“Why do we have to meet out here again?” Suran asked. He and Shroom were standing in a cramped and dirty alleyway, close to nowhere. “The sun is setting; it’s almost time to begin and you call me way out here.”

“Why, you ask?!” Shroom stressed, pacing the alley. “Thanks to your tomfoolery, sitting in my home right now is Clyde, Hendrick von Auer, and more armed guards then I care to count.”

“So they believed you.”

“Unfortunately, they did. My entire house is on lockdown, and I was only able to leave by making up some excuse about meeting my informant.” He stopped pacing. “Anyways, only he left the house. Clyde left a few men at his house, I think, for an ambush.”

“How many?”

“Can’t say, but Clyde and his men are spread very thin right now, so I can’t imagine many.”

“Anything else?”

“I made the trip to the castle to divulge the information on the arrival. Might I say, it was not a pleasant experience, but I told them.”

“Go back to your home and keep your head down.” The sun had set. “It’s time.” Suran and Shroom both left the alley and went their separate ways. Shroom, to his home. Suran, to the house of Hendrick von Auer.

It took some time to reach there, considering Shroom had dragged him out far into town. When he got there, he hid in the shadows of the street and watched the entrance. He waited to go in.

Reginald coordinated with several of his colleagues well and got in touch with rioters. They provided weapons and equipment as well as some of their own fighters for the operation. However inexperienced they might be, a mass of angry, armed citizens is nothing to scoff at. If Namnoc’s forces are spread thin, they will be forced to recall their units to respond to a large, belligerent group. Even if they aren’t recalled, it would be fine, Suran thought.

However, that did not seem to be the case. A man came running to the estate, huffing and puffing. He entered the compound and came hustling back out with a line of men behind him. They looked panic and frenzied; he wondered what the situation was out at the docks.

As soon as they cleared the area, Suran went up to the gate. They had left it open in their haste, so he walked in. Fortunately, the front door was no different. He entered the house and moved carefully; it was dark and he knew not what could be in the shadows.

In the house, he could hear the shuffling of feet. Hugging the wall, he followed the sound. The shuffling grew louder and he could make out the sighs of an elderly women. He turned the corner and saw someone travelling the corridors. Rushing up with his sword, he took her by surprise, gagged her mouth with his hand, and rested the sword at her neck.

“Red-haired girl. Can cook. New. Take me to her,” he whispered into her ear.

The woman was frightened beyond belief and led Suran through the house gingerly. She led him to a room in the back of the house and pointed to the door.

“Open it,” Suran ordered.

Wiggling free of the gag, she shook her head, “It’s locked.”

“Then get the key and open it.”

“I can’t…”

“Where is the key? Do you have the key?” She didn’t answer, beginning to breathe heavily. Suran shook her from behind and brought the blade closer to her neck. “Tell me.”

“I-I have it.”

“Give it.”

Again, she shook her head, “I can’t – I’m not allowed.”

Suran didn’t have time for this and ran his sword through her throat. She plopped to the floor into a pool of her own blood. Rummaging through her clothes, Suran found the key. He unlocked the door and carefully pushed the creaky door open. The room was dark so he proceeded with caution. He took two steps into the room and was promptly punched in the face.

“Take that ya piece of shit!” It was Natalya. “Wait, what?” She realized soon after who she had punched. “Oops, sorry! If I knew it was you, I wouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s fine.”

“Maybe if you tried knocking, things like this wouldn’t happen!” She put her hands on her hip with a wide grin. “Anyways, what are you doing here?”

“…” Suran stared at her with a blank expression. He turned around and began walking, “let’s go.”

Together they walked out into the hallway.

Natalya almost tripped and yelped as she exited, “Woah, what’s up with all this blood everywhere? And this dead person?”

“She had the key and resisted.”

“So you killed her? I mean, she was just an old lady…”

Suran glanced both ways and began walking. Natalya appeared to be fine, so the next objective was to find evidence of corruption for Auer.

“Stop going to fast!” Natalya hurried up alongside him, trying to keep pace. “Is there something wrong? You seem a little off.”

