Julian looked up from the West Wing garden. He was standing at the fountain below his window and absently playing with his locket.

There were guards everywhere.

He’d searched the West Wing. Twice. And the gardens, the stables and the path around the wall leading back to the gardens.

He wasn’t expecting to find anything, and so far he hadn’t.

“John.” He said, and the man formed out of his shadow.

“Yes, Your Grace?”

“How is everyone else?”

John reported, “Visha is making everyone do a second search in the dungeons, Tully is flirting with a maid behind the stables, Pram is with the kitchen staff reading over the order forms so that he can keep track of any guest that suddenly orders more or less food during their stay. And Jeffrey has been interviewing everyone who lives just on the other side of the palace wall to see if anyone spotted something suspicious.”

“Good, and yourself?”

“I have tried four different [Tracking] perks on different items I liberated from the young lady’s room. Nothing has worked so far.” He said calmly, as if he weren’t admitting to stealing Julia’s things.

Julian didn’t mind. “So it was a kidnapping.”

“Unless your sister levelled up since last we met.” John countered, but he didn’t sound like he believed it.

Julian sighed. “You’re better at [Tracking] than I am.”

“As you say, Your Grace.”

“Tell my mother.” Julian ordered. He turned and strode towards the nearest wall. “And let her know I’m moving my search to the city.”

John was already gone.

It was a short leap over the palace wall, and he found himself walking down the same streets he’d frequented the night before.

Julian didn’t know what he was going to do, but he needed to not be in the palace right then.

His little sister was missing.

Julian resisted the urge to punch something and kept walking. The only thing that kept control of his barely contained frustration was the fact that the lists they’d confiscated all unanimously stated the same thing:

No perma-death.

There were hours left until sunset, and all around him was in full swing for the festival. The alarms hadn’t sounded yet, and even the extra guards patrolling the city weren’t given a second look due to Madame Pott’s fortunes.

What he wouldn’t give for a Pott’s Cast right now.

He even paused to check the Cast System, but it remained dark and silent.

“Your Grace.” A city guard ran up to him and stopped short to thump a fist over her heart. “We’ve news.”

“Report.” Julian ordered, a last shred of hope filling his voice.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Her Grace teleported to the Mercenary Guild in Servalt.” The guard told him. “She found three people who had worked for the Blackfog in past, and brought them back for questioning.”

“Where are they?”

“In the main parlor, Your Grace.”

Julian raised an eyebrow, “Not the prison interrogation rooms?”

The guard bobbed a bow, “The parlor.”

Julian hurried back the way he’d come. Instead of wandering in circles through the city, his mother had actually hunted and found people who could help. Julian sighed.

He was there in minutes, and didn’t hold back his anticipation as he burst into the parlor. A human, an elf and a fox he’d never met before stared up at him.

Whatever conversation had been happening stopped at his entrance, and his mother shot him a look, “Son. Please, join us.”

Julian refused to feel like a boy being chastised, and took the seat nearest her, head held high. “What have I missed?”

“Barry was just telling us about his experience as a Blackfog.” Grand Duchess Calisto waved a hand at a human swordsman sitting across from her, signaling him to continue. Their Highness Rowen stood by the window and Chloe sat pouting in a chair on the opposite of his mother. The necromancer did not look happy, but remained silent.

The three… guests were all comfortably settled in with tea and sweets.

“Ah, yes, well, we’d done odd jobs for the network before, and every time it were by official quest.” Barry scratched his head and looked surprisingly relaxed. The human had a softer brown skin colour and shoulder length dark green hair with blond streaks that curled at the end. His hands were marred with calluses and knife wounds. “And while it’s good money, it’s also pretty dangerous work you know?”

“What Barry is trying to say,” An elf with soft pink skin and brown hair dressed in wizards robes nervously cut in, “Is that we picked up a quest in Servalt to join a subjugation quest in the Dark Enchanted Forest. We both met the criteria because my father is from Nilheim and Barry was born in Gren’s Keep.”

“That’s none of their business Lomen,” Barry shot the elf a betrayed look. “I don’t go around telling everyone your dad’s a male-”

“--Alright! I’m sorry. What I meant to say is we both could follow Duke Lector into the forest. We joined the Blackfog with other mercenaries from around the continent, and were given a list of names and details on how to defeat each opponent.” Lomen the elf rushed to interrupt Barry.

“That’s how I joined as well.” The fox, a girl with long orange-red hair and fox ears added. She had black eyes and a true cut-throat feeling about her. Julian’s senses warned him that she was dangerous.

“Who gave you those names?” Grand Duchess Calisto sipped her tea.

“The [Void] Mage.” Barry replied. The human shuddered like the idea made his skin crawl. “She was very meticulous and even gave us poisons catered to each person we were going to fight.”

He stopped there and reached out for a cookie from the table and ate it happily. Everyone waited like he was going to go one but he seemed content to eat his cookie.

Julian didn’t have much patience. “And the [Void] Mage?”

Lomen chose to continue where Barry left off at the same time Julian spoke, their voices overlapping. “The list was only the governing class! So it was legal… Oh, um, the [Void Mage] is a Charisma based class. She’s about as tall as my shoulders, blond hair, blue eyes, pale skin, with pink magic.”

“And she’s weird.” Barry added.

Lomen drew a hand down his face in frustration, “That isn’t helpful, Barry.”

“But it’s true!”

“He’s right,” The fox said, “Every time she spoke it made my skin crawl.”

“Rose, Barry and Lomen,” Julian’s mother set down her teacup and pushed it aside, directing her aura at the three. The entire room suddenly felt the pressure of the power released by her level. She might be a crafting class, but anyone over level eighty had an overwhelming presence. “We believe that this [Void Mage] has captured my daughter. For what purpose I do not know.”

Julian felt the sweat on his own brow, but it was nothing to the force directed at the mercenaries across the table. Lomen looked ready to pass out. Barry and Rose managed to stay strong, but Barry's hands were gripping so hard Julian wouldn’t be surprised if it was causing him physical damage, and Rose was visibly grinding her teeth.

Chloe, for the first time since Julian arrived, had dropped her petulant pout and glared at the three with malicious glee.

Calisto reached out and one of the lists appeared on the table. “I brought you here to help us find her.”