Kian and Likho were hiding in the shadows between a stack of crates and the wall of a house, waiting for Crow to return and give them a report of the number of guards and their movements, and whether the path was clear, or at least clear enough for them to get inside without alerting the entire building.

Crow had still been sitting on the table when he had returned with Likho the previous day to continue the planning of the mission, and following a hunch, Kian had asked Crow if he wanted to help them. Crow had been more than happy to get away from the boring watch duty and had agreed, and now he was scouting out the premises.

"What's taking the bird so long?" Likho muttered next to him. "He should have just flown over the grounds a few times."

"He hasn't been gone for longer than a few minutes. Give him some time," Kian replied.

Likho had been impatient for nightfall and the start of their mission the whole day. To others it might have seemed as if he was worried about it, but Kian knew that he was looking forward to it, that he was itching for a fight with the Azadi and getting revenge for what they had done to the resistance. He just hoped that it wouldn't make him reckless and get himself into more danger than was necessary. They wouldn't be able to take on the entire barracks full of well-trained Azadi soldiers, so they had to stay quiet and couldn't leave a trail of bodies behind. It might have been easier to do it without Likho, thanks to his assassin training that was part of being an Apostle he knew how to blend in and sneak around without attracting attention, even without the potion, but he knew that Likho would have never agreed to staying behind, and he had proven in Ge'en that he was able to stay undetected as well. Besides, Kian was glad to have someone in there, who he knew he could trust, to have his back.

After a few more minutes of waiting, and with Likho starting to shift around impatiently, they heard the flapping of wings, and Crow landed next to them on the ground.

"Path's mostly clear," he whispered. Hearing Crow whisper felt strange after having heard him with his normal voice all the time. Kian had to admit to himself, that he hadn't been sure if Crow was even capable of whispering, if his bird tongue allowed it. But then again, technically, he shouldn't have been able to speak the way he did in the first place. "There are two guards at the front door, but I can distract them. The door's locked, and from what I could see through the windows, there's a guard circling the hallway behind it, but if you do some quick lock picking, and then duck into the first room on the right, you should be fine."

Kian nodded, putting himself in the calm, determined mindset he always put on during missions. He had anticipated that there might be the occasional locked door to pick, and had spent the morning practising his old lockpicking skills from when he had been a street urchin, and to his relief hadn't forgotten how to do it even if it had taken a few tries before he had been back in it.

"Thank you Crow, you are a big help," he praised the bird, and Crow puffed up his feathers.

"Of course I am. Year long experience of being a side kick. April and Zoe wouldn't have ended up where they are without me. Uh, I mean not where they are right now, I meant their journeys. They needed me there. For side kick duties, just like you do now."

"As long as Kian doesn't end up the way they ended up…" Likho muttered under his breath.

"Hey, I heard that. That was cold. It wasn't my fault, I had nothing to do with that. And I'm sure Zoe's fine-"

"Crow, it's fine, he didn't mean it like that, we know that you had nothing to with that," Kian interrupted him, glaring at Likho, while also feeling a slight warmth at the thought that Likho seemed to not want anything to happen to him. At least not what had happened to April. Or Zoe, whatever it was exactly that had happened to her. And considering that not so long ago Likho would have happily seen him dead… But he didn't have time for that now, he needed to focus on the mission ahead. He looked back at Crow. "We're ready when you are."

"Alright, wait for my signal!" Crow spread his wings and was about to fly off, when he remembered something. "Uh, the signal is the guards running away from the door."

Then he flew over to the barracks again, and Kian and Likho quietly made their way over to the building as well, looking for a place where they could see the entrance door, but still stay out of sight. Thankfully the moon was hidden behind clouds at the moment, so they could get close enough to the door unseen, while sticking close to the low surrounding wall of the courtyard, in order to make it to the door quickly once the guards had been distracted.

Shortly after they were in position, Crow flew down at the guards, circling them, and flying down to pick at them with his beak, while crowing in a way, that sounded only distantly like what a crow should actually sound like. Kian couldn't suppress a grin at the sound. While talking with Crow, and getting to know him, he had said that while he could talk like a human, he couldn't speak bird language that well anymore after specializing on the human language, but Kian hadn't quite believed him back then. But now it looked like Crow had said the truth.

At first the guards were merely trying to shoo Crow away and didn't leave their post, but when Crow eventually pooped on one of their helmets, they finally decided to give chase, while cursing the bird. Kian immediately ran over to the door while still trying to keep out of direct light, getting his lockpicks out while still moving, kneeling down in front of the door, quickly sticking the lockpicks into the lock, and moving them around, trying to find the lock's weak points.

