Leon’s group, now invisible with their darkness shrouds covering them, watched from the windows as a dozen men came walking up to the front gate of Valentina’s manor. To Leon’s eyes, not one of them had reached the sixth-tier, meaning that his people were more than a match for them if it came down to straight fighting. However, as the group unlocked the front gate and walked in with the familiarity and complacency of having done so many times before, he put away thoughts of violence.

Let them come through, Leon ordered his people. They’ve clearly been here before, and they may know where any secrets can be found. So let’s see what they do…

He heard a few breathed acknowledgments from his retainers, and they went back to watching the dozen go about their business.

First thing they did was close the gate behind them, locking it to ensure that the wards surrounding Valentina’s manor didn’t have a massive hole punched through them—not that that had stopped Leon’s group, of course. All of the men were dressed in dark clothing covering their faces, so when three of them peeled off into the shadows between the manor and the stable, they almost vanished into the dark. However, Leon could still see them quite clearly, and could tell that they were assuming positions to watch over both the gate and the front door.

The remaining nine men walked inside. None spoke, and though they seemed to be paying some attention to the need for stealth, none were particularly quiet as they trooped inside. However, their coordinated movements were even more evidence in Leon’s eyes that they’d all been here before.

Leon and his people were on the manor’s third floor, having been searching one of Valentina’s small libraries, of which several were scattered about the manor. There hadn’t been much more than recreational reading to be found within, though Leon was grateful that his people hadn’t made too big a mess of this room or any others that they’d searched.

What little mess they had made didn’t seem to be noticed as the nine below them began climbing the grand staircase in the central hall. Leon watched with his magic senses as the group ascended right past them to the seventh floor, and only then did he finally hear one of them speak.

“This one,” the group’s only fifth-tier mage said as a door above opened.

Let’s follow, but remain quiet, Leon ordered his retinue. Slowly, his retainers crept out of the library they’d hunkered down in, their hands on each other’s shoulders to keep from bumping into each other. They were all in full armor, but they moved like ghosts—the results of not only their own skill but the incredible work that Sid had done in forging their armor.

Slowly, they made their way up the stairs as the group above them all shuffled into a room above and began whispering amongst themselves as they moved things about.

When Leon’s group reached the top floor, they found that a fourth-tier mage had been stationed at the top of the stairs in a surprising display of caution and professionalism given their otherwise lackadaisical attitude.

With a smile, Leon realized that the door the rest of the group had taken was almost closed and no one else was keeping an eye on the stairs. For the moment, at least, it seemed they didn’t need invisibility…

Leon crept up close to the fourth-tier sentry and dropped his invisibility. At the same time, lightning flooded through his body. The sentry barely had the time to widen his eyes in shock before Leon struck him in the chest and shocked him with enough lightning to cause his body to seize up. In a flash, Leon’s hand went over the man’s mouth, keeping from making any noise, and with his other hand, Leon kept him from falling to the ground.

Another weak bolt of lightning knocked the man unconscious.

Al, Leon whispered to his retainers, take him.

Alcander dropped his invisibility and prowled over, took the sentry from Leon, and gingerly let him down on a thick carpet just down the hall.

With that handled, Leon inched over to the mostly-closed door, calling upon his old hunting skills to stay quiet and out of sight. With his magic senses, he could see that the room the remaining eight men were in was a rather large office with a large and imposing desk on the opposite side from the door. The room had several large bookshelves, an expensive-looking clock, three sets of file drawers behind the desk, and a small sitting area.

The men were in the process of rearranging the room, with four third-tier mages slowly moving the huge desk a little closer to the center of the office, while the remaining third-tier, two fourth-tier, and final fifth-tier mage all took care of moving around the file drawers.

Leon was a little surprised that they weren’t going through the drawers, but the answer to his silent question was answered when, after the drawers had been moved out of the way, the fifth-tier mage began pulling at the candle sconces on the wall above the drawers like they were levers instead.

The sconces didn’t immediately move, and one of the third-tier mages let his discipline slip when he asked, “That **er lied to us!”

