Kaldais made his way back to the inn first. Once he arrived and found himself alone, he realized that he’d skipped a step this morning. He’d intended to walk to the trial with Bangen and Gavinkim all together to make sure they were safe. If Demriv had been gifted with Onirioago’s immortality, and had recovered from the fall she’d taken, this was the last chance she’d have to interfere with the trial. If that had been her motive,

Unfortunately, he’d made no such plans with them. He’d forgotten to ask them to meet him ahead of time. It seemed they’d each be making their own way. He just hoped that they were safe.

He tried to assure himself that they would be okay. If Onirioago or Demriv were going to make any attempt to interfere with the witnesses for her trial, they would target him. Even if Bangen’s presence was needed to give his story credibility, he was a lightning rod for their ire. Even if they could sweep Bangen under the rug, they’d much prefer causing Kaldalis to suffer.

The clock was ticking on the trial, though, so he didn’t have time to take precautions. Instead, he went to the innkeeper to leave a message.

“If any of my party comes asking after me, tell them I went to the trial,” he said, passing her a half-doubloon coin across the counter. “And make sure to tell them that the plan is unchanged. We’ll all meet up on the ship tonight, alright?”

“Sure thing, stretch,” the portly suyon woman said with a smile as she scooped up the semicircular coin. “I’d’ve done it for free, too, but you won’t hear me complain.”

“I always tip,” Kaldalis shot back with a grin. “It’s what I do.”

He wasn’t sure if he expected anyone to return to the inn, but if they did, he hoped the message might keep them on task. The last thing he wanted was to leave anyone behind just because they lost track of what they were supposed to be doing.

Leaving the inn, Kaldalis started to make his way towards the courthouse. He counted himself lucky that he knew where he was going. The quest he had to attend the trial told him where it would be located, and so he just followed the directions.

As he began, though, the fifteen minute timer started beneath the directive to attend the trial.

A part of him wanted to activate Nyxlas’s Augment and leap into the sky. The miles-long leaps would get him across the length of the city in seconds. But he knew that was going to make more trouble than it was worth. At best, he would have to answer questions about his high-velocity superhero landing right in front of the courthouse. At worst, he’d wind up in the Contender’s interrogation room again.

Restraining himself from hurling himself bodily over the top of everything didn’t mean he couldn’t use his cooldowns. His regular Jump cooldown meant that he didn’t have to deal with the twisting mess of Baimer’s streets. Like the assassins had, he was able to hop up onto the rooftops and turn a circuitous route into a straight shot over the top.

He found himself enjoying the trip. It was one of the few things since his arrival that he actually enjoyed, and he quickly realized why. He wasn’t the only person traversing the rooftops - he could see two or three others in the immediate area using the rooftops to skip street-level traffic - but there was a sense of space up here. It wasn’t crowded. Even if someone passed near, they didn’t physically brush past him or get anywhere near his personal bubble, unlike when his feet had been on the ground.

Being down on the street meant being surrounded by fellow pedestrians, forced aside to make way for carts, and having his own thoughts drowned out by the barking of hawkers when they could be heard over the dull roar of the crowd.

It was like being in a real-world city, surrounded by the bustle of a hundred strangers.

It made him feel like he was Dylan.

Up on the rooftops, though, he felt free. He was launching himself across streets, hopping lightly over narrow alleyways, and vaulting over obstacles.

Negotiating rooftop hazards felt liberating. Exciting. Fun.

That was the core of it. He was having fun.

Kaldalis landed lightly on an angled rooftop, scrambled briefly for footing, and launched himself over the peak to the far side, using the downward slope to build momentum. He planted his feet and kicked off as hard as he could. Even after his Jump ability had worn off, Slowfall turned a powerful leap into something that felt nearly like flight. He landed lightly on the far side of the street, on the flat rooftop of what seemed to be an apartment building. Three lines of drying laundry stretched the length of the roof, and Kaldalis went into a dance, twisting and turning to quickly navigate the maze of sheets and shirts. He reached the far side and leaped again, this time a shorter leap onto a slanted roof. He threw himself into a sprint, running up to the high end and launching himself as far as he could from the high point, letting the Slowfall carry him farther than nature’s laws would allow, as if he were wearing a wingsuit.

