Men’s hot iron shall be squandered,

While through dark alleys they've a wandered.

-Prophecy of the duskbringer

Onwards the trio of human, dwarf and half-elf ran, randomly twisting and turning through the narrow streets and alleys until the sounds of pursuit behind them faded away.

Finally as the first morning bell began to ring they stopped.

Hadoom collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion, his limbs splayed out in all directions.

"Need, to take, a breather, to let, the young lass, catch, her breath." Hadoom panted as his chest heaved in its desperate struggle to draw in oxygen.

Jacques, tired and sweaty himself, compared their appearances with that of Guppy's, she was in far better condition than they, while she looked a bit tired, with a glimpse of sweat on her brow and her hair a little frazzled and windswept, she hardly looked as if she had been running for her life for the last few hours.

'Never thought I would be outpaced by a civilian, there's a first time for everything I guess.' Jacques wryly thought.

Jacques shook the encroaching sleep from his head and structured his priorities.

Giving himself a once over he quickly pulled out some bandages and ointment from a waist pouch and tended to some nasty looking cuts he had received, thankfully the cuts had clotted quickly and he had not lost too much blood.

While his constitution was rather good thanks to his mixed heritage, taking chances by not disinfecting and wrapping them was never a wise option.

Some of his opponents had been rather skilled it appears, it had been a long time since he was injured this badly.

Once his wounds were bound he checked on the young lady.

"Are you hurt miss Bright? I have some small skill as a field medic if you are." He inquired.

"No, I am quite alright Sergeant Woodsinger, none of this blood is mine." replied Guppy even as she thought,

'Almost wish I was…focus Guppy, now is not the time nor the place for frivolity.'

Jacques nodded politely as he received her all clear and went to check on Hadoom, who grudgingly rose and allowed Jacques to assist with binding up his wounds.

"Gonna get some lovely scars from these." The dwarf chuckled darkly.

Once Jacques finished with Hadoom he ran over priorities once more and decided on the next course of action, having done this he turned back to Gupalagia.

"We need to get you to safety miss Bright, half the city seems to be looking for you after hearing about your golden touch."

He watched her back up, suddenly cautious about their possibly less than altruistic motives.

“H-H-How do you know about that?” She stuttered.

Jacques thought about how he should get her to trust him, probably not the best time to mention that neither he nor his partner were actually law officers anymore, yet he hated to pretend to be someone he was not…

Guppy swallowed and lightly blushed, she was successfully distracted as she stared at the handsome brooding face of the elvish officer illuminated in the moonlight, she read no malice in his eyes, only concern as he gazed at her, this among other things, helped to lower her guard towards them, as she completely misinterpreted his current dilemma.

“Yer sister got herself drunk as a sailor and blabbed all about how you could turn lead into gold at the Five Legged Murgoat.” Hadoom informed her bluntly.

“And you better either trust us, or try your luck on the streets by yerself. I’m to old for this s…”

Jacques clapped a hand over the dwarf’s mouth to shut him up before he made the situation any worse, what they needed now was for her to trust in their professionalism after all.

“What my partner means to say is that we heard your life was in peril and felt compelled to uphold the King’s peace.”

Hadoom knocked Jacques hand away.

“That’s right lass, that’s what we’ve been doin’ all evening, keeping the peace.”

He sniggered with a wicked looking grin, but it turned into a grimace as his recently acquired injuries flared with pain.

“Accch moon that stings just a wee bit” He exclaimed through gritted teeth.

Guppy relaxed, they had saved her after all, and her gut feeling was telling her they meant well, even if they were a really weird couple of Canners.

All of a sudden her arms broke out in goosebumps, looking at them she saw all of her arm hairs rising as one.

Then she felt the hairs on the back of her neck following suit. Her instincts prompted her to look up.

She did.

About thirty meters away, floating in the air on a roiling disc of what appeared to be a dark liquid was the red clad woman, except now her cloak was half white.

“Found ~ you ~” she laughed, her musical voice mellow and rich.

Yet that beautiful tone sounded worse than a demons cackle to the trio.

