed, a set of table with two chairs, a kitchen in the corner of the house next to a small bathroom. The minstrel knew he had to act fast, he knew that it was not safe to stay in this house anymore. It has never been safe messing around with a mage. But with or without his likings, he had already started to feel settled with this place after half a year, and it was not easy to just up and leave to find another place. The city of Edion might be big and crowed, but rumors travel fast, he couldn’t just simply disappear and then appear with a different name like nothing ever happened. His best chance was probably to leave the city, but then it was the Lacerta Festival, there were far more people going in than out, and experiences had taught him that blending in with the minorities had never worked out well.

Hide somewhere until the festival ends? That plan seemed plausible at first, but then there weren’t so many hiding places in Edion, especially with the crazy amount of people here for the festival. The underground sewer, maybe? The minstrel thought, but that was a risky plan. The sewer was crowded with gangs and criminals, not to mention it was one of the Inquisition’s most favorite places to dispose of the prisoners after questioning. Bodies floating on the water, never got out of fashion.

“Can I come in, mister fox?”

The minstrel could feel his heart skip a beat as the knocking came together with a familiar voice. Without waiting for his answer, the rabbit girl had already come inside, closing the door behind her. The fox man slowly turned around, fingers griped tightly at the knife’s hilt behind his back. But the girl didn’t seem like she was there to fight.

“It seems there are some misunderstanding between us, I really just want to have a chat with you.” She calmly spoke.

The rabbit girl might say whatever she wanted, but the minstrel was not one to be fooled easily by sweet talks. He definitely felt magic in the air before, and magic had hardly ever been used for friendly purposes. Noticing his doubts, the rabbit girl gave out a sigh, shrugged her shoulders and continued:

“Okay, I admitted that when you knew who I am I was a little suspicious of you, after all everyone had enemies that they are suspicious of. I merely thought that maybe you were one of them, that maybe you acquiring my coin bag wasn’t a coincidence. But I really didn’t mean any harm. It would be easy for me to blow up this place with magic from outside instead of risking a close encounter with you, one who has Ophelia’s gift, right? Will you ease up a little bit now?”

There was some truth in what the rabbit girl said, still that was far from enough to make the fox man trust her.

“How did you find this place?” The minstrel finally spoke up.

“Well that wasn’t so hard, Mister Grim was kind enough to give me your information with an exchange of a few silver coins.”

I should have guessed, the old man would even kill himself for the right price. The fox man gave up his hope to escape, with this much of a trail, it is impossible to get out of this city.

“And what business do you have with me, I suppose you have already known that I’m not one of your enemies.” It couldn’t get any worse now, might as well listen to her little talk. The minstrel thought. He then sat down on a chair and offered a polite gesture. “Anyway, please be my guest, I hope you can excuse the poor state of my house. I wasn’t expecting guests.” Not a mage, anyway.

The rabbit girl sat down, there was a little bit of amusement in her crimson eyes, the fox man recovered his composure faster than she thought.

“Well now, where should I start. To put it simply, I was given a task by my Order, the Lamia’s Followers. And in case you haven’t noticed, I’m lacking companions, and I can’t finish this task alone. You could say that it is quite a long adventure.”

A mage and her heroic quest, why am I not surprised? The minstrel thought to himself.

After a brief pause, the rabbit girl continued:

“I was hoping to find some companions for this task of mine, and when I saw that you have the Blessing of the Wind Spirit, I was determined to have you with me. And you can expect satisfying reward from helping me as well, at least it will be better than singing on the street or selling information to Mister Grim.”

The minstrel wasn’t swayed by her offer. Life had taught him that the more rewards one was offered, the less likely it was that the job is going to end well. But it had never been easy to say no to a mage, especially when she knows your face and where you live.

Before the fox man could think of a suitable reply, his eyes caught a slight movement outside the window, at the corner of the opposite street. At the same time his ears also heard some footsteps near the backdoor. But it was too late, as soon as he opened his mouth, an arrow had already flown through the window aiming straight at the rabbit girl’s neck. Together with that was the sound of a door being kicked open, a battle cry and a hissing sound of a blade cutting through the air.

Crack. The arrow broke into pieces before it could reach the rabbit girl, as if there was an invisible wall behind her. The minstrel didn’t really worry about the girl, it would take more than an arrow to kill a mage, what he worried about was the blade slashing down on him from behind. He patiently waited until he could feel the wind pressed on his hair, until his nose could smell the strong scent of metal, then he acted. He tapped his right foot on the ground, and the air exploded. When the blade crashed down onto the chair, the minstrel was already at the wall over his bed, knife drawn. He stepped on the wall, let out another loud bang of air exploding and launched back at his attacker. Before the man from the Wolf tribe could react, the minstrel’s knife had already sunk deep into his gray furred neck. He crumbled on the floor, blood spilled out from his neck like a red river, the wolf man twitched for a few seconds before he stopped moving.

One down. The minstrel thought and took out a short sword from under his bed, but that was no time to be joyful, as he saw two more men coming from the back door then separating to surround him. They had already seen what he could do with his tremendous speed, so the element of surprise was gone. He raised his sword with two hands and judged his opponents, both from the Jaguar tribe, famous for their agility. This will be hard. He thought, the house was too small for him to fully make use of his blessing, not to mention they would be much more careful after the death of the wolf man. Behind him the rabbit girl was busy blocking arrows aiming straight at her. Judging by the constant flow of them, there must be at least two firing one after another through the two windows in the front. It didn’t seem hard for the girl to block all the arrows with her invisible shield, but they were enough to stop her from doing anything else. Whoever it was that orchestrated this attack knew her quite well. But they didn’t know him.

