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“Run!”

They hit the street running at full speed, and Lucus could already hear the sounds of pursuit starting up behind them. He glanced to his side and saw Tavi running next to him in an all-out sprint, her much shorter legs having to do twice the work to keep up with him as he loped down the alley they’d picked for their getaway route. He picked up his pace, pulling ahead of her as he turned a corner and dashed behind a row of buildings just off one of the more heavily trafficked streets in this part of the city.

This was all part of the plan. The alley he’d run down dead-ended as it ran straight into the back of a building. There was a door here, but Lucus knew from experience that the current owner had bricked it over from the inside after one too many thieves had broken in and stolen from his back room.

He came to a sliding stop at the door, crashing into it hard enough to make him wince, but he immediately turned and dropped into a crouch, finding himself at eye level with Tavi as she ran right at him. She was short enough to pass for a child, but anyone who got a good look at her was going to know she was a goblin.

He hesitated a moment, caught by the wild look in her eye and huge grin on her face, visible even under her hood and mask. Then he caught sight of their pursuers over her shoulder, and he snapped back to reality just in time for her to leap directly at him.

“Jump!” He shouted.

Lucus caught Tavi’s feet in cupped hands. He activated his species skill Strength of Stone and power surged through his limbs, flowing up from the cobblestones beneath his feet. With all his strength he launched Tavi into the air and towards the roof of the building behind him.

Tavi jumped at the height of the launch, propelling herself even further. She reached out and grabbed the edge of the roof as she neared it, pulling herself over the edge and disappearing from view.

Lucus was left alone in the alley with their pursuers. He recognized both men, they were city guards that were working a private contract on their days off. They were too weighed down by armor to catch them in a short sprint, but he knew other guards would respond to their cries shortly. If they were going to stay out of jail tonight, they needed to lose these two before they got surrounded.

That’s where the rope came in. Tavi kicked one end of it off the roof, the other they’d already tied to the building’s chimney earlier in the day when planning this heist.

Lucus grabbed ahold of it and simply walked himself up the wall. They’d chosen this building as it was one of the old stone structures that had been here for most of Altria’s history. Lucus had spent the previous day ensuring that the stone was rough enough that his boots could grip it easily, undoing years of erosion from rain.

He joined Tavi on the roof as she pulled the rope up behind them. They had a minute to catch their breath before they had to move again, and the two of them collapsed onto the rooftop, next to each other.

“You… get it…?” Lucus panted.

Breathlessly, Tavi held up what appeared to be a solid gold statuette a little longer than her forearm. She passed it over to him wordlessly. The thing was too heavy for her to be lugging around when they needed to move fast.

Tavi had needed to be the one to grab it from the merchant. She was the only one of them with Thief levels, and if they pulled this off she stood to potentially gain multiple levels in her class. It was half the reason they’d even attempted this.

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Lucus stood, then put the statuette in the padded sack they’d left up here for purpose. Carrying heavy things was his job in this team. That, and coming up with the plans. With his size, people always expected Lucus to be the brute of the duo. They rarely expected him to be the brains as well.

Tavi was far from stupid. In fact, she was frighteningly clever, especially when under pressure. She just wasn’t much of a planner. The two of them made a good team, with Lucus planning their heists and Tavi adapting them when things inevitably went off the rails. He just wished she’d take things more seriously.

Lucus realized he was staring at her. Worse, she’d noticed.

She’d caught her breath enough to sit up, and stuck a hand up towards him. “Help me up, it’s time to move, there’ll be time for you to admire me later.”

“I was just thinking,” Lucus said, rolling his eyes.

He pulled her up easily, his hand dwarfing hers. His light brown skin contrasted sharply with her greenish yellow tint. She waggled her long ears at him as if to say “sure, and I know what you were thinking of,” before turning to look over the side of the building.

The guards were still down there, one of them had tried to boost the other up, but it was too high. The other guard shouted something when he saw Tavi’s head poke over the edge, but Lucus didn’t bother to listen as he mentally prepared for the next phase of the plan. Tavi however, returned fire with a blistering string of absolutely vile epithets until Lucus pulled her away from the edge.

“Hey, get your hands off me,” she said, feigning indignation.

He rolled his eyes and released her. “Do you ever stop? Come on, we need to go.”

It was late in the day, but the sun had not yet begun to set. Lucus could see it on the horizon over the wall that circled the city. As he jumped to the neighboring roof his shadow stretched out in front of him. Ringed in red light, it seemed to defy the sun.

The jump ended up saving his life.

Lucus turned just in time to see Tavi, motionless, bathed in crimson light and staring up at the sky. He wanted to scream at her, but it was already too late.

There was a thunderous boom, and Tavi vanished as a burning streak slammed into her. The force of the impact crushed the roof of the building and caused part of the wall to collapse onto the guards below.

Lucus looked on in shock, mind completely empty as he tried and failed to process what had just happened. The sack containing the golden statuette slipped from his numb fingers.

Vaguely he realized that he could hear other explosions happening elsewhere in the city, as more streaks of red light rained from the sky. The hail of fire lasted only moments, then stopped nearly as suddenly as it had begun.

Still too stunned to really process what had just happened, Lucus ran to the edge of the building he now stood on. In the distance he could hear people screaming in pain or panic, possibly both.

He was having trouble breathing all of a sudden, and darkness was trying to creep its way in from the corners of his vision. Bells began to toll in the cathedral across the river, then suddenly went silent.

Lucus looked down into the ruin of a building his best friend had just disappeared into, blinking to clear his eyes from both dust and tears. Somewhere behind him he heard a rumble as another building collapsed.

For a moment he couldn’t see what had become of Tavi. The collapse had stirred up too much dust, and his eyes struggled to find her amidst the debris.

Then a cool wind picked up, and Lucus said a prayer to all the gods he knew as he finally caught sight of Tavi’s body. She was covered in blood, and one of her arms was twisted beneath her unnaturally.

At first Lucus despaired, but she was remarkably untouched by the rubble littering the storeroom. It looked as if it had all been blown away from her, exploding upwards and outwards to hit the far walls.

Suddenly able to think again, he moved quickly. The building’s chimney was still standing, and the rope they’d used to climb up was still attached. Grabbing it, he lowered himself into the ruined room. He dropped next to Tavi and quickly checked for a pulse. Moments passed as he waited, but he felt no heartbeat.

His brain now on fire, Lucus gently rolled Tavi onto her back and began chest compressions. He had no idea how much force was too much for her small frame, but he needed to do something. If he could just get her heart beating long enough to get her to Narani everything would be fine.

Lucus repeated that thought to himself like a mantra, and when the chest compressions failed to produce a pulse, he tried breathing for her. The wreckage of this building became his entire world as he desperately worked to save his friend’s life.