Plink. Plink. Plink.
Dark hallways lead to empty corridors from the sewage system supporting the city of a hundred thousand.
A light moves along an irregular path, stuttering up and down, down the sewer.
Engelyn stumbled along with gashes and slashes, body tattered and tired, refusing to listen to her command any longer.
'This should be far enough.'
Throughout yesterday, a citywide search was conducted to find her, and while she appreciated the sentiment, she felt it was excessive.
Luckily, knights were too prideful to search the ditches and sewers themselves for rats, so the search was called off.
She leaned against the wall, letting out an exhausted breath.
Excessive blood loss sent her straight to the floor. Scabs were already forming on her wounds, thankfully none of them were life-threatening.
'It's probably best to stay put for a while.'
And she closed her eyes, lullabied by the sound of dripping water.
To continue her escape another day.
***
In an alley home to some of the best restaurants in Nird-Autgild, one restaurant is the subject of ghost stories.
The food served and drinks sold were bland, and the owner with cold and desolate eyes like a corpse.
How such a restaurant survives in such competitive streets is why rumors spread.
'It serves food for the dead, they say.'
'Dined by ghosts, they say.'
"Lies."
Since coming to this world, Ifrid hasn't really felt the need to eat, partially because of the underdeveloped food culture.
But he finds the food here tolerable as opposed to everywhere else.
'Dwarves are really too rough with their taste.'
He shoveled the stir fry into his mouth, salty, sweet, and sour mixed with tender buffalo meat.
Ifrid got so caught up in the moment of his revelation that he ordered everything on the menu.
A quick mental math told him it shouldn't cost him more than thirty silver, and a third of that was for drinks alone.
'I guess it still has a great sense.'
The place is so out in the open, and with such a sour reputation, people avoid the stigma alone.
Combined with the curtains of strings around the place, only people who knew of the place's existence would wander in.
Next to him was a pocket watch he had bought out of curiosity, and he paid quite the price for it.
How the dwarf fits the workings of a clock into something the size of a palm is unknown to him, but it would be disrespectful of him not to learn the principle behind it.
As his thoughts wandered further into research, the sight of someone brought him back to the moment.
All bandaged up with a hood over her face, Engelyn, the assassin maid, made her way into the store.
Before he could even speak, Engelyn drove straight into the food, gobbling it up like she'd been starving for days.
She'd grab a plate, pour food into her mouth, rinse, and repeat for the next few minutes.
This makes one wonder about the mystery of a dwarf stomach.
'I really should study them sometimes.'
A chill went down Engelyn's spine as she jumped away from the table; her instinct suddenly told her it was dangerous to eat further.
"How was the food? Pretty good, right?" Ifrid said, looking at her like a stray.
Engelyn looked at where the sound came from, and for the first time, she saw him.
He appeared out of nowhere. Silver, contrasting with the gloom of the place, made his appearance even more offputting.
By instinct, she attempted to force herself to throw up.
"There's no need to; you're not poison. I was just asking if you'd like to join me at this table. The food here is, in my opinion, the best in all of Nir-Augild."
She did it anyway despite his reassurance, vomiting half-digested meat and plant along with some alcohol from who knows where. And she did all that without breaking eye contact.
'Impressive,' Ifrid thought as Engelyn got up on her feet.
"No thanks, I find the food here rather bland, foreigner."
"That's a shame you were eating so much moments ago." Ifrid poured himself another cup of tea.
"Now be on your way. This isn't a place traveler like you should come." Engelyn said with hostile eyes.
"But I must insist I stay longer. The cook is killing it, and the food? Well, it is to die for."
"No, enough of your wordplay, out." Engelyn brandished her dagger at Ifrid, causing him to frown.
"Your master will be disappointed that you turn down a guest."
"Say whatever—"
"Second circlet."
Clank.
A dagger flew straight at him faster than he could blink and hit him right in the chest.
But there was no blood.
The impact didn't even sound like flesh.
With a pained expression, he pulled something from under his robe.
