Mage Assassin 2 Chapter 4

The glow worms didn’t light the way for me on my journey back. The wind howled through the trees nonstop, and the branches swayed over my head, but it didn’t seem like the forest was too pissed with me.

Otherwise, I would have felt a wrath much darker than what I was experiencing.

I could hear creatures scurrying through the trees, but I couldn’t see their eyes or what the shuffling noises belonged to. They didn’t scream or spook me like they had done in the past, instead it was like they were telling me they were there and following me.

I concluded that the trees were warning me in the same way the goddesses were, so I made sure to not say anything to annoy the forest, and I traveled quickly into the darkened hollow way and back to the city of Ocadia.

Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the darkness, and even though it was hard to see where I sas going, I could not become completely lost.

Just so long as Hud didn’t decide to redirect the winding hollow way I was locked inside of now.

The vines and roots that sprawled around and under me seemed to be rolling and shifting as I stumbled along. The vines weren’t thwacking me in the way they had done once before, but I felt as though the tunnel of plants was narrowing this time, and I started to wonder if it might clamp shut around me before I escaped Hud.

“Glow worms, please?” I hissed to the trees as the utter darkness began to feel oppressive.

But the wind only whistled louder along the vined walls, and I shivered violently as it seeped through the tangle and billowed straight through the hollow way at my back. It was almost like the wind itself was ushering me out before anything else knew I was there, and I didn’t know whether to be grateful to the forest, or blame it for not trying to help me more with any scrap of light.

I tied the cloak tighter around my neck in an attempt to combat the cold air and continued onward. I kept going for what felt like much longer than usual, and just as I was beginning to think I’d be lost in the darkened forest for the next century, I finally saw the first specks of light appear from the inland of the kingdom.

“Thank the fucking gods,” I sighed, and I got lower to the ground and walked at a crouch to shove my way out of the final tangle of the forest hedges.

It looked like I would be coming out toward the northeast edge of the kingdom as usual, and it always tended to be quiet around this area, especially because it was situated at the back of a few larger estates. It wasn’t that going into the forest was illegal or anything, but it was extremely dangerous, and I didn’t really want any questions being raised as to why I would risk going in there.

I kept myself concealed and made sure I jumped out at the right time when there was nobody near, and when I did drag myself out of Hud, the smell was instantly so much fresher. The scent of blossoms, grass, and summer filled the air as I turned toward my estate, and the sun almost blinded me as a jolt of heat resonated through my body.

Usually, I would soak up as much of the daytime as I could at this time of year. I loved to walk, and I loved my kingdom, but my mind was cluttered with thoughts of Ephy and ways to see her again, and my thoughts were going a million miles a second.

The goddesses’ warning just didn’t sit right with me. It was like they thought of Ephy as their property, and like they had complete control over who would enter their area of the forest, which I supposed they did. It was only that I had found a way to travel through that unforgiving land, and the goddesses had to know I wasn’t there to cause harm.

I couldn’t decide why they were so angry over the circumstance, but I reminded myself that it could be a lot worse. After all, today’s fiasco was a simple warning, but who knew how long it would be before I had a chance to see my siren in person again.

My body ached just at the thought, and I wondered if all mortals who encountered sirens felt this way. There was just something so unbelievably sweet and lovable about Ephelia, and the way she clung to me and gazed into my eyes so intently was impossible to shake from my mind.

I knew she truly cared for me, and I couldn’t deny the sense of possession I felt toward her.

The sun beat down on the crown of my head as I made my way through the city lanes with my thoughts in a tangle. It wasn’t long until I reached my estate, and as I headed up to the entrance, I ran my fingers through my hair and realigned my back to appear as unconcerned as possible.

Then I reached for the ivy-clad doorway, and I waited as the plants retreated back into the walls, and then I entered.

“Dex!” Mazne shouted. “Master, I was wondering when you were going to come back!”

“What’s wrong?” I asked the flustered receptionist.

Mazne held up one finger while her other hand started to flip through the pages in front of her. She had been working at the reception for years, after not taking too well to assassin work, yet she had never gotten herself more organized and seemed like she was always in some kind of disarray.

