It had been more then half a year since Maven left her hometown, Redne.

With her status as a fugitive, the elf thief never once dreamed of returning to the ‘pond of crocodiles’. Or to be more literal, back to the scope of authority’s eye under Croac the Frog Face, Mayor of Redne.

Maven only had one reason to come here.

Settling her grudge.

Wearing her black hood and black thief suit, Maven looked at the red wall right in front of her. This side of the city wall took the most damage during the Third Holy War.

And now, half a century since that war, the rebuilding of the Red Wall of Redne had not yet completed. Probably it was dragged on purpose to remind the citizens to always be wary. Even if the Dark Forces had long been defeated, the force of evil still remained an undismissable threat to life in Everna until the end of time.

For Maven, it was an opportunity to seize. She checked her surroundings. After ensuring no one was around, she quickly threw the roped hook up. Said hook pierced perfectly on the top of the chipped part of the wall, the lowest part thereof.

She then climbed up quickly and smoothly. It only took about a minute for the elf to reach the top. She then readily moved the hook to the inner side of the wall, then slid down to the city faster then she climbed up. Again, Maven's natural elven agility has saved as much time as necessary in order to remain stealthy.

Maven then folded back her portable hook, rolled back its rope and put it back into her back pack. This time she treaded carefully and slowly, moving through every alley and avoiding the night watchers who occasionally passed by. This had been her daily work ever since she started visiting rich people’s homes.

Eventually, she arrived at the end of a very quiet and dirty alley, filled with garbage and rats. She stood in front of a building made up of rotting wooden boards with no door and no window. She suddenly felt ill for returning the place where her childhood ended in a live of hardship, not because of the repulsive stench around her.

Maven then knocked the fifth board from the left in a particular rhythm.

There was no answer. Maven quickly drew her daggers and readied herself for a possible battle.

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She then heard a voice of a woman from inside, “Hmm, you’re pretty alert. That was an old code. We’ve changed it countless times already. Say the main password.”

“A snake-headed wolf and a wolf-headed snake," answered her firmly.

Silent dawned briefly. Then suddenly…

The sixth and seventh boards of the left opened inwards like a regular door.

Still wary, Maven entered slowly through the boards into the pitch black room.

The woman’s voice was heard again, “You still remember the way?”

Maven answered, “Like my own home.”

“Good. Meet me in the main hall.”

The elf became warier. She kept walking, browsing in the dark. There was a dim candle light from across the wide room, yet Maven ignored it.

Instead, she walked to the left, away from the light. She found the second candle, this time she walked towards it.

She then looked to the right and found two candles separated pretty far from each other. Without a shred of doubt she walked towards the one to the right.

Suddenly Maven's feet press-stepped a kind of button on the floor. She could hear the sound of three projectiles flying very fast. Maven dodged them instantly, if not too easily. She moved aside and bent her body forward. Something pierced her backpack.

Maven was furious, stuck with surviving this room to the next without a clue. She drew her pair of blades and took a stance. She watched around her carefully, her elven ears were moving. She then began to move as if at the speed of light, with her feet almost didn’t even touch the ground.

Dodging and crouching, she successfully avoided and blocked every projectile coming for her.

But again she accidentally stepped on a trap. This time one shot hit her thigh.

Maven faltered and fell to the ground. Groaning in pain, she pulled out the thing that turned out to be a particular kind of needle, longer then the ones used for sewing.

Maven tried to ignore her wound. She forced herself to leap as high as as far as possible frontwards, just like a tiger pouncing at its prey. She then landed on the floor before quickly rolled to the fringe of the room until she stopped in fetal position.

Looking up, she saw a tunnel dimly lightened by two candles on both left and right. She immediately stood up then walked very slowly. Her eyes watched for anymore trap on both sides of the wall. This time, her worries were unfounded.

At the end of the tunnel there were two stairs, one going up and the other down. Maven chose to go down until she arrived in a pretty big room underground. This room was also as dim as the other, but there was a brighter part near a couch.

On said couch lied a woman. She wore a top clothing that only covered her breasts and a pants covered in scales covering up to her stomach. She looked like half-woman, half-snake. Her blueish black hair seemed neatly cut. Her bangs parted sideways, showing her pale beauty with a dash of blue dots, right in the middle of her forehead and below her small lips which looked as if it had been dyed blue.

Above her breasts, right below collarbone lied a tattoo shaped like a cobra, with a pair of ‘horns’ that looked like wolf ears. Maven briefly gazed upon that tattoo, but immediately got a hold of herself and squinted her eyes.

“Open your hood, girl,” the woman’s voice echoed.

Maven looked straight the blue eyes of the ‘snake woman’. She opened her hood while saying, “I have returned, Lady Theana LaSalle.”