Haemon was feeling uneasy. He wasn’t riding his horse as hard as he could have, even taking a leisurely pace, and he kept putting his hand to his hip where the crystal was securely nestled in a leather pouch. Every time he started to ride normally, he felt as though the crystal was pressing against his hip, trying to flee from him, yet when he placed his hand there, it was still and inanimate as it ought to be. Haemon abruptly stopped in the middle of the plains, staring around him in the blank darkness. This damned crystal...why did Azael have to take a client for this fucking thing in the first place? Haemon continued to stare around him as his horse shifted beneath him, confused at the sudden halt. He didn’t have much further until he got to their base, but for the first time, he didn’t want to return home. When Haemon had spotted that crystal, he knew he wanted nothing to do with it and wanted to get as far away as possible from it. If not for Rania’s exasperated words, he wouldn’t have even touched the thing and just returned, gladly calling himself a failure. He would have let his pride take a hit so long as he didn’t have to touch the thing. Now that he had it, he felt unclean and guilty, a condition rare for a man who had made his lifetime career as a bandit.

“Damn it,” he muttered to himself, “what the hell is wrong with me?” Annoyed, he urged his horse into a gallop and even though his stomach was becoming overcome with a feeling of nausea the closer he got to the base, he pushed through it obstinately, concentrated on getting home. In spite of himself, he half-wished that Rania were here to deal with the crystal instead of him. She seemed to be more experienced in otherworldly things and while it looked like nothing more than a piece of rock, he felt quite certain that if a sorcerer was protecting it, there must be something special about it. She hadn’t given it anything but a cursory glance since she had been focused on her own findings, but he could tell that after they left the portal room, she had been eager to leave. He wondered if she, too, had felt the level of unwelcome increase after they had stolen the crystal. “Fuck,” he swore, pulling on the reins and alarming his horse so badly that it spun around in circles for a moment, stomping its hooves indignantly. Haemon reached out and soothed the beast, stroking its strong neck before he rose to a sitting position, pushing a hand through his coarse, reddish hair, conflicted. Shaking his head, he put a hand on his hip and feeling the crystal lying there serenely, he pulled his horse around and continued towards the base at a slow pace, lost in frustrated and confused thoughts.

“There you are, wondered when you’d get back!” Grady said as soon as he arrived, slipping off his horse. “Azael was waiting for you out here.”

“What is he, my wife now?” Haemon grumbled.

Grady wheezed with laughter. “He sure seemed worried like one. A messenger had come awhile before, so maybe it’s more bad news? Not that things can get worse!” Haemon left Grady laughing, stumbling down the many stone steps that led down into their base. He immediately went to Azael’s room where he found his friend sitting on his bed with his hands clasped. He sprang up anxiously as soon as Haemon entered.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Haemon asked.

“I could ask you the same thing – you look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Don’t talk to me about ghosts. Grady said that you were waiting outside for me. What’s going on?”

“I got a letter from our client and he’s going to be here in a few hours. He seems to be under the impression that we have the crystal!”

“Well, I do have it,” Haemon grudgingly admitted, “but how did he know? You didn’t contact him, did you?”

“No, of course I didn’t!” Azael snapped, whipping around, his long braid swaying with him as he paced. “I don’t like it...It’s as if he was watching us.” He paused in his pacing, glancing at Haemon. “Where is it, anyway?” Haemon pulled it out and, grateful to be rid of it, handed it to Azael. His friend took it and considered it seriously for a few moments, staring at it and then set it down on the round table in the middle of the room, folding his arms over his chest. “It feels...weird, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t like the fucking thing,” Haemon told him a bit more aggressively than he had intended. Azael turned to look at him with raised eyebrows, apparently surprised by his vehemence. “I just want it out of here and away from me.”

“I can’t blame you for your sentiments, but it’s more than I was expecting.” Azael shook his head. “I still don’t like this situation with the client. He’ll be here soon enough – we’re to meet him near the river, which I don’t mind, but this crystal doesn’t feel natural. And his awareness means that he has connections with or is a sorcerer and I don’t like that, either...feeling like we’re being watched all the time...I never signed us up for that.”

“Azael, did he tell you if he had sent anyone else to try this before?”

“I’m assuming that he did, but no, he never said as much. Why?”

“It’s just...there’s no way that we could have done it. The way that crystal was secured – ” Haemon broke off suddenly, wondering if he should mention Rania to Azael. Azael was deeply skeptical and mistrustful of magic-users, just as Haemon had been, and he wasn’t sure how he would react if Haemon told him about the portal.

“Well?” Azael prompted when Haemon failed to continue. “What about it?”

