'The Syndicate is mostly a human criminal organization led by villainous nobles of the now-fallen kingdom of Alterac. It was based in Strahnbrad and operated primarily in the Arathi Highlands and the Alterac Mountains, although a few small encampments were scattered in the Hillsbrad Foothills.'

My mouth tightened and my brows pulled into a frown, was this 'syndicate' so lacking in members that they needed to forcefully recruit young girls into their ranks? Case in point, now I was arguably the member of a criminal organization with a choker on my neck that more than lived up to its name as my inauguration gift.

"S-syndicate?" I asked the woman, my confusion at why they did this to me clouding the fact that I now knew what the Syndicate was.

"Yes," the woman said with boredom already evident in her voice, "all you need to know is to do what I tell you," she continued as a dagger somehow found itself grasped between her fingers, "You wouldn't like the alternative," she said as she started throwing the dagger up into the air, letting it spin a few times before catching the blade of it between her two fingers, "also, do not try to take off your new accessory or it will choke you until you stop trying."

I gulped, the silky fabric suddenly feeling like cold iron shackles around my neck.

"If you do well you'll have the privilege to sleep in this...shack," she looked around with a disgusted frown, "and if you don't you'll be thrown back from where I got you."

I took a moment of silence as she finished to cast a glance around the one-room shack. It wasn't much but it had wooden flooring, a rug and a simple bed in the corner with some rugs and pillows stacked onto it and there was even a large bucket of water in a corner with a bar of soap next to it. That was it. Much better than the cell.

A shrill sound made me stiffen, I felt a slight pain in my cheeks and saw a lock of my black hair fly through the air.

A hand came up to my cheek and when I looked at it it was red, blood red. My cheek already started itching as I looked up at the woman who was now standing up and had one of her hands extended towards me like she'd thrown...something...

A glance behind me made me gulp as I saw the dagger she'd been spilling like a toy embedded into the wooden doorframe with only half of the blade still out of it.

"Don't you hate being so weak?" the woman asked with a smile, I didn't like that smile, "If I wanted to that dagger would be inside your pretty little head instead of the doorframe, hmmm?"

"Y-yes?"

"Unfortunately you will always remain weak," she walked up to me and patted my head...pityingly, "even if you learn everything from me and become the best assassin there is, that little neckpiece will always let your new masters know where you are, power and strength are very different and you have neither right now, do you know what that means?"

"What?" Go along with her...don't contradict the crazy lady.

"That even a nobody like those guards outside could put a sword through you and nobody would care," she patted my cheek as I stood stiff as a rock, her fingers were gloved and the rugged leather it was made of almost hurt my skin, "wouldn't it be nice to at least be strong so only powerful people could control you? If you are good enough you might even gain a speck of freedom, wouldn't that be great....what are you called again?"

"Elyndra," I said as her hand left my face, she stepped back and looked me over again.

"Alright Elyndra," she said, "Why do I have to teach you again?"

"I don't know?" I tilted my head.

"I mean what did you do for Aedelas to want me to teach you," she said annoyedly.

"Uhmm..." what did I do again? "I sneaked out of the cell to get myself clothes?"

"Oh," she blinked at me, "how?"

"I could slip out between the bars."

"Right," she nodded, "anything else?"

"I don't think so?"

We looked at each other, me feeling more and more awkward with each passing second as the woman stared down at me. I averted my eyes and started counting the wood planks making up the floor, soon I started fidgeting with my feet and looking around as I grew bored with the planks.

"Fine...whatever..." the woman sighed helplessly, "I'll train you for a month," she looked at me seriously, "You'll get a test at the end of it and if you fail I'll just tell Aedelas that you have no talent, I'm sure he'll find another use for you."

It seems the Syndicate isn't the sort of gang where members stand up for each other. I thought wryly.

"Okay," she clapped, "pushups."

"Eh?" I looked at her, she was staring at me with her finger pointing at the ground, "Oh."

"Get to it."

I fell onto my hands and knees and started doing push-ups, my twig-like arms were already trembling by the tenth and my abs were twitching from trying to hold my bodyweight in an unusual position. I got to fifteen with great effort but during my sixteenth instead of managing to push myself up...

"Uhh," my arms gave up and my face got introduced to the floorboards, I was breathing heavily but I dared not look up and find the scary woman. If I didn't see her disapproving gaze she didn't disapprove...right?

