The Bismark job ended normally. Edna got the merchant to town safe and sound. Escorting him to the city’s local EITC guildhouse. He paid her in full and then she headed her own way.

Briefly stopping at the guild depots to see if there were any job opportunities that would take her in the direction she was going. She didn’t have much luck in the EITC but the KOG always had jobs for wherever one was going, so long as one wasn’t too focused on the matter of those jobs being dignified or high paying.

She found a simple courier job, delivering a package to a town named Rooney. A town that she and the merchant had passed by while heading to Bismark. It seemed okay though the job only paid thirty thousand in denarii.

Which was just barely decent, around six months wage from when she worked as a maid, or a  month's wage for your average Mondian salaryman. Still in Edna’s book money was money and she thought it was a good idea to build a good track record for the fledgling Bone Tree Company.

The job went relatively quietly, there was a brief run in with some wild boars and a bugbear while she was walking the roads alone. However those were quickly settled. She killed one of the boars so she could have something to eat while she camped.

As for the bugbear, Edna was finally just barely strong enough that her aura was enough to make most lower leveled demonbeasts keep their distance.

*****

Edna sat by her campfire looking up at the stars,  just a day away from her destination. She wondered what Billy was doing, since he hadn’t texted her in a while. She considered actually just calling him up but somehow she didn’t want to.

She didn’t know why, maybe because she’d spent the last six months running away from the possibility of him dying. Fleeing both her own ineptness and the feeling of helplessness she’d felt when she’d seen what was left of him. A charred husk, broken, bleeding and barely alive.

Edna wasn’t a great mage or some powerful sorcerer, she’d didn’t have much but her well wishes and concern. After he locked himself in his room all she could do was sit and fret and wait.

Repeatedly telling herself that the worst wouldn’t come to pass. She was well aware, the only reason she was even a practitioner was because he’d walked her through it with a carefully written step-by-step tutorial.

She had no clue what she could do or couldn’t do yet. She had no real plan for the future besides one of making enough money to live comfortably and support the two of them.

With a sigh she decided it was time to turn in for the night, pulling out her tent and bedroll from the storage menu in the phone. She was just about to head inside, when she heard a set of approaching steps.

“Hello…? Who’s out there?” she said.

One of her AWs appearing in her hand, taking the form of a pistol made of yellow gold.

“Ah...Hi. No, need to be alarmed.” said a voice from the dark.

From out of the shadows stepped a figure, a man wearing a plain white mask. The sight that wasn’t sight told Edna that the man was accompanied by others.They stayed just out of sight, cloaked in magically deepened shadows.

Waiting and watching.

“I am the Matte-Black Tangent. My friends just call me Tangent. I’d like us to be friends so you may do the same. I work for a certain party who’d be interested in procuring the package you’re carrying.” said the unknown Practitioner.

“Hm. I’m afraid I’ve already taken up the contract for the delivery of this package. So I can’t really help you. Guild rules.” said Edna.

It really was guild rules. It’d be one thing to be robbed or to lose the item by accident, but if she was questioned by force of magic and found to have stolen the package or sold it, it could cost her her guild license.

Even if things were just settled with a hefty fine, there’d be a blow to her good name and the company’s. Undoing all her hard work.

“Really? We can make it worth your while, I assure you. Enough to more than make up for any guild penalties.” said Tangent.

“I’m afraid. I’m going to have to politely decline...Friend. Perhaps you can try contacting the package’s original owner. If they were to give permission I’d be happy to hand it over.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

From the shadows came the sound of sucking teeth and soft chuckling. The masked man sighed.

“Really? Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer reconsidering?” said Tangent.

Edna shook her head, a second pistol appearing in her other hand.

“Sorry…”

“...A pity.” said Tangent.

It wasn’t the Matte-Black Tangent that moved first, but instead a bigger, bulkier man, who lunged forwards, striking from the shadows. The spike of ice that covered his entire arm would have made it a fatal blow if it had landed, but Edna was ready for him.

Rolling out of the way as he dropped from the sky with a forceful and explosive blow that spread aetheric hoarfrost across the ground.

The strong man was followed by a woman who came out, throwing a stream of caustic fluid that fizzed and ate away at the ground when it landed. A bit of it splattering onto Edna’s boots and eating through the leather and metal.

Edna still managed to dodge most it, still focusing her attention on the man at the center of the little group. Both her senses and her gut were telling her Tangent was the most dangerous of the three.

She raised both her pistols and fired at him him. The bullets bouncing off. Deflected by a wall of shadow and smoke. More tendrils of smoke struck forward, hissing like vipers as they dug into the ground.

Stabbing into the earth and then burrowing around her for an attack that got Edna from her blind spot. Knocking her around. One of them almost managing to sever her arm. Breaking the bone but not managing to cut through the enchantments on her road leathers.

