After that debrief, Helianna was certain The Academy was keeping an eye on her. She really couldn’t imagine trusting The Academy after learning how controlling they were, both with their own people and throughout the world. Regardless, they were still the most powerful organization on the planet.

If she wanted to escape, it would have to be perfect. Clearly, the other team hadn’t been successful and they were a larger group with much more experience. Of course, they had their own issues and being a larger team wasn’t always better so she wasn’t sure how much it helped them. It may even be easier to hide while being alone. If she could escape The Academy’s eyes, she could probably make it, at least for a while.

Then another question came to mind. Should she try to help any of the others? Leaving them to be pawns felt wrong, but she didn’t feel that she could save them reliably. She wasn’t sure how strong the influence was on the unaware so for all she knew, trying to help anyone could just be a death trap. And if she wanted to help someone, who would she even tell? Isela and her teammate? What about the nulls? They weren’t under The Academy’s magic influence, but they all still believed in The Academy.

The longer she thought about it, the more she felt alone. She wasn’t even sure she’d be able to escape on her own, much less pulling others behind her. She had always felt somewhat alone, hiding her powers away from everyone and then becoming an assassin. Now though, she had to hide from everyone. The only people who knew about what The Academy was doing were now weakened and likely heavily monitored.

The loneliness slowly became overwhelming, which made her thoughts drift to her family. She had done her hardest to avoid doing that the past few years as it only felt painful. She had always hated to leave them behind, but suffered through it because she believed that she was doing it for the greater good. Now? She realized it was all a lie. Was the point of pulling her away from her family just to make it so she was more easily influenced?

Regardless, she now had her own goals. Escape The Academy and find her parents. She knew escape would be next to impossible, but she couldn’t just sit back, watch, and do their bidding. Even if it took her years, she would escape.

20

The next few months went by agonizingly slowly. While working, she slowly built up a small stockpile of equipment for when she eventually left. It wasn’t big, but it was enough to be useful without encumbering her. Figuring out how she would escape their notice took much longer. In the end, she never came up with a solid solution before she received another mission. Every idea she had was based on luck and she didn’t want to rely on that.

In contrast to last time, this mission was a solo mission. If she ran into trouble, she still had a safety net in the form of another ithrax team in the same city doing their own mission. She double checked her belongings several times, ensuring she was prepared for her mission before setting out. This mission was a straightforward assassination. Apparently, some greedy idiot had conquered and killed a small dungeon so that he could take the heart for himself. This was forbidden by The Academy so she was sent to assassinate him and take the heart. His greed had of course triggered a dungeon break, releasing all of the mana-soaked animals that were both highly dangerous and aggressive out into the surrounding environment. The other team would be handling them.

After how her last mission went, she wasn’t sure she could fully trust her information. She couldn’t exactly fight back or run away yet, but she wouldn’t kill without hesitation. This trip was also much further away, all the way over in Tilland and nowhere near the war. She was actually somewhat grateful for this as it would give her plenty of time to work on her magic where others couldn't be around to see it.

When the mission began, it went fairly simply, albeit slowly. She took a ship from the island and had to sail almost a month east all the way across the Itasic Ocean until they reached the edge of Tilland. Once again, she got horrendously seasick, something that she was realizing was going to become a regular problem for her.

Most of Tilland’s coast was in the Broken Ocean, but they fortunately had a small stretch that was outside of it. She hoped she’d never have to sail into The Broken Ocean, but she knew it would likely be inevitable if she didn’t escape. The wild magic within the Broken Ocean was dangerous and she wanted nothing to do with it.

The ship would arrive in a small port town along the safe stretch of land named Slovness. The team sent to deal with the break had departed earlier due to the time sensitive nature of the mission. Thanks to difference in schedules, she wouldn’t have to worry about interacting with them unless absolutely necessary.

In Slovness, she rented a small one-man carriage. She could’ve used a horse as she didn’t have much luggage, but she thought it would be better with the small cabin space. She could get better sleep and it might be helpful for the mission. If she needed to go faster to escape, she could separate the horse from the carriage. Besides, The Academy was paying for it.

