The sewer of Tarenfall had opened up into a large hall as Marin and Travis approached the front doors of the Scarlet Eye’s headquarters. Around the corner would be the entrance.

What had used to be a sewer now resembled an abandoned underground fort, most likely used for the military many years ago during some war Tarenfall was involved in. Seeing as the city had now enjoyed relative peace for many years, it became apparent that the rogue organization had adopted the emptied location for their nefarious deeds.

Travis now had on a black ski mask, fully concealing his face and signature hair he sported. With his entire body now being covered, he didn’t look much different than Marin himself.

He usually followed the same routine he always had to a dime when it came to infiltrating the joint, but with Marin assisting him, it was a good time to shake up the actions he normally took.

“There’s a single guard behind this corner,” he whispered to Marin, reminding him. “You know what to do?”

Marin nodded. He was feeling nervous about the events that would shortly unfold, but he tried his best to remain calm. Travis had no anxiety, and that helped Marin to realize Travis was not going into this blindly like he would.

“When I give the signal, we turn the corner. You freeze him immediately. I can guarantee the guard will be there,” he explained.

They hurried down the carpeted hall, dimly lit with torches on either side. When they rounded the corner, Marin noticed a large stone door with a fierce dragon engraving on it. On either side of the door, was a guard.

That made two guards.

The two rogues were both in the uniform of their guild. They wore black leathers with dark purple trim, and red bandannas. They both immediately noticed Marin and Travis. Before they had another second to react, Marin froze the one on the left.

Travis cursed seeing as there was one extra problem than he had anticipated.

Immediately after Marin froze the first, Travis lunged at the second. The guard who was lucky enough to not be chosen by Marin to be frozen over, pulled his daggers and engaged with Travis.

Marin was ready to freeze the second, but Travis had already taken the initiative of dealing with him, and Marin wasn’t confident enough to try and freeze him with Travis so close.

Instead, he watched closely as Travis battled the other. The rogue moved quick, but Travis had a step that was quicker. The rogue went for some reckless stabs, but Travis darted side to side, dodging them, and grasping his arms.

Flames erupted from his palms, burning the arms of the rogue, even through the tough leathers he wore. He winced in pain, and dropped the daggers. Travis easily maneuvered behind the rogue, and put him into a choke hold, preventing him from catching a breath. He struggled, and tried to pry Travis’s arms from his neck, but it was not happening.

The two slumped to the ground as Travis hushed him several times in a soft voice before he passed out. After that, Travis immediately let him go, and got up. One rogue was frozen, the other was now passed out on the ground.

That rogue wasn’t the only one gasping for breath, Travis was now too, due to the exertion from the quick tussle.

“Damn,” he breathed, lungs fighting the twenty coats of tar that lined them. “I’ve… I’ve never seen them have two guards before. That was… unexpected.”

“Are you okay?” Marin asked.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” He panted for a moment, his body bent down with his hands on his knees.

“We need to… keep going. It’s time to pick the lock,” Travis added, now approaching the front door.

He knelt down to the dragon’s mouth. Inside, Marin could now make out a keyhole that was nestled inside. Travis reached into his pockets on either side of his outfit, and produced a lock picking kit that was folded together nicely.

He unraveled it on the ground, and took not an extra second in grabbing two pieces from the set. Marin watched as he worked meticulously, and in silence, doing his best to pick the stone lock in what he had claimed earlier would be in three minutes or less.

“I could have froze both of them easily,” Marin offered. “But you quickly lunged for the second, I didn’t have a chance to do so.”

“I guess I just felt bad about giving you false information,” he responded. “I kind of felt like that extra guard was my responsibility, since I only prepped you for one.”

“I’m flexible,” Marin stated.

“I have a feeling we’ll be finding out. Since they had two guards, I have a bad feeling that they’ve switched up most of what I was expecting,” Travis explained while delicately guiding the two metal hooks into the keyhole.

“I hope you won’t mind going for Plan B,” Travis added.

“Plan B?”

“Winging it.”

As Travis continued to work his magic on the old lock, Marin turned around to be sure no one would drop in on them. When he was sure there wasn’t a rogue lurking, he turned back to check on his progress.

“You’ve picked this lock a lot?” Marin asked.

“Yes.”

“Why don’t they change it out?”

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“They re-key it each time I pick it, but I guess it costs more money than any of these greedy thieves would be willing to pay to get a whole new door.

I guess they’d rather lose an item or two every once in a while than invest in a whole new security system,” Travis explained while wiggling the metal hook in further.

“I see.”

“But they did put two guards out this time, that’s an unwelcoming change I wasn’t happy to see.”

Click!

Travis removed the two metal devices, and turned the tail of the stone dragon that lived on the door. It slowly swung open. He had done it.

As it moved away from them at a snail’s pace, Marin braced himself to face dozens of the order’s members. He would freeze all of them. He had half a mind to warn Travis to stay back, but believed that when the ice started crawling in all directions, he would get the hint.

He tensed up his muscles, and readied his mind for a complex attack.

