The journey to the border was uneventful. We traveled along a secret route that bypassed imperial border outposts, so we did not see anyone until we crossed the border into relative safety. I ditched the imperial armor and equipment at the first opportunity, and, while it lightened my weight, it also left me feeling dangerously exposed with my only equipment being my hidden blades -- hopefully they would be all I needed until I could get some more equipment. Renida, for her part, explained how she had hidden in the cellar when imperial troops were first sighted and overheard fighting on the first floor. After the fighting ceased, she had not heard the building being ransacked, so I surmised the initial assault was probably repulsed before the frustrated imperials set fire to the structure. At least no Assassins, documents, or pieces of equipment were captured.
For a while, our conversation, if one could call it that, lulled. We had been walking for a while, and Renida, much to my frustration demanded a rest for her aching hooves. I begrudgingly set us down under a tree.
"By the way Equeir," she said as I put her down. "You never explained how you found me."
"What are you talking about?"
"When you found me in the cellar, you said that we could catch up later, well, it's later."
"I'm not up for talk."
"Oh come on! It's not like I'm asking for your life story!"
I took a deep breath. This mare simply did not take "no" for an answer.
"All you need to know is that I was in the right place at the right time."
She released a deep breath of her own, clearly dissatisfied with my reply.
"Oh, I get it. That information somehow 'classified' because if I actually had an inkling as to what was happening my tiny little mind would explode, wouldn't it?" she asked sarcastically. "You wouldn't want me to get all panicky over your being a part of some secret organization, now would you?"
This bitch
"I completed my original mission and then rushed over to see how you guys were doing. I came in to help you when I heard your scream because I figured I should salvage something from the Bureau to prevent a total loss. Happy?"
She thought for a second. "So you finished your mission, didn't you have others helping you?"
"I--" I cut myself off. Now that she mentioned it, Sagittarius and Caldan had helped me to kill the Griffon diplomat, and I probably could not have done it without them. Where were they now? Did they know about the devastation?
"I did...but I don't know what happened to them after I left."
"So you just abandoned them?"
"Not really, they didn't need me anymore so I went to where I was needed. They can handle themselves."
"And if they can't?"
I rolled my eyes, this was getting ridiculous.
"Are you ready to keep moving?" I asked abrasively, avoiding her question.
"Um, I could use a few more minutes--"
"Too bad, get up."
"H-hey!" she protested as I dragged her back to her feet.
"You can rest once we get to Fillydelphia and explain the situation to the local Bureau."
"Okay, Okay! Jeez! Jerk."
I pretended not to hear that last part.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
After about one more day of travel, we finally found our way to Fillydelphia. The port city was dominated by a series of administrative and religious buildings around a vast central plaza adjacent to a sizeable harbor and a system of aqueducts brought fresh water from the nearby Foal Mountains all over the city. As Equestria's northernmost settlement, it benefited from what little foreign trade Sombra allowed. Licensed Crystal merchants had set up houses in the wealthier district, giving it a distinctive shine that differentiated it from the rest of the city. I walked us right past the temples, monuments, and open-air market and into the less developed part of town, the result of the city outgrowing its original grid system; where thin streets and dark alleys concealed shady characters and one would always have to watch your back. In other words: an Assassin's natural habitat. Of course, while I felt right at home, Renida was constantly on edge and cowered from every look sent her way.
"Are you sure this is where we'll find the local Bureau?" She asked, sticking to me like glue.
"Disreputable, lower-class district? Abundance of places to hide? Absence of city authorities? It certainly fits the criteria." I replied.
"So you don't actually know?"
"I'm following my instincts."
"So your instincts tell you to wander the streets of a major city for hours on end and hope that you manage to run into the FIllydelphia Bureau by dumb luck?"
I opened my mouth to retort, but realized she had a point. The brick houses in the district all looked identical, and we could not simply ask the locals about a secret hideout in the area. Stopping to think for a moment, I recalled that, traditionally, Assassin bureaus located in populated areas would be entered through a hole in the roof. Such an anomaly would be much easier to spot from the sky.
"Stay here," I ordered before taking off vertically.
"Wait!" she called after me.
I got a good distance from the ground before pausing to observe the area from above. The smoke from thousands of cooking fires, kilns, and smelters drifted up from all across the municipality before dispersing into the atmosphere, somewhat obscuring my vision. Nevertheless, I was able to make out rooftop gardens, market stalls, and a building with a large, square hole cut out of the roof. The latter was only a few blocks to the northeast.
That was easier than I thought.
As I descended, I heard a scream and some scuffling from about where I had left Renida.
Please don't be what I think it is.
I landed where I had taken off and, sure enough, there were a half-dozen grunts wrestling a struggling Renida onto the ground with an additional brute standing guard, giving death glares to all passers-by, daring them to get involved.
Sighing in frustration, I casually walked over to the scene. The stallion standing guard gave me the same glare he was giving everypony else. I simply extended a blade and impaled his thick throat. He fell to the ground with a thud, catching the attention of his companions.
For a brief moment, there was a stunned silence in which the gang and I stared each other down. I could tell most of them were surprised someone had dared interrupt their activity, but one of them -- presumably the leader given he was wearing a long, black cloak, likely spoils from a previous mugging -- looked infuriated.
"You killed him!" the latter exclaimed.
I rolled my eyes. "What an astute observation. Now if you want to join your buddy in the afterlife, feel free to stick around for ten more seconds."
The leader pulled a military-issue sword out from under his cloak and glanced at his wide-eyed underlings.
"Well? Don't just stand there! Get him!"
