I am considering putting Gelsi into this fanfiction, but I have forgotten how old she was and which class/grade she was in...anybody know?

Yelena POV:

There was only one thing that I could think of to do. And so I did it without any hesitation. "Corinne," I said very calmly and quietly. "There is someone that I want you to meet."

To do him credit, he didn't pounce on me or anything like that, but I could literally feel waves of fury emanating from the shadows. I winced. No doubt I was going to get into a lot of trouble for this. But I suspected that this...club...was somehow connected with Neri. My instincts were telling me this and they hadn't failed me yet. Besides, there was no harm in investigating and helping Corinne. That way, we'd kill two birds with one stone.

Corinne stared at me incredulously. "Are you joking? This is not the time for this!"

I forced to remain calm. "This person will be able to help us."

Corinne closed her eyes and breathed out what sounded like a sigh. Of relief, I thought. "Alright, let's go now." She stood up and wrapped her cloak around her, preparing to leave.

"No! Corinne, stay. The person is right here!" I grabbed her arm and pushed her back in her chair.

She looked at me quizically while I beckoned like an idiot towards the shadows in all directions. It wasn't my fault that Valek had hidden himself so well. Scowling fiercely like I had guessed he would be, he came out and stood before us with his arms crossed imposingly.

Corinne turned to look at me and I could see a whole host of questions in her eyes. Questions like: What the hell is a scary-looking guy doing in your room in the middle of the night with your permission?

"Corinne, er, this is a...friend of mine. I believe that he will be able to help us in fixing this." I gestured awkwardly between them both. I hadn't wanted to give away Valek...I had already angered him enough by exposing the fact that he was there.

"Corinne?" Valek's voice was neutral as he extended a hand towards her. She grasped it uncertainly and looked up at him as if wondering who he was. Valek shot me a look that made me shrink back and said," I'm Valek."

Her eyes blinked almost comically as she took in this information. Then her back became ramrod straight and she glared at me, seething. "This isn't funny, Yelena! If this is your twisted idea of some joke..."

"He's actually Valek," I interjected. I would have thought that she would have believe me and been terrified.

"Yes, that is what most people call me," Valek said dryly.

She drew in a deep breath. "No way," Corinne said almost disbelievingly. "So it's true?" She turned to me. "You really are an Ixian spy?"

"No!" I said hastily. "Valek and I are on a mission to catch...someone that's a risk to both Ixia and Sitia. We only want to prevent her plans from taking place."

I could see that she was still in denial so I nudged Valek. He got my hint and sighed in resign. A second later, he had used some sort of sleight of hand to produce a wickedly sharp blade that glinted in the candlelight.

"Choose a target," he said to Corinne. I covered my face with my hands. How was I going to explain knife marks on my walls or furniture to Irys?

She pointed a quivering finger towards one of my very narrow bedposts. The knife was almost immediately embedded point-first into it's centre and almost pushed right through it. I shot a glance at Valek before I went to the bed and jerked it out with effort, then returned it to him with a disapproving frown.

"Do you believe us now?" Valek asked, tucking the knife into his belt with the rest of his darts and daggers. He didn't wait for her assent, and turned towards the door. "Good, let's go."

Valek POV:

I led the way to a conveniently placed stool under a window on the far side of the room. Yelena and Corinne looked confusedly at the door before I hurriedly jerked them both up the stool and out the window. I could only hope that the guards patrolling today were lazy and sleepy. I could conceal myself and probably Yelena as well, but with the amount of noise Corinne was making, there was no doubt that we'd eventually be discovered.

I couldn't remain angry at Yelena as we threaded our way through the maze of streets of the west side of the Citadel, where the slums were. This proprietress could very well be Neri, although it seemed to obvious to be her. After all, if she was such a threat to both Ixia and Sitia, there was no way that she would do the dirty work herself. No, the best thing that we could hope for was for the possibility to dig some information out of what could be a potential minion.

