“What’s happening right now?”

Zed ignored Chris’ whining. As long as he had Oliver following him, he was more than certain Chris and Ash would be in tow.

He’d gone back only to grab Oliver by the wrist and pull him along. Oliver had protested mildly for a while, but only with his words, and Zed had hushed him with his facial expression.

He led them through the tight and noisy market, meandering through people and stalls as he kept his eyes on his timer.

It was his guide, as ludicrous as it sounded. When it increased, he continued following whatever path he was on. When it decreased, it was time to find a new one.

After a few minutes, he found his way back to the old man’s stall.

He took each of them, one by one and placed them just in front of the stall. He positioned them like mannequins at a boutique, each one standing over an item or the other, but he didn’t put them inside.

“Hi.” He waved at the old man.

Slightly puzzled, but unbothered, the old man waved back.

“These are people I know,” Zed explained, checking his timer and adjusting them accordingly. He placed a hand on Oliver’s shoulder. “This one’s my friend, that one’s his sister, and I’m still not sure what the relationship is between him and that one is. But be careful of her. She’s got a screw loose. I’ll be back for them when I’m done.”

To Oliver, he said, “Stay,” pointing at the stall.

The timer was over four hours when he left them with Chris muttering something about treating them like children.

Before he went for the Olympians, he needed to go get someone who’d gone astray for a while.

Well… astray isn’t really the right word here.

He moved through the market, knowing what general section she would be. He took turns, smiled at people, and ignored most of the others.

It was a busy market, and while pickpockets existed in such a market, their existence didn’t worry him.

A man only worried about thieves when he had something that could be stolen.

Zed had none.

He was walking down a sandy path when he spotted four men walking briskly and purposefully. Their heads were on a swivel and their eyes were sharp.

He didn’t need to wonder what was going on. Instead, he looked straight down at his timer.

[00:02:04.]

It was running itself to zero at a very unhealthy speed.

One of the men’s eyes turned in his direction and Zed ducked into a stall.

“What are you willing to trade for this?” he asked nobody in particular as he picked up a random item. “It doesn’t look so bad but I can only trade so much. Do you accept rune-dollars?”

“Yes, friend. I accept everything.”

More than half of Zed’s attention was on the men. The remaining was on his timer. It was slowly ticking back up.

That was a good sign.

When it was back to acceptable levels, he bid the dismayed stall owner goodbye and ducked out of the place.

If the men that enforced the law in this place asked enough questions, eye witnesses would be able to describe him, Daniel and Eitri to a recognizable point. All the men would have to do was look for the dwarf, the bloody red head, and the giant.

It was the only reason he hadn’t been bothered when Shanine had wanted to get some time to herself. In this cacophony of people, she was nothing more than just another person.

I swear this is the worst kind of quest for my heart.

He found Shanine five minutes later.

She was completely oblivious to the entire issues he was going through. Then again, everyone was.

He watched her from a distance as a man around his age spoke to her. Judging by the way the man leaned towards her and said things with sharp smoky eyes, there was a lot of flirting going on from his side.

And judging by Shanine’s smiles and giggles, she seemed to be enjoying it.

Zed almost didn’t want to break it up. Almost.

He cleared his throat, deepened his voice, and made a straight march for them.

You know you can just approach them like a normal person, right? he told himself as he drew closer. You are on a timer, after all.

“I know,” he muttered to himself, a smile stretching his lips. “But where’s the fun in that.”

Shanine turned a moment before he got to them. She took one look at his face and her lips twitched humorously.

“Oh, my gosh, Squiggles, where have you been?” she said brightly. “I’ve been looking all over the place for you.”

Zed did a double take. “Squiggles?”

“I know you don’t like being called that, but you know how much I love calling you that.”

The man with her was almost as puzzled as Zed was.

“Oh, my, I’m so sorry,” Shanine apologized with much aplomb. “Squiggles, this is Leo. Leo, Squiggles. He’s my butler. We just happened to get into a bit of a situation and he risked his life to save me.”

Alright, Zed thought to himself. Today, I’m a butler.

He gave a small bow, as regal as he could manage. “My apologies, my lady, for my poor presentation. I had hoped to find a replacement for my clothes, but alas, my failure precedes me.”

He turned to the young man who was now looking less confused and held out a hand for a handshake. This one he did as haughtily as he could manage.

Leo looked between him and Shanine before taking his hand.

Zed shook it condescendingly. “And what, pray tell, are your intentions for my mistress, young man?”

