The events of the day were still on my mind when I stepped into the inn.

After Adam informed me that I had become a User, I was suddenly thrown out of the mindscape and back into the physical world. When I awoke, the alley had changed drastically.

The sandstone in my immediate surrounding looked like it had turned liquid and then became solid again. Where there had been bricks, now lay an amalgamation of stone. Trails of now solid rock flowed down the walls, reminding me of droplets of blood from a needle prick. Parts of the houses had even disappeared, leaving me to look into their insides, which were luckily devoid of humans.

The sun was already setting on the horizon which told me that I had been inside the mindscape for quite some time. Without further hesitation, I quickly left the alley and hurried to the inn to meet Pecta. My mind was pleasantly silent but I knew that I would have to deal with Adam and the parasite sooner or later. For now, they weren’t my main priority. Informing my companion of what I had learned was.

Sarvad had been certain that the horned woman was looking for me and I didn’t want to know what would happen if she found me. Nothing good, if Sarvad’s memories were anything to go by.

Now back at the inn, I looked around the main room that had filled up considerably since my last visit. It was brimming with rowdy humans talking, drinking, and making sounds that vaguely resembled music. Not seeing Pecta, I tightened the cloak around me and made my way to the staircase that was located on the other side of the room.

I reached the stairs and was about to go up when a rough hand gripped my shoulder. Whirling around I found myself face to face with the woman who had manned the bar when we had first arrived.

“Vindict, wasn’t it? I wouldn't go up there if I were you," she stated in a calm voice while looking me straight in the eyes. Her voice wasn’t exactly quiet but the noise of the other patrons almost drowned it out.

“And why is that?” I asked. I was still on edge from the day’s events and the way she had phrased that didn’t sit right with me. My hand automatically moved toward my belt where my dagger was hidden.

Her eyes glanced at my hand before going back to my face. "Because there are a couple of people with daggers in your room, who seem to be very eager to make your acquaintance."

I tensed up and quickly scanned the main room for anything suspicious.

"Don't worry," the innkeeper said, seeing my reaction. "All of them went to your two rooms. Well, except for one, but you don't have to worry about him.” She nodded at the bar. Looking past her, I could see a human slumped over the counter, seemingly asleep. In any other circumstances, I wouldn’t have given him a second look. But now that the woman had pointed him out, I noticed the handle of a dagger peeking out from his belt.

Glancing back at the woman in front of me I reassessed her. She was built more sturdy than the average human but I had overpowered stronger ones in the desert. However, the fact that she had taken out another human without anyone noticing made me vary. Poison, if I had to guess.

‘Why am I immediately thinking of her as a threat?’ My assessments of people were usually more appearance oriented and had nothing to do with combat. That I had become different wasn’t bad but it did make me wary. Having so many encounters with death had changed me.

Going back to analysing my predicament I glanced toward the exit. Couldn’t I just leave and avoid this mess?

The innkeeper noticed me looking. “Don’t do that. I don’t know what you did but the people hunting you are professionals. They probably have someone monitoring the main entrance, who informed them of your arrival.”

She shook her head. “No, if you want to get out of this mess then you need to follow me. I can show you the back door.”

This immediately raised my suspicion. I narrowed my eyes. "Why would you tell me that? Out of the goodness of your heart?" I asked, taking a step back. Maybe I would have trusted her before my experience with Sarvad. But I had learned to be wary of humans.

The innkeeper snorted. “I do believe myself to be a good person but no. Me helping you is part of a favour I own somebody.”

She looked at the ceiling and her face crunched up into a frown. "It doesn't help that I dislike one of the people up there." With that, she turned around and made her way back to the bar. "Follow me if you want, but I'm not going to force you. I just heavily recommend it.”

Putting me on a timer didn’t make me happy but I needed to quickly weigh my options. How likely was it that someone was hunting me? Very, according to Sarvad. He had been sure that the horned woman would find me. As I had already established, she probably wasn’t a good person.

Now I had to ask myself what consequences could following this stranger have.

Immediately the idea of an ambush popped into my mind. Warning me of imaginary assassins upstairs, while luring me to the very real assassins downstairs. The idea of having someone to oversee the main entrance also made sense, so simply leaving wasn’t risk-free.

