Signs

West Borough, Williams Street.

They were already close to Empress Borough, where the nobles lived, so even with his simulated Invisibility, Abner did not dare fly straight there. He landed on a nearby street instead.

With Xio guiding him, they soon reached the house at number eight.

Abner stared at the house number for a long moment, a strange look on his face.

Xio had no idea what to make of it. She glanced around and asked, wary and puzzled, "Is something wrong?"

Abner came back to himself and shook his head. "It's nothing..." Except there might be a ruin from the Fourth Epoch beneath this house.

He took a deep breath and pushed the jumble of thoughts from his mind. Then he simulated an Apprentice's Door Opening ability and took Xio back into the mansion, with its front lawn and side garden.

The house had two floors, and its furniture was in disarray. No one seemed to have tended to it for a long time. The only candlelight in the entire house came from the servants' room on the left, where the person watching the house presumably slept.

They crossed the cluttered living room and descended the stairs into a spacious basement.

There were no gas pipes down here, but four metal candleholders were set into the walls. Xio had not lit them earlier for fear of being discovered, so the basement was pitch-black.

That was no obstacle for Abner. He activated the Ring of Light on his finger, and the space around them lit up.

Could the servant watching the house notice the light? That was no problem either. The moment they had entered, Abner had forced him into a "dream."

Abner did not immediately examine the Assassin lying on the floor, his condition unknown. Instead, he swept