Exactly one week later, things finally started happening again, though not quite in the way Danny had anticipated. He had just finished his classes for the day and returned to his dorm room. Sitting down at his desk, he reluctantly took out a piece of paper and began scribbling with his pen. Suddenly, a knock came at his door, and he turned around. "Come in," he called out.

  The door popped open, and Margot poked her head inside. She looked exhausted as Danny waved for her to come in. After quickly slipping in his room, she closed the door behind her then flopped on his bed like it was her own. Danny raised an eyebrow as she sighed.

  "I'm sorry. I'm just… I need a moment."

  "No problem." Danny turned back to his desk. "I'll just be working on Combat Mathematics." He paused. "Do you understand any of this stuff?"

  "Not one bit." Margot shook her head without otherwise moving. "We're calculating the volume underneath a curved surface, or something like that?"

  "Yeah," Danny frowned thoughtfully. "With the surface being a representation of the density of monster attacks in any given area, or… I don't know. It's pretty complex."

  "And what's really annoying is that we don't really get an answer anyway," Margot pointed out. "You just have three equations that you simplify down into a single equation, but it still doesn't make any sense. I think it would be easier to just look at an incident report to tell you exactly how many monster attacks took place in an area, but that's just me."

  Danny laughed and nodded. "You make a good point."

  He went back to trying to write down something so it at least looked like he tried, and he glanced over his shoulder. "So what's going on?"

  "Nothing more than everything that's already been happening," Margot answered. "Except for the fact that…" She paused and almost seemed embarrassed to continue. "It's actually my birthday."

  "Really?" Danny smiled. "Happy birthday!"

  "Don't say anything," Margot said firmly. "I don't want to hear it. I just…" She paused. "My dad always wrote me on my birthday. I mean, back before I came up here to the Academy, he would always take me on some sort of an excursion. We'd have a picnic on top of Castle Rock, or we'd go out to the border of the Wastelands and the Desert, or he'd take me camping in a dungeon, or something like that."

  "Camping in a dungeon?" Danny raised an eyebrow. "That sounds risky."

  "It probably was! In lower-level dungeons, it's possible, and it's a bit of a thrill-seeker thing." Margot shrugged. "Anyway, I don't know. I just miss him a lot. This is my first birthday without him, and what's worse is that I don't even know if he's really dead. Maybe he's alive, and just being held a prisoner. Maybe he's dead, and we'll never know for sure what happened. Maybe he did get transformed into that Crawler thing, and I'm just going to have to watch him killing loads of innocent people until he finally fades from existence or something."

  "I'm so sorry." Danny shook his head.

  He didn't know what else he could say. Margot shrugged then continued.

  "I think I just… I don't know." She blushed. "It sounds crazy, but I think I was hoping for a miracle, on today of all days."

  Suddenly, another knock came on the door, and Danny looked up. "Come in!"

  Tess quickly poked her head inside, and she lit up. "Perfect! The two of you are in one place. Talk about good timing!"

  Tess quickly led Danny and Margot out of the Academy and deep into the city, away from the Precinct and toward the more industrial parts of town. She had a thick cloak drawn tightly around herself as the winds howled through the streets. Danny did the same, while Margot kept warm with a flame spell that crackled and swirled around her. Danny made a mental note to develop more flame spells himself, though he had to admit that his cloak worked just fine—even if it wasn't quite as impressive looking.

  Soon, the small group arrived at a warehouse near the southern edge of town. A few soldiers, wearing insignia that Danny didn't recognize, stood guard. He frowned in confusion but kept silent as Tess marched up to the door and shoved it open.

  Inside, the warehouse was still quite cold, though not as bitter as outside. Crates were stacked around the area, many of them torn open. Weapons, crystals, and other items lay inside, packed with hay to prevent them from sliding around. At the far end, a handful of rough-looking individuals stood under vigilant guard.

