by T. Sae-Low
The fish market was teeming with pedestrians, vendors, and buyers. The sun had just set, and the fish market was preparing for its evening schedule. The morning period was dominated with the hustle and bustle of vendors restocking their supplies. The evening market was when the city truly came to life. Vendors adorned their booths with all arrays of fantastical colors and paraphernalia, anything that would attract buyers. The circus-like atmosphere was what Pyteria City was most renowned for. Streetside entertainers dotted the roads: from magicians to singers, acrobats to sword swallowers. Vendors sold all sorts of exotic and unknown trinkets: spices from the farthest reaches of Eos, strange animals from lands afar; if it was strange, then it could be bought at the night bazaar.
“We’ll never find him now,” said Gama with obvious disappointment. “There must be four times as many people here as there were this morning. The riverbed is packed with new shops and visitors. And to top it all off, everyone is wearing dirt stained rags, so we won’t know who the hell he is!”
“Just calm down, Gama,” Raden said reassuringly. “There’s more to finding a target than just the clothes they wear. Right, Kara?”
“Clothing means nothing. An enemy could easily change their clothing to throw off regular folk. But a true hunter knows what to look for. From mannerisms, their gait, facial expressions, how they behave to certain stimuli. A target that is deeply focused, be it from stress, or in this case, trying to avoid people at all cost, will not react as regular people do.”
“So what should we be looking for?” asked Gama.
“For someone trying to act like their invisible. Look at dark corners, alleyways, and shadowed crevices between booths.”
“Alright, Kara, why don’t you try to get to higher ground so you can get an overview of the place. Gama and I will start combing the shops. If you see anything out of the norm, direct us towards it.”
“Got it.” Kara spied a rooftop of a two-story hotel nearby. It overlooked the main road and gave a perfect vantage point of the marketplace.
Gama and Raden began working their way from vendor to vendor. Pretending to be interested in purchasing this and that, vendors shouted prices at them, trying to make a sale, but Gama and Raden would just grunt and nod their heads, eyes searching the dark spaces of every booth. They maneuvered down alleys, under cloth-covered awnings, and behind trashcans turning up nothing. A straggler here and there begged for change, and although they fit the description, there was no way their target would expose himself so openly.
Kara watched from above, trying to notice unusual behaviors. Everyone seemed to be acting normal. That is until she spotted him. A man huddled by the bread vendor. He had been sitting there for a while, leaning against a building, head hidden between his legs. Every now and then he would look up directly in the direction of the bread vendor. A street magician had taken up shop right in front of the booth, and a small crowd was beginning to form around him. At first, Kara thought the man was observing the street magician’s show. But when the magician leapt off his feet into a cartwheel, Kara noticed that his eyes didn’t move with the action. What was he staring at? Then it came to her. Of course! Why else would he be sitting by the bread vendor? If this man was homeless, he would be hungry. He must be waiting for the bread vendor to give him some leftovers. Perhaps that was his plan, but that wasn’t especially odd behavior, or was it? Kara whistled out to Raden and Gama who had made their way to the vendor three booths down from the street magician. They looked up to see her point towards the man.
Raden broke off from his discussion with his vendor. “Kara’s got a lead, let’s see if she’s right about this.”
“She’s got a nose about stuff like this,” Gama replied.
As the duo walked closer to the man sitting on the ground, they noticed that he hadn’t reacted at all to their approach. Maybe Kara was right. Maybe he was so focused on trying to avoid people that he actually couldn’t see what’s in front of him. They slowly moved closer a couple steps, still no reaction. A couple more steps… again, no reaction. They looked over to where he was staring, at the fresh bread on the counter. Maybe he was waiting for the right moment to steal the bread. A couple more steps they took, and they soon found themselves standing in front of him, cutting off his view of the bread.
“Excuse me, sir, but we have some questions we’d like to ask you, if you don’t mind?” asked Raden.
No response.
