“About your payment... I’ll give two hundred for the cultists, and two hundred for the information about the crystals,” the Guild Masters says from bahind his desk once they’re done making pns about arranging for a forge he can use the next day, “Fair?”

  Sincir smiles, then quickly nods, not bothering to hide his excitement. Four hundred silver? It’s way more than he expected.

  “In this case, I’ll have Celia escort you home, so she can learn the way, and pick you up tomorrow... The materials and the money, you’ll find at the forge tomorrow,” Davis expins.

  Sincir rises, still smiling as he offers his hand for a handshake which the Guild Masters calmly accepts.

  A few more pleasantries ter, and they’re finally ready to leave...

  On the corridor outside, he exchanges a happy look with Ena, then pulls closer her for a brief, yet intense kiss.

  “See? I told you it’d be fine,” he murmurs, facing her gaze once their kiss is over.

  Ena bites her lower lip, smiling lightly. “Yeah, good job being polite, for once...”

  Sincir pretends an insulted look. “Hey, I can be polite! I usually just don’t see the point...”

  Ena rolls her eyes. “Can you let go of my ass now? Celia is gring at us.”

  Sincir chuckles, stepping back from her while smiling apologetically toward the half-dragon, who stares at the two of them with a carefully neutral expression.

  “Sorry, those four hundred silver had me a little too excited.”

  Celia blinks, frowning. “Silver...? Grandfather is not that cheap, and the information you provided the guild was invaluable.”

  Sincir freezes. She can’t mean...?

  “Mr. Davis is going to pay us four hundred gold?” Ena murmurs, beating him to it, her voice sounding slightly strangled.

  Celia nods. “You’d have been better rewarded if you had told us more about the crystals, or about your identity, but four hundred is the best Grandfather can do, with you’ve given us.”

  “...If anybody asks, we weren’t paid at all,” Sincir murmurs at st, meeting Ena’s gaze as he does so, “Until we have a castle with a treasure room in it.”

  The half-elf nods seriously. “I heard the Commerce Guild has a storage service.”

  “They also run a bank,” Celia adds, “It’s a service were you can have them store money for you, and then retrieve it ter, at a different location... It’s quite convenient. If you wish, I can have Grandfather open an account for you, and store the money in there.”

  It does sound convenient... And Sincir doubts the Guild Master would try to cheat him, so why not?

  He smiles at the tall half-dragon woman. “Sure, let’s do it like that. Thank you, Celia... I had the wrong impression about you.”

  Celia grimaces. “And what impression was that, exactly?”

  “You were carrying a leaking troll’s head the first time we meet...” Sincir points out, mimickingmimicing the .

  She sighs. “Let’s go, please. I’d like a bath, and the sun has long set.”

  Chuckling, Sincir gestures for Ena to lead the way...

  The guild is still buzzing with activity as they head out, and Sincir coincidentally spots William next to Yesenia on one of the lines. Once the young mage sees him in return, he sends a friendly wave which Sincir reciprocates, while Yesenia carefully avoids meeting his gaze.

  Sincir might’ve stopped for a friendly chat, had she not. Honestly, he is a little hurt she is so afraid of him... She kept her word about giving him three days to prepare for the conversation with the Guild Master, so he has no reason to be angry at her. In fact, he is thankful, specially considering how well his talk with Davis went.

  ...Still, her fear makes his sadistic nature tingle, so he better keep away from now on, or William might come to hate him, not to say he doesn’t need another scarred adventurer on his pte, at the moment.

  “You’re thinking about something stupid,” Ena points out as they enter the busy flow of Elderspire’s early nightlife.

  “No, I’m not,” Sincir lies.

  “You have a boner...” she points out.

  “It’s from our kiss.”

  Ena snorts. “Of course it is... Sorry, Celia, we’re probably disgusting, to you.”

  “I don’t find sex disgusting,” the half-dragon says, a little too fast.

  Her cheeks are ever so slightly blushed as she follows after them, causing the flow of pedestrians to quickly make way.

  “You’ve got a boyfriend? Because I could use some girl talk, right about now,” Ena asks while throwing the taller woman a look over her shoulder, then averting her eyes again as she continues under her breath, bitterly, “With somebody that doesn’t share my boyfriend, or wants to.”

