The next day, after informing Bellod of their preferred date for the auction of their goods and dropping off the lich’s three staffs for the man to thoroughly check over for anything resembling a curse, Asher and Samantha shared a heartfelt farewell with Brian before he left for the truthseeker program. For Asher, it was strange, as he knew they’d be seeing him in only a week’s time. Because of that, it didn’t really feel like a goodbye as much as they were sending him off to summer camp, or something along those lines. Yet it was dramatically different for Samantha.

  Samantha and Brian had never been apart for more than a few days their entire lives. The two of them had spent the last eight years attached at the hip, and based on the number of tears being shed by both as they held one another, and as Samantha promised she’d come get him the first moment he needed her, she was taking the separation a little hard. Asher had a hunch it was only the memory of their village burning down around them and the utter terror that followed in the wake of the greater demon that made her okay with letting him out of her sight at all. The knowledge that either a powerful demon or the Head of the Assassin’s Guild would eventually come for Brian and use him as a weakness against the two of them was simply too much to bear. At least by joining the auxiliary portion of the truthseeker program Brian would be safe.

  And learn how to defend himself.

  Finally, after promising they’d be there first thing during his day off to pick him up for the Grand Auction, they let Donvath take him away. Asher had been a bit surprised to find the High Prince personally waiting for him, but he supposed it made sense. According to Donvath, the truthseeker program was the most well-guarded and best kept secret in the entire kingdom. It was supposedly harder to break into than even the palace, which in itself was lined with enchantments and crawling with royal guards.

  Once Brian was gone, Asher led Samantha out to the city outskirts once more, encouraging her to get in some more practice with her new wings. Despite the fact that she was pretty much a pro at flying at this point, he knew few things cheered her up like the act of soaring through the skies, utterly free.

  After watching her for a bit, he decided he should focus on his own practice. While Samantha worked through her own worries far overhead, her emerald wings flashing in the sunlight every so often as she slipped in and out of the clouds, Asher spent the next hour practicing with his daggers. While he couldn’t exactly spar on his own, he was still far from an expert when it came to throwing them.

  After some time had passed, Samantha finally dropped out of the sky beside him, landing just in time to see him hit one of his rare bullseyes on a tree he’d chosen for his target.

  “You’re getting pretty good at that,” she said, grinning as she watched him use Distortion to reach forward and yank his daggers back out of the wood. The fact that he didn’t have to waste time walking forward to retrieve his daggers meant he could spend even more time practicing his throws than most.

  “Not as good as I’d like to be, but I’m getting there,” he said, offering her a small smile. It wasn’t hard to spot the redness in her eyes to indicate what Samantha had spent most of her time up in the clouds doing, but if she didn’t want to talk about Brian leaving any more, he wasn’t about to bring it back up. “Your flying is looking pretty good too, you know.”

  “Thanks. I’m finally getting used to Flight Burst jerking me forward when I speed up. I’m still afraid the skill might rip you off me if I try using it with you on my back, but it’s handy for flying about on my own.”

  “I’m looking forward to the day you can effortlessly shoot down to the ground and skim along it like an arrow with your Razor Wings extended,” he admitted, imagining her scything through a crowd of demons like they were made of butter. “Those demons won’t even know what hit them!”

  “Speaking of demons, what exactly is our plan going forward?” Samantha asked. “While we may have gotten a small fortune from the lich’s tower, we didn’t get any new leads as to where it might have gone. What now?”

  “Remember how you thought I wasn’t concerned enough about the fact that there were two greater demons we might have to face together?” Asher asked, getting a nod in return. “Well, to answer your question, that’s what I think we should do next. Some recruiting.”

  “Recruiting?” Samantha repeated, clearly caught off guard. “I didn’t think you’d want to bring in anyone else into our personal fight against The Council of Death. Are we going to go talk to the slayers who specialize in fighting demons?”

  “That was my first thought as well, but unfortunately, I don’t think that will work for us,” he admitted. “Remember what Donvath said? We can’t get any direct help from the Noala Kingdom, or the entire Council will come down on the kingdom like a wave of destruction and kill everyone. All the dedicated slayers that are trained in demon killing are part of an elite team that belong to the capital. I suppose we could try to poach one, but I doubt that would go over all that well, and it still might result in the liches destroying everything.”

  “So who does that leave us with?” Samantha asked, raising an eyebrow. “Mercenaries? I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the idea.”

  “Not so much mercenaries as just people who aren’t directly devoted to the kingdom,” he said, grinning as he prepared to make his first pitch. “We’re looking not only for people who are powerful fighters, but people we can trust not to stab us in the back, and who have useful skills we can rely on in our hunt for The Council of Death.”

  “Why do I feel like you already have someone in mind?” Samantha asked slowly.

  “In fact, I have two someone’s. Assuming we can find them,” he said, laughing at her surprised expression. “Come on, let’s take a quick trip back to Whikoga. I might not know where they are, but I have a good idea as to who we can ask for help.”

  “Moxy?” Draken repeated, looking at him like he was crazy. “You want to ask Moxy for help? Didn’t the two of you try to kill each other the last time you met?”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Technically, the last time we met I gave her back her furs and she gave me the Water element for Samantha. It was the time immediately before that, that we tried to kill each other,” Asher clarified.

  Asher, Samantha, and Draken were all situated in Draken’s study, watching as Crush poured them all drinks. Samantha still looked a bit nervous sitting in the study that reminded her so much of Trellis’ wagon, but after spending so much time in the royal palace, she seemed to have gotten over her fears a good bit.

