Walking down a dangerous path [Mission]

The duty of a court mage forced people to do many different things; There were plenty of good things, such as being able to represent the Pharaoh and the Magister in foreign countries and being responsible for saving an entire village from a monster, thus becoming known throughout that village as a hero, but there were also a lot more unfortunate and dangerous jobs that one might be required to do. Seti's time in the land of Reim included both in almost equal amounts.

After his meeting with the king, which went about as well as you could imagine that it would, Seti had to make steps to ensure further cooperation. Even if Lagi was a stubborn jackass, he knew that the council that controlled Lagi would go off of what they thought was best for their country. That meant that he would have to ensure that any dissenting elements were out of the way.

After relaying the information about the current situation back to the Magister, he had waited a good few days to find out what he wanted him to do. When he finally got that letter back, he received a list of people that needed to be removed and exactly where they could be found. He knew what he was required to do, and he would do it.

Seti never enjoyed killing, but he knew what might happen would he fail, and he knew that having the magister angry at him (as terrifying as that would be) would be paltry next to the danger of an oncoming Helio-Reiman war. He had to ensure that didn't happen, no matter what it cost. The death of a few was the price of peace for the many.

Picking up his staff and slipping on a cloak that would keep his identity unknown, he stepped out into the evening air.. Bloody work like this was best attributed to a random stranger, not a court mage. Even if the first one would directly benefit Lagi, if people knew that he had gone around killing people, he was certain that the resulting deaths would also be attributed to him.

Greasing the Wheels I - 356 / 1000

The first group that he had to take out was related to that group that he had dealt with a few days before. He had left just under half a dozen of their men in the capable custody of the city guards of Mantua. It would be fairly idiotic to assume that by getting four of the men arrested he had taken out the entire group, as very few armed militias comprise of exactly four irritated men planning to set fire to a palace. It's just not how it works.

The other agents in Reim (he wasn't aware there were such men, though it hardly surprised him) had apparently tracked the gentlemen's main forces back to a little chateau on the edge of town, and by chateau what Seti actually meant was "hovel that made his slave pen look like a palace".

From the outside, it looked disused and like a magic spell had gone off on the outside. However, as he stepped into the inside of the building, he had to admit that it was not the outside's fault. the inside looked like a discarded pile of children's blocks as well. Still, perhaps this was just the entrance hall, as that was all that he stepped into before the three gentlemen charged out of the three different rooms of their abode, looking at him as if he had just insulted their mothers.

Deciding not to waste any time, he allowed them to charge at him before using that trick that he had perfected the day before, summoning a large pillar of burning golden light that shot through the ceiling, hitting all three of the men as they charged to get him. The by-now worryingly familiar of burning hair filled the entire hovel, or at least managed to make its way to his nose, causing it to wrinkle underneath the hood.

Greasing the Wheels I - 767 / 1000

170/200:

As the light finally disappeared, two of the bodies consumed with flames and covered in second degree burns. the flames consuming their clothes would make sure the bodies were disposed of, and so he had little worry about them. What he DID have cause to be concerned about was one of the three guys who had survived the blast.

His jacket discarded and his shirt underneath somehow barely licked by the flames, the man snarled at Sutekh like an animal trying to decide whether or not it should actively attempt to eat the guy looking at it through a cage. That lasted for little over a second before the man pulled out his sword and stabbed him.

Sutekh moved fast enough to block, but considering that he had no armor and was wearing what amounted to street clothes, the sword consequently went into his arm, sending a wave of pain through his body. Why did everyone always go for stabbing? He still had a chest wound that had barely been healed from that caravan stalling prick the other day, now he had a fresh one.

Still, there was something he wanted to test. Instilling the rukh with the same instruction as before, Seti summoned a second pillar of lightning mere centimeters in front of himself, engulfing the man with it again. The sheer heat made his hair stand on end, but thankfully being just outside of the pillar stopped him from winding up with an actual burn. Painful, but not wounding.

---

As the pillar disappeared, and the man collapsed to join his compatriots, Seti ripped off a section of the man's shirt and proceeded to bind the wound in his arm. My first aid training's really come in handy ever since I came here, he thought as he adjusted the robe to fit over his wound. As the flames continued to consume the collapsed men, he turned away and slipped out of the room.

If anyone came to explore the ruins of the building, they would find a pile of ash and a smell of burning flesh. No evidence, and as the light had been constrained within the building, he doubted anyone knew what caused these ashes.

