An Owl's Rise

Once her store was empty and the two factions that were after her had left, Evelyn let out a deep sigh of relief.

'This certainly complicates things.' Evelyn thought as she went around and rearranged the items that had been misplaced by the group led by the owl named Trine.

The situation had gone from one hostile faction to another that was trying to recruit her through underhanded means.

Both of these groups had it out for her, albeit in different ways.

Evelyn was confident that she should be able to handle the faction that was openly hostile towards her by beating down their leaders in a team battle, but the other faction was clearly well versed in using sly tactics to get what they wanted, and she was unsure what they would do next regarding them.

Legget, who was their leader, was clearly unhappy that she had refused his offer and he had already told her that he was not done yet.

'Still, I just have to get through this on my own if I can. If it comes down to it I have Melisandre and Minerva's backing but using either of their authorities comes with its own problems.'

If Evelyn were to reveal her connection to Melisandre or Minerva that would cause her notoriety to spread throughout the entire Roost and she would have a harder time simply moving around.

Others would want to cozy up to her simply for her connections, and those that did not like Melisandre or the Roost's leader might target her as well.

She was fine garnering a bit of attention from her story and winning in the ranking hall, but she did not currently want her association with two of the Roost's greatest powers for multiple reasons.

In the end Evelyn decided to deal with the problem one step at a time and focus on the Devurg Faction that was openly hostile towards her.

'I cannot afford to have them constantly disrupting my business. Once I have dealt with them, I can focus on Legget and his faction.'

With her rough plan of action made, Evelyn faced forward and continued running her store.

While business had not continued while the two factions after her squabbled, now that things were clear a few owls trickled in to buy her wares.

"Thank you for your patronage. Please come again if you need any alchemical items." Evelyn said to her last customer of the day.

Not long after they left the bell signaling the closing of the alchemy hall chimed, and Evelyn began closing up her store.

Her work for the day done Evelyn returned to Melisandre's estate and quickly held a meeting with her to disclose all that she had found out.

"That is certainly more complicated than I thought it would be. Can you not think of anything that would have garnered you the attention of such a faction?" Melisandre asked, wanting to understand where the ever-growing problem surrounding Evelyn had begun.

"No as far as I know I have been pretty careful to not stand out too much. During the battles in the Ranking Hall, I let Rehni and Bylur do most of the fighting while I support them with my wind magic. I have also kept my store stocked only with products that could reasonably be made by another beast of my level even if I sell them for cheaper than most thanks to being able to water them down and still produce the same quality."

Unfortunately, Evelyn could not immediately recall when she would have drawn so much attention to herself. She had taken Melisandre's warnings to heart and done her best not to stand out more than an individual that was a bit talented but nothing supremely special.

Yet as Melisandre continued questioning her, Evelyn eventually recalled an event she had thrown to the back of her mind.

"Oh, I had forgotten about this until just now, but not long after I reached the awakened rank and recovered from the damage to my cores, I got into a fight with a high tier awakened rank owl."

Scowling at her, Melisandre could not remember Evelyn ever reporting this to her and asked for more details.

"Well, it happened while I was in the mission all. The idiot thought that he could use his status as a higher-ranking owl to take the mission I wanted so I put him in his place with one big attack. After that none of the other owls bothered me and I took all the missions I wanted." Evelyn said proudly.

She had been pretty pleased with herself when she crushed the owl that had tried to bully her and recalling it put a smile on her face.

However, this led to a long and harsh lecture from Melisandre.

By easily dealing with a high tier awakened rank owl, even if they were not especially strong, she had almost certainly put herself on numerous faction's radars.

"Did you not think for a moment that crushing your opponent in a public match would end up attracting you unwanted attention!?" Melisandre said to Evelyn with a forceful tone.

Lowering her head Evelyn apologized to her master, and as she thought back, she did recall around twenty owls watching the battle.

"At the time I really did not think that just those few owls witnessing that fight could cause such a problem." Evelyn said with a downcast expression.

"Well as long as you realize your mistake you can use it as a growing experience. Anyway, we cannot be certain that this fight was the catalyst causing these factions to come after you. To start, I will access the Mission Hall's records and find out who watched your match."

Popping her head up, Evelyn looked at Melisandre with wide eyes when she said this.

"Wait, you can look at the records of who watched my match!? How is that even possible? I could understand finding out who my opponent is, but all of the spectators as well?" Evelyn said in a fluster.

"Do not underestimate the information gathering abilities of a hall master. I am not one of the highest-ranking figures in the Roost for nothing. All I need to do is call in a favor from the mission hall master and getting the complete records on who watched your match will be easy."