What… was I doing?

I felt disjointed. Like my mind had gone on auto-pilot and my body had followed along. Slowly, I swiveled, looking back. Our escort, Sae and the rest of the team were still behind me. There was nothing inherently wrong with that. I’d started walking ahead without them, scouting out the area immediately in front of us. They were holding, waiting for me to motion that it was clear.

Ashamed to say it, but I nearly did. Until I spotted the body, somewhere around fifteen feet behind me. The man with a broken leg and a scarlet halo.

Right.

I hadn't just been walking ahead, I was walking towards him.

“What the hell happened?” I asked my summon.

“Hm? Nothing happened. You glanced over the body and kept walking—Oooooh. Wasn’t what you intended to do?”

“Not even a little.”

“Let me out, I’ll take a peek under the hood.”

I did as he asked, extending my arm and ignoring the sensation of oil trickling down my wrist as he slipped into my shadow. Considering illusions and misdirections were Azure’s specialty, him not picking up on the effect was downright unsettling.

“Everything alright?” Sae called over, shifting uncertainly, about to take a step forward.

“Stay put.” I called back. A shadow, almost imperceptible to the eye, flitted across the walkway, and back, and across again.

“How… delightfully insidious.” Azure mused. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t affect me as strongly, but it's definitely there. Compulsion. One that forces the belief that there is absolutely nothing interesting here and to keep moving. Can’t even stay in the center for long without subconsciously drifting to either side. It’s kind of amazing that they noticed this at all.”

If there wasn’t a body, they probably wouldn’t have. “Can you trace the origin point?”

“If it functions the same as the average ward—stronger at the center—then somewhere in the center of the walkway.”

I absorbed that. “Is it permanent?”

The shadow flitted back and forth a few times, then circled. “Probably not. Permanent wards are exorbitantly expensive and take time to set up, and I’m guessing this was set up in a hurry. Temporary wards are simple enough to deal with. Anchored to something physical—I’m guessing, a section of the floor, possibly a specific tile. If we destroy that, the effect should dissipate.”

“Then what’s the problem?” I asked. Hair raised on the back of my neck. If Sunny put the ward in place, he was close. Very close. Probably hiding in one of the unoccupied storefronts within the radius of the wards.

Watching us.

“It’s taking the lion’s share of my concentration just to stay in the radius. I don’t think I could maintain a corporeal form, and even if I could, I’d also need the strength to shatter concrete.” Azure said, clearly annoyed with the situation.

I could relate. The setup posed a lot of problems for us, and a lot of advantages for Sunny. Nimrod solution was to have the twins blow up tiles from outside the radius. The area of effect wasn’t that big, comprising around three-dozen tiles, far less if they focused on the center. Problem was, that was both loud and would take time. And if Sunny had a backdoor, which he almost assuredly did, he’d have more than ample time to get clear before the ward was offline.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

It was a complex problem. I returned to the others, shaking off the mental effects of the ward and relaying what I’d found.

“Well, shit,” Max said. He thought for a moment. “Think that’s what’s causing the borked read?”

“Gotta be.” I agreed. “Upshot is, we take it out, our chances suddenly get a lot better.”

Astria crossed her arms, considering the tiles and the surrounding storefronts. “I get we can’t take them out piecemeal. But what if we just went big? Like, really big?”

“Shocker, she wants to nuke something.” Astrid mocked.

“What’s the point of being able to cast powerful spells if you never use them?” Astria’s eyes flashed as she turned on her sister.

“Dunno. Being a reasonable human being, maybe?”

I held out a hand, stopping the argument before it got started. “Ordinarily I wouldn’t have a problem with that. It’s a question of collateral damage.” I glanced at Cisco. “Anyone live in this section? Most of the storefronts seem intact.”

He swallowed, suddenly looking out of his element. “Uh. A few did. Asked for relocation on account of, you know, the unrecoverable body. There’s a lot of us on the upper floors though. And we figured out real quick that a place this large has support beams everywhere.”

Astria deflated. “Okay, so big’s a bad idea.”

“Solid concept, just not what we need right now.” I patted her on the shoulder. She perked up at the praise.

Sae crouched down, knocked at the tile beneath her feet. “Not to steal the mage’s thunder, but I’m pretty sure I can break a bunch of these in quick succession.” She peered up at me. “And the effect is isolated to this floor. What if I went up a level, jumped down and smashed it?”

“Same problem.” Max sighed. “You fuck up, hit the wrong tile, he rabbits before we have time to fix it.”

“Speaking of which.” I turned back to Cisco. “Let’s say someone was hiding in one of the storefronts. How would they leave if they didn’t want to go out the front?”

“Well.” He pointed to the left side. “If they were on that side, they’d be straight-up screwed. There’s a few back rooms but nothing that connects to any sort of exit.”

“And the right?”

“There’s a connecting hallway that runs through most of this wing.” Cisco confirmed.

“He’s on that side then, gotta be.” Sae realized, openly staring in that direction before she caught herself. Max seemed openly unhappy with that, but kept whatever it was to himself.

The solution hit me all at once. It wasn’t ideal, and would take a good deal of cooperation from Sae. But if she was willing, it was doable.

I leaned in and asked her quietly. “How bad do you want to get this guy?”

“More than I’ve ever wanted anything.” Sae stared me dead in the face. There was no lie in her expression, no hesitation.

“Whatever it takes?”

She nodded.

“Then I have a plan.”

Max finally spoke up. “The right side could be a misdirect. He expects anyone who comes looking and knocks down the ward to search the stores on the right first while he slips out behind them.” Max said.

“There’s a difference between going for a fake out and being stupid. Choosing a tactically hamstrung option because it’s unexpected would be straight up stupid.” Sae argued.

“You’re both right.” I cut in. “Sunny’s smart. But he’s also unpredictable. However we come at this, we need to leave someone in the open, preferably with an upper floor vantage, ready to sound the alarm if he slips out of somewhere unpredictable.”

“I’ll go up.” Astrid said, almost immediately. When I hesitated, she continued. “We’re more independent than we used to be. Astria will have access to most of our heavy-hitting spells if I’m nearby.”

“It takes a few things off the table.” Astria said slowly.

“Not many.” Astrid countered.

For the moment, I ignored the fact that she’d jumped to volunteer for the assignment that put her the farthest from the action. “Fine. We move in two minutes. Monitor your interface and get in position.”

Astrid scampered off towards the escalator, taking the moving steps two at a time.

“Max—“ I started.

“Back hallway?” He interjected, already moving towards the service door our escort pointed out.

“Yep.”

That left Sae and Astria. I trusted them both, probably more than anyone else in the group. Sae had been with me from the beginning. While Astria was a more recent addition, it was clear she saw me—or Myrddin, at least—as a mentor and friend.

But some things were better kept secret.

“You okay with clearing with me and Sae once the ward comes down?” I asked Astria.

“Yep!”

“Then head to the other side of the ward.”

“Coms are squelched. How will I know when it’s down?” Astria asked, looking between us.

“Trust me.” I said, feeling a surge of anticipation. “You won’t miss it.”