As a small knife swept past his shoulder, Ash made a mental note that the approximate activation time of the invisibility ring was an hour. He tried to add more magic into the ring, but the amount it absorbed at one time was abysmal. He'd need to do tests to see how long it took for the ring to absorb enough magic to work.

Ash threw his arm down and three slips appeared between his fingers. He narrowed his eyes and threw them at the man. Two dissolved into the air, turning into sharp blades of wind that flew on either side of the man. At first glance, the wind blades missed. All the man had to do was squeeze between them and let them pass by.

That was intentional. It put the man's face directly in line with the slower moving center slip.

Ash tossed another slip in front of him. That slip darkened and widened into a flat rectangle the size of a serving tray in front of Ash's face.

In an instant, the slower moving slip that was going towards the man exploded in a flash of hot white light, blinding anything in the alley.

The pained scream came from the man.

Behind the black shield nearly blocked the sight in front of Ash, but also blocked the white flash of light, allowing Ash to watch the man raise his arms to cover his eyes and turn away.

The man stumbled back, trying to steady himself after violently swerving when he was blinded.

The black shield in front of Ash vanished and he took out another slip. While the man was trying to see and fell back against an alley wall, disoriented, Ash took the opportunity to send a muscle relaxant slip, which would paralyze the body, making it unable to be controlled.

Once the man crumpled to the ground like discarded laundry, Ash could drag him somewhere for questioning.

As the slip neared the groaning man, Ash heard a familiar sound of something sharp coming through the air. He immediately pulled back to stop himself from running forward into awaiting trouble, but watched as his slip was pierced through with what appeared to be a dart.

He sucked in a sharp breath, and as he heard a whistle echo through the alley, he snapped his head up. His eyes widened as five figures turned shadows against the light from the lively streets beyond shone behind them. They stood on the rooftops of the buildings on either side of the alley.

Ash let out a low breath and slowly shook his head. "Oh-ho...a trap." He narrowed his eyes and allowed a few more slips to slide between his fingers. "Clever boy."

He shifted his weight and adjusted his hips, subconsciously settling into a fighting stance. He didn't know who those five people were, nor did he know what they were capable of, so he waited.

He didn't have to wait long.

The five jumped from the rooftops, almost at the same time, as if they had been planning a dramatic entrance. They landed with gentle thuds on the brick road and surrounded the blinded man as if protecting a baby chick.

Their faces were covered, except for their eyes. Hoods were over their heads, and they wore nondescript loose clothing that every man who worked on a dock seemed to wear. It was a good way of blending in, but it also didn't tell Ash anything about them. Nothing about them seemed particularly outstanding.

They all seemed to be about the same height and build, and it was too dark to get a good look at their exposed eyes under the shadow of their hoods. However, when the man he was chasing managed to stand up straight, he also fell into the same height and build.

Were they a team of some sort?

"Don't let him get away!" The man, still blinded by the light, pointed his arm in a random direction that was not where Ash was.

For a moment, the five didn't seem sure that the man was talking about him and two looked in the direction that the man had pointed, as if expecting there to be someone else. There wasn't, but it was enough of a distraction that Ash sent out another light burst slip.

The five newcomers most've seen the first one, as they immediately covered their eyes. As soon as the light vanished, they opened them.

Ash frowned. I should've known that wouldn't work twice.

He watched their steady movements. Minimal head bobbing, shoulders aligned over hips, even as they ran. All of them must've had martial training.

He stepped to the side as an assortment of small, sharp weapons were thrown at him. As they flew past his head, he noticed thin blades, small darts, and needles with a particular shine that hinted they were probably coated with poison.

He took one side step after another, weaving between the projectiles. Once their trajectory was set and they were launched forward, they could only follow the set trajectory. All he had to do was make sure he wasn't on that trajectory.

Ash threw out some more slips, but they were targeted, and he couldn't recall them fast enough.

He snatched one that managed to make it back, but scowled at the torn corner. A slip with a tear or a piece missing would be useless, as the flow of magic was disrupted.

"Do you know how long these take me to make?" Ash shot them a glare before he reached into his bag. "How much paper I need to hand make for them!" His hand was wrapped around the grip of a sword.

He lifted his arm and stood in place, almost welcoming the projectiles that were sent his way. The gleam of his sword peeked from the opening of the leather bag before Ash realigned himself and swung.