  Celia blinks.

  “She doesn’t have one,” Sincir answers, before the half-dragon could, “Never touched lips with anyone, I bet... Also, who said she doesn’t want me?”

  Ena grimaces, and Celia gres at him... He can tell she is seriously considering lying about her retionship stats for a moment, but unfortunately, she doesn’t take his bait, in the end.

  “I’m single, yes. And there is nothing wrong with-”

  “Having terrible social skills? Scaring most men away at first sight?” he interjects, earning himself another murderous gre.

  “It’s not my fault they’re-!”

  Sincir chuckles. “Weak? Pathetic?”

  Ena punches his arm, hard.

  “I’m sorry, Celia,” she murmurs toward the crimson faced half-dragon, “Sincir over here hit his head really hard a couple of times as a child.”

  Rubbing his shoulder, Sincir grimaces at her. “Look, she needs to loosen up a little, if she wants to find a boyfriend at some point in the next decade... She won’t encourage anyone to approach with that frown on her face, and that huge axe at her hip.”

  “Maybe she is different when she is off duty,” Ena counters, “And she can do the approaching herself, can’t she?”

  “You just agreed with him!” Celia points out, slightly incredulous sounding.

  Ena blushes. “Sorry, girl, but I can’t deny you’re quite the intimidating sight... Isn’t that at least partially on purpose?”

  Celia grimaces. “Well, of course... I can’t exactly sy monsters wearing a dress. And when I’m off duty, I-”

  “You train,” Sincir guesses, chuckling again, “With that huge axe of yours.”

  “The city needs me! The fucking nests are a never ending source of trouble! I can’t afford to-!”

  “Have fun?”

  Celia pauses, her mouth still slightly open as the two of them stare at her... Then, blushing heavily, she gres toward the passersby whose attention their argument attracted, causing them to quickly avert their gazes away.

  Sincir ughs. “Look, if you don’t have other pns, why don’t you join us for dinner tonight?”

  This time, Ena gres at him murderously. “Sincir...!” she hisses under her breath.

  Sincir rolls his eyes. “What? It’s just a dinner... We can get to know each other better, open some wine, have some fun... Esme is going on a date with Collin, Eleanor is going to stay at Mary’s pce, and I bet Rez would love to meet a new friend.”

  Ena frowns. “Wouldn’t that be...?”

  ‘Dangerous? Celia doesn’t seem the type to sy first, ask questions ter,’ he sends her telepathically, ‘And if she becomes fond of Rez, then our cute half-goblin will be a lot safer from now on, don’t you think?’

  After a moment, Ena sighs. “Okay, you’re right... It’d be a nice night. Celia seems cool, and we can show her our basement pool; Why not?”

  Celia blinks, shifting her shoulders uncomfortably. “I... I wouldn’t want to intrude... And the armor-”

  “We have a bath, and I can cast a cleaning spell over your clothes before you wear them again for our dinner... Well, if you want to run from your first chance for a social experience, I won’t stop you.”

  Under his teasing stare, Celia tightens her jaw. “I know what you’re trying to do, and this is not my first social experience.”

  Sincir raises an eyebrow at her. “Yeah? And what were the st three?”

  Celia licks her lips, before averting her her gaze as she murmur, “The guild throws parties every now and then, to honor the death, or celebrate a particurly hard kill.”

  Ena quickly looks down, unsuccessfully attempting to hide her pity, while Sincir groans, rolling his eyes.

  “You know what? It’s okay, you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to... We’re all afraid of something, and there is no shame in knowing when to retreat from a fight.”

  Celia grimaces, her gaze snapping toward at him. “I’m not afraid of a dinner!”

  Sincir doesn’t attempt to stop his doubt from showing, which causes Celia to clench her teeth.

  “...Do you have a wine preference?”

  She averts her gaze again.

  “I’ll take that as a no.”

  “You’re so ruthless...” Ena murmurs, shaking her head.

  Sincir shrugs. “I wouldn’t be here today if I wasn’t. Look, she is going to thank me ter...”

