HOME | DD

Description
December 15, 1878; Como Bluff, Wyoming Territory

Evelyn sat in her tent, clipboard in her lap as she overlooked all her notes and letters, trying to find the lead she needed during her free time. She really wanted to just go out and dig with the other members of the excavation team, but she knew she had to find more info on Leidy and his new lapdog Haines. She had to end them before they ruined her own excavations and before they managed to find the Scythe and destroy everything she stood for.

Chaytan walked in as she was reading. She smiled at him as he came in and sat down must to her.

“What is all this then?” he asked her.

“Correspondence,” she told him. “From our brothers and sisters across this part of the country. Trying to find a lead on the Scythe.”

“Any luck so far?”

“No not really… There's not much mention of a Scythe or anything like it out in this part of the States. It's honestly getting bloody frustrating… I even wrote to my mother and father to see if they had any ideas and they came up with nothing.”

“Hmm… I guess we'll just have to keep doing our own digging then.”

“I suppose. I just don't really know who to contact. I mean we're kinda out in the middle of nowhere.”

Chaytan laughed at that. “There's always hope, my friend,” he said. “There's always a way out of even the most desperate situations and the most barren of places.”

That made her smile. He always knew how to make her smile.

She put down the letter she was reading and stowed it away in her back. “Alright then,” she said. “What to you suggest we do then?”

Chaytan put a finger on his chin as he thought. “Why don't we ask those two gentlemen that Marsh had hired when we first arrived? They seem to have a decent knowledge of these lands and their goings-on.”

“Carlin and Reed?” Evelyn asked.

“Indeed.”

Evelyn thought about it. Carlin and Reed had been the whole reason that they moved to Como Bluff in the first place. After the tragic incident at the Morrison Mines, Marsh's team ran into two Continental Railroad workers that were local to this area. They called themselves Carlin and Reed and when they heard that the team was in the business of collecting fossils, they told them of a large deposit here in Como Bluff, one rich with bones just as Morrison was. This of course was rather exciting news until the two workers also added that there were others in the area “looking for such things”. Marsh took that to mean Cope, but Evelyn took the more broad interpretation that it was the Templars. Marsh had sent out a few of his “scouts” (Evelyn took to calling them spies, still being bitter about the scandalous actions Marsh had confessed to taking) to investigate the lands and see if such claims were true. Evelyn was horrified to hear that both Cope and a large man matching Haines’s description were working in the general area. And so the team moved in to Como Bluff, and ever since, Evelyn had been looking over her shoulder, equally dreading and hoping for a glimpse at her fallen friend over the horizon.

“I suppose they could be of some assistance,” she said after thinking it over. “Still… I don't really care for talking to them. They always look… shifty.”

Chaytan laughed. “Another sign that they must know more than what appears on the surface,” he joked. “Come, let's go give it a try. We may learn quite a bit.”

Evelyn hesitantly smiled and nodded. She closed up her bag and followed her friend out of the tent, stepping out into the setting desert sun.

“Getting dark soon,” Evelyn observed. “The lads will probably be returning to their cabins for the night.”

“Hopefully they're light sleepers,” Chaytan said.

They took a gentle stroll over the waving stones of the bluff, letting the desert night start to cool them off after such a hot day of intensive labour. They walked until they came across a small little saloon town a little ways away from where the dig was being operated. The distant sounds of clanging steal were fading out as the workers constructing the new railroad turned in for the night. The whole town seemed to fall into the peaceful bliss of night.

The two walked down the dirt roads until they came upon the two little cabins belonging to Carlin and Reed respectively. “You take that one I'll take this one,” Evelyn told Chaytan, who nodded and made his was over to Carlin’s front door.

Evelyn knocked on the door to Reed’s and waited. No response. She knocked again, and waited a little bit longer. Still no response. She made a face. She knocked again, harder this time. “Mr. Reed?” she called. “It's Evelyn Arlie! From the Marsh team! We need to speak with you right quick.”

She waited longer again yet still no one seemed to respond. She didn't even hear any shuffling from inside. All she got was silence. She pouted a little. “Chaytan, I don't think Reed’s in,” she called over her shoulder. “Are you having any better lu-?”

She turned around just in time to see Chaytan pick the lock on the front door and slip silently inside. She couldn't help but chuckle. “Well alright then,” she said to herself. “Guess not.”