The sword was close to his body, and he was able to control it easily from years of practice. He didn't only allow the projectiles to collide with the sword's blade and be blocked, but he seemed to sweep the projectiles into the air, changing their trajectory.

They lost their speed and didn't go far before falling.

Once they did, Ash swung again, this time sending the projectiles back with crisp clangs.

His movement was so fluid and fast, not to mention unorthodox, that it caught the five by surprise. The three in front and one on the far right realized what he'd done and jumped away to avoid the returning weapons.

The one on the far left didn't notice fast enough, and the needle of a dart pierced the skin of their neck and penetrated their throat. At once, the man's hands rose to grab at his injured neck, appearing to have not realized that the dart was still there.

A painful and somewhat choked cry filled the air as he pushed the dart further into his neck. Ash grimaced, but still tossed out a slip.

The man was in so much pain screaming and trying to pull the dart out, that he didn't notice the slip. All the others also seemed to be distracted with their companion struggling with a dart in their throat and didn't notice the slip until the man abruptly stopped screaming, and fell to the ground as if he'd lost strength in his legs.

"Got one!" Ash's face lit up.

"Retreat!" The man Ash had been chasing gave an order and rushed to get the man who'd fallen.

The man wanted to take his fallen, dart-injured friend with him. Ash's eyes widened. "No, he's mine!"

He took a step forward, but caught the familiar gleam of metal above him. He quickly took a step back and raised his sword overhead, just as one of the remaining five landed in front of him.

The vibrations from one sword hitting another coursed through Ash's arms and he gritted his teeth. Despite the awkward angle and the pressure, he felt, he instinctively parried the other sword down and opened distance before countering.

Fights with weapons needed to be fast and precise, his mother taught him. Wasting his energy with strike after strike would only tire him; he needed it to be over and done with.

As he managed to shove his opponent back and cut the back of his hand and forearm with his sword, he heard the rustling of cloth behind him.

With his free hand he threw out more slips behind him to cover his back.

He heard someone yelling to avoid the paper just as his opponent rushed forward with another attack.

Ash wanted to bring back at least one of them alive for questioning. More if at all possible, but he was outnumbered and cautious of where they were fighting.

The buildings were made of brick, wood, and tile, but they were small ground floor shops and residential buildings. They were in an alley between two rows, limiting their movement. Ash didn't want to risk too much attention, especially since he'd already used two light flash slips.

In addition, his magic was strong. If it missed the target, it could damage the buildings. Damaged buildings were unstable buildings, and people inside could get hurt. It was already nighttime; people were asleep. There was a good chance everyone was home. He couldn't risk their lives.

For a moment, he commended his opponents for luring him somewhere where he wouldn't risk hurting innocent people, if at all possible.

He kicked a man in the chest and swung his sword again. He turned around, keeping his movements aligned, but caught the sight of the man he was chasing running down the alley with the fallen man across his shoulders.

Ash's brows shot up. His movements grew more erratic and stronger. "How dare you distract me! Do you think you'll get away with this?"

Another sword came rushing towards him from the side just as his sword contacted another.

"You sound like one of those theater villains during the summer outdoor plays." Henry's unimpressed voice reached him. Ash felt a gust of warm air behind him before a man's arm hit the ground, still gripping a sword, but not attached to the rest of his body.

Ash smelled the warm scent of blood before he heard the horrified screaming of a man who just realized he'd lost an arm.

"Brother, one of them is getting away!" Ash said.

Henry punched the face of the man who'd lost his arm. "Hold them back!" He broke past one other man and ran after the two who were escaping. The man turned just enough to see Henry chasing him.

He seemed to dig into his pocket before taking out a scroll. It was as wide as a hand's length, and as it unfurled, it was easily as tall as the man himself. A streak of blood was swiped across the paper and the characters written on it began to glow.

On instinct, not knowing what was on the scroll, Henry stopped and prepared to flee or jump back in case it was some sort of explosive. The glowing characters began to burn quickly, turning the scroll to ash in an instant.

"A magic scroll?" Ash shouted from behind him, his voice dripping with disgust. "How outdated!"

He sensed magic released behind him and turned around. The remaining four men had unfurled scrolls of their own and used their blood to activate them. The ash flew into the air and seemed to sweep them up, back to the roof tops.

Ash turned his head back to the man with the paralyzed attacker on his shoulders. As expected, the magic released was not enough to carry both of them to the rooftop quickly and elegantly, like the other men. The magic barely raised them a single story.

