Cass followed Daidyn through the crowded streets of Velillia’s lower district. As they walked, he pointed out interesting landmarks and his favorite shops: a sandwich place over there that got the ratio of meat to lettuce just right, a tailor here that cut particularly flattering clothes, the statue of the duchess in the plaza there, a spot where a dumpling stand popped up in the evenings.

He was pointing out an impressive stained glass window when Dodge screamed in her ears. She felt the press of steel on her back.

Time slowed. There was no time to get out of the way.

Space twisted. Colors inverted. She was there. She was not.

Liminal Dodge placed her beside the dagger meant for her middle back. She panted from the sudden spike of Stamina use.

Someone had just tried to stab her. In broad daylight. In the middle of a busy street.

Cass turned to see the dagger’s owner. They wore a heavy hood, their figure entirely obscured by the thick, green cloak.

???

Lvl ???

[Target is obscured.]

They jerked the dagger toward her.

Cass Dodged out of the way, knocking someone over in the process.

The assassin followed, their blade darting out again and again.

Barely a second had passed.

Salos leapt from her shoulder, his claws extended toward the assassin.

She gripped her staff, willing a Wind Blade to the end.

There were too many people. They were rushing to get away, but they were still all too close. If she swung, she’d hit someone. If they were an ordinary person, she’d kill them.

The assassin twisted out of Salos’s way, but Salos’s claws still found purchase on the ends of their cloak. He grabbed on as the assassin attempted to pull away.

Cass had to help him. Had to keep her attacker from running away. She needed to believe that the bystanders would get out of the way in time. That Staff Mastery would guide her hand.

She swung her staff. It bit deep into her attacker’s shoulder, blood spraying over the street.

Salos clawed up their cloak to the opposite shoulder, his claws tearing through fabric and coming away just as bloody as her staff.

The assassin screamed, a hand reaching up for Salos, as they turned to throw their dagger at Cass.

Dodging would be easy, her skill told her. But Atmospheric Sense warned there were people behind her. That they would be hit if she moved.

She couldn’t dodge. But maybe she didn’t need to?

She raised her staff and pulled on the air with Elemental Manipulation. She willed it to harden. To hold its place. To stand firm.

Air had little interest in such things. It much preferred to roll out of the way of other objects. Much preferred to move and to twist and to twirl. Cass understood that.

She could feel every molecule pulling in a different direction. Could feel them trying to sidestep the dagger colliding with the curtain of air she held in place with her Will alone.

She held them. And the dagger bounced uselessly off her air wall as if it were made of stone.

Meanwhile, the assassin had got their hands on Salos. He hissed like a wildcat, his claws reaching for their face.

The flat of a sword slammed into the assassin from behind, longer than the assassin was tall, wider than they were at the shoulders. They collapsed to the cobble street, dropping Salos. Daidyn’s heavy foot slammed down on their back, pinning them in place.

“Who the hell are you?” There was no warmth in his voice. It was a boiling cold.

The assassin struggled against the much larger man’s weight, futile.

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Cass approached carefully, her breath ragged, her pulse racing. “Why did you attack me?”

Her attacker didn’t say a word. They struggled. Daidyn pressed down harder. They stopped.

Cass leaned down and pulled back the hood. There was no person underneath. Only a wooden dummy waited for them.

“What?” Cass asked, leaning away.

“Abyss, a Substitute,” Daidyn cursed, stepping off the body and flipping it over. “Good skill too if they can use it even after being pinned. Abyss. Should’ve made direct contact.”

He riffled through the clothing, pulling another set of daggers from the folds of the assassin’s clothes.

“What just happened?” Cass asked, the panic fading to numb disbelief. Had she just been attacked? Why?

Daidyn knocked on the wooden dummy. “This is a Substitute. It’s a common enough skill among rogues, especially the type who get up to less than legal activities. They can swap with a preset dummy if things get too dicey for ‘em. Get out of danger, avoid being caught, that kind of thing. Most can’t do it if you’ve got’em pinned, but, well,” he shrugged.

