We walked into the familiar gold and white gleam of the foyer. I wondered what happened to any Upper-Plateau folks who were in the room ahead, the place they all went to get served by Keith Smith’s premium whores. Awful shit.

The paintings were mostly wrecked, all strewn across the floor in an image not unlike the ripped ground outside. As we walked up the stairs, I saw that the painting with the demon, the approving crowd, and the woman was still intact.

The blood pathways still stained the carpet, and the dungeon door was open.

“Holy shit,” Hinote said, his first words since arriving, which surprised me.

“How long you been here?” I asked.

Stu laughed. “Not long. Been spending most of the night on Virginia’s rules, making sure the Meek isn’t confused about the new management. She’s been planning this for a while, gathering resources.”

We got to the doorway where Keith Smith’s head laid last time I saw it. The door was closed now, and Stu knocked on it.

“Who the fuck is it?” A man’s voice, gruff and sounding like many cigarettes had whittled away at the throat.

“Stu.”

“Fuck off, Stu. I think we told you we’re busy.”

“Virginia’s going to want to see this, Reggie.”

“Fuck that, we told all of you to fuckin’ wait—”

“It’s the Sun-Seeker, Reggie. You want to get in trouble for being a cockass, or you wanna—”

The door opened.

Reggie looked like he sounded. He had earrings and glasses, and his face was marked up with lines. His nose was a bulb. He looked me over, lowering his glasses.

“Fuck me,” Reggie said. “Ok, come in. No, not you, Stu. You fuck off like I told you before. And uh—thanks for bringin’ her up.”

Reggie shut the door behind Hinote as we passed into the small room. The door to Keith Smith’s bedroom was still closed.

“She might get pissy, so just a fair warning. But she will want to see you. Alright,” Reggie said, passing us and raising his eyebrows in a ‘you got yourself into this’ kind of way. He knocked on the door with a golden knocker that sat in between a plate with two golden breasts to either side of it.

I heard a familiar moan just past the door. And a familiar scream.

Reggie looked at me above his glasses, cleared his throat, and then knocked again. “Virginia? It’s the fucking Sun-Seeker out here for you.”

More wailing.

“Virginia!”

The door swung open; it was not Virginia, but one naked, skinny man who was more swallow-apple than neck. He swallowed as he looked at us, the apple bobbing up and then back down. He opened the door all the way, revealing seven more such thin men, and as far as I could see, they all had the same large swallow-apple. Virginia, it appeared, had a fetish. She lay on the bed, breathing heavily, her brown skin a bronze color in the dim Sachilight of the room combined with a slick sheen of sweat. We seemed to have a strange way of coming to see one another.

“Well, I’m at least happy I was able to get off before you mothafuckas started in on my fuckin’ door again,” Virginia said. “And it’s a cheap fuckin’ trick to say it’s the fuckin’ Sun—”

She looked at me, her eyes dumb for a moment, then her face cracked into a wide smile, and she laughed, doubling over.

“You gotta be kiddin’ me,” Virginia said. “Troy! Light me a fuckin’ cigarette!” The man I assumed was Troy jumped up and reached with a long, thin arm for a circular bedside table where a package of cigarettes sat next to a lighter. “Thanks, sug. The fuckin’ Sun-Seeker. Shit. When I saw you on the screen, I was braggin’ to everyone I saw in Onfidlack. You took out Keith Smith, and then you blew up a fuckin’ Meek.” She took a drag and let it out with a wheezing chuckle.

“Well, it wasn’t exactly like that,” I said. I pointed a thumb at Shun. “My friend here is the one who killed Keith Smith. Along with another who is … not with us now.”

I was thankful for the cigarette smoke that crept over the musty scent of sex, bodies, and sweat.

“Well,” Virginia said, looking at Shun with heavily lidded eyes. “I suppose I should be thankin’ you, miss. For the mansion.”

“Happy to be of service,” Shun said. “You could do us a favor, you know. For the trouble. Wasn’t exactly easy to—”

“Holy shit. It’s you!” Virginia said, cutting Shun off. She looked at me, then back to Shun, and laughed. “Man! You know she paid a healing Sachi gem to find out where you was? Shit. If that was my girl, I’d … forget it. You lucky, that’s all.”

“I know,” Shun said in a small voice, and I was surprised by how sad it made me to hear that note in her voice. It was as if she knew she was lucky to have me, even though she couldn’t have me.

“Now, you were sayin’? A favor?” Virginia said, looking at Shun in an almost seductive way.

“We need to get to the Upper-Plateau. And, as you probably know, that is a bit of an impossibility for us. All three of us were on the endorphinscreens,” Shun said.

