Chapter XLI

Cooling Off

Negativus was deserted in the mornings. Only a few souls braved the early hours, ensuring Adria and Corven's safety as they navigated the streets. Searching for a clothing store, they soon found one and acquired a pair of overalls. Their previous attire, bloodied and damaged beyond repair—oversized in Corven's case—was discarded. Minutes later, they emerged from 'Hiltin’s Overalls,' indistinguishable from any other Dictadurian above ground.

Back on familiar ground, Adria felt a surge of readiness. There was no need for her to urge Corven to follow; he trailed her like a loyal, recently recovered puppy, bombarding her with questions and social, seemingly oblivious to his recent trauma.

"How long have you been coming down here?" they conversed as they traversed the stone-laid streets, passing two aged Dictadurians heading toward an exit.

"I've spent a third of my life in the second country, in Negativus. I escape here whenever possible. Dictaduria is stifling, but Negativus... this is where you can be free," Adria shared, echoing the sentiment for her limited social circle. "When Bitlan was healthier, we'd party wildly at Lux, doing drinking races and taking shots on every accessible underlevel. The aftermath was always brutal."

Her reflections brought back memories of her grandfather and their last conversation. A longing to apologize and show him the possibilities of a new life in Dictaduria gave her purpose. Bitlan needed to see the alter, to grasp the chance of regaining his lost youth.

Corven continued the dialogue, breaking into her thoughts. "Negativus has to be the most fascinating part of Dictaduria; the rest is so..."

"Depressing, hot, smelly, deadly, and gray?" Adria interjected, the words ingrained deep within her.

"Yeah, all that. But here, it's different..." Corven struggled for the right descriptors.

"Cozy, cooler, safer, quieter, beautiful, and fun, at the right hours of course," she replied promptly, a trace of pride in her voice.

"You really love this place," He observed.

Adria nodded, a genuine smile invading her lips. "Negativus makes me feel alive in a way no other place in Sectum ever has. El Mercado was my other refuge, but it pales in comparison to this."

"What's El Marcado?" Corven asked, curiosity piqued.

"El Mercado. It's like a lesser sibling of Negativus, it was situated in Imperia. Less impressive, yet holding a noble spirit. Think of it as a clandestine market," she explained, memories flooding back. "It faced was a great ally against empress Sabina and her empire."

"You've lived in Imperia?" Corven sounded impressed.

Adria's past in Sectum unfolded. "I endured Sabina’s tyrannic rule for four years there. It was a brutal time."

"How did you survive?" His voice was laced with horror.

Facing Corven, Adria felt a wave of honesty; she didn't want to deceive him.

"It was difficult; for most of my first two weeks there, I spent them on the streets. I didn't possess any gatvits after a group assaulted me on my first day, taking everything away. Imperia was an expensive country to live in yet I found a way to avoid that. Taxes devoured most of imperials' money, making it hard to find a job that was stable and allowed a decent living. Many people were poor there, living unsure of their futures.”

“How is it different from Dictaduria?” It was like a history lesson for him.

“It was harder to live in Imperia. Here, one could find economic stability and a path to join the Evantias. There, the wealth belonged to the royal family,” she reminisced, memories of her previous life continuing to flow. “I made friends there. There was a kind of solidarity only imperials understood.”

“That’s fascinating, my obsessions growing up were about Sectum. That's how I was able to help Kevary find the alters. I spent a lot of time studying this place and what happens inside of it after becoming a Binah,” the irony of his life was only amusing to Corven.

“If I hadn’t seen the pain you endured on the last day, I’d say you would enjoy it here. A life in Aequiteism is not for everyone.” Adria had seen enough extarri enjoy of that continent to know it was a reality.

“I had a thrilling week before being sliced and beaten up by the Meida and Timor. My failure was ignoring the gravity of my actions, unaware of the risks and repercussions my behavior could unleash…” His voice broke.

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She might be the only person who would care to listen to him.

“If you enjoy it, why did you steal the alters from Gorbat?” the woman asked.

Corven paused before replying. They reached a set of stairs built around some tunnels, which allowed them to see everything above and below; they were on the seventh underlevel, carved with particles of sapphire.