A sigh entered my ears, and I feared the worst. Getting trained as a Rogue wouldn't be all that bad for me...if I got stronger and useful maybe I would only be used as an assassin and not, well, a bedwarmer. These annoying information packets engraved into my memory told me that while my being a slave was very damned illegal in any human kingdom...they wouldn't care all that much if it was kept on the down low.

Silvermoon might have sent some Farstriders or a Mage to retrieve me if I was important in any way but I didn't think I was.

"Get up," the woman ordered and I obeyed, my hands were useless but I managed to stand with some effort, "Squats."

I managed to get 33 squats before I fell back like a sack of potatoes. Then came jumping jacks as the woman called them, which I got 130 of before almost fainting.

"I think I saw gnomes more athletic than you," she said sourly, making me unsure whether she wanted me to fail her end-of-the-month test or not. I assumed she wanted me to as I was quite clearly a bother to train but she also had weird comments, "Drink," she threw a small waterskin at me as I was gasping for breath, sitting on the floor.

"T-thanks," I said quickly before pouring all of the water in the container down my throat, squeezing out every last drop of water before holding it up for her.

"Keep it," she waved me off, "Now give me 50 sit-ups," she pointed to the floor again.

I suppressed a sigh as I slumped on my back and got into position, feeling the uneven floorboards dig into my skin as I lay on them.

Why am I even doing this? Are they just tiring me out so I won't make that much of a fuss later....?

What do they want to do with me later?

"Sit-ups," the woman glared at me, "now."

"Ugh," I groaned but started doing the stupid sit-ups, my abs aced and from the thirtieth onward I was slumping back onto the floor after every hard-fought sit-up.

I lost count somewhere around there, I just stared up at the ceiling and watched as a spider ensnared a fly into its web and slowly crawled towards it, it spun it up into a nice little cocoon and put it on his back. Well, he has a snack now, I'm so jealous.

My abs burned before but now I could barely feel them, I slumped back but no matter how much I tried to sit up again I couldn't, my muscles were just too tired of being abused. I grimaced and huffed but I could only barely leave the ground before slumping back down.

"That's it?" the woman asked in a bored tone and a shiver went down my spine.

I gulped and nodded.

"Can you count?" she asked coldly.

I nodded again.

"Then why didn't you do fifty sit-ups like I asked?" she raised an eyebrow.

"S-sorry," I stammered as I pushed myself up, my arms still shaky from the pushups. I stared at her pleadingly.

"That is not an answer."

"N-no," I averted my eyes.

"When I ask you to do something you will do that, no more, no less, am I understood?"

"Y-yes," I nodded rapidly.

"I'll get you boots tomorrow," she frowned as she glanced at my feet, "then you'll be running laps around the keep until you drop."

"Okay?"

"Wash up," she grimaced, "I'll see you tomorrow."

I blinked, she was gone. I swung my head around but I saw nothing, not a trace of her presence or trail and all that showed that she was ever here was the mark left on the doorframe by her dagger which also disappeared.

My arms shook again and gave out under me, I managed to keep my head from hitting the floor but that was all I managed. I let myself breathe, controlled and deliberate or I feared I'd start hyperventilating again and pass out.

I couldn't pass out, despite the training one thing was bugging me, always present at the back of my mind since the pushups.

The 24-hour cooldown was over on my Sanction Items thingy. I fished the mana stone out of my clothes, I just dropped it into my shirt and let the rope on my waist hold it in.

As soon as I touched it I let the Sanction happen, mana flowed through my body like a warm wave of comfort and power. Blue veins spread around my arm and arcane runes flickered around them before spreading over to the rock and the indentation in it started glowing.

I saw a blueish fog coalesce out of thin air and flow into it. The rune shone brightly for a moment then it went dim along with all the veins and glowy bits on my arm, then I knew it was done, that no matter what, nobody could take away this stone from me. I had no idea how it worked but I was somehow certain that even if someone were to cut my hand off which held it the stone would return to me even if the arm didn't.

My fingers closed around the stone as I focused on calming my heavy breathing while the stone relaxed me with a steady stream of mana flowing into me, I felt tiny trickles of it spread all around my body sinking into every pore, every cell and bone. I wasn't getting stronger from it but it was like giving a malnourished person food, I was regaining what strength I should have had.

It'd have a limit, of course, I was a Highborne, not a savage Kaldorei so my physical strength would always have an upper limit but unlike them, I could subsist on mana for a while. It of course had the downside of starving if I didn't have mana and turning into a hideous thing.

What? Why did I think that?

