Prologue: Saving the wife

The temple of the goddess Heloisa located near the capital was a holy and pure place. In a world like Ramat, where the gods were a concrete and constant presence, even in times of war no one would ever have dared to think of damaging, looting or ruining a holy place. It was a nearly universal rule for all races that temples, regardless of which god they belonged to, were left immaculate. The invaders might have prevented the losers from entering the temples they once used to worship their gods, but they would never have destroyed the building or harmed a person seeking refuge within it. Therefore it had become common practice to assume that if anyone reached the temple, even if they were in danger, they would never be threatened again as long as they were inside it. Even if the pursuer had been furious with them, only a madman could have shed blood inside a temple.

For this reason the assassins who had been sent to guard the temple had remained outside its walls, camped not far away. These hitmen had one and only task: to kill the criminal known as Zamor if he ever dared to approach the temple. The people who had hired them were in fact convinced that the lizardman would return there sooner or later to get his wife back. Fortunately, the area around the temple didn't have many obstacles, so it would have been easy for the assassins to spot it well in advance and prepare an ambush. And even if he got in, they'd just wait for him to get out and take him out. All those assassins were seasoned professionals, and they could have killed anyone even if they were well armed and with many men following them, and there was no way they could have been taken by surprise.

Or at least, so they believed.

"Are you the ones guarding the temple?"

The group of assassins was taken aback by the sudden appearance of three individuals completely wrapped in black cloaks. They immediately raised their weapons; how had they gotten so close without any of them noticing? "Who are you?" one of them asked.

"Our names don't matter. It's suffice to say that we are here by order of the great Carrion" replied one of the three individuals, who sounded like a woman by the tone of voice.

But the assassins weren't so easily fooled. "Bullshit! Do you take us for fools? If you were real assassins, you would have already presented proof of your employment! Who are you?"

"Well, we tried to use the easy way" said the figure in the center, also in a woman's voice. "Guys?"

The assassins barely had time to hear that word before their heads were severed so quickly and perfectly that they were killed instantly. Two more cloaked individuals appeared between them with swords drawn and covered in blood, an instant before their corpses fell to the ground with a thud. Only one of the assassins remained alive, but before he could defend himself one of the strange enemies reached him and cut off both his hands cleanly, and covered his mouth before he could scream. She pulled off her hood, revealing the face of a red-haired woman. "I'll ask you once: where are the other assassins? I'm sure you're not alone"

"I'll never talk" the man replied. Even if he was in a precarious situation, he wouldn't have failed in his job as a hit man, which also included not revealing information in case of capture.

"As you wish. The choice is yours" the woman said. "Corgorin, Serengal, it's all yours"

The other individuals also took off their hoods, revealing that they were all women. Two of them stepped forward. "Let's get busy, sister" one of them said. "And remember to keep his mouth shut. We don't want him to scream"

"Ugh. If he can't scream, what's the fun?" the other woman grumbled, regarding him with a gaze so terrifying that for an instant the killer's heart trembled. She looked like a predator ready to tear its prey to pieces.

The other three women waited on the sidelines, not looking, except for the red-haired one who occasionally glanced as she wiped the blood from her sword. After about ten minutes, their companions returned to them. "We have the location of all the assassins"

"Good. So let's take them all out, and then reunite with the boys" the red-haired woman replied. The two women nodded and put a hand on their companions' shoulders. In an instant, all of them vanished.

These mysterious individuals were none other than the members of the party 'One day'... with the absence of the boys and the addition of two new recruits. In essence, these were Sarah, Martha, Lisah, Corgorin and Serengal. They had returned near the capital at Haku's request, in order to take away Zamor's wife and companions and thus avoid any possibility that they would be used as hostages by their enemies. Once they arrived they had divided into two groups: the boys, or rather Rhaegal, Efren and Carlos, had gone to deal with the actual temple guards, while the girls would have thought of the numerous assassins scattered around it. Even if Martha, Lisah and Sarah couldn't use the invisibility rune due to their different ability to concentrate, it was enough for Corgorin and Serengal to touch them and expand their area of ​​influence to them too, hiding them from anyone's sight; with that power, it was easy to sneak up on even the most skilled assassins.

It took them less than five minutes to finish the job; they didn't even bother to remove the bodies. Once the area was completely cleared, they made their way to the temple entrance and entered the garden. There the boys were already waiting for them. "It took you long! Did something happen?" Rhaegal asked apprehensively.

"No, simply tricking them didn't work, so we had to resort to the good method of torture" Corgorin answered. The original plan was to pose as high-ranking assassins sent by Carrion and use the authority to get the location of all the assassins, but unfortunately it didn't work and they had to waste time torturing a man. "And you? Are you all right with the guards?"

"They're sleeping soundly" Efren replied. To settle the guards, the boys had used a sleeping potion similar to the one they had used against the adventurers some time before. The dragons obviously would have preferred to eliminate the problem completely, but even they weren't sure they wanted to violate the temple of the goddess, so they had avoided spilling blood.

"Really? No inconvenience?" Martha asked skeptically, knowing that the guards protecting the temple, despite they weren't elite, were no fools.

"Actually a couple of them managed to hold on, but Rhaegal knocked them out with a punch" Carlos answered.

