A few days prior to the banquet, Ren's father William was currently in his study back at the Linheart mansion, the day's events had left him feeling slightly vexed. He had asked the Night Queen for support in the search of the rural areas but she had rejected him, without giving a reason.
There wasn't enough staff in the mansion for such a wide scale search, he had wanted to hire mercenaries to help out but wasn't sure if he could trust them with the relevant information. The Night Queen was right in that regard, if Ren where to let something slip while they were capturing him, rumours could easily spread causing panic amongst the citizens.
This left William with the choice of searching the rural areas by himself or waiting for Ren to enter the capital, where he would be found out by the Night Queen. Both choices where less than ideal.
William could only find solace in the fact that he now had Emily as a proper heir, after he altered her memory, she had become a lot more complaint. His health was deteriorating fast and he probably had a few years left. He had to train Emily into someone strong enough to inherit the family duties before he passed away.
William took out an old photograph from the locked drawer in his desk, the picture had a beautifully decorated silver frame, the photograph looked like it was taken a few years back as it showed a younger version of William surprisingly sporting a large grin, standing next to him was a beautiful woman with brown hair and a gentle look on her face
"I'll protect the kingdom you loved at all costs."
He whispered softly. A rare tenderness could be seen in his eyes as he caressed the photo.
William poured himself a glass of red wine, finally planning to relax and turn in for the night, he had a busy day ahead of him, starting from tomorrow he would start to instruct Emily on the various skills she would need to inherit the family.
A loud knocking coming from the door interrupted him, he quickly put the photo away before answering the door.
"Come in."
The doors opened revealing the muscular figure of one of his butlers, he looked to be slightly anxious and worried. Seeing his face, he knew something was wrong.
"What happened."
William enquired, wanting to know what could make his butler act like this. The man took a moment before speaking hesitantly.
"My lord please forgive my incompetence but it seems young mistress Emily has been kidnapped"
After the butler had finished speaking William's eyes glowed red, the room turned cold, causing the butler to take a step back. The wine glass in William's hand shattered violently, splashing the dark red liquid all over the floor.
"What a shitty day."
***
Emily, had woken up in a cold, dark room, there was a single candle in the far corner of the room, illuminating the cobble walls. Its feeble light struggled to make its way to Emily. The stone walled room had no windows but there was a solid steel door opposite her, which was probably the only means of getting in and out of the room.
Emily's ankles were chained to the wall by bulky metal restraints, preventing her from getting close to the door, her hands where left free but strangely enough, she couldn't seem to access her aether reserves, this was seemingly the work of the clasps around her ankle. Her clothes and shoes remained intact but her dagger had been taken and the silver necklace her mysterious helper had given her had been removed
Emily had a dull headache making her groggy and unable to think straight but she still tried to piece together what exactly had happened to her with the little information she remembered.
"let's see, I went into the capital to meet an acquaintance and then I-"
A sharp pain from the back of her head started to flare up, interrupting her thought process and making her tear up.
"Urgh that hurts, deep breaths. First, I need information about my captor's and their motives, once I know that I can figure out the rest."
Emily like Ren, was trained as an assassin, in fact she had far more experience than him, despite her inferior talent she had a better mental state and would always use logic to calmly assess her situation.
As if answering her hopes, a short while later she heard a set of footsteps approaching her room, the metal door slowly creaked open revealing a tall, thin figure wearing an oversized black, hooded cloak. The person proceeded to enter the room closing the door behind him, he looked down on Emily with a cheerful expression on his face.
"So, your finally awake Miss Linheart, you might be wondering why you're here and what we are going to do with you, don't worry we won't kill you, for our goals we need you alive. Please don't struggle and do your best to cooperate with us, remember we need you alive, if you're missing a limb or two it won't make a difference, I will be back in a little while to bring you something to eat."
The man started to leave the room as soon as he finished speaking, Emily put her superb acting skills to use, with tears still in her eyes, she put on a flustered expression
"w-what are you planning on doing with me, please let me go if its money you want, I can give you it, please just let me go."
