26: Difficulties, threats or paranoia? (2/2)

Back again and so soon.

The house which Waynev had only seen the outside of had turned out to be roomier than the patchwork houses illustrated.

Which also turned out to be quite homey.

Where Waynev expected plushies or toys she was instead met with rugs and wooden sculptures.

Slight culture shock but as she got to the back of her house, the master bedroom she couldn’t help but wonder how Kres could afford to sleep in a house, the inn was expensive enough.

Her two conscious crewmates had left to bring dinner, which Waynev took to be the perfect time to begin transcribing the book.

She was reaching the halfway point as the minutes turned to hours, the more she read the more she was surprised at one thing.

Vein had been prepared.

The quest’s she had gotten so far were pushing her towards his goal, but they did give some leeway that she could use once she got the materials.

Tomorrow.

As she finished the last word on the page Waynev carefully put the paper on the ground before checking on Kres.

Vaud and Pill were taking their time, though after today's near death encounter she couldn’t blame them.

Especially Vaud.

From his stoic veneer to his near distraught fear Waynev felt bad Kresley got hurt.

Even if it wasn’t her fault.

Shaking her head she focused back on the book.

“A catalyst is needed to surge mana through our veins… He did plan this well.” Shadow subtly agreed to Waynev.

“We need to push mana through us and survive it, is what it boils down to.” Waynev gently sighed.

Pushing the still wet papers away.

“Times like this I wish everyone could see stats, if they book knew which stats we needed to survive pushing one type of mana into us, we could guess what would happen when we pushed two through.”

“Two?-” Just as she said the word she knew what Shadow meant.

“Oh, right.”

“Don’t worry, the chance of us dying this time has to be lower. We’re [Hollowed] now.” Shadow said confidently before she noticed two red outlines enter the building.

She held back her pleased emotions waiting for the two to drop in.

“Hmm. You’re right, tomorrow I think I’ll go collect the last dungeon material then maybe finish they catalyst the day after, when Kresley is hopefully be-”

As the words left Waynev’s mouth the door flung open.

“Waynev! Has Kresley-” Vaud burst through, holding two plates with only one hand masterfully while not dropping any of the food.

“Oh.”

The prone figure had her arms resting on her stomach, her hands interlocked.

Waynev had put them like that as a joke to try and lighten the mood, but it seemed like it had the opposite effect on the two.

“To be honest the joke wasn’t funny, I thought it’d be funny watching your reaction but…” The reality of the situation was the opposite.

“Here Waynev.” Vaud gently passed her the food as he put Kresley’s serving next to her bedside table.

Waynev watched before hearing a voice in the doorway.

“Anything happen while we were gone?” Pill whispered.

“Just working on something,” Waynev gestured to the pile of dried paper, taking it as a chance to gather and begin to pack up the mess that was next to the bed.

“How about you guys, feel better now?” Waynev naturally asked as the collected paper slid into its sleeve.

“I’m more awake than before. Food definitely helped with that.” Vaud remarked.

Pill on the other hand, stared at Kresley for a moment before replying.

“It’s… hard to think about but seeing someone in our party injured has grounded me… We see so much death these days, I never thought it could happen to us.”

The words came over like a fog.

Shadow, feeling Waynev’s emotions flutter was about to whisper to her before they did a 180 and were replaced with passion.

Waynev feel lost until she remembered she wasn’t doing this for herself, she had a clear goal, all she had to do was reach it.

“I think we should take tomorrow to rest and recover. Also, maybe you guys should reconsider if Kresley getting hurt was too much to handle.”

“We’re not scar-” Pill began to shout before Waynev calmly refuted.

“I never said you were. There’s a difference between being scared and being cautious.”

Waynev finished packing up her pack then looked at the two before leaving the room.

Picking up her plate, her pack was on her back as the party members followed her out to the small living room.

The floor was free of dust and grime, except for the three adventurer’s footprints.

“I’m going to take the night off and finish this in my room at the inn. Let me know tomorrow if Kresley gets better.”

With two nods she was almost out the door before Vaud called out.

“Waynev… thanks for watching Kresley. It means a lot to me,” Looking to the crowds he reached into his pack and pulled a small potion.

“Here. It’s meant to help with hangovers in case you want to drink the night away.” Vaud thrust the bottle into Waynev’s hands before turning away back into the house.

The door closed with no further words exchanged.

In her room her pack with the three bottles was sitting next to the bed.

Upright and still looking old but stable.

The third potion turned out to be a stamina potion, something Shadow would relish after tonight’s endeavours.

Waynev had gone to sleep early.

Shadow was back in control.

Her nightly activities were back in full blast, and were here to stay.

Listening to the pitter patter outside the window, her gemstone eyes gleamed at her surroundings.

Normally the night hid many a red outline, at street corners, under shops or outside residential buildings.

But the night was different, colder, wetter.

The rain descended just as Waynev went to sleep, perfect for the takeover but imperfect for her activities.