Leo’s grip became firm and strong. “You aren’t so old yourself, butler.”

Ah, a man of adequate pride.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“It is as you’ve said, I am merely a humble thirty-year-old.”

“Really?” Leo asked, tone clearly disbelieving. “How do you manage to look so young?”

“Oh, nothing special.” Zed took a glance at his timer and was glad to see they still had time. “I just bathe often in the blood of my mistress’ lovers. But nothing too demanding, lest they die of blood loss.”

Leo snatched his hand from Zed’s, startled.

He looked at Shanine who had her hand regally held over her mouth as if in shock. But Zed knew better, she was doing her best to hold back a laugh.

“Do not blame my lady,” Zed told the man. “She often isn’t around to witness my baths. In her words, it is too gruesome a scene for her lovely eyes.”

Zed wasn’t sure if the man was believing any of this. He looked more like someone trying to decipher if they were crazy or just lying to him.

When he took a hesitant step back, Zed made his move.

He grabbed Shanine by the wrist and started walking. “My apologies, my lady, but we must leave at once. Your old lover has awakened and he seeks retribution for my bath.”

She was chuckling at this point and couldn’t hold up character.

“You should’ve seen your face,” she laughed. “It was priceless.”

Zed led her through the market as he’d done Oliver. “What can I say? I wasn’t expecting to become Squiggles the butler so soon.”

When he got to the old man’s stall, his timer shot back up to four hours and more.

Oliver was standing inside the stall and talking with the old man while Ash had a genuine display of interest in the slippers on display. Only Chris looked bored.

But at least she hadn’t left the stall.

“Alright,” he said to Shanine. “You join them for a while and tell the lovely old man about the young man that tried to get between your legs.”

Shanine laughed humorously. “You know me, there’ll be no getting between my legs.”

Chris opened her mouth to speak and Zed raised a finger at her. “A word out of you and we’ll square down here and now, timer be damned.”

His mind had already conjured up a rune, but it was surprisingly one he had never used. He turned the rune around in his mind curious.

Was picking up runes that easy? He didn’t even have to practice this one.

“I was just going to ask why we’re keeping this old man company?” Chris said innocently.

Zed didn’t believe her. She had been about to comment on Shanine’s statement regarding getting between her legs, and he knew it. Judging from Shanine’s face and how she’d braced herself the moment Chris had spoken, she knew it too.

“The reason we’re here,” Zed played along. “Is because I need all of you to guard him with your lives. And I need him to guard you all with his time until I can figure something out.”

“What are you trying to figure out?” Oliver asked, pausing his conversation with the old man.

“Does it have something to do with why you’ve been running around?”

Shanine looked at Zed. “You’ve been running around?”

“Yes, but only because I’ve been looking for you,” Zed lied.

“You knew where I was, though. I told you I’d be in that general direction and won’t go anywhere until you came for me.”

That was true, but he’d also expected her to make a few detours. She was in a market after all, regardless of how poor the market seemed.

“Anyway,” he told her. “Just wait here with them while I get our Olympian—”

“Hey! You! Stop right there!”

Zed froze while everyone else grew alert. He took a quick peek at his timer.

[04:48:39].

He still had time, so who was being addressed. He turned around slowly and was just in time to see Eitri rush past one of the stores far from them. A moment after, four men rushed after him.

So much for getting the Olympians.

He turned to Shanine and pointed at the stall. “Stay.”

Then he rushed in Eitri’s general direction.

As he did, his timer counted down with much enthusiasm. Zed wasn’t worried about fighting a bunch of mages, he was more worried about where the reward of a mana stone the quest was offering would come from.

…………….

Daniel darted beside a stall, then turned almost immediately and swung his arm. He was tall and had to compensate for the size of his pursuers. He swung downwards and slammed his entire forearm into the chest of his pursuer just before the man took the turn he’d taken.

He frowned and he leaned over the man and snatched his gun.

Eitri had handed the gun they’d taken from the man at the gate to Jennifer when some men with guns had begun shouting after them a few moments ago.

It had been chaotic for a moment, and the only luck they’d had was being in a busy market place.

The men they’d met at the gate had been slobs but these ones had possessed a modicum of good will because they hadn’t even considered opening fire in the market.

Daniel and his team had succeeded in getting two physical maps, and had been in the process of getting some batteries when the men had come after them.

Kid had one of the maps and Ronda had the other. It was both good and bad since they’d split up while running.

He had told them to meet back at the gate in thirty minutes but wasn’t so sure how possible it was going to be.

