Chapter 10: Harmony

It was a small street market. We had several in the capital and I had snuck out to steel from a few of them. It truly smelled different however, the odd mix off seared beef, roasted vegetables, fish, baked goods, and sweets. All melded together in an aroma that was good at one thing.

Making people hungry.

This time however I paid for the things I bought. Well, more accurately the night terror of Alexandria did. It was an amiable time I felt, it had a different flavor, like so many things I've tried recently. Louis was trying hard to make me feel at ease. Despite this I noticed that the spot behind me that normally had an ashen pink guard felt more noticeable than I was comfortable with.

Nevertheless, these were all new things to me. My issues that I had been stewing over seemed to fade to nothing. Enjoying the newness of it all, I kept looking around more than I would have otherwise.

It was because of this looking that I kept seeing the same few people.

"That's like the third time I've seen that group of people." I mentioned to louis as we continued down the street. I felt his attitude stiffen and I wondered what the matter was.

"I thought it was just me, no they are following us." He responded, as I turned to look, I felt him grab my hand.

"Don't react, just pretend you don't know." Easy said easily done, I had to pretend all the time that no one was following me. Granted most of the time it was knights, or the Gray Rose Reaper.

"How did they find out about me?" I asked as I pointed to a stall further down. He seemed to get the hint or maybe he guessed.

"I'm not sure that's the best idea…" He seemed at odds with the idea of getting closer to a dark alley, out of the crowed street.

"Trust me this isn't the first time, I've escaped pursuers." It was clear that he wanted to ask about it but seemed to think it wasn't the right time. I know I'm not the typical princess, but I took pride in that.

We pasted a stand selling candied fruits, I looked at them wistfully, but we didn't really have time to stop and eat them. There would be other times, like after we escaped, and I could peacefully tour the wide world.

"Let's take a break over there." Slowly leading Louis out of the way. Since it was mid-day the market was packed with others. As we left the crowds and slinked into a less populated corridor behind the stands.

"Once we get in the alley, we will try to get them to talk to us so we can get information." Louis told me.

"After we know who they are ill use a smoke bomb to cover our escape, so hold tight-"

"Na were just going to jump." I had been well rested these few days and since I don't have to worry about sprinting across the city, I won't have any trouble carrying louis with me for a few hops.

"Jump?" He seemed very spacy and out of things today, but we really hadn't talked much about what we can do with magic.

"Wind magic, though all the buildings are to spread out to cover long distance. Just hold onto my arm and jump when I say jump. Well head strait for the stables to get our horse and we can skip town."

"I just have jump?" He still seemed confused.

"When I say jump just hop." Rather than explain more I moved forward and turned the corner into the backstreet. It didn't take long before the small group of men had followed us into the deserted passage.

"Well, looks like you aren't as stupid as you look." I hate these people. I can't wait for…Oh right He won't be there for me this time.

"At lest I'm worth looking at, you should invest in a mask, that way its not harmful to society." I fired back. Louis could not stand to be out done, with as much swagger as he could manage:

"To profane us with your ugliness, truly ungentlemanly don't you believe?" It did not take long for us to forgot what we wanted to talk to them about.

"You want to go pretty boy? What you think your looking at?" I wondered if this was just part of quarter town, most thugs in the city stopped trash talking. If they were too aggressive some like the guard captain or Xavier would appear and demolish them.

"I can look at whatever I want." I pulled down my eye and stuck my tongue out, I wasn't going to be intimidated by these punks.

"Tsk, I would expect ruffians to have dignity and not be so boorish."

"I'm going to beat you to death here, how boorish is that?"

"You think you can get away with this, were going to mess you up here and now."

"Oh opps, hey jump!" As the group surged forward at us, I yanked on the thief's hand, before willing some wind to listen to me. I was a tall girl, coming in at over a hundred pounds, but there wasn't a way I could just carry Louis without magic. The wind helped pull him up, and a bit of strengthen magic I swiped from my guard I was able to haul him behind me. I hopped up vaulting in a graceful arc onto the roof top and stated running dragging louis behind me. There was a strip of roofs we could navigate, and two streets over we were able to hop down. Unfortunately, I couldn't expect him to land well, so I had to cradle him with wind as to not hurt himself. Injuries had hampered my escapes in the past.

"Wha-what are you doing?" It was a panicked voice from my travel buddy. I did not think about this when I formulated my plan, but I was now holding the man in a wind supported princess carry.

"You would hurt yourself if I tried to land you." I said dismissively, I wondered why he was blushing so hard, its not like we weren't friends at this point. It was at that moment that two groups approached us.

The thugs that were after the reward money, approached from the town road that led east to our next destination. And from the stables next to said road was a cloaked figure in ashen amour.

There was no way, this person really was a demon. It had been five days since I managed to flee the city. That was all it took for her bloodhound to find her. There as no one else in the world that had eyes and hair like that.

Eyes that were angry, eyes that bored at the pair of them like we were prey. Her face was cute and round, with a blond, pink bangs flopping down in front of the clear light rose eyes. The expressing conveyed an incredible amount of aggression. I had never had someone look at me like that in my entire life. My heart stopped for a moment when we made eye contact.

Oh god, this was worse than the time I stole stuff. My heart couldn't take it and thumped wildly, and lighting struck from the tips of my toes to pulse racing in my neck. I've never felt like this before until l looked at his cute round face marred by the fierce look of an angry hunter.

My bodyguard stalked towards us. As they did, he collided with the group of thugs.

"Hey watch out, we got business with the bimbo ove-" He didn't even pause as he clocked the speaking individual like it was noting. It was another striking scene, the short man fist extended, the guy he hit hovering backwards from the sheer might of the blow.

"Quick to the stables." Louis cried out from his position in my arms. Digging deep I blasted myself off a dozen feet above the crowed. Invisible wind swept the people in the road, and Xavier began to leap upwards when he was body checked by one of the other thugs.

"Stop him first, then a few of you go after the broad." There was an actual leader to this group of thugs, the east music alliance. It was a lose collection of youths and small-time criminals spread out over the various towns and cities in the east side. They took advantage of the travel time between cities and towns to inflict petty racketeering and smuggling trades and intimidation.

All of which was meaning less in front of the Gray Rose Reaper. The hood had fallen as he kicked the first one to get near him. Moving to cover where the princess had leapt as he was still her protector, the chance of survival had been high for the east music fools until they started taking out short swords, clubs, and knives. I didn't see Xavier draw his own sword because I had already disappeared into the hey smelling stable. It was at this point I came to the conclusion that I was still carrying the man so I unceremoniously dropped him on the aforementioned hey.

"Quick get up and get mounted, it won't take long before Xavier works through those guys and is after us."

"There's at lest twelve men against him does he even stand a chance?

"Move" I shouted at him, and he did. I can't believe that worked. We had arranged our things before our outing just in case something like this happened; we just dropped money on the counter as we rode out of the stable.

I had not been wrong, two people were bleeding out from gunshot wounds. Another three were on the ground not moving possibly not breathing. As we began to move away from the violent scrum, I had a great side view of slashing quicksilver, cleaving upwards bisecting a man from sternum to spine.

There was still three men left standing, but it wasn't certain how long they would be in around. It was than Louis dropped the smoke bomb he had mentioned between me and the crowed. With the cover we galloped away. I think I had been understated when I recounted and made up the deeds of the Gray Rose Reaper.

I now understood exactly what kind of monster was chasing us.