She scanned the area for Andyr as she exited the room. The celebration outside was beginning to die down. Peeking outside one of the windows, she spotted guests drunkenly stumbling over the castle grounds in the moonlight.

“Andyr should be nearby,” she reminded herself as she snuck into the hall. The guards were still unconscious on the ground, which made Renae let out a small sigh of relief. Unfortunately, her relief was short-lived as she heard footsteps hastily approaching. In response, she unsheathed her knives, and prepared to fight her assailant. As the figure rounded the corner, she relaxed her shoulders and stashed her weapons.

“Renae!” Sera took deep breaths and leaned towards the basket she was carrying, “No time to talk… You have to go!”

“What?!” Her eyes widened, “Where’s Andyr?”

“He’s distracting the patrolling guards on the other side of the castle! You have to get out of here right now!”

Renae’s heart sank at the thought of leaving her comrade behind to take the fall for her. She gnawed on her lip, “No, I’ll go help him. Here, you take the crown. We’ll figure out the rest later.”

She handed the bag to Sera, who quickly hid it among the used rags in her basket.

“Don’t get caught,” Renae reminded her, “I owe Andyr beer.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Sera responded softly, “just… don’t get murdered.”

“Right! Give the jewels to Odel while you’re at it,” Renae pulled up her hood, drew her knives, “We’ve got a deal.”

Sera watched as her friend ran headfirst into danger yet again. On her way back, she heard swords clashing and screams in the distance as she entered the unlocked upper library. When she returned to her station and continued washing the rags, she let out a silent prayer for her dearest friends.

Finding Andyr was quite an easy task, seeing as Renae only had to follow the sounds of swords clashing against each other to find him. She sprinted quickly, barely stopping to catch her breath. As she rounded the corner, she found Andyr struggling to fight against three patrolmen at the same time, beside a fourth bloodied body, which lay lifelessly on the ground. Blood trickled down from several seemingly shallow gashes on Andyr’s arms. Without hesitating, she ran towards the fight, knives in hand.

“Andyr!” she screamed.

Hearing his name, Andyr glanced at her, “Renae, don’t! Run!”

“Get his accomplice!” the bearded guard ordered. Another guard turned to face Renae and prepared to strike her down.

“Renae, just go!” she heard the fatigue in Andyr’s pleading voice, “Can’t hold on… much longer!”

“No, we’re leaving together!” she screamed back.

The guard pushed his way past the embattled Andyr and swung his blade horizontally at Renae for a decapitating strike. Swiftly ducking under the slash aimed at her neck, and closing the distance between her and the guard, Renae thrust her knife upwards into the guard’s exposed armpit. Her blade sank deep into the guard’s flesh and before the man had even gasped in surprise, Renae had pushed him away, blood dripping down her blade as it slid out of the man’s body.