Opening the window she slid out, her back hitting the wet wall as her legs pushed against the opposing building.

Slowly but surely she met the slick ground.

Darker than usual, even the floating lights illuminating the night weren’t able to illuminate the streets.

Deciding it would be faster (and more entertaining) Shadow chose a long block of houses to climb and skid from roof to roof on.

Her usual tactic of climbing wasn’t needed as crates decorated the lead house, her footsteps were light despite the loud slaps of the roof the water made.

Eyes scanned the surroundings as Shadow clung to the new shadows each building brought, there was no one in sight.

No one to sav-

She frowned, not angry but confused.

The nights were made for training.

For when she had escaped, not to play the hero from the odd marauder, thief or rapist.

Making it to the last rooftop the houses connected to Shadow’s eyes disappointed her.

“Cautious. But free of the nauseous. The night is silent. Empty.”

Sighing, she almost sat down on the wet roof.

What did it matter anyway?

She was soaked to the bone and the night turned out to be a bust-

“What-”

Her body, which was leaning on a ledge, was shoved to the street below.

Spinning rapidly she caught a figure whose outline was shimmering before the street came spiraling towards her-no she was spiraling towards it!

Thinking quickly she fell to her side and felt a crack before she continued rolling.

Tensing her limbs, she finally stopped.

Covered in mud, she ducked low to the ground.

Head frantically turning, eyes manically scanning.

The figure was nowhere in sight.

“Wait.. Nowhere in sight-” Her eyes widened as she felt a cold prick in her back.

Swinging her foot around it made contact but she could see only rain and a shimmer.

Not waiting to see if he would attack again Shadow quickly bee-lined to a sidestreet.

Her legs screamed under the pressure they were under but ultimately was ignored.

She had to leave, she had to hide.

She couldn’t fight the unseen, especially not in this rain-

Gasping Shadow pulled back on her sprint at the corner, the ground almost frictionless didn’t help but the nearby wall did.

The rain, that was the shimmer she was noticing.

He couldn’t teleport!

“He was staying close to the ground, I-need-to-grab-him-or-pounce.”

Shadow was talking quickly through her options.

Another corner, as she pulled up she could hear footsteps above her.

The next corner would work.

Going off on a sprint again Shadow could see the house with the crates in the distance, perfect for her surprise attack on the rooftop.

“What if he stabs me-wait why hasn’t he?” Shadow almost stopped completely.

He pushed her and jabbed at her instead of stabbing or killing her.

Did he mean to capture her?

Rapidly approaching the house, her footsteps rang through the streets despite the rains valiant attempts at drowning out all the noise.

“It's his mistake.”

Shadow felt the grin form, malicious and yet happy.

Finally she could do what made her feel the utmost.

There!

Quickly she turned the corner and ascended half-way up the crates.

Crouching.

Waiting but not for long.

The figure came dashing, jumping over rooftop to rooftop.

An empty space where no rain hit, it stood out like fire now that she knew what to look for.

Finally the figure jumped the gap to the final house, he seemed to prepare to jump to the ground below just as Shadow lunged out from behind the crate and slammed into him.

The figure tried to pull back the ground wouldn’t obey, instead he hit the ground hard.

Shadow immediately began punching.

First strike hit but the rest were dodged now that the attacker knew what was coming.

A kick pushed the air out of Shadow as he sweeped her.

Now on the ground a punch much like her own brought her back to reality.

Trying to dodge his fists like he did hers worked but only for a few seconds.

Near the edge of the building Shadow tried to push him down but the figure grappled onto her.

Not letting go his legs surrounded her torso fists reaching her face before she pulled the attacker and herself down.

Falling he tried to pull back from her, this time Shadow held on and slammed into the street below.

This time she heard a crunch rather than felt it.

About to start punching she saw the sharp glint and dodged away just in time.

The dagger was about to pie-

“Ziuleche.” A sophisticated voice toned as the figure in front of her became a bright red.

He was visible, able to be defeat-

“Waynev. Well done.” The figure intoned again, standing up casually as Shadow stood back still in a combat stance.

“For a Rank 1 [Hollowed] you held well against a Rank 3.” He blatantly brought out a potion before throwing it her way.

“Here heal up.” He brought out another red potion before the glass container he had thrown was thrown back to him.

“I’m not drinking that before you tell me who you are, what you want and why you decided that fighting someone while it was pouring rain was a good idea.” Shadow folded her arms, hiding the gnawing feeling that this could go two ways.

“Hmph.” Bringing the potion to his lips he chugged it down half-way before opening the other and doing the same.

Closing both cylinders he threw them both to Shadow.

“Not an idiot. That's a good trait Waynev, feel free to drink, they're not poisoned.”

Catching the potions midair, Shadow looked at the familiar figure before she drank the potions.

“I’ll answer your questions, starting from the last one.”

Lightning shook in the distance as the rain that was down to a sprinkle began to go full blast.

“But first let’s continue this conversation undercover.”