Instead of Arya, I prefer her mom (Chapter 42) (Patreon)

The assassin gave the body one last look before leaving. However, something strange suddenly happened.

The corpse’s red hair started fading, dulling in color to a plain brown. Its skin and the side of its face changed, the features shifting and complexion darkening. The next moment, it was unrecognizable, an entirely different person having taken the ‘late’ Cedric’s place.

The intruder knew something was wrong. They’d been tricked!

Experienced as they were, they immediately turned to flee. Remaining was simply too risky. Once they regrouped with their employer, the situation could be reassessed-…

However, as they tried doing so, the assassin found they couldn’t budge an inch! Their body was entirely frozen like an ice-sculpture. Even breathing was difficult. It felt as if a big hand was squeezing their heart, stopping it from beating.

A quiet voice suddenly sounded from behind, whispering in their ear.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? A wicked, evil murderer sating their bloodlust on a poor, unconscious girl. How shameful!”

The assassin startled, but never mind defending themselves, they could barely twitch their lips.

“Wicked and vile as they were, those were some impressive tricks. Yours and whoever sent you. Truth be told, I’d rather be whispering into your head than your ear, but those mental defenses are pretty impressive. Very slippery.”

Cedric’s smiling face suddenly emerged behind the assassin’s left shoulder like an apparition. His whole body followed from the neck down, gradually fading into existence.

“I can’t wait to find out how they work.”

Laying a hand on the intruder, he steered the two of them toward the window. The assassin abruptly levitated off the floor, turning until they were horizontal. Then, they floated out of the open window, stiff as a plank.

Cedric followed without even glancing at his now-dead body double.

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Ducking in and out of side-streets with his captive hovering behind him, Cedric reflected on earlier events. 

He couldn’t scan people’s minds for fear of alerting his enemies, but neither would Cedric walk blindly into a dangerous situation.

Fortunately, there were other ways to gather information.

Over the years, his experiments with telepathy and the life-drain technique made him pretty good at manipulating animal minds. Using a bird or rodent, he could see scenes and overhear conversations otherwise hidden.

This habit that led Cedric to possessing a rat, lurking in the manor’s cellar. It was easy to give it a few orders while sharing its sight and hearing.

It hadn’t taken him long to see something interesting.

After arriving, he, Bertram and Anne were received by a maidservant, still awake and waiting for her masters to return. She offered some milk tea to the three of them, which they accepted. However, after leading him to his room and making the tea, the girl had taken a suspicious white powder, mixing it into his drink.

One thing led to another, and soon he and the unconscious maid were alone in the room, the latter sprawled sloppily on his bed. With no other subject, Cedric decided to test the tea on the girl. For her sake, he hoped it was just an extra pinch of sugar.

Minutes passed, but she didn’t show signs of becoming ill. Only after releasing the spell and seeing her remain unconscious did Cedric suspect a sleeping concoction. Cedric didn’t know the entirety of her intentions, but he doubted the drug’s purpose was for him to get a better night’s sleep.

After a bit of thinking, he decided on using illusion magic to change the maid’s appearance. In the darkness, bundled in blankets and pillows, it was more than enough to fool someone with ill intentions, wanting to take advantage of ‘his’ drugged state.

To make the scheme more believable, he cast a few wards on the maid. If an intruder probed the disguised ‘mage’, finding him defenseless, they might think something was off.

As for Cedric himself, knowing the value of stealth, developed a light-bending spell a while ago. It rendered him nearly invisible, though only in darkness. Just to be safe, he'd crawled in under the bed, elevated about a foot above the ground.

Consequently, Cedric had a front-row seat for what happened next.

The assassin’s methods, including their use of the mysterious, wicked-looking bone dagger and the maid’s eventual murder were all witnessed by him.

Watching her die, he felt only brief regret. If she had her way, he’d be the person spraying blood all over the sheets. Whatever motive she had for targeting him, whether she was part of some organization or simply bribed, she’d sealed her own fate in the end.

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With the sun approaching beyond the horizon, grey light spilled across the sky. Though it was early, Teirm had already awoken. The odd figure could be seen, heading up and down the wide streets, going about their business.

Hands in his pockets, Cedric slipped from one side street to the next. Escaping the manor wasn’t really difficult because, well, magic. He even had his ‘prize’ with him, moving stiffly and forcibly like a puppet. Fortunately, nobody really payed attention to them or noticed the strangeness, preoccupied with their own doings.

Cedric was on his way to one of the tunnel openings, surfacing in the upper-district.

It was incredible, how encompassing the underground network was. Not that he hadn’t learned as much from Silver, but it was clear the nobles and pirates were secretly co-operating. There was no other way the criminal-den could have existed under the city.

Arriving at a manhole cover – a square, wooden hatch banded with rusted iron – he crouched under the brush, quietly unlatching it. When it opened, he quickly scanned the area with a bird, circling above.