  Ena sighs, throwing Celia a of sympathetic look over her shoulder. “Friendly girl warning? He is one hundred percent thinking about having you take off more than your armor tonight, and not just for a nice swim, so unless you’re prepared to take that step, feel free to say no to his face... I’d love to see it happen once.”

  Sincir grimaces, though he doesn’t bother denying the accusation... Hey, she is the one who suggested the pool. What does she think might happen if they we’re all tipsy and half-naked, together?

  “Thank you for warning me,” Celia says after a moment of silence in between the three of them, “If you don’t mind me asking, Ena, you seem like a smart girl. Why do you...?”

  “Put up with this idiot?”

  Sincir chuckles. “See, now you’re the one interrupting her.”

  Ena sighs. “I’ve known him for a long time, and he is not as bad as it seems... Just a little too horny for his own good, tely.”

  “She loves me hopelessly, and can’t bring herself to run away,” Sincir corrects.

  “You tied me to a bed st time I tried to leave,” Ena murmurs through clenched teeth.

  “With your consent, and I told you you were free to leave at any point, didn’t I?”

  Meeting Celia’s slightly widened eyes, Ena smiles bitterly. “You’ll probably understand someday, but I don’t wish I was with anyone else... Though I might’ve preferred a nice dinner over how my first time went.”

  Sincir snorts. “Love you too, pipsqueak.”

  Ena sticks her tongue at him...

  Sincir realizes something is wrong as soon as he spots not only Collin and Esme, but also Gracelyn standing in front of his door, the first two with concerned expressions on their faces, while the blond vampire looks as though she might throw up or pass out at any second as she holds a piece of paper in her grip hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

  “Fuck,” Sincir curses under his breath, just as Celia spots the vampires and also freezes behind him.

  His first thought is that something must’ve happened with Adrienne... And his second is considering how to expin the vampires to the half-dragon. He thought they’d be away, rather than in front of his door.

  “Look, Celia, this is important, and I’ll expin everything ter, so could you just listen for a bit?” Sincir murmurs, throwing her a pleading look over his shoulder.

  Slowly, Celia turns her stare from the vampires to him (who seem to also have frozen, having obviously recognized her) and frowns as she meets his gaze.

  “...This might have to do with the cultists, and those two are not the enemy right now,” he adds.

  “Sorry, but you’ll have to trust us on this,” Ena adds softly, gently pcing a hand over the other woman’s armored arm.

  After a moment, Celia nods tensely, and Sincir releases a sigh of relief, resuming his walk toward the house.

  “What happened?” he asks as he approaches the frozen trio, then adds, once they don’t immediately begin to speak, “...Celia is trustworthy.”

  Collin throws a look toward the half-dragon, who is clearly on edge still, but nods. “Adrienne disappeared today... Gracelyn found this note at their door.”

  Eyes wide, and with her hand shaking heavily, the vampire hands him the note, which Sincir pales slightly after reading.

  “...Fucking Hell,” he concludes under his breath.

  “What happened?” Ena asks, her voice tense, “Adrienne is the girl who stayed with us that time, right?”

  While rereading the note, Sincir sighs. “Gracelyn’s servant, yes. She was captured by the cultists, and they know what I am, somehow... They want the vampires to hold their hand, and for me to deliver myself until tomorrow at sundown, or they’re going to assume we don’t care about Adrienne.”

  “We could attack tonight,” Collin says, his voice cold, “Gracelyn can track their location through Adrienne.”

  “I c-can’t,” Gracelyn interrupts, breathlessly, and seeming as though she might snap at any second now, “I can feel her, if I focus, but her presence is... Her location seems b-blurred...!”

  Sincir tightens his jaw. “They must have used magic to conceal her location from you, or the nest itself is doing the trick... Okay, listen; Collin, I need you to take Gracelyn from here and keep her from doing something stupid tonight.”

  “No!” Gracelyn screams, but Collin appears behind her before she can take a single step, holding both her arms.

  “Killing yourself won’t help things!” Sincir hurries to expin, “They’ll be waiting for an attack tonight!”

  “I don’t care! I’ll kill them! I’LL KILL THEM ALL!” the vampire screams savagely, her eyes glowing red as she becomes a blur of movement under Collin’s attempts at holding her down...

