Rel rummaged through their bag of loot, its contents rattling as his excitement got the better of him. They were safely away from the authorities and back in their home territory, so she didn’t chide him. She flipped through the little book, her keen eyes just able to pick up the dark ink everything had been penned in.

She was looking at a book about magic. The pages she saw contained low level spell circuits – formulaic runes and accent sigils connected together within a circle that could produce wondrous results. If a person had access to aether to power it, anyway.

Perhaps a life they could have had, if things had been different.

“Hey Rel, do you remember Arro?”

“Huh?” He looked up from his enthusiastic looting. “Oh yeah, the animal-loving kid that Awakened? Wanted to save the broken bird so much an Esper found him, made a deal with him that gave him Jade magic. That one?”

“Yeah,” Shaya replied, continuing to flip through the pages, trying to tie spell circuits she saw to abilities her mothers or their group of friends had displayed.

Cocking his head at her distracted response, Rel looked over at the book she was looking through. “Ah Hells Shay, you’re not thinking about what could have been again, are you?”

“Well, what if it happened to one of us? Arro was adopted by some high born days after he Awakened.”

“Yeah, days he basically spent unconscious, because he couldn’t figure out how to stop shooting magic out his ass, which nearly killed him.”

“I bet I could handle it better. I’ve studied the legends, I even saw mom and her friends work magic regularly.”

“Yeah, sure, I’m sure everyone thinks that, sis.” He turned his attention back to the loot, eying each gem as if it would be the last he might ever hold. “What makes you think an Esper would even want to bond with you?”

“Uh, I’m pretty awesome? I mean, we just robbed a mage without a hitch.”

“Except for that little chase there.”

“Yeah, but we didn't get disintegrated by any wards or caught by any Imperials. That’s the real win here.”

“Sure. Let’s not exaggerate this mage’s power though – they clearly suck. It’s not like we actually bypassed any wards or had a duel of wits with sphynx guardians or something.”

“Bah, nay-sayer.”

“How about you temper your dreams a bit – maybe just aim to be the next Archon? Or just a wizard. Hells, if you become a good enough thief, maybe you can steal enough spellbooks and aethercyte to actually become one.”

Keen ears twitching, she reached over and clamped down on his hands. “Hey, you got your tur-”

“Shh.”

Head turning, Shaya focused on a commotion coming their direction from a block away or more.

“Hey foxy lady – where ya going?” The smooth voice belonged to a familiar young man. Skirts swished as footsteps quickened, followed by others walking fast to close the distance. “Hey! I’m talking to you!”

Not in my turf, motherfuckers.

“Rel, we’ve got incoming. Sounds like Jikni and some of his thugs are going after a girl in our gang’s territory.”

“That’s not your job anymore, therefore not our problem,” he whispered back, heat entering his young voice, “We can’t risk this haul again!”

“I’m not going to let them hurt her,” Shaya’s eyes narrowed as she turned back to her brother, “It’s not what mom would have done.”

“Mom’s dead!” Rel shot back, voice barely a whisper anymore, “And it’s that stupid thinking that got her there! Besides, you don’t want to help that person – you just want to put yourself in another dangerous situation to trigger an Awakening!”

"I’m not going to live the rest of my life on the streets, Rel!” Shaya growled back, temper flaring as the old argument resurfaced. She stabbed a finger at the towering spires in the distance, “I’m not going to live the life they intended for me. They’re going to respect us and our achievements, gods damn it! They’re going to pay for what they did to us!”

They glared at each other for precious seconds, the thugs and their victim drawing closer. She hated her temper. And his! They were always so gods damned quick to anger!

After a breath to compose herself, she continued with a level tone: “Hey, just because we should do the right thing, doesn’t mean we should be stupid about it. I’m not saying we should put us – or this haul – at risk. Okay?”

Her brother glared back at her, but she recognized he was frustrated with his own outburst as well. “Fine. What’s the plan?”

Shaya paused to think it over for a moment, ear still focused on the noises coming their way. More than one thug was trailing the woman, but she couldn’t tell how many despite the closing distance. It would be stupid to walk into another gang’s territory without backup, even just edging into it... but plenty of people were just stupid, so that didn’t preclude the possibility.

Seconds passed and the sounds grew closer. She shook her head to dismiss her hesitation and responded to her brother, “Hawkwatch.”

“You think there’s that many AND you still want to deal with them?”

“Better safe than sorry. Also, chasing us is one thing, but walking into our turf to hurt someone? I don’t think so.”

“Then let me join you. I can do more, you know,” he grumbled.

“I know you can,” she replied, expecting this from him, “but you need to stay with the goods in case things go awry. Get out of here with them, and we can regroup later.”

She saw that he wanted to argue, but both of them could hear the footsteps just a few buildings away. “Fine.” He slung the bag over his shoulder and turned to go.

“Hey,” she said to him, calling his attention back to her, “Slow is smooth.”

“Smooth is fast,” he finished, sighing.

