The Cutters Part 5

The Tome of Eden

                The crowed cheered as the racers made their way around the turn. Blade slowly made her way into the second place position, as they crossed the starting line marking the beginning of the last lap. Blade knew that the course had numerous blind spots that would be a perfect time to make a move to win the race. One such area was after the third turn, where the racers were supposed to fly through a narrow cavern. As the racers approached the turn, Blade flew close to the lead Racer’s rear hooves. Right before entering the cavern, she quickly flew under him then upward, hitting the bottom of his hooves with her head, and causing him to flip forward while losing control and hitting the edge of the cavern’s entrance. From there on, Blade flew with a simple speed, as she finished the race, with nopony stopping her from first place.

                As the rest of the racers finished the race, Blade landed on the winner’s pedestal as the announcer called out, “THE WINNER AND STILL THE SHARPEST BEAUTY IN THE SKY!!! BLADE!!!”
The crowed let out a loud cheer as Blade gave a wink to her fans in the crowed. With such low demands for messengers on the battlefield, she has had to race illegally in the underground raceway for money. Later after the race was over and Blade had received her winnings, she attached her weapons and started to leave the stadium as she mumbled to herself, “Another day, and another waste of time… I need to get more publicity as a mercenary, it’s the only way I'll find work.”
“BLADE!!! I got a bone to pick with you!”
Blade turned to look at the stadium doors and the racer she sent into the cavern entrance approached her, “What in Celestia's name was that stunt you pulled back there! You think because you’re a mare that I'm going to let you get away with that?”

                Blade smiled, “If you don’t like it call the royal guards… you know as well as I do that these races are illegal to begin with.”
As Blade turned around to trot away, four of the other racers flew up and landed in front of her, as the annoyed racer replied, “if you’re going to play dirty on the track, then we will play dirty off the track.”
Blade turned back to the racer and smiled, “exactly… how dirty are you willing to play?”
The pegasus only smiled, as one of the other racers charged at Blade from behind. Already expecting something like this from a group of illegal sky racers, Blade used her hind legs to kick backwards, hitting the charging racer in his face. After that stallion fell to the ground, two more charged from both sides. Blade waited till they were close enough then she opened her left wing and ducked her wing downward while jumping towards her left attacker. Placing her wing low and between the attacking pony’s hooves, she quickly threw her wing up and tossed the pony over her head and into the pony charging from the other side.

                When the two ponies hit the ground, Blade noticed that another pony was attacking from above. As the fourth pegasus tried to drop down on her head, she dodged the attack and countered by swinging the back of her wing, bashing the flat part of her weapon against the pegasus’ head and throwing him to the ground. With all the other racers lying on the ground, Blade looked back at the racer who started this whole mess and shook her head, “That’s sad… really it is. Four attackers and not one scratch on a simple mare like myself. My best advice is to leave now, the next pony to attack me, will not get up again.”
The Racer was enraged as he began charging her, “Tough words from a racing mare!”
Blade gave the attacking racer an unamused look as she dodged his attempt to tackle her. The stallion tried to attack again, but before he could, Blade charged him and enclosed the front of her wings against his neck, cutting, killing, and decapitating the unsuspecting pony, before he even realized he was in danger.

                After seeing the leading racer fall to the ground without his head, the four other racers quickly shuffled to their hooves and flew away on fear. Blade shook her head and spoke, “Pathetic, simply and plainly pathetic.”
As she turned back, she saw an earth pony standing next to the racers corpse, tapping the dead ponies head as she spoke, “Your reputation precedes you miss Blade… I vonder if you’re as good a mercenary as you are a flyer and fighter.”
Blade was skeptic as she spoke, “I saw you in the crowed today… at the edge of turn five right? Judging by your accent, you’re a Hooviet noble.”
The Mare replied, “Your eyes are sharper than your blades… I’m impressed, but how did you know I vas a noble?”
Blade replied, “The way you stand… that says it all. So I'm guessing you’re not here to watch the races… or to watch me dispose of useless track trash.”

                The noble replied, “Quick as you are beautiful. I understand this is only a hobby for money, and that your real profession is a mercenary messenger. Am I right? Or do I have the vrong mare?”
Blade replied, “That would be me. Are you here to request my assistance?”
The mare replied, “Ve can’t talk here, I vant you to meet me and my general in the pub at the edge of town.”
The mare then turned around and left with nothing more to say. As the mare left Blade was curious, why would they need to go to a secretive place to speak? And if the Hooviets have already travelled as far as the Prance Underground Raceway to find her, what would they need her to do… and why?

