Nico had the feeling that the air in Red Bridge had grown colder, or perhaps it was just fear. There wasn't a soul around: the houses had dark windows and locked doors; the water in the canals flowed with a low murmur.

  Gareth had disappeared into the shadows, leaving them on the quay. He had said that Fill's barge was no longer a safe place. Nico turned slightly as he adjusted the bow slung across his shoulder and touched the green and silver pommel of his sword. He scanned the shadows, searching beyond the darkness of the pier for the short, stocky man who was following them. From the railing of the barge, he could see Samuele's vulture-like gaze, now very different from the fearful and shy guy he had seen on the barge with everyone else. ‘Nothingness can lurk in each of us. You just have to give it the chance...’ Captain Fill had told him, and Samuele was proof of that, he thought.

  He had an idea to get out of this stalemate: “Come on, guys, Patty is at home,” he said loudly, pointing deliberately at the barge, “but I'm so thirsty that only a good beer can quench it.”

  “Beer?!” exclaimed Leo, clutching his stomach. “Not me, I'm as full as a...”

  Nico grabbed him by the shoulder and hissed through his teeth, “Shut up, that's an excuse.” Then, hugging him as he imagined drinking buddies would, he said, “Come on, friends, no complaints, it's on me.”

  They walked away from the battle quickly, and before turning the corner, Nico saw a figure, probably Samuele, getting off the barge. It didn't take long for the short, stocky man to reappear behind them.

  “We have to find horses,” said Kiah anxiously.

  “Yeah, horses. Where the hell are we going to find horses now?” Leo muttered under his breath.

  Kiah looked behind them every few steps. Nico, on the other hand, didn't need to turn around; he could feel that guy's gaze on him. He looked around in vain, but there was no one there at that hour. He was overcome with anger. Gareth had left them to fend for themselves instead of sticking together.

  “I think I saw a stable...” Kiah whispered. They walked past it, the door was closed and the window above was dark and blind.

  Nico nodded, behind them he saw the tall figure of Samuel reach his short companion.

  “Let's keep going,” said Nico, grabbing Leo and Kiah by the elbows. Leo protested half-heartedly, and Nico added through gritted teeth, “We have to split up.”

  Kiah protested, “Split up? Now? That's stupid.”

  “But if we all stay together, they'll catch us for sure,” said Nico. “If we confuse them, maybe we can lose them.”

  Nico saw Kiah bring her hands to her face, her features tense. It was clear she wanted to argue, but she didn't speak.

  “Okay,” Nico said with a sigh.

  Leo began his usual mantra: “Damn, damn, damn...”

  “Remember, see you at The Aged Groom,” said Nico, turning furtively to look at their two pursuers, ten steps behind them.

  “But it was actually The New Groom,” Leo murmured hesitantly. “Right,” said Nico, hoping in his heart that he would remember that name later.

  “Now!” Nico roared, seeing several forks in the road. The three of them sprinted off.

  Nico took the most visible road, over a red bridge lit by lanterns hanging from tall poles. From that elevated position, he saw Kiah turn into a narrow side street that ran alongside the barn, while Leo slipped into a wider street leading to the inn district. Nico saw the stocky man trudging behind Leo as Samuele sprinted towards him.

  Nico ran between the canals, out of breath, the cold air in his lungs tasting of stagnant water. He could still hear Samuele's footsteps behind him as he chased him. The streets were narrow and winding, alongside the canals, and every time he turned a corner, he seemed to end up in a dead end or one that ended straight into the water, then a red bridge appeared in front of him. Nico crossed it.

  His breath was burning, but he gritted his teeth and kept running, hoping to overtake him.

  Then, after a sharp turn, he was back on another red bridge, this one lower, almost at water level. Nico crossed it while turning to look for Samuele in the light of the lanterns hanging from the bridge, and slipped on the wet step. He grabbed the railing to keep from falling, and the sound of footsteps behind him grew louder. Samuele was closing the gap.

  Nico jumped off the bridge and slipped into a side passage between two houses, the walls brushing his shoulders, then the road curved again, and when he entered the curve, Samuele was waiting for him on the other side.

