12 stalker

Malkia pressed her feet against the branches of the tree. It was pretty high up and inside the glasstone manor walls, but no one of the occupants could realize she was up there, as the lights on the living room where lit on candles and lanterns, and she stood still on the dark sky. Shivering for the could air of the night, she focused her eyes on the group bellow. Her augmentations allow her to see then perfectly, as she could see 3 times better than other people, and her hearing has also pretty sensible, but she could only hear muffled noises from the inside the house. What she could do was reading the words the man on the colorful rags said to the rest:

" everyone chose your room. I get the one closest to the stairs, and d'kaji the one next to mine..."

Part of the stalker brain focused the conversation, but she would only focus if she heard one of the key words. The rest of her mind was dashing around her senses. She could smell the stings of night, like dried rope and alcohol on the pubs. She could her the insects playing around, and the calls of a dog. But, the most important one was a 75 cm radius bubble around her body. The expansion of her soul. Inside that area, she could perceive the tinniest insects, and even the way and temperature of the wind. She was no magistrate, but she had her tricks. Without than she wouldn't be where she was.

Without even realizing, she yawned. Her muscles felt sore, and she felt needles in her neck if she looked to much to the right. Staying up for a full night, a day, and now this night was much even for her and her abilities. Even her dreamed of a bath, a long and bubbly bath. Probably with a glass of wine and some berries, after all such dedication would not go unnoticed frown the crown. Not that it was her only reason. Similar to most soldiers and cadets, her sense of patriotism was on par with the most dreamful youth living under the banner of the royal Gard. Her thoughts of the luxury warmed her, but was her sense of duty witch keep her attention on the job, every day, every our.

...

" I guess that is it, now everyone should go to bed, nothing else to discus" said the gunslinger, turning his back to the bunch

" we could barely chose our rooms! I wanted the one to the view to the garden!" Said a very energetic and upset child. She waved her arms, making the back hair of d'kaji spike up, and he backed to the corner, fearing a similar result as the man on the slum. Or better yet, what was left of him

Her waving made no reaction though, so everyone signed and restarted to breath. The gunslinger said under his breath:"I will keep myself on the room to stay vigilant, and for tactical reasons"

"Such as..." said jaskal, who also wanted to see the gardens from his room. The gunslinger stares at the air for a while, and then respond.

"To calm thy soul, I know a master like you don't need a garden to... ascend"

Jaskal grunted happily to the complement, but Daija argumentated:" he just what the room for him because he likes the nice view, there is no valid point"

Feeling cornered, the gunslinger responded" the over watch reason still holds valid!"

" I can also be on guard, if a keep a better guard, can I get the room?"said daija

The gunslinger grunted affirmatively.

On her chair, Nayla understands that the best one to keep on guard gets the nice room. Not that she wanted it specially, she would become bored of the garden in no time. But, she waned it as a accomplishment. She began to search her things, hastily.

"Why are you the one calling the shoots? You don't even plan stuff, nor is the strongest, or fastest." Said Daija

"I have the most experience. You need my advices" the gunslinger waved his hands and made an exasperated expression, much exaggerated to the situation

"Your advices just shamed you in front of the king, and also us,clow."

Both her and the gunslinger pressed the table, putting their Weight down on their palms. Their eyes met, the tension rising as jaskal prepared to intervene if the two of than attacked each other.

Then the lullaby started.

A sweet sound, for a while they couldn't understand what they where hearing, and then they realized where it came from. Frozen from the shock, the four of then watched as Nayla played her instrument, sitting cross legged on the ground. The melody was tasteful, and calm down everyone on the room. For some seconds none moved, by the first to break the situation was the gunslinger:"style"

"What?" Said Daija, staring confused at him.

" what I have that you Don't have is style"

Jaskal and d'kaji laughed, and even Daija couldn't stop a smile. But Nayla seemed unbothered by it all.

....

Its usual for users of the arcane to memorize some little lyrics or melody to hum to focus and weave the reality into a spell. For Malkia, that was a soft humming, similar to a popular bar song, alghout been explicit and inappropriate on formal occasions, the erotic nature of the song made it easy for the younglings to remember. That spell was just so she could see better, about 2 times better than before. As she checked the surroundings and saw no threat, she returned to her previous spell.

: The reason for her wanting to have a better view was to detect indicators the two party members could give of starting a fight. Seen that they both calmed down, she restarted the invisible bubble around her body, and relaxed her muscles. Usually, been on watch would mean for her to never relax completely, but 39 hours awake and working, plus the calm nature of the job let her get her guard down. She only restarted the aura by sheer training, been used to keep it always on. If she hadn't made it, she would have lost one precious second, and that second may have just saved her operation.

As she spared her bubble around Her body, she felt another, more menacing presence. It was old and frail, as it belongs to an old hag. The moment their auras touched, she imedatly responded, tensing up her muscles and pulling herself back from the tree. Even with the previus relaxed muscle, she could distance herself from that aura. Her senses emedatly started to searcg for the source of the aura. Then, the windon sudenly opened.

...

: As Nayla played her song, alghout intrigued by it, nobody tried to stop her, they slowly restarted their conversation on a litter tone. So, everyone made a small jump, after Nayla suddenly screamed:"I am the best one on watch!" And dashed to the window, opening it aggressively" look".

The gunslinger luckily had the rightly angle to see the invasion, so he emedaly complied and reached for his weapon, but realized it was empty. Daija on the other hand, hadn't seen the person outside from where she seated, but after the exclamations of two of her companions, she dashed to the window, and vaulted it athletically. Just the four meters to the window has enough for her to gatter enough speed to fly about 4 meters outside and into the gardens. Even her reflexes had no chance to find that rogue somewhere out there. A second later the gunslinger reaches for the window, and points to her the direction he saw the person leaping back, and the redhead warrior give chase

...

Malkia knew the first instants of a chase where the most fundamental. It was the easiest to loose her trail, and she could go to wherever direction she wanned. So, as the window opened, she jumped again from the back of the tree,rolled back on the air and landed on the street outside, even with the jumpscare she experienced seh was able to get balanced on the ground and start running on less than a second. Her eyes locked on a small allyway, about 14 meters away, if she reached it, anyone behind her would loose her sent, and she could climb the building and jump from roof to roof to gatter some distance. She wished the one who could make such an aura to have neglected his body for arcane power, so the one couldn't find her.

She reached the alleyway on less than 5 seconds, and before turning the edge, she made a quick glance to the manor. She saw the body of someone leaping over the wall, probably starting at ground level. It was an impressive move, considering the speed she was crossing the manor grounds. Before it reached the ground, Malkia entered the alleyway .

About 3 meters from each wall, and 9 meters tall, and easy climb for someone as talented as her. She quickly spotted one detail going to the side, it looked like a smoke path for an inner fire pit. The back of her mind registered it was probably some sort of inn, but she couldn't think about it that moment. Using the impulse of her running, she jumped and pressed her feet down on the wall. As the impulse stopped bringing her higher, she put her hands around the bricks of the smoke scape, climbing up on to

...

Daija saw a small movement to the alleyway, and chase down whoever it was. Her landing on the stone treat bellow was violent and abrupt, but she recuperated easily afterwards. Dashing to the alley, she barely had time to see the feet of the stalker, leaping to another building. Daija was probably faster, but she couldn't reach her over the roofs. She punched the wall, making a fracture on the carved stone bricks, and returned home.

That night, every window was closed and everyone one was on their toes, that is except for Nayla, as she got the room she wanted.