                Elsewhere in the capital city of Pearis, Traipse of the Cutters was trotting alongside the King as they talked, “This package is of the highest priority, I cannot stress how much I want it in my possession.”
Traipse looked at the king and asked, “So what exactly is this package? Why do you want it so badly?”
The king sneered as he replied, “That is something that a mercenary shouldn’t know… all I will tell you is that it is a spell book.”
Traipse looked at the king and spoke, “And what do you plan to do with this said item?”
The king replied, “I only want it as deterrence. No nation will threaten my kingdom if I possess it.”
Traipse didn’t like what he was hearing but he replied with an attempt to place the focus elsewhere, “So what about this war that is starting between Prance and the Hooviet Union? Is this some kind of diversion?”

                The king trotted to a map and replied, “Yes… the Hooviet general who has the package is currently in Prance, so I want to find him and secure the package before he can return to his nation.”
“In other words… you want the Cutters to secure the package, right?”
The king smiled, “Yes… I want you to track him down and steal the parcel from him before he gets to St. Pettershurd in the Hooviet Union.”
“And the general? Would you like him dead or alive?”
The king smiled, “Either one is fine; my only concern is that I get that book. now… about the costs?”
Traipse smiled, “To get to the Hooviet Union, he would have to cross over your army then make his way over the Infernos Straits. That’s a dangerous journey to make even for The Cutters. I think that something like this will set you at about… two billion bits.”
“TWO BILLION!!!”
“That’s my only offer, do you want that book or not?”
The king sighed, “Fine, but with that price, you better get this done quickly. Not too far outside of this city lies the windy mountain. Chances are you will find the general hiding in the shanty town that sits at the mountain’s base.”

                Traipse nodded his head, “Agreed. Get the money ready and fight your little decoy of a war, and we will return with the book.”
The king was curious, “We? Aren’t you the Reaper?”
Traipse replied as he trotted away, “The Reaper has been watching me ever since I entered this castle, I'm just her partner.”
Without warning The Reaper wearing her signature cloak and carrying her scythe, stepped out from behind the King and spoke as she trotted past him, “We will get you your book and be back for our money… you better have it ready when we return.”
As Scy passed the king, a cold chill went up his spine. None of his guards spotted her, and she made it close enough to stab him in the back without even being detected. A truly terrifying pony, and that was just one of the ponies known as the Cutters. He didn’t want to know about the stallion who approached him up front with nothing to fear.

                Back in the Windy Mountains Shanty Town, Blade was just arriving at a pub on the other side of the town. As she walked in, she saw the same mare that was at the races sitting in the corner of the room with a stallion. As she approached them, she spoke first, “Hello again, is this the gen…”
“Yes… my name is General Victor Neghvelskie; you’ve already met my secretary Dorothy Red.”
Dorothy nodded her head, “It’s good to see you’re interested in our offer Miss Ving.”
The general continued, “I’ve heard a lot about you from Dorothy, you have von all ten races in today’s underground circuits, and still you managed to fight off a group of sore losers, to include decapitating their leader. Because of this, I believe you are perfect for a job that well require both your speed and your cunning...”

                The general placed a parcel on the table that was wrapped with paper and twine. As Blade sat down at the table, the general pushed the package closer to her, “This spell book is the last of the old tomes of Eden; I vant you to deliver it to St. Pertershurd in the Hooviet Union.”
As usual Blade had no concern with what she was delivering, all she wanted to know was where, when, and the price, but that didn’t stop her curiosity, “St. Petershurd? Aren’t you on your way there too? Why not deliver it yourself?”
The General replied, “Just this morning, the King of Prance found out I vas traveling through this nation vith this book, so to try and stop me, he declared var on the Hooviet Union. As ve speak, a large army is approaching our borders. That army sits between me and my homeland, If I attempt to pass this army, then there is a strong chance I vill get captured, and have the book taken from me. A simple mercenary is less likely to attract attention.”