“Shut the ** up,” one of the fourth-tier mages chided as he struck the third-tier mage in the belly.

As the hapless third-tier mage collapsed, gasping for breath, the fifth-tier mage tried pulling the sconces again, and this time, Leon sensed the activation of a subtle enchantment. The sconces moved like levers, and a section of the wall behind the drawers slid open, revealing a tight passage through which Leon’s magic senses penetrate.

Leon grinned in spite of himself. His first attempt at creating a soul realm had been a mountain palace replete with hidden passages; he was of the opinion that everyone, with only a few solitary exceptions, could be excited at the prospect of finding a secret passage.

His grin quickly turned to a frown as he thought, ‘This is the home of a vampire, though, so that passage probably doesn’t lead to hidden magic secrets of secured treasure…’

Without a word, the fifth-tier mage stuck his head into the passage for a moment, looked both ways, and then slid in, his shoulders almost scraping both sides the passage was so narrow. He quickly disappeared into the passage, along with both fourth-tier mages, though not before one paused at the entrance of the passage—the one that had struck the third-tier mage—and growled, you all had better wait here. Quietly.”

Then into the passage he vanished.

Leon filled in his retainers on what he was seeing and waited several long minutes for the sounds of shifting and scraping coming from the passage faded. He was right about to burst into the office and start taking prisoners when one of the third-tier mages revealed that Leon hadn’t been the only one waiting for the others to vanish.

“Those **ing assholes,” the mage grumbled.

“Be quiet!” another begged, though without much conviction.

“How about you shut your ** hole?” the first venomously responded. “This whole thing is **ing bull**! We’re **ing out here risking out jobs for ** that hasn’t been **ing explained, for people too **ing rich to actually care about us! This whole **ting thing **ing stinks!”

“It’s our **ing job!” a third mage shot back. “If you don’t like it, then quit! Then we could all live better without having to listen to your idiotic comments!”

“Don’t **ing act like you’re fine with us getting **ed in the ass over here!” the first mage replied. “This is some really shady ** they’re covering us in! You may like the stench, but I prefer being **ing clean!”

Leon smiled as he recognized this foul-mouthed wordsmith as a potential turncoat. Unfortunately, none of the third-tier mages became so undisciplined as to actually reveal any of the secrets they may have been told about this place—assuming they’d actually been told any secrets of worth—so Leon swiftly opened the door and entered the room, closely followed by his retainers. The five third-tier mages barely had time to register his presence before his aura and killing intent had them all rubbing their noses on the floor.

Leon let his magic power settle around them, and he used his power to not just exert pressure upon them, but to hold them still and keep their mouths closed.

It wasn’t a silent entrance, but it was quiet enough. Still, Leon kept an eye on the passage opening, but he could neither see nor hear any sign of the three other mages returning to investigate.

“Secure them,” Leon ordered, and in a matter of seconds, his retainers had all of the third-tier mages bound, gagged, and their masks removed. Alcander then ducked out of the room and returned a moment later, the unconscious fourth-tier mage slung over his shoulder.

Leon glanced at those he’d captured and noted that they all seemed terrified, though the one who’d been complaining the most was, oddly enough the calmest. He looked almost resigned to his fate, though he was rather pointedly staring at the floor rather than at Leon or any of his companions.

“Stay here, watch them,” Leon ordered Gaius, who nodded and closed the door, holding it shut by leaning against it.

Without a word, Leon led Marcus and Alcander through the passage. He wanted to question everyone, but without a clear idea of what the remaining three were doing, he wanted to treat this like he was on a time limit rather than risking them escaping by wasting time with those left behind.

Once on the other side of the passage opening, Leon’s magic senses weren’t blocked anymore, and he noted that the tight passage led to a small room to the left, and to a very tight spiral staircase to the right, descending quite deeply past the other floors and into the ground. He couldn’t see any of the other three mages who’d gone in, but he knew which they’d gone. He immediately made for the stairs.

