Semari leapt away as soon as they were outside, up onto a building, leaving Stathis behind. A cluster of those freed from the vampires were huddled around awkwardly, Yeros calming them down. Not that he’d been anywhere nearby during the fighting, but he seemed to be doing a decent job at keeping them under calm and under control.

Up on the rooftop, a wind blew. It was pleasant after the exertion of fighting, cooling her down. She clenched her fist, arm feeling bare without the bracer. No fair of Hakara confiscating it, just because it had been acting up! She reflexively knocked her arm against her chest, although it didn’t do anything. The sky above was clear, all three moons fat and full, illuminating stretches of marble and white-washed brick. Well, they’d smotten evil in the face, grabbed some loot, and stopped Janaxia getting laid, so a decent night all round.

She leant back and closed her eyes, letting the soft wind blow over her. A good, loud storm would have been better, although the rain would be soggy. This would do though. There was a sound nearby, someone else on the roof, and she spun, as darkness shifted away. Someone jumped off the roof nearby, running away. Well, they hadn’t attacked her, so was probably not a problem. A soft rustle sounded as Parth climbed up onto the roof next to her.

‘That was fun. Although getting Stathis to finish them off is a bit lame. Kinda rough just beating them up for ages until they die.’

‘The grave has reclaimed them.’

‘Yeah. Anyway, I’m going for a run. You want to ghost up and come with?’

Parth nodded, her form turning ethereal, as Semari accelerated and ran for the edge of the roof. She launched herself through the air, body stretching to reach a balcony opposite, just barely making it, flipping herself around before leaping off the wall, onto the roof. She kept running, vaulting and leaping over the garden features inexplicably placed up here. Behind her, she could see Parth, a vaguely blobby shape trailing through the air. Hopefully no-one was looking out of their window, or they’d be in for a shock!

She started moving faster, throwing herself off this building onto a temple, the statues making for easy handholds, although many of them seemed to be glowering and looking annoyed. Someone badass enough to have statues made of them, you’d think they’d look happier. A stained-glass window shone with light from inside, dappled blues and reds falling over her body. A clear pane let her look through, to see some ritual going on, a boring one with lots of chanting and where everyone was wearing clothes, with holy symbols getting waved as a choir sung. She kept climbing, glad of the movement and motion, deliberately not thinking about the lightning-induced vision.

The top of the temple was one of the large domes, although the moonlight wasn’t bright enough to make it shine. She run in a spiral towards the top where a belltower stabbed upwards, all sharp spikes and pointy bits. Other soft footsteps sounded nearby, rapid tappings against the metal. She jumped again, twisting in the air to look behind herself – the city spread around her, some areas blazing with firelight to mark the wealthier areas, or where people were partying all through the night, but most was dark. Two figures were running up the rooftop, white clothing clearly visible in the darkness.

She landed on the bell tower, and glanced down – there was a drop, all the way down to the floor of the temple, a long, long way beneath her, the tiny figures still moving through their ritual.

The other figures followed her, leaping up onto the bell tower. As they leapt through upwards, one of them shouted. ‘Apostate lawbreaker!’ They landed on the roof, both charging towards Semari and immediately attacking, one chopping out with their bare hands. She ducked, grabbing their fist and pulling them off-balance.

‘Hey, I’ve been fighting, like vampires and stuff! That’s the opposite of lawbreaking, you’re allowed to kill vampires. Well, re-kill, I guess.’ Both were wearing the same clothing, stiff-looking white tunics and trousers.

‘You wield forbidden techniques. For your crimes, you shall face the final judgement.’ He hissed, fangs extending.

Semari ducked under a roundhouse kick, trying to knock their other leg out, but they fell backwards, rolling away. Then it became a brawl, hands and feet and elbows and knees all knocking against each other. They fought with polished rigidity, every move precise, although this made them easy to predict, giving Semari the chance to twist out of a punch, grab their arm and twist, forcing them to spin around, or have their arm broken. That gave her an opening to punch them in the kidneys several times, before their ally attacked, forcing Semari back.

‘Hey, you guys fight well. Not, like, as good as me, but still pretty good.’ She blocked a punch, countering with a snapped-out strike to their face.

‘You are impure, and tainted by the world. You do not fight for guh.’ They cut off mid-sentence as Semari ducked then elbowed them in the gut. The other one continued, although was now fighting more cautiously. ‘Where did you learn to fight? No renegades have been permitted to live for centuries.’

‘Dunno, really. Always have, I guess. Weapons are nice, I suppose, but it’s always been easier just to do shit like this.’ She charged forward, three swift strikes at the first, targeting forehead, throat and heart, punching through the guard and knocking them backwards, towards the yawning drop. Then she jumped at the other, foot scything down in in a brutal drop-kick. They raised their arms into a cross-block. Semari smashed through, smashing into their shoulder, feeling bones break from the impact. ‘You need some more practice. And to get stronger!’