“So, you know this whole transferring of documents is still a bit up in the air since Master Abbot died?” Mazne asked as she continued to flip through the pages. “Well, I kind of forgot to tell you about a meeting you have. Well, not so much as forgot, more like just didn’t see it. And I do apologize.”

Her dark, curly hair bounced with her movements as she viciously turned pages to find exactly what she was looking for, and I smirked and sighed.

“What meeting is this?” I asked.

“It’s a scheduled meeting…” she trailed and licked the tip of her finger and started to flick again. “Master Abbot approved it before he passed, and well… it’s with Nara, the Headmistress of the Witches’ Estate.”

I looked at the receptionist with a puzzled expression.

The witches didn’t really have a good reputation around the kingdom. Of course, they weren’t as bad as the warlocks and necromancers, but they were still regarded as devious and a bit wicked.

I wondered what the Master was doing associating with the Headmistress herself. I couldn’t remember a single instance when their estate had sought our assistance in the past.

“What does Nara want?” I inquired and started to unravel the knot in my cloak.

“I’m not sure,” Mazne told me. “All this document says is that Nara has a proposal, but only wants to speak of it in person. The Master’s noted that she was nervous of saying anything before they met on account of both her estate and her opposing enemy’s background.”

“I see,” I said. “Did he not conduct his own research?”

“Not at all,” Mazne confirmed.

I clicked my fingers one by one and furrowed my brow in intrigue. After reading some files of past jobs, I knew it was not often that the Master didn’t at least find out something about a case before talking about it in a formal meeting.

Being a water mage, even if the person hadn’t told him right away what the job was for, chances were that he found out before their arrival.

“Strange,” I muttered.

“A bit,” Mazne agreed. “But you know how… well, how tired he was there for a while. Anyway, I hope you don’t mind taking it on last minute like this. I know we’ve had a lot of new jobs coming in because of Ignis, and people going uptight and a bit mad, but I’m sure it’s probably just something small she needs sorting out. You can address it, yeah?”

“Probably,” I agreed. “Yeah, I’ll take it on, just tell me when this meeting is set for so I can prepare some elementary questions to ask her about--”

“Uh, well, that’s the next thing I was gonna say,” Mazne croaked. “I don’t think you have the time, because she’s actually waiting in your office for you right now.”

“Oh, okay,” I sighed. “I probably need some more time, especially if I’m dealing with an accomplished witch.”

“Sorry,” she returned with a grimace.

“It’s fine, Maz,” I reassured her. “But can you tell Nara that the meeting’s been rearranged? The docket’s completely full right now, and I don’t have time to fit her into my schedule today.”

Between running the entire Assassins’ Estate, dishing out jobs, doing three times as many tasks myself, training, learning the ropes, and now potentially taking on the king and Ephy’s situations, I couldn’t fit anything else. I always enjoyed a challenge, of course, but my schedule was turning into something impossible to tackle.

“I’ve tried to tell her to come back on account of you not being here, but she said she won’t leave until she sees the Master,” Mazne informed me with a slight tremble in her voice. “She… she is a witch, Dex. The Headmistress.”

“I know.” I sucked in my cheek and glanced down the hallway toward where the office was and then back at Mazne.

“How long has she been here?”

“A few hours, I guess,” Mazne returned.

“She’s determined, at least,” I snorted and rapped my knuckles on the desk a couple times. “Anything else I need to know before I go in there?”

Mazne twisted her lips and tensed up her neck slightly, and I could see the small veins pop out of her neck.

“What is it?” I asked her outright.

“Well, actually there’s one more thing,” she trailed. “Nara’s waiting for the Master… I don’t think she knows that you’ve taken over the estate, or anything about Master Abbot’s passing, for that matter. I was going to tell her, but she is not a very approachable woman, and she was already quite cranky with you not being here, and me having forgotten the meeting, and--”

“Okay, well I can let her know that I've taken over,” I retorted. “Hopefully, she’ll take it well, and if not, that’s her problem.”

