[[Are we supposed to reply in order/take turns? Or can we just reply whenever?]]

Shabti was being followed. He could see the dark figure out of the corner of his eye as it darted on the ground, attempting not to be noticed. It wasn't a human; no, it was more like a shadow, and not one that the teen was familiar with. The dark figures had their own style to them, a type of individuality that a person could identify if he was observant. Shadows were everywhere in the world, watching humans and waiting for the right time to make themselves known.

He was unsurprised that the shadow was attempting to get his attention; but what was strange was how... frantic it seemed. Shadows usually came to him in the middle of the night when he was alone, not in broad daylight in the middle of the street. Shabti moved off of the road he had been walking on and into an alley way he was unfamiliar with. The teen glanced at the walls of buildings on either side of him, waiting for the shadow to appear.

While Shabti wasn't paying attention, a woman about the same age as he who was counting coins in her hand, smacked straight into him. He stumbled back, caught off guard, as coins of various sizes plummeted to the ground around him and rolled away. He and the girl immediately ducked down to capture the metal circles before anyone else got to them. "Sorry, I didn't see you." Shabti mumbled.

"It's fine." The girl said, taking the coins from Shabti. "I wasn't looking, either." They both stood up from their crouched positions. The girl shoved the coins into her pocket. "Anyway, I have to go now." She said, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. "I think someone is trying to talk to you." The girl pointed to one of the walls. Shabti turned for a second to see what she was pointing at. It was a shadow, the same one he had seen earlier, watching the two. The teen turned back to ask for the girl's name, but she was gone.

Shabti moved over to the wall and nodded at the shadow. The dark figure nodded back the best it could. "Are you Shabti?" The shadow asked faintly.

"That would be me." The teen said, not the least bit worried that the figured knew his name. It might have learned it from one of it's shadow buddies or something.

The shadow said nothing for a few moments, probably eying Shabti, before replying. "Two siblings are searching for you. Your name is on a piece of paper that their master has given to them. I do not know any more, but I suggest you go and try to talk to them. The older one, a male, has bright blonde hair that is difficult to miss. The younger, a female, has knotted hair. One of them carries a basket." The shadow announced before darting away.

Shabti watched the shadow leave. Well. That was a bit strange. Someone was looking for him? That wasn't something that happened often. He wondered if he should go and fine the two the shadow had mentioned. Shabti figured that he probably should. Though very weird creatures, shadows tended to give good advice on most occasions.

~~

Kah couldn't believe that she walked into the shadow boy, as she liked to call him. She hadn't seen the weirdo at all. So much for good luck. At least the guy has been descent enough to help her pick up the fallen coins. Hopefully she wouldn't run into him again in a while.

Kah glanced back the way she came. She couldn't see the shadow boy, which meant that he wasn't following her. That was good. He was most likely talking to the shadow thing that she had seen. Kah couldn't believe that anyone would ever communicate with shadows. The girl snorted and headed home.

[[blarg.]]

((I didn't think of one cause I didn't think I'd be consentrating on him for this long ^^;; Errrmmmm..... One sec... Lets go with Bharanyu: master and friend in Sanskrit.))

Shabti was in the center of the market place again. The vendors were still calling to loitering customers, attempting to make a sale. Thieves hovered near booths or beside distracted consumers. It was much like Shabti had left it. The only difference was the people had changed. And that there was more of them. The customers seemed to be swarming around something to the teen's left. He wouldn't have been interested in whatever it was if it wasn't for the fact that the crowd seemed to be shouting and ridiculing whoever it was surrounding.

The teen didn't hesitate to shove past a few people to see what was going on. Those he jostled glared at him and grumbled, but they didn't stop him. Shabti pushed until he was at the front of the circle of people. They were surrounding an single person, and old man hanging onto a cane for dear life. The teen recognized the man. He was Roe, and he dealt with magik. Roe was a top-notched alchemist, and he owned a little shop that sold potions and ingredients. In the magical part of society, Roe was well known and revered. If Shabti remembered correctly, the man had once been hired to poison a high ranking magician.

