Tenebres frowned at his reflection in the polished glass of the storefront window of Algus’s Fine Candleworks. Sometimes, when he had gone long enough without catching sight of himself, he forgot how different he looked since Kellen’s failed ritual.
His skin, naturally a deep golden tan, now had a permanent gray pallor that made him look recently dead. His lustrous brown hair had been bleached bone white, while his once green eyes had taken on the same red hue as a fresh pool of blood. By comparison, the tapered points of his ears sticking through his hair were a minor detail at best. Still… after everything that had happened, it had felt good to break away from being himself, to spend sometimes as Seo, just another homeless wraith in the slums of Lowrun.
He wasn't Seo though, whatever he wanted to pretend.
Tenebres shook his head to clear it. He had to focus. This was no time to get distracted.
He resisted the urge to look over his shoulder. He knew he wouldn’t be able to catch sight of Allana anyways. Instead, he focused his eyes past his reflection, through a gap between the drawn curtains and into the darkened shop on the other side of the glass. The chandler was nowhere to be seen, but there were still a few candles lit in the showroom, exuding a gentle glow. Shadows danced with the flickering light, constantly tricking Tenebres into thinking there was movement in the shop.
He blew out a breath, reaching for the mystical well of power he had gained weeks before, when he passed the Mage’s exam and gained the gift of the evoker.
Gift of the Evoker
Level: Novice
Experience: 7%
Advance your theoretical and practical knowledge of evocation
Abilities:
Novice Evocations - Spell - Gain access to Novice level evocations, utilizing your mystical well as a resource. Spells require study in order to learn.
Arcane Mind - Boon - Lesser boost to Coordination, Knowledge, and Focus
Unlike other gifts, those granted by the Mage didn’t have multiple discrete abilities. Instead, they simply gained access to the spells of each level. For evocation, the school of magic dedicated to the manipulation of energy, that mostly meant simple force spells, straight-forward applications of kinetic energy.
As Seo, Tenebres had told Allana that his fine control of the magical abilities was an augment produced by the gift of mathematics. In truth, his talent for evocation was simply a product of his mind. The equations by which magic and other energies were converted to force were complex by any standard, even at Novice level, but they came easily to Tenebres, enough so that he was able to make his spells more efficient and effective than most Novice evokers.
Still, he was finding his limits with the task Allana had given him. Projecting force from an origin point far away from himself was difficult. The base spell was simple enough - he had used it the night he had met Allana to strike one of the bullying thugs from behind - but he had never tried to do it from so far away before. He saw the sconce he was aiming for wobble a couple times, but Algus was clearly aware of the flammability of his business and had taken steps to secure the few lights he left burning so late.
Tenebres gritted his teeth, accepting that he was going to need a little extra to get the job done. Fortunately, the actual augment provided by his gift of the void interacting with the gift of the evoker should be enough to do the deed, even if it would be somewhat unpleasant.
Blood Magic - Void, Evoker - Passive - You may take damage in order to enhance the power of your evocation spells.
Immediately, a searing pain shot up Tenebres’s arm, the flesh opening as if a finely honed knife had been dragged along his skin. But the extra power the pain brought with it strengthened the force of his next spell, and the projection was enough to knock one of the wide candles free from its perch. It landed on a table of more display pieces, and quickly one, then another, then the whole table, caught aflame.
Tenebres exhaled, relieved at his success, then promptly hurried away, ducking into the alley Allana had indicated for him. As promised, a hiding spot awaited him, a cobbled together series of crates and sailcloth that looked like a simple pile of junk. If Allana hadn’t instructed him so clearly, he never would’ve noticed the way one of the hanging pieces of tarp could be swept aside so that he could duck into a hollow in the center of the pile.
He watched from a small hole in the front of his hiding place as the light of flames began to flicker behind the shop's curtains. But it wasn’t enough. The dark streets stayed quiet even as the flames slowly grew brighter - much more slowly than he and Allana had planned.
Tenebres looked nervously from the chandler’s storefront to the two buildings next to it. One was a simple residence designed for three separate families, well-off by Lowrun standards, to dwell in, while the other was a cobbler’s shop with an upstairs apartment, similar to Algus’s own storefront. Each was made of the same wood as the candleworks, and each would go up in flames just as fast if the fire began to spread.
