Flickering torchlight danced off the dark cloak of the eighth Finger as he waited silently to be seen by the Head. Despite having risen through the ranks of the Assassin's Guild to become one of the ten Fingers, the ten most deadly assassins in the entire kingdom, there was something about dealing with the Head that always unnerved him.

"You requested a meeting, Eight?" a voice called from both seemingly nowhere and yet everywhere all at once. The unseen speaker sounded more bored than anything, as though the sudden request for an emergency meeting with one of their top agents wasn't really worth their time.

"Yes, my Head," Eight bowed, a bead of sweat trickling down his brow. Bored was never a good sign. Realms, he'd rather anger or fury than bored.

The Head made strange decisions when they were bored.

"There has been a significant shakeup in Whikoga's underworld," he quickly explained, praying he'd escape this meeting in one piece. "The up and comer we were backing, Loratta, has fallen, and Draken makes waves for the first time in years. On top of that, there is a rumor of a new player in the game. Our game."

The Head was silent, and Eight felt that single bead of sweat begin to rapidly multiply. Despite knowing it wouldn't do him any good, he unconsciously began preparing himself to fight his way out of here.

Though he knew better than anyone if the Head wanted him dead, there wouldn't be a damned thing he could do.

Thankfully, rather than infuriate him, it seemed his news had intrigued the Head.

"I had hopes for Loratta, but she relied far too much on her unusual element," the Head grunted, the harsh sound echoing through the darkness. "Movement from Draken is strange, but not unprecedented. I permit you to leave him another warning if his personal territory exceeds forty percent of the city. Perhaps he needs a reminder that just because the Guild left him alive once, that doesn't mean he's untouchable. This new player you speak of…"

The Head paused, and Eight waited nervously, praying the long stretch of silence wasn't about to end with his own head being separated from his body.

"Tell me more."

"There isn't much to tell," Eight admitted with a strained gulp, thankful to still be alive. "He is a man, that much is known. Though he possesses strange abilities that we have no record of. Word is he flickers in and out of existence itself, only appearing in this world long enough to plant a dagger in one's heart. People are calling him The Reaper, and he single handedly killed many of Loratta's elites, before taking her down as well. Official word going around is that Draken finished her off, but we know the truth."

"Hmmm…" the Head mused, and Eight could hear what sounded like the tapping of a dagger on stone, as if the Head was contemplating something. "Appearing out of nowhere and going after strong opponents... Relatively, I mean. He sounds like a promising candidate to join the Fingers, wouldn't you say, Eight?"

"Perhaps," Eight said cautiously, wondering where the Head was going with this. Normally, the only way to join the ten Fingers was to take the life of one of them. If the Head wanted this newcomer to join their organization…

"Find out more about this… Reaper," the Head ordered, their voice growing distant as they decided this meeting was over. "I want to know just how he managed to kill Loratta despite her slime element, and I want to know what he intends to do after shaking up Whikoga's underworld. If this turns out to just be some sort of fluke…

"Kill him."

Bordan frowned, flexing his Strength element as he shifted yet another massive chunk of stone off to the side. Nearly two entire city blocks were cordoned off in the aftermath of a small portion of Whikoga's second ring collapsing inward of itself seemingly out of nowhere. Thankfully, people tended to stay clear from these shady parts of the city, which meant casualties were at a minimum.

But not zero.

"Find anything yet?" Clare asked for the fourth time, walking over to join him as she wiped some dust off her face. Despite her usual cavalier attitude, she knew to focus and rein herself in when faced with a tragedy such as this. She was hardworking for an apprentice, and Bordan was pleased to see that she continued working on her task even when she thought he wasn't monitoring her.

Assuming she learned to act like this all the time, she would make a fine truthseeker one day.

"Not much," he grunted, cracking his neck as he gestured toward the pulverized remains of a few bodies he'd unearthed. "A few corpses, but from what I can gather with my element, they appear to have been killed before someone dropped a literal mountain on their heads. I don't know if they were lucky or unlucky in that regard."

"Let me take a look," Clare said, stepping toward the bodies and holding her hands out over them. Taking a deep breath, she flexed her Death element, causing her eyes to turn pitch black as she peered into the past and personally witnessed exactly what had befallen these poor souls.

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"By the realms…" she muttered, the black orbs of her eyes blinking as she watched a world only viewable by her.

"What do you see?" Bordan asked, watching her curiously. He had to admit he was a tad jealous of her ability to witness the scenes of murders first hand. While his Truth element gave him much insight into past events, it wasn't quite as useful as seeing it for himself.

"A Reaper…" she muttered, her eyes watering as she continued watching, unblinking. "No, a man… A man capable of moving between worlds…" She finally broke off her skill, wincing and rubbing her eyes as the pain of having them open for so long finally hit her. "These thugs didn't stand a chance. Have there been any changes to the Fingers recently?"

