The next morning Farn and his parents showed up at the waterfall pool, waiting for Aurelie to come out. Barely a second later Mellana showed up with her mom, as her dad was on Library Duty and therefore unavailable to come. Mrs. Fadan looked about as happy to be there as Farn's parents did. As in, not at all. The two sets of parents went over to the side to discuss something, probably Aurelie, while he and Mellana discussed the events of last night. Apparently Mellana's argument to trust Aurelie was surprisingly similar to Farn's. The only thing that they could do now was wait to see her and hope that she didn't mess things up.

Just as they were worrying, a bright voice chirped, "Hi guys! Good morning! Ready to go?"

They all turned and saw a girl with hair the color of fire and eyes like two sapphires twinkling with amusement standing between the kids' group and the group of adults. Farn and Mellana, accustomed to Aurelie's sneakiness, went up to hug and greet her. The adults, on the other hand, were shocked. They had heard of Aurelie's ability to go unnoticed, but had assumed that the only reason their children couldn't detect her was because of the fact that their power levels were similar. They had assumed that they would be able to sense her, and even Farn and Mellana thought that way, as every time one broke through a bottleneck, their senses enhanced greatly. But even they were unable to to tell she was here. Pausing, the three sized her up.

Over at where she was hugging Mellana, Aurelie was thinking of the new people she had just met. Farn's mother was a rather lovely woman with a welcoming face, whereas his dad was harder and leaner, telling her that he hadn't let his position go to his head and paid attention to the responsibilities that came with it. She liked him. Mellana's mom was of the stern librarian variety, which made sense when you thought of her job. She had her hair back in a bun and wore pince nez style glasses, and had an air of dignity around her. Aurelie had planned her entrance perfectly. It allowed her to see what the adults were like before they could see her, allowing her to slip back into the happy and optimistic half of her personality without having to give anything away about the darker and calculating part, and she could test as to whether they could sense her if she wished to sneak around. Frankly, she had thought that they could do it, so she pleasantly surprised to find that she was sneakier than she thought. An extra trump card never hurt anybody.

So thinking, she stepped towards them with a sunny smile and an outstretched hand. "Hi, my name is Aurelie Kanos, what are your names?"

"Manadet Fadan." Mellana's mother nodded to her, ignoring the hand Aurelie held out. It was then enveloped in Farn's father's hand, who introduced himself as Kadaras Lejus and his wife as Danadie Lejus.

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After having gotten the formalities out of the way, Aurelie shouldered her bag and started to walk to Lejus Village, chatting happily with Farn and Mellana. The adults brought up the rear.

"Do you really think she is just at the first stage of the Master Realm?" Manadet whispered to Kadaras.

But Danadie was the one who answered. "Yes. However it is obvious that she has had training in stealth and killing. I don't know if she means us harm or not yet."

Kadaras nodded, then discreetly nudged Manadet as he flicked his eyes to Danadie. Both women surreptitiously nodded. They had all felt someone joining up with them, following them in the trees. Then, up ahead, Mellana said, "What's wrong, Aurelie? You stopped in the middle of your sentence."

The adults all looked at each other. Had Aurelie also noticed? It seemed she had, for her gaze turned watchful and wary when she looked at the trees. But then the she ran back to the adults, saying, "Since we're all going to go to the same place, shouldn't we travel together?"

The adults were confused for a moment. She had already found out there was someone targeting them, so why was she bringing the kids into danger? As soon as they thought this they realized the error of their presumption. There was no one in Meir who could bring all three of them down easily. The only one with a slight chance was the village head, and someone like him would never sneak around in the trees. If Gradas did something, it would be loud and obvious. The target of the one in the trees had to be one of the children. Walking together would make it easier for them to protect the children. The three parents felt their good impression of Aurelie grow a bit.

Nothing happened while they walked to the village. It was apparent that the assassin wasn't going to do anything to the kids while three of the strongest people in Lejus Village were right there. Kadaras, Danadie, and Manadet were letting out a sigh of relief, but the instant before they would enter the village territory, Aurelie pulled down the hood of her cloak, whipped one of her throwing knives out of its sheath in her hair and sent it hurtling at an innocuous tree. A bare moment later, a male body fell from the tree, that very knife buried hilt deep in his throat, his final look of surprise etched onto his face.

The others were wearing matching expressions minus the knife in throat part. Farn and Mellana were surprised because they hadn't noticed anyone was there, and their parents were shocked that Aurelie had so randomly and so quickly killed the man. Their hair rose at the speed of Aurelie's knife. If they were prepared for it or even just saw it, then they would be able to dodge it, though with difficulty. But since when were throwing knives supposed to be obvious in their use? All she had to do was aim at their backs when their guard lowered and they would have to save their regrets for the afterlife, especially considering that they couldn't detect her presence. She could have killed them ten times over during this walk. Simultaneously, their trust and fear towards her grew.