I missed the so-called cross the first time I passed it. It’s not because I’m not observant; my perception is high after all and I am scout worthy. It’s because whoever painted the ‘x’ on the wall hadn’t finished the marking and it looked more like a ‘y’. I’d reached the dump-out point into the river before I’d realized I missed it and turned back around.

I grumbled and muttered to myself as I stomped back and faced the marking on the wall, yanking out my charcoal to complete the ‘x’.

“Unbelievable,” I said to Frank and Sob as I took off down the side tunnel.

Finding the ladder that led up to the street overhead was much easier. The rungs of it were painted in a bright safety yellow, no doubt to help the maintenance people who were the only ones supposed to be down here. I climbed to the height of it and kept quiet for a moment, seeing if I could hear something through the heavy metal disc. Satisfied with the quiet I shoved my back into the manhole cover lifting it and moving it aside so I could clamber up.

I shoved the heavy disc back into place and Blinked, crossing the street into a darkened alleyway. The moon overhead was bright and gloriously singular. Best of all, it wasn’t purple. The street was quiet, even the acid-pooping pigeons had found a safe place to roost for the night.

I grabbed onto a downpipe and scurried up the building beside me, surveying the landscape from the top of the two-story building. There wasn’t much to see other than other buildings and tree-lined streets. I couldn’t see the mill from where I stood. I sighed and opened my minimap. There was no quest marker for this mission but I could see the river snaking through the streets and the bridge that crossed over it. The mill would be there somewhere.

I closed out of the menu and crouched, steeling myself for a moment as I looked at the next building. My choice made I started to run, feeding my steps with my stamina and launching myself off the edge. My feet hit the roof of the next building, my knees bending for a moment before I used the momentum to carry me across the roof and onto the next.

I carried on like that for a long time, only dropping down to the street when I was forced to. Eventually, I reached open parkland and the whitewashed walls of the Old Mill lit up in the moonlight like a beacon. The place was made up of two buildings; one the mill itself with its large four-pronged windmill and a secondary outer building. I would have raced straight for it if it weren’t for the vicious thundering roar that disturbed the sleeping birds in the trees.

Animals of every shape and size wandered the open park housing the Old Mill. The trumpeting of an elephant drew my eyes to the great lumbering beast as it tore up great clumps of grass and shoved it down its gullet with its trunk. It looked as all elephants did only this one had bright green elegant scroll lines crisscrossing its body that spoke of magic.

The giraffe was the next creature I spotted. Its towering height made it impossible to miss even in the darkness of night. Tiny purple sparks danced between the animal's small horns atop its head twenty feet off the ground.

I could still hear what I assumed were lions roaring as they roamed the parkland but I couldn’t see them even with my enhanced perception.

I stepped back into the silver sparkles that would keep me hidden, eyeing the building I’d come this far to see. It wasn’t as impressive as I had thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, it was intriguing in a historical sense but compared to the towering apartment building down the road it looked a little stunted.

I wasn’t sure how an old building like this one could hold more beneficial supplies for the Outsiders than any of the other buildings. The other scouts must have seen something I couldn’t.

I needed to get down there to search for clues on Nora and Stella’s whereabouts.

Stealth is your best play.

I rubbed at my temple, frustrated that Ryan’s words were now echoing in my head. I didn’t need the man to be living rent-free up there. I had limited space and he was less than welcome.

I looked over my skills, reminding myself of what I had to use.

Animal charmer

Magic Resistance (I)

Pickpocket

Shadow Eye

Golden Tongue (I)

Gnome Tongue

Evasion

Identify

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Poison Resistance (I)

Alchemy (IX)

Blink

Shadow Pulse

Grim Kiss

It seemed like a lot but none of it was immediately helpful. I tried to use my Identify skill on the exotic monsters but from this far away it showed me nothing. I didn’t want to try to fight the monsters, I wanted to slip by them; just another shadow in the night. Even Blink wouldn’t help me much here, it slowed down time, sure, but it didn’t teleport me like Shadow Rush or Rift would have.

Frank shifted from foot to foot, the bird anxious to do something other than sit quietly and wait.

“Go,” I whispered to the black-feathered creature. “Find me a way in there.”

Frank took to the air, his wings making loud beats in the night. The raven was far from a silent flyer like an owl would have been. Sob snorted as he peeked around the flap of my pocket. I stroked his head with a finger, worried his glowing mane would give me away. I yelped and stuck my finger in my mouth, the electricity that had zapped me still danced over the small horse's head.

The flapping of wings had me looking into the sky. Frank was right in front of my face before I saw him. He made a soft sound at odds with his usual speech patterns.

