Arizihana Agnoth could be seen in her study, looking through some administrative documents. She had worn a simple and elegant white dress that highlighted her moderate curves.
Her waist-length hair was not tied. So the morning breeze that would enter through the wide window would caress her hair lightly and make its presence known.
She was about to wrap up her paperwork and get ready to start her regular petrol duties for the day. But her usual routine was hit by a pause when she received a sealed scroll from one of the subordinates under her.
The scroll was sealed by a runic line so she had to imbue it with her magic to get it unsealed.
'Meet me at Galvan cliff, just before the day sets in.'
The scroll only had these eleven words written inside it. But just before she could throw the scroll down thinking that it was from one of her admirers trying to confess to her most mysteriously, the mana she had imbued in the scroll came together and formed another set of words:
'I know you work for the cultists.'
The words disappeared along with the dissipating mana and the scroll contained only those eleven words again. Arizihana had a mini heart attack after reading those words. She clutched the scroll in her hand tightly and started thinking about who the person that had sent the scroll could be.
'Damn it. I took every precaution I could, but it still leaked out. It might not have been my fault though. Those damn Beast Bloods lunatics can't keep their mouths shut. If the beans have been spilt, it must be from their end.'
Ari concluded and fumed inside her head. But there was another point to consider that she had forgotten to register before:
'This person didn't rat me out to the city administration. That means they are either playing a guessing game with no conclusive proof or whatever they have on me isn't solid.
No. Wait, Ari. there's a third possibility. They know that it's you for sure and want to use it as leverage.
Blackmail!'
Ari's grim face turned grim after she thought about the third possibility. She immediately got up and walked to her castle's basement. There was an encrypted communication array placed there which she would use occasionally to communicate with someone close to her who also happened to be a cultist.
***********************
"*Sigh. Ma Cheri, I remember telling you not to contact me during these days. I have been a bit busy, you see. Anyway, miss me already? Hehe."
A life-sized, flickering spectral image could be seen getting projected over the eye of the array that was located in Ari's castle basement. The words were spoken by this very spectral shadow that initially expressed displeasure at being contacted by Ari.
But later on, the spectral shadow seemed to have been glad that the latter had contacted her. One could say that the person this spectral shadow belonged to was very moody and fickle.
"Haah! I'm not here to soothe your ego, May. This is serious.
Remember the talk we had a few weeks ago? It has come to pass. Someone is trying to blackmail me today. I hope you can guess what they are planning to use against me."
Ari said this with a stoic face while folding her hands. She wasn't interested in the usual romance that would take place every time she called the spectral shadow. The soup she had found herself in demanded serious attention not only from her but also from May after all.
"Say what now? And wait, do you think it was because of us?"
May asked after getting shocked by the news Ari provided her. The spectral shadow pondered for a while before coming up with words to respond:
"You are right. Maybe it was us. The lower ranks shouldn't know your involvement with us. And the higher-ranked entities just don't care about you or me.
Hmm? Does that mean it is someone from the Beast Bloods' middle order? Damn it, I can't be sure."
The spectral shadow agreed to Ari's indirect way of saying all of it was Beast Bloods' fault. But it couldn't just zero in on a single person from a large pool of suspects. So it asked Ari about the recent turn of eve
But surprisingly, it was Ari who gave the spectral shadow another reason to worry about:
"Have you considered another possibility? That it's neither a slip-up from my end or your end but a third party all along?"
May grew quiet after listening to another of Ari's concerns. The spectral image stopped flickering and revealed the person's real identity it belonged to. This person happened to be a beautiful half-elf woman in her late twenties.
May asked Ari all the details she could think of about today's events. The latter told her about how she received a sealed scroll. She also showed the scroll to her along with the content it had.
"The sentence that describes your association dissipated into mana after you read it. Someone is trying to keep your association with the cultists intact. That's a good and bad thing at the same time.
Good because your identity would stay a secret in their hands as long as you did what they asked because we're not dealing with an amateur ex-Beast Bloods member like I thought we were.
Sigh. We won't gain anything from the scroll. It's an expensive E-Rank scroll so we know the person who used it is at least an E-Ranker. But that's all there is to it. The scroll itself is easy to get. We can't find shit through tracking the source of this document."
Ari stopped tapping her fingers on her folded arms as an act of impatience and voiced her displeasure:
"Duh! I know that already, May. I'm asking you what I should do now?"
Ari asked and started tapping her fingers again. She was trying to act impatient and angry. But May could understand that was just a defence mechanism to hide her fears.
The establishments were never known for their forgiveness towards cultists or someone who was proven to be linked to them. This held especially true for someone like Ari who was leading a battalion of city guards for the city of Silvermoon.
It could be said that Ari had not lost her head in a panic if she was still acting this normal. May thought that and sighed before answering Ari's question.
"What can we do anyway? Let's see who this fella is first. We'll think of something after your meeting with this blackmailer takes place.
And Ari, if you find that they are alone and the information they have on you is doubtful at best, then you know what to do."
Ari placed her right hand on the hilt of her sword hanging by the waist after hearing May's response. A killer intent suddenly emanated from her serious stance. She concluded May's line of thoughts in her head.
'Kill them!'