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And all he heard was a door sla shut, feet across the floor

Fool, he scolded hi for you You wasted too er made itself known No … no, you can’t run If anyone knows you’re here, they must be eliminated They can’t tell anyone you were here They can’t know … not yet

With the blade in his hand, he crept to the stairs, narrowed his eyes He was unrepentant as he searched for the life he would snuff out; change was violent, after all He saw the intruder now: a mess of wild black hair atop a thin body clad in a poor person’s linens A spy, ardless This was no sin If one had to die so that the others hts were interrupted by the deafening sound of the stairs offering their familiar creak

The intruder’s head snapped up Wide, brown eyes took him in A thin, dark-skinned face went slack with fear at the sight of hio wide, his own lips speak words

‘A … girl?’

‘I’!’ she spoke up ‘No one’s lived here for years’

‘I used to,’ he replied without thinking

And her response was to turn swiftly and bolt, the door swinging in her wake

He was leaping over the railings in aafter her It was only after a hundred paces that he realised he had dropped the knife back in the house It was only after a hundred fifty that he realised he didn’t mind He didn’t want to kill her He just wanted to …

To what, he asked hie!

But he could think of nothing else, he realised, but her face Her thin face, her wide eyes He had to see her again He had to look into her face again

He saw the back of her head as she twisted through the alleys, trying to lose hi not to be lost His body, pale white and fingers webbed, was plainly visible He did not belong ast these dark-skinned island people They would know him They would call hie would never come

But he had to see her

‘Wait! Wait!’ he called after her ‘I’ry! I just want to talk!’

She said nothing She twisted down an alley, disappeared He followed, twisting down the sa to a sudden halt as he slammed into a broad, leather-bound chest

He looked up Fierce, dark eyes looked down He saw hihostly white, black-eyed, hairless He panicked, turned about and fled down the alley

And Bralston stared after hienerates running unrestricted through the streets without a care for whouide

‘Port Yonder, of late, is no longer a city of habits’

Mesri was his name, priest of Zamanthras and speaker for the tiny abode He had met Bralston at the docks, he had explained, out of custolance: portly, robes that had once been nice now frayed at the he waveabout his neck All in all, he looked like the type ofcity would send to iant, three-masted ship

‘Granted, we used to be,’ Mesri explained ‘But since the fish have stopped co in and out of the back alleys have beco the decaying, crus that rose up around them

‘And these?’

‘Have always been here,’ Mesri replied ‘Long ago, soh these waters Yonder was founded shortly after and enjoyed a brief time of ostentatiousness, back e had a lord-ad out his robes ‘Said lord-adht wise and the merchants shortly thereafter These hoet by … well, I er have a lord-admiral?’ Bralston quirked a brow ‘Then the Toha Navy does not govern this city?’

‘Not actively, no A patrol ship still comes around every month, if you’re concerned about our capacity to deal with the prisoner you’ve come to speak with’

‘I am’

‘What? You don’t trust a tiny, impoverished shell of a city commandeered mostly by women, children and sman?’ Mesri chuckled ‘I suppose wizards have their reputations for a reason, don’t they?’

Bralston simply stared at thedown A distinct lack of a sense of humour was another reputation wizards had earned, one that Bralston did absolutely everything in his power to nurture The priest shuffled his feet, waving for the Librarian to follow as he continued down the winding streets of the abandoned section of the city

‘Truth be told, it was our pleasure to take the Cragsman,’ he said ‘If only to keep hihtful ‘Further truth, he’s been re his reputation I like to think we ed that We did e could for his wounds, but--’

‘Wounds?’

Mesri paused, giving no indication that he had even heard the Librarian A shudder, sh his body After aup

‘Whatto see him,’ Mesri muttered ‘See for yourself Perhaps it’s more common in the cities But cities have Talanites to deal with it I’m a Zaoing Not handle …’ He sighed, rubbing his eyes ‘Any of this’

Bralston did not inquire; he did not have to Even for a city half-abandoned, he had noticed the scanty population of Port Yonder Most accredited it to poor fish harvests, though few could explain the lapse in the seasonally bustlingill fro about shicts being behind the whole thing

Those not ill or in exceeding poverty were doing well enough, Bralston had been told, but his concerns were not for this city and its people He had a duty that went beyond poor fish harvests, illnesses or anything that a priest ed fro foot on sand Undeveloped beach, s stretched as far as the cliffs where the island ended entirely Apparently, when development of Yonder had stopped, it had stopped swiftly

‘The prisoner is in the warehouse,’ Mesri said, pointing to the closer of the two buildings ‘I guess it’s a prison now? We had to move a few spare skiffs and a crate or two … or three He’s an iuard him if you require protection’

‘It will not be necessary,’ Bralston said He glanced to thework of stones and pillars to which a small, beaten path of haphazardly laid stones led ‘What’s that, then?’

‘That?’ Mesri followed his gaze and sighed ‘That is our teht have loathed to admit it to himself, Bralston knew he liked the man As far as priests went, it was difficult to find fault with him beyond the obvious He was a man who clearly cared about his people; that much was obvious by the h the city, Mesri insisting on stopping to hear every problem and plea He had considered them all carefully and offered each one, froical answer Never once had the man even uttered, ‘The will of the Gods’

Bralston had suffered each delay, each problem, in silence, no matter how trivial he had considered it But it was only no that he saw the cru, run-down tes of the decayed abandoned district, that he deigned to look at the man with adods that it reer They’d be more insulted if I used the few coins it would have taken to feed one of Their starving followers on a new rug’