A mask with a dagger lodged in the middle of it.
"Bullseye."
Ifrid expression quickly twisted into a smile, mocking Engelyn, frozen from shock.
Swift hands jolted down something on the marble book.
Binding rises from the earth and chains Engelyn to the ground.
The earth tugged on her arms and legs, pulling her to her knees with a rotted expression of confusion and hatred, struggling against the bindings.
"What is with him and collecting people with such short fuses? I guess he is quite temperamental himself."
Ifrid said as he rose from the table, a mound of silver and a pile of dishes the only trace of his existence.
Soundless steps approached, their laughter hidden in that silence.
Engelyn looked at Ifrid again; her eyes fogged with illusion.
Now that she was brought to her knees, he looked incredibly tall.
The two blue glints betrayed the veil of darkness that obscured his face like an abyss of their own.
Dread, an emotion she hadn't felt in a long time, not since when she first joined the Eye of Chaos as a pawn.
Engelyn felt invisible air brushing against her skin, and her senses heightened. Heat flowed and dampened through her body.
Unexpectedly, she was able to keep a calm mind throughout his approach, looming over her.
"Shall we go somewhere more private?"
'An ultimatum.'
Her mind raced, thinking of ways to escape the binding.
But a single lapsed of the moment tilt the power infinitely toward the other.
'I don't have the strength to break these bindings right now.'
A series of logical and emotional choices led her down a predetermine path like a beast ensnared by a trap.
'If I hadn't thrown up those foods. If only I wasn't distracted at the moment. If I had just ignored him.'
But, thinking about a hypothetical won't save her now.
There's only one thing left that Engelyn can do to save her skin
"Fine." She agreed to Ifrid.
"Wonderful."
And with that, they both disappeared into thin air.
***
'The strings are thinner this time.'
Ifrid looked at the strings flowing out of the marble book with concern, their once distinct form now fuzzy, the visible invisible now barely perceptible.
During that encounter, he used up two-thirds of the book's power, finally seeing its limitations.
The book consumed power differently from person to person.
The binding command took about a fifth of all power used.
And the cost of teleportation seems inversely proportional to the subject consent.
Looking back, his consumption of power was minuscule compared to what he'd used today.
"What? Where are we? How did we get here?" Engelyn was looking around with a panicked expression.
The sudden change in scenery made her dumbfounded, and her escape plan ruined.
"That's three questions you've asked," Ifrid said, annoyed.
"..."
"I won't take much of your time. I'll even help you survive the consequences of failing your mission," Ifrid said with a knowing expression.
"What do you want?"
"Even as a second circlet, you really don't think you'll get away free of harm, do you?"
"..." Engelyn pursed her mouth with an indignant expression.
"Good enough. What is your name?"
"..."
"Engelyn, who gave you the commission?"
"!!!" Engelyn was shocked.
What Ifrid said was her real name, not her code or the name she gave to the Eye of Chaos, but the name she buried along with her parents long ago.
It is a name she hasn't heard in decades repeated by this stranger's mouth
"Hmm, directly from the bishop of the west," Ifrid mumbled to himself, the answer to his own question regardless of Engelyn's input.
"How?"
"Why, you were so cooperative."
"..."
"I'll get to my point now. Work for me, and I promise you wealth and vengeance. I'll even help get your sister; how about that?"
"... Who are you?"
Ifrid only answered her with a smile.
"You know what, words alone are hardly proof. Let's play a game."
"A game?"
"Yeah, first to absolve you of your own incompetence wins, loser working for the winner," Ifrid said with outstretched hands.
"Fine." Taken aback by how casually Ifrid seems to be taking her life, Engelyn agrees to it out of spite.
Taking his hands, Engelyn felt an unknown binding force spread from her palm, an extraordinary game with supernatural stakes.
"I'll see you again in five days' time," Ifrid said, watching Engelyn disappear from his grasp.
As she disappeared, he checked the book again.
'One-fifth, huh? She must be in a hurry. Guess I'll look at the other's story then.'