Horus, Lian and Alice moved through the slums like they had moved through them before. Although I had my doubts about Horus being from the slums, Alice seemed the most familiar with the district, pointing in specific directions until we arrived at the border of the dock warehouses.
"In there!" Alice pointed, directing us into one of the warehouses.
"Elias." Horus motioned. With Horus' help, we closed the door, closing out any vision of us for a moment.
"It'll be a moment before they trace us with our mana signatures." Lian huffed.
"What the hell's happening?" Alice asked as soon as she caught her breath. "Why do they want you two? Horus, did you do something wrong? Did he blackmail you?" She pointed at me.
"What?" I raised my eyebrows. "I did no such thing."
"Blaming won't solve anything." Horus stepped in. "No, he didn't do anything, Ali. He only helped us."
"Then why's the entire city guard after you two? The mage from the West and Horus Typoxy. There's already a large enough target on you for looking into the mess with the sewers! We really don't need another one!"
"It's already too late."
"Surely, if we just give him up, they'll let you go." She pointed at me.
"You know that's not how that works." Horus narrowed his eyes at Alice. He shifted, pointing at me with his thumb. "If it weren't for him, you'd all be dead to goblins."
Alice grew quiet. Her eyes still filled with venom as she glanced my way.
"Do you think they're trying to shush us after what happened down there?" Lian asked quietly. "That we know someone's been hiding something, manipulating the city, slowly killing it from the inside out?"
"Probably." Horus nodded. He folded his arms and scrunched his face together, as if trying to piece together any clues.
I turned away, taking a moment to digest everything. I looked to my hands. Runtime had lost its form and changed. I had no longer needed an external conduit to focus my powers and it was now within me…
It seems magic has really changed for me… It's neither old or modern… It's completely different. I shook my head, refocusing on the situation at hand. That doesn't matter right now. I need to figure out what's going on. It'll be just a moment before that Knight's help ceases and they come for us…
I closed my eyes and took a breath in before letting a breath out. I sucked in one more, feeling the mana light my arms up in purple as I pushed a scan outwards. A mental image of lines appeared in my head, slowly filling in a mental image of my surroundings.
Three, four, five… six… eight… ten. There's ten about thirty meters out. At their pace, they'll be here in about two minutes.
I opened my eyes, turning to the others who were in a hushed conversation.
"We got two minutes before they get here." I told them. "There's ten of 'em."
"Already?" Lian sighed. She looked to Horus. "What do we do? We can't keep running forever and getting out of the city is out of the question."
Horus scratched his cheek. "I don't know. We get caught, its over. We continue running its over. Ardyn already made his choice letting us go. It would be all for naught if we just let them capture us."
"Maybe if we give ourselves in, they'll go easier on us." Alice countered.
"They'll do whatever they did to the other expeditions — get rid of us." Horus replied back.
"The city will be in chaos. Surely, they wouldn't." Lian stepped forward.
Horus shook his head. "We don't know that. If Marigold was enacted, whatever plan they have is already in motion." He let out a frustrated grunt.
I closed my eyes, watching as the pings of mana signatures grew closer.
"A minute left." I warned them.
The mana swirled around my finger tips as I closed my eyes and focused on the mana signatures closing in. The three still hadn't decided on what to do and it was starting to get a little too close for comfort. I opened my eyes and turned to face the large doors.
"Why don't we do this — find whoever's behind this and stop it?" I suggested.
"That's like finding a needle in a haystack!" Lian replied.
"Even if we could do that, this person is definitely high enough up there that they could hide themselves. They'll use the chaos to their advantage and get as far away as possible before you could even get close. Hell, they might even—" Horus couldn't even finish his sentence as the metal doors burst open.
Metal shards scattered to the wayside as I lifted my hand up, turning my head slightly away.
"They're here!" A guard shouted.
"Get them!" Another shouted.
The mages began to chant as the guards rushed at us.
"Horus!" Lian shouted. Horus, already moving in front of me, threw his hand out.
"Barrier!" Horus shouted. A blue barrier exploded to life as spells arced straight for us. The first spell hit Horus' shield, pluming the building in smoke as I was immediately pulled backwards by Horus, deeper into the warehouse.
