Samantha followed the path prescribed to her by Ol’ Man Whisper at a relaxed pace, trying to match the walking speed of other people she spotted out on the streets today. While slower than she perhaps would have liked, at least it gave her plenty of time to think.

Hearing that Aiden was well known to the locals was both a blessing and a curse for her unique situation. On the one hand, there was the potential that more people would take note of her if she spent time near him. On the other, a new person coming up to speak with him might not be noteworthy at all, if he was so popular that it was something that happened often. She’d have to spend some time observing and calculating the danger before she ultimately decided to approach him or not.

She was already taking some small risks by roaming the area instead of staying completely hidden for the duration of her stay, but the more she explored the more she felt that the stakes were reasonable. Many people here had shaved heads like hers—probably to offset the lack of readily available bathing facilities—so she stood out less than she feared on that front. In addition, with her stealthing to appear mortal, going unarmed, and without Silas by her side, there was virtually nothing to connect her to the spear-wielding, spirit-bonded cultivator pursuers would be looking for. And that was if they thought to search for her in a place where even the mortals at the bottom of the social hierarchy avoided for fear of the negative stigma associated, let alone an “honorable” cultivator for whom reputation was everything. She knew that it wasn’t a flawless defense against being found, but it was far from flimsy and afforded her some wiggle room on what she could do.

Before long, Prey’s Perception picked up dozens of chattering voices ahead, and she knew she was nearing the market.

“Freshest produce in town! Only days old with minimal rot!”

“Get yer second-hand building materials here! Newly scavenged and cheap!”

“Go piss somewhere else, ya drunkard!”

The voices layered and overlapped such that Samantha could hardly pick out anything but the loudest criers nearby. She was again tempted to turn down her ability's sensitivity to make things more bearable, but held fast to her determination to endure the discomfort in favor of being more aware of her surroundings. If she was able to get somewhat used to the smells with time, she was sure that it wouldn’t be terrible to get used to the sounds either. She didn’t plan to linger long anyway, since she only needed to find Aiden.

The market was larger and more open than she thought it would be, given the generally cramped feeling she got from the slums. In contrast to the close together buildings and trash filled streets, it appeared like significant effort had been put into keeping this area free from the clutter that was so common everywhere else. Solitary run-down buildings stood in a circular pattern around the edges of the clearing with groups of customers migrating in and out of the shops. Looking towards the right side, she found a sign with a stylized hammer, needle, and thread, and she moved towards it.

More than once on the short walk she had to slap away the wandering hands of pickpockets—children and adults alike—and she was glad to emerge from the crowds into a more open area where people would not try so blatantly to rob her. Just as she was nearing the entrance of “All the Fixin’s”, Aiden rushed out with a parcel in his arms. Samantha watched with interest as he wove through the crowd she just exited with expert precision, even managing to avoid the clutches of pickpockets with the occasional twirl or sidestep. Again, she couldn’t help but be somewhat impressed at the speed and efficiency of this boy.

Allowing Aiden to get a bit of a lead on her, she took a slightly different route back through the throng and followed.

Even with her high Agility and enhanced perception she almost lost track of him a couple of times. Aiden knew the slums like the back of his hand, and he had nifty shortcuts and passageways that she either couldn’t fit through or were too unstable for her to cross without breaking. He utilized garbage piles, precariously placed wooden boards that bridged gaps, and anything else at his disposal to shave time off his delivery, and Samantha had to sneak in bursts of speed in hidden alleys or rooftops to keep up. If she were too blatant about her enhanced stats stealthing wouldn’t do her much good so she had to try and keep her exertions at mortal levels, but Aiden’s ability to navigate certainly put her control to the test at times.

Eventually, Aiden hopped down from the rooftops and stopped at a shack made of thin wooden panels. A young woman came out, took the package, exchanged a few words with him that Samantha couldn’t hear from her distance away, and then went back inside. He waited at the door for a few moments before the woman returned and put some copper coins into his hands along with a new parcel to deliver. He gave her a slight bow and then was off in a flash, Samantha continuing to trail behind.