He stopped in a large, living room and checked the surroundings. “Nothing is wrong.” He began walking again.

“If you so say.” Natalya followed along as Suran made his way through the home. “So, what are we doing?”

Suran reached the room he had met Auer in before, the study. “We are looking for documents that would incriminate Hendrick von Auer,” Suran explained, opening up the door and entering the pristine room. He headed for the desk and began searching through its contents.

 Most of it was junk: random letters, notes, and scribbles. For the few, they held pieces of information, a shipment here, a payment there, but it was nothing substantive. Regardless, he put them to the side – the small pieces might come together to reveal the bigger picture. He was quickly running out drawers on the desk, so he turned to Natalya, “You’ve been here before right? Anywhere we should look?”

She hummed as she thought, browsing through the bookcase. “Not an idea. I only came in here to give the guy tea – he wanted it all the damn time.”

“Did anything stand out when you came in here?”

“Well, sometimes when I came to give the guy his crap, he wasn’t in here. I’d come in and he was nowhere to be seen even though you never saw him leave.”

Suran began checking underneath the desk, “A secret room?”

“Mayb—” Natalya gasped and Suran heard her fall to the ground.

“What happened?” Suran got out from underneath the desk where he found nothing.

“I was checking out the books and one of them wouldn’t move.” She got up from the floor and brushed her clothes, “Pulled a little too hard on it.”

Suran and Natalya began combing through the bookcase, resulting in many books tossed to the floor. At the end, they were left with several books on the shelf that simply would not come off. Those books came in groups of three where the middle one could partially slide out and the other two didn’t move at all. All the remaining books that could move were slid out, but there was still nothing.

“Is there a switch?” Suran thought aloud. He ran his hand around the bookcase and through the shelves. Unsurprised, his hand felt a button at the top of the bookcase. Pressing the button, he heard a click and the moving of gears. The shelves began to sink into the wall then slide apart into the wall.

“Wow, that was easy,” Natalya mused. When the passage was sufficiently opened, he led Natalya through. “What’s the point of a secret room if it’s so easy to find?”

“If we did not know to look for it, we might not have found it.” Suran walked down a spiral of steps until he reached a cozy, well-furnished room. The furniture in this room was of a different quality then the others rooms – designed much like a guilty pleasure or a retreat. He went straight to tearing through it.

Suran began turning things over, going through cabinets and storage. Natalya joined in as well, but he wasn’t sure if she was doing to help or just wanted to mess up the room. Much like the previous study, everything in this room was organized to the letter. It was unfortunate, Suran thought as he began to rummage through the desk in this room because he had now found what he wanted.

He found general ledgers, shipment lists, invoices, business transactions, letters, correspondences. What could compel someone to retain all this information and not destroy it, he thought. Skimming through some of the letters and notes, the reason became clear; while Hendrick von Auer’s necessity for organization might have contributed, his notes made it clear he trusted no one. On the margins of the papers detailed why he kept each paper, most of them as leverage and information to attack anyone if they dared to turn on him.

Suran collected the papers and put them in a loose envelope. From what he skimmed, he was not sure if it was enough to convict of him crimes – most of it was simply shady business practices – but it could be enough to start an investigation. “Natalya, we have what we need.” Suran began to trek back up the staircase. Reginald said all we needed is to begin an investigation and the King will take care of the rest.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

With the documents in hand, Suran and Natalya headed towards the home of Reginald. As soon as Reginald got the information, he could present it to the Kingdom and make the case against Hendrick. Suran’s job was over, but he wondered what was going on at the docks. Looking towards the water, he saw a faint red glow emit from the shore.

His timepiece read three past nine. The ship was late. He got up from his chair. Such tardiness was not acceptable. There would be consequences for this. Putting his timepiece back into his coat pocket, he headed towards the door to lodge a complaint against the captain. Before he could reach it, a sailor came bursting through.

“S-sir! There is an emergency!”

“What do you mean?” Being late already irritated him and wore his patience thin. Just the thought of more problems made his blood boil.

