“Alright Helianna, for this mission, you’ll be paired with a full team of higher trained ithrax. You are working with them, but you do not have the same mission and should act accordingly. They will not know who you are or what you look like and you should keep it that way. If they were to run into you in the academy after this mission, they should not recognize you.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“How am I supposed to hide that twenty four-seven?” she exclaimed indignantly.

“You should already have the knowledge and expertise to do this and this is a good first mission to apply it. I won’t die if you fail.

Your mission is to assassinate Duke Estletog of Arington.” He paused for a moment, clearly expecting a response from her.

“Wait, isn’t he a major player in the war? Arington is a part of Empodia, right?” She opened her mouth to continue, but another thought made her briefly pause before continuing.

“He’s been largely unsuccessful though, especially recently. If we’re targeting him, I assume he broke the rules of war? He would only do that if he was desperate or stupid, either one seems likely.”

Her instructor could see when the spark of understanding ignited in her eyes as his silence prompted her to continue.

“Even though he’s an Empodian general, this will help Empodia, won’t it? He’s a terrible strategist and has largely failed throughout the war. If his successor is a better strategist, this assassination could help Empodia fairly significantly. That’s of course assuming the assassination doesn’t cause too much chaos. If Okegora takes advantage and wipes out his army, it could help them too. Are we sure it was him? Could he have been led to it by someone else who wanted to get rid of him in hopes to aid the war effort?”

She thought she saw a hint of approval cross her instructor’s face, but the moment was fleeting and she wasn’t confident she saw it.

“We have thorough intelligence in place and we can be confident that it was his idea. He is in a desperate situation, and will undoubtedly fall soon regardless of our intervention. However, we need to make an example of him. If we do not discourage these acts done in desperation, they will continue. Any questions?”

“When will I be leaving?”

“You will be leaving with the ithrax in twenty four hours. Take the time to prepare.” Helianna nodded and they turned away from each other in unison, one much more confident than the other in the following mission.

Helianna spent the next day nervously preparing materials. She knew she’d have to carry everything on her, so prioritization was important. She barely had time to break for food as she scrambled to make and pack everything she needed. She first had to identify everything she needed as well as make portions of it. Thankfully however, most was already made due spending a year making them every day. She always had spares.

Once she was done, she spent her time crafting a disguise and a persona to match it. She would have to act as the persona all day every day for a long time. She wanted it to be quite different from herself, but not too exhausting.

The instructor had told her that they had no knowledge of her and she should reveal little. They were ithrax, so they should be able to be trusted, but her instructor wouldn’t have her hide her identity for no reason. It could purely be for practice, but she wasn’t so sure.

She’d approach it like they were an enemy force. That’s what the training was preparing her for, so she’d treat it as such. If she was working with people that she didn’t trust, what persona would she want them to see? Someone friendly? Maybe slightly naive, but not too much. Too much could cause problems. Maybe she could portray herself as naive about things that don’t match her work. It would take their attention away from her work but also wouldn’t bring her competency into question. That could be useful.

Following that train of thought, she came across a decision. She would try to be a bubbly extrovert who just wants to make friends with her team. It may be a little too much compared to her normal self, but as her instructor said, it’s good training. Better to go too far when it’s safe than make a mistake later on. To try and boost the idea of friendly innocence, she tried to add that to her disguise. She padded out her face to make it seem rounder and made her nose looks smaller. She tried to make her eyes seem larger, but there’s only so much she could do without actually changing the size of her face. By the time she finished, it was already morning of the next day and she sighed. No sleep tonight. She did a last check of her work and went to meet her instructor.

When she saw him, she immediately dropped into her persona, hoping to get in some practice before she’d meet with the team.

“Good morning instructor!” she hollered out while beaming. He raised an eyebrow in response.

“So this is what you chose?” He asked, so she crossed her arms and pouted.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Well I gotta choose something…” She straightened and her eyes lit up as she pointed at him. “And besides! You’re the one that told me this was good training for me. Better to go extreme now, so it’s your fault.” Neglecting to respond, he gave her a deadpan look and walked away.

“Hey, don’t ignore me!” She furrowed her brows as she skipped ahead of him and turned around, something she found quite difficult with her large pack on her back. He sighed.

“Let’s just go.”

“Fine,” she drawled as she rolled her eyes before muttering “spoilsport” just loud enough for him to hear. The rest of the way to the meeting was spent in silence, during which Helianna was starting to regret her decision. This persona was going to be harder to maintain than she thought. She glanced at her instructor before shaking her head. She’d stick with it. If it proved to be too much, she’d learn from it. It wasn’t until the elevator opened that she realized they were on the bottom floor and the meeting would be in one of the side rooms. This would be the first time she’d ever use the meeting room. She internally braced herself as they opened the door, unsure if the team would be there first.

