Reeca scratched her neck when the fur lining the collar of her coat brushed her skin. She clicked her tongue as she tore through the mess of tents with Elred close at her heels.

Not a single animal call could be heard. The wind was still. The only light the camp had was from the lamps the patrol guards carried. Reeca edged behind a tent, craning her neck to one side as she watched another patrol set pass by. Their lamps cast their shadows against the pale brown fabric of the tents.

"How long would this shift go? I want to sleep," one of them whined. The sound of a fist hitting the back of a head faded in the distance as the patrol guards walked further. Reeca caught the last traces of a man shushing his whining companion before they disappeared east.

Reeca blew a breath and ruffled her hair that currently resembled that of the two patrol guards whose shift they took on. The people in question were now tied up inside their stolen tent after being fed a few drops of Nyxis's sleeping potion. That should keep them away until Reeca and Elred were done with what they came here for.

Reeca bit the inside of her cheek. Elred's warning played over and over in her mind. "We can't speak while wearing this glamour," the shard fairy had said before they went out of their tent to carry out their plan. "I didn't get a good grasp of their voices so it's going to be a giveaway."

Reeca blew a breath, keeping the anticipation curling in her gut at a minimum. There's a lot of things bound to go wrong with this mission but the adrenaline coursing through Reeca's veins were enough to keep her bouncing until tomorrow. Her heart pounded in her ears as her mind played all the possible scenarios that could happen should the Heiress catch them red-handed.

The dining hall's wooden walls crept up in Reeca's view. The cellar where Elred assumed the thrones would be was just within their reach. Reeca knitted her eyebrows. When she told Elred about the total number of lights on the map exceeding the known number of thrones, the shard fairy had just shrugged and insisted they check out Desara first.

"We'd have more luck if you saw a lot of light in Desara," Elred had said. "Maybe we'll stumble upon a treasure trove. Who knows?"

Indeed, who knew?

Reeca craned her neck up at the shifting sky filled with sparkling stars and the rays of both Samiri and Murco. Crozal was absent tonight, miraculously. But gods, their spatial magic was good enough to even emulate how the clouds travel east across the dark teal sky.

She shook her head. Focus. This was still an enemy territory. It shouldn't be admired in any way.

The double doors of the dining hall came closer. A hand gripped Reeca's elbow as Elred pulled her behind the last line of tents. "Potion?'' The shard fairy's original voice sounded strange coming from a burly man with missing teeth and freckles splashed across his nose.

The wonders of glamour never ceased.

Reeca pulled out the vial she stole from Nyxis's inventory and plucked the cork stopper off. She nodded. They both knew the plan. Knock out as many guards as they could with nothing but a vial of sleep draught.

Reeca edged out of the side of the tent and locked her gaze at the pair of guards wearing the same uniform as her and Elred's glamours. She fished out a rag from the spaces between her armor and laid it at the top of the vial. With a slight tip, the potion soaked the rag. A thick, sickly sweet smell wafted in the air that made Reeca's head light and her lids heavy.

She held her breath as she passed the vial to Elred who did the same. Two fairies. Two guards. Elred nodded at Reeca. Go.

Together, they burst out from behind the tent and closed the distance towards the dining hall in a haze of wing-aided steps. Reeca slung her arm around a guard's neck and pressed the potion-soaked rag to his nose. He squirmed against her grip but soon, his knees crumpled and he plopped into the ground like a sack of fresda.

A similar thud echoed to Reeca's right to find Elred standing over a limp guard as well. Their gazes locked and with a nod, they turned to the dining hall's doors. Reeca's magic slammed into the surface in a haze of warmth as she flexed her fingers at the metal lock. Within a few seconds, a faint, metallic clink rang. The door swung open.

They were inside.

Darkness ate at the benches and tables as Reeca and Elred strode inside the hall. Windows that rounded the hall showed a real-time montage of what was going on outside. The tents remained still. There was no one around, not even patrol. Moonslight bled from the panes like it was truly from the moons, themselves

A heavy creak reached Reeca's ears and she turned to find Elred crouched by a cellar door propped open. "Check if there are safeguards," the shard fairy said. Reeca shot forward and magic leaped out of her fingertips and into the floor.