She decided to go ahead and copy Chaytan’s plan of action. She pulled out the lockpick set she had inherited from her grandfather and jammed it into the keyhole. She twiddled with the mechanism, sliding all the pins into the proper place until she heard the satisfying click of the lock coming undone. She smiled at her handiwork and then slipped inside the house like a shadow in the night.

She took a moment to let her eyes adjust. She recalled the skills that her grandmother had taught her, amplifying all of her senses until the world was bathed into a deep blue hue. She knew from experience that anyone still inside would radiate a different color through the walls, and she was satisfied when no such indication of life appeared. She was alone in the house. That struck her as odd, however. Why wouldn't they have turned in with the rest of the town? She imagined they’d have just gone home once the work on the railroad and the fossil digs ended for the day.

She decided to flick on a lantern and look around, hoping to find out a bit more about their shifty coworkers and learn what she could about the land from their scattered documents. She wandered about until she found herself in what appeared to be a makeshift office of source, complete with a desk and a floor made a mess with littered papers. She strolled over to the desk and sat down, placing her lantern in the corner so that she could read what she found.

And what she found very quickly filled her head with worry.

“These are… these are finding publications,” she said to herself as she scanned the papers. “These are all finds that Marsh and I have dug up over the past couple months! The ones we haven't fully studied yet! These snakes have been publishing unfinished work behind our backs!”

Now vigorously upset, Evelyn began shuffling her way through the other documents. If they were going behind the team's back and publishing finds in the shadows, that must mean there was a snake in the shadows feeding them money to do so, and she intended to find the identity of said snake.

She shuffled and opened drawers until something very unmistakable caught her eye: a letter with a broken seal. But the seal still had its symbol mostly intact, enough for Evelyn to automatically recognize it.

The Templar cross.

She scowled. Of course it was Leidy at play here, she thought. She pulled the open letter out of the drawer and held it under the candlelight for her to read:

Mr. W. H. Reed,

My employer has been very pleased with the information and the samples that you and Mr. Carlin have been delivering to us over the past few week. As you can tell, Marsh is a stubborn man, and since he decides to aid our enemies and not us, we are glad we have the next best thing in you two. Continue to deliver us valuable fossil finds from the hands of that Assassin puppet, and we'll consider raising your paychecks even farther. We might even be able to arrange access to a higher education should we deem it a worthy award.
May the Father of Understanding guide you both in your espionage work.

- Haines

Evelyn very nearly crumpled up the paper in a short burst of anger. She was getting so sick of people going behind her back. She expected such things in her Assassin career but never her scientific work. Science is meant to be an institution of cooperation and education, of discovering new facts about the world that were to be shared with all for the betterment of the human species. It very much hurt her heart to see such a thing fall to the same corruptive evils born in the ignorance of ancient wars. She sighed, and put down the note. Oh well, she solemnly thought to herself. She'll fix the world later, she decided. Right now she needed to save it.

She quickly rushed out of the room and back into the streets, where she unexpectedly bumped right into Chaytan. He helped her back to her feet and she dusted off her gown.

“Chaytan, there's a problem,” she told him.

“Carlin and Reed are selling our finds and information to the Templars?”

“Did a bit of snooping too?” she smiled.

He grinned back. “The door was open,” was all he said in response.

She laughed. “Well we'd better find them quickly,” she said. “They've been corresponding with Leidy’s spymaster Haines.”

Chaytan nodded. He held up a folded up note. “This was from earlier today,” he explained. “I know where they plan to meet and when. If we hurry, we can still have the chance to crash it.”

Evelyn smiled. “Then after you, my friend,” she said. Chaytan smiled back and nodded. The two of them quickly sought out a horse stable and untied a steed. They hopped on the animal and kicked it into gear. Evelyn sat behind her friend, holding him from behind and feeling the warmth of his body. She got lost in it, wishing she could just hold him forever. In the face of everything that's been happening, he was the only comfort she really had. He was the only one she felt she could fully trust and rely on.

He was always her truest… friend…

And she wish she had the strength to speak up and make it more…

------------

They rode over the bluffs, slowing their horse when they finally reached the meeting point mentioned in the Templars’ letters. They hopped off the animal and gave it an apple before crouching down and silently creeping towards a small valley between the cliffs.

They hid in the desert bushes and they carefully gazed down into the valley. It was there they finally laid eyes on the Templar dig site. Dozens of men were chipping away at the rocks, working in the cold desert shadows of the night to mask their progress. Evelyn scowled and scanned the area, looking for any familiar faces. She spotted Carlin and Reed rather quickly as they entered the camp and walked towards the central tent. Evelyn gave Chaytan a look and he nodded in agreement. The two of them silently made their way down into the dig site, using the bushes, rocks, and shadows to remain hidden. They crept up towards the tent, peaking in as much as they could.

