Unknown - The Spirit Eater

Sted winced. The creature was right. He could feel the power, an incredible force so much greater than his own. His jump just now, the lack of pain from his injuries, even the black arm was starting to feel like part of himself. It was all power, power he’d paid for, power he’d use to pay back his humiliation.

With this firmly in his mind, Sted hit the ground in a shower of leaves and began to run, skipping northward toward the snowcapped mountains through the long morning shadows. He’d show the demon how a real man used power. Already he could feel the fear fading, and the longer he went, the easier it became. Soon, he was grinning at the sheer strength of his motion, the incredible rush of his power.

Deep in his soul, far deeper than Sted’s poor, deaf mind could go, the demon began to laugh.

It was early morning in the port city of Mering on the southern coast of the Council Kingdoms. Down in the bay, the fishing boats were preparing to leave the harbor, the fishermen stringing up their nets by lantern light, for the sun was still just a gray ghost below the horizon. High on the bluffs above the docks, the city lay dark and quiet. Weathered board houses clustered in a nest of narrow, sandy streets, their dark windows open to the warm ocean breeze. Toward the rear of town, where the sandy ground was more solid, stood the Fisherman’s Rest, Mering’s only inn and the only building with an upper story in the entire town, a feature of which its owner, who was also Mering’s mayor, was exceedingly proud.

This night was an exceptionally rare event, for all three of the inn’s upper rooms were occupied, despite the relatively exorbitant price their prestige and views demanded. But the strange pair of men and the silent girl who followed them had been throwing gold around like chicken feed from the moment they’d walked into town, and so the innkeeper had no qualms about putting them up in the best rooms Mering had to offer, especially since, as outsiders, he could charge them triple. He’d even cracked open his best cask of wine in hopes of getting them drunk for even more money, but all he’d gotten was a rowdy party from his regular customers and terrifying glares from the taller stranger with the arsenal strapped to his chest. By morning, however, everything was quiet, even the seabirds, and it was this strange, chancy silence that saved Eli’s life.

He was asleep, sprawled on his stomach on the double bed under the window, snoring quietly. But when one has made his name as the greatest thief in the world, true sleep is a habit you lose quickly, which was the only reason he heard the sound at all. The noise was soft, almost lost in the crash of the distant waves, yet unmistakable to anyone who’d heard it before. A sword snickering in anticipation isn’t a sound you forget.

Eli threw himself out of bed as the blade stabbed into the mattress where his bare back had been a split second earlier. He landed on the floor in a tangle of sheets as the man, head to foot in dark clothing, yanked his sword free. Eli didn’t waste any more time looking. He turned and bolted for the door.

“Josef!” he shouted, scrambling over the rag rug. “JOSEF!”

The assassin caught him on the second yell. The gloved hand closed on Eli’s shoulder, pulling him back with an iron grip as the sword, still snickering, flashed overhead. Eli dodged with an undignified yelp, rolling out of the way as the sword whooshed past him to land with a deadly thunk in the floor. The man ripped it free instantly and tried to give Eli a kick in the process, but the thief was already behind him, going for the window. The man whirled around and raised his sword again, grabbing Eli’s bare foot in his gloved hand to hold the squirming thief still. But then, just as he was about to bring the sword down on Eli’s shoulder, the blade fell from his grasp, and the intruder cried out in pain.

With a lightning-quick motion, Eli caught the falling sword and flipped around, turning the blade on its former master, who was doubled over on the carpet, clutching his sword hand, which now had a throwing knife lodged halfway through its palm. That was all Eli saw before Josef barreled out of the darkness, tackling the man as he went. They landed against the room’s wall in a brawling tangle. The man in black was shorter than Josef by a foot, not to mention lighter and injured, but he had a long knife in his unbloodied hand and Josef, for once, was unarmed. For a frantic moment, the man had the advantage. Using the wall for leverage, he pushed the knife toward Josef, going for the swordsman’s naked throat. Josef leaned away, but he couldn’t get out of reach entirely without letting the man go. When the knife was less than an inch from his throat, Josef had had enough. Faster than Eli could see, Josef ducked inside the man’s reach and, with a rolling turn, flipped their positions.

Or he tried to. But rather than turning along the wall, the assassin’s shoulder slammed into the unlatched window. With a great bang, the shutters flew open, leaving Josef and the man struggling against thin air. They began to fall, each flailing in the air, reaching in vain for the window frame. Just as they started to tumble out of reach, a thin hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed Josef’s wrist.

It was Nico. She was halfway out the window, bracing with both legs against the wide frame, her coat flying around her as she struggled to hold Josef’s weight. Struggled and failed. Even braced, Josef’s weight was too much, and she was rapidly toppling after him. Just before she lost her footing, Eli’s hand grabbed Josef’s wrist just below hers, and together they yanked the swordsman back into the room, landing in a heap on the rag carpet.

“Powers,” Eli gasped, dropping the assassin’s sword, which was no longer snickering. “What about the—”

A sickening crunch finished his sentence for him, and all three of them winced. They sat for a moment in silence before Josef pushed himself up. “I’ll check the body,” he said, his voice calm, as though he did this every night. “Nico, you’re with me. Eli, take the innkeeper.”

Eli and Nico nodded and the group split, Josef and Nico slinking down the stairs, quiet as cats, Eli somewhat more loudly, shouting for the innkeeper. Fortunately, the old man was already rushing across the common room in his night cap and dressing gown, a fluttering lamp in his shaking hands.

“Oh, sir!” Eli cried, jumping away from the stairs to cut him off. “Something dreadful has just occurred!” And with that Eli launched into a terrible story of robbery, foul play, and tragic ends. By the time he finished, the innkeeper, the night staff, the guests, and every neighbor within earshot was gathered in the inn’s common room wearing unified expressions of horror. Eli kept going until he saw Nico wave at him from the front door, signaling that Josef had finished whatever he’d needed to finish. Eli wrapped up his hysterics just as the night watch appeared. Claiming exhaustion, Eli retired to Josef’s room, stopping first at his own to retrieve the large stash of coins he’d hidden beneath a loose board. All evidence safely loaded onto his person, he went next door to Josef’s somewhat smaller room and locked the door behind him.

“That,” he said, “was not how I intended to spend my evening.”

Josef didn’t even look up from the basin where he was washing his hands. “I think your evening came out better than his, if it makes you feel better.”

“It certainly does not,” Eli said, flopping down on the bed beside Nico. “Josef, what is going on? We came to this… wherever we are, to get away from the hunters for a few days. They’re worse than mosquitoes lately. I can count on one hand the number of incident-free days we’ve had in the last two weeks. Did bounty hunting suddenly become the stylish profession? Have we stumbled into a hunter boom, or do I have a ‘Please Ambush’ sign on my back that you haven’t told me about?”