“Hey Siraceal.”

  “Hmm?”

  “You’re digging at your arm again.”

  Glancing at my arm that is riddled with new and old scars I yank my sleeve down to cover them before returning my attention back to hopelessly staring at a pile of books I found.

  ‘Trying to learn this language is impossible without an intermediary. Why did we go along with the plan to use her to get that ring? Now she’s free, now she’s out there restoring herself… now this damnable itching just won’t stop!’

  “Hey Sir-”

  “I know I’m scratching!”

  “Get your panties out of your ass and look over here! She’s back.”

  “Ya Sir! Get your panties- wait- how do you know he’s wearing panties? Is he not wearing pants?”

  Hearing that overly cheery voice my breathing stops. I didn’t even notice she was there.

  That blind manipulator. Aith.

  I can’t feel anything from her and that makes me even more nervous, everybody is at least somewhat dangerous and yet… nothing. She’s the main reason we helped EVE escape, claiming she’ll help us in addition to obtaining that ring.

  She looks human shaped except for a tail like EVEs, and long ears that go up and back behind her head to points, they’re uneven because several inches have been cut off the left one. Her ear doesn’t seem to be the only thing that has been cut off, her right hand is missing the ring and pinkie fingers.

  Her skin is incredibly dark with silver streaks highlighting any curves, and hair that glows white with a faint shimmer of several other colors. What draws the eye the most though is that it looks like she’s constantly bleeding down her face from her eyes that are covered with a thick gray fabric band, if that is her blood, it’s a glowing pink branching and flowing down her face but disappearing when it reaches her chin.

  “Why are you here again?”

  Her ears droop in disappointment.

  “Okay… we’ll just skip over you not wearing pants then.” Lightly patting Rod on the shoulder she continues while ignoring his flinch.

  ‘Dear god, no.’

  “Just checking up on your little groups progress, I know the violent one is out-”

  “She has a name, EVE, we’ve told you that already.”

  Shaking her head her face suddenly fills my vision, traversing the room without a sign of movement.

  “Names are important, and that insult is not her name, okay? I don’t know her name and you don’t know her name either. That Atlas guy called her Pestilence? Go with that for now.”

  Popping up on the couch to my left, yet again without any sign of movement, she continues talking with none of the intensity in her voice that she just showed.

  Looking over at Rod who is still standing over where Aith started, he looks just as confused as I probably do. Shrugging at each other I look back at Aith who is currently twiddling her feet in the air while laying on the couch upside down, her hair spread out on the floor.

  ‘Why is Pestilence okay but not EVE, and how does she know that’s not her name? She probably wouldn’t answer me anyway.’

  “Anyway as I was saying, the violent one is out, I removed your group from the equation for her escape. Why didn’t only Jessica go like you guys said she would?”

  Glancing over at Rod again, he takes the hint. Moving over to a chair he talks with his usual brashness.

  “Because the crazy bitch was acting like a crazy bitch, so everybody but the select few dumbasses in this room took it upon themselves to white knight for Jess.”

  “White knight? What does that mean?”

  Rod gets that smile on his face so I raise a hand to interrupt.

  “Hold on, uhhhh you said you removed our group so she can escape, where are they?”

  Hearing that, her legs freeze in place.

  “Oh no, where did I put them?”

  ‘Lies.’

  Floating down from the ceiling is her companion, a little glowing ball, that is cycling through several colors before landing on blue when it gets to her face.

  “Oh right, I stuck them in that prison that the violent one was in. You guys should go get them out, there’s no food and water if nobody knows they’re in there.”

  Saying that she tosses a set of keys to Rod, who slaps them to the ground instead of catching them.

  “Why don’t you get them out yourself ya glowing asshole?! You’re the one that put them in there!”

  “HAHAHAHA Glowing! That’s great!”

  Laughing loudly, it takes a moment before she settles down enough to begin speaking again, playing with her hair the entire time she continues.

  “You guys still need a Scription item, and the violent one isn’t going to give hers up now is she? Are you going to go get it from her Rod? I’m sure if you ask nicely… no answer? Fine, well, lets just say I see an opportunity where if you were to go to that area and use those keys it might work out in your favor. Might, right? Plus I’m tired and moving that many people again is bleh.”

  She then goes back to childishly swinging her legs around in the air, content to leave us to our own decisions.

  ‘Sees an opportunity… she put them there on purpose, just playing dumb, like with helping EVE she set it up again. Who else did she convince to go over there to just so happen to run into us?’

  Looking at Rod shows a couple veins throbbing on his forehead as he looks repeatedly between Aith and the keys he slapped to the floor. I can see that he really doesn’t want to take the ‘loss’ by being the one to pick them up.

  ‘The shit I have to put up with.’

  Getting up and walking over to the keys they disappear when I bend over to get them.

  “Fer crying out loud!”

  Snapping my head to the usual suspect, she’s not on the couch anymore. I find her directly behind me holding the keys out near Rods face with a vicious smile on hers that says ‘I will bite you if you make the wrong move’.