“Nothing. Just forget about it. I need to go eat something before we meet him.”

“We?”

“Do you really think I’m going to let you hand that over to him alone?” Haemon called over his shoulder as he left the room.

Haemon was sure that Azael was mulling over the crystal critically, as he was apt to do when strange things came into their possession, which was quite often as they rarely discriminated when they robbed people on the roads. Haemon, for his part, felt no better without the crystal attached to him than when it had been with him; it was still nearby. As he munched an apple in the food storage room, feeling antisocial and irritable, he began to wonder if he should tell Azael about his uneasy feelings he had felt while riding back. He almost immediately dismissed the thought, knowing that Azael would not be able to help him feel better about it or be able to do anything about it. They had made a contract and if they wanted to get paid for all the time they had wasted on it, they needed to hand over the crystal.

The next few hours dragged on and Haemon paced restlessly throughout the base, barely listening to Darrin when he found him in the practice room where he had been killing time shooting an arrow and repeatedly pulling it out of the target and trudging back to do it again. “Did you hear me, Haemon?” Darrin asked in a somewhat louder tone. Haemon paused, looking to him in confusion. Darrin’s face was set in a scowl. “Oh, look who decided to come out of their daydream. Azael’s looking for you.” Without waiting for a reply, Darrin turned and left him standing, holding his bow and arrow. Sighing and putting them both aside, Haemon left after him, frustrated with his lack of self-control. He should be accustomed to dangerous situations, but at the thought of some type of magic, his entire mind seemed to be crumbling.

“There you are,” Azael said as Haemon joined him in his room. “What were you doing?”

“Archery practice,” he answered with a shrug. “Let me get something from my room, I’ll meet you outside, yeah?” Azael nodded and left him.

After a pause, Haemon retrieved his longsword from his room and after attached the sheath around him, he left the base, feeling more protected. Azael glanced at the sword, unsurprised. While Haemon hadn’t bothered to cloak himself to hide his weapon, Azael had thrown on robes and patted at his own scimitar beneath the fabric, saying, “Just in case we run into trouble.”

Their base was fairly close to the river since it was situated on a cliff that sloped down into the river valley. They had chosen to be this close for a decent water supply and also to allow the cool air to slip into the air pockets to keep it from overheating underground. Even though there were occasional boats that floated down the crashing river, few traveled that way and even fewer seemed to come near there, where the rapids were more violent. As such, the location allowed them to be at peace without anyone nosing about or suspecting a bandit base. Haemon supposed that the river could work in their favor if they had to overpower a sorcerer, but he felt doubtful that they would be able to move fast enough. Placing a hand on the hilt of his sword dissuaded his pessimistic thoughts somewhat.

Haemon spotted the dark figure just as Azael did. Their client was cloaked, as Azael had described before, and barely moved as they approached him. The rushing sounds from the river seemed to drown out all other sounds, causing Haemon to wonder if they would even be able to hear him.

“Do you have the pink crystal I asked for?” the cloaked figure asked and despite the loud river, Haemon could hear him as clearly as if they were standing in the middle of the plains.

“I might,” Azael answered shortly, “but I’ve got a problem with you spying on us. How did you know Haemon had gotten it?” The figure’s head moved as if he were laughing.

“You idiots don’t know anything about that crystal, do you?” he asked in an amused tone. “We haven’t been able to feel that crystal for some time now...but as soon as we felt it return, we were able to find its location and knew that you must have gotten it. Strange that some filthy little bandits were able to get their hands on it but not even the highest of sorcerers could...But no matter, we are very pleased. You will get your reward, as promised. Seems your clan needs it, anyway.”

“You keep saying ‘we,’” Haemon spoke up. “What do you mean?”

“My master, of course, was the one who sent me for the crystal. He would not deem to lower himself to such dealings. Now, stop stalling and give me the crystal.”

Azael jerked his head slightly to the left, a subtle indication to Haemon that there was going to be a scuffle. Languidly, Haemon moved his hand to rest on his sword. “Let’s see payment first, servant,” Azael coolly said.

“Fine.” The cloaked man dug beneath his cloak and threw a large, heavy sack on the ground. There was a distinct jingle of gold coins from within that the two bandits could not help but look at the sack of coins to size up. Their client was getting impatient, however, and repeated, “Now give me the crystal!”

“Actually, I’ve changed my mind,” Azael stated mildly, turning from the sack and reaching beneath his robes to pull out his scimitar. “I’ve decided it’s more valuable than that sack of coins you’re offering. I think I’ll keep it.” Haemon followed him, pulling out his sword. The cloaked man merely laughed at them.

