---

As Thadus strode out of the fifth tavern he had visited, and which was just as outrageously without a single private room as the previous ones, his eyes landed on a darkly clad figure squatting in the alley across this tavern on the Main Artisan Lane. Even while people strolled and even rode horses — The audacity! Horses!! — past him, he could undoubtedly recognise this figure. They still had the hood up, but the sash-belt, looking more akin to a deep or indigo blue now that the sun stood at zenith, was heaped on the ground because of its sheer length. The tassels along the edge looked worse for wear as people carelessly walk right on top of them.

The thief didn’t seem to care, however, vermin as they were. They were instead seemingly muttering to themselves while studying a cat digging through the wastes of these mortals.

Thadus, with as much dignity as was feasible in these chaotic streets, crossed the road and paused next to the escapee.

He had more than a bone to pick with this shrewd, incorrigible little criminal.

He would pick every single one of theirs, grind them up, and make a cursed talisman out of them.

Was he familiar with curses? No, that was not a prowess he could claim just yet.

But what could a spellcaster not learn with promises of centuries more to go before he unfortunately would turn to dust himself? He certainly could take his time and study the most—

“Sir Caster, would you not look this direction in such a way, as if you were gazing upon your own mother-in-law, not long after she scolded you over giving her the wrong kettle for high tea?”

The thief turned to look at Thadus over their shoulder.

“My little friend is getting a little anxious by your vicious scowl saturated with such gleefulness at a second encounter with a one-sided adversary.”

The cat hopped onto a box and then jumped onto the ledge of a wall before it ran away.

The thief straightened to full length and patted away dust and dirt with pale hands with carefully clean nails. They were shorter than Thadus.

With their back against the spellcaster, they lamented, “Ah, the little kitty ran away. Guess it couldn’t find any mice then. Unless it got too scared of the glare, of course.”

The thief pulled out a thin metal pipe and carefully pushed away something in the pile of debris with certainty.

“Hmm, indeed, I better move this real quick before we leave,” they said softly, as if speaking to themselves. They pulled out a clean handkerchief and gently transferred… a small nest with what clearly were newly born mice onto the handkerchief.

Disgusting!

“Where should I put your little home, children? We can’t have you little ones somewhere too dangerous, can we? But where is your mother, I wonder? I need to find a safe place where she’ll find you before the cats do.”

Within his racing mind, Thadus was bellowing, Let the cats have them!

He managed to recompose himself quickly. The cats would eat those vermin, regardless. That was how any city functioned.

“Aren’t you a thi—”

“Shhhh!” the thief hushed. “Do not speak such a taboo word. It is to a mortal a death sentence in this city-state. It does not concern you much, of course, Sir Caster, but to mortals such as myself, that word shall only be spoken with restraint in a place such as Rockforge. I rather be alleged a murderer.”

The thief found a small cranny to place the pink, nauseating mice in. Only then did they fully turn to the spellcaster.

Their eyes looked like sunlight as they caught the sun at an angle. A stray strand of hair had fallen onto their forehead, brushing against their brow.

“And, besides, I am not one, Sir Caster. I have done no one else any wrong, other than perhaps disturbed some person or other when borrowing the roofs to climb a wall or two.”

“And why should I believe you have not…” Thadus struggled to reconcile that thief was in any way worse than someone who had taken a person’s life. “…displaced someone else’s belongings?”

“Sir Caster, your words wrong me immensely. But I do not truly expect you to believe me to speak the truth, either,” the still-alleged not-thief said solemnly. “However, if you are not careful, an innocent person’s life could be in danger, so choose your phrasing as deliberately as this, especially whenever you have not observed what has indeed occurred. What we cannot see, our ears will lie to us about based on what others tell us, what we do not hear or feel, our eyes can do the same based on what our minds will conjure up. In a court of justice where judgement is given first and innocence is proven second, Sir Caster, your words are more powerful than the city lord’s.”

They paused before adding. “Even a spellcaster cannot wash themselves clean of any guilt they carry were they to cause a death that was unjustified, even if the court of Rockforge cares little about the truth of alleged thieves. One’s consciousness cares little about mortal laws, if one believes in the laws of spellcasters, no?”