Corinne was shivering as she ran, her thin cloak not sufficient for the damp night. It had rained just an hour ago, and the air was still fresh and cool as it was during the storm. I looked to Yelena and discovered that she was wearing nothing but a thin robe over her nightgown. She hadn't had time to change. I shrugged out of the cloak that I had the foresight to snatch and wrapped it around her. She smiled gratefully at me and I felt warm despite the frosty temperature outside. A light mist of rain began to cover us in layers as we ran and fog seeped into every corner, eventually blocking our sights.

Finally, we stopped at an undistinguished looking building. It was exactly the sort of building that I would have used for my encounters with my associates. It looked exactly like the other buildings on either side of it and the only factor that had varied was the number plaque on top of the door. Corinne hesitated before the door, her hand poised to knock.

"Should I?" she whispered. Without waiting for a response, she drew her hand back to pound on it.

I quickly grabbed her hand before she could alert the club members that we were there. Obviously this girl was not used to stealth.

"What do we do?" Yelena looked worried, with her brow furrowed. I was suddenly struck with the wish to just be with her, even for just a moment. No problems to think about, nobody to track down, just the two of us, together.

"Sneak around the back," I signed to her. Luckily, I had taught her the most basic hand gestures in case of an emergency and she seemed to have remembered them.

She nodded and tugged her friend with her. As we were halfway there, a light went on in the uppermost window and there was a dark shadow as a face peered out. I quickly reached out and pulled the two of them against the brick wall, keeping them still and silent. A few moments later, the shadow dissapeared and the curtains were drawn over the window, concealing anything that was going to happen inside.

Corrine's face grew paler, if possible. "Her," she said unintelligibly.

"Who?" Yelena said.

"Her. The leader of the club. The one who initiated the...murder...of Janira," Corinne choked out. "I swear, I'll kill her. She tortured Janira before slaughtering her with a knife you know. Her bodyguards held me still and made me watch...Janira suffered. She...she..."

I had seen it before. People that had lost someone dear to them would at first be in shock. The initial wave of pain would be waived off until the shock wore off. And then, in most of the cases that I had witnessed, the person would usually suffer a mental breakdown, or at least become very distraught.

Corinne seemed to be in the middle of the two, which was understandable. But we couldn't have her with us, since it would now endanger the mission. While I wanted to have Yelena as a back-up, getting rid of Corinne was more important at the moment.

I signed to Yelena to take Corinne back to the Keep. She glared at me in outrage and signed back that she wasn't going to drop everything just to oblige me and that she needed to be there to look in on the club as well. But when I finally reminded her that the mission could be jeopardized, her shoulders drooped in defeat and she gently led her friend away.

When they were gone, I looked around to make sure nobody was around, then scaled the wall thanks to my grapple and rope. I climbed up onto the roof and began to search for a rooftop opening, which was a common characteristic of the houses in the Citadel. Sure enough, I found it on the other side of the roof and put away my grapple and rope to exchange it for a knife. Nobody seemed to be inside the room that I was looking into, but I wasn't fooled. There were many assassins that had been led to their deaths by assuming too much.

I took a match out of one of my many pockets, lifted open the opening cover, and dropped it inside. I heard no sounds of a reaction, and so quickly leapt in, keeping my knife ready. A quick survey of the room told me that nobody was there and strangely enough, the room seemed to have no door. I investigated all the walls for cracks to indicate that a door had been bolted shut and painted over but found nothing.

The only bit of furniture inside the room was a musty bookcase, which seemed to have been mournfully neglected. My eyebrows shot up as I realised that the entrance to this room was probably a secret corridor behind this bookcase. Shaking my head, I began pulling up random books until the casee began to slide open with a groan. When the case had opened sufficiently, I took a step inside only to shrink back out in surprise.

The dead body of a young woman hung from the ceiling of the corridor. Her face was so pale that all her blood must have been drained and her ragged clothing carried rust-coloured stains. This must be Janira, since the corpse was fresh, probably dead for only a few hours.

I stiffened as I felt a sharp blade press against my neck. My attacker had been so silent that even I did not detect anything.

"What are you doing with my cellar?" a whispery voice said against my ear.

Does this sound too much like a murder mystery novel? :D