  Tess approached them and swept out her hand, signaling for Danny and Margot to follow closely. "We've been trying to take down this gang for years," she said with a smirk. "We executed a sting operation last night, got quite a few of them. There are still some out there, but this was a big haul."

  Danny nodded slowly. "And… why exactly are your soldiers wearing insignia from a different precinct?"

  "Shh." Tess held up a finger as a smile played across her face. "Janna, and more importantly the other soldiers at the Precinct, have put in months and months of work to execute this sting. It's not our fault that the warehouse happened to lie just across boundary lines. We just want to make sure that the wrong people don't see the wrong thing. Anyway, we'll be out of here soon enough." She clapped her hands. "The important thing is this man here." She pointed at a particularly tall man in the lineup.

  He was heavily scarred, and had a few tattoos around his neck. Danny winced as he looked the man over. There were burns across a good portion of his face, and down one arm, and… The man certainly didn't look like someone you'd want to meet in a dark alley. Tess waved him over, and he slowly pushed himself away from the wall and walked over to meet them. His companions grumbled after him, but the guards simply rattled their swords a bit, and they calmed back down.

  "What's this about?" the man grumbled as they took him to the opposite side of the warehouse. "I keep telling you, I'm not going to sell out my brothers."

  "First off, they'd sell you for two silver coins if they thought they had a buyer," Tess countered. "They're not your brothers. Secondly, we're not here to ask you to sell them out." The man relaxed, and she shrugged. "We have enough evidence to lock all of you away for the next… I'd say twenty, thirty years. Maybe even more."

  The man turned somewhat pale. "Then why do you think I'm going to talk to you?"

  "Because the burns on your face are consistent with those that we found at a known gang safe house on the other side of the city," Tess said. "The old inn. I assume you know of it."

  The man paused. "You're… you're asking me about that?"

  "The incident, whereupon we assume that a fire mage of some power attacked whoever was based out of the safe house at the time, is part of a much larger investigation," Tess explained. "We need you to tell us whatever you know."

  The man snorted. "I'm not helping you in anything."

  "Not even for a transmutation of your sentence from… Thirty years, down to six months?" Tess asked. "Six months, and I might even be able to throw in a one-on-one meeting with a councilor to ensure that you get a real job when you get out?"

  The man frowned and leaned forward. "He means that much to you?"

  "If you can tell me enough, I might be able to get things knocked down even more than that," Tess said. "He's an Ascended Mage who's gone missing. For what it's worth, he's never before gone after lowlifes like you, and we'd frankly like to get him back onto the front lines where he can fight some real monsters. You know, the things that give civilians like you nightmares."

  The man bit his lip, then glanced over his shoulder. "You have to make it real clear to my buddies that I'm not ratting them out, that all I'm doing is telling you this stuff here."

  "Deal." Tess nodded. "Now, what can you tell me?"

  "Look, I don't know what that guy's problem was." The man held up his hands. "The battle had just taken place… I don't know. Maybe a week earlier? Maybe less than that? You lost track of the days down in the basement. I didn't like it, but that's where we were supposed to be for that time. Anyway, we were just minding our own business, and all of a sudden he bursts in. His eyes are all wild, we all just ran. There are sometimes that mages or soldiers show up, and we go to fight them. They look reasonable, you know? It's just a test of strength, and if we can slow them down enough for our buddies to escape, it does us well. Anyway, this guy comes in, and he's literally on fire."

  He paused and shook his head. "It was crazy. We dive for cover, and he cuts loose. Flame everywhere. This guy is mad. He's not just crazy, he's angry. He blasted a bunch of us into dust, just killed them right where they stood. A few of my buddies dove behind the crates, and he blew up the crates and took them out right along with them. I don't know if he just forgot about me, or thought I was dead, I honestly don't know. He threw some sort of a fireball, and it exploded, and it knocked me into a wall real good."

  Tess nodded. "What happened then?"