So, what held the least amount of risk? My problem was the unknown. Going upstairs led to the unknown. Exiting the inn led to the unknown. But following the innkeeper led to a possible known outcome. Escaping through the back door.

She seemed to be knowledgeable about the people hunting me, which meant that she probably knew a way to escape from them. Her knowledge of them did make it more likely that she was working with them. However, her words made me doubt that.

She spoke very openly about them, which would obviously raise my suspicion. The woman had to know this, yet she did so anyway. Not the actions of someone trying to lure me into a trap. Nodding to myself, I decided to follow her but keep an eye open for any trickery. If necessary I would fight my way out of here.

The human woman glanced back at me and went through a doorway behind the bar. After checking my surroundings I followed her.

Inside, another human stood beside a table and stirred the contents of a large bowl. A mouthwatering smell was coming out of it but I had no time to wonder what was inside. The woman walked past the man, who didn't look up from his work, into another room.

This one didn't seem to have a specific function as the only object inside was a table with a neatly folded yellow cloth on it. Three closed doors led to other parts of the house and the only light source was a window covered with a dirty rag that dampened the light to create a gloomy atmosphere.

The innkeeper asked me to close the door. After making sure nobody else was inside, I complied. This left us standing face to face with only a couple of steps separating us. I waited for her to say something but she just kept on studying my face. The bandages hid most of my details but it felt like she was staring right through them.

It was weird, considering how little time we had according to her. The possibility of this being a trap increased.

"So... shouldn't we get going? Because of the assassins that you mentioned," I asked trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. She kept staring at me before sighing.

"I can't figure out what's so special about this guy. Is it the fact that he's pretending to be a follower of your god?"

Before I had the chance to defend my disguise another female voice answered. "Nah, I couldn't care less about that." I whipped my head to the corner of the room where the voice had come from and was shocked to see another person standing there.

Nobody had been there before, I was certain of it. What made matters worse was that the human was covered head to toe in black bandages - the same way I was covered beneath my leather armour and cloak.

I remembered Pecta’s words as he explained to me that one of my best options would be to pretend to be a follower of a god whose name I had already forgotten. I did know one thing: This god was the patron of assassins. And now there was a real follower of his standing before me.

I took a step backward to keep both humans in sight and prepared for a fight. My hand was on my dagger and my claw was ready to spring forward. The movement focused the assassin's attention on me.

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Instead of attacking, she raised her hand. "May the light not blind your eyes," the assassin announced.

Not knowing how to respond I waited for an attack. Those same words had been uttered by the innkeeper when we had first arrived. It sounded like a warning, one for which I didn’t have an answer. Still, the assassin was waiting for a response.

One of the many tips Pecta had given me about interacting with other humans was to be confident. Even if you didn’t know what you were doing you couldn’t show weakness. He had called it ‘fake it till you make it’.

With a confident nod I responded, “Thank you for the advice.”

A snort came from behind the bandages and even the innkeeper looked slightly amused. "You don't even know the proper greeting of the followers of shadow and you still decided to imitate one. I can't decide whether to call you stupid or brave," the innkeeper stated.

"Either way, I completed my part of the agreement, Lilith. My debt to you has been paid. Now get out before the rest of your Vipers find you.”

With that she opened a side door and walked out, leaving me with the assassin who was called Lilith. Before the door could fully close, she called out to the innkeeper. “Always a pleasure working with you, Ophira!” In response, she got a hand gesture that was considered very rude.

The assassin rolled her eyes at the other human's action and turned to me. "Well, that's our queue to leave. My fellow guild members may be dolts but given enough time even an idiot will accomplish something.”

Her actions were so different from what I expected that I just stood there stunned. After a couple of seconds passed she rolled her eyes again and asked, "Have you suddenly gone deaf? I said that we need to make this fast. Ophira may be a bit dramatic, but she isn't wrong." This brought me back from my stupor.

"Who are you and what are you talking about? Also, how did you appear? The room was empty and then you were suddenly there. Was that magic? It has to be magic, right?” Despite everything that had happened to me my curiosity had never died.

