*** Yuki ***

  Alzi and Kelly got me put back together quickly; even as a princess bae, I would normally be out for a week with those kinds of injuries. Though that was more for a lesson. There was a time when nobles never had a scratch st for more than a minute. Of course, going their entire childhood without pain caused them to be absolutely useless in a fight. A bit of disfort, and they would shut down. The first war ehat idea a us with a method that lets kids uand pain. Some take this a bit too far and forbid them from having any healing magiless it would cripple or kill them. Mother wasn't that strict with us, but healing was always limited.

  Nakuma has hahe majority of the trag and scouting of the headquarters. We've found that they have eight guards with a straation. With hours, it is basically impossible to guess who is going to go on break . Sometimes, they go on break for only a few mihey walk home and then turn around and head back without even going through the door.

  That leaves us with only a few options: poison all of them, guess and hope for luck, or try to make a situation happen that will get most of them to leave.

  The st option is basically impossible. We don't know what would cause them to leave the headquarters, if there is even a situation that would get the guards to leave. Poisoning all of them will surely get the Queen asking a few too many questions and possibly kig us out, in addition to the logistical issues.

  The poisons would o be slow-ag, giving them more time to discover the poison. Otherwise, they are more likely to just not work, as natural resistance or healing something else destroys the poison. This leaves us with the only option. Hoping we poison the right guards.

  We should be able to poison four of them. The worst-case sario is that we o kill four of the guards during the attack. The best case is that we pick the right three, and they all die without us needing to fight them. If I don't get any of the current guards, the pn will be to poison one of the ones on duty, then attack the st two and hope they don't have the st guard on a short break.

  I've debated whether we should attaother branch. Will this attack bring the Queen to our doorsteps? Will they add more top-level guards or ge the pattern even more?

  My hope is that they spread out and try to keep the branches safe, thinking we just want to kill all the branches or don't know about the headquarters somehow.

  With that deade, Nakuma and I are now on the first batch of poisoning. I brew up a very specific poison. The hardest part is getting the life mana for it, but I've got an oversized battery of it with Alzi. Normally, life mages refuse to participate in making poisons. If they're found out, they are often tortured to death. Life is for healing and all that. But Alzi doesn't even know she gave up her mana for this batch. The one good thing about her having no idea how her mana works, I just use it for whatever I want.

  The poison will kill the carrier in one week, give or take a few hours. This is perfect for the first group. The sed group will have a more standard poison, ohat should kill them in a few hours. We'll give them the poisht before we infiltrate.

  All the guards seem to be about the same level, so for the first batch, we're just pig random women to poison, and then again, we'll make a random sele for the st pair.

  My target lives on the edge of the noble's district. She has five wives and a good number of maids running around her mansion. Her bedroom is in the exact middle of the building, f me to walk through her house a bit before I hide away in her room and wait for her to sleep.

  Getting over her fence is simple. A little invisibility, and I get up to the side of the mansioo the servant's entrahere, it's a waiting game for a servant to walk through in a manner I sneak in behind them. The first few do a good job of closing the door behind them as they leave or enter, but there is always one who is zy or fetful.

  I do have to worry about wards wheer. I haven't found a while I wait, but I'm not the best at finding them. Nakuma is better at that than me. I sehe ones made tthen the building, keep the weather from damaging the paint, and whatnot, but the true defensive wards are either missing or escape my spying. If I find the alerting ward, I'll be fine; I should be able to reapply my cloak. I just 't alert them that I'm here.

  I have a long wait before another maid es by to open the door, plenty of time to finally find the arm ward. It's the standard ward, so I easily sile wheer. Now, I just need a zy maid to e by.

  It doesn't take long froup of maids to e out, too engrossed in versation to manually close the door behind them, letting me sneak in.

  My cloak skill goes out as I cross the threshold, so I just reapply it, and I start looking for the target's room. I know it's in the middle, and mansions aren't mazes, so it'll be easy to find the general area. The hard part will be cheg for the right room. The doors are going to be closed for the most part, and I don't have a great way to check what is ihe room without opening the door.

  Hoping for some luck, I look for a undry room; maybe they are talking about what clothing they o do and where it is going. The current room is in one er of the mansion, likely the start of the servant's area. So I head down the hallway listening for any versations that may hint to the corre. Being in the servants' se, the hallway is smaller, just enough for two women to ast side by side, f me to trol my furry tails.

  I make slow work, careful to keep out of the way of any maid who walks through, and stay light on my feet. I pass the kit, and the sounds and smell of diream past the damping ward for a few feet. Maids and cooks rushing about getting the extra ingredients from the celr make it difficult to pass.

  Even past the kit, I have to dodge the stant stream of servants. The celr must be on this side of the house. I make it to the undry room and find it empty. The clothing has already been washed, and her sits out to dry or is ba the owner's wardrobe.

