Jadon looked in through the window. He could feel the blood rushing to his head as he leaned over the gutter to get a better angle. If Icetop was right, the vial was somewhere inside this building. He pulled himself back up onto the roof. He already knew where his entrance point was, this last check was more to see if anything had been moved since he had last looked in the night prior. The owner of the shop at the ground floor had not been seen for a couple days, which likely meant he wouldn’t be returning for at least that long; the Morrian Frosts would see to that.

Jadon was satisfied with the lack of life within the run-down, weather-beaten building. He stood up fully and stretched out, shaking off the cold as he looked out over the curling rows of the Coindrain Streets. He kicked off some stray ice still clinging to his boots and walked over to a hatch on the other side of the tiled roof. He took out his knife from the sheath hidden by his belt and got to work chipping away the ice that had sealed the hatch closed. He wasn’t able to get all of the ice off, but the leverage he gained from pulling on the metal handle allowed him to prise the hatch open enough to slide his slim frame through and into the attic.

It wasn’t much darker than outside in the night, however the cover from the wind allowed Jadon to start warming up his extremities as he crept around, looking for a route to the lower levels.

The building was old, like most in the city, but it was also built well to shelter from the elements. Tall and thin, huddled in with the other shops along the Coindrain Streets, organisation was second to warmth. Everything was second to warmth in this corner of the world.

The attic was empty, save for numerous rolls of fabric. Jadon pushed a hand into one roll, it was woollen. A good enough insulation against the cold. Nothing of value hidden up here though. He slid his feet across the wooden floorboards as he searched in the dark, until they caught on something. He felt down and, sure enough, there was a latch to pull open a trapdoor. A thick cloud of dust forced Jadon to stifle a cough and cover his eyes as he lifted the trapdoor up and revealed the dim interior of the main building below.

Jadon lowered himself gently down onto the dark blue carpet. Even in the silence, it would be hard to make out any noise coming from his small figure and light footsteps. He was well practiced and his size only added to his success at being undetected. He wasn’t too old, he guessed he was somewhere in his early twenties, so there wasn’t much chance for him to grow into a more intimidating person. He just had to make do with what he had been given. And with what he took.

He passed his eyes quickly over the corridor, it probably was well decorated a while ago, but had gathered a layer of dust on the collected clutter lining the floor and any level surface sturdy and large enough to hold more containers. Jars of all sorts were stacked higher than Jadon could reach on one side of the corridor as he walked to the nearest door. One his left was a small pile of discarded leather pouches. One had opened and a suspicious purple funghi had made its way up the nearest wall.

Jadon made his way down through the building’s multiple levels, the corridor, staircase and rooms all thin and cramped, whilst also being very tall. Some stacks of hoarded junk seemed to have settled into their top-heavy weight, the items towards the bottom buckling under the pressure of the sagging piles. Jadon creaked open a final door and the decoration changed dramatically. The lack of light in the rest of the building was replaced by finely carved sconces lining the walls, each presenting a deep blue everflame. That didn’t help the temperature, but at least Jadon could see what he was doing now. He had stepped out from the back of the house and onto the shopfloor, currently standing behind the counter and looking out at the small, yet meticulously organised array of items for sale. The large glass shopfront windows were hidden by heavy blue curtains, yet the small window embedded in the front door of the store showed Jadon that the snow of the night had begun whilst he was searching upstairs and had already whipped itself into something he would really rather not have to walk in after he was done here.

He got to work, searching each shelf for his prize, turning over every glass container he could, looking for the vial with the name and description he had been given from Icetop. On one of the shelves nearly touching the floor, pushed right at the back, was a tiny stoppered vial of what looked like two liquids, incapable of truly mixing. There was a deep red tone, swirling around a golden substance. Jadon gave the vial a small shake out of curiosity and the liquids swirled yet stayed separate, like oil and water.

“The store is unfortunately closed for business, my boy.”

Jadon snapped his head around to where the voice had come from. Stowing the vial and pulling out his dagger, he looked across the counter to the open door leading back into the messy corridor. A middle-aged man stood, leaning a shoulder on the door frame. Deep black hair cut short, matching his neat, black suit. Every item of clothing he wore was black, which contrasted his deep green eyes, no pupils, yet Jadon could feel the stare meeting and matching his own. The man had a slight smirk across his porcelain, white skin.

“The city guard are already on their way,” the man said, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him with his foot, “I recommend you return whatever it was you pocketed and I’ll let you off the hook. No harm done.”

He held out his hand, standing behind the counter as calmly and naturally as a shopkeeper would for a customer.

Jadon weighed his options. The city guard were quick in this area of the city, considering the number of shops and its proximity to the higher class districts. He wasn’t a fighter, he was quick but if the guards saw his face, he was done for. They would be able to track him down anywhere in the city. He didn’t have magic to help him. Pick your battles and fight another day, he thought pulling the vial out and stepping towards the man to hand it over. He paused. But what about Darroreck? The guards are bad, but if he found out I had the vial and gave it over willingly… Jadon went to put the vial back in his pouch but it wasn’t in his hand anymore. The man, a good few feet from him still, had somehow snatched it from his grasp without him noticing.

“How did y-”

“Pleased to do business with you, my boy.”

