Exodus

Vixen's mouth hung open, she couldn't believe what they were saying. She was being tested? For what? She was unsure if they'd answer but she could at least try. 

"Excuse me," she said interrupting the two arguing, "why am I bring tested? What does any of this have to do with me?"

"Oh yes, you're hear for two reasons, firstly we had some business with Al'Haza and you killed him. Very well too I might add, it was quite difficult for us to trace it back to you, with the fire and all. Secondly you killed the master's thrall."

A stone started to form in her stomach, "Your master's thrall? The master of the Sanguine Covenant is a vampire?"

"Clever girl, and not just any vampire either, he's a tertiary bloodline vampire from one of the progenitors himself. He's got quite the pure bloodline."

Vampires are incredibly dangerous even the newly born and weak ones. A third generation or tertiary bloodlined one will be exponentially stronger too. 

'I don't know if I'd be able to win as Cadel, let alone as I am right now.'

"So what about his thrall? If he's upset why not just kill me?"

"He might in due time, but he also understands the usefulness of people. Right now you owe him a life for Al'Haza so what he proposed is this. You take the covenants "try outs" and if you win you'll have to do three jobs for us to pay back the life with interest. If you lose you'll either die or become his thrall yourself. If you're REALLY good he may just reward you himself, but I seriously doubt that."

Hopefully she'll just be able to do the jobs but she doubted that. The panel of people that graded her "performance " interrupted her train of thought. It was the first person who spoke again. She deduced he probably had the highest position among them.

"The verdict is you passed. You performed very far outside our expectations. You'll be led to another area where you'll be briefed on the assignment. I personally would like to see you succeed, it'd be a waste to have someone as attractive as you be turned into a thrall."

At the conclusion of his mini speech, a thwooomp echoed in the room and she felt a dart pierce into her butt cheek. Her eyes immediately got droopy and there was only one sentence she managed to get out before falling face first into the ground asleep.

"Whyd you shoot me in the ass?"

Vixen woke up in the clothes she had been put to sleep in this time at least. There were black clothes lying next to her, all leather.  She had woken up in a plain wooden cabin, a single bed lay in one of the corners. On the other end was a single old fashin oak cabinent. Moments later, once the grogginess wore off, she noticed another person in the room. 

"Rise and shine," the man said. 

"Ugh where am I now?"

"Change into those leathers then follow me."

"I don't suppose I can get some privacy can I?

The eyes above the mask scrunched and a single eyebrow raised. 

"What shy?"

"Things have happened and it feels like you're taking advantage of the situation. "

"Call it perks of the job."

She sighed conceding. She dressed in the leather armor with a mask that covered the bottom half of her face from over the nose and down. The man stared at her the entire time. By the time she was fully dressed there was a vein popping behind her temple, he was clearly just antagonizing her. 

The man approached the wooden cabinet, opened it and took out what appeared to be a fine bottle of wine.

"Here put this in the satchel, I'll tell you what happens shortly. " 

She obliged. The two of them exited the cabin and she found themselves in the woods. The man led them through the woods on foot for what seemed like hours. No matter how nice it was to be out in the woods, it was rather unnerving because the man didn't say a single word the entire time. After dusk touched the sky the man motioned her to climb a tree, they both did so, and towards the top they stared at a castle. 

"The bottle you carry is poisoned, and the exact brand and year the lord of that castle drinks. Your mission is to replace the bottle with the poisoned one without getting caught.  If you get caught they'll kill you. " 

"Sounds easy enough," she responded as the man slipped into a shadow and disappeared. 

'Let's get started,' she thought leaping of the tree and took off into the darker growing forest. She decided to keep her mana detection ability activated instead of shroud, she wanted to avoid as many people as possible. She really pushed her abilities by increasing its range for outdoor use, it was not as useful outside she realized. It did allow her to avoid trouble, it just isn't efficient. 

She made it to the castle walls, her eyes darting back and forth, she used shroud to avoid being seen. She waited near that spot for twenty or more mixtures hiding in the woods night fully descended. There had been several guards making their rounds. She walked the whole castle, and found a shack that was also being guarded. She also memorized their rotation times. For both the castle and the shack, utilizing the proper timing, she used shroud to get into the little building. It was in there she was able to find some rope and a grappling hook, this was their counter measure to a fire, repel down the side of the castle, among other tools. 

She rotated around to the spot of the castle with the biggest lull in guard patrol, and using shroud ran up to the wall and through the grappling hook up. After snagging properly she began to walk up the wall, guards appearing at both ends. They turned and walked away. That is what made shroud such a good ability over other sheath abilities, anything you're holding onto benefits from the effects of shroud. The guards were unable to see the rope or grappling hook.

She got to the top and retrieved the rope and grappling hook and put it into the bag next to the bottle, the metal part on the outside to prevent clanking. Now she had to roam the castle she would drop shroud in very dark places to recover a bit of her mana since she was wearing black armor. 

Vixen was making her way upwards to where the lords bedroom would be, but while she was waiting for some guards to pass by she overheard some of their conversation. 

"The lord is working late again??!"

"He does have enemies. I guess he thinks doing this will keep him ahead."

"Yea maybe, but the drinking he does while doing it will be the death of him."

'Quite right you are,' thought Vixen.