“I can’t believe you won that hand.” Borin said to the two men walking beside him, each clad in the majestic blue and silver armour of the Seekers.

“You’re just an easy read, and always have been.” Said the man to his side, smirking and running a hand through his hair.

“No, I’m with Borin on this one, Elias. You are just far too damned lucky.”

Elias shrugged. “Let’s put it to the test then Terric. When we get back, another round. The Lord Seeker is going to be busy anyhow, so we got the afternoon free.”

The trio were walking along their familiar patrol route, a long, winding path that formed a large circle around the enclave. It was one of the better duties of the placement, quiet and easy. Far better than work in the kitchens, repairs, training, or dealing with the magelings. No, patrol duty was the easiest by far, even if you got the evening shift.

No one ever attacked the Seekers.

“Want to head into the city later?” Terric asked.

Borin shook his head. “Unless Elias is paying, no. I’m flat broke due to him.”

“Hey, shouldn’t gamble anything you aren’t willing to lose.” Elias said with another smirk.

“Bah.” Borin grunted, waving a hand at his friend.

Suddenly, Terric stopped, holding up a hand. “Guys! Listen.”

Borin and Elias stopped too, turning to stare at the shorter man.

Then a crunch in the trees caught their attention. Then another.

His heart pounding in his chest, Borin fumbled his sword from its sheath, squinting into the blackness around them. The late afternoon sun was fading, so the forest was shrouded in deep shadows, shadows that could contain all manner of threats. Chimeras were rare around these parts, but not unheard of. However, it was probably just an animal, or better yet nothing at all.

Please, Idia, let it be nothing.

“Do you see anything?” Hissed Elias, his sword drawn too.

Another crunch came from the trees to their side. Borin span, eyes frantically darting around, looking for any sign of movement.

So he didn’t see the figure dropping down from the tree behind his back.

A thud and Terric tumbled to the ground, a dull grunt spilling from his mouth. Borin swung wildly behind him, feeling his blade impact something. Something that scattered away into the trees.

“What in Idia’s name…” Elias spluttered, his eyes wide with fear.

Borin glanced down at Terric, finding his friend lying still on the floor. His stomach dropped through the floor. If Terric was down, and they were under attack, there was no way they would be able to escape without leaving him.

And there was no way he was going to abandon his friend.

“Elias, go get help!” He hissed. “I’ll guard Terric. Quick!”

Elias looked at him, his face pale. Then he span and sprinted off, back towards the enclave, his sword clattering loudly to the ground as he dropped it in his haste.

Which left Borin alone with whatever the attacker was.

Holding his sword close, Borin stood over Terric, spinning his head about to look for any sign of movement, his mind racing furiously. What sort of insane person attacked the Seekers? Everyone knew that would just bring down the unstoppable wrath of the entire organization down upon their heads.

How could anyone be foolish enough to risk that?

A crunch sounded from a tree, spinning Borin around to face it. Slowly, a man walked out from behind the trunk, clad in a dark robe. His skin and hair were as pale as bone, and his eyes glowed with an amethyst radiance that reflected from the trees.

A mage.

Relief flooded through Borin. Fighting mages was what most of their training had focused on, what most of their equipment was designed to combat.

He could beat a mage.

With a cry, he charged at the man, raising his blade to a high grip. All he needed to do was cut him, to get the magebane core of the weapon inside the mage’s flesh, and he would be powerless.

The mage moved like lightning.

The thrust that should have slammed the blade into the mage’s chest up to the hilt instead went wide as he struck Borin’s hand. Before he could recover, the mage was on him, grabbing his shoulder with one hand and his head in another, his eyes blazing bright with purple light.

And then something thundered through Borin, and brought him to his knees.

Moving his body was suddenly so very difficult, as if he was communicating with it from a long distance. And every second it grew further away as the something thundered louder and louder. Borin struggled to move, to twitch a finger, to do anything at all, but he couldn’t. Nothing he did made his body respond whatsoever.

He couldn’t even breath.

Words filtered to his struggling mind, just barely penetrating the fog that was consuming the world.

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“Please hurry up and die. I need your face.”

And then nothing.

Bor– Reud: Infiltration

Reud pulled on the last of the Seeker’s armour, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of the magebane sapping his mana. As much as he hated being near the stuff, he didn't have a choice right now.

Reaching into his discarded robe, Reud pulled out the Facewarp, holding the featureless white mask in one hand. Packed with potent biomancy, the artefact could reshape a person’s face, normally used by young scions who desired to fix some perceived flaw in their appearance. Its usage had never really taken off, however, for one simple reason.

It edited the person permanently.

The magic worked by restructuring a person's features on a fundamental level, unlike a glamour that simply layered an illusion over them. It meant the changes wouldn’t be lost the moment the user ran out of mana, but it also meant that if you made a mistake, misunderstood the changes you were making… Then you were out of luck. Potentially even with fatal consequences. A sensible user of a Facewarp would make only minor alterations, a tweak of a nose here, a softening of a chin there.

Reud had far more ambitious uses for the artefact in mind.

Placing a hand on the dead Seeker’s face, Reud placed the mask over his own and channelled mana into the pair of them. Slowly, his face began to writhe agonizingly, the bones and features beneath warping and changing. Reud gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain, focusing on his goal. He put particular emphasis into his eyes, forcing a coloured film to cover them, hiding the glowing irises beneath. He would be blind, true, but he could rely on his soul sight for the time being, and at least no one would recognize him as a mage.

