Many Questions, One Answer

-Bellum, early afternoon-

Wearing her "office lady" attire, Diana sat at a round metal outdoor table of a medium-sized coffee shop known as Bellum Brews. The inside was packed with young twentysomethings drinking coffee and studying for school exams or hanging around with friends while discussing the problems of the day, like the revelation that Mr. L'Argesse was involved in human trafficking. Even weeks after his demise the man was still a topic of debate among the people of Bellum. Two tables to her left was a young couple discussing the matter, which was still under investigation.

Diana's coffee order arrived just as the conversation began in earnest. Diana thanked the waitress and calmly listened to the discussion in progress. Thanks to her special ability to blend in with a crowd, they did not even notice her sitting close by.

"I still can't believe that Mr. L'Argesse was a human trafficker!" The young man of the couple said. He was dressed in a simple outfit of a Crocus Magicka University long-sleeved t-shirt, blue jeans, and black tennis shoes.

"Yeah, well, something was always sketchy about him." The young woman remarked caustically. She was a black-haired girl who wore a green tank top and black skirt with a white belt and white tennis shoes.

"How did you know?" The male asked his friend.

"One time I went to the Bon Vivant restaurant here for a night out with a few friends of me. He was there and he was pretty handsy with me. He kept groping my butt any chance he got." The young woman answered.

"Oh." The young man said simply.

"He also kept hitting on me and my friends and offered to show us a good time. The restaurant staff couldn't do anything about it because he was a regular customer. It was so creepy!" She added with a tone of loathing. Diana did not blame her for feeling so much antipathy towards the late millionaire. If someone kept hitting on her and fondling her, Diana would not be very friendly towards the offender either.

"I don't think anyone here really misses the old creep. Well, except for his rich friends." The raven commented sourly. Her friend looked worried when she said that.

"Don't say that! The police will think you did it!" The young man cautioned his companion. She dismissively waved away the claim.

"I read the newspaper when the news first came out and the crime scene was clean. No prints, no hair, no nothing. I think the old creep either killed himself or suffered an accident. Either way he did the world a favor!" The raven stood by her opinion. The conversation entered an awkward silence as a police officer walked by on patrol. Diana listened calmly as she continued to drink her coffee.

"I heard that Mr. L'Argesse was a friend of Mr. Gorman's. Mr. Gorman didn't take the news very well." The young man eventually chimed in after the police officer left.

"Mr. Gorman's a big player in the financial sector. He knows people who knows people. He also seems to know which way the market's going. That guy's amazing!" The young woman gushed praise for the man, forgetting all about Mr. L'Argesse. Diana was not pleased to hear that name. He was responsible for the death of her family and for the Shadow Collective coming after her.

"Yeah. I can't believe how much money he's made over the years! He must be a psychic or something because he's almost always right!" The male expressed praise for Mr. Gorman's business acumen.

Diana had about all she could stand of hearing that name. She finished her coffee and stood up, pushing the metal chair back under the table. The waitress appeared and Diana paid for her coffee before leaving. She had used her abilities to leave no prints and to escape notice for any distinctive features, so she had little fear of being tracked or identified. The blonde calmly left the cafe and set out for Mr. Necargie's home.

Perhaps her old family friend could offer some advice on what to do next. She certainly needed some advice because she was deeply uncertain of what she should do. Her meeting with Ben in Mysterious Canyon had made her think about the course her life was taking and she needed help.

[Word Count: 750]
[Total Word Count: 750/3,000]

-On the streets of Bellum-

Diana weaved through considerable foot traffic as she walked towards Mr. Necargie's house. Her thoughts kept turning back to people she had met on various jobs, people like Andrew and Maria, the brother and sister in Hargeon Town. She also thought of Veronica, the lonely heiress to her parent's shipping company in Hargeon Town. Jasmine DuClare of Capital Crocus came to mind; the brunette was perhaps a bit too much into Diana, but she was another lonely person who had come to see the blonde as a friend.

