Seeing a good arch for Frankie's eyebrows, Nicholas began to pluck. Frankie squirmed and cursed at him while he plucked. A few minutes later, with a now annoyed Frankie, Nicholas said "Okay with that done, Lets work on your eyes."

"First I will teach you a little about your eye for makeup. You have three main parts first is your eyelid, then you have the crease, and finally you have the eyebrow bone. We will start with a primer to these sections, followed by a midtoner." Nicholas quickly applied the primer and started to apply the midtoner, "Keep your eyes open as much as you can."

"How the heck am I supposed to do that when you are touching my eyes!"

"Just try. Good, that's done, after I blend it a bit, we will move on to a darker color. I'm thinking of making you have a set of smoky eyes." He took a blender tool and woked the toner in, then took a black color and carefully applied to the outer corner of Frankies eyes. Finished with it, he took a highlighter color and worked the inside corner of her eyes.

Satisfied with his work, Nicholas took out a Eyeliner pencil and said "It's looking great, now we just need to use this on your waterline. You need to hold still for this one, I don't want to poke you in the eye with it."

"What is a waterline?"

"The lip of your bottom eyelid" Taking the pencil, he carefully highlighted the waterline making her eyes look great.

"Holy crap man, you nearly poked my eye with that."

"Yeah, I've poked my eyes doing it too. Next would be mascara, but your eyelashes are so thick and dark, adding more would make you look absurd. We will finish up by working on your lips." Taking a good lip liner and lipstick out, he carefully applied it to her supple lips.

"There you are finished, what do you think Frankie?"

"Oh I look amazing! Thank you Nicholas" Frankie embraced him in a deep hug, then she stood on her tiptoes and kissed Nicholas.

Stunned for a second, Nicholas felt his body take over and start to kiss her back. His mind caught up a few seconds later and he pulled himself off still tasting her tongue in his mouth. "Frankie this... We can't do this."

"Your right, I'm sorry. I don't even know what I was thinking." Frankie looked dejected and quickly left the room. A few seconds later he heard the bathroom door shut.

"Fucking hell, Nicholas you are a fucking piece of shit." Nicholas told himself using a cleaning cloth to wipe the lipstick off from her kiss. Angry with himself for hurting her, he headed down and finished the meal he had been making. A while later, Frankie came down. Her face no longer had any makeup on it; her eyes however looked puffy and red.

Feeling even more crappy, he said "Frankie..."

"No, please lets just forget about what happened. You said you had a plan?"

"Alright. Going over the notes, we got, I found the nearest temple is only a few day's away. It's the temple of the wolf goddess. Apparently it's hidden behind a waterfall, if we leave today, we will have to camp out in the woods."

"Do you have the gear we need?"

"Yeah, I have everything we will need. Before I went to bed I made up two packs. You'll have to try yours, to see if you can carry it."

Sitting down Frankie began to eat the meal Nicholas made. "How are we going to get out of the city with this lockdown?"

"You are not going to like it."

"Not the barrel trick."

"Yeah, the barrel Trick."

"Didn't Malv take over the warehouse where we used to set it up?"

"Yeah, we are going to have to sneak in. With the lockdown, I don't think he'll have many people there."

"How do you know he hasn't found it and tore it up?"

"Because it would be big news. Malv would have broadcast it."

"I hate the barrel trick. Last time made me unable to stand for a few hours."

"Well your smaller now, so it should be an easier time for you."

Standing up, Nicholas went to the door and said "I'll go and get the packs and then we will head out."

"Thank you Nicholas."

"Frankie you are my closest friend." Nicholas said leaving.

While he was leaving, he heard her say "Only a friend" Again he felt a knife dig into his heart. But he pushed away and carried the two packs to the kitchen.

Frankie had finished the meal and placed their plates into the sink and rinsed them off. When she was done, she tried the pack and found she could carry it without trouble. They set off carefully avoiding the patrols on the streets. They made their way to the Warehouse district near the slums.

Hiding behind a set of junk in the alley, Nicholas eyed their target for awhile not seeing any movement within. "I don't see any movement inside. Stay here Frankie, I'm going to Shadowstep inside."Seeing a suitable shadow inside through a window, Nicholas jumped through and found himself on a catwalk overlooking the warehouse.

Taking a look around, he didn't see any goons of Malv's inside. Some pallets were placed in a defensive position to protect the inner office. He climbed to the floor and opened a side door and waved Frankie inside. Sneaking inside, they carefully made their way to the office.

The office door was locked, with a few movements Nicholas easily picked the lock and entered, a foul smell assaulting his nose. Nicholas flicked the switch on the wall and a few seconds later the mana light inside activated and revealed a horrifying scene.

There was blood congealing on the walls and floor. In the center of the room, were the remains of a man hanging from a series of chains. "Holy shit, I heard Malv was sadistic but fuck man."

Frankie looked a bit closer at the man and said "I think I know him. I saw him a few times at the gabling den's I frequented, well at least before the good ones kicked him out. I think his name was John."

