Hindsight is a wonderfully annoying thing. Or at least Urd felt that way. How was she supposed to approach the person who she didn’t know at all yet who was supposed to be her father? Should she simply approach the palace and say ‘I think you’re my father?’ 

Not only did that feel wrong, but who would believe such a statement? Let alone how would she get anywhere near him? With the war going on, there was no way strangers would be permitted to approach the king. ‘Huh,’ she thought to herself. If he was her uncle and her father was the ruler of Cawanor. . . Would that make her a princess or a merely a very high noble? How strange would that be?

Even if it were acknowledged, how would that affect her life? Did she even want that? She really wasn’t sure. Too many unknowns. If this war turned bad, would that paint a target on her back? Or rather, [i]another[/i] target on her back? Did she really need that?

She’d been in Nyhem several days already, but had decidedly not mustered up the will to go to the royal palace. Even venturing close had made her uncomfortable. With nothing else to do, she frequently went out walking. With the frequent crowds out in daytime, she greatly preferred doing so at night. If anything, the darkness made the city seem larger.

To avoid attracting undue attention, she kept her shades from manifesting. Even if she had heard rumors about mages being treated better than they had been under the previous king, blatant displays were not wise. Laws did not help much against an uneducated mob. So far as she knew, nobody could be unkilled, no matter how illegal their murder had been.

Her path slowly wandered through the city. She had no particular goal in mind. If anything, her goal might have been to see the city. She did not expect anything untoward to happen. Why should she? Few people were about, even fewer did anything other than mind their own business. Just the way Urd liked it, really.

But the peaceful night was not to last. From a narrow alley some distance ahead, she spotted the gleam of bared steel reflecting the light from a nearby torch. Another person, a woman by the looks of it if her narrow shoulders was anything to go by, was not far from just that alley. Urd did not have time to shout a warning before the two thugs whose hands held the gleaming steel burst forth, plunging a pair of long knives into the back of the tall, cloaked figure without speaking a single word. 

The assassins—for the knife-wielders could be nothing else—drew back their knives just afterwards and turned towards Urd, beginning to run. As their victim fell, the hood slid back, revealing a pale face crowned by long, raven-black hair. In the dim light, it was hard to tell who the person could be, but something seemed vaguely familiar, as if Urd had seen the person before somewhere.

She had no way of knowing why these assassins had struck, nor if they intended to eliminate any witnesses. With them running straight towards her, their blood-soaked daggers in hand, Urd reacted instinctively, calling up her magic. Moments later, well before the two assassins got anywhere close to her, her wolflike shade appeared right before her, its jaws open and snarling.

Urd edged back, even as the assassins seemed unnerved by the appearance of a shade. One of them spoke softly, “you’re not supposed to be here. Not supposed to see this.”

They did not attack, but seemed in fact eager to get away. She paid no heed to the woman. Even if the assassins had not been there, she wouldn’t have known anything about treating such wounds. But they were there, so she had to deal with them. The other assassin spoke next, his voice even deeper than that of the first one. “Go. I’ll handle this. There can be no witnesses. Report the success.”

The first assassin nodded “As you wish.” then sidled around her wolf before running off, quickly disappearing into one of the countless alleys. The second one looked straight at her. “Now you will die, mage.”

“I think not.” Urd replied, giving a silent command to her shade. It jumped forward, grabbing the assassin’s arm in its jaws. He stabbed at it, but that seemed to only be moderately effective. The Shade grew immaterial where he stabbed, but took no apparent harm otherwise.

“Don’t bring a knife to fight a summoner.” As she said this, she raised her hand, summoning forth a small sphere of pure fire. While it would be better to bring the assassin in alive, to hand him to the authorities, there was no telling what he was capable of. She had no means of restraining someone like that. Thus, she tossed the small fireball straight at the assassin, guiding it around her shade. The moment his clothes lit on fire, her shade let go of him. The fire spread rapidly, making Urd feel more than a little uncomfortable inside. Why, why, why had she used fire and not ice? Seeing people burn was not fun. And once released, the fire itself was no longer magical. It could not be snuffed out.

The sight made her so sick that she couldn’t stand it. Using most of her reserves, she summoned a vast gust of raw ice magic, encasing the burning assassin in a block of ice. Rather too much really. She really should know better. Just because the assassin had been told to report to whomever had hired them, did not mean that he actually would do that. And how exactly was she supposed to get this block of ice to any reliable place?

She looked about. As could be expected, no carts simply stood around. She couldn’t leave the assassin here, and ideally she couldn’t leave their victim either, but with her energy so spent, there was no way she’d be able to move them both. Besides, wasn’t there something about not moving wounded people before they were treated?

Looking towards the woman, she saw no immediate movement. She was probably dead, and she did not know how to verify. Besides, even if she wasn’t dead, she probably wouldn’t live long. Especially not if she moved her. Better to use her last reserves to move the assassin ice block and report the incident to the city watch.

With that decision made, she set to work. Alteration seemed to be the logical choice for moving the block. Moving something that large would’ve been impossible for her without magic. But with magic, she easily made it so that, at least temporarily, the block had no weight at all. Then she grabbed a tassel of cloak poking out of the ice, lifted the block up and dragged it along, her shade watchfully moving at her side.

By this time, darkness had completely fallen. The streets hardly had anyone at all around, and whenever she did spot any, they all ran inside at seeing her pulling along a huge block of ice hovering in the air as if it weighed nothing. Granted, the presence of a lupine shade probably didn’t help.

In fact, she didn’t encounter any guards until she got within a few streets of the palace where a company of the city watch had their barracks. She knocked on the door, waiting for response.

After a minute or two, a small shutter slid open. “Whaddaya want?” a grumpy voice, attached to a squinty-looking face, said.

Urd smiled as kindly as she could. “I caught this person trying to kill someone in the streets over in the western riverfront district. His companion ran off, so I couldn’t stop him. Oh, and their victim still lies in the street there. I don’t know if she’s alive, and I have no means of treating her.”
Just as she said this, her reserves ran out and the till-then hovering block of ice fell straight down, landing with a loud thump, several icy shards leaping about on the cobbled street. Urd could feel the weakness within her body. She felt cold and hot all at the same time.

“Oh, and could you get me to the plucked hen? That’s the Inn I’m staying at. I will repay you for the service.” As she said this, she collapsed into unconsciousness, far more spent than she thought she was. If he responded, she did not hear it.