Virginia nodded and waved a hand; all of her large-swallow-apple men dispersed and left the room. “Troy!” The man who had lit her cigarette turned around. “My robe, Troy.” Troy smiled and grabbed a red robe draped over the top of a high-backed chair pushed into a cherry wood desk. Virginia smiled up at him as she tied it on. Troy left the room, and Virginia sat up at the end of the bed closest to us. “He’s my bitch. And he loves it. Who’s the big fella?” She nodded her head to Hinote but kept eye contact with Shun.

Hinote almost spoke, but I held a hand to his chest. Probably not the best idea. This was a delicate situation. “This is Hinote. And I’m Nin.”

“And you’re Shun,” Virginia said.

“Yes,” Shun said.

“Topside. Discreetly. I wonder how y’all could—”

“The elevator?”

“Shut down. I don’t know when, but it was the first thing I checked when I got here. It ain’t runnin’. I think the motherfuckers up top control it.”

“Shit,” Hinote said.

Virginia nodded her head, and she almost looked … sympathetic as she flicked her eyes between the three of us. She let out a sigh.

“Aight, look—wait, actually … how far you willing to go to get up top without being seen doin’ it?”

I looked at my two companions, and we all had the same kind of determined, desperate look in our eyes. “Pretty fucking far,” I said.

“I’m not the type who likes to let folks go unpaid. I’ll be runnin’ things in Onfidlack differently now that Smith is dead. The whores will all be set free, and those that would like to stay will be paid and paid well—better than anyone else,” Virginia said, lighting another cigarette on the still-smoking butt of her first. “‘Cause they fuckin’ workin’, man. You ever fuck somebody you didn’t want to? And then think after, ‘shit, I feel like they owe me money’?” I knew the feeling all too well but kept my silence. She went on. “I feel like I’m in your debt, is what I mean. Y’all killed the motherfucker who was makin’ all of them slaves so he could have all the fuckin’ Andalaf credits made with their bodies. A lot of people are in debt. I’m not sayin’ I agree that you shoulda blown up a fuckin’ Meek—”

I said, “We didn’t—”

She held up a hand. “I don’t need the details. Maybe you didn’t. Probably not—Andalaf is up to some slick shit, day in, day out. But that ain’t none of my business. My business is about you givin’ me a mansion and givin’ all these whores a choice. The only way you got is up.” Virginia pointed a finger toward the ceiling.

“Up?” Hinote said. “What the fuck you mean, up?”

“I mean, up. You gotta climb to get up there. I’ll help you. I’ll have my crew go out and get the shit you need to do it, and we’ll watch your back and make sure nobody fucks with you ’til you’re a safe distance away. There’s a maintenance platform about three-quarters of the way up, and it’ll take you up the rest of the way through ladders and a few stairways.”

“How do you know that?” Hinote said.

Virginia smirked. “You ain’t the only ones that dreamed of doin’ somethin’ fucked up to Andalaf, but let’s not get into that just now. So … you gonna climb?”

“We don’t have any other choice,” I said. “So yes. And if you’re willing to help, I think I can speak for all three when I say it would be most welcome.”

Shun and Hinote nodded to me, and Virginia smiled.

“Aight. Well, you three need to eat somethin’ while I get my people to go down in the Meek and get your shit. Anything you need besides the climbing gear?”

“If they have a Sachi suit and blade pair, sure. Maybe some small Sachibombs. I could use some lightning-invested Sachi powder,” I said. “You guys need anything?”

“No,” Shun said.

“Bullets,” Hinote said, holding up his gun. “And another one of these.”

Virginia nodded her head and ushered us back to the door. “Reggie?” she said, opening it for us.

“Yes, Virginia?” said Reggie in his smoker’s croak.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Get these three a nice meal in the dining room and send in Stu and two others. You pick ‘em.”

“Alright. Come with me,” Reggie said, taking us back through the door and out into the foyer. I gave the dungeon door a weary glance. That Sallis-Faint woman was still down there. I wondered if they’d set anyone free since taking over.

Reggie took us down the steps, through the foyer, and into a room to the right side of the entrance. It opened into a large dining hall, with a chandelier that was amazingly still intact, many paintings lying broken on the floor, a few cracked windows, and in the middle, underneath the chandelier, was a long lacquered table with many white upholstered chairs tucked underneath it. I guessed it could sit fifty. Reggie gestured for us to have a seat.

“We’ve got a couple going through the kitchens. I’ll let ‘em know you three are out here, and they’ll bring somethin’ out. Haven’t had much time to get accustomed to the place, and there’s a lot of broken shit, but they shouldn’t have trouble getting something figured out,” Reggie said, then he walked through another door; I assumed this one led to the kitchen, because after Reggie came back in and left through the door we came in, two women dressed only in knives strapped to their sides came out with cheeses and bread, along with three Sachi-heated frozen meals—mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken, and corn.

