A week passes and the day comes where you and the rest of the guild scouts need to infiltrate the coven outpost. And you're already stressing out.
Hunter called you a few days ago asking if you were free to do the next glyph. You had to decline though due to training for this mission.
He called you again actually just to check up on you. You didn't expect that, he reported how he was with flapjack and how he's been studying his behavior. You were laughing over how cautious he's been around his palisman. You ended up asking him what he overall thinks of flap so far. Hunter told you that he hates to admit it but he kinda likes him.
When he told you that it made you smile. Maybe there is hope? He seems to be enjoying learning these things, and bonding with his palisman.
Rowan was pretty distant from you lately. I think he's really upset about your mission to infiltrate a coven outpost. He hasn't talked to you since, and you're a bit happy about that.
Let him hold his grudge, who cares?
It was 5 in the afternoon and you're already hiding in some bushes not too far from the coven outpost in latissa.
You and the others put your owl mask on. You cannot let anyone know it's you. You made sure to wear some more covering clothing as well, like a hood. You made sure to cover your hair as well.
As you peek outside of the bushes you see the coven scouts patrolling the area. Another one of your worries is that if Steve is here. He's usually always in the Latissa area from last you heard from him.
Eda also told us she wants us to take some coven scouts captive for questioning about the emperors coven. I really hope don't run into Steve here. We're already running into Hunter, hopefully it won't get any worse.
Speaking of Hunter you manage to spot him, he's chatting with this other coven scout about something. They're laughing, maybe one of his friends?
"Here's what going to happen. I'm going to distract that golden guard off to give you guys an entrance. Him and that other coven scout seem to be blocking it, that way you guys can deal with that other scout." Eda says.
"When you get everyone out, I'm gonna entrust you Y/N, to blow the horn, to let me know when you guys are all finished up." Eda says, handing you the horn
"You can do that for me?" Eda grins
You sweat, but shakily nod.
"Perfect, call me when everyone's good to go!" Eda grins
Eda runs off a different direction. And she has her hands behind her back and slowly approaches the front of the coven outpost.
Hunter and that other guard perk up their heads and stand their guard. They aren't sure who she is.
"What's with the funny mask? What's your business here?" Hunter states.
Eda doesn't say anything instead she shrugs. And pints out her hand about to do a little spell.
"What is she doing?" The other scout says.
"Enough, don't fool around with members of the emperors coven witch." Hunter says sternly.
It's kind of funny to hear him talk so confidently and authoritatively. He used to talk to you like that but it seems like he's gotten more used to you.
"Where's your sigil?" Hunter says approaching Eda.
"Up this mamas ass! AHHAA!" Eda laughs and runs.
"Titan..! keep guard I'll be back." Hunter says and runs after Eda.
"Okay, once Eda and The golden guard are out of the picture that's our move to go." Another guild scout says.
You watch and Hunter and Eda run off somewhere. Eventually they're tiny enough to barely be seen. That's when you're group makes a move on.
You all jump out of the bushes and a group on your team runs up to some emperors coven scouts, palisman in hand surrounding them.
"Drop your weapons!" One of the guild scouts in your team shouts.
All of the coven scouts drop their weapons.
"The keys, hand then over." Another team member says.
One of the coven scouts grabs the keys out of their pockets and slowly hands it to one of the members in your team.
Just as soon as your team member is about to grab it, another coven scout jumps in and knocks one of your team mates over.
Your guard goes up, and immediately more coven scouts come down trying to attack your team mates. Team one is still waiting in the bushes for you to open up an entrance inside.
One guard sneaks behind you but you grab it's arm and hurl it around you, they yelp in shock. You summon some vines and strangle some of the other guards and wack them out of the way if you notice any of them attacking your team mates.
That's when you see the keys go flying. Your eyes widen and you run over to try and catch them before they fall into the hands of another coven scout.
A coven scout also seems to spot the keys, you glare at them and quickly grab it midair in your hands before he can. You fall on the ground and swat him away with one of your vines.
