“I understand that much. I’ve heard the stories about the Justiciars. They’re frighteningly effective… I still don’t understand what you’re doing here?”

“Contract.” She answered curtly. Despite Sarvalen’s timely rescue, she still felt wary around him. He knew what she did, he was Elistin’s brother after all, but despite it, something told her he had some agenda all of his own.”

“I see, and you screwed up?” His question stung.

She bit her lip angrily and nodded. “We were set up. Our target was Rein’s actual mother. She nearly got us killed.”

“Oh?” Tilia interrupted. “I saw my papa!”

“You did? And you’re both unhurt?” She looked at her in disbelief. The whole ambush had been practically perfect and had even brought down Rein, without question, the same sort of plan must have been set up for Tilia and Indas as well, so how they survived, unhurt at that, seemed a mystery.

“Yep!” Tilia smiled as Indas began forming a sentence with one hand and illustrating a gigantic explosion with his other.

“… …”

“You blew up the whole house!?”

“…”

“Uh-huh! Elly did ask us to make it as flashy as possible!”

She sighed and put her head in her hands. “Oh Tili…”

Tilia nodded and gave her a hug. “I don’t care. He sold me as a toy to that evil bureaucrat. You, Rein, Indas, Elly and Ferran too are my family now!”

She returned the embrace and smiled. “It’s good you arrived when you did…”

“Sir. We have managed to stabilize the boy, but he won’t survive past sunrise if he doesn’t get any medical attention.” One of the men entered the room and handed Sarvalen some jumbled together notes.

“Wonderful… With the city on lockdown, there’s no way we’ll get out…”

“Actually, that’s wrong.”

“It is! I can blow a hole in just about anything! I’ll turn a portion of the wall into a pile of rubble.”

“No… That would just make the guards come after you in earnest… But a distraction might prove valuable. Create a distraction at the docks, while we smuggle Rein out by boat down the river.”

“Carys?” Tilia threw her an expectant look. She sighed and agreed to her request. “Go wild.”

Tilia lit up like she had just won the grand prize, and half-dragged, half-carried Indas out of the room and back out on the street.

“I hope she won’t go overboard…” Sarvalen sighed.

“You don’t want to stick around to find out. Trust me.”

“And here I thought I was done with you people when we separated… Guess I got that wrong… No matter. Let’s get going!”