How little it takes to spoil our mood. Just five minutes ago, as he entered the alchemist's shop, Jack Roger was smiling. But it took very little time for his tranquility to vanish without a trace, replaced by a dull irritation.
Jack had been a regular customer at this shop for almost a month, not only frequently buying here but also supplying the owner with quite rare reagents. A good client, a reliable supplier - he simply deserved decent discounts, but instead, that damned alchemist had raised the prices today! And worst of all, Jack was forced to buy what he needed at these clearly inflated prices. All because only in this shop could one acquire rare herbs, as well as extracts for poisons and alchemical explosives. Other alchemists, whether in Beziu or other nearby settlements, did not dare to trade in such items. And the shop owner fully exploited the fact that he was practically a monopolist in the shadow market of poisons.
Having paid almost two gold more than he had planned, Jack nevertheless restrained himself. He settled the bill, even formally thanked the alchemist, and only after stepping outside did he allow his emotions to get the better of him. He slammed the door loudly and cursed aloud, not addressing anyone in particular but rather expressing his opinion about all the shopkeepers of this worthless town:
"Penny pinchers, they'd choke over a dime!"
The fact that someone among the random passersby might overhear and later tell the alchemist about his words didn't concern Jack, as he expressed his irritation in English.
Just yesterday, having accomplished nearly the impossible, completing an order that even far more experienced bounty hunters wouldn't take on, he immediately advanced half a rank and ascended to Wootz. It seemed that the new rank should have earned him more respect locally, but instead, he received yet another price hike on reagents today! Where is the justice in that?
The light, annoying rain that had recently started made Jack pull up his hood. Taking a few steps and mentally cursing human greed, the earthling wondered which of his three shelters he should head to today. He had no particular plans for the evening and night, and no compelling orders had come his way. So, he could either work on crafting poisons or try again to assemble the multi-shot crossbow he had been working on for the last few days. His choice of activity would determine which of his hideouts he should go to.
He had not yet decided when he felt a stream of someone's attention directed at his back. The stream was sharp, clear, and definitely not accidental! A terrifying suspicion made Jack shudder and falter in his steps.
'Could that crazy bitch have found me?!' flashed through his mind in panic.
Leaning against the nearest wall, the earthling stepped into a saving shadow. Quickly casting a few attention-diverting spells on himself, he sped up and turned into the nearest alley.
'Maybe I imagined it?' Jack thought after running a few dozen meters and turning another corner to press his back against the wall. 'Maybe it's just nerves playing tricks?'
Unfortunately, to the earthling's disappointment, it was not his imagination. The unexpected pursuer also picked up the pace and was now heading in his direction.
'Is it really her again?!' Barely suppressing his chattering teeth, Jack gathered his strength and, casting aside shadow decoys, slid toward the city slums.
Of course, he could try peeking into the alley while wrapped in the Shadow Cloak to see who was following him. But something told Jack that if the crazy bitch tracking him caught sight of him, he would immediately receive an arrow to the forehead. And dying was definitely not in the Shadow adept's plans for today.
The shadows hinted that several decoys had definitely "hooked" onto the pursuer. They were supposed to throw him off the trail, but he, seemingly oblivious to them, continued his confident movement toward Jack. Until that moment, such a feat had been managed only by the crazy bitch. Fear washed over the earthling with renewed vigor. But he was not one of those who were paralyzed by fright and horror; on the contrary, adrenaline spurred him into action rather than sitting idly by. Weaving between houses, Jack feared most of all that he would again hear behind him the mocking:
"I've found you again, Master of Hide and Seek."
Only the mad creature called him that - Master of Hide and Seek...
His encounter with this madwoman had occurred just a week ago. Taking a regular assignment from the Task Board in the Tunnellers' Guild, Jack had tracked down a gang of grave desecrators who were pillaging ancient burials. But he was a bit late. By the time he arrived at the desecrators' camp, they had already been dealt with. They were shot down like partridges, with only one arrow used per each of the five bandits. They were likely preparing dinner, sitting around the campfire, but had barely tasted their porridge when they were abruptly wiped out. Only one of them, the leader, who was marked on the Board as a Wootz mage, tried to protect himself with a Wind magic shield and raise his staff in a defensive position. It did not help him. A magically enhanced arrow easily pierced his spell and embedded directly in his temple.