As the minstrel heard even more footsteps coming towards the front door, he knew he must do something. But should I try to deal with the two in front of me? Or should I give my magical friend a chance to work her magic? There was no time to decision which decision was better, the fox man took a small step back then touched the table behind with his left hand. Before anyone could react, the loud bang of the air sounded again, and the table flew straight to one of the window, blocking the arrows coming from that side. That was all the minstrel could do as the two men from the Jaguar tribe immediately came up to him from both sides. Their swords raised, their yellow eyes fixed on him, ready to get rid of him before he had another chance to use Ophelia’s Blessing. The front door was kicked open and three more men came rushing to the rabbit girl. Did I make a mistake, is the girl not as good as I thought? The minstrel raised his sword, green eyes glaring at the two assassins.

But that brief moment the minstrel created by blocking one of the window was enough for the rabbit girl to fill the air with her magic. She closed her eyes, let out a magic word and raised her hand. Bright light came out of her white furred palm, as bright as the sun itself. There was a split second of silence before everyone in the room let out a panicking scream, their eyes squinted as thin as a line, trying to regain their visions. All except for the rabbit girl who had already closed her eyes, and the fox man whose back was facing the source of the light. That was the chance he was waiting for. As soon as the bright light came out and the two jaguar men lost their visions, he charged straight at them. His sword thrusted through the heart of one of the assassins. Before the man fell on the floor, the minstrel let go of his sword, picked up the blade from the wolf man’s corpse and slashed the other one right at his chest. All that happened within a few seconds.

When the light faded away and the other three regained their visions, all they could se was a shadow of the rabbit girl turning right behind the door and corpses of their companions.

“After her!” One shouted, and all three came rushing out of the back door.

When in a hurry, one is more likely to make a mistake, that saying is always true. When the first pursuer got outside of the house he saw a dark figure jumped straight on him and knocked off his balance. Then he felt a sharp pain at his chest and hot blood spilling out from it. He tried to raise his sword, it was kicked away immediately. He mustered his remaining strength to fight back, but before long his consciousness started leaving him, and his struggle became weaker and weaker. It all happened so quick that by the time the other two rushed out of the house, it was already too late. They wanted to hurry to their comrade’s side, to separate him from the fox man on top, but they felt a tremendous pressure coming from behind them. The rabbit girl stood there, just a few strides away from them, crimson eyes glowing in the dark, four bright swords made by light floating above her head. At that moment they realized that she was never trying to run away, she didn’t have to. As soon as the constant flow of arrows stopped and she got a chance to work her magic, they had lost this fight.

The rabbit girl slightly waved her hand and the swords of light launched right at the two wolf man, pierced through their bodies. Without even having the chance to raise their swords, they fell on the ground, blood spatting everywhere. The swords scattered into small pieces and disappeared as life faded away from the two man of the Wolf tribe.

After finishing his opponent, the minstrel rushed back to his house, took out a set of bow and arrows from his bed. By the flickering lights outside he could see that the two archers had already started to run away, they knew their plan had failed. But he couldn’t allow them to leave like that, they knew his house, as long as they were alive, he won’t be safe. The foxman ran out of his house, stepped on the ground and jumped onto the rooftop, dust scattered by the force of the wind. The two archers ran in different directions. There was no time for the minstrel to be picky, he pulled the string of his bow, a small whirlwind could be seen from the tail of his arrow, the air twisted and hiss right at his ear. He squinted his eyes and aimed, the distance may be too far for others, but not for him, a blessed child of Ophelia. He released the string and the arrow flew away like a lightning bolt. A sharp sound could be heard as it cut through the wind and sank deep into its target’s back.

The minstrel turned to the other archer, but he had already disappeared out of his sight. So one got away. The minstrel suddenly felt the tiredness of all the intense actions. All it took was a few minutes, for six lives to disappeared from this world.

“Well, that was that, I guess we are safe now.” The rabbit girl said as she casually walked out the front door, eyes fixing on the spot where the last assassin had disappeared.

The minstrel dropped down from his rooftop, let out a sigh and asked:

“Mind telling me who they were?”

“I told you, didn’t I, I have enemies that I’m suspicious of.”

The rabbit girl shrugged her shoulder, then looked back at the fox man’s house.

“I don’t think it is safe for you to stay here any longer. It would be wise for you to stay close to me, now that they had considered you as an enemy as well. It’s better if we can help each other, right? We make quite a good team after all.” The rabbit girl brushed of the dust on her grey cloak. “And my offer is still valid, you would get paid, quite a good amount as well.”

As much as the minstrel wanted to deny, he knew what she said was true. He was alone in this city, no friends, no place to stay with a dangerous enemy watching over him from the shadow. A mage, her heroic quest and the mysterious enemy from the dark. This is getting better by the minute. The fox man shook his head in disappointment and talked:

“It’s not like it’s going to be much safer together with you. But I guess a man without choice has to take whatever offer he can get.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, it’s not like my enemy can send assassins like these all the time. I’m one of the Lamia’s Followers after all, we still have quite an influence on this country in case you don’t know.” The friendly smile returned to the rabbit girl’s face, as if all this killing had never happened.

That I know. But then it makes one wonder who is this mysterious enemy that dares to target a mage from the oldest Order in the history of Palomar. The minstrel thought, he was no stranger to the hidden face of the Kingdom of Palomar.

Suddenly, all the lights around them were cut off, they looked at each other then at the sky. The seven stars of Lacerta made a beautiful zigzag shape, shining their light upon the beastmans all over Palomar. The rabbit girl muttered something to herself in silence as she gazed upon the stars, the minstrel asked, curiously:

“What are you doing?”

“Why, I’m making a wish of course. It is the Lacerta Festival after all.”

If there was a wish the minstrel wanted to make, it was that this day was just a bad dream.