Now it was her time to look stunned. She was so still while staring at me that, for a moment, I thought she had turned to stone. Luckily, that wasn't the case and she broke free of her trance to slap herself on the forehead.

"You know nothing, do you? He didn't inform you or talk to you in any way?" A groan followed my shrug. "Who should have talked to me?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Noctus of course! The god of shadows? The one who has taken such an interest in you that he contacted me to save you from my own assassin guild?" I couldn't see what was going on behind her bandages but her tone made it clear that she wasn't happy.

Didn’t Pecta say that gods only communicated with their Chosen? A god having an interest in me, much less talking to me, didn’t seem logical.

"I want to help you, but I have no idea what you're talking about. Oh, but I know Noctus. Pecta once told me about him. But he didn-" I was rudely interrupted by a groan from the assassin, who was probably not here to kill me.

"You know what? It doesn't matter. I have a place for you to hide while the contract on you is still active. I'm sure Noctus has a reason for not contacting you about all this even if it messes with my plan. To summarise, I'm part of the Desert Vipers, an assassin guild that was hired to capture you.”

She shook her head. “Why the hell our guild master would agree to a capture contract is beyond me. This entire job occurred so suddenly with no time to prepare. We didn’t even have a briefing yet. Of course, for someone of my caliber, this isn’t a problem.”

During her rant I had started to relax but now my concentration was back up. Being trapped in a room with a trained assassin who had a contract on me wasn’t good.

Lilith continued. “However, then my god talked to me during one of my prayers. I was to help you get out of Seran alive. As a Blessed of Noctus, I am required to follow his commands. And he even offered me a reward so, of course, I said yes. Got all that?"

Some of it but I nodded nonetheless. "Good, because I'm currently supposed to be somewhere else. If the other members see me here then it won’t end well. So let's go before they wonder where you ran off to."

With that, she opened the door behind her which led to a small courtyard and walked through. She turned back around when she noticed that I wasn't following her. "What is it now? Did you not hear me say that we need to go?"

"Yes, I heard you," I responded. "That doesn't mean that I trust you. For all I know you could be lying and leading me into a trap." I didn't get the feeling that she was lying, but I had been wrong about Sarvad, and that had almost cost me my life. “And what about my companion Pecta? I am not leaving him to the mercy of assassins.”

Lilith opened her mouth to answer when a voice interrupted us. It came from the other side of the door from which I had entered. "What do you mean you don't know where he went?! We saw one of the targets enter. He has to have gone through here!"

The calm voice of the innkeeper Ophira replied, "And I'm telling you, that he didn't come through here. Don't blame your incompetence on me. Now leave before I call the guards." An angry grunt was heard, with more muffled talking. I pressed my ear against the door, completely forgetting about the assassin in the room. "- poisoned. Someone from your staff must have slipped the sleeping powder into his drink! Or maybe it was you, you filthy-"

"I would stop talking before you say something you regret," the icy voice of Ophira responded. "Not unless you want a knife shoved up your ass. Hell, how about I go directly to Lilith? Surely, your only Blessed will reward you for insulting one of her friends."

I noticed a small hole at the bottom of the door and crouched down to take a peak. Ophira had her arms crossed and was standing across from a larger human. His face wasn't visible but from his stature and voice, I assumed him to be male.

From his words, I parsed together that he was an assassin here to capture me. Speaking of assassins, Lilith was suddenly next to me and had her ear pressed against the door. I almost gasped at her silent appearance but managed to hold it in. Then the male assassin began to speak.

"Taking Lilith on was a mistake. That dumb wench got into the guild master’s bed and somehow managed to convince him that she should be part of our guild. The old fart has lost his touch and has forgotten how to lead the Desert Vipers. I mean, he let random rabble that he found on the streets join."

Ophiras's eye roll was practically audible. "Sure Amarum, it definitely isn't because she's a Blessed of Noctus and way more skilled than all of you combined."

Before the man could respond a person who I couldn’t see whispered something to him. With difficulty, the assassin managed to contain his anger. “Talking to you isn’t worth it,” Amarum decided. Looking behind his back he motioned for someone. ”Take Tirta and search the inn. The detoxing tonic should have done its job by now."

