Following her nose and the noise of excited voices, she found the right stall. It was shoddily made, wooden planks badly nailed together to make some form of sign and with a duo inside that were using what looked like two slabs of rock to make the crepes.

Not that Sasha cared too much. She could see the mixture being poured on and the sugar being sprinkled onto the finished dessert. Less hygienic places had been eaten from in the past, and her stomach didn’t care much for violations at the moment.

She copied what the group ahead of her paid, and got herself and the idiot something to eat. The crepe smelled heavenly, hot in her hand even when wrapped around white paper towels.

Biting into it, the crisp surface made a rare smile appear on her face. Too long since the last one, indeed. She’d seen them so many times, yet it had been the kids eating them instead of her. Not that she’d minded, since they’d been so happy to get something that sugary, but—

“I think I recognize this place,” Jack commented, bringing Sasha out the happy memories as she looked around to confirm. “You see that sign up there? We walked by it.”

On the other side of the street, where houses built from old wood could be spotted, was a sign loosely hanging. Sasha guessed it was meant to look like a needle and a ball of yarn, but years hadn’t been kind to the paint and only the shape of the cutout remained. Regardless, it did itch some part of her memory. Even if she couldn’t outright remember the place, her subconscious definitely did.

“Yes. We’re getting closer,” Sasha said, taking another bite of her crepe. It would’ve probably been best to hurry the eating up, but nostalgia forced her to savor the dessert for just a little longer. Who knew when she would get to eat another like it?

“What’s the plan if we find the place?” Jack asked. “Just… go in and try to force them to return us?”

“No, they would just kill us or capture us again,” she rejected, knowing she would’ve done the same. “We know what house it’s located in. If people enter and leave through it, they’re likely related to whatever this is supposed to be.”

“And if you know that one person knows something, you can stalk them until they are alone and force them to tell us everything,” Jack guessed, causing her to look over at the man. “Is… that not what you’re hoping to do?”

“More or less,” Sasha replied. “I just thought the concept would be too morbid for you.”

“Oh, it is,” he was quick to confirm, almost making her choke on the next bite as a chuckle unwillingly left her. “I just thought about what would fit best with your… criminal vibe.”

She raised her left eyebrow at his words, staring him down when a whispered apology left his throat. Yet again, he wasn’t exactly wrong, but it was still weird to hear from somebody so childish.

He was still a soldier.

One who didn’t see action other than his own injuries but a soldier regardless. Sasha had to remember that when his appearance kept making her think of him as a pitiful bag of flesh.

“But, seriously, did you do crime stuff back home?” Jack asked, before taking the final bite of his crepe, wiping his hands with the paper. “You didn’t want to say back at the house, but I’m just starting to wonder.”

…

Her past experiences in telling men just about anything showed why it was a bad idea, but Sasha didn’t figure him as one who would try to exploit it for his advantage. She’d told the kids back home just about everything as well anyway, so this wasn’t a first for her either.

“I’ve stolen things before,” she admitted. “Got caught before. Things that would earn you some years in prison, alongside other punishments.”

Losing a hand or two, for example.

“Oh, that’s… bad? Good? Nice?” came his response, his words as well-put as always. “Thanks for telling me, at least.”

“Don’t share it, and we won’t have a problem,” Sasha said, finishing her own food before getting up from the ground again. Jack mirrored the action, though it took a second more with only one leg pushing. “Stay quiet, stay close, and stay alert. Got it?”

Jack nodded, already following her orders. How quaint.

He followed as she walked through the crowd, swerving past the empty-minded as she headed to the alley on the other side of the street. She noted the fact that it was void of people and trash. An often-used path, but not at this time of day.

Possible danger.

Of course, it was. They’d been warned, and she was ready to meet it in exchange for finding out more information. Signaling the go-ahead to Jack, they continued.

That gloom and darkness weren’t here anymore, with the tall stone buildings being replaced by mostly one-story wooden houses. The roofs had more often than not fallen apart on the edges, making shadow rare and the sunlight shine through. A bright space of vile people and a lack of respect for the law. Nothing that hadn’t been expected.

