Blurred Stance

Khyrie and Kiel pulled ahead as the group sprinted across the rooftop, opening a noticeable gap between them and everyone else. 

“When did you two get so fast?!”

“Sarah, focus,” Chena said. “Khyrie and Kiel are probably running on adrenaline.”

Eight figures pursued them across the rooftops, hands rising as they closed the distance.

“They’re going to throw projectiles at us," River warned.

Malia didn’t turn. “Let's try losing them in a building.”

The edge of the rooftop rushed toward them.

Khyrie and Kiel jumped short of the next rooftop and crashed through a window in the next building. 

The instant River pictured the jump and the shattered window waiting on the other side, doubt broke through his momentum. Malia went first. Chena followed. Then Sarah. One after another, they vanished through the broken window.

River reached the edge just as something clear flashed overhead. Long, needle-like objects sliced through the space where his head had been, and instinct took over. He hurled himself across the gap with his eyes squeezed shut.

River hit the floor inside the building shoulder-first. “Urrghhh.”

Malia was already moving. “We head for—”

One of the assassins came through the same window.

Kiel drew his cutlass immediately.

“Kiel can handle it!” Malia shouted, sprinting from the room. 

Chena pulled River after her while Sarah stayed close behind. Behind them, the assassin ducked beneath Kiel’s swing. A clear dagger emerged from his wrist.

The assassin spun low, sweeping Kiel’s legs out from under him. Kiel crashed to the floor as the assassin lunged, only for Khyrie to cut in between them. Her cutlass caught the clear dagger, steel grinding against something that looked almost like solid water. 

Khyrie knocked the weapon aside and drove her foot into the assassin’s chest, sending him backward toward the broken window.

Malia hit the road at a run with Chena, River, and Sarah close behind. Ahead of them, four figures dropped from the roof of a two-story building. They landed softly, barely bending their knees.

“Left!” Malia shouted. They cut into the turn just as footsteps pounded from the side alley ahead.  Khyrie emerged first with Kiel right behind her, and the two folded into the front of the group without breaking stride.

Movement flashed above Chena.

An assassin dropped from a rooftop to her right.

She raised her cutlass.

His transparent dagger struck the steel.

The clear material deformed around the blade, flowed around the metal, then pulled itself back into shape on the other side.

The point continued toward her collarbone.

A gunshot cracked.

The assassin jerked sideways and hit the ground.

“This is our chance. Keep moving!”

Kiel looked back from the front. “River, that guy is dead. Leave him.”

River hauled the body over his shoulder. “Sarah shot him somewhere in the rib cage. He could still be alive.”

“And then what? We torture him for answers?”

“Be realistic. He probably won’t open his mouth at all.” Khyrie called back too. “And you won’t even stand torturing somebody.”

Sarah checked behind them. The other seven assassins had stopped, gathered together on a distant rooftop.

Watching.

Not pursuing.

“Bring him,” Malia said. “Khyrie, help River carry the guy.”

Khyrie said nothing at first, keeping pace for several strides before moving alongside River and taking some of the assassin’s weight. Together, they carried him toward Seria.

Checkpoint Between Valeria and Seria City

The checkpoint came into view, along with a man waiting in the road. River recognized him first. “It’s Commander Dirk.”

Kiel clicked his tongue in irritation. “Does he intend to stop us?”

“We should talk with him first. If we fight, it only proves the wardens right for detaining the Army.”

“River, think.” Khyrie adjusted her grip on the assassin’s body. “We just got away from those attackers. They could be pursuing us.”

“They’re not,” Sarah said, keeping track of the rooftops behind them. “I watched them choose not to pursue us. We’re clear.”

“Then we confront Commander Dirk and catch our breath. There’s six of us. He wouldn’t dare fight.” Malia slowed as the checkpoint buildings came into view. “Just make sure we don't get surrounded by any wardens.”

“Commander Mercer asked me to find your squad and fill you in on the situation!”

“He’s open to talking.”

They came to a stop in front of Dirk, whose attention went straight to the body hanging between River and Khyrie. “I—is that a dead man?”

“We’re hoping he isn’t dead. Likewise, we’re hoping you’re on our side.”

Sarah tightened her grip on the musket, and Dirk caught the warning in it. “I’m not the enemy.”

The checkpoint felt too exposed, hemmed in by dark alleys and rooftops that offered too many places to watch from without being seen. “Explain,” Malia said.

“Commander Mercer refused to hand Warui over to the government. In turn, the officials charged him and the Army with deliberate civilian endangerment. He’s being held in the capital’s underground military prison. His orders are to proceed with the contingency plan.”

“Then we have to rendezvous with Captain Zay. 

"Sarah, you didn’t fire your long rifle during the ambush?"

“No, ma’am. I used Chena’s musket.”

“Ambush?”

"Your wardens are all over the Army base in Valeria. Searching houses. Arresting soldiers. Containing the base. They forced us to move. Then eight of those assassins came at us.

“If you’re really here to help, then what was that about?”

“With the Army deemed criminals, it’s best the Crown Warden doesn't appear aligned with your branch. We’re still not sure what the government intends, and the people of Tiria aren’t taking kindly to how any of this sounds.”

“Hm... then our assumptions were wrong.”

“Are we just going to trust the wardens that easily?”

“Sarah, he’s their commander.”

Dirk exhaled deeply. “I know the Army and Crown Warden haven’t gotten along for as long as you kids have been in the military. Hell, it dates back to when I was a trainee.”

