Eric kept grumbling to himself, clearly not wanting to tell a god that what they were doing was stupid, especially not when that god had just explained that he had returned from beating one of the other gods.
Jasmine didn't mind. She wanted to help out, and if there was one thing she knew better than the old fart, it was how to interact with criminals.
The redheaded girl knew she could say no, but honestly, this would be more fun than the two oldies talking about magic for the next six hours. The evening before had been dull enough, though the shower that the other god had created had been nice.
As they arrived at The Black Cauldron, the God of Knowledge looked at Jasmine.
"Are you ready?" He asked, adjusting his glasses and looking at her with a gaze that seemed to pierce her soul.
She could feel how his gaze poured into her as if he was scouring her very being, looking into her desires and her goals. After a moment, the god seemed to smile.
"Don't worry, I will take good care of the old man." He said, which made The Scribe harumph.
He lifted his hand to smack Jasper across the back of his head, purely on instinct. Eric had even gone halfway through the motion before he seemed to remember who he was about to slap and stayed his hand.
"I can take care of myself, you know." He grumbled though the fact that Erik wouldn't be left alone if things went wrong made Jasmine feel much more confident.
She had found the old man wandering the streets of Salezstadt and he had looked so lonely, just like she had been. She would hate for him to end up like that again.
Jasmine made her way into the tavern. She knew how to hide, and while most people seemed to think it involved lurking around in the corners, it was much easier to do in plain sight. The street urchin followed a woman inside, making it look like they were a pair, and Jasmine made sure to keep looking up at the woman as if she were a helpless child, just following her mother around for errands.
As expected, nobody gave her a second glance, and she quickly broke away to follow a man, allowing her to walk slowly deeper into the well-kept tavern.
She quickly spotted her target, the man was sitting pretty much directly behind what could only be the shadiest person Jasmine had ever seen.
She looked over the farmer several times, ensuring that it was indeed him she was supposed to steal from.
With a bit more manoeuvring, Jasmine managed to get into the farmer's blind spot, which allowed her to get all the way to his purse. With careful hands, she slowly fished round and golden Revals out of his pouch.
Jasmine did her best to stay quiet, and after five coins, she took a deep breath. This was more money than she had ever seen. The young redhead was halfway through the pouch on the man's side, but she had gotten enough to execute the plan's next step.
She concentrated, and with a deep breath, she made sure to put her hand clumsily in the man's pocket, making the coins jingle and clank. The farmer looked down, and Jasmine gave him a quick smile that seemed to convey smugness before she ran.
The farmer was after her in a flash as she moved between patrons and waiters, hoping not to be caught. She could hear the farmer scream something at the top of his lungs, and Jasmine felt her breath get caught as she had to tumble underneath a table to make it past a couple of large men who had decided to talk in the middle of one of the aisles between the tables.
Jasmine felt her heart in her throat and she quickly made it to the door, seeing the Shady-looking man and the farmer both walking across tables to get to her.
She vanished from the door and hurried down one of the side streets, knowing that her two pursuers would spot her as soon as she turned the corner.
She looked back and was a bit disappointed to see that they hadn't gotten as far as she had suspected. She waited for five seconds, allowing them to get a good look at her before she moved out of the tavern and down the street.
Jasmine could hear them. She knew she was leading them to an ambush, and she turned sharply into an alleyway with no exit, making sure to drop one of the shiny coins behind her. She ran down to the end, but as she reached the end, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Looking up, she looked into the hood of the shady man from the tavern. Burning red eyes stared back at her from inside the hood. She swallowed hard, as he had simply stepped out from the shadows, and his vice-like grip didn't allow her to twist free. She was trapped.
Jasper saw how the shady man seemed to melt into the shadows, and an instant later, he appeared next to Jasmine. Something funky was happening here, that wasn't magic, and it felt more akin to a Domain power.
However, unless that shady figure was Daikia, that couldn't be true, and he assumed that the goddess of drows would never lower herself to hang around in a bar.
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Things were quickly spiralling out of control. Jasper had expected the shady-looking distraction to be nothing more than a distraction, but that was apparently wrong. The way he acted when Jasper confronted Longknife made the god believe that he was nothing more than a decoy.
"Time for us to get things moving. Do you think you can take Longknife?" Jasper asked The Scribe.
The old man nodded, starting to run towards the alley. Their intentions had been for Jasmine to get caught mid-crime, have Longknife confront her, and offer her a part in his operations, but things were getting too heated. While it could technically still work, they couldn't risk it, and stepping in now would be their best option.
Jasper dove after The Scribe. He felt himself empowered with each step, using Elementalism to force the wind to carry him faster and further. It wasn't as good as using the Wind Domain. However, it beat his normal running speed.
The god of magic even managed to make a couple of jumps between the walls, landing in front of Jasmine and the figure, bypassing Longknife as a radiant green barrier sprang up between the walls, cutting Longknife off and forcing him to face The Scribe, who was looking at him with a menacing glare.
Jasper turned his attention to the hooded figure and wondered how to best approach this. He had a couple of Domain powers ready thanks to his power, 'The Excellent Pause'. However, what he had prepared was a fireball and an antimagic field. Nothing that would be helpful now.