Shouting was heard as the man fumbled through the other man's top before unfurling another scroll. With the help of the second one, they rose higher and almost as fast as the other four men.

But not fast enough.

A surprised yell filled the air as the two men fell, as if whatever were holding them up had been yanked out from under them. The magic they used relied on the ash from the burned scroll. Ash used a slip to blow the magic ash away.

The men already on the rooftop managed to grab onto their arms and pull them up, but in their scramble to do so, they didn't see a furry ball about the size of a cat walking up to them.

Not a second later, a foul odor filled the air accompanied by disgusted yells and orders to hold their breaths.

The creature that approached them had what was likely its tail up in the air as it waddled away.

"Should we go after them?" Ash took a step back as the smell grew stronger.

"No, let them run," Henry replied.

Ash sniffed the air and scrunched his face in disgust. The fleeting figures of the men disappeared over the rooftops, but along the silhouette of the roof, he saw a strange blob on the edge that had been moving, stop. He squinted. "What is that?"

"Skunk!" From the opening of the alley from where Ash had entered, he saw a massive white wolf and glowing blue eyes. Seated on top was a little girl, and leading them was a striped cat whose tail was up and curled.

Ash looked at his sister with confusion. "Why is it on the rooftop?"

"Donut carried him there."

That did not answer the question satisfactorily. If anything, it only raised more questions. Ash crinkled his eyes. "What? No, I mean, why did Donut carry him up there?"

"Well, we already have one on one building and there is one waiting at both ends, so one needed to be assigned to that building-"

"Why are there skunks here, Effie?" Ash threw his arms up, impatient and frustrated. "That's the question I'm asking!"

Even though it was dark, he could still feel his sister glaring at him. "Don't yell at me! You should've been more specific with your questions!"

"Both of you, shut up," Henry said as he turned to look at them. "In case they escaped, we needed a way to track them. Commodore said he could smell them, so Effie said to leave it to her." Henry waved his hand in front of him and scowled. "I didn't know she'd use a skunk."

Ash let out a disgusted groan and covered his mouth and nose with his hand. "Was there no other way to track them?"

"That smell will stay with them for days! And it's strong! It'll be easy for Commodore to follow!" Effie appeared proud of this, and Ash rolled his eyes.

"I could've put a tracking slip on them."

"You had your hands full," Effie said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "You're welcome."

Ash restrained his low growl. To think, he had run out and trudged through a snowstorm in the barren ice sheets just to pick up the little ball of shamelessness.

"Effie, why does the skunk smell more...pungent than normal?" Henry asked as he reached them. Ash glanced at his brother and noticed that even Henry was making a strange face.

Their sister's face lit up. "That's a central mountain spotted skunk! Its diet consists of plants that are toxic to humans when ingested raw. Its spray is the strongest of all the skunks!" Determination filled her little face. "I wanted to make sure the smell was both strong and unique."

"How long does it last?" Ash asked.

"The smell you smell right now lasts a few days, like any other skunk," Effie told them. "But once the liquid gets on to the skin, the skin will absorb the liquid. The smell is difficult to get rid of, but after a few days or a lot of washing, the smell we can smell will come off. However, the skin it came into contact with will let out a scent that is only noticeable by animals with extremely long senses of smell."

"And how long will that last?" Henry asked.

Effie's eyes squinted with her smile. "Depending on how much skin had absorbed the skunk liquid, two to three years."

The two brothers froze in place. They looked at their sister with disbelief. "You mean, if we let them escape, we can track where they go for up to three years?"

She nodded with confidence.

Ash blinked. "Oh, my gods...that's brilliant. You really are my sister."

"Hehe!"

Henry seemed to relax. "In that case, we can wait until tomorrow to track them."

"Great!" Effie clapped her hands together.

"We'll take Commodore-"

"You hear that, Commodore?" Effie leaned down and hugged the massive ice wolf's neck. "We have an important job tomorrow!"

"We? No. Brother said Commodore," Ash said with a roll of his eyes.

"Effie, you'll stay with Prince Tae," Henry told her. Their sister balked with horror, as if they'd abandoned her.

"What? Why!"

"It's too dangerous," Henry said. Ash nodded. "Just stay back and behave. You can even go to Pancake Cafe for breakfast."

Their sister's face flushed. "Don't try to bribe me with Pancake Cafe! I'm not a glutton!"

"Yeah, well, who of us three is trying to fill out their punch card to gain access to ordering the monthly pancake tower special?" Ash crossed his arms and looked at his sister with a dull expression.

