Jeremy and Kyle both flinch at the familiarity and s ione and g each other in fusion.

  “You know us?” Kyle asks, rexing slightly and rubbing his neck.

  “I know you definitely ’t beat me in a fight. Speaking of, where have your little ies gone? Did they get taken away when you were decred failures?”

  Kyle seems to realise who she is, gng down at the bdes hidden in her sleeve as fear twists his expression. Jeremy oher hand grits his teeth in anger and steps forward.

  “How da-“ he doesn’t finish his words as Emily’s arm whips forward, sshing a Cw through his throat and sending a torrent of blood down his chest.

  “Well?” she urges Kyle in a maa-distorted hiss, her eyes never leaving him despite killing his friend.

  “Y- Yeah,” he mao say, gng at his friend bleeding out beside him in shock. “Th- They kicked us both out after we caused trouble with you without results.”

  “Ha,” Emily barks. “You guys must really hate me. Though, I doubt you followed me this time because you k was me.”

  “We didn’t!” he hurries to say, his panic building as his eyes frantically dart about, looking for any way out.

  “I tell. Your maivity is so shit you probably didn’t even realise I was third circle when I revealed myself earlier. I’m guessing you thought I was another pathetic first circle who was kicked out of their family like you.”

  Kyle goes to respond, but Emily holds up a hand to stop him, not g about his answer.

  “Let’s just make this quid easy. Who knows, if you tell me something useful, maybe you’ll get to live?” Emily enjoys the look of terror on his face as she rolls the shoulder his follower left a scar on. “What do you know about my ret… disagreement… with the Mandrago family?”

  “N- Not much,” he responds, trying and failing to keep his nerves under trol. “We still have a little tact with some of our old friends, and all they told us is that you wiped out a noble family, and half a city with them, before fleeing.”

  “Half a city? Not quite, but I like the image. Anything else? Aails about how I got away or where I’m goi?”

  “Um, uh,” his eyes spin as he searches for something to say.

  “Nothing, huh?”

  The disappoi in her voice pushes him over the edge, and Kyle drops to his knees, grabbing at the edge of Emily’s cloak as he starts to beg.

  “I’m sorry! We didn’t ask for aails! Please don’t kill me!”

  “Who told you?” Emily asks with disgust dripping from her gre.

  “Aaron! Our friend from when we were still in The ant,” Kyle’s eyes light up with hope as he scrambles within his robe to find something.

  He scatters the tents of his pockets on the floor, dropping several copper s in the process, before he finds what he’s looking for and offers it to her.

  “Here! This is the crystal he used to tact us.”

  Emily raises a brow, taking the crystal from his hand.

  “Good,” she says, derisively patting him on the head. “This is actually useful.”

  “C- I go?” Kyle asks hopefully.

  “Ha,” Emily scoffs, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him deeper into the alley. “Not quite.”

  Ohey’re tucked into a private er, away from the dead body of her captive’s friend, she releases Kyle and passes him the crystal again.

  “If you want any ce at surviving, yoing to do exactly as I say from now on,” she starts, receiving a fearful, vigorous nod in response. “I want you to call your friend on that crystal and act like nothing is wrong. Ask him about where he thinks I’m going and find out anything you . If you need a reason, tell him you want to hunt me for my bounty or something, I don’t care. But, if a word about me being here leaves your mouth.”

  Emily extends a d lightly taps his cheek with it as she finishes.

  “Then I’ll shut it permaly. Uood?”

  “Y- Yes,” Kyle stammers, not daring to nod with the cold steel pressed to his face.

  “Good.”

  Emily retracts her d leans against the alley wall opposite the terrified maing him take a few moments to calm down and gather himself. To his credit, it only takes a few seds for his shaking to subside and, after less than a minute, he raises the crystal and is a burst of mana into it. The crystal glows brightly and Emily silently frowns at the amount of mana he wasted while activating it, but she doesn’t say anything as he waits nervously for someoo pick up.

  “Hello? Kyle, to what do I owe the pleasure?” a smooth, baritone voice hums out of the crystal with a mixture of surprise and amusement.

  “Hey, Aaron,” Kyle starts before pausing, gng up at Emily as he wipes sweat from his broere looking into a new job and hoping you could give us some help oo start.”

  “What would this job entail? I’d love to help you out, but you have to uand that I ’t help you directly. Not after your little… stunt.”

  Kyle grits his teeth at the jab, but a g Emily’s cold eyes instantly overrides his damaged ego.

  “Don’t worry, I just want some information.”

  “Oh, haha,” Aaron chuckles mirthfully. “That’s fihen. Whatever would you like to know, friend?”

  No wohey didn’t ask any more about me. This guy probably only used the news about me as an excuse to gloat.