The man in front of Shabti was older than Roe. He was pale and thin, and it was surprising that he could still walk. His voice, though, was the same. "Listen to me, you all are in danger! This sickness is is coming, it's getting worse and worse as it progresses! Soon, everyone will be sick." The man cried out. He sounded delirious, insane. It was as if he couldn't contain what he had to say, that it just push out of him against his will.

Shavti realized that the man was sick. He had caught whatever was going around that the shadow had been talking about. "There is no cure for it! You must leave the city if you want to live!" The man continued to babble. The crowd jeered him on, quietly chuckling to themselves, not taking a single word to heart. Their ears were closed to old, raving men.

Someone, a teen like Shabti, picked up a rock from the ground and threw it. It hit Roe in the back. The man, startled, jumped and turned around, bewildered, his eyes wide in fear. The others laughed. Some people followed the teen's example and threw things at the man. Roe cowered and shook, opening and closing his mouth, trying to make words come. "No!" He said. "No! You aren't listening!"

The crowd didn't want to listen. Shabti decided it was time to go. He turned around and told himself that there was nothing he could do to help Roe. If he tried to stop the people throwing rocks or get the old man out of danger, then there was a good chance the people would turn on him. Though he may be a magician, Shabti couldn't protect himself; he had no control over the shadows and he couldn't tell them to attack the people. If he went against them, one versus over twenty, he would get seriously hurt. Roe was one his own. The man was sick; he was going to die anyway by the looks of things.

He pushed his way back out of the mob. Others were happy to take his place. Shabti felt sick. He no longer cared about the siblings looking for him, he just wanted to go home now. The shouting behind him was getting more violent. People raced past him to see what was going on and to participate. Roe was screaming for help. Shabti ran away, out of the market pace and down the road towards his master's house. The teen didn't stop running until he was gasping desperately for air. From there, he walked slowly, heading home.

~~

Kah opened the rotting door to the shabby house and entered, sighing. Home sweet home, she thought mockingly. The room smelled of death. At least, that was what she thought it smelt like. Kah had never smelled a dead person before, and she never planned to. Sure, it would probably happen one day, people died all the time on the streets. "I'm home." She said without raising her voice. Her master had wonderful senses, so he could easily hear her even if he was in a back room.

"I'm in the study." Kah's master, Vlare, called back. Kah didn't reply. Instead, she headed through a hallway and opened a door to the left. Her master had been sitting at a desk with a windowless room with a small candle lit in a corner. The paper with black smudges on it suggested that Vlare had been in the middle of either writing or reading something.

"I'm back." Kah announced. She moved over to the one lit candle and lit a few others with it. The room quickly brightened. Even though her master could see better in the dark than most people could didn't mean that he should. Kah had a hunch that the more that her master used his powers, the worse his scenes would get. For example, reading in the dark would strain his eyes, making his eyes hurt and his vision would slowly go bad. Not that she had any proof about that.

"I've noticed." Vlare said blandly. He didn't sound too happy. He didn't turn his attention away from paper once. "You smell like dirt." He observed.

Kah bit a snarky retort back. It was best to stay polite with the man training her. "I was out." She said, not elaborating on what she was doing.

"I figured." Her master replied immediately, almost as if he already knew what she was going to say before she opened her mouth. "Were you gambling, or actually doing what I told you to do for once?" Vlare's voice was low, but it had a bite to it that Kah didn't like.

"I was working. The price of eggs and milk has gone down since last week. The price of bread and pastries has risen, though. I didn't buy anything because you didn't tell me too. I passed through a back alley to see what was going on, but I didn't play anything." Kah lied. She wasn't allowed to play games with the smelly men in the alleys. Vlare had once told her that it was a waste to use he ability to trick people out of their money. Kah didn't see what was wrong with it; the ability was hers, so she should be allowed to do what she wanted with it.

