Their wagon rolled down the busy streets of Bluewater, navigating the broad, tiled streets and narrow alleyways until it arrived at the edge of the city, where they left it at the care of a wagon watcher.

It was already getting quite dark, so they quickly got to work.

“The mansion is across this row of buildings here,” said Thomas, looking at a little piece of notepaper. “No address was given but it should have his name on the front gate.”

They took a turn down a little backstreet, Thomas holding a little flame on the tip of his finger to provide some light in the darkness.

Andrei and Lilian had parted ways with them to scout out the surrounding area, beginning at the perimeter and working inwards until they got to the mansion. For a contract in a populated area like this, there would need to be strict security and overwatch to ensure they remain undetected. Though Rose keeps detailed maps of every major population center, they still need to check for changes to the landscape or new locations of interest.

Thomas’ group will be constructing a detailed map of the mansion’s grounds, every bush, every tree, every window on the building, maybe even down to every rock.

“I see it,” Thomas said, pointing at a big, white, marble-clad building in the distance, lit up by lanterns, barely visible behind many bushes and trees. “That must be the estate.”

The transition between the rest of the city and the mansion grounds is a jarring one. On one side of the narrow cobbled street are the dense, brown roofed buildings of Bluewater, while on the other, the lush green expanse of the mansion grounds.

Little was spared in the construction of this estate, one of many in the vicinity of Bluewater. The broad compound is covered in the softest species of grass trimmed to the perfect height, aromatic bushes and flowers dotted the grounds, filling the air with a pleasantly vegetal scent. The twisty branches of the imported eastern pine trees held up cloudy canopies high in the air, which cast down big patches of refreshing shadows during summer.

Two guards stood by the main entrance, a gold-accented metal gate able to fit two wagons side-by-side. From the shadows across the street, they could see a metal plaque attached to one of the gate pillars, the words “Estate of Edwardo B. Schulz” etched upon it, barely visible in the dim lighting.

“Yep, this is it,” whispered Thomas as he looked around at the surroundings. “Saya, Idris, you two head around the left side, I’ll circle around the right. Count your paces and record anything of interest. Stick to the shadows and stay undetected.”

“Understood.”

They set off towards the left-hand side of the estate, Idris using his power to cast shadows over himself and Saya, hiding them from sight. As they approached each street lantern he would block out the light with a shadow, only removing it once they had passed it.

Saya followed close behind, her footsteps silent, but he could sense her presence through her relatively strong effect power field. For an apprentice, she is very adept at using magic.

“That’s thirty-two paces to the corner,” Idris told Saya who had a notebook suspended in the air in front of her. “Got it?”

“Got it,” she replied as she quickly jotted it down with a pen in her hands. Though her telekinesis is strong, it isn’t quite precise enough to write with just yet.

They continued down the side of the estate. This part of town being somewhat quiet, and considering the time of night, meant that nobody else was on the empty streets. Idris decided to relax on the use of his magic a bit, since there was likely no one there to see them anyway, and the morphing shadows could catch unwanted attention.

It took them a minute or two to finally arrive at the other end of the massive estate, the tall fence stretching all the way around showing no easy paths of entry.

“Sixty-three,” whispered Idris as they turned the corner.

“Got it.”

They could see Thomas ahead of them, walking towards them down the street. This side of the estate is already outside the city limits of Bluewater, and no buildings towered over them from the other side of the street, only bushes and pine trees.

“Got everything recorded?” Asked Thomas as they walked up to each other.

“Yep, thirty-two paces by sixty-three paces,” Saya read out from her notes.

“Good, exactly what I got,” Thomas nodded. Master apprentices like him need no notebooks. “Anything of interest?”

Idris shook his head. “The fence is solid all the way around, no side entrances at all.”

“Okay,” Thomas thought for a moment. “Find out a way to make entry and map out the yard. For the actual contract, we can go through the main gates, but we can’t stir up too much noise right now. I’ll watch from above.”

He turned and leaped onto a tree, propelling himself up through the air by the thick branches, in moments he was at the very top, squatting on a thin little branch high above the ground, looking out over the entirety of the estate.

“Saya, can you lift me over the fence?” Asked Idris.

“Can do!” She answered as she lifted her arms towards Idris.

He could feel Saya’s magic being channeled upon him as the weight in his legs began to lessen. Slowly he floated up into the air, over the tall fence, and gently onto the grass of the mansion grounds. Telekinesis will never not feel weird.

“Wait for me,” Saya whispered as she floated into the air, albeit a little wobbly, and landed next to Idris soundlessly.

