Andrei

“Kana!” Bruno cried as he cradled her body in his arms.

With the mind control now gone, Andrei quickly rolled to his feet, but the ache in his limbs caused him to falter.

The fall was heavy, he just didn’t feel it in the heat of the moment. He might have broken bones, but there was more to worry about right now.

“Andrei! Chase him!” Bruno ordered as he got to his feet, holding Kana with one hand and covering her neck with his other. “Go! Before he escapes.”

“But Kana…” Andrei tried to argue.

“I’m taking her to Sandra… She can save her… maybe…”

Kana was still breathing weakly, but the gruesome wound to her lower neck had pierced through her back, severing her spine. Blood was still gushing, dripping to the ground from her drenched clothes.

With his telekinesis, Bruno can somewhat slow the bleeding. But with such a terrific wound, Kana would still soon die.

“Go!” Bruno shouted once more as he leaped onto the rooftops, his tired legs trembling with the effort. “I need to save her… I must…”

Without waiting for Andrei to answer, Bruno sped away, leaping through the night toward the orange glow in the far buildings.

Watching as Bruno disappeared into the distance, Andrei could only mouth a prayer into the wind.

He soothed his nerves, closing his eyes and slowing his breath.

Before, he had been unable to make any sense of the magical trails left behind. But now, knowing his enemy’s magical footprint, and the nature of his magic, the wisps left behind were speaking to him, urging him in the direction evil had gone.

Over three rooftops and through three alleyways, two more crowded pubs, and a few more backdoors. Andrei followed the thin whispers of mana, so slightly disturbed one would not have noticed without knowing.

This was how the man had stayed hidden for so long. Not only is his magic incredibly difficult to track, but his travels and routes are deliberately complex and impossible to identify through general observation.

They had no chance of catching him before he struck.

Though the paths went in circles, Andrei noticed they were steadily heading north, away from the venue.

The man’s motives confused Andrei. If he really wanted to destroy them, why didn’t he seize the perfect chance?

It seemed like he was toying with them, like a cruel hunter and its prey, poking and prodding, before finally ending its suffering.

The trails led through another dingy pub, filled with broken people that wore battered faces.

Andrei slowed his steps. The disturbances here were a little more noticeable. Their enemy must have stopped momentarily.

Glacing around, it didn’t look like a confrontation had taken place. Everything was calm, nothing was broken, and the dusty surfaces were undisturbed.

“Looking for someone?” The old bartender rasped through his smoke-tainted throat.

“How’d you know?” Andrei replied, walking up to the counter.

The bartender tilted his head to look Andrei in the face, the scar through his single eye preventing it from swiveling normally. “No one comes here just to drink.”

He didn’t want to have this conversation right now. The trails would soon fizzle out and dissolve away in an hour or so.

“You’re not from here, are you? I can tell,” the bartender continued. “But you have nothing to worry about. No one here dares to hurt you.”

“What do you mean?”

The bartender’s cloudy eye swirled in its socket, its unnatural hue giving Andrei a little shiver. “Are you here to meet someone?”

“No.”

“Are you here to look for someone?”

Andrei decided to stay silent.

“He went that way,” the bartender continued, nodding his head at a small door in the depths of the dark room. “Two blocks north, one more west, at the wagon house. He’ll be gone soon.”

The bartender was telling the truth. Andrei could tell the trace went that way.

“Who are you?” Andrei asked the bartender. His hand felt twitchy, despite no tension in the air. The others had noticed his presence, and he could tell they were fearful. “Where am I?”

“You’re in the north of town, boy,” the bartender answered. “It’s an assassin’s city here.”

“You know who I am?”

“I figured I must. Who else can you be.”

“Why help me?”

“I’d rather not make such a powerful enemy.”

*****

“What have you done, Aurora?”

“I’m surprised it took you so long to realize…”

“I noticed long ago. I thought it was age playing tricks on me.”

There was a moment of silence.

“I’m sorry.”

“What happens now? Can you prevent what you’ve started?”

“You know the answer, Allison, why ask?”

He sighed—a deep, heavy sigh. “You turned the world upside down, Aurora. You thought people wouldn’t notice,” he mumbled meekly, staring at the bleak sky. “Now it’s all unraveling, picking up speed as it roars along. You must have known since the beginning…”

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“I did.”

Allison stared at Aurora with an incredulous eye, his spectacles sitting disheveled on his nose. “For what reason?”

“I overestimated myself…” Aurora replied sheepishly as he got to his feet.

“Such a simple reason for such grievous consequences.”

Aurora ignored the comment. “Come with me, will you?”

“To where?”

“To the place where it all began. The place where it’ll all end.”

Allison sighed but did not object. “It won’t end there, Aurora. This is just the beginning.”

“Yeah…”

*****

Bruno

The flames showed no sign of dwindling, the tendrils reaching even further into the dark sky than before.

Kana coughed in his arms, dirtying his clothes with blood. Her limp body twitched unnaturally in his arms as her breathing grew more arrhythmic. If he didn’t get her to Sandra now, she would surely die. The terrible wound to her neck was draining her of life, gushing out in scarlet gulps and splattering on the blackened rooftops.

He looked down at her bloodstained face, twisted in pain, and forced out a smile from his own to comfort her.

“You won’t die. I promise,” he muttered.

Kana could only blind her eyes in response, but her pain seemed to have eased somewhat.

Thomas would never forgive me if I let her die. Bruno thought to himself.

He knew pursuing their enemy with Andrei should have been the right thing to do. He knew that he should put the safety of the House over individuals. But he couldn’t bring himself to leave Kana, not when she was one of the few whom Thomas still cared about.

