Chapter 6

Contrary to expectations, no attempt to kidnap her or anything else was made.

What did however happen was that Izella, an important member of the neutral part of the council concerning Cilia, had asked her to come by the council's office tomorrow.

She knew that it would be unfavorable for her to not appear, as such she accepted the invitation.

Unfortunately for her what greeted her when she arrived was Izella, drinking tea with Jamie.

"Come here, we have something to talk about. Make yourself comfortable and have some tea, while you're at it." Izella was calmly sipping tea as she looked at Cilia.

Cilia took herself some cookies and the tea, as she didn't want to impolite. She knew that she couldn't get on the bad side of the neutral standing side, or else the previous attempts would have been successful, as they would have involved the whole council and not just a few counselors.

"My beloved Steph, we are disappointed that you are still ignoring your missions." Jamie instantly began to slowly push his chair closer to her as he told her the purpose of the invitation.

"You know I don't care, now fuck off!" Cilia was already pissed about his previous attempts and didn't want to even have to remain in his presence for a second longer. She had to hold back however and only turned to Izella.

"I'm sorry Cilia, unfortunately he is right. I like you but you are too useful to just do nothing."

Izella slowly shook her head as she just sat there drinking tea.

"I believe it was a complete waste of time to appear here." Cilia hadn't expected Izella to join Jamie.

However before she could could walk to the entrance, her mind suddenly turned fuzzy.

"Whad? happewn...?" Cilia was only able to stumble 2 more metres before falling face first onto the ground.

"I'm sorry little Steph, however we had enough of you being stubborn. Ah don't worry I will take care of you while you are asleep. I promise I wont do anything to you. Don't be to angry, I just did what I must, even if..."

Cilia was unable to hear the rest, as she succumbed to the drug, that was mixed into her tea. She had been too careless.

Jamie carefully took Cilia and with her in his arms slowly made his way to the previous build underground dungeon. It was a room with a big projection space for communication.

This was an unknown place even to other counselors didn't know abou.

Although Jamie was eager to have Cilia for himself he still kept his promise and softly laid Cilia on the bed and went to the room adjacent to hers to keep observing her through an one way mirror, that had just been reinvented one week prior.

A few hours went by, as Cilia woke up confused. After a few seconds she started to remember, she had been drugged by Jamie.

Cilia was quick to get up and inspect the room she was in. Finding a small hole in the wall, Cilia summoned a messenger animal, tasking it with delivering a message to Markus.

A few seconds later however Cilia was able to feel the death of her messenger. She staggered back a few steps with a pale face.

Before she could even react, the magic projector in the room lit up, as he could see Darus looking straight at her.

Cilia made her way back to the bed, siting on it and staring back at him. „What do you want from me?"

„You should be well aware about that, though I apologize about the crude method of making this meeting happen. We shouldn't have given the mission of inviting you here to Jamie. I acknowledge this much."

„I know you still want me to follow your stupid orders, I like my current life and I have no intentions to run around the world all day to do things others can do as well."

Having already expected this answer, Darus silently nodded and quickly changed to the previously arranged footage.

All Cilia was able to make out were images of chained prisoners.

According to their outfit, they belonged to a group of lunatics and criminals. Their ability's were largely centered around killing, torture or tool for rape and other severe crimes. They were a group to be killed on sight when seen in the open.

As Cilia figured out the situation in the Video, the footage suddenly sped up.

She could see everything clearly, making her frown in disgust. Her stomach was threatening to throw out all, it had still in her.

Stabilizing her situation after 10 minutes, Cilia was angrily looking at the still calm Darus on the other side of the connection.

The video had shown, how the council was able to plant spies into the group. The method was however as inhumane as it could possibly be.

Small bug like creatures known as Zugum entered the prisoners body's, making their way slowly into their brain, killing them and absorbing their memories and using the corpse as their new vessel. They still had all body functions working and were hard to notice as they were almost perfect actors.

10 years ago, all races in this world united despite their long grievances to get rid of this artificially created species. It was thought that they went extinct long ago, however apparently a few survived.

„Are you sure you don't want to listen to us?" Darus was threatening her, his gaze saying that she wasn't needed and they only needed her corpse. „We are well aware, that it is impossible for us to control you. You could easily get rid of the bugs and isolate them. However we can't say the same about your family."

Anger blazing in her eyes, Cilia couldn't contain her rage any longer as her fist crashed into the nearby bookshelf, shattering it completely. „So you are ready to scope lower than even the people you deem as criminals.

„I don't like either that we have come to this. I would be happier if we could have been normal colleges.

Unfortunately the others had enough and the majority vote decided to force you.

Jamie will be your supervisor during your missions, as well as your contact to us. You will receive your missions through him and you are to always report your location every day."