Tenebres frowned. Helping Allana to kill the murderous chandler was one thing, but the other buildings had nothing to do with his business. He couldn’t just let a whole block burn to kill one man.
More pain danced up his other arm as he drew on his blood magic again. The spell to project a bolt of kinetic energy directly in front of him was far easier than the one he had used to start the fire, but he needed the extra strength to make sure he could reach the storefront.
Fortunately, given how tidy his spellwork was, Tenebres’s mystical well was still about half-full even after his multiple attempts to topple a candle. He had more than enough to fuel the simple ball of force he shot from his hiding place, and the power of his blood gave it the strength to shatter the glass window he had looked through earlier.
Immediately, air filled the room, fanning the flames. The entire building promptly caught ablaze even as smoke billowed out through the window. Between the sound, light, and smell, people up and down the street began emerging to investigate the burning shop, and in the distance, he could hear the brassy ring of alarm bells.
With a sigh, Tenebres relaxed back in his little hidey-hole. The light of the fire didn’t quite penetrate the shadows of the alley he was hiding in, and he was able to watch as people began trying to contain the flames - including the residents of the two buildings flanking the candleworks. No one was going to die in bed as the flames spread.
Tenebres waited for what seemed an hour, but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before an indistinct shape moving down the alley resolved into the shape of Allana. She wasn’t moving with her usual grace, staggering awkwardly as she fled down the alley at what could only be called a rapid shamble. She hadn’t even stopped to make sure he was following her.
Brow furrowed in concern, Tenebres climbed out of the pile of trash and ran after her. Given her current speed, it wasn’t too hard to catch up, but only moments after he got to her, Allana fell to her knees, wavering in place.
Tenebres placed a hand on her shoulder, looking nervously behind them as he gently shook her. “Allana,” he hissed, “we have to go!”
The girl didn’t move, besides blinking and sluggishly turning her head to look at him.
Down the alley, Tenebres heard the distinct sound of a person walking towards them.
“Allana! Someone’s coming!”
Still, the girl didn’t move. Tenebres looked, worried, from the girl to what was now clearly a man confidently approaching them. He knew he could run, that it was the smart thing to do. It was unlikely anyone had noticed him looking into Algus’s window, and he could vanish into the busy crowd around the fire easily enough.
All he had to do was leave his new friend to an uncertain fate.
Tenebres recalled his own words, spoken casually to her earlier that night. He had called her his friend, even as he lied about who he was, but the claim had been genuine. In their brief time together, a real bond had begun to form between him and the secretive, blunt wraith girl, and Tenebres would rather die himself than leave her to an uncertain fate.
He swallowed, hsi throat tight, then walked around to stand in front of Allana, doing everything possible to make his skinny, meager frame intimidating. Internally, he shifted his focus to the abruptly sharp presence of the gift of the void. Just as it had on the road to Emeston, the power seemed to know he was considering using it, and it seemed to bay in his chest, begging to be released.
Noting his stance, the man stopped, his hand coming to rest at his belt. “I think you’ve gone far enough,” he claimed, blithely arrogant. “You’re coming with me.”
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Tenebres was readying to use the power of the void, just as he had to kill Kellen and the cult weeks before, when Allana croaked out a weak protest. “No. It’s okay, Seo.”
“‘Okay’ is a wild overstatement at the moment, actually,” the stranger said. “But at the very least, I’m not here to hurt either of you.”
The man approached, one hand outstretched, and Allana staggered to her feet with Tenebres’s assistance. Up close, the man was far less intimidating. He had a powerful build, but was dressed in elaborate silken garments rather than the dark, close-fitting clothes Tenebres and Allana wore. His most notable feature was the long mane of bushy blonde hair that hung halfway down his back. He didn’t even seem to be armed, but Tenebres knew better than most that with the gifted, that impression was never necessarily true.
The stranger gave Allana an inquisitive glance, one golden eyebrow arched as his eyes flicked from ehr to Tenebres. Allana, still exhausted, shrugged an idle shoulder and averted her eyes.
Watching the exchange, Tenebres quickly realized the two knew each other. “I’m starting to feel like I’m behind on what’s happening right now.”