“Really? You think that those puny weapons will be able to protect you? You’ve made a grave mistake, you little idiots.” He raised his hands and there was a sudden flurry of activity as winds tore around them, threatening to lift them up from their feet. Both of them gritted their teeth, crouching against the winds to prevent from being blown away. Just a few moments into these winds, however, something far more terrible arrived. Dark, transparent creatures appeared, shrieking and piercing them with their yellow, glowing eyes. The winds dissipated, but the creatures remained. The sorcerer, for his part, was cackling, calling to them, “Get that crystal from them, my pets!”

As one of the creatures swung towards Azael, he made a swipe at it with his sword and it squealed, bursting into dark particles all over him. He swore, backing away and shaking his arms where the particles seemed to be eating at his robes. He tore the robes off and they disintegrated into nothingness. He and Haemon exchanged a look of terror. Neither of them wanted to kill another of those things just to have their bodies eaten away by the dark particles. Another creature went careening towards Haemon and he instinctively slashed at it and then, horrified, he went running in the opposite direction as it exploded. He felt the burn of the particles even though they hadn’t touched him. What the fuck are those? he wondered, reminded grimly of the hideous creatures in the Yarvuul Woods.

There was another gust of wind that had them locked into place again. They wouldn’t be able to fight against the creatures without their particles splashing over them or blowing away into them. Just as a group of the creatures came blowing towards them, the wind abruptly stopped and a bright light lit them up, surrounding them where they squealed and screamed in pain before there was a flash and they were simply gone.

“The hell?” Azael muttered, looking around. The sorcerer whirled around, snarling, and his hand went out, a shot of green light exploding on the ground. Where he had struck sizzled, as if a bolt of lightning had hit there.

There was a movement beside the two bandits and Haemon glanced to the side to see Rania standing there, surprising him. “What are you doing just standing there?” she snapped. “Run!” Her voice startled him into action. Without waiting, he grabbed Azael’s arm and yanked him away from the river, up towards the cliff. Glancing back, he saw the sorcerer make a move to follow them, but Rania swept an arm in front of him and he was thrown off his feet and towards the steep cliff overhanging the river.

This cannot be Fynn, Rania thought as the sorcerer struggled to his feet. He had clearly drained most of his magic reserves with summoning those creatures of his and he wasn’t carrying a staff. This must be one of his servants. She stretched out her fingers and the sorcerer was taken off his feet so he was floating a few feet above the ground, gasping and clutching at his chest as if he were having heart palpitations. She let him crumple to the ground after she had drained his magic reserves and then walked to where he was attempting to sit up, coughing and gasping. Pulling back the hood of his cloak, she felt a spark of shock at the youthful appearance. The sorcerer couldn’t have been older than twenty, if that. Grasping him at the front of his cloak, she pulled him forward so he was facing her. “You have some explaining to do, boy.”

“My magic reserves...drained...monster...,” he mumbled incoherently.

“Did I ask you for a summary of what I did?” she spat angrily. “Are you a servant of Fynn?”

The boy was dying. He had drained his own reserves too quickly for his body to catch up and with her completing the drain, his body was unable to sustain their functions. Blood began to drip from his mouth and his head shook from side to side as he mumbled, “Servant? My master...master...”

Disgusted, she tossed him to the ground and he lay there mumbling to himself for some time before he went quiet and still. Rania tried to rein in her anger, but it was difficult. She had never had a reason to do so before, but knew that she would have to face Haemon to explain what had just happened. She flicked a look down at the sorcerer and felt a sliver of pity. He really was young and yet he had been so confident in his own abilities against the bandits. He had still been weak as a sorcerer, though. After searching him and finding not even a letter from his master, she decided to save the bandits the trouble and to take care of his body. She extended a hand so that his body lifted up and she went to the steep cliff, holding the body above the rushing river. She closed her hand and the body fell down into the darkened depths, where it was swallowed up and carried away.

Turning away from the river, Rania followed where Haemon had been running, trekking the hillside cliff and finding Haemon and Azael standing, waiting for her. “I thought I told you to run,” she said flatly.

“There was no reason, you obviously overpowered him,” Haemon answered, unbothered by her tone. “What are you even doing here? I thought I’d left you in Jorlaan.”

“I had to track you here and thank the gods I did otherwise look what would have happened.” She gestured towards the river to indicate what she meant. “That crystal – do you still have it?”

“Don’t think I’m giving it to you,” Azael said, casting her a mistrustful look, grasping his scimitar a bit more tightly.

