I had seen some heinous stuff during my years as an assassin, but the sight of the devastation laid bare before me was enough to chill me to my core. It was as if a bomb had detonated in the downtown area of the city. Without warning dozens of lives and homes were turned into a pile of blood and rubble.

For them, it wasn’t about making Cedric money – that much was evident. They weren’t trying to handle this subtly. The kid recklessly demolished an entire row of houses and probably killed a few dozen people in the process. That wasn’t the kind of thing you’d do if you were concerned about the heat.

Cedric was concerned. He prized his reputation more than his money. If he had any control over what these assassins were doing, they wouldn’t have launched this kind of brazen attack. There was always the small possibility that I was given the wrong impression about him though.

He was still laughing. He turned to face the gangsters and fired the rest of his magazine, killing three, until it was empty. He tossed the gun aside and started to unload even more devastating spells. Lightning bolts and blasts of energy dispatched even more. The frontline was collapsing and more of them were making their retreat.

If I didn’t act soon then my window of opportunity would be gone. We came here to try and catch one of them alive. I briefly entertained bringing Adrian and Max over so we could drag the heaviest of the three away, but they weren’t going to let us do that now that the gang members were running for the hills.

The only thing left was to leap over the stones I was hiding behind and take the fight to them. I drew my gun and peered over the top. It was then that the youngest assassin turned and spotted me out of the corner of his eye. He swung his pistol around and fired at me, but I was already hidden safely behind cover.

“You again?” he roared. His voice broke from the intensity of the shout. They were having trouble controlling their emotions.

“Leave her! We need to kill the rest of ‘em!”

“Shut up!”

He was focused entirely on getting rid of me. He was going to use one of his spells on me, I could feel the shifting energy in the air. I ducked away from the rock and soon after it exploded into a shower of dust. The force of the explosion blew water and mud into my face, temporarily blinding me.

I moved back up and fired back with a spell of my own. It was effective against his friend, and seizing up his muscles would keep him from attacking for a time. He saw it coming from a mile away, and he was ready for me. He held out his hands, and the air in front of him shimmered with energy. The bolt met the transparent barrier and dissipated before reaching him.

That got my attention.

He reversed the ionisation of the air and deflected it. That was improbable at best and potentially deadly to himself at worst. To react to a lightning bolt travelling at that speed was simply impossible, so the only defensive measure one could use was to hold it up like a shield for an extended period. That technique would rapidly drain your magic reserves and lead to a sudden bout of sickness.

I’d tried it away from prying eyes a few times after the fights at the party and theatre – but could never do it for any longer than a few seconds before losing my sense of balance and having my stomach leap into my mouth to say hello.

That huge blast, the bolts he was throwing with liberal abandon, and now the defensive shield versus my counterattack – there was no doubt now that they were modified in some way. They possessed inhuman mana reserves that allowed them to play god with the people they targeted.

He locked eyes with me, and I got out of the way as soon as I could. I couldn’t kill this guy with magic, and bullets weren’t phasing them either. Getting into a one-on-one battle with him was the fastest way to earn myself a personal plot in this graveyard.

He chased after me, impulsively, with eyes reddened by rage and, frothing, gnashing teeth. I couldn’t lead him back towards the wall where Max and Adrian were hiding. I had to keep his aim pointed squarely at me and minimize the collateral damage he might cause.

He replied with a bolt of his own. I felt out my hands and summoned a shield as soon as I saw his fingers moving. He pressed the attack, firing two more. Between summoning it and dispelling it, I wasted energy equivalent to half of a nihility spell.

“Why won’t you die?”

“We’re not anywhere close to the end of this story - and I’m the leading lady.”

I wanted to knock him out and take him alive, but I couldn’t risk losing my own life in the process. If I used up all of my mana reserves recklessly then I wouldn’t be able to kill him if the situation got out of my control. I had enough left for one nihility bomb. I could explode his heart, brain or spinal column from a short distance and put a stop to him.

He stepped forth but paused in front of me.

“You’re not one of those criminals, are you?”

The white handkerchief was still in my coat pocket. Why did it even matter? He’d shown no care at all about all of the people he was killing by doing this. Now he was trying to distinguish between friend and foe – far too late to make up for the damage he caused.