“It would be easier to see for yourself…”

He stormed up and pushed past the sailor to reach the deck. He sighed and pulled on his gloves, tightening them. There wasn’t an emergency; there was a disaster. As far as he could see along the shore was a raging fire and plumes of smoke.

“We leave for not even one week and this is how my brother runs things?” He rhetorically asked out loud. “I will need a good, long chat with dear Clyde.” He went back to the startled sailor, “Tell the skipper to bring the ship ashore.”

“B-but the docks are on fire, Mr. Haiden!”

Haiden Maxwell grasped the sailor’s throat, raised him into the air, and slammed him up against a wall. “First, it is Mr. Maxwell to you. Second, if you do not do as I say, I will drive the ship myself which means I won’t need any of you. Do you want to know what happens to people I don’t need?”

The sailor whimpered in his clutches, desperately trying to breathe. He nodded without even thinking of his choices, agreeing to follow Haiden’s directions.

Haiden let go, letting the man drop onto his feet. “Now go and tell the skipper like a good boy,” he instructed with a devilish grin, lightly slapping him on the face. The sailor scurried away and, moments later, the ship’s course was decidedly set towards the remains of the docks.

While the sailors grew anxious as they approached the tumultuous shore, Haiden was worried if the smog would dirty his suit; he had just got his favorite white suit clean and the thought of dirt, dust, and blood soiling it annoyed him. The ship approached as close as it could until the fires kept it at bay. Numerous men were along the docks and piers, burning buildings, tossing crates into the ocean, killing Namnoc men.

The ship crew were desperately trying to dock anywhere in the battlefield, but their efforts were slow and unsuccessful. Haiden had enough waiting; his patience was gone. He approached the edge of the ship and leaped through the fire and flames onto the pier. Sailors screamed in amazement and fear from the display. It amused Haiden that leaping only a few dozen feet drew such a reaction.

However, there was no time for amusement. His brother’s mess seemed to be out of hand, and it was up to him, again, to clean up after him. As Haiden walked down the destruction, he unbuttoned his pouch that he kept fastened to the side of his leg. From the several bloodied and burning bodies, whoever was attacking was armed and viscous. He decided to give them no quarter.

“Look, another one!”

Haiden tilted his head at the noise. A large group of men came to be his first opponents. Behind them he could see waves of people lay waste to the buildings, streets, and people. Haiden walked towards the rioting street, undeterred by the men in front of him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” There was no response from Haiden. “Whatever, just kill him like the rest!” A wave of men came surging at him

Haiden put his left hand into his pouch and pulled out a small metallic ball. Continuing to walk, he tossed the ball half-heartedly in the air. It did not fall back down. In the air, a gold and white glow blanketed the ball.

The rushing men were oblivious to the ball, either from the visual obstruction caused by the flames and smoke or from simple bloodlust. However, even if they had notice, it would not have prevented the massacre.

Haiden kept walking right towards the men. The ball began to move. It zoomed through the air with astounding speed right towards the group. One by one, the men were tossed around and tumbled to the ground. The ball was tearing through them, piercing their skin and armor just like butter. Haiden gingerly walked through the field of corpses. He did not want blood to get on his shoes, after all. The ball floated back to Haiden who scooped it from the air and continued along.

He had always hated getting his hands dirty, but his proficiency in magic gave him an out; by using his magic and manipulating mana, he opted to use these metallic balls as his weapon of choice and to do the work for him.

Unfortunately, his work was cut out for him. Using the metallic ball, he tore through any stragglers in his path until he reached the street. The dozen or so he had cut down were nothing to the hundreds of people he saw in either direction. He could tell that these fighters were just ordinary people, not warriors or an army. Even though it looked and felt like a battlefield, it might be better to categorize it as a riot.

At any rate, Haiden did not feel like figuring out the semantics. What he did have to figure out, was who to kill first. The answer was obvious: everyone.

He dug into his pouch again and pulled out two more balls. Tossing them into the air, he gave them the same life he did to the first and let them rain terror upon all. The three glowing spheres dashed to and fro, tearing through everyone indiscriminately.

