The Spectre

Chapter Six - The Third Member

Ivana woke up the next morning in a more relaxed state, the thoughts which plagued her mind having been put at relative rest. She got out of bed and prepared for the day ahead, and for the first time in a long time she did not put on her usual assassins attire, instead, she wore a warrior-like outfit in a combination of black and white colours. When her preparations were done she took her seal and wore it on her neck as usual, then she headed out of her room and after taking a single step out of the door she felt extremely heavy as if looming darkness had engulfed every cell in her body and much to her surprise, she turned her head to the right of the corridor and saw Strycore walking towards her. Immediately she figured out why she could not move but as quickly as the fear engulfed her, it was gone as if it was never there. This left her very worried, after all, how could she possibly be in a unit with a person who's very presence froze her in place twice, what's there to stop it from happening again? And is there a way to prevent it.

As Strycore got closer Ivana stopped him and requested to talk, she was too curious to know why she was so terrified of his gaze, and why his presence also frightens her. And so she asked "Strycore, have you noticed anything strange about your power? Do you have a fear-inducing seal or is it just intimidation? Please just tell me I have to know!". Strycore looked at her with a blank expression and replied: "well, you see... I don't have a seal at all". What Ivana heard sent a chill down her spine, to her it was inconceivable for a person to radiate that much crippling fear and have no source, what could it possibly mean about Strycore? How is it possible for one without power to have this much power at his disposal.

"Never mind that, we have a team to assemble so quit staring and let us be on our way," said Strycore with a commanding voice. Surprisingly enough, Ivana's worries immediately went away and she felt lighter, its as if the one who was responsible for inducing crippling fear had also been the one with the ability to take it away. Feeling calmer now Ivana understood that they had a mission to complete and as such, she stepped out of the room and closed the door, as they were walking down the corridor heading out to the training grounds Ivana asked "How will we be able to find new members?", to which Strycore replied with his usual blank expression "short version is I don't know, but I do have an idea of who we should recruit as our third member". Ivana was expecting him to say something more than that but he just continued walking in silence, so she asked "well who is it? Aren't you going to tell me", Strycore answered with an annoyed expression "you ask too many questions lady, the one we're looking is Boron of the silver coin" and before Ivana could ask another question he said, "They call him that for a specific reason, so keep your thoughts and questions to yourself or I'll be sure to shut you up myself". And Ivana complied, not having said anything afterwards they walked into a market place and sought out a sketchy thief who had set up a black market operation underground. Strycore was met with very little resistance to his entry down there, it seemed like they knew him quite well and whenever he passed by a guard they would just back away from him. This behaviour seemed strange to Ivana, after all, she is an assassin so she knows about the dark corners of a city but one person being so feared seemed unnatural, but then again it's not like she did not have a clue as to why they'd fear him.

They reached a point where there was a room heavily guarded, as with the other parts of the underground market Strycore was given easy access but Ivana was asked to stay behind this time, she did not complain but was still worried about how he would behave. Strycore met with the thief and went straight to the point, "where is Boron?". The thief tried to assert his position as a leader down in the underground and tried to stand up from his seat but just as he was about to he noticed his feet were not responding to him, the rest of his body followed shortly after that leaving just his eyes able to move and so he looked at Strycore and for an instant saw his eyes turn black and switch back to normal. There was no telling what would befall him next and so the thief tried saying to Strycore that he'd tell him what he wanted to know, but to his surprise when he tried saying that, he was indeed able to say it and the paralysis was gone. "Boron was last seen in a small settlement outside the city, he said something about collecting his power but I don't know what he meant," said the thief with intense fear, and with that strycore simply left the room and met up with Ivana who was waiting outside. "Let's go," said Strycore with the usual cold tone "I know where to find him". Ivana having learned her lesson about asking questions, just followed him out of the market and they headed outside the city with horses from the training ground stables. They reached an area where there ware a lot of trees so the area was quite hidden. They got off the horses and went into the area, Ivana being an assassin she was very cautious for any traps, and when they eventually reached an area in the forest like location which had no trees at all in the shape of a huge circle, she knew something was not right and it did not take long for this to be proven right. All of a sudden coins rose from the ground surrounding them, after closer inspection they appeared to have the look of silver.

From the shadows came a shady looking man wearing formal attire and a smile on his face. "Well, what do we have here, the loner found himself some company did he? What brings you to my treasure trove" said Boron with a smirk on his face. And with a simple gesture of his fingers, the coins expanded and turned into spinning blades moving closer and closer to the two. The danger was at its peak, and survival seemed impossible.