The second man’s head turned.

His dark green signature flared briefly in Kael’s vision as his eyes swept toward the alley’s entrance—toward the exact spot where Kael and Sage stood hidden behind Sage’s illusion barrier.

Kael’s body tensed.

Sage’s tails went rigid.

One second. Two.

The man stared at empty space.

"The fuck are you looking at?" the first man asked.

A pause.

"Nothing."

The second man turned back to the floating map. The crystal pulsed. The red marker blinked.

Kael opened his mouth to whisper a retreat order—

The world shifted.

One moment he was in the alley. The next he was somewhere else entirely—a rooftop, open sky, wind whipping through his hair, the skyline of Thornwick spread out below them in the gray morning light.

And beside him stood a woman who hadn’t been there a heartbeat ago.

Green crow mask. Green cloth wrapped around the lower half of her face. Dark clothing that blended with shadows. Slim build. Short black hair visible beneath the mask’s edges.

She was holding onto Sage’s sleeve.

Sage’s reaction was immediate and violent.

Her claws shredded the fabric the woman gripped—ripping it clean off—before she wrenched herself backward with a snarl. Her tails flared wide, golden eyes blazing, body shifting into a combat stance.

Then she realized Kael wasn’t beside her.

He was five steps away. Lightning flickered around his frame, crackling softly, casting sharp blue-white light across the rooftop with a loose stance. His gray-silver eyes fixed on the masked woman with cold assessment.

Sage’s head snapped toward him.

"Fuck you left me!" she shouted.

Kael didn’t turn around. "Mm."

"Yep."

"KAEL!"

He finally glanced over his shoulder with a wry smile.

"Three reasons I didn’t help you," he said. "One: you’re Foundation Establishment Rank 6. You can save yourself. Two: she didn’t have any killing intent. Her posture was defensive, not aggressive. Three—"

He paused.

"Three what?"

"Three: I wanted to see what you’d do."

Sage’s eye twitched. Her tails bristled.

"You—"

"Also, you shredded her sleeve instead of her throat. Good instinct. Means you read the situation correctly even while panicking."

"I wasn’t panicking!"

"You were absolutely panicking."

The masked woman cleared her throat.

"Hello," she said. "I’m still here."

Sage and Kael both looked at her.

"What are kids like you doing spying on such a dangerous organization?"

Sage’s eye twitched again. "Kids?"

"Kids," the woman repeated. Her voice was light. Almost amused. "You look what, eighteen? Nineteen? And you’re tailing Crimson operatives like it’s a training exercise."

"Who are you calling kids?" Sage stepped forward, tails swishing aggressively. "And who the hell are you?"

The woman tilted her head. The green crow mask caught the light—polished bone or ceramic, impossible to tell. Her visible eyes were sharp. Green, like her mask.

"Someone who just saved your lives," she said. "That man you were following—Grellik—is a detection specialist. Your illusion was good, but he doesn’t perceive with his eyes. He perceives with mana texture. Another few seconds and he would have pinpointed your exact location."

Kael’s lightning faded. He turned fully to face her now, hands in his pockets with a relaxed expression.

"You teleported us," he said. "Is that Spatial manipulation?. Men, that’s quite rare. You didn’t do it to save our lives. You did it because us getting caught would complicate whatever you’re doing here."

The woman’s eyes narrowed behind her mask.

"Smart."

"Also, you knew we were there before Grellik did. You were watching us watch them. Which means you’ve been tracking these operatives for a while."

"Smarter."

"Who are you?" Kael asked. Same question Sage had asked with a different tone. Calm and conversational. The kind of tone that made people want to answer.

The woman studied him for a long moment.

"Students," she murmured. "Of Heaven’s Gate Academy?"

"How did you—"

"Your wristbands. The academy issues a specific telemetry frequency. I can read it." She waved a hand dismissively. "First-years, based on the emission pattern. Which means you’re here for the end-of-year exam."

Sage’s tails settled slightly. "Obviously. But you didn’t answer the question."

"No. I didn’t."

Kael smiled faintly. "The organization they belong to. What’s it called?"

The woman was quiet for three heartbeats.

"House of Crimson," she finally said. "Human trafficking. Soul harvesting. They are involved in a lot of shits. They operate across several worlds and have deep ties with political structures on at least three of them. Thornwick is their current harvesting ground. Those two men—Grellik and the one he was meeting—are mid-level operatives. Field coordinators. They handle logistics for the local cell."

Identify the perpetrators: 1/1

The System chimed softly in Kael’s vision.

"You know a lot about them," Sage said carefully.

"I should. I’ve been tracking them for six months."

"Alone?"

The woman laughed. It was a short, humorless sound.

"No. Not alone."

Kael leaned against the rooftop’s edge, watching her. "I’m guessing a secret organization?"

"Something like that."

"What’s it called?"

"No."

"That’s not an answer."

"It’s exactly an answer. Just not the one you want." The woman stepped back, her form already beginning to shimmer at the edges. Spatial distortion building around her. "Stay away from this, kids. House of Crimson kills investigators. The ones they don’t kill, they break. You’re first-year students playing at heroics. This isn’t your war."

"We have a mission," Sage said.

"Then fail it. Failing an exam is better than dying in a basement."

The distortion intensified.

"Wait—" Kael started.

"What’s your name?"

She was already fading. Light bent around her. The rooftop breeze passed through her like she was becoming smoke.

"Hey! I’m talking to you!"

Her voice drifted back, faint and amused.

"Doesn’t matter. You will soon be gone anyway."

She vanished.

Kael stood at the edge of the rooftop, staring at the empty space where she’d been. Wind ruffled his hair. The distant sounds of Thornwick filtered up from below—market chatter, cart wheels, the ordinary noise of a city pretending it wasn’t dying.

"I’ll call her Miss Beauty," he announced. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Sage stared at him. "What."

"Miss Beauty. Since she wouldn’t give me her name." He turned around, hands still in his pockets, expression perfectly serious. "She’s beautiful, by the way. You can tell even with the mask."

Sage’s eye twitched.

"You’re a pervert."

Kael blinked. "What?"

"A pervert. We just got kidnapped by a mysterious woman who works for a secret organization investigating a massive human trafficking ring, and your takeaway is that she’s hot."

" I’m an honourable being who treat women like precious jewelries. Not some pervert. Plus she is hot."

"That’s not the point!"

"She really is, though." He spread his hands, face the picture of innocent confusion. "Beautiful green, sharp and very pretty eyes. The bone structure above the mask was excellent. I’m an observant person."

"You’re hopeless."

"Hopeless is a strong word. I prefer ’appreciative.’"

Sage groaned and turned away, tails swishing in irritated patterns.

Kael smiled and looked back at the empty space.

House of Crimson. Secret organization. Six months of tracking. A detection specialist who didn’t use eyes.

This mission just got alot more interesting.

Quest updated: Locate the abduction site (0/1)

New information added to mission log.

"Come on," he said, heading for the rooftop access stairs. "We have a report to give Byron. And I need to think."

Sage fell into step beside him, still radiating annoyed energy.

"If you call her Miss Beauty in front of me one more time, I’m scratching your eyes out."

"I’ll call her Miss Beauty as much as I please."