Rorri

　　The guard swore under her breath. "Alright, c`mon ser, I can`t let that one out of my sight. You`re gonna have to jog with me."

　　Without giving Rorri a choice, she took his wrist and pulled him along, causing him to stumble, but they didn`t have to go far. Rorri heard a muted thump, a surprised yelp, and Poppy`s signature questioning meow.

　　"You caught him!" Adar said. "Oh, thank god. I was so worried."

　　Rorri skidded to a halt when their escort did, just around one more corner - but next to Adar`s blue body of light, he saw something that didn`t make sense. Where every other person he`d seen since evoking this strange magic had no semblance of clothing to cover them, the guard that stood beside Adar was fully decked in armor, a bright, unwavering yellow light. It was as bright as the illusory trees of the forest, and equally as detailed. The guard passed the cat to Adar, who looped his hand around the leash and held him tight.

　　"Glad I could elp ya," the guard said, though Rorri sensed their voice was not their own. Where other silhouettes had, at most, a small splash of color emitting from their mouths when they spoke, this one released a bright band of light that seemed to be obscuring a different color underneath. He couldn`t quite make it out. Some sort of blue, maybe purple?

　　"Where`s your second?" their escort said to the guard. Something at the guard`s feet caught Rorri`s eye.

　　"Eard somefin` in the Vault," the guard said, clearing their throat. "Couldn`t find nuffin`, so I told im to go get the sarge&"

　　A dagger rested on the floor, with the same greenish glow as the guardsmens` swords, but much brighter, with patterns like thick veins running down the blade. The sight of it sickened Rorri to his core, though he didn`t understand why. It was as if he had watched this weapon mercilessly slaughter somebody he dearly loved and was confronting it for the first time since. The scar on his shoulder gnawed at him, as if it were a fresh wound. He squeezed his eyes shut and inhaled deeply, his blindfold catching the sweat pouring down his forehead.

　　ba-dum. ba-dum. ba-dum.

　　"Rorri, are you alright?" Adar said, but Rorri barely heard him. He dropped his gaze back to the ground, to the dagger, his sickness giving way to anger - red-hot, unfathomable anger.

　　"W-what is that&?" he said, face twisting into a dark grimace.

　　"Wot`s wot?" the guard` said, though the trick was coming undone.

　　"Mau?"

　　"Ser, what is that at your feet?" their escort echoed, her tone swelling with authority.

　　"It`s, uh&"

　　Rorri took a few unsteady steps towards the weapon. With each step, the sinister heartbeat in his ears grew louder&

　　ba-DUM. ba-DUM. ba-DUM.

　　"Rorri, what the-"

　　But Adar`s voice shrank away. He couldn`t hear him, just like he couldn`t hear their escort shout or unsheathe her sword. He couldn`t hear the guard` tell him to stay back, and he couldn`t hear Poppy`s pleading meow. The heartbeat pounded in his ears as if his ears were covered, and the heartbeat was his own.

　　Rorri fell to his knees and lunged for the weapon, barely quicker than the thief who had taken it from the Vault. The thief`s hands grappled at his wrists, trying to sneak the handle from him, but it was too late. The loose satin swaddling slipped, and in their fumbling, its tip pierced his palm. The pain shot through his whole body, screamingly hot. He cried out, and the weapon`s veins flashed bright red with his blood, as if it had absorbed a single beat of his racing heart.

　　"Wh-what is this?" Rorri cried, gazing helplessly through his blindfold at the shining suit of armor. The dagger quivered in his hand, blood dripping freely from his palm.

　　BADUMBADUMBADUMBADUMBADUM

　　The thief wordlessly backed away.

　　"Stay where you are, both of you!" the real guard shouted. Heat radiated from her sword, licking Rorri`s back like the Belethlian fires. All around him, the illusory forest writhed, shriveled and rotted. Rorri sensed in his soul that when these weapons were crafted, life`s natural order had been violated.

　　"Rorri-"If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

　　Suddenly, the thief turned and sprinted away, and Rorri darted after them. They knew something he didn`t. They knew something he needed to know, something his soul was begging for, screaming for, something of earth-shattering importance. He kept his grip on the weapon tight, still pulsing from the pain.

　　"Stop!"

　　The guard started to follow, but with barely a stumble and flick of the wrist the thief threw up a wall, separating them from Adar and the guard. Rorri only saw the wall`s magic glow for a second before he slipped through. The thief`s disguise dropped away, revealing a woman`s naked blue-lavender back.

