This was the second time that Chloe looked over the large stone castle in front of her and it still managed to take her breath away. She'd heard of Fireheart Castle of course, everyone had. It was owned by one of this country's most influential lords. Lord Senam wasn't considered powerful because of his military but rather because of the caring and virtuous persona he'd worked so hard to establish. Chloe figured it certainly helped him advance himself politically since most common folk liked him. His military wasn't comparable to the likes of the other High Lord's generals. Lord Senam had roughly two hundred soldiers, about a quarter were easily seen marching around the perimeter and on the walls as sentries. The building he called his home, was stunning. Fireheart Castle was easily forty feet tall to accommodate its three stories and four large spiral towers were erected at the corners. There was only one way in and it was by a large gate next to a giant encampment. The encampment was protected with metal fencing that ran around its edge, forcing any who wished to enter the castle to walk through the soldier camped below. Hundreds of tents made up the inside. Lord Senam clearly didn't like having his men sleep inside the castle. That could prove useful.

The hunter looked away and found frustration rising up once again. She'd really liked her plan to find the Raven using Max's bracelet but it had turned out to be next to useless. It wasn't because the man wasn't thinking of any of them but rather because of the range of the bracelet. The three women who hid behind trees in the forest were roughly ninety yards away with no hopes of getting closer without being spotted by one of the many sentries. That meant they could only use it to see inside the castle by ten yards, it simply wasn't enough. The forest ended abruptly and turned to plains five feet from Chloe herself. Max's hand touched her shoulder and the hunter lowered her crossbow, she'd been using the silver spyglass mounted on it to get a closer look at the large castle.

"Did you figure out any way to reach it yet?"

"No… It's too bloody fortified. Too many sentries on each wall and they aren't relaxed or lazy. We won't be able to sneak past them to get to the walls." Victoria shuffled closer to them.

"What about executioners Blue? We didn't see any yesterday but they have to be around here somewhere." Chloe shook her head.

"Still no sight of any of the Raven's men. They must be inside the castle itself. That'll make things harder for us." The hunter dragged a hand over her face sighing. She felt a small headache on the horizon, no doubt caused by the frustration she felt at the moment. Victoria motioned at her crossbow and Chloe reluctantly handed it over. It wasn't loaded but the hunter didn't like having others touching it, it was one of the two possessions she cherished deeply. Victoria looked down the spyglass, the crossbow's weight made her fellow hunter struggle with keeping it still in one hand. She placed her metal fist under its body to steady it. A few minutes passed before Victoria handed it back with a scowl.

"Anything?" Chloe asked but she already knew the answer. If she hadn't found anything herself, then Victoria would most likely wouldn't as well.

"Even the soldier's rotation is bloody perfect… I don't know what to do Blue." Chloe knew what she was talking about. The newest guard would come up to the wall in position next to his fellow then after five minutes of two sets of eyes looking for intruders, the old guard would leave and go back to the encampment. No room for mistakes, no room for five people to sneak their way to the walls. It was all so frustrating. Max wrapped her wrist around an inky black cloth and she looked to the walls. After a moment, she unwrapped it and handed the bracelet to Chloe.

"Nothing for me. Your turn." It had been this way for the last two days. Eight hours of scouting with a break for the bracelet every hour. They would each use it at intervals for a ten minute span before going back to scouting. Chloe grumbled under her breath but took the bracelet anyways and fastened it to her own wrist. Max wrapped it carefully and then reached for another smaller piece of cloth. This one was only for Chloe. The witch got very close to her face and started to wrap it around her head, diagonally across her scar. It would stop the blue glow that always popped up when Max infused the hunter's body with magic. Max tied it up snugly and smiled. Chloe couldn't help but notice how beautiful the witch looked in the moonlight that broke through the canopy above. They were separated by only a couple inches, neither moving away. A throat clearing made the witch break eye contact. Max backed up a pace and glanced to the floor. The hunter could feel her cheeks heat up in the darkness and she glared back at Victoria who was barely suppressing a grin. "Bloody annoying woman…"

"Ready?" Chloe nodded and the witch reached forward to touch her arm. The sensation of lightning flowing in her veins seeped into her. She felt her scar glow bright under the black cloth. Chloe turned, looking over the castle. She spotted the red outline of two men far from each other, both were sentries. She shook her head and the feeling went away. Chloe took the cloth off her head and wrist before handing the bracelet to Victoria a bit more roughly then required. Victoria's face lit up with amusement at the action. The short haired hunter got ready and nodded to Max. Chloe couldn't see anything happening but a moment later, a sharp intake of breath escaped Victoria's lips. Chloe immediately dropped to her knees next to her.

