[Chapter 3]

Siege on the Academy

Beyond the thick wooden door of the graduation chamber, clashing of metal rang through the senior barracks and training rooms. Eva furrowed her brow as she cleaned her blade of goblin lackeys summoned by a fleeing would-be attacker, and listened a moment; it sounded like Aribeth had the right of it - the academy was under siege.

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"This is no ordinary attack," the paladin warned, amber eyes flashing. "Surely you've heard the rumours surrounding the efforts of finding a cure-"

"And of the Waterdhavian creatures, yes. But why keep them in the academy? Surely they would have been better off elsewhere."

"I thought they would be safe, here." Aribeth shook her head. "Regardless, what's happened is done; I need you to check on them for me-"

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Eva took the key she was given and slid it into the lock of the massive door in the hall. It clicked, and she pushed through down another hall and into a storage room. Another person, garbed similar to the attackers she'd seen thus far, loitered and was searching through supply crates. She could only assume that idle greed made him deaf to the door opening behind him, and took her chance - sliding a jagged-toothed dagger from her belt, she sprinted forward and jabbed upward into the right side of the pilferer's ribcage. This drew as much a surprised howl as pained from her lone target, and he scrambled away.

The rogue could only assume this was another lowly caster - very few idiots took on a small fortress with only cloth for armament, with no additional foot soldiers to make up for lacking defense, and still think themselves capable - and was soon proven correct; a word of power sputtered from behind the crawling man's face cover and four arcane circles surrounded him on the ground. Eva managed to sink her blade into the back of the caster's thigh before he wheezed another spell, his physical form evaporating away to some other location.

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"Wait, you're not coming with me?" Eva asked, incredulous.

"I cannot; my presence would make it difficult, if not impossible, to protect the creatures. You saw what happened - the attackers concentrated on this room, so it's likely their attack was centered on me." Aribeth frowned. "Even now, someone could be watching us through magical means."

A large, bronze key was pushed into the rogue's palm.

"Take this, go down the hall and into the east wing - follow that, and you will eventually reach the creatures."

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More goblins lay slaughtered on stone and packing hay, but Eva no sooner turned from her handiwork that her blade was up again. She stopped short of her strike, cursing loud and hard in the face of a familiar, cheshire grin.

"Good to see you, too, my dear," Shade cooed, his grin widening.

"By the Nine, you insufferable-!"

In spite of her anger and surprise at being caught off-guard, Eva was equally glad to see he had made it out alive. The confliction between these choked any further words and ended up as nothing more than frustrated growling as her arm dropped to her side. The blade was not housed, however, as she was still contemplating how much he deserved to eat the metal. Shade saw as much and pantomimed his surrender with raised hands.

"Is that really any way to greet a friend?" he asked, chuckling. In spite of the blade that was very quickly brought to the tip of his nose, Shade couldn't quiet the deeper-bellied laugh at the scrunched frown on the woman's face. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."

"Where were you?" Eva demanded.

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't see you when the mages attacked the graduation hall." It was more blunt than she had intended. Shade's face dropped from the easy, bantering smile to one of more neutral disdain.

"How accusatory," he said flatly, crossing his arms. "I would think you better than that, or at least more clever."

Eva was locked into silence again, this time in bafflement. "That's not what I m-"

"Then what did you mean?"

"You were on your feet one moment, gone the next and-"

She stopped, watching Shade's expression shift from surprise to curious bemusement.

"And? Were you-" His eyes widened, and scrunched again in malicious glee. "Were you worried about me? Oh Eva, you touch my heart, truly!" The elf brought a hand to his chest, fingers splayed over his heart as he bent lightly forward.

Eva rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself, I was simply concerned we had lost a-" She gave him an obvious once-over, "-passable sneakthief. Too many become easy targets from inflated heads."

She shook off her blade and sheathed it hastily, rounding Shade and making her way to the other side of the store room - they'd wasted enough time talking, and time was something not on anyone's side at the moment.

"I have something important to do, so if you're here you might as well come with me."

"Mm, how interesting. I would love to find out what this 'something important' is." There were no audible footfalls, but Eva had to assume the dark-skinned elf was, in fact, following her.

She reached the second door in the room and made for the handle, but an arm snaked around her before she could secure a grip; Shade opened it for her with a coy grin.

"Please, allow me."

Eva fought the grin that wanted so badly to answer his, thanked the other rogue for his 'courteous' gesture and continued through the hall to what looked to be a study. Inside, a man had more or less barricaded himself behind an upturned desk with mace and shield ready. He was jumpy, and looked these two newcomers over with surprise and suspicion. He and Eva recognized each other simultaneously; he, with relief - her, with thinly-veiled disdain.

"Eva! Oh, I'm glad to see you!"

"Likewise, Pavel - good to see you got out alive before the worst of this hit."

That was only partly true - of the senior classmen, Pavel was the worst-off in spite of admittedly hard work - she honestly thought natural selection would have taken over. Still she offered a relieved smile, but it didn't last very long when he did not reciprocate.

"Pavel...what's wrong?"

"I..." His entire demeanor changed, and his shoulders slumped. "My brother, he...didn't make it."

Eva turned slightly to look to Shade, who had an equally dour expression on his face as he crossed his arms.

"I'm sorry to hear that, truly..." When she couldn't come up with anything more to say, Eva made her way around the desk and to the would-be warrior, gently laying a hand on his pauldron. "Is there anything-"

"Eva, please," Pavel turned with desperation in his eyes. "Let me come with you! It'll be easier to survive in numbers-"

"I, ah...I don't know if-"

"I just want to get out of here; come on...please. It sounds bad out there, and I don't know if I'd be able to take on that many on my own."

She must have had a look of befuddled surprise on her face because, as she looked to Shade to gauge his reaction, the other rogue was watching with incredible amusement. Eva, now wholly unable to refuse for sake of image alone, looked back to Pavel.

"Alright, gather your things. We're leaving."

-0-0-

A/N: Poor Pavel. Hey guys, don't forget to make sure and let me know how I'm doing, and what you think of the progress so far! I'd really appreciate it - enjoy!