Elred stood up and the sound of glass clinking echoed softly in the air as the shard fairy worked on a facade that would show anyone from outside the hall that everything was fine.

Reeca traced the magical traces present on the patch of floorboards. "Two curses, five jinxes, and an unidentified rysteme spell," Reeca stood up and dusted her hands.

"Can you work around it?" Elred turned to the faint line of glass shimmering a few steps from the actual dining hall. "And hurry."

Reeca nodded before crouching by the cellar door once more. She kept her eyes on the small keyhole where the thickest of the spells curled. She blew a breath as she summoned her magic again. Countering curses and jinxes was easy. It's been her gig back when she and Rhys had been in the streets. Her magic turned over the first layer of the safeguards within a few minutes.

She knitted her eyebrows and chewed on her lip. This rysteme spell, however...

"Are you done yet?" Elred's own magic flared in the dim light of the dining hall. Reeca didn't answer. The rysteme spell's workings was...complicated, to say the least. She narrowed her eyes as her tongue peeked through her pursed lips. Okay, a clause there and what's that? Another clause against the type of magic she's doing? A chuckle shook her shoulders. Oh, clever.

How to get around it though...?

"Hurry up," Elred's voice speared through Reeca's concentration. "There's a patrol pair approaching."

Reeca's heart pounded in her temples. The only way to go around this was...

"Elred, I need your magic," Reeca didn't raise her head from the floorboards. "We need to trick the spell into thinking that it mirrored the same clause to cancel it."

A set of dusty leather boots edged into Reeca's periphery as Elred crouched next to her. "What do I do?"

Reeca extended her hand and sent weaving energy towards the dining hall's doors. The lock she disabled clicked in place under Reeca's orders to shut them in. She turned to the shard fairy and pointed to the lock. "Channel reflection magic through this keyhole."

Reeca spent the next few minutes explaining how the spell would work. Elred's jaw clenched as she started the spell. Slowly now...

A fist banged against the dining hall's door. Reeca cursed. "Push through," she hissed through gritted teeth. Elred nodded and continued pouring her magic. Reeca flexed her fingers, weaving through the reflection spell and at the rysteme clause coiled around the cellar's lock.

There was no room for error. One wrong move and the spell wouldn't work. Worse, it would backfire on them.

The banging continued, shaking the dining hall's door from its hinges. Rudik's ass. Keep it down! Voices started piling by the windows. Let Reeca hope that Elred's illusion still kept the patrol guards from seeing what was really happening inside through the windows.

Just a little more.

The rysteme spell clicked and gave one final flash of light before dying with a hiss. Reeca jammed a dagger's point into the keyhole and yanked the trapdoor open. Outside, the clambering fists against the door hasn't stopped.

"I'll deal with this," Reeca pushed herself up and nodded to Elred. "Go inside."

The shard fairy nodded back and swung her body into the trapdoor, her glamour of the burly man rippling. Reeca reached up and tugged at her collar where the fur lining bit at her skin. She ran her nails against her neck which was probably scalding red now. Whatever.

Reeca strode towards the window where a patrol guard stood. He had his hands propped against the glass in an attempt to peer inside. A smile crept out of Reeca's lips as she pressed her hand on the dining hall's wall and sent her magic. The wood rippled and turned soft under her weaving energy. The patrol guard gave a surprised yelp as he slipped past the wall like it was made of water. Then, his face met Reeca's waiting fist.

The guard joined his comrades in an unconscious pile outside the dining hall.

Reeca flicked spare tufts of fur from her palms and turned to the trapdoor with Elred inside. She slid inside, legs-first, and her boots thumped on compact soil. Her eyes took little time to adjust as she strode forward, using the rough surface of the walls as her guide under her fingertips.

She blinked against the veil of darkness until a faint silhouette of a room with four walls took shape. She knitted her eyebrows and reached up. Her fingers brushed debris from a rocky ceiling just a few inches above her head. Small.

The light from the dining hall as Reeca approached the dead end of the cavern to find Elred who stood by a chest. The shard fairy had long discarded her glamour and had her hands propped against her hips.

"Did you get the bag?" Elred crouched and propped the chest's lid open.

