"Okay, but what are we going to do now? We can’t really see how many people are in there, and we don’t have any weapons."
Maya smirked.
"Maybe you can’t see, but she can"
Alison’s eyes glowed with an ocean blue light as she focused on the building.
"Twenty three people inside, ten of them ard - it certainly looks like they’re making sothing."
"She’s an aura user?!" Cassian almost yelled in surprise.
Aura was a power parallel and completely separate from magic, it was an energy the most adept of warrior could tap into to enchance their strength and senses.
To be able to wield it, was to stand at the pinnacle of what a knight could achieve - Cassian could count on his fingers howany people he encountered who were capable of doing so.
Alison being the capitan started making a lot more sense now, to unlock this power at such a young age you’d have to be a prodigy among prodigies, and the access to it would make her a significantly better commander.
Even though he saw it with his own eyes he still couldn’t quite believe it, his father was almost thirty when he mastered aura, which was considered extrely fast before the invasion.
Just what kind of monsters did this hostile environnt create?
He didn’t have ti to address that question, because his original one wasn’t actually answered.
"We still don’t have weapons though - yes, she might able to defeat a few ard guys on her own, but we’ll still be overwheld sooner or later."
"Worry not, for I have a solution!"
Maya produced a few smal papers from her pocket, presenting them proudly - each of them had a small drawing of a different weapon on their surface, surrounded by a string of miniscule runes.
"I don’t like those, their quality is always subpar." Cassian grumbled.
"Well tough luck, it’s all we have." Alison snatched a card with an image of a sword. "Besides it’s not like they have better ones, no blacksmith worth their salt would agree to work with criminals."
He checked the available cards - fortunately Maya did have a greatsword in her collection, so he begrudgingly took the piece of paper.
The blonde guard herself picked a one handed mace, not a choice he was expecting, but it was an effective weapon so he didn’t comnt.
"How long do they last?"
"Twelve hours, I asked Geo reeeeally nicely, and he made them himself." Maya answered with a self-satisfied smile.
"Please tell you didn’t threaten him again..." Alison pinched the bridge of her nose.
"I would never!" She gasped in faux shock.
"He’ll tell Lady Sylara how you’re treating him at so point."
"Nah, he likes to much!"
"More like is scared of you." Alison mumbled. "No matter, were going in from behind, there is an open window there."
She took her card and ripped it in half - the resulting pieces shimred with a bright light, and a second later she held a simple sword.
The other two repeated the gesture and received their respective weapons.
Cassian gingerly weighted the sword in his hand, it was well balanced but there was sothing off about it - like he was holding an illusion instead of a real weapon.
Joker arms were a staple of infiltration missions, a go-to solution when you needed t smuggle weapons sowhere. They were undetectable and temporary, making them perfect for jobs that required leaving no evidence.
They did have a fair share of problems though, their quality was largely dependent on the power used to make them, which ant they would perform worse than sothing from a run-of-the-mill blacksmith, unless they ca from soone truly capable.
For example cards created by Calen would make weapons on par with the mass produced slop given to the regular foot soldiers - usable, but not very good.
The sword he was holding now could be compared to sothing he would use before he got his current weapon, a decent but rather unremarkable tool.
"Hoods up, we’re going in." Alison announced.
***
Just like she said, the window on the ground floor facing the back alley was open.
"We try to do this quietly, knock people out before they can raise an alarm." The capitan ordered.
Insides of the building were remarkably quiet for a space occupied be so many people, which ant they were likely gathered in one part of the structure.
The corridors were exceptionally dirty, even for an abandoned place in an ancient city, tgey were filled with dust and cobwebs, dead bugs and skeletal remains of various rodents littering the floor.
"Can you sll it?" Alison whispered.
Cassian stopped and sniffed the air - he noticed there was a hint of sickening sweetness in the stale stench of dust.
"They’ve already made it." Maya nodded.
They slowly creeped forward through the rooms following the scent, while Alison was looking through the walls to make sure they won’t run into anyone - until they did.
Two burly n were standing a few ters from them, fortunately facing the other side and engrossed in a conversation.
"...Boss says the pills will be ready to sell in two days, but why should we wait? The sooner we sell them the sooner we get the money!"
"You idiot, boss told us many tis that his associate must check it before we can proceed with the plan."
"What’s the point of checking? They’re drugs, it’s not like they have positive effects. We should just ditch the supplier and make the thing ourselves."
"From what? He gives us the most important ingredient, without it it would be like selling water as beer."
’what an intellectual pair.’
Alison made a gesture telling Cassian to stay, and then send a set of commands to Maya through hand gestures.
The two of them slowly approached the goons, and with all their might cracked them in the back of the head.
They fell to the ground like sacks of potatoes, producing a low this when their bodies hit the rotten floorboards.
Cassian helped the girls drag the bodies to an empty room nearby, hoping that no one would check it until they were out.
"The associate they ntioned - that’s Kalim, right?"
"Most likely - and it ans he’s likely in the building if he’s checking the drug." Alison confird.
"I disagree, he probably took a sample to his Blightborn collaborators, it’s unlikely he can test the pills on his own without taking them." Maya argued.
"We have no way of knowing that, the Serakhiin have plenty of strange devices, maybe they gave him sothing to check the drug."
"I guess we’ll see - we should move, it’s dangerous to stay in one place like that."
Guided by Alison’s aura sight once more, they advanced towards the source of the scent, which was increasing in intensity with every ter.
The people guarding the place were, in Cassian’s extrely generous assesnt, shit at their job. So far they’ve managed to take down a dozen people without alerting a single person - either the patrol routes didn’t cross, or every goon in this place was slacking off.
They have taken care of every single ard person except for one - soone sitting in a room two stories above them, likely the boss of the wole operation.
Soone was with them as well, Alison was convinced it was Kalim, but she didn’t really have any proof other than the fact he was speaking with the person in charge.
"We’re near a door leading to a room where all the remaining people are, probably the place dedicated to making the drug. I suggest we target the boss and his associate, or whoever is in ther with him, first."
"Sounds sensible." Cassian agreed. "Should we leave soone behind to watch this room?"
"No need, I can see through walls, rember? If they try running away we’ll know."
Locating a staircase wasn’t difficult - however finding one that wouldn’t break under their weight was.
When the trio finally reached the gang leader’s office, they hear a loud argunt from inside.
"...you never told that it was going to do that, you and your friends can put those pills up your asses, I’m not introducing that shit to the market!" An agitated voice yelled
"That wasn’t the deal Mitch, We gave you ans to make a fortune, and you were supposed to follow our orders without questions." A much calr one responded.
"I’m. Not. A. Murderer." The first man hissed. "What you’re asking to do is equivalent to dooming the entire city!"
"Oh please, as if you ever cared about this shit hole." The second one mocked him. "Besides the Blight can’t even spread in the city, the pills would kill a couple of junkies, cause so chaos and that would be it - You’re overreacting as always."
"Am I, K? Whenever you show up sothing nasty happens, like that kid blowing up the barrier, if I knew you were the one behind this from the beginning, I would have never signed the damn contract!"
That was all the confirmation Alison needed - she kicked down the door and brandished her sword at the two n inside the office.
"You’re coming with us, dead or alive!"
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