"What do you see?" Victoria pointed to the leftmost tower in the front of the massive castle. "He's barely in range but I see him." Her arm wacked Chloe's side insistently. The hunter reached over and gave her the crossbow on her back. Victoria looked through the spyglass once more. "It looks like he's talking to someone. Lots of hand gestures at least."

"I didn't see him a moment ago" Max whispered.

"Neither did I." Victoria's smile grew.

"He's got more reason to hate me than either of you. I'm not surprised that I'm the only one to see him." Victoria handed back the crossbow. Max stepped away and Victoria unwrapped her hand. "At least we finally have confirmation that he's actually here."

"It doesn't help much other than confirming his existence… We still don't know where he resides in the castle."

"That's why we need to get closer and quickly. He's clearly thinking about me right now so maybe we'll get lucky and he'll still be doing it in an hour. This is the closest we've gotten so far in two days of scouting. We need to press this. Now." Victoria sprinted away in the forest before Max or Chloe could object. They raced after her. Five minutes later when they reached the camp, Kate and Madsen were both already gearing up. Victoria was in the tinkerer's wagon, exchanging words quickly with Warren. "She runs bloody fast…"

"Vic…" Max was already out of breath from the run. She was having trouble stringing her words together. Chloe smirked at her and received an amicable punch in the hip from the witch. "Don't… even… say it." The witch took a moment to compose herself before approaching Victoria. "Max really does need to work on that endurance of hers." Warren turned and looked at the witch as she got closer.

"Max, I've got the way into the castle finished." The tinkerer held up a large flat metal disc in his hand. "Come on, I'll show you how to use it inside." The witch glanced at Chloe and nodded towards Victoria.

"I'll talk to her. Go." Max followed the man inside the wagon as Warren started to gesture at the object and speak quickly. Victoria was sharpening her dagger on a whetstone.

"Vic… What the hell?" The hunter glanced at her momentarily before looking back down.

"Look… I'm sorry Blue. I didn't mean to interrupt your moment but I really didn't feel like standing there watc…" Chloe's eyes widened and she hastily interrupted her.

"That is not what I'm talking about." Victoria smiled broadly and put away the whetstone in a leather bag on the ground.

"I know. It's just funny seeing you get flustered." Chloe scowled and formed her hands into fist. The other hunter finally sighed and her face got serious. "I know what you're about to say. We don't have a safe way of getting to the walls, we don't know where the Raven is, it's possible he won't be showing up on the bracelet by the time we reach the castle…"

"Then why are you rushing like a madman into this? Every single thing you just stated is a reason not to try and assault the bloody castle." Victoria moved in closer, she lowered her voice a tad.

"It's been two days of scouting Chloe. You know as well as I do that we aren't getting any more information out of this even if we had an entire other week to work with. It's risky, I get that. But if we can somehow make our way to the wall, we have a really good chance of Picking up the Raven on Max's bracelet. Time is of the essence. If we wait until tomorrow, he might not be thinking of me and we'll be in the exact same spot except worse off. So instead of fighting me on this, help me think of a way to get past the sentries." Chloe sighed and Victoria smiled.

"Alright. But if we don't find the Raven, we leave quietly and try again another night." Victoria nodded. Chloe looked over the camp. Max and Warren were still talking and looking at the object he held. Madsen was stretching on a log while Kate attached her two short swords on her belt. She was dressed in the tinkerer's new mesh clothing. She had no cloak, Kate refused to wear one because she thought it was a disadvantage in a fight, but wore a hardened leather chest piece and pants that were stained in different shades of dark gray. The real surprising part was that the woman also had a large black cross centered in the middle of her chest. Chloe spoke what came to her mind. "She looks like a bloody crusader." Victoria laughed.

"My idea but Kate liked it. I had Warren personalize all our clothing." Chloe frowned.

"All our clothing?"

"You'll like yours. Promise." They both headed to the wagon and took turns changing inside. Chloe stepped out of the wagon in her new battle attire. She wore a dark gray hooded cloak in similar style to her old one. She had dark gray pants and a dark blue chest piece made of smoothed leather. It felt hardened to the touch but it was light and she could move easily in it. She was ready for battle. Her crossbow was slung on her back next to her bag of bolts, her daggers in their sheathes at her side, the enchanted blade sticking out from between her shoulder blades and the smaller crossbow attached to her right side with a line of smaller bolts looped directly to her belt. She looked and felt like a deadly hunter. Kate got closer to inspect the addition that Victoria had commissioned the tinkerer to do. On Chloe's chest was a dark blue lightning bolt, the details were so vivid that they almost brought the image to life.

