Alexis ran — not for her life, but for other people’s. Probably not her team’s, they could handle themselves. But they were going to do something really stupid, and she didn’t want to be the one who could have stopped it, but didn’t.

So she ran. She practically flew over the cobblestone streets, her feet barely touching the ground as her strides took her farther than any athlete on Earth could have hoped for. Because she was on a timer, and she needed to get to Julian yesterday.

She knew Julian had had gone to a library, but no more than that. She didn’t know where it was, or what it looked like, or even if she was in the right district, but—

She ran, nonetheless, only stopping every once in a while to ask for directions. Apparently, people were perfectly willing to help a desperate young woman as she ran wildly through the streets. She wondered if they thought anything of her. A girl trying to catch her beloved? An adventurer on a mission?

She didn’t know how long it took until she finally saw the grand building of the Floating Library. She didn’t even know it was called that. But it was a library, and it matched, so Julian was probably there. He had to be. She rushed up the stairs, clearing five with each leap, when a leg shot out in front of her.

It had come out of nowhere — too sudden for her to adapt, even with her supernatural reaction speed. Or rather, she did adapt, narrowly avoiding the leg — and sprawling gracelessly on top of the steps.

She was still in a daze when the owner of the leg addressed her.

“Hey, you. You’re one of July’s kids, right?”

Alexis scrambled to her feet and turned to the interloper. “Wh-what?”

“You know, the spooky mage guy. Tall, dark and handso— actually, scratch the last one. But yeah. You’re one of his, right? Lexa or something?”

“Alexis.”

The interloper snapped her fingers. “That’s the name. I’m an old friend of his. Raina.”

By this point, Alexis had recovered from her tumble, becoming increasingly wary. “And you tripped me…why?”

“Cause you wouldn’t have stopped. You’d have just run in, but he’s not there. He just left.”

Alexis stared blankly. “You’re kidding.”

“I wish. He grabbed the other kid and took off like a fucking bird. That’s why I hate mages.”

Alexis looked the woman up and down. Something clicked in her head. “He left because of you.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yup. Came here to give him some news and the ungrateful bastard just left me behind,” Raina grumbled unhappily.

“What news?”

“Oh, right. The inn you were at — it’s on fire.”

Alexis blinked. If Raina had known about the fire and told Julian, then she must have been at the inn and run here faster than her… But that was impossible. Even if she’d seen it the moment it had started, and took the best route, a normal human’s headstart wouldn’t have been enough before Alexis’s System-empowered speed. Unless she used magic? Did they have magic telephones in this world?

Whichever the answer, it was clear Raina wasn’t someone she could treat lightly. But she needed to get word out to Julian, and if he’d gone to the inn, then—

She couldn’t run back to the inn. That’d take too long, and Julian might even find out by himself. Maybe. But if Raina could get a message across quicker than Alexis could run, then maybe…

“Miss… Raina.”

“That’s my name.”

“If you know about me, you know about the others?”

“Your little troupe? Sure. Not sure what your shtick is, though.”

“My friends have gone to do something really stupid. I came here to tell Julian, but since he’s gone—”

“Say no more. Actually, do say more. Tell me what they did. I’ll get the message to him.”

#

By the time I arrived at The Cranky Kraken, the inn was a mere shadow of its former self.

The Cranky Kraken was unrecognizable — but not destroyed. The fire had eaten through the front of the inn, and you could see the charred interiors of the common room from the streets. But the load-bearing structure of the inn had been made out of stone, which slowed the spread of the fire enough for help to arrive.

After all, the Floating City was not the city of adventurers for no reason. Normally, for a magical fire of that magnitude, fighting it off required at least a mage at the Adept level. On the continent, you’d be hard pressed to find one or two in the largest cities, often serving as court mages or in other exalted positions. In Alasvir? They were a dime a dozen.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I landed quietly in a nearby alley and joined the people who were gawking a safe distance away. True to their reputation, the City Guard had acted quickly, moving to secure the area, cordoning it off from the curious passers-by.

Oddly enough, there weren’t that many — not just gawkers, but also guards. A small crowd had gathered, watching from beyond the barriers as a pair of guardsmen went around taking inventory of the premises, but the area seemed oddly devoid of people.

I approached, Cameron following closely behind, but made no more than two steps before a thrown dart crossed my path. My head whipped in the direction of the attack — but it hadn’t been an attack. On the other side of the street, a cloaked figure stood on a rooftop. It waved, and pointed to the side of the building. Well out of sight of the guard.

An assassin, or a thief, perhaps. A member of Alasvir’s shadowy underworld, in any case — and so soon after meeting Raina. It couldn’t have been a coincidence. I gestured to Cameron to stay behind and headed towards the spot the figure had pointed to, weaving a shield of Force as I walked. I wasn’t particularly worried about a trap, and if they’d wanted me dead, they could have gone about it in a much better way. But still, I had spare bodes, and Cameron didn’t. Better to keep the Revenant out of danger.

The figure — an assassin, I was now sure, by the multitude of daggers and vials strapped to her body — descended quickly, giving me a shallow bow as she approached. I raised an eyebrow — politeness, from an assassin? I supposed stranger things had happened than that.