“I’ll say. And you’re not alone on that front.” The mysterious man turned a glare on Allana as he spoke. “But that’ll have to wait. You were sloppy, Allana - there’s every chance someone will find his body before we can get away.”
“His body? He’s dead then?” Allana asked wearily.
“Definitively. I made sure of that.”
Tenebres narrowed his eyes at the man’s words, and came to the conclusion that he was far from the dandy that he pretended to be. As someone who had been relying on similar camouflage since he first arrived in Emeston, it wasn’t hard to spot the signs.
“So you’re the one who’s been training Allana, right? Geoffrey?” Tenebres asked suspiciously.
Allana winced, and the man’s glare turned onto Tenebres. “Just how much did she tell- Yes. Yes I am.” The man turned away, the motion made abrupt by his anger. “We need to go. We can all discuss this Rogue-damned disaster once we get back to my place. Let’s go.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Tenebres protested immediately.
“Seo,” Allana’s voice was softer than usual. She gave him a pleading look, her violet eyes immeasurably weary. “Please, just come with us. It’ll be okay.” She turned her own glare on the man who had found them, though it was feeble compared to his imperious look. “Right, Geoffrey?”
The older assassin rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes, fine. But we need to go, now!”
Tenebres wavered in place, but as little as he wanted to go with this duplicitous and dangerous man, he wanted to leave Allana alone with him even less. Geoffrey was clearly angry, but as no small part of his anger was apparently due to how much Allana had told her new friend, Tenebres couldn’t just leave her to face that anger by herself.
Worst case scenario, he could always pull out a fiend. He’d have to leave the city afterwards, but at least then he could keep Allana safe.
“Fine,” he relented. “Let’s go.”
#
Geoffrey briskly led the two through the streets, in the opposite direction of the burning candle shop and the still ringing alarm bells. They quickly left the alleys and took to the main avenues instead, but the guard patrols and other passerby rushing by towards the blaze barely spared them a glance. Geoffrey’s attire clearly indicated his wealth, which in Emeston placed him well above suspicion for something as mundane as a fire at a candlemaker’s shop. Tenebres and Allana stuck to his shadow.
They had only gone a few blocks before Allana’s eyes started to clear up again, her steps becoming more sure. “I have a focus boon,” she explained quietly, noticing Tenebres’s surprise. “I ran myself dry in all of that, but it recovers pretty quickly.”
“Quiet, both of you,” Geoofrey snapped.
Soon enough, they reached a small building Tenebres could only assume to be Geoffrey’s home. Though only slightly nicer than the slums surrounding it, it boasted a fence and a small courtyard. The interior proved to be far more comfortably appointed, and Tenebres soon found himself in Geoffrey’s office, trying to avoid the man’s glare while Allana explained the events leading up to their murder of Algus, the candlemaker.
“You did adequately, I suppose.” Geoffrey looked between Allana and Tenebres. “A bit… loud, but clean enough.”
“About that…” Allana turned a suspicious look on Tenebres. “What were you thinking Seo, breaking the windows like that?”
Tenebres frowned and rubbed his upper arm bashfully. “Uhm… well, with how it was burning, I thought no one else might notice it until it had spread to the other buildings.”
“That was the point!” Allana insisted. “With all the smoke and people rushing around, it was that much harder for me to get to him without getting seen!”
“But… look, if it wasn’t caught early, it could’ve spread through that whole block! I’m not gonna burn down a whole neighborhood to cover up you killing one man!”
Geoffrey held up a hand to cut off the arguing. “Both of you, stop. Seo is right, Allana. Even if it hadn’t gotten that bad, half a dozen businesses burning down would get a lot more attention put on it than one man’s already hazardous shop.”
Seo turned a victorious grin on Allana, but Geoffrey interrupted it as well. “That is not to say what happened was acceptable. If you had waited and spoken to Allana, you could’ve broken the windows as you made your escape - the outcry would’ve been a perfect distraction.”
Seo rolled his red eyes. “Sorry I’m not quite used to thinking like an assassin.”
“Which brings us to my next question,” Geoffrey narrowed his eyes. “If you’re not an assassin, which I think we all agree is certainly the case, why are you assassinating people?”