You quickly use the keys to open up the entrance of the outpost, and just like that the gate entrance drops down.
"Team 1 make an entrance!" You exclaim.
Team 1 runs into the outpost and team 2 fends off any guards from attacking them as they go in.
"Make sure to leave no witches behind!" You exclaim.
You and your group continue to fend off any coven scouts trying to stop Team 1 from coming in. The goal is to continue fencing until Team 1 breaks all the captive witches out.
One of the coven scouts stop dead in his tracks and looks at you. He isn't attacking, he's just staring at you. You feel awkward and stare at him nervously.
"Y/n?" The coven scout says.
Your eyes widen. You know that voice. Shit, you wish you didn't know that voice.
It's Steve, your older brother.
You go silent, and shake your head and run off. He must have recognized your voice that's why he approached you.
"Wait!" Steve says.
You ignore him best you can and try to fend off other coven scouts. Steve stands there and watches you run off.
Because of this he let his guard down and another person on your team attacks him. Steve immediately gets knocked out. You flinch watching this but continue fending off the other scouts.
Everyone seems to be clearing out so the other guards look at you and nod. They've gotten a few coven scouts captive and it seems they cleared out all the captured witches at the outpost.
You take a deep breath in and sound the horn.
Hunter POV:
"Stop right there!" I yell.
She's fast. I don't know who this is but I'm getting a bad feeling from this.
"I demand to see your sigil!" I exclaim.
"Sigil?" She asks.
"Yes?!" I say.
She removes her mask revealing her face and my eyes widen.
"You're- the owl lady! No one's seen you in years!" I exclaim.
"Mmhm, well I'm still alive!" She laughs.
My guard goes up, I don't know what she's capable off. She raises her staff about to attack me when all of a sudden...
A horn can be heard in the distance, I look over in the direction and it seems to be coming from the outpost. Shit- I felt my scouts unattended.
"Mmm, ya know now that I think about it, you're just a kid, I wouldn't wanna beat a kid up, that'd be unprofessional." Eda shrugs.
"See ya!" Eda grins and runs slaps a glyph on herself.
She dissapeared?
This? This is that invisibility glyph Y/N showed me!
Damn it!
I run back to the outpost to check on my scouts, I run as fast as I can. This is not going to be good. Belos would kill me if something bad happened.
That's when I see it, my scouts are injured and there's some sort of group? This group of other witches, wearing owl masks. That's when I realized something.
This must be members of that guild Y/N was talking about.
I run quickly over and slide on the ground to help my injured scouts. I look up at some of the people in the guild. They're staring at me and that's when I noticed they took some scouts captive. My eyes widen.
Immediately they run off. And use those same invisibility glyphs the owl lady used.
"Titan damn it...!" I exclaim.
I examine and help all my fellow coven scouts and I try to keep record of who is still here or not.
"Where's Steve?" I ask.
If they took Steve I'm gonna be real pissed. Steve is someone I consider a friend, and someone I actually have conversations with.
"They took him." One of the coven scouts says.
Shit.
Shit.
Shit.
"DAMN IT!" I exclaim and pound my fist into the ground.
"Come on, we're shutting down the outpost, you're all off today. Are any of you in need of the healing coven?" I ask.
None of the coven scouts seem like they need extra aid. So I nod.
"I'm going to the castle, I'll report this incident." I say trying to remain calm.
I hop into my artificial staff and I fly off into the distance.
"Damn it!" I keep muttering to myself.
"I never should have followed that damn owl lady!" I say angrily.
"Titan... damn it!!!" I yell.
Your POV
The mission was successful, you managed to bring back the wild witches before they were sent to the conformatorium. You also managed to bring in some coven scouts for questioning, you blindfolded them on the way in so they wouldn't know where the guild is at.
One of those were Steve, you saw him get knocked out but you didn't know he was kidnapped.
