The lower district did not descend into panic when the scavengers began appearing more frequently. Instead, the city tightened in subtle ways that only people who lived close to danger would recognize.
Shopkeepers began closing their shutters earlier in the evening. Parents called their children indoors before the sun had fully set. Even the patrol guards, who normally avoided the poorer neighborhoods unless forced, had started drifting farther into the district as if they could feel something moving beneath the surface.
No one had announced a threat.
No one had explained what was happening.
Yet the city understood something was wrong.
Frankie stood on the roof of a narrow brick building and studied the streets below. From that height the district looked almost peaceful. Smoke rose from cookfires, merchants argued loudly over coin weight, and the constant murmur of the market drifted upward like the steady breathing of a restless animal.
The city appeared normal.
Frankie had lived there long enough to know when normal was a lie.
Callista crouched beside her with one knee pressed against the warm roof tiles, her gaze slowly sweeping from alley to alley. She was not watching the way frightened people watched. Instead she studied the streets the way someone might study footprints in mud, patiently searching for signs most others would miss.
Marco waited behind them near the chimney stack, leaning on his cane with the relaxed posture of someone resting a tired leg. To anyone looking up from the street he would appear harmless, perhaps even weak.
Frankie knew better.
The cane barely touched the roof.
"What do you see?" Luca asked quietly.
He stood near the roof edge with Red Oath resting across his shoulder. The spear's metal caught the sunlight in thin crimson veins that seemed almost alive beneath the cloth wrapped around the blade.
Callista did not answer immediately. Her attention remained fixed on the market streets for several seconds before she lifted one hand and pointed toward a busy road below.
"The market route," she said.
Tomas leaned forward to look.
"It's packed," he said. "What about it?"
Callista traced a slow line through the air with her finger, following the movement of people weaving between the stalls.
"That's exactly why it matters."
Frankie tilted her head slightly.
"Explain."
Callista glanced toward her.
"The scavengers we've fought in the last few days have not been wandering randomly," she said. "They have appeared near places where people already move in large numbers."
Rafe frowned.
"So?"
"So if something goes wrong," Callista continued, "panic spreads faster."
Frankie felt the logic settle into place.
The attacks were not chaotic.
They were placed.
Callista continued speaking while her eyes moved across the district.
"Three appeared near water wells yesterday. Two more came out near the southern gate this morning. The one we killed earlier came out of a drainage channel beside a busy street."
She paused, then looked back at Frankie.
"That is not coincidence."
Marco shifted slightly behind them.
"You think someone is directing them."
Callista nodded.
"Yes."
The warmth beneath Frankie's ribs tightened faintly, the mark reacting to something deeper within the city.
Below them a shout suddenly erupted.
A cart overturned near the market stalls, scattering vegetables across the cobblestones.
For a moment the crowd simply stared.
Then something pale and hunched crawled out from beneath the broken cart.
The scavenger moved with frantic urgency. It slammed into a man carrying flour sacks, knocking him flat before scrambling toward the nearest movement in the crowd.
Panic spread immediately.
Frankie dropped from the roof before anyone else could react.
Her boots hit the ground beside the overturned cart. She shoved a woman out of the creature's path and stepped forward just as the scavenger lunged.
It was stronger than the unfinished ones they had encountered earlier in the week, but its movements were still clumsy.
Frankie twisted aside and drove her elbow into the creature's jaw, forcing it off balance.
Luca landed behind her a moment later.
Red Oath swept downward in a controlled strike that knocked the creature to the ground without killing it.
Marco arrived seconds later.
The scavenger scrambled upright and rushed him without hesitation.
Marco did not move out of its path.
He shifted his stance slightly and allowed the creature to collide with him at full speed.
The impact died instantly.
For a moment the scavenger seemed confused, as if it expected resistance that never came.
Marco's cane came down across its spine with a sharp crack that echoed across the street.
The creature collapsed and did not rise again.
The market fell silent.
People stared.
Not at the body.
At the three of them.
Rafe crouched beside the corpse and let out a low whistle.
"Well," he said, "that was impressive."
Frankie ignored him. Her attention remained on Marco.
He flexed his hand slowly, studying his own strength the way someone might test the weight of a new tool.
"You feel something different," she said.
Marco hesitated before answering.
"Yes."
"How?"
He frowned thoughtfully.
"It feels as if my body understands force differently now," he said. "I don't brace before impact anymore. It simply… holds."
Frankie already knew why.
The quiet awareness that only she could see appeared in the corner of her mind.
Marco — Bastion Demon
Level 3
Dominion: 167 out of 300
Perfect.
She was guiding his growth exactly where it needed to go.
Callista stepped down from the roof moments later and approached the body cautiously. Instead of examining the creature itself, she looked at the surrounding streets.
Then she slowly turned in a full circle.
"They're testing routes," she said.
Luca wiped the spear clean.
"What do you mean?"
Callista gestured toward the drainage channel the scavenger had emerged from.
"That creature was not meant to survive long," she explained. "It was meant to move through the market."
Rafe blinked.
"You think someone released it just to see what would happen?"
"Yes."
Her voice remained calm.
"They're learning the city."
Tomas rubbed his face.
"That's… unsettling."
Frankie turned her gaze toward the rooftops surrounding the street.
Somewhere above them, unseen eyes might already be watching the results.
Callista spoke again.
"If we follow the pattern," she said, "we can predict where the next one will appear."
Frankie studied her carefully.
"You're certain?"
Callista shook her head.
"No."
Then she met Frankie's eyes.
"But I'm right often enough to try."
Marco tapped his cane lightly against the cobblestones.
"So where do we go next?"
Callista turned slowly and pointed toward the industrial quarter near the river warehouses.
"Over there."
Frankie felt the warmth beneath her ribs tighten again.
Yes.
That direction felt correct.
She glanced at Luca.
"Then we move."
Rafe groaned dramatically.
"Wonderful," he muttered. "Another evening crawling through sewers."
Frankie ignored him and started walking.
Behind them the market slowly resumed breathing as the crowd convinced itself the danger had already passed.
Callista walked beside Frankie, her eyes scanning the streets ahead as if she could see invisible threads woven through the city.
Somewhere above the rooftops, hidden wings shifted in the sky.
Something had noticed the pattern breaking.
And now it was watching the person responsible.