The sun burned overhead like the eye of an angry god. Any clouds that may have dared to stand in its path had long since been banished, leaving behind only acrid blue skies and the dried, withered forest lining the beaten path that rose and fell like gentle waves as it passed over the hilly ground.

Upon the path were two cloaked travelers.

Shimmering haze slathered the air around them like murky oil. It warped the horizon and stuck to their clothes incessantly, matting them to the traveler’s bodies — but removing even the slightest bit of the protection covering their skin would have doomed them to be burned to a charred crisp within hours.

A plain sword hung at the side of each traveler, and both of them had a leather bag slung over their shoulders. Those were the only exposed pieces of equipment either of them bore. No other part of their belongings or selves were visible, and the hoods that covered their faces swallowed any features that one may have sought to find with shadow.

There was a strange weight in the air about them. As if they had been walking this path for years without taking a single break. And yet, in spite of that, their packs made it apparent that they couldn’t possibly have rations for more than a month or two at the most.

The travelers slowed as they drew up to the top of the hill on their path.

Standing before them, just behind the peak of the hill, were five men. They wore pale yellowish-white clothes that ill held any heat, magically aided by the imbuements woven into them. Their arms and faces were wrapped with similarly imbued bandages, leaving no parts of themselves open to the angry sun.

Four of the five had a weapon hanging in a loose grip at their sides, and the fifth bore a grimoire slung over his shoulder. The runes covering their equipment made it abundantly clear that they were capable of more than merely cutting, and the signs of wear and fights gone by upon the weapons’ surfaces spoke to just how many times they had been used.

The men had made no move to conceal their presence. They hadn’t needed to. The dried forest rising on either side of the path held no solace, and they knew well that there was no city anywhere nearby in the other direction.

Civilization waited at their backs. The travelers had no path to continue down but forward. Their only other choice was to turn back, to let the sun take their lives rather than a blade, and then the pickings would be even easier still.

“Halt,” the man with the grimoire said as the two travelers crested the hill. “If you value your lives, halt. It seems fate has set our paths to meet. You must have come a long way. But fear not. The desert is at your backs, and rest awaits you in a few mere hours. Your weary souls will soon have rest. We would be happy to guide you to the city… for a price.”

The two travelers came to a stop. Neither of them said a word.

“Would you stop with that?” one of the sword-wielding men asked. “Nobody ever buys this. It’s a waste of time, and I’ve been standing in this damn heat for too long already today. They know why we’re here. We know why we’re here. Let’s skip to the point.”

“There’s a way these things have to be done!” the grimoire-wielding man snapped. He turned back to the travelers. “You understand, yes?”

“You are robbing us,” the taller of the two travelers said in a voice that raspy from lack of use, but still distinctly female. “Bandits, I take it?”

“See? They get the picture,” the second of the men who had spoken said. He waved his sword, which had noticeably more chips in its blade than those of his compatriots. “So let’s jump to the good part.”

“You are ruining this for all of us, Chip. Eloquence must be held in all things. Even this,” the man with the grimoire said with a sigh.

It wasn’t hard to tell how Chip had gotten his name. Chip glanced at his damaged sword, then narrowed his eyes. “Do what you want. I don’t care. Just get their damn money.”

The first man let out another sigh. He looked back to the travelers and gave them a helpless shrug. “Well, can’t be helped. You heard my man — and I suppose there really isn’t any reason for any of us to be sitting around in this heat for too long. So why don’t we make this simple? I’m not a cruel man. You’ll need money for an inn to stay at after your long journey, after all. We’ll leave you with that. Empty out those bags of yours. Drop it all on the ground. Swords as well. Then back up. We’ll take what we want, leave you with what you need, and nobody has to get hurt. Sound good?”

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“Nice and slow, mind you,” Chip said, pointing his sword at them. “We’re all Rank 4 mages, and many of us are near Rank 5. Make any fast or threatening movements and you’ll be dead. Your life is worth more than whatever trash you’ve got in those bags. Trust me. I’ve spilled enough blood on this path to know just how much it’s worth.”

The other four men nodded in agreement. All of them stood at ease, but there was enough tension in their posture to make it clear that they were ready to burst into motion at a moment’s notice. This clearly wasn’t their first time in the trade.

The shorter of the two travelers looked to the other. They didn’t say anything. But, slowly, the taller traveler hooked a finger around the strap of her bag and tossed it to the ground before her. The other one did the same.