Evelyn’s heart sunk. She saw five men inside: one was the ringmaster Leidy, his egotistical face looking down at all the men around him. Another was Haines, the large cloaked spymaster looking at Carlin and Reed as they unfurled a bag of fossil samples more likely than not freshly pilfered from Marsh's site.

And the last was Edward Cope, standing amongst them all, that bitter look never having left his face. He looked old, and stubborn. The glare from his Templar ring kept catching Evelyn’s eyes as the sight of it made her tear up a bit.

“Here you are, sirs,” Reed enthusiastically said as he and Carlin presented their loot.

Leidy and Cope stood over the bag and began to look over the fossils, each taking turns reaching in from the opposite side of the table. Evelyn could sense the bitterness between the two of them.

“Haines, pay the gentlemen,” Leidy said to his lackey. Haines nodded in response and he passed a briefcase to the railroad workers. They smiled as they opened it up and found large stacks of dollars inside.

“A pleasure doing business with you all,” Carlin remarked with a smirk.

“I will contact you again at the end of the week,” Haines told them. “Can you gather the same amount of fossils?”

“Not exactly something in our control,” Carlin said. “Depends on how fast Marsh works.”

“If you can exceed this quantity for our next meeting, we'll be sure to reward you greatly.”

“Aye aye boss.”

With an exchange of business-like nods, Carlin and Reed made their exit with their case of money. Evelyn was tempted to go after them, but given how her two biggest targets were right there in the room together, she figured it would be a more valuable use of time to stay and eavesdrop.

“I can't believe we must resort to stealing like scavengers,” Cope whined.

“You wanted the chance at fame and glory, Master Cope,” Leidy said uncaringly as he continued to observe the fossils.

“Yes but still! We should be out looking for our own bones instead of relying on that wretched Marsh and his Assassin wench!”

Evelyn practically felt her heart rip in half. Why did he still hate her so much? She tried so hard to be his friend even after the break up! Why was he such a cruel man? She felt tears in her eyes as she wondered if it was somehow her fault, if she was somehow just a wench, but that thought quickly dissipated when Chaytan put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She scooted a little closer to him as she listened.

“The last time I allowed you to do your own thing, you got in the way of my own works,” Leidy said, trying and failing to hide the bitterness in his voice. “If you hadn't been so intrusive on my territory then we might have found the Scythe by now!”

“I didn't ask to be supervised! I'm sure Hayden told you exactly how I felt about your demands! I am a scientist, man! My mind cannot be contained to simple borders! That's why I joined your Order to begin with! To have the power to do as I pleased!”

“Do not forget that I am the one who controls your status in this Order, Cope. I hired you because I believed you could be a valuable asset in finding the Piece of Eden. And if that value were to evaporate, then I won't hesitate to ask Hayden to cut your funding.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Yes. Because unlike you, I'm in the position to be making threats.”

That shut Cope up rather quickly. He frowned and crossed his arms in disapproving defeat.

“Silence at last,” Leidy sighed.

Evelyn had zoned out rather quickly. She was practically leaning against Chaytan in the bushes as she fought tears. He was doing his best to keep her calm and quiet.

Neither of them noticed the gun being raised.

There was a bang in the air and thankfully it missed the two Assassins, who snapped out of their daze and lunged to their feet, their cover blown by Haines, the gunman who had managed to spot them while they were off guard. The alarm went off and many of the Templar diggers began to turn their pickaxes towards their enemies. Evelyn and Chaytan stood battle ready. Evelyn noticed Haines running off out of the corner of her eye. She saw him help Leidy and Cope into a carriage, and her heart broke again as she saw Cope look back at her before the door closed, his eyes full of scorn. Once they were off, it was just Evelyn and Chaytan against the entire Templar dig crew. Not good odds. They fought for a short moment, but they knew the only way out of this was to flee. They cut a path out of the enemies that tried to cut them open, and they sprinted out of the valley as fast as they could, mounting their horse and kicking it into gear as soon as they did. The animal carried them into the night, racing them into the safety of the shadows. All the while, Evelyn was mentally slapping herself. Even once they were home free and out of danger, all she could repeat furiously in her head was, “Why can't I let it go…?”

