Minos PoV [https://i.imgur.com/WyPWDQU.jpg]

A tender wind swept the clouds and half of the moon peeped out from hiding, like a little child's head looking down at them, watching what they were doing. It illuminated the night enough for Minos and Rei to see the entire manor and what surrounded it.

"So..." Minos faced Rei, impressed with himself. "Breaking and entering. That's your expertise, right?"

Rei dismissed Minos' comment and went up to the window quietly tapping its iron-framed glass. After a careful study, he pulled out the tools he had hanging by his belt. He rolled out its cloth-wrap over his arm, revealing a diamond-edged glass cutter, a small file, narrow scissors, and lock picks of various sizes.

Rei picked up the cutter and worked his way to the glass window, cutting out a small hole the size of his fist. The foreigner reached through the hole and carefully turned the latch that was keeping the window closed. Afterwards, he quietly pulled the window open.

"Good work." Minos whispered.

The pair silently hopped in through the window. They then found themselves in a dark corridor, with windows to the exterior running on one side, and doors to different rooms running on the other side. Minos reached for the nearest door and tried twisting its handle but it was locked.

"How many drows do you think are in here?" Minos asked his companion. To which he just shrugged, expectedly. The young nobleman sneaked across the length of the corridor, checking each door until he found one that wasn't locked. He gestured for his companion to keep quiet, which he realized half-a-second later was pointless. They both gently opened the door.

Behind it laid a spacious room. Minos could perceive several objects in front of them but couldn't identify what they were. "Hand me the torch, will you?"

"No," replied his companion.

"Oh so you're talking again?"

"No lights."

"How are we gonna walk across this darkness?"

The foreigner grabbed another pouch from his belt. This time it contained several potions. He picked the only one that was glowing and returned the rest.

"How much stuff can your utility belt carry?" Minos asked, perplexed.

The foreigner ignored him and pulled the stopper off the vial. He then drank half of its contents and handed what remained to Minos.

"What does it do?"

"Just drink it."

"No way I'm gonna drink something without knowing what it does first."

Rei pulled back his arm and feigned to drink the rest of the potion. With much frustration, Minos took the vial away from him.

"Fine." He gulped.

Almost immediately, his head felt numb. Then, a throbbing sensation started crawling from the back of his skull towards his eyes. He grimaced as his vision turned blurry, and after blinking a few times, it started to slowly return to normal. Perhaps, more than normal, as now he could see things inside the room as if they were being shined by a full moon light.

"Well that was something..." he remarked.

He started walking around the room. They were surrounded by more than a dozen vitrines, holding some artifact or trinket. He walked towards one, it was a dummy adorned with a rusted half-plate armor, encased on a box made of glass. He walked towards a table and on top of it laid a long glass box holding a bronze scepter inside.

"What is this, a museum?"

He continued walking and looking around and in the center sat a sarcophagus. He approached it and took note of the elaborate carving on its side. He leaned down to take a closer look and he recognized what it denoted.

"I know this..." he said while stroking his chin, "this is the sarcophagus of King Prius. King Prius, he was one of the kings who marched with Markelus to defeat Eon. This is his sarcophagus."

Minos' eyes grew with wonder. He stood up and started running across all the other display cases, like a child lost in a toy store. He recognized some of the exhibits, and read about the rest. Finally, he ran back to his companion and faced him with ecstatic glee.

"I know whose house this is. This is Ecbert The Bold's, the famed explorer and adventurer. That's Ggugeling's Scepter, I recognized it now. That's the silver armor of Saint Ducet, he found it in a buried mausoleum outside of Amon-Ra. And this... this is the Jade Orb of Altan Batbayar. These are the artifacts he uncovered, I've read all about these...

Rei remained still throughout this. Minos was certain he didn't understand what he was talking about, and that didn't surprise him at all.

"Who is Ecbert The Bold you may ask, like I said, he's very famous, the bards have written books about him, as a matter of fact, he's the one The Crown wanted to hire for this job, this quest, but no one knows where to find him or how, so they settled on me instead... and now... wait..."

Something clicked in Minos' head. What are the chances? He thought. What were the odds that the thing he was seeking was right there in that room. What if he didn't need to roam far and wide? What if the goddess Moira had turned to mischief and brought him right at the very doorstep of the treasure he was seeking. It was not the first time such a thing had occurred. He had heard of fables about men traveling across the continent in search of glory, only to come home empty-handed, yet find glory right in their own backyard.

Minos sprinted across all the other displays one more time, searching for anything that resembled a sword. He found two, but dismissed them after reading their descriptions. "Maybe this is not the only room here like this. We should check the other doors, maybe there's more..."

