Chapter 371: The Girl They Take

They had only been walking for a short while after the three offers when the street ahead seemed to be wrong in some way Lucian recognised too late.

Varn Thal’s lower trade lanes were still busy with sellers and workers and ordinary passers-by trying to avoid making the wrong impression but some of the flow had changed - a cart that should have continued rolling stopped dead in the centre of the narrowest part and two men in plain coats paused their conversation when Lucian’s group arrived. A woman selling dried fruits tidied her stall with sudden care and stepped back into a doorway.

Sera noticed too. "I do not like this."

"Neither do I," Istra said. "Keep walking. Do not stop for anyone."

They tried.

They reached the next twenty paces and the lane opened up to either side just in time for the first grab to not be aimed at Lucian. A thick-shouldered man broke out of the stream of passing bodies on Sera’s side, hooked his arms around her waist and pulled her hard towards the mouth of a side passage while a second attacker rammed a market display board into Istra’s path to slow her. Sera fought immediately, elbowing and kicking, but the man who had grabbed her arms expected the fight and kept her from touching the ground long enough for him to get to the mouth of the passage.

"Sera!" Lucian followed without pause or question.

The passage was short and already set. Two more Ash Vale agents waited with binding straps and a covered carry frame, the sort used for moving individuals unwilling to walk further through busy districts without calling too much attention to it. Sera managed to free one arm and raked her nails down the man’s face, giving Lucian half a second to arrive. Instead he went for the one man still holding Sera, hitting him hard enough to break the grip and send him into the wall, then turned on the nearest one of the man’s strapping hands before he could finish the motion. Istra landed behind him almost immediately, his rod already alight, and laid the third man out with a strike of his knee.

The fourth tried to drag Sera further into the passage anyway, evidently under orders to make the girl a priority over the fight and Istra made a sound of frustration as Sera smashed her head back into his face and wriggled free just as Lucian arrived. The man still made one attempt to pull a short blade from his belt but Lucian caught his wrist and put an end to that before it became something more.

There was a moment of loud argument and deep breathing before the distant murmur of the market carried on as if nothing important had happened.

Sera steadied herself on the edge of the wall with one hand and spat out some blood. "They came for me again."

"Yes," Lucian said.

"In the open. In front of half of a trading lane."

Istra peered ahead. "Ash Vale. They stopped wasting time talking when you refused them."

Outside, people had started gathering at a safe distance. Some of them looked frightened. Some of them interested. A city watcher was already shoving his way through the crowd so it would not stay a private affair for long.

Sera wiped some blood from her lip with the back of her hand and stared down at the faces of the men still lying on the ground. "I chose to not be afraid and I did not choose to always be the easiest target for these particular groups to take."

"I know," Lucian said.

"Then fix this," she snapped and the edge of her voice gave him plenty of room to feel guilty enough that she hadn’t been. "Because if it is happening again, one of those times you will be a step too slow."

Istra tugged Sera further back from the entrance. "We cannot stay here. Authority will use this as a reason to have you watched as a public enemy. Ash Vale will use this as proof that leveraging will always work. We need to move now."

Lucian stared at the two men on the ground who were still conscious enough to regard him with naked hatred.

"Tell your people," Lucian said, "the next time they touch her, I stop being careful enough to leave them able to carry messages when I kill them."

He did not say anything else but continued staring.

They left the passage via the far end before the city watcher reached them and cut into a servicing lane before he arrived. Sera strode hard away, still angry, still shaken, and no longer pretending this was someone else’s problem that she happened to be in the presence of.

"I meant what I said back there," she said after a long while. "I am staying. But if I am staying, then I am not doing it as the person that everyone always goes after when they cannot reach you."

"You will not be," Lucian said.

Istra shot between the two of them. "Good intentions will not stop the next attempt. We need to get a distance from this ward before Ash Vale tries again with more numbers." Lucian agreed. "Then we leave this level and continue walking until we find ground they do not already have prepared."

Sera exhaled slowly. "Next time someone reaches for me, I am stabbing first and complaining later."

"That would be fair," Lucian said.

Behind them, the market lane would already be filling with people wanting to know what had just happened. Ash Vale had made their point clear enough. People watching from nearby were no longer something to be regarded with casual amusement by Lucian. And now the whole city had seen him answer that in a very public manner.

A/N

Sorry for the lack of update, lost my grandma, so I had no chance and will to update my works, even now, I had to muster courage and will to do soon.