  "I don't know, man. I think he went over to the board where we kept all our orders." The man shook his head. "I think I heard him arguing with our old leader. We called him Bones. Anyway, I sorta passed out, but when I came to, Bones was dead, had a burn mark right through his chest, and a bunch of stuff had been torn down from the board. I got out of there, didn't look back. I've only run into one survivor since then, he's the one who got me on this job."

  "And who's he?" Tess asked.

  "Right there." The man turned and pointed. "Short, blue tunic."

  A few seconds later, the second man had been dragged over. He was far less cooperative, but after Tess reduced his sentence to three months instead of six, he started talking.

  "You know, I've always hated them, but I never thought they would go that far." The man shook his head. "Just killing people left and right. Disgraceful."

  "I don't disagree." Tess leaned forward. "Did you see anything at all? How did you survive?" She glanced him over. "I don't see any burn marks on you?"

  "That's 'cause I'm smart." The man crossed his arms. "Soon as I saw him coming, I knew he was the trouble we'd been promised. I ran for the safe room."

  "Safe room?" Tess seized on the thread.

  "Yeah. Little hidden room in the back." The man shrugged. "There's nothing in there, it's just a place to hide from enemies. I closed myself inside, and heard the carnage. There's a little peephole I looked out through, and I saw him looking over the board. He took down…" He paused. "Oh… That creepy guy."

  "Creepy guy?" Danny asked intently.

  Tess glanced sharply at him, but Danny just shrugged.

  "Yeah, creepy guy." The man nodded. "Best way I can describe him. He showed up… Must've been about a week before the battle, maybe. He had a hit list with him, gave it to us, and told us that we'd be paid handsomely for every bounty that we collected. He didn't give a price, just told us that it would be worth it. Bones told him that he was crazy if he thought that we were really going to go try to take down full-blooded mages, but… He left it, all the same."

  "How do you know that?" the first man demanded.

  "Bones and I play poker together." The short man answered. "Get a little whiskey in him, and it'll loosen his tongue. Well… It did loosen his tongue." He sighed, then pulled himself together. "Anyway, this guy was all kinds of scary. I don't spook easily, but he was something else. Dressed like a mage, but all in black, and he had this big hood. When you could see his hands or his face, he just looked like he was made of bones. I think it might have annoyed Bones, someone taking his trademark, but you know how that goes."

  Danny felt his jaw drop. Tess glanced at him sharply, then back at the two witnesses. "Did anything else happen?"

  "Yeah." The short man nodded. "Right after the battle, we got word that one of the mages had been caught by a rival gang. Bones crossed him off the list, and started thinking about how we might actually go about filling some of the bounties, but I don't think for him it was ever really anything more than a thought experiment. Anyway, then all of a sudden this guy comes in, and I just have to assume that it was the guy who got nabbed. That would make him… Obadiah Flamekeeper, if I remember right."

  He shook his head. "I don't know what the Black Flags did to him, but it's not often that you see a mage that angry."

  "The Black Flags had him?" Margot stepped forward. "Who are they?"

  "Whoa, now. I'm not telling you everything." The man shrugged. "I'll tell you all about the attack, but the Black Flags? They're harsh business. You don't mess with them, and you don't rat on them, not if you value your own business or your own life."

  "Then I've just got one more question." Tess crossed her arms. "Where did he go after that?"

  "I don't know." The short man shrugged. "He didn't exactly announce it to the world. He went out through the emergency tunnel, and that was the last that we saw of him. Last I ever want to see of him."

  "I see," Tess murmured then nodded. "Thanks."

  A few minutes later, Tess, Margot, and Danny walked back out onto the street. Danny pulled his cloak around himself, and they gazed at each other.

  "Have you ever heard of the Black Flags?" Tess asked.

  Danny shook his head. "Who are they?"

  "They're a particularly nasty group of criminals," Tess answered. "Most criminals, something like 90%, in the Imperial City, are non-violent. The Black Flags do their best to make up the deficit. They're mostly ex-Mercs, who in turn are usually ex-Corp and ex-Mage. If you want someone killed, they're the people you ask."

