Dyani made the mistake of holding the Feverish skill shard as they left, eager to uncover its mysteries, but before she could do more than glance at its structure, it was snatched from her hand.
“Wait!”
The thief, a boy a head shorter than her, did not wait. He weaved through people and stalls with the ease of long practice. She raced after him, with Pikawon close on her heels, but it was obvious that the boy’s familiarity with the market would make him the winner.
“People are looking at us,” Pikawon hissed as quietly as he could, “We can find another skill. It wasn’t that expensive.”
“It’s not that.” Dyani had started the chase out of instinct, but once she had a second to think about it, she’d realized the larger problem.
“He doesn’t have a description of the skill. If he uses it, he’ll cook his brain and die.”
Pikawon let out something between a huff, whine, and growl, but immediately picked up the pace. Instead of him following right on her heels, Dyani now had to fight to keep him in sight. She’d seen his status, including the fact that he’d invested experience into his Speed attribute, but she hadn’t realized how much of a difference a single point could make.
Dyani only caught up once Pikawon caught the boy and wrestled him to the ground. The crowd had backed up from the pair, forming a wall of bodies that she had to push through, but no one interfered in the fight. Some of the onlookers actually cheered and started making bets.
Pikawon would’ve already taken the shard, but tendrils of dust had risen from the ground and tangled around his head, blinding him and making him cough. In the moment of distraction, the thief pulled a knife better suited to a kitchen than combat and scored a superficial cut on Pikawon’s arm, but immediately had the knife knocked out of his hand.
Free of distraction, Dyani was able to sense a concentration of mana in the boy’s left pocket. She wasted no time reaching in and grabbing it, wincing at the stickiness and sweet smell of some kind of smashed fruit.
“I’ve got it, Pikawon. You can let him up.”
He did as instructed, reaching around him for the gloves he’d discarded while searching for the shard. There was a red splatter where their wrestling had splattered one of the market’s mites, and a matching stain on the back of her friend’s shirt.
The men who’d been betting on the fight started arguing about whether Dyani’s intrusion invalidated their wagers, their raising voices warning that another fight might be forthcoming.
With gloves back on his hands, Pikawon pulled her away. She didn’t protest or even speak until they were out of the market and down in the sewers, where he took a deep breath.
He immediately coughed out the noxious air.
“I don’t think anybody noticed us,” Dyani said.
“Except half the market,” Pikawon retorted.
“No, they noticed a couple of kids chasing down a thief. I doubt half of them could tell you our hair colors, let alone our names. And, I didn’t see any guards or anyone official-looking.”
“We should never have gone.” Despite his pessimistic words, Pikawon did look less worried. He examined the tiny cut on his arm, which had already scabbed over.
“Maybe,” Dyani said as she hooked her arm around his uninjured one, “But I just got two skill shards that are perfect to practice my talent on, so I’m going to call it a win.”
He rolled his eyes, but didn’t pull his arm free until Dyani started skipping.
***
Meeno was quite happy with his assignment. His official title was Land Agent, but these days people called him the Mite Market Supervisor. Realistically the only thing he had to supervise were the Bile Mites responsible for disposing of the area’s endless supply of massive oak leaves. They had an annoying habit of gathering at unpredictable intervals to mate and lay their eggs in a single place, then dying en masse.
If the collection of eggs was damaged or destroyed, the area was doomed to a few weeks of pile up before a new migration of the insects multiplied enough to take care of it.
He’d also put the word out not to kill the insects, but that was more of an afterthought. The Bile Mites avoided an area where they could smell a mite corpse, which could lead to localized problems, but those only tended to last a couple days if the nearby vendors didn’t clean up the dead insect to save themselves some hassle.
As the token representative of the city, he even received a small payment for any vendors who set up permanent structures, at least those who did so legally. And, considering that officially, the mite market was just an area to funnel leaves and other useless material produced by the mountain oak, no one ever came by to pick that money up. After a few months of gathering funds, Meeno had tentatively begun spending them. The next month, he’d started considering the payments a part of his salary. After all, no one had noticed.
Sitting in an opulent waiting room decorated with beast pelts and mounted monster heads, Meeno cursed his greed. He’d been nervous enough when he’d been called to confirm his weekly report. It contained nothing of note, so the summons had to be about something else.
His anxiety had only grown as he’d been repeatedly delivered up the chain until he sat in the waiting room of City Lord Kuruk Beastlord himself. He was pouring over notes in his interface to get a rough calculation of how much he owed the city and how that amount converted into prison time, when the door to the city lord’s office opened, revealing a squirrel nearly as tall as he was.
