Luckily for Asher, escaping from the Frent estate was far easier than breaking in. He was tempted to just activate Recall and get out of there immediately, but part of him was curious as to how such a powerful noble estate would react when the alarm went up. In his line of work, that kind of knowledge might be quite handy for the future.

After swapping out his class back to assassin to silence his movements, a handful of slips through the astral got him back onto the grounds, where he made a break straight for the outer wall. The beauty of Eight's magadrine powder meant that because he'd taken her body with him, there would be no traces of Leighann's death, so he figured he had at least a few minutes before the alarm went up to declare her as missing. It wasn't until Asher made it to the wall when he heard shouts ringing out from the building he'd been in, and he rolled his eyes as he realized he missed the obvious yet again.

Separating her head from her body postmortem may have ended up spilling some blood across the floor.

He was suddenly hit by the realization that the nobles might have some sort of enchantment prepared similar to his own Spatial Lock, and he quickly changed his mind about sticking around. Slipping through the estate wall, he rushed to the separation point between the third and fourth ring, conscious of how the guards manning the front gate were shouting back at those deeper within the estate. Luckily, a few quick uses of Distortion were all he needed to bypass the large wall, and before he knew it, he was home free.

Still, it was a bit too early to celebrate, and Asher wasted no time putting distance between himself and the scene of Leighann's disappearance. Hilariously enough, his actions might very well result in the Frent family calling in the truthseekers to help with their missing family member, getting Bordan and Clare access into the estate like they originally wanted.

It wasn't long before Asher was within the second ring once more, and he finally let himself breathe a bit easier as he laid back on one of the familiar rooftops. The buildings in the third ring were too spread out for his usual travel method, but here in the second ring, he could take all the time in the world to make his way back to Draken's if needed.

Staring up at the night sky, he listened to the soothing sounds of drunkards stumbling around on the dark streets below and unsavory business being handled within the nearby alleyways as he took stock of his situation.

Pros… You managed to narrow down the search for Eight even further, and have an actual address for him now, as well as confirmation he is a man. Assuming he didn't lie to Leighann. You also learned about The Council of Death and have a better idea of how screwed you might actually be when they finally get around to trying to retrieve their missing element.

Cons… You spilled basically all your greatest secrets to a woman who, despite her erratic nature, seems rather high up in the hierarchy of this city's most important noble family. While you didn't actually kill her, it sure as hell looks like you did, which means there will probably be some sort of manhunt for you sooner or later. Oh, she also managed to kill herself, which means if her family has some method of bringing her back without her body, which is likely seeing as she works with rather volatile compounds and kills herself frequently, it'll probably happen within a couple of days, where she will then be free to spread your secrets to the world.

Asher groaned and rubbed his face at the realization that he'd screwed up. He'd never once considered someone would get around beating his Sever the Thread skill by killing themselves before he got the chance to. Provided the person had a guaranteed method of resurrection, it was such an obvious flaw to one of his strongest skills, and one he'd completely overlooked.

I need to finally sit down with Draken and figure out how resurrection works, he decided, getting to his feet and brushing his stupid noble attire off. The last time he'd gone to ask about resurrection, they'd gotten sidetracked by the lecture on elemental advancement, and then Crush got Draken wasted before he could get them back on track.

Part of Asher wanted to put the conversation off until later, but there was one large problem with that.

While Leighann had written down the address she sent her ink to, Asher didn't have the faintest idea where it actually was. He had no idea how mail worked in this world, and while he could make out that the address was most likely somewhere within the first ring of all places, that was the best he could do.

Let's go ask the deadliest man in the entire city for directions, he decided, making his way across the rooftops back to Draken's manor.

According to his Eternal Mark, Kree was actually still waiting patiently in Draken's manor where he'd left him. As tempting as it was to just activate Recall and save himself a trip across the second ring, Asher decided to play things safe.

While Kree had witnessed him Recalling to his location at least once now, he most likely assumed that was just the same skill Asher used in combat, seeing as both Astral Dip and Recall made it look like he just appeared out of nowhere to any observers. As helpful as Kree and Draken were, he didn't feel the need to tip his hand about his Recall skill just yet.

The night had still been young when Asher began his assault on the Frent estate, which meant it was probably only a bit after midnight by the time he made it back to Draken's manor. Naturally, seeing as Thunder and Crush didn't have the ability to race back across the rooftops, the two of them were probably still on their way back, and he was instead led inside by a quiet man he didn't recognize. As soon as the man knocked on Draken's study, the door was flung open and Draken all but yanked him inside, thanking his subordinate before quickly closing the door.

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Asher was surprised to find Kree napping on a fancy couch in the corner of Draken's study, but his attention was quickly pulled back to Draken as the gang leader sat him down.

"Did you get Eight?" he started, a look of hope and hunger in his eyes that looked remarkably out of place.

