Bowstring

7 - The Banker Does Not Bugger Off

Six? That's a lot. Not to mention those that are also located in the other active towns.

"But the real difficulty is getting the list because patients have the right to privacy. So unless your reason for asking is more important than secrecy, you won't be granted to look into their records."

"Right..."

"Why are you interested?"

"Assignment."

"Hehhh... doing a detective work, it seems."

"What detective work? What made you think I'm into investigating?"

"Oh, is it not?" Laska seemed a bit confused. "The fact that sorcerers get sick and the mundane is unharmed meant that you are finding out why."

Now that she thought about it, Seth must have been investigating the sorcerer-eating blight. She had not considered it because she was merely following orders with complaints about getting involved. Going back to the night she was asked to heal, the blight was consuming the sorcerers' moisture and not their powers, so it was a puzzle why the ordinary people remained unaffected.

"Duck."

"What?"

Laska pushed her down she almost tripped. She was not able to complain when she noticed a squash thrown at them at high speed. They evaded, so the squash landed on a nearby stall, toppling it down.

"What the—"

"Hahhh!"

A man was running in their direction, and she saw the glimmer of a blade targeted at either of them.

She instinctively avoided the knife about to hit her arm. The man passed her, and she was quick to chop his nape with her hardened palm. He tumbled face down and no longer moved, which seemed to have lost consciousness.

She would relax, but another man came who succeeded in hitting her back with a hard log. She screeched in pain but refused to collapse. Her spectacles fell on her behalf instead. She did not bother the glasses because she expected another collision, and she was right to turn herself to see that the man raised the wood to hit her again. Her reflex made her strike his abdomen with a fist that he lost balance and keeled on his back to the ground. Despite the lingering ache in her back, she hurriedly stepped on the man's neck, intending to choke him.

The man raised the wood for another strike, but she was also quick to set it ablaze that he let it go before it turns to ember and burn his hand. She pushed her feet on his neck harder. If her heel had been sharp, it would have plunged his artery. He struggled in convulsion and roughly gripped her ankle as he drowned in a hyphenated and voiceless scream.

"You'll kill him."

She clucked her tongue and loosened her step, but it was too late because he slowly fainted from the lack of air. She backed away when she was sure that the scuffle was gone.

Laska approached, and she almost forgot he was there because of the commotion. He squatted to touch the man's neck feeling his pulse, and he gazed back at her to say that he is still alive.

"Are you alright?"

She remembered the pain in her back and gritted her teeth in disbelief. "You only care now? Where were you?"

"I was always here."

"Well, thanks for the help," she mocked his uselessness. "How will you pay me now?"

"Huh?"

"Quit your disgusting mug," she berated. "Don't involve me with your shady deals, you bastard."