Zack didn’t jump when the dark-haired woman appeared out of thin air in front of him, but he came very close. Popping out of nowhere to surprise people was his trick. The woman’s age—late-twenties, possibly—and high-Level armor told him she was absolutely an Evolved Class. [Gloamshroud Armor] had a minimum Level of 25 and could only be worn by Shadowers, Timestriders, or Voidstriders.

The other thing Zack immediately noticed, of course, is that this woman was absolutely stunning. She had light brown skin, dark hair to her shoulders, and a head-turning figure. Her brown eyes looked hopelessly amused.

Still, Zack had seen plenty of attractive women in his time, though they didn’t always flash into existence before his eyes without warning. “What brings you to the tavern tonight, gorgeous?” He had no idea what an Adventurer this high Level would be doing in Grassea, but he saw no harm in asking.

“You,” she said softly.

Zack’s heart suddenly pounded in his chest. He wasn’t sure if he was aroused or frightened by the fact that this woman was eying him like he’d eyed Anna Ironstar. Likely a bit of both.

He settled back on his seat and raised his mug. “Then why don’t you sit down and join me?”

He cast a casual glance at the bar, at Sadie, and then a much longer glance. Sadie wasn’t moving. She stood frozen with one hand and one rag in a mug. Randi stood paces from their table, frozen in midstep with a big smile on her face. The only other two people in the tavern were motionless as well.

Zack looked back at his own body—still moving, still breathing—and then at the woman, who settled herself at the bench across the table with the sinuous grace of a high Level assassin. So this woman had frozen time. Could Timestriders do that? Zack knew they had multiple Skills that could slow or speed up time for them or others, but he hadn’t known they could simply stop time like this.

Glenn would know. Glenn knew everything about Classes, but Glenn wasn’t here. And as stupidly attractive as this woman was, Zack wasn’t sure he wanted to be alone with any Adventurer powerful enough to freeze time. What did an Adventurer this powerful want with him?

“You look nervous,” the woman said.

“It would be rude not to be impressed,” Zack said as calmly as he could manage. “I didn’t know Timestriders could freeze a whole tavern like this. Can I ask your name?”

The woman didn’t offer it. “What makes you think I’m a Timestrider?”

Zack gestured at everything. “Oh, nothing really.”

The woman raised one elegant eyebrow and leaned over the table. “It’s a fair conclusion to draw, I suppose. Yet after seeing all I can do, I’d hoped you’d have more imagination, Zack.”

Pulling his name out of nowhere was a good try at rattling him, but the fact that she knew who he was wasn’t impressive in and of itself. People had said his name plenty of times in the tavern tonight, and an Evolved Shadower could remain invisible to others for a long period of time. Still, this woman had come here specifically for him, and expended a powerful Skill to speak with him in private. Why?

Zack leaned across the table toward her. “I’ve a very active imagination, but most of that, right now, involves imagining what we’d do if I convinced you to head up to a room with me. I could definitely make it memorable. So if you’ve got something else in mind, I’m listening.”

“That’s much better,” the woman said. “That’s the confidence I’ve come to expect from you, even if it is often a front. As to why I’m here, it’s to offer you a job.”

Zack’s pounding heart pounded even harder. His mind had just caught up to the idea that a powerful Evolved Shadower might, in fact, be a member of the Shadowers Guild. This woman might be their representative, making contact with him at last.

What question should he ask first? What kind of job? Why me? Zack mentally considered and settled on the question he hoped would sound the most confident. “How much can you pay?”

Still smirking, the woman reached below the table, likely into the [Unfilled Bag] he’d spotted on her leather belt before she sat down. Yet instead of producing a small pouch of crescents, as Zack had hoped, she produced a single crystal about the size of a strawberry. She set it on the table.

It looked almost like a Life Crystal, one that would drop from a Monster of Level 6 or higher, but this crystal glowed white. Not purple. Zack had never seen anything like it, but there were hundreds of trinkets and Artifacts in higher Level zones he’d never encounter in Grassea.