His face twisted into an obsessive sneer; “It makes me sick. Hundreds and hundreds of people lining the streets to celebrate gutter trash like them. Not the actions of great and good men, but murderers, robbers and rapists. But you’re different, I can tell.”

His gaze focused on my face, still half-concealed beneath the brim of my hat.

“There’s a festering rot at the heart of this city. That’s what my Dad always says. People all too happy to wallow around in their own vice, their own muck, and they squeal and cry when someone tries to do the right thing and clean it up! Like you...”

“Like me.”

“I can tell from your accent that you’re a well-to-do sort. You’re here to do charity – but you’re only going to teach them how to wallow in their own mistakes. It’s time for their punishment.”

I was not going to explain my reasoning to this lunatic. He was running his mouth.

“Punishment? What did those people on the street do for you to blow them away?”

“They’re all in on it!” he rasped, “They’re creatures of habit. A bunch of cockroaches who wouldn’t do the right thing if their lives depended on it!”

What a bore this kid was. Didn’t he have anything more interesting to stake his life on? It was certainly the type of collective punishment tripe that the monarchists loved to trot out whenever a tragedy happened in a poor area of the growing cities.

“Are you trying to talk me to death? I’m not interested in charity, so stop delaying and play your hand.”

His outstretched hand dropped to his side, and his stance slackened as if the energy had been sapped from his body.

“Sorry. Dad says I’m only allowed to kill those gangsters. You’re not one of them, even though you’ve got a gun and all that.”

That didn’t make a lick of sense to me. He was going to leave me alone even though we were trying to kill each other a moment earlier. I scowled and launched a bolt of energy at him, but he was already wise to it. He summoned a barrier in an instant with a flick of his wrist, before blowing me away with a concussive shockwave.

I lost hold of my gun during the trip. I slid down the side of the hill on my back and came to a stop in a muddy puddle near the bottom by the exterior wall. I shook the stars from my eyes and pulled my feet from the bog, powering my way back up to the destroyed rock formation.

I spotted him and his accomplice dragging their unconscious friend out of the rear gate. According to him, I wasn’t good enough to waste a bullet on. That would be the last mistake he ever made.

Veronica was still lying there in the ditch. Again my better judgement, I decided to wake her up and use her as an extra pair of hands against the assassins. Running as fast as my weakened legs could carry me, I skidded over the embankment and down into the channel where she was hiding.

Veronica’s friend was a complete write-off. He took the brunt of the blast and was already deceased. Every part of his body that could be broken was. I grimaced and moved past him to reach my erstwhile Mother. She survived, somehow, and was in excellent shape considering what happened. She was caked in a mixture of his blood and the dirt that flew during the spell attack.

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“Wake up!”

I grabbed her by the collar of her coat and shook her. She groaned in pain and slowly came to, peeling open her ruby eyes and staring up at me in a daze.

“Maria?”

“They’re getting away! Get up!”

My urgency snapped her out of it. She twisted around and met the glassy eyes of her dead companion. She ignored the grisly injuries that took his life and rifled through his coat pockets, eventually retrieving another gun to replace the one she lost in the chaos. I hoisted her back up onto her feet and helped her out of the ditch she’d hidden in.

The gang members were in full retreat. Several more bodies had been added to the ones that were meant to be buried. The graveyard was in a state of extreme disarray. Headstones riddled with bullet holes, trees destroyed where they stood, and the already infirm ground churned into a treacherous bog.

Veronica followed me towards the back gate, where the assassins had fled with their unconscious friend in hand.

“I told you to stay out of this.”

“And you thought that I would listen? We still have a chance to catch them. They’re carrying an unconscious body.”

Veronica spared a second glance at the cone of destruction that he summoned forth.

“Bloody hell!”

Adrian and Maxwell were still waiting for me at the wall.

“I’m beginning to think again about capturing one of these men alive,” I complained.

“And then we won’t have any answers about what my uncle is doing,” Adrian replied whilst eyeing Veronica wearily, “You’re bringing her along too? The last time you spoke she was pounding your head into the floor.”

