Chapter 8: Midnight hunt
Kaedros sniffed again, carefully sorting through the chaotic blend of scents. Vann’s trail was faint, twisted, mixed with others.
"Where exactly are you going, Vann?"
He had to double back several times—Vann’s path zigzagged erratically, overlapping with countless others—but Kaedros held the thread. He pressed forward, passing through street after street until he found himself in the filthier part of town.
The buildings here were smaller, older, crumbling. This was clearly the lower district of Solmere populated mostly by the poor ordinary humans.
"What’s a high-ranking member of the Celestial Order doing in a place like this?" Kaedros muttered.
Loud voices echoed through the narrow streets. People staggered between buildings, cups in hand, laughing and shouting for more cheap drink. Kaedros slowed, watching from the shadows as though he were some distant god observing insects.
"Let me extend my sense."
With a breath, Kaedros activated a sensory technique, a technique cast purely from mental force. No mana was involved, only intense mental focus. The range of his awareness stretched, overlaying the entire street.
It was a power that was Initiate to him as a Dragon.
Every sound. Every breath. Every heartbeat. He felt it.
Two drunken men traded lazy punches before one collapsed, snoring where he fell.
"Fools," Kaedros muttered.