An Owl's Rise

They would have the next two days off while Maeve met with her grandaunt and dealt with internal Miris Sect subjects that a band of hired mercenaries could not attend.

Lucia and Evelyn quickly caught the others up on what had occurred at the party and what their goal going forward was.

"So, he\'s really here? The man that defeated our parents and captured them to be used as experimental subjects." Aralee said, a quiet wrath in her eyes.

While she had not witnessed the intense battle and the death of their parents, it was still a traumatic experience for her. One day her entire family was gone, and she had been left alone to fend for herself.

At the time she could not understand the weight of what had happened but that changed as she raised her rank and intelligence increased. Now she knew very well what had occurred and was aware of the negative emotions she felt. They were not as intense as Evelyn\'s and Bylur\'s, but she wanted to avenge her parents all the same.

"Yes, I could never forget his face. He\'s here." Evelyn nodded in confirmation.

"And that brings us to the purpose of this meeting. We\'re going to assassinate the two visitors from the Deamhain Sect." Lucia said confidently.

Nevertheless, their objective was not going to be easy. They could not simply launch a frontal assault on the two men. The moment they did something so brazen the entire Miris Sect would view them as enemies.

Fortunately, there were multiple avenues that they could pursue if all they wanted to do was kill two people.

"The first hurdle we need to clear is to make sure that no one suspects us. To that end we all need to be seen in public at the time the murders occur."

"That certainly makes sense, but how are we planning on doing that? It is not like we can be in two places at once." Rehni pointed out.

"True, but I can use my magic to make it appear that we are."

Lucia then conjured a perfect copy of Rehni standing next to her.

"I can easily make duplicates of all of you with my light magic. Of course, they don\'t have any substance and are essentially just illusions. To make them more real I will need your assistance, Rehni."

Normally all Lucia could create were images. She could have them move, but it was impossible for her to replicate the sounds that a living creature should make.

That was where Rehni came in. With her sound magic she could bring the illusions to life.

"But won\'t that mean neither of you can participate in the rest of the plan?" Evelyn asked.

"Yes, that is correct. To make it seem like none of us are involved, Rehni and I will need to make sure that the \'five of us\' are seen in public. Only the three of you will be free to act." Lucia said, looking at Evelyn, Bylur and Aralee.

This constraint would drastically raise the difficulty of their mission. Lucia was the strongest among them, and Evelyn had been counting on her powers to make the assassination successful.

"I doubt that the guy that is only a peak mage will cause us much trouble, but the azure haired man, I believe you said his name was Oswaldo, is a different story. Rehni and I fought him two years ago and I can say with certainty that he is powerful. Even after consuming Unleashed Potential Potions, we were barely able to hold him off." Bylur said.

Unfortunately, Evelyn had to agree with him. She had first encountered Oswaldo in the depths of the Elmot Gorge, and he handily beat her. She was lucky to have escaped from him.

Of course, all of them had gotten a great deal stronger, but their target had not been idle. He was now at the peak of the arcanist rank. Killing him would be difficult with just the three of them, and doing so without making a scene would be practically impossible.

"You could always employe poison." Lucia suggested. "From what I saw you take out of your storage cuff yesterday; you have some potent enough that they would even kill me if I did not take an antidote quickly."

"I\'m not sure it will be that easy. Now that I\'ve thought about it more rationally, poison might not work well against that man."

Evelyn told Lucia that Oswaldo practiced venom magic. Most likely his resistance to poison was far higher than the average person\'s thanks to his magical affinity.

"Your assumption is probably right. Most individuals gain at least some resistance to the same type of magic that they use."

Lucia wore a hardened expression as she thought deeply, before she let out a deep sigh.

Moving her hand up tot eh storage amulet she always wore, she took out a single item.

It was a completely gray dagger that gave off an eerie aura.

There was ornate patterning on its blade, and its hilt was inlaid with jewels. Still, there was no color anywhere on the weapon. As if it sucked away any vibrancy that came in contact with it.

"I was saving this for someone else, but you need it now more than I do."

Carefully, Lucia reached over and handed the dagger to Evelyn.

"Wait! I can\'t take this. You were planning on using it for your own revenge. I can tell already that it\'s not a normal weapon."

Evelyn could feel powerful and wicked magical energy sealed within the weapon Lucia was presenting to her. This dagger was unbelievably dangerous.

"What you say is true, but it does not matter anymore. My plans have changed drastically now that I have reliable allies. This dagger may not even work on the target I intended it for. So go ahead and take it. Our goals are the same. Everything we do it to take down this accursed nation."