Fortunately, he hadn’t picked up any tails. Perhaps the assassin worked alone? Shrugging inwardly, Cedric entered the tunnel, dragging his captive behind.

Once inside with the hatch shut, he sighed, turning to the assassin.

“Let’s see who’s hiding under that mask.”

Reaching for the assassin’s head, he pulled back their hood while tearing off the mask covering their face. He was somewhat surprised by what he found, finding a pretty girl, dark haired and brown eyed. However, her short ponytail, tanned skin and the scar running along her chin made it clear she wasn’t a greenhouse flower.

On account of having her breathing restricted by Cedric’s spell, blue-ish veins could be seen running under her skin, and she was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Not wanting her to die without extracting some information, he spoke a few words in the ancient language, adjusting the spell.

Immediately, some color returned to the girl’s face. Over the next few seconds, the glassy look in her eyes slowly faded, regaining clarity.

Cedric glared piercingly at her, but despite her predicament, the assassin showed no response. The only sign of anxiety was her jaw tightening minutely.

“I’m letting you breathe, and you can move your legs, but don’t get any ideas.”

Roughly grabbing her shoulder, Cedric shoved her to the front.

“Move.”

For a moment, the girl remained still, aside from some subtle twitching. Cedric knew she was testing the spell, figuring out what she could and couldn’t do. It wasn’t long before her legs moved, heading down the dark tunnel.

He followed behind, not at all worried about some stunt being pulled. With the strange knife confiscated, the assassin had no way of hurting him. As for how he felt about the object in question, Cedric was certainly uneasy. A weapon that could entirely bypass wards? Something like that beggared belief.

The only thing he remembered with similar properties were the anti-magic crystals under Helgrind. However, the dagger didn’t seem to have such material incorporated in its design. Cedric suspected the bird-skull on the hilt, along with the wriggling, esoteric carvings on the blade.

As they progressed through the tunnels, Cedric absentmindedly pushed and prodded the girl toward his hideout. Yet, as he scanned the surroundings, he started feeling something was wrong. It was quiet. Too quiet. Usually, he’d be able to feel the minds of the creatures calling this place home, but they were strangely absent.

At first, he didn’t think too much of it. Most critters had extremely good senses, and spooked easily. The sound of something big moving through their domain was enough to send them fleeing to the sewers’ forgotten corners. However, this absolute sterility was abnormal. He couldn’t imagine someone figuring out his use for them, unless…

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks. The girl did too, though not voluntarily. Instead, her knees seemingly locked up, causing her to lose balance and topple forward, hitting the ground head-on.

Cedric paid her no mind, his brows furrowing. He sensed a group of figures closing in on their position. Having reached an atrium where three tunnels connected, he was essentially surrounded.

‘Damn, these people aren’t messing around. Was this ambush set in advance, or…?’

Thoughts flitted through his mind, but in the end, he wasn’t able to draw any conclusions. He knew too little about the forces controlling this city.

“It seems like your friends are coming. I wonder if they’re here to save you, or just to kill me?”

Cedric chuckled, bending over and hauling the girl up by her hair. She was a head taller than him on account of his age, but with his telekinesis, shoving her around was child’s play.

Though she had a bloodied lip and dirt all over her face, the assassin showed no signs of pain or anger. If nothing else, Cedric commended her composure.

To his surprise, after staring at his face for a second or two, she suddenly spoke.

“You won’t be able to escape. For your own sake, it’s better to surrender now. If you come peacefully, my… employer might be merciful. He likes useful people.”

Her expression was slightly pitying, as if seeing Cedric for the child that he was, about to die from his own youthful arrogance. However, the only thing her ‘persuasions’ earned her was more pain.

Smiling, Cedric spoke a word in the ancient language.

“Verkr.”

Suddenly, the assassin froze, her pupils dilating. Every muscle and tendon over her body was stretched to tearing, like a knife scraping every nerve. The agony made her seize where she stood, her eyes rolling back in her head while drool seeped from her mouth.

Only Cedric’s hand, gripping a handful of hair, stopped her from ending up face-down in the muck a second time.

When he leaned forward, whispering in her ear, the girl barely heard him.

“I like useful people too. And you showed some impressive skills today. Don’t you think it would be a shame for someone of your caliber to die down here, in dirt and shit? Nod if you agree.”

Eventually, the agonized assassin managed a shaky nod, feeling the terrible, mind-melting pain receding from her limbs.

Cedric hummed approvingly. He was being honest about what he said. Why else even bother to keep the assassin alive? Sure, he wanted to extract information from her, but with the strange ward around her mind – he didn’t know what else it could be – that wasn’t necessarily possible.

Someone like her, adept at stealth, infiltration and murder, would be massively beneficial to his operations. They had a rocky start to their relationship, but he was confident in his persuasive skills.

Muttering two short sentences in the ancient language, he bound and silenced her. His ambushers were already close, and he couldn’t afford to be distracted.

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