As the morning sun emerged, its radiant beams bathed the high street in a warm, golden glow. Rustic stores, inns, and guilds lined both sides of the street. With their charming four-story facades, the buildings cast deep shadows across the cobbled road edges. The air was crisp, carrying the fresh scent of morning dew that seemed to awaken the senses. Each cobblestone, worn smooth by years of footsteps, reflected the early light, adding a subtle shimmer to the street.

"Move it!" A cloaked man shoved past me and Aria and scurried across the edge of the street while holding a linen-clad crate.

"S-Sorry!" Aria called out, twirling around to see who just bumped into her. It was just her polite nature; she always apologized.

A wooden plaque with 'Open for business!' engraved into it hung by some frayed string on the storefront. I reached out and flipped it around while Aria kept trying to drag me along.

"Come on, Twel! We could get some fresh confectionery from the bakery if we arrive early. Dad is sick, and I'm sure something fresh to dip into a hot stew would help a lot." Aria encouragingly tugged on my sleeve.

Slow down! Please, I am not even fully awake yet. Step one sign, step two... I need to place a ward of protection. "Let me just place the ward first, Aria."

Reagents, potions, and academic books were big sellers on the market, which meant theft was always a harsh reality. I depended on a lock and key to protect my store since a year or two ago. But with criminals, warding spells were always a worthwhile cost. I had opened my cloak and revealed a large internal pocket; I shuffled through different items with my hands until I felt a small glass tablet.

Ah— yup, that's it! It was a glyph. Mages etched certain spells into these, though they frequently needed to be reinscribed as they relied on their own internally stored mana, and the glyph faded with time. I had a decent deal going where I only paid three silver for each reinscription.

I placed the glyph dead into the center between the ornate door and the window. I took one final peak into the wooden interior of the shop before the glyph activated. The glyph glowed a dark purple, its runes slowly spun clockwise as it self-fasted to the wall with a low humming noise. All the lighting within my shop disappeared as the window faded into a deep black. It was magefire— similar to the potion I was making for Oswald, yet it was a far, far less potent form used for lighting. The glyph snuffed out lesser magic within its boundaries while in use, so the store's lighting also faded. I checked the seal on the door using my hand, and it correctly resisted my attempts to budge it open. The glyph was bound to the person who placed it and can only easily be removed by that user.

"Hah- how much do those cost again?" Aria nudged me after patiently waiting, returning me to reality. She's calmed down a bit now; unlike me, she's not a fan of being inside. I could sit down brewing potions in a dimly lit room for an eternity while she walked the world.

"Oh? The warding glyphs? It's an opportunity cost; I'd lose more if my inventory disappeared." I smiled and turned around. I rubbed my eyes as the harsh sun beamed into my vision.

"As long as I'm not paying for them!" She stuck out her tongue. I guess she's still careful about how I've unloaded my financial burden on her. "I love you, Twel, but I can't bail you out like last year. Sadly, if things go out of business, that's it this time." She pinched my cheek and roughly ruffled my hair.

"Aria— please! I'm not like that anymore. I can handle this. Let's head to Yaffir's shop first to quote an ingredient since it is just before the bakery." I started walking down the high street against the traffic flow that came the other way. Various people from different walks of life moved towards the city square for the fair, and the hum of conversation buzzed around us.

"Are you friends with Yaffir? You guys sure do talk a lot." Aria noticed me moving away from the store and followed closely behind.

"No. That gem-hoarding weirdo is just another connection I've made."

The conversation went silent for a while, and we continued to walk. A dozen guards in durable gambeson, painted in the city's colors of yellow and blue, sprinted past us, each giving out exhausted breaths with hands on their weapons.

Strange, they may be late for something. It wouldn't surprise me since they get more activity at the Solstice Fair than most of the year. Adventurers came from far and wide for the festivities.

"You need to make more friends, Twel. You can always hang out with me and Maven, you know?" Aria interrupted the silence, likely being reminded of her friend by the guards.

Ah, Maven. She worked for the City Protection Guild. Aria met her while she worked herself to death to pay for my alchemy adventures. It was a calm job, all in all, but it didn't pay that well. They mainly dealt with minor border disputes and incidents.

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"Maven's nice, though I'm fine, honestly. I don't have time to socialize with my growing backlog of requests anyway." I dismissed Aria as the footsteps of the guards grew distant.

A moment longer passed. Aria and I followed the meandering city streets and occasionally made small talk. We passed by various artisans, guilds, inns, homes, and unmarked buildings. We took a narrow turn into a dimly lit alleyway. Yaffir's shop was just at the end of this passage. Apparently, the building once faced the street, but as this place had become increasingly dense, buildings had been constructed in front, obstructing easy access.