“Sorry, Dex,” Mazne whimpered. “I know this is a bloody mess.”

“It’s okay.” I smiled. “I’ll go and find out what she wants.”

I left my cloak on the reception desk and headed to the office area, and then I let myself in.

The first thing I saw was the back of Nara’s head as she slouched in a chair and faced away from me. Her wild hair was dark brown, and the only thing I could compare it to was a bird’s nest. It was wavy, but I wasn’t unsure if the small tendrils came from the style she had put it in or if it was naturally like that, and like always, a few twigs stuck out from the mess.

Nara’s frame was much smaller than what her wild hair would suggest, and she sank into the chair and filled out only half of it.

I firmly closed the door behind me so she would be aware of my entrance, but she still didn’t turn around to greet me.

Instead, the Headmistress stayed in exactly the same position and waited for me to take my seat behind the large desk. Her deep-green eyes followed me as I passed her, and I was the first to break the silence.

“Hello, Nara,” I said and took a seat. “What can I do for you today?”

“Hi,” she dismissively remarked. “I’ve come to see the Master, not some sous-head, or whatever you’re supposed to be.”

“I understand, but--” I clamped my mouth shut as the witch suddenly moved.

She abruptly rose from her chair to stick one leg under her before she dropped down again. As she did, she got distracted by a spare thread attached to one of the holes in her black tights, and she pulled it until a thin wisp of silky thread came away in her hand. Then she held it up to her mouth, puckered her dark purple lips, and blew it to the floor. After that, Nara proceeded to pat down the torn hole in her tights as if it would make any difference, but then her attention jolted back to me like she abruptly remembered we were in a discussion.

I grinned a little and tried to readjust my frame of mind for this meeting.

Nara was certainly one of the most unusual heads of an estate in the kingdom, if not the most. She was utterly against the grain, from the scandalous way she dressed to the pointed way she talked, even when she addressed the king himself.

Her wild hair was mostly tied up today, or at least, it was bushed together at the top, and some ringlets fell just past her decolletage. She was wearing an erotically designed black corset dress that flared and stopped midway down her thighs, and her tights with holes dotted throughout them led down to a pair of dark purple platform heels. She simultaneously looked like she had just come out of a very expensive brothel, as well as crawled back from a lengthy battle with the gods.

“I must say, you look familiar,” the witch said through narrowed green eyes. “Do I know you at all? My memory can be awful sometimes, but your eyes… they seem familiar.”

She placed both hands on the desk and raised herself up a bit to search for some clue as to how she recognized me.

My eyes were always my biggest giveaway since I had heterochromia, and one eye was the color of blue ice while the other was as dark as charcoal. I’d passed Nara all over this kingdom both during my working hours and during my leisurely strolls, but I had also stood right beside her as a druid not long ago during the magical assembly with the king.

“Well, I don’t know about that,” I laughed lightly. “Of course, I know who you are, though.”

“Please.” She eyed her dark purple, claw-like nails before sitting back again. “Everyone in this damn kingdom knows who I am. How could they not?”

Nara chuckled wickedly, but for some reason, the delightful sound made me feel more comfortable around her.

“That’s true,” I humored her. “The Witches’ Estate has quite the reputation.”

“I was talking about my looks,” she sarcastically laughed. “How can people not know me when I look this good?”

I couldn’t help but laugh with her, because she wasn’t wrong.

The Headmistress was stunning in a lavish sort of way. Sure, she was off-the-wall, but she was already showing a playful side to her personality that I didn’t even know the witches possessed, and she did look damn fine in that corset dress. I’d be lying if I said the tattered holes in her tights weren’t difficult to keep my eyes off of.

“I should stop teasing so much,” she said and pursed her purple lips. “I’m here on official business.”

“Business doesn’t always have to be so serious,” I pointed out.

“Even for an assassin?” she snorted.

“That’s right.” I grinned. “Rest assured, we thoroughly enjoy the work we do, and we’ve been known to chuckle a few times while we’re at it.”

