Chapter 45

'Somehow I feel like we're being watched. Do you feel like we're being watched?' Jaye said, prodding Kamina, who shook his head with an incredulous look plastered across his face.

'Of course not Jaye, who on earth would be watching us?' He said, drumming his nails against the floor as he listened out for movement from the table behind them. 'I mean, it's not like we have two stalkers that followed us across a bloody ocean to worry about. It must be your imagination.'

Indigo rolled her eyes into the back of her head.

'It was funny the first few times, not the last twenty-seven.' She said, crossing her arms. 'Now can we please get back to the topic at hand?'

The three were currently checked into a run-down inn, somewhere far less conspicuous and less likely to be found in. Kamina tried to reason that the run-down places would be where The Faction was likely to check, but Jaye shot him down based on expenses and the fact that he knew that all the furry bastard wanted was a quality bed and food. Seated in the dining hall, their two pursuers, still wrapped in their hardly conspicuous cloaks, were seated at a table just behind the three. They had recognized the two very clearly, electing instead to move to a table slightly further down and almost cringing at their pursuers' very obvious observation.

'We should start looking into a few of the contacts that Ray gave us.' Jaye said, rapping his knuckles loudly on the table and earning him a few disgruntled stares from the other members of the inn. 'We'll take this as a temporary base of operations and stay here a few days to get some information before we head on to Mistral.'

'We should probably head to Haven directly after this.' Kamina said. 'We've lost quite a bit of time making sure we haven't been followed by anyone significant; I'm pretty sure little Red and her gang of happy friends are there by now. We don't want to lose any more time if The Faction decides to hit Haven next.'

'Another thing we want to look into.' Indigo cut in. 'We need to find out who Damian is working for. Jaye, you mentioned a name. Salem.'

The three glanced across each other as the name was presented to the table. Back during the Fall Of Beacon, Damian had mentioned someone named Salem, and from the way he'd worded his sentence she sounded like his employer. They had no idea who this person was, but they were fairly certain that whoever she was, she was bad news. It wasn't just anybody who could hire Damian, and for this someone to be participating in the Vale takedown meant she probably had a grudge against the kingdom. It was highly likely that she would be present in the scenario of a Haven attack, and that meant Damian would be too. That meant she was probably one of the biggest crime bosses in the Kingdoms, and one of the most well-guarded, since none of them had ever heard of her.

'I doubt she's a small-time runner.' Kamina said, crossing his arms and stretching his neck as the two hooded figures behind them thanked the waitress for their order. 'She'd have to have considerable influence and power, probably money too, in order to get one of the biggest assassins in The Faction to do runs for her, even if it was to kill us. She'd have to go through one of the seats at the table to even speak to Damian, assuming she doesn't have one. And those kinds of connections are hard to come by.'

The three assassins sniggered as the waitress bent down to coddle the two, patting their heads through their hoods and Jaye almost couldn't contain his laughter as the girl's tail wagged very obviously under her cloak as the waitress continued to pat her. Finally leaving, the two hardly conspicuously glanced around, as if trying to disguise the fact that they were checking whether or not the three had heard or noticed them.

'Most people wouldn't even dare to try for a hit on Jaye.' Indigo said, swirling a glass. 'I think at this point people know better than to think that he's one you can mess with using any old assassin. Meaning if she really wanted to get rid of him, she'd at least have to be in the upper five. Otherwise, there's no way she'd be able to get ahold of an assassin that even had a remote chance of killing him, let alone getting Damian.'

'And if they were coming for all three of us, most likely even a highly trained team put together would be impossible.' Jaye said, crossing his arms. 'Meaning she's probably got intel that we three are together, and they're probably biding their time until they can find a team good enough to get rid of all three of us at once. Otherwise, their chances are less than slim, they're downright zero.'

'So if she's actually trying to take us out, perhaps she was using Damian as a scout? Or maybe she saw an opportunity where Jaye was alone and decided to try and monopolize on it.' Kamina said. 'That might mean we're not even dealing with someone powerful here, we might be talking about her having the ear of the Faction consulate.'

'At this point, we can't rule out anything.' Indigo sighed, making a gesture for the check. 'Let's deal with mister and miss stalker first, before we get ourselves into any more trouble than we could already be in.'

The rest of the day ironically went without a hitch. The three managed to meet a few contacts, get a few pieces of choice information that unfortunately left their wallets feeling considerably lighter than when they first came in, and even had some time to take in the sights of Mire. Which was a surprisingly beautiful place and was incongruous with its name. Jaye leant against a nearby tree.

'Okay, they're totally lost.' Jaye said, peering over a nearby bench at the two cloaked figures that were currently milling about the town square, clearly searching for something. That something being the three assassins that had ditched them to stop them getting in the way of their deals.

'Well, either way they have the room just a few doors down from us back at the inn.' Indigo rolled her eyes. 'All our stuff's there too. You'd think they'd just double back where they lost us and start searching from there, or they'd just go back to the room and wait for us to return.'

