In practice, the Market was a dingy little corner of the city, nothing more than a mite on the mouse’s back. It wasn’t a particularly large place. It was a small cranny built into the rubble of a derelict building. There were plenty of hidey-holes, escape routes, and secret tunnels that had been made just in case, and every now and then, when the Empire was catching onto where they were, they would change places, abandoning everything they built in favor of staying hidden. It consisted of several rotting stands, cheap artifacts of all sorts, and one incredibly opportunistic fruit stand.

But to the population of Intigo, it represented something more. It was an act of defiance against the immortal, a metaphorical middle finger to the invaders of their town. It was something special, and the people that ran it would rather die than see their home torn apart.

Unfortunately, it was hard to ignore facts. And the facts did, in fact, death before dissolution. With each passing day, the customers of the Market dwindled. Word on the street was still in full support of its existence, of course, but nobody wanted to be the one to actually buy from it.

And that was how Madame Kerfly found herself setting up her small little enchanting stand, most of the enthusiasm and hope that she had for the day already spent. She knew what was going to happen. The first couple of hours, there would be some prospective buyers, looking for something that she couldn’t make. Then her sons would come bounding in, carrying some sort of trouble along with them. And then, after a day with maybe one or two sales, a crowd would come by, only to purchase some fruit.

While Kerfly knew that the fruit stand wasn’t the problem, she couldn’t help but pin some of the blame on it. It was a stain on everything that the Market stood for. Yet, it was also the main draw of customers, and so she fumed silently.

Despite knowing the inevitable futility of setting up the stall, Kerfly put it up with a heavy heart and a sore back. Truth be told, she had no true hatred of the Empire. Not to say she liked them and their heavy-handed practices, but it would be a lie to say that things were good before them. Widespread corruption and nepotism had wormed their way through the city, and that was gone now. If only they hadn’t banned magic, she would have welcomed them with open arms.

But ban magic they did, and that put her out of a job. The only job that she knew how to do. She had three kids to support, and no other way of getting money. If defying authority was the only way she had of surviving, then she would break the laws.

“Good afternoon, Madame.” Bleak Berney, an artificer who was practically an artifact himself, tipped his hat to Kerfly. She gave him a sidelong glance, and continued setting up her own stall.

“Good afternoon yourself, you bastard.” The old man had nothing more than a few artifacts with him every day, but they sold out within the first hour. He had a reputation as the best magician in Intigo. A meaningless title, since all of the good ones had been driven out, but it meant something to the few customers with money.

Bleak gave her a patronizing smile in return. “Now, just because you don’t make as much as me doesn’t mean that you should sulk about it. Everybody starts somewhere.”

Curse words floated through Kerfly’s mind, but she made extra sure that none of them reached her mouth. Instead, she smiled through gritted teeth and finished putting the canopy over her stall. She had enough enemies as it was without putting her colleagues in the same basket.

With a brief exhale, she began to arrange her goods on the table. They were looking especially nice today, she observed with a satisfied smile. Of course, she gave her best works, her masterworks, to her children, but the ones that she had made over the past week were good enough for the public.

It was an arrangement of five different pieces of jewelry, all of them stunning on their own, but with protection bindings on each of them. Had this been Intigo two months ago, they would have been considered the worst of the trash, but in the Market, they were decent and cheap. Still, not worth it to buy apparently.

Her face soured as reality hit her again. The sun had reached its peak, and the Market opened in earnest. The few stalls that remained all peddled their goods to the few curious passersby, hoping to find something of interest.

Of course, few sales were made to the ordinary citizens of the Intigo. Few residents needed them, and even fewer wanted them. The market that Kerfly catered to were the rebellious underbelly. Not the paltry, symbolic rebellion of selling illegal goods, but the truly nefarious acts that were committed by folks that had nowhere else to turn. Madame Kerfly was an expert at picking these people out, and even better at cajoling them.

Sometimes, however, they came to her unbidden.

For the first time in weeks, she saw one of her best regulars. Her face broke out in a grin, ear to ear. “Why, if it isn’t Teeger. Or should I say Guardsman Teeger now. What are you doing around these parts nowadays?”

The large, burly man had a gentle smile on his face, an incongruent expression that she’d grown used to. Despite his looks, he was as close to a gentle giant as Kerfly thought possible. “Well, I just thought that I would drop by, take a look at how my favorite enchanter is doing.” He gave a sly wink.

Kerfly laughed for the first time that day. “I’m surprised that your wife lets you get away with flirting so much.”

