I woke up on a cold metal surface. I got up and saw it came out of a wall made of the same material. I blinked my eyes. I was in a jail cell. I looked down to my clothes—still the red of the guards’ uniform. Relieved, I checked for the knives, which were safely packed away in the arms of my suit underneath.

I walked to the iron bars and looked across the way. As far as I could see—not very far—there were cells lining a long, concrete hall. Of the three I could see into, there were two women and one man. Keith Smith’s back catalog?

“Hey!” I said, trying to get their attention. Like those worn people in the glass display cases, these three were despondent and did not respond. “Hey!” I tried again.

“They won’t answer,” a voice said from my right. “They’re gone. Too much, too many times.”

“Who are you?” I said, putting my face up against the bars as if this would help me see her. It was undoubtedly a female voice, but smoky and deep.

“Me? Who cares. I’m used up, too,” she chuckled, then coughed. “Though in a different way than those.” She sounded old. “I did see that other Sallis-Faint. If they find out what she is—”

Other?

“What do you mean, Sallis-Faint?”

“They just took her before you came down. Beautiful little gal. Wearing makeup, but it takes more than that to hide one of my own from me. They whisper to me just the same as the Dead God does. Just the same as the spirits. And, oddly enough … you. Peculiar.”

“You’re Sallis-Faint? What are you doing here? Andalaf practically owns this place,” I said.

“Exactly.”

“Exactly what?”

“I am too old. Too weak. It doesn’t matter how much of that yellow Sachi they pull up from the ground. I can’t do it. I can’t wake the Dead God. But I can still sing to the Sachi and make the healing Sachi, along with a few other things. Nejirita keeps me around. Takes my blood from time to time, some hairs. I don’t know what he does with it. Haven’t been topside in, oh … twenty-four years now.”

I heard the patter of footsteps approaching.

“We got it!” Shun said, giggling with Ai as they nearly fell, running into each other in front of my cell.

I took a step back, shocked that they were down here, together and laughing.

“What? Shun, are you hurt? Are they coming?”

“No, Nin,” Shun said, looking at Ai and laughing again.

“She’s fine!” Ai said.

Both heads of hair were now messy slashes, a stark contrast to the immaculately styled creations they had before I fell on the floor outside Keith Smith’s room.

“What happened?” I asked.

They both looked at me with grim expressions on their faces for a moment. A small squeak escaped Ai’s lips, and they both exploded with laughter once again. I noticed Ai looked a bit weary despite her good humor. It was in the ruby eyes; they didn’t shine quite the same.

“You used it,” I said. She had to, only for a moment.

“All part of the plan,” Ai chimed. “But not as soon as I thought I’d have to. Caelziax did his part but Shun actually got us out of the room with Keith Smith. In that regard, I was practically useless.”

I imagined the three penises of the demon being the last thing Keith Smith saw and smiled internally, what with his taste in artwork.

“Not surprising,” I said. “Shun is one of the best hand fighters I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah! I bet she could beat up Morfran himself,” Ai said.

I saw the slight faltering of Shun’s smile and felt my own twinge at the memory’s sting.

“What? Did I say something?” Ai said, looking a bit concerned.

Shun said, “No, Ai. You’re fine, I”—she looked at me.

“She always wanted a chance to fight Morfran. We were never able to arrange it,” I said.

“Weren’t you second only to him in Chudo, Ningyo?” Ai said. I did not miss the look Shun gave Ai when she used my full name. “Well, who cares? You just beat up Keith Smith and three of his cronies!”

“Were you able to get the rest of them, Ai? With … the demon?” I asked.

“I don’t know if we got all of ’em, but—”

“Did you get a keycard?”

Ai pulled it out of her dress, right at the concealed breast. The push to look downward felt like two strong hands at the back of my head. I was very aware of Shun’s glancing eyes in my periphery.

“Thank you,” I said, exiting the cell as Ai slid it in front of the barred door. “Is it a master?”

“I think so.”

“Did you know that there’s another—um—in the other cell …”

“Yes. I felt her,” Ai said, looking at the cell next to mine.

On the cold metal floor lay an ashen-grey-skinned woman with thinning, faded red hair. Her nose was turned up, almost reptilian. She wore a thin, white shift. Smiling weakly up at us, she said, “Please leave me be. You can free these others, but I … I don’t want to keep running.”

