They made their way to the gate and were greeted by the initiated who monitored access to Sanctuary. Anna passed through the gate and had only taken a couple steps before she heard cracking to either side. She rolled forward and into a low crouch as she looked for the source of the noise. She could hear Dixx drawing his short sword as she looked up.

It had been long enough inside Sanctuary that Anna had forgotten about Elsa's ice guard at the gate. This was her first venture past the gate since her arrival, and the guard we noisily breaking free from their posts. They were bringing their maces to hand as they came away from their posts, staring straight at Dixx as they advanced.

"Stop! Everybody! Now!" called Anna, rising to her feet. "Mister Dixx, sheath your sword please. They need to see you listening to my request. Please."

Dixx paused a moment before slowly complying. His gaze bounced back and forth between the icy figures. The figures maintained their advance until his hand left the grip of his weapon. As the ice guard stopped, they lowered their weapons, housing them at their sides.

Anna spoke softly, but with a strength rarely heard from her. "Put the maces away. Elsa, I know you can hear me. This man is with us as added protection, and answered to the unexpected as he should have. He is not my enemy. I forgot about your guards or I would have warned him. Their purpose here hasn't been made general knowledge in Sanctuary. Mr Dixx, these are Elsa's guards. She put them here to protect me should I leave the grounds, and in an official capacity to keep me from causing mischief at the crown's expense. Elsa gave me no choice about them being here. I only have enough authority over them to prevent misunderstandings like we have now. I can't command them to attack the order. If they think I am threatened, they won't listen to my orders if it puts me in more danger. Elsa won't allow them to stay here as we go out, regardless of what I say."

Anna raised her voice slightly as she continued. "I need all three of you to realize you're here for the same reasons. You're here to protect me, the realm, and this order. As long as you don't attack me or each other, none of you should consider each other a threat, even when weapons are drawn. Understood?"

Dixx said nothing as he nodded. The ice guards did their part by attaching their maces to their belts. Anna nodded to each of them before continuing her speech.

"Mr Dixx, please walk with master Decant and myself. Your presence here should not be an issue any longer, weapon drawn or not. Elsa, please have your guards follow about ten paces back. A front guard will just announce the direction I'm heading to any troublemakers, and will make the people the least nervous from that position. While they have eyes, I have no doubt your guards can see in all directions at once without difficulty. As this is the first trip and it was unplanned until we left, I don't expect trouble this time."

Anna turned to Decant and nodded. He slowly turned and lead them toward town. The ice guards did follow about ten to fifteen paces back. When everybody was in place for the trip, Anna let out a frustrated sigh. Decant quietly chuckled when he noticed.

"Heavy lies the crown, milady?" asked Decant with amused sarcasm. "Well handled my dear."

"My apologies everybody. This is one of the things miss Patty would have reminded me of before leaving the gate. I do wish she were here."

"Since she's not, we'll have to see what happens then. Won't we?" said Decant as he put a friendly hand on her shoulder. Anna already knew he didn't really care about her so it was all she could do to not flinch away. She remembered back to Dixx's comment annoy feeling dirty just talking to the Duke's man and realized she knew how he felt.

She managed a nice smile by thinking about a long bath after they returned. Because of safety concerns for Anna and the number of pranks pulled on her, she was one of the few single people who could bath in the confines of their own room. Usually it was just families or a communal pool fed by a local hot spring. It did take time to set up since she had to heat her own water or use the barrel with wheels attached to get hot spring water.

Brexton, as outlying towns went, was small. Most of its population were actually members of the order and lived in Sanctuary.what was left outside was a handful of buildings and residences. There was the all inclusive church near Sanctuary's main gate, a small bakery that only made bread, a smithy, an inn with five small rooms, a small store and a disproportionately large taphouse. The owners either lived above or right behind their businesses. There were few other houses in town, but one enterprising person had built a stable that backed on both the inn and the smithy. An assayer had set up a shop just outside town and it also doubled as a trading house and miner's supply depot. The yard behind it was well fenced for holding supply wagons. Two very vicious dogs kept everybody out except the owner or people he was with. A new building with a small residence behind it housed two Arendelle guards that rotated out weekly.

