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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, truly dead 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 time shifted around 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, plunging steeply downward. Above them, the air fractured, reality splintering open.

A chill collected on her skin.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…

But Taly didn’t slow down. No, she ran faster, pushed her body harder—

FUCK!

And didn’t let herself think as she vaulted off the top of the stairs into the splintering seam of shattered reality as it dissolved into nothing.

It was like moving through mud. A moment of absolute dark, absolute cold before light erupted, and then she fell out of open air.

Taly’s boots slammed into the second-floor landing of the Swap in front of the wide main stairs, and she knew two things for certain.

Aneirin could switch bodies. Alive or dead, it didn’t seem to matter. He slid in and out like one might take on and off a coat.

He could create rifts through space. Not time —her own magic was still keeping track of the consecutive passing of moments.

The Weave hadn’t been clipped or altered.

Time was still ticking by at precisely the right pace, yet somehow they’d moved.

They were at the Swap now—two blocks from where they’d been.

They’d traveled the distance instantaneously.

The rest she would have to figure out later. Aneirin was on the move, and Taly leapt the remaining length of the stairs, landing in a crouch and letting a single fluid movement carry her back into a sprint.

People were gasping from the upper floors. Others shouted, trying to stumble out of Aneirin’s way as he crashed through the aisles. He ripped away shopping bags, shoved people to the ground, and toppled tables, sending fruit, beads, and other wares scattering.

Taly dodged it all, clearing the door a moment later and hurtling into the courtyard outside, where under lantern-lit trees, vendors hawked their wares and fortune tellers beckoned.

The crowd was thicker here. Overflow from the town hall, drawn by the screens strategically placed around the courtyard so that everyone had a good view. People spilled onto the sidewalks. She saw her face more than once framed in a rectangular pane of light.

She realized the stares she was drawing, the murmur of recognition that spread like wildfire as she tried to push through.

Damn it . She didn’t have time for this. On the other side of the street, beyond the mass of horses and rumbling carriages, Aneirin was already slipping out of view.

Taly made a split-second decision. She dove into traffic, dodging a startled horse as she vaulted onto the roof of the nearest carriage.

Wood groaned under her boots.

The driver’s shout rang out as she leapt to the next carriage in the line. Inside, a woman shrieked, pulling her child close.

Taly ignored them, ignored every fear, every inhibition, every faraway concern as she leapfrogged through traffic, her feet barely touching down before she jumped again.

Air rushed past. The world below was a blur of chaos and startled yells.

Finally, she spotted a narrow passage and made a final, powerful leap—clearing the last carriage and landing on the sidewalk on the other side of the street.

Without pausing, she darted after Aneirin, tailing him down another alley, through another crack—

Again, that feeling of absolute cold, absolute dark.

For a fleeting moment, the world seemed to collapse into a void of cold and shadow.

Then, just as abruptly, she was thrust back into reality—onto a new street that once again didn’t connect with where she’d just been.

Her boots splashed as she rounded the corner, only to find herself plunged back into the crowd surrounding the town hall.

There were people everywhere, cramming the sidewalks and clogging the streets. They seemed to be gathering around something, or rather someone . Taly shoved her way to the front, where a human woman had collapsed in the middle of the street.

She was breathing but unconscious, with wild curly hair stuffed beneath a green knit cap. No black lines, not like the other two bodies.

Another handoff—Aneirin had jumped again, and Taly craned her head, scanning.

There . A Lowborn teenager was tearing through the crowd. The void in the Weave clung to him like a shadow, warping everything around him.

She took off after him, diving beneath the spray of a massive bronze fountain—

A shop bell jangled as she burst through a shop door and onto Central Avenue.

Soaking wet and dripping, Taly slammed through the next crack in reality, then the next.

Sprinting through streets and living rooms and rooftop gardens.

Shouts followed her, along with what she was sure was an impressive amount of property damage.

But she kept her eyes on Aneirin.

Crack after crack, handoff after handoff, like some fucked-up relay race.

He switched bodies with ease. What kind of criteria he was using to choose, why he discarded them, if they got tired or if the endless jumping somehow used them up, she didn’t know. But he was fast. Always right on the edge of disappearing out of sight.

Her breath began to cloud, something that shimmered like frost collecting on her skin. He was about to do it again, about to jump, and she pushed herself faster, leaping through the shutter of a chained-up food stall.

Wood should’ve shattered. It never did.

“Holy shit!”

“Holy shit!” Taly echoed, stumbling out of the shower and away from a very wet, very naked man. The curtain went with her, and she ripped it away, covering her eyes and apologizing, still apologizing as she stumbled out of the washroom door—

Her foot landed on nothing but air.

And then she was falling.

Up too high, speeding down the side of a building—no, a skyscraper .

The wind howled. The village below was a distant blur approaching too rapidly.

Below her, she could see Aneirin falling through the open sky, plummeting with controlled ease.