Reeca glanced back at the trapdoor that they left open as she fished a limp satchel from the space between her armor. She gave the room a quick sweep for other safeguards before she passed the satchel to the shard fairy's waiting hands.

Elred reached inside the chest when Reeca turned to examine their find. Her breath hitched when she crouched next to the chest.

There they were. The thrones.

A transparent gem as big as a hand sat on a plushy pillow on the farthest left, glinting against the flame of a torch with a polished, wooden stave. Reeca ran her hands on the flame. It was...cold? She raised her hand back to her face and blinked. It didn't burn her. Amazing.

On the other side of the chest sat the Soul Spells in all its dusty glory. Reeca's eyebrows met. How did this end up from Drodham all the way up to here?

A hand swept past Reeca's view and soon, Elred had all three shoved into the satchel. Up above, voices of alarm grew louder. Oh, no. Here they come. As one, Reeca and Elred raced past the short corridor and out of the trapdoor. Reeca slammed the cellar shut, the floorboards giving a faint creak as she drove her foot against it. That should prevent anyone from prying that open physically. Should they use magic, it would erase Reeca and Elred's trail before these heathens could even trace it back to them.

Reeca felt a new glamour ripple through her skin as Elred strode towards the guard Reeca had knocked unconscious and dragged him towards the door. Reeca withdrew her magic from the lock just in time for Elred to push the door open.

"What's going on here?" a male guard peeked a bearded chin inside the hall. His voice was as scratchy as his trimmed beard.

"We caught this one snooping around the cellar," Elred said in a deep voice, hefting the unconscious man in front of her. "Sorry I had to knock him out. He's a feisty one."

Another guard, probably his patrol partner, piped up. "How did he get in?" he hefted his own lamp that stung Reeca's eyes. "The doors are locked from the outside."

"He's a clever one," Elred shrugged her glamoured shoulders before turning to the cellar now shut. "Whatever's inside the cellar must be worth a fortune."

The bearded guard huffed. "Leave him here," he clapped his partner on the arm. "The Heiress will deal with him in the morning."

Reeca's gut tightened. Deal with him...? They wouldn't kill him, wouldn't they?

Elred snorted, drawing Reeca's attention to her. "By all means," the shard fairy dipped her head. She made a ceremony of dragging the man out of the dining hall and dumping him into the ground. A massive bruise by his cheek was already blooming.

The bearded guard chuckled. "Never knew you were much of a puncher, Faen," he reached out and gave Elred a light pat on the shoulder. "Earlier this season you were nothing but sticks and flesh."

Elred snorted. "We should go," she gestured towards Reeca and waved her hand in the air. "Plenty of patrol grounds to cover and all."

They nodded at each other and Elred grabbed Reeca's arm. Soon, they were on the way. The quickest path to the exit would not be in the standard patrol cycle but who cares about that now? To hell with it.

As they neared the shimmering surface that marked the edge of the camp, voices erupted in panicked yells behind them. Ah, they're been caught. Reeca turned to Elred and with a light nod, they plunged through the rippling surface.

It was cold, like water touching her skin after months of being in a desert. Reeca's hands stopped her fall and her wrists found scratchy sand.

"Up, they'll be not far behind," Elred turned to the Desaran night and scanned the line of trees that would either lead them to Zoriago or Aresving. From Zoriago, the next best option for retreat would be Jehnasson, where another light shone, if Reeca's memory served her rightly.

Reeca brushed her trousers to dust off the sand that clung into them. She glanced back at the rock. Guilt gnawed at her gut. What would happen to those men when the Heiress hears about what happened?

It's Reeca's fault. If she and Elred didn't steal these thrones, those men would still be in the Heiress' good graces. If only...

"Reeca, are you coming?" Elred called. Reeca snapped her head up to find the shard fairy already halfway from the line of sand, closer to the line of trees.

Reeca blew a breath and forced her clenched fists to relax. It wasn't fair that somebody had to suffer for the common good but what choice did Reeca have?

What choice did any of them have?

Reeca shook her head as she stalked closer to Elred and the shard fairy resumed walking. She should be like Elred. Don't let one's emotions ruin the mission. Be like Elred and Reeca would be strong.

To win this war, Reeca would need every ounce of strength the universe could give her.

It's only just beginning.