“Been practicing?”

“A little.”

They began moving along the fence, keeping low to stay within the shadow of the short brick wall upon which the tall fence was mounted. The dark of night combined with Idris’ shadows completely hid them from the patrolling guards.

“Why does this place have so many guards?” Whispered Saya, looking at the many guards patrolling the expansive grounds. “I’ve counted almost a dozen.”

Idris shrugged, not bothering to answer because he was too busy memorizing the patrol routes of the guards. But when he stopped to think about it, it was kind of weird how many guards there are. Maybe Schulz is indeed a bad man and is paranoid because of it.

The yard has many trees, but the bushes are well-trimmed and the grass is short. Making entry into the actual building, a three-story marble structure at the center of the compound, would be quite difficult. A completely stealthy approach would probably be impossible, and they’d have to go in with weapons drawn.

“Watch out!” Saya whispered, grabbing Idris’ shoulder. “Guards coming this way.”

In his deep thought, he had failed to notice that they were walking right into the patrol path of two guards walking the perimeter fence. Though well hidden within the darkness of his shadow, if the guards got too close, they’d still be able to sense them.

There were but ten paces between them, and that distance was rapidly closing with each marching step of the guards. Even in the dim light, Idris could see the silver pummel of their swords.

“I got this…” Saya whispered.

Idris felt a slight disturbance in the air as Saya channeled her telekinesis, shifting a little boulder some distance away, causing it to clatter against a tree.

“Who’s there!” The guards shouted.

“It’s us!” Another group of guards replied, thinking that the shout was directed at them.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Oh…”

“Too tired?” The other guards asked. “Come for a drink, it’s getting late.”

“Want to go for a drink?” The guard asked his companion. “No one ever bothers to come in here anyways, I don’t know why the boss hired so many recently.”

“Sure, I’m parched anyway.”

So off the guards went, away from their patrol route and into the guard shack, leaving Idris and Saya alone in the darkness.

Idris breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s about everything we can do, let’s get out of here,” he told Saya.

Saya nodded, and soon they were both safely outside of the compound.

Seeing that his group was done with their task, Thomas slid down from the tree, landing softly on the grass.

“Let’s head back, Lily told me that they’re done already,” said Thomas. “We go back and rest, we’ll discuss our findings tomorrow.”

*****

“My back…” Saya groaned, gently punching her lower back with her fist while grimacing in pain. “This isn’t good for a young lady…”

“What isn’t?” Asked Idris.

“Back problems.”

“It’s because we slept on the hard floor of the wagon, stop overreacting.”

Saya pouted her lips at Idris, trying to look like a saddened puppy, and, to be fair, doing a pretty good job of it.

A waitress walked over to their table and set down several plates of steaming food, the delicious smell dragging everyone’s attention toward it.

“Thank you,” Thomas said to the waitress, then he turned to his group. “Alright, let’s eat first, then talk about our findings.”

“Okay!” Shouted Saya as she stabbed her fork into a big lamp chop and stuffed it almost fully in her mouth.

Idris watched her wolfing down the meat and sighed. Some day she is going to choke on her food and die from it.

No no no! He thought as he shook his head. Bad omen, bad omen.

He gently knocked a few times to the wooden table, before pulling his plate of food over and begin shoveling it into his mouth.

Bluewater isn’t famous for its food for no reason. Being next to both lush farmland and the sea, the cuisine takes the best of both worlds and combines it into something incredible. Coming to Bluewater is always a treat because they get to eat the food here.

Idris cleaned his plate of roasted ribs, shrimp stew, and fresh greens in no time, rubbing his stomach in satisfaction while waiting for the others to finish.

Once everyone had eaten up, Thomas cleared his throat and began speaking.

“Lily, Andrei, please talk about anything of interest you discovered yesterday.”

“Alright,” said Lilian, leaning forward and pulling out a little notebook. “The surrounding area is virtually no different from our maps, though several buildings have been renovated with slight changes in external dimensions. Several towers here, here, and here...” she pointed to several spots on a rough map she sketched. “...Can be used for observation and overwatch.”

“What about the forest on the western side of the compound?” Thomas asked. “Anything useful we can do there?”

“We didn't scout that area in detail, but the tall trees could be used as a point of entry, though I doubt we'd need to do that,” answered Lilian.

“That’s fair. Idris, Saya, how did the scout of the compound go? Any findings?”