Hadoom whipped out his pistols and opened fire on the woman, but she ignored the bullets as they pinged and zinged off her glowing mana shield, the impacts glowing blue for a brief moment before fading.

The red clad woman choose to descend contemptuously slowly into the alleyway in front of them, mocking their efforts at subduing her.

But unlike her Jacques wasted no time and began muttering an aria under his breath even as he raised his twin bladed knuckle dusters flat bladed to thir foe.

“Oh great lightning that lays waste to all before it, become my weapon and pierce mine enemies.”

He let the mana flow into the constructed magic circle hidden from their enemy on the backs of his hands, and as the magic activated it produced a spear shaped cracking length of lightning above his head.

“Sunder thy target, lightning spear!”

The beam shot forward even as the woman muttered herself and threw up a shield of crystallized blood, not trusting her magitech mana shield to withstand the brunt of the attack.

Boooooomm! Fissssssccch! Piiiiiiiiiiiiiii... The impact rocked everyone’s eardrums and left them ringing.

When Guppy’s ears recovered a couple seconds later she made out what the half-elf officer was yelling at her.

“Run Gupalagia! We will …. get to the precinct and the …..ep you safe!”

Guppy nodded in acknowledgement, she might be able to beat the stuffing out of a couple meat handers, but a magic battle was something she wanted no part of, nor had any place in.

Guppy twisted around and took off as fast as her legs could take her.

She almost made it to the next alleyway, almost.

Instead she got precisely thirty paces and was about to duck into the side street before she heard the shattering of her magitech barrier and was lifted off the ground, losing both traction and motion.

Her blood was doing funny things inside her, and boy did it hurt.

She was agonisingly slowly turned around midair, and a beautiful figure gradually entering her vision, the woman’s dress was a bit scorched at the front and sported a few tears here and there, revealing in part the numerous red magic circuits tattooed on her body, glowing in the dark with the vermillion mana that flowed through the inscribed conduits.

Behind the woman lay two crumpled heaps, lying motionless face down on the ground.

Guppy struggled in mid air, but whatever the witch in front of her was doing, it all but paralysed her as she drifted towards that broad, oh so scary smile.

“Don’t fight it little girl, doing so will only make this even more painful for you.”

Guppy came to a stop pressed against the wall, a few inches off the ground, the woman approached and carefully examined her.

“You’re a looker, that’s good, I had a feeling you might be when I saw your sister, although your looks are a tad more...exotic, perhaps you had different parents?

Regardless, hold still and stop twitching, I am going to release you now, but if you squirm at all for this next part the backlash will kill you in an instant.”

Guppy saw no lie in the woman's eyes, only a sharp, calculating emptiness that belied the wide grin planted on her face.

Guppy stopped fighting, it hadn't been succeeding anyway, best to wait for a better opportunity.

The woman reached out with a red crystal dagger and vertically slit the front of Guppy’s clothes.

She then reached to her waist and removed a small spherical vial.

Unstopping it she dipped a slender finger in and began to draw a magic circle over Guppy’s heart.

The early morning air was frigid but the witches finger burned on Guppy’s skin wherever it passed, gradually forming a complicated magic array with the dark liquid she was using as paint, each line thinning and staining Guppy’s skin as it was applied.

“What are you doing to me?” Guppy asked, straining to speak as she wrestled for air without moving.

“Something fun,” the beautiful woman replied.

“You see, I dearly wish the royal family dead, they owe me a blood debt I mean to collect.

Except, I have many obstacles to my wish, they have all those many many knights and mages protecting them. Which makes the whole affair of slitting their lovely little necks rather troublesome, even for someone as talented as I.”

The woman’s fingers moved slower now, with smaller and smaller motions as she began the detailed runic inscriptions within the magic seal.

“That’s where you come in little girl, this big ruckus will see you before them sooner or later, and when they see you, well, I doubt they’ll kill such a beautiful, innocent maiden.

So they will keep you around, one way or another, because letting you go unmonitored will be ~far~ too great a risk to take.