“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” The smile on his face took a more serious tone. “Also, it’s not Guardsman Teeger anymore. I quit my job.”

Shock radiated through Kerfly’s person, although she took care not to show anything more than mild surprise. With a small frown, she gave him a commiserating nod. “I’m so sorry to hear that.” She paused for a second. “What happened?” The enchanter couldn’t suppress her curiosity for the life of her. Work so bad that Teeger quit? This was the gossip of the decade.

“It had nothing to do with the job itself.” He said with a grimace. “It’s just… the Lieutenant.”

“Ah.” That made sense. There was no shortage of stories about the uptight Lieutenant Slager, and a surplus of rude nicknames. “He didn’t like you, I’m guessing.”

“Oh, no. Not that. He asked me to do something that I thought was evil, and I just couldn’t do it.”

Kerfly’s eyes widened, and she leaned in. “This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with the alarm bells that have been ringing all morning, does it?”

“I’m afraid so. There’s a person that I’ve been trying to find, but I haven’t had any luck. I was hoping that you would let me know if you see them, or even hear anything about them.”

“Who is it?” Madame Kerfly’s interest was piqued.

Teeger leaned a little bit himself, and said, “It’s a hero.”

Kerfly tried to respond, but she found that words had escaped her. There were too many questions that she had to ask. Instead, she asked the most important one of all. “Have you gone insane?”

Teeger flinched backwards, taken aback. “What?”

Kerfly stretched up and put a worried hand on his forehead. “Have you caught the flu? The plague? The magical plague? Have you told Alyssa what you’ve been seeing?”

Teeger gently swatted away her hand. “I’m not crazy, I’m not sick, and I’m certainly not lying. There was a hero at the gates, and the Lieutenant wanted me to get rid of him.”

To Kerfly’s great disappointment, his words were genuine. He truly believed the things he was saying. All of the worry in her heart turned to pity, and she looked at him with sympathy. “Listen, Teeger. Just because things aren’t going your way in the world doesn’t mean that you can just escape reality. You have to face the facts. It’s not going to be easy living without a job, but you’ll just have to--”

“For the last time, I’m telling the truth!” A hint of anger crept into his voice.

Kerfly sighed. “Teeger. All of us want a hero. Everyone in this city needs a hero, even. But if you think that one of them is just magically going to appear in front of us, then you’re delusional.” She gave him a meaningful look. “I have no doubt that you think you saw a hero. But you have to ask yourself if that was because you’re looking for one.”

His lips were pursed and his hands were clenched by his side. Teeger looked to the ground, as if contemplating the words that Kerfly had just said. A moment of silence passed, and then he looked up at her with more determination than ever. “I get what you’re saying. That doesn’t mean that I’m wrong.”

Kerfly narrowed her eyes. “Fine. Tell me what this hero of yours looks like, and I’ll be sure to tell you if I see them around.”

Teeger relaxed a little bit. “He was a strange fellow, with--”

“Sorry Uncle Teeger, coming through!” The former guardsman was interrupted by a shove from Kerfly’s middle child, who bustled right in front of the enchanter’s stand. “Mother, I have to tell you something!” Ingy said.

Kerfly ignored him. With the rage of a thousand disappointed mothers, she yelled, “Ingraham Malty Kerfly. Did you just push Uncle Teeger out of the way? Apologize to him right now!” Her voice carried through the entire market, causing some of the bystanders to look her way. All of the regulars and the other vendors minded their own business, however. They’d seen this performance every other day.

Ingy flinched. He hesitated, but quickly turned to the large man. With a bow, he profusely apologized. “I’m so sorry, sir. Please forgive me.”

Teeger gave a small chuckle. “You’re forgiven, young man.” He frowned a little bit. “Are you alright, though? You seem a bit sweatier than usual.”

With a harrumph, Kerfly walked around the stand and ruffled Ingy’s hair. “Don’t give a moment’s worry for this little rascal, Teeger. I’m sure that he’s just been messing about with his brothers.”

With a surprising intensity, Ingy stared up at his mother, eyes filled with tears. “No, Mother, you don’t understand! There’s a monster on his way here!”

###

Bik led the dark, shadowy man down the same alley for the fourth time. His heart pumped harder with each passing second of deception, his legs shaking with the fear of getting caught.

The mysterious man with strange, dark magic loomed over him, although he wasn’t too tall. His face was covered by his hood, and the only part of him not under the cloak his gauntleted hands. In that deep, raspy voice of his, he said, “And you’re sure that your brother is going to come back?”

Bik gulped and nodded. “Yes, he just went down the road a little bit to pee. He’ll be back in a jiffy, I’m sure.”