Tenebres flushed at the question. Under Geoffrey’s glare, the carefully reasoned arguments he had explained to Allana seemed childish. “Well… my friend needed help.”
“Your friend. Needed. Help.” Geoffrey practically bit the words off, his eyes narrow.
“Well… yeah.” The words sounded weak even as Tenebres spoke them, but he bulled through. “And this Algus was a bad guy! You heard Allana, he was going to kill her!”
“Of course. He was using the gift of flesh to make cursed candles out of human tallow. That’s the sort of secret that incentivizes one to kill in order to keep it.”
Both Tenebres and Allana turned a baffled look on Geoffrey.
“You knew!?” Allana asked.
“Of course I did. Why else would I take a contract to kill a chandler, of all people?” Geoffrey explained calmly, as if it was the most rational thing in the world.
“Why didn’t you tell me!?”
“Oh, I don’t know, mayhaps because I thought you’d do something rash?”
Allana flailed her arms with a noise of frustration and sat back in her chair, unable to refute the point.
“What is the gift of flesh?” Tenebres asked into the silence. “I’ve never heard of that before.”
Geoffrey shook his head and shot the boy an incredulous look. “No. No more questions from you, not until I have some answers.”
“Answers?”
“Like, for example, ‘who are you?’”
Tenebres furrowed his brow. “Well… I’m Seo. I met Allana–”
“When she saved you from Telik’s thugs, yes, I’m aware.”
“You’re aware?” Allana asked indignantly.
Geoffrey gave her a flat look. “You fought two known wards of the crime lord I’ve spent months gathering information on, who you are supposed to be avoiding. Yes, I am aware of the incident, as well as your routine evenings together since.”
It was Allana’s turn to flush, though Tenebres gathered it was as much in anger as embarrassment. “You’ve been watching me?”
“Now, Allana, that wouldn’t be a productive use of time. I’ve just been keeping informed.”
Allana narrowed her eyes, stewing on that. Seeing she was at least willing to stop interrupting for the moment, Geoffrey returned his gaze to Tenebres. “Now to clarify my meaning, who are you, really? Where did you come from, why are you here?” He held up a finger before Tenebres could answer. “And let me be clear, ‘Seo.’ I am not my apprentice. I do not want to hear any lies, and I promise you that you lack the skill and talent alike to do so successfully, especially to me.”
Tenebres narrowed his eyes. He didn’t like the man’s tone - he had a way of making bold claims, and stating them as if they were simple facts, pushing the conversation into the pace he wanted. Tenebres might not have noticed it in the past, but his gift of the void had come with a not-insignificant charm boon, and he guessed that Geoffrey had a similar benefit.
“Why should I tell you?”
Geoffrey sighed. “I could say that otherwise, I’d have to assume you’re a plant by Telik or some other party and would need to deal with you accordingly.”
“He’s not!”
“I’m not!”
Geoffrey held up a hand again, waiting for the two to stop their outbursts. “But that seems unlikely to get me anywhere. Not only do you seem like someone who would be unmoved by threats, I suspect Allana would never forgive me if I killed you. So let me point out instead that you claim to be Allana’s friend. I would like to believe that is true, but both she and I know you are hiding things, and the only way any of us can move forward is if that is no longer the case.”
Tenebres chewed his bottom lip for a moment before replying, “Are you going to claim you have no secrets then?”
Geoffrey smiled gently. “Fair enough, I suppose. How about this then? Tell us your story, the real thing, and not only will I give you what assistance I can with whatever actually brought you to this wretched boil of a city, but I will explain, to both you,” Geoffrey nodded to Allana, “what Algus’s gift was, where it came from, and what my interest in it is. Do we have a deal?”
Tenebres frowned in thought. It was a risk, to be sure, but even discounting Geoffrey’s threat (which seemed unwise), Tenebres knew that he owed both Allana more than that. She had never pressured him to reveal the truth of his background, even though she knew he was lying. She deserved to know the truth, if Tenebres wanted to call himself her friend. And if Geoffrey’s offer of help was real, then… that could be a step forward in figuring out the truth of his dark gift.
“Okay. I’ll tell you everything.”