The chill night air clung to me, thick and heavy with most. People rushed back and forth, trying to finish their last few deeds before the day fully ended, the press of people around me was a bit stifling. The smell of dust and bodies, flesh and sweat, swirled around me, clogging my nose. There was an feeling of anticipation dancing on the wind, something that prickled at the back of my mind. Something was going to happen, and soon, but what it was I couldn’t tell. As my boots clacked on the smooth cobblestone of the street, it wasn't the strange anticipation in most of the people I was passing wasn’t what was filling my thoughts.
No, they were more pre-occupied with the fact that I was now fairly certain that someone had been following me for quite some time. Days, perhaps? They were good, whoever they were. I had stuck to crowds, and used several tricks I knew to throw off pursuers, but nothing I tried managed to shake them. Even when I knew there was no one around - when I was standing on an empty street, I had looked around and never seen another soul. And yet the feeling of being watched, being followed, had never abated. Even when I took to the rooftops, darting across the buildings, I still soon enough felt those watching eyes upon me once more.
As I pushed through a cluster of babbling women, they shrieked and pulled away from me. It was a common reaction - I was a large, usually grumpy individual from what could be seen, and my silver eyes were far from natural. I didn’t particularly care about their reaction though - no, they were fools who were gathering in the middle of a busy street, instead of pulling off to a cafe or something to share the inane details of their lives. If them being frightened by me got them off the damn road, then that was perfectly fine. My feet carried me past them and away as my thoughts churned, turning over possibilities of who could be watching me.
They weren’t a member of the Hand, no, they were not one of Amari’s group. That organization thought I was dead for now, and I was back in Alerar for the time being, out of their reach. It worked better for me if they thought I was dead now while I was trying to become stronger so I could go back and drag her free. If it had been a member of the Crimson Hand, I had no doubt that I would have been swarmed already, or worse, encountered another one of the Hand’s heavy hitters. I didn’t think another fight would go as well as my encounter with the samurai known as Zero had - he still had humanity in him, and enough concern to reason with. If it was someone like that psychotic little succubus thing? Someone like that, I’d have to fight to kill. I doubted Amari would blame me if it came to that, she was a ruthless woman these days. Still, l didn’t want to have to deal with any of the Crimson Hand, not for now. I didn’t need to draw Ulrokesama’s gaze my direction, not yet.
I stepped around a cart as the man pushing it nodded his head to me. It clacked and clattered on its way, moving down the cobblestone street. I shook my head at the poor bastard who was still trying to work so late at night. Well, at least with those gossiping women out of the way the carter would have an easier time of it. I turned and continued striding down the street. The cart was louder than my footsteps, but in time it faded as I moved away, heading through the streets. I turned my thoughts back to the mystery of who was after me.
This person, my watcher, had avoided being seen in situations where the Crimson Hand would have attacked me. So I could put them out of my mind. It also wasn’t a member of the Lily’s army of messengers - they would have just come up to me without any concern, none of this stealth and hiding, and watching. Unless Philomel or one of her chiefs was checking up on me, trying to be unobtrusive about it. If so, I would have to go find one of them to talk to, and let them know their attempt had been unsuccessful.
Or was this someone trying to judge me for something? Examining me to see if I was worthy? I snorted and drew my coat tighter around myself as I turned a corner and continued into the alley. I doubted I would ever be worthy of anything other than killing things.
Perhaps a member of the Academy was trying to watch to see if I was suitable a job, or a scientist had hired someone to observe their genetic experiment? I frowned and glanced at the windows of the buildings around me. As the night fell, people drew their curtains shut, and the empty, dark windows looked more like vacant staring eyes in the shadows. Watching, waiting. Hungry voids. I shuddered and pushed that thought out of my head.
What I needed to do here was figure out what my observer was waiting for, what kind of situation they needed before they would spring their attack. In my opinion, the best way of handling a surprise attack was to turn it around on the one who thought they held the element of surprise. If I could just draw them into a situation where I knew they would feel safe to approach - whether that was an attack, or just to talk, then I could turn the tables on them when they struck.
I narrowed my eyes as I looked across the shadows around me - the feeling of being watched had just returned. Four hours, that was the longest I’d gone without my unseen follower. So then. Had that been a break for final preparations, or just a pause because I was in busy crowds?
