Chapter 1-8: These Feet Are Not Made for Walking (1/2)

The sum of my belongings was in my purse... what looted gold-equivs I had, and what had been in there first.

I pulled out things like tissues, tampons, pens, pencils, scissors, a wallet, and a cosmetics bag with lipstick, perfume, eye shadow, and the like.

Ael had been a married man with three daughters, and was able to shapechange. Learning about all this stuff had been an entertaining diversion at some point, but I recalled nothing about the circumstances. Maybe it was just harmonizing with residual memories as I looked at this stuff and knew how to use it all.

The cosmetic case for the blush had a compact mirror, so I got to look at myself, as the one in the bathroom here had been smashed to shards by several somethings, and I hadn’t felt like Mending it.

My eyes were completely roiling black, almost looking empty, and forcibly brought to mind the cloudy darkness up top. I could only assume they were sign of a Shroudblood, or something.

Pale skin, very fair complexion, almost silken. All the cheekbones and exotic tilt to them... by human standards, this girl was an exotic beauty. Very kissable lips, pointed chin...

Moonlit Hair.

I eyed the way white moonlight seemed to ripple off the midnight black hair, and the ends of the locks ended in silvery whiteness.

It was one of the Signs of Sylune, who loved to show Her favor via the hair. The other Twilight pattern was white with black bands, sort of albino-tigerish. Alissa Twice-Blessed had that kind of hair, and it looked pretty sweet when arranged properly.

Mine was black with living white highlights as the light hit it... and the light always seemed to be hitting it.

Highmoon, Darkmoon... another Bloodline sign? How did Phoenix fit in?

A mystery for another time...

I flipped open the wallets of the dead men I’d harvested. One had a New Jersey driver’s license, the other Pennsylvania. Tellingly, the licenses didn’t note their Sinbound eye color, so it was fairly recent.

They had a couple credit cards each, and a fair amount of money that didn’t look that familiar, with a distinct silver tint to it, not greenbacks. Some form of alchemical treatment? Making valid paper currency would be a lot harder in a magical world...

The coins, on the other hand, were holed, and had actual silver and gold in them.

Definitely a magical world at work. Mana tended to condense and congeal as precious metals, so there would be an explosion of such, and decent tech was much better at mining than the medieval-level techniques used in most magical worlds.

Common currency. Wow, how long had it been since money was a problem? Kind of novel, really...

I looked at the girl’s photo.

Her eyes were silver, and her hair was black, without the Moonlit effect. 5’7, 120 lbs, Halvyri, and an address down in Maryland.

Elrii.

That’s it. No last name, which set off alarm bells. This was America... single names were very unusual. You were either very weird or very famous if you went by one name.

I rather doubted she was famous.

She had cash there, too, and more than the men had, if the denominations I Comp’ed on them were correct. A quick Assay assured me she had 18+ QL cosmetics, and the shoes I’d kept and the purse itself were QL 20 Masterwork.

Expensive tastes, and the money to afford them... but with no last name...

The question if I was going to take the girl’s place was open, but not something I was really intending on doing.

On the other hand, going back and raiding her closet was totally a thing.

Her keys were still in the purse, too. I didn’t know what they connected to, but I just might be able to find out.

I just had to get out of here.

I walked down the service drive the van had been heading down, turned south, the way the map indicated, and started on my way.

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I was thankfully light on my feet, and despite feeling like crap, I just focused and kept at it.

I didn’t know how far away those walls were, but I was assuming twenty miles, long and low on the horizon past the buildings.

Not needing to carry food and water was very helpful. It was just the fact I was not in good shape and really sore Down There from the ability damage, and this girl was definitely not a trained runner, by the way my feet were soon aching.