“Well? Did you see his remains?” Rufian asked anxiously.
She shook her head slowly.
“Shit. Looks like you didn’t know him as much as you thought you did,” I sighed.
“That was a quick trip!” Rufian retorted. “I say you check again!”
“Look, unless someone hauled him in pieces, there was no corpse in the location you gave me, which means that there is no bounty to collect, and that there’s a good chance that Clave is still alive.”
“I refuse to believe this being a fact!” Rufian roared.
“Don’t feel bad. Not a lot of people know that the prick is a bitch to kill. You need to shine his body with waves of gamma light, the stronger, the better.”
“So there is no doubt in your mind that this threat is still alive?”
“The skill is called Second Life. Sorry to break it to ya. Try again.”
“Curse him!” Rufian growled, slamming his fist into the desk.
“Hey, relax. We’re lucky we made it out of that fight alive,” I reminded him.
Rufian sighed, irritated. “You don’t understand. Clave is an x hunter. We were the ones who tried to kill him. I killed his sister! Which means we are going to be hunted like dogs until the job is done!”
“No one fucking told you to kill Clover,” I reminded him. “That was unnecessary, and now karma’s gonna kick you in the ass for it!”
“You say that like you’re not in his line of fire as well.”
“Fuck that. I’m used to being a target. There’s no point in moping about it. There’s nothing that can be done, so we move along like we always have and focus on the mission.” I turned to the woman as she climbed back on her chair. “Sorry for wasting your time. Thank you for your help.”
“Anytime. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to my articles. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
I’d never seen Rufian look so defeated. As we made it out of the building, he was as quiet as a church mouse. I didn’t try to cheer him up, because honestly, I was a bit rattled myself. But there was no point in puffing and huffing about the past. He hadn’t known. I hadn’t known. Even though I had a clue that something wasn’t right with his ability to lock people out of looting him when he died.
If we were his current targets, that’d make our mission harder, but there was no avoiding it, so we’d have to deal with the Deo again. I was just hoping it wouldn’t be anytime soon.
But as we walked down the street, Rufian suddenly broke the silence. “I'm sorry,” he said quietly.
I stopped walking and turned to him. “Sorry for what?”
“For getting us into this mess. For letting my emotions get the best of me and killing Clover. I know it wasn't necessary and it's caused all sorts of problems for us.”
“Yeah well, we weren’t expecting Clave to rise from the dead on some zombie shit, so—”
“You warned me, Silas… If Clave isn’t dead, then—”
“That doesn’t change anything.”
“It changes more than you think…”
“Hey, you know more about the guy than I do. I’m still in the dark about his true potential. But if we can get to our destination quickly, then we have nothing to worry about.”
“In all of my years, I’ve never heard of a skill called Second Life… this must have been something newly acquired,” he said, scratching his chin at the thought. “We need to get to the codex as quickly as possible.
Before I could comment, Rufian was off. We reached a dense area in the crowded streets of Ezdalise, in an area called Red Blossom Square. There was a vendor there garnering a lot of attention, and having heard bits and pieces from the crowd, I realized that this newcomer was selling enhanced potions. Exp accelerants, never before tested. I looked up to the sign on his stand that read Shao’s Uncommon Elixirs, and then gazed down at his plethora of vials of all colors, shapes and sizes.
They sat on the wooden table of his stand, the biggest product there the exp accelerant he was highly advertising. He was a gray man with a long shaggy beard and a red embroidered cloak. Bluntly speaking, he looked like a con man and spoke like one, too. But for the amount of sammies he was offering his work for, he even had me listening to his sugary bullshit—advance three levels with one gulp—1000 sammies. It sounded too good to be true.
Without waiting for Rufian's response, I approached the vendor. I saw a middle aged man bulldozing through the crowd swinging a sash of coins, and then dropped himself on the merchant’s table out of breath. Shao gave him a friendly smile. He greeted him warmly, asking if he was interested in purchasing any of his potions.
“I'm looking for something to enhance my strength,” he said, his tone enthusiastic.
The vendor's eyes lit up. “Ah, then you've come to the right place. I have just the thing.” He pulled out a small vial filled with a bright green liquid. “This is my latest creation. It will give you a boost in strength and agility for up to five points.”
“No way, are you serious?!”
He chuckled. “Very. You’d have to wait overnight for the effects to activate just like all of my potions. But rest assured, the results will leave you breathless.”
“I’ll take twenty!”
“A rather peculiar name for a fae,” Rufian pointed out, eyeing him up and down. “I wonder come morning if his stall will still be here. Once his customers realize his words were nothing but empty promises, they’ll return to hang him.”
I snickered. But then I did a double take, noticing someone further out from the crowd. My breath jumped at the thought that crossed my mind when I saw a beautiful lock of blond hair wearing a bright red bonnet. Without thinking, I dashed toward the girl, her back still facing me as I held myself from calling out her name.
She was the same height as her, the same frame… it had to be Jezz!
Even her voice sounded familiar, but as I brushed past the crowd in a heated hurry, she turned to me, those yellow eyes tanking my chest.
“Jezz?” I whispered, but her stats said something else…