Hiding behind bushes in the dense pre-sunset shadows, Jack carefully watched as the archer who had killed all the bandits walked onto the clearing. The person's movements betrayed an experienced hunter, ready at any moment to finish off any survivors or instantly react to any other threat. Jack was about to quietly disappear, since there was nothing for him to do here. He was late for the assignment, and killing another bounty hunter, especially one so experienced, was not a risk he was willing to take. But before the Shadow adept could take a step back, the archer approached the fire, and the flickering flame of the coals illuminated her face and figure.
Yes, it was "her." The bounty hunter who had swiftly and efficiently cleared all the bandits turned out to be a woman. More precisely, a girl, young and so beautiful that Jack forgot he was about to leave. The lad was mesmerized by the movements of the beauty, who reminded him of a famous actress from a series his father loved, the name of which suddenly slipped his mind. He was struck by the casual everyday ease with which the archeress bent over each of the bandits and delivered a coup de grâce with a long, double-edged dagger. He couldn't have done it, or rather, he wouldn't have been able to finish people off so easily and casually, routinely, and indifferently as she did. And there was something so captivating about her natural indifference to the lives of others that Jack forgot how to breathe, his gaze transfixed on the beauty.
Such a rich aura of danger emanated from the archeress that, even being more than a hundred steps away from her, Jack felt chills run through his skin. The earthling always had a keen sense of danger. He felt it in the air, in the gazes of others, in strangers' movements and gestures, but he had only encountered such a concentration of it once in his life. And even then, it was the Night Sister herself who stopped him from a reckless act.
Having dealt with the regular bandits, the girl leaned over the body of the leader. She first examined the mage's staff but dared not touch it with her hands, merely pushing it away with a stick. Jack immediately noted this detail for himself and decided that the archeress was right, as someone else's magical weapons could indeed contain "surprises." Then, the huntress cut the purse from the leader's belt, after which her gaze caught on something, and she squatted down. Creating a Shadow Lens and straining his eyes, Jack discerned that the girl was interested in a ring on the bandit's hand. She tried to remove it, but the ring would not budge. For a couple of minutes, the archeress attempted to pull it off, then, with a bloodthirsty smirk, she again drew her dagger and simply cut off the corpse's finger. Having freed the ring, the girl rinsed it in the kettle left by the bandits. She moved closer to the fire and began carefully examining the decoration. It seemed she was completely absorbed in the process when she suddenly raised her head and looked directly into Jack's eyes. This lasted for almost a minute, after which the archeress winked and said:
"Hi!"
From this simple greeting, everything inside Jack went cold, and his heart sank. His first impulse was to dash away and run as fast as he could to get as far from there as possible. Suppressing this first impulse, the earthling instead froze, held his breath, and wrapped himself in shadows, not falling for the provocation. For about ten seconds, the girl continued to peer into the bush behind which Jack was sitting, but then a shadow of doubt flickered across her face. She frowned, adorably scratched her lovely nose, shrugged her shoulders... and just when the young man thought the danger had passed, the beauty sharply raised her bow.
Twang.
The earthling didn't even have time to feel scared as the long, straight ash shaft tore through the leaves, and the feathering of the stranger's arrow nearly touched his cheek.
"Come out, I won't harm you," said the girl, demonstratively removing the string from her bow. "That arrow, by the way, was blunt."
Glancing back, Jack found a shaft in the grass and saw that the archeress wasn't lying - the arrow she had fired indeed lacked a combat tip. Nevertheless, his instincts were screaming not to trust this beauty who so calmly killed people. Still holding his breath, the earthling tried to shrink and dissolve himself into the shadows. This trick had always worked before, but something clearly went wrong this time.
The girl laughed loudly, stretched, showing off her fine figure, and twirled on her toes like a ballerina, allowing herself to be seen in full detail, then said:
"Someone wants to play hide and seek? Well, I'm not against it."
Leaning towards the firepit, the girl scooped up some cooled coals with her fingers, then ran the same hand across her face, leaving wide dark stripes.
"Hide and seek it is. I'm even for it. This will be interesting in its own way..." It seemed that the beauty, busy with her task, wasn't even looking in Jack's direction, but he knew she was indeed addressing him. "I'm slowly counting to ten and then coming to find you. But if I find you, I choose the prize myself." Seeing her smile at that moment, Jack suddenly realized that this girl was completely unhinged and insane. The way she enticingly and anticipatorily licked her lips... the young man had a gut feeling that she would flay him with the same smile if she found him. "One..."