Diana had never really had friends, not since she was forced into her life in the shadows. She was used to hiding who she really was and wearing a mask of detached politeness, but her encounters with those people who had treated her as a friend had planted the seeds of doubt in her mind. Was she really meant to spend her life in the shadows?

Diana had thought that working in the clandestine guild of a multibillion-Jewel company would be the answer to all her woes. She would have a place to live and steady work, but more importantly she would have protection from enemies. Diana had once thought that accepting the invitation to work for them would be a panacea, but it was not what she had expected.

The blonde lived in what was a glorified hole in the ground. She hung around with people whose murderous propensities were less restrained than her own and whose loyalties were unknown. She never knew if they would sell her and the guild out for the right offer, so she was not sure if they were trustworthy. Perhaps her co-workers felt the same way about the blonde who kept others at a distance and who frequently took solo jobs.

Diana was amused at how her thoughts were running. Who was she to judge her co-workers? It was not like the blonde ever had the moral high ground to begin with.

She took morally questionable contracts just like them. She killed for money just like them. Most importantly, she had accepted the invitation to join the clandestine guild just like them. Who was she to judge?

Diana made her way through foot traffic without really paying much attention to where she was or what she was doing. She knew that she was in Bellum and knew that she was heading for the Necargie Mansion, but other than that she was drifting on autopilot. The blonde never knew that she could be so... introspective.

Knowing that she was in no condition to focus on walking, Diana opted to take a safe approach to reaching her destination. She walked over to the sidewalk and hailed a cab. Within little over a minute a yellow taxi with a black-and-white checkered pattern on the side rumbled up beside her and honked the horn.

"Where ya going?" The cabbie asked Diana. The mage turned and looked at the source of the voice. It was Tony, the same dark-haired cabbie with the cab that smelled of pizza who had taken her to Mr. Necargie's mansion in nearly record-breaking time.

"Hello Tony." Diana politely greeted the driver. His eyes looked at her face and he recognized her.

"Oh, it's you! The lady I took to 1020 Auric Street awhile ago!" He said to her. Diana nodded.

"Need to get there in a hurry?" He asked, shuffling the pizza box off of his dashboard and into the passenger side floorboard, which was not much of a cleaning because the floorboard was filled with pizza boxes and empty plastic soda bottles.

"Yes, please." Diana answered.

"Have a seat and we'll get going." He said to her, flipping on his light to indicate that his cab was occupied. Diana obliged, getting into the back seat of the cab. After she shut the door the cab rumbled into motion and the blonde was on her way to the Necargie Mansion.

-1020 Auric Street, fifteen minutes later-

"Here we are. 1020 Auric Street." Tony said, slamming the brakes hard and almost causing a collision with the rear of another cab. The driver of the other cab turned around and gave a one-finger salute while shouting obscenities. Tony returned the gesture and then turned to Diana.

"Sorry about that, lady. Frank can be a real asshole. His grand-dad owns the company, so he thinks he's hot stuff. Thinks the whole road belongs to him and no one should pull in behind him." Tony explained to her that the two cabbies had animosity with one another. Diana took it in stride as the taxi in front of them rumbled off in search of another fare.

"It is no problem. How much do I owe you?" Diana inquired. Tony turned to his meter and glanced at it. He then turned to her.

"Same rate as last time. 2,250 Jewels." He answered. Diana handed over the required amount plus a 500-Jewel tip because he had gotten her here rather quickly. She had no problem tipping generously for good service.

"Thanks lady. See ya later!" He said as Diana exited the cab and got onto the sidewalk in front of the mansion. Tony then raced off and left the scent of pizza lingering in the air. Diana was glad to be at the home of one of the only real friends she had in Bellum. Mr. Necargie and his niece Madeleine had been faithful friends of hers ever since the whole secret war with the Shadow Collective had started. Diana had to end the war before they got hurt.