  Seeing the situation has grown out of control, Sincir immediately casts a spell to create a wall of mist around them; Then, activating both a speed and strength buff, he steps forward and snaps Gracelyn’s neck, silencing her screams.

  “How many people saw us?!” he groans as the blond vampire falls limp against Collin.

  Damn it, if not for Celia, he’d have urged them to enter before talking...!

  “Not many... You were fast enough with the mist,” Collin grumbles, “But we shouldn’t dwell here. Do you have a pn to deal with this?”

  “I’ll think on one; For now, just go.”

  Collin exchanges a look with him, then nods, throwing the wide-eyed half-dragon a another brief look before jumping with Gracelyn in his arms and quickly disappearing from view.

  Meanwhile, Sincir works on expanding the mist to cover the whole street, then tells Ena to open the door for them... Once she has done so, in spite of her shaking hands, he urges them all inside, Celia included.

  As they walk into their living room, the half-dragon is asking questions, and Ena is answering them, but Sincir is too out of it to really pay attention...

  He should’ve asked Collin if they were followed or not, but he trusts the vampire enough to assume the opposite, considering his sharp senses.

  More importantly, how in the fuck did this happen?

  Very few people know of his real identity, but since Adrienne is one of them, and she is the one who was kidnapped, he can only assume she was the source of the leak... Someone close to her must’ve been a cultist, someone she trusted. Perhaps someone from her older job? One of the girls?

  Still, he doubts Adrienne would’ve revealed his identity in a casual conversation... He can think of one reason she’d speak, and that’s to protect Gracelyn, who would’ve been sleeping at the time she was kidnapped, and unable to defend herself.

  Fuck.

  “...I don’t care! That is not happening!”

  Having sat on the couch to think, Sincir looks up as he realizes the others have begun arguing, with No having appeared from the kitchen, while Rez peeks at them from behind its entrance.

  No shakes her head. “You know we can’t just do nothing, Ena. If they know of Sincir’s identity, then they must know about everything else, as well... This could be our st chance to rescue the hostages, and I’m not saying this just because of my father. This could be our st chance to fight back at all.”

  Ena grimaces, tightening her jaw. “Sincir is not handing himself to them.”

  Uh-oh; He knows that look.

  Rising, Sincir sighs while casting a brief fire spell to burn the note, and in doing so, attracts the attention of the room.

  “I’m not a martyr, Ena. And No, I’m certain they don’t know much about me, yet... Otherwise, they’d have gone about this differently. They must’ve found out about me through Adrienne when trying to capture her today, as a way to deal with the vampires, and now they’re curious... Nothing else.”

  “You’re assuming a lot,” Ena says.

  “I’m deducing the most likely scenario based on our current circumstances... In any case, this is a good opportunity.”

  Ena’s eyes widen, and she stares at him incredulously. “A good what now?!”

  Sincir shakes his head. “Something about this seems strange... They wouldn’t have dared to provoke the vampires unless their pn was close to its conclusion. And now that our opponent has showed their hand, we have no choice but to respond... There is no reward without risk.”

  Ena turns and punches the wall. “Meaning! You’re! Fucking! Going!” she screams.

  Sincir smiles sadly. “If you have a better suggestion, I’d love hearing it... Otherwise, I think our best shot is to hope they’ll underestimate me. Celia,” he calls, causing the half-dragon, who has her arms crossed as she stares toward the rest of them with a heavy frown on her face, to meet his gaze.

  “Look, I know this all must seem crazy to you... But these cultists are bad news. If you know anything about the disappearances, then you know they’ve kidnapped many children as well, and the chances I’ll be able to rescue them on my own are... Well, they’re nearly nonexistent.”

  As he sustains her gaze pleadingly, Celia grimaces. “...Yes, I know about the children,” she murmurs at st, “But if you want my help, then I’ll need some answers.”

  At this point, a knock sounds against their door, silencing the room.

  After casting a mind spell to inspect the house’s surroundings, Sincir signals for the others to stay put as he heads toward the door.

  “Collin?” he asks through it.

