The Flame and the Thread

I sat poised on a balcony above the crowded streets, scanning the crowd below. My hands were fiddling with the tracking assignment picture I had been given for this job. I glanced down a couple of times at the image of a rough-looking man’s face before continuing my work, scanning the crowd. It wouldn’t be unfair to compare his appearance as similar to a rat, with his pointy nose and small, plotting eyes, it was almost uncanny.

My vision steadied, laser-focused on the crowd, observing every individual who made their way through the marketplace streets. Then, I saw him as he lurked with his body hunched over, trying to obscure his appearance from any onlookers, hugged up as close to the walls lining the streets as he could. The picture was quickly stuffed in my pocket, and I left my seat. I walked a little over to the right and jumped off into an empty alleyway, catching my foot on the wall as I landed softly onto some boxes.

I stood up tall and peered into the marketplace from where I was, looking barely over the tops of people’s heads in the crowd. I found his face once again, not particularly far from me, and pressed my body against the alleyway corner, entering the street and squeezing between people in the busy market streets. My eyes shifted and scanned ahead of me, constantly keeping track of the rat-man I followed in the crowd. My target dipped down another corner just ahead of me, a much less-travelled street where some of the market outliers were. I slowed my pace slightly and made myself more inconspicuous as I walked the corner.

Unexpectedly, there was no rat-man in my sight, but my innate tracking senses could tell he hadn’t left the area, so he had to have entered one of these shops. No one else was on the street, so I loosened up the tension in my stance, shaking my head to lock my attention fully onto finding, and most likely apprehending the rat-target. Perhaps he would cooperate, but because he was wanted, unofficially, for information brokering, he likely wouldn’t just come with me without a fight.

I walked past the windows of the stores in the empty street, marking an apothecary, an inscription shop, a shut-down tavern, and some other less notable housing. I crossed the street and spotted the target inside the magic inscription shop and stepped back a little, putting myself just out of view if the rat-man decided to take a look outside.

I evened my breathing and prepared myself mentally to deal with him as soon as he walked out. I tried not to worry more about what happens after I catch him, and have to bring the target to the Hunters for questioning. Those damn despicible Hunters, I couldn’t help but think, a sour taste in my mouth forming just at their mention in my mind.

I specifically request non-hostile tracking jobs for pets, runaways, lost items, and such, to keep me away from them as much as possible.

This is taking longer than I expected, I thought, and I took another look through the window. Inside the rune-charred shop, I watched as the rat-man shuffled through his pockets and pulled out a scroll with an inscription on it. He shouted something at the clerk behind the counter, she said something in return, and he tossed some coins on the counter in frustration. It seemed like a simple transaction, but then, after the clerk had counted and taken the payment, she touched the scroll, causing a faint amount of mana to emit from it.

The rat-man was up in uproar about this, shouting some kind of profanity at her, loud enough I could hear him yelling through the shop facade. “You sold me a defective scroll last time I came in here! Look at it, you lit it up by yourself, you Witch!”

“You tampered with it,” she said, the clerk fumbling with some sort of writing utensil.

“So you’re telling me no?” The afraid-looking face of the rat-target changed to something more sinister, one of his hands reached into his coat as he began biting on the nails of his other hand. “That’s not. An answer. I’m willing to receive.”

I saw the flash of magic, he was holding some kind of mana-powered weapon, the kind only despicable, low-lifes use when they want to hurt someone.

Before I even realized it, I had already run inside the shop, flames licking the ground underneath me as my flame-abilities activated instinctually. I hurled myself at him, the rat-man’s head whipping around to just see me before I swung my body around, my fire-covered foot connecting to the side of his head. His beady rat-eyes went cold, and he slumped to the floor, the object in his hand still grasped tightly.

Sera had told herself she wasn’t going to take any more walk-ins. She already had enough work piling up on her desk as it was, but at least it kept her distracted from what worried her the most.

But when a man walked in, sunken eyes and a look of fear on his face, she let him in. He asked for her to look at and fix a scroll some other inscriber had given him, and she asked for payment. Each second that passed, Sera grew more wary of the man in the shop, his eyes darting all around as if scanning for something, but she didn’t know what.

