Arthur was decked out in a black tuxedo. Amelie smiled and asked her daughter to stand with her boyfriend and took a few pictures to capture the moment.

They all followed Amy's father out the main entrance where a luxury limo was waiting. The four entered the limo and when they moved, Arthur noticed a car ahead and a car following behind. Security personnel.

The family chatted about Amy's recent adventuring stories. A retelling of what happened at Roulette. Arthur shared about his parents and grandma. He brought up that he was thinking of making his group with his two friends.

Amy squeezed her boyfriend's hand, "A group will need about ten or more people to do a raid of a labyrinth. Even if you count me, you have four. We'll need to recruit more."

"I know, I have been trying to keep a lookout for talent. Maybe that elf we saw fighting in the arena, was classified as a trap finder and we need one of those."

"Good eye, she does seem like a good possibility. We just need to see if she is trustworthy."

Before they could continue the conversation, the car slowed down and parked in front of the luxury hotel. The Waldorf Astoria was a prestigious hotel and hosted many high-society events. An usher opened the door and Arthur stepped out, he extended his hand to help Amy out.

The flash went off repeatedly making Arthur temporarily blind. Amy having gotten used to this whenever she followed her parents tugged him forward and walked the red carpet into the hotel.

"Who is the redhead with Ms. Vanderbilt?" one of the paparazzi asked.

"Maybe a new rich suitor. We'll find out who it is later. Get ready, her parents are coming."

There were more flashes until Mr. and Mrs. joined the couple in the hotel.

The event was boring and Arthur and Amy didn't bother to disguise how they felt. Amy's parents played co-hosts as it was a political fundraiser and they mingled among the crowd.

Arthur picked up the third refill of champagne for Amy and himself, "Is this normal?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your parents come here. They network and you are left alone to fend for yourself?"

"Oh, yeah. Normally it would bore me to death. Most people my age don't have the guts to approach me. Now I have a boyfriend to keep me company, no matter how boring it is. I'm spending it with you," coyly smiled the young lady.

Arthur sipped his drink and kept looking around. Amy noticed the nervous glances and kept her hand around her arm, "It's ok to be nervous. This is your first time at a function."

Arthur narrowed his eyes and leaned in to whisper, "Giggle so it looks like I told you a joke. I'm not nervous, I just feel magic around us and I don't think that's normal. I've been trying to figure out where it was coming from."

Amy giggled and brought her hand to her mouth to hide her lips as she responded, "You think someone is going to try something with all the security here?"

"All the human security. What if someone from the Veiled decided to make a move?"

Amy looked into Arthur's eyes with a little concern, "There are quite a few people here any one of them getting hurt would be front page headline news within minutes."

Arthur guided her to a more secluded area, leaving his empty glass on a table along the way. He positioned himself behind her and held her waist, "Keep your eyes to see if anyone is watching us, I'm going to try to cast a spell."

Amy leaned her head slightly back showing how enamored she was with her companion while her eyes darted slowly to catch if there were eyes on them. She felt the rise of her hair around her nape when she felt the mana emanate from Arthur.

She heard some words then Arthur held her tightly as her eyesight seemed to go hazy for a moment. "I've put a spell on both of us to detect magic. Maybe this will help us see something. The glow that is in the air is the residual magic from the spell or spells that are on the person. What we are looking for are people where the magic is an aura around them. Don't worry, I also put the spell where we don't emanate any magic. Yes, part of my secret."

Amy giggled.

There was an area that was designated as a dance floor. Arthur nudged Amy that way and she understood that they were going to slow dance and try to find where the magic was coming from.

A few couples were dancing on the dance floor. The couple merged into the throng when the music shifted into a waltz. Amy looked at Arthur and her boyfriend smiled, instinctively placing his hands in the right position as they glided the polished floor.

A few twirls, dips, and the eventual end of the song. The two seemed lost in each other. She was surprised that he could dance. He was surprised that he didn't step on her toes. They looked up to the sound of clapping. They looked around and realized the clapping was for them. They even saw the proud smiles from Amy's parents.

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They both moved off the dance floor to catch their breaths when Arthur felt a tug on his arm. He looked at Amy and she was staring at a lady in a black dress. He noticed that the aura was there and there were a few layers of it. Several spells were placed on her.

They both watched her and saw that she was looking at Amy's parents and at another couple that the parents were talking to. "Let's move closer and you keep her to the side of your eyes. I'll try to give the other couple some cover."

Amy's parents noticed their approach and waved them over. "Mr. and Mrs. Morgan, let me introduce my daughter Amy and her beau, Arthur."

Amy smiled and executed a curtsey. Arthur started to bow when he saw a movement, he extended his arm, and a dart stabbed into his arm. Not stopping for a beat he jumped in front of Thomas and took a dart into his back. Amy ran towards the lady in the black dress but the assassin gave her the slip after a couple of turns.

The commotion would have been bigger, but Arthur grabbed hold of Thomas and whispered, "Poisoned darts. I'll pass out soon. Maybe say I'm drunk."

