Seifr gasped for breath as he ran down the alleyway. It seemed to go on forever in the distance, a gloomy cast to the dusky sky inhibiting the light. Something was chasing him. He did not know what it was, but he knew with certainty that if it caught him he would die. A low chuckle sounded from behind him as he made his mad dash down the narrow street, and Seifr had to use all of his willpower to not look over his shoulder to see what made the sound.

Up ahead a side alley finally came into view, and Seifr redoubled his efforts to reach it. As he approached, he saw a figure sprawled out on the ground in a puddle. Something seemed off about this scene, and as he got closer, Seifr realized what he was looking at.

Celia.

She was face-up with her eyes unblinking. A hole in her abdomen had blood gushing out and oozing down to form the puddle. A puddle of her blood. Her head slowly turned towards Seifr as he neared, but her eyes were glazed over and unfocused.

"Why didn't you save me?" Celia's voice whispered in his ear, as if she was right next to him.

Seifr stared in shock as he started to slow down. Another chuckle came from behind him, and he felt hot breath on the back of his neck. With gut-wrenching agony, he pulled his eyes away from Celia and continued down the alley.

"Don't leave me!" Celia's voice once more wailed in his ear. Tears came unbidden to his eyes and streamed down his cheeks.

Seifr attempted to increase his speed, but he felt like he was wading through water all of a sudden. He looked down and saw that he was running nearly knee deep in a river of blood. He let out an involuntary shout and quickly looked back up to see where he was going. He suddenly crashed into a man with a missing arm. Blood was fountaining out of the wound where his shoulder was supposed to attach to his arm. Seifr lost his balance and only got a quick glimpse at the slightly familiar looking man before he lost his footing and collapsed in a heap into the blood.

Seifr quickly resurfaced and gasped for more breath, the coppery taste of blood filling his mouth as he accidentally swallowed some. He tried to get his footing under him, but he couldn't find the ground with his feet, and he simply splashed about in the blood. He looked around and was horrified to see that the alley was completely gone, and he was in the middle of an endless ocean of blood. Corpses floated all around, some looking like they had just died, and some decomposed into nothing but skeletons.

Off in the distance, a towering shape could be seen. It was humongous, the size of a mountain. Eyes suddenly opened on the shape and focused their attention on Seifr. A monstrously big grin filled with rows of sharp fangs opened wide as a voice boomed out causing waves to ripple in the blood.

"THERE IS NO ESCAPE!"

Seifr screamed at the top of his lungs as a sense of vertigo consumed him as he was suddenly falling. He slammed into solid ground, but something was still restricting him, and he thrashed about in a panic to escape whatever was holding him down. Seifr let out another scream as hands suddenly grabbed a hold of him.

"Shhh. Shhh. It's alright. It was just a dream," Shayla's voice came to him. He focused on the voice and slowly calmed down as his senses came back to him. His pulse was still beating wildly as he looked around to find that he had thrown himself from his bunk and his blanket had wrapped around him, restricting his movement. There were only a couple of other people in the bunk room at the time, but all eyes were focused on him.

He looked up to see Shayla placing her hands on his shoulders in an attempt to soothe him. He opened his mouth to apologize, and a low chuckle sounded behind him and faded away. The hair on the back of his neck and arms stood on end as his entire body broke out in goosebumps. He sat there for a moment with his mouth open like a slack-jawed idiot, but nothing else happened.

Seifr snapped his mouth shut and then looked Shayla in the eye. "Thank you," Seifr said as he untangled himself from the blanket.

"It's fine. Everyone has nightmares every now and then. I was actually just on my way to wake you when you suddenly flung yourself out of the bed and started thrashing about. I guess that's one way to get out of bed in the morning," Shayla gave a small snort at her own attempt at a joke to lighten the mood.

"Well I'm certainly awake, now. Haha. Right, so what were you coming to get me for?" Seifr was only wearing his pants from the day before, and he stood unabashedly to retrieve a fresh set of clothes from his footlocker.

A faint trace of red crept into Shayla's complexion as she watched Seifr move. She hurriedly opened her mouth to respond, "We're supposed to go see the Head this morning, remember? Go wash up real quick and then meet me upstairs." She quickly dashed away to the ladder leading back up into the house.

Seifr grabbed his clothes and made his way to the washroom where several places were set aside with wash basins for the teens to wash their faces and such. He quickly used a rag in the water to rub the night sweat off of his body and clean his face. He used a fresh basin to rinse his mouth out, and as he spit the water back out, a little bit of blood had mixed in with the water. Seifr stood there and stared into the washbasin for a long moment. He finally shook his head to regain his senses. Must have bit my tongue. Yeah, that's what happened.

Seifr finally made his way up into the house proper and spied Shayla standing by the door leading to a living room. The living room was set up like a large waiting room with a couple of desks. An office was behind the two desks, and that was their destination.

A young man in his early twenties sat behind one of the desks leafing through some paperwork. He looked up as the two approached and his gaze instantly centered on Shayla. He smirked at her before looking at Seifr. Seifr could feel a sense of hostility behind his gaze, though his expression gave nothing away.

