PreCursive

  I didn’t know anyone named Rhiannon. And I had definitely never met this woman in my life, no matter what she said.

  I would have remembered her.

  If this woman wasn’t associated with the nobility in some way, I would eat my mask. She was geous, in a dangerous kind of way. Impeccably dressed in silks and furs suited to the frozen, snow-covered streets, she was wearing a deep bd red gown that stood out quite a bit in the shabby fines of Jason’s shop. Long, pitch-bck hair fell around her sharp, pale features in curls and ris. They framed her burgundy eyes, watg me with a patient amusement in the moments after she spoke.

  She khat she’d caught me off guard.

  Was this woman with SED? Had I been made by a Loyalist spy?

  Nobody in the Noe division had had any run-ins, bative or otherwise, with anyone in our terparts among the Loyalists. This was the despite the fact that we’d been running all up and down these streets on our missions. You would think we’d get some kind of pushback from the group that was meant to rival us, but no. The assault on the safe house outside of the city was supposed to have been from them, acc to Dusk. But nobody in the Division had seen hide or hair of anyone.

  There had been some uneasy rumblings among the ground forces at this silence.

  Was this the start of their terattack? Was I their first target?

  But…roach me in this manner, if she was here for my head? The woman, this…‘Rhiannon’, hadn’t made an antagonistic move once since I’d ehe shop.

  What the hell was this?

  Time sped up, my overactive brain having slowed my perception from the adrenaline pumping through my veins.

  Only moments had passed since she had spoken.

  I ughed as vingly as I could, fully stepping into the shop. “It’s been a long time,” I said, doing my best to smile at the woman. My eyes flickered up to meet Jason’s, who hadn’t noticed a thing wrong. I couldn't involve him in this. “Jason, do you mind if…Rhiannon and I catch up in the ba? I’ll get started oions when we’re done. I’m…” I paused for only a heartbeat. “Sure it won’t take long.”

  One way, or the other.

  Jason smiled at me obliviously. “S-sure, Hans! I don’t mind. And don’t worry about the b-brewing. We’ve still got q-quite the backlog to run through.” Having said that, he slid the key to the ba of the shop across the ter to me.

  Palming it, I turned back to face the woman, my friendly fa?ade falling away. Eyeing the woman ftly for a moment, I jerked my head in a motion towards the door in the back, but didn’t move yet.

  I didn’t want this woman behind me.

  She took the hint, sliding off of her chair nguidly to her full height. I know it shouldn’t bother me, but I was slightly disturbed to see that she was taller than I was. You didn’t often see human women that were over six feet tall like her.

  “Thank you, Jason,” She said to the shopkeep kindly, who blushed at her regard. “Like Hans said…we won’t be long.” At that, she sauntered off to atiently for me in front of the door, while Jason tried to stutter out an answer. He didn’t ma before she left his sight, causing him to slump slightly in pce.

  I patted him on the shoulder as I passed, keeping my eyes locked with ‘Rhiannon’ as I approached her. Making usre my posture slightly fag hers to try and minimize the risk, I cautiously unlocked the door. The strange woman slipped inside ohe door had been opehrowing me a smirk over her shoulder as she did. I stoically stepped in after her, making sure to close the door.

  I locked it behind me.

  Inside, ‘Rhiannon’ was bent over, iing the crates of ingredients that Jason had stocked here in the bas. She tsked. “Suaterials to work with, ‘Hans’,” She said, almost teasingly. She stood up, shaking her head. “However do you make do…?” She trailed off, growing unnaturally still.

  Because I had a dagger at her throat.

  While she had been examining the boxes, I had slipped up behind her, drawing one of the cealed ons I had on my person. The blue-by Oninite dagger glinted dangerously in the dim m light streaming in through the back window.

  I leaned up towards her ear. “Who are you?” I hissed. “What are you doing here?”

  The life returo Rhianon’s body, her muscles untensing now that she knew I wasn’t going to immediately slit her throat. Still, she didn’t test me by trying to get away.