Greasing the Wheels I - 1000/1000

155/200:

The first lot of people on his list were people that he had absolutely no issue taking out - they would kill innocent people within the palace, and they would undermine every second of work that Seti had managed to do whilst he was away from home. However, it was the second people on his list that he was honestly concerned about. From the information that he had been sent about them, they were veterans of the last conflict ten years ago - men who had fought on the front-line against Heliohapt.

Normally he respected veterans, and he had a true respect for those who risked their lives to protect other people, but in this case he was being told to make sure that they weren't able to vocalize their complaints against Helio for fear of them influencing the council's decisions. He didn't have to kill them, thankfully, but he had to intimidate them into keeping schtum.

Were he an optimist, he might hope that just talking to them would be enough to convince them to do the right thing, but he knew that soldiers respected few things other than direct shows of power. That meant that he was going to have to show them exactly why they should keep their mouths shut. He wasn't going to kill them, he was not that cold-blooded, but if they refused to accept his offer of alliance, he was going to make sure they didn't stop hurting for a while.

---

According to the intelligence that he had been given, the veterans frequented a small bar within the city called... oh for god's sake. Called the three-footed horse - it was the one that he had almost burned down a few days ago when he had sent the veteran to jail for starting a fight with the kou officer. He knew that he wasn't going to be exactly welcome back there, but the bartender had never officially barred him entrance so it was going to be okay.

Ditching the robe to avoid people linking him with the one that had entered the hovel, he used the same outfit that he had used the last time that he was in the bar. If they thought that nothing was up, then they would have no reason to be suspicious about anything that he did. Now he just had to act in such a way that would suggest it was the veterans that had started the fight rather than him being at fault.

Greasing the Wheels II - 413/1000

As he walked through the same doors that he had entered multiple times now, his eyes traced almost instinctively to the same bar seat that the old man had been occupying every single time that he was in there. Apparently, the conviction had stuck as it was empty. His eyes continued scanning, turning now to the bartender who gave him the same angry glare that he had the last time they saw each other, this time tempered a little by the time between now and when he had almost burned the place down around half a week ago.

"Evening." he said, about as friendly as a crocodile that had just decided he wanted to eat your legs. Seti winced slightly, but smiled apologetically nonetheless. The man's anger was no reason that he shouldn't be polite.

"Yes, good evening. I'm meeting with someone. Name of Achaikos?"
"Yeah, he's in the backroom. Warning...." the bartender began, before a wicked grin spread across his face. "Never mind. I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."

---

Stepping into the back room, he heard the sound of four swords unsheathing and felt the familiar point of a sword pressing against his chest four separate times. Every single man in the back room was holding him at sword-point, as the one immediately in front of him started glaring at him.
"Get the hell out of here, Helian."

This was apparently what the bartender had refused to warn him about earlier. This must have been why the letter had asked him to take them out - they were so furious at Heliohapt they would put an innocent man at sword-point just from being from there. He suddenly felt a rather unpleasant surge of irritation surge through his body as he was profiled just for his country once again.

Greasing the Wheels II - 713/1000

Deciding that he had had enough of being maltreated for his country of origin (and, of course, the fact that he was honor bound to do this) Seti refused to back down and instead looked the leader straight in the eyes. There was a clear hatred there, seemingly born just from his country of origin.

"You know - my master told me you were a bigot. I was hoping we could have a nice conversation, but you had to go ahead and prove him right."
"Bigot my ass, you Helians are all the damned same. All you care about is appeasing your damned Pharaoh and getting rid of anyone who gets between you and that goal."

Finally deciding that a conversation wouldn't get anywhere, he simply acted. They were all standing around him, which was a mistake that you should never make when you get into a fight with a mage as seconds later, an explosive light burst forth from around him, engulfing all four of them in the shock-waves, and sending them tumbling into the newly formed pit.

Floating above them, clearly irritated, he floated down among them and pressed the base of his staff against Achaikos' throat.
"You're lucky I'm not the killing type. If I ever catch you insulting my country publicly again, I will put you underground in a completely different form. Do you understand?" The man whimpered, apparently having twisted something in the fall, but nodded nonetheless.

If he couldn't get these people to acquiesce kindly, then he could at least make them shut up with promises of further violence.

Greasing the Wheels II - 1000/1000

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