It was like catapulting through the city in a videogame free running sequence.

It made him feel like he was Kaldalis.

There was definitely a component of his joy that was tied to Baimer in particular. A quartet of guards tromping through an alleyway was no obstacle. They were just a flash of armor beneath his feat as he hopped the gap. Using his Jump cooldown, he sailed over a courtyard just like the one that had been the entrance to the dungeon he’d traversed - and was subsequently banned from.

Traveling by rooftop made him feel free. Up here, all the bureaucracy and bullshit was literally beneath him. He knew he wasn’t literally out of their reach, but the feeling of physical freedom made it all the more bearable.

What surprised him, though, was how good it felt to negotiate the obstacles up here. Kaldalis found himself angling his path so that he could traverse more uneven rooftops, avoiding those that were flat and unadorned. He danced past laundry lines, vaulted over weathervanes, and scrambled up and down uneven tiles. It took a minute to realize why. It was slowing him down, but it reminded him of the jungles around Cotanaku and Panbu. Uneven footing and hazardous terrain had become synonymous with travel in his mind. And it was engaging and interesting, forcing him to make use of the tools at his disposal.

Kaldalis resolved that he would appreciate the jungle a lot more when he returned. It might have been full of menaces and monsters, but he realized now that it had become like home to him.

As he came to this realization, he started to notice something else.

Someone was following him.

They were well behind him, but making up the ground quickly. They weren’t a spear user, and didn’t launch themselves across gaps, but they tumbled over obstacles with an acrobatic flair that reminded him of how Courbois had negotiated the battlefield when they’d fought together in the Syncoresi lair.

Kaldalis felt a chill as they grew closer. A brown cloak trailed behind them, though the hood cast an impenetrable shadow over their face. A pair of vathon horns poked through the top of the hood, though they were blackened with soot or dye to hide their color.

A well-disguised Vathon with blackened horns, closing in on him with a staff-wielder’s movement.

This wasn’t someone just traveling the same route over the rooftops.

This was the assassin that had attacked him and Garyung.

They were here to kill him.

And they were gaining on him fast.

Kaldalis had been giving himself a handicap by favoring the more difficult path over the rooftops, and now his movement abilities were on cooldown. Meanwhile, the assassin was coming up on him at speed. Staff movement abilities weren’t as potent as the spears’ Jump, but they had proportionately lower cooldowns. He had just under two minutes before Jump would be ready again. In that time, the assassin was going to catch up.

He took to the smoother rooftops, and easier routes, but it was no use. Even if he was moving faster, the route behind him was just easier for his foe to cover as well. He wasn’t gaining any ground. And he was still too far from the courthouse to think he could get there before being caught. Even if his Jump ability came back up right this second, it wouldn’t carry him all the way there in one go.

He considered dropping down to the street and seeking help, but he had little faith in the Baimer guards. They’d let this exact man escape because their orders had been to hunt Kaldalis for the use of Kaia’s Flicker, and that priority had overridden all logic. There was also no way to account for how long they would delay him even if they took his side. They might insist he stay put and be questioned, which could easily make him late for the trial. And then if they asked the wrong questions… If Demriv’s name came up, he might end up behind bars himself.

With ten minutes left on his timer to attend the trial, Kaldalis was going to have to stand and fight. He pulled up short, and for a moment he was unsure of what weapon to draw. He would need to be wielding a spear in order to access his Jump ability and make good his escape, but without the targe of his sword-and-shield weapon set, he was going to have to face the assassin unarmed.

He had one other option, though.

Kaldalis pulled up short and turned to face the oncoming assassin. Reaching into his inventory, he drew forth the weapon he knew would meet his needs. The Baleful Ahlspiess. Onirioago’s War Weapon spear.

So armed, he made ready for the unavoidable fight to come.