"Excuse me, Mr. and Mrs. Morgan, I would hate to run on such short notice but let's inject our conversation to another day. I need to take care of my daughter's drunk boyfriend," he slung Arthur's arm over his shoulder and helped him towards the entrance. Amelia had called ahead to have their car ready. Mr. and Mrs. Morgan knew that inject meant that they were targeted for assassination and that somehow the boyfriend saved them by taking it upon himself to be the shield.

Amy caught up and all of them went into the limo. Thomas barked at the driver, "Take us to an ER right away."

Amelia removed the darts and saw that there was a mechanism that injected fluid. Both of the darts disintegrated in front of their eyes.

Arthur tried to keep his eyelids open, but he was losing consciousness. "Blood type A+, without magic transfusion needed..." he managed to say before he passed out.

Thomas saw that this was serious, so he called up his contact at the hospital and told them to prepare a blood transfusion with the stated blood type.

The Vanderbilt family only knew Arthur briefly but they trusted him and he just tried to save their lives and the Morgans.

The sun shone through the window and Arthur brought up an arm to block the light. Amy was holding on to his other hand and was sleeping with her face on the bed at his shoulder.

He looked around him and noticed he was in a room with an IV on his arm. Thomas wasn't in the room but Amelia was. She made the motion for silence pointing at the sleeping daughter, and fixed it so that the blinds would block the sun. Arthur nodded and went back to sleep.

A couple of hours later, he woke up to Amy still beside him but also awake. The girlfriend didn't care about impropriety and kissed him as soon as he woke up.

"How long was I out?"

"You were asleep for four days. We had to reach out to your parents to let them know you are in good hands. When they found out I was your girlfriend, the shock made them drop the phone."

"Four days... I must have been in bad shape. One dose would be paralytic and could cause a heart attack. I got a double dose."

"Your heart did stop. They had to use the paddles on you on two different occasions," Amy said with tears starting to well in her eyes.

"Thank you, Mrs. Vanderbilt, thank you Amy for staying with me and making sure I was ok. My parents and grandma would appreciate the care you have given me. Where's Mr. Vanderbilt?"

"He went back to work. He and Mr. Morgan didn't have any leads."

"We have two leads. The poison is not common. This was harvested from a creature that could petrify a grown man. Unfortunately for them, they harvested from a young one so it didn't turn me to stone. The other is the disintegrating dart. The spell needed to create that effect can only be used by assassins. We are looking for an assassin or assassin group that took a contract on the Vanderbilts and Morgans."

"Why would the non-humans target us?"

"Assassins doesn't necessarily mean non-humans. They could also be adventurers who took the money. Right now, they know they failed. The lady in black will want to get revenge on me if she wasn't taken care of as a loose end already."

Arthur reached for the plastic cup of water, Amy got to it faster and brought it closer to him. He sipped the water.

The doctor came around and after some questions, gave him the ok to discharge. The Vanderbilts took him back to their estate.

"Valkyrie?" Amy looked up when Arthur used her adventurer name.

"Are you still with a group?"

"Yes, Valhalla is still active but some of our members have taken some time personal time. The current active members of Valhalla are Bjorn and myself. Bjorn is an earth mage with hammer skills."

Arthur grabs an extra pillow to prop himself up, "Can you contact Bjorn to see if he is willing to accompany you to do a parallel investigation? I'm pretty sure your parents will take the information we've given them to look. I want us to pursue a different angle. Also, I want to increase the number of our group to ten so that we can attempt a raid. This way we slowly learn who are trustworthy to be a part of us."

"Thinking like a leader already. Did you want to register a group?"

"Do we need ten to register?"

"Nope."

"Can you register it for us? Call it Camelot. Also, reach out to Michael Tanner, and see if you can get a message to Danistrae the elf trap finder. I want her to try to recruit her to our group,"

"Camelot? Like King Arthur's Court?" giggled his girlfriend. "Right away your majesty," teased Valkyrie.

Arthur grinned and then waited for her to leave the room. He picked up the communication device. "Kelrick, How much do you know of what has happened?"

"We can't communicate unless you are asleep but we seem to have a two-way street when it comes to memory. Everything I know, you seem to know or instinctively can use. Everything you know, I know."

"The poison and the darts."

"Yes, the poison is from a young basilisk. Few people would rear such a creature. The most likely suspects would be the Morlocks. They are blind and wouldn't be affected by the gaze of the basilisk when they become adults."

"Morlocks, the underground people. Is there any nearby?"

"There might be a colony in New York City. The sewers and subway tracks lead to all sorts of hidden places."

"The darts?"

"That's a little tricky as assassins have the spell for self-disintegration of weapons that would leave no trace when they succeeded in killing their target. In combination with the poison though, I would hazard a guess that the Venom assassin group might have taken a contract. They will not betray their own and will likely kill any inquiries. "

"Can you specify what kind of weapon or method when you send in a contract?"

"With the Venom, it's the type of poison used."

"So, we might be able to lure out the assassin that attempted by using the same method but a different reason and a different target?"

"Clever but you need to have someone to facilitate that contract negotiation without revealing any connection to you. And do save any poison vials on the assassin, we might get lucky and find something that I need to make an antidote for your grandma."

"I'll look for someone who can help with that. Got it, save the vials. Let's lure a snake out."