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    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


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    “starving.” I say as I wave a hand in the air.


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    The girl shook her head without hesitation and remained exactly where she was.


    I scratched my head with a look of frustration on my face “Listen, Archer, you''re going to need to start talking to me. I won''t hurt you, I have no intention of hurting a child, but you need to work with me here. I only need to know a couple of things. Understand?”


    She looked at me strangely for a second, her eyes still containing that hint of desperation from earlier, before she looked away and muttered something under her breath.


    “What was that?” I ask while dismissing the water.


    “How are you so strong?” She asks as she raises her head and stares into my eyes. “You don''t look any older than I do, but the amount of mana you can draw in is... incredible. Even the masters who taught me don''t have that kind of power.”


    Her voice was rather pleasant on the ears and had a melodic tone to it which, I have to say, I rather enjoyed.


    “See? Was that so hard? You have such a pretty voice, you shouldn''t not speak. It would do the world a disservice.” I say with a smile as I walk over and take a seat next to her “As to the answer to your question, well, lets just say I''m not from around here and I''m a lot older than I look.”


    “Are you a god?” She asks with awe in her voice.


    I needed to nip that in the bud right away.


    “No, I am definitely not a god, I''m a human just like you are.” I reply firmly “Now, mind if I ask you some questions?”


    The girl looked like she wanted to say more but the unspoken question died on her lips. She gave me a nod.


    “Okay!” I say with a exhale of air “I need to know what you were doing here in this city.”


    She looked away for a moment as if thinking of her answer before replying.


    “I''m here for the architecture, I loved the stories of The Rebel King''s city when I growing up so I thought I would come out here and see it for myself.” She blatantly lied “It''s such an amazing place that I couldn''t pass up the opportunity.”


    I gave her an odd look “So, you think I''m going to believe that an obviously well-trained mage, wearing armour that I''ve never even seen before, is here to see the ''sights''?”


    She thought about her answer for a second and then smiled “Yes”.


    I pushed my hands against my face to keep from screaming.


    “If you don''t tell me the truth, I''ll have to hurt you!” I threatened.


    “No you won''t, otherwise you wouldn''t have healed me.” She retorted sharply, with a smirk on her face.


    I gave a sigh as I looked at her for a moment. I needed to find out why she was here. What if, in the four hundred years I''ve been gone, some new form of transportation has been created that allows people to travel vast distances in hours instead of days. This Archer could be a forward scout for Marwen''s troops. I suddenly had an idea.


    “Okay, you say that you''re an architecture nut, lets test your knowledge.” I said with my own smirk beginning to appear on my face.


    “Em...well, I don''t think that...” the girl suddenly looked rather hesitant and confused by this strange line of questioning.


    “What is the exact size of Ellai?” I asked sharply, pointing a finger out the window.


    “em, five miles... no! Ten miles square"


    “Wrong! The city is twelve miles from east to west and four miles from north to south. Are you ready for the next question?”


    This continued on for quite some time as I asked her question after question about the city and how it was built, when it was built and who built what. Luckily, Drogna had seemed adamant that I know every little thing that had happened in the city during its construction and I had a good memory.


    My logic for doing so was simple. I knew that she wasn''t into the city for its buildings and she knew that as well, but we had come to an impasses because I couldn''t and wouldn''t hurt her to try and get the truth. So I decided to fall back on something that had helped out a lot over the years.


    I was going to annoy the hell out of her.


    “Oh! I know this one! People were ferried about on horse drawn carriages that-”


    “Wrong again! The carriages were not horse drawn, they were enchanted to carry people to set destinations. Horses? What a stupid idea. Right! Next question-”


    The girl threw her hands up in the air and let out a frustrated yell.


    “Ok! I give up, I was lying is that what you wanted to hear?” She spoke through gritted teeth.


    I gave her a smile “Fantastic! You made it through seventy four questions before you broke. Nice! So are you going to tell me what exactly you were doing in this city?”