Bath. Nothing else mattered at the moment and just the thought of it gave me a new wave of energy which allowed me to get to my feet and amble toward the bucket and the rug. I got rid of my clothes with a bit of effort and threw them onto the bed in the corner, it was a bit annoying to manage as my hands could barely lift themselves but somehow I slipped out of them.

A sigh of relief left my lips as the dumb pants were off me, my thighs and other parts were already chaffed and would have been hurting were it not for my ring. Speaking of, the woman didn't even glance at it despite it having a nice design and a shiny blue gemstone...curious.

Bath.

I lifted the rug and with more than a bit of apprehension took a sniff at it, I grimaced a bit. Better than I feared, worse than I hoped.

I cupped water with my two palms and poured it over the rug, I didn't want to make the water too dirty if I could help it as I didn't have any other source of drinking water as far as I knew. Once it was all nice and wet I started scrubbing myself clean, I started with my face then moved downward and continued with my neck, chest and thighs which were mostly devoid of a mud coating.

The rug was alright so far, it had a bit of brownness to it but it wasn't more mud than rug as I expected it to be after I was done so I started cleaning my hair. My hair was inky black as the darkest of nights but at the moment the best parts of it were matte black and others were closer to brown so it took a bit of scrubbing but I managed to get it somewhat clean. I'd need more than water to make it look any good but I was satisfied with it for now.

Then came the part where I had to scrub my arms, calves and feet of the dirt now caked over it. It was a joy but I felt like I was reborn after it so it was worth it.

After that, I didn't even bother to get my clothes back on as I kicked the shabby door close and crawled under the many layers of other rugs that I assumed were my blanket alternatives. It was warm if not at all comfortable but after sleeping on cold stone inside a humid cell I was asleep before I even laid my head on another bundle of rags used as a pillow.

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LAUREL CREED

Laurel Creed was a woman of few talents and many flaws. Flaws which usually got people nooses around their necks and not well-paying jobs.

In a sense... Laurel grimaced as her gloved fingers slid across the black choker on her neck, the very same one she just forced a child to put on.

Unlike most people though, Laurel was good at killing people without getting caught. Her previous mentor also managed to hammer how to concoct supernatural poisons, she knew everything from ones that induce slow and painful deaths through suffocating on your tongue to ones that kill without a trace.

Her scar burned and Laurel scowled in pain as she fished out a small bandage from her pocket and ran it along the bleeding wound. That was one poison she never learned the antidote for, one that negated all healing be it either magical or natural.

Laurel slipped through the shadows, the shadows jumping on her to coat her passing without alerting the meat-brained guards Aedelas kept around. She jumped up the roofs and continued from there instead, jumping, spinning and landing with little effort as she thought through the day's proceedings and the Elf girl she now had to teach for a month.

Maybe that was why she was so...lenient.

The cold night wind hit her in the face and blew the dirty brown locks out of her sight for once, the moonlight shone on slightly pointed ears before the locks fell back and once again kept the humans from seeing them. Half-breed that's what those who weren't being assholes called her and her kind, unfortunately, her father belonged to the latter category and despite her existence being his mistake he always found excuses to hate her, to punish her.

Laurel grits her teeth, all those years of training, suffering and pain, just so she could kill that obnoxious bastard.

"That is not how we do things, Laurel."

She could still hear the disappointment in her Mentor's tone and the unadulterated fury that it cultivated in her soul, how could he say those words when it was she who suffered for decades in that bastard's house? Who was he to stop her?

"Damnit," the half-elf swore as she slumped down on top of the walls, she let her legs hang down the side of it as she stared into the forest only illuminated by the soft moonlight. Some guards were patrolling the walls of course but they always turned back when they caught sight of her....cowards, weaklings.

In the end, it didn't matter. Before she even had the chance to get back to Gilneas and have revenge on her father for how he treated her and her mother the Syndicate caught her.

All she did to get away from her Mentor was for nothing.

Now...now she had nothing. She was little more than a slave, a little tool for the Syndicate. They said 'jump' she jumped and hoped they'd keep their end of the lopsided bargain and help her in the future but that was seeming more and more unlikely with every interaction she had with another member of the Syndicate.

Aliden was a bastard and so were all the other fallen nobles of Alterac playing pretend Rogue. It didn't help that every human looked down on her for being the result of a 'knife-ear' 'corrupting' their society.

"Like they wouldn't jump at the chance to sleep with an elf," she snorted in derision, that exact thought made her consider training that pretty little thing Aedelas threw at her feet. In a few years, the girl would be just the right sort of innocent beauty that could slip under the guards of some degenerate fallen nobles.

Maybe if I train her well she could be useful... she could be my way out.