Haiden froze and so did his orbs. They hovered by his side and he looked to the shadows with a frown. “Stop hiding.” He called out.

A suit of armor walked out of the smoke. The armor said nothing, instead pulling out a dirty white sword and shield.

“How quaint, a person as dirty as the suit of armor they’re wearing,” Haiden said in an attempt to taunt the knight. He slowly slid his hand towards his pouch, but he quickly had to jump back.

From the side, a massive ball of fire flew past him and exploded. A moment later, arrows began to pierce through the smoke aimed right at him. Haiden acted quick, directing his spheres to knock the arrows away, and grabbed several more orbs, throwing them up and activating them.

The knight came bursting through next. Haiden flipped back to avoid the slashes. The orbs in the air responded by glowing brighter then firing of a pulse of energy at the knight. The two dodged each other’s attacks, the knight using his shield to block while slicing at Haiden.

From the wings, a man with a pointy hat walked up and began muttering to himself. A yellow circle appeared before him and began to rotate. He stopped speaking and tapped the circle. A bolt of lightning rushed out from it right at Haiden.

Haiden clutched a few more orbs and pointed his hand at the charging knight. He held his right hand up towards the bolt, conjuring a glowing wall of light. With his left hand, he opened it and released the wave of balls right at the knight. They shot out like a projectile with a force that shattered the ground and dispersed the smoke. The spheres thunderously smashed into his shield, sending him flying right through a building. At the same time, the bolt of thunder darted through and struck the barrier Haiden had erected. The ensuing explosion did not crack the barrier, but decimated the ground and the surrounding area.

With the knight thrown away, he turned his attention towards the mage in the distance. Recalling some of his orbs back, he launched them right at him. Another stream of arrows fired out from somewhere and knocked the balls as they traveled, sending them flying everywhere off target. From buildings to the road to bystanders, the balls demolished everything except the intended target.

He recalled the spheres and commanded them to fire volleys at the mage to keep him moving and prevent him from using spells effectively. More arrows flew into his area from the smoke. Haiden dodged around and used his spheres to knock them out of the air. He paid close attention to where the arrows flew from and was able to make out the form of an archer on top of a building. Grinning with his target in sight, he launched his balls at the location. The archer jumped down as the glowing spheres tore and smashed through the buildings.

Haiden moved up to prevent himself from being cornered at the pier, but the knight was back with a heavily dented shield. His armor was thick and of good quality. Haiden was annoyed; his spheres would have a hard time breaking through the armor without repeated assaults.

The knight was approaching quickly, so Haiden grabbed one of his spheres from the air. He cocked his arm back and threw the ball on top of magic that already propelled it, launching it at an insanely fast speed. At the same time, he did not let up the barrage, having orbs continue to suppress anyone in the surrounding area. The knight stopped his charge and slid to a stop. He tossed his shield to the side, letting himself get dinged by struck by the suppressing fire. He clutched his sword with both hands, flipped it to the broad side, and held it next to him like a bet. The knight watched the ball careful and anticipated its movements. He let the ball focus on him and jumped at the last moment, swinging his sword like a bat and whacking it right back at Haiden.

The ball roared through the air back at Haiden. It traveled so fast, that Haiden barely had time to roll out-of-the-way. It continued to speed through and ripped through building by building on the pier, demolishing them with an explosive force. Haiden got up to counter the knight but stopped immediately.

The knight stood with two other armored warriors to his side. On his right was the mage charging a spell with more soldiers surrounding him. His left had a group of archers with their bows ready to fire.

Haiden was furious, but he had no other option. The balls lost their shimmer and plopped to the ground, harmlessly rolling about. “I surrender,” Haiden said with absolute disgust, going down on his knees and holding his hands up. The knights closed in on him and shackled him. They took his bag and collected all of his spheres.

He looked around and saw total destruction. The Namnoc warehouses and docks were nothing but rubble now. The hundreds of people who swarmed the streets and wreaked havoc had dispersed, leaving a field of bodies and blood. He recognized some of those bodies were once men loyal to Namnoc.

Everything was gone. The battle was lost. The night was over.