The strong man with fists of ice darted with for a haymark. Edna received his blow allowing it to knock her away while she called up a  third AW that floated at her back and fired at the acid woman who was about to spray another stream.

“We really could have done this amiably you know.” said Tangent.

“I know...I’m regretting it too. You seem like such a nice guy.” said Edna. Her tone drawl, dripping with sarcasm.

Still firing at the man, his smoke blocking her bullets catching them in the air. Fortunately all her bullets were aether constructs. With a grim smile, she made them detonate. Exploding with blinding light and deadly force, throwing up a cloud of grit and cinder.

 The two forward attackers were startled from their assault turning to look to their leader. While Edna took the opportunity to turn tail and run.

Fleeing at a sprint, knowing that she had an edge in speed that’d keep them from catching up to her no matter what happened.

She kept running till dawn. Not stopping till she finally reached her destination. Heading into the town of Rooney. Handing off the package and then using the return option on her Phone-Band to teleport home. Having finally had enough of the road life for this particular month.

*****

Billy was sitting in the living room with a big block of dragon bone on his lap. The bones and hides of powerful demonbeasts had many uses and when treated properly were often more durable than the space-aged materials of the old world.

Billy wasn’t sure why, but with more of his active memory released he’d found himself with a desire to do something creative. He was still mulling over what to make with the dragon bone when Edna suddenly appeared.

Her body covered in  the crawling worms of bright blue-gray static discharge, that came from directly punching a hole through the space-time continuum and traveling through a plane of materialized nothingness.

“Hi…” he said. His monotone slightly warmer than the usual.

Edna looked up at him, her wince of pain swiftly changing to a look of surprise.

“Oh? You’re up?”

“Nh...In the flesh.” said Billy. A soft smile pulling up the corners of his lips.

“In the flesh.” said Edna. A wan smile spreading across her face.

She got up, nearly fell over, tried again and then managed to hobble her way onto the couch. Throwing herself down with a sigh of relief. She’d gotten away from that group, but she hadn’t gotten away clean.

She had severe acid burns on her lower body, frostbite from the brute with the cold fists. As well as a whole list of bruises and fractures thanks to the man  who’d wielded shadow and smoke.

She wanted to be angry but honestly in her head it was more her own fault for not being more aware and prepared.

She should have run once she realized that she was outnumbered. In fact she should have temporarily abandoned the job and simply teleported home. Money and reputation were only worth anything if you were alive to use them.

 If there’d been just a few more, or if they’d had someone with speed or space powers she might not have made it out of there. With a sigh she chalked it all down to her lack of experience and called it a lesson.

She fumbled with the phone-band, wanting to pull a healing charm or a curative potion from its inventory. Somehow though she just felt too tired, maybe it was running  full tilt, for ten hours straight, that did it. She kept going onto the wrong screen.

She was still fussing with the menu, when she felt an arm, gently lay itself across her shoulders. Pulling her close.

There was an invigorating warmth and a chill sense of refreshment that travelled through her body. It was followed by the standard itchiness that came whenever her cells and tissues worked in overtime. Quickening as they split and shifted about to restore any damaged areas.

“It’s good to have you back, Billy.”

“Good to be Back, Ed.”

“So….Hard day at work?” said Billy.

Edna nodded, aware that she should maybe move away a bit since whatever spell he’d cast was already well underway but not really finding herself wanting to do so.

“Yeah, I ran into these guys while I was doing a courier job.”

“Anyone we know?” said Billy.

“Nah…I’m pretty sure they were just after the package. I think the client was trying to hide in shallow waters.”

“Nh….That’s pretty shitty luck right there.”

Hiding in shallow waters was a way of sending secure or sensitive  packages or missives, while trying to keep it under the radar. In essence one simply just sent, the package like it was a normal, sealed package.

With the idea being that sending it as high priority, higher risk, mail, would bring more attention to it. Some people did things that way because they were just being cheap.

Others did it because they were doing something they didn’t want others to know about. While it wasn’t technically against the rules of most of the guilds. It was frowned upon because it meant pawning off hot materials on some unlucky schmuck.

Hoping that the blind held because any group that caught the scent would be able to swallow both the unsuspecting courier and the package with little effort at all. If one did it enough times and enough people died it could lead to either a steep fine or the chance of being blacklisted from the services of one or more of the guilds.

“I know right…?” said Edna.

Billy got up and she felt something that strangely akin to disappointment.

“Where are you going?” she asked. Feeling sleepy now that all the bumps and scrapes were gone. Surprised but not really surprised to find that he’d somehow managed to even make her headache feel a bit better.

“Nh?...Just to the kitchen. I don’t know about you but I’m starving.”