A/N- Cat- So yet another chapter from Kyrette. I love all my muses but he's getting a bit ridiculous!

Scaretta- HIM??? I was the one out searching for that other muse of yours! *shrugs* Still didn't find out where she was..

Cat- Scaretta, since you're here and he's not, and you don't have to do disclaimers for your story.. Wanna do this one?

Scaretta- *dancing around and using a sing-song voice* Cat owns nothing.. Lackey owns it all.

Cat-*rolling eyes* Well I asked for it didn't I? So on with it!

Chapter 20- The Plan Begins

Down in Haven, in one of the "nicer" inns, an older man sat, drinking a glass of bad wine, waiting for his armed guard to return. He hated being here. Ever since that fiasco several years ago, when all of his students had been killed by the Mage Storms, his status had fallen severely.

Now here he was stuck in Haven trying to find another bodyguard and perhaps a student. If he could entice one away from this place. If he were a child he sure as hells wouldn't want to leave so nice a place. But he wasn't one who had a choice. He grimaced as the roughly sweet wine slid down his throat. He had come to Haven as a last resort, an ultimate last resort.

When the spell to create a node under their control had failed, he had gone back to the grisly site. Everywhere there had been parts and pieces of bodies. There had been too many pieces to tell how many bodies were actually there. He didn't see any parts of the white-haired young woman and that had bothered him, but he couldn't tell just what belonged to whom.

He hated making assumptions. Yet that one time he'd had to, with all the tiny pieces present.

He looked out the dingy window and down into the twisting street before his inn. There a whore walked out of an alley with her current client. Across the street, a shadowy figure waited for his next victim. The figure melted into the shadows as a group of Guards came down the street.

Putting his mug down, he sighed. He certainly had come down in the world. The stomping of boots on the stairs had him looking toward the door. This time the boots passed him by. He chugged the dregs of his wine in his mug, grimacing in disgust.

He sat back to wait. His bodyguard was out in the city, supposedly hiring another guard. The mage was beginning to suspect he was just drinking up their small amount of coin.

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It was well past midnight when the bodyguard returned to the room. To give him credit, he was sober. The mage let him settle and get some wine to drink (although how he could drink that concoction was beyond the mage.) before asking him the questions burning his tongue.

"I found our man," the guard said after wiping his mouth with his sleeve. "Goes by the name 'Knives' down at the Broken Arms. Got quite a reputation for himself, from what I hear."

"Bah! Who cares for reputations?" The mage scoffed. "Reputations mean nothing. It is actions I wish to know about."

The guard just held his mouth shut for a time. "The man has never drawn his sword in a fight. Never. That means he hasn't had to. A man like that would be worth the price."

The mage sat back to consider. If what the man said was true, then indeed the man might be worth it. Still he had to be very careful. In Haven now were too many mages for him to be comfortable. He had to refrain from doing any magic at all, otherwise every mage in Haven would know he was there.

Still, if this guy was even half as good as his reputation.. Time would tell. If he had impressed his bodyguard that was to the man's credit. The mage wanted out of Haven as fast as possible. If they could get this man it was only a matter of time before they could leave.

The mage sighed as his bodyguard applied himself to the rotten wine in the jug. If the man was willing to drink the stuff good for him. Maybe their wait was almost over. Then they could leave and begin to gather the power that he needed to begin his conquest.

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It was several nights later that "Knives" and "Smoke" sat drinking together, laughing over old times. When she had first appeared many had looked at her oddly. However, given her companion, none were willing to approach her.

Her quiet chuckle under toned the quiet conversation of the bar. Over in a corner, the bodyguard watched both of them. He could be seen to wince when the night grew late and she showed no sign of leaving before her drinking partner.

Finally, just before the barman was about to begin showing everyone the door, the bodyguard stood and approached the two. "Knives." He said by way of greeting. Knives only nodded shortly back. "Is there somewhere we can go.?" He looked pointedly at Smoke, who hadn't looked up from her drink.

Knives just looked at him. "She stays with me. Talk freely in front of her." The words were more than a simple command. They were almost a threat.

The bodyguard just nodded, resignedly, and led the way to a small table in the corner. All three of them crowded around it to talk in low tones of what the guard needed. He was a bit disappointed when Knives turned him down flat.

"Smoke be what ye need. She hides in shadow better than any man alive." The guard looked at her skeptically but kept his mouth shut. "I be working for another right now and can't help." He nodded in Smoke's direction. "She be the free blade ye want."

He glanced at her again. She raised cold, dead, crystalline eyes to look at him, her dark hair hanging down on either side of her face. He never saw her move, yet he felt the cold steel of a blade in his side. A small smile twitched her lips as she blatantly put the blade away.

"If she can follow me back to my rooms without me spotting her and get inside, then she has the job." The guard said decisively. Smoke only snorted, with another small smile.

Of course he expected her to fail. When he stood to leave, both of them were still sitting at the table.

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The bodyguard didn't even attempt to take a round-about route back to his rooms. He knew when he was being followed, and currently he wasn't. Whatever Knives said about his companion, this "Smoke" wasn't the person for this job.

The mage, his employer, needed someone who could find another "Hawkbrother" and capture them for whatever he needed them for. It wasn't the bodyguard's place to question why, only to follow orders.

With weary steps he trudged up the stairs of the inn. He hadn't been followed at all from the Broken Arms. It appeared Knives would be working for them after all and that woman, "Smoke", would be finding her own work.

He let himself into the room, where the mage was pacing impatiently. "Well?" He snapped at the bodyguard, when the man entered the room.

The bodyguard shrugged and dropped into the only chair in the room. It groaned menacingly in protest. "Knives says he is unable to do it." The mage grit his teeth in frustration, but the bodyguard continued with his report. "Has a companion though. Goes by the name of 'Smoke'. Knives says she is the one we need." The bodyguard shrugged at the mage's questioning look. "I'm testing her to see if she is."

Just then a cold dead voice came out of the shadows near the only window. It would have sent chills down anyone's spine. "And do I pass your test?" Smoke stepped out of the deepest shadows, into the weak light cast by the single lantern resting in the center of the table.

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