Seth woke up on his bed at his home. He recognized the room he had grown up in. The last thing he remembered was getting knocked down by that wicked looking cultivator who had appeared out of nowhere when he had been meeting with Celia. She had approached him when Seifr was fighting the group of noble youths and said she needed to give him something some time. She had just given him a sealed envelope when everything went crazy. He patted his robes to find that he still had the envelope on his person.

The movement caught the attention of someone sitting next to him. His father leaned forward and smiled as he said, "Ahh, you're awake finally. Do you remember what happened?" His father, Tobias Heirn, was in the Mid Spirit Realm. Because his father was an average cultivator, it had taken him some time to achieve his current cultivation and as such, he had gray peppered throughout his hair and beard.

"Some guy I didn't recognized fell from above and attacked us. What happened to our contact? Wasn't there supposed to be someone there to meet us? And I thought I heard Seifr before I blacked out." Seth furrowed his brow in contemplation.

"The contact was about to approach you when that man jumped in. We don't know who he was, yet, but we'll find out. About Seifr... some things... happened..." Seth's father trailed off as he looked away.

"Some things happened? Wait, what happened to Celia. Did that guy show up to kidnap her or something? Did Seifr go chasing after him? What?" Seth thought up the most likely scenario he could conceive of, and his mind started jumping to conclusions.

"No, that man didn't show up to kidnap Celia. She's dead, son. He murdered her," Tobias informed his son. The blood drained from Seth's face, and his eyes widened at this revelation. "Also, apparently Seifr had followed you and what you heard was him trying to warn you. The man who killed Celia escaped, and Seifr was found with her body, covered in her blood, by the City Watchmen. The contact had seen them coming, and he made the decision to remove you from the scene and bring you home. Seifr has been blamed for Celia's murder, and his information is being spread throughout the city. His current whereabouts are unknown, but we do know he didn't return home."

Seth was taken aback at this as he asked, "That doesn't make any sense. Why would they just automatically assume Seifr was the murderer?"

Tobias sighed as he replied, "There are many factors at play here. The most prominent one being that the Watchmen would much rather target someone young and weak, so they can score a win for an important nobleman, than to go into an investigation and potentially come up empty-handed. The first Watchman on the scene made the snap decision to claim to have been an eyewitness to the murder, blaming Seifr and attacking him. His captain probably understood that his subordinate was trying to become a 'hero,' but he made the decision to go with it. You don't become an officer of the Watchmen without understanding a little politics. But don't worry, Seifr got away, and this works to our advantage."

Seth was momentarily happy at learning that Seifr had escaped, but then he became confused by the last sentence his father had said. "Wait, you sound like we're going to let Seifr take the blame for the murder and not tell the Watchmen and the nobles what happened. The real killer is just going to walk away clean!"

Tobias shook his head at his son's outburst. He responded to his son, "While your integrity is admirable, it's naive at best. Like I said, the Watchmen and the nobles would much rather prefer a simple case where they only have to track down a weak, inexperienced youth. Lord Barnart is consumed with grief and anger, too, and he won't be able to see reason any time soon. Besides, who are they going to believe: The first Watchman on scene claiming to be an eyewitness, or a young boy, who by all accounts, was not even there? No, there's no clearing Seifr's name of this. Not any time soon, at least. If he can avoid capture for a while, we might be able to work some backroom deals to shed some light on the truth and expose the lie, but for now we need to bend this to our advantage."

"What could possibly be advantageous about this situation? There's certainly nothing good for Seifr!"

A light shown in Tobias' eyes as he answered with fervor, "Think of the big picture! Think of The Cause. We can use this event to drive a wedge between Seifr and the established rulers of our society. Normally I wouldn't care to recruit someone so young, but from everything that I've heard you say about him, I imagine if he's groomed meticulously, he could one day be a great leader in our movement."

Seth rolled his eyes at his father. "I'm sure he'll be super excited to hear his tragedy is going to work out for us. And how do you plan on recruiting him? He's on the run from the Watchmen. And why didn't he just go home?"

