Suthe tried to ignore her paranoia and took a left, down a road off the main street and away from the shadow she had seen. Forget sightseeing--it would be best to get to the trolley station as quickly as possible.

It wasn't long before the shadow caught up to her. Suthe's heart jumped to her throat as something dark flickered in the corner of her vision and disappeared before she could get a good look at it. It was far too large to be a bird. Had someone from Montmyth caught up to her? Did the government know she was here? Or maybe Alaera hadn't been so easy to fool after all, and had sent a soldier from Sylterra to follow and deport her?

Suthe rounded a corner with such haste that she nearly slipped. Her breath was coming out in rapid gasps now, and while she couldn't see the person following her, she could feel her skin crawl with an unseen gaze. It wasn't long now to the trolley station.  But the street before her now split in two directions, and Suthe skidded to a stop.  Indecision had her turning back towards the library, and she briefly wondered if it would be better to go back instead.

Too late.

The dark rustle of fabric and a soft tap on the cobblestones had Suthe whirling to face forward again. A tall, broad-shouldered figure in a black cloak was standing with his hood raised and his back to her.

"You want answers about your country," the man said over his shoulder, and Suthe barely kept herself from gasping when she realized he spoke her language.

"Y-yes," she stuttered. "Are you from Montmyth?"

Rather than answer her question, the stranger said, "The library does not have what you're looking for. Follow me, and keep quiet."

Before Suthe could come up with a reply, the man jumped upon a railing, kicked off the side of a wall, and launched on top of the nearest building. Suthe felt her jaw drop.

Then he ran.

"H-hey! Wait!"

The possibility that this stranger had the answers she was looking for banished all hesitation from Suthe's mind.  Stumbling after the man, she strove to keep him in her sight. She nearly cried out a warning when he reached the end of the first roof and leapt into the air—but he landed just on the eaves of the next building, and began to run again.

Shaking away her shock, Suthe started after the stranger again. He led her through winding back alleyways, and several times she almost lost sight of him—he moved like a phantom! Before long, the warm reddish bricks of the Rust District began to meld into colder gray stones and wooden buildings that made up the rest of the Sylterran capital.

When Suthe finally turned out of the alleys and on to a main street, something metallic whizzed over her head.

"Ack!" Suthe ducked belatedly, and then cautiously patted the top of her head. That had been way too close.

Someone shouted a phrase in Noth, and Suthe turned to find a dark-haired woman walking towards her, holding a metal box with buttons and levers in her hands. The woman continued to speak, but Suthe shook her head.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," she said.

"Cau-tion!" the woman said loudly, apparently the only Montese word she knew. She pointed at the box in her hands and then at the flying metal disk that had nearly hit Suthe, which was circling around and starting to come back towards them.

"Okay, sorry!" Suthe said, backing away and making sure to avoid the flying contraption this time. Then she looked back up at the rooftops, breath caught in her throat. Had she lost him?

But the shadow man was there, just barely visible from his crouch behind a chimney. As soon as he saw that Suthe had spotted him, he rose and started on again.

This time, Suthe was warier of her surroundings. Once, she almost ran into someone while she was looking up, and there were several more flying things and a few spider carriages that she had to avoid. When wires began to crisscross between the buildings and glass piping started sprouting from the windows, Suthe realized that they had entered Forgeborough, the home of Sylterra's inventors.

A few twists and turns later, the mysterious man swung down from the rooftops and disappeared through a third-story window.

Suthe waited for a few minutes, but the man did not appear again. She paced back and forth while she waited, beginning to worry. What was she doing there? Maybe it would be better to just head home now.

She was about to turn back when a bright spot of color at the end of the street caught her eye. Suthe watched as a lanky, flame-haired young man came into view, wearing a worn brown jacket and carrying a square object wrapped in tan paper underneath his arm.

Seemingly without a care in the world, the man ascended the steps of the same building that the rooftop-strider had disappeared into, pulled out a key, and unlocked the front door.

For a moment, Suthe was paralyzed with indecision. How much did she really want these answers that the mystery man said he had?

How badly do you want to go home?

She didn't dare to think twice. Suthe darted forward as the red-headed man disappeared into the building, praying she wasn't too late. Thankfully, the front door was heavy and closed slowly, and Suthe barely managed to stop it from closing with the toe of her boot.

The interior corridor of the building was dim, lit only by a few gas lamps along the walls. The three blue doors on the ground floor were closed, and the building was eerily quiet. The sounds from the main street were muffled through the thick walls, audible only as a dull murmur.

There was no sign of the red-headed man anywhere.

"Hello?" Suthe whispered, starting up the staircase to the second floor. "Where are you?"

She was only met with the eerie squeak of a door hinge from one of the landings above.

Thankful that the faded blue-and gray carpet muffled her steps, Suthe hastened her pace and ascended to the second floor. Again, she was met with a row of three blue doors, all closed and locked.

Suthe let out a pent-up breath and bit her lip. The longer she stayed in this place, the more uncomfortable she felt. She had half a mind to turn back, but she had come this far already—and this was the closest she'd come to getting answers.

Leaning around the bannister, Suthe stared up into the gloom of the third floor.

"Hello?" she tried again, but her voice was barely audible to her own ears. There was no choice but to go up there.

The first step creaked terribly, and Suthe froze, horrified that someone would barge out of their apartment and find her trespassing at any minute. But the only sound she heard was the blood rushing in her ears. After what seemed like a lifetime of waiting, Suthe finally got up enough courage to continue.

Again, she was meet with three blue doors on this next landing, except the one at the far end of the corridor was just an inch ajar. Was that the apartment the cloaked man had gone into?

Suthe slowly approached the door and pushed it open just enough to stick her head inside. Why was it so dark?

She got her answer a second later when all the gas lamps in the apartment lit up at once, as if by magic. But there was also a frightening click, and in her suddenly-restored sight, Suthe found herself staring down the barrel of some kind of complicated weapon—held by the red-headed man she had seen earlier.

The man immediately began shouting in Noth. Suthe raised her hands in an innocent gesture and shook her head, wishing she could explain. The man was obviously frightened that someone was intruding in his home, and she was just as alarmed to have apparently picked the wrong door.

Then a cold, calm voice cut through the man's frantic exclamations, and both the redhead and Suthe froze. She recognized that voice.

A figure was in the doorway of one of the other rooms in the apartment, and Suthe's breath caught in her throat.

"I know you," she gasped.

~~

Hi!  Sorry it's taken so long to post a new chapter.  I've been neglecting this story and working on another one instead.  Oh, and also binging on Korean dramas (there have been so many good ones lately!).  Oops.  Anyway, hope you enjoy.  I switched the setting around a bit from my original draft in this chapter, so please let me know if there are any inconsistencies.  Thanks for reading!

Chapter dedicated to linahanson.  If you like mystery and magic, go read her Avebury Witches Cozy Mystery series!  They are really addicting!