Description
December 15, 1878; Como Bluff, Wyoming Territory

Evelyn sat in her tent, clipboard in her lap as she overlooked all her notes and letters, trying to find the lead she needed during her free time. She really wanted to just go out and dig with the other members of the excavation team, but she knew she had to find more info on Leidy and his new lapdog Haines. She had to end them before they ruined her own excavations and before they managed to find the Scythe and destroy everything she stood for.

Chaytan walked in as she was reading. She smiled at him as he came in and sat down must to her.

“What is all this then?” he asked her.

“Correspondence,” she told him. “From our brothers and sisters across this part of the country. Trying to find a lead on the Scythe.”

“Any luck so far?”

“No not really… There's not much mention of a Scythe or anything like it out in this part of the States. It's honestly getting bloody frustrating… I even wrote to my mother and father to see if they had any ideas and they came up with nothing.”

“Hmm… I guess we'll just have to keep doing our own digging then.”

“I suppose. I just don't really know who to contact. I mean we're kinda out in the middle of nowhere.”

Chaytan laughed at that. “There's always hope, my friend,” he said. “There's always a way out of even the most desperate situations and the most barren of places.”

That made her smile. He always knew how to make her smile.

She put down the letter she was reading and stowed it away in her back. “Alright then,” she said. “What to you suggest we do then?”

Chaytan put a finger on his chin as he thought. “Why don't we ask those two gentlemen that Marsh had hired when we first arrived? They seem to have a decent knowledge of these lands and their goings-on.”

“Carlin and Reed?” Evelyn asked.

“Indeed.”

Evelyn thought about it. Carlin and Reed had been the whole reason that they moved to Como Bluff in the first place. After the tragic incident at the Morrison Mines, Marsh's team ran into two Continental Railroad workers that were local to this area. They called themselves Carlin and Reed and when they heard that the team was in the business of collecting fossils, they told them of a large deposit here in Como Bluff, one rich with bones just as Morrison was. This of course was rather exciting news until the two workers also added that there were others in the area “looking for such things”. Marsh took that to mean Cope, but Evelyn took the more broad interpretation that it was the Templars. Marsh had sent out a few of his “scouts” (Evelyn took to calling them spies, still being bitter about the scandalous actions Marsh had confessed to taking) to investigate the lands and see if such claims were true. Evelyn was horrified to hear that both Cope and a large man matching Haines’s description were working in the general area. And so the team moved in to Como Bluff, and ever since, Evelyn had been looking over her shoulder, equally dreading and hoping for a glimpse at her fallen friend over the horizon.

“I suppose they could be of some assistance,” she said after thinking it over. “Still… I don't really care for talking to them. They always look… shifty.”

Chaytan laughed. “Another sign that they must know more than what appears on the surface,” he joked. “Come, let's go give it a try. We may learn quite a bit.”

Evelyn hesitantly smiled and nodded. She closed up her bag and followed her friend out of the tent, stepping out into the setting desert sun.

“Getting dark soon,” Evelyn observed. “The lads will probably be returning to their cabins for the night.”

“Hopefully they're light sleepers,” Chaytan said.

They took a gentle stroll over the waving stones of the bluff, letting the desert night start to cool them off after such a hot day of intensive labour. They walked until they came across a small little saloon town a little ways away from where the dig was being operated. The distant sounds of clanging steal were fading out as the workers constructing the new railroad turned in for the night. The whole town seemed to fall into the peaceful bliss of night.

The two walked down the dirt roads until they came upon the two little cabins belonging to Carlin and Reed respectively. “You take that one I'll take this one,” Evelyn told Chaytan, who nodded and made his was over to Carlin’s front door.

Evelyn knocked on the door to Reed’s and waited. No response. She knocked again, and waited a little bit longer. Still no response. She made a face. She knocked again, harder this time. “Mr. Reed?” she called. “It's Evelyn Arlie! From the Marsh team! We need to speak with you right quick.”

She waited longer again yet still no one seemed to respond. She didn't even hear any shuffling from inside. All she got was silence. She pouted a little. “Chaytan, I don't think Reed’s in,” she called over her shoulder. “Are you having any better lu-?”

She turned around just in time to see Chaytan pick the lock on the front door and slip silently inside. She couldn't help but chuckle. “Well alright then,” she said to herself. “Guess not.”