His hands dug deep in his cloak’s pockets, and he tossed some coins on the counter. “That should cover it, now can you hurry up and fix the damned thing?”

Sera only nodded in response. She picked up an inscribing pen and unrolled the scroll. Immediately, the glyphs inscribed within it began to bleed red, which she quickly countered by tossing some stabilizing stones on it. The scroll continued to glow, the mana transfer between the scroll and the air paused, but it continued to glow ominously.

The customer began hurling profanities at Sera as she studied the patterns and marks of the inscription. She could tell it had been tampered with by an amateur, a few marks placed where no experienced inscriber would ever draw, definitely not the kind of work she would do. He began leaning in closer, his voice getting louder in her ears. She looked up at him again as his hands slammed down on her desk, instinctively making her back away. She pulled her sleeves down and adjusted her gloves so that all her skin was hidden away, worried the man might try to approach her more.

He continued to berate her, but she tried to ignore him, until she heard him yell at her, “-you Witch!!”

Her emotions shifted as that name recalled memories in her mind, and she stood tall, responding boldly, “You tampered with it.” Her hands shook, and she gripped tightly onto the inscribing pen she had just used, now using it to ground herself.

“So you’re telling me no?” he sneered, the fearful face contorting, glaring at her with malice now. His eyes didn’t leave her gaze as he began to chew his fingernails, unsettling Sera.

Sera took another step back, bumping into a table of scrolls and tools, fear creeping into her mind as the man inched his other hand inside his jacket.

“That’s not. An answer.” he began, pulling out a crude-looking tube with painted runes pointing at Sera. His hand recklessly knocked over the scroll Sera stabilized, throwing it onto the floor. “I’m willing to accept.”

Sera’s breath caught, her hands trembled in fear, her eyes watching the scroll as it hit the floor. Time seemed to slow for her as she felt the mana in the room being pulled forcefully into the bleeding glyph, the power causing a blink of white light to illuminate the room.

But then, before the glyph had time to release the mana, or even the rat-man could attack her with whatever he was holding, the doors to the shop were flung open. The rat-man turned his head around, and Sera watched as behind him, a sillouted figure with glowing red boots darted in. The rat-man tried to aim the rune-covered tube at the dashing person, but didn’t have enough time before the person’s body contorted, his cloak filling up the air around him as a wave of heat erupted from his body, his leg striking the rat-man in the head. The body of the customer crumpled to the ground, and the intruder regained his footing.

Sera was stunned, almost unable to move, but the feeling of mana being sucked away from her body regained her focus.

Oh no, quickly, I have to act, no time to think about whoever that was. I have to stabilise the scroll before it erupts. Her body grabbed a handful of stabilizing stones, and she dove towards the now vibrating scroll. Her hand reached out to toss the stones onto the bleeding glyph, but her elbow hit the edge of the desk, and her hand reflexively released, sending all the stones scattering onto the floor, only a couple landing on the glyph.

She paused, looking desperately at the glowing and unstable scroll, praying that a couple of stones would keep it stable before it released. Its glow flickered for a second and stilled, its vibrations lessening slightly. Sera sighed, her head resting on the floor.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Sera looked up to see the same cloaked person who had knocked out the threatening customer, standing above her and offering her a hand. She glanced down at her hands, making sure her gloves were still on, before waving him off and getting up by herself, avoiding any touch or contact.

They met eyes, and Sera could see the person standing in front of her now in full view of the shop’s lighting. He was lean, cloaked in black with singed collars around his extremities. His charcoal-colored hair seemed to reflect red, matching the amber color of his eyes. She was kinda stunned to see that the stranger who ferociously knocked out the aggressor was pretty handsome, especially under her standards.

“I’m okay,” Sera replied, fully stabilizing herself, her adrenaline still raging. She moved carefully around him, keeping herself distanced physically from him, stepping towards the unstable rune.

“Is that okay to touch? It looks pretty worrying to me.”