Tobias looked at his son out of the corner of his eye and chuckled. "Don't underestimate your father. I have my ways. For now we'll just have to wait until he surfaces in some of the circles I have contacts in. After he's been recruited, the two of you can meet again. As for now, you still have training to do at the academy. If you want to help your friend, I suggest you get serious about learning to fight for yourself instead of for me."

Seth's father patted him on the shoulder before getting up and exiting the room. Seth remained laying in bed thinking about the ramifications of all that had happened.

~

"Well this is just about the biggest disaster I've seen in a long time," Loryn exclaimed as he entered Kveld's office from a side door. He had been waiting in a side room for the Watch Commander to leave before making his appearance. "How are you going to get away with not helping them find the boy? They know about the badges we make them carry around. Did he think far enough ahead to discard the badge already?"

Kveld was seated behind his desk as Loryn had walked in. As Loryn took his customary seat with leg propped up, Kveld stood, and with hands clasped behind his back, walked over to his customary spot in front of the window gazing out at the campus grounds. After a brief silence, Kveld finally responded, "I'm not sure what he has done, but do you remember when I couldn't pinpoint the strange fluctuations caused by Caelaevus? Whatever was causing that masking of the effect is also causing the badge in his possession to have a fuzzy reading. I allowed that Watch Commander to access the Rune Map, but only you or I would be strong enough to get any kind of reading at all from his badge for some reason. That reading is also very strange. Instead of a single dot pinpointing the location, it's a large, faint circle encompassing a wide swath of the city. I only know that he's currently in the Northeast quadrant."

This was a very puzzling occurrence. The Rune Map had never had any kind of misreadings before. Maybe it's Caelaevus itself masking his signature? It had never had that effect with Loryn in the past, but it might be different if he truly did activate its attribute. Kveld unclasped his hands from behind his back and started tapping on the glass while he thought about the situation.

"Well that's good, at least. We know from his personality and his relationship that he's obviously not the culprit. But given the state of politics and the corruption in the Watchmen, it's no surprise they want to pin the blame on a teenager. Typical." Loryn did not have much respect for men who twisted the truth to suit their own needs. "So what's the course of action from here? Let things die down first, of course. But then what? And what if he's caught?"

"If he's caught, there's no helping him," Kveld replied. "As for the course of action, I believe I have already come up with the best-case scenario. After things have died down, you'll be able to search the areas where the readings are coming from. I won't be able to help you. I'm too much of a prominent figure these days, and people would track my movements and actions. Once you find the boy, I suggest revealing who you are and taking him as your personal disciple. Then the two of you could flee the region with ease, and you could groom him to become one of us. Our influence has been waning for lack of suitable candidates, and I can't think of anyone more appropriate than he is."

Loryn nodded along with what his old friend was saying. "I like that idea. He's showing some real promise to be a real powerhouse one day, and if we can enlist him to our side, that might tip the balance in our favor."

Things had grown complicated in Vinson. Noble factions were maneuvering to wrest more power from the Governor's Office. Powerful cultivators were arriving in the city, being recruited by the different factions to help lend some credence, and there was that one cultivator who had moved across the city at a speed that was shocking even to Kveld. The city was becoming a powder-keg, and the right spark could send the whole thing into chaos. That outcome needs to be avoided if at all possible. There's too much at stake for riots or, if things become really bad, war. Kveld continued to tap at the glass as he contemplated the current situation in Vinson.

~

"Enter," a loud, commanding voice came from within the room. Kohl pushed the door open and entered his father's study. The governor, Lord Traymen Lucidi, sat behind his desk reading reports as Kohl walked up to him. As he came to a halt in front of his desk, his father tossed the reports onto his desk and studied Kohl over his steepled fingers.

"You wanted to see me, Father?" Kohl asked. He remained standing in front of his father. Even though he was his heir, he did not presume to take a seat without permission in front of the Imperial Governor until invited to do so.

Traymen gestured for Kohl to take a seat, and after he had done so, asked his son, "What do you know of this boy, Seifr? I am led to believe he is a fellow student at The Misty Realm."

Kohl was surprised at this direction of questioning, and it showed on his face as he replied, "He's a commoner. What else is there to know? I mean, he is fairly talented at Kung Fu, but his cultivation is lacking. He's not easily intimidated, but he keeps sniffing around Celia like a dog. If he hadn't caused me such humiliation upon entering the academy, I wouldn't even know who he is. Why ask me about some base-born nobody?"

