Lexa's B rank Exam

Lexa felt a slight pressure on her bed as Taranis sat down next to her, gently rubbing the small woman's head in an attempt to rouse his master. She stirred slightly, letting off a slow, low groaning sound to express her wish to sleep a bit longer. "A letter for Lexa. Has guild stamp on it." Taranis said in a low, somewhat hushed, gentle voice. Lexa stirred some more, adjusting her position to laying on her back. "I'm on my day off." She said groggily and returned to having her eyes closed. Taranis let out a small sigh and walked to the pair of pink curtains adorning Lexa's windows. He threw them open, allowing a blast of sunlight through, and illuminating the entire room. "It is past nine." Taranis said, keeping a humble tone to mask his impatience with Lexa. "Fiiiine..." She said to him, finally beginning to sit upright, knowing the alien man would never allow her to sleep now. “What in the hell is so important…” Lexa asked with an irritated voice, feeling rather unhappy with her long deserved sleep being disturbed. Taranis sat next to Lexa on her bed, resting his hand on her messy bed head he gently rubbed it and placed the letter in her lap. Her eyes were half open as her mind continued to try and process the fact that she should be awake right now, and not be gently falling back asleep like she was doing. Taranis poked Lexa between the eyes, causing her to snap back to reality and realize there was a letter sitting in her lap. “Oh… right the…. the letter thing.” She said with a tired voice, forcing her eyes not to shut on her again. Lexa opened the letter and read in a hushed, mumbly voice “Well, it seems-“ her voice got quickly softer, and by the third word Lexa had slumped over and fallen completely back to sleep. Taranis looked at the small woman as she slept, noting how she had been performing back to back jobs for months on end. He then stood up and walked to the restroom and grabbed a bucket, filling it with water. By the time he’d returned with the bucket, ready to toss it on Lexa to wake her up for good, she was already sitting upright and reading the letter. “The good news is my application to get a better rank was approved… The bad news is I gotta deal with that asshole again.” She said, her tone for the first part was chipper and bright, her tone for the last bit was rather dull and unhappy.

Lexa tossed the page aside and swung herself around, letting her feet dangle off the side of the bed a good foot or so from the floor. A quick push and she leapt to the floor, landing with a low thud and trotting over to the window. Lexa spent a few moments staring out over the houses at the tree tops that adorned Silver Island, and into the wilds that very few people dared to venture into. “One day…” Lexa said, pausing while staring with intent at the world beyond. “One day I’ll go out there.” She said confidently, with passion burning in her stare. “Time is wasting.” Taranis said, reminding Lexa she had other things to be doing. At that moment, Lexa spun around and shot off to take her shower and get the day rolling. Once out of the shower, Taranis immediately greeted Lexa with a second towel for her to wrap around her head. “Details of letter?” Taranis asked curiously. Lexa smiled at the question, she was always glad to know her mail wasn’t being sifted through while she had her back turned. “Well, you know I put in that application to get my rank in the guild up right?” Lexa asked, making sure Taranis knew the basics before she got into the story. Taranis nodded while passing Lexa her undergarments. “Well, that letter was saying I’ve gone through enough crap, and I’m allowed to be examined.” She explained while putting them on. Lexa turned to snap the clasps of her bra, but found it a bit difficult. Taranis walked behind and took care of it for her, not wanting to see Lexa get frustrated over such a simple matter again. “When does exam start?” Taranis asked. “About three hours ago.” Lexa replied, not sounding worried in the least. Taranis passed her a pair of stockings and asked “What is task?” knowing that the assigned proctor normally gave the assignment with his letter, at least he did last time. Lexa waited to have her stockings on before giving the details so her voice didn’t sound funny. “I gotta find four letters he stuck to a tree.” She said calmly while taking the skirt from Taranis. “That all?” he asked in disbelief. “No, but after I find em is the easy part.” Lexa said before sliding the skirt on. She tossed her shirt on, saying “The letters have times written on em, and I gotta find out which time is the correct one. After that I gotta meet uhh…. Nii-san at the guild hall.” She said, skipping uttering Elyx’s name as she’d already forgotten it. Lexa then casually walked out the room, not feeling any sense of urgency as she had 20 hours and some odd minute to find paper and then she had a night to pick the right time.