Nobody interrupted him.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the insults from either side.

"The Army is a bunch of heavily armed idiots who solve problems by marching a thousand men through somebody’s wheat field.”

Kiel’s mouth twitched. He had heard versions of that insult before.

“Wardens are merely glorified watchmen brandishing military insignia.

“The Army defeats the enemy.

“Wardens preserve the realm.

“Those aren’t always one and the same, but I think for the first time…

“We might be fighting for the same thing.”

Malia felt the sincerity of his words. For all the tension between their sides, their aims no longer felt so far apart. Right now, at least. “Thank you, Lionel.”

“Watch yourselves, soldiers.” Dirk moved aside, opening the way into inner Seria, where dressed-stone buildings rose beneath dark tiled roofs and broad windows reflected scattered lamplight. “The wardens know not to detain you, but that’s still not permission to be seen.”

The squad disappeared into Seria City, leaving Dirk alone at the checkpoint. He watched until they were gone, and the events leading him here returned in fragments.

The entire Crown Warden branch stood before him. “I’m sure you’ve all heard by now that the Army is to be suppressed.”

“Proves them right, those foggy-brained bastards.”

“We’re just the guys to do the job.”

“Their commander has been arrested, and anyone in the Army who explicitly aligns themselves with him is to be detained.”

The reaction changed immediately.

“Commander, that—that’s real?”

“Yes, the government ordered it an hour ago.”

“I thought the newspapers were telling some sick joke.”

“Commander Mercer is the sick one not turning in that dangerous-ass kid.”

“Wardens, listen!” The crowd settled almost at once, few willing to openly challenge their commander. “Follow the government’s orders, but if you encounter Combat Engineer and Squad Leader Malia Coy, or anyone traveling with her, do not follow procedure.”

The room erupted and voices collided from every direction.

“Calm down and listen.

“There’s potentially something off about the situation. Someone has to look into it. It might as well be a few people from the branch the government is already deeming criminal.”

“Then are we truly protecting the people of Tiria, sir?”

“I don’t have that answer for you in this very moment.”

The exception took several seconds to sink in.

“Usual deployment, sir?”

“Yes. A fifth of you in the capital. The rest, split between Valeria and Seria.”

Then the formation began dispersing.

The prison corridor.

Dirk standing before Mercer's cell. “That’s really why you didn’t join the Crown Warden?”

“Yes… when we were fifteen, I decided that.”

The checkpoint returned.

“Same fight, huh…” The road stretched empty in front of him. “Why’d I think such foolish thoughts all these years?…”

Outer Edge of Seria City

“That’s good for now,” Zay said. “Be sure you remember that.”

Then a gunshot sounded from inside Seria City.

Not an ordinary gunshot.

“That’s Sarah’s long rifle," Warui said immediately.

“Only Malia’s custom guns sound like that.” Zay's surroundings fell away, the world narrowing. “Her signal is normally two.”

Ela got to her feet. “What are we doing, Zay?”

“Maybe your comrade’s squad is in trouble,” Lio said.

Zay stayed quiet for a few seconds, turning the pieces over with what little they knew. “We check it out.”

“What if we run into whoever the enemy is?”

“Turn your jacket inside out and wrap it over your head. Make sure nobody sees your face, and if we get into a fight…” Zay's attention dropped to Warui’s hand. "We’ll see if it works. Ela, Lio, make sure there’s no trace of us here.”

Warui stayed where he was for a moment, raising one hand and turning his palm toward himself.  “We’ll see…”

Seria City

The abandoned house looked close to collapse. Dust lay thick in the corners, while narrow blades of moonlight slipped through cracks in the walls. Charred beams jutted through the interior, ash lingered in the air, and the plaster infill had darkened.

“Haa… the situation’s gone to shit.” Malia rubbed at her forehead. “I don’t know what we do without the Commander’s leadership.”

“I shot him intending to kill him.” Sarah's voice had gone flat. “People don’t live that…”

Kiel nudged the body with his boot. “He’s dead.”

The assassin sat slumped against the wall. River crouched beside him and lifted the man's shirt to examine the wound along his rib cage. "He was shot in the lungs. He's—

“Not bleeding anymore.”

Something shifted beneath the damaged flesh.

The lead round ball slowly pushed itself back out of the wound.

It dropped.

The skin around the hole began drawing inward.

Flesh tightened.

Knotted.

“Guys!” River's eyes widened at the wound. “The assassin...”

The flesh continued pulling itself together.

“I think he’s healing…”

GKI: Generally Known Information

Seria City

Unlike Valeria, Seria developed with little central planning.

Successive generations built new homes, workshops, and businesses over older districts.

Timber remains the city’s most common building material due to the extensive forests surrounding it. Most ordinary homes are timber-framed, with plaster infill and fieldstone foundations. Wealthier districts make greater use of brick, dressed stone, tiled roofs, and larger windows.

The city’s poorest quarter consists largely of older buildings that have been repeatedly repaired, expanded, and subdivided. Several families may occupy structures originally built for one. Alleys narrow where later construction has encroached upon them. Abandoned buildings remain scattered among occupied homes.

Despite its poverty, the district contains bakeries, schools, foster homes, workshops, taverns, and long-established families.

Seria also maintains a permanent Army installation and Crown Warden presence. Its outskirts, however, are difficult to control. Dense woodland, scattered cottages, old roads, and irregular development create numerous approaches that cannot be watched at all times.