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Once again, you run. You have no idea what – if anything – this guard has glimpsed, but you know that things will only get worse if you stick around. Under other circumstances, you might have tried to hide, but with the floating, smoking, sparking and intermittently popping glassware over your shoulder, you figure that speed, not stealth, is what will get you out of this. Of course, that does not mean you can just blindly bullrush away, like you did earlier down at the wharves – no, you are going to need to think through every step if you want to stay out of sight.
You do know this area, though, and you know it well. Possibly better than the guard does, though you know that it would be a dangerous folly to count on that. Still, you are comfortable enough with the surroundings here that even in your spent state, you are able to think on your feet. Even though you are not able to get up to the speeds that you were running at earlier, you get the sense right from the start that this chase is going really well. You feel that your pacing is solid, and there is not the danger of other guards getting involved this time, as there should not be any in these surrounding areas, and your pursuer does not seem to have a bell or a horn. In fact, you have not heard him try to yell for help, but you suppose you could have just missed that.
No, despite everything, you are doing well. The irregular streets screen you from view, and in between the tall workhouses here, very little moonlight reaches the ground. Once you are comfortable that you have built up enough of a lead, you swing wide to double back to the Midden. After checking to make sure that the way is clear of any other patrols, you get up and over the palisade and into the Midden proper. The rest of the way to the Not-Temple is uneventful … but once you get to the belltower, and see that the winch-platform is down you almost pass out from shock, thinking that someone has been in the Belfry during your absence, until you remember that you left the fraying thing down when you used it to haul the body out of the Belfry.
At first, that realization brings relief, until it occurs to you that you being the one who left if down does not rule out the possibility that someone could have winched themselves up into the Belfry and just walked around, sightseeing so much incriminating evidence. You look at the platform dumbly. How could you – no, how could <span class="mu-i">anyone</span> possibly be so fraying stupid?
You get it now. Why father was so hesitant for so long to teach you anything, to tell you anything, to take you with him on even the simplest of jobs. You are worthless. No, no you are worse than worthless. You are a liability.
But you cannot get yourself worked up over it right now. For all you know, someone could have gone up there, decided to lie in wait for you, and lower the platform back down to trick you.
You get your wand out, and reset the socket in your arm.
