Chasing Explosions

I try not to let it startle me, as Benjamin goes down, hitting the cobblestones with such force I'm afraid his head will crack open.

One.

I grab his shoulders as people start to scream, a dark wind sending sprites and humans alike running.

Two.

More bodies fall, blood spraying everywhere. I haul Benjamin away. "Just over there." I whisper to him, aiming for a small house about two hundred metres away. "We just have to make it over there."

Three.

I grit my teeth, and something scrapes against my leg. It feels like fire - and I swallow a scream. I drag Benjamin's body towards the house, humans screaming around me. People are dying, I can see a head twisted at an inhuman angle.

Four.

I'm only a few metres away now. "We're so close, we're gonna make it."

I whisper, trying to console him. He can't be dead. Not yet - he was so young. I never asked his age, but he was awkward and lanky. He couldn't have been more than seventeen.

Five.

A shockwave hits the market, almost as if a giant had jumped and now he was hitting the ground again, all the force of his massive body colliding with the ground.

It knocks Benjamin out of my arms, and I hit the ground with a crack. I try not to scream out, my hands shaking. Where is he -

There. His arm is twisted wrong, as if it came right out of the socket.

I bite back a sob and grab it anyway, the only leverage I have to take him with me.

"Come on, Benjamin. Don't give up on me now."

My foot hits something, the step to the house. I find the door handle somehow, and scream for someone to let us in.

When no one answers, I snarl and throw myself against the door. It opens halfheartedly, and I nearly sob in relief.

Somehow, I get him inside. Somehow, I close the door behind me.

The human family must be down in some safe room somewhere, because nobody's home. Or maybe they're dead outside.

I turn my attention to Benjamin's body on the floor.

It looks as if someone punched a hole through his chest. He's bleeding, but not as much as I thought. His blood - it's all outside. And on me.

His eyes are glassy, staring at something far, far away. His arms are twisted, and covered in scratches. Where did he -

Me. I was pulling so hard that I...I scratched his arms up.

I try to stop my shaking hands. Deep breaths. I have to manage the shock in my body, or I won't be able to think clearly.

The attack is still going outside. I can still hear screams, still hear explosion-like noises. One minute. I can have one minute to breathe and then I have to move. I have to get out of here. And I have to leave him.

I kneel, pressing my hand to his non-dislocated shoulder. "I... I'm glad I met you. I'm glad we were friends." My breath shudders. My minute is up. "Never stop smiling, Benjamin."

I stand. It's time to look for a way out.

I grit my teeth against the pain in my leg - a quick inspection revealed a burn, no longer than a knife's handle scorching my calf. I breathe through my nose. I've dealt with worse.

With a slight limp, I find a back window that faces away from the square, and shimmy myself out of it.

I set off at a run. I have to cross back around the square to get to the contact's safehouse where we looked at the ruby.

Is this an isolated attack, or a mission to turn the city to ashes?

I make a glance over my shoulder, down the alley to see the market. I can't see an attacker, the house obscuring my vision - but I can make out the distinct shapes of humans dead on the ground.

Blood - there's too much blood.

There's a smell in the air, almost metallic - magic? I huff out of my nostrils and sprint faster. I have to get out of here before whoever is attacking moves on.

And pray it's not Laers.

I keep to the side streets, trying to avoid the major walkways. If an attacker would strike again, they would try to kill as many people as possible.

And then pick off stragglers.

Banishing that idea from my brain, I leap over a trash can that had been knocked to the side. I need to get out of the area. I need to find the ruby, find a horse, and leave.

If the ruby is lost and I return empty handed, not only will Ren have my head, my debt will still be in the hundreds.

I stop at a familiar intersection. I walked here earlier - Benjamin at my side. An explosion sounds back at the square, and I dare a glance behind me.

A plume of fire makes its way to the heavens where I had been not minutes prior. Coincidence or purposeful? Who would bother to track me here - and more importantly, why?

To send a message to Ren, perhaps? My head on a stick would definitely do that.

No - coincidence. Two people knew the Angel of Death is in Polu, and they're both...dead.

I take a steady breath out, trying to calm my nerves. I need to move.

Sprinting again, I backtrack until the houses become familiar, and I can see the townhouse where the contact showed me the ruby.

I just have to make it there - I just have to get the ruby.

Another explosion, this time on the street where I had stopped for a moment.

Not a coincidence. Someone knows I'm here.

If I make a break for the town house and get the ruby, I could die in an explosion. But if I leave without the ruby, the forseeable future will be full of murder and lies.

So with a final glance at the fire eating away buildings behind me, I take the biggest risk I've ever taken and run into the town house.

I burst through the door, shockingly unlocked, and find my way to the stairs. The last place I saw the ruby was upstairs - second floor, second door on the left.

I hit the landing with such force that a floorboard cracks beneath me. I slam into the doorframe of the poor office.

It's exactly where I left it - on the small table in that incredibly small box. I grab it and turn -

To find a Laer in front of me.