  “We’re looking to start hunting Emily Coldstone. Do you know where she is at the moment?”

  “Hahaha,” Aaron breaks out into hysterical ughter at his words, creasing Kyle’s brow as his remaining pride is stomped into the dirt. “Give it up mate. You’re lucky you survived your first enter with her, I wouldn’t try my luck if I were you.”

  “The fuck do you know?” Kyle spits back, surprising Emily as he seems to lose his temper despite his situation. “So what if she blew up half a city? She ’t be that strong, I bet she used some magic artefact to do it.”

  trary to his angry tohe cautious gnces he throws up at Emily every few moments reveal his real focus.

  I guess I gave him too little credit. He seems to be a pretty good aaybe he could even give Oscar a run for his money.

  Emily gives an impressed nod as a derisive chuckle es through the crystal.

  “I know a lot more than you if that’s what you believe. The Dome has been in an uproar for the past few days because of her. A few of the Mandrago’s servants survived and told us that not only did she blow up their estate, but she absolutely sughtered the Mandragos and their gathered allies first. The royals have had their knights questioning everyone who knew her to work out how such a violent traitor hid within our midst, and they’ve been releasing some of the information as they go. She’d rip you to shreds.”

  Aaron pauses, and Kyle looks to Emily fuidance. She gestures for him to keep going, with a pang of guilt in her chest.

  I hope they haven’t been harassing Jules.

  “So, she was able to fight against the whole family? You expect me to believe that? Isn’t she only sed circle?”

  “Not acc to her friends. Apparently, she’s already third. The Iron Valkyrie even firmed that they’ve been privately training together, and she loses most of their spars.”

  “No way,” Kyle mutters, gng up towards Emily with a look of horror.

  “Exactly. You should give up now. It’s not worth throwing your life away over a petty grudge. Besides, I couldn’t even tell you where to look for her. Other than information about how strong she is, those stupid royals haven’t given us anything to go on. My family wao put together a hunting crew to pursue her, but we ’t go after her till she shows up again.”

  Good. It sounds like they haven’t released any information about Calypso yet.

  Kyle looks up at Emily with a pleading look as the versatioo e to a natural end. She nods and gives him a dismissive gesture, telling him to cut the call.

  “Fine, we’ll look for another job,” Kyle says with a silent sigh of relief.

  “Good. Stay safe out there. I’ll let you know if my family hears word of her, if you still want to pursue her, I’m sure they’d be willing to take some extra fodder.” Aaron cuts the call after his final biting ent, and Kyle tiredly lowers his hand with the crystal, looking up at Emily hopefully.

  “I did as you asked. I leave now?”

  Emily silently holds her hand out in lieu of an answer, and Kyle quickly gets the message, handihe crystal.

  “No,” she finally responds, pocketing the crystal as she raises her hand and fires a to Kyle’s chest.

  He slumps against the wall, staring at her with his eyes wide and a look of fusion on his face as he coughs up a mouthful of blood.

  “He just said that they’re preparing to hunt me when they work out where I’m going. What about that makes you think I’d let you go?” Emily asks as she wrehe bde free from his chest and s it on the inside of her robes.

  As he slowly bleeds out, Emily quickly checks through his clothes for anything valuable before leaving with a few extra copper s. She makes her way back through the alley to check Jeremy’s corpse for valuables too before slipping away to search for a pce to buy some materials.

  ***

  Emily returns to her meeting point in the market after adding a healthy stock of building supplies to her belt. Podrick arrives a few mier with a pleased grin on his face.

  “You get everything on your list?” she asks as he approaches.

  “Yep! And I mao save Anton two silver with my haggling skills,” he responds proudly.

  “Ha, well done, kid,” Emily says, reag up to ruffle his scruffy hair before turning to lead the way out of the city.

  They make their way back towards the wall, entering the industrial district of the city and dug into the twisted alleys leading towards their way out. They walk together in silence, with Podrick staying close behind Emily, until they turn the final er to the smuggling route.

  The moment they round the er, Emily stops and steps back, pushing Podrick out of sight as her gaze fixes upon a group of eight, armed men standing guard at the base of the wall. They don’t notice her, so, after sing over their formation, Emily pulls back as well and turns to her charge.

  “They seem to have increased their numbers after we removed the st watch,” she whispers to him.

  “Do you think they found the bodies?”

  “Possibly. Or they just think the others left their posts. Either way, they’re in the way.”

  Emily reaches for the gun ohigh and notices Podrick g his teeth with a relut expression in preparation for the fight. She hesitates and g the tall warehouse beside them.

  Well, we may be able to avoid them. The kid’s done well enough dealing with those I’ve killed already, I may as well not kill his good mood. It’s not like they’ve bothered me.