“I’m going to shove some more stabilizing rocks on it.” She thought for a second, and then asked Leon, “Could you grab some mana-absorbing rocks from over there?” She gestured to a pile of rocks a little distance away.

“I- uh yeah I’ll bring some over.”

Sera watched him walk around the unconscious man on the floor and collect the rocks, making sure he didn’t touch them directly with his own hands. She leaned over the desk, drooping her head and sighing from the adrenaline wearing off.

“Do you have a name?” Sera asked, tilting her head slightly to see him walking back with a couple of rocks.

“I’m Leon. Do you need these rocks on that weird scroll-thing?”

“Sure, let me put them on, though.”

Leon reached out with the rocks, and Sera went to grab them. As Sera reached out, Leon outstretched his other hand to support her elbow, and she panicked, fearing they would touch. As she jolted backwards, her foot caught on something on the ground, and she fell. Instantly, a burning smell filled the air.

Leon looked down at the unstable scroll, its glyph bleeding red mana-filled ink off the page. Sera could only look in shock, her foot had swept outwards when she fell and bumped the scroll, shaking up the already unstable magic inside.

Leon quickly tossed all the mana-absorbing stones onto the scroll, but it was too late. Sera scrambled to her feet as the room rapidly lost the mana in the air, extinguishing all the lights in the room, then paused. Everything became quiet as the two looked at each other; the only source of light left was the furiously vibrating scroll.

Sera leaped backwards, but it wasn’t enough to escape the scroll’s devastating reach. A powerful force lit up the entire room in blinding light, then exploded, sending her body hurling forward as everything was engulfed in flames. Sera was flung into a wall, slamming against the stone as it knocked the air out of her.

She could feel the heat on her skin, but her eyes could barely see through the dust and smoke, the heat filling the air as she rolled onto her side, desperately trying to breathe. Pain then struck her quickly as she felt the flames licking at her skin, and she scrambled to try and put them out, rolling on the floor.

Something struck her body, a soft patting sensation, and the burning subsided slightly. She looked up and saw Leon using his tattered cloak to pat the flames off of her clothes. Her body struggled to find its way back to her feet again, stumbling before Leon grabbed her by the waist and lifted her over his shoulder.

Fear immediately struck Sera, not of the flames and the pain, but of touching Leon. She tried to call out as he carried her, but all she could do was cough; even her body wouldn’t respond to try to push away. No no! Not again, please, I don’t want to go through this again! She begged, trying to force her voice to come through.

Leon wasn’t aware of her struggling as he ran outside the building onto the previously empty street, now filled with a few curious onlookers. After he escaped to the other side of the street, he knelt to one knee and set Sera on the ground. Sera’s eyes were wide with fear as she inhaled clear air again, coughing as she regained the air in her lungs.

“You’re hurt,” Leon said, reaching for Sera’s arm, which was burned and bleeding, the cloak she was wearing torn and burned, full of holes.

Sera couldn’t risk having him touch her skin and grasped his wrists, trying to keep him away. But it was too late, Sera looked at her hands where she had grabbed his wrists, one of her gloves was missing, and the other had been melted in places… she had touched him.

Her breath vanished again. His heart felt like it had seized. Mana ran rapidly through his body into hers, and he nearly collapsed in front of her, a flash of pain he could feel even in his soul.

“What… the hell?” Leon gasped, recoiling, already bleeding from the mana explosion.

“No,” Sera whispered, her voice shaking, “I didn’t mean to...”

A mark behind Sera’s shoulder, previously hidden because of the cloak, began to glow again. That same mark began to manifest on Leon, picking the same spot behind his shoulder and burning its way onto his skin. Leon wasn’t one to be affected by heat, but this burning felt different, something worse than just a burn scar. His hand reflexively reached over his back to hold the spot as he struggled not to cry out in pain, the mark permanently digging into his skin and muscle.

Sera sat there bewildered, a mix of shock and terror overwhelming her. Not again, she thought, I tried so hard, did everything I could, but my father’s curse won’t stop haunting me… Sera couldn’t help but burst into tears, leaving marks on her soot-stained face.