“Hi everyone! I assume you’ll be the team I’m working with?” She smiled at the group assembled in front her, who were now all staring at her unnervingly. She bounced up to them and stuck out her hand. “My name’s Holly. Nice to meet you all and I’m looking forward to working with you. Is this everyone?” There was a brief pause where the team members all glanced at each other before one stepped up to shake her hand.

As he stepped up to her, she noticed how tall he was. He was probably near seven feet tall and was large enough to avoid looking lanky, but he was still thin. He had ash-grey skin and red eyes, giving him an almost demonic appearance, but short strawberry blonde hair helped diminish it.

“The name’s Vir. I’m the ice user of our group. I typically fight in the front line and for some insane reason, they see me as their leader. ” he said and smiled wryly for a brief moment. “And the rest of the team isn’t joining us. I don’t know what you were told, but our other two members often don’t work with us. We don’t work well together.”

“Isn’t that unusual? I thought ithrax cells always worked together.”

“Yes,” Vir said, sighing. “It is very rare that a group doesn’t work well, but it happens.” There was a brief awkward silence before a kinuze stepped forward.

“I’m the fire fighter of the group!” exclaimed the woman as Vir rolled his eyes. She was somewhat short, standing a few inches shorter than Helianna. She had sandy colored skin and bright green eyes that seemed to bore into Helianna. The kinuze grinned at Vir’s exasperation as she continued. “Unlike Vir, some of us have a sense of fun and humor, like me! I’m Reina.”

“Good to know! Nice to meet ya!” Before the others had a chance to talk, Reina decided to do their introductions.

“Tall, dark and broody over there is our darkness mage. Her name’s Zoe and she can do some teleporty thingy with shadows so she’s our scout and sneak attacker.” The woman mentioned was scowling at them with her arms crossed. She had short black hair and dark brown skin with light blue eyes. These were all among the more common human colorations, but still made a striking visual. Helianna would have mistaken her for a man if she hadn’t just learned otherwise. A slightly mischievous smile crossed Helianna’s face.

“Bit of a stereotype, much? What next? Are you going to tell me you don’t trust me and be a stick in the mud? Not a fan of socializing? Prefer to go scouting instead of hanging out with everyone?” The rogue’s scowl deepened as Helianna’s smile widened. She noticed the rest of the team trying to hide their mirth, with a single man being entirely successful. Reina couldn’t hold it in and let out a raucous and snorting laugh.

“Oh my gosh! You absolutely nailed it! I never realized how bad she was but you’re right! Hear that, Zoe?! You’re a walking stereotype!” At this point, Helianna was sure that if Zoe scowled any harder, she’d pull a muscle. She then spoke, barely loud enough for Helianna to hear over Reina’s laughing.

“Let’s just get introductions over with so we can go over the mission.”

“Fine, fine. But you’re just too easy to tease,” ribbed Reina. Before she could introduce the next person, he stepped up on his own. It was the one that managed to hide his laughter. He was barely taller than Helianna, standing a little under six feet, but built like a barrel. If they got in a fight, he was not a person she'd want to get tackled by. He had peach skin and blonde hair with bright purple eyes that almost seemed to glow.

“The name’s Zane. I’m a gravity mage. Looking forward to working with you, as long as you can hold your own weight.”

“Of course. I’m planning on it.”

He simply nodded before relaxing back into his seat. She turned towards the last team member, who had been leaning against the table and filing his claws. He was a tijatan, although quite short for his species. He was not much taller than Vir, making him a little under seven feet tall. His fur was almost pure white and he had pale red eyes, leading her to think he may be albino. He stood up and gave a small bow, but she couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be serious or mocking.

“Jayen, at your service. Sovereign mage, typically used for support.” His statement shocked her for a brief moment. Sovereign mages always led, that’s what they were supposed to do. And not only was he not leading, but seemed to be taking it less seriously than any of them. He continued as she schooled her expression. “I look forward to cooperating with you and hope you do as well.”

Immediately following that statement, she felt the magic within her stir and react to something unknown. She internally panicked, trying to tamp it down, but it never left her body, instead almost seeming to reinforce itself. In an instant, Jayen’s casual smirk disappeared. All of his attention shifted to her and he became deadly serious. His eyes narrowed for a moment before he returned to his initial temperament as if nothing happened. The team had clearly noticed, but acted as if nothing happened, ringing alarm bells through Helianna’s head. Before anything could come of it, she heard the voice of her instructor behind her.

“Congratulations. You are all friends now. Duke Estletog of Arington has attempted and fortunately failed to simulate a meteor strike with a large collection of gravity mages, breaking the established rules of war. Your mission is to publicly execute the Duke to make an example. We have another team that will be handling his mages. How you accomplish this mission is up to you, but we will be monitoring you. This must be accomplished before his forces fall, but the sooner the better. May the gods challenge you in your steps.”

Before anybody had a chance to talk, he stepped out of the room and disappeared. After a brief moment of silence, Vir spoke up.

“Well, looks like we’ve got our mission.”