Asher was jolted awake by a sudden crashing of sensation into his awareness. Sounds battered the stillness of his mind, smells assaulted his nose, and once he opened his eyes, blinding light and a bustling crowd overwhelmed his sight. He was growing seriously tired of being shocked awake and disoriented.

  The crowd was his most urgent concern. For all he knew he could be surrounded by enemies. He quickly backed himself up against a nearby wall, breathing heavily and tried to assess his surroundings.

  Just as he calmed down enough to begin absorbing the appearance of those around him he was distracted by a bright flash of light, shining from just next to where Asher had appeared moments ago. Asher was momentarily blinded by the light, he rubbed at his eyes as he waited for them to regain their focus.

  A girl huddled before Ashwer, familiar with her brown wavy hair, freckles scattered across her face and, comically, a shield held up over her head.

  “Hey.” Asher called out, walking over to Hazel.

  Despite the dull roar of the crowd, Asher’s voice still caused Hazel to jump in surprise. “What in the world is happening?” She begged of Asher “Is it over?” She ran to stand with Asher as she responded.

  “You heard a weird voice too?” Asher asked.

  “Weird voice? Are you kidding me? Weird doesn't begin to cover it. I’m pretty sure a demon was talking to me in my mind.” She emphasised the word “in” communicating how disturbed she was by the idea

  “Hmph.” Asher breathed out. “Whatever it was, I don't think it was a demon.”65

  “And what makes you say that? Seemed pretty demonic to me.” Hazel sounded offended that he had disagreed.

  Asher was beginning to notice some islands of stillness in the currents of the crowd, a few sets of eyes that lingered longer than he was comfortable with. “Look, I don’t know where we are right now, but I do know that we are drawing more attention than I'd like to.” Asher’s voice trailed off as his eye was caught by a man walking by.

  The figure, who Asher had initially assumed was just an exceptionally tall man, on second glance turned out to be a different kind of person entirely, a kind Asher had never seen before. The man was at least a foot taller, perhaps more, than the rest of the crowd. He had long pointed ears which angled back away from their face. His ears poked through his shoulder length pure white curly hair. The hair framed a highly angular face which seemed to hold a permanent grimace.

  “Ash?” Hazel prompted.

  “I just think we should try to find a more private place to talk.” Asher continued, lowering his voice and making efforts to catch Hazel’s eye in a meaningful way. This was all a lot to take in and he was beginning to feel unnervingly vulnerable, the growing attention from the crowd wasn't helping.

  Hazel looked around suspiciously, Sher saw her eyes widen as they landed on a passerby who had horns jutting from the front of their head. The horned man was staring at them and he slowed as he passed them, not bothering to hide his interest.

  “I think you're right…” She replied. “Let's find somewhere… less busy.” Hazel stepped in to be closer to Asher, clearly becoming more uncomfortable in the crowd.

  They picked a random direction and began to walk. As they did Asher absently shoved his hands into his pockets, and was surprised to feel the cool smoothness of metal in one of his pockets. The ring. He had forgotten all about the ring after the shock of waking up in the middle of a busy street. He pulled it out and examined it. As the voice had described it was just a plain silver ring, it felt heavier than he would have expected for how slim it was, but otherwise he couldn't see anything unique about it. Shrugging, he slipped the ring onto his left index finger. Nothing happened.

  “What’s that?” Hazel asked, leaning in to peer at the ring. “You’ve never worn jewellery before.”

  “The voice gave this to me, said it would help me train, but nothing’s happening.” Asher replied, still focused on the ring, trying to sense anything. “Didn’t you get something too?”

  “I guess? I didn’t get any new rings or anything like that but the voice said it would enchant my shield. Feels the same to me though.” She replied, holding up her shield and eyeing it.

  “It could have been a little more helpful with its information.” Asher grunted, more to himself than to Hazel.

  The two continued their walk, they did their best to blend into the crowd and move with the flow. Asher kept an eye out for anything that looked like it might be a bar, or better yet a path that might lead out of town where they might be able to be alone.

  Asher guesseed about half an hour had passed when he noticed something concerning, they were being followed. He had caught glimpses of the same strange blue cloak matching hat, with blonde hair peeking out from the brim trailing them for some time now. Nerves nipped at Asher’s heels, causing him to pick up the pace.

  After a few more turns that failed to shake their pursuer Asher decided enough was enough. He was exhausted, he just needed this to be done. He needed to know if this person was a threat or not and he couldn't keep waiting to see what they did. He grabbed Hazel’s hand suddenly and roughly pulled her into a small alleyway between buildings. If their follower entered they alley they would know for sure that they were being trailed.

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  “What are you doing?” Hazel spat, annoyed at being handled so roughly.

  Asher hushed her quickly, “Sorry.” He whispered. “I think we are being followed.” He continued staring back towards the bright entrance of the alley which lead back out into the main thoroughfare.

  “Well, of course we are.” Hazel whispered back.

