Pontius moved forward carefully on the misting white ground, finding that it felt pretty much the same, if with less mold and gunk on the stones, and what felt like fine sand between his toes. As a hyn, he naturally was bare-footed most of the time, deigning to wear sandals only if the ground was really rough or filthy.

"Well, at least me leathers were spared," he murmured, well aware that vivus wouldn't kill anything living, but one's clothing was sometimes another matter. He eyed the bakery again, which was crumbling in on itself. "Won't be anything left of them, will there?" he asked grimly.

"Not if their corpses were anywhere inside." With a sliding crash, the main support fell apart, eroded away, and basically brought down the roof with it, which crashed into the weakened floor, which gave way and sent everything into the basement in a misty cloud of building materials falling apart in sparkling white dust.

He blinked at something behind me, Bow coming up and pausing. I turned around to see Sama standing on the roof of the building next door, whose side was also collapsing in. It seemed to be some sort of warehouse, as the sounds of people coming from the buildings around us were not present there.

The look on her face under the moonlight was impressive. Her eyes were glowing pale blue with wrath, and the Hagmark on the side of her face was writhing blue-purple in reaction to the Evil dissipating around us.

Then she just flitted, from zero to sixty in a step, and was out and away and unseen in the night as ki fluttered at the air and shadows and made of her a vanishing mirage.

Pontius pursed his lips as he looked at where she'd been. "I've been trying to learn how to do that for years," he confessed to me quietly.

"Hiding in Plain Sight and Swift Shadow combined is pretty advanced," I nodded knowingly. "She's off to kill someone, who has probably realized that this all didn't go to plan and is likely trying to flee. If they were smart, they're already out of the country, although I don't think that will save them."

"No, it won't. Sama makes a habit of learning where some people like to take vacations, or set up little safehouses for themselves in distant places, following the money they spend here and there. Then she and Tremble go investigate those places… and that's if they don't have to take some mundane methods to get there. I imagine the first thing she's doing is going down to the docks and seeing if there is anyone boarding anything rather urgently tonight, seeing if they can leave the harbor like, immediately."

"Let's get close enough to see if Master Briggs put up an Interdiction around the embassy. If he did, then nothing got out of there alive," I judged, holding Dread in both hands. Duum was back in the sky Invisible, so Pontius merely nodded to me and led me along the same route he'd been following before, cutting through back alleys and side streets between buildings that offered cover. He pointed out a couple locks that had been carefully broken, and two houses that had open gates he pushed wide. Nobody moved inside them, despite their neighbors being up and about in the streets.

I shook my head. "Nothing alive in there," I said softly.

---

Thirty yards out from the embassy walls, I felt the Veil brighten, energized by the eruption of Source Aura through it, natural laws in the area strengthened and unwilling to be subverted by mere magic right now. Duum veered away from the field wisely, and we just watched from the alley as the large building, looked like a converted rooming house expanded and built up in vaguely Arabic style, was burning with flames of a distinctly ugly greenish hue that was attracting a lot of attention. The milling crowd included at least three local patrols of the constabulary in their blue cloaks, with flashes of crimson and gold cloaks here and there showing the military and Emperor Magni's Pretorians were also present with something magical happening this close to the Imperial Palace.

Several Casters were spread out, making sure the fire didn't spread and, ah, things weren't going to be coming out of it. Nobody looked like they were going to put a lot of effort into putting the fires out.

"I can see you've got some friends here. Why don't you go gather their reports while I head back, Master Treadtoes."

"Yes, Lady Edge!" he acknowledged promptly, taking it as an order. He was quite aware of the difference in our relative strength, and while he could probably give me a decent sparring, he was definitely not my equal in combat or magic.

Primus flickered me into Invisibility before I rose into the air. Duum swooped by, turning over while Invisible, but I could see him perfectly and caught his saddle smoothly, pulling myself into it as he righted himself and glided away back towards the smithy.

All in all, it was proving to be quite the eventful day and night!

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

---

Nobody really got any sleep, but everybody did Meditate, which was close to the same thing, except it was a lot easier to keep your weapons and magic at hand and stay aware of your surroundings with proper Meditation.

Messengers and curious officials and authorities were stopping by, noting that we'd lit up the smithy not long before the Sinds had their little accident, but Sama and Briggs were nowhere to be found, totally psilent, and things were happening in Siricil.

About an hour after I got back, a ship went up in the harbor. Then there was a magical scuffle in a prosperous area of the mid-town, followed by a riot breaking out in the slums that spread across four city blocks before mysteriously breaking apart and evaporating. The hyn indicated that knives were out and blades were moving in certain places, and the gendarmes were having no part of getting in the way of it. A couple who did, probably on the payroll of some interested parties and thinking they were above and beyond being interfered with, went into the mess with great confidence… and never came back out.