  After that pn failed, I headed up to the sed floor. There should only be four rooms without windows. With some luck, one or two wouldn't have a door, letting me narrow my search to a toss.

  I find a small stairwell on the side of the house letting me skip the mairance where a few wives are likely sitting. o walk into profit mana users.

  On the sed floor, I head to the ter and find I'm right. There are just two possible rooms for me to choose from. Tired of camping out, I take a risk and open one of the doors, stepping inside when the hallway is empty.

  "Dear, are you back already?"

  Shit! I quickly put an illusion of the guard ohe dark room hiding that nobody walked ihe door opened.

  "Dear, is something wrong? You said I could sleep in your bed while I'm pregnant, so don't give me the silent treatment over 'invading your space,'" she tinues. She likely 't see in the dark, or she would question why her lover appeared in the dark. "Fine, be like that. Do with me as you please. I'll be here sleeping as I wish. You better treat the kids better than you treat me." With that she tucks herself bato the bed.

  Well, I guessed the right room, but what do I do about this? I still poison the guard, but now I've got someoh a memory they shouldn't have. The guard would be paranoid. A single mention of her wife thinking someone was in here when there wasn't should get the entire family a visit to the healer sing the poison. The uards may join as well.

  Fuck. Do I just kill the guard and take her pce? I think I know all the protocols; I just o know the schedule, if there is one. Kill her on the way there? Who would I repce then? Oh, Goddess, tell me what to do.

  "At least join me. I've left plenty of the bed for you to sleep in, though I wouldn't mind a bit of toug," the woman whispers.

  Well, I o take a few mio figure out what to do. I join the woman in bed, careful to stay to the side.

  "Please, you used to love me. Why 't you touch me again? Just a hug." Her voice tries to cover the tears falling. Should I fort someone else's wife? Taking the risk, I move over and her in a hug, finding the woman is well into her pregnancy—likely past her due date. "Thank you, dear."

  Ugh, fine girl, your wife will have a ce to live if she takes it. Just don't do anything stupid now.

  I stay with the pregnant woman for three hours till the door opens again, and the target walks in.

  "Who's there?" the woman calls out.

  "Rina, who else would walk into my room?" The new woman es in.

  "That would be me, though I entered a while ago," making my presenown to everyone now. "Now, sit down, girl. We've got a deal to make."

  "And if I don't?"

  "I'll kill the kid." That statemehe woman shaking in my arms. My hands were already over her belly, mana cirg.

  "And if I don't care about the kid?"

  "Then I guess we fight."

  She still stands a few feet from the door, the three of us still in the dark.

  "Dear? Please, I'm sorry. I didn't know. I love you. Please," the pregnant girl whimpers out.

  "Fine. I'll listen for a bit." I got her to walk over to her desk and turn on the light.

  I've pulled the pregnant girl into my p so I sit up and have a body between me and my target. She's tried a few times to kill me with her magic, but after the third failure, she's calmed down.

  "Kitsune. What do you want?"

  "Information. Yuild tried to kill a friend of miwo friends of mine and I want to know who paid for it and the assassins that carried them out."

  "Well, I don't have that information."

  "I'm not here for that information. I'm here to assassinate you. The three guards are the only thing stopping me from getting the information I want. You were meant to be poisooday, but this stupid girl was in your bed, possibly saving your life. So, give me a reason to keep you alive."

  "Dear, what is she talking about?"

  "I'm a guard for the assassin's guild. If I get you that information, will you leave?"

  "How do you get the information?"

  "I walk into my work a."

  "No, you've already shown little care for your wife and children. You 't leave without me having a better way to keep you in line. Plus, I don't feel like the assassin's guild findi. So this o be perma."

  "You want to make me a sve?"

  "Unless you've got another idea, yes. Remember, you were meant to die in a week. I think this is a great trade. I mean, look at your pregnant wife. She is upset, yet she's the reason you get to live. Don't make me kill her kid this te in the pregnancy."

  The guard finally looks her wife in the eyes before moving down to her belly, my hands resting on top. Her hands shaking in her p.

  We sit there for a few mihe only sound is the woman in my p g. The guard stares at the womb, deg how much she loves her wife. Or maybe she is trying to figure out if she take me.

  "A year. I'll be a sve for a year. After that, the guild will fet about this, and we all move on."

  "Gd to e to an agreement. Now turn around and walk over here so I put the colr on you."

  The woman follows my dires, carefully finding her way to the edge of the bed. I pull out a colr—being a princess of the Kitsune gives you a few perks—and I send it out, letting it around the guard's neck, giving me my first sve.

  "Now you said you get the information without me going in?"

  "I said that, but I 't do it."

  "Fine, see you in a week. Don't tell anyone about me or what has happened here. Also, be o your wife. I know how grumpy pregnant women be. Don't make their life harder; the kid does that plenty."