The two women took a detour. Forcibly picking up an additional member for this operation.

The man was thrown over the martials shoulder without even being asked his opinion.

Arriving at the governor’s palace the male was silently urged to put all visible guards to sleep. Doing as he was told the mind-mage began to cry like a child.

Dragging the crying man along, the women nudged him whenever it was time to put someone to sleep.

The man was dropped in front of the governor's office.

Striding into the office of the governor, past the unconscious guards, the two women were met with a glamorously dressed and heavily made-up man with more muscle-mass than the two females’ combined total mass.

“How may I help you?” the man asked in a friendly manner.

“I did not kill any of your guards when they attacked me, so pay up!” the Thunder of Insanity spoke her honest demand.

“But before we discuss that matter, we would like to hear of your loyalties, pretty please!” the Civilised Terror added to the confusion of the poor governor.

“I fear I do not quite understand your demand!” the governor started to show concern.

“Yeah, me neither!” the small woman added, losing her wide grin, and incredulously looked at her companion.

“I just wanted to know if I have reason to protect the governor’s life, in the likely event he refuses to follow the demands of my overenthusiastic friend!” the martial explained, with a friendly grin.

Gulping heavily the governor stood up, proudly walked around the massive desk full of documents and decorations. As he stood in front of his desk he declared his conviction: “I stand and will forever stand loyal to the queen-mother. If the crazy usurper has sent her assassins after me to scare me into submission, she is even less suited to run a country than I already expected!”

“Good, very good. Now give my friend a few hundred Jash and we will be on our way!” the taller woman happily stated while applauding the governor.

The other woman had utter confusion written all over her face, took the money and left wondering what in the world just happened.

The utterly befuddled governor had a small chat about treason before being left alone.

“As proof of my intentions, I will kill those assassins you talked about! For free!” Mellde declared while leaving the governor’s office. Happily, yet gracefully waving her hand in farewell.

 

---

 

As the woman left the office a smile crept on the governor’s lips.

Seven people stepped out of the shadows, seemingly coming out of nowhere. They took their default positions around the room.

“Get me Ergan! I want him to track their every move!” the governor demanded of the shadow-guards.

One among the seven stepped back into the shadow and disappeared.

“Would it not have been easier to let us fight?” the leader of the guards voiced her concern.

“We are not watching them out of suspicion! We are watching to check how much damage they cause! And to get a feel for our new ally's capabilities!” the governor gently answered his protector’s troubles.

Aside from the commander none of the guards showed their confusion.

“We could have easily defeated the two of them!” the guard-captain declare.

“For what purpose?” the governor asked a simple question.

“To protect the governor!?” it took the fighter a few seconds before she could answer the politician’s question.

“I am neither dead nor hurt, so my protection was perfect! Besides, how many casualties would be needed to take them down?” after making a play on words, the governor asked another question.

“If the mindfucker outside were to join!? At least two dead!” the guard responded after making a rough calculation.

“They were that strong?” it was the governor’s time to be shocked.

“That is why I advised against letting them do as they please! Had they been assassins, I would not have been able to guarantee the governor’s survival after they stepped into the office!” the concerned protector informed her employee.

“Then I am all the more pleased with not having antagonised them! Having gained them as allies instead, may very well turn out as the best decision of my life!” the shocked and slightly afraid governor was increasingly pleased with his decision.

The guard returned, escorting a mountain of fat through the door.

“How may I be of service!” the mountain of fat asked, exhausted from the exertion of walking through the halls of this vast mansion.

“I want to watch how our new friends fare against the queen’s fanatics!” the governor commanded.

 

---

 

Picking up the still crying mind-mage, the martial forced him to check the loyalties of every single person in the palace.

Before they went to weed out the assassins, they visited the front door of the palace.

“What crazy concoction of a plan do we have to expect this time?” the destructor asked as she was enjoying the view over the city.

“One that makes sure of the queen’s demise!” the smiling woman answered in a friendly tone.

Responding with a sigh the destructor followed her two co-conspirators, without even knowing what the short-term goal was.

“Do you know what they can do?” the martial asked her male companion as they arrived at their destination.

“If I go in too deep they will know we are here!” the mind-mage, who stopped crying at one point, informed them of his worries.

“They most certainly already know!” the destructor shot back.

“I was able to hide our approach from their mindfucker so they should not!” the unwilling participator rejected the notion, pride could be heard in his voice.

“Then I will go in alone, you deal with the mindfucker while being protected by Ella!” the martial declared.

The door was flying through the room. A barrier set up around a table of four stopped the door and prevented it from doing any damage.

Half of the humanoids protected by the barrier plopped out of existence and shortly after reappeared close to the martial. The other two remained under the protective dome. While one seemed to be occupied with reinforcing the barrier, the other likely did not even realize what was happening around her.