She decided to go ahead and copy Chaytan’s plan of action. She pulled out the lockpick set she had inherited from her grandfather and jammed it into the keyhole. She twiddled with the mechanism, sliding all the pins into the proper place until she heard the satisfying click of the lock coming undone. She smiled at her handiwork and then slipped inside the house like a shadow in the night.

She took a moment to let her eyes adjust. She recalled the skills that her grandmother had taught her, amplifying all of her senses until the world was bathed into a deep blue hue. She knew from experience that anyone still inside would radiate a different color through the walls, and she was satisfied when no such indication of life appeared. She was alone in the house. That struck her as odd, however. Why wouldn't they have turned in with the rest of the town? She imagined they’d have just gone home once the work on the railroad and the fossil digs ended for the day.

She decided to flick on a lantern and look around, hoping to find out a bit more about their shifty coworkers and learn what she could about the land from their scattered documents. She wandered about until she found herself in what appeared to be a makeshift office of source, complete with a desk and a floor made a mess with littered papers. She strolled over to the desk and sat down, placing her lantern in the corner so that she could read what she found.

And what she found very quickly filled her head with worry.

“These are… these are finding publications,” she said to herself as she scanned the papers. “These are all finds that Marsh and I have dug up over the past couple months! The ones we haven't fully studied yet! These snakes have been publishing unfinished work behind our backs!”

Now vigorously upset, Evelyn began shuffling her way through the other documents. If they were going behind the team's back and publishing finds in the shadows, that must mean there was a snake in the shadows feeding them money to do so, and she intended to find the identity of said snake.

She shuffled and opened drawers until something very unmistakable caught her eye: a letter with a broken seal. But the seal still had its symbol mostly intact, enough for Evelyn to automatically recognize it.

The Templar cross.

She scowled. Of course it was Leidy at play here, she thought. She pulled the open letter out of the drawer and held it under the candlelight for her to read:

Mr. W. H. Reed,

My employer has been very pleased with the information and the samples that you and Mr. Carlin have been delivering to us over the past few week. As you can tell, Marsh is a stubborn man, and since he decides to aid our enemies and not us, we are glad we have the next best thing in you two. Continue to deliver us valuable fossil finds from the hands of that Assassin puppet, and we'll consider raising your paychecks even farther. We might even be able to arrange access to a higher education should we deem it a worthy award.
May the Father of Understanding guide you both in your espionage work.

- Haines

Evelyn very nearly crumpled up the paper in a short burst of anger. She was getting so sick of people going behind her back. She expected such things in her Assassin career but never her scientific work. Science is meant to be an institution of cooperation and education, of discovering new facts about the world that were to be shared with all for the betterment of the human species. It very much hurt her heart to see such a thing fall to the same corruptive evils born in the ignorance of ancient wars. She sighed, and put down the note. Oh well, she solemnly thought to herself. She'll fix the world later, she decided. Right now she needed to save it.

She quickly rushed out of the room and back into the streets, where she unexpectedly bumped right into Chaytan. He helped her back to her feet and she dusted off her gown.

“Chaytan, there's a problem,” she told him.

“Carlin and Reed are selling our finds and information to the Templars?”

“Did a bit of snooping too?” she smiled.

He grinned back. “The door was open,” was all he said in response.

She laughed. “Well we'd better find them quickly,” she said. “They've been corresponding with Leidy’s spymaster Haines.”

Chaytan nodded. He held up a folded up note. “This was from earlier today,” he explained. “I know where they plan to meet and when. If we hurry, we can still have the chance to crash it.”

Evelyn smiled. “Then after you, my friend,” she said. Chaytan smiled back and nodded. The two of them quickly sought out a horse stable and untied a steed. They hopped on the animal and kicked it into gear. Evelyn sat behind her friend, holding him from behind and feeling the warmth of his body. She got lost in it, wishing she could just hold him forever. In the face of everything that's been happening, he was the only comfort she really had. He was the only one she felt she could fully trust and rely on.

He was always her truest… friend…

And she wish she had the strength to speak up and make it more…

------------

They rode over the bluffs, slowing their horse when they finally reached the meeting point mentioned in the Templars’ letters. They hopped off the animal and gave it an apple before crouching down and silently creeping towards a small valley between the cliffs.

They hid in the desert bushes and they carefully gazed down into the valley. It was there they finally laid eyes on the Templar dig site. Dozens of men were chipping away at the rocks, working in the cold desert shadows of the night to mask their progress. Evelyn scowled and scanned the area, looking for any familiar faces. She spotted Carlin and Reed rather quickly as they entered the camp and walked towards the central tent. Evelyn gave Chaytan a look and he nodded in agreement. The two of them silently made their way down into the dig site, using the bushes, rocks, and shadows to remain hidden. They crept up towards the tent, peaking in as much as they could.