                Blade smiled, “So… you’re using yourself as bait to lure the enemy away from this book right? I can’t help but admire your courage. I'll see to it that this book arrives on time… now about payment. Flying through an enemy army from behind… and crossing the Inferno Straits… I would say the total for a job like this would be about…”
“Two hundred fifty thousand bits?”
Blade was speechless, she was about to say only ninety thousand, but when she was offered almost three times her offer she couldn’t refuse, “Done… This book must be worth a lot. I'll make sure it gets there unharmed.”
As Blade picked up the parcel, the general added, “Deliver it to the prime minister, and mention my name. You vill get every bit your owed. And… vone more thing?”
“Yes?”
The General replied, “If something happens, and you’re unable to prevent the parcel from falling into enemy hooves… destroy it!”

                Blade was surprised, “Destroy it? Are you sure?”
Dorothy stepped forward, “It vould be better for this item to be destroyed then to fall into the hooves of somepony who vould attempt to use it. Don’t vorry, you vill still get vone quarter of your payment if it is destroyed.”
Blade nodded her head, “Alright, I'll try to get it there in one piece and if it comes to it… I'll destroy it.”
The general nodded his head as Blade placed the parcel in her saddlebag and turned to leave, “I vish you luck Miss Ving… fly free and stay safe.”
Blade smiled and replied, “Please call me Blade… and don’t worry. It vill… I mean… it will get there safely.”

                As soon as Blade trotted out the door of the pub, she passed both Traipse and The Reaper as she opened her wings and began to fly towards the front lines. As soon as both the Reaper and Traipse entered the pub, the bartender looked at them and started feeling nervous, “looking for something?... or somepony?”
Traipse and the Reaper didn’t reply, instead they looked at the general and his secretary in the corner of the room and trotted over to them. Traipse spoke first, “Excuse me sir? I'm looking for somepony from the Hooviet Union who fits your description… are you by chance, General Neghvelskie.”
The general replied, “That vould depend, vhat do you need from the general?”
Dorothy slowly pulled a dagger from under the table but kept it hidden as Traipse tried to reply, “You have in your possession, a book. We are he…”
Just then Dorothy lunged herself forward with the dagger in an attempt to stab Traipse as he was talking. Expecting an attack The Reaper threw a needle hitting her on her hoof, and causing her to drop the dagger. As this happened Traipse grabbed the Mare by her throat and slammed her against the wall as he caught the falling dagger and held the blade against her throat.

                Quickly reacting to the danger, General Neghvelskie stood up in an attempt to help her but before he could step forward, the Reaper held out her scythe in front of him so that he couldn’t move closer to Traipse, “DOROTHY! RELEASE HER!!!”
Traipse smiled, “Not until you give me the book!!!”
The General replied, “But… I DON’T HAVE IT!!!”
Dorothy spoke through her pain, “Mercenary swine… You vill never get that book.”
Traipse spoke again, “Well general? What would you rather give up the book… or your soldier’s life?”
The general replied hysterically, “She isn’t a soldier! She has nothing to do vith this! PLEASE! LET HER GO!!!”

                Traipse smiled as he replied, “If she isn’t a soldier then her death can be avoided! All you have to do is give us the book!”
“I TOLD YOU I DON’T HAVE IT!!!”
“THEN, WHO DOES!!! C’mon general… the clock is ticking and I don’t think I have any patients left… Tick… Tock…”
Dorothy started to tear up as she spoke, “Don’t my general… I’m not vorth it…”
General Neghvelskie continued to hesitate, as he stood there staring at the content look on Dorothy’s face. Traipse replied as he pulled the dagger back, “Too bad then… You had your chance to save her!”
As Traipse reared the dagger back then lunged it forward to kill Dorothy, the general became hysterical, “NO!!! DON’T!!! I LOVE HER!!!”
“TRAIPSE STOP!!!”

                Traipse froze in place as the room became completely silent. Dorothy was frozen in fear as a small trickle of blood rolled down the center of her face and around her muzzle. Traipse managed to stop the blade before it could kill her, but the very tip of the blade still managed to break the skin on her forehead. Traipse pulled the dagger back and lowered it as he looked over at The Reaper. She shook her head as she held her scythe back up and turned towards the door, “They don’t have it… but I think I know who does.”
Traipse let go of both the dagger and the mare, as he turned to follow Scy. Dorothy was full of so much fear that she immediately fell to the ground as the general rushed to her side. Before Traipse trotted away, he spoke to the general, “Love is precious general… If you take her where she is in danger, then you may lose her forever… Remember that.”
The whole room watched, as both The Reaper and Traipse left the building.

