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EDEN WAITED IN TENSE expectation for a few nights, but Xiara Evora didn’t show up to kill her. The Immortal Triumvirate didn’t summon her to their headquarters to question her about the drained husk. Apparently, word hadn’t spread about her latest victim. She’d gotten away with her nefarious deeds once more and no punishment would be coming her way.
Autumn was drawing closer by the day and the temperature began to drop. Fall was always a strange season in Nox. Everyone simultaneously looked forward to Halloween and dreaded it. The night the Energy Tax would be collected from the uncursed citizens was a time of celebration that Nox would continue for another year. It also caused despair that yet more magic or energy would be drained from the populace.
Halloween decorations had already begun to appear in windows and hung from doors and streetlamps. Storms were frequent and unpredictable. Every time the decorations were ruined, they were diligently replaced the next night. Even the door to the Assassin Guildhall had a pumpkin sitting beside it. It always appeared seemingly of its own volition. The magical candle that flickered inside it would remain alight even during the worst storms that swept across the city.
The Night Cursed became increasingly surly and hard to deal with, which put the uncursed population on edge. Eden didn’t have any memories of the night Nox was invaded by the Army, since she’d been born shortly after the disaster, but plenty of others remembered it well. They still didn’t know why the undead had turned on them. The Immortal Triumvirate assumed it was because their zombie, vampire and skeleton minions had grown strong from drinking too much blood and feasting on their enemies. No one had wanted a repeat of that night, so the Night Cursed had been drained. Now they were harmless and didn’t have the strength to form another uprising. The ones that hadn’t been drained completely barely had enough energy left to do their jobs.
The succubus saw more of the strange stone hounds during her missions. They’d cropped up everywhere. She spied them in the Fae and Shifter Districts and she was betting they were in the Vampire District as well. It would be suicide to venture into the catacombs to the Demon District to see if they were also there. Her death wish wasn’t strong enough for her to allow herself to be torn apart by hell spawn. She had no desire to venture to the Night Cursed District to check whether the hounds were there. The thought of seeing the shambling, drained creatures that had eaten so many uncursed beings gave her the creeps.
A strange sense of impending doom began to creep into Eden as the night the Energy Tax would be performed drew ever closer. The Magic Guild was currently going through the process of having duels to determine who their next Guild Master would be. Guild Master Hahn had gone crazy and had been executed by the Guardian of Nox. Word had it that an elf called Onvier was the frontrunner. Eden avoided politics as much as possible and she didn’t bother to watch the duels that were fought.
One night when she was on a mission in the Fae District, she caught a glimpse of her vampire rescuer wearing his black cloak with the hood pulled up. She’d just drained her latest target to death and was filled with energy. This time, she’d burned the shell and his clothing to ash, so no one would find the remains.
She wasn’t sure why, but she sprinted after the vampire as he used his unnatural speed to head towards the Vampire District. He was too fast for her to catch up to him. She stumbled to a stop at the bridge that would take her to where the leeches lived. It would be very bad for her health to cross the bridge, so she turned away and headed for the curb to wait for a carriage.
Raised voices a block away caught Eden’s attention and she saw some witches and wizards gathered around a corpse. It seemed another magic user had been murdered. She’d heard there was growing unrest between the vampires and the witches and wizards. A carriage arrived and ferried her away before she could see what the outcome was.
Rumors of the growing tension must have made their way to their evil overlords, but nothing was being done to put a stop to it. Entire vampire kisses were going missing and witches and wizards were being killed in retaliation. It didn’t take a genius to realize the tension would eventually spill over into war.
Eden’s sharp hearing detected giggles and she glanced up to see Crowmon perched on a rooftop. The trickster god was watching the frightened human magic users as if they were great entertainment. The strange little deity unsettled Eden for reasons she couldn’t explain. She’d only seen him a few times and it had always been from a distance. He had grown in power since he’d been granted a shrine for his followers to worship him. She noticed his outfit had changed slightly. His jester suit was still red on one side and green on the other, but the red was darker than usual. His hat with bells on the spikes was missing, so his white blond hair stood out in the gloom.
A shudder ran along the assassin’s spine, then the deity was lost to her sight as the carriage carried her away.
