The corpses of Keith Smith’s guards decorated his shattered lawn. Caelziax and the earth Sachi had certainly done their job. Though at what cost? Ai had summoned the demon three times within a short period of time, and I could see that it weighed on her. She looked sick, though the Sachi I forced her to take was working well enough for the time being.

We ran downhill through Meek Onfidlack, earning many odd looks from the vendors and pedestrians. Caelziax wasn’t exactly quiet. The fucker shrieked every time he was summoned.

“We have to stop by the inn on our way out,” I said. “My Sachiblade. We can get you some Sachigloves at the weapon shop just up ahead.”

“The one by all the trash? Don’t you think he’ll sell me junk?” Shun said.

“There are many wonders decorating these hills of scrap,” Ai said.

Shun gave me a look. I shrugged. Ai wasn’t wrong.

“I’m sure he’ll have something useful until we can get back to yours,” I said.

Shun didn’t respond, but when we got to the weapon shop, I pulled Andalaf’s credits out of my suit, and she reluctantly accepted. She came out with a pair of gloves that I thought looked nice.

“They’ll do. A little loose in the knuckles, but … they’ll do.”

“Good enough,” I said.

After getting my blade from the inn and strapping it to my back, we ran the rest of the length down the main street of the Meek.

“That’s her!” I heard someone yell as we ran past. “The Sun-Seeker!”

“The Sun-Seeker?” I said, turning to Shun as if she were responsible for the name.

“What?” she said.

“What else did you forget?”

Shun blew out. “Thought I told you that. They’re calling you Sun-Seeeker. Anyway, you know Josh Baker?”

“The Josh Baker in charge of the military? Fat fuck? Yeah, I know him,” I said.

“Well, it starts with him,” Shun said. “After you fell and Hinote, Suzume, and Kaito dragged me away, we returned to the location where we had left Daiki, but he was gone, Nin. We couldn’t believe it. Figured he’d gotten taken by Andalaf infantrymen or something. After some looking around, we decided we had to just leave, same as we had to leave you.” She looked at me sadly. “I wanted to come back, Nin. You have to know that.”

“I know; finish the story,” I said. We passed out of the Meek and onto the main road where Ai and I came in. Ai’s makeup was starting to congeal with sweat and drip down, revealing her ashen-grey skin.

“We were leaving the support pillar,” Shun continued, “and I overheard a man talking to his friend around the side about how he’d been to Keith Smith’s, and he’d never seen girls like that before, and he had his own rooms, and as many as he wanted and blah blah, you get it. He said he was in the Sun-Seekers but had been hired by Keith to give him their location. The man said he didn’t have any problem giving up the info. Not like it changed anything except to get his dick wet. He said he’d told Keith Smith about the Sun-Seekers’ location weeks ago and our plans. This is before we hired you, Nin.”

“He’s full of shit—”

“No, hold on. Hinote almost blasted a hole through the wall—”

“Yeah, I bet!” I said, laughing.

“Nin, please,” Shun said.

“Yes. She’s just getting to the good part,” Ai said, smiling. Her ruby eyes flashed at me, and I had to look away.

“Alright, go ahead,” I said.

“So I calm Hinote down and say I'll go check it out for his sake. Suzume points me in the right direction, and I turn the corner, and … it’s Daiki.”

“Called it,” Ai said.

Shun said, “talking with his hands, waving around, pacing back and forth, and giving this speech to a group of five guys. So I went back to where the others were, and I told them, so we took care of Daiki’s friends, who were the only other people around, and then we pulled Daiki into the pillar. He starts blubbering that it was all for bravado and he’s just a fat shit—to which we all agreed—and he got caught by those guys, so he was lying to them! I didn’t buy it, but more importantly, Hinote didn’t buy it.”

Shun swallowed, and I looked at her. Her eyes were hollow as she ran, the trash passing quickly behind her disturbed face and messy hair. “We beat him within an inch, Nin. Within an inch … He was my friend. Our friend.”

She let the rhythm of our feet against the dirt road fill the void of her words for a long moment. Our breathing was ragged, and my legs ached. I smelled the combination of Shun’s strawberry hair and the flowery scent of Ai.

“He spoke. Said Andalaf has known for a while that we planned to strike. They let us, Nin. But that’s all he knew. That, and that he’d reported our location to Keith Smith. I knew about Keith Smith, of course, and his golden wagons with their cages that pass through the Meeks every night. You know, most of the people are in debt of one kind or another, and that’s why they get taken. Some volunteer. I was in the latter group. All of us have to strip before getting in, though.”

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“And Hinote just allowed you to go?” I asked.

“Hinote does not own me,” Shun said. “He discouraged me from going, yes. As did Kaito, who was a bit more vehemently opposed. Suzume did not have much to say on the matter. So I went and was lucky enough to get taken straight to the mansion.”

“And then we saw you, Nin,” Ai said. “And you passed out. Which was not part of the plan.”

Shun laughed with Ai and said, “Yeah, what the fuck?”

“I’m fine. Just got a little hot. Those uniforms are hefty,” I lied. I didn’t know what it was about. The ringing in my ears, the red light, the memories …

Who are you?

Shun’s eyes lingered on mine for a bit, then turned back to the dirt path between the hills of trash. We turned right, following Shun’s lead.