“Message to you from the guildmistress,” she said, tone choppy.

That would be Raina — she had said she the guild was hers now, didn’t she? I folded my arms, expectantly. “Let’s hear it, then.”

She relayed her message, my eyebrows going higher and higher with each sentence. By the end, I was staring in disbelief. I closed my eyes, covering them with a hand.

“Is that all?”

“There is a second message. She says, and I quote, ‘When I catch up to you, you stupid bookfucker, I’m gonna stab you so full of holes that they’ll use you as a sieve.”

Ah, Raina. Ever lovely. I nodded to the assassin and went back to collect Cameron. Soon, we were back in the sky, flying at full speed towards the Temple District.

With a bit of luck, we’d get there before it was too late.

#

Not far from the former Cranky Kraken, back in the Docks District, there was an old corvette named the Reborn Sparrow. Down, down inside the ship’s hold were a number of undead.

It wasn’t a big number — nowhere near what Julian had fielded against Canneria and lost against the Empire. But numbers didn’t matter, because among those few undead, one was a bear.

Being a bear was something important, the bear knew. The other undead weren’t bears. They were wights. But the bear was a bear, and there were none like him. And this was important now, because he was angry. Very angry. The angriest he’d ever been, which wasn’t a particularly good frame of reference since he’d never been angry before. Emotions were not supposed to be a thing of undead bears.

But the bear — Winnie — was angry. Not for himself. Nothing had happened down in the hold. But his Master, Yellow-hair-armor-girl, was angry beyond belief. Winnie would have described her as incensed, if he had known the word or if he had to describe the feeling, which he didn’t. But she was angry, and so Winnie was angry. And even though he’d been ordered to sit there and wait—

I’ll be back soon, Winnie! I don’t like it either, but you’ll have to stay there for a while. Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon. Just wait.

—for the first time in his short unlife, he wanted to disobey. Because she was angry, and so he was angry, and the anger needed to go away.

And Winnie knew how to make the anger go away. He’d done it before, many times. Rend and tear, rend and tear.

But he had to wait, no matter how much he didn’t want to. For now, at least.

But the anger still burned.

#

She’d gotten the skill at level 40, but had never used this way before. It had been a disappointment at the time — Dark Crusader’s Call, it was named. It worked like a taunt, for the most of it, which would have been useful had she been the group’s tank — but Shiro had that dubious honor. But she had glossed over its description, upset she hadn’t gotten something that helped her stab better.

Now, she was glad she had it. Because the skill didn’t only work on enemies. It worked on friendlies, too, making them commit to her cause as long as the seed of willingness was there. And after seeing the inn burn down and the fiery message written in flame and oil, discontent already fermented in the large crowd the fire had attracted. The culprit was obvious — and many of Alasvir’s citizens were disgruntled with the ever growing influence of the Temples. They had withstood gods and dragons — they bowed to no one. And the Temples dared step on their sovereignty?

If the crowd’s feelings were the oil, Sarah’s skill was the spark. If anyone were to ask her in the future, she might tell them she rallied the crowd with a great speech, rallying the people take arms against their oppressors, but the truth was she’d only said two sentences and let the skill do the rest of the work.

And the crowd had bent to her will, following the young Death Knight in her crusade against those who would raise arms against her Boss—

Except for Alexis, who seemed to have broken away from the skill. A surge of worry washed over Sarah — if Alexis could fight it, did that mean her skill was effectively mind control? Surely not. She’d only amplified what they already wanted — she wasn’t the bad guy here, was she?

But Alexis had called her a delusional idiot and had left to find Julian.

So Sarah rushed to the Temples. By the time Julian found out, she’d have the head of their enemy. Because Sarah was angry, but that was embers compared to the raging torrent of fire she’d seen from Julian before. When people attacked him or his, he didn’t think. He lashed out, violently. The last time, he’d marched an army of thousands upon an innocent people — and he was much stronger now.

At least, that was what she told herself. In reality, he probably wouldn’t react as badly as he had the first time. He’d actually matured some, against all odds. And the inn had been evacuated successfully — nobody had died. The attack had failed, if it was even meant to be more than a warning. But she’d seen the flames. Maybe they hadn’t meant much by it. But the glove had been thrown. It was an attack, and Sarah couldn’t forgive it.

No, Sarah had to deal with this herself, before Julian got involved. And stopped her — she knew he would. And she was on a schedule, now — Alexis was fast, but the library was far. Probably. Sarah was sure she had at least half an hour’s head start.

And so, her glorious crusaders, her frenzied mob, gathered in the Temple Square. It had to be one of them, but she didn’t know which. But she’d demanded the culprit to show themselves or they’d burn all the temples to the ground. Her declaration had been supported by wild cheers. She’d wait five more minutes. If the culprit didn’t appear by then… she’d take matters into her own hands.

A tiny, rational part of herself was telling her that Alexis was right. That Sarah was doing a stupid thing. But it was out of her hands now. She’d activated her skill on instinct at the peak of her anger, catching everyone in a glorious tornado of righteous fury, and she’d realized it much too late.

Sarah wasn’t immune to her own skill.