I smiled, “Water under the bridge, I’m sure.”

Veronica moved things along; “Did you see where they went?”

Adrian nodded, “Yeah – down that road, there.”

“If they’re going that way then I think we can intercept them.”

Veronica took the lead, whilst Adrian and Max tried in vain to keep up with us as we sprinted down the road. There were still huge crowds of people panicking and trying to flee the scene, or hiding behind whatever cover they could find. A few prone figures littered the surrounding streets. I kept a close eye on them as we went by.

Veronica applied her extensive knowledge of the area to predict where they were headed. They were also carrying a hefty man, and the kid wasn’t going to be much help when it came to providing brute strength. We got about two blocks away from the graveyard before something caught my eye.

There was another person face-down in a puddle by the side of the road, but I recognized him on sight. It was the very same assassin I’d sent to bed using an errant stone before. He was right there in front of me.

The kid and his other accomplice had dumped the guy into the nearest gutter once they figured out that he was slowing them down too much. We almost tripped over him, but I stopped and took a closer look before we continued the chase.

“Stop! This is one of them.”

Far from a well-oiled machine, it seemed to me that these people weren’t particularly skilled in the art of getting away with murder. Veronica knelt over him and locked his arms behind his back, before rolling him over to face the sky.

“Why is there a lump on the back of his head?”

“I did that.”

“You half immolated him too.”

Despite all of that he was still breathing. There was a small cut where the stone grazed his head, but it was already scabbed over with an extremely dark mass of congealed blood. I noted that as odd. Was that why they boasted such incredible durability? It would make sense if their wounds could close with that kind of speed.

“Goddess help us. Why did they dump him here?”

“They did not want to be caught. It appears that our window of opportunity has passed this time. I was hoping to catch two so we could split them between us.”

Veronica’s brow furrowed. She stared at our motley trio with nothing but incredulity in her eyes.

“What are you three going to do with one of them?”

“Have a pleasant chat - over some tea.”

Veronica shook her head; “Try saying that without the evil grin next time.”

There was a looming sense that this was as good as it was going to get. The other two had slipped the next, but Veronica was happy enough to come away with at least one person to interrogate. I wondered how they would restrain him given the demonstration of magical might showcased by his friend. A simple jailhouse would not be able to hold him back for long, even the heavy metal cuffs wrapped around his wrists were looking somewhat vulnerable.

“Don’t you have to go back there and clean up the mess?”

“That’s for the police to worry about – not me.”

Not even a spec of concern about her dead partner either. If she’d been doing this job for as long as I believed she had, then it wouldn’t have been the first time that someone died next to her. People all reacted differently to those types of stresses, even ones who were used to them.

“And if you’re talking about the other agent, then I have some news for you. Every single one of us knows that we’re already dead men and women walking. Our lives were forfeit the moment we were drafted into this.”

“That doesn’t mean much if you didn’t choose it.”

“It doesn’t matter. The head office will take care of the body. I’m here to ensure that we find out where these killers are coming from so that we can put a stop to them. Now, I’d strongly advise that you stay out of my way. Go back home.”

Adrian and Maxwell shared a nervous look.

“Do you honestly think that barking orders is going to end the way you want? We’ve been through this before.”

“I’m saying this as an officer of the law, Maria. I may work under the notice of the general public – but I cannot accept you interfering with the process. The only reason you were allowed to accompany me last time was because I let you.”

“I recall that we made a deal, that I would follow your orders, and I did until you left me behind. I highly doubt that you morons - or any of the bumbling idiots in the police - will be capable of solving this little problem. If there are ever charges filed, political pressure will see them dismissed with haste.”

Maxwell interrupted our family feud; “Is this the best time to be arguing? What if this bloke wakes up and blows us all away with his magic?”

“I’m not turning him in to the police,” Veronica said, “When did you ever get the impression that I trust them to deal with this? They wouldn’t need an entire agency of us if that was the case.”

Veronica hoisted him back up and led us through the alleyway until we reached the main road. We kept going around the corner, and she then flagged down a carriage that was waiting on the corner. The driver jumped down and took his legs, and they both threw him into the back of the cargo area like a sack of potatoes.