Ai looked at her, a stern expression on her face. “You’ve given up?”

The woman just nodded her head, smiling.

“Do you know what that does?” Ai said, “You giving up? Because it’s not just you it affects. You give them a way to keep going, to keep giving healing Sachi to their Chudo. To keep the machine well oiled. It’s one more of our people bending to the will of a man in a suit. One more gone, leading us to extinction.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The old Sallis-Faint woman broke eye contact, and her smile faded. She then rolled over to face the back of her cell.

“That is your choice. I won’t make you go. But I will not let you stay in ignorance of what you do. It is cowardly,” Ai said, “and I will not condone it.”

I forgot myself watching her. She had told me everything was beautiful and had its place; even the Meeks were perfect the way they were. Then she told me it was convenient for me to say that the people of the Meeks feared rising up because they were comfortably complacent. And now, she told one of her own kind, who was comfortably complacent, that she was cowardly. How could she just move between these poles?

Was this her true feeling, and that was why she’d been so comfortable with me even though she knew I’d bombed the tower? Is that why she was following me around—because she secretly wanted to take down Andalaf? ‘Leading us to extinction.’ Yes, I was sure of it then. What else could she mean? Why else was she so willing to follow me? She’d finally found someone who would fight back with her. Only trouble was, my fight was with Morfran.

I noticed Shun was watching me stare at Ai. As I caught her eyes, she looked away.

No, that’s not what it was, Shun! Not what you’ve watched before, I wanted to say. I wanted to tell her it wouldn’t happen again, that she wasn’t seeing what she saw. But I wasn’t entirely sure myself if that was the truth.

“Let’s at least open her cell. Along with the others,” I said.

Ai seemed … preoccupied. She was still looking at the limp form of the elder Sallis-Faint.

“Ai?” Shun said, “you ok?”

Ai handed the keycard to me. “I do not make a habit of freeing those who build their own cages when there are those who would claw the ground bloody before giving away the keys of their own mind.”

I expected some reaction from the Sallis-Faint woman, but she stayed quiet and still.

I opened her door, regardless of Ai’s personal feelings, and then I went about opening the rest. Despite what they were here for, I knew they were either Andalaf’s or Keith Smith’s prisoners, and I didn’t trust either.

“Alright. Let’s go,” I said. “Unless you need more time to stare at that woman there on the floor.”

Ai turned her withering look on me, and I looked away to Shun, who smiled. God, but it was good to see that smile. I did not feel ashamed to look at Shun the way I did when looking at Ai. I followed the outline of her arm down to her naked hands. I felt the throbbing in my chest again, and I was thankful for it, but it had never actually gone away; I don’t know why I thought that it would. Regardless of where I went, I never actually left her. We were always … with each other, in a way. I was relieved that she was alright, and it made me want to hold her, to kiss her, to show her how much I missed her. I would, too, if not for Ai and the need to leave.

“Your gloves?” I said to Shun.

“Gone. They … took them off when they undressed me.”

“I don’t understand. You beat up Keith Smith and his friends, but you get caught by—”

“Let’s do that later, Nin. For now, let’s go. Ai? You ready?”

“Yeah,” Ai said, turning to the despondent Sallis-Faint. “How soon before the sky falls?”

We walked up the closed metal stairs toward the brighter light at the top. Three guards decorated the steps with small trickles of their blood that converged into a puddle like tiny tributaries into a lake. When we got up to the landing where Keith Smith’s door was, I saw the trail of blood on the white carpet. Many guards on the landing, many more on the ground below, some in black, some in red. As we walked past Keith Smith’s door, I chanced a look in. I shivered. Through three chambers, all with their doors open, I saw the smooth golden railing of a large bed. On top of the sheets, there were several limbs. Through the trail of blood out of the bedroom, there were many scattered and torn-apart men, none of them in uniform: Keith Smith’s friends.

I followed the trail to my feet. Like a mouse left by a cat to show their owner they’ve finally decided to start earning their keep, Caelziax had left Keith Smith’s head here at the entrance to his rooms. My mouth agape, I looked up at Ai. She smiled.

“He touched me. I have it on good authority he was preparing to do more,” Ai said.

I gave her a look. “You’re not going to get any moral quarreling from me,” I said. “I …” I thought of the popping joints of men like Keith Smith—but more grotesque—coming, grunting, paying, and leaving. But they never left me, not really. The head on the rug represented everyone. No. I didn’t mind. “I don’t mind at all,” I said.