Gama started. “We know who you are. Give it up, we know you’ve been marked by God, and have information about the Vicedonian Candidate. Why don’t you just tell us what you know?”
No response again.
Raden knelt down to look the man directly in his face, and that’s when he realized that this was a dead end. The man’s eyes were completely white, the pupils washed away into pools of ivory. He was blind. He wasn’t staring at the bread, or at anything for that matter. When Raden looked down, he noticed the cup between his legs with some coins in it. The man was a blind beggar, and from the looks of him, he must be in his eighties. Perhaps his hearing had abandoned him, too.
“This isn’t him, Gama. We should move on, this is just an old beggar.”
As Gama and Raden walked away to continue their search, Kara watched diligently from above. She saw the two of them signaling back at her that he was a dead end. Motioning their hands across their throats. As they turned around, her eyes glanced past the bakers counter, but something was wrong. Where she had noticed the baker had put out five fresh rolls, only four remained. He had no customers a moment ago, she wondered. She surveyed the area around his booth, and that’s when she saw him. Moving down the alleyway, the man was heavily robed, unusually more so than the rest of the people. Kara whistled for her two companions. They turned around to see her signaling towards the nearby alley where the blind man was sitting.
The two of them raced down the alleyway. The narrow path was strewn with trash and debris; clothing hung across clotheslines obscuring their view. They stopped in their tracks, surveying their surroundings, when the sound of a bottle smashing came from their left. They ran through the hung clothing, and saw the fresh remains of a glass bottle. Liquid was still pouring out of it, leaving a trail behind. They followed it down the alley and behind a pile of trash.
Raden looked at Gama, eyes moving towards the pile of trash. He signaled for him to flank around the back while Raden approached from the front. The plan was to cut off any escape routes. They inched closer, making minimal sound. They were in position, ready to turn the corner and find their target. On three, Raden mouthed to Gama, his hand extending three fingers, as he began to count down. Three. Two. One.
Raden turned the corner to instantly find a broken bottle flying towards him. He ducked to avoid it. The bottle flew past his face and disintegrated against the alley wall behind him.
“Grab him, Gama!” shouted Raden.
Gama gave chase, but the man moved quickly. He made his way towards the alley’s exit. Gama was closing in when the man kicked over a table with spare metal parts, sending them crashing into the ground, obscuring the pathway. “Crap!” Gama shouted.
Raden caught up to Gama. “Where’d he go?” Raden asked.
“He got away. I was so close to grabbing him, too,” Gama said as he breathed heavily.
Raden quickly searched every corner of the alley. His eyes shifted up and caught the man making his way up a ladder and onto the roof of the adjacent building.
“He’s up there!” Raden shouted.
The two of them had begun to frantically climb when they heard a scream. They looked up to see a body falling directly on top of them. Their bodies collided violently, sending them crashing into the ground. The three of them groaned loudly from the pain.
Kara effortlessly made her way down the ladder.
“Nice job, guys, or should I just pat myself on the back for this one?” Kara said.
“You don’t have to rub it in, ya know! I was so close to grabbing him,” Gam
a answered.
“Nevermind all that,” Raden interrupted. He got up and turned towards the man. He drew closer and grabbed the man by his shoulder, gripping his robe tightly.
“Leave me alone!” The man tried to escape, but in his panic, his worn out robes shredded easily off his body. He tripped over himself, and collapsed to the ground. He lay there, trying in vain to cover his bare torso with his emaciated arms.
“Please, don’t hurt me. I haven’t done anything to you,” the man begged.
Air seemed to escape each of them as they stared at his body.
“His skin…” whispered Kara.
“His whole body is…” Gama could barely get the words out. “He’s completely covered… in burns,” said Gama.
Raden took a step back.
Gama turned and noticed the pale look on his friend’s face. “Rad, you ok?”
Raden’s eyes were wide open, fixated on the poor man. What he saw before him contradicted what his companions were saying. Raden did not see burn marks. What he did see were strange glowing patterns covering the man’s entire body.
Chapter 17