[Word Count: 950]
[Total Word Count: 1,700/3,000]

-1020 Auric Street, outside the Necargie Mansion-

Diana had reached her destination safely, but she stood just outside of the wrought-iron gates in hesitation. Why had she come here for answers? If she was such a strong mage and the shadows were her friends, why had she come here looking for comfort? What right did she have to be here?

Diana was not sure what she was doing standing outside the gates. She probably looked like a lost puppy waiting for its owner to come and claim it. As sad as that mental image was, that was exactly what Diana was... lost. She was lost in thoughts and full of second thoughts about her life.

Her thoughts had to be put on hold as the impeccably dressed Madeleine Necargie opened the gate for the blonde to enter. She was wearing the same outfit she had worn in the Haunted Guild and was as cheerful as ever.

"Hello Diana!" Madeleine greeted her. The blonde was forced to don the well-worn mask of the polite Guildless mage, a mask that had sustained her for all this time. She received Madeliene's warm greeting, including an unexpected hug that Diana did not like but nevertheless tolerated.

"Please, do come in! Uncle Clarence is busy, but I am certain that he would make time for you!" The brunette urged Diana to enter the home despite the latter's misgivings. Diana hesitated again. Madeleine walked behind the blonde and began gently pushing Diana towards the steps of the mansion. Again Diana put up with the unwanted physical contact and went along with her hostess' wishes.

-Inside the Necargie Mansion-

Madeleine ushered Diana into the well-decorated foyer and stepped to her right. Diana felt at home here... as "at home" as she could feel anywhere on Earthland other than guild headquarters. Madeleine had mentioned that her uncle was busy at the moment, so Diana did not know what to do and was hesitant to interrupt his work just to chat with him. Should she just leave and come back another day?

"I will take you to Uncle's upstairs office. Follow me." Madeleine instructed the blonde. Diana obliged, following the brunette past the opulent dining room and past a living room decorated with mahogany furniture and numerous family portraits hanging in gold frames on the living room walls. The television mounted on the wall was a state-of-the-art 60" plasma lacrima screen turned to a business channel that focused exclusively on the stock market. A well-dressed older man with salt-and-pepper hair discussed the latest market trends with another man in a gray suit with a red tie and a bald head; their current topic was the corporate juggernaut known as Daggercorp. They marveled at how the company seemed to keep gaining market momentum and how easily it handled competitors trying to muscle in on its turf.

Diana did not watch much television either as a child or as an adult because she was frequently on "family business", but were she to do so, she wanted a television like Mr. Necargie's. However, making expensive purchases would draw the wrong sort of attention to her, so she would either have to refrain from buying a television entirely or settle for a less expensive one. She would deal with that later... right now she and her hostess were standing in front of a staircase that was decorated with a red carpet with gold borders and featured mahogany handrails.

"It is not too much farther to my uncle's office. This way." Madeleine said before gently grabbing Diana's right wrist and gently guiding her up the stairs. Again Diana followed the brunette's lead. She was too busy thinking about how to end the war with the Shadow Collective to protest.

-The second floor-

Madeleine and Diana walked through a second floor decorated with beige wallpaper and red carpet with gold borders. On the walls were framed paintings of rustic life such as a farmer plowing his fields, a hunting party on horseback following hounds that were chasing a lone fox running for its life, and a verdant pasture full of Holstein cows grazing peacefully under a bright sun in a cloudless sky. Diana wondered if they hinted at something Mr. Necargie wanted to do with his life once he tired of being a captain of industry. If that were the case, she envied him for having an idea of what he wanted to do once his working days were over.

Diana had no plans for retirement. The best she could hope for was to find a cave or some isolated house, purchase it, and prepare to fend off enemies wanting her head until natural causes finally took her. The worst case was that she got a bullet to the back of her head and was dumped in an unmarked grave in the middle of nowhere. Her macabre thoughts were interrupted by Madeleine, who had guided her to a large set of double doors carved out of mahogany. Mr. Necargie seemed to have a strong liking for mahogany wood.