The witch’s deep-green eyes danced at the statement, and I could tell she wanted to toss another witty phrase back at me, but she seemed determined to remain serious now.

“Hmm, maybe we’ve passed on the street at some point. You are quite… handsome, so I should have remembered your face. Hmmm… yeaasss. You are attractive. Too attractive to be a mere wet worker.” Nara flipped back to the conversation I forgot we were even talking about and toyed with a hole in her tights. “Anyway, can you fetch your Master now, please? As enjoyable as I find your face and voice, I’ve been waiting for a long time, and I have important matters to see to.”

“You’re looking at him,” I informed her.

Nara didn’t look at me with a shocked expression at first. Instead, her painted lips turned downward and she scrunched her face up as if I had told her the worst joke in the world.

“Master Abbot,” she clarified more sternly. “I’ve come to see him. Now, I know everyone in the kingdom likes to play games with the silly little witches because none of you like us, and oh dear, we might just hex you for a laugh, but I booked this meeting a while ago. You owe me a meeting with the head of this estate. I won’t be cast off like a joke. I refuse to leave until I am given what I was promised.”

She folded her arms and looked to the side of her like the topic was finished, and I had to admire her stubbornness. It was true the witches did tend to get written off around here, but I certainly never did as much. I feared them a healthy amount and respected them to a decent degree.

“I’m serious, Nara,” I told her in a sober tone. “I have taken over as the head of this estate, and I am the Master here. That is why I am sitting at this desk and waiting to begin the meeting you were promised.”

“What about Abbot?” she asked skeptically.

“He’s… well, he died,” I admitted. “Master Abbot was killed by a necromancer and a warlock a few weeks ago, and it was binded that I would take over. My name is Dex Morgan, and I now run the estate.”

The witch scraped together a few broken murmurs as she tried to piece together exactly what I was telling her, and I didn’t speak again for a dozen or so seconds as I waited for her to reply.

“That’s awful,” she finally gasped. “Murdered? But how? He was one of the strongest heads of estate there was.”

“I know,” I confirmed. “But he was getting older, and someone saw that in him and decided to kill him.”

The story behind his death went a lot deeper than that, but there was only so much I was willing to tell the witch at the moment.

“No, everyone respected and admired him,” Nara harshly countered. “Master Abbot was a symbol of strength and justice in this kingdom. Why would anyone want to kill him?”

“Politics get the better of everyone,” I muttered in a low tone.

“Well, I know that’s true,” she said in a similar tone. “And you’re the new Master? You seem awfully young to be the head of an estate, especially when Abbot had such a legacy. What are you, like twenty-five?”

“Close.” I smiled. “I’m twenty-seven, but I assure you, I’ve earned this title. So, before we chatter any more and waste both of our time, what can I do for you, Nara?”

The scandalous Headmistress appeared to be in her early thirties at the very most, but I knew she was at least over a century old, and yet she smiled at me with a sudden sense of respect while my eyes flicked to her deep purple lips.

“I need your help, or your estate’s help, or whoever wants to help me, I need it,” she divulged in the same direct fashion.

“I imagined as much,” I replied.

“Basically, I need you to assassinate some wizards for me,” Nara continued. “Now, before you ask, the answer is no, I don’t know who they are specifically, but I know I want them dead, and that they deserve--”

“Okay, let’s stop there,” I laughed. “You want someone dead, but you don’t even know who? And more importantly, the wizards are a kind set of people. After all, nobody is bred a wizard, and they don’t even dabble in the darker arts. They learn their craft, they stick to themselves, hell, they don’t even have an official estate. You and I both know that’s enough to prove they never gather enemies for themselves.”

“Yeah, and?” The Headmistress cocked an eyebrow. “Just because people think the wizards are harmless doesn’t mean there’s not a few bad seeds! And trust me, not all the wizards are so harmless! They’re framing me! Actually, they’re framing my entire estate, and I won’t have it. I just won’t.”

“How are they framing you?” I asked.

“You want examples?” she asked. “Or do you just want to take my word when I tell you they’re awful human beings.”