The others shook themselves out of their trances and each drew knives of varying size and charged. I easily sidestepped the clumsy swing of one and sliced open his foreleg, forcing him to drop his dagger as he cried out in agony. Grabbing the blade before it hit the ground, I blocked another attack. I somersaulted over his back and drove the dagger into one's skull before extending a hidden blade and slicing open another's throat. By the time the thug whom I had gone over turned around, I was able to send a blade through his chin and quickly dodge the strike of the last one, whom I killed with both hidden blades in his face before hurling his lifeless body onto the leader, who was poised to bolt.
I stood over him, the stallion too frightened to so much as lift the corpse off of him. Smirking, I took his sword, which he had dropped on impact, and stabbed him through the neck, attaching him to the street.
Admiring my handiwork, I saw my first opponent fearfully limping away while clutching his injured leg. I considered allowing him to get away, but shook that thought from my head and threw an adjacent dagger into his back. He cried out and stiffened for a moment, as if barely clinging on to life, but collapsed to the ground just as dead as his compatriots.
By now my body was covered in blood, none of it my own. I came over to Renida, who was silently sobbing against a wall, covering her eyes with her hooves as if one look at the carnage would end her.
"Come on," I said, picking her up. "I located the Bureau."
A small but growing crowd had formed around the scene, it would only be a matter of time before city officials arrived. We had to go.
"D-did you have to kill them?" she asked after calming down a little.
"I could let them live, in which case they'd probably mug somepony else tomorrow, or I could give the world seven fewer criminals to worry about. Which seems to be the better option to you?"
She sighed but otherwise remained silent. Even if she wanted to argue it was not as though she could change what had happened. We made haste to the Bureau, attracting a few stares but encountering no further trouble.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Somehow I managed to forget that Renida could not enter the Bureau without either flight or adequate parkour skills and I had to carry her in myself -- she was heavier than she looked. I descended through the hole in the roof and into what served as the front parlor. Directly underneath the opening was a cistern for rainwater and vines crawled up each of the walls, one of which had bricks jutting out to provide a grip for exiting Assassins. Besides that, the room was almost bare.
"And I thought the Inn was poorly decorated," Renida quipped.
Suddenly a door on the other end of the room opened and a middle-aged stallion emerged brandishing several throwing knives in his hoof, ready to strike. He wore Assassin robes with a distinctive red and black stripe down the middle, indicating him to be a high rank, probably the local Mentor. Beneath the robe I could see traces of a grayish-white mane and a maroon coat. He glared at us with his brown eyes, sizing us up in the event of a fight.
"State your name and business," he ordered.
"My name is Equeir Alahad, and this here is Renida." I did not even have to look to know she was cowering behind me. "We have some bad news from the Crystal Bureau."
"Equeir?" He sheathed his knives. "Congratulations on eliminating Captain Consector. But I suppose you're here to tell me that the Bureau was compromised and that you need help from the Equestrian chapters to continue the good fight?"
"Uh, yes, how did you know?"
"I'll show you."
He led us into another room. This one had the appearance of a makeshift hospital with several beds lined against the wall, one of which had blood-stained cloths, medical instruments, and a bloody arrowhead laid out on an adjacent table and was occupied by a light green unicorn stallion.
"Pausanias?"
"Oh, hello Equeir," he replied weakly. "Fancy seeing you here."
"Tell him what you told me," our host commanded.
"Well, we were in the Crystal City when it was encircled by imperial forces who prevented anypony from leaving. Our attempt to escape was discovered, but I managed to get away with an arrow in my stomach." He motioned to a set of stitches on his abdomen. "I'm not sure if anyone else made it, not even Mentor."
So much for that idea.
"So basically, it seems as though the whole Crystal chapter has been obliterated," I commented.
"Not particularly, besides the two of us there may yet be survivors. Didn't you have two others with you?"
I thought for a second. "There were two others." I turned to our host. "Has anyone named Sagittarius or Caldan arrived?"
"No, but you'll be the first to know if they do."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
We left Pausanias to recover in his bed and found a small room for Renida. As the now-acting Mentor of (what remained of) the Crystal Chapter, I requested a private audience with the local Mentor, who had introduced himself as Atriensis, to discuss the situation.
"Without a presence in the Crystal Empire, we have no way of keeping tabs on King Sombra and he knows it. If he were preparing to conquer all of Gaia we would have no way of knowing," I began. Having said it out loud, it sounded even worse.
"What would you have me do?"
"With your resources and manpower we can at least do some damage to Imperial leadership and continue to gather information. We'll just have to be more careful this time."
Atriensis sighed and sat behind a long counter. "You know, I hate to tell you this, but it's no rose garden over here either."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that, as great a threat as Sombra poses, I cannot currently spare the resources to fight him. You see, there has been a spike in crime in this city. From what my informants have gathered, a stallion named Noxius recently took over the organized crime in the city. What makes him especially dangerous and untouchable are his connections in the city government, which has turned a blind eye to his activities. Because of this, his thugs have grown more aggressive by the day and have been known to attack lone travelers in broad daylight. You may have run into them on your way here, actually."
That explains a lot. "Can't you call in help from other Chapters?"
"We can try, but with Didascus gone it will be difficult for us to coordinate with them until we can elect a successor. Besides, I'm sure they have their own problems."
I can see where this is going. "Let me guess, with all other options exhausted, you need me to help you take him down and restore harmony to the city."
"If you could spare the time and effort, it would be much appreciated."
I let out a frustrated sigh. This was not what I had in mind when I envisioned requesting aid from another Bureau. Sure, I knew they would want some favor in return, but this would practically be me doing their job for them. Of course, they would only have asked for my help if they were truly desperate, kind of like what I was doing here in the first place.
"Where do I begin?"