  “Yeah, it’s me,” Sincir hears half a second ter, causing him to rex.

  Although he could sense it was a vampire through his spell, he can’t completely discard the possibility that one of them has joined the cultist’s side, in view of recent events...

  Opening the door, he makes way for Collin to enter, which the vampire does with a heavy grimace on his face.

  “...Collin, this is Celia; Celia, this is Collin,” Sincir says after closing the door and rejoining the others, “He is a representative for the local vampire community.”

  “Worst possible time for our first meeting, I’m afraid,” Collin murmurs while facing the half-dragon’s gaze, “But I think it’s best I start by making clear we’re not an enemy to you or your grandfather, Miss Celia, and that I’d like to keep it that way. Elderspire has been our home long before the guild showed up, and we have no real reason to hurt the humans who inhabit it... Otherwise, we’d have already done so, long ago.”

  “We’ll... We’ll need to have a long talk, you and me,” Celia murmurs, “But I can at least tell you don’t seem some sort of bloodthirsty killer at first gnce, so I’ll keeping my axe away for the moment.”

  “Good enough,” Sincir interjects, “Now, back to the problem at hand. Collin, how is Gracelyn?”

  “She is young, so she’ll be out of action for a good while from that broken neck... A couple of days, at least. I have Malia taking care of her, for now.”

  If memory doesn’t fail him, Malia is the female vampire who was present during Gracelyn’s “judgement”...

  Sincir sighs. “That’s good, but it also means we won’t be able to extract any information from her about what happened... What did she tell you?”

  Collin’s expression darkens. “She showed up at the library a little after sunset.”

  “We were just about to leave for our date,” Esme adds, her face pale.

  Collin nods. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to extract much from her on the way here... She said their living room was a mess when she woke up, and that the note was the only sign of Adrienne she could find.”

  “This happened during the day? How could no one have seen or heard anything?” Celia asks.

  “It must’ve have been someone close to Adrienne,” Sincir expins, “She let them in, not knowing they were a cultist, and must’ve been caught by surprise... Then, once she was subdued, they must’ve have threatened Gracelyn to get her to speak, and come with them willingly... Collin, are you certain none of your people could’ve allied themselves with the cultists?”

  The vampire grimaces. “Before today, I was.”

  Sincir sighs. “I feared as much. In this case, I’ll need you to go check on Gracelyn again... Malia might not be trustworthy. Then, I’ll need you to tell your people to stay put in a safe location, preferably together, and keep their servants in view tonight... Wait, they could be using this as a ruse to find out more about us, or attack once you’re all gathered. Do you have a way to deal with that?”

  Collin hesitates, then nods. “We have countermeasures... The problem is, if one of us has betrayed the master, they’d know about them.”

  Sincir lowers his gaze, considering things for a moment... Telling the vampires to gather together would make it easier for them to protect themselves during the night, but it’d also make it rather easy for the cultists to attack them during the day, if they were to find out about their location, delivering a devastating blow.

  Should he tell them to stay separated? But that would make them vulnerable to being killed off individually during the day, as well... Without knowing if they have a traitor in their midst or not, and how much information might’ve been leaked, it’s nearly impossible to make a decision.

  “...Gather your people, and tell them to hide themselves in locations only they know about for the next two days,” Sincir says, having decided for a safer approach, “Expin the situation, tell them to question their servants, and warn your master about this... She might want to do something, for once.”

  Collin grimaces. “It’ll be a hassle, but I supposed we have no choice... I’ll tell them to care about being followed. Did you managed to come with a pn for the rescue yet, or are we giving Adrienne for dead?”

  An image fshes through Sincir’s mind; The one of Adrienne smiling as she pys with the wine above their table.

  “...I’m not giving her for dead, no. As for the pn, for now, it’s best if you worry about keeping your people and yourself safe; You only have until sunup to prepare yourselves, but my deadline is tomorrow at sundown.”

  Collin nods. “I’ll get moving, then... Good luck, Sincir.”

  Esme quickly approaches him for a brief kiss, and once they’ve said their goodbyes, Collin heads toward the door.

  “Be careful, vampire boy,” Sincir murmurs, knowing Collin will hear him.