After completing this month’s missions and giving back the different objects he had collected to someone else working for his boss he was curios as to why he had been called to a meeting with his boss.

Gabriel was already more of a member of the organization than an extra, so he would have known if someone else died, but he hadn’t heard anything about it, therefore he didn’t expect it to be a talk of promotion and bigger responsibilities.

Thinking of the contract, he also denied the possibility of this having something to do in the current situation, because the time limit was already over for a few months and there had been no attempts to extend the time before this moment and nothing particular had happened in one of his missions to warrant an edition to the details of their deal.

And this curiosity would probably persist until the meeting was due, which happened to be two whole days after his visit to the “offices” where he had left the items. This made him roam around the area for a while, in search for a clue as to what he was wanted for, getting it directly by asking other people or overhearing other people talk about it.

But he got nothing so after about two hours, he decided to call it quits. He would use these two days of free time as he had done so during the last few months. Reading and practicing. Gabriel asked himself, during the first month, if this was the best way to utilize his free time, but he didn’t manage to get to a real answer, so he just kept going.

On the morning of the meeting, Gabriel decided to eat something special for himself, something to calm the nerves. He got some leaves out of different drawers, took a kettle out and started preparing himself an original recipe for tea.

It was a mixture of mostly calming leaves, but there were some fruits and stems mixed in that would usually have the contrary effect, exciting the body and making one feel energized, but when these were mixed with the calming ones the effect ended being a sweet tea which wouldn’t only calm, but would also naturally be very tasty.

This drink managed to calm his nerves and stop him from doing anything stupid or something he would regret later. Instead, he lazed on top of a comfortable enough sofa. He looked around his current house and started thinking of what he had done during the last few months.

After a few minutes of organizing his thoughts and recent actions he realized that even though he had done many things at the same time, paradoxically, he had done barely anything. He realized that even though his schedule was basically full, doing something at all times, he had done the same things over and over and even though he had read books and as a consequence learned many things, he hadn’t managed to practice most of them because of his more difficult tasks.

But what could he do? He still didn’t have any plans to leave Destin and even though he theoretically could leave the job as the time limit was up, his boss wouldn’t let him live in peace so long he was in Destin because of the information he had gotten during his work.

Maybe he could bring it up in the meeting they were going to have, but it would be a risky move as he could get punished by his request. In the end there was no point in thinking about it as depending on the situation he would react differently, so all Gabriel could do was wait for the last few hours before the meeting to pass.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

When there was about an hour left, he stood up, took a jacket and other possibly important possessions and left for the office. On the way there he bumped into a homeless-looking person, but he seemed to be out of himself, drunk, but the person didn’t smell of any alcohol, which caught Gabriel attention but decided not to peruse any further as he would probably end up coming late to his more important meeting.

This reunion was had in a quite mediocre room, given the expectations of Gabriel. It wasn’t smelly or breaking apart, but it was one which looked quite cheap. The floor that creaked or the walls which were dirty caught Gabriel’s attention before it was pulled back to his boss as he called him to sit around a table.

This time only Gabriel and his boss were sitting and the two bodyguards, as Gabriel assumed, left the room through the only door that it had. At the same time, Gabriel realized that there were no windows on the walls, only a small grate on the ceiling and that was connected to a chimney, all secured so that no one would meddle in their conversation.

- It is time to make a move, Gabriel. – He spoke. – Soon, multiple of the followers of the thief god will leave Destin for a week or two and so we’ll have a chance to take matters into our own hands and make them regret what they did. They will pay for the destruction of your home! – He finished. Gabriel nodded and commented.

- I will do what’s needed so that those bastards get what they deserve! Will I have other missions before that event, or will I have time to prepare? – Gabriel inquired.

- You will get your usual missions, but when they leave you must stop them and you won’t get punished for this, in fact, you’ll get punished if you continue them.

- Got it. Anything else I should know?

- Yes, you wont talk to anyone of anything we have talked here and when I tell you to come, you’ll reach the destination marked in the letter in less than fifteen minutes, else you’ll get punished.

With this his boss finished giving Gabriel information and pointed in the direction of the door, with the clear intention of him leaving, so he did. Right afterwards the two bodyguards entered the room again and closed the door behind them.

After he had been gone for a few minutes and was clearly out of hearing range, as the boss had been informed, he stood up and looked at his two men which were now sitting around the same table where Gabriel had just sat on.

* He knows nothing about the real reason of the fire, does he? He can’t learn anything about it before the time when they leave… nor should he learn that my mind magic I cast on him is weakening by the day. It’s truly curious that it happens… I must investigate it at some point, but not now… Remember, always keep two people looking at him so that he meddles in no funny business. And if he finds those people out, make sure that they say that they are followers of the thief god, albeit somewhat unwillingly. We must not make him doubt us for a second. If he can break free of mind-controlling magic, who knows what else he can do.

The two men simply nodded and left the room, while the boss was left there, inside the room, for a moment, before he disappeared. He hadn’t teleported, he wasn’t adept enough to do so, but he had created an illusion of him staying there while he left the room through a hidden door behind the bookcase.

This was a preventive method in case anyone working for him was also working for someone else as he couldn’t sign such a controlling contact with most people because they weren’t in such precarious situations. Only his most trusted allies knew of his secret exits and even then, they usually only knew of some, keeping different information from different people in case any of them decided to betray him.

One might think that this was too much and that his most trusted allies would never betray him, but it happened about three years ago, and he wouldn’t forget about it, it really marked him not only because he lost many resources, friends and progress, but also because he knew the person who had betrayed him for about a decade, so even after so many years he still decided to go against him.