Squirrel was perhaps the wrong word. This creature resembled a piece of the darkness between stars, only shaped like an enormous squirrel. Meeno knew the city lord’s official moniker, Tree Beast Lord, as well as his more popular title, Squirrel Lord. He, like most people, had considered it funny, but as he faced a creature made of pure darkness he couldn’t fathom finding it humorous.
* Blotter Squirrel:
* Creature Type: Beast, Squirrel
* Affinity: Nature, Shadow
* Description: Blotter Squirrels are only found in the regions surrounding the Mountain Oak. Adults vary in size from that of a human child, to larger than an adult man, though females of the species tend to be larger. Their name originates from their ability to absorb shadows into their naturally white fur until they are entirely black. The absorbed shadows may be used as fuel for a variety of their abilities, including camouflage, armor, and shadow travel.
Before Meeno could react, the Blotter Squirrel pushed the door open wider and bowed with a paw extended, indicating he should go inside. In any other situation, he would’ve fled or wet himself, but this was his boss’s boss’s boss.
Meeno stood, straightened the suit coat he though made him look dignified, but actually made him look like an oversized beetle. He edged past the shadow beast, but before he could be relieved to be past it, he scanned the room he’d entered. The office was as opulent as you’d expect, with the finest quality furniture, paintings, and sculptures, along with an eclectic assortment of beasts that radiated intense spiritual power.
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A moth with orange, glass wings surrounded by heat haze perched on the bust of a former city lord. The occasional movements of its wings released sparks that threatened to set something ablaze. What looked to be a common house cat was curled up on top of a bookshelf. It gave him a playful smile with far too many teeth. A snake with a head on both ends that appeared to be asleep draped over the back of a couch.
He was immediately ready to go back to the waiting room, which only had one terrifying creature, but that same creature closed the door behind him and vanished into a nearby shadow.
His mana senses were restrained by the power that radiated off such high level beasts, so it was his eyes that caught the Blotter Squirrel emerging from the shadow of the city lord’s chair and taking up a protective position behind him.
Amid such strange beasts, the city lord looked… ordinary. He was handsome, but only in the way that anyone who reached such a high level and refined their body was handsome. His suit was finely made, but the tans, greens, and browns looked more like forest camouflage than noble fashion.
Despite his appearance, Meeno was all too aware that the man was the most dangerous beast in the room.
“Take a seat, Agent Meeno.” The city lord gestured to the couch with the snake draped over the back. Meeno approached it warily, but just managed to get himself to sit on the furthest left corner as far forward as possible. The fact that the doubled sided snake didn’t move barely relieved his fear.
“I was hoping you could review your last report with me. I’m sure there are details you didn’t bother writing down, which would be of interest to me.”
Meeno swallowed twice before answering.
“Of course, Lord. Just a moment.” It was easy to pull up the report in his interface, as he’d been pouring over it to see what had caught so much attention.
“This week we had two major leaf falls, but the Bile Mite population took care of them without issue. We’re due for a breeding cycle any day now, but we never know exactly when, so I keep a careful eye on their behavior.”
“It won’t be until next Mageday. I trust you won’t mind working on the weekend.” Meeno shook his head. He was surprised at the confident prediction, but realized his mistake immediately.
No one he’d consulted knew how to predict mite breeding cycles, but this was the Tree Beast Lord, the strongest individual in this city, as well as many of those nearby. Bile Mites were barely magical, but a single drop of magic in a natural born animal qualified it as a beast, and those were Kuruk Beastlord’s specialty.
“That’s all well and good, but I’m more interested in the incident that occurred yesterday.”
Meeno’s brown pinched as he scrolled through the majority of his report to a short paragraph.
An attempted theft of a skill shard from UI (Unidentified Individual) A (Female, native ethnicity, approximate age: 15-17) by UI B (male, native ethnicity, approximate age: 16-18) was thwarted by UI C (male, unknown ethnicity, approximate age 16-18, pale skin, claws instead of fingernails, tall). 1 mite was accidentally killed during the incident. Clean up complete.
He’d only bothered including the attempted theft because a mite was killed and he had to use work hours to clean it up, so other mites were repelled from that location.
“Of course, I’m happy to answer any questions you have, my Lord, but I didn’t personally witness the incident, so my information is limited.”
Kuruk Beastlord didn’t visibly react, but the snake behind Meeno began to stir. Meeno held himself perfectly still, holding his breath. If Kuruk wanted him dead, not only would he be able to do it, he would face no repercussions. Of course, it wasn’t legal for a city lord in Old Grove to kill an innocent citizen under his care, but who would demand justice for a low level bureaucrat.