  “What do you want, Samuele?” Nico roared, looking back at the narrow alley between the two houses.

  “No, no, no,” said the man mockingly, “you won't escape me again.”

  Nico backed away as the man advanced and felt the wall behind him.

  “What do you want?” Nico asked again, trying not to let his fear show in his voice.

  “My master is very interested in you,” said the cabin boy in a hiss as he continued to advance. “He believes you are meddling too much in his affairs.”

  “We're just running away,” said Nico.

  Samuele shook his head. “No, you're accompanying the princess. She has great powers. Even though she hasn't managed to defeat my master on her own, with you...”

  “With us?” asked Nico. “What do you mean?”

  Samuele shook his head irritably. “Enough!” he roared angrily and lunged at Nico's throat.

  Suddenly, the stagnant smells of the alley, Samuele's voice, the fear, everything vanished and there was darkness.

  He didn't know how much time had passed, but he found Samuel's hands around his neck. He couldn't breathe, but he saw, in the dim moonlight filtering into the alley, that Samuel was bleeding from one eye. Nico was horrified. In addition to blood, a gelatinous, slimy liquid was oozing from the dark socket: the eye was gone.

  He tried to break free, but the grip was getting tighter and tighter, and even though he tried to tear Samuele's hands away from his neck with his fingernails, Samuele was stronger.

  Small bright specks began to float in his field of vision. He struggled, kicking and wriggling his legs until he felt the strength in his arms failing.

  His hands fell limply to his sides, then he felt something thin, wet, and cold next to him. He grabbed the object and brought it to the light: it was a small, thin blade, stained with blood and the same gelatinous liquid that was dripping from Samuele's empty eye socket. He clenched it in his fist and, with all the strength he had left in his body, stabbed it into Samuele's wrist. Samuele screamed in pain and jumped up, moving away from Nico, one hand holding his new wound on his wrist.

  Nico stood up, holding his sore neck with one hand and seeing one of Dan's thin throwing blades in the other.

  Samuele stared at him with eyes burning with rage, staggered towards him again and said through gritted teeth, “I'll kill you,” then roared in a mad scream of rage, “I'll kill you!”

  Then, out of nowhere, as if pushed by an invisible force, he fell into the canal, letting out a scream muffled by the spray of stagnant water.

  “Run,” said a familiar voice. It was Patty.

  The little girl, with her feline gaze and gloomy face, darted away before Nico could thank her.

  Samuele, in the water not far away, was struggling and wriggling, trying to grab the edge of the canal to climb back up, scratching at the stone.

  Nico took advantage of this unexpected help and headed in the same direction from which little Patty had come. He tried to follow her, but when he turned the corner looking for her fiery red hair, she had already disappeared. He ran into the night: he had to find Kiah and the others. He shook his head at the memory of that mangled eye. He felt the blade in his palm, his hand covered in blood; it wasn't his blood, but he couldn't remember when he had hit Samuele the first time.

  He turned a corner, avoiding the illuminated red bridge, too visible, he thought. His side itched, now a familiar itch; perhaps the wound was closing, wounds usually itched when they healed, he thought. He shook his head: he had forgotten to change the bandage and had also forgotten to check if the skill system still showed that error message.

  He saw a familiar building in the distance and kept running, thinking about all the things he forgot to do, about those strange blackouts that happened to him all too often. He had to tell Leo and Kiah, he thought.

  He arrived in front of the barn. The door was closed, and a dim light came from the window above: he really hoped someone was awake.

  He knocked loudly. He looked around, hoping no one had heard him.

  There was a murmur from inside, then the sound of heavy footsteps.

  The door swung open and an elderly man appeared, his hair tousled and his eyes not those of someone who had just woken up, as Nico would have expected, but full of concern. “Are you crazy? It's nighttime!” he said, although Nico noticed a hint of agitation in his voice.

  Nico threw open the door, his lungs burning. Inside, the smell of hay and horses permeated the air. The horses whinnied softly, fueling his agitation. The elderly man roared, “It's nighttime! Get out of here.”