The rest got the hint and decided that lots of bribes didn't do any good if you were not alive to use the gold, staying well away from what was happening.

Nobody actually saw Briggs or Sama anywhere, and the rather frequent visits of officials attempting to reach them and get their feedback for what was going on made it clear that the Emperor and Senators had a very good idea of who was responsible for what was going on.

But nobody saw them, just the trail they left behind, and quiet words to close-mouthed males and females of several races moving with deft speed to pick off targets long designated in case of something like this.

Sometimes armed bands marched up to the smithy, and were treated to the sight of some impressively muscled and armed fellows laughing it up right outside the door, weapons out and armored up and all-too-willing to answer any questions with cheerful smiles and mercilessly hard eyes just waiting to jump into action.

Those coming knew the names of a lot of those men. So did thousands of Siricilans who'd seen them in the arena. The pet cohorts of wealthy men and Senators astutely pulled back out before they became entertainment for the local families sitting on walls and rooftops, enjoying the show.

If the Zanzyrans and I made a brightly colored splash of obvious magic-wielders up on Disks on the roof of the smithy, well, that was on us.

But Briggs and Sama hadn't come back yet, were psilent as the Markspace, and the death toll was dropping off. The latest news was that a Senator who Sama had gaffed off in the past was found without his head and some damning correspondence had been dropped into the lap of a centurion, concerning arrangements and information shared with Sind. The Emperor wasn't happy to find that out, and I had a feeling the head was now in the custody of my Sim Tenha being asked some very important questions.

So, where were they?

------

"You do know how I think," Briggs rumbled as she shimmered into view and materialized out of Tremble's Teleportation. Endure beat a very low tone in welcome, and Tremble's two-key chime was also solemn.

"Hope I didn't keep you waiting long. Chonavastelli and his legate were packing up and needed the direct treatment." Sama offered her forehead and got a rough smack of a kiss, hard enough that a normal woman might have been knocked cold by it.

It just tickled nicely, and the bone-breaking one-armed hug was just a nice stretch and caress.

There was a crumpled body in the corner, where the sentry assigned to this tower was taking a permanent nap. This particular tower also happened to hold the fastest access halls to the heart of the Master's Temple, located way up on a rocky plateau in the middle of nowhere. It was the heart of a religion and an order of assassins that ruled by fear and fanaticism for nigh a thousand miles in most directions… not that all that many people lived in, well, the desert.

When they gathered, however, it was still tens of thousands of desert riders and nomads, hard men in a hard land all too willing to ply their scimitars and lances against any outsiders intruding on their domains… or whose domains they intruded upon.

But for all that, the temple itself was nothing like some of the grand edifices found in more populous lands. While large and sprawling, the logistics of feeding a lot of men worked against those who lived here, as the local area was badlands, dry, arid, inhospitable, with no food resources to speak of.

The people of this place were sustained by clerical magic supplying their food, with delicacies having to be brought in by magic or overland, an expensive privilege for the powerful. There weren't thousands of defenders or adherents or anything. The place was protected by its remoteness more than anything, and the fact that anyone coming here would have to travel through some of the worst terrain in the world, with hostile monsters and natives… and then, have to get back out.

But that was only true if magic wasn't taken into consideration.

"I was seriously considering asking Edge to put up a Teleport Circle and bring in all the lads for bit of rampaging," Sama admitted, sliding over to the narrow windows to look down over the Temple. "Oh, would you look at that. They fixed the south tower," she smirked, remembering the fun of the last time they were here.

"And the dome, and the west wall, and likely the secondary level," Briggs agreed, ghosting up and looking out over her with deceptive silence. "No need to bring them and get potentially recognized or tracked back, bringing trouble down on them. The Avatar is likely right down in his chambers where he was last time, looking at how things went all wrong in Siricil and getting ready to beat on some subordinates and exert his manhood."

"We were a bit young and indiscreet back then," Sama judged. "Flexed a bit, was in their face a bit, and left the place a bloody mess. How much have we matured?"

"We're much better at being artificially quiet and covering our tracks, I think," Briggs murmured.

"So, let them scream into the Sound Bubbles all they like as we kill them?"

"Think you could take out the Master?" Briggs inquired calmly.

"If it's the same guy with a different face? Yes. We killed him once in an open fight. If he doesn't know I'm coming, he's dead if he's restricted to mortal power."

"You heard what Edge said. If you kill them fast with vivus and they've got some Immortal Power with them, they blow up really nice."

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