“Is this to do with the person who just ran across my lawn?”

“It certainly is,” Jason said. “I don’t suppose you could point out the direction they went?”

“Gladly,” the man said.

* * *

“What’s that on your face?” Belinda asked. She had cleared a space on a bench in the shed, now covered in magical tools.

“Not sure,” Sophie said. “Some kind of tracking magic, probably.”

Belinda moved close to examine it. It looked like a word from a symbolic language she didn’t know. She picked up a thin metal rod, waving it in front of Sophie's face.

“Not tracking,” she said, swapping the rod for a small plate made up of crystal fragments. She looked at what appeared when she held it in front of Sophie.

“It looks like it forcibly projects your aura,” Belinda said. “Not as bad as a tracker, but I don't have anything here that can deal with it, the way I could with tracking magic. With this, aura masking won’t work and disguises won’t be much better. You’ll stick out like a turd in a punch bowl to anyone with aura sense.”

“Good thing we’re here on the Island, where all the people with aura senses are.”

“The protection I set up in here will hide your aura so long as you’re in this shed, but you can’t stay here. The usual trick of blending into the crowd won’t work with your aura like that.”

“Any good news?” Sophie asked.

“Unlike a tracker, you can only be followed so long as you remain within their aura sense. If you can outrun them and get to our fallback point, we can take our time with whatever that thing is affecting your aura. And no one can run like you.”

Sophie nodded, regret on her face.

“I didn’t get it,” she said.

Belinda put a reassuring hand on Sophie’s shoulder.

“One step at a time. We can work on what comes next after we get ourselves out of this mess. Now, you need to go.”

“You need to be careful too.”

“My aura isn't shining like a beacon in the night, remember? You play distraction and I’ll slip away.”

* * *

“Bloody hell, she’s fast.”

Jason had sensed it the moment the thief’s aura re-emerged, and he immediately gave chase. He caught sight of her sprinting through other people’s properties. They were in the north marina district, which had the Broadstreet Bridge to Old City, marinas on the Island’s eastern shore and was otherwise mostly private residences.

The thief moved incredibly fast on the ground, the walls and hedges barely slowing her down. Her mottled green clothing covered her entirely, with even her head wrapped up like a ninja. If he didn’t have her aura to track, she could probably vanish into one of the gardens she was passing through.