He more felt than heard Likho squatting down next to him. "Hurry up, looks like Crow might not be able to keep their attention on him much longer."

"Almost got it," Kian murmured, carefully moving the left lock pick a tiny bit upwards, and then the lock clicked and opened. He carefully opened the door a crack, peering inside to see if the patrolling guard was around, and when he saw no one, opened the door and slid inside, Likho right behind him.

Once inside, they immediately hurried into the first room on the right, like Crow had told them to, and closed the door behind them. From what they could see in the dark, the room seemed to be a small office, but it seemed insignificant enough that Kian was sure they wouldn't find any of the documents they wanted here.

Outside the door they heard footsteps approaching, and out of the corner of his eye he could see Likho reach for one of his knives. Kian put his hand on the hilt of his own weapon, while pressing himself with his back against the wall, watching the door. But the footsteps went past the door, then stopped and walked past it again, then fading in the distance. Just the patrolling guard, who thankfully didn't seem to have noticed anything. Kian breathed out, then pushed himself off the wall again.

"Let's get to the main office and see if we can find any documents in there."

Likho nodded. "And hopefully the responsible Azadi along with it."

They found the office almost without incident, managing to avoid the more busy sections, and only running into a soldier once, that Likho made short process with before he had a chance to yell for the others. Afterwards, they quickly stuffed him into a nearby cupboard and took his keys, and Kian hoped that there wouldn't be any blood seeping out of it before they had left the building again.

None of the guard's keys fit the lock, so Kian had to pick the door again, and then they were inside the main office at last, where all the mission reports were stored.

Kian looked around the room, trying to find a pattern in how the files were stored, but couldn't see one just by looking. So he went over to one side of the room, and started to look through the files, while Likho did the same on the other side.

The files on his side seemed to be older, and he was just about to ask Likho how the files on his side were dated, when Likho called him over. Likho was leafing through a file, and Kian walked over to him, looking over his shoulder at the papers in his hand.

"Found it already?" he asked.

"It's not the one we were looking for, but still of interest. Looks like Jakai kept them updated about our movements on a regular basis."

Kian frowned, while he leaned closer to take a better look at it, his arm and shoulder pressed against Likho's back, but he didn't take notice of it. Likho was right, the file contained almost their entire movements during the last months. Then he remembered something the Administrator had said in Ge'en.

"They knew we were going to Ge'en. The Administrator expected me. She also knew about you." "Yes." Likho pointed at the last entry in the file. "They did know and planned their attack accordingly."

"Do you think they took Bip to lure me away? That they knew I would follow to save him?"

"Maybe. They must have known you're associated with him. But did Jakai know that you would care enough to endanger yourself like that?"

"I don't know," Kian said, thinking about it. "I never talked that much with Jakai. And I don't remember bringing Bip up a lot. Maybe mentioned him once or twice. But if he was spying on us, he might have watched our movements and found out about it like that."

"Or someone else has been watching you. Someone who's already been doing it for years."

"You mean Anna? I don't know. If she really loved me all those years, why would she betray me?"

"Maybe she didn't betray us, but she might have known about the attack and wanted you out of there."

Likho had a point, but Kian still wasn't sure, if that was really the case. He didn't trust Anna, but she had tried to stop him from going to Ge'en. He told Likho about that, and Likho shrugged in response.

"We still should have a word with her, next time she shows up. I'm sure she knows more than she lets on."

Kian nodded. He wanted to know more about that himself. "There still aren't any records about who was involved in the attack in that file though. Let's keep looking. But we should also take this file with us, I want to take a closer look at it later."

"Yes, Kian, I wasn't going to leave the file here. I know you're the temporary leader right now, but you don't have to tell me every single step."

"You're right, I'm sorry. This entire mission reminds me of… old times. I automatically went back to giving out orders."

"As long as you don't go back to your old believes…"

"I won't."

Kian finally took a step back, not leaning over Likho anymore, and ignoring the feeling of immediately missing the contact, even if he had not really noticed the closeness before while he was focused on the file. He would think about it later, and what it might imply, that it must have felt so natural for him to be this close to Likho, that he hadn't even noticed that half his body had been pressed against his back. Focus, Kian, you have more important things to think about right now!

They looked through more files in silence, the rustle of paper being the only sound in he office for a while. This time it was Kian who found the right file, a mission report at the end of a row of other mission reports, containing a summary of the attack, as well as a list of names, checked off, with a note that seemed to indicate that they received a bonus for a mission done well. Vamon's name was listed right at the top as the one who ordered the attack. He moved over to Likho to show him the file, while still keeping his eyes on the list of names. So far he recognized none of them, but he also didn't expect it, there were a lot of soldiers in Marcuria, and the odds of any of the soldiers he knew personally having been stationed here were low.

