On the road again

The carriage was pulled down the road towards the next destination where the task was related to.

When it had left the walls of the city and had went off into the distance, a couple of figures had watched from further away.

"I did not think that they would be so quick to send her."

"Hmm.. this could be better."

"Mm.. far less complicated."

They were involved with the group which had ordered the assassination of Mallory and had been trying to learn enough about her to successfully find a way to kill her.

For every successful assassination, there needed to be enough research and preparation done beforehand if the target was going to be killed during the first attempt while there still being a way for the assassin to slip away unnoticed.

There were some assassins out in the world that were happy to leave behind calling cards and would use various means to let others know who was behind the killings but not everyone else was the same.

A true professional assassin would kill with one move or action before going away unnoticed after they had confirmed the kill.

They had thought that Mallory was too well guarded by the Familia and that she would not be let outside of the city walls again so they needed to find out her daily routines and to find a place within it where they could plan her assassination.

If a target had a predictable and regular routine then an assassination could be planned in one of the locations that they would be known to visit and other preparations could be made for then.

The visits to the blacksmith was the main and her small stall outside of the Familia were the two locations that were most frequently used by Mallory so they had begun to try to figure out a plan for one of those locations or for in between them and the Familia grounds.

There were other arrangements that had been put in place by them and others inside and outside the walls of the city so that the other plans they had could move forward.

It seemed like a heaven sent opportunity that made everything much easier since there would be far less witnesses around to interfere and it would be easy to make the bodies disappear once they had completed the task.

They had laughed to themselves before going to round up those that they had come to the city with and then had followed further behind on the same road.

They were delayed and were much further behind but they were able to guess where the carriage had gone to and they had no worries about Mallory and others being able to escape their grasp.

Meanwhile on the road, Mallory had continued to look at the compass that was rotating in several directions and would occasionally settle down as it pointed towards one direction every now and again.

There seemed to be several directions that the compass was pulling her towards and it had even pointed towards behind her too.

Mallory had taken some notice of it but she had let her focus settle on the main direction that it had pointed towards. 'Hm?'

There were blood stains on the road further ahead and there were larger wheel marks that had been left trailing into the mud and grass before disappearing into the trees.

The tracks and blood stains seemed to be fresh so there must have been a short time that had passed ever since something had happened on the road.

Mallory rode alongside the carriage and hit the side of it. "Stop. Get out and prepare yourselves."

"Got it-nya!"

"Alright!"

"Time for another adventure!"

They each got off the carriage and Mallory had opened a box that had been packed onto it.

Inside were several small waist bags that were useful for adventurers to carry smaller supplies with them.

Each one had been left closed but the one that had been picked up by her had been opened which showed the insides.

Mallory showed the insides which were many kinds of paper talismans that were neatly stacked together in a way that made them easier to pull out while choosing between different types. "Each of you will get one of these each.

For this mission.. there may be danger to your life but I will make sure to bring you back alive. Almura has prepared some weapons and armour for you all and these talismans will provide some extra protection for you but they are not foolproof."

Jaco had rushed up to take a pouch. "Oh.. so these are the rumoured talismans that have helped out my uncles family. How interesting! There are so many too. Hey, how do they work?"

Mallory rolled her eyes as she had explained. "Newbies get a starter kit so there are mainly danger based talismans inside that activate on their own. All you need to do is take one of each out so you can see if there are any responses from them."

If a person had direct contact with the talismans or had them closer to their body then there was a much higher chance of that talisman being triggered first even if there were others that had the same or similar effects.

With there being so many inside each bag that were shared out between everyone, it would have been very easy for the talismans inside of the bags to trigger unknowingly since they were sealed up so it was better to remove one or a couple more of them.

Most of the new additions that were still on trial were only given a starter pack that was only made up of self activating talismans that would automatically protect or warn them in times of danger.

It would take far too long to teach everyone the activation code words for each talisman so she had chosen to distribute them out like that.

Franco had taken his and took out each talisman from each stack that were separated by a piece of card. "I will go and scout ahead."

Mallory nodded. "Be careful and take Swaine with you."

Almura had already put on her own armour and was busy helping Jaco, Hiiro, Tia and Maeve put on some light armour.

Nia, Noire and Fitz had stood to the side as they talked among themselves.

"So these are the talisman-nyas."

"I have already used one before-nya."

"It is nothing much-nya."