Hannah's cunning plan hinged on two things. Knowing where the hostages were and subsequently knowing where the kidnappers were.

But to remind, we didn't know who was kidnapped and who was doing the kidnapping. It could be with some confidence ruled out that the guards would act on Hannah's hunch. They'd need something more substantive during a time where they are already bsuy.

Of course, I was operating half under the assumption that it would be the guards who'd be dealing with the hostages if Hannah's hunch paid off.

Now, as per usual, I was wondering just what the hell this had to do with me. Sure, yes, kidnapping was and is bad. But so was ending up in trouble ourselves.

Linth didn't object so long as it was Hannah insisting. I could object but I'd be brushed aside like a three second minor headache.

Hannah had an 'idea' of where the kidnappers were. She just needed to confirm.

“This could be dangerous.” Linth no longer seemed to mind the crowds of the festival now that something else was dominating her mind.

“It's okay. We only need to confirm they are there. And I know just the person for that job.” Hannah grinned whilst I swung about in her satchel.

We were going at a brisk pace on path back to the academy. Linth was being dragged along by her hand.

“Do you mean Adam?” Her tone barbed with much welcomed concern.

“Yeah. He was practically born for this job.” Hannah was in for a bit of a surprise when she let me out of the satchel to hear my thoughts on the subject. “Don't underestimate a witch and her black cat, Linth. We've got tricks up our sleeves.”

And she was back to calling herself a witch despite the headmaster's warning.

I couldn't help but feel like the success of this plan operated entirely on my performance. It had nothing to do with the witch in this supposed partnership. And quite frankly, the witch's favourite 'trick' is to threaten people with overwhelming physical violence. It wouldn't do well here.

We passed through the packed avenues and city plazas. The delectable smells failed to wrestle for my attention. The glittering jewellery managed to catch my eyes about as much as mundane river pebbles.

I'd stalked Killian. I'd done a bit of eavesdropping. But how the hell was I going to get past kidnappers? I'd had the shit kicked out of me by children. One wrong move and that was me done and out.

This was incredibly unreasonable.

The familiar chill running down my spine meant alerted me that we were back at the Triolo. Passing beneath the shadow of the gatehouse always left me feeling uncomfortable as though I were being watched.

They both stopped to catch their breath. I took my opportunity to slip out of the satchel.

“The sun will freeze over before you convince me to do this.” I hissed.

Hannah furrowed her brow. “I'm not asking you to go in guns blazing, shining axe in one hand and holy hammer in the other. Just go where I tell you and tell me what you see. Chances are, it was just smugglers.”

“What are you-Oh. I see.” Before we'd taken Linth away from her den, Hannah had spotted something out the window in the direction of the river. Those abandoned buildings were rarely if ever used by the local smugglers, but international ones aren't going to be influenced by local superstitions.

Hannah seemed convinced in what she saw. Whilst I had reasons plenty to doubt her mental faculties, I didn't doubt her eyes.

“See, Linth? He already knows what to do. I saw some guys hanging around one of the abandoned buildings by the river. Whilst he's going to check it out, we'll go and find someone to get some help. Even if they aren't criminals, they are still trespassing.”

“Down by the river? But that's so close to my home.” I didn't know how I felt about Linth calling that den her home. “The guards should know about this.”

Hannah winced at the suggestion. “Yeah, preferably the guards. But we should make sure first. I'm pretty sure you can't drag guards into the Triolo without a really good reason. We'd need a member of the academy faculty to back us up.”

The Triolo had been left abandoned despite its strategic importance. The harbour for larger ships had been moved down the estuary whilst the piers for smaller crafts had been moved up past the Triolo. These weren't small building projects. Perfectly emblematic of how dedicated the local authorities were to avoiding anything to do with the Triolo.

The students studying here could easily find themselves forgetting this. But the Triolo was the site of origin for a plague and for the inciting incident that started a war. Not to mention, it served as the personal palace to two different emperors. They were the last emperors of their respective empires following their nations grizzly collapses.