  “A girl came in here! Curly hair, long, dark skin... she needed horses,” Nico blurted out. “It's urgent. Please... is she okay?”

  The man lingered with his gaze on Nico's bloody hand and began to rant, asking who he thought he was, threatening to call the guards. But at one point he stopped and looked towards the stairs that perhaps led upstairs.

  Nico heard a faint female voice: “It's okay, Carlo. He's a friend of the girl.”

  The man grunted in agreement. “There,” he said, pointing to a small basin of water, “clean yourself up before you go upstairs.”

  Nico nodded, murmuring his thanks.

  He climbed the stairs, exhausted from running, and entered a sparsely furnished room: a sideboard, a table with three chairs, and a bed on which Kiah was sitting, accompanied by an elderly woman with white hair and maternal eyes. The smell of horses and hay was less heavy, but still noticeable.

  When Kiah saw him, she rushed over to hug him, then, looking him up and down, asked, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

  Nico shook his head, then asked, just before Kiah could say it herself, “Leo?”

  Kiah shook her head and Nico looked down, then muttered an unconvincing “We'll make it.”

  Then Kiah looked at him. “You? How did you do it? I saw Samuele, he followed you.”

  “Yes,” said Nico, waving his hand in the air to dismiss the conversation. Kiah's eyes widened: “But is that blood?”

  Nico nodded irritably. “Yes, but not mine,” he said curtly, trying not to show how uncomfortable he felt at the thought of Samuele's empty eye socket.

  “You,” said Nico, “no one followed you.”

  Kiah shook her head. “The fat guy went after Leo,” she said, “but I think he managed to lose him... at least I hope so.” "

  Kiah shook her head and muttered, as the old woman took bread and cheese out of a small cupboard: “I tried to open the game settings to see if there was any chat or similar feature, like there is in all online games... Nothing. Error.”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Nico muttered quickly, “How are we going to find them now?”

  Kiah said, “At the New Groom. They'll be there. I'm sure of it.”

  The woman invited them to sit down; on the table there was only some stale bread and cheese, probably their meager meal for the next day. Nico was reminded of the feeling he had had at the Carrow farm: he knew they were just NPCs, but the game made them so real; the woman's apprehensive eyes truly reflected her concern for their fate.

  The man came up from the stable; the neighing of the horses, agitated by Nico's intrusion, had faded away.

  The man grabbed a chair and sat down at the table with Nico and Kiah: “So? Are you going to tell me who two kids like you are running from? Have you stolen from someone important? Because if you have, I don't care what my wife says: I'm kicking you out.”

  “Calm down, Carlo, dear. Please,” said the woman, placing a hand on her husband's shoulder. “They remind me so much of Sergio.”

  Nico and Kiah exchanged glances; then Nico shook his head. “We can't tell you everything... it would endanger both us and you, but we can tell you that we are fleeing from people who are somehow associated with the Nothing. We can't tell you exactly how, and we don't understand it ourselves; we only know that we arrived here on the run and that we are continuing to flee.”

  Nico paused for a moment, staring at the faces of the two elderly people. The man's eyes were narrowed to slits, while the woman had her hand over her mouth, her face tense.

  Nico continued, “As I imagine my friend has told you, we need horses.”

  The woman exchanged a worried glance with her husband, then said, “Our Sergio is a good boy, perhaps a little older than you; he was summoned to Taynor, you know?”

  The woman's voice trembled; she was very agitated. “We are very proud of him. He accepted the summons and went to Taynor... We haven't received any letters yet. Some merchants who came from there gave us some information... they say the King is forming an army to destroy the Nothing.”

  Nico and Kiah exchanged a look full of regret, but Nico wanted to see something else in that look, as if her friend were saying, ‘Don't say anything,’ 'Let's not disappoint him.

  “This business of the Nothingness is something that concerns us all,” said the woman in a trembling voice, “especially now that Sergio is in Taynor preparing for war,” she added with a flash in her eyes, lined with wrinkles of maternal concern. “If you are fleeing from the Nothingness, helping you will be like helping our son,” she said with a forced smile.