It wouldn’t be for long, after all.

It took maybe a half-minute of agonizing pain for the Facewarp to complete its changes. Reud tossed the now-spent artefact to the ground, running a hand over his features and the Seeker’s, comparing the two. Similar enough, from what he could tell. It would have to do.

“Uhh.” Groaned the other fallen Seeker, shifting groggily on the ground.

Immediately, a skeleton sprung out of the undergrowth, smashing a boney fist into the man’s head again. He slammed to the ground, still once more.

Walking over to the man, Reud called over the skeleton and grabbed its sigil-inscribed skull, ripping the animation spell apart. The rest of its bones clattered to the ground, but Reud didn’t care about that. He just needed the pre-prepared spell still attached to it.

Sitting down beside the fallen man, Reud placed the skull on the back of his head and activated the spell scrawled into its cranium. An intricate spell, one of the most complex he’d experimented with over the years. The source of one of his greatest and most destructive mistakes, but also one of the areas that most fascinated him.

And perfect for the situation he was about to walk into.

The skull shattered into dust, the fine particles slamming down to dig their way into the man’s body. He jerked and writhed as they tore into him, twisting in silent agony. And they didn’t just penetrate into his physical flesh. The spell dug into the man’s soul too, tearing off parts and turning it into fuel that powered its complex workings.

And then it was done.

Reud stood and lifted him by his arm, doing his best to put on the mannerisms he’d observed the men to have as they’d patrolled.

It was time to become a Seeker.

—

“Help, help!” Reud shouted as he stood outside the enclave gates, the Seeker encampment shining like a great beacon packed with mana and souls.

After a moment, the gates creaked open and souls bustled out.

“What happened?” One demanded.

“Attack, in the woods. Chimera. Killed it.” Reud gasped out, doing his best to sound like a man that had just survived a harrowing experience.

“Borin!” A voice shouted from within the crowd. A familiar voice pushed its way to the front of the crowd, the third man from the patrol. “Borin, I was getting help and I…”

“Enough, just help.” Reud gasped. The man stopped and nodded, running forward to take the other arm of Reud’s burden and guiding him through into the enclave.

Once they were free of the crowd, Reud slipped out from under the soon-to-be corpse’s arm.

“Borin what are you-” The other man protested, staggering under the sudden increased weight.

“Need to report.” Reud grunted, walking away. “Meet later.”

“Borin wait, you don’t look so…” His words faded as Reud slipped around a building.

Relaxing a little, Reud let his soul sight spread out through the enclave, keeping an eye out for anyone who might be a threat. Mages, mainly. Thankfully, they all seemed to be congregated in a building on the far side of the compound, clustered together in a single room. A meeting perhaps?

Either way, it gave Reud free rein of the enclave until they emerged.

Drawing on the link to his phylactery, Reud restored his body, returning his face back to normal once more. With it came his vision, much to his relief. Trying to navigate using only his soul and mana sight made walking through the forest a true trial, especially given the magebane armour he was wearing. The armour would sadly have to stay, at least until he identified the location of the children. A task which he needed to complete soon.

Before the chaos truly began.

Slipping out from behind the building, Reud walked purposefully towards the magebane-flecked construction at the very centre of the enclave. Around him, people moved about their business, not a single one of them paying any heed to the infiltrator in their midst. The disturbance he’d caused was apparently already forgotten, and the enclave seemed to be settling down for the night, a lax complacency dulling the suspicions they should have had.

Complacency, as always, was going to prove to be their downfall.

Reaching the building, Reud opened the door and stepped inside, entirely unchallenged. Within was a rectangular antechamber, a large magebane door standing closed right in front of him. To each side of the room, a thin corridor stretched out the length of the building, each one dotted with alcoves.

It was also entirely empty.

Reud walked up to the door, testing it. It was locked, which was unsurprising if this really was the location they were keeping the children. And if it was, then that meant that the keys would be kept somewhere else in the compound.

That particular treasure hunt would have to wait for a more thorough distraction to get underway.

The corridors proved more interesting. Each of the alcoves was just barely large enough for two people, constructed in such a way as to be in deep shadow, and was dominated by a large window. The first window looked out into a brightly lit room, a glowing orb on the ceiling bathing the spartan interior in bright light. The room contained only a small bed and a cabinet, both of which were covered in a thin layer of dust.

The next one was similar, though without most of the layer of dust. The bed seemed to have been recently used, the sheet crumpled and laying half onto the floor. Two more similar rooms, all with similar signs of use, followed on from that. Though, no signs of people.

It was in the other corridor that Reud found what he was looking for.

The window here overlooked a large room, filled with some small tables and a scattering of chairs. Around the tables sat five people, three children, two boys and a girl, and two in their late teens, also a boy and a girl. They were playing some sort of game that involved coloured stones, the two children excitedly pointing at something the older boy was doing.

And they all had purple eyes.

Reud felt a surge of elation at the find. These must be the children, two of which should be Marla and Vorlo. And if the others were in here too, then they must also be mages snatched by the Seekers. He’d come here for two, but to liberate five? Well, that was a pleasant surprise.

Now he just had to eliminate the rest of the threats.

It was time to go hunting.