The first place Lexa went to was the Black Rose Library, or as she knew it, the second best place in the guild. The countless amounts of books held in the library provided her with endless hours of reading, allowing her to learn immense amounts of magic. While unable to perform them, understanding the magic is a good thing as well. Entering the Library, Lexa remembered that Elyx's note mentioned he'd place the note with the time listed on a tree, but she looked around and noticed there aren't any trees in the library... not even a ficus. "Well damn..." Lexa said under her breath, she was normally quiet in the library so as to not piss off the librarian. Lexa then remembered the bit from that letter Elyx sent her, 'Naturally, I have told a few agents in Black Rose about this exam' was what it said. Lexa went and searched for the librarian in hopes of getting some help. Lexa spotted the librarian in the restricted section, an area reserved solely for Aces and the Guild Master. She let out a type of annoyed growling sound as she looked past the partition at her target, who was too far away for her to flag down by waving. Lexa took in a deep breath, getting ready to perform the ultimate annoyance for the librarian, prepared to receive the full backlash of it. "NEEEEE-SAAAAAN!!!!" she screamed across partition as loudly as she could. The librarian let out a sigh of irritation and walked over the source of the outburst, calmly at first, and then she lifted a had with a book in it. The book came at remarkable speed, slamming Lexa in the face and sending her across the room and into a wall. The librarian walked over to Lexa while brushing off her book, her expression was far less than amused with the small, child like woman's little outburst. "Exactly what are you doing, yelling in my library young lady?" the woman asked with her arms crossed, the book still in her hand tucked behind and arm, just in case she had to give Lexa another love-tap. Lexa slowly began moving, pushing some of the bits of rubble off her body before letting out a pained sound. "I'm sorry Nee-san, but I need your help with something important..." she said with a groggy voice, the effects of being slammed into a wall from across an entire chamber weren't normally good.

[1307]

The librarian grabbed Lexa by the front of her shirt and pulled her from the crater in the wall. Lexa didn't bother squealing from the sudden shock that the librarian is crazy strong, mostly for fear of being book smacked again. The librarian dusted Lexa off and pulled her to a nearby table, reaching for a chair for the smaller woman to sit in. Upon Lexa taking her seat next to the now terrifying woman, the librarian asked "Now, what is it you need help with?" with her standard soft and caring voice. "Well... I'm running my exam right now, and I need to find a piece of paper with a time written on it but I don't know where to look." Lexa said with the same voice as a confused young child. The librarian placed a finger to her chin as she thought back. "The only exam proctors that's been in here was Mr. Reiaki, and that was yesterday. I saw him rummaging through the nature books, so if your on one of his exams it may be hidden in one of those. I wasn't told about it so there's not much more I can do to help, I'm sor-" she said intuitively and gave Lexa a warm smile. Lexa jumped up saying "Thank you-" loudly, cutting herself off and whispering "Thank you Nee-san" while hugging the librarian. The woman gently rubbed Lexa's head and gave her a gentle nudge to tell her to get moving.

Lexa quickly walked to the section with nature books and began sifting through them. 'Nii-san said the note would be attached to a tree. There aren't any real trees here, so it should be in one of the books about trees.' Lexa thought as she began looking for books on trees. The library only had ten or fifteen books about trees, so Lexa's search was already refined quite a bit. The librarian had finished her rounds when she came across Lexa carrying the stack of books to a table and decided to take some of the books and help her. The two women flipped through the pages as quickly as possible, only stopping if either saw a pretty picture. The other noticed when their partner did such an action and giggled at how similar they were when it came to books, but then they resumed sifting. Lexa spotted the note, and behind it was a picture of a tree that encompassed the entire page. "Nee-san..." Lexa said with a blank stare. "Yes dear?" the librarian responded. "Can you do me a favor please?" she asked, her voice sounded level, giving no sign of an odd request. "What is it?" the other woman asked. "Next time you see Nii-san... can you smack him with that book for me?" Lexa asked with irritation. She held up the book, revealing that there was a tack holding the note to the picture of the tree. The librarian looked at the book with hatred in her eyes. "That son of a bitch desecrated one of my books... he'll die for this." the librarian said passionately while holding up one of the books, gripping it tightly. Lexa took the note, got up and left the library, leaving the librarian to her anger and the task of returning the books to the shelf.


