Mist lapped the legs of a scaled girl rocked into apathy. Thick white obscured the guard’s boots, and a pervasive fog blinded many hapless souls tp the danger they were fleeing into.

In another place, a grey current snaked through a collapsed alley and touched the person buried beneath the rubble. Slipping over stones and moss-encrusted wooden beams to touch the mortal and encircle the fragment that split them in two. Dying eyes watched the tendril with pinpricks of light and the mist held them until their breath.

A terrified man scrambled over the pile. Unaware of what lay beneath. He ran and ran risking tumbles and fatal falls in their race for safety. They chanced upon the navigable of the collapsed alley and exclaimed in joy. Until a cloaked guardsmen stepped out of a shadow and held a sword to their chest. They were ordered to surrender and be chained. They offered punches and shouts of outrage and were cut down. Their body was thrown among the prisoners an example, a caution.

He was not the only one.

Blood and bodies fell into his mist and were hidden beneath swirls of white and grey. Blood spilt on mist touched stones. He heard every muttered curse and whispered prayer. Deadra’s screams rippled through along with Daiy’s grim chuckle and slow rasping slither. They took him in with every breath, for many he was their final one.

Igni touched the mass of criminality and himself why. He came upon an easy answer. They stole a child. He’d been there as they snickered and ambled as Deadra suffered. But the answers beget more questions, what brought them to this life? What brought mortals to such lows?

Those questions had hounded him throughout his youth. So much hinged on them and his incomprehension screamed at him. Carried by every promise of reformation given to uncaring guards. It whispered in Leandra’s hitching burbling breath.

Unlike the many curiosities that followed him since his arrival on the land, he couldn’t put it away. It demanded he look beyond mere knowledge. It demanded he understand.

Another responsibility fell over him and he pulled back. Swirls and eddies fell into his unconscious, his attention turned to fog. Masses of liquid weight shrouded a region of the slum-like a cloud fallen to the ground and slowly turning in its sleep. Dozens of metres tall and hundreds across he sat buffeted by the energies of the fight still raging within. His brother’s light washed through and painted white his typical grey.

He looked upon the dozens of gangsters still loose within him and tried to make sense of them.

A presence touched him. A ripple went through him as if a great gale had found him. It passed as suddenly as it came and Igni was suddenly aware of a thing looking upon him as he looked upon the mortals. The city poked him again and once more was he made to ripple but this time he poked back.

He took a question, and Spes Nova supped of his essence and knew him. It retreated before Igni could say why there was such a disturbance. Contented that it guest would not cause havoc worth it’s note. Igni was not so satisfied. His fog ballooned and churned as he reached for the old creature. It had seen much of humanity and lived through their twilight to cradle their descendants.

He wanted to ask it why.

But the questions would go unanswered. Two presences approached his swirling mist.

Lux swung down, battering his adversaries hastily raised cane. The blade chined like a bell. The sound was light and crystal clear. Another cut was seared into the cane and its wielder was once more forced back with a pained grunt.

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Sweat poured down their face, and dust and shouldering lines marred his clothes. The stag was hunched and barely standing, their hard eyes were the only shadow of their prior refrain.

Still, Lux was impressed by the noble. He’d found mild effort where he’d expected none. “This has been surprising,” Lux said conventionality. “I didn’t expect you to hold out so well.”

The young stag leaned heavily on the chipped and burned can and struggled to stand straight. Lux wondered what bowed them. Pain, exhaustion, or was it the sweltering heat that kept even his brother’s mist at bay? They met Lux’s eyes with something approaching calm but missing me a smidge. Fear sat there, fear and a deeper dread. “I am happy to impress emissary perhaps we can put an end to these hostilities.”

Lux chuckled. “Unfortunately I must say no thought.” Lux hefted his sword on his shoulder. “Though I do appreciate the politeness.” Lux took a step and in the space of a blink was in front of him. In a smooth overhead arc, Lux brought the crystal blade down.

Miraculously, the noble managed to raise his cane. Lux could not help but once again be impressed. Crystal light met dark wood, but this time was different.