  Rod already knows that isn’t an empty threat.

  “Hurry, I have a heavy box to go get.”

  ‘Oh hey, the third vein makes an appearance.’

  Looking at her smile shows the last thing that is obviously not human about her: several fangs. Without breaking eye to tooth contact he slowly reaches out and hooks a thick finger around the link and holds that spot until she lets go first.

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  “Now was that so hard?”

  “How long do you think we’ll dance to your beats? Fuck off and leave already.” He sounds like he’s on the very edge of violence again.

  Appearing at the door looking excited she says one last thing before vanishing.

  “Beats huh, when the music stops is always where it gets interesting!”

  “Ya and one of these days I’ll manipulate you off a fuckin’ cliff!” Throwing the keys at the now empty entry.

  Pointing at me and then the entry he continues yelling.

  “When the fuck are we gonna stop being manipulated by her?!”

  ‘When the music stops… we need a plan.’

  “Probably when she loses interest in us. Lets go, I doubt she was lying about there being no food or water for them.”

  Saying that, all the veins on Rods shiny head fade away and he rubs at his eyes with the heels of his hands before standing up with a huff.

  “Sorry for yelling at you, I just would really like to beat some sense into that one, leading us around by the nose like she’s better than us.”

  Cracking a smile I slap him on the back.

  “Don’t worry, I think someone already tried to, didn’t ya notice her hand and ear?”

  ‘Not to mention eyes, and that’s just things we can see with all that leather armor she wears.’

  “Not enough for the mouth on that one, how did they catch her?” He mutters back as he wanders over to the keys.

  “Grab your plates while you’re at it I doubt this is going to be simple.” His scowl shows me exactly what he thinks of that.

  ‘Should leave a note in case Jess comes back early.’

  We haven’t been able to get many supplies on account of not knowing the language, and the ones who brought us here seemingly not caring that we exist beyond keeping us fed, so Rod who can manipulate metal as long as he’s in physical contact with it has been using literal metal dinner plates for armor or weapons whenever we go out.

  I’ve been relegated to planning and generally just walking around as a detector, as my expertise has always been in bomb making. No supplies, no use. We really needed that ring and Aith knows it.

  ‘I wonder if Atlas was one of the ones stuck in there, doubt it, they’d be out by now. Damn heavy hitters. Why did he disappear too?’

  Saving the anxieties for later, Rod and I head out of the central meeting area that had been set up by our group in the set of accommodations the… humans, should we call them humans? I mean they look like us, but are they? I’d call them ‘shorties’ if Rod wasn’t so sensitive about that sort of thing.

  Walking down the worn brick street in the general direction of the prison everybody is supposedly kept in, Rod and I split up with him continuing directly towards the front while I fan out and around to check the area first.

  Except for the bag of plates he blends in much better than I do.

  Checking from every angle I can surrounding the underground prison I don’t find much evidence of anybody being around. There are a few leather packs near the door that I can see, but not much else. For being midday it’s surprisingly dead. I’m still not used to how sparsely populated this place is compared to home.

  ‘They say this is the last refuge of humanity… but how are there so few left...’

  Meeting back up with Rod near the front I share the intel, which isn’t much, and walk up to the entrance that looks like little more than a brick shack isolated from the rest of the wooden buildings around us.

  On the door is a new sign that wasn’t there a few days ago when we first investigated for EVEs escape.

  “Any guesses on what it says?”

  “I dunno. Shits closed? Do you feel anything being this close?”

  “Like I need to cough.” Looking and pointing at the bags on the ground. “We’re not alone I think. It’s too quiet, I don’t like it.”

  “Throat itches huh? Where does that rank us on Aiths ride?”

  “Like they haven’t decided to kill us yet. Alright which key for the lock?”

  “Fuck if I know.”

  Putting his hand to the lock Rod closes one eye and concentrates on the keys in his other hand. Selecting one after a moment he tries it on the lock with a click and opens the door slowly.

  “You can do that with your power?”

  “Meh. Just a really good guess.”

  “You and your theatrics.”

  Showing a huge grin he finishes opening the door revealing a man at the bottom of the stairs standing at a desk that blocks the entrance from the rest of the underground. He looks like he’s concentrating on the mess of paperwork that is spread out over the entirety of the huge desk.

  Beginning to open my mouth to talk he puts up a finger to delay us while he’s reading a page. Putting down the paper and turning to us shows a blonde, clean shaven epitome of what I would think of if someone talked about a knight.

  ‘Man has a chin of granite.’

  He begins talking to us in the local language, what sounds like basically gibberish to me and Rod. I think he can see the clear lack of comprehension, because he snaps a finger and digs out a coin and flips it in the air. Catching it he begins speaking again with a heavy accent.

  “Yes’r no, yer a part of the transported?”

  Seeing me and Rod glance at each other the mans hand goes to his sword, and even from here I can see a deep groove worn into the pommel where his thumb is currently fidgeting.

