Girls Barracks, Katolis Military Academy 6:00 PM

"Hey, look what I got in the mail," Jasmin called out.

Rayla turned away from cleaning her rifle to see her holding up two pieces of paper, "Whatcha got there?"

"Free dinner for two at the Nešto vrlo riblje . its a fancy fish-themed restaurant in the capital." she flashed the papers in front of her.

"So no pack of bottled tap water this time?" Rayla asked as she picked up a bottle front nearby.

"Hey its not that bad."

"hmmm" Rayla looked closer at the bottle for a closer look "... let's see Water obtained from a municipal source... that IS tap water, brothers and sisters of the cult of the bottle sold at a ludacrous markup."

"fine it IS that bad," Jasmin grumbled

"So when do we leave oh unlucky one?" Rayla quickly swiped one of the passes and put it in her bag for safekeeping, Mom, dad, I don't know how the afterlife is treating you but I'm in food heaven right now.

"first day of vacay, we'll need to take a bus to get there."

Rayla looked at the calendar and saw that was only three days away. and with 2 days before I go to the buffet Callum bribed me with, "I'll need to call the castle later to tell them where I'd be going."

"Seriously how'd you get to do that while the rest of us can't even set foot in there."

"Lucky accident and coincidences." Rayla smiled at her

"thats not an answer." she shot back

Rayla stuck out her tongue, "Too bad, thats all you'll get out of me."


Unknown Location, Katolis City 9:00 PM

A pair of cloaked figures one of whom was pulling a small cart with a metal box on it, as they were being led down a dark and narrow corridor by two other men with their only source of light was from a pair of flashlights carried by their escorts. They had finally arrived at a door with four men standing guard. The cloaked duo looked up at them revealing they wore a pure white mask with the eye holes covered by glass that was as dark as obsidian which the guards recognized as he presented a card, one of the guards took it as another began to pad them down while being careful as to avoid touching their heads before finally checking the contents of the metal box. The door finally revealing a scantly lit room with a well-furnished table in the middle with multiple high-quality chairs to match beside it. A butler walked up to the table and pulled out one of the chairs and gestured for the man to sit. The man offered his cloak to the butler revealing an expensive suit before finally taking his seat. The butler after taking the cloak then moved back to stand alongside the other masked man.

Several minutes later the door at the opposite end of the room opened as another masked woman entered, she wore a red ball gown with accessories. She walked slowly to the table as she carefully looked at her guest.

"Do pardon my tardiness, I was busy ensuring the merchandise was properly stored for the auction." Her voice was neutral and did not indicate what she truly thought at the moment.

"That is fine, I expect nothing less from someone who manages to procure such fine products for my clients."

"And I am grateful for your continued patronage but I must regret to inform you that due to recent events we have not been able to find more than two which met the criteria you've outlined." The voice was still neutral but now there was a small hint of her wounded pride in it.

"I do not expect you to create miracles and I am aware that recent events make procurement difficult, once the nations cease squabbling they will ease up." The man said coolly. "In any case I will partake in the auction after inspecting the two which you've already procured."

"I'm grateful for such kind words…" she stopped mid sentence as she heard a click and looked up to see the other man moving the now opened metal box towards her, it was filled to the brim with bars of Etherium. She looked at him in puzzlement as the amount would exceed the value of what he normally purchase from her several times over.

He understood from her body language that she was confused so decided to answer. "Consider it a bonus from my clients for previous services rendered."

"I shall strive to procure the best quality items for your next arrival," she noticed there were small patterns engraved at the bottom of the bars and understood where they came from and began to wonder how best to use these etherium bars in the auction. I need to quietly advertise this on the black market quickly.

"I believe that concludes this meeting," the man got up and went to the butler to retrieve his coat before turning to the door, the woman only bowed as he walked through the door.

Prison 11, Dukedom, 2:30 AM

The city guards only after confirming that the premise was secure did they slowly enter the prison's reception area, most of the lights were shattered and some barely worked as they kept going on and off, they trained the flashlights on their rifles throughout the room and located the prison staff who were rendered unconscious, gagged and tied up.
They methodically began to go over each room only to find them empty without anything out of place and occasionally finding more of the staff. After an hour they managed to evacuate the staff and headed to the service elevator only to find it was disabled.

"Can you get it working?" asked the captain

"No sir, not from here, I need to get to the bottom to undo whatever they did."

"Alright, fire team 1 will guard this area and radio in if you find anything, the rest of you with me to the bottom."

The remaining ten began to descend the dark and narrow stairways to the bottom which was 20 floors below. They could hear the sound of their heavy footsteps bounce off the permacrete while their breathing became audible. The only indicator they had was the plaques on the walls that stated which floor they were on and radioed their position to fireteam 1. Occasionally they heard footsteps aside from their own that disappeared the moment they got closer. At each bend the stairs took, they readied themselves expecting an assault that never came which only made them more likely to expect one at the next bend.

Once they were close to their destination the squad leader spoke to his radio. "Fire team 1, we're on floor 18 and no encounters so far, what's the status topside? Over" the captain pressed the button to turn off his mic as he awaited their response… a moment had passed and only silence came,

"Fire team 1, respond, over… fire team 1, Anders, Jacob, anyone?" his face became stiff, and was considering whether he should order his men to head back topside or to continue downwards when he heard the click of a button from the other end indicating that they were about to respond and relief washed over him.

"Don't scare me like that you drunks," the captain said as he awaited their response, but there was nothing then the radio clicked off, he began to sweat bullets as he turned to face his squad and inform them that fireteam 1 was taken out in less than 2 minutes. After a few minutes, they all decided to push further against their better judgment.