  Caught off guard, Asher glanced back at Hazel, puzzlement clear on his face.

  “We magically appeared in the middle of a busy city street, of course we are being followed. I thought we were trying to find an inn so that we could get behind locked doors. You know, so we wouldn't have to have a face to face confrontation completely undefended?” Her voice was flat, clearly she thought Asher was being an idiot with this move.

  Asher could feel his face grow warm. He realised that as per usual, Hazel was right. He had been caught up in his own paranoia, if he had taken a moment to discuss this with Hazel they might have avoided this mistake. A mistake which Asher was now, belatedly, realising had left them defenseless and alone down a dark alleyway while being chased by a mysterious potential threat.

  A scraping sound came from deeper in, causing Hazel and Asher to jump. The end of the alley was dark, unnaturally so Asher thought. It seemed now that the darkness itself was moving, the impenetrable gloom seemed to swirl and bubble menacingly.

  Asher was just about to shout for help when he suddenly felt a hand land on his shoulder from behind. Whipping around Asher saw the man who he had been following them. He saw that the man’s other hand was on Hazel’s shoulder and the man himself was smiling at the two of them.

  “My friends! I think that you might have taken a wrong turn.” The man looked up, his eyes meeting the shifting, roiling darkness. “Apologies my good fellow, my friends are not from the area. I will make sure they learn their manners before I let them out of my sight again.” His smile remained as he spoke into the darkness.

  Hazel looked to Asher who looked back, they both shrugged, unsure of what was happening. Asher made the call that he would prefer to go along with this strange blonde man rather than have to confront whatever lay at the other end of the alley.

  “My mistake, I am so sorry.” Asher joined in on the performance. “Like he said, I’m new to the area, please forgive my ignorance.”

  “Oh yes!” Hazel said, following Asher’s example. “Our sincerest apologies.” Hazel bowed as she spoke.

  “You see? Just a happy little accident, now if you don't mind, I will be taking my friends and getting them out of your hair, eh?” The man began turning, dragging the others as he did.

  “Lies…” A breathy echoing voice crept after them from the depths of the alley way.

  Asher looked over to the blonde man who had rescued them to see his reaction. No response came but it seemed as though the voice had caused their new “friend” to break out into a sweat, even as it beaded and rolled down his face the man’s smile never faltered.

  A few short steps further and the trio were out of the alley. As they entered the light and motion of the crowd, Asher realised something had changed. It was as if while they had been in the alley the light and sound had been magically dimmed. There was more though, it was as if just being near that thing had drawn out fear from somewhere deep inside Asher. He had felt strangely relieved when he left the gloom, it felt like the air itself had lightened and he could breathe easier.

  Despite the relief Asher was completely exhausted. The strangeness of this new world alongside his fear that they were being followed had burned through what little energy he had left. Strangely Asher found that he was so exhausted that he didn’t even have the energy to be afraid anymore. Excepting for the moments when he thought he was in immediate danger, his fear was quickly pushed out of his mind and replaced by his preoccupation with this exhaustion.

  “And who are you?” Hazel asked the man, pulling herself out from under his arm.

  Asher was surprised that she took the lead but was glad for it. He felt he had made enough mistakes for the day.

  “My, my. What an interesting way to do introductions. Here in Brightwater we customarily offer our own names before demanding the name of another.” The man chuckled as he spoke and allowed Hazel to disentangle herself from him.

  “You were following us before we went in there.” She pointed back in the direction of the alley. “I think that entitles us to ask who you are.”

  The man tilted his head slightly, considering her words before he responded. “Ah! You are right, of course. Forgive me, my name is Edmund Wright, infamous son of the powerful Wright family. “

  At first Hazel allowed the silence to linger, Asher guessed that she was hoping that the uncomfortable silence would cause this Edmund guy to volunteer more information. It did not work, unfortunately, whatever else they could say about this man it was obvious that he was not overly concerned with social niceties if they didn't advantage him.

  “And why were you following us?” Hazel asked eventually, frustrated that he hadn't already explained.

  Edmund had offered his hand for a shake as he had introduced himself and he had not relented with the offer through the awkward silence, but he did draw back when Hazel had spoken again.

  “I think your original plan was the way to go, I know a lovely inn nearby where we can have a nice and private chat, if you wouldn't mind coming with me that is.” Edmund turned and began walking away as soon as he had finished speaking. He did not wait for their response.

  Asher looked down to Hazel. “I’m thinking we should go with him. “

  “One minute you're dragging me into a scary alley to avoid him, the next you're saying you want to follow him into a secret meeting place?” Hazel arched an eyebrow condescendingly.

  “Well, I am pretty sure he just saved us and he's offered more information, in a way.” Asher replied, he glanced back down the dark path and felt a shiver tremble down his spine. “And we really need more information before we keep just stumbling around.”

  “Fine.” Hazel relented, arms wrapped around herself. “Whatever is fine as long as we can get away from this thing.” She nodded back towards the living shadow.