The other one leapt at her from behind before she could finish the first one off. She barely had time to throw herself to the ground, then blocked a kick, grabbing their leg and using her own weight to twist and throw them back. They flew through the air and collided with the bell, a resonant clang filling the air.

Semari’s vision was suddenly filled with storms and lightning, strobes of white against a jet-black stormcloud. A wind lashed the air, bearing with it a voice, taut with rage, impossible to see where it was coming from.

‘The thief must be slain. Free me, free the fires of heaven!’

She felt herself falling towards a building maelstrom, thick clouds bursting with massive arcs and sparks of lightning. One speared the air close by her, a sudden surge of vicious, stinging power. She punched out, trying to touch it, but it vanished back into darkness too fast for her to react.

‘Break the sky, call the holy fire! The spears of heaven shall cleanse the world.’

As she fell through the storm, something could be seen within it, a seething, roiling shape surrounded by black clouds, even more flashes of lighting reflecting off metal. She reached out, hand seeking towards whatever-it-was, although distance amongst the endless storm was impossible to tell.

A sharp pain penetrated Semari’s chest, hot, wet blood starting to soak into her clothing, as she was snapped out of the trance. Parth was standing in front of her, an arrow in hand, raised to stab her again. Semari blinked, trying to shake the effects of the stupor off. Her attackers were both downed, arrows through their heads, blood slowly running down the metal of the dome. Parth waved a hand in front of Semari’s eyes, withdrawing as Semari punched back, although not at full force. One of them groaned, a hand slowly moving towards the arrows as they tried to pull them out.

‘Holy ground’s meant to be, like, bad for these guys, right?’

Parth nodded, as Semari walked towards one of them. She grabbed them by the legs and hauled them towards the drop, spun them around and let go. Then she repeated the process with the other, watching as they tumbled to the ground. The ritual or whatever was now disrupted, figures beneath running about in panic.

‘Whoa, that was trippy. Big weird lightning storm! Hey, you check those guys before I tossed them?’

Parth nodded. ‘Nothing.’

‘Not even any coins? Wow, cheapskates! I thought they’d at least have, like, creepy sacrificial daggers or something. Or matching evil rings.’

‘The storm rises.’

‘Yeah, you know anything about that? Ancient elven storm or anything?’ Parth held a hand up, wavering it uncertainly. ‘Maybe ancient elven storm? You could be more specific.’

‘Storm of power. New. This place, human. Bound by order, caged in laws. Not elven. Perhaps prophecy.’

‘Ooo, nice and vague. Hey, is this why Stathis is so annoyed all the time? I wonder what she would do if she was seeing weird storm stuff.’ She mimicked drawing a sword. ‘I pretend I can’t fly because I’m boring, and have, like, big secret stuff I ignore while not fucking Janaxia. And now I’m having creepy mystic visions about lightning storms, after killing some mystery vampire dudes.’

‘Ground killed.’ Parth corrected her.

‘Eh, close enough. I set them up and dropped, pretty sure that counts.’ Semari made several fake sword-swings. ‘I’d complain about it, get Semari to punch someone, have Janaxia be spooky at people then almost die in a fight.’ She paused. ‘Hmm, we need to find someone to fight. That should solve things, it normally does. So, who do we need to fight?’

‘Lightning in the darkness.’

‘Yeah, but I need to know who to punch. Got anything more, like, specific? Or shall we just go get drunk, see what happens?’

‘Wisdom of the vine.’ Parth nodded. ‘Help to descend needed.’

Semari turned around and let Parth climb onto her back, before she jumped down, hopping between statues and other decorations, until they reached the ground. ‘So, you know anything about lightning stuff? Seems to be, like, a thing now. Had that witch last time, now this. Maybe she was a cousin or something?’ Parth twisted on her back, but Semari gripped tightly, not letting go. ‘Got anything to say?’

‘Can’t breath!’ Semari let go slightly, although not enough to let Parth wiggle away. She was feeling some sympathy for Stathis’ sporadic irritation. It was funnier when everyone else was getting dragged into weird stuff, and she could just laugh at them. ‘Lightning fell, the past is gone.’ Semari squeezed again. ‘Nothing else!’ She let go.

‘OK, fair enough. Shall we get drunk then?’

Parth climbed off her back, rearranging her clothing. ‘Wisdom.’

‘Yeah, I thought so. You could try and be a bit, like, less cryptic though.’

‘Human perception limited. And language strange.’

‘Or, you could try, like, full sentences? You’ve got the words, just throw more of them together before stopping.’ They started walking down the street, ignoring the odd looks they were getting – they’d come down into a fancy section of town, expensively-dressed priests and pilgrims walking about, music coming from somewhere nearby, delicious scents wafting out from places to eat. Semari’s ragged clothing stood out, especially as she was bruised from her fight. Parth was less conspicuous, although all her combat gear did stand out. A few guards gave them odd looks, but the place seemed lax enough that they weren’t troubled.