We entered a spacious room with a large table in the middle and a few boards with plans around it. The planning room. Is Lasin a member of some secret organization? I wondered. I had thought about it before, but it didn't quite fit.
"Sit down." Lasin waved to the chairs. Many of them were still suspicious of us and held weapons in their hands. There were twelve of us in the room. Some looked like experienced fighters. One of the men was a variety man, watching us as if he were thinking of a way to kill us in an instant. He was wearing a light robe. He didn't look particularly dangerous physically. I looked into his eyes. I felt flames running down my back. Magic was literally coming out of his eyes, flooding the entire room. He was one of the most dangerous here. The girl who had been talking to us looked at him and frowned.
"Breias, you don't have to raze us to the ground here," she muttered, as if it happened every day.
"Okay," he muttered boredly. Lasin sat down next to the head of the table. Some of us sat down, and the other five remained by the walls. The head of the table remained empty.
"Excuse me for the welcome. We have some problems, so we can't let anyone in," Lasin began.
"Why are they here?" the same girl asked again.
"So I can burn them," Breias pointed out. The girl frowned at him.
"So I don't burn you, if you keep burning things." He raised his eyebrows in disbelief.
"You want to compare flames, Azi?" Azi leaned across the table toward Breias.
"I'll crush your ego to the ground," she said seriously. She burst out laughing, and so did Breias. Their laughter echoed throughout the room. That wasn't the plan for this discussion, I thought.
"Even so, you'll be able to control magic," said Breias, barely able to get enough oxygen to speak.
"Silence," Lasin said. Breias and Azi fell silent, but it was obvious they were making a huge effort not to burst out laughing. "To explain, we're a secret organization that protects the people here from assassins, smugglers, spies, and many cults," she paused. "We don't have enough members, so I invited you here."
I frowned. "It's quiet here." I didn't want to just spread our information, the changelings might have ears everywhere.
"In the last month, we've eliminated dozens of spies and assassins who came from Luskar. " I looked around the room. If this was the headquarters, things didn't look good for them. Jurian just kept quiet the whole time, concentrating on every detail of the room. At that moment, three more people entered the hall. The main one was in the lead, judging by his pointed ears, he was a Ming, and his black hair fell to his shoulders. The woman on his right was wearing leather armor. Exceptionally, one of the higher-ranking people was human. The man on his left was a massive Grasion. He didn't need armor, because his muscles were obviously enough for him. Judging by his expression, it was easy to tell that he didn't typically think so.
"Welcome, guests," the Ming began at the head. "I hope we didn't make your day." He looked at Breias as he said it, as if he knew he had tried something. Breias glared back at him.
It seemed to say,
What about me? I've never done anything wrong.
Ming chuckled. Grasion straightened up, showing his muscles.
"These are our seats," Grasion said to us as Ming sat down at the head of the table.
"What are you going to do about it?" I snarled at him. He bared his teeth. A fight wouldn't exactly improve my reputation. Ming motioned for them to come over to him. He snorted, as if I wasn't worth the trouble. He was trying to annoy me. The woman and Grasion walked over to Ming, and he gave them quiet orders. They both stepped aside and kept about six feet away from him.
"My name is Bruno, by the way," he paused. "So, Lasin informed me that you'd probably be willing to help us." His tone was unintelligible.
"Yes," Jurian managed.
"But only for a while," I added.
"Well, tell us a little about yourself so we can see what you'd be of use to us." Most of the table turned to us, but Breias was caught off guard by the candlestick on the table.
"I'm a trained soldier, and most importantly, a capable combat medic," Jurian said. He didn't mention his Detruisian origins; he obviously didn't trust them as much as I did.
"I learned to fight from soldiers for a few years." Halfway through my words, I realized I had nothing to say to them. Half the people laughed. I glared at them all, hoping they'd try to say something.
"What's this guy going to help us with? "Cleaning the toilets." He indulged in a remark, grasion next to Bruno. I inhaled the smell of the others. Bruno was different, altered by something. I preferred to leave that thought alone.
"Calm down Ragnar, we don't need to smash everything up right away." There were enough dominant people in this room, that never meant anything good.