Her anger flared up and her eyes shot daggers at him. “If you would like, I can throw you into the river, as well. This is not my idea of being grateful and given what has just happened, I do not think we have time for such inane behavior. If I had wanted the crystal, I could have killed you and stolen it.” Azael glared back at her, but did not answer, refusing to be shamed into submission by a magic user. Rania held his gaze obstinately, her dark eyes sparking from the remnants of her rush to their aid.

“Enough, both of you,” Haemon snapped, raising his hands and stepping between them. “We don’t have time for this. Obviously you came looking for me for a reason, so it must be because of that crystal.”

“Yes,” she confirmed, glancing to Haemon, “but you are friend seems to mistrust my intentions here. Also, I am not so sure he should be holding it.” She pointed at the pocket in his leather armor where the crystal was sitting. Azael bristled indignantly, but chose to remain silent rather than initiate another argument.

Haemon sighed, rubbing the back of his head. “Listen, I realize you both got off to a bad start, but we’ve got a mess on our hands, so let’s just go back to the base, yeah?”

“Alright, fine,” Azael said after a long silence. “I don’t want to stand out here in the open anyway.” He led the way back to the base while Haemon and Rania followed more slowly. Rania glanced at Haemon and eyed him over thoughtfully. He seemed unharmed, but she could tell that he was stressed by the way his face was drawn. She wondered if she looked like that.

Once they got inside the base, they went directly into Azael’s room and he shut the door securely behind them so they would remain undisturbed. Azael collapsed at the chair next to his table, rubbing his face wearily. In spite of his attitude, Haemon could tell that the close call to death had shaken him badly and was the primary reason for his harsh words. He couldn’t account for Rania, who had been collected both times he had met her, but he noticed that she was making an effort to at least alter her outward expression to one of calm. Haemon sat on the bed, heaving another sigh, while Rania settled against the door. “Well, I really do owe you two favors now,” Haemon said with a slight laugh. Rania blinked and to his relief laughed, shaking her head. Her laughter seemed to stir Azael from his gloomy thoughts as he glanced up at her.

“It seems this is going to start becoming a thing,” she remarked with a wry smile.

“I hope not,” Haemon said. “Two life and death encounters like that is enough to last me a lifetime.”

“But while we have this, I wonder if we’re going to have more of them,” Azael said, pulling out the crystal and setting it on the table. It seemed as though it were winking at them innocently, truly looking as though it were nothing more than a rock.

“They can track where it’s at, at least by a general area,” Haemon murmured, “so they’ll know we have it for a while. And I’m sure they’re going to find out that their sorcerer isn’t alive here soon, too.” He turned away from the crystal, uncomfortable with looking at it. “But I think you had something to tell us, Rania?”

“Right.” She straightened up off the door and pulled a satchel from beneath her robes, opening it and pulling out a book. “I was going through those papers and the sketchbook that I took from the room and found out some things that were rather...revealing.” She moved to the table and opened up the sketchbook, flipping through the pages. Haemon stood up to join her and Azael at the table, standing behind her with a hand on his waist. She stopped at a page and tapped the sketches. “Look. Alastair had sketched the pink crystal and put a list of attributes that he thinks is related to the crystal. On the next six pages, he has other sketches of crystals, too, but they’re different. He hasn’t written as much about them, but he does give them colours.” She flipped through the other pages to show them the sketches. “In one of the letters, they call them ‘mineral forces.’ This crystal was found next to a girl named Celina that Alastair’s brother and someone named Reginald is taking care of.” She turned slightly to look at Haemon, who was only a bit taller than her. “Do either of those names sound familiar to you?”

“Hmm...” Haemon reached past her and pulled the sketchbook forward, flipping backwards, to peer at the notes that Alastair had scribbled beside the sketch of the pink crystal. Paranoia, mind-possession? was written on one line while weather control, based on emotions? was tagged on another. Alastair was clearly unsure of the crystal’s abilities himself. He handed the sketchbook to Azael and then leaned back, suddenly aware of how little space was between him and this strange, unknown woman. “Celina doesn’t sound like anyone I’ve heard about, but Reginald...I feel like I’ve heard about him before...Any other names mentioned?”

“Yes, they all seem to be concerned about a sorcerer named Fynn. I would be unsurprised if that was your client all along.”

“Fynn? You’re joking, right?”

“Not in the least. Is he well known?”

“Fynn is the court sorcerer,” Azael intercepted for his friend, setting the sketchbook back on the table and raising an eyebrow at Rania. “You don’t keep up with politics or something?”

“He cannot have been court sorcerer for long,” Rania said with a frown.

