The next day Alison and Maya found themselves in a dark alley near the stage constructed in the gallows.
"Do you know how to set up smoke stones for remote activation?" Maya questioned.
Alison crossed her arms.
"Yeah. Totally. Absolutely."
"Fine, I’ll handle it." She sighed. "You need to create a distraction for those goons guarding the stage to get them out of here."
"How am I supposed to distract them?"
"You’re the guard - you should know what will get them riled up."
Alison silently observed the two burly men guarding the rickety wooden structure.
"They’re here only to keep the stage safe, right?" At Maya’s nod she added: "I have an idea."
Alison confidently strolled up to the stage, not paying attention to the glares she received from the guards.
"Hey little girl, get lost or things will get ugly." One of them barked.
She ignored the warning, slipped something between the crooked boards and took off running.
Both the guards sprinted after Alison, and once they disappeared from view Maya emerged from her hiding spot.
"That was way easier than I thought it would be..." She mumbled to herself, and jumped onto the stage.
Installing the smokestones wasn’t particularly difficult, she just had to put them under the boards in a way that they won’t be visible. The remote activation part was even simpler - just scribble a single rune next to one of them, and she was done.
She wasn’t a mage by any means, but everyone in the Pit knew a few magical tricks, and remote activation was a perfect example of this. You only needed to remember one symbol and it’s very simple principle of operation:
You need a pair of activation runes with an indicator rune to differentiate between pairs, once they’re ready all you need to do is deliver kinetic force to one of them to produce faint magic signal with the other.
The amount of magic was nowhere near what you needed to fully activate a magic circle, but it was enough to use things like smokestones, which needed only a proverbial spark. She only needed to activate one, since the smoke produced by them was magical in nature and would activate the other stones on its own.
When she made sure everything was in order she dipped into the alley she came from - and not a moment too soon, as Alison just ran out from the opposite side.
The guards were nowhere to be seen, but they would catch up eventually, so Maya waved her over and opened a secret passage into an empty building nearby.
Soon enough, there was no trace of the two saboteurs in the gallows.
"I can’t believe something like that worked, If I was still a part of the organisation I would have fired them on the spot." Maya shook her head. "How did you know both of them would start chasing you?"
"I didn’t, I was planning on circling around once I lost the first one and taunting the other - I guess we were lucky they were so stupid."
"By the way, what the hell did you put inside of the stage?"
"Your joking..." Maya stared at her with wide eyes.
"No." Alison shrugged. "I just had to make sure they didn’t see what it was."
Maya was silent for a bit, and then exploded with laughter.
"Oh man, I can’t believe our organisation has gotten this bad!"
"That’s actually something I wanted to ask you about, black rose’s top operatives are extremely skilled, but it seems the low level grunts are very bad at their job - why?"
"Father’s paranoia got worse two years ago, and he ordered a purge in our ranks - anyone who wasn’t an essential member, but had an above average level of cunning was ’dealt with’ and replaced by a loyal idiot."
"How is he planning to take over the city with an army of halfwits?" Alison frowned.
"Beats me, everyone in the upper ranks knew that the purge was a terrible idea, but no one dared to say a word since it would be likely the last opinion they would ever express."
Alison nodded and changed the subject:
"What will you do after this is over?"
"Dunno, probably disappear for a while and then try to start a new life in the overcity."
"...have you thought about joining the guard?"
Maya looked at her in disbelief.
"You’d want a serial killer in city guard?"
"I can give you a job and a chance to rehabilitate, or throw you into prison for everything you’ve done." Alison pointed out. "Besides, you have a lot of skills that would be extremely useful for the Verdant Watch."
"Even if I said yes, do you have the authority to recruit me? I thought you were a street level guard."
"I am." She nodded. "But once I finish this job I will become a lieutenant, and will be able to pick my own team, including new recruits.
"I..." Maya paused. "I’ll think about it."
Alison sat in a corner and started sharpening her sword to kill time.
"That’s a very well made weapon for a regular guard." Maya commented.
She didn’t get the chance to inspect it before, but now she could see it in full glory - while it wasn’t especially ornate, the handle was definitely custom made, leading her to believe the entire thing was as well. Its blade had a strange shine to it as well, hinting at the fact that it wasn’t made of regular steel.
"I won it in a tournament."
"You have tournaments in the overcity?"
"Not usually." Alison shook her head. "It was a special event meant to foster cooperation between Mountainfall and the Order, a competition between our guards and their squires"
"No, I placed second - in the finals I fought against someone much more experienced, and suffered a devastating defeat. Theoretically, only the first place was supposed to receive a reward, but sir Nickolas decided that I deserve one as well, on account of being the youngest competitor and beating almost everyone."
"Sir Nickolas? As in the leader of the Order?"
"Yeah, the whole tournament was his idea, so he came to watch it. I think I impressed him, because he wanted me to join the Order, but Last Sylara scolded him, so he offered to tutor me a bit instead."
"Are you secretly some sort of a chosen one?" Maya snorted.
"Hardly, it’s all the result of the countless hours I’ve put into training." Alison huffed.
"You must be very popular among other guards."
"If you intend to mock me then this conversation is over."
"I wasn’t being sarcastic." Maya defended herself. "You’re cute and capable, every reasonable person would kill to court someone like you."
"C-cute?" The guard was blushing.
’oh my, have I found her weak point?’
Maya decided to check.
She kneeled in front of the surprised guard, locked eyes with her and cupped her cheek.
"Is the tough and stern warrior weak to flirtation and compliments?" Maya giggled quietly.
At this point Alison’s face was almost as red as her hair, and she struggled to string two words together.
Maya came even closer and whispered in her ear:
"I’m going to have so much fun with you." She blew air on Alison’s ear.
The guard shivered and squeaked, but she didn’t dare to move, completely unsure how to respond.
Finally Maya stood up and smiled.
"Alright, that’s enough for today, since I don’t want you passing out, but don’t think I’m done with you yet."
Once Alison calmed down a little, she looked away and said:
"That was harassment."
"If it made you uncomfortable I won’t do it again." Maya promised. "I might be a criminal, but I’m not an asshole."
Alison didn’t respond for a while.
"It was a bit too much." She admitted and then added quietly. "...but I didn’t hate it."
"Well, now I have to join the guard - how else am I going to keep teasing you? You’re very sly Alison, I would have never expected a plot like that from you."
"Don’t you have anything to do?" Alison asked in an exasperated voice.
"Nope, my weapons are enchanted to clean and sharpen themselves, and I never got the chance to develop any hobbies considering my father was hellbent on turning me into a perfect assassin."
"Really? Nothing?" Alison looked slightly surprised. "Even I have things I like to do in spare time."
"Like what, training?" Maya chuckled.
"I paint and draw, if you must know."
"I... did not expect that.
"Someone told me that art and swordsmanship share have many things in common, so I picked it up." She shrugged. "To be clear I think it’s a stupid comparison now, but by the time I realised that I already started to enjoy it."
"Can I see your art?"
"I don’t have my sketchbook on me, but I can show you once we’re done with this mission."
"Are you inviting me home? Very bold."
Alison blushed, and internally cursed ever offering her a job, but she wasn’t going to go back on her word - this constant teasing was now a part of her life, for better or for worse.