And if Meeno’s theft was discovered and he was charged with treason, killing him would simply be a lawful execution. It would be an extreme punishment for sure, but who would protest?
Kuruk asked the next questions with the finality of a tomb.
“Did the young man who prevented this theft really have claws?”
Meeno blinked. That was a much easier question that he’d been expecting.
“Yes, sir. No one was sure if they were natural, or from an item or skill, but everyone who saw his hands agreed he had claws. Some witnesses claimed they were silver.”
Kuruk leaned forward and grinned, and to Meeno’s relief, the snake behind him went still.
“Did anyone mention his eyes, or his ears?”
“I’m sorry, sir. He was wearing dark glasses and a hat, gloves too, but they came off during the struggle.”
“Ahhh.”
Kuruk relaxed back into his chair with a satisfied sigh before pulling two sheets of paper out of a drawer. He gave each a quick look and an even quicker signature before passing one over to Meeno, who took it with trembling fingers, and the other to the Blotter Squirrel, who didn’t bother glancing at it before sinking into the shadow of the lord’s chair.
“Thank you for your excellent work Land Agent Meeno. You have the city’s thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Meeno said dumbly, looking over the document in his hands with amazement.
“A small team of guards are being dispatched to your office. Please meet them immediately and assist them in any way you can. The overtime is approved. You may go.”
Meeno shot to his feet and gave the lowest bow he could manage before fleeing the lord’s office before he could change his mind, the powerful beasts no longer even registering to him.
Once he was past the waiting room, he read through the document he’d been given three times to make sure he hadn’t misunderstood.
He hadn’t. This was an official writ of naming, awarding Meeno and any future spouse or children the surname of Longwatch. Only a fraction of people had an official surname, and it granted all sorts of privileges, like the right to own land, settle in any district, and even create a noble house.
Meeno Longwatch giggled at the thought. He had nowhere near the required funds to create a noble house, but the very thought that he was technically entitled to do so was exhilarating.
It was so exhilarating, that he didn’t consider why the young man with claws was so important until he was halfway back to his office, and even then, only half-heartedly.
***
Meeno Longwatch was quickly realizing that his situation was far more important than he’d expected. The city lord’s ‘small team of guards’ turned out to be three squads of 12. His small office felt cramped with just him, the three commanding sergeants, and another guard with the purple armband of a mage.
“You want what?” Meeno asked, flummoxed.
“The mite the boy killed. You reported it was smashed on his back when he was wrestling the thief.”
That was actually more detail about the encounter than Meeno remembered. He still had no idea why such a trivial matter was getting this kind of attention.
“Any Bile Mites bodies we clean up are dumped in the blue bin outside. It’s warded to prevent any living mites from sensing it and avoiding the area.”
Sergeant Emberland, who seemed to be in overall command, nodded to the mage, who slipped out of the office.
“Can you show us where the fight occurred?”
“Of course,” Meeno lied, giving himself time to think by searching his desk for a copy of the report that had started this mess. He eventually remembered he had a copy in his interface and was able to find the approximate location.
As the group left his office, they saw the mage drawing lines of red light around the mite’s body, which was more splatter than anything else.
“Fresh enough for the tracking spell, Gilbert?”
“It’s on the tail end, sir, but I think we got here in time. We’re lucky it’s blood and not mana. Blood’s better for short distance tracking. Just one moment and I’ll know for sure.”
“If you’re tracking the kid, why not use that?” Meeno said, pointing to the brown stain of dried blood on the cobblestones.
“Too dry, and even if it wasn’t, the kid’s got defenses against tracking him directly,” the mage said, drawing a warning look from his commanding officer to dissuade him from revealing any more information.
Emberland signaled for the group to wait as the mage completed the finishing touches of his tracking spell and tossed a handful of notes into the twisting coils of sanguine light.
Pink light flashed, leaving sunspots in Meeno’s eyes. Once he managed to blink them away, he saw Gilbert tossing a translucent, red stone over to Emberland.
The stone had a line of faint, red light emanating from it, pointing down and away from the office.
“Excellent work as always, Gilbert. What’s underneath our feet, Meeno?”
“Nothing I can think of, sir. There aren’t any buildings with basements as far as I know.”
“It’s deeper than a basement,” Emberland said to himself before gesturing to the two other sergeants, “You two go with Agent Longwatch here. I’ll follow the tracking spell as long as it lasts.”