  "Not good," Danny muttered. "And they somehow managed to capture an Ascended Mage."

  "Allegedly, and even if they did, he obviously got free." Tess murmured. She started to turn away, then paused. "If all that is true, it likely means that there are still active hits out for you, Danny."

  "I'll be careful," he promised.

  As he started walking back toward the Academy, though, he knew that he would likely be anything but careful. Time was of the essence, and now, pieces were starting to come together. If he managed to get a lead, he was going to follow it.

  No matter where it happened to lead.

  Auto save - [Savefile: Information]

  Health: 100%

  Mana: 100%

  Quest: Find the Black Flags

  Location: Third Street, Imperial City

  Inventory: Essential Supplies, Basic Armor, Iron Sword, Sword of the Wasp, Aquamarine Sword, Frostbite Sword

  Skills: Monster Summoner (Lv. 35), Flame Combat (Lv. 2), Wind Combat (Lv. 5)

  Relationships: Friendly with Tess, Friendly with Margot

  Time of Day: 5:29 p.m.

  Coming Tensions

  The rest of the week dragged on. Once again, Danny found himself anxiously waiting for any updates, but nothing came. By the time Saturday arrived, his frustration had reached its peak.

  He wandered up to the library, hoping to distract himself from the stagnant situation. To his surprise, he found Margot there, idly flipping through a book at one of the tables.

  He walked over, and she looked up with a smile. It was a weak smile, revealing a clear amount of pain.

  "Hey." She smiled as Danny sat down across from her. "What's up?"

  "Not much." Danny crossed his arms. "Mostly I'm just trying to keep from running out to the Precinct to see if Tess has any updates on the Black Flags."

  "Me, too." Margot laughed humorlessly. "I want so badly to go out there to drum up anything I can, you know? Half of me just wants to go out into the criminal underworld to see what I can find."

  "And how exactly would you find the criminal underworld?" Danny asked.

  "Simple," Margot answered. "I'd go and rob a bank, then put out word that I was trying to hide. Someone would take me in, and that would be my entrance."

  "Right." Danny raised an eyebrow. "And if they've read Swordsman Clan and the Adventures of the Red Pirates?"

  "Well, then I suppose I'd be killed for trying to figure out what happened to my dad." Margot shrugged. "There are times when that doesn't sound like such a bad thing. At least I'd be trying, instead of just sitting here on my hands."

  Danny looked down at the table, a little unsure of how to respond.

  Thankfully, as Margot spoke up again, he found that he didn't have to. "I know I'm being a bit of a Debbie Downer, I'm just bummed. There was suddenly a lead, suddenly something that was taking us in the right direction, and now it's gone. Gone in the wind."

  She sighed. "I just want him back so much. You have no idea."

  "Trust me, I have a pretty good idea," Danny said. "I may have never experienced something like this personally, but I know the situation. I knew your father. He was a good man."

  Danny paused, and decided to inject a bit of levity. "Maybe not as good as my dad, but… You know."

  Margot caught on and flashed a smile to indicate she knew he wasn't actually trying to knock on her father. "You think your dad is so great? He sits at a desk and teaches all day. Mine is down guarding the world from the desert sapiens and all sorts of other things. Or he was."

  "He will be again." Danny reached out and put a hand on her arm then flashed a smile. "Once my dad helps us find him."

  Margot punched him in the shoulder, though lightly. "You're welcome to sit here, Danny, but I need to get my head into another space. I need to distract myself, or… You know."

  She picked up her book, another Swordsman novel, and started reading it again.

  "Got it." Danny flashed her a thumbs-up. "I was just coming up to talk to Master Barrydew anyway."

  He rose from the table and started wandering toward Master Barrydew's office.

  On his way, something caught his ears, a faint shout.

  A faint cry of alarm.

  He frowned and turned to run through the library and up to the vast windows that overlooked the city.

  He stared down through the stained glass, knowing he wouldn't be able to see things well but hopeful that he could see something.

 

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