We ran to Mitre Square unable to catch our breaths. Scott wasn’t affected that much since he hadn’t been drinking. In fact he got to the square way before I did. When I did arrive though he was searching desperately for the invisible space that was used on the other victim. Rather than us finding it, the Masked man walked out of it as if to greet us. He bowed like we were guests of some regal ball. I wanted to stab him but he was on the other side of the square so that was out of the question. I could try throwing it?

“Welcome! I am so glad that you have come to meet me. It makes this so much easier for me.” The Masked man said.

“I would agree. Killing you is going to be so much easier now that you have revealed yourself.” I replied.

“Now, now, I didn’t come here to fight. I came to make a deal.”

“What kind of deal?” Scott asked.

“I hand over myself as well as the changeling over to you on the condition that you bring back that special person of mine.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Well then I continue to aid the changeling in his mission. He is nothing more than a means to an end for me though so whether I continue to aid him or not is up to you.”

“I thought you were the one that was paying him to do it.”

“Haven’t you been paying attention at all? I just want one thing and so I came up with this scheme in order to force you to do it.”

“Sounds a bit over the top just to bring someone back from the dead don’t you think? I mean you could have just asked us nicely.”

“But your friend had yet to even unlock his abilities. I have become tired of waiting for some opportunity like this to show itself so I had to take action.”

“Sounds like you're just bad at planning. Can I kill him now?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“You do realize I am going to keep killing people until you say yes.” He said but I had already thrown my knife at him. The blade spun in the air and curved towards his face as it got closer. While the blade was in between us I pulled out the pistol and ran towards him. Scott started running at him as well but as my knife got close to him several blades covered in runes shot out of the ground like a wall. My knife struck it and bounced back.

Scott stopped running at him and stared, worried. I also stopped to stare in awe but was able to concentrate enough on my own blade to make it return to my hand. The wall of blades quickly returned to the ground and the cobblestone where they emerged from looked untouched, as if nothing had just appeared from there.

“As you can probably tell, you can’t beat me as you are now. So what will it be? Do you go back and stop an Elder One from dying or do you keep letting innocent women die for a few horrid changelings?”

“I already told you it’s impossible.”

“It may be at the moment but you will find a way or else.”

“Give us a week to figure it out.”

“Three days is all I’m going to give you.”

“That seems rather cliche.”

“If I gave you any longer than that you can get back up from th Agency so it would be wise to do it in three days. Any longer and I’ll have the changeling go on a rampage.”

“I understand. Three days it is.”

“Scott! We can’t just do what he says. We have to kill him now.”

“No Lou. If we did that we would die within a matter of seconds. That is Elder One magic. In other words we stand no chance.”

“Your friend is right. You should listen to your superior and the knowledge he is cursed with.”

“I can’t just let you walk away from this.”

“And who said I was walking?” The masked man said before teleporting to God knows where.

“Damn it!” I yelled before running over to the closest building and kicking it. Scott fell down on his ass like he had just faced down death itself. He reached into his coat and pulled out his flask which he began to chug.

“We are fucked.” He said.