Mars didn’t waste time and immediately said,

“I need to know everything about the villa Nour Coldwind is currently living in. I’m talking number of windows, entrances, exits, schematics if you have them actually- Oh and I need all of this to be done discretely of course.”

After Mars finished speaking a long silence enveloped the trio. 

The old woman still had the same expression from before, just slightly more contemplative. But just as Ambrose was beginning to worry that Mars had said something wrong the old woman finally responded,

“I’ll be honest friends, the information you want isn’t difficult to find” she said unblinking, “In fact I can provide you with what you desire today. However we here at The Fly on the Wall deal in the business of information for a price. Before we continue, I must ask do you have the necessary funds?”

“Yes ma'am, he’s paying.” said Mars while pointing to Ambrose.

Ambrose’s face assumed an ugly expression at Mars’s words before he begrudgingly dug in his pants pocket to pull out a rather sizable gold pouch.

 With a twitch of his eye and a pained gulp he sat the pouch on the desk in front of the old woman.

“Hmm… this seems to be sufficient payment” said the old woman while putting the pouch away. Now take a seat, I’ll give you the information you want now.

Without further ado the old woman began describing the location and description of Nour’s place of residence. 

She included key details such as the number of rooms, names of staff working on the premises, and even what color the inner court walls were.

As Mars and Ambrose sat and absorbed the information thrown at them, they couldn’t help but be in awe at the magnitude of ‘The Fly on the Wall’s’ intel gathering capabilities. 

They themselves had attempted several stakeouts of Nour’s property in the past only to end up bamboozled at the last minute with no intel to show for it.

“Is there any way I can get the innards of his villa on paper?” asked Mars inquisitively.

The old woman mumbled a few words before getting up and disappearing through an inconspicuous door near the back wall. 

Mars could only assume she was fetching what he asked for, but he felt even if she wasn’t the mission was already a success.

‘Did you get all that master?’ he asked seemingly to himself in his head.

After two breaths of time Mars heard a response that seemed to reverberate from the depths of his psyche,

‘Yes, yes, excellent work’ Lucy’s voice answered in his head, ‘once you have the map move forward with the next step’

Mars slightly nodded to himself just as the old woman walked back in the room with a rolled-up scroll in tow.

“I believe this should suffice” said the old woman as she passed the scroll to Mars.

“Yes, yes thank you” mumbled Mars in thanks as he stood up from the chair.

After getting everything, he asked for Mars decided not to prolong their stay at the ‘Fly on the Wall’. 

He politely bid farewell to the old intel merchant before leaving the building with Ambrose in tow.

Now that they had all the information they needed, it was time to proceed to the most crucial step…

Right now, the entire city of Port Blackwood was covered in inky darkness.

 It was late in the night and not a soul was awake, yet a collectively tense atmosphere still somehow surrounded the town.

The dark night that the town was experiencing was out of the norm for it’s usually lively nightlife. In fact, it would be no stretch to say that the calm and silent darkness around town was unsettling even.

 It felt like the night had a certain danger to it as mysterious and ominous vibes permeated it’s tenebrous.

Just on the outskirts of the northern part of town, the cacophony of many heavy-footed men marching in unison resounded out through the underbrush.

“Halt!” ordered Mars with a raise of his gloved hand to the troops behind him.

At once the lightly armored feet of the 150 mercenaries under his command immediately came to a halt as they awaited further instructions.

Their forces were nestled just against the tree line that overlooked Nours’ estate and although the canopy of trees hid even their visages, tiny slivers of moonlight from above managed to provide them some light for seeing and traversing the terrain.

As Mars looked back at the men under his command, he was pleased to find  his steely gaze matched by their own.

 Most of them here he knew by name with only a few new members, yet he’d seen what they could do in combat already.

And although he and Ambrose were the only mages in their mercenary team, the other members were veritable battle-hardened fighters. 

Most of them had some ex military experience while the others had the vicious combat abilities that only a hard knock life could grant.

Just within their line of vision and no more than 60 feet away was the 3-story villa where Nour lived.

 At this moment the villa appeared desolate with not one light illuminating it, but Mars knew better.

“M-Mars wait! This is insane we can’t-”interjected Ambrose from his left.

“Hold steady for my command!” announced Mars unbothered and authoritatively.

‘Master are you ready?’ he then asked telepathically.

‘Yes, carry out the next step of the plan. Attack.’

With his orders now confirmed Mars walked to the forefront of his assault force and stood ramrod straight as he stared at his soon to be battleground.

“Attack!” he screamed as he released his peak Intermediate mage aura and pure red flames erupted from his hands.