“Stop her! Stop that wraith!”

  A wide grin stretched Allana’s mouth as she dashed through the streets of Correntry, three guards in hot pursuit. The crowd–why was this city always so crowded?–turned at the shouts, but they were too startled to stop the purple flash that moved through them as ably as a fish through water.

  The guards themselves, privately employed swiners that worked for a local merchant, were less able. The brawny men attempted to bully and push their way through the onlookers, but a handful of off-duty porters took exception and started pushing back, starting a small tussle. Before it could escalate too much, Allana threw up a hand, pointing at the air above the feuding brutes.

  [Compelling Pattern] - Active, Illusion, Psychic - Produce a display of colorful lights that compels viewers to examine it further. As a psychic effect, it only compels attention from intelligent beings, and may be resisted by those with sufficient will.

  A pattern appeared in the air, a fascinating display of beautiful, winding lights, weaving and flowing together in ever-changing patterns, pushing the night even farther back from the Elwyss Street market. The brawl tapered off as both the combatant and the surrounding onlookers became entranced by the pattern, unable to tear their eyes from the projection.

  Allana moved slowly away, careful not to draw the attention of her makeshift audience as she slipped through the crowd and towards a nearby alley, her pursuers none the wiser.

  [Gift of the Trickster] experienced gained

  Experience: 33%

  The notification deepened Allana’s smile, and she slipped more deeply into the darkness, eager to count her “ill-gotten gains” (as Olivia would call them)--when a voice commented, “That was well done.”

  Allana dropped into a defensive position at the voice, her hand slipping from her loot pouch to the well-worn handle of one of her daggers. Ahead of her, a man slipped out from behind a stack of crates. He was dressed in well-made, form-fitting black clothes that blended into the surrounding shadows a little too well. Both the magical (and therefore expensive) outfit and his relaxed demeanor marked him as a different breed than the guards who had pursued her on this and the last few of her snatch-and-grabs.

  “I always appreciate an admirer,” she replied with a joviality she didn’t quite feel. “But unfortunately, I’ve got plans tonight. If you’ll excuse me.”

  She turned back towards the mouth of the alley, and the street she had just left–just in time for a large man to push his way through the crowd and block her escape. This one was much closer to the sort who had chased her, but larger, stronger. He carried a heavy club, and Allana didn’t need Tenebres’s knowledge of magic to pick out the runes on it. Two mid-level gifted, just for her.

  “You’ve upset some powerful men,” the smaller one behind her commented, his voice still casual. “They’d like a word–and they hired us to make sure you didn’t try to dodge them again.”

  Allana blew out a breath. She could feel energy rush through her body–adrenaline, Olivia had called it– and she slowly turned, putting her back to one wall of the alley, where she could just barely see both men at once.

  The dark-clothed one had gotten closer without Allana hearing his steps. That boded poorly.

  “Well thanks for the invitation, but as I said, I’ve got other obligations tonight, so I’m going to have to raincheck.”

  “That’s not an option,” the big man said, slapping his club into one open palm.

  “She knows that, Beld. She’s just being a smartass. Which is a pretty stupid decision.”

  Allana blew out a breath. “I’ll give you a four out of ten on the banter. I mean, your partner here is only a one, so don’t be too offended, but I don’t think words are your strong point, you know?”

  Not too long ago, Allana wouldn't have been much better, but a couple months with a charm boon had begun to change that.

  The dark man’s eyes went flat. “Enough. Get her, Beld.”

  Why would he take the time to warn Allana like that? She rolled her eyes as the big brute threw a heavy, lazy punch that made her think of Vern. He might’ve been a little more on-the-ball than her old foster sibling, but Allana was also much faster than she had been when she killed the overgrown thug.

  She ducked under the punch easily, one hand pulling out her dagger. Even as she stepped around the heavily-muscled man, she took a second to run her dagger along the exposed skin of his forearm, letting the strength poison she had laced it with get to work. Then, before the brawler could whirl around, one her legs lashed out with a sharp kick at the back of Beld’s leg–thanks for that one, Cadence–to force him to one knee. With his head lower, her hand came back around, dagger still in hand, and she slammed the pommel into his temple.