Cilia was unable to answer duo to the sheer amount of hatred she currently felt. Suppressing it, she was forming plans to leave as quickly as possible and find an opportunity to escape with her family.

„Please don't think about running so soon. I was at least able to buy you two days of time to bid your goodbyes.

You will be allowed to come back here sometimes and you will mainly be used on this continent. So make sure to follow our orders strictly or we will make sure to punish you."

With the information the got from Darus, Cilia took all the for her previously prepared things, including a tracker, an uniform, potions and other things like a camera and communication device.

Using the two days she had left to prepare spending time with her family and friends, Cilia knew she would only put them in danger if she would dessert while on a task.

She had found the time to ask her teacher and Markus to protect her family while she was gone and told them about the creatures in the hands of Darus.

While Markus didn't expect them to go that far and was fuming, promising to flip over the council and taking control of it as quickly as possible.

The most surprising was however her teacher's reaction. She was part of the examination conquest against these bugs and was well aware of the horrors they could bring. She informed them that there had to be a person controlling these things, if not they would have turned this city into a breeding ground for their kind.

Lusha was worried about her student, but she knew that she was unable to do much as her involvement could easily spark a war between the two races.

This was mainly duo to her being the sister of the current queen. She still made sure to inform her sister about the appearance of the Zugum. She had lost many friends at the day of the extermination and chose to leave to royal family of the elves, living on her own.

She could still vividly remember that day. It was a scene out of hell.

Bidding her Goodbyes to her father, sister and friends as well as her master and senior brother, Cilia was only able to give each of them a hug and leave.

She was happy that this many came to see her off, as even Markus and Yurring were there, but sad that she had to leave and didn't knew when she would ever be able to return.

According to Jamie, her first task would be in a City north of Armguard. She was to steal important document of a slave dealer, that contained the information of hundreds of human slaves.

As humans didn't have their own force yet, many pried on them as they were not united enough to retaliate.

The council wanted to free them, to make a statement and polish their image in the minds of the people.

Cilia figured that it would be better to disguise herself. She still wanted to change the trackers functions slightly, making her location appear 100 meters away from the original.

Making sure no one was close, Cilia quickly made an ice dome, obstructing any vision. Activating her transformation trait, Cilia changed her appearance, turning her long black hair into a beautiful silver. Her usual green eyes turned into a bright yet deep red, as her small changes appeared on her face and body, making her a bit shorter and her face less attractive as she was originally quite beautiful looking.

She knew that it was a bad idea to change her hair and eyes like this, as it would attract a lot of attention, but she couldn't help herself as she always wanted to know how this combination would look in real life. She was slightly disappointed but it was till beautiful.

Undoing the changes to her face for a second, Cilia admired the changes and started to use her earth magic to make a way underground. Making the people tracking her unable to follow.

She wanted to make sure no one would see her when he changed, she wanted to avoid anyone being able to track her actions to her real self, attracting attention and danger to her family.

But deep down, she just wanted to try out new looks, traveling around as Cilia and not Cilia, who had once been Stephanie.

Making sure no one would be able to recognize her, Cilia began her journey to her destination.

She didn't have to fight much, as this route was deemed as save and only a few weak beasts would be able to slip through the patrols. Even ordinary humans only needed a weapon to deal with them.

Arriving at Thaneldur, Cilia made her way to the previously arranged meeting place. A small inn at the edge of the city. I was neither to shabby nor to luxurious. Cilia adjusted the tracker to quickly make its signal coming closer to her. It wouldn't be good if the tracker wouldn't be working already or they would find out how easily she could escape from them.

Cilia slowly entered the inn, where a waiter was already waiting for her, guiding her to the table in the corner of the almost empty inn.

„Welcome Steph~!" Jamie was overjoyed to have her under him, making Cilia cringe.

„Tell me what you are here for and don't talk to me otherwise. I might not be allowed to kill you but beating you up is still well within my rights."

„As you wish." Handing Cilia a wooden box, he quickly explained her the required information. „You will find the times the target will leave his office. These will be your chances to accomplish your mission." Handing her a piece of paper her quickly explained." This will tell you were your next objectives will be after each mission. The details will be briefed by myself at the location. It will not leave any traces behind as to who is contacting you. We willing come to your rescue if you ever get caught."

Smiling brightly, Jamie got up guiding Cilia to her room for her stay.

Jamie had suspected her to use illusion magic. Having expected as much Cilia had deliberately put traces of its usage on her body. They were so small, that only people that knew her original appearance knew would notice.

„Leave, I want to go to sleep." Cilia was very dizzy as she quickly got him to leave the room as she changed her clothes and laid onto the bed, falling into a deep slumber."

Jamie, leaving Cilia's room went to the adjacent one, his own and prepared to go to sleep. He had to start traveling to the next mission to obtain enough information for Cilia to accomplish her task.

„You will be mine, even if you don't want to. I'll make sure of it!"