“Your mortal laws make little sense.”

“Indeed, in certain parts of the mortal world, they do not. In other parts, they are more sensible. Have Sir Caster never heard of spellcasters having different laws between regions? This is the same between city-states, only that they differ more greatly. We do not follow a general set of rules, only local ones.”

“It’s natural that laws differ somewhat between regions. Eden needn’t share laws with other regions. There needn’t be restrictions that exist elsewhere. But mortal laws still are insensible.”

“Sir Caster is correct, if this is what Sir Caster is to believe so strongly. I aim not to discredit your educated opinions, just explain that a word here can have much graver results than you are used to,” the still-alleged not-thief responded amicably.

This made Thadus feel a strange sense of indignation, but not because the vermin didn’t seem to accept his point of view. Why, he couldn’t say.

He pushed the thought away. It was ridiculous.

They looked at him before giving him a slight bow. “I have to take my leave now. I only stopped for the mice. I need to find the thief who robbed me of my purse now, before I lose them entirely. I still have an idea of where they may have gone.”

“And who might this ‘thief’ be, if you can call them such?”

It seemed deeply ironic to not let Thadus even mention the word, and yet this creature took the liberty to label another the same way.

“They are in fact two; as one tried to distract me, the other took my purse. They weren’t expecting me to grab hold of my coin purse, as it was being stolen from my belt. When I wouldn’t let it go, they yanked it away and cried thief to run away with my valuables,” the still-alleged not-thief claimed. “I care little about the money; it was not that important. I can get more. However, I do need my purse back.”

“What’s so special about the purse that you need to rush for it, thief?”

“It—”

“Who’s the thief?!”

A voice sharply cried behind Thadus, drowning out what the still-alleged not-thief said. The still-alleged not-thief as the looked past the spellcaster. Thadus himself turned to look who had dared disturb him.

Neither of them had time to say anything before a woman in an apron pointed at the alleged not-thief. “Guards! GUARDS! A nobleman’s bein’ robbed!”

Who was being robbed, now?!

“Well, that is an unfortunate cue,” the not-thief said and turned to leave, but before they could, some other irrelevant passerby grabbed them by the shirt and yanked at it.

“Whoa!” the startled not-thief exclaimed as they were forced to take several steps back. “Hey!”

Thadus watched as the not-thief was pulled into the street, mortals beginning to encircle their kin. The stench of these things getting closer was worse than the rubbish pile the pink mice had been found in. He raised his hand to protect his nose from this assault against his sensibilities.

“This is outrageous,” he murmured behind his sleeve, as the not-thief was shoved further out. This mob was hungrier for blood than the cat who had a meal right under its nose, yet ran away.

“Find the money!” someone shouted over the clamour.

Another cried, “Where’s the purse?”

“Bring’im to the guards!” a third person exclaimed.

They pulled at the not-thief’s sash, hood, sleeves, trousers. The dark-clad person didn’t try to fight back, just calmly held onto their sash and stubbornly pulled to keep the hood on and eyes lowered. Thadus could see them moving their lips, but he heard nothing they might have said because of the increasing cacophony of the mob.

What sort of monsters were these beasts? They had absolutely no sense of structure.

He felt his eye twitch as a hair hand was trying to push into the not-thief’s lapels.

Preposterous vermin! Filthy mortals!

He reached toward his sleeve.

The not-thief raise their legs and kicked the owner of the unreasonable hand away. In the process they pulled a thin copper pipe out of their boots. It was the one they had used previously to poke in the pile.

Wait. No.

Thadus turned to look at the pile. It was still right there. And it might be bronze, not copper, but it was hard to tell where it was in the shade.

The spellcaster turned just in time to hear the screech be of metal against stones. The not-thief had ducked, their hood having been half pulled off, exposing their fiery hair to the sun. Mortals jumped away from the sparks that the metal spit at them as the not-thief scraped it is a quick circle around them. One round boulder of a man didn’t move fast enough and fell into those behind as he stumbled.

