"You got the... goods, little man?", asked a towering figure of a man. He saw but a shadow before him, a small and harmless shadow whose details the man was unable to discern due to poor lightning conditions. Not that this was a drawback or a mistake of the location for their meeting, the darkness was much desired.
"Yes, I have the goods, now take them and go, Felix", said the smaller shadow. Now-named Felix found their voice a little odd but he made no comment or interruption to the flow of their meeting. He slowly extended his right hand forward. A small satchel was placed there by the other person.
"And the instructions?..", Felix's voice trailed off. The smaller figure shrugged.
"You find them inside the satchel."
Felix stood motionless for several seconds. Then, he nodded, turned around and walked towards the dead end.
"Don't forget to keep me updated", the smaller figure's voice said and Felix glanced behind his shoulder and observed them waving a goodbye. Felix gave no response.
The smaller figure, as the reader might have guessed, was of course, our protagonist Joredan Elizen. Joredan obserbed how Felix disappeared in the shadows near the dead end. Out of curiosity, he walked forward and touched the walls around him. It seemed Felix could pass through objects or teleport away somehow. Joredan shrugged.
"Magic is truly a useful force", he said to himself.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Now, though, began the nerve-wrecking way back. Joredan sneaked out of home in a sort of trance, and he found Felix's presence — though Joredan was sure Felix wasn't a true name, though this was beside the point — comforting, even though the man was probably a thief, a murderer or who knows else. But now, Joredan grew suddenly nervous about stepping out of the alley, undoubtedly, many people were patrolling the streets. He couldn't stay here either, of course. So, he walked back towards the street and paused at the beginning of the alley.
He focused his ears. To his left he believed he heard steps in some distance. He peered out. He immediately looked back in the alleyway to see if by some chance Felix, or somebody else, would pop out the wall and startle him, but saw and heard nothing. He peered left again and saw what he believed were two guards walking on the opposite side of the street, turning right and disappearing behind a corner. Nothing else seemed animated at this corner of the city and Joredan decided to try his luck and ran out the alleyway. He crossed the street in seconds and entered another alley and then turned right, then left and went straight. His home street was only a couple blocks away.
He almost walked out of the alley into another pair of night guards. He stopped just behind the end of it in time.
"Huh, you heard that?", Joredan heard a deep female voice ask her colleague. Joredan held his breath in alarm.
'Are you kidding me?', he thought, 'I can't be caught by measly night guards of all people just when my amazing life just begun!'
"Yeah, heard what?" This was the other guard talking to the first one.
"Hmm...", the first guard trailed off.
The duo continued walking, getting closer to the alley Joredan was standing in. Joredan could hear their rhythmic steps.
"Somewhere around here. Aha!", the first guard said, as she turned into the alleyway where Joredan was.
"Now what have we here, Jasper?", she asked her colleague in triumph.