The martial and her two adversaries proceeded to show a beautiful dance. Whenever the martial slashed or stabbed one of her limbs or joints at one of the assassins they blinked out of existence just to appear at another spot around the martial, from which they thrust their hands at the martial. The assassins’ attacks were all stopped or deflected by small barriers close to the martials’ skin.

When focussing on the martial, one could see how she twisted her body in almost impossible angles while retaining full control over her footing. Without such high control over her body, the two assassins would have likely never come under threat.

But instead of not being under threat at all, sometimes the assassins were even too slow in invoking their teleportation. Whenever that happened a sheet of the invisible barrier formed between the martial's attack and the squishy flesh of her adversary. Most of these barriers shattered, yet bought enough time for the porter to port away.

The martial steered the fight in a way that the three dancers came ever close to the table.

Realizing the plan of the female intruder, the two front-liners upped their efforts and increased the frequency of attacks.

This had the adverse effect as the martial adapted to the increased speed. On one hand, this led to an increased frequency of close calls, which in turn increased the stress on the barrier-producing male. And on the other hand the speed at which they approached the barrier increased.

When they reached the barrier, the teleporting duo had quite the collection of shallow wounds, from when even the barriers were not able to buy enough time. Forcing the porters to dodge.

The martial was able to use every ninth attack to attack the barrier, while the rest kept the porters at bay.

This was enough to increase the stress on the barrier-creating opponent, and a few seconds later the first porter lost his head.

The barrier-dome broke twice but was re-erected mere milliseconds later. Not giving the martial nor her comrades time to act on this opening.

Whenever the dome broke the martial invaded a few steps before being pushed out by the extending barrier. Yet at no point did she lose her balance.

The dance ended when the second porter was stabbed through her heart with an elbow.

While the martial solely concentrated on destroying the barrier over and over again, the time it took the barrier-creator to recreate the barrier gradually increased.

Then the destructor saw her chance and fired icicles at each of the remaining adversaries’ heads and hearts.

Neither of the two was able to dodge.

When the head of the female mind mage exploded, the male one started to stir again.

“I thought you said you had her under control?” Ella lamented.

“I never said such a thing! Just because I can hide us from her, while she does not know of our existence, does not mean I can easily beat her in a mind-battle! I was mostly busy to keep my life from being sniffed out!” the mind-mage explained.

“Didn’t Siep train you properly?” the destructor asked her comrade with a touch of disgust.

“That is not a fair comparison, Ella! You cannot know since you never had a disciple, but there is simply no way to teach experience!” the martial jumped to the rescue of their unwilling co-conspirator.

“I do now! And all of them are geniuses!” Ella proudly bragged about her disciples.

“Really?! But where are they?” Mellde asked in confusion.

“With Bae obviously! Can’t leave her unprotected!” the small woman proudly declared.

“We were not trained to be fighters we were trained to be researchers!” the mind-mage finally got to state his own defence.

“Bla Bla Bla! As a founding member of Mantis you should be proficient in fighting by now!” Ella was not ready to let her companion off the hook that easily.

“Yeah, and that is the only reason I was not immediately shredded by that one!” the male stated while pointing at the female with a caved-in head. He wanted to cry at the quixotic worldview of his female company, silently wishing he knew why they even invaded the palace in the first place.

“By the way, why did you go to the governor to ask for money? You know full well that policing is left to the martial organisations!” the martial changed the topic to distract her friend and lighten her mood.

“Oh!? I was so happy I completely forgot! We should visit these organisations and demand money from them too!” after thinking about it for a few split seconds Ella suggested the idea, she thought it genius others would likely think it crazy.

The mood of the conversation got light so quickly after the fight, that the mind mage went back to crying this time he was light-headed and wished to faint. Never again would he agree to accompany one of Mantis’s vice-leaders.

The man was utterly unable to comprehend how The Silent Company was able to handle her deputies.

 

---

 

“They are eerily efficient!” the governor observed with a shocked face.

“Only the mindfucker is sub-par! I wonder where they picked him up!” the fat creature wondered aloud.

“Only two dead?” the governor asked for confirmation of his protector's earlier prediction.

“At least! One can never predict the outcome of a fight with absolute certainty!” the female defended her reputation.

“Would they stand a chance against the queen?” the governor asked for another prediction.

“No! To even have a chance at that, they would need at least one master in the arts of mindfuck, one combat healer and one coordinator!” the woman proclaimed.

 

---

 

In the vast northeastern regions of the continent a powerful and ancient existence was content with how their little experiment was proceeding. Soon their fosterling would wake up.

It would be a glorious day when the biggest controversy of the millennium could finally be solved. Even better itself would be the one to do so by showing actual proof for either side of the argument. The prestige would be immeasurable.