The sun was just starting to rise, bathing the rooftops of Seran in light and the alleyways in shadow. People were still tired from the previous night's celebrations and were just beginning to wake up. Unbeknownst to most, some folks were already busy working. Two of these individuals were perched on a rooftop, overlooking a seemingly inconspicuous alleyway.
“Have you located the entrance?” The commander of the operation asked. His subordinate had her eyes closed, concentrating. After a few seconds she opened them and replied, “The hideout consists of a 4x3x2 room. It is occupied by two targets.”
The commander nodded. A very cramped space, just as they had expected. “Mark the doorway and tell all units to commence manoeuvre ‘Smoke Out’." At her superior's command, the woman reached into her pouch and pulled out a handful of red sand. Closing her eyes, she threw it in the approximate direction of the doorway. Instead of simply scattering, the sand stuck to the opposing wall in a rectangular shape, perfectly outlining the hidden passage. The wind mage then relayed the commander’s words to all theEnforcers who had been selected for this extermination.
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After hearing Pecta’s account of his night, a heavy feeling had settled in my stomach. We had already known that our pursuers were powerful, but this put things into perspective. Whoever was hunting me worked with or for the City Lord. The most influential human in Seran, according to Pecta. And for some reason, they were kidnapping homeless people. Another point on the long list of shady activities the horned woman was involved in.
My only comfort was that I now had a name for this unknown entity: Fili Ocul. An organisation thought to be long dead, still pulling the strings and furthering its goals. This raised another question: What were their aims? They were clearly powerful, with enough money to make an entire assassin guild dance to their tune and enough influence to sway a noble, but what did they want?
I didn’t know, and I wasn't going to until I found some answers. No matter how risky, my curiosity had been piqued, and I knew exactly where to find answers: the palace. The origin of all this madness. How I was gonna get in there was something I was in the process of figuring out.
I was deep in thought when a faint scraping sound emanated from outside. I glanced at Pecta but he seemed oblivious to it. Frowning, I moved closer to the exit. It almost sounded like something was drilling through the stone wall. “Hey, do you hear that?” Finally Pecta looked up.
He started to roll his eyes, but stopped when he realised that the sound wasn’t just in my head. “Do you know what that is?” I asked. My companion listened for a few seconds before shrugging. “Probably just-“ Before he could finish his sentence, a small hole opened up right in front of us. We both stared at it, only reacting when it began to spew out a green gas. Some of it got into my nose and I recoiled at the burning sensation.
“Shit, someone found us!” Pecta called out while covering his nose. I followed his example and stepped back from the gas. The situation went from bad to worse, when another hole opened up and started emitting fumes. I didn’t know who or how they had found us, but I was starting to panic. Inhaling that gas probably wasn’t good for us.
I reached for the exit in an attempt to unlock it, but Pecta grabbed my arm. “What are you doing?!” Before I could answer, he moved the table, blocking the entrance and trapping us in the rapidly filling room. “Do you want us to die?!” I exclaimed. “Move the table, so that we can escape!” I immediately started to move it, but Pecta grabbed me. I pushed him away and was about to continue when a slap rang out. It barely hurt, but the shock of being slapped by Pecta momentarily cleared my panic.
“Calm down,” he retorted. “Don’t you get it? Whoever's out there is trying to smoke us out. As soon as we leave the hideout, we’re dead!” What he said made sense, but in my current state, it took a few seconds to register. “But if we stay here, we’ll die too!” He nodded, but didn’t immediately present a solution. I tried to come up with a plan of my own, but the urge to leave was starting to get overwhelming. ‘Wait, don’t I have the ability to stop myself from panicking?’ Activating Calm Mind immediately alleviated the stress and allowed me to think more clearly. The irony of having an anti-panic ability but not using it because I was panicking wasn’t lost on me.
Analysing my options, I quickly moved to the corner of the room and fiddled around with the latch to the hidden cellar. Pecta noticed what I was doing and helped me open it. Then, one after the other, we climbed down the ladder and when we were both safe, the hatch was closed.
Due to the room’s small layout, we had to stand back to back, with Pecta facing the altar. Neither of us had gotten the lantern, so the only light came from the cracks in the hatch. A small tug at my mind reminded me of my dwindling mental essence, so I turned off Calm Mind.
“Do you think we’re safe?” I hesitantly asked. Pecta’s sigh confirmed my fear. “Whoever's hunting us isn’t stupid. They will wait for the gas to dissipate before entering to check on us. We’re trapped in a corner, waiting for the butcher to come. That is if the gas doesn’t seep through the cracks and kills us first.” I had never heard him so resigned. “Maybe they won’t see the hatch?” I offered. “I mean, it took me a while to find it.”
“Maybe,” Pecta agreed, although his tone made me think that he didn’t truly believe that. We both just stood there for a while. Despite having fought a moment ago, all was forgotten in the face of our current predicament. Suddenly, he began to chuckle. A quiet laugh that contained just enough mirth to distinguish it from someone in despair.
“What’s so funny?” I asked, confused. It took him a moment to answer. “Nothing. It’s just… I never would have expected to die like this. Trying to help someone I've only known for, what, two weeks?”
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“I’m sorry,” I mumbled sadly. “It is my fault that you got entangled in all this.”
“Oh, don’t be sorry,” Pecta responded. “I think you misunderstand. Me dying in an attempt to help you is kind of nice.” In response to my concerned silence at this frankly alarming statement, he quickly clarified. “Not the dying part. That’s obviously bad. But not hiding from the bad stuff and facing it, is refreshing. A tenant of Persa that I didn’t know I was capable of. Thank you for helping me.”
I slowly nodded my head, despite knowing that he couldn’t see it. That did sound nice. For him. “I’m glad you’re happy, I truly am, but… no.”
