After spending the last few weeks actively avoiding the truthseekers the best he could, it felt strange for Asher to actually be seeking them out for a change. Thankfully, unlike Eight and his slippery assassins, he had a pretty good idea of where he could find them.

The entire ordeal with the inky assassin had barely taken more than a few hours, which meant it was still the dead of night when Asher found himself standing in front of the small building Bordan and Clare had taken him to when he was at their mercy. It had taken him some time to find it again, but he'd managed.

He'd been worried about having to try and get around while lugging a massive glass tank filled with an assassin that might start screaming bloody-murder at any moment, but Asher had made a startling discovery.

He could store living things within his Personal Rift.

Sort of.

Back in the forest with Samantha, Asher had tested his ability to store living things. He'd never tried to put an actual person in his rift, as he'd been terrified of what might happen if it actually had worked, but she'd handed him small critters trapped in her snares to see if his power would work on them. They'd quickly discovered that his rift simply refused to open if he was intending to shove a living thing inside of it, and he'd thought that was that.

As it turned out, it seemed so long as the living creature was sealed with an airtight container, his skill allowed him to store it. Either that or the skill worked solely because the assassin was in his ink form, but Asher's gut told him it was because of the airtight seal.

Now, what would happen if said container ended up breaking while it was stored within his rift was another question entirely. Though it was one he didn't have time to worry about at the moment. All in all, it wasn't a huge discovery, as Asher struggled to think of any other situation where such a turn of events would occur. But at the very least, it allowed him to transport the trapped assassin far more easily than he would have otherwise.

And it officially pumped his Personal Rift up to level 19, which was a boon all in of itself.

Putting the thought of what the assassin was currently experiencing in his rift out of his mind, Asher walked up to the front door of the truthseekers' hideout and wondered how he should go about this. He'd talked a big game to Crush and Thunder, but in reality, he was more than a little concerned about Clare getting her chains on him again. He thought Complete Resilience's newly evolved ability would allow him to escape, but he really didn't want to have to test that theory unless he had to. If he was wrong and her chains overpowered his skill, he was as good as dead.

Taking a deep breath, Asher slipped into the astral and poked his head into the tucked-away building. He'd been too worried about his own safety to really look around the last time he was here, so he made sure to memorize as much of the house's layout as he could this time around.

The ground floor was simple and straightforward. A small living area, a few doors leading off to presumably individual bedrooms, and what looked like a pantry. He knew the basement was filled with those dangerous cells that prevented skills from activating, and he thought he recalled seeing another door down there that had looked rather secure at the time.

Alright… How to do this in a way that doesn't get myself killed…

Fully stepping into the house, Asher allowed himself to slip back into the material realm. Nothing exploded in light or attacked him the moment he appeared, which was a big relief.

You know, I never actually stopped to consider that this might just be one of many safe houses they have. If they're not here-

The wall exploded as Bordan erupted through it wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. Despite the lack of armor, he did have his monstrous greatsword in hand and aimed directly at Asher's chest, and he didn't wait for a moment before going for the kill.

"Hold on, I'm-"

Asher was cut off as he had to slip into the astral in order to evade having his torso split in two. Frowning, he walked over to the other side of the room and reappeared.

"Bordan, I don't-"

Again, he was forced to stop talking as he glanced down at the greatsword that was currently sticking out of where his chest had been a split second ago. Bordan wasn't just strong, he was fast as well.

Alright, this isn't getting us anywhere.

Rolling his eyes, Asher walked back out of the building and reappeared in the alleyway. With a sigh, he actually knocked on their front door, before taking a few steps back and waiting patiently.

He could practically see the confused look on Bordan's face even from outside, as it took a few moments before the door was slowly opened and the truthseeker looked out at him.

"Would you let me get five words out before trying to stab me?" Asher asked, looking pointedly at him. "Come on, clearly you saw I wasn't trying to attack you, right?"

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"Why would you sneak into our sanctum otherwise?" Bordan frowned, somehow managing to look almost as regal and impressive as he normally did in his pristine suit of armor, despite the fact that he was practically naked.

"Honestly, the thought of knocking didn't even occur to me," Asher admitted sheepishly. "My bad on that one. Look, can we talk for a moment? I don't really like you all that much after you tried to execute me, and I've more than gathered you don't like me as you've continued to try to execute me, but we're both after the same thing. I think I have a good lead on finding Eight, but I need your help. Truthseeker help, if you know what I mean."

"We are not after the same thing," Bordan said, his frown deepening. "You are a killer and shoulder part of the responsibility for the deaths of fifty-eight innocent people, on top of all the others you personally killed."

"For the love of God, do you need some help off that high horse of yours?" Asher drawled, already tired of talking to the man after exchanging only a few sentences. "I already told you, Loratta was the one who destroyed her compound and killed those people. And I killed her in turn! You should be thanking me, not trying to lop off my head!"