  Nico looked at her: she had clear, limpid eyes, veiled with tears; Nico's stomach tightened with sorrow, but it was Kiah who spoke, breaking the pact of silence that Nico thought he had made with his friend when they had looked at each other a moment earlier.

  “I'm very sorry,” Kiah murmured.

  "Why? Have you seen it? Do you know it? What do you know? Were you summoned too?“ said the elderly woman in a barrage of questions in an increasingly shrill tone, then she jumped to her feet and asked again, this time only to Kiah, ”Why are you talking like that?"

  Kiah shook her head and lowered her gaze.

  The man fidgeted in his chair. “What does that mean? Did you know him? Did something happen to him?”

  “We're from Taynor,” Kiah whispered, and Nico turned to look at her with a sigh.

  “Yes, we fled from there,” Nico whispered. “The city is no longer safe... it has been attacked by the Nothing.”

  The old woman collapsed onto the bed, her hands covering her face, her eyes filled with tears. “What does that mean?” she whispered.

  “I'm so sorry,” Kiah whispered again. Nico shook his head; he didn't want to disappoint this family. “Don't get the wrong idea, we managed to escape... maybe he did too...” But he didn't believe it himself, and that uncertainty was evident in his words.

  The woman began to cry softly and the man brought his hand to his face, covering his eyes. Nico felt sad and sorry for them and didn't know exactly what to do. Nico stared at the bread and cheese illuminated by the dim light of the candle on the table as the woman's thin moans of despair filled the room.

  They sat there for what seemed like an eternity to Nico, when an explosion broke the silence of the room. The old man jumped up to his feet while the old woman screamed.

  “It's coming from the harbor,” said the man, and Nico sprang up, grabbing Kiah by the arm. “We have to go, now.”

  “But the horses?” Kiah muttered.

  Nico nodded, then looked at the old man, who whispered, “I can't let you go, it's dangerous out there.”

  Nico shook his head. “We're leaving, with or without the horses.”

  The old man stiffened, as if to reply, then said, "Then I'll come

  with you."

  Carlo opened the stable door and Nico went out first, pulling behind him a gray horse that was pawing the ground with one hoof. Behind him, Kiah struggled with a bay, as the old man had described it, and Carlo, riding a nervous chestnut, held the reins of two other black horses that seemed to want to go back inside, pulling hard on the reins.

  Nico had never been comfortable with horses. Their large, intelligent eyes seemed to wait for him to make a mistake so they could throw him off. He could already see himself face down in the putrid water, just like that pony had done years ago.

  They rode out onto the road. The town of Red Bridge was in turmoil. The reflections of the lanterns flickered on the dark waters of the canals, and people had poured out of their houses like ants. The nearest red bridge was full of crowds heading down towards the harbor.

  “Let's go, before these horses get skittish,” muttered Carlo.

  Nico nodded.

  The gray horse pulled too sharply and Nico almost lost his grip.

  “We have to take the side alleys,” said Carlo. “The big bridges are too crowded.”

  They rode in single file: Carlo in front with two horses, Nico in the middle with the gray, and Kiah bringing up the rear with the bay. The alley they entered was so narrow that Nico had to pull on the reins several times because the horse stopped every few steps, probably out of fear of the water in the canal below them lapping gently against the edges.

  Behind them, the crowd was shouting:

  “He was at the port!”

  “A huge explosion!”

  “There are dead people.”

  Nico's thoughts turned to Captain Fill's ship, to Patty, to Onis, to the sailors.

  His stomach clenched. He saw the ship as he had left it: the gangway, the taut ropes, the dark wood. And then he imagined it in flames.

  He shook his head to dispel the thought.

  They continued along a small red bridge, and Nico feared that the weight of the five horses might break it. Then, out of nowhere, a sudden, shrill scream rose behind them, cutting through the night, followed by the sound of objects being knocked over and plates breaking.

  When they reached the other side, a small dark square lit by a single lantern, Carlo pointed to a side street. “The inns are over there, around that corner.”