"Where we going?" I asked as we ran.
"Somewhere other than here!" Horus replied. "Alice!"
"Already on it!" Alice spun on her heel, lifting herself into the air as a swell of mana burst forward. "River spill forth, wipe my enemies: Surging Tide!"
Water ripped from thin air, spilling forward as Horus and I passed Alice.
"Quickly!" Horus shouted, hopping over a bundle of metal.
I jumped over it, landing and turning to watch the spell wash out most of the guards and mages. I pointed at the metal and flicked my wrist, watching the metal split apart and fly straight to the guards, blocking their path.
I followed after the others, exiting the warehouse and turning right.
"Not so fast!" A voice boomed before the earth cracked, shattering everything around me in an instant. I was pushed backwards, rolling as the ground shook from the impact. Smoke billowed outwards as the sound of something metallic was pulled from the ground.
The smoke parted in heavy sheets. Something rose from the fractured street — steel first, then white enamel armor with gold filigree. A longsword followed, dragged free from the stone as if the ground had tried and failed to keep hold of it.
The knight straightened.
No helmet.
Short ash-blonde hair. A narrow face pulled tight with focus rather than rage. A sigil burned faintly at his collarbone, etched directly into his flesh rather than armor.
A binding mark.
"Enough running," he said calmly. "You've crossed into dock jurisdiction."
Horus cursed under his breath. "That's a Knight-Executor."
The title hit harder than the impact had. Knight-Executors weren't guards. They weren't even captains. They were answers.
The knight's gaze slid to Horus, then Lian, then Alice before settling onto me. It lingered there, sharpening. "There you are." Mana twisted around him, not flaring, not channeled through a staff or sigil. It clung to his movements like weight, like gravity obeying him out of habit.
"I am Ser Caldrex Vale," he said, voice steady. "By authority of Briar's Bridge and invocation of Marigold, you are to be detained or terminated."
Alice's breath hitched. "Terminated?"
"Conditional," Caldrex replied evenly. "Resistance determines which."
Lian lifted her staff, flames licking her gem. "You don't get to decide that!"
"Already have." He moved faster than my eyes could register. The space around him moved like it was absolute.
I lifted my hand on instinct. The purple lines surged. The air thickened. Caldrex's sword stopped inches from my face. Not block. Refused.
Mana screamed as it tried to obey two conflicting truths—his will to cut and my to deny.
For the first time, his composure cracked. "Interesting," his eyes glimmered as he realized what was going on.
Horus slammed his staff down. "Now!"
A barrier bloomed between us as Lian's fire surged and Alice's water spiraled, crashing together into scalding steam. The warehouse wall behind Caldrex collapsed under the force.
Caldrex didn't retreat. He walked straight through it. The steam parted around him, evaporating before it could even touch steel.
"This is pointless," he said. "You are delaying the inevitable."
"No," I replied, stepping forward before Horus could stop me. "You are."
The words surprised me. They didn't come from fear. They came from alignment.
Caldrex studied me, eyes narrowing. "You're untrained. Unregistered. And you wield something that doesn't belong to this era.
"I don't belong to this era, either," I said quietly. The purple markings crawled higher, branching along my forearms like living script. Not sigils.
Statements.
Caldrex felt it. I could tell by the way his stance shifted, by the way his grip tightened.
"…What's your Creed?" He asked so suddenly. The question struck deeper than any blade. Creeds weren't declared lightly. Knights lived and died by theirs. To ask it mid-conflict was to challenge someone's right to exist on the battlefield.
I hesitated. And in that hesitation, Pressure. Not Rewrite nor Runtime. Something internal, coiling, demanding shape.
In my name, close what runs from you.
Learn what refuses to be learned.
And never be polite with your desires.
My jaw clenched.
"I don't have it all, yet," I said honestly. "But I know this." I stepped closer. The ground didn't resist me. "If your order requires you to butcher a city to feel safe, then I will be your problem."
Caldrex smiled. A thing, sharp thing.
"Good," he replied. "You'll make this worthwhile." He raised his blade and the sigil in his flesh ignited.
The docks trembled. And for the first time since Runtime had dissolved into nothing, I wanted something badly enough that magic didn't wait to be asked. It answered.