On the street, the assassins were starting to realize they were getting nowhere. Their numbers were thinning, while Isabella and Esven were getting more and more comfortable with one another.

  But all throughout the fight, the remaining spellcasters were working on a joint spell - that burst of magic Gaius felt. The spell conjured a dark red tendril that snaked its way across the ground until it wrapped itself around Isabella. Now, her shield became visible to the naked eye as a pearlescent bubble around her. The tendril immobilized Isabella but wasn't causing her any visible harm otherwise.

  Still, no matter how strong, no defense was impenetrable. After a few primal shrieks coming from the mages, the tendril grew in size, putting more strain on the shield. It was slowly starting to weaken.

  "Eat this, you dogs," Esven screamed before sending a special bolt at the mages.

  It hit one of them in the chest, exploding on contact. The blast was strong enough to liquefy the primary target and send the last mage flying as their spell fizzled away around Isabella.

  His robes sizzling and his face distorted by mad cackles, the last mage cursed and threw a bunch of bones in the bloodied dirt.

  Esven was still reloading when the mage finished his incantation. There was something otherworldly yet somehow familiar about it. When the last word was spoken, the mage dropped dead and a visible surge of energy arced from his body and into the bones.

  Shaking and jumping, the bones grew and expanded. The empty space between them was now connected with thick thorny vines. The spell had all the hallmarks of Slavian magic.

  And while he didn't know much about it still, Gaius could tell that Slavians clearly had necromancy on lock. Instead of a handful of bones, a giant skeletal creature vaguely resembling a man was now towering over Isabella. The skeleton's vine-encrusted skull was nearly reaching the roof. If not for the knife-thrower doing his best to stab him, Gaius could very well give it a kick.

  The persistent knife-thrower was making that all but impossible, which left Isabella to deal with the bone golem while Esven was keeping the assassins in check.

  The golem's first move was to step on Isabella. She moved away, slashing upwards as she did. Her saber bore deep into the bone, but the golem ignored this wound.

  Up on the roof, Gaius was getting tired. The knife-thrower was slowly gaining ground as he covered Gaius in painful cuts and gashes from every direction.

  Below, the golem dropped on one knee and was pummeling Isabella with its mighty fists. Her shield was but a faint shadow of what it was when the fight just broke out.

  As a last-ditch attempt to turn things around, Gaius descended on his opponent to try and knock him out with a series of quick sideways punches. As he was doing this, he didn't have the luxury to care about a blade sliding between his ribs.

  Not sure who was doing more damage to whom in that bloody dance, Gaius looked down to see Isabella drop her saber. He thought this was it for the three of them. Then, the knight extended her arms, recited a short prayer, and clapped her hands.

  A thunderous roar echoed Isabella's clap. The skies tore asunder and a bolt of blinding light, condensed to the thickness of a tree trunk, crashed down on the bone golem.

  The sheer force of this divine blast was enough to scatter everyone in its vicinity. Combined with the deafening sound and the radiant light, it robbed Gaius of most of his senses. He fell from the roof, hitting the awning on his way down. His only conscious thought there was to make sure he fell on the knife-thrower and not the other way around.

  For a while, the terrible ringing in Gaius' ears was the only sign he was still alive. That incessant noise reminded him to breathe. As he did, he felt a blade poke him in the back. At least he managed to fall right.

  Then came a great deal of pain along with a realization that if he wanted to survive the night, not to mention his long-term stay in Siembra, he needed to get to the potions he packed earlier.

  Gaius' first attempt to get up resulted in impotent thrashing and even more pain. His next strategy had him stay still and progress one step at a time. He opened his eyes. That didn't do him much good, as all he could see were floating spots and vague shapes.

  Something entered his view. Gaius couldn't tell if it was one of his companions or an assassin intent on finishing him off. Unable to move still, Gaius accepted whatever was coming his way.

  He was rewarded with his first pleasant sensation since the fighting broke out. Warm, full lips touched his, filling him with what could only be described as a sense of hope. That feeling washed over him, taking away the pain and replacing it with vigor and energy he didn't have since youth.

  With all that fresh energy Gaius saw no other options but to get up and start rubbing his eyes until at least some of his vision returned.

  Before him, he saw Isabella. The knight was visibly unharmed and her clothes were as crisp as always. Despite that, her eyes were filled with silent exhaustion.

  Behind the knight, a lifeless mound of bones was sitting on top of a burnt patch of ground. A good dozen of bodies was littering Siembra's street. In their midst was Esven's armored figure using the arbalest as a crutch to stay up.