We kept a safe distance from him so that he didn’t suspect Veronica of blowing her cover. She turned back and approached us again.

“I already told you that my first priority is protecting you. I don’t understand why you find that so difficult to accept.”

“I do accept it,” I replied, “But that does not mean that I will stand idly by and rely on you to solve all of my problems. There are other factors that I must consider.”

Max shivered, “Maybe she’s right. This all seems like too much for us to handle.”

“Oi! It’s my life that’s in danger here!” Adrian objected.

“I know that! But did you see what those people just did back there? Not even Maria could handle them!”

Adrian’s explosive anger was subdued suddenly. He took a deep breath and covered his face with his hands. A silent standoff between the four of us was beginning. I was firm on my position, and I made it clear to Veronica before it became even longer.

“I do not have a choice. There is no rational reason for you to believe my words – but if I ignore this situation now, then it will surely return to haunt me in the future. I am being pulled down by gravity and closing my eyes and ears to it will not insulate me. Thus, I turn and face the challenge head-on.”

“This isn’t some game!” Veronica yelled, “You don’t have a duty to do any of this. Leave it to the fools like me. There’s no honour or respect to be salvaged from bloodying your hands with this.”

“I am not doing this for honour or respect. I am doing this to ensure that we can all live comfortably.”

“You already are, and what are the odds of that stopping?”

I kept my voice even.

“Higher than you imagine. Allow me to offer my best guess about present events. Some moron has engineered a new type of human weapon, that now threatens to upend the extremely delicate balance of power in Walser. You’ve been tasked with finding out who did it and why. Failure will lead to another civil war at best, and potentially one that will consume the entire continent at worst.”

Veronica’s face gave me my answer.

“I do not have to justify myself to you. I have enough good reasons to intervene in this plot, some of which you are not privy to. Apologies Adrian, but I did not agree to help merely on the basis of doing you a favour.”

Adrian shrugged, “I thought as much.”

“All of this is connected, inevitably, a chain of action and consequence that threatens to destroy everything it touches. Hiding away in a country estate won’t help when the entire nation is burning to the ground.”

Veronica stood firm though, “I can’t let you come with me. That’s the end of it.”

But she had seemingly given up on trying to ward me away simply by virtue of her asking. I was a rebellious teenager who refused to listen to her Mother – though if she wished to pull rank, then perhaps she should have paid more attention to my upbringing.

Veronica jumped up onto the cart and ordered it to move. I stood on the corner of the street and watched our hard-earned hostage roll away to parts unknown, where she could interrogate him for information about who he worked for.

“What a disaster!” Max griped.

It was. Giving Veronica the assassin was not in my plans – but it was better than coming up completely empty. We were going to run into each other again soon enough, and then I could assess how helpful my effort was in uncovering the conspiracy.

“There’s nothing we can do about it now. The other two have gotten away. One of them was rather talkative.”

“He was?”

“That he was! According to him, the person giving the orders for these brutal attacks is his Father. While my Mother’s kindness is oft misplaced, she has not yet subjected me to a horrible sort of human experimentation...”

Adrian frowned, “Wait, you’re telling me that one of those assassins is the boss’ son? What kind of lunatic sends his own kid to kill a bunch of mobsters?”

I knew the type all too well. He’d also made sure to inject the right type of ideology into him from a very young age. He was being indoctrinated to be the perfect blunt weapon, happy to be aimed at whatever group was being demonized at the moment.

“What are we going to do now?” he begged.

It was time for the nuclear option. Every single avenue I’d pursued thus far had left me empty-handed, with only small clues to go on. This was bigger than I initially thought with implications that could impact the entire country. Letting the monarchists get their hands on an army of super soldiers was not in anyone’s best interest.

There was one last card left to play – and it was the one that I was trying to avoid for as long as possible. We were going to have to visit Cedric and twist his arm, and by ‘twist his arm’ I meant threaten to rip his balls off and shove them down his throat.

“Do you know where your Uncle’s office is?”

Adrian tensed up, “I do. Why?”

“Failing all else – our only recourse is to visit the man himself, don’t you agree?”

He always knew he was going to regret signing a deal with the devil.