Rasmus, Aris, Rullein, and Serena were sitting on the couch, looking at their surroundings where all the men in the room enjoyed their hookah with pretty women surrounding them. The place was covered with smoke with the scent of fruits and flowers combined. Most of them men couldn’t resist their curiosity toward Rasmus and the women that sat with him. They didn’t know why Anastasha brought them into this place, but she said that she wanted Rasmus to meet with some people.

They were traveling from one city to another in the past three days just for this. Every visit, the Blackhands spread rumors about Rasmus and what he did to the Ashenvale family. The rumor spread widely, faster than Rasmus had expected.

"And here he is, in the flesh," Anastasha approached the booth, pointing at Rasmus with a few men following her from behind. "Let me introduce him to all of you, the man of the rumor, Count Rasmus Blackheart of Centriva and his wives..."

‎They looked at Rasmus and the others, their eyes lingered on the women beside him. They didn’t bother to hide their lust and desire, but it was given since Aris, Rullein, and Serena wore something that was quite revealing.

‎

‎"Remember their faces, Rasmus. They can be relied on," Anastsha smiled at Rasmus as her hands pointed at the men behind her. "Now then, shall we get somewhere private so we can discuss the matters that I have assigned to all of you?" She raised her brows and stared at the men.

‎

‎Rasmus thought that he would meet with some people and get to know them. He didn’t expect that he would come only for that simple introduction. However, he didn’t say anything even after Anastasha and those men left his booth.

‎

‎Not long after, Rasmus summoned Javi, asking him about those figures that Anastasha went with. Javi knew some of them because they were a part of a secret organization, brokers that connected buyers and sellers.

‎

‎"Brokers but a part of a secret organization? What kind of things are they dealing with?" Rasmus glanced over his shoulder where Javi stood in the shadows.

"All kinds of slaves, drugs, weapons, information, assassination, mass murder, and mythical beasts. They’re doing illegal businesses, a counterpart of what the Ashenvale and the Urion family do. They’re called the Eclipse, it’s a well-known organization only to royal families and powerful figures," Javi explained without worrying about being detected because he knew nobody noticed his presence.

‎

‎Rasmus watched the women who worked at the pleasure house to be stealing glances at him. He ignored them because his mind was processing what Javi had explained.

‎

‎"They knew but they didn’t get rid of the organization. So they’re using the Eclipse to do all their dirty works and desires without having to worry about being detected and blamed for," Rasmus poured a glass of water into his glass, not wanting to drink anything else in this kind of place.

‎

‎Javi nodded, affirming that was exactly why the royal families and powerful figures kept the Eclipse to exist.

‎

‎"But that doesn’t answer the possibility of them being replaced. Who’s the founder and the owner of that organization?" Rasmus asked and took a sip of his water, and it tasted weird.

‎

‎"We don’t know," Javi shook his head.

‎

‎"We?" Rasmus put the glass down. "You’re including the Sand Tower? You’re saying even the Sand Tower doesn’t know?" He raised his brows and once again noticed the gazes toward him instead of Aris and then the others.

‎

‎"Yes," Javi nodded.

‎

‎"You can leave now. It’s getting heated in here," Rasmus looked at his glass of water and knew something had been dissolved into the water. "They’re almost on the same level as yours it seems."

‎

‎Javi nodded and knew what Rasmus was talking about because he felt it too. The numbers of assassins that existed in the room, but he couldn’t detect all of them. He immediately disappeared into the shadows and was left unnoticed.

‎"All the drinks here taste weird..." Aris pointed out after she put down her glass from her third bottle of liquor.

‎

‎"All of them have bitter taste at the end, something that doesn’t match with the intensity of the alcohol," Rullein nodded and pushed away her six bottles of different liquor. "Also the last bottle tasted a lot bitter than the previous ones," she looked at the bottles on the table and noticed that Aris nodded in agreement.

‎

‎"I can’t taste anything harmful. All alcohol tastes like water to me," Serena pointed out, finding her divine power to be quite a hindrance when it came to indulgences like this.

‎

‎"It’s poison. Everything we ordered has been poisoned, and they increased the dosage every time you ordered new bottles. I’m not sure how much on that last bottle, and I think the effect is deadly, no living beings should be able to live from a single drop of that bottle," Rasmus answered and looked at all the bottles on the table. "I don’t know who they are, but I know they’re not sent by the Ashenvale. they didn’t hesitate to use poison to test us, it’s quite a bizarre method to test someone," he glanced at Rullein, signaling her to use her power and read everyone’s memories, everyone in the room.

‎"What a lot of troubles..." Anastasha suddenly came to the booth and sat across from Rasmus. "What with the stiff faces?" She glanced at Aris, Rullein, and Serena’s faces.

‎"Nothing, it’s not important," Rasmus answered as he shook his head. "About those people you introduced me to earlier. You seem to trust them that you didn’t even think twice to be left alone with them, knowing what kind of place we are at," he crossed his arms and noticed the calm and relaxed expression of Anastasha’s.

"They’re dangerous and cunning, yes. However, they’re also honest with their desire and lust, wouldn’t that make them trustworthy? I gave them what I’m capable of, and they gave me back something equal," Anastasha answered with a smile on her face as she reached for Rasmus’ glass of water.

Before Rasmus could even warn Anastasha, her hand hovered around the glass. Her expression stiffened and her fingers curled into a ball of fist, not too tight and not too loose. She slowly leaned away from the glass and when she stared at Rasmus and the others, she realized why they were so tensed earlier. On the other hand, they were surprised that she could smell the poison at that distance.

"It’s poisoned..." Anastasha pointed out, but she already knew that they knew.

Rasmus, Aris, Rullein, and Serena looked at the four women walking toward their booth. Those women were the ones who had been glancing at Rasmus and he knew they were the assassins and perhaps the ones who had spiked all the bottles and drinks. Those women stood behind the couch that Anastasha sat on, and they all immediately leaned down, the whispers weren’t unheard due to Rasmus and the others’ sensitive ears.

The whispers were enough to make Anastasha sit straight and her pupils shrunk. Those women belonged to the woman that she called Mother, the one who gave birth to her. The woman that wanted to see her child came to visit her. The women immediately left and acted like workers of the pleasure house once again.

"That’s why you can smell the poison. It belongs to your family in the first place," Rasmus glanced at the bottles on the table once again.

"Not my family’s, but my mother’s," Anastasha answered, finding it shocking that none of them were affected by the poison. "That poison you drank, it could even melt or rust steel in a matter of a second..." She slowly stood up and her expression still stiff and anxious.

"How nice of her to treat us with such hospitality," Rasmus smiled coldly at Anastasha.

"That’s my mother," Anastasha wanted to smirk but it faltered by the idea of meeting her mother. "You can say it’s motherly love," she added.

Rasmus slowly stood up as he straightened his suit, Aris and the others followed suit.

"So? Are we going to meet your mother now? Seeing how she has shown how much she’s so eager to bring you home, I suppose we can’t take a detour," Rasmus asked with his brows raised.

"Yes, it seems like it," Anastasha nodded, her gaze was blank as she stared at the glass and the bottles on the table.