“Wait,” I whispered, fishing Sob out of my pocket. Using the horse's tiny bridle and saddle straps I attached Sob to Frank’s back. Sob whinnied, the sound still loud despite his small size. “Hush, I muttered. I can’t see Frank, but I can see you. Frank, show me what you found.”

The horse sparked furiously which worked for me; following the small spot of blue light was easy compared to a jet-black bird. Frank’s path had me weaving back and forth one way and then the other around the clustered trees and shrubs in the parkland. Down on the ground, the animal noises grew louder. I moved quietly, my boots barely making a sound as I charged toward the Old Mill.

Frank swooped past my face as we neared the building, screeching a warning. I backpedaled, launching off the ground and high into one of the trees. A mutated lion, now as hairless as a sphynx, pounced into the spot I’d just been, roaring its frustration when it didn’t find me there.

The elephant nearby trumpeted at the loud disturbance. A glowing pillar of stone erupted from the ground, launching the offending lion monster high into the air. The large hairless cat screeched in fury, bolting into the darkness when it landed with a thud hard enough to shake the ground. I let out a sigh, clutching the tree harder as I scanned the parkland in front of me for any more danger.

Frank settled on my shoulder and began to preen. I took that as assurance that I wouldn’t be torn to shreds the moment I returned to the ground. Before I did, I removed the furious horse and placed him back in my pocket, hissing and clamping my teeth against the violent zaps he sent coursing through my body.

I ran from the tree, rushing through the heavy wooden door of the mill proper, and slammed it shut behind me. I scanned the room I’d barged into, expecting to see whitewashed walls, historical artifacts, and maybe a gift shop but what I found was nothing like that.

It was the smell that hit me first. The stench of blood and decaying flesh was enough to make me gag. I covered my mouth with a hand, pinching my nose closed with a thumb and finger of the same hand. It made it difficult to breathe but it was better than inhaling the fumes of rotting death.

I drew my sword and pushed away from the door, my eyes jumping from one corpse to the next as I searched desperately for Nora and Stella. There were five bodies clustered around the center of the room, all of them bent, broken, and torn apart. None of them were my family though.

I would have done a jig of joy if it wouldn’t be incredibly disrespectful to the cluster of men and women who had lost their lives here. I couldn’t figure out why the monsters outside hadn’t scavenged the bodies but I was grateful for it. Carefully, I walked through the room, looking for any hint of what had happened here. The room and the dead seemed to have been looted clean. There was nothing left for me to collect. Not so much as a note.

“What do you make of this, Frank?” I asked.

“Shut the hell up!”

“Yeah, it looks like an ambush to me too. I can’t see Nora walking blindly into something like that though.” Frank slapped me with a wing. I rubbed at the sore spot and said, “maybe you’re right. She is more of the rush in and ask questions later type.”

Don’t judge me too harshly for talking to a pet. There were some days, even when I was with Theo and Gabby, that it felt like he was all I had. Even Sob was more of a pain in the ass than a true companion. Not just the ass I suppose, his bolts of lightning coursed through my entire body not just my rear end.

I frowned, looking down at a pair of the murdered members of the Outsiders. It was an odd display. Both had their arms extended, their fists still clamped tight around hilts that were no longer there. Wounds on both of them matched the positioning of their hands. It was almost as if they’d turned on each other. Killing the other in one final blow before dying as they’d looked in battle.

What would make brothers-in-arms turn on each other that way?

Frank screeched and flapped his wings in violent thrusts. I battered at him, trying to make him stop but his positioning made it awkward.

“Frank, stop it. You’re going to get us all killed.”

He screeched again and launched himself off my shoulder, shooting up into the rafters over the door. Sob nickered and shot sparks after the bird.

“Stop it, both of you,” I snarled, shoving Sob deeper into the pocket and buttoning it closed. I looked up at Frank and snapped, “get back down….”

I paused before I could even reach the swear words I was preparing to hurl at the bird. Frank puffed up his feathers, turning his sharp beak toward the wall over the door. I turned to see what was sending the bird crazy and froze in place, staring up at a horror I couldn’t have begun to imagine. Not even in my chained corpse nightmares.

A sixth body hung from the rafters. The woman was dressed like me; in full leather armor, only hers didn’t have sleeves. The quiver hanging from her wide belt was limp and empty. One of the woman’s arms was coated to the elbow in blood. On the wall beside her was a painted circle. The white of the wall behind it flashed through in places left unbloodied revealing a skull with a rose in its mouth.

I stood, staring up at the symbol. It had been left here for a reason. The mark of whoever, or whatever, had taken Nora and Stella.