“The mana user!” An old woman with a bent back squawked at Ellis, holding up a finger towards him on the last main road before the city wall.

  A one handed boy reached towards his waistband as Ellis held his hands up, trying his best to keep her attention off the crossbow hanging over his shoulder. “Ma’am please! I’ve been getting that all day! Even the guards questioned me!”

  “But the notice said one of them might have a crossbow! And that he was handsome!”

  Ellis smiled at her. “Thank you for thinking I’m handsome, but the notice actually said it was a handsome man that stands nearly seven feet tall. I’d like to think I fit the first part.” He waved a hand above his head. “But I think I’m missing a bit of the second”

  The old woman scowled as she started shuffling past. “Well then why are you walking around with a crossbow!? Honestly, you young’uns…”

  Ellis bowed politely to her back, before turning around to see Ameena, still wearing her one armed boy disguise giving him a mocking glare. “She’s right, you know. A sword would be less suspicious.”

  Tell that to Michael.

  He waved a dismissive hand toward her as they turned down a side alley. “Just be glad there’s not that many people out tonight, else that could have been bad.”

  She snorted. “From what I have seen, you would have talked your way out of it Mr ‘handsome boy’. Now start climbing, hopefully they won’t expect us coming from the roof.”

  Ellis obeyed despite the curl of disgust in his lip. A few hours of talking and suddenly she felt close enough to mock him like they were friends? He had half a mind to kick her back down onto the street as he hauled himself onto the nearby roof. But he supposed it was actually a good thing, so he resorted to ignoring it for now.

  After she joined him, she dropped the illusion to expose a large rope hung over her shoulder. They slunk across the rooftops towards the wall, half squatting with their backs bent low to avoid the lights from the street below them. Ellis hadn’t thought about it much, but the houses seemed to be built closer and closer the further away they were from the silk road.

  They had decided to sneak around the opposite side of where they had approached the wall the last two times, and this let them crawl right up to the road running along the wall. They were now twelve houses away from the tunnel entrance. Ameena’s eyes weren’t strong enough to see anything of note happen, so he was the one doing all the work, again.

  The guards didn’t seem to patrol here much, or at least he hadn’t seen one in this vicinity. Well, ever since he had shot that bolt into their barracks, he hadn’t seen them do much patrolling at all if he were honest.

  Ameena nudged him with her elbow, pointing down the road at a young couple walking near the tunnel entrance. Out of the shadows emerged a rough looking man, armed with a long dagger hanging off his hip. He leaned against the house opposite the divot with the hidden button. The couple greeted him with a twinged smile, which he returned. After they had only passed the house which Ellis and Ameena hid on top of, did he slink back into the shadows.

  Ameena walked forward after a moment, jumping onto the next house’s roof like she wanted to close the distance between them. Ellis jumped after her, catching her shoulder before she leapt to the next roof.

  “What are you doing!?”

  “I can’t see anything,” she whispered, eyes narrowed at Ellis’s hand on her shoulder. He let go instantly, before motioning her to sit down out of sight.

  “Who cares!?” He hissed. “Why are you getting so close!?”

  “I care because if I can’t see the girl how am I to know if she is pretty enough!?” She hissed back.

  Ellis took a breath, knowing their argument would get louder the longer it dragged on. “That was a man who appeared, not a woman. You need to trust me, I promise I’ll tell you if there’s a pretty girl! But we must be patient! We don’t know where the rest of them are!”

  Ameena waved him off. “They should be in the three houses right in front of that entrance, we are more than far enough away.”

  “Did you forget the ambush we survived literally this morning!? They were quite a few houses away were they not!?”

  Ameena shook her head. “The three houses in front of the entrance would be packed, but the rest would sparse out far into the houses behind them, to scout where we would come from you idiot.”

  Despite her complaint, she shimmied to the edge of the roof and did not go further. Ellis sighed in relief and joined her. They watched for another hour, the moonlight dimming as clouds rolled over the sky, the air getting a nip to it Ellis hadn’t noticed when he first left the house.

  As they watched, he half figured out their system for a lookout to appear. If someone ten houses down the road walked out onto the street, different men would come out of the shadows and lean against the wall, watching them pass by until they were at least five houses down before slinking back into the shadows. He did not know how they watched them from where they hid, and he could only figure out how to set off the lookouts trap, not how to exploit it.

