Blood in the Deser

by Sophia Schmidt

  By removing the impurities, the body of an Awakened one would progressively become faster, stronger and more resilient. His healing so fast to almost resemble regeneration, his six senses keen like those of the animals.

  Last but not least, all Awakened ones would have their life spans enhanced. They would no longer consume their own life force, replacing it with the world energy itself.

  That was how monsters like Scorpicores, Griffons, Dragons and Phoenixes could have an almost eternal life. But that didn't mean immortality. Despite each of them was really hard to kill, it was far from impossible.

  That was why most of the oldest Awakened ones ended up isolating themselves. The stronger you were, the more conceited you became, until the point you felt entitled to force your idea of right and wrong on others, making the whole world your enemy.

  Thinking about the time she had spent with Arj?n, and how fleeting was still his existence, Tyris could not but ponder if her old friend and rival Leegaain had actually been right all along.

  "Teaching humans is not impossible, just pointless." He had told her the last time they had met, centuries earlier, back when he had given up on humankind due to their innate foolishness.

  Thinking of him, after all those years, still managed to make her laugh.

  Leegaain was the only dragon she had ever met that flaunted his origins as a common lizard. If not for her pride, maybe Tyris could one day confess to him that she too had started as a simple finch.

  ***

  While running along the stairs, Arj?n R¨ºnas was amazed by how both his stamina and speed had improved. Being one of the Kingdom's elite Mage Assassins, he knew his body like the back of his own hand.

  As a beginner Awakened one, Tyris had allowed him only to partly purify his blood from impurities, yet the changes were remarkable. His happiness was short lived, though. Arj?n could not stop worrying about the report he had just received.

  Not for its content, but for its length. A single page.

  That could only mean that all the Crown's resources were stretched so thin that they could barely function properly. And considering that it included both the Queen's corps and Corpse, the idea was beyond unsettling.

  "I have entered seclusion just a few months ago, how could the situation change so much in so little time?"

  As soon as he reached one of the mirrors, he prickled his left index finger with a small knife, using his blood to draw a magic rune on it while injecting his mana.

  The mirror's surface quivered, while the secret Warp Gate network was activated, allowing him to instantly reach his destination, the city of Kandria.

  While on paper it was just a medium sized city, thriving thanks to its position along one of the main trading routes, reality was a bit different. Under all the sweat and noise produced by its industrious and honest citizens, Kandria was home of one of the biggest black markets in the Marquisate.

  For the right price, there were very few things you couldn't acquire, even slave collars, and that said a lot. Slavery was forbidden in all the free Countries, and it was a crime punished with death, preceded by torture and the expropriation of all the family's assets.

  It was because of the ever flourishing criminal underworld that a famous Alchemist like Coirn Hatorne had chosen Kandria to build her state of the art laboratory. It gave her access to all kinds of clients and ingredients, allowing her to take the best from both worlds and became filthy rich very quickly.

  When Arj?n emerged in the local branch of the Mage Association, the clerk barely glanced at him. The secret network also had access to all the official waypoints across the Kingdom, allowing the agents to avoid being questioned or searched.

  Customs and controls would take place before departing, so those who arrived were considered to be properly cleared travellers. Before leaving the building, Arj?n took a quick stop at the restroom, to prepare his cover.

  A fancy silk dress was inconspicuous in the royal castle, but it would make him stick out like a sore thumb in any other place. He wore brown cotton leggings, a white shirt and a vest. His new shoes had a soft sole, allowing him to move without making noise.

  The final touch was applying make up with water magic, simulating a long scar going from under his left eye to his chin. Even if someone would stop looking at him, the scar would be the only thing they would see.

  Their gazes would be drawn by it, ignoring his eyes and his nose. Whenever they would try to recall his appearance, the only thing they would remember was a man with a three days old scruff and a scar on the cheek.

  According to his seniors, it was the best mask one could ever wear.

  Once outside the building, Arj?n remembered why he hated Kandria. When the city had been founded, no one had expected that one day it would be so busy, hence the roads weren't very large.

  Between the merchants' stalls, the carriages stopping to load and unload their goods and all the pedestrians going to and fro their homes, walking had become a form of art for the residents and a labour for everyone else.

  The bustling activity forced people to bump into each other, making those cramped streets a paradise for thieves. When Arj?n finally reached his destination, he had been robbed four times of the leather pouch he carried at his neck, holding a few copper and silver coins to hide the fact that he had a dimensional ring.

  Each time, he had been forced to replace it with whatever he could find in the pockets of those who were robbing him, whom he robbed back with a sleight of hand. In the process Arj?n actually earned three silver coins, which he donated to a nameless homeless on the road.

  He circled around Hatorne's shop, pretending to check the nearby stalls while looking for a way in. Being in the high-end part of the city, the traffic was limited, and that allowed him to spice things up with magic.

  At every step he took, Arj?n would release earth magic waves that would seep into the shop's walls before coming back, like a sonar, allowing him to check for secret passages. A smart's rabbit hole had two exits, but a clever one would have many.