Anna made sure to visit each place. Comments were made as part of idle conversation about an old friend who would have liked some item found in the shop. Several times, she had added that she wished she could see her friend again soon. She skipped the guard station, the smithy, the inn and the taphouse, but made sure to visit the store and bakery. She did lay flowers at the church as a tribute to Hazel with a small sign saying 'wish you were here'. She knew Patty couldn't read, but it was just odd enough that people might talk about it. Patty would understand if she heard about it.

At the stable, Anna didn't even mention her old friend. Instead, she talked idly about anything, eventually bringing the topic to be people in town. If possible, the man rambled more than Anna. Anna got a healthy dose as to why it annoyed people. There we only a few people not already part of the order. Two were the guards from Arendelle. The third was a young girl, believed to be a distant relative if a farmer. The most promising was somebody only seen at night. It was a well armed, scantily clad young woman. The only things that were consistent related to her lack of clothing, heavenly trim body and the crossbow always slung across her back. The problem was that the only people put that late were leaving the taphouse. Hair color, other weapons carried and where she was seen most didn't match at all. Many just laughed it off as some teen with broken gear making a fool of the town drunks.

Nobody ever actually saw the girl in good lighting, especially since she only came out in the dead of the night. Only one person had gotten close. They had fallen flat, too drunk to rise. An "agent of the gods" was the man's adamant description. There was a brief description of a "demon in disguise" when he couldn't find his purse, but the barkeep had it after he had left it on the table. A few people believed it was a ghost returned to haunt the earth after being rejected by Valhalla. Thanks to the few consistent details, she became known as the 'phantom stalker'.

Nothing came up from that first trip out, but nothing was expected either. Decant and Anna decided to try every two or three days for at least a couple weeks, using her evening study time. They kept it to Decant, a very cranky Dixx, Anna and the two ice guards. The routine was similar each time although routes varied. Anna pouted over her old friend while Dixx grumbled in the background. Things changed on the fourth trip.

While walking around the east end of town, a thump in the path ahead caught all their attention. The fletching of a crossbow bolt could be seen protruding from the ground about five paces ahead. They an looked for the source while taking what little cover was available. The building they were passing had a loft with a walkway behind it.

There standing in the walkway was a hooded figure with a crossbow. They could be seen pulling a cord with a gloved hand causing the bow to pull up under the cloak add their back. A dark cloak trapped down their back to mid shin. The cloak itself had seen better days with obvious rips. Soft leather shoes covers otherwise bare feet and legs. When Anna's gaze locked on the figure, they allowed their left side to come out exposing more of their clothes. An indecently high skirt peeked out as well as a bare arm up to the shoulder. The wearer's hand could be seen on a sheathed dagger. All in all, it was a relaxed pose that definitely implied feminine traits.

A few moments after the figure stuck their pose, Anna gasped as the shock of the attack wore off. That gasp almost seemed to trigger the intruder to turn tail and run down the narrow walkway. Dixx was already drawing his sword while moving to give chase. The ice guards moved past and them and followed Dixx. What felt like minutes was actually over in just a couple seconds. Less than a minute later, all three returned empty handed.

"This must be the only blind alley in town!" Dixx complained. "It looks like they had a rope ready to climb up to a roof before shooting at us."

"Miss Anna, we need to get you back to Sanctuary," Decant said quietly.

"Let me see the alley first."

"It's too dangerous," Dixx almost shouted, incredulous.

"If I'm right, they are long gone. Please."

With a nod from Decant and a worried glance to Elsa's guards, Dixx slowly moved out of the way. When Anna moved the others made to follow. She just shook her head. When she started going again, only the ice guards followed.

"Wait here, please." The only response was one guard shaking his head. With a huffed sigh, Anna walked into the alley with guards in tow.

Garbage and clumps of dirt littered the alley, getting worse as she went. At the end, a building had been extended back to block it completely. There were no obvious doors or windows for some ways towards the exit. Looking up, Anna could just see the very end of a rope hanging over the edge of the roof.