The girls looked at Rhaegal with disappointed eyes. "Hey, I didn't spit blood! I didn't even break their nose!" the dragon defended himself. "They just passed out. They'll recover. I doubt the goddess will be angry for so little"

"If she will get angry" Corgorin murmured, who of all of them least believed the myth that the gods persecuted those who desecrated their temples.

"Well, so the stories said. I wouldn't risk it. I'd take a purifying bath if I were you" Lisah advised Rhaegal.

"Cut the crap! We need to focus on the mission!" Sarah reminded them. "Come on, let's go get Thora"

The group headed to the place where they knew people who were being held in the temple for legal reasons were staying. Using the keys they had stolen from the guards they unlocked the door and entered, finding themselves in a room with several beds upon which numerous lizardmen slept. Rhaegal clapped his hands making a loud sound, and everyone immediately woke up. At first the lizardmen were confused to see those eight strange individuals appear, but then Thora jumped off her bed and walked towards them. "You!?" she exclaimed recognizing them. "What are you..."

Sarah stepped forward. "Your husband sent us. We came to save you" she explained. "Behold, here I have proof of my words"

She reached into her pocket and brought out a small rope made of intertwined grass stalks that formed a circle, just big enough to use as a bracelet, and tied over it were two lily pads. All the lizardmen recognized it immediately: that was called 'iluvatar', meaning 'union' in lizardmen's language, and it was a token of love that lovers created together when they wanted to get married. "Your husband taught us how to build one" Sarah explained. "And he told us to remind you that when he gave it to you, for the emotion he slipped and fell in a puddle"

Thora blanched. No one knew that detail, and she and Zamor had therefore promised to use it as proof in case they were separated and one of them sent someone to look for the other. So that was proof that her husband had indeed sent those people to help her. "So it's true? Did he really escape?" she asked; unfortunately living in the temple they didn't have access to much information, but she was able to find out about it thanks to the people who came to pray.

Sarah nodded. "He has escaped, and he is preparing to free your people. We will tell you everything, but we will as soon as we are safe. Now you must follow us"

Thora nodded determinedly. Once she had been shown the proof, she had no reason to hold back. "Let's go!" she told the other lizardmen, who wasted no time in jumping off their beds. They, too, longed to reunite with Zamor, and they knew Thora knew him better than anyone, so if she trusted those people, they could too.

The adventurers came out of the temple and led the lizardmen through the countryside; since it was the middle of the night and the temple was in a rather isolated area, they were in no danger of being seen. After about an hour, they came to a small river, and a boat was moored near the bank. The party boarded and Serengal ran to the door that led to the hold, and knocked three times. A voice came from behind the door: "Who is it?"

Serengal was tempted to slap herself on the face. Was it a joke by any chance? "I'm a street vendor. Do you want to buy an excellent hatchet? I'll sell you one at a discounted price"

"Sorry, we already have one. But I'm sure our neighbors will buy it" the voice replied.

"Teramon, open the door!" Serengal snapped.

The door opened, revealing her sister's face. "Ugh! You really don't know how to have fun, do you?" she grumbled. "Come on, come inside. Don't worry, even if the boat seems small, there's room for everyone"

Serengal snorted and nodded to the others, who ushered the lizardmen into the ship and hid them in the hold. As soon as they had done this, Tikka took the rudder and with the help of Rhaegal and Efren she cast off the moorings and began sailing north.

Thora looked at the adventurers. "Are you coming with us?" she asked in surprise, not expecting this. After all, it would have been smarter for them to stay in the capital to safeguard their cover and send an accomplice to retrieve them. Even if they too wanted to go back to Zamor, it would still be wiser to stay in the city for a few days and leave at a later time.

"Don't worry, we officially left the capital more than a week ago" Sarah replied. "No one will be surprised by our absence"

Before unleashing chaos in the capital, the dragons had very cunningly hidden some of their avatars, so as to be able to occupy them again after a few days and safeguard their cover; according to their plan, using the excuse that they were frightened by the attack they would leave the city and disappear. That way, even if after some time they needed to meddle again in the affairs of the Jurao Kingdom, they could use the identities they had already created and which had a certain reputation to more easily get what they wanted. However, that plan changed when Haku chose to help Zamor; given his plan, Sisna and her sisters would continue to run the shop in the capital, while Rhaegal and the others would continue to play the role of adventurers in various locations. Since they had to get away from the capital, they had first returned to the guild after the attack by pretending to have been gone for many days (to make up for the absence of Sarah, Efren and Carlos, who unlike them did not have avatars, Tikka , Teramon and Kialandi had taken their places impersonating him and imitating their voice almost perfectly), and then they had pretended that Efren had received a message from Martha and Lisah asking for their help, and so they had left the city. Meanwhile, the real Efren, Sarah and Carlos, along with the real Martha and Lisah, had bought a boat with the much money they had accumulated, and had headed south via the many rivers that crisscrossed the kingdom; thanks to the boat they had taken less than two weeks. Once assembled, the group had begun the rescue of Thora and the others. Now the group would get the lizardmen to safety, and then they would head elsewhere following the plan.

No one would notice their escape until the next morning. When the sun finally rose, we were already several tens of kilometers away. As always, everything had gone smoothly.