Kaldalis felt emotionally drained from meeting with Haldir’s sister. Looming on his schedule was the meeting with the Baimer War Council, and he needed to be at the top of his game for it. Even if Garyung was handling all the preparation, he needed to be there for support. Most likely, he would need to improvise some kind of compromise in the middle of a tense moment. As such, he needed to be ready.

He could have gone and found something to fill the time - track down his friends to hang out, or find Bangen to thank her for her help, or even just go smack some mobs around somewhere outside of town - but he felt like it would be a lot safer to use the time to decompress. In his heart, he was grateful for the opportunity to break the news to Verhaldar. It had felt good to offer her reassurance that he was a hero who had bettered the world, even if he’d exaggerated a bit. And there was no way that him showing up and telling her with a personal touch was worse than getting a dispassionate letter.

Just the same he felt like his brain had just run a marathon. Haldir was closer on Kaldalis’s mind than he had been since shortly after his death. He’d been in a constant state of action and stress since Cotanaku’s founding had completed, and while the loss of Haldir had informed a lot of his decision making, he hadn’t really had time to think about what the man had meant to him.

It was getting into late afternoon now, and Kaldalis still had just barely more than forty minutes. He could make it in time easily by heading right there, even at a very leisurely pace through the winding streets of the city. The best thing he could do to prepare to be Garyung’s wingman was to calmly clear his head, and he intended to do so.

As the late afternoon came on, the streets were much more empty than Kaldalis had seen. This was something of a more residential area, with few shops or businesses, and so there wasn’t much foot traffic, and no porters were moving any carts of goods through the area. It meant he had peace and quiet to enjoy, but the area didn’t have the same spooky horror movie quality the city had taken on after nightfall when he’d walked to the council the first time with Garyung.

Ignoring the bureaucracy and politics, Baimer was a beautiful city. The incline up from the water meant that every time a cross-street went straight downhill, Kaldalis could see the ocean. Whenever there was a courtyard or an overlook, the view went from striking to stunning. The sun was getting low in the sky, and the long shadows turned the city into a panorama of stark contrasts trailing down to the beautiful blue of the water.

A part of Kaldalis wanted to use an Augmented series of Jumps to leap into the ocean from where he stood. His brain knew the water would be shockingly cold, but his heart called out to the beauty of it. It felt like he was staring at a painting, and the grass was greener on the other side of the frame.

It was the same world, though. The picturesque waters he was looking at were the same ones where he’d fought the giant nautilobster kraken monster. It was the same ocean he would be sailing back over to return to Cotanaku. It wasn’t a different reality. Hurling himself through the air and into the ocean might change his location, but it wouldn’t change his reality.

Haldir would still be dead.

Kaldalis stopped. He found himself in a small park. Someone had levelled off the ground here, filled the space with dirt, and seeded it with grass. The side towards the water had a safety railing to protect from falling off the artificial cliff that had been created by the construction. At one end, a group of children were playing some rough approximation of soccer. At this end, the sound of their combined cheers, jeers, and laughter were just barely audible under the whistle of the ocean breeze. Kaldalis stepped up to the railing and tentatively leaned against it, staring out at the water.

His heart and his brain were in agreement on one thing. Kaldalis hadn’t known Haldir well enough. They’d always talked about business. Their conversations had always been limited to the censer, the dungeon, or the town. The only thing he really knew about the man was that his mortality made him want to leave a permanent mark on the world. But Kaldalis sure as hell didn’t know what kind of mark.

What were Haldir’s passions? What were his dreams? What did he value? Who did he consider his real friends?

Kaldalis didn’t know. And no matter how much he swore to himself that he would have asked if they had ever had a moment’s quiet between calamities, he never would now.

If he hadn’t hated Baimer so much, perhaps he could have found an excuse to stay, and try and offer Verhaldar some support as she adjusted to her new situation. Maybe he could learn about him through her, and find some way to take the knowledge back to Cotanaku to build a proper legacy for Haldir. Some sort of monument or edifice in Cotanaku or Panbu that would reflect him, immortalizing his name as more than just one more death on the memorial.

But he wasn’t going to be able to do that. Even if he didn’t have other obligations to pull him away, he couldn’t wait to leave. Not even his duty to Haldir’s memory could keep him in this city. Not even to…

…Deal with the person who was following him.

Kaldalis didn’t really notice them until he’d come to a full stop for a long while. Foot traffic in this part of town at this time of day was light, but not nonexistent. But these were the people who lived and worked here. This park was not a scenic viewpoint for them, it was just another familiar landmark. Nobody but Kaldalis was stopping and staring. Standing still for five minutes at a stretch now made it really apparent that one of the figures nearby was watching him.

It was the only other person who had been standing here the whole time. Kaldalis could just see them out of the corner of his eye, about thirty feet back the way he’d come. They weren’t inside the park proper, but just leaning against a fence post at the edge of a nearby yard. He couldn’t tell anything specific about them without turning to look directly, and if they meant him harm, that might be a death sentence. What he needed was information, and he needed to get it subtly.