  Yet despite all his efforts, he found nothing.

  "Either I have overestimated that traitorous witch and there is no secret passage, or I have underestimated her, and she has magically shielded her lab." ¨C

  On the back of his orders, there was a recently drawn map of the Alchemic lab, but the only entrances noted were the front door, were aside from window shopping he could do very little outside drawing unwanted attention, and the service entrance for the suppliers.

  According to the map, both were guarded by skilled mercenaries. Killing them wasn't a problem, but getting in without causing a ruckus was. The mission required discretion, otherwise instead of the Corpse they would have sent a simple constable with a proper warrant.

  Arj?n didn't like complex plans. In his experience, the bigger the setup, the higher was the number of things that could go wrong. He had only one shot at the mission, so after scouting the surroundings, he bought a few trinkets before disappearing in a back alley.

  He chose to wait on the top of the tallest building in the zone, a three stories house, to keep and eye on the Alchemic lab without being noticed.

  Chapter 123 Terminus

  Arj?n's options were limited. Being against a fellow magician, he doubted that Hatorne employed common locks.

  The illegal market was her biggest source of income, she was bound to have set alarms and safety measures to get rid of intruders or destroy all the incriminating evidence, in case something went wrong.

  Arj?n wasn't hot-headed, neither the mission had a deadline, so he bid his time, waiting two days to get his opportunity.

  It arrived in the form of a shipment of crates, that two young men delivered after parking their carriage in the alley of the service entrance. Finally, the door was opened from the inside, allowing the goods to be brought inside by both the guards and the couriers.

  Using Life Vision, Arj?n checked the surroundings for witnesses and then the building to make sure the
intelligence he had was correct. There were no guards hidden inside, and that was good news.

  If Arj?n wanted, he could have jumped down and killed them all in barely two seconds.

  The corpses weren't a problem, he could store them in his dimensional amulet, and so was the blood. A simple pulse of dark energy would delete every trace of the massacre.

  But that would mean killing two potential innocents, not to mention that the carriage and the crates were bound to draw attention, since they were perfectly visible from the main road.

  Arj?n waited for the guards to get back in, and at the last second, when the door was about to be closed, he Blinked inside.

  Arj?n's stiletto severed the man's spine from the skull, killing him on the spot. Before the second guard, a bulky middle-aged man, could even react, Arj?n Blinked again, appearing behind him and putting his right hand on the guard's mouth before slitting his throat from ear to ear.

  Not even a drop of blood reached the ground, Arj?n managed to capture all of it with water magic and store it in his dimensional amulet. Then, he proceeded to search the corpses, finding a set of keys and personal effects.

  Judging by his looks, the middle-aged guard wasn't married, nor had any family. Under the breastplate, his clothes were dirty with days old food stains, missing some buttons that he never cared to replace.

  His belongings amounted to a set of gambling dices and a wineskin already half empty, despite was still morning. All signs that the man was letting himself go, without a care in the world.

  The other guard was younger, cleaner with an oval shaped locket around his neck, inside there were four initials inscribed in a heart.

  Arj?n used air magic to shave off his scruff and water magic to remove the fake scar, applying at the same time some make up to resemble as much as possible his victim before donning his clothes.

  "As long someone doesn't come close enough, it would be hard to recognize me as an intruder. Even if that happens, surprise should give me a second or two, plenty enough to get rid of the meddling b*stard." ¨C

  After sealing the bodies in his dimensional amulet, Arj?n used earth magic again, this time scanning the building from the inside.

  As he had suspected earlier, it had been shielded against external probing, but from there he was able to perceive an uncharted grid of tunnels and rooms right below the shop.

  Arj?n left the warehouse, heading towards the nearest entrance. He regretted not having the opportunity to search the crates behind him, but now he was on the clock. His goal was to get all the evidence he needed, before either blowing up the place or running away after writing an apology note.

  Thanks to Life Vision, he could see that the door in front of him had no magical properties. Nonetheless, when he found the right key, he used spirit magic to unlock it, just to be safe.

  According to the blueprint, the shop occupied the first floor of the building, being composed by the exhibit space of medium-low value merchandise for the public to see, the warehouse, to stock the unsorted raw materials and an ample corridor, connecting the two with the employee facilities.

  Below the street level, were supposed to be just the alchemic lab and the vault, containing the high-end products and rare ingredients.

  Thanks to earth magic, Arj?n had no problems finding the hidden lever to open the path to the tunnels. The road was disseminated with alarms and traps, but between royal magic and Life Vision, he was able to get past them, barely slowing down.

  Building a magical lab underground was unusual, but not unprecedented. Handling powerful spells and volatile components, it was of paramount importance that the facility was perfectly insulated from external forces.

  If mystical wild energies were to enter, whatever the reason, during a crucial step, the best-case scenario was losing hours, if not days of work and all the resources employed. Worst case scenario, the whole lab would go boom.