"He must have gone to a gambling den run by Malv and got on his badside." Nicholas said moving to the back and moving aside a large box. "Don't seem like they located the entrance."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Pulling up a set of boards, he revealed a grate installed in the floor. "I'll go down first, then you pass down the packs" Opening the grate he climbed down into the small room. Frowning Nicholas saw the room only had two barrels left. Frankie handed down the packs to Nicholas and climbed down after clearing up their tracks.

"It looks like someone did find this place."

"Well we just have to find something else next time. However, it means we are going to have a tight fit." Nicholas said loading up one of the barrels with the packs. Then he loaded the barrel into the chute. "Alright get into the other barrel."

Frankie got into the other barrel. Nicholas grunted and lifted it into place. Going to the strange magic device, they had discovered years ago, he inputted the code for the waterway near the city exit then hit the countdown. Quickly he jumped into the barrel with Frankie and pulled the cover on. Frankie shuffled around till her ass was directly against Nicholas crotch.

Then Nicholas heard a loud buzzing sound, then a whoosh. The barrel thundered down the chute. Nicholas grabbed onto Frankie to keep her from slamming about the barrel. Bracing he felt himself go up and down in the barrel as it flipped several times.

"Oh god I forgot this part!" Frankie yelled.

Nicohlas suddenly felt the barrel drop and it felt like they were plummeting for several minutes, then something seemed to grab the barrel and they slammed against the inside of the barrel as it shot forward again then with a loud pop the found themselves bobbing up.

Making sure they were right side up, Nicholas unscrewed the top and found they were bobbing in the water way, almost out of sight of the city walls. The barrel went around a bend, and Nicholas grabbed a overhanging branch and pulled the barrels in to the riverside.

Getting out, Frankie looked weak kneed. "That wasn't as bad as last time. You actually made it better, keeping me from slamming against the barrel."

"No problem." Nicholas could feel the bumps he had taken from the ride healing. "We will walk a few hours in that direction before we set up camp for the day."

Leaving behind there gear, they began to walk.

----------------------------------------

Feeling a bit better after watching Nicholas, Jack just walked around for a while before making his way to where the auction was going to be held. The building was tall and menacing, made out of a dark grey stone. Several large stained glass windows covered the front. In the middle of the windows was a figure on a stage that looked like he was performing.

Stepping inside after showing his invitation to the auction, Jack found himself in a grand entrance. There were several posters lining the walls telling of play's that had come to the city. There were several people milling about chatting about the upcoming auction and what they wanted to buy.

From one group Lady Niadas spotted him entering and approached him. "Sir Jack, I'm glad you could make it to our Auction."

"This place looks more like a temple or a theater then a place to hold an auction."

"You are perceptive, this is actually a temple to the God of Entertainment Shaketriang. We rented it out for out auction."

"I see. I have several things I must discuss with you Lady Niadas."

"Of course, I have a private VIP Balcony that we can discuss things in." Lady Niadas led him up a series of grand stairs, and to a private balcony. "No one can see the inside of the balcony outside. In order to bid, you have to use this, press it and it will let the auctioneer know you placed a bid."

She handed him a bidding sign with a button on its side. "Now you wished to speak with me Sir Jack? Is this perhaps about the expedition? Or have you changed your mind about breeding one of my servants?"

"I have not changed my mind about that, rather I have found several things that dissuade me from wanting to accompany the Hawke family on its expedition. I was hoping we could come to an understanding and cancel the contract I signed."

"I'm afraid your assistance is of the utmost importance. Without your spatial skill we will be set back to far. So I'm afraid you must uphold your end of the contract."

"I believe I have several reasons to convince you to change your mind."

"Oh? Is this the part where you threaten me? Go ahead, I need a good laugh for the day."

Frowning Jack said "I know you must have a contract to keep secrets on you. Take it out. I want you to swear to never to reveal what I am about to tell you without my permission."

"What if I don't?"

"Then I will tell you my secrets, and then I will tell everyone every secret I find about you."

"That is a good threat. Not the best for me, since I don't particularly care about my secrets getting out, but a good effort. So I'll take that oath." Lady Niadas said pulling out a piece of paper. "I swear to Onwas, the God of all Oaths and Bindings, that I swear to keep all secrets that learn from Sir Jack and will make every effort to keep the secrets I learn hidden from others, with permission from Sir Jack."

With a flash of light the paper disappeared and a heavy pulse of Divine Energy came down and wrapped into Lady Niadas. "I did you an extra service there." She said smiling at him.

"If I find you have a way around this Oath, I will kill you." Jack said.

"Try a better threat. I do fear death, but you hardly strike me as one who can tolerate blood on their hand."

Unleashing his power on her, She fell to her knees and started to gasp. Coughing out, "What... are you?"

"I am a system. More specifically I am an Avatar, for simplicity just consider me a form of god. Just as easily as they can snuff your life so, can I." Jack lifted the power off of her.

“Oh dear. My predictions on your Identity were completely wrong.” Lady Niadas said getting up and brushing off her dress. “Though, I have to say I’m sort of relieved, with your help this expedition will be a success."