It didn't take long for me to get to the Capital, flying as mist is very efficient that way; however, I was frozen before I could enter the city because of the memories that flooded my mind. I had barely been 300 when I first entered the city, and for a banshee, that was the equivalent of turning 18, so I had been nervous and totally out of my depth.

Zaratras had greeted me at the palace, and he was the first one to treat me like a normal person, rather than someone to be feared and mistrusted. I immediately warmed up to him, and when the King offered me a position with the Eight Deadly Sin's, Zaratras was the one to convince me to join, despite the dislike of the Capitan.

I remembered running through the streets with Gilthunder, playing all sorts of games and hiding from our responsibilities while being pursued by the royal guard. So many memories flooded me that I reformed and had to sit down in a field close to the city; I leaned my head against my knees and took several calming breaths as I sorted through my memories one by one.

I probably would have stayed there a lot longer, but I felt a surge of almost demonic power coming from the city, which reminded me of why I was there. I jumped to my feet and transformed again, not wanting to draw attention to myself so quickly; I flew towards the source of the power and nearly ran into a stone wall. I sighed as I realized that the source of the power was underground; I was about to leave to find an entrance when I saw that there were a bunch of Knights beneath me, looking bored while a small mob of townsfolk gathered around them, acting really excited.

"I can't believe I get to become a Holy Knight's apprentice, isn't this going to be so exciting Marge?" "Yeah, with the Seven Deadly Sins coming back, it'll be good for the kingdom to have more knights to protect it."

The comments continued below and an idea sparked a smile. What better way to find information than to join the organization that was responsible for most of what happening right now. Plus, how ironic would it be to have a notorious sin secretly signing up with the kingdom that wants her dead. Oh, Ban would have a field day with this.

I reformed a little way outside of the square and walked up to the Knights, "I would like to sign up please."

One of the Knights looked at me condescendingly, "Little Lady, we are looking for people to defend the kingdom, not to knit our socks."

If I hadn't been undercover, I would have punched that man's lights out for being such a sexist pig; as it was I simply smiled sweetly and replied, "Well I'm sure that someone would be willing to knit for you, but I've always been better with a sword; I'd be willing to show you, if you wanted, it might help you pull your head out of your ass." He looked at me a bit shocked while his partner smirked at me.

"Good for you lass, I haven't seen anyone tear him down that shamelessly since basic training!" the pig glared at his companion who continued chuckling. "Here's the forms you'll need to sign, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow for training." He handed me papers and turned to someone else who wanted to sign up. I sent a smirk to the pig and then turned away to get started on the paperwork

***

When the next morning dawned, I found myself in a line of men being scrutinized by several Holy Knights; several people seemed surprised that a woman had signed up, and were eying me cautiously. I simply sent them small smiles, then ignored them; bringing my focus back to the Knight in front of us.

"Listen up maggots, you all have signed up to defend the kingdom, but right now you are of no use to anybody. Over the next several months we will turn you into soldiers who are still not worth very much! For those of you hoping that you will get an easy ride to being a Holy Knight THINK AGAIN!" Spit flew from the instructor's mouth as he bellowed at us.

"There will be years of hard, spirit-crushing work before you will be fit to call yourselves Holy Knights, and years after that until you have proved yourself; I'll tell you now that most of you won't even make it past basic training, and that's how we want it. We can't have pansies defending the people of Liones against foes like the Eight Deadly Sins, so if this scares you then get out!"

He continued like this for several minutes and I tuned him out slightly, smirking as he ranted about the danger that the Sins offered.

"Sir, I thought there were only seven sins, but you said eight." A middle-aged man yelled after being given permission to speak.

"That's what most people think, but the reality is that there is an eighth sin, the Hydra's Sin of Deception, that is feared just as much as the captain. He was the kingdom's assassin, but few knew anything about him, so the memory of his existence has almost completely been erased. This is why we need good knights who the kingdom can depend upon and..." He continued, but I found the rest of his speech incredibly boring and unimportant.

It felt like several hours had passed before we moved on, another Knight came forward, "We will be testing you for a variety of things today, namely; ability with a weapon, hand-to-hand combat, and physical condition. After these tests, you will be divided into three groups; advanced, basic, and low. Those who score into the low category will be let go and encouraged to try again later."