Instinct kicked in. Her gaze fixed on the rushing wall.

She tensed and kicked off, her legs slamming against the building with all her strength. The jolt was harsh, but she used it to pivot, heaving herself into the portal that appeared sideways to her trajectory.

Gravity tilted once more.

Still hurtling downward, she reached for the threads of the Weave. They appeared like gold strands crisscrossing the air around her—arrows of potential, each one representing a path she could take.

Time was the common thread weaving through every law of physics.

There were threads that pulled her up and down, left and right. Gravity was just one vector in a whole field of forces directing her descent. She only had to shift the balance.

Velocity’s spiking. Acceleration is velocity over time. Slow the seconds, cheat the fall.

With a mental flick, each second began to stretch, and the pull of gravity softened. The frantic rush of air against her skin slowed, morphing from a roar into a manageable breeze.

The skyscraper’s surface slid by as she worked on the next problem: how to catch up with Bill.

Her boots slammed against the side of the building. The force jolted up her legs—a slight miscalculation. The impact sent her flying sideways on a new trajectory.

Shit. Momentum—where the fuck was time in momentum?

A quick tug on a different thread had her falling back.

She needed a stronger grip , which meant prolonging the contact time to increase the normal force. More friction meant better sticking.

This time, the wall met her boots with a satisfying cling.

Taly knew to keep moving, jogging the first few steps. Otherwise, momentum would’ve snapped her body in half. She barked out a laugh, the sliver of slowed time beneath her boots gripping just enough to keep her anchored as the city turned sideways beneath her.

Then she was running.

Falling, spinning, careening down the building’s side.

No longer fighting gravity—she was riding it.

Crack after crack, faster and faster, higher and higher.

Hurtling towards the ground and gaining speed.

Aneirin was right there. She could almost reach him. Just a few more steps, one more crack—

Gravity and momentum suddenly lurched.

With a pained grunt, Taly hit the pavement and began rolling. She groaned as she heaved herself up, stumbling when her knees tried to buckle.

The world was spinning. She could taste blood, smell it—

“Move it, Shardless!” a rough voice snarled.

She jumped back just as a black coach roared past in a clatter of hooves and shouts.

The next crack. She just had to find the next crack, the next portal—

Taly?

Skye’s voice crackled distantly through the bond, like a faraway comm signal stretched too far. Even in her head, she sounded breathless as she answered, I’m here.

Where is here? Skye shot back. He must’ve been back on his feet and trying to follow her.

Shaking herself, Taly took note of the street names. Near the canal, I think.

Indeed, the air smelled of mildew and fish, and the streets were partially submerged, with boards thrown over the worst parts. The canal was old infrastructure, built deep underground and fed from a tributary of the Arda. It was constantly flooding during the spring rains.

Shock rattled down the bond. How the hell are you all the way across town?

I’m still trying to figure that out myself.

Taly crested a slope lined with cramped, narrow houses and dingy shops. No crack, and she couldn’t hear footsteps—Aneirin must’ve jumped without her.

So, she followed the stagnation, the sense of deathly cold left hanging in the air.

In her head, she felt Skye change direction, following the bond back to her. Images of moonlit buildings flashed in her mind’s eye, jumping roof-to-roof.

Around her, the city was a blur of color streaking past. Taly kept sprinting, her immortal body singing at the exertion. So many weeks pretending to be human, and she’d almost forgotten what it was like to run. To merely give into instinct and reflex and let go of everything else.

10, 11, 12…

The bodies were piling up.

17, 18…

Something in her registered that they were still breathing. Someone nearby was already calling for help.

Almost to the edge of town now. The northern wall loomed.

Ahead, a woman collapsed, her skirts splaying across the sidewalk. A stout Gate Watcher with a soft face grabbed the box from her hands and bolted.

The street dead-ended into the city wall. Rows of narrow brick houses fenced them in on either side.

This time, Taly heard the thunderous crack as reality split open.

Pull back!

Distantly, she registered Skye screaming in her head—registered the voice behind her shouting her name and the clatter of boots.

PULL BACK!

But Aneirin was right there. So close. The culmination of weeks of torment and taunts that had set her blood boiling.

She was so close to clawing back some measure of her own, to finally evening the score.

He aimed for the wall, where that tear in reality gaped like a wound spilling darkness. The portal was massive, warping and bending like a reflection in a shattered mirror.

Frost bloomed across her skin.

The pressure shifted, leaving her ears ringing and her chest tight.

She could catch him. She was almost there.

Aneirin hit the crack. The world rippled around him.

Taly, stop!

The edges of the rip were collapsing, the massive void shrinking as reality knitted itself back together. Air rushed outward in a roar.

Taly saw it traced in gold. To keep going was to slice herself in two, but she was past the point of stopping.

Then a hard body crashed into her.

And Taly slammed into the pavement just as the crack and the nothing inside it exploded.