  “Ameena, do you know of any magic that can know where we are?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “None.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She turned from watching the street to give him an icy glare. “The gods are the ones who grant mortals magic. Anwir grants illusions, Evosa grants healing, it’s why we choose our godly parents in our status screen, after all. In the tunnels, when we stumbled onto their big hideout, there were animals that did not behave like animals. Evosa most likely allowed them to ‘change’ form, which would explain their odd behaviour.”

  He ignored her utter nonsense about what magic you got to use being the reason you chose a god, and cocked an eyebrow. “You… don’t know?”

  Ameena stiffened, before turning back to the street. “...I know that the people who can change were the ones to sniff us out yesterday. We must work on the assumption that they can find us long before we can find them.”

  Despite her dancing around the topic to something he could use, he still doubted her. She sounded like Delilah, reciting one of his lessons back to him. Sure, she knew the words, and what to say, but there was no understanding beneath it.

  He turned back to the road, and despite himself a twang of pity shot through him, another piece of Ameena’s past crystalizing in his mind. Perhaps she was like him. A novice in a proffession that would give them a new life, snatched away at the hands of a monster. The thought made a scowl creep onto his face, and he didn't bother to hide it. She was like him, but not. He hadn't and refused to snatch someone else's life away just because they bumped into him on the side of the road.

  Ellis licked his finger and held out into the open air. “If that were the case, we got very lucky. Downwind is with us, but it could turn at any moment.”

  “So your complaints at my rushing were wrong?” she said, the usual hint of condescension in her voice growing smug.

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  Ellis blinked. “Does that really matter? I can’t figure out a way to get there without setting of their alarm, so maybe we can—”

  “I have a plan for when a girl appears,” she interrupted, hefting the large rope on her shoulder. “All you need to do is keep watch.”

  ~break~

  “Vanya, are you sure you can do this?” Griff called.

  The leader of her people was keeping watch with the rest of them. He lounged at the only table in the basement, acting as an island as a dozen men and women busied themselves around him. They were sharpening swords, spades and had started making bows and arrows, while the rest slept on the floor, armour and weapons taking up what space they didn’t.

  Vanya smiled to herself as she kept watch of the clock on the wall. She remembered how he had complained when he was forced to sit and watch the rest prepare. But her smile dimmed when she turned back to him. His jaw was skewed from where that tall man had punched him, but the worst of his injuries was his face and chest, the flesh now ugly with scarring from the fire that had engulfed his entire body. He had a scarred face before, but now… now his face was a scar. And yet, despite that, the man still had a smile and a concerned look in his eye as he watched her.

  “The others need rest, and they haven’t been seen since this morning. I’ll be okay, I promise,” she said with a reassuring nod.

  Griff smiled as he turned to the clock on the wall. “You’ll be okay, I agree. I didn’t ask the right question. Are you sure you want to do this? You can still go to bed, I can take the next shif—”

  “Griff, I told you. I can do this,” she said, interrupting him.

  He held up his burned hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay. I just hate that your first time is…” a dangerous light glinted in his eye. “Now. When all of this is happening.”

  She turned away from him, having had this argument already. It had taken all her life to get out of those tunnels. The danger her people faced now would not deter her from seeing the city. Like a normal person would, from above, not below.

  Besides, being coddled was nice, but not when the people doing so were risking their lives. She was not a burden, and it was about time she proved it.

  Vanya didn’t respond, despite his worried expression. She glanced at the clock on the wall, and saw the hour hand start to tick rhythmically, signalling the stones they had weighted were being walked on ten houses down.

  “Passerby, I’m going out,” she called, the entire house clanking with weapons being drawn in response.

  That sound was far louder than it had been for any of the others who had taken watch. She hated it. She hated that less than three days ago, she had never had to hear it. Now it was nonstop, every time there was a hint of those people coming back, the clang of steel on steel would ring out to jarr her teeth with its promise of violence.

  She ascended the ladder, and right as she was about to crawl out of the trapdoor, Griff’s voice called out, “Vanya.”

  She turned back toward him, her hand hovering above the ladder’s last rung.

  He smiled before waving a dismissive hand at her. “It’s easy. See you in a bit.”

  “See you in a bit,” she said, returning the smile and climbing out into the open.

  The night air had a crisp to it as she leaned against the house wall opposite the tunnel’s entrance. It was a couple passing by that had triggered the stones, a small man and a taller woman walking hand in hand down the road. She greeted them with a practiced smile once they were near, and they returned the gesture before continuing on their way.

