A few days passed uneventfully. Occasionally, Ike hunted a deer and the three of them shared it. The things were rampant in the woods. They completely infested the forest. As he tore into the tough meat, Ike frowned. “Why was Clarina being so weird about the deer?”

“I dunno,” Wisp asked.

“She said we had to be from the New Republic because we were eating it… but it didn’t seem to be a symbol of her family,” Ike pointed out.

Wisp shrugged. She snapped the deer’s antlers off and swallowed its head in one big bite. “Might be the deer belong to some other bigshot that the New Republic were also mad at. Who knows? Not worth worrying about, from my perspective. If someone wanted us to stop, they’d have stopped us already, right? But no one has. Must not care about the deer that much.”

“True.” Ike dusted off his hands and stood. “Let’s go find that—”

By now, he kept Sensory Enhancement on at all times. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have had time to react. Something whooshed past, just on the edge of audible. Ike’s eyes widened. He jumped up and twisted his body. A black knife slammed into the ground where he’d been sitting moments ago. It thrummed where it struck.

Black-robed mages leaped at them from all sides. One grabbed Wisp and pushed her to the ground. Another lunged for Ike. Ike backstepped, avoiding them. A knife suddenly appeared in their hand. They struck once, twice, forcing Ike away.

“There’s someone behind you!” Shawn shouted.

“I know!” Ike snarled. Why else would they so blatantly force him to backstep? Frustrated, he took one more step back, then dug his toe in and pushed off. He leaped into the air and landed on a low branch. Below him, a second mage slashed at the space where he’d been, nearly stabbing his fellow.

“Wisp!” Ike shouted.

“I’m coming!” The black mage had her well pinned, tying down each of her limbs. An arm sprouted from her back and grabbed the back of his jacket. Before he could react, she threw him backward. She shot white thread into the trees and leaped upward, following Ike.

Ike reached into his storage ring. He pulled out all the fire talismans he’d taken from that noble. Pushing a mote of aether into them, he let them scatter on the air. They burned, then burst into fire. A raging sea of fire burst out behind him.

Ike leaped through the trees. Beside him, Wisp swung from tree to tree. She frowned at him. “Who did you piss off this time?”

“Me? Isn’t this you? From the foxes, these are those black-robed mages, right?” Ike asked.

Wisp shrugged. “I don’t know. Anyone can put on black. Why would that be me, anyways? You pissed them off, too.”

Ike glanced over his shoulder. The black-robed mages chased after them, close on their heels. They were a little singed. Embers flowed from their robes, and scorch marks reddened their skin. For the most part, though, they were none the worse for the wear.

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“We can ask them when they catch up,” he suggested. “I don’t think it’s my fault. If you think about it, wouldn’t it be Shawn’s fault? Since they were imprisoning him. Sure, we freed him, but that’s just a willful action on our part. He’s the root cause of this.”

“What? Blaming the victim?” Shawn asked, startled.

“More like blaming the freeloader,” Wisp grumbled.

“I carried you! I’m not a freeloader.” Shawn shook his head, grumbling more complaints under his breath.

Ike snorted. “It doesn’t matter, anyways. No matter who they’re after, if they’re after us, they can get fucked.”

“Hell yeah.” Wisp fired a thread backward. It wrapped around the foot of a mage and tied it to the tree branch. The branch snapped under the force of the mage’s run, but when they stepped onto the next branch, the extra mass attached to their foot threw them off. They slipped and plunged into the forest below.

Shawn chuckled. He went limp again. “If it’s like that, then it’s fine.”

The black-robed mages gave chase. Ike glanced ahead of them, toward the city. It wouldn’t do to race into the city with a bunch of mages on their tail. For one, the city would probably close its gates. For two, who knew? Maybe the city was allied with the mages. He didn’t want to take that risk. He needed to throw them off before they hit the city.

His thoughts instantly went to Tempest. He raised his brows. It would do great as a distraction, but he couldn’t risk using all his aether up in one hit. Once I started it, I couldn’t stop pouring aether into it. But what if I only gave it a small amount of aether?

Ike cut a portion of his aether away from the rest in his core. He drew it to his palm, then whirled around and activated Tempest. This time, he focused desperately on the aether in his hand.

Tempest greedily ate at Ike’s aether. Wind rushed all around Ike. The skill reached out, searching for more aether. Ike pulled it back. Nope. Not today!

With no more aether to find, Tempest burst from his hand. It was weaker than the first time he’d unleashed it, but it also didn’t leave him helpless. The wind swirled wildly. It picked up leaves, sticks, and dirt, obscuring them from the mages. The mages fell back. Some blinked wildly, waving their hands. Others simply hesitated, wary of the wind spell. A gap opened between Ike and the mages.

“Wisp!” Ike shouted, grabbing his wolfskin.

“Got it.” Ahead of him, Wisp vanished.

The dust cleared. The mages burst through it, looking left and right. They slowed. One of them stepped ahead, hopping closer to where they’d last seen Ike and Wisp. They knelt, examining the branch.

Ahead in the forest, Ike and Wisp sprinted away, leaving the black-robed mages behind. Ike peered over his shoulder. He turned back around front. “They’ll find us sooner or later.”

“That’s fine. As long as we get to the city,” Wisp said.

“And the city lets you in,” Ike pointed out.

She waved her hand. “It’s common out here. I’d be more surprised if they didn’t. Besides, I don’t have the baby mountain. They probably won’t stick around if I start eating them.”

Ike twisted his lips. “I don’t know. They might. They seemed firmly against the foxes.”

“Then I’ll just have to eat them all. I’m healed now. They have no idea what they’re dealing with.” Wisp flashed him a grin.

As they ran, the forest fell away. The city’s wall loomed overhead, and the hubbub of a busy street came from around the corner.

The mages burst out from the forest, not far behind them. They looked left and right. Their leader pointed at the dust rising up from Wisp and Ike’s feet, and the mages burst after them.

Ike sped toward the sound. If there were people, there’d be chaos. It would be easier for him and Wisp to slide in amongst them and lose the mages. He sprinted around the corner. A line of people came into view, all lined up outside the gate. Ike locked eyes onto the line and pushed with his last spark of speed. “Here goes nothing.”