An Owl's Rise

'There's no one else around. Time to pay a visit to the guy who sold Information to Uriah.'

After completing a thorough sweep of the area with her wind magic, Evelyn was certain that she was the only one else within the vicinity besides her target. Now all she needed to do was find a way into the hidden room he had entered and squeeze him for the intel that she wanted.

Arriving in front of the wall that the man had disappeared into, she attempted to figure out the mechanism behind the magic sealing the way.

Unfortunately, even after giving it her best shot for nearly two minutes, she was not any closer to finding a way to disable the spell.

'I can feel that he is nearly finished packing from the movement of the air inside. I wanted to enter stealthily, but it seems that it is time to use force.' Evelyn thought, pressing her right hand against the wall.

An instant later, a concentrated crimson blaze erupted from her palm. Within less than a second the study door reinforced by magic melted away and revealed the hidden room.

Naturally, the man inside noticed Evelyn's abrupt entrance. Shook was all over his face, as he though this place to be well hidden and secure. The magic item he had used to create this space should not have easily been breached. At least not by anyone under arcanist rank for humans, and the tyrant rank for beasts.

Though, even if Evelyn had been a lower rank, her heavenly flame would have broken through with just as much ease.

"Who are you?! What do you want with me?!" The man shouted.

His aim was to both stall the sudden intruder and hopefully create a commotion that would attract attention.

However, Evelyn paid his questions no mind. Instead, preparing her magic to incapacitate her target.

Seeing that he was going to be unable to start a conversation with Evelyn, the informant hastily retrieved several hidden knives from his person and threw them at Evelyn.

There were sixteen in total, and each one began to curve and change trajectories to attack from multiple angles.

'I've got her, she won't be able to cast a spell powerful enough to block them in time.' The man thought, confident in his victory.

From the magical energy she was emitting he could tell that she was a low tier mage, the same rank as him.

While he normal tried to stay out of fights, he was no slouch when it came to combat.

Over the years he had obtained the enchanted knives he was using against Evelyn now. He had trained tirelessly to perfect his technique and use them as a powerful assault on confident individuals that brazenly approached him. So long as his target was not too far away, he had never failed to score heavy damage or even outright kill anyone that attacked him.

They were both his secret weapon and his perfect opener when threatened.

'Gravity Field.'

Yet, with a simple wave of her hand, Evelyn crushed the man's strategy in one move. There was simply far too great of a difference between their abilities.

Under the effects of the intensified gravity, all of the knives as well as the informant were slammed into the ground. There they remained motionless, unable to move so much as a millimeter.

"HELP! HELP!"

Unable to comprehend what had just occurred, the man used his last resort. This area may have been fairly deserted but if he screamed loudly enough, someone was bound to notice. Though whether they would actually help him was another story.

"You can stop wasting your breath. No one is going to be able to hear you. I've already set up a silencing barrier." Evelyn said, her voice cold and menacing.

Feeling the intensity of her glare, the man breathed deeply before going completely quiet. He was not sure how, but the pressure he was feeling was far greater than anything a low tier mage rank should have had.

"Good. Now I'm going to lessen the pressure on you, but don't try to resist again. If you do, I'll crush both of your legs."

Once Evelyn had given her warning, she decreased the power of her gravity field so that gravity was only around two times as strong as normal. This would not be so much that the man could not get up, but it would still remind him that he was still under the effect of her magic.

"So, what do you wan-"

The informant that had been working for Uriah attempted to find out why Evelyn was targeting him, but before he could finish his question, he was slammed back into the ground by overwhelming force.

"You don't get to ask any questions. All you are allowed to do is give me the answers that I want. If you do so, and answer honestly, I might let you live."

Having reinforced her absolute control over the situation, Evelyn laxed the strength of her gravity magic again, and allowed the man to sit back up.

When he had just barely regained his bearing, Evelyn asked her first question.

"What's your name?"

Taken aback, the informant looked at her in confusion. He had figured that she would get right into questioning him about whatever it was she wanted to know. Not trying to obtain his name.

"I'm Burkhart."

"Is that the truth?" Evelyn asked.

"Yes." Burkhart responded curtly.

Nodding her head, Evelyn gave a nod of approval to show that she believed him.

"Burkhart, do you know who it is that you completed a transaction with earlier today with?"

Again, he answered honestly and gave out Uriah's name as well as the fact that he was a member of the Deamhain Sect.

"Good, you seem to be following my instructions. I haven't detected any lies so far." Evelyn said, wearing a pleased expression. "Now, the information that you gave to Uriah, I want you to tell me everything. Don't spare a single detail. If you do, you know what will happen."