When he said this, I felt like over half of the men's eyes shifted to me and I scoffed, 'These poor souls have no idea how good I am, I could take all of them out without even using a hundredth of my power.' That did beg the question of how I should do. Obviously, I couldn't be too good, which would only bring about suspicion, so should I go for mediocre or rather advanced? There were pros and cons to each, so it really depended on how I wanted to find the information I needed

As we were split up, I decided to go for the advanced route, I could possibly gain opportunities that I wouldn't be able to get otherwise, and I wasn't planning on being here for very long, so this seemed like the best idea. Hand-to-hand combat was first, and I was paired with the skinniest little man I had ever seen, I was afraid that if I put any effort into this fight, I would tear him in two. A bell rang to start us off, and he made the first move. He lunged at me, trying to grab me and push me down, but I simply sidestepped and used his momentum to force him to the ground. He kicked at me, but all it took to evade him was leaning back; I then grabbed his arm and twisted it around, rolling him onto his stomach, then pinning him in one fluid motion. The match had barely lasted a minute.

He looked up at me in shock, as I offered my hand out to him, "How did you do that!"

"I've been wrestling with my brothers since I was a kid, as well as my Dad, so I've gotten pretty good." I said to him cheerfully and he nodded; there was no need to let anyone know that I had been trained until I was about 200 by my Dad, who was a Holy Knight before me.

The rest of the day continued like that, me challenging people and ending the fight in one to two minutes. Finally, I looked up and saw the pig from last night standing in front of me, "I really hate the idea of beating up a woman, but I figured that if we get this out of the way, then I can show you to the kitchen to make lunch for us men." Oh, he was going to regret saying that.

I glared at him and got into a fighting stance, "If you agree to not use magic, then I'll agree to make lunch if I lose, but that isn't going to happen." I snapped at him,

"You've got yourself a deal, sweetheart" Someone rang the bell, and I waited for him to lunge at me. He didn't disappoint and I used his shoulders as a springboard to do a front flip over him; I landed and kicked the back of his knees, causing him to collapse.

"I'm surprised, sweetheart, not many people can say they've gotten me off my feet, but I believe I'll be claiming this match."

He twisted around quickly and attempted to grab me around my waist, but I simply used his momentum to let him pass me. As he went by, I grabbed his head and slammed it into my knee, causing a spurt of blood to leak out of the pig's nose. He cried out, but before he could do anything, I was on his back, digging in my knee and pinning his arms in an uncomfortable position.

I smirked as he struggled to get away unsuccessfully and bent down until my lips were at his ear, "Since I won, will you make lunch for us? It appears that someone has to wear the skirt around here, and you seem to fill that role pretty well." I pushed off him and heard cheering as I got up.

"I haven't laughed this much in a long time, lass; I like you!" The kind knight from last night was standing in front of me with a huge grin stretched across his face.

"May I ask what your name is?"

"Jane, sir. Jane Winthrop, and thanks for that!"

"Well I'm looking forward to watching you train more Miss Winthrop" He dropped into a bow, "Sewell McCormish at your service!" I curtsied back and then he called out that it was time to switch activities. Fake swords were handed out and I sighed at the crappy quality of the sword.

I decided to tone it down a bit for this one, I even let one man beat me, but other than that, there was no way I was going to let some stuck up jerk win, and it was the same situation with the physical they gave us. I sighed at how much I had to hold back, but I knew that it was necessary.

***

By the end of the day, I was actually a bit tired, and I walked into my room at the hotel quite happily. Obviously, I had made it to the advanced placement group and tomorrow the training would begin.

I sat on the bed and contacted Ban who freaked out a little, apparently, he thought I had been captured at first, but once I explained what I was doing, he started laughing and couldn't stop.

"Seriously? You are training to be a Holy Knight? That is the best thing I've heard all day! Tell what their faces looked like when they saw how good you were!"

"Well, I obviously didn't go all out, but it was amusing, everyone looked at me as if I were another species, well, I guess to them, if you're a woman and skilled, you pretty much are!"

"Let's just pray they never meet Merlin!"

"Oh gosh no! I mean, you just have to take one look at her usual outfit and they all would probably die!" We shared a laugh for a few minutes before I broached the question that had been on my mind, "Hey Ban? Did you talk to Captain?"

"Yeah." His serious tone immediately put me on guard, "You were right when you said they were closed off, what I said about you barely phased them; although, hopefully, we'll be finding King tomorrow, which might just be enough to tip the scales in your favor."

"Wait, where are you?"

"On our way to the Necropolis, we should reach there by noon tomorrow."

"Okay, well, I have to go. I haven't had to get up this early in over a decade, and I'm not thrilled about the idea of it."

I could hear him chuckle over our link, "You always were a night owl, weren't you?"

"Yeah... Night Ban."

"Night Little One, join up with us soon, do you hear me?"

"I do, and nothing would make me happier." Once I had said that I severed the link and laid back on the bed. I missed everyone, I had just started to open up to Ban, and now we won't be able to see each other for a while. I shook my head and rolled onto my side, grateful for the darkness that enveloped me.

