Raven learned they weren’t letting her employer leave at least for the night. She left him a message to tell him she was coming back. She wanted to check on her place.

The Keswicks might have found out where she lived and done something to it. She needed to make sure they weren’t loitering in her neighborhood. She could return to the hospital and check on Master Kobach after that.

She wondered if the old woman had been able to get more Glow from the shop they turned into the home of a toxic cloud.

She decided that she wasn’t going to try to take them on. The influence they wielded would crush her. It was better to go underground, or leave town. She didn’t want to do either, but she didn’t see any way she could still messenger for Master Kobach after this.

She hated some old woman could jam up her life.

Raven crossed the city, using the roofs when she could. She crossed lots and jumped fences as fast as possible. Some dogs didn’t like that, but she was already jumping over to the next yard before they caught up with her.

It had been strokes of good luck that Ivanoviska and the shae had helped her. She didn’t know where they had come from, but their help was the only reason Master Kobach was alive.

It was almost like magic.

She paused when she could see her apartment building. No one lurked in the street below from where she stood. Were they in the building?

What was her plan at this point?

She decided the best thing she could do was cross over to her building and check if anyone had broken in. Once she had done that, she could go back to the hospital and wait for Master Kobach to come to his senses. He might not be able to reopen the shop with the amount of damage she had seen.

What would she do then?

She could messenger for the other alchemists. She could run packages for some of the criminal element in the city. She could run packages for some other businesses. She still had some options in the city.

If she left, where would she go?

She didn’t think for a minute she could track Eisen and his adopted problem out of the city. People more dangerous than her were looking for the two after the way he had killed the Sharriff.

And the kid was more dangerous than a drunk’s summons.

And they had no reason to take her in and defy the Keswicks.

She didn’t have anyone else she could turn to if she had to leave. She had no family, no connections, and no job in any other place. She would starve to death looking for work.

Raven descended to the street. She looked around as she ran over to the front door of her building. She slid inside to avoid any problems on the street. She looked and listened.

Everything seemed in place. She looked up the long steps to her landing. Four floors of steps took her up in the gloom.

She went to her door and opened it with her key. She pushed the door open and waited for someone to yank the door open and try to assault her.

Nothing happened. Maybe they hadn’t found out about where lived in the city.

Would they go after Master Kobach again?

She had no way to stop them if they did. The hospital would have to defend him if they could. Maybe gangsters would respect the place because everyone had to use it.

How did she fight this? Did she want to do that? It would be her versus the Keswicks and anybody they hired. She doubted she could take them all on.

Maybe she should try to escape the city and reach Master Eisen. He had killed the Sharriff. Would he come back to deal with the Keswicks for her, and Master Kobach. They were friends enough that Kobach arranged for a delivery to Eisen’s customers every once in a while.

She doubted their link was strong enough to draw him back to Bern, and he probably had gangsters chasing him too for what he had done.

She doubted he would return just to run the shop until Master Kobach was back on his feet. That would be beyond expectation.

She did know she couldn’t stay there. Once the Keswicks found out where she lived, she could expect a visit and possible murdering. It was better for her to pack up anything she wanted to take and move to the hospital until her boss was out of there.

Then she could figure out what to do after that.

Did she want to find out how many Keswicks there were? Did she want to do

something about that number? She wondered how much harder they would chase her after she stabbed Mrs. Keswick in the face.

She had never murdered anyone before, but she had committed violence against others when they tried to interfere in her job. This was just a more extreme case of that.

She looked around her small place. She had her stash for home problems. She had some black clothes like what she wore at the moment. She had a spare cloak for bad weather. And she had a picture of a small family in a wooden frame. She gathered all that up and put it in a pack bag similar to her messenger bag but bigger. She hung it on her back as much as she could so she could keep her arms and hands free.

How much time did she have before someone told the Keswicks she was home? She did one last inspection, glad not to have to get rid of food, or anything she couldn’t carry. She headed downstairs.

The faster she was moving again, the better she liked it.