"Uncle Clarence is in here. I will see if he can meet with you." Madeleine informed the blonde. Diana was in no hurry to speak with the businessman. She was not sure if speaking to him would help her at all.

[Word Count: 900]
[Total Word Count: 2,600/3,000]

Madeleine knocked on the door three times and listened.

"What is it?" Mr. Necargie's voice asked through the door.

"Miss Winchester is here to see you." Madeleine answered. Diana heard a chair thumping against the floor and someone walking across the floor. The door soon rattled and was opened by Clarence. Diana peered inside and saw piles of papers cluttering his mahogany desk.

"Oh, Miss Winchester! Please, come in! I've got something I want to discuss with you!" Clarence greeted her. Diana obligingly walked in to the office, which was a medium-sized office decorated with beige wallpaper, mahogany bookshelves crammed with books and dotted with still more stacks of papers, and a framed portrait of Madeleine hanging on the wall of the left side of the office just behind his desk.

"You're welcome to come too, Madeleine." Clarence offered his niece.

"No thank you, Uncle. I will go elsewhere." Madeleine politely refused the offer. Clarence then shut the office doors behind him. Did the brunette know something that Diana did not?

-Inside Mr. Necargie's office-

Mr. Necargie walked behind his desk and flipped a switch hidden under it. A white bubble filled the room and then vanished. The room had suddenly acquired a feeling that sound was dampened and it was disconcerting.

"I've made it where no one can listen in on what I'm about to say next. It's dangerous stuff that can't leave this room." Clarence explained to the wary blonde what had just happened. Without further delay he launched into what he had to tell her.

"Someone's kicked over the hornet's nest. The Shadow Collective has lost a support agent and two financial supporters in less than a month. Mr. Gorman isn't too happy with the performance of his hired guns and they're feeling the heat." Clarence started the conversation in a serious tone of voice. Diana listened patiently to what was being said about the organization hired to kill her and complete the elimination of the Winchester family.

"The Collective's not going to sit back any longer. They're going to be sending people to take you out, Diana. I don't know if they're going to send the new guys first or if they're going to off the gloves and send their A-list of assassins early, so you'll just have to be careful. My sources haven't been able to tell me anything other than that the Collective's taking the offensive. I've told my sources to lay low because I don't want them digging too deep and ending up dead." Clarence added.

"I understand." Diana said laconically. She did not want any of Clarence's contacts dying because of her. She already had enough blood on her hands and was going to add more when she killed the Collective's assassins. Clarence put his hands on his desk and looked at her with a serious facial expression.

"I don't know what to tell you to do, Diana. You can't run away because the Collective's men will follow you to the ends of Earthland to complete the contract. You can't tell the police because I'm sure they've put people on the inside to let them know if someone's onto them. Normally I'd say go to the Rune Knights, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Rune Knights have Collective moles in their ranks too." Clarence told her. Diana was amused because neither the police nor the Rune Knights were an option for her. Both law enforcement organizations had members eager to boost their reputations by being the one to arrest a member of Hidden Blades. She would have to take special care to avoid the attention of the Knight team known as "Police Brutality" and that of Serilda and Mythal, the organization's two strongest members. She could not run from them and she certainly could not fight them and hope to win, so her best bet was to be particularly cautious when on the job.

Diana would have to finish the shadow war herself.

"I will handle it myself." Diana calmly said to him. She had come here looking for answers, but she would leave here with only more questions. Doubt and questions were all the blonde seemed to have today.

"I'm sorry that there's nothing more I can do for you other than to tell you to be careful." Clarence apologized to her. Diana was not upset. She did not want him and Madeleine being targeted for elimination as well. They were the only real friends she had in this world.

"It is fine. Just keep yourself and Madeleine safe." Diana said simply.