The man smiled, seeming to revel in Emily's false panic, he ignored her questions and soon left the room, locking the metal door behind him.
Now it was Emily's turn to smile, she wiped her tears and made a teethy grin, her kidnappers had been too sloppy, they had inadvertently provided her with enough information to escape.
The captor she had seen was in a black hooded cloak but she could see his arms and hands, they were scrawny and gave the impression the man was highly malnourished. To her knowledge breaker's needed strong bodies to support large quantities of Aether, this meant he was a grunt with little or no combat capabilities. He also said "I will be coming in a little while." meaning most likely he would be coming alone to bring her food.
The next thing she had learned was about the outside of the room. When the man had entered the room and left the room he had opened the door wide enough to let her see the outside of the room which appeared to be a corridor, more importantly due to her low position on the ground she was able to see the corridor's ceiling past the door frame, she caught sight of a small ventilation shaft that was just big enough to let her through, this would be her escape route.
The biggest mistake her captors had made was leaving her arms unbound and not searching her properly, they may have taken everything, but she still had her shoes on. They had severely under estimated her preparation, as the daughter of a noble family, this wasn't her first time being kidnapped. Emily took of her left shoe, gently removing the inner sole which revealed a robust steel lockpick.
After taking the lockpick out she proceeded to jam into the keyhole of the anklets chaining her to the walls, after around five minutes of fiddling with lock pick she heard a metallic click and one of the anklets unclasped, freeing her right leg. Despite her success, she kept a cool head, ready to hide everything at a moment's notice.
The second anklet took a shorter time because both of the anklets had the exact same lock and would presumably be opened with the same key. After a few minutes of repeating the same process a second click was heard freeing her left leg. Now completely free of the chains she could feel her Aether slowly returning to her.
Emily took a moment to inspect her cell, the walls seemed robust enough to prevent her from breaking through, even with the use of her magic. The metal door was the only viable option but it only locked from the outside, meaning there was no lock to pick.
Not letting herself panic, she came up with a new plan of attack, she extinguished the candle in the corner, plunging the room into an eerie darkness. Emily took her position at the left side of the door, it opened inwards, so the door would conceal her when the man entered.
After a few minutes of waiting Emily began to hear a single set of footsteps confirming he was alone, the door cracked open, causing a ray of light to infiltrate the room.
The cloaked man walked into the dark room, carrying a tray of bread and water, he wasn't suspicious that the room was dark and thought that the candle had simply just gone out. In his mind, Emily was a weak teenage girl who was fully restrained. She waited for the man to fully enter the room before making her move.
Emily quickly snuck up behind him and used all the strength she had to chop the back of the man's neck, knocking him out cold before he realised what happened. Emily skilfully plucked the tray of food out of the air before it hit the ground and made a noise.
After confirming the cloaked man was truly unconscious, Emily took a quick peek down the hallway, making sure that they were alone. Emily then thoroughly searched the man, stripping everything off and leaving him completely nude.
Although Emily was fairly certain the man was not a mage she still put the Aether sealing restraints around his ankles for good measure.
She thoroughly checked his clothing, finding a small dagger and a golden crest with an engraving of a proud bull.
"So that's what it was about"
She thought to herself. Just like how the Linheart family was represented by a raven, the bull was the crest of the former royal family, A few members of the old royal family had escaped prior to losing the civil war, when the Night Queen took control of the throne. They must have been biding their time until they gained enough power to reclaim the throne.
"Those old fogies must have planned to use me as bait to lure out my father, that must mean the people here must be strong enough to kill him. This damn father of mine, always causing problems for his children."
Her father William had played a big part in that war, so it didn't surprise her that they would get rid of him before directly attacking the Night Queen. If her speculation was correct, it threw a wrench in her escape plans, she doubted that she would be able escape from the watchful eyes of strong breakers, however she didn't panic, she still had backup plan, it was her last resort because it was a bit off a gamble, she needed to find her necklace and use it to contact her mysterious helper.