They soon made it to the 20th floor, they knew from the blueprints that they needed to go through a long and wide corridor that lead to a spacious area where the vault doors were. They made their way stopping at every door they encountered to make sure it was empty.
They arrived at a massive steel slide door, the control panels next to it were intact and worked, the door opened revealing a brightly lit yet empty corridor with a few gold coins scattered on the floor.

The captain ordered them to split into two groups, his group would look inside the vault to make sure if there was anything left inside while the other kept their eyes on their only escape route to prevent any surprises from coming through. After a minute they opened it revealing it was still filled with coins. "Maybe they only wanted certain individuals?" the captain asked at no one in particular,

One of them was moving towards the vault and felt something underfoot, he lifted his boot and heard the sound of a coin, "oops sorry" he apologized to whoever might've been imprisoned inside, as he picked it up he noticed there was no engraving on it and it was blank on the other side. He looked at the coins nearby and found they were all the same as finally realization dawned on him "sir! The coins are fake! "

"What?!" the captain confusion came clearly through his voice,

"How very perceptive of you" came a stoic voice.

Suddenly the sliding door slammed shut and the lights went out, they found themselves submerged in darkness and felt an intense wind blowing inside the sealed room as if there was a fierce storm, they quickly turned on their flashlights, however, the light was only short-lived as their arms were struck by short bolts of electric discharge that blew out their flashlights as they dropped their rifles in pain.

"We must thank you, without your help we never would've managed to open the vault this quickly," a new feminine voice came "and I know just the way to reward you," the voice now took on a more joyous tone with a slightly rumbling texture to it.

One of them grabbed the back of their pants, "Please NO! I just bought a new pair!"

"Not again!" another pleaded as his voice began to crack

"Get a grip you fools!" the captain barked as they all heard the thud of multiple objects hitting the floor, he tried to grab his pistol but the searing pain in his hand made it impossible.

"It's time for…" the voice seemed to come from all directions,

". . . A COMPLETE SET OF ELECTROCUTED GROUP WEDGIES! AHAHAHAHA!"

They all felt an intense jolt of pain followed by numbness, they fell to the floor still blinded by darkness slowly losing consciousness but not before hearing the clear distinct sound of elastics being stretched and torn.

Several minutes later, Tiadrin had finished tying up and gagging their unconscious enemies to a corner as the rest began to empty the vault. They went to the section marked as POW and began to take all the coins with elves, some didn't contain elves but rather Aadian animals, items, and artifacts which they took as well. After which they began to look for resistance members who the dukedom had imprisoned.

An hour later they had managed to escape without being noticed and only a third of the team sent inside came out with their dignity intact. The Elves headed straight towards an allied hideout to hand over the human prisoners to their allies before heading back to their hideout to celebrate.

Several hours later, the elves had all gathered at their cave hideout, deep within was a wide spacious area they often used as a gathering spot to enjoy. They began to celebrate their most recent success. The music was loud and fast spaced but they had used magic to make sure the sound didn't escape this area.

"I see you've brought back quite a haul Faelar," Lain raised his mug to an earth blood elf that was twenty years older than him as he looked at the large steel drum at the far end of the area.

"Wasn't hard, I heard you had some fun freeing our friends from down there," Faelar raised his mug,

"It's a shame we'll have to wait to get back to Katolis to free them,"

"That it is, after all its kinda hard to hide the emigration of a few thousand elves." Faelar downed his mug in agreement, "So think the resistance cells can handle things after we've left?"

Lain took a sip of his mug before answering, "I hope so but they don't really have a choice as Katolis doesn't have the resources to keep us here indefinitely. It might be a couple of years before they can send us back here again."

"Let us hope as few people get captured during our absence then." Faelar began refilling his mug.

"True, they don't have the luxury of freeing a lot of people till they make preparation for what comes after." Lain looked over at his wife in the middle of a drinking match with several others worried about the hangover she's going to have in the morning.

"Speaking of our brother, would he be considered human under our laws?"

"I'm pretty sure he'd be viewed as a human under any circumstances."

"That's not what I'm getting at."

"Then please enlighten me as to how he'd be ever considered anything but human?"

"As I recall Luna Tenebris's exact words were that all non-magical beings would be banished to the west and that both sides would reside in their respective territories."

"Ok but what do her words have anything to do with..."

"It' not what she said," He interjected, "it's what she didn't say... she said non-magical, she never mentioned elves, dragon, human or anything specific." He took a few gulps.

"I still don..." Lain understood where he was going with this and he didn't like it. "we'll need to talk to Vaeril when we get back." His voice became grim. Rayla I hope you're having fun, as for me I'm gonna be having a massive headache for the foreseeable future.

"Let's hope their already aware of this before we arrive. . . . . uh oh, Lain, I suggest you run," he said as he saw Tiadrin walking towards them

"Run? . . . whaaaaaa!" Lain found himself being dragged away by his wife.

"Too late . . ." Faelar put down his mug as he watched another example of how cruel fate can be.

"C'mon lets dance" her voice made it clear she was too far gone to be reasoned with as the old earth blood elf stood by smiling as he waved farewell to the couple.

"You traitor! how can you leave me like this? Lain could only vocally protest at being abandoned so easily.

Faelar stood up and spread out his hands as if he was giving a motivational speech, "I shall always drink in your memory my friend! and I shall see to it that tales of your fate will be known throughout the lands!"