"Your eyes." Rei whispered, "the tincture only lasts for an hour, but we drank half each, so it will only last thirty minutes each. Let's not waste a moment and do what we came here to do. Don't get distracted."

"Technically, we're here to find the sword, Cassana is the distraction."

Rei rolled his eyes, "I thought you needed her alive?"

"To help find the sword, but if the sword is already here, I don't need her at all!"

"You promised the boy."

"No, I didn't."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Rei looked at Minos straight in the face. He didn't need to talk further to convince him.

"What if this is the reward of my faith?" Minos pondered.

"What if this is a test of your faith?" asked Rei.

"You..." Minos felt the weight of Rei's questions right in his chest. "You know what, I realized I like it more when you're silent. When you talk you turn everything into a moral dilemma."

"Come on. Let's focus on what is important."

"And that is?"

"The life of another person." Rei quickly turned and headed straight to the other door, the one they didn't come in through. He paused as Minos was sighing and murmuring to himself and he motioned for him to be quiet. The young nobleman complied and they both tuned their hearing on the noise coming from outside.

"Someone's coming." Minos whispered.

The two easily hid behind two large vitrines as the same door they're about to open swung ajar. Two male figures stepped in, both drows, one was taller than the other. The newcomers walked further into the room and Minos noticed the shorter of the two limping, with his abdomen wrapped in bandage.

"I saw this already," the taller drow spoke.

"Good, and what do you think?" said the injured one.

"The boss said no. We're not thieves."

"We're not stealing shit. These belong to no one anymore, the owners are dead. Their kid will be dead soon, it'll be such a waste to leave them all here."

"And what are we gonna do with this stuff? These are all ancient and old, and broken."

"We're gonna sell them all. Humans, they all love old stuff, on account of their shorter lifespan, you know."

"And we're not gonna reach the end of our lifespan if we do exactly what the boss told us not to do."

"Pfsh. He's a fucking hypocrite." The injured drow looked up at the tall drow to see how he was gonna react to what he just called their boss. When it was clear that he didn't mind it, he carried on, "my sister and I, we were supposed to haul all of these, you know? We planned it all: while you were doing whatever shit you're gonna do with that redhead, we were supposed to carry these to the forest outside, and then we're gonna bury them. Then we'll return after winter and dig it all up.

"But now of course, my sister's gone, and I can't do this shit alone. So, what do you say?"

The tall drow paused to think.

"No one will know, come on. We'll take a vacation after winter. Tell the boss we'll do some shit, I don't know, fuck some girl at the beach or whatever. But really we're gonna sell these treasures off."

The tall drow was still thinking.

"Come on. It's a solid plan."

Instead of giving an answer, the tall drow changed the subject instead, "Why did you bring your sister with you? Earlier, when you went down to the village? You were supposed to be discreet."

"I didn't bring her, she wanted to come. She said she was bored. She wanted some action and all that."

"Nobody is supposed to see us."

"It's just the villagers. That duke guy and his soldiers left an hour before we went down there. No one's gonna dare look for us here, after we burned their inn to the ground. They'll all be shittin' scared right now.

"Your sister was such a pain in the ass."

"Well, she's dead now. So, I promise you, her take on this, I'll give to you all. We'll split it square, even though it's my whole idea."

"It'll take us hours to carry all this shit out."

"Yeah. Let's hope the redhead takes her time..."

"And if not?"

"We'll find our own time."

Under cover of darkness, Rei signalled for Minos to attack on three. Rei pulled out one of his daggers and pointed it towards the shorter, injured drow. Minos, however, signed that he didn't have a dagger on him, and gestured towards his sword. Rei shook his head, Minos agreed. Drawing a sword from its sheath would be too noisy for the stealthy approach they were trying to pull off.

Rei grabbed another dagger and tossed it towards Minos. The young nobleman tried to catch it but his hand hit the edge of a table and the dagger clattered on the floor.

The two drows reacted immediately and turned around to where the noise came from. The tall drow found Minos crawling out of a table picking up the dagger from the floor. However, the injured drow was already wrapped under Rei's arm with a blade pointed on his throat.

"Well that sucks," groaned Minos. The tall drow looked at him and his companion, then looked at his colleague. Both of them are confused. "I was supposed to grab you by the neck, and threaten you with a knife, but I'm not very good at stealth. I'm a hack-and-slash kind of guy."

"Who are you?" the tall drow asked.

"We're supposed to ask you that question too. Who are you? What are you doing here and what do you want with the wizard girl?"

