‘Does she realize how evil that smile makes her look?’

  “Alright, wait here and I’ll find something to hide your ears and-”

  Spinning on her heels she’s out of the room before finishing her sentence and before I can process the fact that she just assumed I would help her.

  Quicker than she should have been, she returns to the room with a very large and thick, hooded poncho.

  “Did you grab the first thing you could find?”

  “Yep.”

  Dropping the poncho to the floor, she grabs my money pouch and heads right back out of the room.

  ‘That letter definitely wasn’t written by her, personalities don’t match, problem for later Lexi. At least she’s not treating me like a ticking bomb anymore, and who did this thing belong to, it’s like a long dress? Familiar smell to it.’

  Pulling on the poncho after stripping everything else off so I don’t sweat to death in it, I wrap my hands and forearms with the bandages, leaving the ends loose so I can use them in a pinch.

  Coming back in holding a large pot and two bowls that she sets on the table, she turns to me with an odd look on her face.

  “Do you wear shoes?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why?”

  I end up staring at her trying to come up with a good excuse, but give up when everything sounds just short of lunacy.

  “...Skin contact.”

  “Oh… is that why you wrapped your hands?”

  “I figured the less nervous people are, the better.”

  “People? You mean me?”

  Sitting down and ladling out what looks like yellow-green oatmeal into her bowl, she starts eating without waiting for me to answer.

  “No? You already act… anyway, what did you want my help with? I figure it’s help with your group.”

  “Nope, and why did you trail off there in the middle?”

  Pointing her spoon at me, she’s back to giving me a frosty stare.

  “Well, I’m just going to say it… you don’t act terrified of me, and I can’t really… reconcile that.” Shrugging the question off while I sit down to grab a bowl.

  “Hmmm. As I recall, you said you wanted me to live, weirdly enough right before you threw me out a second story window. I believe you. You’ve had every opportunity to be the monster everybody said you are, and instead-”

  Gesturing at me like that explains the rest she goes back to eating.

  ‘Monster… I deserve that.’

  “You’re very o-”

  “Finish that word and I’m throwing this at you.”

  Seeing the look on her face, I believe her. So I get it out quickly then catch the spoon to use myself.

  “Odd. You’re very odd.”

  Looking up from my eating I see her right eyelid twitching as she looks at her spoon that I’m now using.

  “You really should have seen that coming.”

  Shaking her head she starts muttering unintelligibly under her breath again as she picks up the other spoon to continue with her bowl.

  Waiting for her to get a few mouthfuls in I loudly interrupt, leading her to jump.

  “Alright, out with it already, what do you want my help with?”

  “Back to being intense? I hear you’re an exceptional climber-”

  “From who?”

  ‘Who is this narc if they know so much about me?’

  “Same person as always… do you want to know or not? I’ll take your silence as an answer. You climb.” Pointing at me then walking her fingers up her hand to illustrate the point. “I need someone who can climb and find whatever documents you can, I don’t like being kept in the dark by these people who brought us here.”

  “A B&E? I can handle that… climb where?”

  She tells me about a building not that far from here that is apparently the tallest in the city…

  ‘Looks like I can retrieve a vomit covered cloak while I’m there.’

  “Oh! I know what one you’re talking about. Already been there, on top of it anyway. What are you looking for specifically?”

  “I don’t know, that’s the problem. They brought us here and then just shuffled us off so we don’t bother them. They’re up to something and I want to know what.”

  ‘Shuffled most of you off.’

  “Fantastic. I’m off then.”

  After swiping a couple things off the table, heading to the window and then dropping out, Jessica yells at me from the window.

  “Do you not use doors?! You don’t even know where to meet!”

  “I won’t find you! Y’all’ll find me!”

  “That’s not even a word!”

  ‘Still focusing on the wrong things. Who keeps following me?’

  Finding the tower is pretty easy, one and two story buildings are the norm around me while it’s at least forty, poking up from the ground like it’s supposed to mean something to somebody.

  ‘Wonder if the head of the snake is in there?’

  There is a tall wall around the perimeter that I have to sneak back over, dropping to the ground behind a guard that doesn’t notice me until it’s far too late.

  Wrapping my arm around his neck I kick his legs out from under him while holding an arm behind his back until the struggling stops. Dropping him to the ground after pulling enough out of him to make sure he stays down I proceed onward to the side of the building.

  “Are guards a finger? A hand? Fingernail? Hmmm snakes don’t have hands, need a better metaphor. Wonder if I will ever meet a competent guard who isn’t just an obstacle? Maybe this one is?”

  Walking around the corner of the building reveals a heavily armored guard, who jumps when they spot me. Pulling out their sword they start pacing sideways trying to keep the distance while repositioning themselves to cut off escape back over the wall. He has a bell that he is ringing with his off hand.

