“That’s stupid,” Riki said with a hint of a smile on her face.

“Then let’s come up with a plan,” Desmond countered. “The first thing we have to do is deal with Ace. Do you think she will come after me again?”

“Probably not, at least not anytime soon,” Riki replied. “Well, not unless there is a good opportunity.”

“Then we give her an opportunity?”

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Riki continued. “Her other target is Queen Morgan, and there is only one chance to get at her in the near future.”

“The city's 215th founding day festival,” Desmond said as he filled in the dots. “Will she still target her, even after she failed to kill me?”

“Ace only follows orders,” Riki said with confidence. “She will be there. There is no one left with authority in the city to give her new instructions.”

Desmond lifted an eyebrow at that but held back from saying anything.

“We can target her at the gala, ball, or whatever the nobles call it that they hold every year,” Riki said. “Queen Morgan will have to show her face there.”

“Sounds like a great night out,” Desmond replied. “I’m already looking forward to seeing you in one of those sexy dresses.”

“I’m an assassin,” Riki stated. “I’m not going to be attending.”

“I can’t possibly show up without a date,” Desmond joked. “They would laugh me out of the building. Think of it this way. What better way to infiltrate, than to be invited?”

“I can think of several better ways,” Riki said while rolling her eyes. “Besides, how would we even get put on the list for an event like this?”

“It’s not that exclusive,” Desmond replied. “We are both powerful unaffiliated hunters. If we show interest then we would get invited right away. Or I could just ask Garrick. He would no doubt be happy to send people in his place. Now that I think about it, that is probably the easiest route. I’ll make sure he puts both our names on the list.”

“You know an assassin is not supposed to show up on any list, right?” Riki asked clearly trying to find a way out of going.

“Yeah but we are there to save the Queen,” Desmond replied. “No assassination needed. Come on, don’t make me go in there with those stuck-up nobles alone.” Desmond didn’t care about dealing with the nobles, he just wanted to see Riki dressed up. Riki was a stunning beauty, but she was also a bit of a recluse, so this would be something new.

“Fine,” Riki said with a sigh. “But if I punch one of them and cause an incident then it’s your fault.”

“I shall accept that responsibility,” Desmond said as he held up his hand like he was taking an oath.

Riki scoffed. “We will need to stay close to the Queen when she does arrive at the event. Given her paranoid nature, she will probably only show up near the end. Ace’s best opportunity to target her will be during the event itself where the Queen is not surrounded by her guards. I know you have fought her once already but I still have to warn you about her illusions. You can’t trust your eyes when you are fighting her.”

“Yeah, I know,” Desmond stated. “I have a countermeasure in place for that now.”

“Does that have something to do with your eyes?” Riki asked as she looked up at him.

“Wait, how did you-” Was this another one of her weird intuition things?

“They’re blue,” Riki said as she cut him off. “A light blue that seems to almost glow. It’s pretty obvious there is something magical going on with them. Just so you know, Ace can trick most types of magic sight.”

“Yeah, I know,” Desmond replied. “So my eyes are blue now?” Desmond knew that your eyes tended to glow when you used magic through them, but changing your passive eye color was something new.

“Yup, but don’t trust your eyes too much,” Riki said. “She will try to find a way to fool them. Also, if possible I want to try and take Ace alive.”

“That won’t be easy,” Desmond replied. “Why go through the effort?”

“That is,” Riki said before she hesitated for a moment. She took a deep breath and then continued. “I don’t want Black Hand to control my life anymore. I finally have my freedom from them, and I don’t want to dedicate my life to revenge. That is, if I focus on revenge then it’s like they are still controlling me. My actions would still be dictated by them in a way. But at the same time, I want revenge, and I want to remove Black Hand from the Empire.”

There was a moment of silence after this as Riki collected her thoughts. In a way Desmond understood. For so long he had focused on his own revenge, that could he really claim his life was his own? He had expended so many years in that singular pursuit and in the end, what did it change? His family was still dead! He didn’t regret his choice and he would do it again if need be, but he would have been much happier if he just never needed to seek revenge in the first place.

“This is where Ace represents an opportunity,” Riki continued. “She hates them even more than I do. If we can free her like how you freed me. Then Black Hand would have something much more terrifying to worry about. She was also the closest thing I had to a friend in that organization.”