                When the two mercenaries were outside, Traipse asked, “So Scy? Who has the book?”
“Do you recognize the mare we passed when we arrived here?”
Traipse replied, “No, I didn’t. Have you met her before?”
“No… but I know that she is the only pony in the world who carries that weapon she had on her wings… and I also know she happens to be a messenger for hire.”
Traipse nodded his head, “Got it… she was hired to deliver the book for the general wasn’t she?”
The Reaper nodded her head, “And we both know which way she will travel to get to where she’s going. She has a head start on us… but she will have to travel through the Prance royal army first, so we will cut her off while they slow her down. In addition, any pegasus with common sence will avoid flying at night with a new moon. So tonight, she will probably camp out. We should travel all night to catch up.”

                Traipse nodded his head, “Then you travel by sky and I'll stick to the ground. Do you think we will be able to catch her?”
Scy replied, “She doesn’t know we are after her, so she probably isn’t in any rush.”
Traipse replied, “Then I'll meet you at the front lines. Remember to let the Prance army know that you are on their side.”
Scy nodded her head as she took to the skies. When she was almost too far to see, Traipse started galloping down the road as fast as he could in hopes that he could reach the border before Blade.

                About two days later, Blade was reaching the rear line of the Prance royal army. She held her head up high and felt the wind as she realized her threat, “Hmm… three thousand soldiers… ninety catapults… four towers… nine trebuchets and on the other side almost two and a half miles away… a large heat source, probably the Inferno Straits… the river of magma. I wonder how I'm supposed to pass an army like this.”
Blade then noticed that a large number of Trebuchets were being assembled side by side on the area at the rear of the army, so she smiled, “Perfect.”
Down in the ranks Traipse and The Reaper were trotting beside the Prance General as he spoke, “So far I’ve increased security on both the front and rear lines, if they see any pegasi that aren’t on our side they have orders to engage.”
Traipse replied, “Good but if she is as fast as the rumors say, then she could easily make it through your security and back before you’re able to react.”

                All of a sudden, a soldier approached the group, “General… we have spotted a mare approaching our rear line… she’s a pegasus… a rather attractive pegasus. We’ve already contained her sir.”
Traipse and the Reaper looked at each other, then Traipse replied, “We will handle this… carry on general.”
The general nodded his head as both Traipse and the Reaper trotted to the rear of the fromation. As they continued, Traipse spoke, “I don’t like this… no mercenary with common sense would ever think of approaching the enemy army so casually like this.”
Scy replied, “ You’re right… either she is very stupid… or she has something up her sleeves… you talk to her I'll observe.”
Traipse replied, “Sounds good… keep an eye out for anything suspicious.”
Scy smiled as she vanished into the shadows, “Don’t I always?”

                By the time Traipse reached Blade she was talking with the guards who spotted her, when she saw him she asked, “You… you look familiar… have I worked for you before?.”
Traipse shook his head, “unlikely… My name is Traipse, I'm a…”
“The Crystal Mercenary?”
“You’ve heard of me?”
Blade smiled as she started pacing around him, “Who hasn’t heard of the mercenary who took down the Crystal Empire with his bare hooves… you’re even more handsome in the flesh.”
Traipse was flattered, but he knew the game she was playing so he replied, “well then, perhaps you can give this handsome stallion that book you’re carrying.”
Blade replied innocently, “Book? What book? I'm only delivering a box of cookies to my sick grandmother in the Hooviet Union… that’s all.”

                Traipse smiled, “Really… and does your grandmother know you’re carrying such deadly weapons on your wings?”
Blade hid her face and spoke with a sad tone, “Now that’s just mean… it’s not my fault my wings are underdeveloped and I have to wear these prosthetics to cover them.”
Hearing her fake crying made one of the surrounding soldiers trot to her and pat her on the back trying to make her feel better. However, Traipse didn’t buy it for even a second, he trotted over to two other soldiers who were watching the event and replied, “prosthetic wings huh?… my apologies… let me make it up to you.”
Traipse unexpectedly drew both the guard’s swords and threw them at Blade as she was looking at him though her fake tears. Reacting Quickly Blade pulled the Guard who was trying to comfort her into the first sword and deflected the second one with the outside of her weapon. then as Traipse started charging her, She threw the dead soldier at him, jumped into the air, and hovered overhead while she spoke, “Not bad… but you will have to do bet…”

