As Gale looked around the dig for additional cohorts, she remembered her meeting with Penndarius and rushed to gather her things. It was almost time for their appointment. She went to an outside desk where she had stashed her robes and messenger pack, slid the bag over her shoulder, and raced toward the scaffolding ramps, then up to the city proper. None of the blackcloaked men saw her go.

Moments later, inside the main tent, the rest of the researchers gathered, along with the five dark-clothed men, their female compatriot, and the reptilian kirin. Isaiah crossed his arms and turned to the leader of the strange group.

"Okay, we are all here. Now, what is it that requires us all to be present?"

The woman motioned toward the assembled lot. "This is everyone?" she asked tonelessly, not seeming to notice Gale’s absence among the women researchers.

"Yes. Why?"

"Good." She drew a long sword, then leaped forward with a strange smile and delivered a stunning jab to Isaiah's gut with her weapon.

"Why...?" Isaiah croaked as he began to cough up blood.

She did not respond but instead whistled shrilly.

One assassin tapped the kirin on the haunch. "Hip, hip! Go get them!" he yelled.

The large kirin let out a low hiss and eagerly unsheathed long fangs from behind its beak. The kirin bounded toward the researchers and began ripping, tearing, slashing, and biting its way through the crowd of horrified men and women.

Three of the assassins unsheathed swords that were duplicates of the one the woman was carrying and went to work on the researchers. The two remaining assassins blocked the entrance to the tent, while the other three and the kirin hurled themselves with abandon into the crowd. Blood sprayed across the walls of the tent and painted the rune-marked stone floor of the platform a deep red.

Several of the victims fled back toward the entrance, but they were cut down by the two guarding assassins, who attacked with bright silver flashes that seemed disappear as fast as they had appeared, leaving bloody wounds in their wake. When one researcher reached the barred tent flap, a flashing sword cut the man in half. His shocked expression remained frozen in time as his body hit the floor in two parts.

"Oh, gods above...save us!" a researcher pleaded, just as he was skewered from behind by an assassin.

Caught between three swordsmen with a murderous kirin and the two cloaked figures barring the exit, the ten remaining men and women were cut down in rapid succession.

When the gruesome business almost finished, Isaiah was last, holding his stomach where the sword had wounded him. A silver sword tip, wielded gracefully by the female assassin, brought his chin up to meet her eyes. They were dreadfully cold.

"Why?" he asked weakly.

"Just business. You will not feel a thing," she assured him as she swiftly thrust through his windpipe to the back of his neck with a clean stroke that severed his spine. Isaiah died instantly.

She performed two additional strokes in the air to rid her blade of dripping blood. The other assassins imitated her actions, and they all sheathed their swords in unison. Then the female assassin looked around quickly and counted the dead.

"There is one missing."

She walked over to the desk and shifted through the papers for information. She found what she was looking for and held it toward the others. "Here. This indicates a meeting of a Penndarius Greyson with a magus named Edipagus."

One assassin snatched it from her hand, and he and three others left the area together, along with the kirin.

፨

Gale was making her way through the city streets when she began to feel lightheaded, and a chill ran up her spine. She stopped near an alleyway and leaned against the wall.

"What was that?" she wondered aloud to herself.

Then she felt something descend upon her. It felt like a cold breeze for a moment, and then she smelled almonds. A misty white presence fell over her.. "Oh, by the gods!" she yelled as she felt her essence being taken by force. Then she collapsed into an abandoned pile of old clothing.

She grabbed her head, and her eyes seemed to explode as if transmuted into emerald beams of light.

A man walking nearby saw her fall and ran over to help her, though by the time he got to her the energy in her eyes had dissipated. "Are you all right, miss?" he asked as he kneeled to help her up.

Her demeanor seemed to have changed completely. She took off her heavy glasses and gave him a winning smile. "Just fine, my dear. I have an appointment to keep," she said and left him bewildered in the street as she strode happily away.

- End of Episode -

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New Episodes of A Scholar's Journey: The Divine Tempest are released every Thursday at 7 AM PST.