  Moving her hand away from her gun, Emily walks away from the wall.

  “Follow me,” she says to Podrick as he fusedly watches her leave.

  They retrace their steps until they reach a shorter warehouse with a mass of piping and boiler units mouo the side, ed in a -link fence.

  “We’re going up. Try not to make too muoise, and don’t try to e. Just find a path that works for you,” Emily says before stepping forward and ung off the floor.

  She grabs the top and slips over the fen one movement, nding oher side with barely a sound and tinuing towards the side of the warehouse. In an instant she analyses the twisted mess of metal and plots a path, stepping up onto a pipe with iion and ung herself towards another. In a few short hops, Emily nds on top of a boiler where she crouches down to build up power before releasing in a single burst to carry her up onto the warehouse roof.

  Skidding to a halt ohial, Emily turns around and looks at Podrick, still standing outside the fence while staring back up at her in awe. He quickly snaps out of it as moving, cmbering over the fence. He steps onto a pipe oher side, slowly walking along it with his arms out to bail he reaches the side of the boiler, where he jumps up and grabs the top before hauling himself up.

  Emily sits down on the edge of the building, leaning down and the boy her hand. He springs up and grabs it, hanging on aing her pull him up to join her with ease.

  “Thanks,” he says quietly as Emily stands up.

  “No problem. Good job not falling. Keep it up.”

  Emily turns and walks along the roof towards the narrowest gap to the warehouse. She calmly steps up to the edge before ung off one foot, easily clearing the gap with barely a break in her gait. Podrick takes a small run up and leaps after her, successfully nding in a roll oher roof without too muoise, rising up to look at Emily with a proud grin.

  Meeting his eyes, Emily ’t help the small grin that parts her lips as she turns and breaks into a slow run across the roof. Podrick follows close behind, running at almost his full speed, and Emily soon reaches a wall in the middle of the warehouse where the roof rises up a few metres. She kicks off the wall and unches herself up to catch the lip of the ledge and pull herself over.

  Without pausing, she keeps running, hitting the edge of the roof and taking a leap across a much rger gap to the slightly raised roof of their target warehouse. She nds with her hands on the lip and her feet ft against the wall, cushioning her impact. With a light kick, she rises to stand on the roof, turning back to look at Podrick staring at the gap with wide eyes.

  She raises her hand aures for him to e across. With o go her calm eyes for reassurance, Podrick turns around and walks back to gain a rger run-up. He pauses and takes a deep breath before shaking his head and sprinting at full speed towards the roof’s edge. With a strong leap, he flies towards Emily with his arms outstretched.

  His fingers just catch the lip she’s standing on, and as they start to slip off, Emily grabs his wrist and holds him fast. Ign the loud thud of his legs hitting the wall, Emily pulls him up and pats him on the back.

  “Good job,” she says, moving away from the edge to make sure anyone ing to che the noise below won't see them. “You ever climbed buildings before?”

  “I wish,” Podrick responds with a giddy smile, trying to tain his excitement and keep his voice down. “That was a rush!”

  “Haha, cmbering about like that was my favourite way to move around Eimdon. Never risked going on the roofs ihe walls though, so I guess this is a first for both of us.”

  As they approach the edge of the warehouse fag the wall, they both fall silent again without Emily having to say anything. She peers over the edge, finding the same eight men gathered below, watg either end of the alley but not looking up. She pulls out her climbing tool again and winds up a throw before tossing it clear over the top of the wall. A dull k sounds as it nds on top, but none of the men below notice.

  Emily slowly pulls on the cable until she feels the hook cat something, and, after a few solid tugs to make sure it’s secure, she turns to Podrick.

  “Climb across this and wait for me on the wall,” she whispers holding the cable taut.

  Trusting her, Podriods and grabs the wire, lifting himself up and turning around to loop his legs over it too. Slowly, he creeps along the cable to the top of the wall where he releases his legs and turns to pull himself to safety. The moment he’s free of the wire, Emily steps up to the edge of the roof with as little s the line as possible.

  Without aation, she crouches and explodes across the gap, pulling in the wire as she flies through the air and nding half the wall with a light g of her metal soles. She quickly hauls herself over as the men below look up, but she’s gone before they spot more than a flicker of motion.

  Podrick offers her a silent thumbs up, clearly impressed, but she rolls her eyes at him as off across the wall. Finding a protruding panel, she hooks the climbing gear on and smoothly desds to the ground oher side. She finds the alley just as empty as when they left it, with two dead bodies and none of the living guards havi returned.

  Podrids behind her, and Emily quickly pulls down the climbing gear, tug it away into her belt as they slip back through the slums and leave the city behind.

  KeroKeron