***

It had been several days since I started training, and I was getting slightly frustrated about how little was happening. I would occasionally feel the demon's power, then it would fade out quickly; I was sitting in the armory polishing the sword I had been given and wishing that I could just use Durendal, there was so much less fuss.

I had forgotten how irritating espionage could be, and I just wanted to join my fellow sins, because both Ban and King had mentioned that the others might be willing to listen to me now. Thank heavens for that, I wasn't sure how much more patience I could have with them.

My head jerked up when several people walked by my door, I recognized Hendrickson, one of the Great Holy Knights, but the other three were unfamiliar to me, two of them even had bags over their heads. I stood up silently and masked my presence so I could follow them unnoticed.

We went down for a long distance then they came up to a door and slipped through, shutting the door before I could get in; I quickly summoned Durendal for the first time in several days and went into my mist body to slip through the cracks and then I flew up towards the ceiling.

If I would have had a mouth, I probably would have given away my position with how shocked I was. I was hovering over the corpse of a giant red demon. I looked closer and saw that it had gashed many times, though it was obvious that most of the major cuts were made with a different weapon than all the small gashes near the bottom; if I had to guess, I would say that the large cuts were the cause of death, while all of the small cuts were made posthumously. (I'm a banshee, we know these things; it kinda comes with the turf.)

I refocused on the people and saw Hendrickson filling up two goblets with blood pouring from a fresh cut on the monster, he gave it to the two people who had been hooded before and they drank it. If I hadn't been completely shocked before, this would have done it; common sense was yelling at me to stop them, but I knew that I couldn't give up my position yet, there was still more to this.

The girl immediately started gagging and dropped to the floor, but I was more worried about the man, he was exuding some very weird energy. He seemed proud for a moment, but then he started swelling and bubbled up, finally exploding. I had seen many gruesome deaths in my days, but this was definitely up there.

The girl stood back up, and I noticed that her eyes had turned purple with no visible pupil, 'Well Hendrickson, you have quite the experiment going on here, don't you? It would be a shame if someone were to dispose of your specimen, wouldn't it? ' I wanted to take out the corpse right then and there, but I knew that the best thing to do would be to learn more about this, and if there were other specimens or if this was it.

I left the chamber so that I could contact Ban and King to give them the rundown. I landed in an alleyway by my hotel and walked to my room calling out to the boys as soon as I landed, "Hey guys we have an interesting problem over here in the capital."

"Hey, Little One, what happened? We have something to tell you too!"

"Hey Janis, what happened that is so important?"

"King?! You're here too? What the heck, get out of our conversation!"

"I can't Ban, Janis is the one who made the link."

I smiled at the bickering, "Sorry for not giving you a warning, but we really need to talk. I would like to come to where you are, if that's possible. This won't be easy to explain well over a telepathic link."

Ban replied almost instantly, "Well that's perfect, because I just wanted to invite you to come to Vaizel, we're looking for Diane's Gideon and it just so happened to be the prize in a fighting competition! The preliminaries don't start for another hour, so I thought that would give you time to get your rear in gear and get over here!"

"Ban, Janis is undercover, she probably can't just pop over to Vaizel for a fighting competition!" King seemed worried about me, how sweet!

"Actually, that works. That would give us room to talk covertly without attracting attention, and I get to kick your butt while I'm at it Ban!"

I could feel his chuckle through the link, "I didn't know you liked it rough Jan, but hey, if you insist, I will gladly oblige!"

I laughed as a very embarrassed King piped in, "Ban, you can't just say things like that, that wasn't okay!"

"Oh yeah? Well then, why do you have a nosebleed over there fairy boy? I mean, even Elizabeth is looking at you weird for that! Learn to control your emotions will ya, or you'll give us away!"

I started laughing even harder when Ban said that, "Oh this is priceless, but you say the tournament starts in an hour? I'll be there, and be prepared to get trashed Ban!" I disconnected the link and started to get ready.

It would take fifteen minutes for me to get to Vaizel, and I would be needing a disguise so I started looking around my room, I could go with a simple outfit, but this was a fighting competition, why not jazz it up?

 I ran to a case I had in the corner and pulled out a long veil and some of my old assassin clothes and smiled as I got dressed. I hoped that my identity wouldn't be revealed, but if it was, at least it would be in style!

Once I was dressed, I summoned Durendal and transformed, heading to Vaizel, looking forward to being able to do something besides my current dull routine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What do you guys think? Was anyone OOC? Was the Chapter too long? Let me know, I love hearing your comments!

-klypso01