“What?” He asked, confused.
“Don’t be ready to die,” I clarified. “I said the same thing in the desert, so let me repeat it: I have seen what not living is like. The broiling dark river, the pain. I don’t know if this is what happens to humans after death, or if your holy scriptures are right, but don’t be happy to die. Despite our predicament, I still consider life to be wonderful. A wonder which everyone should be ready to fight tooth and nail for.” I took a deep breath to calm myself. Rants like that were a rare occurrence for me. “So, before the gas creeps down here, let's think of some options. Could there be a secret exit here?”
“No, of course not,” Pecta replied swiftly, still sounding downtrodden. “This is a holy site for followers of Noctus. Using it to hide an escape route would be extremely disrespectful and- huh.” He paused when he realised which god he was talking about. Firing off a quick prayer asking for forgiveness, he attempted to lift the altar. The ease with which it came loose was a surprise, and all three of Noctus’ figurines crashed to the ground. Pecta winced as the carving of the deceiver lost its head. Trying to glance over his shoulder proved to be futile, so I crouched down, peering through his legs.
Behind the altar was a tunnel that looked like it had been dug by an animal. Pecta set it aside and crouched down to get a better view in the dim light. “This looks very narrow,” he remarked worriedly. I squinted my eyes and had to agree with him. It did look very small, which made sense considering Lilith’s low height. I was only slightly taller than her, so it might be possible for me to fit. I glanced at Pecta. No way.
My companion attempted to worm his way through but stopped when it became obvious he was going to get stuck. After pulling back, he dusted off his pants and frowned.
“Oh no, I’m not going to abandon you!” I preempted the obvious thought running through his head.
“It’s better if only one of us dies.” I found his cynicism both fascinating and disturbing. “On the one hand, it is nice to be so valued, but on the other hand, think about yourself. How about this, when I get out I’ll create a distraction and lure our attackers away. Then you can escape unseen.”
Pecta considered it for a moment and nodded. “Okay, but don’t risk yourself. If it looks bad, just run.” I agreed, despite internally promising myself that I would do everything in my power to save him. “If we get separated, we’ll meet back up at the inn, okay?” Pecta agreed.
Crawling through the narrow tunnel wasn’t very comfortable. The dirt clinging to my clothes and the thought that it might collapse at any moment made me very nervous. Just the concept of being buried beneath tonnes of dirt with no one to hear my screams was unsettling. The disturbing thought of getting stuck halfway through crossed my mind, but I suppressed it.
Luckily, the tunnel wasn’t very long, and with a steady incline, I finally reached the surface. Someone had gone to great lengths to hide the exit, covering it with a grate, a cloth, and a layer of trash. I took a deep breath as I crawled out of the hole and immediately regretted it.
The alley I found myself in was one I recognised from our nightly excursion. It was very close to the hideout, just a few corners away. The hideout where Pecta was now trapped. Quietly, I hid the exit again and crept closer, wary for any sign of our attackers' location.
My vigilance paid off when I noticed a shadow on the roof across from me. Backing up, I glimpsed three humans leaning over the edge of the building, intently focused on another house. The hideout, I realised. Their faces were hidden and they all wore light armour. These were the people trying to kill us. I couldn’t make out any details, but I doubted that I could take them in a fight. This attack was perfectly planned and these people most likely had the skills to back it up. Not even to mention other enemies that might be hiding. But my job wasn’t to defeat them. I only needed to cause a distraction.
The first thing I did was, with Adam’s help, reconstruct the way to the main road in my mind. With an escape route in mind, I picked up a random rock and aimed. My plan was to simply startle them, but what happened was completely unexpected. The stone flew true and, by some sort of a miracle, hit one of my enemies right in the side of the head. It shouldn’t have been enough to cause any harm, but it did disorient them, leading to my target tumbling right over the edge of the building.
I winced at the chilling crack that could be heard as the head met the ground. One of the other attackers reacted surprisingly swiftly and turned in my direction. They spotted me and raised some sort of contraption. Without waiting to see what it did, I turned and ran. A twang and the sharp pain in my human arm showcased that my pursuers were indeed skilled.
Without stopping my sprint, I glanced at my arm. A thin wooden bolt protruded from it. I reached to remove it, but a piece of advice from Pecta flashed through my mind. Never remove something that pierces you, without being prepared to stop the blood flow. My body could heal faster than a human's, but I doubted that I would survive long with a hole in me. I didn’t look back and just kept running.
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“Shit,” Layla swore as she looked down into the alley. The building they were standing on had only two floors, but that was enough. Jarwin’s mangled body lay there, his head looking like a popped watermelon. The loss of a good colleague always hurt. She turned to Milan and motioned towards the corner where the target had disappeared. “What are you waiting for? Let’s finish this extermination.”
He nodded but stopped and listened intently. Layla was annoyed but waited patiently for the message to end. When Milan stood up, she raised an eyebrow. “What did command want?” Her colleague cracked his neck and looked in the direction of their target. “New orders. Capture the target alive at all costs. Death is unacceptable and will be punished.”
“Shit,” Layla proclaimed and Milan nodded. This made their task much more difficult. Two thumps announced the arrival of two more members. When Layla turned around, the commander floated down onto the roof. The wind mage followed close behind. “The higher-ups want this one alive, so don’t be too trigger-happy,” he ordered. Turning to one of the other members, he motioned them forward. “Track them down.”
Before they could do anything, Milan stepped forward. “There's no need for that. Before they escaped, I managed to hit the target with a locator. The life signature will make it impossible for them to escape." The commander nodded and whistled in approval. “Good work. A couple Enforcers will stay here to guard the exit while we hunt down our target.” Everyone saluted and got ready for the hunt.