“So when we were actually in the room with Keith, Shun was amazing. She was so fast and strong, and—”

“Alright, Ai,” Shun said, but I could see her smile betraying her. “So we have a glorious moment without any commotion. And I start talking to Keith Smith. He pretends to be afraid, laying in his bed in the red robe, his thinning onion-white hair sticking up, his balls showing, his hands in a submissive gesture. He doesn’t say much, stalling, telling me the guy who gave me my information—Daiki, he meant—was one of the gang leaders’ guys.”

“Then he manages to inch his fat, ringed fingers over to a lever on the wall,” Ai said, her voice sounding a bit choked. “But missed.”

“He had some contraption,” Shun said. “A gun came out of the wall, shot and killed the other girl with us.”

“And I fucking lost it,” Ai said. “And I didn’t even know I’d summoned Caelziax when he appeared in the room, barely fitting. Keith Smith literally shit the bed. It dropped out of his robe as he backed away, smearing on the sheets. I kept Caelziax back—that is, until the guards outside started coming in. But while they filtered in and Caelziax either scared them away or cut them down, Shun knew it was her opportunity. And I didn’t hear a whole lot of the next part—”

“Keith Smith told me part of his job was reporting to Josh Baker of Andalaf,” Shun said. “That he’d heard some noise about a group starting up and got a guy to go and butter one of the members up, bring him to the mansion, offer him all the stuff, and, well, yeah. I asked if it was Daiki, and Keith had no fucking idea, naturally. But he did describe a fat man who seemed pretty unsure of himself. So Daiki tells Keith Smith about the Sun-Seekers, and Keith tells Josh Baker about it. Josh Baker, head of military and Man'naka safety, just laughs and tells Keith Smith that they could use this to rally the people on the Andalaf side for the next batch of Sachi they'll be bringing up for the Dead God.”

I looked back at Ai, who would not meet my eyes.

Shun went on: “Says that they’ll let the Sun-Seekers bomb the drill towers, then Andalaf will bomb HQ in Meek Alfrendil but will frame the Sun-Seekers. And everyone will turn to Andalaf in this very uncertain time rather than continue on in the trend of rebellion going on in the Meeks.”

“How soon before the sky falls,” Ai said.

“How many hits to the center of the sun?” Shun answered.

“Sounds like Andalaf,” I said.

“I knew they were awful,” Shun said, “but this is … to destroy an entire Meek … to ensure the rest of the Meeks cling to them?”

“Yeah. They’ve done things like this before. When I was in Chudo, there was a town called Pleasence over on the eastern continents. Andalaf found a dragon bone deep beneath the town. When they couldn’t get permission to dig from the locals, they sent in a group of Chudo dressed as vagrants to attack and pillage. Josh Baker, of course, had left several ways to contact Andalaf should the town change its mind. They called, desperate to get their village back. Josh Baker staged a battle, Chudo versus Chudo. I was part of the squad sent in to chase off the ‘vagrants.’”

“Fuck,” Shun said.

“Yep,” I said.

“Why wouldn’t they just stage the bombings then? Like in Pleasence?” Ai asked. I looked back at her and noticed her exposed breast bouncing up and down, my eyes staying there for a moment.

“We’re turning, Nin,” Shun said.

I turned my head around, nearly smacking into the wall of trash to the right of the path.

“Why do that when they had a free labor force?” I said, turning left.

“Paying for all of their own gear. God, those sons of bitches,” Shun said.

“And here they are,” Ai said as we all stopped. I pulled out my Sachiblade. We were taking fire.

“Move back!” Shun yelled as we retreated back the way we came, but not before three Andalaf infantrymen, dressed just like the guards at Keith Smith’s mansion, jumped down from the trash and grabbed Ai.

I reacted instantly, tapping the ice Sachi in my blade, using up what I’d snorted earlier at the mansion, but the ice responded faithfully to me, reaching its sharp, tendril-like fingers in a circle through the skulls of each one, grabbing Ai. They dropped in unison, connected by the ring of ice I’d put through their heads. Ai jumped back, pulling out her Caelziax summon Sachi.

“No!” I said. “I have a better idea.”

I pulled out my bag of Sachi powder and took a long snort.

“Ai, can you get us to Meek Alfrendil through the trash?”

“I can get you anywhere through the trash,” she said.

“Alright. Get behind me. Both of you,” I said.

The two obliged, and I tapped my fire Sachi on my blade. I could hear shouts, and some of them were coming from the trash above us. The flames, like earth, were harder to control, but the blade did help somewhat to channel Sachi gems when they were slotted in. I’ve heard of blades that can slot seven Sachi gems at once, but I’ve also heard they are difficult to fight with, and it leaves your Sachi more vulnerable when going blade to blade. I’m more of a swordswoman. Always have been. Which was another reason this would be chaos.

The trash came alight, and I pulled out my brown earth Sachi gem. In one long draw on the drug running through my veins, I used up what I snorted, the trash exploding upward in a tower of flames. The path collapsed in on itself, fissures tearing the earth apart. A sudden explosion of cracking earth shot me into the air, away from the girls. From the air, I saw the red Andalaf infantry backing away from the spreading flames, and behind them were seven Chudo soldiers in black armor with glowing yellow veins. They saw me.

Fuck.

I reached into my suit pocket for more of my powder, but the bag was empty. There was nothing I could do. I licked the interior of the bag as I fell back down, leaving a bitter, chemical taste in my mouth, and the pathetic flames that came out, as a result, didn’t even reach the trash below.

Shun caught me with a grunt.

“Seven Chudo soldiers. We have to run,” I said. “I’m out of Sachi powder, and I’m not going to crush any of my gems.”