"That looks amazing."

"Damn right it does." Victoria walked over, the other hunter looked like a shadow. She wore a black hooded cloak with black hardened leather trousers and a black chest piece. The only thing of different color on the hunter was two small red shapes separated evenly on her shoulders. They looked like eye slits with closer inspection.

"You look terrifying Vic. You trying to scare the Raven into submission?"

"It's an option."

The door to the wagon creaked open and Max stepped out. In contrast to the rest of them, the witch wore a dark green hooded cloak. Her smoothed leather chest piece was a dark red and her pants a dark green that matched her cloak. A more complicated image was painted with black paint onto the middle of the leather chest piece, it was that of a raven in flight startled by a bolt of lightning. "Her coven's sigil…" She felt the familiar guilt bubble to the surface, it always accompanied thoughts of the former witch's coven. The hunter looked away towards the tinkerer and the Impact. Neither paid any attention to the women, they were lost in a whispered but frenzied discussion. It ended when Warren finally shoved something into Madsen's hand with a few more words.

"What are you two up to?" Warren glanced over as Madsen shoved the object into a pocket of his trousers.

"Nothing important right now. I'll explain later if the need comes up. You should go, it's been about an hour." Chloe frowned but didn't bother digging for more information, she trusted the tinkerer. Whatever he'd been up to could be uncovered later.

"Let's head out." The group ran out into the forest behind Victoria at a full sprint with Pompidou at Kate's heels. Chloe let herself slow down and fall behind in order to keep an eye on their slowest member.

Max and Chloe arrived at the border of the forest a couple minutes behind the rest of the group. Victoria was already looking at the castle intently, trying to figure out a way to get closer to the wall of the castle. Chloe left the witch behind and took up a position next to her fellow hunter. She took out her crossbow and looked through the spyglass. As a force of habit, the hunter reached behind and felt for the tip of one of her bolts. She pulled the shaft out with two fingers and loaded it, all the while still staring down the spyglass at the sentries lining the wall. There were three just like before, each separated by a good ten yards looking in the same direction.

"Max?" Chloe didn't look behind as she called out for the witch. Some shuffling noises reached her ears before she felt the witch kneel next to her, shoulder to shoulder.

"What?"

"You remember what you did the night Vic lost her fingers?" She heard grumbling to her left, obviously Victoria remembered very well what had happened that night.

"Yes, what about it?"

"That illusion you did… The one that made us invisible to the executioners. Could you envelop us with it and keep it up until we reached the wall?" She heard the witch breathe out in frustration.

"I'm sorry Chloe but I doubt I could. It's over ninety yards away and there's six of us if you include Kate's dog. I was already struggling with a dome big enough to fit three and we were stationary. Even if I somehow managed to do it, I'd be out of commission by the time we reached the wall. The last time took a lot out of me and I'm pretty sure this would drain me even more. You'd lose your healer and if anything went wrong…" She left it unsaid. Chloe bit her lip and moved on. It had been a good idea.

"Is there any way that we could cause a distraction then?" Kate asked.

"Max?" Chloe passed the question over.

"I could try but anything too blunt would cause an alarm and anything too small wouldn't be enough to justify breaking away from their post. I'm also not great at illusions, I won't be able to reach that far with one of them. It would have to be within fifty yards."

"That's out of the question then." Chloe looked away from her crossbow and unloaded it. She twirled the bolt in her fingers, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"What is it?" Max looked down at the object in her hands.

"How good are you with enchanting?"

"I know a decent amount of basic enchantments…" The witch trailed off, unsure where Chloe was going with this.

"Can you enchant something like a bolt? To make it invisible or come back to us after it's fired? Like the Raven's belt did to him when he fled Beorf after we attacked him."

"Maybe, I'm not sure. It's pretty small at least. The more skilled you are with enchanting, the bigger the object you can enchant with a recalling spell. It still doesn't help us though. Killing the guards would just lead to alarming the castle."

"Not necessarily." Chloe reached into her bolt bag and took out a smaller reinforced leather pouch. It contained three broad head bolts with a blue streak on their sides. She very carefully pulled one out, every movement calculated and slow. The rest of the group looked at her oddly. Chloe placed the bolt gently on top of her crossbow and repacked the rest before slinging the bag on her back once more.

"What so special about this bolt?"