The man hurdled the counter and barrelled through one of the curtained windows, protecting himself from the spray of glass. A burst of cold air rushed in to meet Jadon, still standing stunned at the turn of events. The sounds of raised voices shook him free. Guards. He took off through the window after the green-eyed man.

The wind had picked up while Jadon was inside. He pulled up his mask and hood to keep the cold momentarily off his face, as well as to avoid giving away his identity to the small group of guards that were appearing from one end of the street. He scanned the ground, found the quickly disappearing footprints and gave chase.

Before he reached the end of the street, the footprints abruptly vanished. Thinking as if he were the one running from a pursuer, he grabbed hold of the closest window ledge and shot up the side of the building, urgency allowing him to give little care to the hazardous ice.

Atop the roofs once more Jadon searched the city skyline, difficult to do at night, let alone with a snow storm building. One good thing about the other man’s dramatic outfit choice was that he stood out against the snow. Two streets over, he was just dropping out of view once more, the slanted roofs giving decent cover from onlookers. Jadon snatched a glance behind at the guards who were beginning to gain on his position.

Even in the desperate situation, he grinned. This was what he loved. The chase.

Finding purchase in the building layers of snow, Jadon hurtled across the roofs, knowing where the narrowest portions of the streets were to jump across and not only keep pace but gain on the man. The thief. He stole what was rightfully Jadon’s. Perhaps not rightfully, but Jadon had earned it. Now he was going to take it back.

Jadon, even with the wind whipping around him as he ran, could hear the other man’s laboured breathing. He was so close. If only he could just reach out and-

The two collided together, sliding across a thankfully flatter roof than many of the other buildings. Jadon rolled onto his feet as he slid, stopping right at the edge of the roof. The other man chuckled to himself and slowly got to his feet as well, brushing off the worst of the snow, even as more took its place.

“You’re quick,” he said.

“Give it back,” Jadon replied, taking a step towards him.

“Please,” the man held out a hand, “at least give me a chance to get my breath back. I’m not used to weather this far south.”

“That’s not my problem.”

“I honestly don’t know why you people live here. It sucks. It really does.”

“Shut up and hand it over.”

“Who said I was going to hand anything over?” The man stuck his hands in his pockets to warm them up. “You’re quick, sure. But do you really think you can take anything from me by force?”

“Do you want to take that risk?”

“To be honest, no. It isn’t something I take pleasure in. Violence.”

Jadon took another step closer, running out of patience. Before his foot had even touched back down on snow, the man had thrown out a handful of metal filings from his pocket. They were snatched by the wind immediately, right into Jadon’s open eyes.

“Don’t follow.”

The man started running once more. Jadon tried to see which way he went but could barely open his eyes for the pain of the tiny shards of metal scraping under his eyelids. He grabbed handfuls of snow and rammed them into his face, trying to wipe off the worst of it. He couldn’t let this man get away.

He managed to open his eyes enough to see through the tears. His vision was blurry but he could make out a dark shape running quickly down at the street level. I’ve got you now, Jadon thought, keeping his vantage point up high and running to maintain his distance from the man. The man was running with a slight limp, Jadon noticed. Perhaps he had tripped or landed badly on his way back down to ground level? He did say that he wasn’t used to the cold.

The guards had long lost the two of them, but even with his raw eyes, Jadon would not lose this man. Curiously, however, he was not running to any area that would keep a safehouse, or to one of the gates out of the city. Instead, he was running to the mines.

There was little Jadon could do if the man went in there. Even this potion wasn’t worth following into the mines.

Jadon kept up high and waited. The man approached the high stone wall blocking the mines off from the rest of this portion of the city. Only one way in or out and that gate was guarded at any given moment. Apparently, this man was going to try and scale the wall.

Jadon began to smirk at the stupidity of the idea, right before the man put his hand into a small pouch on his belt and pulled something out that he couldn’t make out. A tiny spark, like blue fire, cracked out from the man’s hand and suddenly he was on top of the wall. He looked down, directly at Jadon, cocking his head slightly. Jadon’s eyes had begun to recover from the metal splinters, the tears and snow wiping most of it out. He blinked up at the person he had believed to be the man. For a moment he thought it might not have been him at all, but as he blinked once more, another crack and the man was gone.

Jadon dropped himself down to the street. There had been no guards chasing for a while so he would be pretty safe walking back home without being concerned of getting arrested.

He made it three steps back the way he came when a blue flash burst behind him; like the crackling of the man’s hands, but larger, large enough to light up the snowy night. Jadon spun around as the large wall had great cracks ripping through it from the ground. He took a few steps back to avoid the falling rubble as the wall crumbled and collapsed in front of him, some of the larger chunks tearing through the roof of one of the nearer buildings. The collapse did not end there. The ground fell in on itself, a huge sinkhole spreading out from within the mines as they collapsed from somewhere beneath Jadon. He thought about running to keep from falling in, but he was too stunned at what was happening to move his feet.

Thankfully, the sinkhole stopped a couple buildings shy of where Jadon was standing. Unfortunately, it cut off his escape route as every guard in the immediate area came to see what had happened and saw Jadon, the lone frozen figure, staring out at the carnage.