“The entire event was a massive failure,” Korath said, leaning up against a wall with his eyes closed and arms crossed.

“Yeah.” Amelia sat on the ground, head slumped over, just trying to take deep, steady breaths until her body returned to normal function.

The two had encountered Castien Brielwa and attempted to capture him together. With their power combined, they were sure they could ambush and take him... But he had been tipped off. He was prepared and powerful to the point that the two of them stood not even a faint glimmer of a chance.

So, after escaping the Rev-8 combat golems sent specifically to annihilate them, the two sat in a quiet, secluded alleyway between two anonymous apartment complex towers in South Highden. Just unexciting enough that few would ever come looking for them here.

They had come so close to capturing Castien, so close to breaking through his trap and charging straight into him. And yet their effort was not good enough.

Amelia was still amped up, still ready to fight, but her heart knew that rest was all she could take at the moment. Another unexpected battle, and she knew she would slip. One slip, of course, was all it took to fall into catastrophe.

“There’s one good thing, at least,” Korath said. “Castien’s clearly not working with the blessing of North Sunwell on his little project, I think we can surmise.”

“Probably not.”

“So at least there won’t be Mage Enforcers after us, eh?”

Amelia looked away from him. She could hardly bear to face the man who had, just thirty minutes earlier, attempted to sell her out for nothing more than souls. His cynical attempt at camaraderie made her do little but seethe in rage.

Hey, if you’re looking for camaraderie, I’m always here.

I’ll never betray you, I promise. :)

By the way, your diagnostics are looking good.

Don’t worry about any malfunctions for your next fight.

Just make sure you don’t get tired out!

“Thanks, HUD.”

“What’s that now?” Castien asked.

“Nothing.” Amelia pushed herself up on her feet and put one hand against the alley wall. “I’m heading back.”

“Back home? I’ll accompany you. To keep you safe, of course.”

She clenched her fist. “He knows everything about me now, because of you. Knows I’m a half-golem, knows I’m the one they’ve been looking for.”

Her hostility was met with a breathy laugh. “Oh, that? Dear, you understood, didn’t you?”

“No.”

“I do everything in my life to accomplish my goals, no matter the cost. You do understand, I know it, because you are the same way. If the roles were reversed, would you not offer me to the mage enforcers to gain clemency and live a free life?” Amelia did not respond, and Korath’s smile grew wider and less kind. “Fortunately for you, you weren’t sellable. So we are allies again.”

He stared her way with cool, calm eyes that refused to betray the biting tone behind his words. Her own anger did nothing at all to force his gaze to waver.

The man was precisely right, and yet that only made her hate him more.

“Besides,” he continued, “you wouldn’t have fallen prey to Dimples in the end, I’m sure. Even if I walked out of there holding the keys to some vast underground soul cache, you’d have probably fought and scrapped your way out of whatever barrier they trapped you in. You’re too spunky for such confinement.”

“They wanted me dead.”

“Ah, right. I had forgotten. Anyway, you were never going to die today. You’re not leaving this world without completing your vengeance. Not in your destiny, Amelia.”

Now, Korath stood up as well, and placed one hand on Amelia’s upper arm, as if to comfort her.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Off.”

He gently backed away and pretended the moment had never occurred. “That he wants you dead, not alive, at least tells us we’re going in the right direction.”

“Yeah,” Amelia said. “Too bad we lost him.”

“Oh, dear, you have such little faith!” Korath shouted theatrically. He placed a hand over his collarbone and gripped his necklace. “I would never have gone into that meeting if I had not taken extensive precautions. Perhaps you don’t understand the meaning of subtlety, but that’s why we’re allies.”

“Don’t insult me.”

“No, no offense on your part. I’m only saying that we have different methods, and the one I chose just happened to include planting a tracker on Castien.”

Amelia did a double-take. “A tracker? What? When?”

“Simplest thing imaginable, Amelia,” Korath said. “I placed an aura on the vortex amulet. Every time someone activates it, the aura pulses and stays around for about an hour.”

“Which means it’s still active now.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And it’s invisible?”

