Following the golden path, the Jaeger and Kaeleth made swift progress across the rooftops. To the pair, they ran as a single entity, but to anyone watching, the distinction between the two could not have been more obvious.

  Kaeleth ran as smoothly and effortlessly as a hunting cat, each step a light, toe-first step that seemed to be testing the ground even as she flew across it; each gap they vaulted, she didn’t jump and instead slid across. As her body flowed from one motion to the next, her eyes, in contrast, were half lidded; yet if one could see them, they’d see their never-ending vigilance.

  Jaeger moved like a man ready to dive and roll at any moment. His movements were light, but where Kaeleth’s were a graceful step, his were a heavy test; something ingrained from his time avoiding tripwires and land mines. Each gap they vaulted was hopped over, with efficiency born of years of trench hopping. Where Kaeleth’s eyes were half lidded but vigilant, his were wide open and locked in; never straying from the golden path before him.

  Here were two different hunters, born and molded in vastly different circumstances, united in chasing the same goal. As they ran, vaulted, and bounded across the rooftops, a flux seemed to follow in their wake. An echo of potential in the pair, dissonance forming a harmony.

  “How much further?”

  “We’re close. Looks like there should be a way down nearby, we’ll take that and set up our ambush.” Jaeger said the golden trail had led them on a fairly straight path, but now it had them deviate, leading away and down.

  “Good.” Kaeleth purred. “The thrill of the chase has built a need in me.”

  As they neared their way down, Jaeger expected another ladder and was surprised to find to instead find columns that led down to a colonnade cloister full of lush plants. The column that led to the rooftop had clear hand holes broken into it. Exchanging a look with Kaeleth, he descended into the columned-off secret garden. Once she joined him below, he led the way out and into a back alley. His golden path led to a side door, which his chaos elf companion neatly picked open, revealing an empty storefront with a large shuttered window viewing a nearby side street.

  “Where is he?” Kaeleth demanded a spiked knuckle duster on one hand and a wicked, thick blade in the other.

  Jaeger’s golden path ended here, but he knew what came next. Moving to the shuttered windows, he tested them, finding that they could open and retract with a simple activation switch. He looked around the room, which was empty of goods but still held a few shelves, tables, empty crates, and a few display cases.

  “He’ll be coming along soon. We need to clear a bit of space if we’re to fight in here.”

  Kaeleth groaned, put away her weapons, and began to help move things.

  “I did not ask before because I was unsure what this would look like, but now that I have seen the setup, I have a question.”

  Jaeger grunted in response, shouldering some shelves to the side.

  “How do you plan to bring him from out there to in here? If we simply rush out to grab, the fight is more likely to happen out there.”

  Jaeger finished moving the shelf and leaned against it before revealing his shoulder and the arm chain around it. Tapping one, he gave a crooked smile.

  “Magic.”

  —

  Not too much time passed before they spotted their target.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “I think I’ve got him. Yellow eyes and a tattoo on his wrist.” Kaeleth said aloud.

  Jaeger hopped up, kicking the crate he’d been sitting on away, and moved forward.

  “You ready for this?”

  Kaeleth moved to the shutter activator and nodded.

  “On my word.” He waited, watching the Flesh Trader walk down the street. The human male, or at least that’s the guise he wore, was of medium build and almost forgettable were it not for three things. His eyes, the haunting yellow not belonging on any normal human’s face. His clothes were a mix of rich silks and ostentatious jade. And the entourage of slaves. Trailing behind him was a mix of men and women, of multiple races, connected at the necks by a long iron chain that the Flesh Trader held.

  “He’s got slaves? How’d we not know that?” Jaeger muttered.

  Kaeleth, having heard him, shrugged before replying.

  “Does that change anything?”

  “Just that I’m gonna enjoy this a bit more than I expected.” He said.

  As the Flesh Trader and his soon-to-be-free property got close, Jaeger readied himself. For a moment, as the slaver crossed in front of the shutter, his bearing changed as though he knew what was coming, but it did nothing to help him.

  “Now.” At Jaeger’s cry, Kaeleth lifted the shutters.

  “Entrapment!” His spell activated, and as it did, he tried to adjust it as he’d done with his skill. At the split second of its use, he feared it wouldn’t work, as he felt a blockage. Until from around him a series of chains shot forth, grabbing the Flesh Trader and dragging him into the storefront. As he crossed the threshold, two things happened. Kaeleth closed the shutters, and the bracelet containing Entrapment shattered. As he felt the bracelet break, he felt something inside him claim the pieces, and as much as that interested him, now wasn’t the time for distractions.

  Your patron has passed down the ability to shape and mold spells. As this is a boon from your Patron, they have supplied to necessary details of its usage.

  Patron Boon - Collect what you can. Use it wisely.

  Magic is a part of the life-force of Rangaea, and the greater world beyond. For some, it is a power to worship, to others an out-of-reach dream, but to most magic is a formula, an equation in which there is only one right answer, only one right way for a skill or spell to be used. Not so for us, my dear contractor. For us, it is a soft mold that we bend and shape to our wishes.

  Waiting for you to do something like this was long, but satisfying. Now that you’ve done it once, you can do it again and again. Be careful, though, as you’ve just seen, bending magic, especially when it is borrowed, may break it. Remember, when is a croquet mallet like a billy club? Whenever you want it to be!

  Receiving this system scroll was ill-timed because while Jaeger wanted nothing more than to understand what was happening to him, he knew now wasn’t the time, and as though in response to this, the scroll rolled back up and faded away; something told him that when he wanted it, it would reappear.

  “Hunter!” Kaeleth called out to him, using his agreed-upon title. He spun to her and found the fight very much underway.

  The Flesh Trader was dueling Kaeleth with a pair of ruby and sapphire-encrusted gold daggers. The man’s form was immaculate and vicious, like a shark on the hunt. He’d lash out with his ruby dagger, only for that to be a faint as his sapphire dagger would come in for a twisting stab. Unfortunately for the slaver, his opponent was no amateur, and she met him strike for strike. Her dagger, something she told him was called an Xainishi blade, met his ruby dagger blow for blow; wisps of its poison evaporating with each pass. Her knuckle duster, a Nerve Rocker, clashed and blocked the sapphire dagger in a deadly punch parry.

  Jaeger drew his Darkblade and waited for an opening, which Kaeleth provided. After a fierce clash, she dropped back, hooked her foot behind a crate, and kicked it at the Flesh Trader. As he dodged around it, Jaeger struck. Coming in with three side slashes, his first cut through the man’s silks but caught on a strand of bronze, his second cut deep, and Jaeger believed he drew blood. His third was parried by the now recovered slaver, who brought his dagger down and twisted the Darkblade away.

  Staggering back, Jaeger recovered and faced the Flesh Trader. Kaeleth stood opposite, trapping their prey. The slaver placed his sapphire dagger with his ruby and reached in to touch his chest, his hand coming away red.

  “Intriguing. It has been some time since anyone has drawn my blood.” The slaver’s voice was melodic and at out with his bland visage. “You aren’t the normal riff raff who have come after me. Pray tell, who has sent you?”

  “Lemuria sends her regards,” Kaeleth says with a sneer.

  The Flesh Trader’s head cocks as his expression shifts to one of confusion.

  “I did not think her one so bored with living.” The man shrugs. “Oh well, when I’ve peeled the skin from your bodies, and become bored with your mewling’s I shall pay her a visit next.”