An Owl's Rise

'When he said procession, I imagined something a little grander.'

Edgar had led Evelyn and her companions around twenty minutes away from the Association building to three carriages waiting on the side of one of the city's main roads.

From the way things had been built up, Evelyn was expecting a far larger and more grandiose party would be traveling with the young mistress of the Taidale Family.

However, reality was far different from what she had been anticipating. The carriages themselves did not show any wear on the outside, but they were incredibly plain. Having no defining marks whatsoever. Evelyn figured that they should at least have a family crest to show affiliation.

There was only one coachman to each carriage and two guards around each of them.

Evelyn was able to tell that the guards were all at the mage rank and highly skilled. Their vigilance was easy to see, and anyone could tell that they were experienced bodyguards. Still there were fewer than she had been expecting.

'My wind magic can't penetrate any of the carriages. There is no way to know how many people are in them.' Evelyn thought, hoping to learn the exact number of the people they would be traveling with.

Unfortunately, the more she examined the situation, the clearer it became that something more than a simple trip was going on. Her instincts were blaring that they had gotten involved with something dangerous.

"Lucia, does this seem a bit fishy to you?" Evelyn whispered, using magic to prevent the sound from reaching anyone else's ears.

"I'm afraid so. There are only a handful of reasons a person of such prominence would be traveling in such an anonymous manner with this little protection, and none of them are good. I checked into the forces the Taidale Family has under their control and found that they have over three hundred mage rank individuals and at least a half dozen at the arcanist rank.

There should be at least three times the number of guards from what I know."

There was nothing either Evelyn or Lucia could do at this point though that would not set their plans back. Quitting now for no reason other than having a bad feeling would make it impossible for them to continue using the Mercenary Association.

Of course, neither of them really cared about their image as mercenaries, it was just the most convenient cover for sneaking into the Tyrannis Union. Any other identity would take them a far greater amount of time to fabricate.

"I understand that it would be rude to ask any of you to walk like common guards. If you do not have your own, flying treasures can be lent to you once we are outside the city." Edgar said, as the carriages were briskly prepared to depart.

"Thank you, but that will not be necessary." Lucia replied curtly.

Edgar nodded his head, and soon the carriages began moving under some sort of magical power since they did not have any beasts of burden attached to them.

Surprisingly they did not head for the northern exit, which was the closest to their destination, but to the city's eastern exit.

The path they took was fairly roundabout as well, and it took them around twice as long as it should have to reach the gates.

Nevertheless, Evelyn and her companions were only hired guards, it was not their place to question where their charge wanted to go.

Once they were out of the city and out of sight of the walls, the carriages pulled off the side of the road and all of the guards and Edgard jumped on and held onto the railing on the sides.

"We are going to begin flying now. Please take out your treasures." Edgar said, acting as the liaison for their party.

Doing as they were asked, Lucia, Bylur, and Rehni pulled out their flying disks, while Evelyn and Aralee cast flying magic on themselves.

'I wish I did not have to keep up this charade.'

To keep up appearances, Evelyn and Aralee were casting their magic by creating formations with their hands and chanting the name of the spells. While it was not unheard of for humans to have full control of their magical energy, most relied solely on strict spells to conjure magical phenomenon.

Thanks to Lucia and the books Mason had left behind to Evelyn, they had learned quite a few spells correlating to their affinities that humans used.

After she began floating in the air, Evelyn watched in amazement as the carriages began to transform.

Solid panels on the sides extended out like wings and the wheels folded in and began spinning rapidly like propellers.

To her surprise, these carriages hovered over the ground and were quickly ascending higher.

'Wait, that's float stone. I see, so that's how it works.'

When the underside of the carriages became visible, Evelyn recognized the material she once needed to evolve to the awakened rank. Melisandre had told her that humans monopolized float stone for flying vehicles, but this was her first time seeing any.

"Please stay around the carriages and intercept anything that approaches. I'll leave what formation you all take up to you, Miss Lucia. You and your students are clearly powerful and skilled, so I trust your experience and instincts." Edgar said as they prepared to set off.

He knew that ordering them around in a draconian manner would only cause problems, so he was allowing them freedom in the way they arranged themselves.

Nodding her head, Lucia used her eyes to point out where she wanted Evelyn, Bylur, Rehni, and Aralee to station themselves. There was now no doubt in her mind that a very real threat was after the young mistress of the Taidale Family and was taking this mission completely serious.

So long as they did their job well, it would undoubtedly allow them to get into the Tyrannis Union without any difficulties.

A minute after the carriages reached a height of two hundred meters off of the ground, they began moving forwards.

Except they did not follow any of the nearby roads, but instead cut across the wilderness. Another blatant sign that they did not want anyone following them.

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