Chapter 84 I Hate Today.

  Isaac and Lenna skidded to a stop in front of the CSC storefront and then raced inside. Isaac had noticed a squad of marines marching through the snow towards them but hadn’t bothered to stop and wait for them. It was immediately clear how much faster Isaac and Lenna were in the snow than the Magistrate’s men. The tracks that they had been following led directly to the building so that was where the duo were going.

  The pair followed the tracks of melted snow as they led further inside the building. At one point the tracks split up. One set went down into the basement and then came back up while the other set went into the Store Manager’s office. Inside the Store Manager’s office there were two trap doors swung open. One revealed a safe and the other was just a hole in the floor, both were now empty.

  “Damnit.” Isaac swore. “How far ahead of us are they?” He spat and headed towards the back door with Lenna right behind him.

  “I wonder what tipped them off?” Lenna mused. “The tracks started soon after the snow started falling. Do you think Heitor’s magic spooked them so they decided to cut and run? If so, then they were really skittish.” Lenna was right, the Guard Captain really didn’t have a reason to be afraid of whatever was going down. Once the Store Manager learned about the raid on the branch building, then she obviously had a reason to make a run for it, but the Guard Captain?

  “I don’t think that their relationship is as simple as sharing the same sexual preferences.” Isaac commented as they reached the back door. There were more tracks leading away from the building. The new tracks didn’t have any new snow covering them. “It looks like once they realized that she might be in danger, they both took off in a rush.” He stated and then the pair began running across the snow after the tracks once more.

  “I agree.” Lenna replied. “I wish we had any real information about the Store Manager.”

  “Didn’t you meet her? What was she like?” Isaac questioned.

  “That was one of the normal managers, not the Store Manager.” Lenna corrected him. “I don’t think she was in while we were there.”

  “Damn.” Isaac grumbled. “The Guard Captain is a warrior in the mid teens but how strong is the Store Manager?” He wondered aloud.

  “Even then, the difference between a competent warrior and one just chasing levels starts to get quite large as one levels up.” Lenna warned him. If any two people knew how much and how little levels could mean, it was the pair of them. Levels meant basically nothing to Isaac, and for Lenna, she had already done more work than most twentieth level paladins but was simply held back by her oath for an incredibly long time. “Regardless, stay on your toes. We have no way of knowing how far behind we are at this point. For all we know, they could be just around the next corner.” Isaac gave her a curt nod in reply and then they continued on in silence for a while longer.

  “Where are we now?” Isaac wondered as the area began to feel less kempt but just as old as the noble sector.

  “Old Merchants’ District. These are just the back alleys behind them.” Lenna informed him.

  “I feel like we are making a big circle.” Isaac grumbled.

  “Not quite, but close enough.” Lenna agreed.

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  Isaac’s brows would’ve started to ache were it not for the death flames flowing through his system. His mind had been split between trying to predict where his prey were going to go next and scanning his surroundings while the snow tried to blind him, for the better part of their trek. The constant squint and furrowed brows was starting to annoy him. “Do you think they are headed towards the port to try and take a boat to the CSC island?” Isaac asked his wife for her input.

  “That seems more likely than not.” Lenna agreed. They continued on for a little while longer until they started seeing warehouses, smaller ones at first but larger ones as they continued down the alleyways. A ripple of magic pulsed outward from one of the warehouses two blocks down from them.

  “No.” Isaac declared like he could halt the magic that had just been cast from having ever happened. He reached out with his mind and grabbed onto the shadows under the entrance of the warehouse that the ripple of magic had come from. In a blink he was at the door and another blink later he had shadow-stepped inside. Isaac stared, with building fury, at the sizzling teleportation circle in the middle of the mostly empty warehouse.

  The one that he was in was one of the smaller ones, that had managed to squeeze between the larger warehouses that the nobles and ultra high end companies used. There were a few open crates and empty boxes thrown about like the place had been raided right before the teleportation circle had been activated. Isaac seethed in anger at how close they had been to catching up with their prey only for them to slip away at almost the last moment.

  Isaac took a deep calming breath and turned around to unlock the door for Lenna. He noticed that the door needed to be both locked and unlocked with a key. With a sigh he made a key out of shadows and put it in the lock. He turned it to the side. Right as the key turned and he heard a click, Isaac realized how stupid he had just been. With his mind clouded by anger and disappointment he had forgotten the Rogue’s First Rule: Always check for traps.

  There was a loud concussive boom and Isaac was launched backwards into the bars of a Reality Prison that formed around him. He impacted the bars with enough force that the world started to tip back and forth in his vision. Isaac groaned and barely managed to keep his feet under him as his death flames removed his most recent injuries. “When I get my hands on those two…” Isaac swore with a growl as soon as his head was clear.

  The Reality Prison had formed just far enough away from the door itself that the door would still be able to be opened, but close enough that no one that was hit by the blast would have enough time to react. It was only six feet across width and depth wise but was ten feet in height just in case whoever it was trying to capture was both tall and airborne while the prison was forming.

  Isaac took a step and appeared just outside of the cage near the door. The Reality Prison was not made to keep mages in, but rather to hold the mage’s enemies in place while they bombarded them with spells. Isaac closed his eyes to focus and tried to feel where some of the hidden wards might be. He wanted to make sure that there weren’t any more that were going to activate. He had just noticed one as Lenna’s shoulder impacted the wooden door. The door cracked and the hinges were almost ripped off the door frame but somehow that door stayed in place.

  “Shit.” Isaac swore and shadow-stepped outside, just behind Lenna whose foot was already in the air.

  Lenna’s boot impacted the lock with enough force to turn an unleveled person to paste. The iron lock snapped and the door flung open. She felt Isaac appear behind her but before either of them could acknowledge each other, a dying star made landfall.

  A Fireball blasted Lenna, who was still off balance from her kick to the lock, straight backwards into Isaac with enough force to knock the wind out of him. They hit the ground in a tumbling roll in which Lenna had somehow managed to turn around and wrap her arms around Isaac’s shoulders and head to shield him from the impacts with the street. The snow and ice was flash melted in an area of around five feet from the door. The snow and ice for another fifteen had just been blasted away in a wave which left the duo laying on the cold stone alleyway.

  Lenna was on her back and Isaac was in her arms with his face against her warm breastplate. He let out a sigh. “I hate today.” He grumbled but didn’t even try to get up.

  Lenna chuckled softly. “Yes.” She agreed. “I guess we cannot win every time. There are bound to be days when nothing goes our way.” Isaac just groaned in response.

  A little while later, Isaac was back inside the warehouse, but with Lenna by his side this time. The pair very carefully checked for any magical wards but didn’t find any, except for a few conventional auditory alarms that would go off if the walls were severely damaged or if someone teleported inside. “Maybe Alexander can tell us where it leads so we can chase them.” Lenna offered.

  “Maybe I can get Shamesh to power it and we can just go after them.” Isaac replied and gestured to his side with a flick of his wrist. Shamesh arose from the void of shadows that had opened up and then gave the two of them a bow as he took in their surroundings.

  “How can I be of service?” Shamesh asked as his eyes settled on the worn out teleportation circle that had been made out of silver instead of gold.

  Isaac walked over to stand next to the circle. Lenna joined him but suddenly got a sinking feeling in her gut. She had no idea why but it felt like the day was about to get even worse. As her foot landed next to Isaac’s, it continued downwards for another quarter of an inch than it should’ve. Her eyes went wide and she shifted to try and shield Isaac as the entire world was blasted apart around them.