Emin emerged from the territory of the Black Spider and into the flooded ruined city. He was, surprisingly, alive. Neither the Black Spider nor the flood nor the explosions nor the Man of a Thousand Shadows had managed to kill him. He was feeling quite good about himself.

Half of the city was destroyed and the other half was on fire. Luckily it was raining and the fires were slowly going out. Emin wandered through the destroyed half, the coastal half. What buildings hadn’t been reduced to ash had been swept away by the water. The huge Guildspires in the centre of the city had collapsed. Much of the city had collapsed into the Undercity and the rain was rapidly flooding it.

As he walked toward the dock Emin realised just how much of the city had been built over the sea as it had now all sunk into the water. Entire buildings and bridges lay sunken into the lapping tides and many had already been broken up and swept out to sea. Emin reached a great gaping hole in the cobblestone road that had already been filled up with water. He didn’t know how deep the water was and so he went around. Climbing up the shattered husk of a building beside him. The building was full of ash that was being swept away by the rain and he climbed up that, crunching his way to the top.

He stood atop the ruined building and looked out across the city. There were people everywhere, desperately searching for loved ones or frozen in horror. The looting hadn’t started yet, but it would, even when there was nothing left to loot.

Looking out the other way was the ocean, roaring and crashing beneath the rain. It was filled with bits of the city that had been swept out. Boats and ships of all sizes lay sinking or sunken out there, most did not look salvageable.

Emin stood in the rain for a while, the ash beneath him slowly sliding away as the rain fell over it. Then something moved in the ash, something small. He looked down and saw a little creature clambering it’s way out of the ash and dust and into the rain. It shook itself and looked up at him with big yellow eyes and the rain swept the ash from its body, revealing a small wet bird. It was difficult to tell, so stained was the bird with ash, but it was red and seemed to have long trailing feathers.

Emin watched as the bird ruffled its wings, squawked a few times, and then lifted itself into the air. It was bigger than he’d thought, about the size of a cat with its wings fully outstretched. It looped around him a few times and he smiled before it swept away into the rain, flying away from the coast, away from the city. Emin watched it go, it was difficult to see in the rain but it looked like it landed on someone, a rider maybe, but whatever it was disappeared from sight.

He climbed down from his pile of ash and froze. Before him, lying in the middle of the road as though asleep, was Jencer. Those horrible black scars rent his sleeping face apart and his whole body was soaked with rain. His hands were at his chest and one clutched something tightly, something that almost seemed to be glowing.

Emin stared but the magi’s eyes were closed and he didn’t seem to have noticed him. He looked around for a way out, some place to escape too, instead he saw a girl.

She was perched atop a ruined building, just like he had been, and she was looking down at Jencer, just like he was.

“Who are you?” he whispered to her and slowly crept toward her. He had no idea who this person was but he felt safer with someone else than alone by himself with the Man of a Thousand Shadows.

She watched him creep closer with a look that was almost disdain. That didn’t bode well but he went closer anyway.

“He should be dead,” she said, looking back at Jencer.

Emin looked at him as well. He could be dead, he wasn’t very lively. But dead people didn’t usually die in such a calm position, especially in the middle of a thunderstorm and many fiery explosions.

“Why should he be dead?” he asked, climbing up next to the girl. She barely spared him a glance, still looking at the prone magi in the road.

“I poisoned him,” she said and Emin could hear a hint of pride despite her air of confidence and indifference.

“He looks pretty dead,” Emin said.

“If he died from this poison he wouldn’t look like that.”

Emin nodded, he didn’t know a lot about poison. “Perhaps he died from something else.” It would be nice, he thought, if Jencer was dead. That would mean he was no longer being pursued by the most powerful magi in the city.

“No, I watched him as the poison took effect. It was working. Then one of his shadows bought him something.” She pointed at the hand that was clutched at his chest holding something. “Some sort of glowing orb. It healed him I think. I couldn’t get close enough to kill him properly since his shadows were around.”

Emin was slightly taken aback at the idea of wanting to get closer to Jencer. He considered the man to be something to stay as far away from as possible. The only reason he wasn’t running right now was because he was afraid it would wake him up.

“So now he has a magic healing glowing orb as well as all his shadows?” Emin asked. He didn’t like the sound of that.

“It seems that way,” the girl replied, far more nonchalant than Emin thought appropriate.

“Well I think I’m going to hope he’s forgotten about me and run- What are you doing?” He asked as she seemed to be drawing a knife from her belt. “You’re not going to throw that are you? You-”

She threw it. Emin almost ran, every part of his body wanted to run, but he stayed anyway and watched the knife, because some part of him wanted to see it work.

Besseron had been a hunter for his village when he’d been alive, and a rather good one too. He had, in fact, just returned from a highly successful hunting trip when he’d been slaughtered by Jencer and his shadows. He’d been happily settling in to feast on the great roast boar he’d caught, ignoring the strange growth in the number of birds in the village.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Then Jencer’s cart had come through town, the birds had attacked it in fury, but his shadows had defended him as best they could. The great swarm of spirits and birds and horror had swept through the village and before he’d known it some shadow had run him through with a sword and he was defending the cart as well. Battling the birds for hours, then days, then weeks. He never tired though, as a spirit he was tireless, flawless, the only problem was he had no will of his own anymore.

Now all he did was as Jencer commanded. Kill this person, fetch this object, find this entrance. He was but a shadow of himself, following along with whatever he was told. Most of the other spirits hated it. He never spoke to them but he knew that they hated it. Having their minds slowly eroded before the commands of their master.