  I’m not sure what I would have done.

  Instead, she surprised me.

  She trailed one long, manicured finger along the length of the bde at her throat. She made an ied noise when she was finished. “Oninite,” She said in wonder. “My my, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a bde fed entirely from it. The metal is so notoriously difficult to work with. Wherever did you get it? Is it, perhaps, something of your owion…Mr. Hart?”

  I shook off the bafflement I’d felt at her fingering the dagger nearly prig her carotid artery, and tensed up when she used my name.

  She definitely knew my name.

  I brought the dagger close enough to touch her skin. “Ahe question!” I barked, being careful not to let Jason hear us.

  “There’s no need for this, Mr. Hart,” She said calmly. “I promise you, I’m not here to report you to the authorities. Instead, I’m here to thank you.”

  “What?” I said in a baffled tone, momentarily letting my guard down in fusion.

  That was all she needed.

  Faster than I could react, in a way that I hadn’t experienced in months and months, ‘Rhiannon’ turhe tables on me. She slipped out of my arms, stealing my own dagger from my hands and sliding behind me. Before I knew what was even happening, I felt the very on I had fed with Aetherial Meldiing on my own throat.

  I froze, not daring to turn my head. The woman leaned in to my ear, close enough that I could feel her breath on it.

  I shuddered, my heart thundering in my chest.

  “There…” She whispered in my ear. “Not so pleasant, now is it?” Abruptly, the bde withdrew, and I was shoved forward lightly. I stumbled forward from the ued blow, finding my feet moments ter. I spun to face her, only to find the woman not even looking at me anymore.

  Instead, she was pting my bde.

  “Do you know,” She said suddenly, twisting the bde bad forth. “Where the name for this metal es from? It’s from Kawamara. There’s a particur breed of Mohat spawns in that archipego known as the Oni. They’re a tricky sort, the Oni, a true study in trasts. When they’re young and weak, the Oni stalk the rice fields as little more than bothersome Goblinoid creatures. They ambush particurly unwary borers and drag them into the shadows so they feast on their blood aher, leaving behind little but dried-out husks. A nuisao be sure, but only really a threat to the young and elderly. Now, when they’re older, and have their own sembnce of intelligehen, they truly bee a force to be reed with.”

  I stayed silent as the odd womaured me about the metal of my dagger, of all things.

  She flipped the bde until the point was banced upoip of her finger. “At that point, they gain a staggeringly powerful trol of lightning and thunder. Fulminokinesis, if you will,” She chuckled, slyly meeting my eyes. There was an intense look in her own. “It’s a near national emergency when that happens. There are dedicated Oni hunting squads that make sure this never e to pass. Oure, though, they rage across the isnds, striking everything within their sight aably g themselves oher of the i. Oni, you see, are one of the rare few types of mohat automatically evolve into a Prime once powerful enough. They’re not bred for it. They’re borio power. How…curious, that you should have a on of this metal. I wonder, Mr. Hart. Are you an Oni, destined freatness?”

  I shook off the spell that this woman’s speech had put me under. I took a step forward aed my earlier question. “Lady, who are you? What are you doing here?”

  ‘Rhiannon’ smiled slyly at me, flipping the bde of my dagger once more. This time, the hilt ointed in my dire. “Why, I’m the thuo your shadow, Mr. Hart. Or rather, the Thunderheart.”

  Wait, what?

  She tittered at the gobsmacked expression on my face, befrabbing the hem of her dress and curtseying in a sweeping manner. “I, am Rhiannon of awr, daughter of Daffyd.”

  Daffyd? Wasn’t that the name of Gruffyd’s brother, ba T?r Gronn?

  That would make her…

  “You’re Bleddyn’s cousin?!” I blurted out in astonishment, accepting my dagger back with a limp hand. As I slipped it bato its hiddehe, the woman straightened up and covered her mouth with one gloved hand. She tittered at me once more, nodding.