She reached the street. She could hide her carry bag somewhere until she was ready to leave town. She thought about it as she started for the hospital. If the toxic cloud was still in the shop she could hide it in the back, and let anyone looking for it take their chances.

She hurried along, checking around as she went. Getting robbed now would be disastrous for any future she might want to build. She had her money from the apartment, her money from the shop, and the till money. If she lost all that, she had nothing and Master Kobach only had whatever was in the safe at the shop.

Would anyone try to scavenge from the chemistry? Did anyone know how to use neutralizer on the cloud? What about the other alchemists on the street?

She hated all this indecisiveness. She needed to pick a path and head for a goal until she reached it, or lost her way. The rest of this was dilly-dallying which was unlike her.

She decided the first thing she had to do was check on Master Kobach. If he needed her, that was fine. If he didn’t, she could worry about the shop or just leave it until he got out of the hospital.

Her secondary goal was finding out about the Keswicks. She needed to know more about them before she decided to try to stab them while they were looking for her.

Did she know anyone who knew things like that? She frowned as she hurried along. She couldn’t think of anyone. Maybe Master Kobach knew of someone who could point her in the right direction.

She paused as she considered if the broad sheets knew something. They tracked things all over the city and put them in a pamphlet. Would one of them know about the Keswicks?

If she exposed the Glow connection, would that be enough to make the Keswicks focus on the scandal? Would they come at her twice as hard? And she didn’t have any way to tie them to the vandalism of the chemistry.

She saw the hospital in the distance. She had to think about Master Kobach and what he wanted to do first. Then she had to think of a way to get their crazy customers off their backs. Then they had to rebuild the shop.

The first step for goal one was to see what could be done for Master Kobach. Once she knew that, she could work on the other things.

All this over an addiction and a charm. What was the world coming to?

She entered the hospital and asked one of the white garbed attendants about her boss. They directed her to a room on the third floor. She went up the stairs like a shot.

She found the room and entered. Master Kobach lay in a bed. A rune for healing surrounded him. Sweat dripped off his brow as he tried to sleep.

Raven placed her carry bag under a chair and sat down. She made sure the strap was wrapped around her arm in case someone tried to grab it while she was resting. She needed a nap so she could chart the rest of her course.

She closed her eyes and rested, thinking about cats and birds and dice rolling through the air. She heard her name and woke up. Her bag was still wrapped around her arm. Master Kobach still lay in the healing rune circle but he was awake.

“Raven,” said Kobach. “I need you to take one more letter for me. The problem is I don’t know where to send it.”

“I don’t understand,” said Raven.

“I want you to take the money from the safe at the back of the shop if you can get in,” said Kobach. “The cloud might have been mitigated by now, or burned out of the building. Then I want you to take a letter to Moe Eisen and deliver it for me.”

“I don’t know where he is. I wouldn’t know where to start,” said Raven.

“He was headed to Baldwin to try to fix that boy the Sharriff poisoned,” said Kobach. “Start there.”

“Why do you want this?,” asked Raven.

“Some of the things they slung around were pure poison that not even a healer can fix,” said Kobach. “I only have a few hours at best. I need to write this letter to give you, and I need to make my arrangements. I am done barring some kind of miracle. And there is no such thing for an old man like myself.”

“The Keswicks?,” asked Raven.

“They want the medallion you took as collateral,” said Kobach. “Then they want to do horrible things to you before they kill you. I want you to be safe. You’re the only family I have left. Moe will look out for you if you can reach him. Don’t think giving back the medallion will help things because they want to hurt you.”

“So I should run?,” said Raven.

“Yes,” said Kobach. “Get the money from the safe and take off north. They will be looking for you, so you will have to move fast as you can. Send in the nurse and I will get her to help write the letter I need to send.”

“What if I don’t want to do that?,” said Raven.

“I will still be gone, and you will be hurt and following me,” said Kobach. “Or you will be playing hidden here in the city you are caught and hurt and following me. Get the money, go north.”

“All right,” said Raven. “I don’t like it.”

“You can’t stab all of your problems,” said Kobach.