Shadow raced after the man who knew how to save Jonas, wishing the man could run faster.

Instead, he started to slow down.

“You’re a quick one aren’t ya? Never seen a beastkin run like a dog.” He said through heavy breaths.

Shadow glared at him. Why was he smiling!? Jonas was going to get his hands chopped off or killed! Now was not the time for chatting or slowing down!

The man didn’t acknowledge her look, and kept moving, despite the slower pace. They twisted through alleys and backstreets, and Shadow watched as the buildings slowly became more dilapidated. They’d been running for a few minutes before Shadow started to wonder where they were going.

She also started wondering other things, now that she was stuck with nothing to do but follow this slow, slow man.

Who was the person they were meeting? How was he going to help Jonas? Why was Jonas even in trouble? He hadn’t actually stolen anything! That man was wrong! Wouldn’t the guards figure that out?

Who was this man and why was he suddenly helping her? Maybe this was normal? She would probably help someone in her situation if she could…

But couldn’t she have just explained the situation to the guards? Couldn’t this man have explained the situation? Maybe it was because the other person was apparently a Noble?

Shadow was getting more and more uneasy about this whole thing. None of this made sense! She took the opportunity to sprint ahead the next time they entered a long alley.

“Whoa! Hey, wait up!” The man yelled.

Shadow just dropped her tablets at the end of the alley and started scribbling.

‘Where are we going!? Why didn’t you just tell the guards Jonas was innocent!’ She held up the tablets for him to read as he reached the end as well.

He took a second to read them and rolled his eyes.

“Come on, don’t worry about it, kid, we’re almost there! It’ll all make sense soon.” He explained, starting to move again.

Shadow just glared at him, starting to write something else, when the man groaned, came back over—and scooped her up.

Shadow froze up in shock.

What…? What was he doing!?

“Come on kid, just about there, don’t worry…” The man grunted out as he carried her off.

What was he doing!? She wanted to ask but… Her tablets! They’d left behind her tablets! He’d left her tablets! Shadow saw them lying on the ground right before they swung around another corner.

Hey! Put me down! She thought at the man angrily. She was not comfortable with this person carrying her and abandoning her tablets!

But how was she supposed to tell him? Without the tablets, she couldn’t talk! Should she use her dark magic?

Instead, she just hissed at him and started wriggling to make her displeasure known. He startled at the sound, but just squeezed her tighter.

“Don’t worry… we’ll save your uncle… almost there…” he breathed, only half seeming to pay attention.

Shadow was about to give in and use her magic, since he wasn’t taking the very obvious hint, when they half collided with a doorway. The man pounded on it with his boot a few times, and after a few seconds of rustling on the other side, it swung open, and the man rushed them both inside.

A part of Shadow figured they must have arrived at the house of the person who could help Jonas, but another part of her was just angry at this man for grabbing her and running off without her tablets!

What the hells is he thinking!

Then she took in the room.

One man with black hair was busy slamming the door behind them, securing it shut. Another, brown-haired, clean-shaven man was headed toward her, ropes in hand.

The third was a furred beastkin of some sort. She… wasn’t sure... but maybe it was badger-kind? She hadn’t seen one before, but Annie had described a badger once, and he seemed to fit.

He was still sitting down, keeping watch over the terrified looking boy and girl who were bound and gagged in the corner.

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Shadow’s mind stalled as it tried to rationalize what she was seeing.

“Beastkin this time? She’s kind of weird-looking.” The man with the ropes said.

“Yup, came pretty quietly till the end there. Be careful though! She’s got some teeth on her and she’s quick.” The man holding her informed the rope wielder.

“Right. Hold her down.” The other man instructed.

What? But. What?

They were… The kids…? But he said…

Her thoughts slammed into place.

They… they were kidnapping her!

These people were kidnappers!

The man holding her pushed her to the ground, grabbing both pairs of legs and pinning her head down with a knee. She belatedly started to struggle, still reeling in shock that this was really happening.

Her eyes found the kids in the corner again. They’d been kidnapped too!

The man with the ropes started to bind her limbs.

She’d been lied to! The… the liar wasn’t going to save Jonas at all! These people were going to leave Jonas to die and… do experiments on her!

How… How dare they!

