Alexei, Neave and Risa were all riding doubled up with the men who had ridden across them while they were eating their rabbit stew. It had taken some more convincing, but in the end, the leader of the four men had agreed not to ride on to Estie.Alexei and Risa had managed to convince them that it was a lost cause and that they only wanted to find somewhere warm for them to rest their heads for the night before they moved on toward Alandria. The men explained that the town they came from had taken them almost all day to ride from and that they had set up camp in a nearby cave the night before that they could use as a base to travel to and fro if they had been collecting survivors. In a way, Alexei supposed that plan had paid off for them, though the only survivors that they had managed to collect from the disaster zone were the three of them. The four travellers, Alexei and his companions all dismounted their horses before entering the cave. Alexei had half been expecting a group

When Alexei woke the next morning he was, as expected, filled with renewed purpose. Risa and Neave were already up and sitting out in the spring morning sun, they clearly hadn’t wanted to wake him or the men from the village. He got up carefully so he would make as little noise as possible and joined the two outside. “Hey you two,” He whispered, “Nice morning, all things considered.” The sky was mostly clear, though there was a strange haze in the air that Alexei could only assume was smoke drifting over from the destroyed city of Estie and the volcano that now dominated it. “Yeah, out here it’s almost possible to forget what happened yesterday,” Risa sighed, “I think I’d like that, you know, to be able to forget.” Alexei nodded, he knew exactly what she meant. Neave seemed to as well if the way she latched onto his hand was anything to go by. “Well, unfortunately, I’ve got some more things to tell you that you’re probably going to want to forget,” Alexei sighed. “What do you

Alexei looked up at the gates of the Academy and he couldn’t help but feel as if the entirety of the Academy was staring down back at him. That was a ridiculous notion, of course. The Academy itself was a building, and buildings had no eyes to stare at him with. Even if they did, he was wearing his shadowy assassins' robes and looked like just about anyone who came on a pilgrimage to say thanks to those who were at the Academy for sacrificing their lives to training and fighting against the Shades. “If only they knew,” Alexei muttered to himself. Nothing was as it seemed in the Academy, and that was going to end tonight, he was sure of it. He gathered a quivering ball of enhanced air in the palm of his hand, channelling the twin powers of his Power Divine and his weapocraft-based magery and then let it fly free. The wind hit the gate hard and ripped it off its hinges before flinging it across the courtyard. The last time he’d gone through those gates it’d been with his head hu

While Alexei had made it seem as if he were going to be running off to the front lines as fast as he could, there was one thing that he needed to take care of before he left Alandria again. He was sure that if he left the city without at least swinging by The Trout’s Gills at least once then Lyla would have probably ripped his head off with her inhuman beastkin strength. Once again Alexei was struck by a distinct sense of de ja vu. The day had receded into night, with the final glimmers of the twilight sun just about peaking over the very top of the mountain. It was dark, and the streets of Alandria had drawn to a near-empty silence. The only thing that guided his way was the lamplight from the many torches that hung off of the sides of various buildings. The water lapped at the underside of boats and barges alike, and he knew that somewhere deep down under the water there was the body of the very first assassin that he had dealt with, now likely stripped of flesh to the bone by

Waking up in the morning Alexei realised that, despite everything that was going on, he actually felt pretty good. Not only was the threat of the Demon Lord technically dealt with, he’d also met with the Administrar and had basically engineered a situation where the man would no longer be able to send people after him. All things said and done, that was two of his major problems dealt with already, even if he did still plan to get his revenge on the Administrar in one way or another. The man couldn’t be allowed to continue in his post, not after he had sacrificed so many Initiates to the Shade Front for no good reason. When everything had concluded and everyone was safe, Alexei intended to go to the Royal Household and speak to the Emperor, perhaps he would listen to reason, if Alexei could get an audience with the man of course. Alexei pulled himself out of bed, wrapped a towel around his waist, and walked off to the shower room. He shivered as the cold water streamed onto his