An Owl's Rise

The day of Evelyn and her companions' guard job that would lead them into the Tyrannis Union had finally come.

However, Evelyn had not just bene waiting around, but was hard at work within an alchemy lab. She was preparing several special items that would be of great assistance for any espionage they would perform.

"It took quite a bit of trial and error, but I finally found the right formula." Evelyn said, an ecstatic smile on her face.

In her hands she was holding several vials that contained a bright orange liquid.

These were her latest creations and used the Mind Manipulating Mushroom she had encountered in the Inferno Field as a main ingredient.

"I bet even Lucia will be surprised to hear what these potions could do." Evelyn murmured to herself, imagining the shocked expression on her friend's face.

With her work finished, Evelyn cleaned up the rented lab and collected her personal equipment and the completed products she had created over the last couple of days.

When she returned to the hotel she and her companions were staying at she found them all doing last-minute inventory on their supplies.

"I was beginning to worry you might be late. You get incredibly engrossed in your alchemy once you get started." Lucia commented upon Evelyn entering the room.

"That's true, but I certainly wasn't going to be late for today. We're finally making our way into the Tyrannis Union. I have been waiting for this almost my entire life."

Evelyn could still vividly remember the day that she was captured along with her brother and parents. The day the researchers from the Deamhain Sect killed her mother and father, and when they implanted the Aethersphere in her. She had only been in this world for a couple of months when her happy life was uprooted by them.

"Here take these potions. They are something special that I just created and will allow us to communicate telepathically. If we can't use words or connect strands of magical energy to each other to communicate, these will allow us to stay in contact." Evelyn said, handing out the potions she had made earlier today.

Bylur, Rehni, and Aralee took them without question, but Lucia wore the stunned expression on her face that Evelyn had been expecting.

"W-where?! H-how?!" Lucia sputtered. "Potions like these are the stuff of legend. Telepathy is only supposed to be usable by the very best practitioners of mind magic."

Evelyn could not help but smirk at Lucia's reactions. This was only the second time she had seen the normally cool and collected peak tyrant rank wolf this flustered. With the first being when Evelyn told her about the Verdant Warlord's domain.

"I won't say it was easy, but I came across a type of magical fungus that could enslave other creatures through some sort of hivemind. I figured that it had to communicate with its thralls with some sort of psychic connection and used it as the main material in these potions." Evelyn explained.

She then went over the exact process she had undertaken to create the potion and further shocked Lucia.

"Your alchemy skills astound me once again. I really am glad to have you as an ally. These will be invaluable."

After everyone packed away the telepathy potions Evelyn had given to them, they did one last quick check on their supplies before heading out.

A quick walk through the city later, and they arrived at the Mercenary Association building.

Upon entering the building, Evelyn's sharp eyes spotted Callen skulking around in an out of the way place and staring at the entrance. There was a slight nervousness in his expression, and it was obvious that he had been waiting for them to show up.

'I understand that they founded this city, but does the Taidale family really have enough power to make him this scared?' Evelyn thought, baffled by his terror.

By all accounts he was the strongest person they had encountered in the city by far. Pretty much everyone else was at the peak of the acolyte rank at best, with very few being at the low tier of the mage rank.

Of course, they had avoided the true movers and shakers so far. It was possible that there were some truly powerful individuals around.

Evelyn kept an eye on Callen as he slipped into a side hallway and made his way back into building's entrance to greet them. He was trying to make it seem like he had just heard about their arrival and come to greet them, but he did not fool a single one of them. They had seen him clearly after all.

"Good day to all of you. I'm glad to see that you are ready for your assignment. Someone from the Taidale Family should be here soon to get you." Callen said, a friendly and relived smile on his face.

Lucia quickly greeted him for their entire group before sitting down at a table that had been arranged for them while they waited.

Around half an hour later, a well-dressed man with slicked back grey hair walked into the building.

He looked around briefly, before spotting Callen and walking directly for the manager of this branch of the Mercenary Association.

'He's hiding his magical energy well, but it is clear he's at the mage rank. There's also the way he walks. That man is not a greenhouse flower. He has seen a lot of combat.' Evelyn thought while watching the man carefully out of the corner of her eye.

Lucia had helped all of them learn how to pick up on the way people carried themselves as another way to indicate how strong they were. At the beginning of these lessons Evelyn had not yet known that she had already begun to develop this skill from the numerous battles she had been in.

Thankfully Lucia's instructions had allowed her to figure it out and she could now gauge the general level of anyone she observed for long enough.

The well-dressed man spoke with Callen for a few moments, before turning his gaze towards where Evelyna and her companions were sitting.

Intently he walked over to them and introduced himself.

"Greetings to you all, my name is Edgar, a humble servant of the Taidale family. I have come to guide your party to the young mistress' procession."

As their representative, Lucia rose and introduced herself first before motioning for the rest of them to do so as well.

Evelyn found the whole thing somewhat irritating, but she went along since showing her true feelings would only serve to derail their plan.

"It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I'm glad that we were able to find capable mercenaries on such short notice." Edgar said, bowing his head slightly.

Normally he would not have shown such deference to mere soldiers for hire, but Evelyn, Lucia, Bylur, Rehni, and Aralee were all first-class citizens by all appearances. His intuition was also telling him that not a single one of them could be trifled with. They were undoubtably strong.

Once the remaining formalities were taken care of, Edgar thanked Callen for his assistance and promised the branch manger that he would receive a generous token of gratitude.

"Everything is now set. Please follow me. The young mistress wishes to set off posthaste." Edgar said, before turning around and walking towards the exit.