“Stay close. Remember, most of the order is out doing runs. We shouldn’t see too many people, if any at all,” Travis whispered.

The words were slow to be comprehended, but Marin allowed himself to relax after hearing them. That was correct, Travis had told him that not too many would be around. It looks like he wouldn’t be creating the deadly blizzard he had planned on. Not for now, anyways.

When the door finally had opened enough for them to squeeze through, Travis took the first entry he could. Marin followed immediately after. They were now inside the Scarlet Eye’s base of operations.

It wasn’t glamorous or impressive. The interior didn’t differ by much from the sewers outside of the place. The stone bricks were mossy and cracked, racks of old weapons were on display in the entrance hall. There was no attempt to decorate the room at all. Everything inside was for functional use rather than decoration.

Crates were stacked in a corner, several tables and chairs lined one wall. It was dark and dreary, seeing as the entire establishment was underground. It was all lit by chandeliers dangling from the ceiling, by candles that were in dire need of replacement. Many of the weapon racks were empty, and the ones that did hold a sword or shield, were used and worn.

It was honestly a depressing look in Marin’s eyes. Seeing as he had spent so much time dolling up Nocturne Castle, he felt that the headquarters for such a prominent organization should look somewhat better than what he was beholding.

Was this really some fearful rogue guild that had him in a rare nervous feeling? By what he studied, he believed getting back his necklace would be easier than he thought. This organization wasn’t anything to get riled up over.

“Follow me, stay near the wall. It’s darkest over here,” Travis began creeping to the right of the entrance wall, feeling the bricks against his fingertips as he shuffled by. Marin followed, but didn’t make such a dramatic attempt to sneak to stay hidden as Travis did.

“It’s not as impressive as I thought,” Marin mentioned.

“Don’t let that fool you. These guys are killers. Trust me.”

They crept along the side, listening closely for any movements. Travis reached the end of the hall, and darted his head down the opposing corridor. It was clear.

“This way.”

As they snuck about, Travis made not a noise. Even his footsteps were completely silent. Marin’s poor attire however, did a terrible job in keeping him silent. The old rags rubbed up against each other as he walked, creating a dull but noticeable noise of rough burlap fighting itself. He hoped that it wouldn’t get the two of them in trouble. Along the dark corridor, they approached a room with the door open.

They would need to get past, but seeing as the door was ajar, Travis would need to poke his head in to see if anyone would notice them. He turned around to meet Marin’s gaze, and gave him a signal to stay put until he was ready.

Travis slowly approached the doorway, and peered inside.

A rogue who was sorting coins at a desk looked up.

“HEY!”

Immediately noticing that this rogue was alone in the room, counting money from some unknown source, Travis sprinted into the small enclosure to deal with the accountant.

The rogue in turn lunged over the desk, a move that Travis was not expecting. The rogue was ready with daggers to take a stab into him, but Travis reached out, palm open, and created a fire blast that halted the rogue in confusion.

Black smoke was left from the dirty fire ball, and as the rogue tried to regain his bearings from the unexpected explosion of fire, Travis cut through the smoke and wrapped his arms around his neck to perform another take down.

This rogue was stronger than the last, however, and with just one arm, was beginning to pry himself free. Travis didn’t even notice this was with one arm, until he saw his other flying up with a dagger in hand.

Travis had no choice but to let go of the rogue to steer clear of the sharp metal. Before he could go in for a new attack on the freed rogue, ice instantly formed around the rogue’s entire body, freezing him in place.

Marin walked in from behind the new frozen pillar.

Travis breathed a sigh of relief seeing that Marin had come to his rescue, and leaned against the wall, trying to regain himself.

“Are you okay?” Marin asked once again.

“He was a bit tougher than I’m used too. Probably a senior member,” Travis explained in between breaths.

“I’m sure you would’ve had him though. I merely hastened the final result, right?” Marin responded.

“Exactly.”

“Are we getting close?” Marin asked, eager to switch the subject and end this dangerous mission.

“Somewhat. We have to get past the living quarters, then…” Travis looked up, and saw the shadow of another rogue sneaking up behind Marin.

“LOOK OUT!” Travis roared, throwing his arm up with a pointed finger.

Marin immediately turned around, and barely caught the wrist of the new rogue who had ran down to see what all the commotion was.

The battle was over after the fact, as soon as Marin made contact with this new foe, crackling ice rapidly engulfed the entire body.

“Damn!” Travis exclaimed, shocked at how easily Marin was making this mission seem. “I picked the wrong element! Should’ve gone for ice, seeing how easily you can subdue folks.”

“It’s not exactly easy to get right,” Marin tried. “It’s not the first trick you learn as an ice elemental.”

Travis gestured Marin to talk quieter with a quick hush. It was a reminder that they were in hostile territory and his voice could easily give them away to more rogues.

“At least this job will be done sooner than expected, even with the extra members that are present for some reason,” Travis whispered.

They stopped talking for a moment as Travis listened to see if anyone new was making their way to their location. When it was apparent that was not the case, Travis waved Marin over.

“Let’s keep moving.”