  Is this what all the fuss is about?

  She shook her head. It really was easy. Griff hadn’t lied to her, which was a miracle all by itself. A bit disappointed, she waited an extra ten seconds out in the open air, just in case. She counted the numbers under her breath, and despite her confidence that something of interest would happen, nothing did.

  “Twenty”, she said to the sky. It didn’t say anything back.

  With a sigh, she turned back toward the trapdoor, ready to call it a night.

  "Help me!" a voice called.

  The call startled her, her head whipping towards the sound. She discovered a lone figure sprinting towards her, quite small in stature. They had one arm, and once they grew closer she noticed their clothes were ripped to shreds, covered in blood head to toe as they approached.

  “Help me!” The one armed woman cried. Despite her petite stature, the girl had a strangely deep voice.

  “What’s wrong?” Vanya asked, about to call the others for help.

  The girl grabbed her by the arm and shook her violently. “please help me! My baby! They hurt my baby!”

  The girl started dragging Vanya down the road, which she followed for a bit. She knew as long as she stayed within three houses she would be alright. But then the girl kept dragging her past that, Vanya started to slow her step despite the one armed girl’s insistence.

  She tore her hand out of the girl’s grasp. “I’m sorry, but—”

  The girl whirled on her. “What are you doing!? My baby needs help!”

  Vanya scowled. “I can get the guard?”

  “I want you to carry my baby to the guard you stupid woman! Please come with me! It’s down the street!”

  Vanya thought about turning back, but the desperateness of the woman in front of her was not something to be faked. She would go with the woman to get the baby, and bring it back to her people. They were the only ones who could do something if the blood on her clothes was of any indication.

  “Alright, where?” she asked. The girl took off, beckoning her to follow with a desperate hand wave.

  They sprinted down the street, Vanya following close behind and feeling strange once she passed the tenth house. It was the furthest she had ever been from the tunnels, and what should have been exhilarating instead felt terrifying. She could navigate the city like the back of her hand, since most of the tunnels beneath mimicked the streets above. But the road was alien compared to the tunnels, the night air crisp against her skin making her feel lost. There was too much space around her, and she wanted to return back to the stone walls that had cradled her since she was young.

  But the girl in front of her was swift and surefooted. Vanya could hardly keep up, until the girl turned a corner, and Vanya lost sight of her.

  “Hey! Wait up!” she called, taking the corner. A fist crunched into her face the moment she did so. Stars bounced in her eyes as her nose exploded, and her momentum made her sprawl onto the floor.

  Within an instant a thick rope spun around her head, then her arms and legs. The one armed girl tied Vanya up with ease, gagging her and making sure her wrists and ankles were bound together. During the process, someone materialized out of the shadows, dropping a hood to reveal a beautiful woman…

  It was the woman! The one who had cast illusions against them! She bent down over Vanya and inspected her face.

  “She’s pretty enough. Nice work.”

  The one armed girl shuddered. “I feel vile, don’t praise me for this. Can you take this illusion off please?”

  The woman nodded, and in the one armed girl's place stood the crossbowman. Despite her grogginess and his sudden appearance, she could see the sympathy in his eyes. He had killed two of her friends with that crossbow over his shoulder, and now he dared to look at her with pity?

  He bent down on one knee over her, and gently lifted her up to a sitting position. “I’m sorr—” he tried to say, before Vanya threw her forehead into his nose with all her might.

  She started kicking, screaming against the gag, even as a powerful headache sprung up at the base of her neck. The woman kicked her in the head, darkness creeping into the edge of her eyes now as she was sent reeling back onto the floor.

  A hand grabbed her by the throat, and the hard, cobble stoned stone floor beneath her cheek disappeared.

  Instead, she was transported to a dark room, the hard wood beneath her cheek more grating than the street she had just been lying on. But she didn’t notice that, since all she could focus on was the smell. It was worse than anything she had ever dreamed of. And even worse than the smell was the man leaning against the doorway.

  It was the monster, the one all her people had grown to hate whenever they were attacked.

  Vanya didn’t know where she was, or what was planned for her, but it couldn’t be good. Trying her best not to gag, she played dead, hoping it would buy her a few more seconds as the monster rose to his full height.

  She closed her eyes, hoping he hadn’t noticed them being open. The odds were in her favour though, since the man hadn’t been glaring at her. But rather, his companions.

  “And where the fuck have you been?” his deep voice boomed through the dark.