Fortunately, after such a long boat trip, the carriage ride was much shorter, taking barely more than a day. When she finally arrived at her destination, she was surprised at how small it was. It was even smaller than her hometown, which seemed unusual for a dungeon town. Usually, they were incredibly prosperous and blossomed into large cities.

She ended up having to park her carriage at the edge of town. Carriage lots were typically pretty secure, but in such a small town, she wasn’t so sure. She took all of her equipment with her except for her extra clothes to be safe. She headed straight towards the tavern and hailed the man running it. He spoke before she could even ask anything.

“I ‘ssume yer here for da break?” He spoke incredibly quickly and with a heavy accent, requiring her to take a moment to understand what he said.

“Something like that. You got a lot of people here because of it?”

“Yessiree! Gotsa’ ithrax fro’ da Academy too!”

“You still got any space?”

“Lil’ bit. Only a cuppa more rooms, dough. I ‘ssume ya need one?”

“Yes, I’m not sure how long though.”

“As ‘ith ev’ryone. Dat’s seventy-t’ree coppa.” She handed over the money. “Need anytin’ else?”

“Any knowledge on the one who caused this mess?” She reached into her purse as she asked, making it clear for him to see, prompting a laugh from the boisterous man.

“No need fer dat, missy! I’m happy to sell ‘is ass out. ‘e ruined dis settlement!” He spit to the side unconsciously. A second later, he realized what he did and grumbled to himself as he started cleaning it up. “Talk to Eann in da Horse’s Head. ‘e got people tracking da man down now.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“How did this happen? Why is the settlement so small?”

“It’s a bran’ new place ‘ere. Hadn’t had no time to grow and secure i’self .”

“Thanks.”

“No prob’em.”

She left the establishment and sighed. She hoped that the other people she talked to on the trip wouldn’t have such a strong accent, or at least as strong as that man did. She found it hard to understand, which made her job both slower and more mentally taxing. She looked around and thanks to the miniscule size of the settlement, she found the Horse’s Head quickly. She braced for another bad accent as she stepped in.

It was a simple two story building with an entrance desk and a large sitting area on the bottom floor. Behind the desk sat a wiry human woman with frizzy red hair.

“Is there an Eann I can talk to here?” Helianna asked. The woman looked up from her book with tired eyes.

“Watcha need, hun?”

“The tavern keeper said to talk to Eann about the man that caused this whole mess.” The woman looked Helianan up and down and raised a judging eyebrow. “I was hired to deal with the asshat.”

In the efforts of trying not to obviously point her work towards The Academy, Helianna was masquerading as a mercenary and was dressed in something that accentuated the wiry muscles that she had developed. Her clothes immediately proved helpful when the woman looked her up and down with a more critical eye.

“Could see dat. He’s upstairs.” Helianna nodded her thanks and headed up the stairs. She saw several closed doors, but the one at the end was wide open and she could hear the scratching of a pen inside. When she entered, she found a pitch black kinuze with black swirling eyes, something she didn’t know was possible. It wasn’t until he spoke that she realized she’d been gawking.

“You can stop staring now,” he said with a sigh, knocking her out of her reverie.

“I apologize sir, I’ve never-”

“Seen a black kinuze before?” he interrupted. “Yeah, heard it before. Why are you here?” Fortunately, his accent was neither as strong as the tavern owner’s, nor did he speak as fast.

“I’m searching for the man who started this. I heard you’re tracking him?” He finally looked up at her, the roiling blackness of his eyes locking on to her.

“I am. Why are you searching for him?” he asked.

“I was hired to kill him.”

“And what are your plans for the heart?”

“That was my payment.” He tsked.

“Fine, I can work with dat. Dis settlements fucked anyway. Only here cause of the dungeon. Let’s go.” He abruptly stood up and brushed past her.

“What?” she asked, surprised.

“Let’s go,” he called back, not even bothering to look at her. She sighed and followed behind him. She could undoubtedly track down her quarry herself if need be, but she was sure it would be much faster with the aid of the locals. That did mean she’d have to deal with their strange mannerisms, apparently.

The kinuze spoke to the woman at the front for a few moments before quickly moving on. He led her back to the carriage lot, where he hopped in his own carriage, one of the only other carriages there. She hopped on her own and quickly followed behind, not wanting to rely on him for transportation.