  ‘Should put them down before they attract more attention.’

  Pulling out the spoon from breakfast, I start at a slow walk towards them putting the spoon forwards between us, I can’t see their face due to a helmet but their head keeps tilting towards the spoon like they’re trying to see the connection to this situation.

  They keep asking all the questions I’ve heard before: “What are you doing?”, “Why are you here?”, “What’s with the spoon?”. Question after question. Never any independent thought.

  Having covered enough ground I drop the spoon, and the instant their helmet follows it I grab their sword-arm and neck then hip-check them into the ground, pinning their other hand with my knee while they’re stunned.

  “Sometimes a spoon is just a spoon.”

  ‘Aggressive spooning… Ha!’ I can feel my lips quivering as I try to suppress my smile. It’s not working.

  My reply is a choking noise since I’m leaning on their neck.

  Pulling and pulling some more from them until their pulse starts to slow and I feel a twinge from my collar, their struggling slows to barely more than twitches. Standing up I kick them in the side of the head to make sure they stay down before returning my attention back to the tower.

  ‘Least I don’t have any arrows in my back.’

  Quickly reaching the top room I concentrate on my connection by pulling my haze out around my hand and push it against the glass to count the seconds while I wait. Watching it ever so slowly degrade pisses me off even more.

  “Just you wait until I’m fully recovered.”

  Making a hole big enough for myself takes a minute, distracting myself by looking back towards the ground I see several guards gathered around the unconscious ones, a couple are barking orders and pointing in several directions. None of them are pointing or looking up though.

  Looking back through the glass into the room I see several safes and a couple desks with papers spread out over the tops.

  ‘Probably thought those would be safe way the hell up here.’

  Finishing up with the window I make a quick pit-stop on the roof to retrieve the cloak, dagger and manacles before returning to the hole.

  Climbing in to the room there is an almost imperceptible shift in the air when I land on the floor.

  ‘There’s the alarm. Let’s cause some chaos.’

  Tipping over a safe to roll it in front of the door to the room, it’s shockingly light compared to the size of it, the marking on it begin to glow red when I touch it. Ignoring the warnings the wrappings on my hands ignite as I continue rolling it along the floor, when the safe makes contact with the wooden door it also ignites.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Should have sent that one out the window.”

  Actively ignoring the smell coming off my hands I continue my work with the desks. Sliding both desks to the window I grab every document I can and stuff them in my old cloak that I turned into a make-shift bag. Kicking out the remains of the window then tipping the desks out I watch them plummet to the ground landing near what looks like the ones that were giving orders earlier.

  “Ha!! Don’t ya just hate stairs!!”

  Waving a bird at them, they start yelling even more, this time intuitively pointing up. Leaving them to that I finally look at my hands.

  ‘Not going to be able to climb like this.’

  Pulling from my legs and growing back some skin to at least cover the muscle and tendons I switch my attention back to the other safes. These ones have markings on them as well, and comparing them with the one currently on fire leads me to the conclusion that they each have different traps on them.

  “I should have someone else touch these.”

  What sounds like running coming from the hallway outside draws my attention to the mostly gone door. Looking out and down the hall I see several soldiers in the lead with someone who actually looks important at the rear perking up when they notice me.

  ‘A leader sticking themselves safely at the back… how original. I’ll make them do it.’

  They lash out with their fist while they’re running and it feels like I’m punched in the face at the same time, knocking me backwards and into the door frame.

  “Hmm telekinetic, weak though, literally telegraphs what they’re doing. Telegraph… telekinetic… ha!”

  They lash out again, but this one I’m ready for, only slightly turning my chin to lessen the blow.

  “Good, I absolutely hate strong telekinetics.”

  Stepping over the burning safe and into the hallway an arrow flies out and strikes me in the stomach, ducking under the next one and turning my shoulder to soften the impact from the telekinetic I immediately start sprinting down the hallway. Using the walls to shove myself off of side to side I make my way towards the group dodging every new attack sent my way.

  Halfway down the hall the soldiers quickly part revealing the per- woman in the back who has been sending attacks my way holding a bow. The moment she releases the arrow I feel a large impact on my chest that stuns me just long enough to be hit in the same spot by the arrow.

  ‘Weak but creative, I like it.’

  Handing the bow back off to one of the soldiers looking satisfied with herself, she pulls out a thin sword that looks only good for stabbing and slashing. Sword revealed the soldiers move back behind her with smiles that say they know what happens next.

  Watching her get into a thrusting posture I interrupt.

  “What do they call that? Fencing?”

  “Is now really the time for that?” She looks confused that I would even bother asking.