Kohl's father continued to study him over his fingers before finally responding, "According to those lackwits over at the Watch, he murdered Celia." This news came like a punch to the stomach for Kohl, but he did not have time to think about all of the ramifications and consequences yet as his father continued. "Lord Barnart wants blood. He would rather see a thousand innocents dead than to let one criminal get away. This is a terrible way to rule, as can be evidenced by all of the jockeying currently taking place in the local noble council. That Barnart has always instituted harsh measures, and it's been a real chore to keep him reined in and stopping a revolt from occurring. If I had been allowed to, I would have fired him from his position a long time ago. The arranged marriage with Celia was one of the tools I was using to get him under control. If I didn't know better, I would say he's with one of the other factions, but he's just a political idiot and a potential tyrant.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Sorry, got off on a tangent. Anyway, Celia's dead, so your engagement is currently on hiatus. Lord Barnart has another, younger daughter, but it's not appropriate to make any future arrangements at the moment. I don't believe for a second that this Seifr was the culprit, but to appease Barnart and maybe gain some semblance of control over him despite the nullification of the engagement, you are to spend some time leading some of our personal troops to find this boy. He has disappeared, and I don't trust those incompetent buffoons over at the City Watch to find him again. Bring him in alive if at all possible, but if it's too much trouble, don't hesitate to simply kill him. That is all."

Kohl stood from the chair he had taken. Because of politics and the association of a prominent nobleman, an innocent boy had a Provincial Capture or Kill Order placed on his head. Kohl, like his father, did not trust the City Watchmen in their assertion that Seifr was the culprit, but he also did not care. This was actually good news for him, because now he could employ troops from the Provincial Army to exterminate this bug once and for all. The matter with Celia being murdered was a little surprising, but they had just recently really begun to get to know each other, so although he was initially surprised, he got over it fairly quickly.

Kohl chuckled to himself as he made the trek back to the academy. Heh, don't blame us. Blame yourself for not being strong enough to stop whoever killed Celia and falling into Lord Barnart's sight. Kohl certainly knew how to look on the bright side of things.

~

Robert shifted his gaze around the crowd, always watching as many angles as he could as he rode his horse into the city. This particular job had taken him and Caerd half-way across the empire. Vinson, the capital of North Squire Province. More like the capital of Nowhere. Vinson was not a small or backward city, but compared to some of the other provinces, North Squire was definitely on the rural side, comprised mostly of farmland. It was located on the Eastern edge of the Empire. Further East from the province was the Ever Burning Desert. The desert was not literally burning, and it was crossable, but it used to have the stigma of being an uncrossable wasteland of death and the name had stuck.

Robert kept his eyes open for any possible sightings of the target he was after. He did not expect to actually find who he was searching for right after entering the city, but he would feel awfully stupid if he walked right past the man because he had not been focused enough. Like that target a couple of months ago. If I had just kept my eyes open, we wouldn't have had to chase shadows for 2 weeks and instead would have spent five minutes in that hellhole.

A man in the distance turned his head at an unnatural angle as he stared as Robert rode past. Shadows seemed to float off of his body as a grin slowly spread across his face. The grin kept getting wider and wider until it was impossibly splitting the face nearly in half. Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it. It'll go away soon. Just ignore it. Robert's heart started pounding, and he could feel his palms grow sweaty as he held the reins.

Ever since he had woken up to that nightmare scene at the Deason Manor, he would see things, horrible things, either off in the distance or out of the corner of his eye. The only thing he remembered from that night was deciding to go check on a light in the manor while walking atop the wall. Everything after making that decision was a blank, but from the scene that greeted him when he regained consciousness, he was not sure if he wanted to remember. There was so much blood. It was everywhere. Robert slapped himself in the face. Not hard, but enough to make him think about something else. If he allowed himself to dwell on these things, he would descend into madness.

His Watch Sergeant, Joseph Caerd, had found him wandering the streets in a daze. It had taken a month of care and coaxing to get Robert to start talking again. Nearly a full year had passed before Robert gained some control over the nightmares, but the waking nightmares... He was not sure if he would ever stop seeing things.