Her master waved a hand, a sign that she was dismissed. He must have believed her. Either that, or he just didn't care enough to argue with her. Kah dipped her head polietly before leaving the room. She closed the door behind her and entered her own room. Her room wasn't that interesting; it just had a bed, a bookshelf, and a desk. Kah pulled the coins out of her pocket and set them onto the desk. She moved to her bed and pulled out a small lock box from under it. Kah walked back to the desk and sat at the chair in front of it. She opened the box with a small key she kept on a necklace and opened it. The box with filled with coins of various sizes and color. Most of them were silver, but there was also a few copper and gold ones, too. Kah counted the coins she had made off of the man in the alley way before putting most of them into the box. She kept a few silver coins and slid them back into her pocket.

Kah put her box back under her bed and left her room. She walked out of the house.

[[Yeah, I am. Sorry, I forgot to delete the message.]]

[Sorry I havent posted yet, finals are coming up and I have been busy. 

[[bump ^-^]]

[[I'm going to post tomorrow after school... Sorry for lateness!]]

[[You never said Akakios moved, so I said that he didn't. Sorry if I'm wrong. (...and you will understand what I mean later)]]

Magic flowed through the air. It was light, probably from somewhere not close to him, but it flowed beautifully in a way Shabti hadn't felt in quite a while. The air danced, twirling around him. The other people on the street near him didn't react to the swirling wind. They probably didn't have a drop of magic in their blood. Shabti started to pity them, but then he remembered the hatred non-magical people contained within them, and he stopped feeling bad for them. Magicless people despised those who were gifted with abilities to the point where it was looked down upon my most of society to be special.

Shabti kicked at stone nearby and watched it roll away. The flowing magic was getting stronger, to the point where he could make an educated guess as to where it was coming from. He suspected the market place, where he had just ran away from.

He nibbled on his lip. Shabti had little interest in backtracking, but the idea of finding whoever was making such magic was enticing. After a second, he decided that the trip would be worth it. Slowly, he turned in his heels and headed back for the market place.

Shabti walked quickly at first, but then the magic in the magic in the air suddenly ceased. The young man froze, his breath suddenly lost. Had the magician been attacked? Or did the person just stop. Shabti took off again, this time at full speed, dodging slow-moving pedestrians.

It did not take him long to enter the main part of the market place. The cowed was where he had left it, but instead of the people causing a riot, they were on the ground, twitching. The flailing bodies were surrounding two figures, one of them holding something bulky. Shabti was too far away to recognize either of them, but he figured that one of them had caused the magic.

One of them, the one not carrying something, moved away in the direction on an abandoned basket. Shabti slowed his pace to a walk and caught his breath as he moved closer to the one standing still. It was a boy who looked around Shabti's age. He was holding Roe, who was limp. Shabti winced at the sight of the old man. Roe was in a horrid condition.

Shabti stopped outside the ring of sleeping people, unsure if he could continue. What if Roe was dead? It would be his fault, wouldn't it? And if Roe was alive? The man knew that Shabti had ran.

~

Kah leaned against a vendor's booth. The man running it is fast asleep, haven just been knocked out by some girl's crazy flute playing action. If some stranger had randomly come up to her at this very moment and asked her why she had not been affected by the put-to-sleep magic, she would say it was luck. In reality, she had been out of range when it happened, and she had moved closer once the magic stopped. Not that she would ever admit to that.

The young woman was curious as to what had prompted the flute playing in the first place. From the looks of things, it was to stop a mob. She wondered if the magician, a nice looking girl, had been attacked by the people, or if she was just trying to calm them down. And who was that boy who walked with her? Kah suspected sibling or lover, but she could be wrong.

Kah watched as a boy entered the market place and walked towards the magician and lover/sibling. It was the boy who talked to shadows, she noted dully. Kah picked up an apple on the vendor's table. The fruit was costly, but its owner was sleeping on the job, and no one was paying enough attention to her at the moment to be able to snitch on her for stealing. Kah took a bite and continued to watch from the sidelines.