Once he, Marcus, and Alcander were at the bottom, the passage widened up, though it was even less inviting the rest of the manor had been. The entire passage was made of roughly-hewn stone and completely unlit, though that hardly stopped Leon’s group. They sped down the passage as quickly as stealth would allow, and at the end, they found a huge door partially open.

On the other side, Leon could see what looked almost like a small theater, with a series of descending stone steps in a half-circle around a stage down at the bottom on the far side. In the center of this stage was a huge stone bowl large enough, he realized, to hold all the blood in several people’s bodies—and judging from the stains around it, had held quite a bit of blood in its time.

The bowl was inscribed with several long lines of runic script he didn’t immediately recognize, though Leon noted that it was only the runes carved along the rim that were actual enchantments. The stand that the bowl stood upon, though, heavily carved and stylized in geometric fashion, was heavily enchanted, and he could sense light, lightning, and darkness magic within it—all the magical components for spatial magic.

Behind the bowl and its stand, Leon could see ‘backstage’, a large chamber within which were several more file drawers. It was there that Leon could see the three mages. One fourth-tier was going through the drawers and piling documents in front of the fifth-tier mage, who was quickly going through them. After skimming, the fifth-tier mage sorted the documents into two piles, one of which the other fourth-tier mage was pulling papers from and quickly burning.

“Take them now,” Leon ordered as soon as he realized they were probably burning evidence that he was here for.

He lunged forward, lightning blazing through his body and propelling him beyond a mortal man’s ability to track. In a flash of lightning and with the boom of thunder echoing behind him, Leon appeared in front of the fifth-tier mage and slammed his fist into the side of the man’s head. With a metered dose of lightning, the man was hurled across the room, hit the wall hard enough to crack the stone, and collapsed, unconscious, but still alive. A moment later, while the fourth-tier mages were still reacting, Marcus and Alcander slammed into them both, tackling them and bringing them to the ground.

The fourth-tier mages resisted for a moment, but as they realized the situation they were in, both fell still.

Leon glanced around at the documents and the file drawers, and with little more than a wave of his hand, brought all of them into his soul realm. Then, he walked over to the fifth-tier mage and slung him over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes.

“Let’s head back up,” Leon said, and Marcus and Alcander hauled the fourth-tier mages up. Together, they made their way back through the passage to where Gaius was waiting.

—

Leon stared at all twelve mages who’d come to the manor, now bound and completely restrained before him in the manor’s dining room. After securing all of the mages who’d come into the manor, he’d sent Marcus and Alcander outside to take the remaining three prisoner while he and Gaius moved the rest downstairs.

Now that they were all secure, Leon paced in front of them and glowered menacingly, some of the papers taken from the dungeon-theater in his hand. He didn’t let his aura radiate from him without any restraint, but he did let it settle around their shoulders, pressing them down into the floor and ensuring that every single one of them knew that his power was so far beyond theirs that escape was impossible.

“All right,” Leon growled as he pulled the papers back into his soul realm. “Let’s talk about what was going on here. You lot were sent to destroy any evidence of Valentina’s crimes and those who she might’ve collaborated with. I’m just going to leave the floor open for anyone who wants to pipe up now before we start taking this more seriously.”

Leon glared at each of the men in turn, not thinking any of them were actually going to speak up here, and not really wanting them to, either. He wasn’t surprised when he was answered with nothing but silence, but a couple of the men looked at him with pleading eyes, all of them third-tier. The mouthy one from earlier was among them, he noted.

“So be it,” he said. He then ordered his retainers, “Separate them into different rooms. We’ll discuss things one-on-one from here on out…”

Gaius, Marcus, and Alcander did as ordered, swiftly herding each of the mages into various rooms within the manor, and even though the mages numbered a dozen, the manor was large enough that they were still rather spoiled for choice. When they were finished, Alcander remained with the fifth-tier mage to keep an eye on him while Gaius patrolled around near the fourth-tier mages.

Marcus, however, returned to him for further orders.

