Chapter 26: Five Cloaked Figures Standing in a Tavern

After another day of teaching and practicing it was finally time for Alix to meet with the rat council. She entered the cellar to the dismay of Mo. "I still can't believe ya made contracts with all of those vermin." Alix ignored Mo's constant rat complaints. And there were a lot of them.

"I just don't understand yer fascination with those dirty little fluff balls. All they do is go around spreading diseases and raiding the pantries of unsuspectin' restaurants." Alix entered the room of which she would convene with the council.

Unsurprisingly the room was rather empty without the sea of rats cheering and squeaking. She moved towards the back of the room where four rats stood atop barrels.

"There she is! She weally came! Ben wasn't lying!" Felix exclaimed.

"Why'd ya assume I was gonna lie? I'll have ya know dat I'm the most honest rat in this town. Vermin's honor!" Ben retorted.

"Honest? Weren't you the one that snuck into Kiae's Restaurant, ate all of the cheese in the pantry, and then proceeded to frame poor Oris. Who, might I add, doesn't even eat cheese." The slender black rat stated with her hands on her hips.

"That was you! I couldn't scamper around without humans hunting me for a full week!" The white and gray rat shouted.

"Enough of this chit chat! The giant's here! We ave business to attend to!" Ben deflected the conversation. Alix had been staring at the rats. They were all so...eccentric. Each in there own ways, that is.

We had the hyperactive, Felix.

The greedy brute, Ben.

The coy yet surly, Machia.

And the scapegoat for all of Ben's mischief, Oris.

These were the rats that made up the council. A rowdy bunch but Alix felt confident in her decision. "Alright. Then shall we go meet some kidnappers."

The rat's nodded and led Alix through the darkened streets of Nogreni. She was starting to become impressed with just how often she had been staying out late recently. Normally she would be busy slaving away at her desk doing research but now she was on her way to attempt to solve a kidnapping case. 

'This feels like an unnatural progression, but it doesn't feel wrong.' Alix smirked. She began to become excited at the thought of meeting up with some dirty thugs. The perfect targets for practice.

The rats led Alix to the outskirts north of town. Houses and fisheries became sparse. Instead these streets were filled with taverns and inns to greet any wayward travelers searching for a place to take a quick rest.

"Mmmm. All of these smells always make me hungwy." Felix began to unconsciously drift toward one of the taverns but Alix stopped him. "Stay focused Felix. We don't know how much time we have." Felix nodded solemnly.

"Alwight! Thankfully the othas are more-Wh-HEY!" Felix called out to the other rats as they were just seconds from entering a nearby tavern. The shuffled back to the group. "Can't have nothing in this world without someone yellin' at ya for it. Ain't that something!"

"We are litewally on a mission! Keep those eyes focused on the task!" The rats held there heads downcast as Felix scolded them. Mo had a hearty laugh. "Look at ya! Gettin' scolded by a little kid! Ya should be ashamed of yerselves!" Ben, Machia, and Oris all tilted their heads confused. "Felix isn't a little kid." Stated Oris.

Mo's eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, he's as old as Ben is. Old enough to be me and Oris's father." Mo turned to Felix. "But you sound and speak like a child!"

Felix shrugged. "It's a speech epidemic."

"The word is impediment." Machia corrected.

"Yeah yeah, whatevea. All I mean is that I stwuggle with saying my Rs." Mo was dumbfounded. He had been calling Felix a brat for days now. Now he comes to find out that he's actually a fully grown vermin. Mo quieted down as he mind was in a state of disarray. Eventually Ben called out to the group.

"Here we are!" They came to a stop. Just in front of them stood what seemed to be a tavern that had been closed down. "This is where I saw them take the girl." Alix nodded. "Are they still in there?"

"I've had one of my sneaky scouts keeping an eye on the place and told him to inform me if they made any move to leave. And up until now I ain't get any news." Alix analyzed the surrounding area.

There were random crates in various states of disrepair scattered across the street.

This place had clearly become some sort of home for ruffians. She moved around the area that she was fully expecting to become her battle ground. She gently stroked her hands across a few of the crates and even moved some around to form some sort of cover. After finishing what ever preparations she could make, Alix approached the door and kicked it in.

The loud crash from the door flying off of its hinges turned heads within the building toward the ruckus. Alix slowly entered the building and counted the number of foes. She counted around five cloaked figures of varying sizes.

"I've got some questions for you pests."

Instead of receiving a retort one of the figures called out, "Did you just kick in the door of a random building kid?" Alix turned to the figure. "Yes, and?"

"YES AND?! Who does that?!" The person exclaimed prompting another to join in. "Yeah, and she called us pests. Who starts a conversation like that!? Do you know us or something?"

"I know that you snatched Stella Epedia from her own home two days ago and decided to hide out here whilst the heat died down."

"Hmph!" A hulking figure scoffed. "What evidence do you have that tells you that we took some girl?" Alix wordlessly gestured toward one of the crooked tables in the tavern where the council of rats were now standing.

The figure stared in silence for a second. "Are you telling me that the rats told you that we kidnapped someone?"

"Yes." The figure's face was not visible in the darkness but anyone could tell that the person was completely baffled. "Are you insane?"

"Do you have the girl or not?"

"Alright two things. First, it's been two days since this girl's gone missing right? So why would we still have her? And even if we did take her?! Why would we tell some random, clearly delusional, girl when we could just as easily ransom the girl's rich parents to make a killing?! Does that make any sense to you?!" As the figure finished speaking the smallest figure in the room spoke up.

"We could've ransomed the girl this whole time! Then why are we waiting for our contractor?!" The figure stood froze. Alix casually looked behind the person to the one that had just exposed their crime. "Thank you."

"For what?" Alix reached into her bag and pulled out a small sheet of papyrus.

"Thank you for being so stupid!" Alix's activated the spell in her hand and slammed the floor of the tavern as hard as she could. Splinters of wood flew everywhere as the girl held her fist out and evoked her spell. "Omnia Faust."

The fist of mana formed and flew toward the big figure. The person seemed unbothered by the spell as he simply waited for it make contact with him. The spell hit doing almost no damage as the man began to mock the girl.

"Did you really think some pathetic sorcery could hu-Gah! My eyes!" The man held his face. As he had not noticed that the spell had gathered some of the splinters and released them when it dispersed.

"You were saying?" Alix leapt forward with her Lis fully activated and kicked the man as hard as she could. The man slid back still now holding his face with one hand and he chest with the other. He looked around at the his shocked companions. They were frozen in shock.

"What the hell are you lot doing?" The voice growled out. "Go kill the witness!" Spurred on by the man's words the other four figures rushed Alix who was now fleeing from the tavern. One of the figures sneered at the girl.

"Look at this brat! She's realized the mistake she made so she's running away!" The figure charged through the door ready to pummel her.

However, they were met with Alix standing just outside of the door with her finger extended. They had no time to process the situation as the girl seemed to have finished what she was preparing.

"You idiots really are fools." Alix opened her hand as she finished her Spell-Script.

"Omnia..." The figures became even more confused as they could swear that letters were flying in the air in front of them. The girl's smirk became a foreboding smile as she called out the spell name.

"Smash!"