Rachel woke with a start.

  It was still pitch-black outside. She reached out with her mind, but found nothing beyond the regular fuzz of a city full of people. By his breathing, Rachel could tell that Matt was still soundly asleep. Carefully, quietly, she rose to her feet and reached out for the oil lamp.

  It was cool, but not yet cold. She had not been asleep for very long.

  You’re just uncomfortable, Rachel chastised herself. Get a grip.

  But something gave her pause. Maybe it was just a nagging feeling at the back of her mind. Maybe it was born of the previous day’s conversation with Matt, and his worries about an unseen stalker. Maybe it was just an old habit, as if she were running from Maldor all over again.

  She tiptoed her way to the windowsill. There were no curtains, but the shutters were firmly closed, leaving a quarter-inch-wide slat of space between them. When she peered through them, she saw nothing but open air.

  The back of her neck began to prickle.

  She snuck back to Matt’s side and gently shook his shoulder, wishing she didn’t have to wake him after promising him such a restful night. He shifted and murmured in his sleep, but did not wake. Rachel shook him again, but before he could complain, she shushed him quietly and led him to the window.

  Fearing the colossal creak that would come, Rachel unlatched the window and eased it open. Cold air leaked into the little room. She gripped Matt’s forearm, steadying him, feeling the shivers in his body as acutely as she could feel her own.

  She took one deep breath, then another.

  And she shoved the shutters open. They swung out and clacked loudly against the wooden wall, opening to a darkening, yet still lively, cityscape. Many businesses had closed, but Rachel spotted two restaurants, a bar and a brothel still bright and bustling with activity. Crows glided through the night, feasting on the food scraps left by the chaos of the day. In the distance, the central keep glittered with activity - though if their duties were the same as they were when Rachel had visited before, the guards would be toting those lights around all night.

  “You feel it too,” Matt said simply, no grogginess evident in his voice.

  Rachel nodded. “You were right. We’re not alone.”

  “Are they… here?”

  “I don’t know. I just…” Rachel brought a hand to her head, brushing her fingertips against her temple and tangling them in her hair. “I know I awoke for a reason.”

  “I know what you mean.” Matt brushed her forearm, and Rachel had to wipe away the tingling sensation it left on her skin. “Should we leave?”

  Rachel shook her head. “Get your stuff. We were overconfident here. Sloppy. I should have known better.”

  Matt cursed and turned away, fumbling in the dark for his bag. Rachel figured it wouldn’t hurt to have some light, so she crossed to the oil lamp, uncovered the wick and quickly called heat to it, flaring up the little lamp with a tiny puff of sweet-smelling smoke.

  And almost screamed.

  Before she could even warn Matt, her instincts kicked in, and Edomic commands poured out of her mouth, directed at the previously unseen third person in the room. She commanded him to drop to the floor, to open his hands, to open his cloak, to kneel - anything to keep him occupied.

  There was only one problem: none of her commands had any effect.

  Exhausted of her options, and unwilling to call any matter into play for sudden fear of Edomic retribution, Rachel held one hand up, reaching with her other to a knife she knew she hadn’t brought with her.

  “Seems you could have done with a bit more sleep,” the stranger said cordially, raising both hands. “My apologies.”

  Still pumped full of adrenaline, Rachel forced herself to unclench her fists and take account of the situation. Matt cowered by the bed, but slowly recovered as silence began to diffuse the tension in the room. The only door to the room was still deadbolted. There was no way the intruder could have snuck through the window in time to get between Rachel and the front entrance.

  The intruder himself was a striking young man with olive skin and shoulder-length black hair, wearing a jet-black turncoat and matching cloth pants. A short, well-kempt beard and mustache covered his face. His eyes were a swirl of dark brown and cream, mixing together slightly like foam art in a cup of coffee. His shoulders were strong, but not broad - more powerful in posture than in strength. He took a small step back, still holding his hands level with his head.

  “Who are you?” Rachel hissed. “Why have you been following us?”

  The intruder smirked and crossed his arms. “It isn’t becoming of a young witch to skip introductions.”

  Rachel stared at him in bewilderment. “You. Broke into our hotel room. In the middle of the night. Intentionally hiding your Edomic.”

  The man raised his eyebrows. “Whoever said anything about Edomic?”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “You didn’t even react to my commands,” Rachel protested, clearly remembering how she had even been able to incapacitate Maldor with similar suggestions.

  “I’m somewhat of an oddity that way, yes.” The intruder reached out his hand. “Don’t worry. I’m no less human than you are.”

  Rachel twisted her brow, unsure what the man had been trying to convey. “I’m not shaking your hand.”

  “I suppose that’s just as well,” the man sniffed. He looked away from Rachel and towards Matt, who had recovered from his shock but was still putting as much distance as he could between himself and the intruder. “You’re looking for your friend. I can help.”

  “You have been following us,” Matt objected.

  “I never said otherwise. Call it a… force of habit.”

  “It’s your habit to stalk people for days in the forest?”

  “Everybody stop!” Rachel shrieked. “This is getting us nowhere. If we have to have this conversation now, let’s take it to the roof. Too many people can hear.”