Shaya hopped off the roof and rolled to her feet in a fluid motion, stalking away from the incoming noise and looping around to their backs. The boardwalk creaked as she moved along it, the Jade Sea’s warm waters oozing between cracks in the boards, but none of it could be heard over The Blight’s general groaning as buildings shifted and water lapped against the wood. By the grace of the upper district’s enforcers, lanterns suspended on poles emitted a magical light that cast everything in a grimy shade of green, making the scrap wood all around her look even more decrepit.

Unkept, blonde hair fell into her eyes and she slicked it back again, vowing to cut it the next time she got her hands on a knife. Peeking around the next corner, she saw a hooded girl rush past, her drab cloak billowing, with three young men following a few feet behind. Cursing her luck, Shaya ignored them and continued moving the direction they came from, pausing to peek around that shack’s corner next. Another young man flitted from shadow to shadow, leaning against the corner of each building as he did so.

Amateur. Could you look more suspicious?

Seconds ticked by as she watched him, seeing if anyone else seemed to be entering into her territory. The man looked to have settled into his current shadow, head still stuck around the building’s corner like a sore thumb. He didn’t look around much at all, but did clutch something bulky in one of his hands.

A cat yowled from the direction she came from, followed by another yowl three seconds later.

Time’s up. Go time.

Shaya slid around the corner and her long legs brought her to the rearguard a heartbeat later. The young man was a human, a good foot shorter than her and even skinnier than she was. He started to turn only as she planted her foot next to him, but he didn’t think to cry out in time. She shot a scarred, conditioned fist into his gut with the full weight of her body, driving the air from his lungs. As he doubled over, she grabbed his hair and slammed his head into the wall, dazing him further. Before he could topple to the ground, she twisted again and slugged him across the jaw.

She caught his tunic as he collapsed like a sack of flour, lowering his unconscious body to the ground without a sound. She patted him down, smiled at the clink of coins in his small pouch, then pulled a fist-sized rock from his hand. Shaya tossed the rock between her hands, nodding appreciatively at its balance. Shaya quashed the urge to make a snarky comment to the unconscious body, instead blending back into the shadows and moving towards the invasive thugs and their victim.

Ears twitched as she moved within range of their exchange again.

“Uh oh,” Jikni said, “looks like somebody ran into a dead end. Lost, are we?”

“G-get away from me!” The girl shouted back, Shaya’s eyes widening as she recognized the accent from one of the upper districts. “You don’t want to make my family mad!”

“Hoho! Looks like we got ourselves a lost princess, lads!” The man cackled, “Must be nice to have a loving family. One that will pay a hefty ransom to save you, right?”

Shaya came upon the scene just as the girl whimpered and shrunk away from the two thugs that cornered her against the edge of the docks. The third stood further back, looking Shaya’s way as she approached. He squinted hard into the darkness, but his eyes weren’t nearly as attuned to it as hers was. Being human had its downsides.

“Nalak - is that you? You’re supposed to be-”

He was cut off as Shaya’s thrown rock smashed into the big man’s nose. Cartilage shattered from the impact and he wailed as he fell backwards. Shaya rushed past him as the other two turned towards the noise. Jikni responded faster, so Shaya angled her approach towards his slower, fatter underling and planted a foot in his chest, launching him past the cornered woman and into the dark waters.

“Titan shit!” the leader spat, spinning away from Shaya to get some distance. He sneered as he looked her up and down. “Oh man, you chose so poorly. Get him boys!”

“I’m a girl, dumbass.” Shaya replied frostily, her knuckles popping as she clenched them and fell into a fighting stance. A few feet away, his friend flailed in the water. “And you don’t have any boys left.”

“Nobody screws with the Canal Snakes!” He pulled a long shiv from his jacket, the brutal thing made from sharpened scrap metal, and lunged at her.

Shaya accepted a shallow cut on her scarred forearm as she deflected the stab and countered with a jab to the side of his head. He rolled with it and lashed out as he backed away from her. She dodged back from the slash and waved at the girl, “Get behind me!”

“No!” Jikni shouted, grabbing the girl’s cloak and yanking her back towards him. “If I can’t have her, no one can!”

The girl’s hood fell, revealing porcelain skin, platinum-coloured eyes and long hair with a metallic, golden sheen. Panic filled her eyes as she was dragged into Jikni’s grip without even fighting back.

She’s a bloody nephilim!?

Shaya lunged forward, wrapping her hand around the shiv’s edge as it went for the girl’s throat. Ignoring the pain, she punched around the girl and into Jikni’s face with her other hand, taking advantage of her unnatural height. The blow didn’t land with much force, but it still broke the thug’s grip and let the girl scramble away from them.

With her out of the way, the two street fighters focused on each other. Shaya let go of the shiv and went on the defensive, Jikni going berserk and launching himself at her. His reckless attacks left him open, but her counter attacks were weak to avoid letting any cuts past her forearms.

“There’s more coming!” The girl shouted from behind her.

The one she kicked into the water clambered to his feet, soaking wet and pulling out a shiv of his own. Behind her, she could hear another thug wheezing heavily as they approached, the sound of a heavy chain rattling as it dragged across the boardwalk.

“I've got you now, you filthy mongrel!” Jikni snarled.

Shaya’s eyes narrowed at the slur. “Now!” she shouted, still parrying Jikni’s slashes as best she could.