~Part 3-1~          Immerak paced around on the stone floor of Zalmashu's castle. He was getting extremely irritated, not to mention impatient. He knew that Miral failed, he could feel it out of intuition. He didn't want to be the one to tell the secretive priest, lest he be fired or cursed. Curses were the only things he couldn't deal with. Anything else, but not curses. They had more than one magic making them up and usually it also involved something physical, which he was not quite as familiar with. Sure, he knew all the other magics, and then some, inside out and was a wiser man than Rezo in ways. That's how he learned that priests paid well. He was hired a few years before to help search for some statue, but Rezo and everything surrounding the famous Red Priest vanished without a trace shortly after his hired help was dispersed. That didn't concern him, though. He was just satisfied he and his brother were paid in full when the contract was signed. All that mattered was survival by means of taking random jobs that he was capable of carrying out. Someone entered the castle with clacking shoes.
    "Miral!" Immerak had his hand in his purple hair on the verge of pulling, " I can't believe you blew this! After all the trouble we went through to teach you a few tricks of ours and you didn't even use them?"
    The scantily clad, pink-haired woman lowered her head. That's right. She hadn't used any of their special magic. She wasn't a very good sorceress anyway, so it didn't matter much to her. She didn't want to go around killing people for money. But it was her profession and she had assassinated her share of important and common people. It seemed it was the only thing she was good at. Miral watched the man take in a deep breath and try to calm himself.
    "What went wrong?"
    She paused before answering, "Well, I presumed they'd all be asleep. Obviously I was wrong."
    Immerak did calm down slightly, "Obviously... but you have another chance. That girl must not remain alive! She knows we need the Hikari no Ken for our plans!"
    "But she doesn't know Zalmashu-san's plans, does she?"
    "No..." Immerak turned his back to her, "but she knows what we look like, and that could be dangerous... if she were to recognize any of us. We can't let anything jeopardize the mission!"
    "Okay, I'll try again, Immerak-san," Miral turned and walked towards the castle doors, "And what will I get in return for completing this little job?"
    "Little? Yeah," Immerak paused for a long time, "That is for Zalmashu-sama to decide. I'm only a hired hand, just as you are. Only I was placed in charge of getting the sword." he paused again, "You know I'm only doing this for money? I'd take off if I was paid before all this load of..."
    Miral spun to face his back, "Aren't you afraid that Zalmashu-san would punish you for that!?"
    He laughed quietly, "I've seen his 'powers' and they are nothing in comparison to mine. But I have morals. I will make an honest living by working, even if this is what I have to do."
    "You must be lying. Zalmashu's powers are truly strong! How can you say such nonsense?"
    "Don't puzzle yourself over it. I'm just saying that there are more powerful sorcerers in the world and you don't have to serve this one, unfortunately for me, I have no choice because I have no other talents than my magics and there doesn't seem to be much need for someone of my skill level around here. Zalmashu claims to need a powerful spell-caster. Who knows, maybe his powers are purely fictional."
    "Maybe, but I'm not going to sit around and find out. So where am I supposed to be going?" Miral asked. All her life she had taken chances, and fallen into deep holes she couldn't get out of, and she had finally developed the idea that maybe it wasn't such a good thing to keep taking risks like she had in the past. She learned from her mistakes, and she felt that Immerak would learn that as well, later anyway.
    "Beats me, you're a tracker, aren't you? You find them," Immerak walked toward a wall with a curtain and pulled it back, "They haven't gone very far, I can say that much." he entered a hidden room behind the red satin.
    "Feh," she made a face and left the castle. He seemed to have certain senses that she didn't, and it was clear he had some unusual powers to say the least. This was definitely turning into a bad job. She wasn't sure if she could handle the entire group she was after... and did she need to get rid of them too? Since they had seen her when they weren't supposed to? She realized she should have asked when she had the chance. Too late now. Miral began her way back to the inn to try to track the party. Perhaps something overly obvious, like footprints, would be there for her to follow.