“The Seeker comes,” the Guardiansays, “the kid should stay away from the Else, and hope that xir illusions will be enough to mislead it. The kid should run.”

Well, finally some clear, solid advice. I shut away the Else and run down the stairs. Magic left me tired, but the idea of a monster from beyond reality stalking me does wonders for motivation. They should have tried that in PE classes.

I’ve gone down a couple of floors, when a siren sounds through the whole building.

“EMERGENCY WARNING - AN INCURSION OF THAUMOLOGICAL ENTITIES IS TAKING PLACE IN THE BUILDING. PLEASE REMAIN CALM AND MOVE ORDERLY TOWARD THE EXITS.

THE AGENCY FOR THAUMOLOGICAL CONTROL IS ALREADY ON SITE.”

Doors slam open at every floor I pass. Some people look pretty calm, but most look bewildered and scared. What the fuck is wrong with the calm ones? There’s a demon in the building!

“A demon? Here? Isn’t that impossible?” A man asks, his voice rising in pitch.

“This fucking frozen wasteland is supposed to be demon-free, it’s the one good thing about it,” a woman answers, with a strong Landfall accent. “Figures. Let’s hope ThauCon can deal with it. If I survive I’ll so move to Golden Coast.”

Suddenly, doors open on every floor, and people run down the stairs in droves. I don’t like it - I hate crowds in small places - but rationally, it’s a good thing. ThauCons can’t spot me easily in a crowd - and if there’s an emergency evacuation, they can’t ID every single person going out.

I even consider queueing for the elevators, no way ThauCon can check them all, but every time the doors slide open, the inside is hopelessly jammed with people, and the idea of squeeze between strangers makes me sick - even before considering what would happen if a demon found me while I’m standing inside a metal can.

“Is the demon still looking for me?” I ask at my mysterious companion - who, I realize, I’ve no way to be sure is actually on my side.

“The Seeker came from far and deep, and it understood little about the World Above, yet. The kid’s Lies had confused it, and the Seeker was chasing the wrong one. As thousands of human minds lit up with fear and doubt, and helped confuse the seeker. The kid was safe from it, for a while.”

Woah. I actually managed to confuse the horror who’s trying to eat me? I knew all those years being confusing and aggravating weren’t for nothing.

“Can you tell me what’s happening to my friends?” I ask.

“Once was a woman whose mind could rule others. Once was a boy whose fire could cut steel. The men in Silver came for them, and they battled bravely, and something from the Else joined the battle. What happened to them ultimately, the Guardian could not see. But the Men in Silver had failed to overpower the mages, so their story was probably not yet over.”

So, they’re probably alive. And I probably won’t be eaten by a demon in the next few minutes. All in all, a pretty good day. I can slow down a bit, my legs are killing me.

I’m basically limping by the time I get to the fifth floor. I stop to catch my breath - most people aren’t running anymore. The emergency message is repeated every few minutes, and at some point there was a horrible cracking noise from above, but there are no demons bursting through the walls, so everyone stopped panicking.

Some people look at me with pity - I’m panting, drenched in sweat. A spry old woman, who walked alongside me for a dozen floors, looks at me smugly as she walks past. I can almost hear my sister saying you should exercise, Korentis, so you can waste your life in good health, at least.

Finally, I catch enough breath to walk again. I’m on the last ramp of stairs to the third floor, and one of the possible exits, when I feel something snap.

I look around, but can’t make out anything weird. My skin tingles below my knees, as if I had touched a wire, but there’s nothing physical I can see.

“Once was a kid which was foolish and confident,” my fucking useless guardian demon says. “And xe had triggered a ward in the Else, of unknown purpose.”

“Once was a fucking useless voice who never told me stuff until it was too late,” I hiss, “and if I get out of this alive, I’ll so get you exorcised. Or I’ll get a psychiatrist, if you don’t actually exist. Just wait and see.”

I start running again - I’m so close to the exit, whatever it is I can…

Someone tackles me from behind and pushes me down, knocking the air from my lungs. I fall face-first, barely managing to put my arms forward, and it hurts like the Abyss when I hit the marble floor. I feel the biting cold of silver, and when I try to roll, something hard and heavy squashes me down.