"So you're from the village?"

"No, not really," said Minos, "let's just say I'm a concerned citizen."

"The bitch is dead."

"Nah, that's not what he heard."

"I will tell you nothing."

"Then your friend is dead."

"I don't care."

"Fuck you, man!" the injured drow reacted. Rei pressed the dagger harder on his neck.

"We're all expendable here," explained the tall drow, "you can kill all of us, it won't matter. But the boss will make sure that you two will not get out of this alive."

"Where is she?" asked Minos.

"She's in the dungeon," said the tall drow. Minos figured he was lying.

"I'm not gonna ask again." Minos slipped Rei's dagger in his belt and reached for his longsword, pulling it out of its sheath, noise and all.

"I ain't gonna tell you shit."

"I know where she is," pleaded the injured drow.

"Shut up, fool!" answered the tall one. "Or I'll gut you myself." The tall drow reached for the handle of his sword on his back.

"Hey now," Minos warned, "careful, or it's your friend's neck."

The tall drow pressed his hand on the hilt and slowly pulled it out of its sheath, defiantly ignoring Minos' threat.

Minos hated it when people call his bluff, cause then he would do exactly what they were expecting him not to do. He looked at Rei and gave him a signal. With one quick flick of his wrist, the foreigner sliced through the injured drow's neck, not giving him time to react.

The tall drow jumped up to Minos, trying to land an overhead swing on his unprotected head. Minos parried with his sword and stepped away. "Go, find Cassana," Minos ordered Rei, "I got this."

Rei dashed out of the room as Minos tried to take his own swing. The tall drow parried and dodged as well. They danced around each other in the big chamber, minding the exhibits that surrounded them. Swing. Parry. Dodge. Minos could tell from the tall drow's stance and moves that he was as good as him with the sword.

Minos continued with their dance, while waiting for an opening. The drow was taller than him, which means he had a wider reach, and his sword was longer as well. It was an advantage that he can easily turn into a disadvantage, all he needed to do was get close enough where the fae-folk's reach would be ineffective.

He watched the drow's movements carefully, and calculated his rhythm. Swing. Finally. Minos parried and twisted his elbow, pointing his enemy's sword away from him. He turned and found his back against his back. He pulled his sword in and took another swing aimed at the drow's neck.

But the drow caught wind of his move and raised his arm up to block. Minos' blade planted deep through his opponent's armored bracer, and his blood started dripping along the edge of his sword.

As Minos pulled back, the drow aimed for a thrust right at his collarbone, but he managed to dodge away, barely keeping his balance. "That was a good one. Good, good." Minos remarked with a sly smile.

The tall drow grunted angrily and tramped towards him, proceeding to pound him with his sword and completely disregarding his guard. Minos blocked all of his swing with his own sword, and for every hit, sparks lit the dark room like flashes of lightning. One final swing from the drow and Minos took advantage of his recklessness and kicked him right in the groin. The drow squirmed in pain and Minos swung the handle of his sword and smacked its pommel right into the drow's temple.

The drow staggered back before dropping and kneeling. Minos then grabbed his head and smashed it on his knee. Feeling groggy, the tall draw struggled to stay upright. Minos kicked his sword arm and his blade fell, clattering away across the floor.

"See, now I'm taller than you," Minos said. He raised his blade up, ready to thrust its pointy end down on his opponent's shoulder blade when he felt something tugged on his belt. Minos failed to notice the drow pull out Rei's dagger from his waist, and all his eyes managed to see was him using it to stab his thigh.

Minos let out a painful yelp. And the tall drow stabbed him repeatedly, over and over. Minos screamed in pain and took a few steps back. "Fuck you, man!" he screamed. He pressed his palm on his thigh to try and stop it from bleeding. He found a low glass case to sit on and tried to stretch his wounded leg.

The tall drow stood up with a second wind; he smiled, and ran towards him with the dagger in hand. Minos gripped on his sword tightly, and as soon as the drow was close enough, he lifted the sword and plunged it right below his ribcage. The combined force of his thrust and the drow's running momentum was enough for the sword to tear through his chain shirt, deep under his flesh, and Minos felt the blade hit the back of the drow's spine.

"Final question," Minos blurted out, exhausted. "Answer me and I'll let you die quickly. What are you planning to do with Cassana?"

"Fuck you." The tall drow answered, blood and saliva spurting out of his mouth.

"Fine then." Minos grabbed Rei's dagger from the drow's hand, and pushed him down with his back to the floor and face towards the ceiling. "Bleed to death." Minos pulled his sword off from his torso and stepped over him before limping towards the exit door.