Over the next couple hours of following him around on his deliveries, Samantha learned some things about Aiden. First, based on what she saw, he had an impeccable work ethic. He always went promptly to his destination, he never opened or looked inside any of the deliveries he was given, and he was respectful to all his clients. When he was without a package, he walked the roads and had many people come up to greet him—normally at least one of them happening to have a delivery for him. And then the cycle began again.

Second, she learned that he took confidentiality very seriously. Whether the inquiries came from curious passersby or fellow couriers who were running an intersecting delivery route, he refused to reveal any information about the sender, recipient, rate he was paid, or package contents. Once, a man even tried to pay Aiden for intel on one of his deliveries earlier that day, claiming that he was a lover of the sender and wanted to make sure that she was not sending letters to an ex. When Aiden still refused and the man became increasingly irate and threatened violence, Aiden simply turned and ran off, shouting that he wasn’t interested in selling the trust that he had carefully built up.

The more she observed, the more she became certain that she wanted to speak with him. Samantha decided that once there was another gap in his deliveries that she would approach him on the street, as she had seen so many others do.

Following Aiden’s most recent path over a roof and around a corner, she was stunned to see that he was not far ahead as she expected, but directly facing her from a roof only several homes away with his arms crossed and a small frown on his face.

Staring her down, he said, “Looking for me? Actually, that’s a dumb question. I already know you’ve been trailing me for a while. I guess the better question is ‘why are you following me’. I’ve tried losing you several times already, but you always manage to find me—which is proof enough that you’re not just anybody. So, what’s the deal? Murder, robbery, kidnapping?”

He had caught her on her back foot. She had no idea that he had even noticed her this entire time, since he never so much as looked back in her direction during his runs. And his first thoughts, understandably, were that she wanted to do him some kind of harm. This wasn’t quite how she wanted introductions to go, but there was no pretending that this was a misunderstanding and backtracking, so she rolled with it as best as she could. “No, none of those things!” she protested, “I wanted to hire you for a job, but I needed to get some more information first before deciding whether you were the right choice for it or not.”

His eyebrow lifted skeptically at her words, his shoulders tightening slightly as he responded, “I’m a little reluctant to work with some stranger who’s been stalking me. Even if you find me to be trustworthy, I can’t say the same for you.”

Samantha sighed, “I’d like to remedy that if I can. Will you not hear me out at all?”

Aiden tsked, “Why should I? I don’t know you. For all I know, you could just be biding your time before you lead me into an ambush or try to stab me in the back. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened to me either.”

This really wasn’t going how she hoped. If she couldn’t enlist Aiden’s help, he might just spread tales of the ‘strange stalker woman’, and she’d have a whole new type of reputation issue on her hands. “I admit that I messed this up. Is there something I can do to prove to you I’m sincere, then?” she asked hopefully.

He squinted his eyes at her, “You want to prove to me that you’re being honest about wanting to hire me?”

“Yes, if you’ll accept that.”

He shifted the package he carried to sit under one of his arms, while his free hand went up and tapped his lips a couple of times as he contemplated her words. Keeping her in the corner of his eye, he took a few steps towards each side of the roof he stood on and peeked over the edges, presumably searching for some trick or trap he suspected she'd hidden.

Samantha could see his shoulders loosen slightly as he confirmed there was nothing immediately suspicious around, and she tried reasoning with him, saying, “Look, if I wanted to do you harm then now would be a fine time wouldn’t it? There’s hardly anyone around, yet I’m spending my time trying to talk this out instead.”

“Doesn’t mean much.” he said dismissively, “Like I said, maybe you just don’t want to do the deed yourself and you’re going to lead me somewhere specific.”

“If it’s going somewhere that bothers you then we can stay right here.”

“And wait for whatever group you’re with to catch up with us while I sit here? No thanks. Besides, I have a delivery I still need to do.” He said, gesturing to the package under his arm.