Cass looked at the blood on the ground. On her staff. On her clothes. It had been a real person. A real person had just attacked her.

“But why?” Cass muttered again.

He shrugged. “Not my lord’s orders. That’s about all I can say for sure.”

A likely story, Salos snorted. He’d found his way back up to Cass’s shoulder. His tail was protectively coiled around her neck. If I was Kohen, I would send my man to the scene to provide plausible deniability. ‘Oh no, it could hardly be me. See, my servant was there. Even helped stop the attack! What? They only helped after the situation was well in hand? No. Definitely not. I promise they acted as quickly as they noticed it was happening.’

You think Alyx’s brother wants me dead? Cass asked.

We know he’s wary of you. This oaf told us that much.

“You have any ideas why someone would want you dead?” Daidyn asked.

Cass shook her head. She could count on her hands the number of people she knew in this world. None of them could want her dead enough to send assassins after her, could they?

“Hate to say it, but it’s probably your lady’s fault, then.”

“My lady?” Cass didn’t have one of those.

“Lady Veldor? Lady Alyx Veldor?”

Cass stared at him blankly.

“Don’t you serve Lady Alyx Veldor?” he asked again.

“Serve her?” No. That was silly. They were friends. You did favors for friends. Serving someone was something that servants did. “I’m not her servant.”

“But you’re her attendant, yeah?”

Cass shook her head. “What made you think that?”

It was his turn to look taken aback. “Are you nobility?”

Cass raised an eyebrow. Where was that coming from? “No?”

He shook his head. “Look, I’m not gonna even try to understand, alright? But if there is no reason to kill you, it’s probably your association with Lady Veldor. You may or may not have figured this one out on your own, but she’s not the most powerful noble in the city by a long shot. Her servants don’t tend to live long for reasons entirely unrelated to the care she puts into them.”

“Are you telling me people routinely kill her servants?”

He nodded solemnly, his focus returning to the assassin’s discarded clothes.

We should leave, Salos said, his voice cold.

Her heart hammered in her chest. Was she shaking? Her arms folded over her chest, her hands clenching tight around opposing elbows.

What level were they? she asked. Identify didn’t say.

A common rogue skill, Salos assured her. We can talk about it later. We should leave.

Cass nodded. Get off the street. Yeah. That’s—

No, we need to get out of this city, Salos said. We can’t stay here on our own. You reacted fast enough this time, but I do not think you can remain on alert on the permanent basis you would need to survive this kind of attack routinely.

“Any of this look familiar to you?” Daidyn asked, pulling Cass back to the present. He had lined up the contents of the dummy’s pockets for Cass to see.

Most of it was daggers, all plain and unadorned. There was a wallet, with a handful of small change and nothing else. The only potentially identifying object on them was a ring. A bronze crescent was set in an emerald.

She shook her head. “Do you recognize this mark?”

He looked closer at the ring and shook his head. “Green and bronze are the colors of the Telimel family, but they don’t have a monopoly on the colors. The crescent could be the second moon but,” he shrugged again. “None of the houses use the Copper Crescent as heraldry in this city.”

So he did not know either. Cass slipped the ring into her Bag to ask Alyx about later.

She was suddenly very cold and very alone. The buildings around her cast heavy shadows over the street, pooling into dark hiding places where anything might be hiding.

Would she be safer by Alyx’s side? Would she be safer in the manor? Or was that more dangerous? Who was trying to kill her? Was this Copper Crescent the only one who would try?

What if we joined Alyx in the catacombs? Cass asked. They’d have a harder time assassinating us there, right?

Was that crazy? Jumping into danger to avoid danger? At least monsters were a danger she understood now. She wasn’t comfortable with them, but their system prompted aggression was something which she understood. It was gross and twisted, but it could be explained. The danger was obvious.

Here on the street, surrounded by strangers, she couldn’t even guess where the next attack might come from.

“Come on,” Daidyn said. “Let’s get you to the library at least, yeah?”

Cass nodded. Anything would be better than being here.