“I wanted to sell them. That's how those two found me yesterday. The owner of a pawnshop where I was inquiring about prices told them about me,” he confessed, making him more intriguing. “When that happened, I realized my best option was to take one, to forget about being Corven and start again. The umbras weren’t planning to let me live after I stole from Gorbat’s office…” His mind wandered to being hanged upside down, bleeding with Meida mocking him before Adria saved him. “My little misstep cost me my life as a binah. And now, as a Dictadurian. I need a second chance; there can't be someone this stupid in Malkuth.”

“What did you think would happen?” She was incredulous. “If you steal alters from the number one crime leader, who owns them illegally, it was obvious they would try to catch you. People die here in twisted ways!”

“I’ve had my punishment. Being close to death puts things into perspective. I became reckless, acting as if it was all a virtualis experience, a movie, or a game. It turned into a terrible nightmare, but also a unique understanding,” Adria saw a tear brimming with sentiment escape his eye. “I knew I conned other sephirah and did not care, thinking only about how to improve my life in Novo Oporto. The Gevurah found every consequence provoked by my mistake. After being arrested, I tried to take everything in stride but also learned that death is real in Dictaduria.”

“I can’t understand how you have managed to survive this long.”

“Not by myself. That’s for sure. Have I thanked you already? I owe you my life.”

For the first time since they met, she smiled.

“No worries. You’ll pay for it. There was potential within you, Corven.”

“For what?” Not a clue, ever.

“To be better. Not everyone gets a chance. We must do some good with it,” Adria reflected on her future, away from Sectum.

“What do you want to do?” His admiration for her was clear.

“Go to Greece. Fly over the Grand Canyon and experience nature. I want to reach every corner of Malkuth and the colonies.”

“Maybe I can get my Kabbalah back!” Corven daydreamed about meeting with Pip.

“Don’t bet on it,” Adria had to be honest.

“You don’t believe we can get them back?”

They ascended and descended through underlevels, navigating stairs and tunnels she knew by instinct.

“I doubt we’ll be able to retrieve any Kabbalah,” she confessed, finding it hard to believe it would all be that simple. “We’re going to become other people. If you get yours back, don’t you think the Gevurah will find out you escaped from Dictaduria, left Sectum, and became someone else?”

“Pip would never turn on me,” Corven was confident.

“No, I’m not saying your Kabbalah will betray you. The fifth Sephirot has it in stasis,” Adria paused, organizing her thoughts. “Imagine you escape from here. If they discover you crossed Culter, they will wait for you to commit a mistake such as that, no matter where you hide. They’re skilled at what they do.”

“Kevary said she arranged a false death for me,” he clung to that possibility.

Adria stopped for a moment, quite impressed, acknowledging that woman’s attention to detail. Perhaps Bostan and Markus could do something similar for her.

“Are you willing to risk everything for that chance? They will know if you try to contact your Kabbalah.”

“You might be right,” that dose of reality discouraged Corven.

“I tend to be,” Adria let out a sigh. She didn’t even try; it was logic.

That was the first normal conversation they had shared in that entire ordeal.

When they reached the sidewalk, his mind drifted to Saechi, the gorgeous redheaded.

“Ugh. These pipes,” Adria loathed the idea of crawling.

“Radioactive rats, or so I’ve heard,” he tried to maintain their conversation.

“Nonsense. I haven’t found any in almost four years. Normal rats, yes, thousands, but radioactive? Not yet...” Her words faded into a mumble as she opened the hatch and climbed down the ladder, following their predetermined path.

Once inside the aqueduct, she resumed.

“So, where are the alters? We're on our way out to Oxen Plaza. Where did you hide them?” Adria urged, aware they had to move quickly to succeed.

Corven moved ahead of her and pointed to a passage on the opposite side of the space; it led them to a stone room illuminated by a glowing crystal pipe crossing it.

There was a pathway beneath it.

“Why don’t you stay here? I need to crawl for five minutes to get there, and it’s tight. I know where they are. You can guard the access, so no one comes my way.”

The idea tempted Adria; the right side of her upper body throbbed with residual pain, still healing at a cellular level. She trusted him.

“Fine. I’ll wait here. Be quick.”

Corven turned and crawled under the crystal pipe, his noises fading away.

Adria took a moment to rest in the comfort of silence while she waited in that pipe room.

****

That's it for Chapter XLI!

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