Chapter 61 Not Ideal, But Doable.

  Lenna had been forced to rely on a nightwatchman to guide her to the Magistrate's office. She used her status as a double platinum level adventurer, which was akin to a lower ranking noble, combined with her actual noble title, even though it was from a different country, to demand an immediate audience with the mortal symbol of the king’s law. She had only been required to wait for half an hour, which was half an hour too long for her liking, but was better than she had feared.

  “My apologies for keeping you waiting, Lady V’Nova.” A gruff but refined voice rumbled as the doorway was filled with shining steel wrapped around old but well maintained muscle. The Magistrate was well past his prime and his wiry gray hair only accentuated that fact. His full beard was kept short and well trimmed even if it looked like his hair refused to cooperate with his intentions. His brown eyes were slightly out of focus and looked as though they had maintained a slight squint for most of his life.

  “It’s fine, Sir Solomon, but we must act quickly.” Lenna told him while she scrutinized the man for any signs that he might not be as righteous as his position would require. She found no such faults.

  “So I have been told.” He replied and walked past Lenna so he could take a seat at his desk. “If you could start from the beginning, I would appreciate it. I must be entirely informed before I make even the slightest move or most trivial of decisions. That is the weight that those of us in this position must bear.”

  “Sir Solomon, are you completely certain that no one can listen in on our conversation?” Lenna questioned him directly.

  Solomon eyed Lenna cautiously for a moment. “I am, in fact, absolutely positive that someone else is listening in. I make it a point to have one of my aids listen in at all times. Someone must take my place when I retire and they would make the transition much easier.” He informed her.

  Lenna nodded and grabbed a blank sheet of paper off of his desk and his Endless Fountain Pen. Solomon raised an eyebrow in question and surprise at the bold action but otherwise left her to whatever she was up to. Lenna scribbled a few words on the paper and then turned it around to face her interlocutor. His eyes had already gotten noticeably wider before she had even had the time to fully turn her message to face him. “If you believe that they are completely trustworthy, then they should join us for this discussion.” Lenna told the wizened magistrate.

  “Enter.” Solomon ordered his assistant. “And close the door behind you.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Solomon’s office was vacated. Solomon and his aide left to round up members from the garrison, so they could assist him in his task of executing his authority as the king’s sword and living law, and Lenna went straight for the alleyway closest to the CSC branch. Lenna arrived to see Isaac completely alone in the alleyway. “Where’s Shamesh?” She asked him.

  “The basement. There are two teleportation circles down there and we need to make sure that they stay inactive.” Isaac explained. “How was everything on your end?”

  “Good. The Magistrate is rounding up his most trusted men to arrest the marquess and his household for corruption.” She informed him. “Now what?”

  “Now, we can choose to wait or start the party immediately.” He replied. “By some miracle, no one has noticed the wards that looked like they just aged a thousand years, yet. Once someone does, the entire building will be in a panic. No, probably the entire organization. No one has any reason to believe that someone would be capable and patient enough to stealthily remove that many wards without setting off a single person’s mana senses. It is a terrifying destruction of their security’s preconceived invulnerability.”

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  “So we should move before that happens.” Lenna told him. “Why would we wait, if every second that goes by could lead to the alarm sounding before we even start?”

  “Because it would be best if the ruling family was in the middle of getting raided by all the king’s horses and all the king’s men.” Isaac had no idea why but for some reason his head suddenly ached. He took a moment to blink it away before he continued: “That way we won’t accidentally tip them off before the Magistrate can get there.”

  “Fair point.” Lenna conceded. “But how will we know when to start? We aren’t in constant contact with him?”

  “It took me longer than I would like to admit to figure that out.” Isaac confessed. “But it is actually pretty simple. If the magistrate has a good head on his shoulders, then he will wait for the same signal that we will. If he doesn’t, then we just need to be ready to move as soon as Shamesh notices that something is wrong.”

  “And what signal will that be?” Lenna wondered.

  “Our new friend doing his namesake.” Isaac replied and pointed to the slightly cloudy sky.

  The moon hung half glowing and half pitch darkness overhead almost like it was eagerly awaiting the rest of the night’s events. The stars twinkled in and out of sight as the traveling clouds covered and then uncovered them. “The Thundering Blizzard.” Lenna said aloud. “But he wasn’t planning on doing that until just before dawn?”

  “Which, as much as I hate waiting, would be the perfect time to strike.” Isaac told her.

  “It’s right before the shifts change.” Lenna surmised. To which Isaac just nodded with a satisfied grin. “Are you ready to go now, just in case someone doesn’t wait?”

  Isaac nodded. “There is only one place with wards that we’ll need to be careful of.” He explained.

  “Where?” Lenna wondered.

  “Our entrance.” He explained. “I noticed new customers sneaking in through the back door. They always had to be let in and out by someone though so I assume there is at least an alarm there. Shamesh and I just used a window.”

  “I can use a window.” Lenna reminded him.

  “On the third floor.” Isaac informed her.

  “Doable, not ideal, but doable.” She told him.

  “The front door has an alarm spell on it but nothing else.” He offered her. “I can remove the alarm spell in a minute or so but because the ward is right above the door frame, I wanted to wait to remove it. The odds of a member of the night cleaning crew or just someone strolling by inside noticing were too high for me to just do it without talking to you first.”

  “No.” Lenna said and shook her head. “Let’s just use the back door.”

  “If you want to take them alive, it might be difficult.” He told her with a frown. “I can kill the door guard and use their badge to let you in without setting off the alarm. I don’t have complete faith in a non-lethal silent takedown. I’m pretty sure that I can do it but if he has more than a few levels it might go sideways.”

  “Will it matter by that point?” Lenna wondered.

  “It won’t matter that much but it could still have an unforeseen consequence.” He replied.

  “It would be nice to take a few of them alive but if you were wondering if I wanted a bloodless battle, no thanks.” She explained. “They are the ones kidnapping people and selling them. Or at the very least, they know that they are working for or with the people that do. They should understand that, in their line of work, bounties on people like them tend to say ‘Dead or Alive’.”

  Isaac nodded once in understanding. “I just wanted to make sure.” He said and pushed off the wall that he was leaning against. “Let’s get into position to be ready once the sky starts to darken.”

  —

  Shamesh waited patiently and watched as people moved about without a single one noticing his presence. He had cast the Seething Ember, often referred to as simply ‘delayed blast fireball’, over the course of five minutes instead of three seconds like he usually would. The reason for the incredibly slow and drawn out cast was because he didn’t want to send even the slightest ripple of mana out, that someone mana sensitive would be able to feel and, in the end, it worked out. Either that or no one in the building was mana sensitive.

  Unfortunately, Shamesh couldn’t trap the other teleportation circle in the same way because its room lacked doors that would be able to hide it from the rest of the world. As it was, there was a soft orange glow in the room with the trapped teleportation circle. Thankfully, it was almost entirely drowned out by the glowing stones in and out of the room but it was still a risk.

  Everything was going according to plan until he felt a surge of mana coming from the trapped room. He had been stationed at the other teleportation circle so he could cover them both. That meant that he was almost on the other side of the building when the trap was about to go off. Shamesh knew that if he cut the power to the spell that it would fizzle out over the course of a few seconds. He had a decision to make. He also knew that if he asked Isaac what he should do, by the time he had received a response, it would be too late to cancel the spell. Knowing that, but not being a part of Isaac and Lenna’s conversation about starting when the weather started to change, Shamesh made a decision. A decision that would choose the direction the entire multi pronged assault would be forced to go, for good or ill.