“Good,” the man with the grimoire said. “Now the swords. Then step back.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” the taller of the travelers asked. Her voice was weary. “There’s still time for you to reconsider.”

“I think we’re pretty certain,” Chip said with a short bark of laughter. “You’d think every single passerby goes to the same school of thought. Always say the same thing, you do. There are five of us and two of you. We both know that whatever is in those bags of yours is probably worth a few coins at the most, so let’s not waste the effort on this any longer. Swords on the ground. Now. And don’t even try to reach for any magic.”

“There isn’t much,” the taller traveler agreed. She put her hand on the hilt of her sword. “But it’s not about that. This is the last time I’m going to offer this. Turn around. Walk back to the city. You said it was close. It won’t be much of a loss.”

Chip shook his head. “That’s sounding an awful lot like you’re thinking of doing something stupid. Don’t get us wrong. This is just a living. It’s how things are out here. Daggersbridge isn’t under the cloak of any of the Factions. There’s no law to be enforced beyond the strength of our runes. But that doesn’t mean we want to kill. Done too much of that. We don’t want your blood on our blades. Make the right choice, girl.”

“I see,” the traveler said. She was silent for a moment. Then she pulled her sword from its sheath in a slow motion, letting it drop to the ground in front of her feet where it landed on the sandy, packed dirt with a soft thump.

“Good girl,” Chip said. He nodded to her companion. “Now her.”

“There’s no need for her to dirty her blade,” the traveler said. “There really isn’t much of value in our bags. But you said you didn’t want to kill.”

“We won’t have to, so long as she drops that sword,” the grimoire-wielding man said. “And so long as she drops it now. We’re out of patience.”

“Unfortunately, this is about the about the principle of things,” the traveler said. “And, unlike you, I have no such reservations about killing.”

She hooked her foot beneath the hilt of her sword and kicked it into the air. The men cried out, but she was already one with the wind. She blurred forward. The first of the men’s’ weapons lit with a shower of angry green sparks just in time for her blade to separate his head from his neck.

Before it had even had a chance to fall, the woman was behind the next of the men. Her sword let out a shrill scream as it sliced through the air, moving so fast that even its sound could barely keep up with it.

This man managed to bring his sword up in time to protect his neck, but the weapons never even connected. Somehow, the traveler’s weapon adjusted its path so quickly that it may as well have been a darting butterfly. It slipped right past his guard to sheathe quietly in his heart.

She’d moved on before he even realized he was dead.

The man with the grimoire had managed to raise it before himself, and a ball of angry reddish-black magic had warped into being above his palm. He was midway through thrusting his palm toward the traveler when she arrived upon him.

And then she was gone. The magic around him sputtered out, his body severed into three different segments.

Chip blurred, magic wrapping around his body in red bands as he accelerated. He leapt at the woman’s back as she dispatched the last of his compatriots — only to find her sword somehow redirected right at his skull.

It went through his eye with a thunk, flitting out just in time to knock the blade from his falling hand. Only then did the splatter of body parts pelting the ground sound. All five of the bandits had been killed before the first one had finished falling to the sandy earth.

The traveler flicked the blood from her blade, then knelt beside one of the fallen men to wipe it off on his body. She then rose to her feet and returned the weapon to its sheath.

“That was even faster than last time, Alexandra,” the shorter traveler said. “Did you just instantly activate your pattern?”

“Yes,” Alexandra said simply. “I have had a lot of time to practice. It’s hard to believe they were Rank 4s. How’s your own pattern coming along, Yulin? You didn’t even try using it.”

“Didn’t need to. It’s hard to believe you’re a Rank 4,” Yulin muttered with a shake of her head. She glanced down to the dead men littering the ground around Alexandra. “Should we take their weapons or equipment? It looks like it was imbued.”

“No,” Alexandra replied. “It’ll draw attention we don’t need. But we can take the grimoire and the money they had. Leave the rest.”

Yulin nodded her understanding. Within a minute, the two of them had claimed the money from the bandits and stored it within their bags. And then they were off again, heading down the dusty road.

“Daggersbridge, was it?” Alexandra murmured to herself. “It’ll be nice to get into a city again. It’s been too long. But… I wonder how the others are doing. I hope everyone makes it to the tournament. Do you think they’re okay?”

Yulin sent a sidelong glance at Alexandra. Then her eyes returned to the road.

“Yeah. Something tells me they’re doing just fine.”