Revan Sorna sat outside Billy's tavern, The Golden Pig, thinking about his next target.
It was about an hour until dark, and if he was going to eat tonight—or even get a bite to eat at the tavern—he needed gold. He was hoping to snag a pouch from one of the drunk sailors inside.
A familiar voice broke through his thoughts.
"Ho, Revan! How goes it tonight?"
Revan looked up to see Cassie approaching. Brown eyes, dark hair, fair skin—she was a familiar sight, and a welcome one.
"Ho, Cass," he said, nodding. "Thinking about our next snag. One of the sailors might make a good mark."
He gave her a knowing look. "You been reading those magic books I gave you? The ones on ice magic?"
Cassie smiled slightly, eyes lingering on Revan. He looked the same as ever: well-groomed, dark-haired, blue-eyed—the streetwise youth who had looked out for her since they could remember. They had fled the orphanage together and found their way to Kallzara, a small wayside town just far enough from anywhere that no one asked questions.
"A bit," Cassie said. "Heidi's been teaching me in her spare time. I can cast Ice Trap if we get chased tonight."
Revan nodded, pleased. "Good. That'll come in handy. I can summon a shadow decoy myself—should be more than enough to fool a drunk sailor."
Cassie grinned. "Then we're eating beef stew tonight. It's the best thing they've got."
Revan smirked, but Cassie didn't stop there.
"If all goes well..." she added, eyeing him. "By the way, you never told me where you picked up that shadow book. You were probably down in the sewers again, huh?"
Revan smiled. "A gentleman never reveals his secrets."
In truth, he had been down in the sewers again—curiosity always getting the better of him. Deep beneath the streets, he had stumbled upon a collapsed wall that led into ancient ruins, half-swallowed by mud and rot. There, in a crumbling chamber, he'd found a skeleton slumped against the wall, clutching a weathered book bound in black leather.
It pulsed faintly when he touched it. The pages were filled with strange glyphs and ink that shimmered like oil. Shadow magic.
When he had brought it to Heidi and asked if she could teach him, her face had gone pale.
"Where did you get this?" she'd whispered.
He never answered. She told him to hide it, to never show it to anyone. Shadow magic, she said, wasn't just forbidden—it was heresy. Anyone caught using it risked far worse than exile.
Still, Revan had kept the book. Something about it felt... right.
It turned out learning the damn magic wasn't easy.
There was probably a good reason it was forbidden—not just because of what it could do, but because of how it worked. You couldn't summon a shadow from nothing. You had to take one.
Right now, Revan only had his shadow to work with, and unfortunately, his shadow was a lazy, good-for-nothing slob.
It didn't like to move unless it had to, and when it did, it complained. Not with words, but in the way it dragged, sluggish and reluctant, like it resented being made to work.
Sometimes Revan wondered if it actually had a personality—or if that was just a side effect of the spell. Either way, he could summon a decoy once or twice if he pushed it, but any more than that... and the shadow sulked.
As Revan mulled over his thoughts about the shadow, the door to The Golden Pig creaked open. A group of sailors stumbled out, laughing, shouting, and singing something that barely qualified as a song.
Perfect targets, Revan thought.
Cassie caught the look in his eye and nodded subtly. It was time. Without missing a beat, she slipped into her act—her "lost girl" routine.
She half-stumbled into the path of the sailors, sniffling, eyes wide and brimming with tears.