The gate wasn’t very far from the market, and he’d given thirty minutes so that they had enough time to handle the people chasing them.

But that had been ten minutes ago. In that time, he’d managed to knock out one of his assailants while the others were still searching.

He checked his new weapon and was pleased to find it adequately loaded. The gun wasn’t necessarily well taken care of but he hadn’t really expected much from such a town.

Done with his search, he darted back into the market. From the looks of things, their buying was done.

A gunshot rang out somewhere in the market and he paused. Who cared so little that they’d pull the trigger in a market place.

What if they missed and hit some innocent bystander?

With that worry in mind, he made his way towards the sound of the gunshot instead of out of the market.

………

Zed couldn’t help but jerk at the sound of the gunshot.

His timer lost a chunk of itself when it happened, dropping him just under ten minutes. The man chasing Eitri had had a gun but the gunshot hadn’t come from their direction. It meant only one thing.

They’ve scattered and are till being chased.

He was really hoping this wasn’t going to be like the anti-mage situation from earlier where they had to face a small army.

Running after Eitri and his pursuer, he had to make a choice. Leave Eitri to his fate and go after whoever was being shot at or ignore whoever was being shot at and save Eitri.

He had no idea who was being shot at, so it made his decision easier.

Running faster caught him up with Eitri and his assailant. They zipped past him on the other side of one of the stalls and Zed cut through an alley between two stalls to catch up to them.

With a new rune in mind, he was eager to test it out. He just hoped it wouldn’t have too devastating an effect.

He held the rune in mind as Eitri’s pursuer ran in front of him. He aimed his finger at the man as he ran, then drew the rune. He didn’t make a mistake and he wasn’t fast about it. He took his time making curves and twirls of reddish lines of mana.

When it was complete, he held the rune in the air, aim steady, then activated it the moment his aim aligned with the pursuer.

----------------------------------------

* You have cast complex rune [Pain].

* Complex rune [Pain] has applied effect [Pain] on [Awakened Mage].

* [Awakened Mage] does not have resist.

* [Pain] takes effect.

----------------------------------------

The man chasing Eitri let out a short, high pitched scream and crumpled to the ground. Since he was running, the momentum turned his fall into a stumble and he rolled twice before coming to a stop.

Eitri took a moment to look back, drawn by the sound, and came to a stop.

He walked back to the man cautiously. As he did, he saw Zed.

“Where the hell did you come out from?”

“More importantly,” Zed said. “Why didn’t you knock him out or something? Aren’t you supposed to be a Rukh?”

Eitri gestured around. “My specialty is in guns. Any fight would lead to casualties. I was trying to lead him to somewhere I could take care of him without having to worry about collateral damage.”

He shoved the man with his foot. The man was unresponsive and they were beginning to draw a crowd.

“What the hell did you do to him?”

“Pain rune,” Zed said. “I didn’t think it would be this effective, though.”

He squatted next to the man and checked his pulse.

The man still had one, but it was very weak.

Just how much pain did it inflict on him?

Judging from how much mana the rune had taken from him, Zed guessed it had to be a lot. At least he’s not dead.

“Do you want his gun?” he asked Eitri, already relieving the man of his weapon.

“Why?” Eitri asked. “You don’t want it?”

Zed shrugged, handing it over to him with the ever growing crowd present. “I’m not much of a gun person.”

Another gunshot rang out in the distance, startling everyone including the crowd.

“You think that’s in our favor?” Zed asked, doubtful.

“Jennifer ran south, and she’s the only one with a gun. And that shot came from the east. So, no.”

When a third gunshot rang out, the growing crowd scattered. It led to a small stampede and a rising pandemonium.

People closed their stores haphazardly and darted away like mad men. Some people locked themselves in their stores, which would’ve made sense if the stores weren’t made of something that could clearly not withstand a fired bullet.

“We need to find the others,” Eitri said.

“I have my guys kept in a safe place,” Zed answered. “We just have to find the Olympians.”

“Are your people in the market?”

“Yes,” Zed nodded, hoping the time effect still applied to the old man’s stall.

“The they aren’t safe,” Eitri said. “Everyone’s scrambling for safety so anything’s possible. We’ve got to get them, then find the Olympians.”

Eitri was already moving. “I swear that old goon won’t teach me anything if you don’t come back alive and well.”

It was good to see that Eitri had a strong motivation.

But Zed found himself worrying for the others. What would they do if the old man wanted to close down his stall as well and make his way for safety?