　　"Tell me what this is!" he shouted after her, the echoes of their shoes lighting up the walls. He watched the color of his own desperation launch from his lips in erratic red shockwaves, and though the thief gleamed pink - deep, deep pink - she did not answer. She took a sharp right, pivoting on her heel without notice. Rorri followed, as deft as he was before he lost his sight. From down some other corridor, metal clattered and shouting followed. He wasn`t the only one pursuing - or being pursued - but the thief threw up another wall, flush with the edges of the hall. Then, she threw up another one behind her, just a few feet in front of Rorri, but he had grown so accustomed to running through the trees, he barreled through it thoughtlessly, not surprised at all to learn that the walls were just as unreal.

　　The weapon burned in his palm. He hated it. It was an abomination, something that never should have been. As the chase stretched on and Rorri started to lose his breath, the strain of holding it proved too much. With a bestial bark, he threw the weapon aside, cursing it to the void.

　　Pip.

　　It disappeared. Rorri stopped, barely able to believe his eyes. Its blinding glow just vanished, leaving only the tiniest plume of magic residue. But the thief was gaining ground. He pounded ahead. He needed an answer.

　　"I don`t care what you did!" he shouted, his voice cracking. "Just tell me-!"

　　With another sharp turn, the thief vanished from his sight. He followed, crashing headfirst into a door in the second before it would have latched shut. He managed to fumble through, but the blow left him dazed, his head throbbing with pain.

　　The cool night air greeted his boiling skin. The waterfall`s hiss exploded in his ears. They had emerged right next to the river atop which the Palace was built. He knew the edge of the Plateau was close, but he had no idea how close. The dying forest stretched out as far as seeing` was possible, and the sound of rushing water scribbled all over the air, obscuring any other sounds that could have guided him. But the thief was just ahead. He could still follow her movements. She was slowing and stumbling, too.

　　Rorri staggered after her. An image eclipsed his mind: the Palace from the ground, looming spires like all-seeing eyes&

　　"Don`t come any closer!"

　　Rorri froze. He knew that voice.

　　"What&?"

　　"You`re too close to the river," she said, her voice breaking. "If you fall in, you`ll die!"

　　Now that she had turned to face him, he could see her in perfect clarity - her grooves, like the trees, her smell, like the flowers, her lopsided face, her uneven body, just like he`d dreamed it. Though the color of panic nearly covered it, he recognized, now, her periwinkle glow. He couldn`t believe he didn`t recognize it sooner.

　　"Shacia&?"

　　He took a few more steps, magnetized and terribly confused.

　　"Stop!" she cried again. "I don`t want you to-"

　　"STOP! THIEF!"

　　They both snapped towards the sound. A whole troupe of naked guards were running straight for them. Shacia gave him one final, pleading look. He felt it in his chest, as if she`d shot him with it - and then, she jumped into the water.

　　"NO!"

　　The river swept her away. Rorri crumpled to his knees. From where she disappeared, an explosion of magic like he`d never seen erupted into the air - a soundless, massive splash of deep blue and shimmering white. It looked as if a giant cannonball had crashed into the forest bed, sending a tower of water into the sky, but it wasn`t water. It was raw, unbridled magic.

　　The guards swarmed Rorri, three or four of them, with another two watching. They seized him, pinning him down as if he were resisting, though he wasn`t. He was as limp as could be, torn apart and bewildered, cheek pushed into stone that looked like soft, glowing grass.

　　"You`re under arrest-"

　　"What? Why are you arresting him?" Adar`s voice rose above the rushing water. Rorri hadn`t even seen his steel blue silhouette following behind the guards, still holding Poppy, though the cat was clearly distressed and trying to escape his grasp.

　　"We have under good authority that this man is the Black Widow," the guard replied. "Or her accomplice, at least."

　　"But he`s-"

　　"Moves quite well for a blind man`," another guard - their escort from before - chimed in. "Ran off with that weird dagger real quick. Sorry to tell you, ser, your sweetheart here isn`t who you think he is."

　　"He was spotted at the scene a` the crime on Barkah Street last fall," a different guard added. "His victim just reported it. Bastahd wiped his mem`ries cos he`d been caught. Poor bloke. Everythin` came back when he saw him tonight at the Gala. Foul magic, that."

　　Stunned silence followed. The guards bound Rorri`s hands behind him and lifted him to his feet. He was too tired to resist, too disoriented to protest, too dazed to even understand what was happening.

　　"Rorri, what&?" Adar said, his voice wavering, breaking. Rorri had never heard him break before.

　　"Mauuuuu!"

　　Poppy reached for him, restrained by the silver elf`s strong arms.

　　"I`m s-sorry," Rorri said. It was all he could muster.

　　The guards frogmarched him away, his head drooping like a wilted sunflower. Adar watched him until he was out of sight, and their escort took him back into the Palace. In the back of the Royal Guards` carriage, when the numbness finally passed, Rorri wept. It was over. They caught him.