  A good insulation by magical means was very, very expensive. That was why stingy or needy magicians would choose the underground option to ease the burden on their wallets.

  Arj?n thanked his good luck for Hatorne not having realized that her ruse was a double-edged sword. On one hand, it had allowed her to build a lab under the lab, away from prying eyes, without raising any suspicion.

  On the other, though, he could see via Life Vision that she had been really stingy. The real lab was poorly insulated, and that meant that Hatorne could not have placed any kind of powerful magical device in its vicinity without risking her own life.

  As he expected, from that point onward, the traps and alarms were only of mechanical nature, making his job much easier. While he delved further, Arj?n suddenly realized why the security was so lax.

  The corridors were large enough for two adults to be barely able to walk side by side, and magically lit so that there was no hiding place. Going in was relatively simple, but if he were to be discovered, getting out would be nigh impossible.

  The low ceiling made flying useless; the tight space prevented to use agility to run away. Strength and numbers would be much more important in a fight compared to speed and magic.

  The first room he encountered was a luxurious lounge, with an expensive carpet covering all the floor, and velvet red couches and armchairs arranged around a long cherry-wood table.

  "It must be where she discusses business with her 'special' clients."-

  Arj?n noticed several wooden boxes lying on the tables, each of them had a very complex magical lock already activated, except for one. He recognized the rune pattern. It was a variation of a lock very popular among smugglers and spies.

  It allowed itself to be opened by whoever knew the right combination, not only by the one that had imprinted its magic, yet a single mistake and the vessel would implode, destroying its contents.

  This version seemed to be more complicated and dangerous, it would explode instead of imploding. Arj?n stored all of them in his dimensional amulet, hoping to be able to find a way to break into them later.

  He also took the unlocked box, and after moving some of the furniture to get as much space as possible, he placed it on the ground, pushing the opening button.

  The box grew to the size of a big closet, containing beckers, glass rods, vials and several burners.

  It was also full of gears connected to mechanical arms that seemed to have been designed to hold and handle the laboratory glassware that had yet to be arranged.

  It was a marvel of magic and science like Arj?n had never even dreamt about.

  "Whatever this is, it must be the unassembled version of what lies in the other boxes. If only the glassware was already at least filled with the ingredients, my mission would be as good as done. As it is, the question remains. What the heck is this for?"

  He compressed it again, storing it away too.

  The lounge lead to another small corridor, identical to the previous one. After checking with earth magic and Life Vision for traps or hidden guards, Arj?n moved forward, determined to find the last piece of the puzzle.

  His steps didn't produce any sound, allowing him to keep an ear out for incoming enemies, yet he encountered no one.

  At his left, he found another door, unlike any other in the building. It was thick and padded, made to prevent something from coming out, yet it had no lock whatsoever. This piqued his curiosity, so after changing back to his enchanted suit and preparing for the worst, he slowly opened the door.

  What he saw was so creepy that even a hardened veteran like him could not help but feel cold shivers running down his spine.

  The room inside was small, five meters (16') large and ten meters (33') long, with chains coming out from the walls and floor. At first glance it could look like a prison, but everything was wrong.

  There were no prisoners hanging, just corpses. One seemed to have exploded from the inside, its chest cut open in two by a single huge wound, that no known weapon or beast should have been able to inflict.

  Another was burnt to death, whi
le its neighbour was frozen solid, and despite the room was far from cold, it didn't show any sign of thawing. After checking them both, Arj?n understood that their death made no sense.

  It wasn't the result of any spell or natural event, fire and ice respectively had devoured them from the inside. The last corpse was even stranger than the others.

  What he supposed had once been an old man had now his face disfigured by agony. The eyes rolled back showing only the white.

  The corpse had its veins turned of a bright blue, and they were bulging out, like they were going to burst open at any second.

  When Arj?n touched the body to better examine it, the old man regained his senses, whimpering an almost silent prayer.

  "Please¡ kill¡ me."

  Arj?n jumped back from the surprise, instinctively activating Life Vision. Not only the old man was alive, but all the chained bodies, even in death, kept emitting a mana signature. Whatever had killed them was still active.

  "What in the gods' names has that madwoman done?" -

  Arj?n stored the bodies, the royal mages would have a lot of explaining to do.

  Then, he checked the old man again. He was clearly in a lot of pain, in no condition to be moved and Arj?n was no healer. He had only recently become an Awakened one, developing with true magic only the spells he was already apt to.

  "I'm sorry, old man, but your body or those of your companions may hold the key to prevent a great disaster. The Kingdom honours your sacrifice."

  Arj?n snapped his neck, giving him a painless death, but as soon as he did, the chains started blinking with magical energies.

  Even without understanding how, he knew to have triggered some kind of alarm. Arj?n assessed that between the bodies and the boxes, he had gained enough. It was time to get out of there.

  Unbeknownst to him, it wasn't an alarm, just like the room wasn't a prison. It was just another lab, with a different kind of guinea pigs. The chains had simply alerted the assistants that was time to collect the data.