Somehow, Desmond felt that the last part was playing a large role in Riki’s decision. It would be dangerous, but if she wanted to help a friend then he would do his best to assist.

“We can try,” Desmond replied. “But if push comes to shove, we will have to be ready to kill her.”

“I know,” Riki stated with resolve in her voice.

Desmond took out an amber-colored potion from his storage and handed it to Riki.

“This is?” Riki asked.

“I had been meaning to give this to you for a while now. I call it a Revival Potion,” Desmond said. “But I don’t really know what it does, just that Ben went for this when he was about to die. Only use it as a last resort.”

“I can’t take something this valuable,” Riki said as she tried to hand it back.

“Keep it,” Desmond replied as he refused to take the potion back. “I have another one. Logically, it makes sense to spread them out. We can use them one each other if the need arises.”

Desmond explained giving the potion in a logical framework since he knew this would get Riki to accept it. In reality, he just didn’t want Riki to die. So giving her a life-saving treasure just made sense.

***

Desmond and Riki continued to discuss plans and talk about mundane topics until they were interrupted by a knock at the door. Desmond got up to answer the door. To his surprise, when Desmond opened the door Richard was standing there with the same dead fish expression he always had on.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” Richard said in his flat voice.

“Well, that is,” Desmond mumbled. When he turned around to look back into the living room Riki was already gone. “Of course, you’re not interrupting. Come in, I will get you some tea.”

“Thanks, but no need,” Richard replied. “I’m hoping to finish this up quickly.”

“I’m guessing you’re here about the attack that happened then?” Desmond asked. “I didn’t know you were part of the enforcer team.”

“I’m not,” Richard stated. “The enforcer who handles a case is supposed to be one tier above the primary plaintiff. But since you’re calamity class now, we have no one available who meets the requirements. So I have to do it.” Richard’s expressionless face somehow looked un-amused, but Desmond might have just been seeing things.

“Sorry about that,” Desmond replied. “I was going to go to the Lodge and do the report but things just kept getting in the way.”

“No worries,” Richard said. “I brought all the report documents to you.” Richard reached into his bag and took out a large stack of papers which he then set down on a side table with a loud thump. “I will of course still need a verbal report of what happened.”

Desmond sighed. He was the victim here, so why was he being punished with paperwork? Desmond started the tale from the beginning, only leaving out the existence of his soul sight.

***

As Desmond reached the top of the stairs he could hear someone in the bathroom. It would seem that Riki had ditched him to go get a bath. A wise choice, he would have done the same.

Richard didn’t end up taking much of his time, the man never was one to talk a lot. He just wanted an account of events. If the assassin was a member of the Lodge then there would be some type of follow-up investigation, though Desmond didn’t expect anything to come from it.

It was almost impossible to get as strong as the assassin was without working with the Lodge to at least some degree, so they would probably have records of her. But Desmond expected that she wouldn’t show up at a Lodge again until well after they resolved their dispute personally.

Richard did say before leaving that he still expected all the proper paperwork to be done. Which was going to be a real pain. The whole thing was honestly just a bunch of security theater because the incident happened in a city and several civilians had died. So the Lodge had to put on a front like they were on top of it even though they could do almost nothing to stop an assassin of this tier.

Desmond honestly preferred how the Lodge handled issues out in the Expanse. Out there they would just directly decide fault and punishment without all this bureaucracy. Not to mention that there was far less paperwork.

Desmond entered the master bedroom. As he stood there, staring at the floral bed, he honestly couldn't muster the energy to be angry anymore. There just hadn’t been the time to get a new one yet. He would put it on the list for tomorrow.

Desmond moved the frilly drapes to the side so he could lay down. The bed creaked and groaned since he was still in most of his armor. Desmond didn’t know if he was rooting for the bed to collapse or not. On one hand, if the bed broke it would solve his bed problem, but on the other hand, he would be forced to go find a new bed right now when all he wanted to do was lay down. In the end, the bed held.

Desmond closed his eyes. He wanted to experiment with his soul a little while Riki was in the bath. He would swear that Riki could spend hours in there, so he did have some time to burn.