This was the last thing I heard before Lilith grabbed my arm and pulled me away. "Time to go," she whispered and pulled me towards the courtyard. "Wait," I retorted and pulled myself free. "We need to wait for my companion Pecta." Everything that just happened supported her story and I had decided to trust her for the moment. That didn’t mean that I would let Pecta unknowingly walk into an ambush.

"Then we have a problem because I cannot afford to wait," Lilith hissed back. When she saw my refusal to leave she took a deep breath. “Fine, how about this: I show you a place to hide, and afterward we can go look for your friend. Preferably after you changed your appearance."

A piece of cloth flew at me, which I managed to catch with my one hand. "Throw that on and let's go," Lilith said and covered herself with an identical yellow robe that hid her black bandages. She quickly unraveled the bandages around her head and placed them in a pocket.

Walking outside I noted that the courtyard was very small and sparsely decorated. A wall that was about my height separated it from the street.

Lilith was heading toward the wall to the left and I quickly followed her example.

Putting on the cloak made me notice how many layers of clothing I already had on. To a human, it would probably feel awful but to me it was comfortably warm. Differently from Lilith, I didn’t take off the yellow bandages around my head. My face was far too memorable to take that risk.

When I looked back at her she was already crouched on top of the wall and scanning the surroundings. The top was slightly out of reach for me, so Lilith reached her hand out to help me.

This presented a problem. Reaching the top of the wall, even with her help, would require more than one hand. Pecta had warned me of showing my monstrous side to humans even if he himself was okay with it. My decision was taken from me when I heard a loud banging coming from the inn.

Without further thinking, I ripped the string keeping my claw contained, and took her hand with my human one. My claw left scratch marks on top of the wall and my descent on the other side was a bit abrupt, but I managed it. Lilith followed a lot more gracefully and we both pressed ourselves against the wall.

We had landed in a tight, dark corridor between two walls. Light was shining in from the exit, which seemed to lead to the main street. The footsteps of someone entering the courtyard could be heard from behind us. I held my breath and after a while, the sound of the door closing could be heard.

Before I could speak Lilith covered my mouth. We waited another couple of minutes like this before she removed her hand. She took a look at my exposed claw and raised an eyebrow. "I guess it makes a lot more sense why Noctus is interested in you. He is quite fond of non-humans.”

I thought about explaining to her that I, or at least this body, was mostly human, but decided not to. Maybe she was working in my best interest but that didn’t mean that I had to tell her all my secrets.

Instead, I said, “It’s good that you’re starting to understand more. Sadly, I don’t. Could you at least answer some of my questions? Like, how did you just appear in that room?” Maybe that wasn’t the most pressing question but it was one my curiosity demanded of me.

She chuckled, "Oh, are you talking about the Shadow Blend I used to mask my presence? Didn’t I say that I’m a Blessed of Noctus?”

I nodded along. This didn't seem to impress her. “Have you never heard of a Chosen?" I shrugged my shoulders and answered, "No, but I would love to know more. Pecta mentioned Chosen a couple of-” Suddenly the world around me changed.

A tall human man was standing before me. Only his face and arms were visible from underneath his white clothing. His arms were completely covered in glowing symbols of eyes, books, animals, and indecipherable words. A glowing symbol of an open book was painted on his forehead. The words in it seemed to come to life and swim through the air toward me. Red clouded my vision.

“Hello? Am I speaking to a rock?” Lilith's voice snapped me out of the vision. "Yes, I'm alright," I halfheartedly answered. This was my first vision in a very long time. Well, I now knew that they weren’t visions. They were Sarvad’s memories. I had hoped that by confronting him I had put an end to them but that apparently wasn't the case. Was this something I had to deal with or would they simply stop happening?

Shaking my head I returned my attention to Lilith. ”So, you were saying about Chosen?"

She gave me a strange look and stood up. “Maybe someday but definitely not now. Let’s get out of here.”

With that, she turned around and headed to the exit of the alley. I reluctantly followed after making sure my claw was hidden.