'And yet they aren't.' Kamina sighed, cleaning off his claw blades with a cloth. 'They're amateurs beyond amateurs; I don't think we have to be worried about them.'

'I'm more worried that they'll get caught. They're just kids.' Indigo said, leaning against the railing and staring at the two siblings. One of them was pointing down a nervy alleyway, while the other was gesturing towards the centre of the square. Both of them were wrong; the three had gone up the back path to the north and were now squatting on a hill overlooking the square. 'If they're after us they're making it obvious, and that means that any other assassins in this town are most definitely gonna take them out first before they come for their prey; namely us.'

'But the problem is; we'd survive. They won't.' Jaye said, rubbing his face with his hands. 'Why on earth am I still babysitting children when I'm halfway across the world.'

'Guess this means we're gonna be looking out for them huh?' Kamina said, crossing his arms and smirking at the boy. 'Look like super babysitter Jaye and his gang of merry friends are back at it again with a new episode full of whacky hijinks and quirky sidekicks that will tickle your taste buds. Stay tuned for more, we have six more seasons planned!'

'I will actually stab you.'

Back In Their Room

'So what we've essentially learned from what we've found out is that we actually knew nothing.' Indigo said, leaning back in her chair and dropping her scroll to the tabletop. 'It looks like Ray was right; The Faction has almost no presence here, which is a good thing, but I think we're in over our heads a little here.'

'Salem isn't just someone who has the ear of the consul.' Kamina said, pressing his forehead to the cool windowpane, watching the rain beat down on the pavement outside. 'She isn't even related to The Faction. They're not even working with her; they're working FOR her.'

'Then that leaves us with an even bigger question.' Jaye grimaced, staring at his two companions. 'Who the hell is she?'

'At this point, I'm wondering WHAT the hell is she.' Indigo crossed her legs, tilting her head to the side in contemplation. 'To be holding the entirety of The Faction in the palm of her hand… that's massive. I thought we might be able to find allies within the different branches, but this is an entirely new ball game we're playing. Can we even stay hidden at this rate?'

'I doubt it.' Jaye shook his head. 'The Faction have eyes and ears everywhere; but if she's powerful enough to have them dancing to her tune then I highly doubt they're her only form of intelligence.'

'Then what should we do now?' Indigo said. 'Suddenly meeting up with little red and her gang of merry friends seems like a horrendously bad idea. We'd just be bringing hell down on them; assuming they're not already targets themselves.'

'Then all the more reason why we should stick together.' Kamina cut in, pushing himself off the windowsill. 'They're probably one of the few allies we have left in this world, and we're in no shape to be looking for the others. Best to stick to what we know for now and try and pick up more support along the way. And if they're a target too, then leaving them alone might just be spelling their doom anyway.'

'You've got me there.' Jaye said, dropping across his bed. 'If we're gonna go down, we might as well go down together. All for one and one for all I guess.'

'Besides, I wasted resources protecting those kiddos during the Fall.' Kamina grinned. 'Be a waste to let them die now.'

The three teammates glanced across each other, affirming themselves of their path ahead. Jaye stared up at the plaster ceiling, contemplating their next move, and eventually decided that no matter what they were probably screwed in the end and decide to just wing it. Indigo got up from her chair.

'We'll move out in a few days; give any other pursuers some time to think we're still here and start searching for us in town, then we break for it.' She said, stretching and pacing towards the bathroom. 'Never fails.'

'Don't jinx it.' The two boys chorused. Jaye closed his eyes, staring into the deep blackness behind his eyelids and sighed, his thoughts drifting back to blonde hair and a brilliant smile, and wondered where she was right now. He wished her all the luck in the world, and hoped she'd be back on her feet soon. He felt the worry start to creep into his chest and rubbed at it unconsciously. He pulled his scroll out of his pocket, opening up his photo gallery and pulling up one of his favorited photos.

It was just him and Yang cuddled up together in the dorm room, wrapped in pajamas and messy hair, grinning like madmen in the morning sun. His arms were laced around the girl, lips pressed to her neck, and she grinned devilishly at the camera, one hand running through the boy's dark hair. Jaye stared at the picture for a long moment, burning it into his memory, before slipping the phone back into his pocket and rolling over on his covers.

That's the end of this chapter. I'm really sorry I'm taking so long and I'm going to make a conscious effort to make myself a schedule and stick to it to get these out on time. On another note, I apparently should have the results of that writing competition back by march, but I honestly don't think I'm going to win anything. I wonder if they'll give me critique on my work, and I really hope they do to be honest. So anyways, I won't be giving any spoilers for the next chapter, but just know we're progressing into volume 5 territory in around three or four more chapters, then I can finally up my speed because I'll have more source material to work with. Thank you all for reading this far, I'm super appreciative of it!