Thadus presumed the thief would do something akin to when they fled in the market district. Surely they would try to escape now that they had space.

The person stood at full height, shifted to hold the pipe at its midsection.

They spun it; the metal catching sun, causing Thadus to blink at the light that hit him in the eyes.

The next he knew, he heard a deep thud. He blinked once more and saw the thief held not a thin pipe, but a heavy-looking wooden staff, the end before them resting against the road.

He was stunned.

Those closest to this person who had seen it too paused, speechless. Those trying to help the thick man up dropped him once more.

“I apologise in advance, but I implore you to please reconsider this,” they said as their weight shifted. They slipped one foot back, held their staff with both hands. “Let us not cause much of a ruckus, shall we?”

As this person took a defensive martial stance, the hood could no longer hold on and slipped down, their hair flowing in the breeze. Gold and silver earrings were exposed as well. The inverted pyramidal shapes reached past their chin, dangling silently, the glinting sharply.

They smiled politely. Softly even. Their voice held no anger or frustration. “See, gentlemen and honoured ladies, I am in quite the hurry, so either you let me go as I have done no wrong, or I’ll have the misfortune to show you not to hinder the desperate.”

Thadus came back to himself, realising to his indignation that this sly performer was playing him. For a moment he had almost been awed, almost thought of them a peer.

Angered, he said, “Gale,” and with a wave of his arms, the wind grabbed hold of this devil.

He. Wanted. Them. Gone.

The fiend swung at the wind and turned to Thadus. “Why are you intervening now, Sir?” they asked, sounded exasperated. “You were already causing quite a bit of a mess before, were you not? Was the punishment for destruction not enough and now you are simply that eager to empty your coffers some more?”

This! Fiend!

He had nearly forgotten. Nearly!

It was all this fiend’s fault. All of it!

“Sir, is it not a slight overreaction to cast a storm at me with so many bystanders?” the devil asked as they sidestepped another gust. “I mind not if we have a duel, but could you choose a better time, Sir?”

The fiend swung their staff again.

“Sir, I implore you to show some mercy. I am a victim here.”

“Mercy?” Thadus asked with a scoff. “Who do you mortal think you are? Mercy? How dare you!”

The crowd seemed to have began to realise this was not a matter they could handle, and many started to flee, even as they got shoved around by the gusts aimed at the slippery fiend.

If a few of them fell over as the gales ripped through the., that was their own faults. They tried to place this injustice upon his name. They disturbed him as he questioned this lowly demon. They were all at fault! Whatever may come their way was all on them!

“A very reasonable question indeed, Sir Caster,” the fiend replied, flipping the staff over, now holding a spear, increasing their range. “I am afraid, I dare not. However, I do not think I am anyone but who I was raised to be. Sir Caster, who might you be? Would you mind sharing this with me?”

They took several quick steps forward, suddenly cutting through the gales coming at them from the sides.

“Sir Caster might not realise this, but holding me up is keeping me from retrieving my token. I am indeed in quite the hurry to get it back. The thieves surely do not realise what it is, but once they realise it cannot be sold, I worry they’ll melt the silver of it down and take the gemstones. Could we delay this for a while more? Also, Sir Caster, because you interrupted me earlier at the market, I couldn’t catch them sooner, and I am quite hungry, so this is a little taxing. Would Sir Caster please not spare a lowly mortal?”

“No, I don’t care for mortals the way you care for vermin. I owe you nothing.”

“Ah… Sir Caster is one of those. I see, I see. Whence have you come? Euphoria? Nirvana? Shangri-La? Bliss?”

Thadus narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Why do you know names of our regions?”

The fiend chuckled, slightly breathless after having evaded and stopped one gale after another. “Why? Have you met no one studying geography before?”

They closed in on Thadus, forcing him backward into the alley when the spearhead clinked — Clinked!! — against a silver button on his coat. They twirled, holding a rapier in hand, and changed their approach.