“Examples would be ideal,” I returned. “My estate only takes contracts when there is an injustice that must be rectified.”

“Okay, fine, I’ve got examples,” she huffed and switched which leg she was sitting on. “So, the last thing they’ve done is tell everyone that we’ve been hypnotizing the nagas so we can use them to terrorize people in the alleys at night. Which is false. I adore the nagas, I would never force a single enchantment on their kind. Apparently, we’ve also been picking the feathers off the harpies, which is not true, but somehow the wizards have convinced their flock that we’ve been sneaking into their estate at night, so you can imagine how bloody inconvenient that has been! Those harpies have been swarming the skies over my estate at least once a day ever since! And what else… oh, yeah! They’re telling people that we’re trying to harvest the sun's rays or some shit like that so that one day, the kingdom will live in complete blackness, and that’s when we’ll thrive the most. Which is horse shit! Just because we’re witches doesn't mean we’re obsessed with the darkness, I enjoy the summertime, too! A healthful balance between all things, including the light and dark is crucial to maintaining our powers! But does anyone appreciate that? No, of course not. They’d much rather whip up a pandamonium and shriek at the sight of us like the sun is already blackened! Those fucking idiots!”

Nara was getting notably more angry every second she spoke about the so-called wizards who were trying to frame her.

I hadn’t heard any of these rumors around the town, but that wasn’t to say they weren’t true. I tended to stay out of the other estates’ drama since it wasn’t a good look for me to be nosing around places where I wasn’t supposed to, and things like petty arguments didn’t interest me. To be an assassin, I had to keep a safe distance away from most people.

“And are you sure it’s wizards who are to blame for all these rumors?” I asked. “I mean no disrespect, but it’s not like you have the best reputation in the kingdom to begin with.”

“Really?” Nara scoffed and looked at me as if she had daggers in her eyes. “Do you think I don’t already know that? That’s why I kept this meeting as hushed as I could.”

“I get your point,” I agreed. “I’m just mentioning it. It could be any number of people stirring up rumors like this.”

“Well, it’s definitely wizards,” the Headmistress said in a scolding tone. “Young and scheming ones who will destroy what little standing my estate has, you mark me on that!”

“Have you got any evidence?” I asked, and I held my hand out and waited for some documents to be piled into them.

“Well, not on me right now,” Nara stammered. “But it’s them… just trust me.”

I lifted my head and gave her a thin-lipped smile.

“Trust you?” I repeated.

“Yes.” Nara crossed her arms and cocked her head. “Is that so very difficult a thing to do? Too much to ask, since I’m a witch and all?”

“No,” I sighed. “But to be frank, your estate has caused some genuine trouble in the kingdom before. I don’t personally have a problem with witches, but I have lived here all my life, and I know for a fact the Witches’ Estate has a lengthy backhistory of scandals and devious behavior. Now, more importantly, you have no evidence to give me, you’re expecting me to just rely on your word regardless of the fact I don’t know you, and you hail from an estate that virtually no one in this kingdom trusts.”

“Oh, give me a break, the past is in the past,” Nara scoffed with a hostile glare. “Ever since I got rid of Cylindre, everything has gone back to normal again.”

“Cylindre?” I asked.

“She was one of my students,” Nara hummed. “She was one of the best witches we had in the beginning, but then she started to… turn sour. She’s the one who demolished the witches’ good name by causing havoc. I sent her to the king, and I vowed to restore the reputation of my kind. All that these wizard assholes are doing is an attempt to tear down everything I’ve worked toward since then.”

I leaned back in my chair and allowed the witch to say her piece. She was feisty, but not in the same way the Ember Priestess, Cinis, was. Nara towed the line between being sharp as hell, and seeming completely mad, but she did speak with more conviction than several other heads of the estates.

“Look,” she started again before I had time to jump in. “I’m saying that we’re not like that anymore. It was one evil witch that did all of that, and I guess I let things go too far. Cylindre got into too much trouble, and now she’s… well, I don’t know where she went because I sentenced her to the king. She’s either exiled or in the king’s prison. Either way, I'm in charge of this estate, and I have been for the past century. I might have slipped up and allowed a student to nearly take over the whole estate that one time, but I’m determined to not let it happen again.”

