The glow of the setting sun shone over the city walls and the sound of cicadas filled the evening as Klein and Edgar stepped out of the Surly Spider and into the street. The Key was waiting for them on the road.

“Stay close.” The Key said.

Edgar suspected some skill was in play, augmenting their voice, since the Key’s voice was quiet, scratchy, and impossible to hear, but somehow he could understand their meaning anyway. It seemed Klein could as well.

He found himself fascinated, wondering about Keys again and remembered what Mirai had said, that they have skills and abilities to help them with their craft. He also remembered the look in the Key’s eye as they realized Edgar and the others were watching their work from afar, and the way they spoke so little, with those ice-blue eyes and the cutting intelligence behind them…

Could their ‘craft’ be secrecy? A secret order of mages?

Edgar watched the Key closely. Their guarded nature only made him more curious.

He shivered as the Key activated a skill beside him and an aura of magic saturated the surrounding space. Their eyes flared with ice blue flame that began condensing. The aura itself collapsed in on itself and all the energy flowed into the Key’s eyes.

Edgar glanced at Klein, who seemed even more nervous than Edgar, with his hand resting on his sword.

The Key raised their sleeve and touched one of the many tattoos with two fingers. The outline of an animal’s paw shimmered and melted into a ball of golden, gooey light that stuck to their fingers. He touched another tattoo, this one of an eye, and that melted as well. Bending over, he hovered over the ground near the door of the bar.

“Hey, d’ya mind?” A drunk patron appeared in the door. “I gudda get ‘ome to muh—”

They froze at the sight of the Key’s tattooed face, looking up at him with those ice-blue eyes, and immediately trundled back inside. “My mistake… I jus... Oh, what’s tha’ Gregg’ry?… Yuh, be righ’ there.”

The door swung shut again, smacking against the frame. The Key shook their head, turning back to their work. Edgar tried to read their face, but between all the tattoos and general stoicism, it was an impossible task.

“You don’t say much, do you?” Edgar asked.

The Key’s gaze remained focused on the ground, searching for something. They shifted, lowering their fingers to touch a specific spot on the ground.

“I say plenty. Maybe too much.”

The Key whirled and then tapped the orb of golden light to his own forehead and then Edgar and Klein’s.

Klein jerked back. “Hey!”

Edgar blinked, feeling the magic condense in his eyes and a wave of fizzling gold swept across his vision. The outline of a foot appeared by the door of the tavern, highlighted by shimmering golden light. Then, golden light surged upward, drawing the shape of a hunched, spindly body. There wasn’t enough detail to the image to tell much, but the figure came to life, running a few paces before launching into the air, up onto a nearby roof.

They looked at Edgar and Klein, their ice-blue eyes shining with magic, and then up at the roof again. He activated another skill or ability and a gentle breeze swirled around his feet, lifting him up into the air and headed towards the rooftop.

Edgar fed a few mana to [Hot Foot] and felt the magic roil inside him, ready for action. He ran forward and leapt up onto the roof.

He smiled to himself, crouching and enjoying the feeling of the skill. It filled in well for [Leap], [Acrobatics] and [Overdrive]. He reached into his core and sent a thank you to [One with Darkness]. The skill hummed in his chest, unable to communicate as it had when they were inside his inner sanctum, but he could feel it coming awake as the last fingers of sunshine disappeared behind the horizon.

Little traces of shadow wisped from his feet, mingling with the occasional spark and shimmer of [Hot Foot].

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Klein drew his sword and tapped the ground, creating a wall of ice that lifted him up to the level of the roof, and allowed him to step up onto the roof of the house.

“Hey, can you do me a favor? Is this hot?” Edgar asked, holding out his foot to Klein.

Klein shrugged, poking Edgar’s foot. “I don’t feel anything. You could try kicking me, but I doubt it’ll do any extra damage.”

“Focus.” The single word invaded their minds, whispered from thirty feet away at the far edge of the roof, and yet the word rattled around in their skulls.

Scolded, they walked in a crouch towards the Key at the apex of the roof, where another golden footprint appeared on the roof tiles.

When they reached the Key, they touched their fingers to the footprint. “We must move faster or they may escape.”

Edgar nodded, excited to parkour through the town.

Klein shrugged. “I’m not known for agility, but I’ll do what I can.”

The golden figure appeared again, this time lifting into the air and zipping along the rooftop, flying. The Key reacted quickly, using the breeze swirling around their feet to launch after the golden figure. Edgar ran along the roof, feeding a smidge more mana to [Hot Foot], but made sure to reserve plenty for combat, just in case.

The figure soared along the apex of the roof and then across a narrow street, banking left along the apex of the roof of a shop and another house. The Key zipped across, following the trail. Edgar smiled, throwing himself up and over the street.

As he flew, the wind rustled in his hair and he used his tail to control his arc. Beyond the walls of the town, he could see the silhouettes of mountains and hills. The grass shimmered under the moon like waves in the ocean.

Behind him, he heard an, “Oh shit!” as Klein tried to jump across and face planted in the street below while Edgar landed gracefully on the next rooftop, rolling to his feet.

“You alright down there?” Edgar called.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Klein peeled his face from the road, spitting out some dirt. “Keep going, I’ll catch up.”

A light winked on in a nearby house. “What in the devil is going on out there? The world is hard enough to handle without robbing a fellow of his rest.”

Klein jumped to his feet and scampered away. Ahead, the golden ghost soared further through the town, tracing a winding path across rooftops. Edgar chased, the feeling of wind in his hair making him smile. The golden shape dropped below the roofline and Edgar jumped down into the street, skidding to a stop as the Key bent to touch another glowing footprint.

At his touch, the golden figure appeared again, zooming down the street and the Key took off, with Edgar sprinting along behind. The figure turned down a narrow passage between two buildings and then turned again towards a door at the back of a building and vanished. The Key stopped in front of the door, listening. Edgar approached, sniffing at the keyhole and the door frame.

The Key raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

“I smell… celery and carrots? Potatoes?” Edgar whispered, the least threatening smells he could imagine coming from behind this door. “A nice stew of some sort.”

The Key nodded, reaching for the door handle.

“What about Klein?”

The Key paused, looking thoughtful. “Too curious. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

“You’re the one who said we might end up in a fight!” Edgar said, amazed. “But, you’ve got like thirty levels on me and a bunch on Klein, so that’s got to count for something, even if you aren’t geared for combat… right?…”

The Key looked at him blankly, then opened the door.

Edgar palmed his forehead, whispering to himself. “What have I gotten myself into?”

The Key stepped inside, two of the rings on their fingers glowing with magic. Edgar followed.

They found themselves in a small room with a cooking fire on one side and a bed on the other. Edgar could feel magic all around them, pervading the space. The scent of the food filled his nose, but another scent appeared underneath that. Pungent herbs, maybe rotting flowers?

He was moving before he even realized his instincts were screaming at him.

New Ability Acquired!

[Monstrous Awareness]

He leapt away, rolling to his hands and feet as a knife buried itself in the floorboards where he had been standing.

As the skill settled into his core, it felt familiar. “Animal Awareness, is that you?” Edgar said. “That was some good timing.”

With Edgar’s dark vision, he could see into the darkness, where a pair of green eyes looked back at him, smiling.

“It’s you!” A voice whispered in the darkness of the rafters. “And he will be like his subjects in so many ways, but elevated beyond them…”

~~~~~

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