  “Learning’s an everyday thing.” Shrugging my shoulders in reply while slowly sliding my feet forwards.

  “No.” Stating only that before returning to her preparations, but she’s not breaking eye contact. Good.

  Shrugging again I pull down my hood, pull my trusty spoon alongside the manacles back out of my pocket and start mocking her posture all while continuing to move forwards.

  There’s an uncomfortable shift in the group when my ears are revealed but that only lasts long enough for them to notice the collar. Then the murmurings shift to me being insane.

  That’s not new.

  ‘Hmmmmm, if I manage to take from everyone here without being hit too much I’ll have made a significant dent in my involuntary starvation. Toooooo bad, just toooo bad life has never worked that wa-”

  “You’re the escapee, why did you come back? Why are you attacking?” She seems more like she wants answers than a fight now.

  ‘Why am I attacking? This bulb is really putting in the mental work for that question. Is the collar really not a red herring?’

  “Ya look a bit confused. I see a big tall building, I want to see it a smoldering wreck.” Gesturing to the brickwork surrounding us. “Nothing more… nothing less” Finally pointing a thumb at the burning safe behind me.

  Judging that I have gotten close enough I whip the spoon as hard as I can at the Tele before pulling my knife out to jump into my forced mosh-pit.

  Instinctively blocking the spoon, she takes an off-balance distant swipe at me and I can feel the air shift past me when I turn sideways feeling some skin being shaved off my arm in the process.

  ‘Leads the way with her power first. Is that all? Wish she’d shown me more.’

  Getting in close enduring the knock-back I let her thrust into my chest, tackling her to the ground in the process our combined weight easily bends the thin sword trapping it in place when I roll over using her to keep the soldiers at bay.

  Headbutting then grabbing her sword-arm and pulling the entire time I slash the inside of her elbow feeling her arm give out in the process and give her a nice solid kick away from me. Rolling away from the slashing I catch a mace to the shoulder blade with a crunch that sends me stumbling.

  Continuing to roll forward with the momentum of the smash trying to avoid my left shoulder as much as I can, I leg sweep the person in front of me and jam a finger in his eye socket when he lands on the ground, pulling as much as I can with the contact before I have to move again.

  After that it just ends up as a hard to keep track of mess of limbs, with me in the center smashing my elbows, knees, hands, face and feet in every direction I can.

  Using the manacle chain to block and redirect alongside the knife to disable any limb that gets over extended I eventually wear them down into a groaning mass of broken limbs and misplaced joints.

  ‘Good that there wasn’t another user hiding in the crowd, that would have been annoying.’

  Glancing a few feet away shows me the Tele hasn’t moved away from where she landed, shaking and curled around her disabled arm. Ignoring her I take inventory of my injuries.

  ‘Left leg and jaw broken, three fingers missing, left shoulder crushed, can’t see out of right eye. Oops forgot about the sword. Yep, sounds like a Tuesday to me.’

  Spitting out a tooth into my hand, I begin looking for my missing fingers. Shortly finding two of them but not my pinkie for some reason, I get to work restoring myself with the eight bodies, a few still have some fight left when I touch them but are quickly pulled into unconsciousness in the process.

  ‘My sympathy would mean nothing for you, orders are orders aren’t they. Of course I could have just not come up here to begin with, but a deal’s a deal.’

  The soldiers are all unconscious so I make myself feel better knowing they would have done this all again and again regardless of the result.

  “Soldiers are meant to break on the walls while superiors get to decide which walls isn’t that right Father? Now that I get to say it, fuck the superiors.”

  Hearing no reply I return my attention to the Tele, throwing one of the soldiers on top of her to make sure she doesn’t have a direct shot at me if she decides to get creative while I approach.

  She immediately begins thrashing with the contact, blowing the one on top of her clear across the hall with a large crash while I grab her disabled arm and twist it behind her back pinning it there with my knee.

  She’s too busy screaming to notice me so I smack her cheek a couple times to get her attention.

  “Hi, me again. I’m in a bit of a time crunch here, so the longer this takes the less likely you’ll have useful limbs in the future. Nod if you understand.” Seeing her tearful nod I continue.

  “Where are you in the chain of command?”

  “What are you talk- Ahhh!!” Snapping a finger backwards, I reiterate.

  “That was not a difficult question. You know that I’m the escapee and you also have a squad of soldiers following you after a security breach, how many degrees of separation are there between you and the top?”

  “I uh- uh th-three?”

  “You don’t know?”

  “I’m not really in any ch-chain! M-my uncle is-is, can you quit twisting my arm?!”

  “No, continue.”

  “My un-uncle is an- ahhh! He’s a direct adviser! Please I can’t think!” Her voice is now getting shaky with desperation.

