A Gift from Dead Gods, 17.

“Really brother, you need to stop wasting all that energy! Stop it! I told you to stop!” Olivex was screaming at him. Caphis ignored him completely. He regretted needing this fool, this maniacal creature that just happened to be his brother. He sighed. Three years. He’d waited three years before freeing his twin from the tomb the Gods had created for him. Although he didn’t like to admit it, Olivex was far better at the warping magic they used in their experiments.
That didn’t make him less of an annoyance, however. The three years spent in that confinement had torn at the already unstable mages mind, disrupted the flow of his essense and weakened his shell. His magical gifts seemed to have grown as far as Caphis could see, but he was a problem. He couldn’t focus on his spells with that idiot screaming in his ear. He sighed. He didn’t like doing this.
He turned on his brother, pushing the now shorter man back. “Hey! Hey! You can’t do that!” Caphis held out his hand and focussed. Energy danced around his hand, concentrating into a softly glowing orb. After a few moments, his spell was done. When it hit Olivex his eyes closed suddenly and he fell to the ground, unconcious.
Caphis looked at his fallen brother. Then he turned and went back to his desk. A metal frame stood on it, a weird device with large crystals set across from each other. He placed his hands on the crystals and closed his eyes. The device made it possible to view distant locations without a set of eyes on the scene. This way, he could look anywhere that wasn’t protected by enchantments or curses. This night, he was searching for their latest project.

---

Nathaniel was fairly sure he wasn’t being watched. He couldn’t be sure, but in his old body he would have felt it. One of the many benefits of being a natural sorcerer. Running was exhilerating. This new shell, this new body, driving it to its limits made him feel good. He missed his old body. He missed the five years that had gone by. No, Nathaniel corrected himself, he was pissed. They had taken five years away from him, five years of nothing. And now this. He felt his anger rise and he embraced it. The young man wasn’t far away now, he would catch him soon enough.

---

Tophar was running for his life again, the second time in the last hour. First because of the damn guards ruining his assassination and him thus failing the test, now because of the giant chasing him with unnatural speed. Tophar believed in coincidence, or rather that coincidence always had meaning. Dancing shadows and then that group of people? Something was wrong here, really wrong and he was determined to find out what.
He was trained at running, even more than his fellow students at the academy. Five years of intense training, every possible enchantment he could afford and all the tricks he had learned by growing up in the undercity and it wasn’t enough. He couldn’t lose the one following him. He ran over the group in his mind, it had to be the giant thing, the elves weren’t runners, not this fast. The one in the armor couldn’t move this fast. The giant then.
A corner here, a shortcut here, over a wall here, up the roof. His legs pumped, his arms pushing at obstacles, grabbing handholds, keeping him balanced. A short straight clear piece of roof gave him a chance to look back. The giant was there, running, giving chase. Shit. The young assassin to be grabbed hold of the bracelet around his right wrist, flipping the stones away until he found the right one. One deep breath later, the magic flowed into him and he moved. He ran. He was like the wind.

---

Nearly everyone in the world, if you didn’t count the ones who had no idea what a city was, knew that Rasnach was the largest city in the world. To Tyran this city was one of the greatest wonders of the world, and the world had a lot of wonders. The city whispered and shouted, cried and laughed. It wasn’t sentient like the cities he had grown up in but it was certainly alive. All the voices of the city combined into a song that flowed around him, touched his mind more than his ears and made him want to dance.
And so he danced. His body walked along, betraying nothing besides being another human walking along the busy streets. But his mind danced against the walls and on the rooftops, across the walkways and into the tunnels. Warnings in the song, sharp notes of danger. It wasn’t threatening yet but it could. He janked his mind back into his body and looked around, searching for the cause of the warnings with both his eyes and other senses.
He could ignore the warnings, let someone else take care of the problem but that just wasn’t like him. He was born and raised among the Corat, the City-people. Care for safety was the responsibility of all and this was something he could do. Besides, if he did it now no one would have to get hurt. That is if I don’t get hurt, he thought. He turned around the corner and slipped into an alley. The warnings were getting louder, the danger closer. He stopped.
A chill spread through his body, making him shiver. Then he saw it. It glowed softly in the darkness of the alley, a pale blueish glow around an assortment of bones. He could make out a ribcage but beyond that the bones were random, taken from many different people and even species. They were suspended in the glow without pattern or sense, moving around slowly. He drew in his breath. “What is that?” he whispered.

---

Fyanha held up her hand. They stopped. Luno looked at her. “What is it?” “There’s a dressmaker down this sidestreet.” She pointed. “I’m taking Nera and we’re getting some new dresses.” He nodded, “I’ll go on to the temple then, see you two there tonight?” Fyanha nodded and took Nera’s hand, who looked at her, eyes still wide open. A wide smile lit up her face and Fyanha smiled along. Luno watched the two as they walked off, then turned back to the road and kept on walking.
Nera liked the sorceress. Every teacher she had had in her life had told her never to trust a demon, or demonspawn. She had not liked a single one of those teachers. For the first time in her life, she felt safe. They called her cursed. They hated her. And here she was, in the largest city in the world, hand in hand with someone who felt like a big sister, someone like her. Cursed and powerful. Her smile grew even brighter and wider.

---

Since the three companions he had picked up so far were all doing their own things, Luno took his time getting back to the temple. He spoke to a few people in the street, asking them about their concerns for the city, that sort of thing. While he didn’t really care, it was still good to pay attention. He was the Champion after all.
He wondered about the young assassin Nathaniel was chasing. Had he seen him before? He thought so, must have seen him in the temple. The temple in the undercity trained assassins and Luno had trained there for a while, although training down there was a private thing, at least it had been for him. The undercity was a marvel of magic and power, defying most logic just by being there. Life, underground. So many possible problems taken care of by magic only possible here, Rasnach. The City of the Gods.

//

Finally another Gift update.
Not sure about.. quality?
Oh well. Be nice and leave a comment?
Can be just a nice little, "I read this." or eh, "You did this right and this and this and this wrong and you could do it like this and this~" The first is nice but the second is more useful?

Oh well any comments are nice. Thanks in advance~