Memories of them walking down this path began to resurface as they went down it even further, and the abandoned houses and the glass shards on the ground were recognized every few seconds. Her mind had been working on high alert at that time, as her body had been forced to move without her consent.

How had that even happened? Sasha cursed her mind for being so inconsistent with what it wanted to remember. There had been several people leading them through the city, hadn’t there? The mage, and then… four, three others? One that looked like Aleksi, she knew, but the others were blurred forms in her mind’s eye.

Sasha forced herself to continue, her feet knowing the way when her mind couldn’t decide which street they needed to walk down. Twists and turns down a seemingly infinite maze of confusion. The years of decay and ruin in this part of the city had made it worse than any suburb she’d been forced to wander in the past.

But one thing was the same, though.

She stopped walking through an alley when she heard a snicker coming from behind her and Jack. Multiple ones.

“What do we have here now?” a nasal voice said, eliciting laughter from some others. Turning around in the alley, Sasha was greeted with the sight of five men. About her age, built thin or fat, but with enough muscle to become an issue if allowed. “Two little lovebirds getting lost?”

“Not lost, actually,” Jack corrected, unsurprisingly not obeying Sasha’s request to keep quiet while they were in this area. “On our way out, though, so we’ll just keep on if you don’t mind.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The talker made a step towards them, making Sasha mirror it to get Jack behind her. The alley was about three meters wide, but she’d rather not have him get in the way.

“Oh, but we do mind. Isn’t that right, fellas?” the talker said, agreement voiced by the others. Sasha could see the greed in their eyes, as they were looked up and down. This wouldn’t end well. “But, luckily for you, we take donations. We are a saintly bunch who just need… let’s just say everything on you. If you do, we’ll let you leave without too many scratches.”

Sasha kept silent as the idiot stepped closer and closer, his friends goading him on from a distance. She guessed this wasn’t their first time pulling this act.

Less worrying for me then.

“Listen, friends, we don’t want any trouble, but we’re also in a bit of a tight spot,” Jack pleaded from behind her. He sounded worried, a little frightened even, which made her wonder how he was going to handle the next few seconds. “If we just calm down and— Oh, shit!”

An appropriate response to Sasha’s action. The nasal talker had become overconfident, raising a hand towards her without a care about what she might do. She couldn’t let that go unpunished, her own hands grabbing onto it, getting the little and index fingers in her clutches and bending them upwards.

The palm didn’t match the movement and the crunch could be felt clearly.

For such a confident display before, the man could scream oh so loudly. She didn’t let him for long, a shove making him lose balance and allowing a roundhouse kick to reach his side. Within five seconds, he was down on the ground.

…

The others, so arrogant and filled with undulate cruelty before, looked on with shock. They didn’t move to attack, didn’t do anything other than look on as their leader tried and failed to get sound out of his throat.

“If you give me everything you have on you, you can walk away healthy and alive,” Sasha offered, standing calmly as she had done before. Her heart was racing, and the corners of her eyes felt twitchy, but she had long since learned how to fake serenity. “Or… are you just cowards who run?”

A foot on the fallen leader’s knee, which caused a mighty shriek, was enough for them to make their choice. Sasha was almost impressed they chose to fight, as they charged her.

If it had been an open area, she would’ve run herself. Luckily, the narrow nature of the alley was in her favor. The rock thrown by Jack from behind her helped as well, as it distracted the first to get close enough for her to strike.

Another kick, this time to his stomach. Air and spit flew into the air, but the next just pushed them to the side and went for a wild swing. Poor form and even poorer results. Sasha barely needed to think to avoid the fist, grabbing the arm and using their momentum to throw them onto the ground.

Something must’ve broken, with how they screamed. The uneven stone making up the ground surface likely didn’t help with keeping the injuries to a minimum.

You’re distracted.

Sasha cursed her drifting mind as she narrowly avoided getting thrown to the ground by one of the last still standing. The rushing man still managed to get a hand on her, though, throwing her off balance and unprepared for the final attacker.

She got her arms up to avoid the first hit to the head, but the other fought dirty as they swung at her from the side. The knuckles hit right below the left eye, making pain shoot through her head instantly.