It had been five minutes since Ingy had had the idea to warn the folks at the Market about the danger that they’d encountered. Hopefully he’d gotten there already, told Mother already. Ingy wasn’t the fastest of the brothers, but he could get places when he needed to.

A quiet murmur sounded from the stranger as he muttered to himself in a language that Bik did not know, and couldn’t even place. If he had to guess, he would say that the stranger was from the deep south, where the snow fell harder and the people were far larger.

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” The deep voice accused.

Startled out of his thoughts, Bik stumbled over his words trying to defend himself. “What? Yes, of course I know where I’m going, it’s just around the corner!”

The dark stranger stopped in his tracks. “That’s what you said five minutes ago.” He looked around, taking in his surroundings. “This alley is also familiar.”

Bik gulped again. Truth be told, they were very close to the Market. Close enough that he wasn’t really lying. His heart felt a little weak at the idea of leading the stranger into a part of the town that he didn’t know; it would probably give Ingy more time, but he felt faint at the idea of being stranded alone with the stranger.

“Okay, so I may have gotten a little lost, but it’s not like there was anything I could have done about it, I mean I live here and I don’t even know how to get--” Bik’s rambling was stopped short as the man, no, the monster took a menacing step towards him.

“Bring me to the Market. Now.”

The threat didn’t need to be spoken outright. Bik nodded viciously, and stumbled around the corner, towards the stranger’s destination. He only hoped that Ingy had had enough time to get everybody out of the Market.

###

Teeger put both of his hands onto Ingy’s shoulders and struck him with an intense gaze. “You’re telling me that he had some sort of strange darkness under his cloak, and that looking at it gave you a sense of shivers?”

“Yes, that’s exactly right! And he had tons of rings on him, when there was just a robbery down on the main street. We need to get out of here!” Ingy yelled at the general populace of the Market. That drew many of the ears, but the bodies attached to them continued doing their business.

The former guardsman gave a small chuckle, and then a loud, bellowing laugh. Kerfly could have sworn that she heard a touch of insanity in there, and she put a hand on his shoulder, attempting to lead him away from her child. “Come now, Teeger. Take a seat, calm down.”

He stood up, ignoring her hand. Turning to her excitedly, Teeger said, “Don’t you see! That’s the hero!” He grinned widely. “That’s the man that I was looking for!”

Kerfly looked at him dubiously. “You mean the man that just scared the life out of my children, and stole from some merchants?” She scoffed. “Some hero.”

“You don’t understand, Madame Kerfly.” Teeger shook his head. He rummaged through one of the small bags that were attached to his belt, and took out a single coin. It glinted gold in the sunlight. “My wife found this directly after I asked that man to be let into the stranger.” He held it up into the sky, for everyone to see. Now that there was gossip to be heard, a small crowd had formed around him. “If this isn’t the work of the Goddess of Heroes, Esmira, then what could it possibly be?”

The crowd collectively gasped. Those words were dangerous, even for a place of illicit activity, like the Market. Kerfly stepped forwards, holding her hands up to caution. “Now, now, Teeger, let’s not say anything that we might regret. That could just as easily be a coincidence.”

Ingy, the original bringer of the news, looked upon everyone with despair on his face. “Come on! Everybody! He’s going to get here! He’s a dangerous thief!” The boy attempted to herd everybody out of the square and into the street, to no avail. “We have to leave!”

Murmurs erupted between the bystanders, interested and mortified. A mysterious stranger, who was either a dastardly rogue or the hero of the ages? Kerfly knew that any chance of them leaving was gone the moment that Ingy had told them who was coming. With a sigh, she got on top of her wooden stand and yelled, “Everybody!”

That got their attention. She cleared her throat and said, “Let’s all just calm down and think about this. Either this is a thief and he needs to be punished or he’s a hero,” she said the word with as much disgust as she could muster, “and he needs help. Either way, let’s stay cautious. Be ready to run away at a moment’s notice.” The crowd mollified somewhat, she stepped down from the stand to prepare her own weapons.

Ingy yelled, panic in his eyes, “Mother! We have to--”

“Come now, Ingy. Do you really think that I’m going to be caught unprepared?” She laughed, and took out a small wooden briefcase from underneath her stall. It creaked open, revealing a dozen glowing amulets. “Don’t you worry. Your mother is ready for anything.”

Her son didn’t seem so convinced. She opened her mouth to console him, but stopped with her mouth open when she heard the crowd go silent. One look at the main entrance to the Market told her that the stranger had arrived.