“How much is that worth?” Zack asked.

“More coin than you could earn in two lifetimes,” the woman said. “Yet the crystal is not your payment. It’s the job. I’d like you to carry it in your pack for a few days, then covertly deliver it to the first person who approaches you and says the words ‘The desert is lovely this time of year’.”

“That’s cute,” Zack agreed. “Anything else?”

“Tell no one we’d spoken. Tell no one of the crystal. Break either rule and our deal’s off.”

“That’s it?” Zack asked. A low-level delivery Quest was a little underwhelming for his first job with the Shadowers Guild, even if he was delivering a powerful Artifact he’d never seen before.

“That’s all I’m willing to tell you about this job,” the woman said. “If you truly hope to have the life you dream of, you’ll need to learn to accept jobs without asking a bunch of pointless questions.”

This sounded exactly like the type of job the Shadowers Guild would offer someone they were evaluating for membership. They might even have other high Level Shadowers watching him right now to make sure he didn’t try to fence their crystal or make off with it himself. Yet rather than being creeped out by the idea of being watched, Zack could barely contain his excitement.

This could be his chance to become part of the Shadower’s Guild. This could fulfill his dream. Even so, he kept his face calm. It wouldn’t due to reveal how eager he was to succeed.

“I understand the job and the secrecy it entails,” Zack agreed. “You still haven’t offered me any reason I should work for you.”

“Other than this?” The woman dropped a small pouch on the table with a noticeable thump. The coins inside clinked loudly.

As Zack reached for the coin purse, she snatched it away faster than he could blink. “After you complete the job.”

“No deal,” Zack said. “Half up front. Half after.”

“Are you attempting to negotiate with me?”

“No,” Zack said. “You’re attempting to negotiate with me.”

The woman laughed again, a genuinely amused laugh Zack hoped was a good sign. She produced the coin purse once more, undid the drawstring, and counted crescents. Zack stared until she reached twenty-five, then slipped the coins across the table. The pile was noticeably larger than the small pile Alan Ironstar had left to pay for their food.

“A quarter up front,” she said. “Three quarters after.”

“That’s a moon,” Zack said. “For a simple delivery quest.”

“I’m glad to know you can do math as well as stab Crackpaws,” the woman said. Her lips grew into a new, more dangerous smile, one that was mildly unsettling. “Now do we have a deal?”

“Only if you tell me your name,” Zack said. “It doesn’t have to be your real name, but I’d like something to call you. Other than my perfect woman.”

“You make a fair request,” the woman said, not at all blushing. “You can call me Xiva.”

“As in Xiva, Goddess of the Unseen?”

“The very same,” the woman agreed. “Though I’ve no need of my title in casual conversation.”

Any woman that would willingly steal the name of the Goddess of Shadowers, Guilecasters, and other wielders of illusion magic had to be both absurdly confident and eager to be smote. Yet the woman’s jaw-dropping blasphemy only made Zack respect her more. She showed no fear.

The Pantheon passively enforced their laws upon Balarel’s people, both in how people gained experience and the threats of salt that kept Townsfolk from leaving their walls after dusk. Unlike so many others, Zack had always wondered if the Gods truly had time to observe everyone’s day to day activities. There were hundreds of thousands of people across Balarel and only ten Gods.

The fact that the woman could claim Xiva’s name and not immediately turn to salt suggested either that Xiva Herself was no longer paying close attention—or that She was so amused by this woman’s bravado that She wanted to see what she’d do next. Either way, Zack was impressed.

He brushed his hands across the small pile of crescents on the table, leaving Alan’s pile alone. He slipped his fee into his own coin purse with the silence he’d practiced from slipping coins off countless tables occupied by half-drunk Adventurers.

He brushed his hands together and leaned forward again. “I’ll take your job. Still, one more question before you leave.”