“What about the other witches?” I asked. “How did they behave during all this Cylindre business?”

“At first, some of them turned nasty, but I think that was because of the brainwashing.” The witch shrugged as if this was no concern. “They did eventually realize that Cylindre was fucking crazy. She turned all of them against each other for a good while, though, and I can admit the estate was going a bit bad. We were consumed in the darker charms, we could hardly break free of our own powers. It was rather grim, but interesting.”

“But you’re the Headmistress witch,” I replied. “How were you consumed, and why didn’t you stop her earlier?”

“Those are questions I ask myself over and over again,” she sighed and slumped back. “I guess I wanted to think Cylindre was just in a phase of wanting power. It happens to us all, really. Magic like ours is a… tricky business. I turned a blind eye because I didn’t want to believe that someone I trained could act that way in the long run.”

“I see.” I nodded.

“But when everyone else had that brief sting of turning bad, I knew I had to step in and stop it,” Nara continued. “The only problem was that I did it after our whole reputation had been left in tatters.”

“At least you did stop it,” I said.

“I guess.” Nara nodded. “We really aren’t bad by nature, but if there’s enough stigma behind your name, and everyone else believes you’re bad, then yes… Eventually, you do become the person they say. For a while, atleast.”

“It’s understandable to some degree,” I calmly replied.

“Thankfully, we got rid of her, the wretched thing.” The witch patted her nest of dark brown hair, and then braced her elbow on the desk. “But now, we have this problem. There’s one fucking thing after another. I thought that when I took over things more firmly, all the rest would just naturally change for the better. I thought my estate would get on better. I thought the kingdom’s judgments would lighten, but nothing has changed.”

“Well, it’s hard to change opinions when no one even knew that Cylindre was responsible for all of the witches’ antics,” I reasoned.

“I know,” she sighed. “But I thought that if we just stayed out of people’s way for a few years and kept as quiet as we could, then people would start to recognize our true natures. See us differently. But instead, we’ve just become an easy target. It’s so fucking ridiculous!”

I could see the Headmistress was speaking honestly and openly about her troubles, and I did feel a bit sorry for her circumstance, but as much as I wanted to help her straight away, I was a Master of my own estate now. I had protocol in place for a reason, and I had to look at this from a professional perspective.

“I hear what you’re saying, and I’ll consider looking into the job if you have the money to pay for our services,” I told her. I didn’t really have the time to even take on a new task, but her eagerness broke me down. “It’s five hundred gold for us to open your case and make the required inquiries, and another one thousand when the assassination date is decided upon. Right now, we’re looking at maybe a month until the job can hope to be completed, provided your suspicions are confirmed.”

“Ah.” Nara quirked her purple lips in a nervous smile. “So, that’s the thing…I don’t really have that kind of money.”

I raised my eyebrows for a moment. “Right. Then we can’t help you.”

Nara’s lips tightened into a furious line, and her nostrils flared, but she didn’t respond until she’d huffily folded her arms and glared at me for a long minute.

“That’s utter bullshit,” the Headmistress informed me.

“Like hell it is,” I snorted. “That’s the lowest price point we offer in this estate, and it’s generous considering it sounds like you expect multiple targets to be killed at the end of this arrangement. These days, your case would run closer to six thousand gold and--”

“Ha!” she scoffed and stared even more wildly, but I stubbornly continued.

“And that price would only stand if your suspicions were even correct,” I finished. “Nara, you have nothing but rumors to base this on, and while we’ve taken cases based on less, we have never done so for free.”

Nara shot to her feet and slammed her hands on the desktop while she glared at me. I got the impression she very much wanted to claw my eyes out with those dark purple nails, but she just stood there while her cleavage heaved up and down in her corset dress.

I forced myself to look her in the eye and nowhere else, and I cleared my throat.