The Kingdom of Tallis was a successor kingdom to one such empire. It was ancient history for the world for all but a few nations, but the Kingdom and its 'imperial cities' still counted themselves as citizens of that long deceased regime.

“I'm not doing it.” I wasn't willing to budge in the slightest.

“If you don't, then I'll just do it myself. But I'm not very good at sneaking.”

“Go right ahead.” I turn my cheek. Threatening to do her own dirty work could only backfire on herself.

“Don't do that!” Linth protested. “You could get hurt.”

Hannah tutted. “It could just be smugglers. But if what I saw really was a kidnapping and I needed proof, this would be the way to get it, right? Time is of the essence.”

The local guard would corroborate that time was of the essence.

“I could always bargain.” I was not completely unreasonable or heartless. What I didn't know couldn't harm me, but now that she said she was willing to endanger herself, I could hardly turn a blind eye.

Hannah drew in a deep breath and pondered. “What would a talking cat want, I wonder?”

“I don't know. Maybe you should find a talking cat instead.”

“I'll let you spend an entire week at home instead of coming with me to the academy.”

“Done.” I didn't even need to think about that. An entire week of napping peacefully?! Hell yes!

“Wow,” Hannah chewed her cheek. “I'm a little pissed you answered that so quickly.” She glared down at me before sighing and moving on. “Well, that's the plan. Any complaints?”

Linth looked between us like she was trying to work out a puzzle. “Are sure Adam? It could be really dangerous?”

“Death is a small price to pay for some peace and quiet.”

“Yes, yes, we get it.” Hannah swept my comments away. “We've got a plan. So let's get moving.”

And with that, we split up again.

I had an idea of the direction I needed to go. Now with time to myself, I quietly hoped this was Hannah's paranoia getting the better of her.

But alas, much to my chagrin that was not the case.

The buildings by the river at first glance seemed abandoned. That was until I came to one building reeking of alcohol. The very same abandoned structure I'd stalked Killian around before the unfortunate adventure into the sewers.

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It's white stained stone walls stood tall. High above, dirty windows let in lithers of light through layers of weathered grime. The only entrances I spotted were a set of double doors at the front and a small door around the side. That was if we excluded the doors from the pier jutting into the river.

Spacious enough to hold dubious amounts of alcohol, and judging by the smell, it did. I walked around the walls, my tail brushing against the surface.

I expected nobody to be next to the double doors. Presumably, they were barred from the inside. Such was the way of double doors in abandoned warehouses. It was a given they'd be blocked. I inched my way to the side door, faint whispers of voices scratching my ears.

The side door was slightly ajar. Through the gap, I met the eyes of a peeping individual. His expression gaunt and dirty. He was likely both bored and frustrated.

Obviously he was on lookout.

If this turned out to be the group of kidnappers, I'd never hear the end of Hannah's gloating.

Please just be smugglers.

But there was only one way to confirm, and that was to see inside.

I sat by the door, staring up at the individual. If he was a local, the mere sight of a black cat would be sending a nervous sweat down his back. The last thing his trespassing needed was some bad luck.

He noticed me and his tiredness ebbed away. A reaction that was admittedly unexpected. A certainly was not local.

After cautiously eyeing for any other witnesses, the lookout opened the door further and attempted to coo me in. I didn't know whether to feel pity for his naivety or disgusted over being patronised.

I settled on an even mixture of both which I forced back down into the pit of my stomach. Concerns about my safety should be highest priority, not whether someone was treating me like a common house cat.

I declined his offer, opting instead to head towards the riverbanks where I could leap up onto the pier. Being ignored seemed to hurt him a little. Generally, wherever the church of the seven graced people with its influence, people were distrusting of black cats.

Black cats in scripture had connections to the Arch-demon, enemy of the seven. Churches tended to differ by whether the seven were gods, or angels, or other. Sometimes instead of seven, there were five, or three. But there was one constant, and that was the Arch-demon.