  No doubt the thug had a resilience boon–they all seemed to, lately–but the attack still dazed him. Months before, when she began these jobs, Adeline had impressed on Allana that the rules of engagement were different in Correntry than they had been in Emeston. The occasional robbery was the cost of doing business, and the wardens had bigger things to worry about. Some privately-employed guards were one thing–they kept her work interesting–but murder would bring down the wardens in force, and Allana had no interest in all of that.

  Now the dark-clothed man whirled on her, his face much more serious, obviously surprised that she had put up such a fight. He lifted an empty hand in a threatening gesture. “Drop the weapons and come with me, now!” he barked at her.

  Allana was never much for taking orders, and she had no plans to stick around to find out what gift he was about to use on her. Her eyes darted up to one of the tiled rooftops overhead–and then she was standing on it, her gaze pointed even higher, to the star-strewn sky overhead.

  [Trick Step] - Active, Movement - Instantly teleport to any point within a minor range. Line of sight required to trigger. Lesser stamina or focus cost.

  Allana smiled to herself and set off calmly, ready to leave the mercenaries behind her–at least, until a breath of rushing air announced the arrival of the slender, black-clothed man on the rooftop. Apparently, he had the gift of wind, and had somehow propelled himself up three stories to follow after her.

  Well. That made things interesting.

  Allana raised a finger, opening her mouth as if to rebut–and then she turned and ran, summiting one peaked roof and leaping for the next, the dark man in hot pursuit behind her.

  #

  When Allana had first started her training under Telik, she had been just twelve years old. His first lessons had been the delicate art of thievery–purse-slitting, pickpocketing, sleight of hand. A young Allana had quickly fallen in love with the practice, and treated it almost like a hobby. The satisfaction of out-thinking someone, the exhilaration of making a move, the rush of running when she was inevitably caught.

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  As Allana got older, and her talent (and penchant) for fighting became more obvious, Telik had changed his focus in her lessons, starting her down the path to become an assassin, but that had never satisfied her the way thievery did. Only when she got to Correntry, her new gift of the trickster in tow, did she start returning to those memories.

  Fighting and killing and hurting weren’t the keys to gaining experience with her new gift. She instead needed to be clever, as quick with her mind as her hands. She needed to win her encounters through trickery and deception rather than brute force and lethal skill.

  And Allana had to admit to herself, even as she fled over the rooftops of Correntry, a hired mercenary in pursuit, she had never had so much fun with her training!

  The man chasing her was good. His wind gift made him close to her equal in raw speed and coordination, and he was more than happy to use his abilities to disperse any poison gas or similar tricks she used to slow him down. His other gifts, whatever they were, seemed to grant him some measure of stamina and will, as he was able to ignore her Patterns and his pace was unflagging, even as Allana started to wear out.

  He kept her on her toes too, as he would occasionally throw a knife after her with far too much force and precision. As he kept the attacks up throughout the minutes of running, Allana became increasingly certain that the throwing knives were an ensouled item, and that he wouldn’t be likely to run out anytime soon.

  Allana was starting to accept that she would have to fight him. The thought didn’t appeal to her. She had been in Correntry for over a month, and in that time, she hadn’t been in any fight more prolonged and serious than her quick defeat of Beld. She still kept her skills honed, practicing with Cadence and Oli occasionally, but the time spent not seriously hurting anyone had been so alluring.

  Resigned, Allana whirled when she hit a flat rooftop, daggers in hand. Her pursuer stopped a few feet away, one hand bent in an odd gesture–some way to leash the winds that swirled around him, likely–while the other held a shining throwing knife.

  “About time,” the man snarled, and Allan was satisfied to hear him panting. Of course, she was out of breath too, but she wasn’t the one with the stamina boon.

  “You could’ve just stopped chasing me,” Allana reminded him, trying to catch her breath as quickly as she could.

  “At my pay rate, that’s not much of an option,” the man told her with a grim smile. He settled in his own crouch, and Allana tensed–and then his eyes went wide.

  She watched, confused, as his gaze darted around, his stance changing unpredictably. He flicked his hand, sending his throwing knife darting out, but it flew through empty air in the opposite direction of Allana.

  The wraith arched an eyebrow. Was he okay?

  “Stay still,” a voice whispered behind her.

  Allana jumped, casting a look over her shoulder–and there was no one there to see. “What?”

  “Shh, give me a second…”

  Allana blinked. The voice had definitely come from empty space, right behind her. A chill ran through her as she realized it was a veil, an illusion of invisibility just like those she used to be able to make.

