Not far from the academy dorms, someone else watched the city lights. She was dressed from neck to boots, in tight fitting brown leather armor. Her long red hair was braided and coiled around her head. In the shadows her dark blue eyes seemed black. Legs set wide, Yurara studied her surroundings. Sentera was quiet tonight, except for the occasional dog barking. The only sound she could here was the steady splash of the river on its journey to the sea.
Glancing behind her, she saw her men were prepared. There were more than sixty of them, all handpicked for this mission, dressed like her and heavily armed. If all went well though they wouldn't need those weapons. Yurara had been given command, but with the understanding that she was to listen to her more experienced subordinates. She didn't mind, this was her first big mission and she had no intention of screwing up by going off halfcocked.
When night fell a fog had rolled in off the river, dense and thick, with the chill common to the northern mountains of Firan. Fog like this wouldn't lift for hours. Yurara shivered with anticipation, it was the perfect night for what they were about to attempt.
She turned and strode down the riverside road, her men silently trailing after her. Beyond the piers, the road curved away from the river towards the central market and academy, before arching back along the city walls and following the river again. The main road of Sentera was one big figure eight with smaller streets and alleys branching off from it. It was certainly convenient for what Yurara and her men were up to. If this went right, no one would see them coming or going.
As Yurara walked down the nearly deserted streets, she ignored the inns and shops lining the road. The mist swirled around her as she began to sing. Her voice soared into the air, haunting and clear. The melody was wordless, haunting in its tones.
Ahead of her someone walking home from a late night out glanced upward. He stared vacantly at the approaching force before his dull eyes slid closed and his legs folded beneath him. He leaned against the wall snoring softly. Yurara smiled slightly in satisfaction as she passed him, realizing it was working. The group drew closer to the academy occasionally passing other people, all of them sleeping like the first. Never once did Yurara allow the song to cease.
When they reached the academy they found the gates only half barred. The night guard had fallen asleep at his task, allowing them to walk right in. As a precaution a pair of men split off from the main force, one of them quietly slit the sleeping guard's throat and the two carried the body onto the grounds where it could be easily hidden from passerby. Once inside Yurara turned to her men, signaling for one group to handle the barracks and attendant’s quarters. She left a pair of soldiers on the gates and took the rest with her. The academy grounds were isolated from the rest of the city by a low wall, more decorative then anything. From Yurara's own memories as a student here, the wall didn't even do a good job of keeping the students in much less keep criminals out. The security was beyond lax.
The complex itself was made of red brick and maple wood polished to high sheen. The classrooms and lecture halls were located in one huge sprawling building; another held the mess hall and recreational rooms. The multistory library completed the southern half of the campus. According to the map Yurara had memorized the dormitories and stables would be on the other side of the park that lay in the center of the grounds.
The stars above were obscured by mist now. The bright lights of the dorm were only a faint haze in the fog. Yurara's lips quirked in anticipation as she moved closer to the dormitory, her song drifted through the night, entrancing those who heard it and masking their passing. The soldiers slipped through the night on silent feet, they were shadows bent on misfortune.
The fog parted around them as they entered the courtyard. Around them the night was eerily silent the only sound was the soft bewitching melody that drifted through the air, bewitching the unwary. Quietly the remaining soldiers parted, half going to the girls’ dorms on the eastern side of the square, the others taking the boys’ dorms to the west.
As the soldiers went to work Yurara remained in the courtyard, where her voice could carry farther, along with a trio of bodyguards. As she sang she continued to smile but it never reached her eyes, they remained as cold and dark as the ocean's depths.