Dominus fell backward and rolled until he hit the wall, leaving a trail of blood behind him as he went. He looked around stunned, and clutched at his clearly broken nose. The other adventurers that he’d called were looking at him and me in total shock, though the woman in armor, Diana, seemed to be holding back a laugh.

Dominus’ looked around with tears streaming down his face and pointed at me. “What’re you doing just standing around? Kill him and you get the job, as well as a hefty bonus!”

The others turned their attention to me with hunger in their eyes, but I was the first one to react. I grabbed a nearby tray of food and flung in wildly, sending food out at everyone in a wide arc. Then I bolted for the exit.

Diana moved to cut me off, but when I made eye contact with her, she shot me a wink, and dove low for my legs. I easily leapt over her before she could connect, and found myself in a large hallway. I hesitated. I didn’t remember exactly what path I’d been on through the estate, and had no idea how to get back to the exit.

Druk took advantage of my hesitation and I heard the whistling of something headed toward me at devastating speed through the air. I went to activate my flash step spell, but I’d forgotten that I was almost completely out of spells from the tournament. I jumped to the side at the last possible moment and an axe embedded itself in the wall just past me. From there I just bolted in the direction that looked clearest.

I ran through rooms filled with ornate artistry, servant quarters, and even a small courtyard. In spite of my head start I could hear the other adventurers gaining on me. No doubt tipped off by the numerous members of the servant staff I’d managed to bowl over as I ran. I eventually found myself in a large indoor bath, with an adjacent steam room. I quickly took a bucket of water and threw it onto still hot coals in the center of the room, filling it with steam. Then, just as I heard the footsteps of my pursuers, I made my way into the thickest part of the steam.

“He’s in here. I can smell him,” said Druk as he walked in.

“Let’s fan out. Be on your guard, I heard he’s good with hand to hand,” muttered the nameless gnome.

I was in trouble. I’d once again been reckless and gotten myself into a dangerous situation. I thought of the impact Dominus’ face made on my fist, and in spite of my stupidity I found myself smiling. Fuck that guy. As long as I managed to survive this, it was probably worth it.

I started weaving my way through the mist, and closed my eyes to focus on the sounds of everyone moving through it. Since coming to Tur’eyne my hearing had improved significantly, and I found that in the steam I could tell not only where everyone was, but also who each footstep was based on their weight and how they were moving. I realized very quickly that Claudia, the healer, was nearest to me. I moved a little closer to her, quickly and quietly. She was feeling through the steam with her staff, and I limboed under it to get behind her. Then I waited until she was a bit closer to Druk, and gave her a firm push into him.

He let out a battlecry and swung at her with a massive fist. It hit her right in the ribs and she crumpled with a pained cry. “Shit! Claudia is that you?”

I didn’t wait for them to figure it out and instead moved to slip back out of the bathroom, to let them sort things out for themselves. Unfortunately, when I reached the doorway I found the gnome waiting for me, his dagger drawn and a wicked smile on his face. I hadn’t brought any weapons with me, and took a step backward.

He leapt at me, and once he was in the air I cast one of my remaining invisible stair uses, and it caught him square in the face. He fell backwards, dazed, and I gave him a swift clock to the jaw before taking his dagger. I had two of those stairs left, and my bag of tricks beyond that was rapidly running out. I cut through another two hallways. Hearing my pursuers regroup and start searching rooms. Eventually I ducked into a closet to catch my breath. I wasn’t going to win against all of them in a straight up fight. Not to mention what would happen if Dominus had a household guard he was sending after me at that moment.

I took a few moments to breathe, and suddenly found a hand around my mouth. I tensed, until I heard a voice whisper in my ear.

“Shhhh, don’t scream. It’s just me.”

Patience was in the closet with me. I felt myself relax and she took her hand off my mouth. Then I immediately tensed up again. “What the hell are you doing here?” I whisper-yelled.

“Uh…stealing?” she said, sounding a little embarrassed about it for the first time.

“Why here? Why now?”

“Well…the carriage you were on had a pretty high roof, and it was easy to lay on without being seen. Aside from that I knew you were headed to a rich fops house and the rich fop would be distracted trying to seduce or hire you.”

I found, for the first time, my frustration with her overwhelm my attraction to her. I’d run out of patience. “Did you think about how that could’ve affected me? Or what I’d have to do if you got caught?”

I saw a hint of shame in her expression.“I am sorry. I didn’t think it through. Just acted a bit impulsively.” The shame amended itself into a wry smile. “It does seem that you would’ve gotten into trouble even without me though.”

I sighed heavily. “True…but it’s not like you knew that beforehand.”

She nodded. “Also true.”

“So…I asked. Do you have a way out of here?” I asked.

“I did, but now the servants exit I was planning to use is swarming with guards. What exactly did you do?”

“Punched him?”

“Dominus?”

I nodded.

“That makes sense then. Not sure a noble like him has ever even had a bruise before. I wouldn’t be surprised if his mother shows up to kiss it and make it better.”

“So, what are our options? I don’t even remember where the front door is.”

She smiled. “Not good at layouts huh? Not a second story man?”

I shook my head. “Don’t even know what that means.”

“Well we have two options. Both dangerous, and possibly getting us killed.”

“Option one?”

“We charge the front door and fight our way through the guards. A lot of them are busy covering other exits or searching rooms for us, so we may get lucky and face lighter resistance.”

“Don’t love it. Maybe with Tib and Millicent to do the heavy lifting, but I only barely qualify as a front liner.”

She nodded. “Option two is that we jump off the highest part of the wall around the estate. It’s not defended at all, and it’ll put us in a good position to run back to the city. We’d break our limbs though, which is not ideal.”

“No no, you may have something there.”

“If you're thinking we may be able to tie a rope or something from bedding, I don’t think we’ll have the time.”

I shook my head. “No. I have a new spell. I can create two invisible steps. If I space them right, they may be enough to break our fall.”

She adjusted the sack that was on her back. “What’s the weight limit?”

I frowned. “300 pounds.”

She sighed looking at her ill gotten gains. “I could chuck it over the side before we jump, but that would be pretty noisy. Maybe we should try the front door?”

I glared at her.

She gently placed it down, and sifted through the sack, pulling out several small pouches of coins and jewelry and placing them on her person. “I guess a medium score and alive beats a big score and dead.”

I nodded, and we slowly opened the door. No one was in the room. From there I followed her as she led us through servant corridors, kitchens, and empty hallways. We dodged around patrols and the adventurers the whole way, and as we went it became very clear to me the differences between a mercenary with some skill in stealth and a true rogue. Patience was extraordinary, and before long we made it to the wall. Before we left our final hiding place I stopped her.

“You didn’t mention the other option.”

She looked back at me. “What do you mean?”

“They didn’t know you were here. You could’ve just let me act as a distraction and once I was caught, slipped out yourself.”

She smiled. “I guess that would’ve been a good idea, huh? Shame I didn’t think of it.”

“Sure.” I said, not believing her for a moment. We moved to the edge and I looked down. We were about thirty feet up. I lifted her up, and she looked at me with a cocked eyebrow.

“I can sense the invisible steps, but you can’t. I need to make sure we both hit them.”

“Sure,” she said, not believing me for a second.

I leapt, and summoned the first step about ten feet down. It broke quickly, but slowed us down. I repeated it after another ten feet, and from there we separated and our respective acrobatic skills let us land and roll without too much fuss. We’d made it out, now we just had to get back to Heracleum.