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“That one… Seven realms of bloody hell, you know where that one went, you fucking sadist!”

Again.

“This is starting to feel malicious!”

Again.

Aneirin collapsed to his knees. “Shit.” Black blood leaked from his mouth, from his wounds, streaking the cobbles as he used one hand to pull his body forward. The other still clasped the box. Metal scraped against stone as it dragged.

Taly followed at a careful distance, keeping her pistol trained in front of her.

“Gods, it’s Cacus all over again,” Aneirin muttered. She shot him in the heart, the head. Bone and blood splattered, but he kept crawling. “This is why I hate using the dead... You get one good jump before some trigger-happythrok’khardecides to shoot you a new hole to piss from.”

Just then, clipped, heeled footsteps sounded from down the street.

“Finally,” Aneirin growled. That strange, stagnant power once more began charging the air. Taly felt it like the icy cold finger of death scraping down her spine. “Catching a cab this time of night is always so hit or miss.”

And then Aneirin heaved himself back to his feet, stumbling wildly the final few steps to the mouth of the alley, where he collapsed against a young, Shardless woman with a round face and curly hair as she walked past. She gave a cry that quickly cut off.

And as the corpse slumped lifelessly to the ground, she smoothly pried the box out of his hands—then flicked a glance down the side street.

The woman in the green knit cap offered a mock salute before dashing out of sight.

“What the—” Taly ran to the mouth of the alley, stepping over the corpse, looking between him and the woman already halfway down the street. “Wait, what?”

But the man was dead,trulydead now, completely unmoving. And the box—

“Shit.” Taly launched into a sprint, swearing with every step. “Shit, shit, shit!”

That easy, the exchange had been made. Aneirin was in someone new.

There was no hesitation, no visible struggle—just a seamless transfer of consciousness.

Taly barreled down the street, barging through the intersection and just barely dodging a wagon. The horse reared back, hooves striking the air, but she kept moving. It was like chasing a shadow through fog—he left nothing behind. No ripple, no disturbance in the Weave, just... absence.

But she could track the way timeshiftedaround him, how the threads warped and bent to avoid him, as though reality itself recoiled from his presence. That’s where she focused—on the distortions his void created. Following that little spot of nothing down another alley and another.

Running fast, probably too fast for a human, but that concern was secondary right now.

The streets were mostly empty, the people that were out already halfway to oblivion, and Aneirin was just ahead, just a step beyond her line of sight—

Taly skidded around the corner, her boots barely gripping the slick cobblestones as she swung her pistol up—and hesitated.

“That’s right,” Aneirin called back. “Gotta be more careful with this one. She’s still alive. For now, anyway!”

Fuck.

Taly took off again, racing through another intersection. Aneirin’s laughter drifted back.

Ahead, she saw a familiar drop-off.

Fuck, fuck…

She could see the pedestrian stairs now, plungingsteeplydownward. Above them, the air fractured, reality splintering open.

A chill collected on her skin.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…