“He hasn’t. The old court sorcerer was hanged because the king was accusing him of corruption and believed he was using dark magic to ruin Sorra. But things kept happening even after that one was killed and Fynn appeared out of nowhere, suddenly court sorcerer. Then, with all the chaos, Fynn handpicked sorcerers to protect the lords, all except for Alastair.”

“From what I read, Alastair seems to have the High Duke of Jorlaan under some sort of enchantment with some potions. But nothing I read went into detail on Fynn except that he was their rival in all of this. Does anyone know anything about him?”

“Nobody around here and not from my sources,” Azael grunted. “I have spies in all corners of Sorra, but Fynn seems to be off limits. How he got there, when he got there, where he even came from is all a mystery. Which, don’t get me wrong, nobody knew much about the old court sorcerer – that group is pretty secretive – but his appearance in the midst of all this chaos is...odd.”

Rania seemed to be contemplating this seriously for a moment. While she became engrossed in whatever thought had caught her mind, Haemon said to Azael, “All of that aside, we have a more pressing problem. What are we going to do with this crystal? It’s not safe here and we can’t risk everyone else getting involved in this.”

“I agree...,” Azael concurred, his answer slow in coming. His eyes turned to Rania, who did not appear as if she had followed their conversation closely. “I was thinking that the sorceress could take it off our hands for us. That gold got scattered all over the place, we might be able to pick some up out there.”

“I thought you said it was too valuable?”

“It is, but not valuable to a thief, Haemon. I don’t want that thing here. We can’t use it and we can’t protect it.”

“I am unable to use it, either,” Rania said, stirred from her reverie, “and there is no means for me to protect it. Even if we returned it to the portal room that we had found it, I am not sure it would be safe there anymore. I could try, but I imagine Alastair will have noticed its absence by the time I return to Jorlaan.”

“Then just give it back to him to take care of.”

“Somehow I do not see him as taking this theft so lightly,” she replied skeptically. “The thought of a thief stealing it for a bit and then returning it when it has become too dangerous is likely to set him on edge. If he sensed the crystal, he would kill first before questioning us.”

“You’re strong enough that you could hold him off and weaken him to explain it,” Azael flippantly told her, waving a hand. “You’re being deliberately uncooperative.”

Haemon’s gaze swept over Rania’s face when she remained silent at Azael’s accusation and could see a hint of doubt in her expression. He was reminded of the stark fear she had shown while in the Yarvuul Woods and suspected that she was faced with a similar dilemma. While stronger than either Haemon or Azael in that she possessed such abilities, Haemon was beginning to think that Rania knew she was still weak for the most part; it was a strange thing to realize that she was aware of her own inability to face a sorcerer like Alastair and that she had no desire to either admit nor deny her own strength. Haemon had made the mistake of depending on her powers before, too.

“Maybe we can find a way to get around this without fighting Alastair,” Haemon suggested when neither of them spoke for a time. Rania turned her gaze to him questionably and Azael merely raised an eyebrow, encouraging him to continue. “Alastair has to come to Jorlaan sometime...and when he does, we can approach him or set something up where we accidentally run into him.”

“But what if he senses the crystal?” Azael cut in promptly. “Is there some way that we can leave it without it being attached to you two?”

“I don’t think so...I think that thing has a mind of its own. It felt like it was trying to move in my pouch when I was riding here.”

“I felt the same way while it was in my armor.”

“That must be why Alastair had it on that disc,” Rania said, tapping her chin with her knuckles. “But what is it trying to get to? That is quite unusual...”

“That’s none of our business,” Azael told her. “If you want to try following the damn thing, be my guest, but bandits aren’t out to mess with magic rocks. We’re not built up for that.”

“Yes, very well, apologies for mentioning it.” Rania held up her hands as a sign of surrender and before she dropped them, Haemon saw a flash of jewels on her gauntlets. His brow puckered, curious as to the strangely impractical addition to her armor. “The best thing we can do at this time is to approach him when he is unable to attack us and we are able to ascertain whether we will be at risk after we deposit the crystal.”

“So, in public? He’ll be with the duke.”

“Now that we know Alastair is controlling him, the High Duke is little to no danger.”

“Seems reasonable enough, I guess...” Azael drummed his fingers on the table as quick thoughts ran through his mind. He glanced up at Haemon. “Well? What do you think? Are you up to this?”

“Me?” Haemon repeated, raising his eyebrows. “Why am I being volunteered for this?”

“Because I don’t do this type of field work anymore and I’m not sending some blundering idiot for this type of job. Besides, I’d feel more comfortable with you working with her than anyone else. They’re rather prejudiced, especially Darrin and Tia.”

“Okay, fine, fine! I guess I’ll go pack, then!”

“That’s probably a good idea.”