Even as he argued, Asher's Judgement skill highlighted the unshakable, golden wall of truth that radiated out of Bordan as his aura, and he knew before the words had even left his mouth that arguing with the man was pointless. Instead, he decided to go with a different tactic. It was quite the risk, but a calculated one, and he had a feeling he wouldn't be getting any help from Bordan until he threw the man a bone.

"Look, if I let Clare wrap those freaky chains around me again, will you at least hear me out? I just want to see Eight get justice."

Bordan blinked in surprise and lowered his greatsword slightly as Asher offered to willingly allow Clare to bind him again. Slowly, the man nodded, turning and calling over his shoulder without taking his eyes off him. "Clare! What are you doing?!"

"Not all of us are comfortable fighting in the nude, Bordan," Clare snapped as she finally stepped out of the giant hole in the wall that led to what Asher could only assume was her room. The apprentice truthseeker wore a simple dark tunic that was a far cry from the armor she'd worn last they spoke. She looked irritated at having been woken up, but strangely, that annoyance was clearly directed at Bordan rather than Asher. "Would you chill out? He doesn't have any killing intent towards either of us, otherwise he would have woken me up instead of you when you broke through both of my walls."

"He doesn't?" Bordan asked, his eyes still not having left Asher's own.

"I told you I wasn't here to pick a fight," Asher sighed, nodding toward the far more reasonable Clare. "Hi. Sorry for the late-night visit."

"Don't mention it," Clare yawned, rubbing her eyes. "Anyway, why did you-"

Glowing black chains erupted out of the ground around Asher's feet, and he had to physically prevent himself from slipping into the astral to dodge her attack. Instead, in that fraction of a second he still had access to his active skills, he opened up his Personal Rift and yanked the fish tank out of it. As the tank clattered to the ground, Asher was tightly bound from head to toe in chains once more, and he felt his active skills grow distant as he lost access to them.

All but one.

Well thank god for that, he thought, making sure to keep the look of relief off his face at the confirmation he could get away whenever he needed.

"See how easy that was? See how many walls I didn't break?" Clare snapped, already ignoring Asher again as she glared at a sighing Bordan.

"Just bring him inside," Bordan said, shaking his head as he glanced at the fish tank. "What's that?"

"That, is one of Eight's senior assassins," Asher said, nodding his thanks at Clare as she made sure to angle him in a way that he didn't bang his head on the doorway while she dragged him into the building. "I tried interrogating him for information on Eight, and I think he was telling the truth, but I didn't really get much from him. I was hoping you guys could do more, you know, with your weird elements and all."

"Our weird elements?" he heard Bordan mutter before shaking his head and hefting the heavy glass tank as easily as if it were a wicker basket. "…It looks like it's filled with a puddle of ink. Haven't seen an Ink element in a while."

"Got it in one," Asher nodded. "Fair warning, he has a second element, but I don't know which one. Though whatever it is, I don't think it's strong enough to break the reinforced glass."

"It's Knowledge, actually," Bordan said, bringing the tank inside and placing it gently on their table. "Ink and Knowledge."

"You can see his elements?" Asher asked, his brow raised.

"Of course I can, I'm a truthseeker," Bordan scoffed. "Which is why it's so concerning that I can't see yours. We don't make habits out of trusting people with evolved concealment skills. Though I can see that you have the assassin class, which is not exactly a point in your favor."

Well, good to confirm the tier 2 concealment skill I grabbed off of Loratta's artifact works just as I'd hoped. Suppose I should let Rosh know his new necklace is in fact powerful enough to ward off even truthseekers next time I see him.

"Bordan, can I dump him off in the cells and go back to sleep?" Clare asked, stifling another yawn as she rubbed her eyes. "You know I don't do well without my beauty rest."

"No, keep him here," Bordan frowned, his attention split between the contained inky assassin that had been silent up until now and Asher, still suspended in the glowing black chains. "I don't know how, but he managed to escape the skill-dampener cells last time, so I'm going to need you to hold him for a bit longer. I also have a few more questions for him now that he's back."

"I'm quite happy to stay and watch, so long as you interrogate inky there first," Asher said, nodding toward the other assassin. He would have pointed, but he couldn't exactly move either of his arms.

Or even his fingers, for that matter. The fact that Clare's skill bound literally his entire body below the neck was more than a little concerning, even with the knowledge that he could snap out of it anytime he wanted. He wasn't exactly claustrophobic, but it felt more like his body was paralyzed than he was being bound by something.

"That's good, because you've proven you're too much of a flight risk," Bordan said, his frown deepening.

"Once we're done here, for the safety of the Noala Kingdom as a whole, I'm going to have to execute you myself."

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