"We currently have an organization here that is killing the city's residents in various ways." He broke the silence. "We will inform you about various missions, which you will simply complete without questions, after which you will receive your salary," he decided. We nodded. "Tomorrow morning around nine, most of the organization will meet here and we will agree on the next steps," he announced. Although we probably had some information about the organization, given the changeling in their ranks, they could find out everything, what we know, which is never a good thing. Apparently Jurian and I were in agreement on many things, despite our many disagreements. Lasin stood up from the table and motioned for us to follow her. I looked at Jurian. He stood up silently and followed her. I glanced one last time at Breis. A messenger suddenly ran into the hall. He looked around the others, panting, and then at Bruno.
"Another body has been found." He broke free, breathless.
"Lasin, Azi, Breias, and you two newbies take care of it," Bruno said.
"Okay." Lasin nodded almost at the entrance to the hall.
"Pottery Street," the messenger said. We all went outside.
Hardly anyone moved in this part of the city, especially now. According to Jurian's knowledge, Pottery Street was near the center. We headed there. The only inhabitants of the city were the soldiers and a few hundred people who did not want to leave their homes, despite the fact that the city would soon become a battlefield.
"We must get to the body, as soon as possible," Lasin ordered, and we broke into a trot. We were not that far from the scene of the crime. We arrived there in a few minutes. Several guards appeared in front of us, tasked with removing the body. We walked straight up to them. There was only a lump of mutilated body on the ground, and there was blood around it. It was on a fairly large street, so it was especially unusual when there were probably no witnesses.
"Stop, the body falls under our jurisdiction," Lasin called to the guards, who had stopped at work.
"Do you have any proof of this?" the highest-ranking guard asked. Lasin pulled out a small card. From that distance, I couldn't tell what it was. The guard raised his hand to stop the others and nodded. Lasin simply walked around him, straight to his body. It partly looked like he had jumped from a nearby building, but again, there was blood splattered all over the place.
"Were there any witnesses?" Azi asked. The guard pointed to a girl sitting nearby on the ground, leaning against the white plaster of the shop. I recognized her immediately. Her long black hair fell over her shoulders and horns sprouted from the top of her head. Tes. What was she doing here? She was supposed to evacuate. She didn't notice me. I broke away from the group and walked over to her.
"What happened here, Tes?" Jurian and Azi looked at me. Tes's eyes darted to the people around her, then back to me. She didn't want to tell everyone. I helped her up and we quietly turned into a side alley. The others had undoubtedly noticed, but they probably wouldn't follow us. We hid under an alcove. I nodded for her to begin.
"I've been looking for you," she paused. There was pain in her tone. "I want to go to Medroinia with you." Her voice broke as she said it. It was strange that she had drawn to me so quickly. I liked her too. I put my arms around her and pressed myself against her body. Her sadness eased a little.
"I had to take care of something," I said. "I'll go to Medroinia with you." Tess stopped as if struck by lightning and hugged me tighter.
"I'm glad," she blurted out. Yes, I'll go to Medroinia and live with Tess. I admitted it. After years of traveling, maybe it was time to settle down. I kissed her forehead. She looked up.
"What happened here?" I asked. She looked around as if someone was watching us.
"Something jumped out of the shadows and suddenly tore it to shreds all over the place," she swallowed. "With his blood, he scribbled something on the wall, as if he were absorbing magic from a corpse." That was especially strange. Absorbing magic was forbidden and forgotten, because in the past, some rulers fed on their subjects in this way to be as powerful as possible, but a normal body is not capable of absorbing this magic.
"After he finished the ceremony, he turned into a rat and disappeared." A changeling. It was really a changeling who was standing against us, it was no longer just a guess, but even for changelings it would be quite difficult to fully absorb the magic. In the past, it was usually done by the Ming, who were closest to magic.
"Did he see you?" I asked quietly. If he saw her... I tried not to finish the thought.
"I don't know," Tess answered.
"Come with me, we're not safe here." We stepped out of the alcove. Suddenly time slowed down. At first I couldn't notice anything, but then a shadow appeared. It flew down with the help of its massive wings. I didn't have time to react. My body was slow. I could barely get out of my mouth:
No.
I started to pull my sword out of its sheath. I wasn't fast enough. The reflection of the sun's rays was coming from his sword.
"TES!" I shouted. She was even slower than me. She obviously couldn't perceive the world in slow motion at this moment. The person in the shadows flew through the surroundings and plunged the sword deep into Tes's stomach.