  “Oh, well forgive me, that makes seeking her out a much more sensible idea,” Draken drawled, shaking his head as he accepted his glass from Crush. “But seriously, Asher, why Moxy? Surely you could find plenty of other powerful fighters to draw to your cause, even with the limitations you mentioned.”

  “It’s not just powerful fighters we need though,” he said, leaning forward and thanking Crush for his own glass, even if he wasn’t intending to drink. After seeing Draken get utterly wasted from two tiny glasses of specialized booze, he wasn’t planning on drinking anything that came from the gang leader’s liquor cabinet anytime soon. “Mobility and the ability to react fast are the most important things, which means keeping our team rather small, no more than four or five people at the very most. Because of that, we need fighters who aren’t just strong, but who we can trust, and who have additional skills we can rely on beyond just being able to stab something. Moxy has her Life element, which means she’d be a great addition to the team.”

  “Sure, if you could convince her not to kill you first,” Draken snorted. “You’re forgetting, that woman is a battle maniac that makes you look like a saint. I never interacted with her myself, but I certainly heard all the rumors. She cares for nothing beyond testing her limits and fighting worthy opponents. She only joined up with Loratta in the first place because she got tired of ruling the underground fighting rings, which are famous for their no holds barred battles. You’re looking for trust? You can’t trust someone like that.”

  “I know she has a reputation, but she’s more than just a mindless war machine,” Asher argued. “You said it yourself that you never actually met her. Well, I trained with her from sun up to sun down for the better part of a week. Not to mention I got a peek at her soul thanks to Judgement. Moxy lives by a very strict code, she’s not one to run around killing people for fun. I’m rather confident that if I tell her we need her help to try and take down some monsters strong enough to have entire kingdoms shaking in their boots, she’ll leap at the opportunity.”

  “We do need strong warriors if we want a chance at surviving against more greater demons,” Samantha said quietly, thinking it over and choosing her words carefully. “And I do like the idea of having someone with a more powerful healing ability on our side. Soothing Spring is useful, but it’s not all that strong. I’d feel a lot better about our odds knowing we have someone capable of patching us up if we get hurt. Is she really as dangerous as the two of you make her out to be?”

  “I never fought her myself, but I witnessed her fighting in the ring once,” Crush admitted, closing the liquor cabinet and shuddering at the memory. “She seemed like such a normal person, right up until the match started. Her opponent was Bonespur, a woman with the Anger and Bone elements. She was one of the scariest fighters because damaging her just seemed to make her grow stronger and stronger, and she was almost impossible to put down. Moxy danced circles around her, blasting her apart with her air punches from afar until Bonespur simply ran out of energy from repairing herself so much and collapsed to the ground. The ring was absolutely covered in bits of flesh and blood, and Moxy stood there, not even out of breath. The only part of her free from blood splatter was her deranged grin as she basked in the afterglow of her fight.”

  “Oh,” Samantha said, giving Asher a hesitant look. “...And that’s the first person you want to ask to join us?”

  “Okay, she gets a little intense when she’s fighting, but that’s all the more reason why we should find her!” he argued. “So long as she directs that energy toward our opponents, we’ll be fine!”

  “That’s a big ‘if,’” Draken said, letting out a weary sigh. “That said, I can tell you’ve already made up your mind about this. Luckily, I don’t actually know where she is anyway, so I can’t help you kill yourself even if I wanted to.”

  “Thunder knows where she is,” Crush said, shrugging his shoulders as he earned a startled look from the gang leader. “She likes to keep tabs on the underground fighting rings across the kingdom, and she watches the prize matches whenever she can.”

  “Is that what she does when she requests time off?” Draken asked, looking shocked. “She told me she was going on fishing trips! She just left a few hours ago for her latest one!”

  “I doubt Thunder even knows how to fish,” Crush chuckled. “Moxy has been rapidly rising the ranks in Vildelph, one of the closer cities to Whikoga. I’m pretty certain Thunder was preparing to go see her take on Brutalizer, the reigning champ, sometime in the next day or so. The man’s got the Strength, Club, and Horse elements, so he’s a pretty nasty opponent.”

  “Horse?” Asher repeated, trying to wrap his head around what that had to look like. “Wait, that doesn’t matter. Vildelph you said?” Pulling up the mental image of a map of the kingdom he’d Incorporated ages ago, Asher took a quick look at Whikoga. Sure enough, Vildelph was indeed remarkably close to the city, only about two days away by carriage. It was the tenth city in the kingdom if one included the capital, though it appeared slightly larger than Whikoga, despite having been settled later. Nodding, he turned to look at Samantha. “Up for a quick flight to a new city?”

  “I suppose it’s not fair for me to judge until I meet the woman for myself,” Samantha said, looking like she still wasn’t entirely sold on the idea. “Ready when you are.”

  “Great!” Asher said, hopping up and nodding his thanks toward Draken and Crush. “I appreciate all the help!”

  “Anytime,” Crush grunted, looking like he wanted to say something for a moment before glancing toward Draken and deciding against it.

  “Please, you’re always welcome to drop in,” Draken said, giving him a thin-lipped smile. Asher felt the temperature in the room drop by a few degrees, and he inadvertently shivered at the tell-tale sign of Draken’s Death Aura hanging overhead. The man had impeccable control over his skills, seeing as Death was his only element, but he still let just a hint of his Death Aura out a little whenever he got angry.

  “Oh, and Asher,” Draken continued, the temperature continuing to drop with every passing second. “If you happened to run into Thunder while you’re there, would you mind letting her know I’d like to speak with her once she’s done with her fishing trip?”

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