Take Me Away, Dark Lord!

Julian was nowhere to be seen, keeping to his promise of staying thirty paces back in the shadows, coordinating the invisible net of estate guards.

”Sugar dragons!” a vendor yelled over the din, standing behind a cart filled with rapidly spinning vats of molten, brightly colored sugar. ”Get your fiery treats! Sweet enough to tame a wyvern!”

Seraphina tugged sharply on Kaelus’s hand, completely breaking the solemn, tactical silence of the mission.

”Papa! The dragon! You promised!” she demanded, pointing her free hand at the cart, seamlessly slipping back into the role of a spoiled, snot-nosed brat.

Kaelus let out a long sigh, but he allowed her to drag him toward the stall.

He tossed a single, heavy silver coin onto the counter, overpaying, and snatched the largest, most elaborately spun red sugar dragon from the vendor’s hand before the man could even blink.

He didn’t hand it to Seraphina immediately.

Kaelus closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, running a silent, microscopic pulse of dark mana through the confection.

No poison.

No sleeping drafts.

No tracking spells.

Satisfied, he handed the massive, sticky treat down to the child.

Seraphina took a massive bite of the dragon’s sugary wing, humming in absolute delight.

The sugar rush hit her system instantly, sharpening her focus.

She wasn’t just here to eat candy.

She was a Supreme Dark Archmage on a hunt!

As she chewed, she let her Spirit Sight expand, pushing it past the protective bubble of Kaelus’s aura, casting her metaphysical net out into the chaotic, lantern-lit crowds.

She ignored the merchants’ normal, bright auras, the dim, harmless auras of the tired laborers, and the nostalgic ghosts hovering near the ale stands.

She was looking for a void.

The unnatural, slick, oily feeling of a concealment spell, the kind of high-tier magic Julian had described, the kind that could hide an abductor in plain sight.

”Wow, mister, that’s a big fire!” Seraphina suddenly yelled out, pointing at a fire-breather performing near an alleyway.

She dragged Kaelus in that direction, using the loud, innocent distraction to maneuver her ’father’ toward a darker, less crowded section of the market.

”Keep your voice down,” Kaelus muttered, playing the role of the irritated mercenary father flawlessly, though his eyes were scanning the alleyway instantly, looking for threats.

”But it’s so pretty!” Seraphina babbled, taking another bite of her sugar dragon, her face getting incredibly sticky.

She looked down the alley.

Her Spirit Sight flared.

There.

Tucked into the deep shadows between two brightly lit stalls, near the entrance of a narrow, cobblestone alleyway, was an anomaly.

To the naked eye, there was nothing there.

Just a space where shadows pooled.

But to Seraphina, the space wasn’t empty.

It was warped.

The ambient mana of the market was bending around that specific patch of shadow, like water flowing around an invisible rock.

And more importantly, there were ghosts.

Not nostalgic, peaceful ghosts.

Hovering just above the invisible patch of warped mana were the faint, terrified, flickering spirits of three dogs.

They were pacing frantically, whining silently, scratching at the empty air.

’Pets,’ Seraphina realized, a cold chill washing over her sugar high. ’Kids bring their pets to the market. The kidnappers kill the dogs so they don’t bark, and then they take the kids. The dogs’ spirits are still guarding the spot where their owners were taken.’

Seraphina didn’t point or yell out, keeping the instructions in mind, as she squeezed his hand twice.

She tightened her grip on Kaelus’s massive hand.

Kaelus stopped walking.

To anyone else in the crowd, the traveling sellsword merely paused to let his daughter finish chewing her candy.

But Kaelus’s entire body went rigid.

The casual, relaxed posture vanished, replaced by the terrifying, coiled stillness of a striking viper.

He didn’t look down the alley or turn his head.

Rather, he used the reflection in a nearby merchant’s polished brass mirror to scan the area Seraphina was facing.

”Where,” Kaelus whispered, the word barely a breath, meant only for her ears.

”The empty space between the bread stall and the lantern cart,” Seraphina whispered back, burying her face into her sugar dragon. ”There’s a bubble. A magic bubble! And three sad doggies are crying on top of it.”

Kaelus processed the information instantly.

A high-tier, sensory-deprivation field.

An invisibility cloak woven from pure mana.

Only a Master Illusionist or artifact could maintain such a construct in a crowded market.

Kaelus casually reached up with his free hand and adjusted the hood of his gray cloak.

It was a pre-arranged signal.

Thirty paces behind them, Julian Myer saw the movement.

The Marquess vanished into the crowd, silently deploying the invisible net of his elite guards, sealing off the exits to the alleyway.

Lucas and Boris, pretending to haggle over a piece of jerky, subtly shifted their massive bodies, creating a physical barricade that blocked the crowd from moving closer to the bread stall.

”I dropped my candy, Papa,” Seraphina whined loudly, deliberately throwing the remaining stick of her sugar dragon onto the cobblestones. She pouted aggressively. ”I want a new one! Pick it up!”

It was the perfect, obnoxious distraction.

The invisible entity hiding in the sensory-deprivation bubble likely thought they were just dealing with an irritated mercenary and a spoiled brat.

The entity shifted slightly, the invisible bubble warping the ambient mana just a fraction more as they prepared to move away from the loud, attention-drawing child.

That micro-shift was all Kaelus needed.

”Don’t waste food,” Kaelus grunted loudly, playing the part of the angry father.

He let go of Seraphina’s hand, stepping forward as if to scold her.

He didn’t bend down to pick up the candy.

Instead, Kaelus pivoted on his heel with explosive, terrifying speed.

The hidden dagger slid out of his sleeve and into his palm in a flash of silver.

He didn’t slash wildly; he channeled a massive, concentrated spike of his dark, freezing mana directly into the blade and drove it straight into the ’empty’ air between the stalls.

CRACK!