When morning came, Lewis and Chris went out to go shopping early while Tal slept in.

Mun was making me a list of things she wanted me to buy in the city. She had wanted to give the list to Lewis and Chris, but they had left before she had woken up, so it was now up to me to buy them for her.

Because of her Spirit eyes, we thought it best to have her stay inside the house, at least in the mornings.

With her list in hand, I left with Lorelei to head around the city.

“Where should we go first, you think? Maybe around the Higher Central first?” Lorelei suggested.

“Sounds like a good place to start as any.”

Most of the items in her list were either foods or drinks so the markets about the Higher Central or the one near the city center should have them.

“What’s the first item on the list?” Lorelei asked.

I showed Lorelei the list, “First one’s crab claws. She wanted me to make sure to only get the claws.”

“Did she say why?”

I shook my head. I didn’t even think to question it.

We stopped at the first shop in front of us. Scanning his items, we couldn’t find anything crab related on display.

“Wha’cha looking fer? If it be bread of any kind, my shop be here for ye,” the old shop owner claimed.

“We’re— I mean, I’m looking for a crab claw. Just the claw.”

“Crab claw, eh? You won’t find any in Higher Central, crabs are sold mostly in the lower districts down by the city central, I say.”

“Thanks, mister.”

“No problem. Stay out of trouble now, okey?”

I turned to head towards the city center.

Lorelei asked, “Do you want to see what else is on that list before we head down there?”

“Good point,” I checked the list once again. I didn’t see any bread related items in the list. There were some things like eggs and milk that I could see in the shops over here, but they would be too hard to carry around while looking for other items.

While glancing around the shops in the Higher Central, I saw the familiar red cloak. It was the thief boy.

“Lorelei, there’s that thief,” I pointed out.

I quickly moved through the crowd towards the boy. He had his back to us and was slowly walking up the hills outside the Higher Central.

Suddenly, he turned around and noticed me. Realizing that I was heading straight for him, he ran down the alleyway closest to him.

“I can catch up to him!” Lorelei yelled as she began flying faster towards the boy.

As long as she had her eyes on him, even if he got far enough from me, I would still be able to find him again. Good thing for that too as the boy maneuvered around multiple crowded streets and went around all kinds of alleyways.

For a kid, he was very fast, and his stamina seemed even better than mine. As a trained knight, I felt embarrassed at that fact.

“Din, over here!”

We were near the city center now and I had lost vision of the boy. I looked over to Lorelei, who was hovering high so I could easily spot her.

“He went down this way!”

I nodded to myself. Only a little bit further, I thought.

We went into the alleyway; it was a dead end.

There were some boxes and barrels lying around. Dirty ripped up bags and puddles of water all over the floor.

“He must be in one of the barrels,” Lorelei suggested.

I didn’t want to risk getting too close so rather than opening each barrel, I kicked the closest barrel, knocking it on its side.

From inside the barrel, a voice screamed in pain. The lid opened and the thief boy exited the barrel.

“You found me…” he said. He then turned straight towards me and that was when I noticed that he had Spirit eyes.

“A Spirit,” Lorelei gasped.

“You’re a Spirit?” I asked.

He appeared surprised at the word, “Spirit? Is this what this is?!” He took off his hood and then pointed at his eyes.

The boy had black hair that was a little too long for a boy, it reached down to his shoulders.

“You! Do you know what these eyes are?” He asked.

Lorelei suggested, “I think we should tell him.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on now, but I nodded.

He looked relieved, “I suddenly got these eyes a few weeks back and I didn’t know what was going on… what are they?”

“They’re called Spirit eyes, it’s a really long story that’ll have to wait. I have a friend that wants to talk to you since you stole his pouch from him,” I mentioned.

The kid began scratching the back of his head, “Damn it, I almost forgot.”

“What?”

“You guys shouldn’t be in this city,” he warned. “Crowell, the governor of this city, he has something. Some kind of power…”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Around two weeks ago, Crowell got the power to control people and now everyone in this town is under his control! You have to get out of here before he controls you too!” He warned.

“That must be it,” Lorelei pointed out. “The reason why you and Chris thought Tal and Lewis were acting so strange!”

“We have to let the others know,” I suggested before turning to leave the alleyway.

My heart sank when I noticed the guards at the end of the alleyway.

“W-what’s the problem?” I tried acting as normal as I could.

“We overheard you two kids. We’re going to take you two in,” one of the guards spoke.

I turned around and then noticed that the kid had already fled. I was too close to the guards to start climbing over the dead-end wall.

I was trapped.