“Got you,” a voice says, with nasty glee. Before I can even think to react, strong hands twist my arms behind my back, and cold metal - so cold it burns – snaps around my wrists. The anchored Lie that I’m wearing strains, as if my hands had become a bottomless magic-draining pit.

Oh, Lost Stars. Fuck.

“Get up,” my captor says, and I try to think what I could do - is there some magic I can…

A kick lands on my ribs, hard, twice, and I ball up in reaction. People are screaming and running away, and I’m still too dazed to react.

“I said up, and don’t try anything,” the voice repeats – it’s harsh and commanding, but there’s a hint of fear in it.

Shakily, with my side hurting like the Abyss – I might have a broken rib or two - I stand up. Which isn’t easy at all with my hands tied behind my back, and while scared to death.

Of course, my captor is a ThauCon. Bulky black combat suit, with a hex-patterned silver filigree. A silver shield-shaped pin, a knife and a pistol at their side, and a huge rifle on their back. Through the dark visor, I only get an impression of a person in her mid-twenties, with short red hair and a scar across her cheek. I remember her. I met her at the university, she was the one in charge. Abyss, I’m so dead.

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They caught me. Easy like that, they caught me.

“Please,” I whimper, “I won’t use magic ever again, I’ll…”

She punches me in the gut, so hard I bend double and fall on my knees, terror mounting - fuck, I’ve done nothing, and she’s still beating me like it’s a sport. And this is pretty much what the rest of my short life will be.

“The kid was scared,” the Guardian whispers in my head, “and xe had reasons to. But not all was lost. The soldier had bound xir hands, but xe was a Liar, and Lies can be shaped by the mind only.”

“Spare your breath, I’ve heard more than enough from you,” the ThauCon spits. “But thanks for admitting you’re a mage, that’s a time saver. Now come with me. The more you resist, the more you get hurt.”

She doesn’t even sound angry, just disdainful. Like she’s dealing with a disgusting slug.

I get back on my feet, and every time I breathe in, it’s like a stab to my chest. My instinct is to beg for my life, but that will only get me beaten more.

“Walk. Let’s go to the ground floor,” the agent says. She unslings her rifle and follows me closely.

I force back my tears – I’m so scared I can’t think, and I can’t afford that. I need a Lie - one to change myself. I need to be someone who can deal with this without breaking down.

I’m a powerful mage. The Lie I used to scare away the bounty hunters. My one identity who isn’t paralyzed by fear - on the contrary, xe’s furious.

My side throbs with pain. The agent was waiting for me, there was a trap, set up by a council mage no doubt. That’s their job, bad as it is, it’s the game we play. But she beat me up for no reason. She’ll pay for that.

“Green leader here,” the agent says, “I caught subject alpha. Identity confirmed as Mage Korentis. Subject secured and bound. I’m taking xem outside.”

I suppress a chuckle. She thinks I’m Korentis – that useless idiot. Xe’d just cry and hope for xir sister to save xem.

But I’m a powerful mage, and this woman in silver will soon learn the difference.

She and her whole agency hate us as much as they fear us. So why not give them good reason to fear?

Some Lies don’t need hand gestures, my demon said. True, of course - I need hands to anchor the lies and make them lasting, or to shape the light when I make visual illusions.

But I can simply speak Lies and make people believe them. Even with thought, I can make possible words look real for a moment. No, there’s more, I see it now – I can make a different world be real for a moment.

If only the woman in silver wasn’t wearing her helmet - that stops my ability to influence minds.

I walk down, as slowly as I dare, partly to gain time, partly because my ribs hurt like the Abyss. The crowd pulls away, forming an empty bubble around us. From the sides, people look at me and whisper. I see the naked hostility in their faces.

“Good job, agent!” a young man shouts.

“We can deal with the fucker ourselves,” another says, balling xir fists, and I realize that most of the people present would be glad to see me die, even if they know nothing about me. Some would kill me with their hands - something they wouldn’t ever contemplate toward any non-mage.

It’s a useful reminder. All the friendliness I met - the students, professor Kairim, the doctor in the labs - was a lie. Those people would have spit at me, had they known what I was. Why did I ever feel bad about stealing from them, or playing with their lives? Those people are my enemies, and they’ll dance to the tune of my Lies.