"Not exactly," Asher sighed, quickly launching into an abridged version of what happened. The only things he left out were the specifics of his conversation with Leighann, simply informing Draken that she'd been privy to 'important information' about himself he didn't want anyone else to know. He was tempted to mention what he'd learned about The Council of Death as well, but decided to keep that a secret for now, as he wasn't sure how to explain his involvement with them without revealing his Eternity element. All these omissions did result in him having to act like he was an idiot who hadn't realized resurrection was on the table before he spilled his guts out to her, seeing as he wasn't about to admit to having his Sever the Thread skill, but that was the cost of keeping his abilities a secret.

"But I took her entire body with me," he finished with, a small part of him hoping that would be enough. "Are they able to bring someone back without the actual body?"

"They do in fact need at least a small part of the body in order to bring someone back," Draken nodded, getting his hopes up only to tear them back down as he continued. "...which is why the nobility follow a unique practice of removing one of their pinky fingers and keeping them in a highly secured location. A finger is about the smallest amount of a person a healer needs in order to resurrect them." As he explained, he held up his own left hand, showing his lack of pinky finger that Asher remembered noticing a while back. "The finger is usually taken when the noble receives their origin element, though some families take them as young as fourteen, such as my own before our fall. The process of resurrection is too heavy a toll on anyone younger, and fourteen is already pushing it."

That news was both good and bad. Good, because after all this time, Asher finally got confirmation that Trellis was officially gone for good. He definitely would have noticed if the merchant had been missing any of his fingers, and the raging inferno of the man's wagon should have done an excellent job of destroying his body.

The bad news was that Asher had very much noted the missing pinky finger on Leighann when she waved goodbye to Theorn.

"Damn it!" he hissed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Is there nothing I can do? No way to keep her from coming back?"

"Short of either discovering where the Frent family keeps their members' fingers locked away and destroying Leighann's, or intercepting the healer during their travel and killing them, a task I promise you will be far harder than it sounds, it's out of your hands," Draken admitted. "Still, you have some time before whatever secrets you spilled to Leighann can be brought back from the grave. They'll need time to contact a healer and bring them over, probably close to a week at a minimum. In the meantime, I need you to focus on Eight. I only agreed to let Crush and Thunder leave the manor and participate because I thought we'd truly be bringing Eight down for good."

"Right, right," Asher nodded, realizing Draken had a point. Taking down Eight and making sure nobody could hurt Samantha and Brian took priority over his own secrets being spilled out into the world anyway. And a week was more than enough time to work with. "Leighann made the point that Eight must have somehow figured out we'd trace his ink back to her, which would explain why he sent her magadrine powder. He's an alchemist, and seeing as he's been active for over a decade, I bet wherever he's holed up he's got a hell of a lot of equipment and materials with him. Unless he wants to abandon everything and start over from scratch, it's going to take him some time to move it all."

Not for the first time, Asher was thankful that extra-dimensional storage was something unique to him and his Spatial element. He could probably make an absolute fortune in shards if he ever revealed his element and found someone willing to help him produce enchanted bags, but for now, everyone else had to move things the hard way.

"Still, the longer we wait, the greater the chance he decides to cut his losses and focus on his own survival," Draken murmured, drumming his fingers across his desk. "We should try and finish this tonight."

"No arguments here," Asher nodded, reaching into his pocket to hide his Personal Rift skill as he pulled out the address Leighann had given him. While Kree had witnessed his skill before, it was another one he'd kept secret from Draken. "Can you point to this on a map or something? I don't actually understand how addresses work in the city."

"Of course you don't," Draken said, shaking his head as he grabbed the large map he'd let Asher Incorporate earlier. It only took him a minute of poring over the map before he tapped a spot deep in the heart of the first ring, far from any of the main roads. "Due to all the different workshops and businesses, the first ring is easily the largest of the four, and this is about as far as one can get from the guards while still remaining within the city. He very well may have been hiding in plain sight all this time."

"You'd be surprised what secrets the first ring holds," Asher muttered, picturing the truthseeker sanctum he'd been brought to tucked away between two ordinary looking stores, or the Guild cell he'd tracked Jennifer to and fought Leonard within.

It seemed the first ring was the place to be if you wanted to hide something in the city of Whikoga.

"You have his location, is there anything else you need?" Draken asked, leaning heavily over his desk. "We don't know what traps you might encounter so I won't risk sending my people in with you, but I could provide you with some potions, if that would help."

"I certainly wouldn't say no to anything you're willing to give," Asher grinned, happy to shove whatever potions Draken was willing to throw at him straight into his Personal Rift.

After all, what was the point in having so much free space if he didn't take advantage of it? At level 19, he could tell his Personal Rift had grown to the size of a large bedroom. Even after emptying out the Guild's safe house into it, he had way more empty space than not.

"Alright, let's get you loaded up and on your way," Draken said, tucking away the map and motioning for him to follow him to the storeroom. "But try not to take too long, alright?"

"No worries there," Asher said, his heart already starting to race at the thought of finally taking down the leader of Whikoga's Assassin's Guild. "If I get my way, Eight will never see another sunrise."

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