Zack

There were many reasons Zack Silverstone would have loved for Anna to invite him to join her in her small rented room at The Mead Beast. Watching her argue with her freaked out and now visibly panicking brother was not one of them. Still, here he was. Watching.

“That’s it, then,” Alan said. “We’re leaving tonight.

“To where?” Anna asked quietly. “There’s nowhere else to go.”

“We’ll go camp out in the woods. Out of sight. It’s a big zone, and they’ll never find us.”

“If they found us all the way out at the shrine, they’ll find us in the woods, and what defenses will we have on our own? At least in Wolfpine, we have the walls and the Town Guards.”

Zack still couldn’t believe they’d made it back to town alive. Just when he’d been certain they’d evaded the Shaitan, they’d stumbled across a group of Gloamwolves. That would have been a challenging fight even if they weren’t both exhausted from the sprint and being chased by Demons.

Three dead Gloamwolves later, Anna was badly wounded and the Shaitan were back again. Only another burst of light from Xiva’s crystal had kept the Demons at bay, and then Zack had all but killed himself by completing the run to Wolfpine with Anna in his arms.

If not for the arrival of Glenn and that Blazer woman, Jenny Ambersun, Zack would have met the forever death this afternoon. He didn’t like the idea that he’d come so close. Even by his own considerably lax standards of risk, taking on four Level 12 Demons at Level 5 was too reckless.

Also, Xiva’s crystal. What in the name of all the Gods was this crystal? An Enchanter could apply Demonslaying to a weapon, of course, but that merely allowed the weapon to strike Demons in shimmer. It didn’t blast them from afar.

Zack knew that Artifacts—rare, one of a kind items with wondrous powers created by the Gods—existed in Balarel, and high Level Adventurers would occasionally recover them from high Level zones. Yet Artifacts were also rare and exorbitantly expensive, which made the idea of anyone trusting a Level 5 Shadower to act as a courier for one about as likely as meeting Vox for supper. And even if Xiva had done that, Zack had broken his oath to her in his efforts to protect Anna.

He’d shown Anna the crystal, and she wasn’t the only one. Both Glenn and that Blazer, Jenny Ambersun, had seen it as well. Revealing this secret crystal to so many, one of whom was a Blazer, seemed rather far from what Xiva had asked of him. Finally ... there was the matter of coincidences.

Coincidences happened, certainly, but rarely were those coincidence good. How was it that a day before he encountered his first Demon, he just happened to also encounter a mysterious woman who’d given him the crystal he used to survive their attack? Xiva had obviously known someone would unleash Demons on them, or at least suspected. So the question was ... why would she care?

Zack had absolutely no doubt Xiva was tied to these matters in some way, and that Xiva opposed whoever had sent those Demons: Anna’s hunter. She’d have no reason to intervene otherwise. Yet if Xiva had known a Demon attack on Anna was coming, why not give the crystal directly to Anna?

Giving it to Zack and simply anticipating Zack would defend her seemed unnecessarily complex, even if Xiva had eavesdropped on Zack’s agreement to give Anna a tour and assumed Zack would then use the crystal to protect her. So perhaps Xiva was hiding her identity from Anna? Perhaps Anna had refused her help somewhere in the past, and now Xiva was using Zack as a go-between?

Zack only then realized Anna and Alan had stopped arguing. He only then realized both were looking at him, Anna with hopeful eyes and Alan with clear annoyance. He only them realized, belatedly, that he should have been paying more attention.

“Well?” Alan asked.

“Right,” Zack said. “Just so I don’t rush into anything, could you run that by me again?”

Alan sighed audibly. “That crystal. What is it?”

“Don’t know,” Zack said.

“Where did you get it?”

“Can’t say.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Whichever makes you feel like you successfully completed this conversation.”

Alan huffed and turned to Anna. “You see? We’re better off on our own.”

“We’d be dead on our own,” Anna said grimly, then turned her gaze back to Zack. “Zack, Please. I know you value your secrets, but this is important. How did you come by that crystal?”