Robert and Caerd rode up to a tavern. After dismounting they tied their steeds to the posts available and made their way inside. Caerd made his way to a table in a corner, so they would have a vantage of the entire room, while Robert approached the bar.

He pulled out a wanted poster, showed it to the barkeeper, and asked, "Have you seen this man? He's a member of The Lifted Wings, a group labeled by the Imperial Justice Office as a radical anarchist group. He's wanted for murdering several noblemen, women, and even some children."

Robert was a bounty hunter. He had always wanted to use his tracking skills, and with guilt gnawing at him, he and Caerd had decided to partner up and hunt down dangerous, violent criminals. Robert was suffering from guilt for failing his duty to protect the Lord and his subjects of Deason. Guilt for allowing so many people to die. Guilt for surviving when the others had not.

The barkeeper looked over the poster before shaking his head, "No, can't say that I have, but feel free to ask around. Nobody'll mind."

Robert thanked the man and headed over to the table Caerd had appropriated for them. A mug of beer was already waiting for him as he sat down. "No luck with the bartender, but he said we could ask around his patrons."

Caerd nodded his head at this and downed his beer before standing up and saying, "Well, no time to waste. Guess I'll get started." With that he started mingling with the crowd, showing them the wanted poster, and asking questions. If Seifr or Seth had been present, they would have recognized the wicked cast to the portrait's face as the man who had murdered Celia.

~

Shayla ran through the alleyway, a light drizzle making the cobblestone dangerously slick. She had already had a few close calls, almost crashing into the wall or falling. Even a decent cultivation base could not protect one's footing unless they had an incredibly profound cultivation. Shayla was fairly talented - only 17 and already at the Late Elementary Realm. Just a few more weeks and I can reach the peak. If I can survive that long. Shayla was not running down a slick alleyway for fun. She was trying to escape from the City Watchmen.

She had lost sight of them using twists and turns and backtracking to confuse them, but she could still hear them shouting to each other, coordinating their pursuit. Shayla found a door that was slightly ajar in what looked like the back entrance to a warehouse. She made a snap decision and quickly ducked inside, bringing the door closed behind her and latching it. The warehouse was very dark with only a little light from the overcast sky making it through the windows. It would be completely dark soon, as sunset was approaching.

Shayla made her way deeper into the warehouse and hunkered down to wait out the Watchmen. They would eventually assume she had run further off when encountering the locked doors. All she had to do was wait. She hated the waiting. It was the most boring part of her profession.

She awoke with a start, realizing that she had actually fallen asleep. Real amateur move there, Shay. At least judging from the dark, it should have been long enough to be safe to make it back to the house. She stood up and was about to make her way to the exit when a sound caught her attention. It sounded like a soft groan and a body shifting in the shadows. There's someone else in here! I'm lucky they didn't stumble across me. She turned to tip-toe her way out of the warehouse.

As she reached the door, something pulled at her, causing her to stop and turn. She could not tell what it was, but she had this inextricable feeling that she needed to go find the person hiding in the shadows. All of her instincts were screaming at her to get out of there, and she was frozen in indecision. The next thing she knew, she was walking back towards where she had heard the noise.

Slowly, she approached the area she sensed the presence in. She concentrated on circulating her ki and focusing some in her eyes, a trick she had picked up from another who shared her profession, and the room lit up in front of her a bit. As she increased her cultivation, this handy skill made the room appear brighter. She focused her gaze on the form of a youth huddled in the corner by some crates. He was dressed in a simple robe and had a sword strapped to his side. He's younger than me and carrying a sword. She could sense that he was only at the Late Mortal Realm. This had several different implications, but she just shrugged her shoulders as there was no way to know for sure.

Upon closer examination, she discovered that he was absolutely covered in blood. Was he poisoned? There was evidence of blood having seeped out of all of his orifices on his head, a typical occurrence with powerful poisons, and he appeared to be unconscious, not just sleeping. She did not understand her own decision, but she found herself lifting this youth and carrying him with her as she made her way back to the house. You never know, this kind of person might come in handy.