Samantha inwardly groaned, on the brink of giving up this whole endeavor. “So, nothing I say or do right now is going to work for you. Is that it?”

“Yup, that about sums it up!” He replied glibly.

Samantha huffed, deeply disappointed. She couldn’t undo this terrible first impression and she wouldn’t try to force him, so she just had to eat the time loss and chalk this up to a failure. She wished that he wouldn’t spread any rumors, but that was naïve thinking. She probably just made her stay in the slums a lot more uncomfortable and wondered if maybe she would have to be a shut-in after all. “Fine. Have it your way. Good luck on your delivery, Aiden. Sorry to bother you.”

She turned around and glumly started heading back the way she came. Just as she was about to leap down to the street, Aiden called out to her, “Wait, that’s it?”

She paused, looking back with a somewhat bewildered expression, “What do you mean, ‘that’s it’? I wanted your help, you said you wouldn’t, so I’m off to find someone else.” some of her irritation at the situation bleeding through to her tone.

“I mean, you’re going to leave just like that?”

Somewhat exasperated, Samantha incredulously asked, “What else am I supposed to do in this situation? I’m not going to try and force you, and I’m certainly not going to stoop to begging, so that leaves, well… leaving.”

Aiden seemed somewhat taken aback by her behaviors and her actions, and he looked at her with a complex expression that was difficult to parse. Eventually he spoke up again, “That’s… that’s not how people do things around here. Most people would at least yell and chase me, even if they know I’ll outrun them. That’s how this goes.”

Samantha shrugged, “Well, not this time. I know how to take ‘no’ for an answer. Sorry that the other people you know don’t.”

With those words, Samantha hopped down from the roof and got to walking. There was no point spending any more time on this lost cause, and she needed a new plan. With her Prey’s Perception she saw Aiden run off to finish his delivery, so she supposed this really was the end of it. Who else could she pick to be her guide, then?

She pondered the dilemma as she wandered through the streets, and the sky above began to darken as the sun set. While many would find night in the slums to be an intimidating prospect, Samantha couldn’t find it in herself to be worried. She could see in the dark clearly, she didn’t feel that she would be in danger from any mortals (even the thuggish ones), and she didn’t need to rest for hours yet. Besides, night was a great time to move around more freely since she had to worry less about being seen.

As if on cue, as soon as she had finished the thought, four familiar faces turned onto the street ahead of her and started walking her way—the teens from earlier that chased Aiden. They were far enough away where there was a chance that they hadn’t spotted her in the dark, so she turned around and started moving in another direction.

It was when they turned down the same street that she took for a second and third time she knew definitively she was being followed. Not to mention that their group shrank each time she saw them again, meaning that they were likely trying to get ahead of her to surround her. Unfortunately, all the buildings around here were the flimsy kind that would break as soon as she tried to jump on them, so she would be somewhat limited in her ‘escape’ routes. She didn’t really feel like fighting a bunch of mortals, preferring just to leave and go about her business without being delayed further, but they seemed to have other plans. As she scanned her surroundings, the missing group members stepped into the adjoining alleys, cutting off the standard roadways she could have taken to get away.

“You’re in the wrong part of town, boy.” The smallest of the group called out. He attempted to sound menacing as he spoke, but his voice breaking in the middle of the sentence really ruined the effect. Realizing this, he flipped open a switchblade to try and bolster his intimidation attempt and cover up his mild embarrassment.

“They must think I’m a boy because of the short hair and the darkness,” Samantha thought, simultaneously feeling annoyed at being misgendered and glad that this case of mistaken identity happened to work in her favor for hiding who she really was.

“This is Pack Rat territory, idiot. Don’t you know anything? Or did you come to bring us tribute of your own free will? If that’s the case, we promise to only rough you up a little before letting you off.” The largest one confidently declared, comically oblivious to the fact that she could likely knock them all into next week without breaking a sweat.