"Found it?" Likho asked, when he noticed Kian approaching, and when Kian nodded, he stepped next to him, to take a look at it as well. "That proves that it was indeed Vamon who was behind it. Not that I ever doubted it."

Kian, who was still looking over the names, froze all of a sudden. There was a name he knew. One he knew well. It had been about ten years, but they had worked together on a few mission while Kian had still been a soldier. And they had also ended up in bed together, after some of those missions. There hadn't been anything serious between them, Kian had just looked for a distraction after his one serious relationship had ended, and then he had been promoted to the Apostle rank, which had put an end to it anyway. But Kian hadn't known that he was still alive, he had heard about him having gone missing after a battle. And if he should have just used an opportunity to get away, why was he back with the Azadi again? Or had his information about the situation simply been wrong back then?

„-ian… Kian!" Likho's voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Sorry. I wasn't listening."

"I noticed. Did you find something interesting in the file?"

"I… know one of them." Kian pointed at the name in question.

"An old friend?"

"Something like that. I thought he was dead."

"Well, you knowing him should make it easier to find him, and through him the others on that list. You're not thinking of letting him get away though, are you? He was involved in attacking the resistance and he killed some of our people." When had Kian become included in "our people"?

"No I… I wasn't thinking of letting him get away. It saw him last over ten years ago. I was just surprised that he's still alive."

"Good. Any other names you recognize?"

Kian shook his head. "No. And we have what we came for. Let's get out of here, before someone notices us."

"Shouldn't we look for the guard roster to see when your friend is patrolling and where? Would make it easier to get a hold of him."

"Yes, you're right, good thinking. It won't be in here though, they are downstairs in a place where everyone will see it. Most likely in the area of the sleeping quarters. And it won't be easy to get there undetected. Especially not at night, when most of the soldiers will be in their beds."

"I don't see a problem." Likho sounded somewhat amused and Kian sighed.

"I know you're hoping for a fight, but you know we can't take on everyone in this building. They're all well trained and will wake up at the sound of a fight, even if it's distant."

"Then we'll just have to make sure we don't give them an opportunity to make any noise."

"They also shouldn't know that someone has been here. If there are bodies, they'll know."

"It's a bit late for that, there already is a body in that cupboard. Unless you plan to take him with you?"

Kian sighed again. "No." He rubbed his forehead, feeling the beginning of a headache. Likho's stubbornness annoyed him, but at the same time he had to admit that Likho had a point. They might not have a chance to come back, so they should collect all the information they could while they were here. Even if it was risky. "We'll do it, but there will be no unnecessary risks. If we end up dead or imprisoned the resistance will suffer. More than it already has."

Likho gave him a rare smile. "And here I thought you were just worried about protecting your own skin. We got in and out of a high security prison camp, this here should be easy."

Likho walked over to the door, and after a quick glance outside, opened it, gesturing for Kian to walk through first. "After you, leader." Likho's tone of voice sounded mocking, but the fact that he was suddenly willing to do this on Kian's terms now, told him that he was mellowed by Kian putting the resistance first.

"The resistance isn't the only thing I'm worried about," he murmured while walking past Likho, not sure why he had felt the need to say that out loud and let Likho know that he was worried about him as well. Likho might not even appreciate it, possibly seeing it as an insult to his fighting skills. But he didn't say anything, and Kian didn't look back to see his reaction, so he wasn't even sure if Likho had heard him.

They made their way downstairs quietly, Kian being once again impressed that such a big guy could move so silently. He himself wasn't exactly small either, but it had been part of his training, which Likho hadn't received. And he had to admit, that he had underestimated Likho in that regard. Likho didn't look very stealthy, and his personality didn't suggest it either, but from what he had seen this evening, Likho's abilities at stealth seemed to be even better than his own.

Another guard was patrolling downstairs, and they hid in the shadows around the corner of another hallway, backs pressed against the wall. If the guard turned his head he would see them, but he didn't, and when he had passed, they quickly made their way down the hallway, before the guard would return again.

Thanks to the basic layout of the map, they knew the direction in which the sleeping quarters were located, and, after avoiding another soldier walking down the hallway, they finally found them. The board, which listed all the shifts and which routes the soldiers had to guard or patrol, was hanging on a wall where everyone walking by was clearly seeing it. Which also meant that if someone should open one of the nearby doors now, they would immediately spot them.

Kian hesitated with stepping out into the open space. He couldn't know if they were truly all asleep in their rooms. But they had gotten so far without much trouble, so he hoped that things would go well for the next few minutes as well.