And they will. The agent wears a silver helmet, but there’s a crowd of people around us, and my power still works on them. I’m not powerless at all.

How can I use this? I could simply cause panic. Maybe a stampede could create a distraction… but that’s too unpredictable. And even if it worked, it wouldn’t be enough - I want all who dare harm me to learn a lesson.

“Sergeant!” someone yells. A burly young man, running up the stairs. He carries a sword by his side - and his sweaty face is bare. He holds his helmet under one arm.

The hardest part is not to smile.

“You got xem! Is that Korentis?” He asks.

“Korras, you fucking idiot,” the red-haired agent says, an edge of worry to her voice, “why aren’t you on comms? And why the fuck aren’t you wearing your helmet?”

“Sorry ma’am, so many emergency alerts, and I was getting hot with the helmet. So…”

If I make a sudden move, the Sergeant might shoot me and be done with it. But she’s distracted, and I won’t get a better chance than this.

Korentis would be too scared to act. But xe’s weak. A powerful mage must be bold.

As fast as I can, I Reach for a different world, one so similar to ours, there’s barely any difference.

“Get xem! Fast!” I command, as I duck aside, throwing myself to the ground. I pour power into the Lie - it’s hard to control magic without shaping its flow with my hands, and some of it gets drained by the silver on my wrists, but it doesn’t matter. I need to fool only one person, and he won’t notice the wrong details.

“What the…” the sergeant says, aiming her rifle at me, but she stops for an eyeblink, confused - because her underling is running toward her, sword raised. He doesn’t see his commander, he sees me, hands raised and eyes burning with power.

Despite my efforts, my hands are disincarnating, and the silver handcuffs are burning with cold. Pain shoots from my wrists, but I can’t stop using magic now. It hurts more and more, until I want to scream, but I don’t stop. Power, after all, comes at a price.

“Kill xem!” I shout, words he’ll hear in the sergeant’s voice.

“Stop, you…” the real sergeant says, but the blademaster can’t hear her. He yells and lunges. He’s broad and muscular, his stance is good - his sword stabs through the sergeant’s suit like it’s made of cardboard, it stabs through her whole body, and juts out from her back.

People scream and run away, a few cover their eyes - the sergeant makes a strangled noise as the rifle falls from her hands. I let the magic go, because the pain to my wrists is unbearable - they keep hurting like they’re on fire, even after I stop, and the silver becomes slick with blood.

As my Lie falls, the swordsman’s eyes widen, and he screams in horror. He pulls out the blade, and the sergeant falls like a wet sack - she tries to move, but she stops immediately. A ridiculous amount of blood gushes from her chest, Lost Stars, who knew there was that much blood inside a person?

I try to look away from the Else, but after using so much magic, I simply can’t. I see the moment a subtle thread breaks, and the spark of light that was my captor’s mind is dragged down, faster and faster, as if terrible currents carried it toward the deep Else.

“What…” the swordsman says, his voice breaking with horror, “how could… no, Gehat, please, please…”

Her blood is pouring from the huge chest wound, trickling down the steps, and people run away. Only I stay there - exhausted and in pain, I can’t run right now. The soldier could skewer me easily.

He turns to me. I expect fury, but there’s mostly fear and horror.

“You… you…”

“I think I’ll walk away,” I say, and I smile, as I get up, my legs shaking. I look at the woman bleeding on the steps, the woman that, for every purpose, I killed. But it was an inevitable outcome. That’s what happens to a Mundane who thinks herself better than a mage. “And I think you’ll let me go. You wouldn’t want to stab someone else, right? Or yourself? And maybe you can still save her. If you hurry.”

I don’t think I could make the slightest Lie without collapsing, now. And the sergeant is way past saving. But it doesn’t matter. The soldier bends on his officer, desperately trying to staunch the blood flow, and begs for help.

I walk away, still smiling. No one tries to stop me.

“The kid had fooled all of xir enemies, and surprised even the Guardian. Xe was not just a kid. Xe was inexperienced, and ignorant of many things. But far from harmless, for xe was a true Liar.

The Captain’s Key, of course, had chosen a fitting bearer. The Liar walked out, free, holding that which broke the Moon.”