Here is the fourth chapter. Slightly easier to write than the last...

Yelena POV:

I frowned and gradually laid still, my heart slowly returning to a normal rhythm. "Valek?" I whispered.

I felt, rather than saw him lie down next to me. I shifted over to make room for him on the narrow bed and he wrapped the blanket tightly around both of us, bundling me very close to him. Then he leaned down to capture my lips with his for a long time. I smiled as he kissed me...I had missed him so much for the past month.

"Surprised?" he asked as he pulled away and adjusted himself so that his chin rested on my hair.

I buried my face into his neck. "Just a bit," I admitted. "I thought that it would take longer for you to find her."

He laughed silently and moved away momentarily to slide my switchblade under my pillow again. "Are my abilities really so deplorable?"

I was serious now. "Where is she now?"

He didn't respond for a long time. "She's...here."

I gasped. What was the woman planning to do? Assassinate all the Master Magicians and the Sitian Council? From Mirela's descriptions of her, it seemed entirely possible. "What are we going to do?"

He told me everything that he had found out in Booruby and I sighed when I realised we now had to actively investigate the Citadel and especially the Keep when all I wanted was to get away from this place. Yes, I had friends, but that didn't mean that I felt welcome here.

"The only thing we can do is secretly search her out and find out what her plans are before stopping them. I know that sounds simple, but it's effective." He sighed and pulled me closer to him. "Since I'm not supposed to be here anyways, I'll stay in the safe house I have near the market here and head out to investigate everyday."

"You have safe houses here?" Now that I thought of it, it made sense. How else was he going to gather information about Sitians comfortably? And anyways, his operatives would need somewhere safe to stay. "Do you have to? Can't you just stay here?"

"As much as I'd like that, love, I can't. Most, if not all, the Master Magicians probably know how I look. Staying here would only blow my cover."

"You could stay out in the market during the day and come here at night." I pulled away to look at him.

He opened his mouth to reply when a distinct knock sounded from my door. He swore and leapt out of bed, disappearing into the shadows. I peered around to make sure I couldn't see him and then pulled out my switchblade from under the pillow again. Slowly, I crept towards the door, keeping the weapon behind me and cautiously opened it. Who the hell went around waking people up in the middle of the night if they weren't violent or insane?

...Corinne, apparently. She stood in the dark hall wearing that same black cloak that I had seen earlier. She was holding up a tiny stub of candle to illuminate the darkness and she appeared to be very,very frightened. My initial reaction was fear as well and I wondered what could have happened. Seeing her being so secretive all month and after the warning from that mysterious man, I really wanted to know what was going on.

"Yelena," she said, and I could hear the hint of tears in her voice. Now that I looked closely, her eyes were bloodshot from crying and she looked very haunted.

Looking down both ends of the hall to make sure she hadn't woken up anyone else, I yanked her inside my room and shut the door, crossing to my table to light a proper lamp. I found a glass and poured a cup of water for the poor girl, who looked as if she desperately needed it. She sank down into an armchair facing the bed and I sat on the bed across from her.

I sent a silent apology to Valek. It looked like this was going to take a while to resolve. I was relieved that he was here, at least. He always knew what to do.

Meanwhile, Corinne had her face hidden behind her hands and seemed to be at the end of her rope. I handed her the glass of water and she sighed, sitting up to take a sip.

"Now, tell me what this life-threatening situation is," I ordered sternly.

Corinne's face, which had just been starting to regain some colour, turned white again. "You have no idea how accurate your description is," she said in a hushed tone. "You have no idea what just..." She paused, her face distressed and conflicted.

"If you don't tell me what's wrong, I won't be able to help you," I prodded gently. "Come on, it can't be that bad. Whatever you did, I'm sure won't get you kicked out of the Keep."

To my horror, a tear began making its way down her cheek. "It's much much much worse than that. I..." She trailed off and her eyes closed. She set down the cup of water to rub her temples. I was beginning to get really concerned. Usually, Corinne was very carefree and cheerful. I had never seen her so serious and genuinely distressed before.

"I saw my friend being slaughtered," she finally said in a dead voice. "She was being tortured, then killed, and there was nothing I could do to stop it."

As Janco would have said, holy snow cats. I tried to keep myself from panicking. "Have you told the Master Magicians...or any magicians, for that matter?" I ventured cautiously.

She shook her head and her eyes became even more haunted, if possible. "That's the problem, Yelena! I can't. The people that killed her...they were...they..."

She began to spin a tale of terror. Combined with the dark settings and time of night, her words really scared me. She and her good friend, Janira, had joined a club that held secret meetings once a month. They had done so because they were both not popular with the rest of the student crowd at the Keep and had thought that joining social activities would make them fit in. However, this plan quickly turned into a disaster.

At first, the meetings were very friendly and fun; most of the people were either Corinne's age or older and during meetings, they would talk about their day and help each other solve their problems. That didn't last very long.

Soon after, the meetings became more frequent. It became once every two weeks, then once a week, several times a week, and now, everyday. That explained whhy Corinne had skipped class so much. The meetings became more and more...intense. The leader of the meetings was a woman that wore a porcelain mask with black roses etched onto it. It covered her entire face and she wore very concealing robes so that her only recognisable feature was her voice.

This woman (Corinne was fairly sure she was female) usually said a word or two of introduction and then left the members to converse among themselves. As the meetings became more and more frequent, she stayed long and began talking to the various members there. She also began to introduce the concept of blood. Corinne told me that this woman had told the members of an ancient ritual that the early Sandseed warriors had used. By taking someone's blood and injecting it into a magician's body, the magician would gain more power. Moreover, if the donor was a magician as well, the burst of power would be bigger and the magician would gain more.

Since the club was not limited only to the students of the Keep, there were also members that were not magicians. They were especially excited about this information because most of them envied others that had magical power and wanted some of their own. They quickly became the woman's biggest supporters. The rest of the members besides Corinne and Janira also seemed to fall under the spell of power, all united under the universal desire for...more. The meetings became obssessed with this topic and soon, the woman began telling them more, and then the threats came.

It started out with small ones, such as "Don't you dare tell your mother, or I will have to kick you out" and progressed to "If you tell, I'll kill you." Corinne and Janira had been frightened into submission, and by now, it was too late to stop going. They had to go, or the leader would have them kicked out of the Keep.

I scoffed at this fact. "How the hell would she be able to kick you out? She doesn't have the authority and chances are, what she's doing is illegal so the last thing she wants to do is to go to one of the Masters about this."

"NO!" Corinne slapped her hands over her mouth when she realised that she could have woken up the entire apprentice wing. "Don't do that," she hissed at me desperately.

"Why?"

"I...I...Janira is dead," she finally blurted.

I felt dizzy. "What...what do you mean? Are you saying that because she was in your club, she died?"

She met my eyes directly and the guilt in them would haunt me for a long time. "I'm saying that she was murdered by the club."

I just hoped Valek was listening attentively, because at this point, I knew I couldn't handle it alone. "What would the club gain by murdering one of it's members?"

I suddenly realised just as she told me. "Blood."

This was sickening. This group of people had just slaughtered an innocent just to gain some so-called power? They decided to kill just on the basis of a myth? "Corinne, we have to tell the Master Magicians about this right away. If it's an entire organisation..."

Her eyes closed and panic constricted her face. "I told you, we can't. If we do, they'll go after Rowena next."

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