The duo slowly climbed up the stairs, careful not to make any noise, and took in their surroundings once they reached the top.

The second floor seemed to have a simple layout. Four corridors made a square with rooms both on the inside and on the outside. The stairs had led them to the middle of the lower corridor while the bodyguard resided around the upper left corner.

Mahon gestured for Zac to search first on their right and stay as far as possible from being detected. They opened the first doors cautiously, but, again, they just found empty bedrooms.

Without losing their patience, they continued along the lower corridor until they reached the lower right corner. They had only found empty bedrooms and bathrooms on their way. With a sigh, Mahon indicated they continued upwards to the upper right corner.

This time they got luckier as the first door they opened showed a nice cleaned up office with a small bookshelf on a corner. They spent a bit of time opening the drawers and other compartments, but it seemed the office was unused, as there were no notes lying around.

They went back to the corridor and checked the next doors with renewed energy. They were close to finding what they searched for, and they could feel it. The next rooms showed a similar setup, and one even showed signs of more recent usage, but there weren’t any important notes left.

Did they clean up after the collapse of the cult?

Slowly, they approached closer to the last room of the right corridor, and they would have to move to the upper corridor where the bodyguard resided if they wanted to pursue their research.

Mahon kept an eye on her all the time, checking with the Flow that she wasn’t moving. For now, she seemed to be writing a report or a journal in her room. She was sitting at her desk, and her rhythm shone her surroundings enough for Mahon to discern a bed at the other side of the piece.

She seemed to be too absorbed by her task to have noticed anything amiss, and Mahon continued his investigation with Zac. The last room of the right corridor was just toilets, and they closed the door as quickly as they had opened it. They wouldn’t find anything there.

With his hands, Zac asked if the next corridor was safe, and Mahon gestured that the bodyguard was on the other end of their corridor so they should be extra cautious. They knew they were close to finding what they needed, though, and pushed forward.

Zac opened the next door on the upper corridor, and it finally revealed an office with a desk crumbling under dozens and dozens of documents. The two friends exchanged a smile before they walked in and started to browse through the notes for anything interesting.

Mahon discarded most of them pretty quickly as it was related to domestic affairs and food supply. At his side, he saw Zac came to the same conclusion, and after a bit more searching, they concluded they wouldn’t find anything interesting in this office.

Not being deterred by another failure, the duo left the room and entered the next one. It was also an office, although less messy than the previous one. The walls were full of bookshelves with documents. The sheer amount of documents meant they had a good chance that what they were searching for was there, but also that they may lack time to find it.

Mahon checked on the bodyguard, but she hadn’t moved at all. He also tried to sense Jorik’s situation, and it seemed he was still discussing alone with the counselor while the backer was nearby. They had planned for Jorik to take his time before revealing the real purpose of his visit for exactly such a scenario. He was giving them time.

With a nod, Mahon indicated to Zac they could proceed, and the two grabbed a document each and started their investigation. This time, the document proved to be more interesting, as it was directly related to the counselor’s business.

They searched for anything related to the expenses of the Fada cult, but there were so many documents that they hadn’t found anything yet after five minutes. Time was running short, and they needed direct evidence of the counselor’s implication.

Zac approached closer to Mahon and whispered as low as he could.

“We should check the next office. We want some kind of conversational evidence to link the Fada cult to the counselor. They must have kept letters or instructions somewhere, but it’s not here. There are only accounting books.”

Mahon hesitated for a second, as he could feel they would find something worth it in this office, but he didn’t know if they had enough time. He checked again on the other inhabitants before gesturing for Zac to go while he stayed in this office. Zac nodded and went to the other office while Mahon kept an eye on him with the Flow.

He immersed himself back into his own research as soon as he noticed Zac had found documents to look into. They would be more efficient this way.

Mahon followed line after line on accounting books, looking for something fishy that would direct him to other more compromising resources. Someone had to keep track of all the cultist’s hideouts. Someone had to buy all the weapons and clothes they had used. Someone had to provide the explosives.

These transactions couldn’t have disappeared, just like that. Mahon flipped the pages while searching for such things. Once upon a time he checked on the bodyguard, Zac and Jorik, to see if everything was alright. And then he found it.

A cape purchase. Green capes. Ten of them. It wasn’t evidence yet, but he knew he was onto something. He flipped the book faster and tried to look specifically for other similar purchases, and he found three other ones. All of them, ten green capes.

He opened a few other books referencing these purchases and unraveled more suspicious operations like multiple swords commands. It could be for the security guards, of course, but given their proximity with the green capes command, it started to build onto something bigger.

Mahon could feel how close he was to gathering the necessary evidence to prove the involvement of the Blue counselor.

Can I just take these books?

Most of the suspicious transactions were written down inside two books, and he knew he lacked time to decipher everything. If he stole these two, however, they’d have time to unravel everything later.

He put back in its place every document he had checked and only kept the two books.

Time to leave.

He checked with his Flow how Zac was faring and realized his friend was already walking through the corridor. Walking quite confidently. And making noise.

Wait.

Mahon instantly realized he wasn’t looking at his friend. He checked the upper left room for confirmation, and it was indeed empty.