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"This and that are different!" Effie shouted.

"Effie." Henry used a stern, serious voice he used whenever he was lecturing his siblings. "I know you want to come, but it's dangerous."

She narrowed her eyes. "Second Brother is the best mage in the world, and you have three spirits you can summon. How is it dangerous?"

"What if they try to fight in a crowded public space? We don't want you to be part of the collateral damage," Ash replied. He meant it. He and Henry were used to fighting and covert operations. Effie was not, and as the youngest and their little sister, how could they drag her along?

Effie lowered her eyes as they began to glisten with resentful tears. "I'm also an Atractas...."

The two brothers looked at her with sympathy, but they couldn't be soft and endanger their sister.

"Atractas are good at making money," Henry told her with a gentle voice. "Effie, that's what you're good at and what you should be focusing on."

"Brothers will need money in the future for many things," Ash added. "We'll need to depend on you then."

Effie sniffled. "I can't even make money anymore. Momma isn't placing on the all-around, so my bets are going to fall through!" They'd almost forgotten that Effie had happily asked them to place a bet for their mother for her. It wasn't a lot, but it was a good amount.

"I believe you'll make it back," Henry told her as he raised a hand and gently stroked the top of her head. "Our Effie is very talented with money."

"Just wait for us with Prince Tae," Ash said. "The next time we have a safe side quest; we'll take you with us."

"Promise?" Effie raised her eyes, but Henry shot Ash with a warning glare.

"I said safe side quest," Ash stressed.

Henry let out a low breath. He nodded and looked at Effie. "If it's a safe side quest, we'll bring you."

She made them swear by hooking their pinkies, but Ash couldn't rid himself of the feeling that she had not completely given up on their current investigation.

After all, as their sister said: she was also an Atractas.

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"Part of me wants to wait a few days until the smell dissipates," Ash said.

Henry crouched on a thick branch high on one of the old trees that created a strip of public park around the base of the old wall. Just up the street was Effie's friend's family's restaurant, where Ash had entertained some esteemed mage colleagues in thanks days earlier.

Below them, people were strolling through a paved park path, enjoying the shade of the many trees. However, every time they passed by beneath, they would inadvertently sniff the air and make a strange face.

Every so often, someone would stop and ask aloud 'what is that smell'? Or ask if a skunk had died.

They were close.

The strong smell of the central mountain spotted skunk penetrated through the gaps of a metal grate that closed over a small wooden door that led into the tunnels beneath the wall.

"The torture of having to deal with that smell is a good punishment," Henry said. "But not enough."

"It's still enough to make my eyes water...." Ash muttered from the branch next to him.

According to Effie's animal intelligence report, the men who fled escaped through the back alleys of the city and into the tunnels. The tunnels were mainly for city pipes, but had initially been created to allow defenders of the city to move quietly beneath the walls to move supplies.

City maintenance workers were the primary users of the tunnels now, but it was a maze underground, and there was ample space for people to hide from workers.

"Do you think the maintenance workers will be sent down because of a potential sewage leak because of the smell?" Ash asked.

Henry's eyes crinkled up. "Considering that the Exhibition is still happening after this and there are a lot of guests, the city will probably send someone down soon if enough complaints come through."

Ash let out an irritated grunt. "Great."

"I contacted the committee," Henry said. "Considering the severity of the issue, they'll deal with any backlash, provided there is no wide-scale damage or injuries." He gave his brother a knowing look and Ash scoffed.

"I'm not going to destroy an entire underground tunnel system to deal with a few people," he retorted with a slight sneer. "They still use magic scrolls, for gods' sake. That's archaic and not in a good, all-powerful way."

"Aren't magic scrolls similar to the slips you give to others? Don't they need blood to activate, too?" Henry asked with a raised brow.

"First of all, the slips fit into your hand and they're easier to transport. Second, I tell users to just use it as a napkin against a wound if they want to use it in an emergency. It's absorbent and has healing properties."

"Wait, slips have healing properties?" Henry perked up. Elka was given numerous slips for defensive use the last time they met.

"The ones I give to others, yes. Your precious Young Miss Arelias' slips all have them," Ash replied. "Hana has some if you want to see, but I've woven some special fibers inside the mulberry paper that disinfect the wound and prompt tissue growth upon touching blood. The fibers dissolve into the blood, first purifying the blood it touches and then instigates increased healing for a few days. It speeds up tissue growth four times faster than normal for up to five days. That's twenty days of healing in less than a week."