  “I am indeed,” Rhiannon said pyfully, a sly expression on her face. “I came here to thank you, for your servi freeing my foolish cousin.”

  I looked around for a moment, as if I would find ao the obvious questions pguing me. “How do you even know about me? About that, even?” I paused, something else to me. “How the hell did you find me?!”

  Rhiannon lowered her hand, allowio see the amused smile on her crimson-painted lips. She ined her head meaningfully at the nearby rickety table in this room, befracefully sitting in an open chair. I…took the hint and sat down with her.

  But I didn’t fully let down my guard. If this woman really was from the Thunderheart , then she was supposedly an ally.

  I didn’t have any way to verify her identity, though.

  Rhiannon must have noticed my wariness, but didn’t let it stop her speaking. “To answer your questions in order, my father keeps a line of unication open with me, here in the big city,” She said easily. “As the Archmage, he has access to his owhods of tact. Last week, he used those to inform me that dear Bleddyn was still alive, somewhere in the Principality. And leading a sve revolt, of all things! Shogly different, for the man. I was beginning to think my cousin had no more ambition in him than iing the . How gd I am, to see I was wrong.”

  “And…” I said slowly, starting to see where this was going. “Daffyd must have told you about me, at the time.”

  Rhiannon ined her head. “Just so. He also informed me of how you were on some sort of mission for the Order of the Eclipsed Dawn. Not long after that, a very obvious campaign of destabilization began here in Elderwyck, a notable ter of Loyalist power. It truly wasn’t difficult to put the pieces together from that, Mr. Hart. After that, all I o do was look around for a man matg the description my father sent me. I wished to vey my gratitude, you see.”

  Something about her expnation didn’t sit right with me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what. It all sounded very pusible, I had to aowledge.

  Still…

  “That’s a lot of effort to gh, just to thank me,” I frow her.

  “It is my way, Mr. Hart,” She said, smiling enigmatically at me.

  I frowned harder.

  Rhiannon rolled her eyes and heaved a dramatic, put-upon sigh at my expression. “Oh, must you ruin my fun?” She groused. Shaking her head, she leaned forward. “The truth, then. I’m here because I want to assist you, you see.”

  “Assist me,” I said ftly. “Is that so.”

  A surprisingly excited smile stole across the woman’s impeccably primped face. “Just so, Mr. Hart. Just so. You see, I happen to be a dy of some influen Duke Olsen’s court. I imagi would be quite a coup for your forces if you gained an informant of my caliber, so close to the Duke’s ter of influence. Why, I could eve you into the pace itself, if so needed!”

  Uh-huh.

  I see.

  I think I was beginning to see what was going on here. This wasn’t the plot of some tricky SED ageo take me out.

  This was some noble dy that I had tenuous ties t to i a bit of color into her dour life. I stood up from the table, my nerves more thaled by now. I smiled rally at the woman. “Thank you for your offer, Ms. Rhiannon,” I said, probably more politely than she deserved. “I’ll be sure to vey it to my superiors with all the respect it deserves.”

  That is, little.

  “In the meantime, I ask that you maintain secrecy about any possible operation you may or may not believe is underway. If you’ll excuse me, I have work to be getting to. I’ll see you out,” I said, gesturing towards the door.

  Rhiannon slowly got to her feet, studying my face thoughtfully. “You don’t believe I be of any help, do you,” She said, tapping one perfect finger against her lips. She stopped after a moment, pointing that fi me. “I uand. I’d be wary too, in hindsight.” She said, walking towards the door and opening it. Before she left, however, she turned and winked one burgundy eye at me. “I’ll prove my worth to you, Mr. Spy. I know just the thing to ge your mind. I’ll be seeing you again before long. I promise you that.” With those parting words, the woman slipped out the door, closing it behind her. Seds ter, I heard her say something in parting to Jason, and then the front door open and close.

  I sighed, dragging an exhausted hand down my face.

  Bleddyn, you old me about how tiring your cousin could be.

  Maybe that’s why, e to think of it.