[Word Count: 800]
[Total Word Count: 3,400/3,000]

-Bellum Brews, four hours later-

Diana had left Mr. Necargie's mansion four hours ago and had returned to Bellum Brews with no answers and a lot of questions about where to go from here. She had ordered a coffee and sat at the same outside table she had sat at earlier. She had questions that needed answering, but it seemed like she was the only one who could answer them.

Should she accept the consequences of her decision to join the guild and stay with Hidden Blades?

Should she hand in a resignation and attempt to make a career as a Guildless mage instead of just masquerading as one?


Should she just give up on escaping her present lifestyle and make peace with the fact that the shadows were her home now and forever?

Diana did not know the answer to those questions. She took a sip of coffee and encountered another conundrum created by her futile attempts to answer the previous three questions. It was perhaps the most important question she had to find an answer for.

If she managed to leave the shadows behind and return to the light, what would she do with her life?

Diana frowned as she pondered the most difficult question of all the numerous questions she had.

The blonde had no marketable "real world" skills other than killing people from the shadows. She was not a financial wizard who could read the stock market and take stomach-churning risks with confidence like Mr. Necargie or Mr. Gorman. She was not a musician, a dancer, an author, a bartender, an archaeologist, or any other occupation that did not involve making money without using violence. She only had two friends and they did not need to know about her other self, the other side of her she was trying to find a way to get away from.

So much of Diana was invested in Stiletto. As Stiletto she had built a reputation as a go-to worker whenever the guild needed something done and done with discretion. She had also built up a sizable bank account thanks to the guild's generosity. Those facts raised yet another question.

If she were to walk away from the guild and sign on with another one, where would she go?

None of the other two "dark" guilds appealed to her. She did not want to destroy society to bring about "natural order" nor did she want an end to all man-made laws. Diana briefly considered the "legal" guilds.

Dies Irae was a possible option since they did not flinch from killing enemies, but they had publicly vowed to eliminate all "dark" mages by any means necessary. They would turn on her without batting an eyelash once her past came to light. They would try to take her alive and learn more about her former guild and she was honor-bound not to reveal anything, so Dies Irae was a last resort.

The Rune Knights were out for personal reasons as well as for practical ones. She was pretty sure that more than a few former dark mages had buried their pasts deep and joined the Knights so that they could commit new crimes under the aegis of authority. Diana was not willing to take that route because she did not want to be turned on by Knights looking for a promotion once they dug into her past.

Sabertooth seemed like a nice option with a laudable goal, but she did not want to darken their doorstep with the blood on her hands. She did not want to drag them into her fight. They had enough trouble without having to deal with a group out to kill one of its members.

The Independent guilds were out for similar reasons. No one deserved to be dragged into her fight with the Shadow Collective. That led to a small epiphany that set the gears into motion.

Taking out the Shadow Collective should be her first priority. Once they were gone, she could deal with the other issues.

Diana knew that she was only sidelining the other issues, but eliminating her enemies would make it safer for both her guild and her few friends. With the guild and her friends safe, she would also have time to think and time to solve the issues swimming through her mind. Diana finished drinking the coffee and the waitress came out with the bill, which was promptly paid in full.

Diana stood up and smoothed out her skirt. She still had a lot of questions that needed answers, but for now she had some clarity. The Shadow Collective had to go. Only then would she be able to solve the other problems in her life.

Having left no prints behind and having not stood out from the crowd, Diana left Bellum Brews behind to return to guild headquarters and prepare to finish the Shadow Collective once and for all. She was going to return to the shadows and deal with her enemies the only way she knew how. She would hunt them down, bide her time, and wait for just the right moment, then end their lives when they least expected it.

The huntress knew what she had to do. Now she had to use her newfound resolve to follow through with what needed to be done. It was back to the shadows for her. The light would have to wait.

[Word Count: 920]
[Total Word Count: 4,320/3,000]