They rode for several hours and Helianna wanted to ask him several questions but the road was barely ever wide enough. When she asked, he only provided curt responses about leading her towards their target. Before she could continue her questioning, the road thinned again and she had to drop back. This all felt suspicious to her, but she was confident she could fight her way out. And if not, death was always an option. It’s not like it would be permanent for her. Eventually, they stopped at a more respectable sized town, albeit still small.

“Is he here?” she asked after they’d both parked their carriages.

“No.” She stopped in front of him, blocking his path.

“Then why are we here? And if you’ve known where the target is, why are you only going after him now?” The man rolled his eyes and huffed in frustration.

“He’s nearby but I need a conventional tracker for dis. And I waited cause I need a fighter. Dat’s obviously you. Can we go now?”

She rolled her eyes. His logic didn’t make sense to her as Eann could surely get someone capable who’d be happy to take the man down. She decided she didn’t care though and just wanted to get it over with. She stepped to the side and he rolled his eyes again.

“Tank you.” He then led the way to the tavern, where he loudly announced, “Looking for Yosh!” The tavern keeper laughed.

“What did the ijit do dis time?”

“He’s a good tracker. I’m hiring.”

“A real hire for Yosh?” asked the Tavern keep in surprise. “Dat’s a new one. He’s on the first door on your right upstairs.”

Eann nodded and pushed his way through the tavern, Helianna in tow. When he got to the door, he opened it with a bang. Inside was a tall wiry man with bushy red hair, who jumped and scrambled away from the door.

“E-Eann?” he stuttered. “Why are you here? Doesn’t matter.” He moved back to the desk he was at and continued to pore over his papers. Helianna was surprised. She recognized his accent. He was from Wulvinia, like her.

“I have a job for you,” Eann proposed. Yosh glanced over at Eann, but shook his head.

“No, I need money.” Helianna and Eann looked at oeach other perplexed.

“You will get money for da job.”

“No, no, no. I need money.” Eann started to step forward but Helianna grabbed his arm.

“This is the guy? Is he even all there?” Eann pulled out of her grasp with a scowl.

“He should be. He was last time we talked. He’s good.” Eann walked up to the wiry man and grabbed his collar. He turned Yosh to him and slapped him in the face.

“How much money do you need?”

“Uh, I need a gold.”

“A gold? Dat’s a lot less dan I was expecting.”

“I can’t get that! Who needs a tracker these days?”

Helianna interrupted with a frustrated tone. “We do. And we’ll pay you the gold. Will you do it?” Yosh looked at her shocked, noticing her for the first time.

“Where are you from?” he asked, prompting a scowl from her.

“Doesn’t matter. You in?” He nodded excitedly. “Good, let’s get going.”

“Wait!” Yosh called as Eann started walking away. “What am I tracking?” Eann was already out the door and Helianna sighed as two of them started following him.

“We’re tracking a person.”

“I’m going to need more information than that.”

“His name is Jolan Tarbot and he stole the heart of a dungeon core. Eann’s going to have more information on the man.”

“I can see why you’d want my help. That would make sense with the slight increase in wildlife that I’ve seen. Running away from the monsters and all.”

Helianna grunted in acknowledgement, but didn’t respond, leading to a lull in the conversation. By the time they caught up with Eann, he was already waiting for them in the carriage lot. Eann provided the first half of the money to Yosh, claiming he’d get the second half afterwards. However, instead of riding in the carriages, they saddled their horses and rode out. Eann claimed the carriages would be safe at the lot and horses without carriages would be less obvious on the side of the road when they’d need to be left for a while.

As they rode, Eann filled Yosh in on Jolan’s information as he guided them towards the man’s last known location. Before long, they reached the edge of the woods. There, they left the horses by the side of the stream where they had access to plenty of food and water, and should be fine for weeks. Assuming the place she had rented the horse was at least half-rate, the horse should be trained to remain in place as much as possible unless it was in danger.

Helianna and the others did a final check of all their belongings and equipment. They then started to walk a short stretch of the forest where Eann’s tracking had lost the man, although he did not reveal how he had managed to track Jolan so far. Before long, Yosh managed to find a trail. Helianna had trained to track, but it was nowhere near the level that Yosh was, and without him, she didn’t think she would’ve found it. Regardless, the hunt was on.