Leoto Bright held a hand to his queasy stomach and pushed the small group of sightseers out of his way. Whenever he was in Soar, the way people flocked to this place never ceased to appal him. It was like they viewed it as a quaint tourist attraction rather than the home of terrifyingly powerful beings. Being this close to avatars that could wipe him from existence made his teeth itch. That they would only be able to do so after some difficulty did nothing to lessen his sense of vulnerability.

However, right now, he had even more pressing things on his mind than the power of those on the floors above him. He wasn't sure what had gone wrong with this operation, but things were not quite working out as he had anticipated. This was such an unusual experience that - in other circumstances - he might have found it all rather diverting.

However, on this occasion, he had a job to do, and, for whatever reason, it was proving ridiculously difficult to get his hands around the throat of a piddly little Level 25 without a Class.

Bright had spotted Lowe from across the crowded concourse of the Celestial Temple, chatting with a . His little lawyer friend was with him, which - in theory - made everything rather straightforward. It saved him from having to hunt her down later. His employer had given him reasonable latitude in this operation, but he was willing to bet a stack of gold that the words 'no loose ends' would be coming to him soon.

Ideally, though, he wouldn't have to tangle with a on their own turf. Bright had no concerns that he would not come out ahead in any fight there, but there were political ramifications in such a skirmish that were always worth avoiding if possible. Nevertheless, as he had managed to bribe the to look the other way when he brutalised Lowe inside the Tower of Law, he felt reasonably confident he could find the price of the big man talking to the investigator.

Everyone had one, after all—even him.

Bright burped, and his stomach gurgled horribly. What in Soar was wrong with him? There were no known ailments that could even give his immune system a moment's concern. It must have been something he had eaten . . .

He was just recalling being given a coffee by an attractive, dark-haired who, now he thought about it, was somewhat familiar when he was shoved roughly in the back.

Bright lost his footing momentarily, turning to growl menacingly at the oaf who had pushed into him. Doing so, he met the eyes of another familiar face - it was that he had been second from killing the day before! However, before he could react, the disturbance in his stomach magnified a hundredfold, and he felt his knees go weak.

The dived on top of him, the man doubling in size and bringing them both to the floor. There was a brief tussle - not as brief as Bright would have liked, but things seemed to be conspiring against him doing his best work that day - and the giant grunted in pain and deflated down to normal size, eyes rolling back in his head.

As he stood, Bright had a second when he considered stamping down on the unconscious form, caving in the man's head to ensure he never had to bother with him again, but then the pain in his stomach increased by a further magnitude, and he completely lost interest in the .

This was all starting to become a touch embarrassing. Although it was not unknown for Bright to give his quarry a sporting chance - sometimes, you had to add the odd handicap to make the whole thing interesting - there was a difference between artificially levelling the playing field and then actually being thwarted. He did not know what was happening, but he was done playing.

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Closing his eyes, he traced the outline of the pain he was experiencing. As he had suspected, it was some minor curse which was inflicting an unusually high amount of damage over time. On another day, he might have been interested in recruiting whoever was capable of brewing up such a thing. Today was not that day.

In a moment, he had traced the curse's origin - a significant problem with D.o.Ts was that there were always mana echoes that led back to the caster - and took that attacker off the table with a quick mental squeeze.

In his peripheral vision, he saw the drop bonelessly to the floor and grimaced. Yes, now he thought of it, she'd been there in the Peace District, too, hadn't she?

Lowe seemed to have allies, after all.

Speaker of Lowe . . . Bright turned back to face the Inspector and saw he was making his way towards the portal stones. Well, that would be wholly unacceptable. He restrained himself to an almost gentle stomp on the chest - the crunch of ribs caused the growing crowd of rubber-neckers to wince in dismay and started to run towards Lowe.

And then he was in the air, carried away by a gust of wind, spinning arse over tit in a most undignified way. Fortunately, it wasn't a long journey. Although as that was because he impacted upon - and went straight through - the Temple's far wall, he was not sure 'fortunately' was quite the right word.

What on earth was going on! In a blink, he exploded back through the Temple Wall and zeroed in on the that had diverted him. He had the satisfaction of seeing the look of dismay on her face as he punched out with his own stream of concentrated air, and then she was lost in the crowds of worshippers flung across the Temple floor.

Bright clicked his teeth in irritation at the devastation his strike had wrought: his employer would have his hide for that. You did not pay someone like Bright to undertake your business because you hoped for hundreds of casualties and newsworthy collateral damage. There were Out of Bounds Squads available for such destruction.

But he had to put that out of his mind. Bright's brief sojourn in the sky had been long enough for Lowe and the girl to have vanished through the portal. More disappointment there for his employer. Bright was going to be very lucky indeed to get paid at all here.

He blurred forward to stand before the .

"Let me through," he said, and then, because it was never a good idea to be unnecessarily belligerent with these people, he added, "Please."

Latham met the gaze of the nondescript man before him impassively. He had a pretty good idea who this was. were briefed on those in Soar who were to be treated with considerable caution, and if he was right, this guy was right at the top of the list. "I am afraid there is a queue, sir."

Bright looked over his shoulder and drained the life out of everyone who was waiting for the portal. Life Leach was a massively unnecessary Skill to use in the circumstances, but his frustration was getting the better of him. He could have achieved a similar effect with one of his hundreds of other Skills, but none of them would have been so visually impactful.

"It appears they have all suddenly decided to do something else. Please, , I do not want any further unpleasantness here."

Latham's eyes flitted to the ash that now lay in a neat line stretching away from the portal stones. He'd always known there would come a day when he'd have to make a choice between what was right and what was easy.

He just had hoped that he would be able to make more of a difference than the few minutes of time he assumed this would buy.

With his left hand, he reached out, gripped the portal stone, and crushed it, flaring every defensive Skill he had at his command.

Bright puffed out his cheeks. ", I would really rather not do his."

Latham drew his sword, settling into a guard position. "Okay, well, I guess you therefore have a choice. I am sure you have all sorts of exciting Skills and exotic abilities that can reconstruct a broken portal stone. I am also sure they probably need - even for someone like you - considerable concentration to enact. I can promise you that while I stand here, I'm not going to give you the opportunity to channel them. So, you can either walk away and chalk this one up to experience, or we can go round and round. You're call."

Bright glanced around to see a flurry of movement as other ran to support their colleague. Of course, they wouldn't be on time, but it was nice to see a little esprit de corps on display.

"Last chance," he said, returning to look at the Warder, "I am still willing to let you walk away from this."

Latham shrugged and sent a little prayer upwards. "Make this worth it, little man."

And then shit got real.