"Not that I know of," Bordan said, raising an eyebrow. "This Reaper you saw. He was that skilled?"

"His skill with the blade was adequate, but nothing impressive," she admitted. "No, it was his elements that surprised me. In all our training, I've never seen anything like it. Not only was he constantly shifting between realms, I swear it looked like he was… bending the very space around him with his presence. I can't even describe what it looked like."

"Really?" Bordan asked, shocked by her admittance. Training to become a truthseeker was not only difficult, but extremely thorough. Even though her situation was rather unique compared to most people in the program, she'd still gotten to experience fighting against just about every dangerous element, including the forbidden ones. Clare was nearing the end of her apprenticeship, which meant that the fact that this so-called Reaper wielded an element she'd never seen before was quite surprising. "Do you think he was the one that caused all this?"

"No, I didn't see him use anything that hinted toward an Earth element," she frowned. "But my gut says he was related somehow."

"After hearing your initial assessment, I don't doubt that in the slightest," Bordan said, turning back toward the pile of rubble and sighing as he got to work. "No sense standing around," he grunted, heaving another giant rock the size of a house off to the side as he continued digging ever deeper.

"…I have a feeling I'll find the Truth if I just keep digging…"

"You have failed us, Zygrul," Lethinal said, the ancient lich's voice cold and emotionless as he spoke through the brilliant blue flame before Zygrul. "We entrusted you with the experiment, and after centuries of waiting, the moment it finally bore fruit, you allowed the element of Eternity to be stolen right out from under your fingers."

"I had no way of knowing the human possessed abilities only seen once every age," Zygrul argued calmly, refusing to admit any guilt for what happened. "Logically, all of my decisions were sound. Do not forget that it was Flunx that placed the enchantments on the door the human bypassed so easily."

"How dare you drag me into this," Flunx hissed, the lich narrowing her flaming eyes as she spoke through a wavering, red flame and addressed the accused. "My enchantments were perfect! I did not know you would be welcoming a realm wanderer to your doorstep!"

Zygrul nodded slowly, silently admitting it was not very fair of him to throw any blame onto Flunx. It had been his tower that the experiment was housed in of course, which meant ultimately, he was the one to blame. Looking around at the twelve roaring flames surrounding him as he stood trial by the council, he decided to go with a different tactic.

"Ultimately, this is a boon to our end goal," he stated, earning a few quiet grumbles and causing many of the flames his fellow liches were speaking through to erupt in sparks. "Creating the new element was only the first step. We'd always intended to run tests and discover if it was truly capable of accomplishing our main objective before risking absorbing it ourselves."

"Controlled tests, under controlled conditions," Ployrn snapped, slamming a staff into the ground and looking like he wanted to unleash his undead minions on Zygrul right here and now. "What if something happens to the human? If he dies, the element dies with him. We cannot invoke the extraction ritual on a corpse! I move to capture the human and extract the element immediately, before we further risk losing control of it."

"I second this motion," Hylm said quietly, tapping her tiara as she always did when lost in thought. "I believe I would also like to take back my phylactery, while we are on the subject of the experiment. Zygrul has proven he cannot be entrusted with them, regardless of how many enchantments and wards we have them placed under."

"Hold, Hylm, that is another matter entirely," Ploryn said, reining in his displeasure as he addressed the former queen. "Even after regaining control of the element, we only have the one. We need all our phylacteries in alignment to create another."

"And how long are we planning to wait for the universe to grant enough Eternity elements for all of us?" Hylm asked, finally bringing up the topic they'd all been happy to leave in the shadows. "Do you truly think when given the chance to live again as something other than an undead monster, anyone on the council will be willing to wait another few millennia for everyone else's sake?"

Silence stretched across the stone room, and Zygrul realized he had his opening.

"If you have all forgotten, I am the only one of us that has no desire to return to a pitiful form of flesh and blood," he reminded them, spreading his skeletal arms wide and slowly turning to address each and every one of his peers. "It was the reason I was entrusted to host this experiment in the first place, and why I am the one best suited to continue looking over it. Removing me from the council would only hinder our ultimate goals."

"You will remain a member of the council. For now," Lethinal said, not even waiting for a proper vote. As the oldest of them all and founder of The Council of Death in the first place, Lethinal took certain liberties that the rest of them wouldn't dare. "However, we must still decide how to move forward. All in favor of retrieving the human and taking back what was stolen from us?"

If Zygrul still had lungs, he would have sighed as nine of the twelve burning flames acting as scrying portals blazed bright enough to blind mortal eyes. Although it wasn't one he agreed with, the council had come to a decision, and he was beholden to the council.

"Very well," he said, nodding his subservience to Lethinal. He didn't plan on spending another millenia underneath the elder lich's thumb, but his plans were not quite complete yet. There were still a few shifting parts he had to take care of before he made his move. "So the council wills it, so it shall be.

"I will collect the human and extract the element of Eternity from his very soul."

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