    She glared at me.


    “We were sent here to look for a sword or something, I don''t know, you would have to ask the others.”


    That peaked my interest. It seemed that I was not the only one looking for Xolumbrandir.


    “So... once you located this sword, who were you returning it too?”


    “No one. We were told to make sure the sword was still at the top of the large tower in the eastern area of town and stop anyone who tried to take it. That''s all I know. If you wanted to know more you would have to talk to my commander, Bell.” She said as she gave me a funny expression “You''re here for it as well, aren''t you?”


    I ignored the girl and stood up, walking over to the window and looking outside.


    So there were people here looking for the sword, but just to make sure it was still there. Under no circumstances could they take it. Strange. Seems that whoever sent this group weren''t here because ofthe statue.


    And speaking of my statue, I left the mask back at the alchemy shop.


    “Shit!” I cried as I pressed my fingers to my temples.


    “What''s wrong?” asked the archer behind me.


    “Nothing, I''m fine.” I replied as I ground my teeth.


    Seems I have another problem to deal with today, but no matter, I''ll get around to it. I need to be calm, cool and collected.


    “Did you come from Callai?” I asked the girl suddenly, thinking that maybe she was Marwenna''s agent.


    She blinked “No, we got the job in Scarl Forest, but I have no idea who gave it to us. Only Bell deals with the clients.”


    I give her a nod and look away. It seems that someone in the Scarl forest already heard about the statue, or they already had a sigil placed here to make sure they were alerted should anything happen to it.


    Maybe it wasn''t Marwenna''s sigil after all. The only vampire I really know is Cinder, but I have no idea if she is in Scarl Forest.


    “Do you know about the Knight of the Rebel Court named Cinder?” I asked the thief as I walked back over and took a seat next to her again.


    The mercenary shivered “Of course I know Queen Cinder, apparently she''s crazy, drinks the blood of everything and everyone around her and her hunger for more is never ending. Or so the rumour goes.”


    Yep, that sounds like Cin. Her bloodlust is a large part of why she became one of my Knight''s in the first place. Wait, Queen? Was every one of my Knight''s now royalty?


    “So, Cinder is Queen of the vampires?”


    The archer gave a nod “Yeah, apparently one day, she just walked into the castle at the Red Citadel and killed the queen who supported the church and all her followers. By herself!”


    Cinder was still taking risks, foolish girl! Marwen should have been keeping an eye on her. I knew that Cinder would be upset when I died, but it seems like she went on a fucking rampage and Marwenna didn''t try to stop her.


    I can now assume that Marwenna was not behind the archer and her mercenary band, Cinder was. But it still irked me, I felt like there was more to the picture and I believe that the commander named Bell could illuminate the situation further.


    “Right! Me and you are going for a walk little miss archer. I need to speak to Bell for a minute.” I say as I stood up and pulled the archer upwards with me.


    A pained expression appeared on her face “Yeah, I don''t think that''s such a good idea. My friends don''t really like outsiders and they might attack you.”


    I smiled as I walked towards the door with my hand wrapped around the archers arm.


    “That''s sweet of you to be concerned for my safety but I don''t think I''ll have too much trouble. What''s your name by the way?”


    The archer struggled for a minute before giving in.


    “My name is Ada, and I''m not worried for your safety... It''s their safety which concerns me...” She said, giving me a worried look.


    I gave her a soft smile in return.


    “Don''t worry Ada, I won''t hurt your friends, I promise, I just need some information, then I''ll be on my way.”


    “For some reason... I feel like I can trust you.I hope youkeep your word.”


    “I will” I nodded as we headed down the staircase “ What''s the name of your mercenary band by the way?”


    Ada showed me something that I had never noticed before. She pulled down part of the sleeve that covered the top of her right arm and it revealed a sigil of a what looked like a black horn on a yellow background.


    “We''re called Black Tusk.”