“Do you know what it is?” Zack asked evenly.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. That’s why I’m asking you where you got it. Is it an Artifact?”

Had it just been he and Anna in the room, Zack might have considered telling her. Considered. Yet even now, he knew he couldn’t reveal how he’d come by this crystal. He’d already violated his oath to Xiva by revealing it, but he could excuse that by arguing he’d have lost the crystal entirely if he died.

Yet now, in this safe place, violating his oath to Xiva would absolutely be a betrayal. And despite all his confusion and doubts, Zack knew Xiva—whoever she was—was not someone of whom he wanted to make an enemy. Now that he was aiding these two fugitives, he apparently had enemies enough.

“Here’s the truth,” Zack said. “I can’t answer any questions about the object you saw in the woods because I swore not to. You shouldn’t even know I have it, but I couldn’t just let you die.”

“Us,” Anna reminded him. “You couldn’t just let us die.”

Zack shrugged. He’d said what he said. The way Anna's features softened showed she understood what he’d said as well.

Alan’s features were visibly conflicted. He looked like he was stuck somewhere between thanking Zack for saving Anna in the woods and yelling at Zack for letting her get attacked by Demons in the first place. As if that was in any way Zack’s fault. He’d had nothing to do with it.

“You heard him,” Anna said, and turned to Alan. “No Shadower can share the details of a client’s request, which obviously has something to do with that crystal.”

“Which is all the more reason we should go off into the woods and hide,” Alan said. “Before the Ringleader decides the bribe you paid them to freeze contracts on us isn’t enough.”

Zack took a moment to make sure his voice sounded as respectful as he could, under the circumstances, and spoke. “Running off to live in the woods won’t work.”

Alan frowned Zack’s way. “What do you know of it?”

“I know the Deepscorn Woods,” Zack said. “I know there’s very little to eat out there, and you can’t live on nuts and berries. Half of the plants that offer those are Moss Beasts in disguise. There’s water, sure, but good luck sleeping without getting eaten by Gloamwolves in the night.”

“We’ll find a clearing,” Alan said.

“There are no clearings. Those woods aren’t for living. They’re for hunting. I don’t know how it is in Aquarine, but in Landers, the only truly safe place to sleep is inside Wolfpine’s walls or on a Safe Road. Given your goal is to avoid attention, sleeping on a Safe Road won’t work.”

“Remember, anyone who comes looking has to do so quietly,” Anna told Alan firmly. “They can’t move in the open, and so far as we know, the few Blazers working for them don’t have allies this far into Landers. We’re still safer inside the walls of Wolfpine than we are anywhere else in all of Balarel.”

“And we’re staying in the room of an inn owned by the wife of a Town Guard,” Alan said. “Do you really think she’ll cover for us if a Blazer comes asking about us?”

“Right, and here’s something else,” Zack said. “Who’s the they you mentioned? The person who’s after you?”

Alan raised one hand in protest. “Out of the question.”

“My brother,” Anna said firmly. “It was certainly one of his hunters who unleashed those Demons on us, though not to kill me. Once the Shaitan had paralyzed me, whoever unleased those Demons likely would have ‘rescued me’ from them. Which means imprisonment back home.”

Zack immediately understood. Other than a Blazer with a legitimate claim that someone had broken the law, a hired Adventurer couldn’t just seize Anna and drag her home. She wouldn’t consent to be taken. Yet if that Adventurer rescued her, while she was paralyzed ... that might be just enough justification to get around the Pantheon’s Law of Consent. Yet another interesting loophole.

Zack took a beat, then glanced meaningfully at Alan. “You’re not actually her brother.”

Alan threw up his hands. “Gods, Anna, you’re going to get us both thrown in prison.”

“Alan is my cousin,” Anna said. “And he’s a better person than my brother by far.”

“Who is...” Zack prompted.

“A high Level Politician in Aquarine,” Anna said. “We have a disagreement. He wants me in a gilded cell. I don’t want to live in a cell, so I arranged to have myself smuggled where I could live freely.”

“And you?” Zack asked Alan.

“Apparently just the hired help,” Alan said sardonically.