“Oh right so…” Saya said as she fumbled out her notebook. “We recorded eleven guards patrolling the compound, no clear routes, except that they all come and return to a guard shack located on the south-eastern sector of the grounds, to the left of the main entrance. There is a lack of bushes and vegetation aside from the trees.”

“I see,” Thomas muttered, rubbing his chin. “Infiltration from the ground will probably be difficult then. We could try to take down all the guards at the same time to prevent anyone from raising the alarm, but it’ll be risky and difficult to coordinate.”

“We can use the trees to infiltrate the mansion for mapping of the interior!” Saya yelped with a raised finger, apparently quite proud of her somewhat obvious suggestion.

“Yes yes, that’s what I was thinking,” nodded Thomas like a patient father talking to his child. “Well, that’s probably the most we can do. I’ll send a message back home through one of our offices here. In the meantime you four can take a walk around the mansion, note down the patterns of the surrounding neighborhood.”

“Understood.”

They got up and began walking towards the door, pushing past the crowded tables and waiters dancing through the people with trays filled with colorful food.

“Mister!” A waitress called out to them as they were walking through the door. “You haven’t paid for your food yet!”

Thomas looked around at the other five, who all peered at him from the corner of their eyes. “Oh right, I’m terribly sorry,” he said as he handed the bills to the waitress, slipping an extra silver coin into her palm as a tip.

“Have a great day!”

*****

“Good morning,” the woman behind the counter spoke. She was dressed in a black cloak, her face invisible in the dim light. “Unfortunately, Rose is currently not open to new contracts.”

Thomas lifted a badge of a blooming rose out of his pocket, displaying it to the woman.

The woman nodded. “I see. How can I help you?”

“I need to send a message back home.”

“Would you like to use the gemstone or by mail?”

“The gemstone will do.”

“Of course,” the woman said as she opened a little door to the side of the counter. “Please come in.”

Thomas stepped past the counter and positioned himself in front of the purple gemstone on the wall. It lit up with a click of the button, and he cleared his throat before speaking into it.

“This is Thomas of task group one, reporting to Izzy. We have completed mapping of the surroundings and compound and should be returning in two day’s time. Accessing the interior of the mansion is proving quite difficult due to an unexpectedly large number of guards, and will likely require highly-skilled infiltrators, maybe Bruno or even Yelena.”

He pressed the button again and stepped away from the gemstone.

“All done?”

“Yes,” he bowed to the woman. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

“When does your shift end, Rin?”

“Three months rotation, Thomas, I thought you knew.”

“Yeah I know, just wanted to have a chat. You’re too professional sometimes.”

“As if that’s a bad thing,” she said with a smile. “Still a while to go, first of June.”

“Good to know. I’ll see you later.”

“Goodbye.”

*****

At daytime, the streets around the mansion are much livelier. Without the shadows and the dreary lights, the atmosphere felt much brighter and relaxed.

“I didn’t realize just how big this compound is,” Andrei muttered as they walked along the street, looking in at the white building through the fencing. “No wonder it’ll be difficult for us to get in without being noticed.”

“And those guards too…” Added Saya. “There’s so many of them.”

It would take Thomas a while to get halfway across town to the Rose outpost, so they had ample time to just walk around and take note of the surrounding neighborhood.

Lilian had left the three on their own to go and ask around about the rich owner of the mansion, so they were sort of just wandering around aimlessly now, having already circled the entire compound several times.

This was about to be the fourth time they’d circled the compound, but as they turned the final corner, they noticed some commotion at the front gate.

“They’re putting something on the wall, I think,” said Andrei, using his clairvoyance to see what was happening. “A poster of some sort.”

“Let’s go take a look.”

“Sure.”

They walked up to the front gate, where two guards were hanging a white scroll on the wall. Upon closer inspection, they realized it was advertising a dance of some sort.

“The eleventh of April, ball at Schulz’s estate…” Idris read out the writing on the poster. “Five pounds or one silver coin. Limited slots.”

“Guess the man’s bored?” Said Andrei with a shrug.

“You know… we could use this as an opportunity to carry out the contract…” Mumbled Idris after a moment of thought. “It’d be easy to buy out all the tickets, and have the guards just let us in…”

Andrei looked over at Idris. “You might be onto something.”

“Let’s go find Thomas and Lilian,” said Idris, turning away from the gate and heading away from the mansion, his friends beside him. “They’ll want to hear about this.”

“What’s a ball?” Saya asked. “They don’t mean the circular ones right?”

“Like a party.”

“Ah…” She smiled. “I wouldn’t mind a party…”