                Just then Blade felt a shift in the wind… immediately reacting to this shift, she ducked her head down as The Reapers Scythe flew by the exact area her neck was in before she ducked. The Reaper tried swinging again, this time diagonally, but Blade flew away from her and dodged it. As she hovered there, she took one look at Scy and immediately knew who she was, “No… the Reaper…”
Remembering her initial plan, Blade tried to retreat from her foes and fly toward the trebuchets as fast as she could. As Blade flew, Scy tossed a needle at her hitting her on her wing just below the safety of her weapons armor. When the needle pierced her wing, Blade gave out a faint yelp as she fell towards the ground and crashed at the base of one of the first trebuchet. As both the Reaper and Traipse approached her, Blade was dragging herself against the ground crawling closer to the chain net that cradled the trebuchets next projectile. Seeing the fear in her eyes, Traipse spoke, “Sorry miss messenger… but this is the end of the road, give us the book and we will let you go free, you’re not part of the contract so you don’t need to waste your life on something so simple, now do you?”

                As Blade made it to the trebuchets shot, she smiled, “You know how it is… a mercenary tries to complete her contract… no matter what the risk.”
Blade griped the needle on her wing and cringed as she pulled it out slowly. After the needle was out, she held it at the ready as if she was going to fight back with it. The Reaper spoke, “I admire your determination mare… but that won’t help you here.”
Blade replied with a pain riddled glare, “I wouldn’t be too sure…”
Blade threw the needle past both mercenaries and hit the release lever to the trebuchets, then she leaned against the boulder and braced herself. The large arm that suspended above the trio started to move as it pulled against the chain net that was holding the large projectile, dragging it below the massive machine straight towards the two mercenaries. Reacting out of instinct, Traipse tackled the Reaper pushing them both out of the way as the large boulder was dragged over the ground they stood on. Then both the boulder and the mare who was pressing herself against it were tossed into the air and flung a long distance with incredible speed.

                As both the projectile and Blade vanished into the clouds above, Traipse smiled, “You know what… I like her. Just when you think you have her figured out… she surprises you. Plus she outdoes me in recklessness.”
Scy replied, “I agree… I can’t tell if she plans this out or if she just improvises. Not to mention that last stunt she pulled was near insane, I don’t think I would even consider attempting something as crazy as that.”
Traipse sighed, “Well… it’s safe to say we lost her.”
“Don’t be too sure, her landing won’t work in her favor… not to mention she is wounded so she won’t be flying. Nevertheless, we can cut her off at the inferno straits… I don’t see her attempting to fly or swim a river of lava, at least not in her condition..”
Traipse nodded his head, “Then let’s get moving.”

                As the large boulder spun as it flew through the air, Blade continued to hold on as tight as she could until finally, as the boulder was falling, the G-forces proved too much for the wounded mare as it tossed her off just moments before they both hit the ground. Both the projectile and Blade rolled along the ground, until Blade hit a large boulder that was in her path stopping her on the spot. As she struggled to pick herself up, she looked in the direction the projectile was rolling as it rolled off a cliff and vanished. Then a large splash of molten lava came up from over the cliff’s edge revealing where she was, “the… the inferno straits? I was tossed almost two miles to the inferno straits?... wow, their aim was way off.”

                Blade leaned herself against a pile of rocks and sat there breathing heavily trying to ease the pain in her wing. As she looked at her wound, she became worried, at first it was just a little puncture, but rolling into the trebuchet, being tossed over a mile and landing with an aggressive roll caused it to open up and made it worse. She knew wounds would heal… but they could only heal so much. If the injury was bad enough to affect her permanently, then she would never fly again. she tried to forget this worry as she looked through her saddlebag for medical supplies. Sadly, she didn’t have anything on her that could help, so she decided to improvise. Blade first removed her weapons then pulled out the parcel she was supposed to deliver. Next, she removed the paper and twine that covered the parcel and used both to wrap up and tie her wound so it couldn’t get any worse. However, the amount of energy she had, the blood loss she had sustained, and the fact that she was alone, made this patch up take two hours of her daylight. Now that her wound was patched, she only had less than an hour before nightfall, and traveling at night with no ability to fly was something she wasn’t about to attempt, so she placed the unwrapped book back in her saddlebag and found a soft place to set up camp.