"Watch my back," he whispered to Likho, then stepped into the open space of the much broader hallway, and made his way over to the roster, stepping carefully and barely making a sound on the stone floor. But things had been going too well so far, so Kian should have known that they would run out of luck eventually. He reached the roster without incident, but just when he was about to let his eyes travel over it, to spot the familiar name, a door behind him opened.

Then everything happened quickly. Kian whipped around, drawing his sword in mid-turn, but before he had fully turned around, one of them was already going down with a gurgling sound, a knife sticking out of his throat, while the other had one sticking from his chest, but seemed to be still alive. Then Likho, who must have thrown his knives at them the moment they stepped through the door, had approached and grabbed the one with the knife in his chest, pressed a hand over his mouth and dragged him back into the room where they had come from. Likho motioned with his head at the other one, indicating that Kian should do the same with him. Kian couldn't help but feel impressed. That had been a really quick reaction.

He followed Likho into the room, dragging the dead man with him. Once he had him inside, he ripped off a part of the man's shirt and snuck outside again, wiping off the small bloodstain that had formed where he had lain on the floor. If anyone else should come out of their room now, they wouldn't be alerted by seeing blood on the floor.

When he returned, he saw that the other one was indeed still alive, Likho was kneeling over him, a hand still over his mouth, and explaining to him that if he tried to scream he would finish the job and kill him, if he wanted to live he should better cooperate and answer their questions. Kian watched them from a distance, positioning himself next to the door, just in case someone might have heard the small commotion.

Likho slowly removed his hand from the soldier's mouth, and he really stayed quiet, the only sound coming out of his mouth were pained intakes of breath. Kian put the man's willingness to cooperate down to his age, he seemed quite young. Other older, more experienced Azadi soldiers might have been more likely to sacrifice their life in order to warn the others about the obviously dangerous intruders.

"Where you involved in the attack on the rebel hideout?" Likho asked, and Kian knew that the young soldier wouldn't survive, if Likho didn't even try to hide who they were. Either the wound was fatal and Likho knew it, or Likho was planning to kill him after the questioning. And, while Kian would have preferred to avoid any more bloodshed, he knew that now that the soldier knew who they were, letting him live was indeed a risk. Maybe if they could convince him to work for them? He was already cooperating after all. But that was out of fear, if they could indeed convince him of it, it wouldn't be out of loyalty so he wouldn't be trustworthy. Still, he would prefer to avoid taking more lives than was strictly necessary.

The soldier didn't reply and Likho repeated the question, his voice sounding more threatening.

"No, I... wasn't." He replied, his words coming out slowly and the way he sounded clearly indicated that he was in in a lot of pain. "I'm not... with them...long enough to go... on big missions...yet."

"But I'm sure you know who-"

Before Likho could finish, the door opened. "Is everything alright, I thought I heard-" The voice broke off, when the owner of the voice saw what was going on in the room.

Kian grabbed the man, yanked him through the doorway into the room, then slammed him against the wall, the tip of his sword pressed to his throat, while closing the door with his foot. "Any loud sounds or sudden movements and you won't get out of this room alive," Kian hissed. Shadow, he really hoped that was the only one who had heard something.

The man looked at him defiantly, and seemed just about to open his mouth, when his eyes widened suddenly, and he took a closer look at Kian's face. "Kian?" he asked eventually.

Kian narrowed his eyes. He couldn't remember having seen the man before, but it wasn't unusual for other Azadi to recognize him, he had been quite well known as an Apostle after all. But they usually didn't address him by his first name.

Kian looked closer at the man's face, trying to make out anything that might look familiar. He had an old and large burn scar, that covered one half of his face and lead further down, the other half of his face was covered in scars. He didn't remember anyone with scars like that, but something about his face still looked vaguely familiar. Maybe someone from his time as a soldier? And then he knew who it was, the only one from that time who was stationed here.

"Javed?"

"So it is true that you betrayed us. You're the last person I would have expected it from."

Even though he hadn't seen him in all that time, Kian still felt the urge to justify himself. "I was blind and didn't see what was really going on. What they are doing… It's not the will of the Goddess."

Javed scoffed. "What you're doing isn't the will of the Goddess. Those Magicals tricked you, don't you see? They poisoned your mind to make you their puppet."

"No, I made this decision myself. We got taught that Magicals are little more than animals, but it's not true. They're people just like us. And I've been to Ge'en, I saw what our people are doing to them, what they are planning to do. This is not the will of the Goddess. Let me tell you everything and-"

"We don't have time for that now, Kian," Likho interrupted him, while walking over to them. "I appreciate what you're trying to do, but save it for once we're back at the Enclave. We found who we were looking for, so let's take him back for interrogation." Likho turned towards Javed. "Unless you want to make it easier for all of us, and just point out all the others who were with you during the attack?"