The bodyguard!

Focusing outwards, Mahon realized Zac had switched rooms and had gone on the opposite side, explaining why he hadn’t found it at first. His friend didn’t seem to have noticed anything, and he was probably too focused to have heard the soft steps of the bodyguard on the floor.

Luckily, it seemed the woman hadn’t noticed their presence either. She was walking fast, and from her rhythm, Mahon could guess she had just left to pee. Holding back a sigh, he tried to stay as still as possible while he analyzed the situation.

The woman was walking closer and closer to their position, and probably because she was a great warrior, her steps seemed to glide swiftly without a noise on the floor. Zac hadn’t yet noticed her presence, and Mahon could see he was still rummaging between documents.

Will she hear him?

The two books Mahon carried suddenly seemed heavy in his hands, and he put them down on the floor. Slowly, he put his hand on the hilt of his shortsword and moved closed to the door. Each step was excruciatingly slow so as not to make any noise. But for each step he made, the woman walked five or six, and she was soon in front of the office Zac was in.

The noise of the steps grew louder and Zac finally picked up on them. Mahon saw his friend going perfectly immobile, a document still in hand. The woman stopped exactly in front of Zac’s office and looked towards him.

Shit.

Although she was watching in his direction, she couldn’t see the noble, as he had been smart enough to close the door after entering the room.

And yet, she had stopped there. Through the Flow, Mahon noticed how the scene seemed to freeze as both Zac and the woman looked at each other, only separated by a small door.

None of them moved.

From the woman’s rhythm, Mahon knew she was merely intrigued by what she had heard or felt. If luck was on their side, she would simply continue forward. She still needed to go to the toilet, after all.

Seconds seemed to last an eternity while Zac stayed so still he could have been just another book on the shelves. His respiration was barely picked up by Mahon’s Flow.

He’s holding his breath.

Another second went by, and nothing happened. At long last, the woman turned her head back forward and started walking to the toilet. She took two steps before she suddenly disappeared from Mahon’s vision.

For a second, Mahon wondered what had gone wrong when the realization hit him.

She is Flowing!

Without wasting another moment, Mahon exited his room and unsheathed his sword just in time to parry the bodyguard’s attack. And with that, he could finally see her with his own two eyes. The woman was only wearing her underwear, clearly having planned to sleep on a short notice. Underwear and swords.

Who brings swords to pee in his own house?!

The bodyguard’s second sword flashed in front of Mahon, and he was forced to dodge to the side. From the look on her face, she didn’t even seem surprised to have found intruders on her way to the toilet, and if she had been sleepy before, all signs of it were now gone.

Zac exited his own room right at this moment, sword in hand. He only needed half a second to grasp the situation and attacked the woman from behind. Alas, she had been Flowing and saw it coming as easily as if she had eyes on her back.

She turned to the side and blocked Zac’s attack with her left sword while keeping the right pointed towards Mahon.

“She is Flowi…” Mahon barely had time to warn Zac that the woman assaulted them both at the same time in a flurry of attacks.

Mahon easily parried her attempts. The woman wasn’t strong enough to fight him, with only half her attention. Zac, however, had more difficulty, and he stepped back. Mahon switched to the offensive to force the woman to focus on him instead and take some pressure off Zac.

The woman didn’t seem to take him seriously, though, and while she pushed her advantage against Zac, Mahon’s sword sneaked under her defense and stabbed her in the chest. Her Flow seemed to warn her at the last moment, and she bent backward at an impossible angle to dodge the weapon.

She was incredibly fast, but Mahon had been too, and his sword cut her skin superficially. Blood immediately flowed out of the injury and her bra opened with a snap. Still held in place by the shoulder straps, the torn piece of clothes just barely managed to hide the woman’s assets.

Her face remained completely unfazed as she looked indifferently at Mahon. They exchanged a glance, but the woman’s eyes lacked anything humanizing. There was no shame, hatred, or concentration reflecting her feelings. Just two dead eyes. They didn’t lack color, and in other circumstances they even could have been qualified as pretty, but they had something inhuman that made Mahon shiver instead.

The way she also completely ignored her nudity added to the eeriness of her aura. It was the middle of the night. She had gone to do her business almost naked, met two strangers in her house and started a fight to the death. Most people would have broken down already. Actually, the vast majority wouldn’t have any weapons with them at that point.

Even the best warriors would have fought their surprise or shame at the situation and turned it into anger or fury. But the bodyguard didn’t show any emotion. She could have been at a boring family diner, and she would have had the same facial expression.

The scene seemed to be so unreal that Mahon and Zac hesitated in their course of action. Should they attack? Should they run? The complete lack of reaction from their opponent took them by surprise.

In the meantime, the woman flexed her shoulders, and noticing how uncomfortable her top had become, cut the straps with her own swords, fully removing the piece of clothes. She was now standing topless between the two men, and yet her expression kept the same inhuman stoicism.

Mahon started to feel more and more uncomfortable at the sight of this apathetic woman, and the longer he observed her, the farther he wanted to go away.

She didn’t let him, though, and in a flash, she attacked them again.