  "What was that, just now?" Gaius asked. There was a certain coarseness to his voice, but the words came out without too much effort on his part.

  "Who said you had to use your hands to channel healing energy?"

  Contrary to Gaius who looked like hell but now felt perfectly fine, Isabella sounded like someone who's been up for three days straight.

  In the background, Esven started going from one body to the next. He spent a single moment kneeling over each of them only to then state in a blank voice, "This one's dead. And this one. This too."

  Gaius stumbled over to the captain. "I thought there were more of them. You sure you should be doing this now?"

  "It'll be fine, Guy. They all ran off when Lady Isabella did her thing."

  "How do you know?" Gaius asked. "I still can barely tell you from this lamp post over here. And you were way closer to the blast."

  Esven cracked a somewhat pained smile and raised his shades. He gave them a few taps and slid them back on.

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  "I can see perfectly fine," the captain said.

  "I still think a helmet and a good potion would've done you more good here."

  "You also think I'm no good at my job. And look at this." Esven surveyed the street. "Not bad for a screw-up, eh?"

  Gaius looked the captain in the eye. "You're a constable for crying out loud. You should be rounding up the stragglers now, not feeling proud of your clean kills."

  Esven pointed at the bodies. "These types will laugh you in the face before gutting you like it's their job. And it is. And it's my job to make sure that doesn't happen. So if you ask me, I used exactly the appropriate amount of force."

  Letting Esven be, Gaius moved closer to Isabella who was catching her breath by a low fence.

  "And you, shouldn't you be above all this carnage?"

  "They chose to attack us, so I sent them back to Mallia."

  "Sent them to Mallia? What's that? Some rebirth cycle?"

  "In a way, you could say that."

  "Right." Gaius nodded. "Somehow I struggle to imagine these guys as babies."

  "Babies?" Isabella tilted her head.

  "You're the one talking about rebirth."

  "No, you're the one talking about it. Mallia doesn't turn anyone into a baby," Isabella said like she was talking to one. "She makes you one with the world."

  "You know this doesn't clarify anything, right?"

  "You die and become dirt. Dirt becomes grass. Grass feeds the cattle. Meat gives us the energy to keep going. And only then do babies enter the picture. It's all a closed system and their part in it now?" Isabella nodded to the bodies. "Is feeding the worms."

  Gaius whistled. "Some rebirth."

  "Again with the rebirth."

  Shaking his head, Gaius went and grabbed Esven who he then put closer to Isabella.

  "Forget for a moment that I'm a merchant not used to action like this. Just hear me out. This isn't right. And no, I'm not talking about how shocking and traumatic this whole encounter was for a delicate soul like myself. But you just don't get ambushed like this for busting a lowlife fence. Sure, the two of you took the brunt of the attack and I understand you may want to take it easy. But right now, you should be trying to figure out what the hell just happened, not paying your respects to Mallia or feeling good about your marksmanship."

  Gaius rushed to the outer edge of the fight where he dragged one of the corpses up by the collar.

  "You even killed Donny."

  "He led them to us," Esven said.

  "Exactly. This means he knew what this was all about. And now we can't ask him." Gaius' voice cracked, revealing some of the panic that was previously obscured by the infusion of hope Isabella blessed him with.

  As it was leaving his system, Gaius was suddenly weighed down by a heap of worries.

  Earlier that evening, he was afraid of getting on the shit list of small-time thieves. That seemed so quaint and distant now. For no apparent reason, trained assassins with magical support were after him. And there was no indication that they would be satisfied with the one attack.

  He needed to deal with this problem and fast. Running, his favorite option, was unavailable to him.

  His only bet was to work with the authorities, those authorities being Esven and Isabella, without outright revealing who he really was. Thankfully, Esven still saw him as a mage and for Isabella, the most important thing about him was his adventurous spirit.

  Gaius made his way to the knife-thrower. He was in bad shape and completely out of it, but he was still alive. The only one of their attackers to have that honor. In Gaius' line of work violence was expected, but most of the time he preferred to avoid it. His Caladonian friends apparently didn't share that sentiment.

  Standing over the knife-thrower, Gaius produced the healing potions he had on him. He uncorked one and dripped its contents in the general vicinity of the assassin's mouth.

  "What are you doing?"

  Isabella was leaning over the knife-thrower alongside Gaius. He turned his head to see Esven pointing his arbalest at the man.

  "I'm doing the two of you a huge favor," Gaius said, opening the second potion. That one he poured straight into the knife-thrower's throat.

  Before he explained his actions, Gaius said, "And I hope that it cancels out whatever curse you placed on me. I've helped enough already."

  Isabella's hand found its way on his waist.