“Send for Naiad,” Leon ordered him. Marcus, as a light mage, was the fastest one of those with him right now, and at the fifth-tier, he could get word to Occulara and return in only a couple of hours. The night was still young, though, and Leon had more for him to do. “Also, inform Narses the White that there’s been a break-in at Valentina’s manor. We just happened to be passing through, and we managed to stop the intruders. If possible, sending some people here to lock the place down and take our prisoners into custody would be for the best.”

Marcus grinned in understanding. “Will do, boss.”

With that, he left, and Leon made his way upstairs to start making the rounds with his prisoners.

The first several third-tier mages had little to say to him, though all were utterly terrified. He didn’t spend much time with them, but given the fear they were all obviously feeling, he decided to leave them to the professionals. He thought that Narses would probably get them to talk fairly easily.

However, when he got to the mouthy third-tier mage, he found more success.

When Leon walked into the room, the man was sweating so much that it was starting to pool on the hard wood floor where he was kneeling.

“So,” Leon said as he closed the door behind him, “care to tell me your name?”

The men had prepared quite well, none of them having any identification on them. Leon had opened with this question for the other mages he’d interrogated so far, but only two had actually given him names, though he acknowledged that they could be false.

“Runil,” the man blurted out as if he’d been dying to identify himself. “I’m sorry, My Lord, I never— I mean, this wasn’t—” As he sputtered and tried to speak, he eventually started speaking a language that Leon didn’t understand, though from the way he spat his words, Leon guessed he was swearing in frustration.

“Slow down,” Leon commanded with a soothing tone, recognizing that the man wanted to talk, but he was just too damned scared to get the words out. “I have no problems with you taking your time…”

Runil took a few deep breaths, then said entirely without prompting, “I can give you everything I know. I don’t know much, but whatever I can give you, I will! I hold no love for those pig-**ers that sent me here! I knew it was illegal and that it would get us into trouble! I knew it!”

“I’m glad you’re going to be cooperative,” Leon said. “Let’s start, then, with who you work for?”

“Heaven’s Eye,” Runil immediately replied. When Leon’s eyes widened in only mild shock, Runil clarified, “I mean, we’re paid by Heaven’s Eye, but we work for a private security company in Occulara.”

“So you’re just a contractor?”

“Yes!”

Leon frowned, wondering just what Heaven’s Eye would need security contractors for when they had a full division of the guild devoted to security—though, a moment later, he supposed this was less a practical decision and probably more to use security that weren’t answerable to Narses.

“Who hired you?”

“Some pasty **, I don’t know his name.”

“Tall? Gaunt? Terribly pale?”

Runil nodded.

“And this guy sent you here, did he?”

“Not him, specifically, that’s just who hired us,” Runil explained. “I’m not really one of my company’s managers, so I can only tell you what I heard, but rumor has it that we were actually hired by someone very high up in Heaven’s Eye…”

Leon nodded. “Were you hired for this job, or did you have other duties?”

“We had other duties that we were pulled off to take care of this.”

“What duties were those?”

“We were supposed to be helping to monitor a research lab north of the Scamander. Fairly small and nondescript place, I don’t think anyone around it even knows what it is…”

“I’ll want to know where that place is,” Leon growled.

“Anything! Anything!” Runil cried out, and he hurriedly gave Leon the address. Leon’s knowledge of Occulara’s less-than-well-traveled streets wasn’t the greatest, but if he wasn’t wrong, the place Runil gave him was in a fairly sleepy suburb about an hour’s north of the Hexagon mostly inhabited by farmers and those who catered their services to farmers.

“Now, tell me what you came here to do,” Leon demanded.

“Just to get in and move a few things out,” Runil responded. “We weren’t told what, only our leaders were. I’m just here as muscle, if it was needed…”

“Mm,” Leon hummed as he leaned against the wall.

It sounded like these men were hired by a vampire, but if they were guarding a secret—or at least, unadvertised—Heaven’s Eye research facility, then he thought it likely that Rufus was somehow involved. The man was apparently running interference for Valentina, and possibly for the Director.

With a sigh, he turned his attention back to Runil. It sounded like this was going to be a long night, but he figured he was at least lucky that he didn’t have to scour this manor for what he was looking for.