“I thought we’d agree to dispense with pointless questions.”

“Oh, this question isn’t pointless. Now that we’ve concluded the financial part of our pleasant conversation, can I buy you a drink?”

Xiva rose and smiled wide. “Ask me again when you’re eighteen. I might actually consider it.”

Zack grinned back. “I’ll do that, Xi—”

She vanished like a candle flame snuffed in a moment of strong wind. The sounds that Zack had only been vaguely aware were missing all began against at once ... the rustle of Sadie’s clothing and rag as she cleaned her mug, the little thumps of Randi’s steps on the wooden floor of The Mead Beast, and the quiet murmured conversation of the two men still nursing drinks at the bar.

Randi reached the table and swept up Alan’s coins with the same grace and speed Zack had managed. When she glanced his way, she frowned. “You sit on a pin? What’s got you spooked?”

“Xiva” was now gone, and that hadn’t looked like [-Shadow Walk-]. When a Shadower vanished into [-Shadow Walk-], they left a burst of ash behind. Yet Xiva had vanished without sound or sign, and no one in the tavern seemed aware that she’d been here at all, including Randi.

Had Xiva used an Artifact of some sort? Zack knew Adventurers sometimes uncovered rare Artifacts in higher Level zones, magical items that could accomplish things most Adventurers could only dream about. Given how utterly surreal his interaction with that woman had been, Zack was half-worried that Anna or Alan had slipped something into his drink.

Yet a moment’s inspection of his coin pouch found it far more filled with crescents than it had been when he entered this tavern, especially after he spent the night paying for Erika’s drinks. He slipped his hand into the travel pouch at his waist and felt the bulk of the small white crystal inside. He hadn’t accepted the crystal from Xiva, but it was now in his pouch all the same.

“Zack?” Randi asked. “What’s wrong with you?” She actually sounded ... concerned?

Xiva had snuck the crystal in his pouch without his knowledge while they’d spoken, while freezing the entire tavern to such a degree that neither Sadie and Randi were aware anything was going on. Even with her hand in his pouch from across the table, he’d felt nothing.

How much Prowess did that woman have?

The important thing was he knew he hadn’t imagined her. Zack’s first instinct was to find Glenn and ask him to relay everything he knew about Timestriders, yet part of this job was keeping his interaction with Xiva and the crystal secret, so involving Glenn was out of the question. As distasteful as the idea was, he might actually have to go to Wolfpine’s library and ... read.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Zack said calmly. He dug into his pouch, pulled out five crescents, and slid them across the table. “That’s your tip.”

Randi swept the coins away as easy as she had Alan’s, yet she looked unsure of herself for the first time that night. “That’s no tip. What’s this really for?”

“Your silence.”

“About what?”

“If anyone else comes in here asking about the Ironstar siblings, tell them you don’t know anyone by that name. Definitely don’t mention they’re staying here.”

Randi tilted her head, trying to appear casual, yet all signs showed she was now indescribably intrigued. “What’s this all about?”

“I think they might be in trouble with someone, and I think they may not be experienced enough to stay ahead of them.”

“Really?”

“Can’t be sure without knowing more,” Zack said. “But all the same, think twice before answering any questions from visiting strangers about those two. You’re not a snitch, and they’re our guests. We wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to our guests, would we?”

Randi eyed him warily. “I’ll do as you ask, but I’m surprised at you. Since when do you care about two strangers?”

Zack slapped his chest. “That hurts, Randi. Arrow to my bleeding heart.”

“And what if they ask about you?”

“If Alan asks, tell him I’m busy. If Anna asks, feel free to direct her to my home.”

Randi snorted quietly. “That poor woman has no idea what she’s in for.”

“If you mean an unforgettable night gasping my name, you’re right about that.”

“Gross.” Randi waved him off. “Go be drunk somewhere else.”

Zack rose and headed for the front door. “Way ahead of you.”