Dahlia, the town surrounded by wet moorland, eerie mist, and still filled with the worst kinds of scum even with its newest ruler trying to root out evil like a killer megalomaniac. Thorn found it ironic that it was situated in the same area of Fiore as the cheerful and justice filled Magnolia town, home of the guild Fairy Tail. It was actually a bit of a surprise to the woman that the guild, which seemed to stand as the center of the ‘good’ guilds, hadn’t gone on some sort of crusade to rid this town of its evil or something. Maybe it had something to do with Santos’s ‘good’ priestly public image? But anyways, until that day the good guilds finally got their act in place Thorn was living in this town known for its vampires, werewolves, undead, and general nasty creatures that prey on the weak. Thorn was not weak by any means, thus had the tendency to be predator rather than prey. This served her well in Dahlia town since acting as the hired muscle to such a horrible towns citizens always payed well, whether they wanted to or not. That, Thorn made sure.

Today would be her third official unofficial job for the Bishop. Recently Bishop Santos was driven to rid his city of ‘heretics’ by hiring mages and thugs to wither murder them, or drag them to ‘court’ to be burned at the stake like some sort of inquisition. Thorn had been in charge of ‘getting rid’ of some of the people that caught the man’s ire and had done so very successfully. Her next job seemed to involve a bit more leg work and creativity seeing as she had to cover up for some moronic priest’s handiwork, killing sympathetic villagers. It was her job to make those dead villagers seem much less sympathetic and justify the churches rule.

It was early evening and Thorn was both surprised an annoyed at how many people were out and about this late at night. She was so used to Dahlia’s streets being nearly deserted that this much busyness (2-5 people wandering about) genuinely shock her and the demon hand cursed within her own head at the miscalculation. If her robbed figure was seen sulking about people would think she was an undead from the Aldenwald and call over the Night Watch, which was something she definitely did not need right now. “Curse Magic: Shadow Sneak” Thorn whispers while clenching her bandaged left hand before releasing it, causing magical runes glowing with a demonic black and red aura to appear on the underside of arm. She then seemed to grab a nearby shadow with her glowing arm and literally cover herself with it like a blanket, giving her a darker camouflaged form. This would very effectively hide her from civilian eyes, but drain her mana quickly. She needed to move.

She had good directions to each of the dead townspersons houses and a plan already in mind on how to frame them. The first house was a regular little farm with different farm animals freely roaming around. This was a part of her plan. Thorn sneaked up to a chicken and quickly grabbed it and snapped its neck before it could even squawk. Drifting inside of the homestead Thorn let the magic go as she got to work, draining the chickens blood into a bowl then writing bullshit demonic symbols all over the wall with it. She actually knew demonic and dark rituals and runes that what her magic was based off of, but she knew better than to give away her secrets. Pleased that the farmstead did indeed look like a heretic lived here she left through the back door to bury the chicken, clicking her tongue in annoyance at the waste of food but knowing she had to get rid of the evidence.

The curse mage then recast the sneak spell and made her way to the next victim’s house, not far from the first. This one was a tad bigger than the last and as Thorn entered the house she re-evaluated her idea for this one. It was going to be the same as the last one, just based on animal sacrifice, but this farm seemed to be vegetable based with not a single animal in sight. Any animal she stole from the neighbors would be noticed, particularly since the ‘heretic’ died before the animals were stolen. So she had to use another idea and after spotting a nearby scythe she had just that.

Half an hour later Thorn recast her spell and made her way to the last farm house. The made the one before look like it was worshipping a god of death by using old clothes to dress up a few props, one holding a scythe lording over ‘fallen’ other props made out of vegetables to display severed heads and guts.

The last farm was even closer than the first farm, right next door. Wandering up to the front door and reaching for the handle, Thorn was surprised to find it opening for her than looked up into shocked blue eyes. The dark mage reacted instantly, grabbing the woman (probably the victim’s wife or girlfriend) by the throat and around her mouth, pushing her inside the house quickly and shutting the door with her foot.

A few minutes later Thorn had a dead strangled woman and a deep frown on her face, though she was actually pleased. The bishop said there would be no kills for this job, thus lesser pay. Now Thorn could demand a bigger pay, which was always a plus. She also had a convenient blood container and didn’t have to kill another animal.

After draining the dead woman’s blood and drawing more bullshit creepy designs all over the walls Thorn had to work at stopping the body’s remaining blood flow so it wouldn’t leave a trail to where she was going to bury it. That was an effort itself since she had to make the grave bigger and deeper that the chickens, then properly hide the burial spot. It was nearing down when she finally finished the job and disappeared into the night, off to inform her client of her success.