This plan had a lot of unknowns. First of all, she didn't know her location and couldn't tell her helper where to go save her, another problem was she didn't know the location of the necklace and how heavily guarded it was. Last of all and the thing that worried her the most, she didn't know if her ally had the means and strength to save her.
She needed more information. She had at most, ten more minutes before someone noticed that the now naked, cloaked man was missing. Within that timeframe, she needed to get as much information out of him as possible. She tore up his trousers into strips and used them to gag the man.
She took her newly obtained dagger and ruthlessly plunged it deep into the man's upper arm and splashed the glass of water into his face, muffled screams filled the room as the man jerked violently, regaining consciousness. His screams stopped abruptly when he saw Emily coldly looking down on him, holding his dagger dangerously close to his eyeball. When Emily heard his screams stop, her cold expression vanished, replaced with cheerful, innocent smile.
"Wakey wakey my dear kidnapper, now listen to every word I say carefully because I won't repeat myself. I'm going to ask you a few questions and I want you to write the answers on the floor as fast as you can using the blood from the wound I just gave you, if you do as I say I won't have to kill you since they will find out I escaped when they check the cell anyways, nod twice if you understand."
Emily spoke in a very cute voice. Despite her heart-warming act, the man looked at her with dread in his eyes, after becoming fully aware of his predicament, he frantically nodded. After seeing him being co-operative, Emily began to ask her questions.
"First I want you to write down how many breakers of each rank there are, including the number of non-combatants. Second, the location of where this building is. Hmm, also draw a basic layout of the building we're in and circle the area where my stuff is being kept, you have one minute if you're not done by then that will be the last minute of your life"
The man immediately dipped his finger into the wound on his arm, causing his eyes to scrunch up, after just under a minute had passed, he was done. The red letters were messy, but not to the point of being unreadable. Emily quickly scanned the writing and soon she began to doubt the authenticity of the information on the floor.
"Don't lie to me, if you were really planning on killing my father, you would need a couple of Rank 3 breaker to have a chance at beating him. Explain yourself or I'll kill you right now."
First off, she found out that she was being kept in some type of massive warehouse in the outer area of the capital, and secondly there was only one Rank 3 breaker in the entire warehouse.
The man was surprised that she knew so much, but he hadn't lied so he franticly started writing again. Once the man had finished Emily was stunned once again, apparently, they leaked a false location of her kidnapping and were planning to lure her father out, ambushing him with stronger breakers.
Emily decided to stick her backup plan since there was still one high level breaker. They would be able to tell if someone was leaving the Warehouse but they wouldn't be able to tell apart individuals. So as long as she stayed inside the building and mixed in with the crowd, she wouldn't be found out.
"Thank you for all the information, you where such a great help I've decided to give a reward."
She said, walking closer to him with a sweet smile on her face, the man's eyes lit up with joy, it looked like he was finally free from dealing with this demon in a girl's skin.
"Rejoice your reward is a quick death"
Emily said with a huge smile. The man's face turned from joy to confusion and then finally contorted, displaying his deep fear. She used one swift motion to cleanly slit his neck and after a few seconds of twitching the man died with his eyes wide open.
The man knew Emily wanted to get her personal items back, she couldn't risk her plans being leaked and dead men tell no tales, now when her escape was discovered, instead of going to the vault, their first thoughts would probably be to guard the exits.
Emily used shadow magic to disintegrate the corpse and erase all writing. Unknown to her, ever since she declared her resolve to find Ren, her mental strength had improved leaps and bounds, increasing her overall control of Aether.
She put on the black hood before disintegrating the rest of the clothes. Emily then left the cell into the hallway, only five minutes had passed since the now dead cloaked man had re-entered her cell.
"Damn I'm just too good at this."
Emily thought to herself, before climbing into the ventilation shaft.