  “Not repetin mself, answer.”

  “Uhh, yes, yes we are. We’re looking for-”

  “Didn ask tha.”

  Motioning with a finger to follow he uses an arm to hop over the desk completely unencumbered by the amount of armor he’s wearing. Looking at Rod, he’s scowling again.

  “Didn’t ask that? Between him, Aith and the other shits we are not on a very good streak, I’ll tell ya that much.”

  “No we are not. I don’t think he’s very patient, itching is getting worse.” Clearing my throat he looks up at me. “Better to keep those plates useful.”

  It’s still fascinating to watch the plates stick to his arms like metal to a magnet, shaping and contorting to his elbows, wrists and fingers while we walk down the stairs. Peeking around the corner I see the knight with arms folded and not a lot of patience on his face, the itching lessening when he confirms our presence.

  “Mwaitin, don got all da.” Strutting off further down the curving hall.

  Keeping our thoughts to ourselves while within ear shot, we continue following along. This underground area is huge and after walking for a while passing door after featureless door, we reach a spot where the only difference is that it looks like someone was exsanguinated here. Old blood clotted and pooled on the wall and floor with drag marks to an open door.

  ‘EVE.’

  I’d recognize her unique form of violence anywhere even without knowing she was already here, the people who die are the lucky ones, like a cat playing with its food.

  “Wha ya say tha is?” The knight pointing to the stains on the floor.

  “...Blood?” Playing along hoping this doesn’t go wrong.

  Still pointing a finger following the trail he walks into the room motioning us with his other hand. Walking in there is yet more pooled only far enough in to close the door.

  ‘How long until we can check on the others?’

  Finger tracing in the air from the dried blood to the cracks in the brickwork surrounding the door and then finally to the narrow viewing slat on the door with traces of more blood on it.

  “Cannit fit hans through with chains on. You, tall one.” Pointing directly at me while I hear Rod grumble next to me. “Deal Demon says ya naw the fake fox, how would she escape? What are her abilities?”

  ‘Demon? That’s right they said that before… how would a christian term be here? Is it the transla-’

  “Yer doin a lot a thinkin an not a lot of talkin, listin an look at me.” Waiting until I make eye contact. “Because of wha ya group did, workin with that insufferable woman, nine of our highly ranked officers are on the edge a death, plus however many more since I was re-assigned to ya. I don’t blame ya, I know how… persuasive-” Saying it through clenched teeth, and continuing with more effort to enunciate in his voice. “She is. So unfortunately for all a us, I hafta take a special interest in ya group. What are the fake foxes abilities?”

  ‘You don’t realize that’s what she wants…’

  He hasn’t once taken his hand off his sword and looking at how relaxed he is, readily turning his back on us several times, I get the feeling he would have no trouble handling us. His expression didn’t change at all when he saw Rod arming himself.

  ‘I hate you Aith...’

  “Uhhh okay, we’ll start with the obvious-”

  “Obvious?”

  “It’s hard to explain… she’s tricky.” Nodding once he leans himself against the wall with a scrape. “Umm, first she can heal herself by making skin contact with people-”

  “People? Or anything?”

  “Are you going to let him explain or are we going to take forever to get through this shit?”

  Looking over at Rod with a smile on his face he speaks sarcastically.

  “It a very stupid man who don’t knaw his prey. Must ya think me with mud in ma head like you?”

  Stepping between the two of them clearing my throat I continue.

  “Living things, I’ve never heard of her doing it with plants though.”

  “But ya don knaw fer sure?”

  “No, next is uhhh, she can release and freely manipulate a corrosive uh cloud I guess you can call it from her hair.”

  “There a red mist near tha Carine Inn from when she escaped, how long do it last?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Ya don’t know?” Thumb stopping on his sword hilt.

  “I mean I’ve never heard of it stopping when she rips her hair out, I assume that’s what she did, I wasn’t there to watch. It just keeps going uh eating whatever comes near it. Quarantining the area is about the best thing we’ve figured out to do.”

  ‘Good thing she’s still weak or we’d have another Gulf Coast Dead Zone to deal with. No need to tell him that though.’

  “Finally the most important thing.”

  “Hmm?”

  “It’s easier said than done but… don’t stare into her eyes during a fight.”

  “I’ve seen it happen before, incredibly competent uhhh call them friends seemingly just letting her waltz up to them without… you know uhhhh doing anything. The only thing I can come up with is that she inherited something from her father and seeing her eyes messes with your head.”

  “So like mo things it best to catch her off guard?”

  “Well, yes, but that’s also easier said than done. She’s usually the one snea-.”

  “Oh! Hey they sent Gunther! Hi Gunther! Oh, wait now everybody is going to start talking with accents, well at least you’ll know the language I guess!”

  Suddenly Aiths excited voice shatters the silence, even though there was no silence. She really does sound like a kid experiencing their first amusement park.

  ‘Why did she come back so quick?’