“But first we got him to talk,” Shun said. “Another reason we do not have time to stop and talk now. We have to go.”

“Where?” I asked.

“Meek Alfrendil. Nin, they're going to blow it up and blame us. They found out our name somehow, and it’s all over the news. The Sun-Seekers. Terrorists. But it’s just you. They think you’re the head. Hinote is pissed.”

“I’m sure he is. Fill me in on the way,” I said. We ran out of Keith Smith’s mansion, out to the front golden steps that looked out on the main downhill street of Meek Onfidlack.

Endorphingun fire greeted us. I rolled away, and Shun grabbed Ai, rolling in the opposite direction behind one of the pillars in front of the entrance. I reached for the lightning Sachi powder in my pants pocket, but the guards must have frisked me and taken what they could find. I commanded my suit to open and produce another bag of weaker Sachi. It would have to do. Opening another pocket, I took out the earth Sachi gem that I refrained from using within the mansion for fear of hurting Ai or Shun, or myself for that matter. Earth Sachi is powerful but difficult to control. It’s best to use it in a wide-open space, and only if you’re not concerned with the surrounding architecture.

“Get ready!” I said, looking over to Ai and Shun, holding up the brown earth Sachi. I thought we might be safe near the mansion. It was Keith Smith’s house, but really an Andalaf building, hence the golden elevator. If they were holding a Sallis-Faint here, well … it was bound to have the same support as the drill towers, built to stand against earth Sachi.

The girls nodded at me, and I tapped the earth Sachi, trying my best to aim the unwieldy tremors. The ground around the steps exploded in sharp, angled fissures, but as I suspected, the steps themselves and the mansion were untouched. Of course, some shaken windows had shattered, as I’m sure other things had inside due to the vibrations, but the foundation and the walls were unmoved.

I heard screams, though the endorphingun fire continued from somewhere.

“How well can Caelziax withstand bullets, Ai?” I called across to them at their pillar. The world continued to tremble as the earth Sachi ripped at the ground. I felt the pull on the Sachi powder I used and took another snort from my bag.

“He’ll do fine,” Ai said a bit frantically, pulling the black Sachi gem from her dress. The demon shrieked its greeting to us before running down the steps toward our enemies. I watched Ai carefully. She’d already done this too many times. How far could ‘getting quiet’ really take a person, Sallis-Faint or not? I fought the urge to run over and force Sachi into her nostrils.

I heard the scream of men and chanced a look around my pillar to see what havoc Caelziax was unloading on the guards, but he was gone. I turned back to Ai, who was on the verge of passing out. A concerned Shun was holding her upright and looked to me for help. I dashed across to the pillar where the girls were.

“Ai—Ai!” I said, shaking her with one arm.

“Can’t… stop … here,” she said in small gasps under her breath. “The … Dead … God. It calls.”

She started shaking.

Summon shakes … fuck!

“Ai! Stay with me!”

“Ai, come on!” Shun yelled.

I didn’t want to, and I knew she’d do better with some food and rest, but I took my bag of Sachi powder and, with one of my Sachiknives, I pulled out twice the dose I would take nasally. The digestive tract really does a good job of wasting drugs. I laid Ai down on the concrete.

“Hold her down for me, Shun.”

“Got it,” Shun said, pinning Ai’s thin arms on the ground with her own very strong ones. I carefully held the blade just over Ai’s mouth.

“Can you keep her mouth open with one hand?” I asked. Shun nodded, keeping the arms pinned with the other hand. I pushed off the dose of powder into Ai’s mouth, threw the knife to the side, and as Ai started writhing and almost coughed, I clamped her mouth shut and blew as hard I could into her face.

She came fully awake. Holding her mouth shut, looking into her eyes, I said, “Ai, I need you to swallow the rest.”

She shook her head and said, “MM-MM, MM-MM!”

“Ai, you have to do it.” I looked into her ruby-red eyes. “You need to,” I said. Then, with a little more emotion and a shakiness I did not mean to allow through: “I need you to.”

Her eyes stopped their frightful dance, and she stopped shaking, relaxing below me. She closed her eyes and swallowed for me. I let out a breath, suddenly aware of how truly afraid I was and—ashamedly—aware of how much I had let that show to Shun.