Moonlight pooled on the ground. Shards of glass twinkled in the silver radiance. Small jewels shining from the bed of mulch and moss gathered by the passing of years.

Two wondered if the array was working. The little light still shone but over an hour of waiting had worn her confidence. In that time she had come to question her trust in Deadra’s abilities. What little she knew of cultivators came from whispered rumors and Daisy’s occasional warnings. She was trusting in stories.

She’d felt silly when she reached that conclusion. The spot’s dazzling, occasionally flickering, sparkle hadn’t helped.

As she mused on her musings the warehouse’s door creaked open, and Two jumped to her feet.

In walked a short woman in a dark red cloak. The kind that reeked quiet wealth.

Two straightened and tried to look as inoffensive as a hooded girl lurking in an abandoned building at night could get.

The noble’s head swivelled as they took in the room. Streaks of moonlight fell upon her. Their heedful of dark feathers drank deep of the light,

Their gaze fell on Two.

The noble approached silently and Two held very still. Then stopped breathing entirely as the woman’s scent hit her.

Violent and cold their anger boiled. . The sense that sat somewhere between sent and taste roiled so intensely it made her nauseous. She couldn’t even taste the air’s must.

Two didn’t notice when she started shaking. She was too busy staring at the woman’s cold blue eyes and trying not to fall over.

They stopped a step from her and though they were a head smaller two knew she was staring at a goliath.

They roughly took her painted arm. Two didn’t have the room in her head to be offended.

The noble’s aunt’s gaze scoured the array with an exacting eye. Two were relegated to a canvas. They twisted and manoeuvred her without care. The only gentleness she used was when her fingers neared one of the lines Deadra drew.

The small spot shone brighter than ever and drew their gaze. The array drank deeply. Still, her heart raced ever faster.

The woman released her and looked at Two. The full extent of her wrath touched her. It was sharp like a knife held against her skin. Blood and iron added to the overpowering mix drowning her senses.

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Then as quickly as it came it departed.

Two remembered she wasn’t breathing. A slow shuddering breath rectified that but couldn’t stop her legs from shaking nor did it amend the darkness creeping along the edges of her vision.

Only sheer force of will and the fear that if she fell the noble would kill her kept her up.

“Girl.” They said the words like an accusation. “I am going to give you one chance to tell me where my niece is and explain to me why you’re covered in her blood. You may speak.”

Two opened her mouth but the glib rush that typically came with ease had long fled. So she fell back on direct speech. “She’s in a castle near her. She used her blood because she had no other materials and it was the best way we could think of to contact you.” She fired the words like bullets from a list,

The noble chewed on the words for a moment, breaking their gaze. It was a moment Two cherished greatly.

Her mind finally kicked into gear and she scrambled for anything to improve her odds. She had no point of reference, no inspiration for an act. All her ideas swiftly fell apart as she considered the risk of prickling their anger.

The moment passed all too soon. Their sharp gaze returned “Tell me who you are and how you met my niece.”

There was a very brief instant where Two considered massaging the truth. Maybe they wouldn’t kill her on the spot for a light bending of the truth. One second spent staring at the cold fury behind their eyes changed her mind. Her sense had not completely abandoned her.

Two took a deep breath and tried to get everything out as fast as she could.“A few weeks ago I was hired to find someone who would visit the market. It was your niece and this afternoon I found her and alerted an associate on her location. He then captured her and we returned to our base, where she still is. I then learned in a conversation with my boss that she was from a great clan and since then have been working with her to ensure her escape.”

Her expression remained unflinchingly cold throughout Two’s account. Her gaze continued to bore into her long after she finished.

“Do you have anything else to add?”

“…my associate killed a guard during our escape.” The woman looked unimpressed. Behind her blank features, Two scrambled for anything relevant then her frayed mind stumbled onto the obvious. “There are a few cultivators in the gang.”

That took the woman’s interest. She went from glaring at Two to glaring at the ceiling and sinking into her thoughts.

Though for caution’s sake, Two elected to remain still.

“How many and what rank.”

Neither question was something she knew. She spent as little time around the gang as she could manage and while her sense helped her identify cultivators it was not a perfect thing. She could only approximate which was greater than the other. Two couldn’t identify the ranks, she didn’t even know their names. Those senses told her the noble was Daisy’s superior.

It was times like these Two wished she’d been borne a mouse. People tended to like mice.

Deadra tapped her foot.

“There are a few but most are weaker than the average guards, but I know two a stringer.” the words sounded stiff to her. She had no doubt the noble could hear the uncertainty and fear she was trying so desperately to suppress.

“Their realms.” They said in such a cold tone it bit.

“I don’t know their names.” Two said quietly.

Deadra squinted and searched her face. “Uneducated gutter born orphan.” She muttered quietly but the words echoed through the warehouse.

Two could only stare.

Those were not the worst insults she’d heard far from it. Her amazement instead came from the person woman uttering them. The noble seemed more the type to order her decapitation rather than waste their time with such unimaginative insults. While Daisy had amended the first in part it remained true. The latter two were simply obvious.

Apart of Two, raised on stories of the old clans, had expected more refined barbs.

The woman stepped back and Two abandoned her thoughts to, very slowly sag, in relief. She’d survived the first step.

The woman walked to the door and Two had a brief moment to consider what that meant before the noble clapped. It was a short crisp sound that punctuated the dim room and put away her thoughts.

It was followed by the drum of a dozen pairs of feet marching into the room.

The noble thrust a thumb at Two. “Question her, check her then report to me in fifteen minutes.”

The noble left and soon after Two learned the proper definition of a dressing down.