Henry looked at his brother with a mixture of awe for producing such a thing, and warmth, for sharing such a tool with Elka. Twenty days of healing in less than a week was enough to save a person's life.

"Ash...."

"No need to thank me," Ash said, raising his hand and giving his brother a dismissive wave of it. "It's what geniuses do." The appreciation drained from Henry, and he rolled his eyes. "Lastly, regarding the slips versus the scrolls, my slips are much more powerful than those scrolls. Did you notice how long it was? It was long because a lot of instructions are written down and it takes a lot of space to gather magic energy with such weak magic text. It's embarrassing."

Henry took a deep breath. "They likely bought them off of someone."

"The Magic Tower still sells those!" Ash complained. "They're cheap to make and the magic is only good for short bursts."

"Were the scrolls they had from the Magic Tower?"

Ash shook his head. "I don't know. I'd need to take a good look at them. It's possible, but it's also possible that they could've purchased them elsewhere. For beginner mages or mages that don't have a lot of magic energy, they can sell them."

Henry nodded. He looked back at the entrance to the tunnels. It had a metal seal that identified the tunnel entrance number for the purposes of maintenance.

"The park isn't going to get less busy until nightfall. We might as well get started now," Henry said. "Give me something to block out some of the smell."

In response, Ash threw a slip at his shoulder. The piece of paper seemed to melt into his clothes before Henry felt a warmth course from the shoulder, up his throat, and to his mouth and nose. He frowned as he took a deep breath.

"I can't isolate a single smell, so for the next few hours, you can't smell or taste," Ash said. "This isn't exactly something I thought to focus time on."

Henry sniffed again and smacked his lips. He didn't like losing two senses at once. "But I will get my sense of smell and taste back, right?"

"Sure."

He narrowed his eyes at his brother. Ash jumped off the branch and landed on a patch of dirt beside some shrubbery that appeared to have been flattened over by a heavy object.

Henry followed and landed on the other side of the tree. "Commodore, you got us this far. Go back to the apartment."

The plants that had been crushed began to move, and a few with more resilience managed to regain some height. Commodore was in possession of the invisibility ring. It was strapped to the inside of his collar.

"You should have ten minutes of invisibility left," Ash said. "Hurry and go back.'

They heard the ice wolf let out a low chuff before leaving. Henry looked back at his brother. "Are you sure you don't need the ring?"

Ash shook his head. "It takes four hours to fully absorb magic energy to use for one hour, which seems to be its limit," Ash replied. "We don't know how long we'll be down there."

Henry hummed and Ash threw out another pair of slips. They landed across the paved walkway and on either side of the maintenance door. The characters on the slips glowed before there was a slight wobble in the air.

Ash walked across the walkway, glancing to make sure there weren't any witness nearby, and stepped into an enclosed magic space. The air wobbled just a bit as he seemed to walk through a portal and disappear. Henry followed after him and found Ash frowning.

"The maintenance door is unlocked. It's easy to get in."

"No," Ash said as he looked around. "I don't like that wobble when you enter a blind spot. I need to fix that."

It was somewhat minor, but Henry figured his brother was somewhat of a perfectionist. He knelt down and undid the metal latch, then lifted the door. Ash jumped first and then Henry followed, making sure that the door closed on top of them. The blind spot created by the slips only lasted five minutes.

He felt Ash put something in his hand and he recognized the eye drops. The tunnels were dark, and even if there was some light, it wouldn't be much. After blinking the liquid and allowing his eyes to adjust.

"Look for our guide," Henry said.

Ash was already looking down at his feet. "A possum, right?"

"Yes, that's...oh." He followed Ash' gaze and found a gray and white creature with a pointed nose and a long, rat-like tail. It was sitting on its two back feet and had grabbed on to Ash's boot, as if to get his attention.

"Little friend," Ash smiled as he knelt down and held out his hand for the animal to smell. "I'm sure you received your orders. Take us to them."

The creature sniffed his hand and let out a squeak before falling forward on to its front legs and scurrying forward. The two brothers followed deeper into the tunnels. There were many old pipes, different intersections, and some stone carved streams. There were the expected animals in the tunnels, as well. Several rats, some snakes, and other possums.

However, the one they were following marched forward on all four legs, without so much as another sound or acknowledgement to his brethren as he passed. He was on a mission.