Thadus was forced to take out his magic sceptre out of his sleeve, while the wind had to be calmed. Trying to use winds in an alley meant they were as likely to cause Thadus grief as they could rid him of the fiend, and the rapier certainly did not help him in his attempts.

With a mortal threatening him with a weapon, trying to commune with the spirits of nature certainly was a new sort of trial. This was not something they ever had to learn when taught spells. Part of everyone’s curriculum was naturally to duel using magic, but which spellcaster would ever need to cast spells against a mortal who constantly changed type of weaponry? Or even weaponry. Duels weren’t taken too seriously in Fifteenth Eden either. Eden was deep into spellcaster territory, far away from the battles of mortals, and as such, a duel in Eden was no more than a leisure activity, seldom even requiring one to stand.

And yet.

And yet!!

Here Thadus had to parry a whole blade with his magic sceptre. His golden! Magic! Sceptre! This was his most precious magical tool! It was not supposed to be used defensively like some replaceable mortal invention!

“Ah,” the fiend said and paused for a second. Thadus was about to command water when he heard a low grumble.

It caused him to pause as well.

The fiend took the opportunity to press the point of the rapier against another silver button of Thadus’ coat. “Sir Caster, I will have to excuse myself now. I really need to get my purse back, if I want to eat a meal. All my travel funds is in there because I had gathered it all up. I was about to buy rations before leaving Rockforge. I’ve stayed too long in one place already as is.”

The fiend retrieved the rapier while Thadus was gnashing his teeth, but no matter how indignant he was, he could tell this mortal had surely been in combat against spells before.

“This much is also about as much as this dart can handle, so let us not meet again, Sir Caster.” They tossed the rapier up and caught a thin copper pipe.

“Dart? What dart?”

“No, not a dart, but…” They spun the pipe, and it turned into a maze. “…this dart.”

“That’s not a dart,” Thadus scoffed.

“Its name is Dart. This is Dart,” the fiend explained after tossing the weapon up again and catching a pipe again, then tossed that up to catch a dagger.

Thadus could only ask the obvious as the obvious: “Why?”

“Because it’s a dart, I suppose.” The fiends bowed, while pulling up their hood. “Now, I have a token and fifteen-hundred silver to retrieve.”

“Fifteen… hundred?”

They adjusted their sash and slipped into the shadows, while saying, “In paper slips, of course.”

“…”

Thadus was speechless, forgetting to stop the fiend before the devil had scaled a wall and was running away on the rooftops, nearly slipping when a shingle came loose.

Who carried enough money to buy a couple, or three or four, large mansions and hire the staff for it in their purse?

Dozens of hurried steps approached the alley and Thadus heard a grating voice say, “In here, Sir Guard! There was a robber here!”

He turned to see Guard Properly-Dressed stop at the entrance of the alley the moment the two locked eyes.

“…”

“What is th—”

Before the guard could say more, several clotheslines snapped and both damp and dry laundry fell onto the group of guards.

Thadus had no words. Those ropes must really be quite brittle. Gales don’t break ropes.

Now, as the end of a rope snapped in the still calming winds, a street sign, which had precariously held onto its hook despite the hard gusts and piercing gales, fell, and the wood shattered loudly against the cobblestones.

Indeed. Mortal architecture was truly below standards.

---

— Not efficient enough. Your use of weaponry was uncommonly careless.

— My apologies, my lady.

— Your footwork was questionable at best.

— My apologies, my lady. I was distracted.

— That is not an excuse. Battle is all disturbances , yet you still cannot be allowed clumsy footwork.

— I understand, my lady. I have wronged you, and shall better my ways.

— You certainly have no other alternative.

— …

— Humble One, there’s food to the west!

— Not now! I’m being scolded!

— But food, Humble One!

— That will have to be delayed for the time being, young child. Adequate nourishment costs humans money.

— My lady is absolutely correct. It will wait. It costs money. And I was wrong not to take your lessons to heart for a duel.

---

Author’s Note

Guard Properly-Dressed: So, Sir, I do apologise, but you will have to pay a second amercement…

Thadus: … *quietly takes out his pouch*