"Stop him! He's a thief!" A voice echoed from the end of the alley. From the darkness came sprinting a cloaked man; looking behind him, he didn't notice us. He collided directly with me and tripped straight past me and Aria. He dropped his linen-clad crate onto the ground—various pouches, bags, and gems scattered across the floor from under the fabric.

Ouch! What just happened? Is that the guy who just bumped into us earlier? Seriously? This delinquent can't give us a break.

The thief stiffened, his eyes now closed. He gritted his teeth together and clicked his tongue loudly. "Why the hell are you two here? That makes zero sense," He murmured and lifted his arm. "Supra' Vectora." He incanted while violently flinging his wrist in patterns. The crate and its spilled items zipped back into his arms in an organized manner. "Lahir' Maria." he combined verbal and somatic cues to evocate spells rapidly. A deep purple mana barrier blocking all movement now separated me and Aria from the thief.

That's— insane. From what I remember, no typical evocation or alteration forms can be cast this rapidly without concentration or glyphs.

"Y-you'll be caught! I have a friend in the guard. Come back here now!" Aria nervously called out. Honestly, what was she going to do? We both had small pocket knives for self-defense. Fighting someone like him would be a death sentence.

He took a deep breath and composed himself, and with that, he adjusted his cloak and walked down the alleyway back into the busy, chaotic high street.

Yaffir placed a hand on Aria's shoulder as we stared at the glimmering barrier. "It's not your fault. There is nothing you could've done," He said in a pained tone. The pain stretched out his words.

The slender, sickly-looking man in front of us was Yaffir. He wore large circular glasses and had messy, curly crimson hair. His voice was nasally, and he was clenching his chest where the patched white cladding surrounding his chest was stained a dark red.

A peculiar, large sapphire necklace lay just beyond my grasp on the far side of the barrier. It had likely slipped from the thief's possession or tumbled out of his crate in the commotion. The gemstone was captivating, resembling a tempestuous ocean trapped within. Shades of deep cyan swirled within it, mimicking violent, stormy whirlpools that churned with a life of their own. Its eerie beauty mesmerized me, stirring with the ominous vigor of a storm.

"Yaffir!? Are you okay?— y-you're injured. Did he hurt you? We need to bandage you." Aria patted the man down and lightly ran her hand across his chest. It seemed like the thief had caused Yaffir's chest to bleed and had caused a deep wound just off his sternum. I tried to hold back my panic, sweat dripping down my face. This wasn't good. Today was supposed to be the Solstice Fair, and I was already roped into this. I did care, honestly. But I stiffened up in conflict and didn't know what to do.

"Yaffir. How bad is the injury? Do you need to be carried?" I patted Yaffir's back as he let out weak coughs. Poor guy. We both had reasonable fears about rouges and thieves, but his place was out of sight from the city guards. Aria kept the pressure on the wound using her palm; she had gotten basic training with injuries from her work with Maven on the city perimeter. I could likely have gotten him a potion of minor— no, of significant vitality to cross the gap until he could reach the church or monks for some proper care. This barrier, though, was in the way; how was he even focusing on the barrier to keep it active when it was no longer in the line of sight? Surely, it should have disappeared by now.

"It's fine. The stock hurts more; that's my business gone now." Yaffir explained between ragged breaths. He held back tears.

I pointed to the necklace behind the barrier. "Was that one of your items?"

Yaffir cast a dismissive glance at the sapphire necklace. "No, that's not mine," he said, his voice tinged with contempt. "That bastard was on a rampage, looting indiscriminately. He didn’t even bother to check if the stores were occupied. Deranged madman." As he spoke, his hand involuntarily curled into a tight fist, the knuckles whitening.

I looked out onto the street and noticed that something wasn't right. This entire time, more and more people had begun hurriedly sprinting, tripping, and shoving past each other; people were screaming and shouting while guards hurried people out of buildings. My stomach felt uneasy.

"Looks like there's an entire panic going on." I pointed out, my head flustered from everything happening at once.

"People likely saw the commotion. I know it hurts, but please tell me, does your shop have an exit on the other side so we can get around the barrier?" Aria pushed up Yaffir's glasses. She began to panic as the noise of the crowd grew.

"I, I don't know. It's blocked— we're stuck," Yaffir hopelessly remarked, his voice growing weaker.

What the hell? The acrid smell of smoke filled the air, and a foreboding dimness crept over the sky. A fire? Panic clawed at my chest; I wasn't prepared for this, not at all. Behind or in front of the barrier— where was safe now?

A guard hammered against the barrier with his fists. "You three, this won't protect you. Disspell this immediately and run north, now!" His voice was laced with panic and urgency.

I exchanged a horrified glance with Aria. The man's uniform and face was smeared with startling streaks of red.