Rapidly Blinks

Adrenaline coursed through Corvo’s veins. He took a half step
backward, then focused ahead, beyond his attacker. There, on the other side
of the square, was a building with big, black windows and heavy stone
ledges.
Corvo closed his eyes, felt a wind that didn’t exist in his world, then
opened his eyes again.
He’d made it… just. He was hanging from the window ledge by his
fingertips, his folding sword awkwardly gripped against the building’s
stone. He pulled up, lifting himself onto the narrow ledge, then turned,
figuring out where he was, what his routes and his options might be.
From the corner of his eye he saw the assassin vanish from the big
balcony in a swirl of black shadows caught in the moonlight. Corvo glanced
down, and blinked to a lower balcony located to his left, on another side of
the square. Then he did it again.
And again…
And again, up to a rooftop, down to a wide copper gutter that creaked
under the sudden materialization of his weight.
Down again, on the street now, behind the wagon, hidden from view of
the cemetery robbers, then back up to the columned balcony from which he
had started.
He dove into the shadows in a forward roll, then spun, flattening himself
against the cold stone by the archway that led inside the empty home. He
crabbed toward it and slipped inside, the darkness there like a black liquid.
His chest heaved with effort. So many blinks in such a short space of time
was draining, and the Mark of the Outsider throbbed on his hand.