  ‘This place isn’t that important if she’s the guard. Tall building to attract attention? The building I’m looking for probably blends in with all the other houses out there. Now which is more likely, close by or far away? Wait… wasn’t the Lords residence near the Carine Inn, how did I forget that?’

  “I don’t want you thinking I want you answering. What are in those safes in that room?”

  “Just r-records, and a few rare items!”

  “What are the traps on them? Other than the one on fire, I can figure that one out on my own.”

  “They never told me!!”

  ‘She’s no leader. Could be useful as a captive? Nah too much effort to carry.’

  Pulling harder now that she isn’t much use, I continue until her struggling ceases. Her eyes are lazily following me as I bend over to look at her face.

  “Blink twice if you’re unqualified to be here.”

  After a moment of staring into my eyes, she tiredly blinks twice, her eyelids out of sync with each other.

  “Good girl. Sorry about the arm, go home and stay home when you can walk again.”

  Hearing the sound of far off running I decide it’s time to go, approaching the room again while looking at my hands. Now that I’ve recovered just that much more I try a theory on the currently burning safe.

  ‘Are the symbols a source of power or is it something else?’

  Looking at the glowing figures and symbols I gather the haze at my fingernails and quickly slash my hand through the fire making contact with the side of the safe as deep grooves are left behind cutting through the molten symbols. Seeing how quickly the fire goes out I immediately return to the pile of soldiers and remove a few of their gauntlets before returning to the remaining safes.

  ‘Once means nothing always test more. Sorry mom.’

  Repeating the mantra to myself while putting a gauntlet on my hand without the ring I begin scratching into, maintaining a slight distance from making contact with the safe furthest from the window, it’s much slower without the benefit of the safe melting itself.

  Scratching through several of the symbols on the safe I press the degraded gauntlet on my hand directly against the metal.

  Nothing.

  Taking off the gauntlet, it crumbling to pieces on the floor, I repeat the procedure with my bare hand.

  Still nothing.

  ‘That seems easy enough… why does nobody else do that? Probably the haze Lexi, really too bad that it doesn’t work on me.’ Agitatedly scratching at the marking on my neck I separate from the safe.

  Moving on and tipping the safe out the window after dragging it over I watch it plummet to the ground, the ants scattering before it lands near the desks I sent out a couple minutes earlier. It didn’t break when it hit the ground, just an incredibly large thunk being the only evidence of it falling from this height.

  “That’s new, lets do that again!”

  Bringing my attention to the remaining safe, my fun is cut short by the back up already in the hall, I can hear them checking on the group outside, breathing heavily from the stairs.

  ‘Crap… forgot about them. Ruin my fun why don’t ya.’

  Grabbing the bag of documents I quickly drop out the window, catching myself the next floor down I make my way sideways around the corner then down towards the ground.

  There are a few people waiting for me down at the bottom, but not nearly enough to be a problem. Going around the corner again and again I keep going until the ones directly under me have thinned out a bit. Reaching the ground they say more things I’ve heard before.

  ‘On and on with the orders, you’d think that I wouldn’t bother taking this stuff if I was going to just drop it at the first sign of resistance. Ya sure, let me just hand this right back over to you so you can freely stab me… I only fall for that once.’

  Ignoring the orders I immediately take off around the left hand corner of the building shoving the nearest person down to the ground into the path of my now closest pursuer. Listening to them tripping over the improvised speed bump I make for the wall, scrambling over it with none of the grace I’ve used up until now, there is a large bang behind me as I’m knocked over the top towards the other side.

  Slamming to the ground the world goes blank for a moment when the back of my head makes contact with the ground while letting out a loud crack. Again rolling over when the lights turn back on I take off towards the buildings and back alleys I need to escape trying to adjust to my swimming vision all the while.

  Reaching the first alley there is another large bang behind me as I’m launched forwards into the wall, peeling myself off of the brickwork I continue running even harder without looking back.

  ‘Fuck that stings. No more head injuries please... that telekinetic wasn’t this strong.’

  Making the several twists and turns through the narrow alleys, windows and a couple thin walls I try to hide from my pursuer. The bangs are becoming less and less frequent, occasionally sounding out from far off as I lose whoever was after me and eventually also lose my place in the city.

  “Well shit… I’m lost again. Not recovered enough to go back. Hmmm you’ll have to find me because there’s no way I’m finding you.”

  Picking at random, hoping to catch a scent, I walk shakily down the street to my left blending in about as well as a tall building in a short city.

  ‘Need to change clothes again now that I’ve been spot….ted...’

  “Is that a gun?”

  Plucking a few hairs and tossing them to side just in case I begin following after him.