It wasn’t all bad though. Sometimes they had exciting commands. Sometimes they had to fly through a storm of fire and rain to pluck the eye from a still living Phoenix in the middle of the maelstrom. Besseron had been rather proud of that.

Now he’d been commanded to protect Jencer and so he watched the surroundings. He saw the boy and the girl of course, he even heard some of their whispers. But he wasn’t going to kill them unless commanded to do so so he simply remained hidden and watched.

Until the girl threw her dagger at Jencer. That, he deemed, was something he needed to protect from. So he flew out, his ethereal body flitting perfectly where he needed it to be. He reached out and with flawless muscles and tireless arms, caught the dagger.

Except that he flinched back out of instinct, leaving his arm intangible so that the dagger passed right through it. Oops, he thought as the dagger slammed, point first, into Jencer’s chest.

As soon as the Man of a Thousand Shadows opened his eyes and pulled the knife from his chest Emin was gone. He leapt from the building and ran through the wet ruined streets. He had no idea what happened to the girl and he didn’t really care. He was far more focused on threading his way through the ruins to get away from those shadows. You couldn’t hide from them, he knew. They could spread out and find you anywhere, and as he was about to rapidly learn. You couldn’t run from them.

He glanced behind him and saw a torrent of shadows pouring down the street, swords and pitchforks and other weapons all pointed at him. There was no escape, there was no remorse. They were going to impale him and he was going to die.

Then he tripped. Looking backward he hadn’t noticed another huge gaping hole in the street and he fell into it, splashing into the water that filled it. He floundered around for a bit but Emin was a pirate, he wasn’t good at talking, or fighting, or running, or much of anything really, but if there was one thing he could do, it was swim.

He swung himself around in the water and looked up. It was hard to see through the water and the rain hitting it but he could tell the sky was filled with the shadows, the endless tide of spirits. He watched them and as best he could tell they watched him. He waited a second and realised he was still alive. They were all waiting there, just swirling above. They couldn’t enter the water.

He smiled to himself under the water. They were like mist, or fog, they could float on the water but they couldn’t go in it. He twisted himself around effortlessly and kicked away, he wasn’t even struggling to hold his breath yet. He would make these spirits work for their kills if it was the last thing he did. Leaving the spirits helplessly behind, Emin swam away into the flooded Undercity.

Freyan was fast, Naya had beaten that into her in their training sessions. A ninja was fast, particularly a female one who couldn’t always rely on strength. So Freyan had practised running and jumping and slipping her way through the nooks and crannies of the city much faster than any human pursuer could possibly follow. But she was not being followed by humans.

No matter how fast she ran, no matter how many holes or cracks she ducked down they were always right behind her. The only reason she was still alive was because in the rain and ash and her constantly changing directions they couldn’t find her immediately. But she was running out of directions to change.

They were everywhere, every time she turned she saw a flitting shadow whooshing past where she’d been. Every step she took she saw more and more emerging from the floors and walls behind her. Every heartbeat that pumped through her skull she swore that more and more were encircling her, and there were a lot of heartbeats now.

Then something splashed out of the water beside her and grabbed her. That was stupid, how had she not seen that in time, that wasn’t very ninja-like.

“Hold your breath,” the something said and, lacking the time or energy to fight it, she did. Emin pulled her into the water and then swam away with her. The spirits circled the spot they’d disappeared but there was nothing they could do.

Naya’s shop was not on fire. She couldn’t be having a setback like that with business as it was. So when she’d first bought the place she’d coated it in Winterfish Oil. Nothing burned that was coated in Winterfish Oil although now she wished she’d applied it to other people’s houses. Could’ve made a killing.

She sat in the shop and watched the city burn around her. In her youth she’d have been out there helping people. Knowing this place there’d be looters and thieves running about harassing folk. Just the place for a master ninja. Sadly she was far too old for that nonsense. She just hoped there’d be people left afterward for her to put back together. She looked down at her patient, given to her by the Sorceress of the Sea, at least she’d put him back together.

He was asleep now but he was practically cured. He just needed a lot of rest and then he’d have to wake his brain back up again. Hopefully the sorceress was still alive, Naya had liked her.

Thankfully Freyan was still alive she noted as Freyan and some boy rounded a corner and ran toward the shop. They were both sopping wet and seemed to be afraid for their very lives. Naya grew worried.

“What are-?”

“We have to leave! He’s after us! The Scarred Man!” Freyan shouted which Naya didn’t consider much of an explanation.

“Who is-”

“We’ll take our old horses and head inland! We need to get as far away as possible!” She was already packing various things into a bag while the boy collapsed into a chair panting with exhaustion.

“Okay but who-”

Freyan ran upstairs still talking but Naya couldn’t hear what she was saying. The boy looked around in surprise at all the potions and poisons that lined the walls.

“And who are you dear?” Naya asked him, trying to act friendly.

“Um... I’m Emin... I... Emin.”

“Emin eh? And you got on the wrong side of old Jencer? That was a rather silly thing to do.”

“Um... yes... well...”

Freyan burst back downstairs with a bag stuffed with belongings. “I won’t tell you exactly where we’re going just in case someone decides to torture you for information,” she told Naya who grinned, she’d trained her well.

She grabbed the boy and dragged him off toward the back where the horses were. “Thank you for everything you’ve taught me. I hope I see you again some day.”

The door slammed and they were gone, she heard the horses clopping away down the street. Naya sat back down, she’d only just stood up, and patted the hand of her patient who was still asleep.

“Just you and me now then is it?” She looked out at the ruins and the rain. “Just you and me.”