Shadow felt the anger bubble up. The man had tricked her! He’d pretended to be nice, and to want to help, but he didn’t want to help at all! All his concern and helpfulness had been lies. He’d lied with his whole being!

She had never felt so… betrayed. She felt horrifically betrayed! This felt even worse than when her siblings had tried to eat her. They were just stupid. These people… these people had done it on purpose!

She’d had enough.

Shadow started screeching, and dark magic billowed out of her as she started activating her shadow-port.

She ended up not needing to use it. Both men holding her leaped away screaming curses as soon as the dark mana started to pour over them. Her brain was finally working again. She quickly spun up a darkness spell and turned out the lights for the whole room. It wasn’t that large, and she couldn’t track four people at once to keep them blind using finesse. She could probably keep this up for twenty-five or thirty minutes, which should be plenty. She swallowed her anger and stopped screeching at them after another moment. She couldn’t afford to give away her position if she was going to fight four of them.

Another litany of curses followed, and Shadow quickly wiggled out of her half-secure bindings, activating her acid-spit, ear-sight, and even the new mana-sight, just in case.

“You kidnapped a gods-damned dark mage!?” the beastkin snarled. They’d all drawn blades, mostly knives, but the beastkin had a sword. They were all looking around blindly. The beastkin had gotten up and pushed himself against a wall, and the black-haired man was braced against the door.

She glanced toward him for a moment. The door was the only exit. It probably had a gap she could see through and shadow-port out of to escape, but… she glanced at the kids again. They looked even more terrified than before.

“How the hells was I supposed to know!?” the liar yelled.

Her eyes narrowed. She was going to rescue those kids.

She hadn’t really wanted to run away anyway, not after what they’d done.

“Get together! We’ll sweep the room! She’s just a kid, dark mage or not. Tricks with the light is probably the best she can do! We’ll catch her.” The badger-man yelled.

“I’ve got the door!” the brown-haired man yelled from the door.

“Now, come on, kid. You’re not getting out of here, just... drop the magic and you’ll be fine. Just gonna perform a little trade with…” the beastkin paused.

“Her uncle,” the liar provided.

“Yea, your uncle, and you’ll be back home, safe and sound. Just drop the magic, before we have to hurt you.” The beastkin finished, the last sentence dripping with menace.

Shadow’s eyes narrowed and she bared her teeth properly. This was no smile. It made her feel more threatening, even though they couldn’t see her. She would have hissed too, but that would give away her position.

She trusted nothing these men said.

These were definitely not good people. She remembered Annie’s warnings about kidnappers taking people away to get dissected by evil people. She wasn’t going to let that happen to her or the other kids they'd stolen. They’d already lied about helping Jonas. They were probably lying about this too. This lie was even less believable given that they'd just abandoned Jonas to be executed! How were they supposed to trade with Jonas if the guards killed him! Unless... well... they'd lied about that too.

Had Jonas even really been in trouble!?

Shadow forced herself to stay calm. Rescue the kids and herself. Beat the evil men. Stay focused.

She made no noise as she carefully positioned herself, watching as liar, rope-man, and the beastkin managed to gather up, while the brown-haired one guarded the door. They slowly started creeping around the room. They were crouched over, feeling around in front of themselves with their blades, as if that would help. She wouldn’t be dropping her shadows.

She’d done a lot of sparring over the last couple weeks. It was always a challenge to fight Jonas, even when he was going easy on her. She was always having to fight to create openings and get him to overextend, and she rarely managed to succeed in getting a clean hit off.

That all changed when she was allowed to use her magic. Shadow instinctively knew how to move quietly, and had only gotten better at it with practice. Jonas did his best, but being unable to see or hear her made the fight almost impossible for him.

He was forced to react to the smallest of sounds, or only after she’d already ‘bit’ or ‘clawed’ him. Finding opportunities was trivial when she was effectively invisible.

Jonas had come up with strategies that helped. He would always stay moving, stopping and starting suddenly, occasionally doing random jumps or shifts. Sometimes he’d manage to catch a sound when Shadow was forced to move faster to catch him. Other times, he’d randomly bump into her as she went in for a strike because of an unexpected movement.

Most of the time he just lost.

And watching these people move... they could hardly compare to Jonas.

She steeled herself and started advancing.

It was time to see if her practice would pay off.