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By the count of five, Jack couldn't stand it anymore. He bolted. And better than any forest fire, he was driven by a beautiful, yet eerie, girlish laughter, and another word that made him run even faster:
"Six…"
She chased him until deep into the night. Sometimes Jack thought he had gotten away, but time and again this terrifying girl found him with a laugh, not forgetting to snidely comment on the young man's attempts to escape. From one of her remarks, Jack realized she wasn't local but, like him, from Earth. Yet this fact only scared him more, because he knew: among those who had passed the First Group Trial, there were no altruists or kind people. Irrational egoists, however, who placed no value on another's life, were aplenty.
About two hours after sunset, Jack realized he was being toyed with. Occasionally, he was allowed to break away and feel safe. But as soon as he breathed a little easier, he immediately heard that lively and sincere girlish laughter very close by. Laughter that made gray hairs start to appear on his temples.
When Jack first saw this girl, he almost fell in love, so struck was he by her. For a while, the young man lost his head, lingered, enchanted by the sight, and didn't leave in time. But this initial fleeting infatuation quickly turned first to fear, then to sincere hatred. The ease with which the huntress circumvented all his tricks caused genuine horror in the earthling. Just recently, using Shadows, he had managed to steal a commissioned artifact right under the nose of a mage of Ruby! And here was this girl, who, judging by the color of her scarf, was only one rank higher than him, yet she seemingly saw through all his tricks. Moreover, it would be one thing if she were a more experienced adept of Shadow, but no, Jack felt nothing of the sort in her. It appeared as if she simply followed her instincts, and without fail, time and again, she was led right to her target.
No matter how hard Jack tried, no matter how he hid, meandered, or used complex magical tricks... Nothing helped against this mad lass. She drove him to the very spurs of the Great Ridge. In desperation, Jack, disregarding all local warnings just to escape from this frenzied bitch, took a risk. Having swam across a small river, he disappeared into the thick, almost tangible darkness of the ancient forest. A forest that no one called anything other than the Wicked Woods.
After running about fifty meters away from the river, Jack realized he was leaving a wet trail behind. He had to stop and try to dry off at least his shoes and pants.
At that moment, he heard her voice again. Apparently, the girl had chosen not to jump into the water after him and was standing on the other riverbank.
"Alright. I admit it. You're good. A real Master of Hide and Seek. I'm not joking, you're truly unparalleled. Even tracking the Sidhe was easier than finding you. Sometimes, I even thought you had slipped away. Anyway... You won today. Congratulations. Here's your reward."
With that, the girl went down to the river, stripped naked, and started washing herself, utterly unashamed of her nudity.
For the five minutes, while the beauty was bathing, Jack dared not move from his spot because the ground around him was littered with dry branches, and any step would have caused a crack that would undoubtedly be heard by the archeress. Hidden by the shadows and the natural darkness of the Wicked Woods, he held his breath and watched as she bathed, unable to take his eyes off her perfect figure. Until the last moment, Jack thought it was another trick by the huntress. But instead of playfully laughing after her bath and chasing him again like a cornered fawn, she leisurely dressed, slung her backpack over her shoulder, stretched, and said:
"Thank you. I enjoyed that! It was fun. I hope we'll see each other again and play once more. But now I have other things to attend to. Goodbye and, hopefully, until we meet again, Master of Hide and Seek."
Jack couldn't believe she had left and the endless chase had ended. For an entire hour, he sat there, afraid to move. Then he wandered all night and half the morning through the windthrows, nearly breaking his legs several times and almost becoming dinner for a giant spider. He only dared leave the Wicked Woods dozens of kilometers from where that crazy archeress had said goodbye...
A week had passed since that moment, but still, Jack sometimes woke up in a cold sweat when, in his dreams, he seemed to hear that very laughter. The earthling hoped he would never meet that girl again in his life. And if it did happen, she wouldn't be able to recognize him since she had never seen his face.
He had grown stronger, elevated to Wootz, closing a contract that all other headhunters had refused. It seemed like life was getting back on track. But then came a new markup on reagents for poisons, and now this foreign attention and a pursuer whom, just like before, he couldn't shake off.