Aside from the rumble of the pipes and the sound of moving water, there was the sound of wind in an empty tunnel, causing a haunting echo when it was quiet enough.

The brothers had been in tombs and underground more than once; the maintenance tunnels of a city were hardly terrifying. The whispering echoes eventually gave way to human voices in the distance. They weren't yelling; it was a normal conversation, but in the tunnels without any sound insulation, their voices would echo.

The possum stopped tugged Ash's pant leg, and then scurried away, it's mission completed.

"Iverian Common." Henry frowned. There was a slight accent, but it was faint, and Henry couldn't recognize it. He glanced at Ash, who met his eyes and shrugged, also unable to recognize where the speaker might've come from.

Aside from the big empires, like Dareisol, Suna, and Ashtar, Iverian Common had overtaken many local languages. Dialects and accented Iverian Common were more prevalent.

Henry signaled Ash to stand against the wall as they saw some light seeping out of a doorway. There were plenty of doors they'd passed, once more mainly for maintenance use. There also abandoned chambers and rooms that had been used to store maintenance equipment.

The two craned their heads closer to the door. Considering all the maintenance equipment they found, the people talking could've just been city workers.

"...pasted in place. I hope we don't run out of the clay paste before we get everything up. Once it is activated, there will be twenty-hours before the explosion."

"Thats more than enough time to flee the area."

"If we hadn't been sprayed by that skunk last night, we'd be with the other teams leaving the city now!" Someone sounded annoyed, and the two brothers looked at each other.

It seemed that they weren't city workers.

"I don't know how a skunk got on a rooftop! How was I supposed to know?"

"Shut up!" a man's voice filled the corridor outside. "Because of that skunk, we were assigned to put up these scrolls. One wrong move and they could be activated prematurely."

"We were careful," another man grumbled. "Each scroll aligned, like that old man told us."

"I don't know what they're thinking provoking the Federation," one man said with annoyance.

"As long as the Federation doesn't involve us, don't think about it," the man who had yelled earlier replied. "We were paid to do a job. We just do what the clients ask of us."

Another man clicked his tongue. "If the Federation traces this back to Semut Mountain, they will level it."

Another person snorted and replied dismissively. "With what? Their city guards? There are thousands of the best mercenaries on the continent. How can a few scattered cities without a centralized military attack us? Will they beg Dareisol? Dareisol has their own problems at their borders right now."

"Ashtar suddenly became aggressive. The old emperor is still on the throne, but it looks like his son is vying for more territory on his own."

"Better than that old man who doesn't do anything but sit around and leeches off the country. Nothing I hate more than a useless man."

"Those old men paid a lot for this. They even provided us with magic scrolls."

"About that, why did that mage say about the scrolls? What does he mean outdated?"

"You know he's a mage?"

"He's the one who removed and detonated the clay disc," a man's low voice replied. "Because it was caught, the entire city's security has gone up. Even those cheating betters left the city, afraid that there are more explosives."

"There are. We just spent hours pasting those damn scrolls on the tunnel walls!"

"I don't see how paper scrolls are going to collapse this hill."

"They said the script used was advanced. It's a new code developed to increase its power. Even if a scroll has little power of its own, many scrolls together can be effective."

Hearing this, Henry moved his hand against the wall. All he felt was stone bricks. Where were the scrolls?

"Enough of a break. We still have a quarter of the wall's main tunnel to cover before we can leave. I want to get out of this death vault before the timer is activated."

The light began to flicker, and shadows cast against the tunnel walls grew.

The two brothers reached into their bags and took out long daggers. The main tunnels looked large enough, but they'd passed several where the space was much smaller, including tunnels where they'd need to duck.

Space was limited, and a sword was too long.

If they were going to fight, it would be close. They stepped back and waited as the men walked out. One was carrying a lantern and as he turned the corner and raised it, his eyes widened with surprise upon the sight of them.

"You!"

"Us." Henry gripped his dagger and slashed the man's bandaged throat. That man leaned back to avoid the slash, but wasn't fast enough. The familiar scent of blood filled the air once more as Ash jumped and ran, making his way up the side of the round tunnel to get ahead to block their exit in the other direction. He kicked from the wall and landed in front of two men who were fleeing.

The lantern hit the floor and bounced before rolling to a stop, casting an eerie yellow light from below. Four men had come out; the one whose arm had been cut off was missing.

Ash faced their opponents and played with the dagger in his hands.

"So, which one of you is going to come in for questioning?"