"I won't tell you anything, Dolmari!" Javed spat out.

"As I thought. And I suppose you also won't come quietly?"

"You suppose right."

"Well then…" Likho made a quick hand movement, trying to knock him out, but Javed must have anticipated it, because he blocked it. Kian quickly lowered his sword to not accidentally kill Javed, then used his focus on Likho to pull him in a chokehold until Javed passed out.

Likho nodded at him, then pulled open the door to peer outside. "No one outside. Let's move."

Kian glanced over at the solider lying on the floor. The knife had disappeared from his chest, but he also clearly wasn't breathing anymore.

"Was that really necessary?" Kian asked, nodding his head in the direction of the solider.

"He was as good as dead anyway. The knife was the only thing keeping the wound partly closed. And I wanted my knife back."

"He was still young. Can't have been older than twenty. Or even younger."

"How many Magicals that age have you killed without giving it a second thought? How many has he killed?"

Likho had a point, but ever since he had confessed on the cloudship that all those lives he took did bother him after all, it seemed harder to just push it away in his mind and distance himself from it.

Kian hoisted the unconscious Javed up and over his shoulders. Likho, who had walked halfway through the door, looked back over his shoulder.

"Need help?"

Kian shook his head. "No. Let's get out of here."

When they reached the front door of the building they slipped into the room next to it again and signalled Crow to distract the guards again. This time it didn't work as easily as the first time though. The guards were cursing the bird and trying to get him with their swords whenever he got too close, but refused to chase after him, and Crow eventually seemed to give up and flew away.

"Let's take care them then," Likho suggested. "They don't expect anyone but an Azadi to leave, so we can take them by surprise."

"No, let's wait a few more minutes, maybe Crow will find another way to distract them."

This time, Likho agreed without an argument. "Fine."

They kept glancing out the window, waiting for a sign from Crow, while making sure to not be seen by anyone outside who might walk along the road in front of the building and look in the direction of the window. The weight of Javed on his back was starting to get uncomfortable, and Kian cursed the fact that the building didn't have a less guarded back entrance. Or any kind of other entrance. Part of him also hadn't really expected the same trick to work on the guards twice.

After waiting for a short time, they heard a distant high pitched voice outside, muffled by the window.

"Help, there's a Magical over there! I think he's dangerous! Help me please!"

They heard the guards argue whether or not they should check, or stay at their post, but then the voice called for help again, sounding more urgent, and the guards took off, running towards the street.

Kian and Likho reacted immediately and got out of the house, running towards the street as well. The moon wasn't behind the clouds anymore, but they still managed to get off the property without detection. In the distance they could hear the guards calling for the person they had heard call for help.

They slowed down to a normal pace once they were far enough away, but didn't stop moving until they reached their boat. Kian, whose back was hurting from the weight of carrying Javed, put him down in the boat with a sigh of relief, hoping that they would make it back before he woke up again.

Once they sat in the boat, Crow landed in it as well.

"Good idea, to distract the guards by screaming for help," Likho said.

"I'd say so myself. Best idea I came up with in a while. Leave it to Crow to save the day. But don't ever expect me to do this again. Acting like a damsel in distress, that's just not me. Or maybe it is, I'm not that brave. But I generally don't need saving, as long as no one puts me in a cage. Or chest. But anyway, what's with this fellow here?" Crow pointed his beak at the unconscious Javed.

"We're taking him in for interrogation," Likho answered.

"Uuuhhh" Crow made a long drawn out sound, and Kian asked: "What?"

"Nothing. Just thought that uuhh sounded like an appropriate reaction."

The rest of the journey was spent with Crow chattering away, which Kian was grateful for, because it kept him from thinking about his sudden meeting with someone he had thought to be dead. Things wouldn't have been different for them if he hadn't been declared dead, they had already gone their separate ways before that, but he hadn't expected to suddenly get confronted with his past like that. Dealing with other Azadi that he didn't know was different, even meeting with Hami had been different, but this was a reminder of the time from before he had been an Apostle, from when there still had been people he had let close enough to consider them friends. When he had still lead a more normal life, just like he was starting to do again. His life with the resistance might not be normal by other people's standards, but he had friends again, and worked with people he trusted, which was as normal as his life could get. He knew that he would have to deal with those thoughts eventually, what the sudden meeting with Javed might mean for him, but for now he could just put it aside while listening to Crow tell them anecdotes about his travels with April and Zoe.