  "Your obligation was fulfilled the moment we found these two." Isabella directed Gaius to a couple of bodies, the first ones to fall. "Everything else, you did of your own volition. And for that, I'll even forgive you for suggesting that I deal in curses."

  That led to the second kiss between the two. No magic this time, just a quick dry peck on the lips. And while Gaius saw nothing romantic about their situation, for someone like Isabella who lived her entire life on the battlefield between good and evil, it must have been perfectly normal. At least this was how Gaius rationalized things to himself while the potion was doing its thing.

  The knife-thrower coughed, prompting Gaius to cut the moment short and rush to restrain him as Esven adjusted his aim.

  "I know you must be spent, but if you still have any juice left, would you be so kind to compel our friend here to speak?" Gaius asked Isabella.

  "The grace of Nova and Mallia isn't just magic juice, Guy," Isabella said.

  Still, she closed her eyes and placed her palm on the knife-thrower's forehead. He did his best to escape Gaius' grip, but he was still too weak for that. Not long after, he stopped struggling and became perfectly still. At the same time, Isabella moved away from him and half-fell half-sat down on the ground. She was barely keeping her head up by that point.

  And much as seeing her like this pained Gaius, he knew it was their best chance at getting anywhere. It took a special kind of crazy to lie in wait, perfectly still as your friends were being slaughtered, as you searched for the one perfect opening to strike. The knife thrower with his camouflaged cape was precisely that kind of crazy. No matter what hurt Gaius or Esven could put on him, or what they promised, he wouldn't talk.

  A divine suggestion, on the other hand, could do the trick. Even Gaius would have to be at the top of his game to beat this kind of interrogation. Divine suggestion compelled you to talk. There was no way around that. But if you were to put yourself in the right mindset, you could avoid answering the questions not by lying but by dancing around the actual point.

  The knife-thrower had no such luxury. A couple of potions were no divine kiss.

  Gaius skipped the formalities, like asking the knife-thrower's name.

  "Why did you attack us?"

  "We were ordered to." The knife-thrower spat, his mouth independent from his scowling face.

  "Who ordered the attack?"

  "The Shadow of Mallia."

  Esven cursed in the distance. "This Shadow again. Who's he?"

  Gaius tried to silence the captain with a quick gesture but it was too late.

  "He's the boss," the knife-thrower said.

  Forcing someone to answer against their will put a tremendous strain on their system. Given the knife-thrower's condition, they would be lucky to get a handful of useful answers out of him.

  Gaius needed to make them count.

  "Why kill the two shitbirds?" he asked.

  "They could reveal Shadow's plan," the knife-thrower answered.

  Hector and the Rat sure didn't mention any plan. Chances are, they knew nothing about the big picture. Even so, they had to be silenced.

  This plan, whatever it was, must have been big. Openly attacking the town's captain and a holy knight, forget about a merchant who got in the way, was too brazen to be a simple heist or even a power grab.

  Ordinarily, something of this scope would point to a coup of the highest order. But knowing Shadow's true nature, Gaius' imagination immediately jumped to things more sinister. There already was an undead nation sitting just west of Mystlund's coast. A patriot he was not, but the mere idea of having any more undead neighbors chilled Gaius deep inside.

  "What do you know of this plan?" he asked, doing his best to steady his voice.

  "Not much," the knife-thrower said. "I just know my part."

  "Which is?"

  "I had to sabotage one of Mallia's pylons. I did it right before we were summoned to deal with you. I would get further instructions upon return."

  Gaius then pushed the knife-thrower for any extra details. In the end, before he collapsed from exhaustion, he revealed an address. A hideout for Shadow's men. Esven knew the place.

  If not for Isabella sitting right there, Gaius could see the captain would've called bullshit. Divine suggestion or not, the knife-thrower's confession was too hard to believe. There was no reason for anyone to disable Mallia's pylons, Esven insisted. Their only target these days were alefs.

  And that brought Gaius right back to his chat with Gertrude.

  With the knife-thrower not going anywhere, Gaius released him and dropped on his ass.

  It was always about alefs. Ever since one of those things took Vasily's head clean off, these creatures were there, looming as a question, a threat, and a challenge. Whatever they were, Gaius had a feeling he would soon get a chance to find out.

  Pushing those thoughts back for the moment, Gaius got back up and helped Isabella do the same.

  Using each other for support, the two of them waited until Esven's men arrived to the scene. And once the captain had enough reinforcements to boss around, they left. They hobbled together back to Vasily's Emporium but not before making Esven promise to keep them in the loop.

  Story Facts - Chapter 23