The nervous old man wavered. With the city distracted, it was the perfect opportunity to stage a heist like this. Of course, it wasn't his idea to steal what he had stolen; rather he was coerced into it. He clutched in his arms a scroll, that radiated magnificent magic power, he took a left at a dark alley separating the First and Third Districts. He wiped the sweat from his brow and waited.

He prayed to his god, She-whose-back-shelters-us, that with this crime, with this betrayal to his profession, his most beloved granddaughter would be saved. Surely the gods would understand his treachery, right?

“Well Done, Magistrate,” said a masked man, appearing from the shadows. He was accompanied by a similarly-masked woman. “Well done.”

“I did what you told me to." The Magistrate shakily handed over the scroll to the masked man. "Now, lift the curse on my granddaughter!” He demanded.

"You're in no position to demand, lowly scum." The masked men kicked the elderly man in the stomach, making him grovel.

"I did what you asked of me. What more do you want?" He gasped, coughing blood.

The Order of Kuusai agent stooped down to the ground, grabbing the Magistrate by the collar bringing his bloodied face closer to his masked one. "Break it."

"B-break it?!" The old man asked, scandalized. "I... I..."

The agent brandished a knife. "Well?"

"Fine."

The old man was let go, and he immediately took the scroll in his hand. He chanted silently, and the scroll consumed itself in flame.

"Excellent." The other man said.

"T-the deal?" the Magistrate pleaded.

The masked man turned to a similarly masked woman next to him. “Mistweaver?”

The girl named Mistweaver waved her hands in the air, as if drawing an impossibly light ribbon from a spool. Then, she cut at the air, tearing the imaginary ribbon with an equally imaginary knife.

“It is done. She is fine.”

“Thank the gods," The Magistrate said. “I can go now, right?”

“What do you say, Mistweaver? He did help us out.”

“But at what cost?” She replied. "You're being too soft on him, Morningstar."

“Good point.”

Morningstar moved towards the magistrate, who could not possibly have cowered in fear any more. “Don’t thank your gods just yet, old man.”

“N-no… please! I’ll keep quiet!” He begged for mercy.

“I don’t know… You did just break an Oath, didn’t you?” Morningstar teased.

“I… I swear on the gods!” The man gestured towards the heavens.

“Wrong answer," Morningstar drove his knife to the old man’s back, instantly killing him.

“There are no gods. And this is why Shin Rikoku’s hubris must end.”

-

Yuuichi thought quick, recalling all the scenarios he had prepared for prior to departing the palace. If he and Lady Katagiri were together should the princess be abducted, their first action would be to placate the crowd by making it seem the abduction was part of festivities. He looked at Hanayo, who was already preparing for the same scenario, extracting a vial from the folds of her dress and dropping it at her feet. As the vial hit the ground, it exploded into a multicoloured cloud of smoke, followed by a rumbling sound. The onlookers turned their attention to the cloud, and even the musicians had stopped playing. When the smoke cleared, Yuriko emerged with a flourish, to the immense satisfaction of the crowd. Or rather, it was an illusion of the princess superimposed on Hanayo’s body. She would act as a decoy for the crowd as Yuuichi looked for the real Lady Watanabe.

Yuuichi tried to stand up. His feet were entangled in some sort of metallic rope, which he had to undo to get up. He closed his eyes, hoping that Yuriko would be able to do the thing he asked her to do should something bad happen to her.

He anticipated, and finally felt the jolt of spellcraft connecting to him. His mind’s eye drew a line between him and the princess’ location, and he only needed to follow it. He leaped into the air, making footholds in the air with magic as he did, allowing him to jump from invisible bridge to invisible bridge, higher and higher into the air. The ribbon guiding him was pointing into the ground, moving at remarkable speeds, faster than he could keep up. The child who had abducted her, Yuuichi deduced, was an Earth Affinate, a gifted individual who had some control of the ground.

They were heading to the opposite side of town, making a quick detour into the riverbank. This gave Yuuichi much cause for concern. What would happen if they crossed the district limit? Lady Watanabe is physically unable to leave the First District because of the Oath that binds her to the palace. Yuuichi feared for the worst: it would mean that she would be crushed by the force of rock and a magical wall. Panic set in, and Yuuichi began to scramble. He poured all the strength he could muster into his legs, quickening the pace with which he set up his footholds. He was losing ground. He had to go faster. Faster, faster, faster…

And then the inevitable happened. The timing of his foot had missed the timing of him setting up his foothold, and he slipped, losing his balance fifteen feet in the air. There was no time for a spell to call the air to slow his fall. There was no time to be falling. He had to move forward, he had to save Lady Watanabe. The air rushed to meet him on his way down. In a blink of an eye, he was nearly touching the ground. So near that he could almost feel the impending impact, the gush of air, the almost supernatural warmth of whatever came close to him…

This gave him pause. He had stopped falling, and was instead being hoisted up into the air by his coat - rising from the ground, and more importantly, moving forward. He looked up, and saw that the back of his coat was being held up by the beak of a giant vermillion bird, its wings leaving embers in the air as they flapped.

“Lord Morimoto disappoints again," said a voice from behind the bird. Yuuichi craned his neck to see, and he was greeted by the disapproving leer of Lady Hibana, riding the giant bird on its back.

“How did you know something happened?” yelled Yuuichi, straining against the wind as the bird flew forward.

“Do you honestly think I’ll let the likes of you and ghost-girl handle the welfare of my best friend? Of course I had something ready in case anything happened.”

Yuuichi was more taken aback by her description of Lady Katagiri as “ghost-girl” than the implied incompetence on his part. “We have to stop them from crossing the First District!” he yelled back.

“I know that, idiot!” she replied, urging her bird forward. “We’re closing in on them. Can you do something about that underground thing they’re doing?”

Yuuichi was somewhat confused about how Lady Hibana was able to determine exactly where Lady Watanabe was, but paid it no mind. “I’m on it, just make sure to drop me right on top of them!” He bellowed back. A glowing circle appeared next to the palm of his hand as he readied his magic. He concentrated hard, bracing himself for the eventual drop.

Retribution of the Heavens,

Crash upon the belligerent Earth

Spiral in from the mouths of chaos

Strike the four clashing winds

Let hundreds of birds cry out

Only to be stilled

“I’M DROPPING YOU NOW!” Sakurako hoped she had cut through his concentration, instructing her bird to let go of Yuuichi. Yuuichi dropped like a rock, forty feet below him, where his connection to the princess was pointing straight down.

“STRIKE! SPEAR OF THE SKY LORD!” Yuuichi shouted as he felt the bird’s grip slack, bringing down his hand as if hurling something. From behind him, a giant strike of lightning crashed into the Earth, forming a crater, and exposing the child and the princess from the ground. Yuriko was bracing herself, unaware of the grayish bubble that spared her the brunt of the impact. On her wrist, the bracelet turned to ash.

Yuuichi slowed himself down into the ground, landing in between the abductor and the princess. They were barely at the border of the First District, quite close to the riverbank. Nearby, Sakurako had landed her bird, which disappeared in a plume of fire. Yuuichi prepared another spell, this time, to apprehend the boy as he was regaining his composure. He was about to release the spell when suddenly, a thick metal cable encased his wrist. It was similar to the one that tripped him earlier. He looked at the rope and it was coming from someone standing outside the crater wearing a bone white mask with black markings on it.

“You will not touch my brother, noble scum," said the Order of Kuusai agent.