Deciding to lean into the misgendering, she opted not to speak, lest her voice give her away. Realistically, as soon as one of them took a swing at her they would create an opening for her to leave through the alley they currently took up. All she needed to do was wait for the right moment. As tempted as she was to take out her foul mood on people obviously trying to shake her down, winning handily in a four-against-one brawl would garner too much attention, and she didn’t want to get hit on purpose to make it seem like a legitimate fight. Even with enhanced Resilience getting stabbed would still hurt.

“Hey man, are you actually an idiot? Or are you just too scared to speak?” one of the other boys mocked, putting his dominant foot forward and his hands in front of him in obvious preparation for a grapple. It looked like her chance to escape would be coming sooner rather than later.

A small burst of movement to her left caught her eye, and as she focused on it, she saw a 5th person’s head peek out from behind a building near the largest teen. It was Aiden, and it looked like he had some sort of rock or dirt clod in his hand. What was he doing?

“Hey, ugly!” Aiden shouted, and the startled teens looked towards the origin of the voice on instinct. Just as the leader began turning around, Aiden wound his arm back and threw the lump. The clod flew true and splatted wetly across the face of the teen.

Immediately, the struck boy began heaving and vomiting on the ground. A split second later when the smell reached her, Samantha understood why. Aiden hadn’t thrown a rock or a dirt clod, but she didn’t want to admit what it actually was. There was just no way that he had actually thrown a piece of…

Aiden interrupted that thought as he shouted at her, “You waiting for an invitation or what? Run for it!”

She didn’t need to be told twice, and the murderously angry teens actually seemed a little dangerous now that they had stopped acting like the classic villians from old stories and radiated pure malice and violence. Dipping past grabbing hands and ducking under a stab and a punch, she followed in Aiden’s footsteps.

“He’s with the runt!”

“Don’t let them get away!”

Aiden led the five of them on quite the merry chase around the slums. Thoughtfully, he only moved through routes where Samantha could follow behind him, but that meant that the teens could sometimes as well. However, although the pathways may have been able to hold the weight of their bodies, the Pack Rats did not possess Aiden or Samantha’s Agility. One failed to balance on a plank serving as a bridge and fell, another was too slow to keep up and got left behind, and the last two were stumped by a long jump between roofs that even Samantha felt some reservations about. The entire time, the broad, wicked smile never left Aiden’s face.

As a grinning Aiden led Samantha further away from the incensed Pack Rats, he looked back and praised her, “You aren’t half bad! Great job on managing to keep up with me.”

Samantha snorted, “and if I didn’t keep up?”

Aiden shrugged, “I guess we’ll never know!”

He slowed his running pace somewhat and led her down into an old warehouse that bustled with activity despite the later hour. All the comers and goers appeared to be below the age of 14. “It was really stupid of you to get caught by those goons though. What were you thinking, going into Pack Rat territory like that? You were lucky you were approached by those meat heads and not proper members of the gang.”

The truth was that Samantha hadn’t known that those streets were any different from the others she had walked earlier today. This was one of the reasons why she was looking for a guide in the first place. Not wanting to admit her total ignorance before knowing more about why Aiden had helped her out, she deflected by asking a question of her own.

“You say I was stupid for going there, but you were there too. Were you taking a turn following me, or was that just a coincidence?”

Aiden pursed his lips slightly, then partially turned his head away and gave her a sidelong glance, “…coincidence.”

“Mhmm.” Samantha hummed, not convinced in the slightest, “Well you obviously did a better job at stalking me than I did stalking you, which I’d love to know how you managed. By the way, is this a safe place to talk? Seems like there’s a lot of people around.”

“This is the courier’s headquarters,” Aiden stated matter-of-factly, “and since I’m one of the top couriers I have my own room in the back. It’s private enough there.”

Sure enough, Aiden led them back into a small, office-like room that was quiet and secluded. He took a seat on an old shipping crate before gesturing to another one nearby. Samantha sat on it as directed.

“So,” she started before Aiden could take the lead in their conversation, “I take it you’ve had some sort of change of heart?”