  As much as she hated it, she knew this wasn’t something she could get away from. If this mysterious stranger, who was either unbelievably strong in Edomic or fully immune to it, had decided they would have this conversation, then they would have it.

  “To the roof?” the intruder mused. “How do you suppose we’ll get up there?”

  Rachel fixed him with a stare. “You’ll do it.”

  The stranger grinned slyly. “You’re not one to waste time.”

  “Not when the alternative is spending any more time with you,” Rachel sniped, shuddering at the idea of the man entering while she was sleeping. “Get us to the roof.”

  “I’m not speaking a word of Edomic until we exchange pleasantries.”

  Rachel had to physically drown a shriek of frustration. “I had almost forgotten how infuriatingly proper Lyrianite city folk are.” She took a step forward, enough to impose her presence without shoving it in his face. “My name’s Rachel. Beyonder, Edomic adept, though pitiful compared to you. Former hero. But you already knew all that.”

  The man smirked and nodded, then shifted his gaze to Matt. Rachel breathed a stealthy sigh of relief, knowing the stranger probably knew that it was not her first time in Lyrian. For the moment, at least, he had elected to ignore his suspicions.

  “Matt,” Matt said. “Beyonder. Blacksmith, I guess.”

  “Pleased to meet both of you.” The intruder ducked his head and gave his coat a flourish. “My name, well… most fully-fledged wizards go by their last name. You Beyonders, however, don’t.”

  “You’re not fully-fledged,” Rachel scoffed. “You look barely grown.”

  She could play this game. If anything, it was a breath of fresh air to once again have someone to truly spar with in conversation. Everybody back on Earth, and most people in Lyrian for that matter, fell over too easily. She could not measure up to him in power - that much was obvious - but she did not plan on giving up on his respect so soon.

  “Tassel Eldrin,” the man said, his eyes still all charm and no fire. “Wizard, scoundrel, all the other things your mother told you to stay well away from.”

  Tassel Eldrin. Eldrin. Eldrin. Eldrin.

  Rachel told herself that it couldn’t be. She didn’t even know what century it was. A last name could last a long time. She had seen paintings of Eldrin in the Celestine Library, and while they had mostly depicted him as a graying old wizard, there remained a faint resemblance. Faint, but unmistakable.

  “Can you cloak us?” Rachel asked.

  “From hearing or from sight?” Tassel countered. “I can do both, but only for so long.”

  “Enough to get us out of Trensicourt.”

  “We just got here,” Matt protested. “Plus, we’re not following someone who was watching me sleep.”

  Rachel winced. She had been pretty lenient when Matt put his foot down since they had met, mostly because she knew how far out of his depth he was already. Tassel, though, had no such qualms, and if Rachel had a good read on his character, he was exactly the type to systematically dismantle a boy in front of a young woman.

  “You speak so easily for both of you,” Tassel smirked. “What say you, former hero?”

  Rachel did not let herself pause. “He’s right. Soundproof the room.”

  Both Tassel and Matt let out very different expressions of surprise. Tassel blinked and raised his eyebrows, then spoke a quick, melodic phrase that immediately deafened all ambient sound in the room. Rachel repeated it in her mind, over and over, memorizing the pitch and inflections he used. It was a simple command, really - the hardest part was defining the area she would want to insulate.

  Tassel glanced at her and grinned. “You try it.”

  Rachel repeated the phrase in her mind, squinting slightly to dim the irritating glare of the oil lamp. Instead of speaking the command, though, she reached out with her mind and latched onto Tassel’s - now that he had an Edomic command active, his mind was just barely discernible.

  You know what I’m hiding from him, Rachel pushed.

  Tassel’s mind widened, and it suddenly became much easier to locate him. Rachel continued acting as if she were trying to make the command work, if only so Matt wouldn’t know wizards could communicate telepathically.

  I wish I didn’t, Tassel replied. No one deserves to carry the secret you keep.

  “It’s not working,” Rachel complained aloud, breaking the connection.

  “We’ll work on it,” Tassel crooned, playing the part Rachel had set up for him. “I’m shocked you never learned this one.”

  Rachel cocked her head. “By the time I was strong enough, the need for it had waned.”

  Speak with more care, Tassel conveyed. “Not one to sneak out of the house?”

  “As opposed to you, who’s an expert in soundproofing strangers’ bedrooms?”

  Tassel laughed and turned his palms out. “You’ve earned yourself a truce.”

  “Finally,” Rachel sighed, putting on a show mostly for Matt’s sake. “I’d settle for a night of peace and quiet.”

  “Well deserved.” Tassel curtsied gracefully. “To the morning, then.”

  Before anyone else had the chance to speak, he spun on his heel as the door unlatched itself and opened for him. He exited swiftly, a flourish of his left hand the last thing Rachel saw until the door swung shut and deadbolted itself behind him.

  Would you care to converse further? Tassel hummed from beyond the wall.

  Leave us, Rachel replied. I look forward to sparring after we’ve both had our rest.

  As you wish. Tassel’s mind narrowed like curtains on a stage until Rachel couldn’t distinguish him from the city’s ever-present background hum.

  She extinguished the oil lamp with a word before Matt could see the wicked smile tugging itself across her face.