[1876]

Taranis ran up to Lexa as she was heading to The Brig. She prioritized that area above the sanctuary because she knew there, like the library, had no trees. Lexa knew The Brig like the back of her hand, after all, it's where she interrogated, and implanted Lillith with the anti-magic device. From that, Lexa had to run around The Brig for days on end trying to find the room she had the little girl in. Taranis stopped Lexa however. He knew Lexa would take the shortcut there, slipping through the ventilation to bypass having to go through a million and one corridors was a lot faster than going through those corridors. The air shaft ended right next to the entrance to the Brig, so it was a great little passage. Taranis held out his hand, in it was a piece of paper. Lexa turned it around and it had a time written on it. She smiled at Taranis and gave him a warm hug before turning back and shooting up the shaft in a ray of light. Lexa roamed around the main hall of the guild, trying to think of the other area of the guild. She spotted a person and trotted up to him, asking for help. He was told about the exam, and told Lexa there was only 2 areas that Elyx placed the pages. Lexa felt conflicted, she could remember that there was another one, filled with trees and plant life, but she couldn't remember where it was. Taranis popped in through the air shaft, getting a bit stuck as he tried to climb out since his body was a bit... a lot bigger than Lexa's. Lexa helped pulled him free, and explained to Taranis that the man was lying to her about there only being 2 areas of the guild. Taranis marched over to the man, using the tentacles at his waste to grab him and pointed his black, razor sharp nails at the man's throat. "Tell Lexa truth. Taranis kill if lie." he said with a blank voice, showing no signs of bluffing. The man quickly blurted out the directions to the Runi Sanctuary, and telling Lexa and Taranis the general area to look around in. Taranis released the man and gave him a slight shove, causing him to trip over one of the legs of the chairs and fall to the ground. Lexa quickly ran over and gave him a hug before turning to Taranis "That last bit was a bit much. Are you okay Nii-san?" Lexa asked the man with her eyes wide, bright, and innocent looking. The man's face turned bright red and he immediately felt horrible for lying to her. He nodded, saying he was fine and Lexa ran off with Taranis to the Runi Sanctuary.

[2342]

Lexa checked the time by looking at the sun before she entered the sanctuary, seeing the sun had almost set she guessed there was roughly 7 hours till her exam was finished. She and Taranis quickly ran down the stairs leading to the main chamber of the sanctuary, and watched in awe as the sanctuary opened up before her. The room itself was.... enormous as an understatement. Lexa saw a massive building inside the room she and Taranis was in, to its left and right were more greenery on top a set of arches. The arches were placed on pillars for support, and some of them had more plants on them. "How... in the hell did Nii-san even get up there?" Lexa asked herself out loud looking at one of the massive pillars where the last note was supposed to be. "Lexa can fly, maybe he too?" Taranis guessed, presenting a very plausible option. "Alright, I guess that means I'm going up there alone." she said as a pair of white, feathery wings with blue circuit markings appeared on her back. Taranis bowed and sat in a meditating position as he waited for his friend to return.

Halfway across the massive area known as Runi Sanctuary, Lexa began feeling a bit tired from having flown so much. Granted she did have wings, she wasn't used to using them for extended periods of time. After what felt like forever and a day, Lexa landed on the edge of a bowl shaped fixture on the pillar that held the plant life suspended. She didn't have to look far before the note was seen, it was placed in a pretty easy location to see. Naturally, from the ground Lexa would have never noticed it, but up close the paper flicking in the wind was very easy to see when the tree it was attached to had darker colored bark than the page did. Lexa carefully walked over and grabbed the page, ripping it off the tree and walking back to the ledge. She looked down and saw just how high off the ground she was. It was no problem for her, as she wasn't afraid of heights, however, falling and becoming a puddle of mush upon impact wasn't on her bucket list...Well she didn't actually have a bucket list since she was too young for one. Lexa dawned her wings and allowed herself to fall, using the momentum gained from dropping so far to take her all the way back to Taranis.


[2763]

Lexa arrived where Taranis was meditating, only to hear the distinct sound of very soft snoring coming from Taranis. 'He's.... asleep?' Lexa thought to herself. Lexa only had a good 6 hours and some few minutes left, but she couldn't help herself as Taranis seldomly slept in the same room as her. With her three hints in hand, Lexa took some time to pull a marker out from her shirt pocket and allow the embrace of a devilish smile hug her face as she approached her target. She quietly kneeled down in front Taranis and drew him a small french looking curly mustache, and then drew a pair of spirals on his cheeks. She then added some lines on his two horns, making sure the two sides looks about as similar as she could. Lexa placed a finger to her chin as she looked for the muse to add more stuff, as she had a lot of negative space to fill, and her marker was very full, and she didn't know when Taranis would wake up so she had to find her muse fast. A spark of enlightenment illuminated in her eyes as the idea flowed in, causing Lexa's devilish smile to come back. Between Taranis's eyes, Lexa drew a small heart shape and put a target sign in the middle of it. After a small giggle at the sight, she decided to continue her master piece and add a flower next to the opening for his eyes, and then she drew a really horrible dog. The dog was an oval for a body, small circles for feet, and an oval for a head connected by some lines. Taranis's mask, or skull thing completely coated in marker she turned her attention to his pasty white body. Lexa looked at the hold in Taranis's chest and drew some petals around it, adding another row of petals, and another, and another to make it look like a super pretty flower. She then gave it a stem, and added some leaves to it to finish the drawing. After that, Lexa drew a pair of smiley faces on his pecs, and frowning faces on each of his abs. Before long, Taranis was covered from head to waste with small black doodles that were simply waiting for him to wake up and see. Lexa wrote on his arm 'I'm gonna go meet Nii-San at the guild hall, see you there!' with a smiley face next to it.