  “You won’t get away!” Allana’s pursuer shouted. She looked back, and couldn’t help but grin at the man’s glare–focused to his right, while Allana stood right in front of him. “Get back here!”

  Another burst of air threw the mercenary away, and left Allana alone with her veiled benefactor. “Thanks?” she said the empty air, confused.

  “Think nothing of it,” the voice said, a little more distant this time.

  #

  “And then I came back here,” Allana explained to Cadence with a shrug. The two girls were at their usual table at the Grime and Glory, recounting the day’s events.

  “And you have no idea who it was?” Cadence asked.

  The wraith shook her head, taking a sip from her drink. Some good gloam whiskey, the real stuff, rather than the watered-down swill she had sampled back at the Blackened Claw.

  It tasted like lessons with Geoffrey.

  “I thought it might’ve been you at first,” Allana explained. “Some new gift combination you were trying out.”

  “Nope,” Cadence shook her head. “I was wandering around Five Wells today.”

  “I figured. If it was you, you would’ve bragged instead of taking off.”

  Cadence rolled her eyes–but her smirk didn’t refute the point.

  “Then someone else decided to help you. Someone outside of the five of us.”

  “With magic I’ve never even heard, yep.”

  Cadence pursed her lips, taking a sip from her own drink–a mug of sparkling cider, somehow enriched with air magic to make it bubbly, which Cadence had been immediately enchanted with–before responding. “Maybe some other merchants hired someone? You’ve been embarrassing a bunch of rich traders. If they were willing to hire some mercenaries to get ahold of you, one of their rivals might’ve hired someone to make sure you got free.”

  Allana shook her head. “That doesn’t feel right. If it had been planned like that, they would’ve struck faster, when there were witnesses around to see it, not after I had taken out one and fled across half the city from the other.”

  Cadence bit her lips. “If there’s weird magic in play, you know you need to talk to Tenebres about it. Maybe he can give you a lead.”

  Allana nodded reluctantly, taking another sip. “I’m less worried about whoever helped me and more concerned about next time I take a run at someone and that guy is waiting for me again.”

  “You could always stop robbing from the most powerful people in Correntry,” Cadence suggested.

  Allana gave her a flat look. “Believe it or not, poor people aren’t much fun to rob from, Cadie.”

  The celestial rolled her eyes.

  “I need to practice my gift somehow,” Allana told her. “Not all of us can just wander around, seeing the city and copying random abilities. At least when I rob goldshits, I can feel good about it after.”

  “Still dropping the loot off in the Notches?”

  Allana rolled her eyes, feeling a little color rise to her cheeks. After having stumbled on Allana late one night, Cadence was the only one in the party that knew Allana ended most of her days down in Correntry’s biggest slum, handing her loot out to those who needed it most. “I used to be a badass, you know.”

  “I know,” Cadence said, grinning.

  “The Violet Edge. The most dangerous woman in Emeston.”

  “Sure, sure.”

  Allana waved an irritated hand. “Seo already softened me up, but now the rest of you have me turning into a regular storybook hero, robbing from the rich to give to the poor!”

  “Almost like an adventurer or something,” Cadence observed.

  Allana rolled her eyes–but her friend was right. Somehow, in the time since she and Tenebres had left Emeston behind, Allana had begun her change from assassin to adventurer–and it felt good.

  “So what do you want to do tonight?” Cadence asked, finishing off her cider and drawing Allana’s attention back to her.

  “Let’s go dig Tenebres out of his hole,” Allana suggested. “It feels like I haven’t seen him in weeks.”

  “It’s been two days,” Cadence told her, earning an eye roll.

  Idly, Allana’s eyes drifted towards the stairs in one corner of the taproom, which led up to the team’s shared rooms. A thought crossed her, igniting a lazy heat in her chest. “What are Team Chivalry up to?” Allana asked.

  Cadence arched an eyebrow. “Oli and Adel headed out to chase after some storm monsters. They should be back tomorrow or the next day.”

  Allana hummed thoughtfully. “So it’s just the three of us tonight?”

  “The two of us,” Cadence reminded her. “Tenebres is still at the library.”

  Allana met Cadence’s eyes, and she let a little of that heat into her gaze. “Well, let’s go see if we can change his mind, yeah?”

  Cadence’s smile grew a shade teasing in return. “Sounds like a plan to me.”