“I would like to help you because I can see that you’re passionate about this,” I told her more gently, “but as I said, there’s nothing I can do if you can’t afford our services. Why don’t you campaign in your estate, or wait to save up the money? Magical estate leaders usually get a good income considering the trades you offer and all that, so why don’t you wait a little while, and then come back when you find yourself in a more financially stable situation?”

“Because I will never find myself in that position,” she snapped. “The Witches’ Estate is broke!”

A flash of fear came to the Headmistress’ eyes, and I stared in shock as she collapsed down into her seat again. Then she fidgeted with the holes in her tights, and she swallowed loudly without looking me in the eye again.

“What do you mean broke?” I finally asked. “You have hundreds of witches among you there, how are you broke?”

“Nobody wants anything to do with us, so I have no gold to scrape together,” she uttered. “Our reputation is in tatters, why should anyone buy anything from us?”

“Surely the warlocks--” I started to say.

“They’re allied exclusively with the necromancers!” Nara seethed, and her frustration made her voice shake. “The warlocks refuse to have anything to do with anyone else, and the alchemists make their own brews on account of the younger generation’s advancements! The pixies used to trust us, but after Cylindre started clipping their wings for her charm bags, they won’t come within ten miles of our kind, and don’t get me started on the non-magical humans. They’d rather see a feeble old wizard than a spooky ass witch.”

Nara scruffed her nest of hair in irritation, and she let out a shaky sigh while she worked to calm down.

I felt sorry for the Headmistress, and that was not something I had ever imagined myself saying, but my hands were tied in the situation. If I was just regular Dex the assassin, then I would take it on in my ample spare time, but as the Master, I couldn’t afford to shuffle paying clients aside, or gain a reputation for doing charity work. Not with so many assassins to look after within this estate.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated, but this time I spoke less like a Master and more like any other man on the street. Well, any man who didn’t loathe witches. “Truly, that can’t be easy with the size of your estate. But Ignis descending has brought in dozens of clients in only a few weeks, and I do have to take care of my assassins. Things can go wrong in a hundred ways in our business, and it’s my job to ensure there are no loose ends anywhere in our assignments. I’m having enough trouble keeping up with the jobs as it is. If I were more established in the role, and if the estate was fully transitioned, then it would be a different story, and I would be happy to consider doing this, but I just can’t right now, Nara.”

“Is there any way to get you to change your mind?” the Headmistress pleaded, and all of her hostility was gone. “Please, I can do anything else. Hell, our whole estate can help you in some way. Just say the word, and I can send my most accomplished witches over to assist in anything you could possibly need.”

Small creases formed on her forehead, and I did my best not to cave. Nara really was beautiful in a unique way, and her painted mouth puckered hopefully as she waited for my response. I could tell from her bowed eyebrows and squinted eyes that she knew my answer would still be unchanged, but the headstrong woman pleaded with me anyway.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated again.

“Okay!” Nara straightened up and forced a firmer expression. Then she recrossed her legs to get situated for her next bargaining plea, and I noticed the higher half of her thigh was accidentally exposed. “How about if--”

A knock interrupted the witch, and I looked passed her to the door.

“Come in!” I shouted. “Oh, hi, Mazne.”

Nara twisted her head around in the receptionist’s direction, and for a moment, Mazne paused and gave her an awkward smile. Then she fluttered her eyes back to me.

“Your next appointment is here, Master,” Mazne said.

The receptionist kept the door open with her hip as she spoke, and she fiddled around with the pen that was in her fingers.

“Bullshit,” Nara scoffed. “You just want me gone, right?”

“No, not at all,” I chuckled. “I wasn’t actually aware of any more appointments today. Who is it, Maz?”

“Well, this is a last minute appointment,” Mazne replied.

“Last minute, meaning any excuse to get me to leave?” the witch hummed in a sarcastically sweet tone.

“Hang on, Nara,” I sighed. “Mazne, can you tell them to wait about ten minutes so we can wrap this up?”

“Uhhh, not really,” Mazne uttered. “Because it’s Cinis, and she’s waiting for you already just outside this door.”