Text from Image:
The Excellent Pause
Type: Activated Ability
Energy usage: Varies.
Full effect: When you cast an Ur-spell or mortal magic, you may commit Energy just before it is triggered. The spell is then suspended and may be released as an action at any time thereafter, with the committed Energy returning at the next loading screen. You may suspend more than one spell if you're willing to commit the Energy to each, but releasing requires your attention.
"I don't think we have met," Jasper said, looking for a way to get Jasmine out of the way before it was too late.
The hooded figure smirked. "Oh, but we have." His voice was dripping with venom, and he seemed to linger on each syllable as if tasting it. There is no hiding your true identity, Armandos," he continued, and Jasper felt a bit of relief that this figure didn't know his actual name.
They were at a stalemate. Jasper couldn't cast a spell without endangering Jasmine. He could try some mental manipulation, but it felt wrong to rob someone of their free will. Even so, Jasper could feel the divine power of this being. Somehow, he hadn't been able to feel it before. The god of magic was sure that anything that could seriously affect this person would probably threaten to destroy the entire city.
"Well, I am pleased to meet you, but I don't think I caught your name. You mortals all look the same after all." Jasper said, though that wasn't true at all. He wanted to try and taunt the shady character into doing something foolish. Calling him a mortal might be Jasper's best shot.
While Jasper couldn't see the man's face, he could practically hear the smile. The sound of cracked and dry lips spreading into a wide grin was barely there, but to a god, it was like tearing up a phonebook.
"The god of knowledge should not lie. It doesn't suit you." The figure said. Jasmine gave a groan as the grip on her shoulder only grew stronger. "Please, allow me to make myself clear. You will not be coming after me, and you will stop looking into the thieves guild. It is not the business of the gods who run it. To help you keep this incentive in mind, consider this little rogue collateral." The figure said, eye blazing before Jasper felt the build-up of Divine energy around the being.
Jasper hated mentalism, but it seemed to be his only way. Taking away people's free will was like burning down a library, but he had no choice.
He threw a spell called mind control. His Luck Domain had told him he would have a 99% chance of incapacitating the mortal. However, as Jasper hit the shady figure with the spell, it was like trying to break down a wall with a sponge. Then, the backlash hit him.
Jasper's mind was filled with a vision: a young, scared boy carving a symbol in his own blood, calling forth a demon to do his bidding, forcing the demon to obey him, and invoking the demon's wrath. However, the wrath simply washed over the young boy.
The young boy was a man, calling upon something greater. A being of hatred. A being made of pure chaos. Jasper saw a contract being sealed and a loophole being exploited. The god could feel the power echo from the young man as his eyes started burning, and he took dominion over the throne that belonged to demons.
Jasper was knocked back from the vision and thrown clear across the alley as he activated the antimagic field that he had prepared.
The man before him had a Domain that included mental manipulation. One that included trickery, for he had stolen his powers from the demons themselves.
With his main weapon gone, Jasper was left to react on instinct. A fireball sprang from Jasper's fingers as a subconscious action, unleashing the power of a small sun at the vile monster, pulling Jasmine into the shadows. The anti-magical field didn't touch the divine magic the man was using, but it did quench the fireball.
And with small and crimson burning eyes, the figure vanished into the shadows, taking Jasmine with him and disappearing.
Fear and fury poured through Jasper as he turned his attention to the only two people left.
He moved fast, instantly dismissing the green veil in front of him as if it had been nothing but cobwebs he brushed out of the way and not a barrier that would quite literally kill any living being passing through it.
Jasper had put someone innocent in the crossfire because he had let himself be tricked. He had been so confident in his powers that he had let himself get lulled into a false sense of security. He grabbed Longknife's throat, lifting him off the ground with little effort.
The god of magic was so furious that he didn't even see how wrecked the alley was. Multiple knives seemed to be scattered around, many of them coated in poison. Erik had clearly taken multiple cuts, and he was even missing a finger. Jasper ignored it. A young girl had been taken. A young girl that he was responsible for.
"Talk" was the only word from Jasper's lips.
"I don't know anything, I swear." The two-faced thief said, but Jasper was done asking questions.
"Wrong," He said, feeling the power pour through him.
Jasper was the god of knowledge, and he would pry every speck of knowledge from this lowlife.
Erik had been furious at the god. He had been ready to start casting spells at the man the moment he saw Jasmine disappear. However, seeing the raw emotion on the god's face, Erik the Scribe knew that the god was sharing his feelings.
Even so, the way he dealt with Longknife... It was cruel. It had taken less than a second for the man to become a husk, though Armandos didn't stop pulling knowledge from him, siphoning it away. It hadn't been Longknife that had stolen away Jasmine, though Erik was still angry with the thief, he couldn't be blamed for not betraying a man sitting beside him.
As the vengeful god walked out of the alley, Erik didn't say anything, he just followed along, knowing that they would not stop before they had gotten Jasmine back.
Behind them was Longknife, technically still alive but unable to ever know anything ever again.