So you will be in a unique position to have ample opportunities to aid me in my desire."

She paused for a moment and looked at Guppy directly, the madness burning in her eyes sent shivers down Guppy’s spine and limbs.

They were a mire of rage and hatred that sucked Guppy in and threatened to drown her in their depths.

Guppy turned her head away, breaking their eye contact.

The witch smiled at this, leaning closer and bringing her lips to Guppy’s ear.

In a whisper she continued.

“And you, you will help me kill them. Do this and I will free you of this curse. Fail, and this curse I am leaving you will rupture your heart and drain every drop of blood in your body, and you will shriek through every. agonising. moment. of it.”

Guppy felt her body go cold, her breath catching without any effort on her part as the sheer bloodlust in the womans’ voice deadened her limbs.

The woman leaned back and continued drawing in silence until she finished and once more spoke to Guppy.

“Now unless you wish to become a corpse, I suggest you hold very, very still for this next part."

Guppy needed no further encouragement, she kept as stiff as possible.

The witch placed both her hands over the magic circle and began pouring her mana in.

The array began glowing a brilliant vermillion and gradually shrunk until it disappeared from Guppy’s chest.

However Guppy knew it was still there for she felt a burning heat enter her chest and encircle her heart, branding it.

Her heart stopped…

Seconds or minutes later she drew a shuddering breath as it thudded into motion again

“Whoops almost lost you there, still need to refine the application process a little I guess.”

The witch commented casually, as if she was merely discussing the passing weather, not Guppy’s death and resuscitation.

Guppy regained her vision after a moment and sat up while coughing and continuing to suck in lungfuls of the cold morning air.

The witch patted her cheek in a familiar manner and stood back up.

“Some of my best work if I say so myself, now let’s start off simple.

My first command is that you have one year to kill an individual of royal blood, aren’t I generous?

I don’t really care how you do it, poison, blades, magic, anything goes, but you get bonus points for making it as gruesome and painful as possible.

Who knows, if you do a good job I might even help you escape the aftermath."

The mad female pursed her lips and tapped them with a slender finger after her monologue, seemingly trying to remember something.

Guppy could hear hurried footsteps gradually approaching, the slapping of shoes on cobblestones growing louder quickly.

A group of disreputable looking meat handers rounded the corner, when they saw Guppy their eyes gleamed.

“Here she is, the girl's still breathing, Boss Selena will be pleased. Oi Kip, grab hgggggghhh.”

Whatever else the leader was going to say was cut off as a whip curled around his neck and tightened.

"Hi boys, I think you are overlooking that she currently belongs to me." the red witch called out.

"Of course I don't mind handing her over, but your boss will owe me a favor in return."

"How about we just take her and leave your pretty little corpse in the gutter." propositioned a man who seemed to be the vice leader of the ten man squad.

The red witch stretched a smile so feral it would send the mangiest suk scampering for cover.

Her gleaming teeth created a stark contrast to the shadows of her hood.

"You are most welcome to try." She challenged

With a pulse of mana thin spears shot up from the ground, stopping just centimeters from each of their throats.

A round of swearing erupted from the group as they all discovered their close encounter with increased ventilation, the only exception was the leader who was gasping for breath after being released.

"Deal." he gasped, realizing they had little choice but to agree with this insane magic caster.

The red witch smiled before turning back to a slumped Guppy who still lay against the wall.

"Bye sweetie, as much as I enjoyed our time together I must be off, all this work has made me rather peckish, take care now, I'll see you around!”

The witch waved elegantly and turned to leave.

Guppy wearily watched the demon in human skin form another of those roiling platforms, bleeding her cloak of the last of its color to do so.

She then hopped on and disappeared over a rooftop into the night.

Guppy didn’t care much at this point, her heart felt like it was on fire, and her vision kept blurring as she lay against the alleyway wall.

The last thing she heard before she fell off the precipice of consciousness was:

"Bloody mages, wish I could shiv them all. Let's get this brat back to Selena, she doesn't like to be kept waiting…"

And then she fell into blessed, utter darkness.