However whilst all tended to agree, Arch-demon=bad. They couldn't figure out which of the seven was the best. A hotly contested topic among clergy. In the kingdom, they settled it with them all being equal. It was just depending on the priest giving the sermon, there were some that were more equal than others.

The kingdom's internal religious issues at the moment wasn't to do with worshipping the right god, but more to do with what an organised church should look like. There in lied some of the friction between Kasper and the interior.

If the knights and guards were right in their guess, then he was from far up north. The theory was supported by his complexion, but far be it for me to draw conclusions on that alone.

The clans worshipped more animistic beliefs with far eastern influence from the times of yore when great waves of nomads migrated from the far steppes. They didn't subscribe to the belief magic was gifted by the seven to fight the spawn of the arch-demon during the age of monsters.

And so, black cats were not viewed as bad luck up north. Never the less, they preferred their fat tabby cats and for that they were unforgivable. I subscribed to a belief gingers had no souls, and that was evidenced by all the tabby cats I'd ever run into.

My pointed ears picked up subdued conversation. It'd been a while since I'd heard Euanu, one of the languages of the northern clans. It was the most commonly spoken language in the north. It wasn't uncommon to hear it spoken in Amarinth. Hannah and I were both fluent.

I leapt from the mud and onto the stone pier, also abandoned. A new addition however, was the graffiti written on the doors. This building had been marked.

Scanning for a way to see inside, I feared for a moment my only way in was the pliable lookout. But stacked against the walls was the detritus of worn down and rotting empty wooden crates and barrels.

It could have been possible, under the threat of wretched splinters, to see inside.

To be patronised, or to put in effort. Those were my dreaded choices.

I wasn't going to enter the warehouse unless I absolutely had to. It would be pretty pathetic to get stuck in there.

Hannah had definitely given me the worse job. Well, better me doing this than Linth.

“Splinters it is.”

And splinters it was. I picked up quite a few as I leapt up from the top of the debris to hang at the high window.

Claws latched onto the frame, not enough of a ledge to climb up and perch on, I took solace in that my body was quite light. Lifting my head high enough to see past the stain on the window to see a dimly lit interior was quite the effort.

Like in the water system below, dim light was all I needed.

Three, no four people. One lookout, two in the centre of the room playing cards at a table, and one leaning over the banister up the stairs to what might have been a foreman's office, smoking a cigar.

Motionless on the floor next to the two playing cards, was what I could only presume to be a hostage.

After all, you wouldn't just tie and gag your fellow man and leave them there as a joke. Just the palpable air of despair wafting from their crumpled form was making my nose curl. I never knew despair could smell so toxic.

Oh wait, that's alcohol.

I couldn't see some of the interior walls for all the stacked kegs of alcohol in the way. It was the last thing I focused on before my arms tired and I fell back into the pile of splinters.

Maybe I should have taken the lookout's invitation up. The kidnappers were probably clans like the guards said. They looked pretty bored, which was a bad thing for a clansman to be.

So Hannah was right and that only annoyed me. There'd be sunshine and rainbows coming out of her arse for days now that she'd been proven right.

I should be glad. Happy even. Finally one of her hunches were right. She might even get a reward for busting a kidnapping.

Sadly, I was too busy wincing with pain from being impaled. It was like rolling in a pile of glass shards.

I shook myself off, slipped off the pier and onto the muddy riverbank, and turned back south.

I crossed paths with Hannah outside the main campus. She had following behind her, Linth, who looked like she felt perpetually out of place, Jean, who wore a stoic expression instead of her usual cheeriness, and the Nurse, who looked about as impressed as one would expect for someone who thought that breathing and suffering was synonymous.

Not quite the backup one would ideally want to bust open a hostage situation.

A Nurse who disavowed violence after his retirement. A civil servant advisor who could, with much effort, spin your coffee with her mind. A shut-in whose wrestling experience extended to turning pages. And finally, Hannah, the self-destruct device.