You were planning on going home that night but as soon as you entered your house you got a call from Eda saying Steve really wanted to talk to you.
You didn't want to talk to him you were nervous, but she insisted you talk to him.
So you went over to where he was being held and you decided to talk to him.
"He's just in there." Eda says.
You sigh and open the door. He's not tied up or anything he's just in a little meeting room. Now the other guards are tied up definitely. Except for Steve... this is odd.
"Y/n, I haven't seen you in what... 3 years now?" Steve laughs.
"Yeah, it's been a bit." You nod.
"Listen, I've... I'm actually so glad you came today." He says.
"Why?" You ask.
"I've... been meaning to get out of the emperors coven for a bit now." Steve says.
"What... really?" You say.
"Eda didn't really believe me either but I told her to truth test me so she made a truth serum." Steve said.
"It's still active right now, you can ask me anything." He says.
"Wait- wait- if... you wanted to leave why didn't you sneak out or something before?" You ask.
"I've... wanted to...? But... well... the thing is I've tried a few years back, and the punishments.... Are not so great." Steve smiles awkwardly.
"Why what happened?" You ask.
"They deducted my pay for a good bit and.... We personally have to talk to Belos, and it is not a nice situation, to have a mere coven scout face to face with Belos." Steve says.
"It's... also not like I can? Because I have my sigil? I can't get rid of that. Once you're in the emperors coven you can't leave. It's not like I could wander and do as I please because if anyone sees me off duty if i do manage to escape, they'll report me." Steve explains.
"I figured this would be a good opportunity to let you guys take me so I have an excuse and it doesn't seem like I'm being taken." Steve smiles.
"I thought you loved the emperors coven?" You ask.
"No... I mean... the more I worked there it just seems really sad... having to arrest people just for casting a harmless spell..? And still not deciding on what coven to join..? It's all so hard." Steve frowns.
"Especially when it comes to all these people being taken from their families and stuff." Steve says
"There... wasn't anything you liked about it..?" You ask.
"Well... I enjoy chats with my coworker, he's a good pal of mine.... I'm sure he's gonna be a bit upset when he finds out I was "kidnapped"" Steve smiles sadly.
You frown.
"He'll be fine." Steve smiles sadly trying to laugh it off.
"So... you've wanted to escape the emperors coven?" You smile and fold your arms.
He nods.
"This place is perfect for you! You don't have to worry about your sigil showing here once your registered, you can prowl free and no one will question you. And you don't have to worry about going to the surface unless necessary. We have errand guys who can help get the things you need without needing to personally go and risk getting caught." You say.
"This... seems like the place for me then." Steve smiles.
You smile too.
"We need to reconnect, make up for the years we haven't seen eachother." You say.
He nods.
"I need to go home now, its... what... 8 o clock?" You say looking at your scroll.
"Goodnight, I'm happy you're here." You smile and greet him off.
You get home that night, with Viney complaining in the bedroom.
"Y/nnnnn.... Answer your crow it's been going off for like the last 30 minutes..." Viney grumbles.
"Why couldn't you have gotten it yourself?" You ask.
"I'm so exhausted, I had to handle this new animal at the vet and I'm so tired I can't even get up." Viney whines.
"Rest up, no worries." You smile.
She smiles back and you click off the lights and close the door to the bedroom.
The crow keeps ringing and you let out a large sigh and pick it up.
"Hello?" You say.
"You." Hunter says in an enraged tone.
A shiver goes down your spine.
"Why haven't you been answering..?" He continues.
"I just got home." You say.
"Oh yeah? From what exactly?" Hunter says through grit teeth.
"I was talking to my brother, I haven't seen him in a while- so-"
"Okay. Enough. I need to talk to you face to face right now." He says.
"What? Why?" You say starting to sound nervous.
This must be about the ambush. He let's out an annoyed breath.
"Meet me in the green bulb forest, inbetween Latissa and the castle, don't make me wait long." He says angrily and hangs up.
Your eyes widen. This certainly cannot be good.