                That night as she sat on her campsite near the edge of the inferno straits, she started to get tired of looking into the vast river of magma and decided to get ready to go to sleep. She removed her weapon and sat it beside her saddlebag, but as she looked at her saddlebag and the blood from her wing that stained it, she started to think about her mission. Deliver a book… but why would the Hooviet Union pay her so much to deliver it?… and why would the king of Prance hire the Cutters to retrieve something so simple?”
Blade opened her saddlebag and pulled the book out to examine it. the cover was old and worn with images on it that seemed to resemble alicorns. There was no writing on the cover, nor was there any way to tell who wrote it, so she decided to open it and read it herself. It was a spell book, that much was certain, but the writing was very old and faded, and all the pictures of unicorns performing the spells weren’t unicorns at all… they were all alicorns. As she sifted through the book, she found many spells that seemed normal, teleportation, invisibility, levitation, even instructions to turn a normal Unicorn into an alicorn. Then she found a page meant for only Pegasi, on it there were only four abilities, The Sonic Rainboom, The Lightning Orb, the Telescopic Eye, and the Wind Whisper, which happened to be what she did to read the wind like she does. these weren’t spells at all, but each one was an ability that some pegasi were born with.

                This page highly interested her, but she still couldn’t see the value in this book that would be any reason to start a war. She continued looking through the book until she got to the very last page, this page wasn’t a spell it was instructions, a recipe to create something. However, as Blade started reading the page, she heard a voice, “Sorry to disturb your story, but the tale ends here.”
Blade quickly looked up to see Traipse standing in front of her. She quickly looked down to reach for her weapon but it was gone. As she turned to run, she saw that the Reaper had already blocked the only path she could take. The Reaper put the hood on her cloak down as she held up Blade’s weapons and spoke, “Looking for this?”
Blade quickly looked around but with no strength to fly, she was trapped. Traipse smiled, “it’s been a long day for all three of us, so let’s just end this now… give us the book, and there won’t be any more bloodshed.”

                Blade was worried, without her weapons, and with her wing in such rough shape there was nothing she could do to defend herself, but rather than give up, Blade placed the book under her good wing and readied herself to charge the Reaper. Scy could only smile as she spoke, “I admire your determination… but it’s over. You might as well save your strength.”
Ignoring the warning, She charged forward with an attempt to tackle Scy, however, it was a senseless effort. Turning her scythe around and using the  blunt part of her weapon, The Reaper bashed Blade on her face with a single swing, throwing her a number of feet away and causing her to drop the book as she flew and landed at Traipse hooves. Before she could get up Traipse stepped on her wounded wing and began pressing down as she started screaming in pain. With tears of pain rolling down her face, Blade thought that this was the end, she started to think about how the infamous Cutters would end her life, until she heard something unexpected, “Traipse… let her go. We have what we came for, there isn’t any reason to finish her off, or cripple her.”

                Traipse looked at the Reaper and nodded his head, “You’re right Scy… sorry I guess I lost my head for a few seconds.”
Traipse took his hoof off Blade’s wing and stepped over her as she rolled to her side and caressed her pain riddled wound. Traipse trotted over to the book and picked it up, “Now why would a messenger with such skill be wasting her time and putting everything she had to protect this book? Why is it so special?”
with tears still rolling down her face Blade glared at Traipse and replied through her pain and heavy breathing, “How… should I know?... all I know is… they are paying me… a lot to deliver… that package. Much… more than I would … usually charge.”
Traipse smiled, “Well you definitely think like a mercenary… I can’t believe I’ve never heard of you before.”
Blade continued glaring at him as she spoke, “Bite me… you son of a bi…”
“Calm down… that was a complement. Either way this book must have something in it that is very special.”

                Traipse opened the book and started reading it. Just like Blade saw, there wasn’t anything very unique about this book other than its age, but both nations wouldn’t want anything old unless it had something unique about it. then finally, Traipse got to the last page and paused, “Wait a second… what have we here?... Hmm… instructions to create something?”
as Traipse continued reading, he found something of interest, “the Elements of harmony? I didn’t know they could be crea…”
Traipse eyes widened as he continued reading further into the page. Finally, he dropped the book and took a few steps back from it in shock, “why?… why would anypony do such a thing?… why would anypony sacrifice so much?...”
Blade continued lying on the ground with curious concern, while the Reaper spoke, “Tri? What is it? What does it say?”