  Then a boom, this time closer, made the stone beneath their feet vibrate for a second. The gray horse reared up slightly, pulling Nico to the side.

  “Maria...” murmured the man, his voice trembling.

  Kiah raised his head toward the sky, which was filling with smoke. “It doesn't look like just the harbor.”

  Nico felt a chill run down his spine. He nodded as he watched the elderly man fidget while observing the smoke and screams rising from different parts of the town. He ran a hand over his face. “Please, Master Carlo... go back to your wife. The inn is close by, and we'll be fine.”

  The man stared at Nico with eyes clouded with fear, then nodded, dismounting with an agility that Nico would not have attributed to him at first glance.

  “Be strong, boys. May fate be kind to you.”

  With that, he left the reins in Kiah and Nico's hands and ran like a frightened child into the night.

  Kiah muttered, “What do we do now?”

  “Let's go,” said Nico, pulling the horses forward.

  Distressed cries enveloped them like a suffocating blanket in the inn square, slightly raised above the canal area overlooking the river. From there, Nico could see, in the distance, the flames rising toward the sky and reflecting mirror-like in the river water. A strong smell of burning began to fill the air, making his eyes sting.

  He felt the horses getting agitated: there were too many people, too much noise, Nico thought.

  “We need to find the inn quickly or slip into a quieter alley and wait for the crowd to move elsewhere,” he said, not quite sure what to do as he searched for a place to take shelter in the frenzied commotion.

  He slipped into a strangely quiet alleyway with Kiah and the five horses to catch his breath and gather his thoughts. The screams and noises from the street faded until they almost disappeared. Nico thought that the people were moving on and that perhaps they could go out again.

  Then the alleyway, already dark, grew even darker, and his side began to sting.

  Nico turned around. A huge Nerakth roared with its serrated blade raised in the air.

  Nico instinctively backed away, bringing a hand to his side, where just the night before another Nerakth had wounded him in the royal palace. His heart began to pound in his chest and his hands were cold and clammy, but he knew what to do.

  He gathered his courage and drew his sword. He charged at the Nerakth, holding the blade low at his side. He had one advantage: the enormous creature's bulk forced it to move more awkwardly.

  He struck it from below, hitting it in the belly, repaying the creature for the blow to his side he had received from another Nerakth the previous evening.

  He leapt back, dodging a drop of oily liquid dripping from the Nerakth's outstretched hand as it reached for him.

  Kiah was pinned against the wall, the reins of five horses twisted around her arms like taut ropes. The animals pulled, thrashed, and stamped their hooves on the stone, one of them almost hitting the edge of the canal that ran behind the alley.

  “Kiah...” Nico murmured, fearing for his friend.

  The Nerakth roared, demanding the attention it deserved; slowly, it tried to take a few steps toward Nico, then swung its blade. Nico ducked, turning his gaze to Kiah.

  His friend's eyes were closed, her face contorted; her lips moved rapidly in a whisper.

  The alley filled with a flicker of warm air, like a breath. Nico felt it brush his cheeks.

  Taking advantage of the monster's unbalanced position, he raised his sword and plunged it under its chin.

  The horses slowed down, one by one: their ears lowered, their breathing slower.

  Nico pulled out his sword and leapt back, avoiding a splash of black slime as the monstrous being crashed to the ground.

  Kiah opened her eyes and took a deep breath; she looked exhausted.

  “Are you okay?” asked Nico, approaching his friend as the darkness faded and the screams resumed: Nerakth's influence on sound and light had ended with his death.

  Kiah smiled: “It's soul magic, it calms anxiety. Celeste, I mean Nadia, used it on me,” she said, lowering her head with a smile. “Well, you know, when I had the block...” she added, in a barely audible voice.

  “You were great,” exclaimed Nico.

  Kiah laughed.

  “Hey, I've been looking everywhere for you, and you were here playing heroes?!” said a familiar voice from the end of the alley. “Hurry up, we have to get out of here.”

  It was Leo. His slender silhouette glowed like a shadow, his face obscured by the light coming from the square behind him.

