~The Previous Night~
"Full status report," Kestrel's words brooked no argument as she sat on the medical bench. A healer tended the scratches and bruises on her carefully. The fierce, hawk-like eyes almost made Ignean wish she was somewhere else in this kingdom. Instead, she cleared her throat and began, watching the scroll of information flash past her and picking out the necessary details.
"Ma'am. The aerie has sustained heavy damages and will be hazardous to return to tonight and I have arranged for temporary lodgings in the guestroom. Collateral damage includes part of the Advanced tower and two thermal flux elevators. One of the Advanced Air classrooms has sustained cosmetic damage and can be fixed with minor repairs."
"Casualties?" pause.
"Come on, I don't have all night. Out with it."
"A-aside from the initial ca-casualties," Ignean stammered, whithering under the Headmistress of the Academy for Elemental Mastery's gaze, "there a-are n-n-no further reported injuries." The woman watched the hybrid woman like a cornered rat. Kestrel's eyes softened as she turned away from glaring at Ignean. She had no right to blast her anger at the woman. She wasn't the one to blame for Dylan's death and Moraine's current comatose state. She rubbed the bridge between her eyes carefully.
"By morning, I want a full report and postulations as to how the assassin could've breached all our security systems without stirring so much as a fly. Keep me up to date on Moraine's condition and alert me if there are any changes. I will be on temporary leave tomorrow. List it down as vacation, time: indefinite."
"Ma'am?"
"I'm not going to repeat that, Ignean Siuran," Kestrel said softly, she was tired and this was a pretty crappy night. Outside, the stormclouds gathered, and the wind picked up.
"Any inquiries through normal means will be hampered by time and people. I will be conducting a full-scale private inquiry while I am away. Strike that from your notes and keep this between yourselves and the staff - except for Taella. Keep an eye out for her if you discuss this matter amongst yourselves as she tends to gossip so with her students. I do not want to come back and find the students gone because they were terrified assassins can get them too."
"Ma'am," Ignean realised the safest thing was to agree right now. She scorched her orders onto the laval storing tablet, bowed and took her leave.
Kestrel's fists unclenched as the soothing magic of the healer coursed through her. It cleared her mind somewhat, but the images of Dylan and Moraine in those crucial moments were still fresh in her memory. Their pain and anger... Ah, but she will find the right time to mourn later. For now, blood is denied, and she will hunt it down tomorrow.
~~~
"Reconstruction has begun on the damaged tower, Headmistress Kestrel. I've also placed the full report on your desk," Ignean came in early next morning bearing a breakfast tray. Kestrel was dressed as much as possible as she gratefully took the tray off the nervous fire elementalist with a small, grim smile on her face.
"Thank you Ignean, but I won't be going into the office," Kestrel's decision startled Ignean, but the woman quickly recovered.
"S-shall I begin searching for a substitute for your classes then?"
"Mhmm. Until then, postpone any ongoing Advanced classes and find replacements for Dylan and Moraine. I trust you can handle more difficult matters like explaining what happened to them, and I know your judgement of teachers goes a long way in finding the right substitute. Sort out the papers for repairs, and look into a new security system. Don't fail me."
"M-ma'am!" Ignean almost saluted. She was stunned by the sudden load of responsibility. Not knowing when Kestrel was coming back was prehaps just more incentive to getting all her requests completed in the shortest allotted time possible. If Ignean was voicing any of these thoughts, they were lost to the Headmistress of the Academy, who'd just stepped to the window, opened it, and leapt out without so much as a second glance. She was off already on her 'vacation'.
~~The Now~~
Kestrel didn't know what the hell to expect when she went deep into the heart of Mirthholme. She only knew that what she was after was probably found in the tavern that has even the dirtiest sources of information on her (a younger student of hers' talked about a woman having action figures of a birdy-woman painted black and white, with a longbow in her hand). What met her eyes didn't look like she'd arrived at the best of times.
Below her, the lower air traffic had suddenly increased with the flight of bullets and other missiles. There was a ruckus below that even more, a woman holding another woman and advancing upon a man who--- wait...
wasn't that Tahariel?!
What is a legendary doing here, of all places? Could he-- wait, she was here too, wasn't she? Kestrel stopped thinking as she summoned the Storm bow. There was a large machine rampaging down there, and it needed either to be stopped or distracted horribly. Kestrel climbed higher into the air, her hawk eyes never leaving the the machine.
"Mmmm... been so long since I've used this for real combat," she murmured into the rising wind that billowed beneath her wings and held her aloft without much effort, steadying her aim,
"I wonder if I've still got it?"
She drew the string back, and the wind increased, rushing in to the bow until a shimmering arrow composed entirely of highly pressurized air manifest itself fully in the notched longbow.
Let's disable a vulcan cannon, shall we?
Time seemed to slow briefly as Kestrel loosed the arrow. Then, with barely the sound of a sigh, the arrow flew true. It sliced through the air like a silver fish and struck the left rearmost cannon of the machine. The moment of impact released all the air at once from its unwilling shape.
There was an explosion, and a vulcan cannon tore free of its holster, dangling uselessly off the machine in mangled metal and sparking wires.
"Nyaaaah, and I wanted to destroy those missile launchers," Kestrel whistled, a little disappointed.