Adventure of Slaan 1

Banners snap above the market square, bright against the gray noon. Then the crowd has already parted, a wide ring of fear around one still body and one armored figure.

Slaan stands at the edge of the circle, the smell of roasting meat turning sour in her throat. Guards grip their spears tighter, but none step in.

At the center, a pilgrim lies facedown with a dagger buried in their back. Blood darkens the stones beneath them.

The fallen paladin shifts his weight, rusted armor creaking. His bloodied gauntlet hangs open at his side, and he keeps staring at the guards as if daring them to name him killer.

A guard captain pushes forward half a step, voice tight with fear. The crowd holds its breath.

Slaan scans the shadows of the nearby stalls, her eyes catching movement behind the hanging tapestries and crates. Not one, but three figures crouch in the gloom, their eyes wide and fixed on the scene with terrified recognition.

Slaan slips deeper into the stall shadows, boots finding the dark gaps between crates and hanging cloth. She closes on the nearest witness without a sound.

The witness whirls too late. Slaan is already there, close enough to catch the stink of fear and wool-damp breath.

A gloved hand clamps over the witness’s mouth. One of Slaan’s daggers shifts in her grip, its edge flashing once in the stall light.

The witness’s knees tremble. A loose crate scrapes under Slaan’s heel, a small but sharp sound that carries into the square.

Slaan jerks the witness free of the stall dark and shoves them into the open square, right under the captain’s glare.

The witness stumbles, arms windmilling, then catches themself before the captain. The paladin shifts at once, head turning toward the sound, his stance tightening.

At the word leaves, the paladin’s hand drops near his blade and he backs into the shadows beyond the stall line, using the witness’s panic as cover.

The guard line surges toward the stalls, attention split between the frightened witness and the dark where the paladin vanishes.

Slaan’s shout cuts across the square, sharp enough to make heads turn. The captain’s focus snaps from the shadows to the trembling witness.

Two guards break from the line and seize the witness by the elbows, dragging them away from the stall mouth.

The paladin freezes in the dark, then lowers his hand from his blade. The captain’s glare stays on Slaan, but the square’s weight shifts off the paladin at last.

The witness is held fast now, shaking between the guards, while the paladin remains half-hidden in the shadows, watching Slaan from the edge of the stalls.

Slaan pinches two fingers and a thumb of her left hand together, and the air around the paladin folds inward like a held breath. The shadows at his shoulders thicken, then swallow his outline whole.

For a heartbeat, the guards stare at empty darkness where he stood.

The spell takes cleanly, but a cold sting lashes Slaan’s left hand, as if the magic bites back through her fingertips.

The captain’s voice cracks across the square, and several guards swing their spears toward the shadows at once.

Slaan leaves Market square in a northern fantasy town behind and arrives at the gate.

At the west gate, Slaan reaches the paladin in a blur of robes and steel, the watch line still shouting behind her. She taps his armor and jerks her head toward the opening beyond the arch.

The paladin catches the cue at once, shoulders squaring as he falls into step with her. Together they hit the gate mouth while the nearest guards lunge too late, their spears stabbing only at air.

Slaan slips through the opening first, and the paladin uses her wake to vanish into the press of banners and carts beyond the wall. One guard shouts for the gates, but the iron leaves are already swinging wide, then wider.

As they clear the threshold, Slaan catches a flash of white cloth snagged on the latch, marked with a silver pilgrim knot, torn free in the rush.

The command lands behind them, but the paladin is already outside the watch’s reach, and Slaan has him with her in the shadow of the outer road.