I swirled around, raised my arm, and fired a mana blast at the attacker, making them first crash into the book cases standing against the wall and then fall to the floor. They were still moving, but Reurig knocked them out swiftly.

“What happened!?” I asked in a panic.

Reurig stepped closer, into the light of the moon shining through the window, and I could see that he was lightly wounded. “I saw three, one of them fled!”

We had been attacked in the middle of the night. Assassination...?

I hurried over to the open door and looked outside, where two guards were lying on the ground. “How...? Wait, where is Tomar!?”

At that moment, someone came running around a corner and down the hallway to the office. “Miles! Are you guys okay!?” Tomar yelled.

“We—!” We’re... We’re not—... “What about you!?”

“I’m good! I took one down and tied him up, but I don’t know if it’s going to hold!” he said.

My mind was racing. I was too careless! Of course they would try something! We only had two guards, of course they could dispose of them! I left Lilana alone when I fell asleep, of course she wouldn’t be able to do anything! What was I thinking!? I’m so stupid!! There were four, they targeted us. They tried to take us down in our sleep. Who... Who!?

I turned around and looked at the attacker on the floor. He was wearing dark clothes, but he wasn’t an agent, and his face was exposed. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I could make it out well enough, but I didn’t recognize him.

“I think the one who fled was Eissen!” Reurig said. “We need to find him!”

Eissen...!? You... You’re dead!!

“Miles...” I heard someone say, but it didn’t truly register.

“Take care of things here!” I said to Tomar and Reurig, trying my darndest to not look back into the room, and started sprinting down the hallway.

‘Miles, wait! Wouldn’t it be better if—’

“Not now, Lilana!”

Down the hallway, around a corner, down another, long hallway... This stupid, fucking temple and its stupid, fucking, winding hallways!!

I didn’t know where he had gone, but he couldn’t be far yet. He would be crazy to hide inside the temple, which could get closed off quickly after an assassination attempt, so he would surely go for the nearest exit, to get away from here as quickly as possible. The only real exit was the front door, and while a Fighter could potentially go out through a window on the second floor without too much trouble, that wouldn’t be possible for us. The temple was surrounded by walls, however, so I was fairly confident that he would be heading towards the main square one way or another.

Running as fast as I could, It took me only a fraction of the time it would usually take to get to the reception area. I had yet to see anyone, but I kept going. I will find you!!

As I flew out the door and into the main square, I looked around the area. It was quiet, not a guard or citizen in sight. A total lack of patrols in the main square seemed a little too convenient for them, until I realized that Eissen would’ve been able to easily plan this attack around the patrols. No... he would even be able to redirect them... Fuck!!

Assuming the citizens were on our side, the only ones who would have a real chance of getting rid of us were the Fighters. They were a real threat, and I had let myself get blinded by the couple of positive encounters we’d had yesterday, including that last talk with Eissen. He seemed like he was yielding to the general consensus, but I had misjudged him. The way he looked around the room... The way he looked at her... and her leg... God damn it, he was planning the attack!! Stupid, stupid, stupid!!

Suddenly, I heard a noise, and my head immediately snapped in the direction of the market district, where I could see someone head towards the street that would lead them deeper into the area. The same black clothes... I got you!

“EISSEN!!!”

He briefly glanced back at me and then threw all carefulness overboard, increasing his speed to make his getaway. Tomar and I had never been down that street for more than fifty meters, but I knew there were a lot of winding paths in that district. Without more people, it would be easy for him to shake us off there. I couldn’t let him get away.

I raised my arm and aimed carefully, trying not to hit any buildings. He was running from us in a straight line now though, and if I didn’t put too much power into it, the stream should dissipate before hitting anything of importance. After it went through him that is. I activated the script, a stream of water shot out from my hand, but just before it would’ve hit him straight in the chest, he stumbled.

“Argh!” Eissen grunted.

The water cut into his right shoulder, but otherwise he was fine. Seriously!?

Seemingly realizing that he wouldn’t get away from me unharmed like this, he stopped in his tracks and raised his one uninjured arm. Heh. Thanks, that makes it easier.

I took aim once more and walked in his direction, as he slowly turned around and stared at me with a sharp glint in his eye. He looked at my outstretched arm and then briefly considered his surroundings.

“Don’t,” I warned him. He wasn’t dumb. He could guess that I wouldn’t be able to fire off shots like that willy nilly here, and while I had a relatively clean shot at that moment, if he moved just a few meters to the left or right, there would be buildings right behind him.

I fired my second shot, sure that this would be it, but he finally lowered his arm and jumped to the side, evading my attack. In one smooth motion, he did a roll on the ground, got back up, and unsheathed his sword, before finally coming at me. Just like Captain Lera back then...

Eissen was approaching me in a zigzag movement, which made aiming basically impossible, so I waited for him to get closer. When he was almost in range for my mana wave script, however, he suddenly pulled out a dagger and threw it at me. And now you’re imitating Grym...

I wouldn’t flinch at this tactic again, and as I ducked under the flying object, I activated the script without losing sight of him. As expected, he ran right into the wave of mana and was hit by its full force, which threw him back a few meters. He had barely touched the ground when he was already correcting his posture and getting ready to attack again, but a shot through his remaining shoulder made that difficult. As his arm gave way, he fell to the ground once more, and this time, he stayed down.

“Come on, look at me,” I said as I approached him.

Without control over his arms it wasn’t easy, but he managed to get to his knees and raised his head to meet my eyes, a neutral expression on his face.

“Why...” I asked in a low voice.

“Why? You said it yourself. We’re the last line of defense, and I don’t believe for a second that you have no ulterior motives. ‘Divine messenger’... What a joke. I’ve sworn my life to this town and my king, and I will never betray them.”

On a good day, I could appreciate loyalty, duty, and honor, just like I had told Eissen before. They weren’t technically wrong in what they had done, and who was “more right” in such a situation would be debatable. I wasn’t having a good day though. Raising my arm, I hit him with a blunt blast to the chest, making him roll over backwards. He landed on his back, coughing, presumably from having gotten water into his throat.

“Get up...” I said, and he struggled to get onto his knees again.

‘Miles...’

“You know... all my life I have wondered what it would be like to kill someone,” I said, and raised my arm for the last time, to aim straight at his head. “And I wondered what would have to happen for me to be so enraged to actually do it. Not in self-defense. On purpose. In cold blood.”

Actually, would you consider it to be in cold blood when your blood is boiling...? Whatever.

His expression finally shifted slightly. He clearly hadn’t expected these words out of me. “You didn’t think you would get out of this alive, did you? Cute.”

‘Miles! Please don’t!’

“They killed her!!”

‘What? But, Miles—’

“No! It’s going to be quick. Try to look away,” I said, although I knew that it wasn't really possible for her.

Eissen looked at me in confusion as I appeared to be talking to myself, but I didn’t care. It didn’t matter anymore. I got ready to activate my script, and my target closed his eyes.

‘Don’t!’

I knew this wouldn’t solve anything. And yet, it was all I could think about. You’re going to pay.

“Lilly!” I suddenly heard someone shout from behind me, and my eyes widened, because that someone shouldn’t be shouting right now.

I took a few steps back and glanced behind me. “Berla...?”

There she was, in front of the temple, propped up by Tomar. She had a wound in her torso, it had been bleeding, but she was alive and moving around. She was okay. “You’re alive...”