                Traipse didn’t reply, instead he picked up the book closed it and looked at the cover while thinking to himself. Then after a brief moment of silence, he mumbled to himself, “no… I won’t let this happen.”
Traipse trotted towards the cliff and looked into the river of magma that flowed hundreds of feet below. Then he looked at the book and sighed, “The Elements of harmony are an evil power that should  never see the light of day… there is just too much to lose.”
Traipse then tossed the book over the edge of the cliff and watched as the book evaporated, as it hit the surface of the magma. Then he turned to Scy who was standing there with a confused look on her face, “What’s done… is done… please let’s just forget about the book and report to the king.”
Blade was speechless at what had just happened, she let herself be captured by an army, had her wing pierced by a needle, shot herself from a trebuchet, and was beaten senseless only to have her package destroyed before her very eyes. Nevertheless, Scy looked at Traipse and replied, “I trust your judgment, so I won’t ask… but what will we tell the king?”

                Traipse thought to himself then replied, “we will tell him that the messenger who carried the book was knocked out of the sky and both her and the book fell into the Straits… that should be enough.”
so what about the messenger then? Should we make our story true?”
Blade felt nervous, she knew that she didn’t have the strength to stop them if they did throw her into the lava, but she was relieved when Traipse replied, “No… let’s just let her be. We’ve done enough to her already.”
as Traipse turned to trot away, the Reaper had an idea, “Hey Tri? What would you think about adding a third?”
“A third?”
“Yea… a third. She has already proven herself to be greatly skilled and fearless. Not to mention she was able to escape us once. So I think she would be perfect for a third.”

                Blade didn’t understand what the two mercenaries were talking about as Traipse approached her and spoke, “Miss… you’ve heard of us right? you’ve heard of what they call us?”
Blade sneered at Traipse as she replied, “Of course I have, any mercenary who is worth their weight in bits knows who you two are. The Crystal Mercenary, and the Reaper… rumors have spread saying you two teamed up and began calling yourselves the Cutters right?”
Traipse, smile pleasantly as he replied, “good that makes things easier, How would you like to become a member of the cutters too?”

                Blades expression of anger went to shock, “What? but… I'm not even that big a mercenary. I’ve only completed three jobs total, why would a group with a reputation like yours want a newbie like me?”
The Reaper smiled as she replied, “You’re fearless, strong, determined and an exceptional flyer. I was actually considering this long before we got here, you’ve proven yourself worthy, and to be honest… it would make me feel better knowing that you’re covering us from the sky. I prefer to fight in the shadows while Traipse fights on the ground. Having you in the sky would definitely give us a better edge in open combat.”
Blade had to ask, “What’s in it for me?”
Traipse replied, “Well, we all share the profits equally, we do a job together or not at all, and we will always watch each other’s backs. There are only a few rules.”
Blade thought she had found the catch so she replied, “Name them.”

                Traipse spoke, “One, we will work for the highest bidder, no matter the contractor. Two, we never betray our own, even to the highest bidder. And three, never accept a contract unless we all agree on it. You will make our third member, but we don’t know how many we may add in the future, so I'm making these rules as if we had ten or more members.”
Blade thought to herself and spoke, “What if I say no?”
The Reaper replied, “Then we will leave you here with nothing more to say… we won’t force you to do anything. It’s entirely your decision.”
Blade thought to herself then replied, “If you will help me get to St. Petershurd, then I'll gladly join. They still offered to pay me a quarter of the price if I had to destroy the book for any reason. But that money is going straight to my medical bill for my wing.”

                Traipse smiled, “Even if you wanted to split it amongst us, that’s where it would have gone anyway. I told you, we look out for our own.”
Blade smiled as she struggled to pick herself up from the ground, “Good… because I'll need looking after till my wing is better, but I promise I won’t let you two down.”
Scy nodded her head as they began trotting together, “That sound fair enough, miss…”
“Blade… ponies call me Blade.”
“Well Blade, welcome to The Cutters.”