  Nico smiled. “Where are the others?”

  “At ‘Lo Sposo Novello’, where else.” Leo turned to look down the alley. “Come on, if it weren't for me and Gareth, he would have left you here already.”

  “What about Princess Nadia?” asked Nico.

  “She's fine, a little shaken, but she was great when we had to face those Nerakth.”

  “How did you…”

  "The inn. We were locked inside. They have a kind of secret cellar. Come on, I'll lead the way. Anyway, as I was saying: some guys broke into the inn, and Gareth, Nadia, and I saw everything from under the floorboards. They trashed the place, poor Master Tim was beaten to a pulp... he's in pretty bad shape, but he didn't talk. They've turned the city upside down looking for us. They want the princess. Wow, great, you have horses. Why didn't you say so before? Come on, Nico, give me the reins and I'll help you. You know, Gareth got one for himself and one for the princess, paying the innkeeper a lot of money, but it looks like you've thought of everything. No, wait, let's go this way. Right, what was I saying? Oh yes! I managed to get Gareth to do a quick reconnaissance. If I hadn't found you, I think he would have just taken the princess away. Luckily, I found you,“ he concluded with a beaming smile. ”Now this game is getting interesting,“ he said. Finally, he muttered, ”Wait here," before disappearing into an alley.

  Nico heard Leo knock three times on a door, then once, then twice. “Come, I'm already in the stable,” murmured a woman's voice.

  Leo made himself more visible and motioned for him and Kiah to approach. Nico, with Kiah in tow and the horses now docile, walked down the alley.

  “Things have turned out rather badly,” Leo muttered knowingly. “Luckily, Gareth had several connections here,” Leo murmured.

  They entered a well-kept stable. As soon as Leo saw Gareth, already mounted on a black horse, he stiffened and exclaimed dramatically, “I found them, my dear sword master. If it had been up to you, you would have abandoned them to their fate.”

  Gareth barely glanced at them, his expression seeming to say, ‘You're just a burden’. Princess Nadia was stroking a bay horse with shiny white coat. She smiled laconically, her face tense when she saw them enter the stable. “You have horses, good,” murmured the princess.

  “Move,” grunted Gareth.

  Nico stopped in front of the gray horse, which was shaking its head and moving its ears nervously. Kiah had calmed it down, but it still seemed agitated.

  Nico gripped the reins in one hand, put one foot in the stirrup, and pushed himself up without too much force, falling back on his leg, the other foot stuck in the stirrup. The horse moved backward and shook its head; Nico almost fell.

  “Ssh...” said Princess Nadia, approaching the gray horse. She murmured something, a kind of chant, and Nico felt better, less agitated. He noticed that the gray horse also seemed calmer.

  Nadia murmured, “Try now,” she said with a sigh.

  After taking a breath, Nico pushed himself up, squeezed his legs together, and adjusted to the movements, his heart pounding, but now he believed he could do it. He nodded his thanks to Nadia, who smiled knowingly.

  The woman who had escorted them to the stable slipped a package into the travel bag hanging from Gareth's saddle. “This is food for the journey,” she murmured, and Gareth nodded. Then she looked at Gareth with eyes narrowed to slits: “You must leave. Now!” she said, nodding toward the door at the back of the inn, her arms crossed over her chest. “They're back. Since they didn't find you, they decided to come here for consolation. Master Tim is keeping them busy, but...”

  Gareth nodded and threw her a coin. Here are two horses to repay the debt of blood shed by your husband.

  The woman nodded. “Good luck,” she murmured, watching them as they slipped through the stable door.

  Rain began to fall as soon as they left the alley.

  “No! I don't want to get wet,” Leo muttered.

  Gareth pulled his hood over his head and murmured, “Better. It will cover our tracks.”

  [AUTHOR'S NOTE]

  To ensure continuity for future system updates, we recommend:

  ? Following the author's channel: increases stream stability.

  ? Regular interaction: optimizes monitoring algorithms.

  Log updated: upcoming events are classified as critical.

  Log closed: The system is observing.