No distractions.

If this had been a proper fight, they'd have continued and gotten her on the ground to finish the job, but they hesitated for long enough for her to fight back. Ready for another hit, she ducked and closed the distance on the man, putting her entire weight behind a shove and getting them onto the ground. They hit it hard, but her fist hits harder a moment later.

Precisely the same place with slightly less force. The stone was working with her, after all.

As she dealt with the second man going back for another try, and finishing him quickly with a jab to the throat that made him gasp for air, Sasha heard a familiar grunt of pain.

Jack, the man she saw as weak, had taken up a role as well. The one who’d charged her to get her off balance had switched targets, trying to get the cripple while she was distracted.

Sadly, it was the leg that was injured. Their hands worked fine.

While Jack’s form likely caused more injury to himself than it did to the other man, the punches still contained enough force to be effective. A missed shot to the face turned into a recovery jab at the liver, and, though Jack stood with what would be a serious bruise on his hands and his face, the other was still the first to collapse.

Maybe he has some potential after all.

A shift in the corner of her eye made her dodge before she knew what was happening, the others on the ground having recovered faster than expected. One tried to tackle her again, which she dodged, but another had gotten the funny idea to pick up a broken metal pipe of some sort.

Rusty but weighty and swung towards her before she had registered it.

Enough to break your arm.

Possibly, but instincts still made her defend her body with the limb. In her mind's eye, she could already imagine the pain that would come from the impact. With that much kinetic force, there was little that could be done.

So she focused on it, feeling time slow as the second of impact came. Sasha felt it touch her skin, felt it as the energy vibrated across the surface of her arm, and… she felt no sharp pain at all? Nothing.

What?

Focus.

The man with the pipe stumbled as he was clearly surprised too, which Sasha took advantage of with all her might. Pushing away the outstretched arm, she used the opening to clock the man straight on the nose. In clear opposition to the failed hit with the pipe, something broke here. The fracturing of cartilage and the instant blood-soaked face made that obvious.

“You… You idiots think you can mess with us?” came the nasal voice once again. Sasha looked over at the man as he stared her down with clear hatred. She felt nothing looking at him. “You freaks are going to get what you deserve.”

As she saw him bring out a knife from his pocket, she reached for the rusty pipe that had fallen to the ground. If they wanted to escalate, she would mirror it.

“What’s all this supposed to be?”

A loud voice with an ever louder presence, one that made every person in the alley. Sasha recognized it instantly, and, by the sharp intake of breath, so did Jack and everybody else.

The giant.

“Marcus, I thought you’d outgrown this habit of yours,” Aleksi commented as he looked down at the leader of the little band. When the giant stood next to the man, it looked like an adult talking down to a child. “Give that here, and I won’t tell others about this mess up.”

“But they were—”

“Marcus. That was me asking politely. Do you remember what happened when your brother gave the wrong answer?”

…

The knife was handed over to Aleksi before the others were retrieved from the ground. In quiet and steady fashion, though some eyes shot daggers towards her and Jack, they left the alleyway behind within the minute.

“Are either of you injured to a point where you need help walking?” Aleksi asked, to which they both shook their heads. “Good.”

“How exactly did you know we were here again?” Jack questioned while brushing off some of the dirt that covered his left side. Had he fallen while Sasha had been dealing with the others? She hadn’t noticed at all. “I don’t think you visit the place often.”

“It’s been years since I’ve been in this area,” the giant confirmed, nodding at them to follow him out of the alley. “But I smelled a familiar scent where it wasn’t meant to be, along with enough blood to cause concern, so I decided to stray from my regular route home. Now… let’s get back before somebody I can’t intimidate arrives.”

With the wave of weakness starting to steadily crawl through Sasha, she didn’t reject the order. Adrenaline was taking more of a toll on her than it usually did, and… there was something else gnawing on her. A force that felt as if it was next to her heart, fluctuating between lashing out and trying to consume itself.

Since it didn’t seem to be actively killing her, it was saved for whenever the right side of her face stopped swelling.