The Targets

The man's knuckles whitened as he gripped the communicator, his voice a low growl. "Where am I supposed to find this woman?"

A voice crackled back, devoid of any human warmth. "Siegfried. She's on a test from the Academy."

"What...?" The man recoiled, his outrage bubbling over. "You want me to kill a student... They are basically children."

"It doesn't matter," the voice replied, flat and unyielding. "It's her or your own."

The man's face hardened with a fierce resolve. He wouldn't let anything happen to his daughter, even if it meant taking the life of a stranger. "I will do it," he said, his voice thick with a chilling determination.

"Good," the voice rasped. "Don't worry, I won't make things difficult for you. Use that compass when you get to Siegfried. You'll use the artifact there to create a distraction – a tomb opening for an initiate. That will give you ample cover to find and eliminate the elf."