However frightened the lad was, he kept his head and, winding through the narrow alleys, led his pursuer into the most deserted slums. A place specially prepared in case he had to flee the city urgently. Traps, pitfalls, poisoned arrows – this was far from the full list of surprises he had prepared in case of a chase. Taught by not the most pleasant experiences, the local beggars had long since avoided that alleyway.
Jack smirked bloodthirstily. Well, this time, the hunter would swap places with his prey!
Knowing the slums well, Jack timed the moment to peer through a narrow gap between tightly packed, leaning shacks at his pursuer. His first feeling when he saw a large male figure was sincere relief. 'Not her!!!'
But if not her, then who?!
This simple thought did not please Jack at all. Who suddenly needed him? The face of the pursuer was obscured by an impenetrable Shadow. The only thing the young man managed to see was a memorable cotta, thrown over armor, featuring some predatory bird. Such cloaks were usually worn by Hunter clans or the nobility.
Could someone have placed an order on him? But who, and who had he managed to cross so much that someone forked out and hired a professional to find him? None of the locals knew where Jack lived and what he did for a living. And he had submitted his orders, covering his face with Shadow. How had they found him? And most importantly, who was behind it?
Could the hunter have been hired by that very mage of Ruby, from whom Jack stole the artifact? But how could this mage have tracked him down? After all, even the intermediary hadn't seen the earthling face-to-face, and if he was caught and tortured, he couldn't have told anyone about Jack's identity.
The earthling's brain was frantically calculating possibilities, but he couldn't figure out where he had slipped up and how they had found him. This only added to the young man's stress.
Jack felt a sincere resentment. This city had been so convenient! He had grown accustomed to it, knew every nook and cranny and all the useful people. But, apparently, he would have to "cut off tails" and leave. But before leaving, he had to get rid of the pursuer by luring him into the "minefield."
As he approached his hideout, Jack weakened his camouflage and immediately felt how the stranger's shadows unerringly found him. The magic used by the pursuer was unknown to the earthling, but it was definitely based on Shadow. Moreover, the skill of the man in the cotta was apparently very high, as it allowed him to bypass all of Jack's tricks as if not noticing them. The shadows, so familiar and understandable to the young man, refused to obey him as he approached the pursuer. They lost control, as if gaining their own consciousness, and quickly melted even in the dimmest light. An amazing skill, which Jack wouldn't mind possessing.
Jack exposed himself intentionally to lure the hunter into the right alley. A narrow gap between the fortress tower and the high wall of an old, half-destroyed warehouse. Only Jack, who had set up all these devices, could navigate this narrow path without stepping on a trap or falling into another snare. Hiding in the alley, the young man lingered to let the pursuer follow him. Jack turned into all ears. Just a couple more steps, and the hunter would step onto the path from which he wouldn't come out alive.
One more step.
'Come on, do it!' Jack mentally screamed.
But for some reason, as if sensing danger, the pursuer froze in place. He paced hesitantly, took a deep breath, and spoke:
"Listen. I'm not an enemy. I heard your English and realized you're an earthling. I just wanted to introduce myself. Sorry for following you. I shouldn't have done that. But I don't know what came over me. You ran, and I followed, like some instincts kicked in. I mean you no harm. I repeat, I'm not an enemy, I just wanted to get acquainted."
Jack didn't fall for these words, staying put and remaining silent.
"I know you can hear me. The shadows tell me so," the stranger continued. "I'm just passing through Beziu. Our meeting is coincidental. Didn't mean to scare you. I'll just turn around and leave. Don't hold it against me. My name is Raven. Raven from Seattle, or Raven Alexandrite, as I introduce myself to the locals. May I hear your name?"
Instead of responding, Jack barely resisted the urge to run. Raven? Seriously? Him again?! Looking up at the sky, the young man saw Seguna momentarily disappear behind a tiny cloud and then reappear - as if winking.
"No? Alright. It's your right, I won't insist. But remember, Raven from Seattle is not your enemy, brother in Shadow."
With that, the ravenhead - and Jack was now certain it was him - turned around and, deliberately stomping loudly, walked toward the main streets. Waiting until the stranger's footsteps faded and the shadows no longer sensed the foreign presence, Jack slowly slid down the wall. His knees trembled slightly from nervous tension. At that moment, he clearly realized that he urgently needed to leave this city and even the nearby lands. It was certainly getting crowded here with those eager to get to know him better.
Wrapping himself in his cloak and nodding gratefully to Seguna, the one known in the Last Cycle as Rahu slipped into the dense Shadow…