Light of the Heavens

IV. In the Streets

Minutes dragged on like days, at least to Seben. She fidgeted slightly as she sat in the darkness, ready to spring up and flee the moment Vassa told her to. The masked woman had gone still and deathly quiet by the window. Seben wondered almost if she had suddenly turned to stone, not even her breathing audible. It was so quiet in the room that the creak from the hallway was almost deafening. Seben flinched at the sudden noise and the proximity it meant.. It eased quickly, though, as if the person was moving already further down the hall. Seben relaxed slightly and took a small breath.

Vassa knew better than to assume they were gone. Her intuition told her that they were anything but safe and she had not lived to her current age by ignoring that. She finally moved, drawing Seben's attention with a beckoning gesture before signalling to the open window.

Seben got to her feet as quietly as she could. "Are you sure?" she asked nervously.

Whatever answer Vassa had intended to give, it died when she felt a sudden surge. The masked woman grabbed Seben by the arm and yanked, allowing herself to fall through the open window. She landed hard on her back on the tiled roof only to have Seben's weight slam down on top of her, but they were both below the window's threshold when a deafening crack split the silence. The door exploded into fragments, crackling with flame, and the flash that illuminated the night would have been blinding: an assault meant to stun and debilitate.

Vassa levered Seben off of her and gave her a shove along the rooftop. "Go," she hissed in a low voice. "As quiet as you can while being quick."

Seben nodded and started moving, keeping herself calm with deep breaths so she wouldn't scramble. Her heart was pounding hard enough that her chest ached. She glanced over her shoulder to see Vassa following her, though the masked woman was facing the window rather than the edge they were rapidly approaching.

Beneath her hood, Vassa's brow furrowed. Her plan would require more power than she really wanted to use and she didn't have long to do it. She pulled in a deep breath. Without this, their lead would be short lived and they would be in combat. She knew better than to assume there would only be one assailant. They would be more than a match for her and she didn't know how capable Seben was in a fight.

The masked woman twisted one of her rings, tapping into the energy stored by the sigils etched into precious metal. It spread from her hand to her chest like the flow of cool, clear water. She caught the weave of existence around them and used the magic to wrap the threads around herself and Seben. The illusion effectively made them vanish, the twisted threads showing only what was beyond the two of them. Vassa turned and picked up her pace, drawing even with her companion. It was a powerful spell and not one she could sustain for very long on just the stored power. Already it was ebbing like water caught in cupped hands.

"Where do we go?" Seben whispered, stopping at the roof's edge. The stables were there, the roof lower by a story on this side, but there was more than six feet of gap between them.

"We jump," Vassa said, gesturing to the stable. "Hurry."

Seben swallowed hard. "I hate heights."

"Jump or I will throw you," Vassa said in a voice that was far more threatening than reassuring. They didn't have time to linger on this ledge. In another second, the spell would be drawing from her own vitality and while her inner reserves were substantial, they were a finite amount and her physical endurance would fade as they were depleted. She didn't want to have to use any of her other rings, not when she had spent so much time storing power in them. She would have tried a far-step with Seben, but she doubted her accuracy while maintaining the spell and appearing halfway through a rooftop would be horrifying and lethal.