The man he'd chased the night before sent him a burning glare. He looked back at Henry, who had one man trapped with a blade to his neck. The man looked from brother to brother, as if trying to plan his next move.

His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths as the cold glint in his eye seemed to dull. His shoulders relaxed and he lifted his chin.

A cold smile reached his face as he looked at Ash. "None of us."

Henry caught the man seem to clench his jaw and a moment later, a dark fluid began to leak from between his lips. Henry's eyes widened. "Ash, it's poiso-" A dark liquid came from the smiles of the other men just as the first one stumbled. He fell back hard against the tunnel wall and slid down with a blank expression and dark liquid sliding down his cheek.

One by one, the other remaining three men fell to the ground, their eyes blank.

For a moment, the brothers stood in place, as if unsure of what was happening. Henry had seen a lot in his life, and fought many opponents, but none never killed themselves like this.

"This is the first time I've seen this," Ash said in a low voice. He tossed a slip on to the first man and though it glowed, it dimmed quickly. Ash frowned. He knelt down and Henry called out.

"Wait-"

"The slip didn't attach," Ash said, extending his hand to the man's neck. He pressed his fingers against it and then moved them beneath the man's nose. A low breath came from Ash as he looked up at his brother.

Henry swallowed. "They killed themselves?"

"Poison tooth caps. OId assassins from Suna used to use them," Ash said. "I read about them, but I've never seen them at work."

Henry took a deep breath and frowned. "What's Semut Mountain?"

Ash shook his head. "I don't know...but we can find out." Henry nodded once and looked at the four fresh corpses. He stepped over them to get to the other side of the chamber where they'd been resting. If they had turned right when exiting, it meant that they'd completed the other side.

"We can't leave them here," Henry said. "The maintenance workers will find them."

Ash nodded and began shuffling through his bag. "Acid it is."

"Wait," Henry held out his arm to stop him. "If the acid gets into the water, will it be a problem?"

"Into the sewage water?" Ash shook his head. "No, all of this goes to the treatment center. It'll be taken care of there."

Henry nodded and lowered his arm. "Then go ahead." Ash nodded and put on some leather gloves and glasses before stepping back and carefully dusting the bodies with a lavender-colored dust. As soon as the dust hit flesh, it began to corrode the skin, spreading quickly and moving under the cloth to consume the freshly dead body.

Henry didn't pay much attention and placed his hands on the wall with a frown. "I don't feel...paper...." He bent down while touching the wall and felt his fingers brush against parchment. It was a bit crispy to the touch, as if it had been pasted there.

Though the eye drops were still in effect, he couldn't make out the fine details without some light.

Ash held out a light slip and leaned over as a quiet sizzling of acid came from a few steps away. He knelt down beside his brother and looked at the paper.

"Rather simple...rudimentary text...what...." Ash leaned forward, putting a hand on the paper and carefully tracing the characters with his finger. With each character, Henry could hear Ash utter the sound, occasionally pausing, furrowing his brows, and repeating it, as if he'd read it wrong.

"What's wrong with it?" Henry asked.

Ash stood up and stepped back to get a better look at the paper that had been pasted on the lower portion of the tunnel wall. The paper was dark enough to appear as if it were stained, aged stone, and if one wasn't familiar, the scribbles on the parchment could've appeared as scuffs or stains.

Henry watched his brother walk beside the wall, muttering to himself. "No...no, that can't be right. Did I misread?" Ash walked back to the start and began reading again. He got halfway to where he had turned around and stopped, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Ash?" Henry asked. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

"Hah...." A trembling laugh came from Ash's mouth. "It works...."

Henry frowned. "Ash?" His brother snapped his head in his direction.

The excitement in Ash's eyes set off every alarm in Henry's being. A slow, euphoric chuckle escaped from his brother's lips. "Brother," he said with an unsettling smile. "Do you know what this is?" He pointed to the paper that had been pasted on the wall. Henry's eyes flickered to the characters on the wall. Most looked like magi-archea.

"Old magic text," he answered.

Ash let out an eerie giggle. "It's magi-archea and altomawi, the language of the Cloud Continent," Ash said. He tapped on the paper. "And the text is interwoven." He met Henry's eyes. "No one else noticed, but I did. There were similar characters on the explosive disk."

Henry frowned. He expected foreign interference, but from the Cloud Continent? Their technology didn't work correctly in the Iverias or the Dragon Continent. Ash had told him after they found that 'haunted' painting, that technology code from the Cloud Continent needed to be altered a bit to adapt and work properly.