Anna looked back to the ground. Something about it didn't feel right. After a moment, she realized the dirt there was too fresh. Even the dirt along the edges looked older than some of the clumps on the ground. Looking back to the ground, she noted the back corners had far larger piles of refuse than compared with everywhere else in the alley combined. One corner was food scraps gone too far to be eaten safely. From the smell, it was not new and likely fairly deep. The other corner appeared to her mostly mouldy sacks, falling apart at the seams. The top couple sacks lifted easily. After that, they were stuck to the ground. Since none of it was frozen, she pulled harder. The whole pile tipped up until there was a two foot gap she could fit through. The bottom of the pile was woven branches that looked through some of the sacks.

Under the pile was a tunnel. It was narrow and roughly dug. A man in armor would have difficulty passing without getting caught on the sides. She could see woven posts periodically down the tunnel and realized they were there to keep the back wall of the building extension from dropping into the tunnel. It was squarely underneath the wall, only diverting enough to pass the posts. Anna realized the rope on the roof was a decoy. If she had to guess, it wasn't likely going to be more than a foot or two of rope up there. She chuckled thinking about Dixx's reaction when he found out.

She was about to crawl in when she felt a cold hand on her shoulder to stop her. Looking up, an ice guard slowly shook his head. Anna sighed before she closed the tunnel again. She walked out of the alley rejoining the others. They talked as they walked back to the gate.

"They didn't climb to escape the alley. By the time I figured it out, they would be long gone out the other side."

"You could still see the end of the rope over the edge of the roof," countered Dixx.

"Decoy," replied Anna. "There's a tunnel under the sacks at the back. It looks like the fresh dirt in the alley came from the tunnel and was used to raise the opening above surrounding ground. Keeps most of the rainwater out. Noticed stepping stones in the dirt to avoid leaving footprints. No muddy footprints on the wall either. Should have been some, even if they used the stones to cross." Dixx just glared at Anna.

"Anna, why would you enter the alley. If they had gone to the roof, you'd be an easy target for their next shot."

"The bolt hit the ground right in the path but nowhere near us. It was too far away to have been an accidental miss. If I was a target, the first shot would have hit me or a second shot would have been easier from the roof after all my guards ran away chasing a phantom. No, this was either a warning or just what I've been looking for."

Dixx stood there looking confused, while Decant looked overly concerned in Anna's opinion. That implied Decant had nothing to do with the shot. 'There are only two other reasons I can think of that don't include Decant. Either the Duke could be up to something with either me or Decant, or Patty got my not-so-subtle message. The chances of Decant not knowing about actions by his minions are very slim,' mused Anna silently.

They are about half way back when they are approached by a young girl about thirteen. She appeared brutally beaten. Her clothing told its own stories of brutality and neglect. When she walked, she strongly favored her right leg.

"Please ma'am, sirs. I've been asked to get something from you. Something about a crossbow bolt you may have found."

Anna would have laughed if the person didn't look so legitimately broken. "Yes. After today's events, I expected somebody would contact me." Anna retrieved the bolt from Dixx and gave it to the girl. "Are you able to pass a message to the owner of the bolt for me?" Anna held up two coins for the girl to see.

Her eyes locked on the coins as she gave her eager reply. "Yes ma'am. When they find me again, I can do that."

"Okay. Part of the message must be in the same words I use. Exactly those words and in the same order, that's very important." When the girl nodded, Anna continued. "Tell the owner I'd like to meet. This is the important part that must be exact. 'I would suggest the west wall of the sanctuary at midnight tomorrow but that's a bad idea for me. Of course, that only leaves the east wall at the same time if you're willing.' Do you got that?"

Anna had the girl repeat it several times with minor corrections. When she could repeat the message verbatim, she sent the girl of with the bolt and coins in hand. Decant and Dixx just stared at Anna like she was slow in the head.

"Master Decant, you look concerned."

"Anna, you don't know who you're asking to meet. Why in Handellin's name would you suggest a meeting without getting more information about who you're going to meet? You seem very unconcerned about this meeting."

"Sir, I've been locked in a dungeon in the dark with people hunting me and the girls I protected. I learned to blind fight barehanded to protect us, and very quickly. This is nothing compared to the mind games I was subjected to down there. If this is who I think it is, we'll both know where to really go. Throw a rope over both the east and west walls near midnight and shoot anybody trying to climb either one.they would mean us harm."

"Where to really go? Where would that be?" Dixx asked sarcastically.

"Bring me a rope shortly before midnight tomorrow and I'll show you."