As he neared the venue, there was no sign of Julius or the others. The injured who lay scattered across the flaming debris were gone, and the broken assassins replaced by terrified onlookers.

Not wanting to waste any energy on bending the shadows to conceal himself, he decided to take a large detour around the venue toward their predetermined rendezvous point, worried the columns of fire might betray his presence against the night sky. His legs were already sore from the fighting, and the mad dash over the rooftops was only worsening the pain.

Over a taller building and around the spire of a cathedral, using the pillars as a pivot to swing himself around, timing his jump to send him flying toward the open window of a dark warehouse.

“Sandra!” Bruno roared as he landed roughly amid the small crowd of shivering assassins. “Sandra! Please! Kana is dying!”

“Bruno?” asked Nina as she came pushing through the crowd, gasping at the sight of his blood-stained clothes and the limp body in his arms. “What…”

Bruno shook his head. “I couldn’t stop him… He’s too strong…”

Sandra came rushing through the small crowd too, sweat running down her forehead and her bloodiest hands trembling by her side. She had to use a great deal of healing magic after the collapse, and it was taking a toll on her body. It isn’t easy to bring one person back from the brink of death, much less several dozen.

“Lay her on the ground,” Sandra said softly, kneeling as Bruno gently set Kana on the dusty flooring.

“Can you save her?” He asked anxiously.

Sandra placed her hand over Kana’s chest, letting her mana intertwine with Kana’s. A blue glow shone through Kana’s blood-drenched clothes, one which was slowly but surely restoring her injured body.

After a brief moment, Sandra let out a small sigh. “She’ll live. But she may never walk again…”

Bruno bit his lip to stop himself from cursing. It’s a miracle that Kana can survive such a terrible wound. But for an assassin, paralysis may as well be death.

He glanced around at the scene around him, at the bloodied masters and shaken apprentices, their eyes devoid of emotion. There should be many more of them, but there had been no time to take the dead.

They were truly broken.

“Is there nothing more you can do?” Nina pressed, her voice whispery with dread.

“Healing magic can only achieve what the body itself can. You should understand this, Nina…” Sandra replied softly. “The thrust severed her spine completely. She’s lucky to even be breathing.”

Nina clenched her fists and wiped a tear from her eye, before turning to Bruno. “Where’s Andrei?”

“He’s fine. I sent him after the man,” Bruno replied. “He wasn’t there to kill us… He was playing with his food.”

“You…” said Nina, her voice shaking with fear. “You sent him after the man alone?”

Suddenly, Bruno realized the dangers of the mission he had sent the young apprentice on. Fury had clouded his mind, and he ordered Andrei to do the one thing that might bring vengeance. “I…” he stuttered.

“You’ve sent him to die…” Nina whispered, before taking off toward the entrance.

“Nina! Where are you headed!” Bruno shouted, starting after her.

“I’m going to help him!” She called back as she leaped onto the rooftops.

Sandra grabbed Bruno before he could chase after the apprentice. “Stay. Julius is taking us home. We must leave at once.”

“But…”

“Andrei needs help. Let her go…”

Bruno sighed. “He went north!” He shouted after Nina. “Find him and come back safe!”

With the wind in her ears, Nina could hear none of Bruno’s words. But with just her instinct guiding her, she knew where to go. Their House was crumbling. She trusted nothing more than her own intuition.

*****

Andrei

Andrei looked around at the grimy men staring at him from the corner of their eyes, gave the bartender a curt nod, and hurried toward the door.

The corroded door flew open with a firm kick, the rusty hinges screaming as they ground along.

Two blocks north, one more west.

The traces of mana led him that way too.

Their enemy was no assassin. No self-respecting assassin would ever let their scent be so obvious in the free mana. The only reason he could elude them for so long was the strangeness of his footprint.

As he sprinted along, he decided to leave a few marks in the free mana, so if a member of Rose came to help him, they’d know where to look. He knows he won’t be able to take on the man alone.

Soon he came upon a set of heavy gates, the lock of which hung open on the bars. It’s a wagon keep, filled with sleeping horses and the carriages of many traveling merchants. The keeper was at his station, snoring loudly with his chin on his chest.

With the disturbances in the mana, he navigated to an empty lot, the hoof prints still deeply ingrained in the soft wooden flooring.

He was too late.

Andrei looked about him, he knew which way the man had gone, but there was no way he’d be able to keep up on foot. Though trained as a tracker, he can only keep pace with horses for about half a day.

With a sigh, he found the fastest-looking stallion, undid the leashes holding it to the pillar, swung himself onto the saddle, and with a snap of the reins, galloped out of the gates and onto the quiet streets.

The clattering hooves threw sparks against the smooth stone, beating with a rhythmic rapidity down the dark alley, far enough from the city center to be unlit at this time of the night.

Andrei bounded along atop the stallion for a few gallops before settling into the rhythm. He knows how to ride horses, but it wasn’t his area of expertise. Starting off at such a pace took some getting used to. He was just glad that it wasn’t one of their thoroughbreds.

He followed the trail away from the city and, from what he could tell, toward the northern mountains. The man must be on horseback too, since he couldn’t feel the trail getting any stronger.

As he felt the houses around him grow sparse, he heard the pounding of hooves approaching from behind. Without thinking he drew his dagger, pulled back on the reins to bring the stallion sliding to a stop, and spun around ready to strike.

“Andrei!”

He was caught off guard momentarily. “Nina?”

“I’m backup!” Nina said as her horse drew alongside. “The others are headed home. I decided to come find you.”

Andrei smiled. “Thank you.”

“Where are you headed?” She asked.

“I don’t know,” Andrei replied with a shrug. “But I’ve got a man to catch.”

Nina smiled. “We’ve got a man to catch.”