"I got them as payment for a contract I took befo…" Chloe trailed off, her eyes dropping to the sigil on Max's chest. The witch placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I told you before, I don't blame you. What happened is in the past." Chloe nodded and forced the feelings away.

"The tips of the bolts are slathered with a combination of the deadliest poisons available on the continent. The man who gave them to me said that they would render someone that was nicked into a near catatonic state. They would die shortly after."

"But Max's point still stands, an alarm would be raised" Madsen stated.

"Not if Max can make it disappear. If I can aim well enough to barely cut but not kill the recipient, then Max recalls it… The guard would have a barely noticeable wound and he'll fall to the ground. It'll look like he just collapsed or that his heart gave out and further inspection will reveal nothing. Just enough of a distraction for us to sprint to the wall."

"That's very risky, you're assuming a lot here Blue. What if they become more alert or only one goes and the other glances out over the wall to see us running to the castle. They'll hunt us down and kill us. We can't face dozens of executioners and two hundred soldiers." Victoria made sense but Chloe couldn't think of anything else. She said as much.

"It's the only thing resembling a plan that I've got left Vic. Unless you have something better to share, it's this or we go back to the camp for the night."

"No. We are so bloody close. I won't turn back now. I say we go with Chloe's plan." The two hunters turned simultaneously towards Kate. The blonde had spoken with furious intensity in her voice. Her scarred face was contorted with rage. "I won't let him get away. We know he's here, right now. We should strike." Chloe turned back to the group, discomforted. She didn't like the woman's tone. It felt like the closer they got to their enemies, the more erratic she became. She pushed her doubts aside for now, Victoria had said that Kate was ready.

"We vote but we only go if it's unanimous. I won't have one of us follow the plan if they don't feel comfortable to do so." Chloe looked around at each of them. "We know where Kate stands, I'm also in with the plan."

"I'm in."

"Same." Victoria and Madsen both spoke up at once. All eyes turned to Max. The witch looked at Chloe, locking eyes with her.

"You believe this will work?"

"Absolutely." That seemed to alleviate the brunette's worries. Max grew a determined look on her face.

"Then we do this." Max grabbed the bolt by the shaft carefully.

"We need the whole bolt to be recalled Max…" The witch nodded, she looked like was concentrating very hard. A few gestures and the bolt started to glow orange. It was getting brighter exponentially to the point where Victoria had to throw her black cloak over both the witch and the bolt to cover the light. Another few moments and Max shrugged off the cloak. Sweat beaded on her forehead but she didn't seem weakened. "Are you alright?" Max smiled.

"Yes. Enchanting isn't like other types of magic. It relies less on energy and more on skill. The better you are with it, the stronger or more complicated your enchantments can be. It didn't take much out of me but I also didn't make the range of the recalling enchantment very powerful. I'm not skilled enough for that. It'll only work within roughly two hundred yards of myself. I don't think I could've enchanted anything bigger, I was pretty much at my limit." Chloe reached for the bolt and loaded her crossbow. She went prone to the ground and took her time aiming at every sentry one by one. She decided on the one to the far right. He was further away from the encampment and he was near some stairs. If luck would have it, maybe he'd fall down them. That would make the rest of the sentries follow him away from the wall. He was also sturdy on his feet, not moving or swaying like his fellow sentries.

"Max, I need you to cover the sound of my crossbow. Can you do it?"

"Yes."

"Alright, wait till I say its time." Chloe closed her eyes, she could feel the slight wind brushing her cheek from the west, her mind taking in her surroundings, calculating the perfect shot. This would have to be prefect, no margin for error was allowed. Any wrong move would descend chaos over their heads. She heard Victoria and Kate moving behind her, the ambient noise helping focus her on the task at hand. She opened her eyes and inched her crossbow to the left, aiming above and to the left of the sentry furthest to the right. She lowered it slightly, it wasn't time to kill. This bolt needed to cut and fly free away from the man. If she hit him accidentally, it would ruin everything. She aimed for his arm, part of it was exposed nearer the elbow where his sleeveless chest piece ended. She breathed in steadily, letting each inhale and exhale slow her heartbeat. She held her breath. "Now." The ambient noise around her faded. The forest and her friends standing only inches away growing completely still as if she'd gone deaf. She exhaled softly, even that produced no noise. Half her breath escaped her lips and she pulled the trigger. She felt the recoil of the crossbow being absorbed into her shoulder. Her sense of hearing was shocked as the spell lifted from around her. Chloe tracked the bolt in the air, a sense of dread rising from her stomach. "Please…"