He looked back at the writings on the wall. Was this what Ash was talking about?

"I take it this is much larger than we initially expected?" Henry asked.

"Probably," Ash said. His smile deepened. "But this is just more information I can use to play with."

"How much time do you need to figure out how to stop it?" Henry asked.

Ash raised a brow. He slapped his hand on the paper and smirked. "Time?" The characters written began to glow and Henry watched as they slowly began to be rearranged on the paper, as if the very ink that was used was being moved across the paper.

Henry's eyes widened. "Already?"

"The characters are easy to memorize. It's just that magi-archea and altomawi have different structures that are used to work. Combining them to get them to work together requires another structure system different from both, and now that I see it...." Ash tried to hold back a giddy laugh. "Do you know what linguistic structure this mix is written in?" Ash asked. Henry shook his head and Ash chuckled. "Lunapsar."

"How do two languages that have no relation work with Lunapsar language structure?" Henry frowned.

Ash drew his lips inward and bit them.

The characters were realigned closest to Ash, and as the glow of characters extended further and further back into the tunnels, following the chain of papers pasted against the tunnel walls, the characters also began to follow and realign.

The dark stained paper itself began to glow, brighter and brighter until the tunnel was lit with a white light that made them squint.

"I suspected that magi-archea could be combined with other languages for some time, but never bothered to try until recently, when I got that frame from that house in Dareisol," Ash said. "But now that I see it written out here, I understand." Ash laughed, joy filling his eyes. "Brother, whoever wrote this has done me a massive favor."

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

"Try this." Prince Eskander shoved a piece of paper to a thin, exhausted man standing beside the prince's bed.

A servant rushed to the wide tray that went across the seated prince's hips and took the paper with the strange writing and brought it to the thin man.

The thin man looked at the writing. He'd been forced by his family to learn magi-archea since he was a child, and easily recognized most of the characters written. There were several characters that were sharper and seemed out of place with the magi-archea, and the magi-archea written didn't make sense to him.

He swallowed hard.

He hadn't been pushed by his family to assist the Crown Prince of Ashtar by correcting a written spell's magic text. The Crown Prince didn't have magic to begin with. The thin man was there to be a magic battery for him.

The man held the paper in both hands and released a thin stream of magic energy into it in order to activate the text.

The magi-archea characters began to glow one by one, but when it hit a foreign character, the glowing stopped. He tried to push more energy into the sheet, but it didn't accept it. It was as if he was trying to release energy into a common blank page.

He hesitantly raised his eyes to look at the man who had his bandaged leg still propped up on the bed. Prince Eskander hadn't been able to leave his room due to his broken leg. The Emperor forbade him from leaving to ensure that he healed properly.

It was a show of a father's tough love, but it only made the man worry more about offending the prince.

"It didn't activate, Your Highness."

Prince Eskander clenched his jaw. His hands tightened into fists as he bore a heated gaze at the man. "Are you sure? Try again!"

The man knew nothing would happen, but he still did as he was told. He looked up once more and shook his head.

The wooden tray was shoved off him and flew over the side of the bed, landing hard on the tiled floor.

"Impossible! I've been following the same format! Why won't it work? It worked perfectly before!" He raged as servants scrambled to clean up the tray and the papers and ink that had been tossed away on the floor with it.

The man fought every instinct to step back and hide. "Perhaps we should review the spell that worked."

"I've been reviewing it for days now! Nothing else works! I used both magi-archea, altomawi, and Lunapsar language structure to string the characters together. Why won't it work?" Prince Eskander ran his hand down his face. "All I've been able to do is get things to explode and set timers, but how can it be done remotely, without having to be activated in person?"

"Your Highness, your earlier discovery to make explosive scrolls using magi-archea is already impressive. Ashtar will benefit greatly from this."

"The power isn't enough!"

"Not on paper, but when written on clay infused with energy crystal shards, it should be devastating!" The man looked excitable. "The test explosive we sent out with Semut Mountain will confirm how powerful it can be."

"But look at how expensive it is! Being able to dilute the clay and use it to attach the explosive sheets is the best we can do to spread out what we had left. We don't have enough resources to make weapons we can use often enough!" The prince grit his teeth and turned to some servants standing to the side. "Call in the Minister," he said with a dark look. "Has any news come from Shae on the explosives we planted there?"

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