Evelyn’s heart sunk. She saw five men inside: one was the ringmaster Leidy, his egotistical face looking down at all the men around him. Another was Haines, the large cloaked spymaster looking at Carlin and Reed as they unfurled a bag of fossil samples more likely than not freshly pilfered from Marsh's site.

And the last was Edward Cope, standing amongst them all, that bitter look never having left his face. He looked old, and stubborn. The glare from his Templar ring kept catching Evelyn’s eyes as the sight of it made her tear up a bit.

“Here you are, sirs,” Reed enthusiastically said as he and Carlin presented their loot.

Leidy and Cope stood over the bag and began to look over the fossils, each taking turns reaching in from the opposite side of the table. Evelyn could sense the bitterness between the two of them.

“Haines, pay the gentlemen,” Leidy said to his lackey. Haines nodded in response and he passed a briefcase to the railroad workers. They smiled as they opened it up and found large stacks of dollars inside.

“A pleasure doing business with you all,” Carlin remarked with a smirk.

“I will contact you again at the end of the week,” Haines told them. “Can you gather the same amount of fossils?”

“Not exactly something in our control,” Carlin said. “Depends on how fast Marsh works.”

“If you can exceed this quantity for our next meeting, we'll be sure to reward you greatly.”

“Aye aye boss.”

With an exchange of business-like nods, Carlin and Reed made their exit with their case of money. Evelyn was tempted to go after them, but given how her two biggest targets were right there in the room together, she figured it would be a more valuable use of time to stay and eavesdrop.

“I can't believe we must resort to stealing like scavengers,” Cope whined.

“You wanted the chance at fame and glory, Master Cope,” Leidy said uncaringly as he continued to observe the fossils.

“Yes but still! We should be out looking for our own bones instead of relying on that wretched Marsh and his Assassin wench!”

Evelyn practically felt her heart rip in half. Why did he still hate her so much? She tried so hard to be his friend even after the break up! Why was he such a cruel man? She felt tears in her eyes as she wondered if it was somehow her fault, if she was somehow just a wench, but that thought quickly dissipated when Chaytan put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She scooted a little closer to him as she listened.

“The last time I allowed you to do your own thing, you got in the way of my own works,” Leidy said, trying and failing to hide the bitterness in his voice. “If you hadn't been so intrusive on my territory then we might have found the Scythe by now!”

“I didn't ask to be supervised! I'm sure Hayden told you exactly how I felt about your demands! I am a scientist, man! My mind cannot be contained to simple borders! That's why I joined your Order to begin with! To have the power to do as I pleased!”

“Do not forget that I am the one who controls your status in this Order, Cope. I hired you because I believed you could be a valuable asset in finding the Piece of Eden. And if that value were to evaporate, then I won't hesitate to ask Hayden to cut your funding.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Yes. Because unlike you, I'm in the position to be making threats.”

That shut Cope up rather quickly. He frowned and crossed his arms in disapproving defeat.

“Silence at last,” Leidy sighed.

Evelyn had zoned out rather quickly. She was practically leaning against Chaytan in the bushes as she fought tears. He was doing his best to keep her calm and quiet.

Neither of them noticed the gun being raised.

There was a bang in the air and thankfully it missed the two Assassins, who snapped out of their daze and lunged to their feet, their cover blown by Haines, the gunman who had managed to spot them while they were off guard. The alarm went off and many of the Templar diggers began to turn their pickaxes towards their enemies. Evelyn and Chaytan stood battle ready. Evelyn noticed Haines running off out of the corner of her eye. She saw him help Leidy and Cope into a carriage, and her heart broke again as she saw Cope look back at her before the door closed, his eyes full of scorn. Once they were off, it was just Evelyn and Chaytan against the entire Templar dig crew. Not good odds. They fought for a short moment, but they knew the only way out of this was to flee. They cut a path out of the enemies that tried to cut them open, and they sprinted out of the valley as fast as they could, mounting their horse and kicking it into gear as soon as they did. The animal carried them into the night, racing them into the safety of the shadows. All the while, Evelyn was mentally slapping herself. Even once they were home free and out of danger, all she could repeat furiously in her head was, “Why can't I let it go…?”