As Soren raced after Penndarius, he caught sight of the young scholar's pursuers turning toward Ed's tower. He watched from afar as they stabbed Ed with their wicked, curved silver swords and then pushed a blade through an apparently guiltless woman's chest.

"Damn!" he cursed under his breath. "More innocent souls."

Penndarius was still alive, though, and Soren intended to keep it that way. He saw a green light pass between the scholar and the woman as she was stabbed through the heart. The meaning of this encounter was not lost on Soren, but it could not hold his attention for long.

The first assassin noticed Soren approaching as he was pulling his sword out of Ed's body. He instantly recognized him and roared, "Traitor!" Then he whirled and tossed two daggers with precision.

With lightning-fast reflexes, Soren quickly raised his arms, blocking both knives. The wickedly sharp edges of the weapons glanced off the bracers on his forearms and left sparks in their wake.

Soren barreled into the assassin and grasped his entire face, palming his head like a melon, and then drove the black-cloaked man's skull into the doorway with a dull, wet, crunching sound, which knocked him senseless. With a brutal twist, Soren rolled the man onto his shoulder and continued his assault. Despite his opponent’s limp, dead weight, Soren threw him back into the atrium of the tower. The man collided with several stacks of books and tumbled to a stop, kicking up a cloud of dust in his wake.

The other assassin figured that Soren was preoccupied and ran at the crimson-clad warrior with great ferocity. He chopped downward with his sword and would have clipped off Soren's head had the warrior not tucked into an agile roll. The sword impacted the door frame and stuck there. Soren quickly got back to his feet, using the momentum of the roll, combined with a heavy stack of books, to push off and reverse his direction.

The assassin tugged at the sword, but time was not on his side. Soren got to him quicker than he could get the weapon out and smashed him in the chest with an open-palm attack that caused the assassin to overbalance and rock backwards. Soren grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back violently to chop down on his neck with a wicked knife-hand strike, followed closely by another. Soren let go, and the assassin rocked on his feet for a moment.

Soren then slammed cupped hands over the assassin's ears, shattering his eardrums with the strike. The assassin hovered in the air for a brief moment as his sense of balance waned. Soren then finished off the assassin by throwing his body upward and head-butting him brutally in the face. The assassin crashed to the ground and lay still.

Soren walked to the dead woman and pulled her off Penndarius without hesitation. He reached down and slapped the scholar across the face to wake him up and followed that with another and then another slap until he saw movement.

Penndarius's eyes flickered open, and he looked around in confusion.

"What? Where am I?" he asked as his bewilderment cleared and he blinked the fog from his eyes and looked up. "Soren?" he asked. "What are you doing here"—he winced in pain as he touched his cheek—"and why does my face hurt?"

"It hurts because I slapped you," Soren said bluntly and proffered his hand.

The scholar took it, and Soren helped him to a standing position.

As Penndarius rose, Soren grabbed him by the collar and drew him close. "What did you do to draw the attention of the Mortalitas Assassins?" he asked pointedly.

The scholar slapped away the offending arm, and Soren let go. "There is a dull throbbing in my head that pounds away like drums," he said and winced again. "What a dream! Ed and Gale died in my dream. They were killed by black-robed men, and then there was a feathered woman...," he said with a groan.

Soren shook his head and turned away in grief.

The scholar stopped and looked around. His eyes locked on the bleeding bodies of Gale and Ed and finally on the assassins, unconscious on the ground.

Soren let Penndarius breathe for a moment and then turned back to him. "Why are you marked for death?" he persisted.

"I do not know," Penndarius replied in a shaky voice as the horror around him set in.

"I believe you," Soren said and let his eyes linger on the scholar for a moment before he grabbed Penndarius by the shirt sleeve. "They will be coming. We have to go, now," he said.

Penndarius tried to go to the bodies of Gale and Ed, but Soren hauled him out of the room. The bloodstained floor around them filled Penndarius' vision, and horror gripped him.

"Why are they dead and I am alive?" he asked aloud to no one in particular.

Soren pulled Penndarius along. "If you tarry, I will carry you," he threatened, and that seemed to snap Penndarius out of his fog.

The scholar shook his head, and his eyes caught Soren's. "Why are you here? What does this have to do with you?" he said as he scrutinized Soren. Clarity started to return, and his analytical mind began working again. "You know these assassins."

"Yes, I do," Soren replied as he pulled the scholar along Fenrin Lane, but he refrained from further elaboration.

When they reached the main road, Soren turned to take Penndarius back to the No Names Inn, where both had been staying. The street had gotten busier since they had traveled it to Ed’s. The suns were still rising in the sky, and it appeared as if they were near mid morning. There was a definite ebb and flow to the traffic now. Pedestrians lined the streets and jostled the two as they walked along.

The two of them traveled for a time in silence as Penndarius tried to sort out his thoughts.

Then they came to an intersection, and Soren stopped.

"What is it?" Penndarius asked as he noticed Soren scanning the crowd intently.

Soren let go of the scholar's shirt and cracked his knuckles. "Company," he replied.

The crowd seemed to thin noticeably, and coming through the mass of pedestrians a stark-looking troop of black-clothed assassins appeared before them, leading a kirin by a leash.

"Stay back," Soren said simply as he locked eyes with them and then gently pushed the scholar away to make room.

Maybe it was the kirin, but the pedestrians seemed to realize that something was afoot. A hushed whisper fell across the crowd, and slowly a clearing appeared around Soren and the five assassins.

"What are you going to do?" Penn asked Soren as he looked back and forth between the opposing parties.

"Stop them," Soren replied, then started stretching his back, twisting his neck, and touching his toes to limber himself.

Penndarius clutched his head in pain and nearly collapsed backwards. His head felt like it was splitting in two, as if it were accommodating something new. White flashes filled his vision. The scholar pushed the pain to the back of his mind and watched as Soren stepped into the open area inside the circle of observers.

Penndarius looked the assassins over. "They look tough," he said to Soren apprehensively.

"The tough still bleed," Soren responded coldly, and then he motioned to the assassins and egged them on. "Well? Do not keep me waiting," he said with a faint smile.

The kirin pawed its sharp, reptilian claws against the ground and eyed him with hunger.

Then the five assassins reached into their cloaks.

"Draw your weapon!" one called to Soren.

The assassins pulled out their weapons of choice. Three of them wielded the familiar curved silver swords, their leader drew a crossbow and aimed it carefully at Soren, and the final assassin pulled a spear from behind him and thrust it toward the crimson warrior.

As the assassins drew on Soren, the crowd burst into a commotion, milling about and exchanging startled whispers. Soren shrugged coolly and he locked eyes with the assassin leader.

The assassins started walking toward the two companions in unison, and the leader motioned toward Penndarius. "Get the boy." the assassin ordered. "He is the priority."

The lead assassin launched an arrow at Penndarius to start the conflict, and Soren lept in front of the scholar, intercepting the projectile with his bracer. The attack ricocheted off the curve of the armor with a pinging sound of metal on metal.

Soren sprang forward like an unbound coil. His reaction surprised the assassins, and they reacted quickly to try to counter his movement, but Soren was faster. His legs flew across the smooth, white stone road with speed that belied his previous relaxed demeanor. 

- End of Episode -

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New Episodes of A Scholar's Journey: The Divine Tempest are released every Thursday at 7 AM PST.