For his first test, Kaldalis turned as if he was about to leave. Two steps later, he stopped suddenly and leaned against the railing again.

Even from this distance, he felt like he could sense the figure’s aggravation and confusion. They were no longer leaning against the fencepost, having taken a few steps to make ready to follow him, but with his sudden stop, they floated awkwardly on the street between the buildings and the park for a few seconds before finding a place on the far end of the same railing Kaldalis was leaning against.

From their new position, Kaldalis could tell a lot more about them. They were another Vathon wearing a familiar-looking cloak. There were openings in the hood for their horns, but they were tucked under the hood this time, though the way they deformed the hood made it obvious they were there. It meant that the obfuscating hood wasn’t properly positioned, and there was a sliver of visible skin on their throat. It was a reddish hue, which only told him as much as the horns would have, so it seemed immaterial. Perhaps they were more intent on their identity being hidden from those behind them, or only giving them a passing glance.

That little insight, along with the cloak itself, made Kaldalis think he was dealing with the assassin again.

His concern immediately went to his friends. If the assassin was targeting Kaldalis, did that mean that Garyung was already dead? Was he just a ghostly form now waiting to respawn, or had they found a more permanent solution to him? Or perhaps Garyung was never the target, and the clumsy attempts on the Bhogad had been a smokescreen for this, more intentional attack. And if Kaldalis was the target… Was Bangen safe? Gavinkim? Balrim? Reno? Myrin? Ess?

The only option now was to deal with the threat in front of him. Or, rather, behind him.

He had two choices on how to handle them. He could pretend he hadn’t noticed them and resume his leisurely walk. He might fight some opportunity to lose them by leading them towards a busier commercial district, ducking in and out of shops and restaurants, and just wandering aimlessly in the hopes that they weren’t good enough to keep on his tail. The downside was that he was gambling on their skill. They might be that good. And if they were, he was going to be the one to fuck up, walking down the wrong street or into the wrong tavern, and finding himself right where they wanted him.

On the other hand, he could throw pretenses to the wind. Go into a full sprint. Let them know he knew and dare them to keep up. His Jump ability alone - even without Nyxlas’s Augment - would make him nearly impossible to catch. And if they managed to keep up with him? It would put him in control. He could pick their battlefield, choosing an isolated back-alley where he could be allowed to use Kaia’s Flicker and Nyxlas’s Augment - and Onirioago’s War Weapon spear - without fear of reprisal.

When he put it that way, it didn’t seem like much of a choice at all.

Wasting no time, Kaldalis went into a full sprint.

He took off towards the far end of the park. Activating Jump let him leap cleanly over the top of the field of children playing ball on the turf. He hit the ground running, and was rewarded with the sound of kids calling out in protest. He spared a glance back to see the hooded figure shoving kids out of the way in their haste to catch up with Kaldalis.

Another jump put him on the rooftops. He looked back again and mimed tipping his hat at the pursuer before turning and leaping away, hoping that it was enough to shake them. The rooftops here were farther apart than they had been on the first chase with the assassin, but his Jump cooldown gave him all the advantage he needed to clear the gaps with ease. He was two blocks away in a flash, with no sign of his pursuer.

“That was easy,” Kaldalis said to himself.

As soon as he said it out loud, an arrow slammed into his back.

His armor was strong enough to deflect the blow, but it still felt like a battering ram had just hit him in the shoulder blade. He was mid-jump, and when he landed the change in angle and momentum sent him into a rolling tumble.

When he looked back, he saw the cloaked figure standing on the corner of the rooftop where he’d first jumped up. They slowly, deliberately nocked another arrow, staring him down as they raised the weapon. It was a huge flatbow, though it looked to be mostly unworked, almost as if someone had just tied a bowstring on a natural staff that was just the right shape and size. White as bleached bone, but gnarled, twisted, and spikey, like the deepest branch at the center of an ancient thornbush. Just the sight of it from here gave Kaldalis a shiver of fear. There was no mistaking it for what it was. A War Weapon.

He hurled himself aside as another arrow hit where he had just been. Another arrow followed after, almost too fast for him to dodge. He almost made an enormous blunder and leaped away. It wouldn’t have helped. The first shot had been a hit even when he was in the air. He was a target dummy right now, and they had proved that the only way he could avoid their attacks would be to keep his feet on the ground, where he could change direction.

Kaldalis rolled off the rooftop, dropping back down to street level. They hadn’t fully cornered him, but they were well on their way. He was in the tighter alleyways here, and, frankly, didn’t know where exactly he was. Getting help didn’t seem to be an option. He could run on foot, but he knew that the bow’s mobility tool was flat move speed. They would run him down with ease. He could try and take to the rooftops again with the Jump ability, but they could just pick him out of the sky at their leisure.

It was time to stand and fight. He only hoped that he could lure them close and get into melee range before he was turned into a pincushion.