Chapter 598: Fabulous Five

A week had passed since Renard had given Benjamin a week to find "the rat."

The deadline stayed in the air like a weight, pressing down on every minute and every breath that passed between them.

If the week ended without results, Renard had made it plain that Benjamin would be dragged out of the city without further discussion, negotiation, or any opportunity to explain is ay out of it.

The sun stood high and white over Thaad, turning the cobblestones underfoot into a bright, uneven glare that seemed to shimmer with heat.

Four figures walked down the long slope of the street toward the denser market area below: a green-haired elf boy whose slight frame moved with precise grace, a scarred and toned Amazon whose stride had the easy balance of long combat experience, a pale and young maiden whose hands stayed clasped tightly behind her back, and a very attractive blue-eyed woman—

[Wha—! Narrator, what gives?!]

Forgive my manners. The fourth person was Benjamin Mark, a MAN.

They descended the slope together. The market noise rose to meet them—vendors calling prices, the rattle of cart wheels, the overlapping voices of people.

Benjamin’s eyes moved steadily across the passing groups, cataloguing faces without appearing to stare, noting each person who passed and filing them away in the quiet archives of his mind.

"Benjamin, a week has passed and we are yet to catch this rat," Heka said.

She walked close at his side, her voice low and concerned, the words meant only for the small circle of those who walked with her.

The line of her brow was drawn tight, and her hands were clasped behind her back, fingers tightening and loosening in a restless rhythm that betrayed the calm her voice tried to project.

"Yes, I noticed." Benjamin’s answer carried a residual edge, still miffed by the narrator’s earlier slip.

He kept his gaze on the street, the faces that passed, and the shadows that shifted between the stalls.

"But it is high noon and Renard is nowhere to be found. Let us take that to mean my grace has been extended, at least for the moment."

Heka’s mouth pulled into a small pout:

"Goodness. This kind of laxness is what makes us slow and inefficient," she muttered, the words half to herself, half to him. "If we treat every extra hour as permission to drift, the week will close around us before we have anything solid to present."

"Calm down." Benjamin’s tone stayed even and unhurried.

He sounded like he had learned that panic rarely made the path clearer.

His eyes continued their quiet scan of the people moving past—merchants, runners, a pair of off-duty guards laughing at some private joke.

"We will find them eventually. If Thaad is their goal, I will find them. For now, let us enjoy ourselv—I mean... take it easy a little. Constant pressure only makes the trail harder to see."

The back-and-forth continued as they walked.

Heka pressed the need for tighter schedules and clearer division of the remaining districts, her voice rising and falling.

Benjamin answered each point with the same measured patience, never raising his voice, or fully dismissing her urgency, yet refusing to let the afternoon turn into another forced march, or endless pursuit of a shadow that seemed always to slip just beyond reach.

The pale girl kept her own counsel, her dark eyes moving across rooftops and alley mouths with professional habit, reading the city the way others read books.

The green-haired elf boy listened without interrupting, his quiet presence a steady anchor between the two opposing currents.

Then he suddenly remembered something:

"Oh! Katana, you and Benjamin should go on to the weapon shop." His voice was as gender-neutral as always as he addressed the pale girl. "Heka, will you come with me to see to the provisions needed for dinner?"

"Eh?! Uhm..." Heka stopped short.

One finger rose to scratch lightly at her cheek, the gesture of a person buying time to think.

The nervousness in her expression was plain—shoulders drawing in, gaze flicking once toward Benjamin and then away again, as though looking at him directly might reveal something she was not ready to show.

"I am not like my sisters," she said, the words slow and careful. "I do not know much about cooking..."

"It is fine then." Eric’s tone brightened, the warmth in his voice rising to meet the moment.

He reached out with both of his smaller hands and took hold of her arm, already turning her away from the group, steering her toward the market’s heart.

"I will teach you how it is done when we get there. It is nothing complicated. We surely will manage."

A telepathic message followed at once, quick and tightly focused so that only Heka would catch it, a thread of thought sent directly from mind to mind.

[Heka, please. I need to surprise Benjamin with a meal she loves, today. You have been with her the longest, so you should have SOME idea.]

Heka’s steps faltered for half a second, the rhythm of her walking breaking and then resuming.

[Huh? I did not know you could use telepathy. And why are you still referring to Benjamin as a "she?"]

The complaint was clear, edged with genuine confusion. Even so, she did not pull free.

The prospect of later having to admit to Eric that she still knew almost nothing of Benjamin’s actual preferences—despite the time already spent in his company—felt heavier than simply following now.

She let herself be drawn along, the two of them disappearing into the thicker flow of the market crowd while Benjamin and Katana remained on the sloping street.

***

"I guess it’s just us, huh?"

Benjamin watched their figures fade between the moving bodies and the hanging signs until even the green of Eric’s hair was no longer visible, swallowed by the distance and the press of strangers.

He turned forward again and began walking, his steps unhurried against the hot stone.