[3176]

Lexa, a natural ball of energy, trotted through town going back to her room to utilize the last 3 hours of her exam to think of which time Elyx would be at the guild hall. While doing this, Taranis was back in the sanctuary sound asleep and unaware of his brand new make over. Lexa skipped up the stairs leading to her small room, with the three times written down in her pocket. She flew through the door, turning back in time to catch the door before it slammed shut and possibly waking up her neighbors. She gently closed it, making sure the only audible sound was the click of the door shutting. Lexa walked to her desk and sat in the chair. It was a soft chair with pink arm rests and a part that flipped out to provide her with a nifty cup holder, always gotta have a cup holder. She looked at the times, and thought about which would possibly be the time to come. Lexa knew Elyx was ace of grass or some garbage like that, and the plants became more active when the sun was up. But she also knew Elyx was an unconventional person, who would anticipate the obvious answer and make the least obvious solution the real answer. Lexa chucked her feet up on her desk while flipping through the times, thinking about what she went through to get them. The problem was that for one of them, she didn't go through anything. However, Lexa could only imagine it was incredibly easy to find since Taranis was waiting for Lexa when she got it from him. That's when it hit Lexa, this test was only labeled a test of speed or deduction, but rather a test of will for Lexa. She quickly trotted out of the room, going back to the Sanctuary to check on Taranis when she'd spotted a paper attached to a ficus in the guild's living quarters. 'That's right... there was four...' Lexa thought to herself as she picked it up. Lexa had only skimmed the letter she'd received earlier, being half awake she easily skipped over the part where it was said there would be four times to choose from. This being the case, Lexa had gotten an idea as to how to solve this. Lexa quickly scattered herself, becoming one with the darkness of night and allowing her to move at the speed of light.


[3584]

Lexa became pure darkness, the shadows them self and hid in the guild hall. As darkness is dispersed widely, only existing where light can't touch, Lexa's magic power would be dispersed so wide that it would seem as though she were in the hall, but not in the hall at the same time. The strength of it would be so weak that no one would suspect her to be watching, but rather they'd assume that she were approaching, or near the hall. Like this, Lexa would be able to stay and watch for her target until he arrived. The shadows would continue to move properly, as Lexa can move in this form but she cannot alter the placement of the shadows. If there were to be no shadows, or all the shadows were moved to a single location, Lexa would be easily spotted or sensed. But as the sun fills the guild hall, there is a massive shadow cast by the building itself, so the shadows will never concentrate into one corner, and Lexa would never be forced into one. For Lexa, this was perfect for spying on things. For hours Lexa stayed still, watching people enter and exit the guild hall at leisure, not even looking around to find where Lexa was. Some of them stopped to chat with guild members as they left to take jobs or enjoy a nice stroll on the hellish island, but none spoke about the face that they could sense Lexa. None of her guild mates, aside from Irina, knew about Lexa's little light trick so she wasn't worried about any of them spotting her. When Lexa spotted Elyx, she would materialize behind him and let him know the most important part about being a spy, or gathering information. "When you're not sure when to be somewhere, and if you can find a good enough vantage point, it's best to simply wait. Patience is the most important part about being in this business. You need to wait for your target, wait for them to be alone, wait for the time when they're most vulnerable, and once you've finished the job you have to wait for the perfect time to escape without being caught. That's what it means to be an assassin, or a silent mercenary. That's what it means to be GOOD at gathering intelligence. Granted it's smart to know when to be somewhere, you have to be willing to be there early and watch as long as necessary in the event that your target was a step ahead of you, and move their plans up or down to avoid you." Lexa would say with a calm voice, uncaring for any disagreement that Elyx may have with her.



[4009]