“To all except those with magic sight. Which includes two of us.” The implication that Korath had the ability to see distant auras left Amelia curious, but not enough to actually ask.

Amelia activated her Scan Module and began to look around the cityscape. “Tell me the precise aura you used.” He did, and she adjusted her sight to pinpoint it. Luckily, Ed’s golemancy had gifted her with vast libraries of magical energy signatures to detect almost anything she needed to find. In this case, Korath’s aura was such an uncommon energy source that there was nothing to filter out; she found it the moment she turned it on. She pointed up and said, “Right over there. On top of that tower.”

“Looks to me like southern Highden. Hey, we were near there not too long ago. Looks like Castien Brielwa’s got a fancy penthouse above all those rich apartments. Should have expected he’d go straight home. A true master planner, that man.”

“I can never tell when you’re being sarcastic.”

“That’s my secret, Amelia. I’m never sarcastic.” His smile went from smug to gentle. The grossest kind of gentle.

“Let’s get him, then.”

“Are you sure? It’s getting late. He may not be welcoming to visitors at this hour.”

She ignored him and set off towards Highden. He followed close behind.

They had just failed to capture Castien at the Night Markets. But, in a sudden turn of events, they had one more chance. One final chance, Amelia suspected, because without this small element of surprise, the man was practically unstoppable. Someone that high up in the North Sunwell Company, someone who commanded a private army of the top combat golems in existence, could not be fought head-on by two individuals, no matter if they were two extremely skilled individuals.

The half-golem and the necromancer knew well that their alliance was beyond the level of merely tenuous; given the night’s passing, they would no longer be able to work together without coming to blows. Amelia, in fact, planned in great detail the various scenarios after felling Castien where she could slice Korath’s heart or punch his throat in. If she could not trust him, and if she could not easily defeat them, then she needed to deal with him as soon as possible. Perhaps she may not have the energy to kill him in straightforward combat, she thought, but it did not mean she would not develop as many plans as she could.

She had no doubt Korath did the same in their silent walk towards the apartment tower.

Still, they fought well together. Were it not for his motivations being completely at odds with hers, she would legitimately have considered trying to bring him into the fold with her great plot of revenge. He would get along with Ed, given the chance.

She wished she had time to contact Ed. Some way to let her know she was safe and to preemptively apologize for her blatant lie about leaving Fleettwixt. But if she abandoned Korath now, then he would find Castien first, and he would engage him first. He would either die pointlessly, or he would get away with the prize and leave Amelia in the dust. Neither of those were preferable.

So, as much as she hated it, they were embarking on the most brazen, most foolhardy counterattack ever conceived of. Even the most paranoid person would hardly consider the fact that two idiots they just beat down would immediately track them and come back for more. And by the looks of it, Castien was nowhere near paranoid enough for his bravado, anyway.

Amelia and Korath reached the apartment tower. Swarming with golem guards—none of them Rev-8s, thankfully, just the normal clay and stone models—and with that shining penthouse up top and the fast-fading aura emenating from that vortex amulet.

“This place’s crawling with golems,” Amelia said. “Probably more by the penthouse. We need to be careful.”

“Careful is one of my most defining traits.”

“If you say so.”

Korath had the swagger of a man who had already won. And, in some way, it rubbed off on Amelia as well.

They did their best and snuck around the golem patrols, avoided the sensors, and entered the apartment tower. They made their way up delicately, but quickly, and found themselves on the top of the tower in no time. Guards like these were designed to protect against money-grubbing burglars and teams of brute force thugs. They were not designed for two experts who had lived on the run all their life. It was hardly even a challenge.

And, for all the security on the ground level and as they climbed, it seemed Castien’s arrogance had affected his home, because his penthouse was very lightly guarded. Only a few golems, and ones that Amelia disabled without even breaking a sweat.

Almost disappointingly easy.

“Another trap, I suspect,” Korath said.

“Doubtful.” Amelia clenched her fist, let herself feel her glove and remember why she fought so desperately. “But let’s pretend it is.”

“Next move?”

“Spring the trap.”

They entered Castien’s penthouse and steeled themselves.