Meeting

“‘ey, you!” Grafn said, chasing after the big man that had run off with his coin purse. He was tall, well over six feet, and svelte, faster with his long legs than Grafn. Grafn drew his dagger as he ran and brandished it at the back of the thieving giant. The giant looked back and saluted, smiling. He dashed down an alley and Grafn followed.
The huge man jumped, stretched out his arms, and grabbed onto the side of a building. He pulled himself up over the lip of the roof and turned around. He put one leg on the roof edge, rested his arm on it, and saluted the small man again before turning with Grafn’s large purse of coins.
Grafn clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and ran at the wall the giant had jumped up. His feet stuck to the brick wall only briefly, and Grafn used that instant to push his body continually upward until he jumped over the roof edge and on to the roof itself. He looked about, across the rooftops of Yurmar, looking for the man who had stolen his coin purse. He found him several buildings away, jogging genially, looking down into the streets.
Grafn ran towards him, jumping from building to building, taking a circuitous route to get to the thief when the gaps between buildings became too large for his small legs to cross on their own. The giant must have heard him padding across the rooftops, for he began running, skipping across alleys to the next building with barely a thought. Grafn quickened his pace and followed the man across the rooftop maze of Yurmar, dagger still in his hand, thrashing from side to side wildly while curses exploded from his mouth.
Grafn chased the thief halfway across the city, keeping competent pace with the larger, faster man, when the thief suddenly dropped down into an alley. Grafn followed him right down into it and had him trapped, backed against an alley too high even for the giant to climb out of and without another way out to boot.
Grafn pointed his dagger at the man. “I have you now, sah, and I’d be most obliged if you’d return my coinage to me before I slit your throat.”
“And if I don’t return it to you?” the giant said, his voice booming and deep. He held aloft the coin purse and tossed it a few times in his overly large hand. “What will you do then, small rich one?”
“I’ll slit your throat and take it,” Grafn replied. “Either way, I get my money back and you, sah, get your throat slit. A win-win situation, if you will.”
“Yes, well,” the man said, “I have no qualms with dying, but I’d rather not end my corporeal existence as prematurely as thus. So what if I toss you your coins and you let me go and we forget this entire ordeal? Agreed?”
“Theft is an offense punishable by death Yurmar,” Grafn said. “And I will be the one to administer your punishment. Quick and painless; that’s the only thing I’ll promise you.”
“And how did you come by such a large sum of coins, my good, short man?”
“Well, the difference is that I caught you,” Grafn said.
“And thus admitted your theft.”
“But not to he from whom I stole, sah. Only the one who is stolen from may press the charges of theft to the one who stole from the victim, so as to avoid gangs and whatnot. You understand, right?”
“Well enough,” the giant said. “But I wonder how such a small thief with a puny little dagger expects to defeat a giant of a man like myself in battle to win back his gold and deliver the rightful punishment.”
“Oh, this?” Grafn said. “This dagger’s only for show.”
“Then how do you expect to slit my throat, per se?”
“I, sah,” Grafn said, taking off his hat and bowing, “am a wizard of most remarkable powers and talents. Killing you should hardly prove any challenge at all. A few words, a small sacrifice of blood or life energy, and I weave the magic to slice your throat from ear to ear.”
“A wizard, hmm?” The giant thought this over. “Ooh, you made a frightful mistake, small master. A very grievous error. Lesson number one in confrontation: never reveal your ace.”
“Agreed,” Grafn said. “But I am a wizard. And while I am sure you are a terribly strong man, you are no match for my sorcery. Now, if you will please shut up and hold still while I get this over with, I’d be much obliged.”
The giant shook his head and reached beneath his leather vest. He pulled out a black pendant strung on a gold chain. The pendant reflected no light; it swallowed it into its depths. And it was very deep, and very magnetic to magic, with which it could draw such energies into its depths.
“Hmm,” Grafn said, sheathing his dagger. “That does present a minor problem, sah. One which cannot be avoided. A nulus stone. Very rare and very powerful. How odd that a thief like yourself, of no magical powers or abilities, should come by one. I guess I am at your mercy, sah.”
Grafn went down on one knee, swept off his hat and through his dagger to the giant’s feet. Grafn’s coin purse landed at Grafn’s feet.
“You know your artifacts, little one,” the giant said. “I wouldn’t have expected a typical city-dwelling sorcerer-”
“Wizard.”
“Pardon, wizard - I wouldn’t have expected a typical city-dwelling wizard to recognize such an artifact, or even know of such a thing.”
“Well, I’m not exactly your typical city-dwelling wizard, sah,” Grafn said. “I do not originate form this great city, Yurmar. No, I was born and raised in lands beyond this fair city’s walls, where treasures hide everywhere you do not look, where dragons threaten you from a distance, and where my magic came in less use than it does here.”
“Nothing worse than a professionally trained wizard running out of options for his magic,” the giant said.
“Wasn’t professionally trained, but it did become maddeningly boring, sitting there on my ass, waiting for the next simpleton to come by and plead me to fix his problems with a bit of magic, which invariably ended by me telling him or her that magic does not work like that. It is a weapon, used for fighting and killing - not for curing every single little problem in the world! Nor is it some art project to make thing look pretty. No one understood out there!”
“Does anyone really understand in here?”
“Not many people know that I’m a wizard.”
“But surely there are many here who would have the same misunderstanding of magic as those from whom you fled,” the giant said. “Am I correct?”
“Quite correct, yes.”
“Then let it suffice that you will pardon me. I return, I will not divulge your secret.”
“Hmm. I did let that one slip out didn’t I? Well, I guess I have to kill you.”
“But I am just a young man who has made but one folly in his short time here in Yurmar. Surely you wouldn’t kill such a young person for one mistake?”
“You’re over a foot taller than me,” Grafn said. “There is no way that you are a young man, or even inexperienced. Now, if you would return, say, half of what you so craftily stole from me, I may be more inclined to let you live, provided you never speak of this.”
“You go from murderous to forgiving? Forgive me if you take this as an insult, but you are a curiously odd creature of Yurmar.”
“I’m really not a terrible man deep down,” Grafn said. “The woes and tribulations of this wretched city have only rotted my heart of most forgiveness towards those rich bastards who run this city.”
“Most?”
“Well, all, really,” Grafn said. “But the point is that I am really not a bad man deep down.”
“He says with a dagger pointed at me.”
“I still do not have half my gold, or your name, sah.”
“Ailin,” he said. He tossed the entire bag to Grafn. “This is only a one time thing, Mister…”
“Grafn is my name, honorable lord Ailin,” Grafn said, bowing low to pick up the bag. He kept his eyes on Ailin.
“Perhaps I will see you again.”
“And perhaps you won’t be stealing from me.”
“We’ll see,” Ailin said, and jumped up, finding purchase in the brick walls of the buildings and scrambling up them.