An Owl's Rise

A couple of weeks passed as Evelyn and her companions continued their stay in the Miris Sect.

Outwardly, the five of them were counting to escort Maeve while she got adjusted to her new life in the Miris Sect. Yet, this was only to keep their cover. Whenever they had free time, their party worked to further their own goals.

Slowly but surely, Lucia fed information about the imprisoned owls to Osvaldo and Uriah without either of the two ever realizing who she was.

The two Deamhain Sect members surely believed that their own authority and investigative skills were bringing them this intel, but everything was going according to Lucia's designs.
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"It seems that've just about gathered all of them. It's time for us to put the last phase of our plan in motion." Evelyn said, a malicious grin on her face.

Now that Osvaldo and Uriah had essentially bullied the members of the Miris Sect into selling the owls that were being held captive, they had played their role, and it was time for them to disappear.

"Evelyn, you will be going to this location tomorrow, while Aralee and Bylur will be going here." Lucia said, handing maps to the three of them.

On each map warehouses were marked in out of the way locations within the second walled layer of the Miris Sect's capital.

These two locations were where Evelyn would ambush Uriah, and Aralee and Bylur would ambush Osvaldo respectively.

"And what will you two be doing?" Bylur asked.

"As we discussed originally, we will make sure that our group appears in public to avoid any suspicion." Rehni responded.

"Yes, I've scheduled to have some sparing matches with the core members of the Miris Sect. Of course, all of us will be in attendance." Lucia said, waving her hand and creating illusory clones of Evelyn, Bylur, and Aralee.

The top brass of the Sect had been more than happy to agree to Lucia's proposal.

Word about her powerful light magic had spread from Meave to the majority of the Sect's upper echelons. It was rare to have an opportunity to practice against someone that wielded an uncommon type of magic at a high level.

"Will you be alright keeping up the illusions while fighting?" Aralee asked in concern.

"That shouldn't be an issue. The only ones that I should be sparing with are mid-tier mages, to low tier arcanists. As far as anyone knows, I'm just a peak mage. No one stronger should want to actively participate. Any the only ones that I think could give me any trouble are Ellison and Vivienne."

Lucia was confident that she could handle sparing with anyone weaker than her while maintaining the illusion of Evelyn, Bylur, and Aralee.

There was also very little chance either of the two strongest members of the Miris Sect would be making an appearance. Both of them were busy dealing with Osvaldo and Uriah's forceful acquisition of the Sect's captured owls.

"I just wish that we did not need to be crammed into cages for who knows how long." Aralee said with sigh.

"Sorry, but it's the best way to get our targets to drop their guard. I fed them intel that three owls were going to be moved to a hidden bunker tomorrow to avoid the Deamhain Sect's interference. With two owls being held at one location, and one at another. This should separate them and lure them to your locations. Of course, they'll find the owls that they are looking for." Lucia said, a devious smirk on her face.

Naturally, the supposedly imprisoned owls would actually be Evelyn, Bylur, and Aralee.

The cages and restraints that they would be in were only for show. Without the normal magical enhancements, the chains and cages might as well have been made out of paper.

"There's no way to guarantee that Uriah will come to me though, right?" Evelyn asked.

"No, but it is likely. I made sure to stress that security around where Bylur and Aralee will be is tighter. Plus, I believe that Osvaldo will want to go to the location with two owls in it. Being the superior of the two, he will want to gain the most prestige by personally collecting the greatest number of owls."

Lucia's explanation helped to calm Evelyn down.

While she was not afraid of dealing with Osvaldo, a battle between them was likely to be messy. Plus, she wanted to personally kill the man she held responsible for the death of her parents in this world.

With their discussion coming to an end, the five members of Evelyn's party headed off to their own room to get some rest.

They had done everything that they could to prepare for their upcoming operation, but there were still an untold number of risks involved. One slipup could have the entire Miris Sect, or perhaps even the Tyrannis union as a whole, come crashing down on top of them.

Still, the rewards for their efforts would be immense. Not only would they eliminate two operatives from the Deamhain Sect and save several captured owls, but also cause untold friction within the Union. In the best-case scenario, a massive civil war could even break out.

"Though I don't think that will really happen. Most likely the Miris Sect will end up slowly destroyed." Evelyn muttered to herself, imagining all of the possibilities that come from killing Osvaldo and Uriah.

Tomorrow she would finally strike the first blow against the nation that was the root cause for nearly all of her misery during her second life.

They had killed her parents, subjected her to unimaginable tortures in the name of experimentation, killed one of her closest friends, and nearly annihilated the place she had come to call home.

Perhaps she should have abandoned revenge and sought to keep her distance to protect herself and those close to her. Yet Evelyn could not.

She believed that so long as she let people keep taking from her without recourse, that they would continue to do so until she had nothing left.

Also, as immoral as it might have been, she wanted those that had caused her so much pain, to suffer as well. To know even a fraction of the agony she had experienced before meeting their ends.