Edith Heron’s walk home was long. Kael made sure to stay a comfortable distance away from her. She preferred to stay on busier roads—the busiest there were during this time of night—throughout her walk. Carriages passed by the two every now and again. Kael scanned the area periodically to make sure no one recognized him. He wore another raincoat over his tunic rather than the easily identifiable Sentinel cloak. Edith would turn around every now and then, yet there were just enough people roaming the streets for Kael to blend in. The rain that covered every street caused people to walk together, making both Kael’s job of keeping his eye on her and her ability to spot out her follower labored.

After at least an hour of trudging through the night, Edith stopped at a moderately sized home situated on a road that circled around a great tree in the southeastern section of Tairos. It was a swamp tree, one of many Kael had seen throughout the city and during their journey to Tairos from Evalor. Around the trunk, water glinted from the slivers of moonlight allowed through the leaves above.

Kael watched as Edith pulled her keys out of her cloak and opened the door to her home; once the door shut, the Sentinel began his return. The Sentinel was adept at keeping a mental note of each turn and crossing. He wouldn’t need a map to find his way back.

While finding his way back would not prove an issue, an issue arose nevertheless. It was once Kael crossed into the western side of Tairos that he suspected he was being followed. He had noticed this hooded figure not too long after he entered Main Street.

The guardhouse was still a ways walk, so the Sentinel figured he had time to give his suspicions due process. The Sentinel took a sharp right into another street. Many fewer people walked the streets, almost none.

He turned into another right. As he rounded the corner, his eye caught the hooded figure still following.

Third right. Almost no people. The pursuer was getting closer.

Fourth right. Kael turned his head around. The hooded figure rounded the corner once more. He was now absolutely certain.

“Is there somewhere you need to be?” Kael called out in the rain, fully turning around. The follower stopped.

“Yeah. Right here.” From the tone of their voice, Kael deduced that he was speaking to a woman.

The Sentinel took a step towards the hooded woman; she didn’t move. “What business do you have with me?”

The woman pulled her hood down, smiling. Her face was very dark skinned—darker than anyone Kael had seen in Valdora. Her hair was cut too short, almost as short as a man’s. “Don’t act stupid, I can smell right through your lazy disguise.”

Kael narrowed his gaze. “Did somebody send you to follow me?” The Covenant, most likely.

The woman spat, pulling out a blade Kael had never seen before. Shaped like the moon above, the crescent blade glinted in the night, curved in such a way that Kael questioned its effectiveness. She reached into her cloak once more, retrieving another blade of the same shape. “Your time is up, Sentinel.”

Kael retrieved his blade slowly. “I believe you were advised against killing us, but if it is your wish to try, I will oblige you.” A slight smile curled on the Sentinel’s lips, a feeling of amusement he rarely felt tickling his brain. “Do you really think you can kill me, woman?”

The woman started towards the Sentinel. Her speed was relatively slow compared to Draven and the Maid’s.

The Sentinel deflected the first strike, spinning into a kick that met the assailant in her sternum. She was forced back, taking a heavy breath. The blood mage spun one of the blades in her hand and gave a smile. 

Kael straightened his blade and charged, striking strong and swift. The woman was forced on the defensive, taking steps back while having to address the slices coming her way.

She dodged, weaved, and deflected.

The two were nearing the end of the alleyway as it met another street. She could not back up for too long. He kept his barrage, eventually drawing blood at the end of one of his strikes. The woman’s hand was cut along the knuckle. She drew her arm back instinctively, taking a leaping step towards the end of the alley.

She was cornered. 

Kael advanced, spinning his blade in subtle mockery. The woman looked at her wound and smiled again. Kael wondered what it would take to turn her countenance opposite.

The blood mage readied her blade and darted in, attempting a wide strike. Fool. Kael went to block; however, the strike never reached him. He went for a counter-strike, swinging his sword down.

Suddenly, a red spire shot out, barely grazing Kael’s face as he evaded the sudden attack. The Sentinel put space between the two of them. The woman raised her wounded hand, still gripping one of the moon-shaped knives. From the wound, a blade formed from blood emerged, stretching out another arm’s length.

Sweat trickled down the woman’s forehead. The strike must have taken a lot of energy. Kael took another step. I have to be wary. He wondered if the blade could grow any longer, and if so, how quickly it would lengthen.

“Is that painful?” Kael asked.

The woman focused her gaze. Her eyes wavered. “Quiet.”

“Did Draven Vale tell you to kill me?”

She ignored his words, meeting the Sentinel before he could close what little distance remained. She swung with her blade, then her blood blade.

One of her hands had now become a double threat; however, her movements had clearly labored.

Kael probed her with a stabbing thrust. She brushed it off, then went for two strikes of the blades, followed by a thrust of the blood spire. Kael stepped back. She overextended on the thrust.

The Sentinel released another volley her way: horizontal, vertical, diagonal. Kael overwhelmed the tiring blood mage with a relentless barrage.

The woman was backed up yet again. Kael sent another thrusting strike her way, attempting to bring out the same reaction as last time.

She took the bait. The blood mage deflected the thrust, striking twice with each arm. Then sent the blood-bladed arm Kael’s way.

The Sentinel couldn’t help but smile. He ducked down, then put his entire body into an upper slash, cleaving and slicing into the woman’s arm at the elbow. A little harder, and it would’ve come clean off.

She shrieked in pain, clutching the wound.

“Make another blade, there’s much blood to work with,” Kael mocked. His eyes narrowed. It’s not bleeding?

The woman desperately trudged backwards. “Wait!” she stammered.

The Sentinel jumped forward, spinning into another kick, this one catching the blood mage on the jaw. She crashed into the alley wall and crumpled to the cobblestone ground. The Sentinel swung his blade to the ground, cleaning the dripping blood off the blade. He scanned the area around him. He needed to move.