This time Lux put some effort in. There was a gong, heavy and deep. The sound and with enough weight to deafen weaker mortals and shake the bones of those stronger. Lux wondered how many would’ve heard it if not for his brother. He suspected the answer was how many people lived in the city.

The cane snapping was a humble sound in comparison.

The noble fell to their knees and into the earth as stone buckled beneath the blow. Even then his blade carved through their shoulder and deep into their chest. Cooking flesh and boiling blood along its hissing arc.

This time there were no surprises. Lux removed his steaming blade and the nobel fell to the floor. They still breathed but did so with one less lung.

Lux hummed and stared up at them they blearily blinked up at him. A choked breath wheezed through them. “Spare my clan, few knew of this plot. They do not deserve your wrath.” Desperation borne of more than their encroaching mortality filled them.

Lux smiled because he found its root. “So you have been listening to your fairy tales. Don’t worry this spat isn’t worth judgment and even if it was I’m too young to go about razing cities and such.” His words and the relief they brought pulled the final thread keeping the stag conscious. With a shuddering breath thought left them. Lux kept talking anyway. “While I would kill you anyway. It’s an unfortunate fact that your law treats nobles and commoners very differently. It’s not worth shaking the order for this.” He said the final words quietly but knew it wouldn’t stop Igni or ‘others’ from listening.

Slow claps echoed behind him. Lux turned to find the snake lady staring at him a frantic Deadra and bleeding Leandra in her coils.

“Well Done! A wonderful display dear sir. It seems your beauty is only matched by your skill.” They seemed quite cheerful Lux but he didn’t think someone whose Scarlett cloak was matched by the red from many open wounds should be smiling so brightly.

Lux waved the fallen man. “Would you hold him for now Igni..” The mists answered by bubbling and covering him in a thick blanket. When they thinned the man was gone. “Thank you,” he muttered and returned his attention to the cultivator.

“You’re very happy for someone who might die before the night is done.”

“I will!? Well, this is certainly news to me. Why I thought I could surrender. Good angel, wouldn’t you accept a poor lass looking for redemption? I can assure you I have learned from my misdeeds.” She bowed with a coy smile. It faltered as a boot hit her in the face.

“She has learned nothing! Kill her!” Deadra screeched and went to throw her other boot. However, Daisy’s tail shifted to bind her more securely and cover her mouth.

“Ahem!” Daisy said and glared playfully at the muffled girl before wiping blood that had somehow found its way onto the girl’s boot and then onto her face. She turned back to him and smiled toothily. “As I was saying, would you accept my surrender?” She battered her bright yellow eyes at him.

Lux scratched his head. He didn’t know why the woman was so confident. She acted like some of the nobles he’d met, but Leandra would have mentioned if she was. He glanced at the feathered woman limp in the snake’s grip and wondered what to do. It wasn’t like he could ask.

“Truthfully, I’d rather subdue or kill you.”

“I’m hurt!” she recoiled. ”But if that is your intent why have you not simply struck me down? Do you delight in my suffering?” A picture of the deepest horror and betrayal was painted on her face. It almost made Lux wonder if he was being unreasonable.

One glance at Deadra’s hate-filled eyes assured him he was not. He shook his head and though it did not fall, his smile dimmed. “I’ve been warned about people like you, cunning, unpredictable dangerous. Unless you’re a noble of some import I can’t see any good reason to let you live. The reason I haven’t ‘struck you down’? I’m considering the odds you’ll use those two as shields.” He gently bounced his chiming sword as he spoke. The blade’s tip gently swirled the mist that had crept close. “I place it somewhere around ninety-five percent.”

Daisy quirked a brow and chuckled. “You’d risk them on

such poor odds.” Lux didn’t know what she found so funny, but it felt like the first honest thing to come from her mouth.

His smile returned. He took a half step back and crouched into a wider stance. He lifted his sword in preparation for a thrust. “Emphasis on try.”

She braced and Lux was moments from motion when a voice interrupted them.

“If I could have your attention for a moment. I’d like someone to explain what’s happening in my city.”