"Well it's about time. I guess we'll just wait for you whenever you feel like gracing us with your presence," the young man said in a snide tone.

Shayla rolled her eyes as she trudged past the man. "Shut up, Quillin. Who do you think you are? You're just a paper pusher who couldn't hack it on the streets. You have no authority."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

A look of fury quickly crossed his face as Shayla refuted Quillin. He snorted in contempt as he said, "What I have is the Head's ear. I could easily tell him you're becoming too arrogant to continue working here, and you'll be drummed out in no time. I would hardly have to say anything about this other... person." A look of ridicule was in his eyes as he glanced at Seifr.

Seifr had been warned about Quillin's supercilious attitude, and he didn't spare him a second glance. The other man's cultivation was technically higher than his, but he had complete confidence in his ability to suppress Quillin if he got too wordy.

"You act like you actually mean something around here, but what you really are is superfluous. The Head has two ears, and a brain. You go ahead and tell him whatever you want. You don't scare us," Shayla retorted.

Quillin sat in indignation as his eyes narrowed and followed Shayla as she and Seifr entered the office. He turned back to his work like nothing had happened. He would never really say anything to the Head against Shayla. After all she was his.

Seifr came to stand in front of a large, expensive looking desk with an older man flipping through some sort of pamphlet. As he and Shayla came to a stop, the man behind the desk tossed the pamphlet aside and looked at the two teenagers over his steepled fingers.

"Well, first I have to say, nice job. Very impressive. Shayla already told me about the job and about the chase afterwards. That's not important, though. What's important is that you got away clean, and you kind of hit it big this time. Sometimes we come across... how should I say... special goods. The jewels and jewelry you two snatched a couple nights ago fall into this category. Special goods have to be handled by a specific type of fence, not one of the usual ones."

Seifr glanced at Shayla in confusion for a brief second, and Shayla was likewise confused. Where's this going? We don't hardly ever interact with fences as it is, Seifr thought to himself. The older man got up from behind the desk and walked around to the front. He re-seated himself on top of the desk's edge.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I'm explaining anything to you. Haha. Let's just say that I was impressed enough to give you a small opportunity to some education. You'll have to figure it out for yourself, and if you're smart enough to do so, we'll talk further afterward. But for now, you two are going to handle the transaction with this fence yourselves. I know that this is a little risky, considering you're the thieves who stole it directly, but it's no more risky than if you didn't have us to back you to begin with."

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a gilded ring. There was a design of a dagger on the ring, and Shayla's eyes went wide when she saw it. The man noticed her reaction and narrowed his eyes as he handed it to her. "Do you know what this is?" He asked.

Shayla grasped the ring in her hand and gulped slightly. "It's a Space Ring, isn't it?!" Shayla ventured nervously.

The man suddenly laughed and clapped his hands. "Exactly right! Exactly right. This is just a small space ring, and it can only store a modest amount of items. It's nothing fancy, and it's used exclusively to transact with this particular fence. Take it to him, I have a map for you here, also, and he'll inspect the contents and pay you the appropriate sum. No need to haggle. Like I said, special goods." The Head winked as he handed over a parchment with a crude map drawn on it detailing where to go. He casually dismissed them and resumed his perusal of the pamphlet he had previously discarded.

Seifr and Shayla exited the house and started walking towards the center of the city. Shayla handed Seifr the map, and he was shocked to discover that the location was actually in the center of the city close to some of the government buildings. Very strange place for a fence. Though I guess one of the best places to hide something is on the mantelpiece. Seifr chuckled to himself at the brazenness of this fence.

Shayla didn't pay any attention to Seifr, the map, or where they were going as all of her attention was on inspecting the ring. She sighed as she finally put it away in her pocket, though her hand stayed in the pocket with it. "I wonder when I'll be able to get such a thing? Too bad you have to be at least in the Spirit Realm to be able to access the interior of one of these."

Seifr glanced over at Shayla and then suddenly extended his hand out. "Can I see it?" He asked.

Shayla gave a wry chuckle as she fished the ring back out and handed it over to Seifr. As soon as the ring touched his skin, a strange sense of vertigo came over him, and he was suddenly aware of a small room. That was the only way he could think to describe it. He couldn't quite see it with his eyes, but he could tell exactly what was there.

All of the jewels they had stolen the other night were there, and also a piece of paper. He concentrated on the paper and instinctively made a grasping motion. Suddenly, the paper was in his hand. Shayla gave a quick intake of breath as she realized what had happened.

"You can access it?! How? You're cultivation is even lower than mine!" Shayla stamped her foot in irritation.

Seifr glanced at her briefly, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He lifted the paper up to read it and was surprised at what it said:

Seifr and Shayla. Impressive display for age and cultivation. Potential Recruits.

That was all that was on the paper. He handed it to Shayla to read. She looked back at him after seeing was was written, and then lifted her hands up and shrugged. "Might as well see where this goes," she replied with apparent indifference.

Seifr shrugged also as he returned the paper to the ring in its original location. Shayla stared at him for a second with a small pout before saying, "It's just not fair."

Seifr laughed at her antics as they made their way deeper into the city, his mood having improved immensely.