Thankfully, all the adults needed to do was see the situation for themselves and then talk to the guards. Unfortunately, as was clear from their expressions, they wanted to be anywhere but here.

“Remind me again, why am I here?” The Nurse grumbled towards Jean.

“Right place, right time.”

“That only matters when a good thing happens. I'm the academy Nurse. The hell do you expect me to do? Take their temperature?”

Jean rolled her eyes. “No, but it's reassuring to have you around in case anything happens. Given your... history. But I don't think it'll be hard to get trespassers to move along. Probably just a boat that's docked in the wrong place.”

Shaking his head, the Nurse kicked the ground. “Here's to hoping these two just have a really bad sense of humour. I'm not sticking around if a fight breaks out.”

It didn't look like they knew there was a hostage situation. Otherwise I wasn't sure the Nurse would be acting so belligerent.

Hannah spotted me and peeled off from the group.

“Where are you going?” Linth called out.

“Go on ahead, I just spotted my cat.” Hannah waved the others ahead as she made her way to the dense grass off the beaten path I decided to nestle myself in.

It was far enough away to have a muted conversation.

She crouched down over me. “Well?”

I held back commenting on her apparent lack of concern for my health. I'd just been investigating possibly heinous and evil criminal activity.

“You were uh, you were right.” I muttered beneath my breath.

A glint of pride entered her eyes even as she kept her face muted of expression. “Say again? You were mumbling.”

“Fine! You were right. It's the kidnappers. They are down by the river in one of the abandoned pier buildings. It's an old warehouse smugglers must have used to store alcohol before their operation got busted or something.”

A smile leaked onto Hannah's lips but credit where credit was due, she didn't gloat. “They can't be local if they are hiding near the cathedral.”

“They are clans.”

“How many?”

“I counted four.”

“Think we could take them?”

“Are you stupid? Of course we can't. They are clansmen. Each one is built like a cinderblock outhouse. When I checked, they were smoking cigars and playing cards around a body they had stuffed in a sack. Oh jee, I don't know, maybe we could ask them kindly in between them beating the shit out of us to maybe just leave?”

“We?”

“Figure of speech. I'm obviously not going to get involved.” Unless one of them had cat allergies, I was next to useless.

“Fine, no fighting. We'll get the guard involved once Jean and the Nurse see for themselves.” Hannah came to a far more sane conclusion. “I know this is a lot to ask Adam, but could you keep an eye on the hostage for me?”

“Who? Me? Do I look like I could do much against four adult humans?”

She shook her head. “No, I know. And I know this is asking a lot. But I don't want the hostage getting hurt before help shows up. It's just, you know how clans are. The kingdom and the clans are arch enemies. We've both lived in Amarinth long enough to know how casual murder comes to both sides.”

“And if I get hurt?”

“I'll do everything I can to compensate. So Adam, please just keep an eye on things. I know you can do it. You're good at looking out for people.” She bowed her head in an honest request for help.

“I uh. Huh.” Words seemed to escape me for a moment. Whatever gave her that impression?

What a laughable joke that I'd look out for one of them.

But it's not like I could say no. Because the price of inaction could well be a regret that bites like a stomach parasite for a hundred more years.

“Flattery will get you no where.” I break the silence. “Just tell me, and I'll do it. Don't start bringing 'friendship' into our relationship. It'll ruin the fun of constantly insulting eachother.”

A moment of lapse perhaps, a moment of panic or concern. A return to the life she lived in Amarinth. A notion, a threat, a shadow that could humble even Hannah's sharp edges.

There was a moment of pause before Hannah sighed and shook her head. “You really are a dick, you know that? And here I was asking nicely and you say something like that. Fine, have it your way.” She looked down at me with a look of disgust. “You knew there was a person in danger back there and you decided to run away? Wow, you're a useless cat. Get out of here before I throw you by your tail.”

“I've changed my mind! Go back to asking nicely! And for the last time I'm not a cat!”