We sat for a while, restless and not talking, letting our food digest. I decided maybe it was time to try and get quiet like Ai showed me, but it proved an impossibility. There was too much noise in my mind, and the exercise only made me think of Ai while sitting right next to Shun, which led to a sinkhole of guilt in my stomach. I kept my eyes closed nonetheless and tried to cultivate some kind of rest.

Eyes still closed, I said: “We’re about to go to fucking Andalaf Tower. To try and save a Sallis-Faint woman. And leave Man’naka.”

I started to laugh. At first, it was a chuckle, but then it grew with Shun’s laughter, which was joined shortly thereafter by Hinote’s. The high ceiling amplified our now loud, barking laughs, and it sounded as if there were two groups of laughing people, one on the ceiling and one at the table.

We didn’t acknowledge the men who walked in carrying our equipment, and as we pawed through what they’d brought, we caught each other’s eyes occasionally and started laughing all over again. The men who brought the stuff looked at each other and left the room. They probably knew who we were and what we did, and now we were laughing at nothing in a room full of broken things, and they’d just loaded us up with weapons—I would leave too.

On the table were Sachigrapples, carabiners, climbing wire, spikes, an extra endorphingun for Hinote, belts for all three of us, and bombs. Twenty of them. Smaller than the ones we had at the Meek Pox tower, perfectly sized to fit inside my suit.

Strapping the belts on and the carabiners to the metal loops on the belts, we walked out into the foyer. We still chuckled a bit, the dying embers of our wildfire. It felt nice to laugh.

Virginia was out in the foyer, fully dressed now in all leather. She looked sleek, powerful, and sexy. For a moment, I found myself wishing I were a man with a large swallow-apple like the others Virginia seemed to have a fetish for, and I wondered if maybe she felt the same way about me, wishing for a moment that she looked like Shun or Ai. It was silly, and I shook off the thought.

“Those hooks,” Virginia said, pointing. We each had three, so we’d have to recycle them as we went up. We’d already looped the wire through the little hoops on the ends. “They won’t dig into gold. You’ll have to climb up the concrete that’s in-between the golden elevator shaft and the metal support beam, and you’ll wanna be careful you not diggin’ into any wires when you do it. Understand?”

I nodded. “Um … thank you, Virginia.”

“Don’t thank me, motherfucker. You earned this by killin’ Keith Smith. Maybe the next thing you could do for me is kill big old daddy Andalaf, then I could really make some moves up in the world,” she said, laughing. “My girls will be out in the cracked-up yard watchin’ your back until you up quite a ways. When you get through the maintenance part, you gonna be inside the fuckin’ buildin’. I don’t know what your plan is, but my guess is you gonna be immediately surrounded. It ain’t like they are in a peaceful spot right now. But they do think you died in Meek Alfrendil, so I guess you got that goin’ for you.”

I smiled at her. “You’ve already helped a lot, so I’m sorry to ask, but I haven’t slept in what I think has been three days. Maybe two, I’ve lost count. Do you have any lightning Sachi powder?”

“They didn’t give you none? I told ‘em to get you some. We got the best fuckin’ dealer in town, man. It’s fucking unlikely that … hold on. REGGIE!”

Reggie’s aggravated nose made it into the foyer before the rest of his body.

“You fuckin’ take their shit, Reggie?” Virginia demanded.

Reggie shook his head but sniffed loudly, and his nose twitched a bit. Dead giveaway. I sniffed as well in response to seeing Reggie’s junkie twitch.

“God-damnit, Reggie. Fucking again? Stuart, please escort Reginald to the fuckin’ dungeons so he can dry out. Give me the rest of it, Reggie.”

Reggie wouldn’t meet Virginia’s eyes.

“Reggie, you don’t—I’m fuckin’ done with you. For real this time, motherfucker. Give me the fuckin’ Sachi.”

Reggie pulled out four gems and handed them to Virginia; all the light-yellow lightning invested Sachi gems. She kept her hand out, and like an ashamed dog, he kept his face down while he pulled out a bag of powder the same color as the gems.

“Aight, Stu. Take the motherfucker. Reggie, you better think ‘bout what you really want while you in those fuckin’ dungeons, man. Better think hard. Here you go, Nin,” Virginia said, keeping her eyebrows raised at the passing Reggie while she handed me the gems and the bag of powder. She turned her gaze on me, and I could see how she’d gotten so far in the underground of Meek Onfidlack. She almost made me feel ashamed for holding the shit.

“You should think about gettin’ off that shit before you end up like Reg,” she said.

“I only use it for practical matters, like staying awake and tapping Sachi gems,” I said.

Virginia held a straight face for a moment, then let out a bit of a laugh. “Uh-huh. Don’t we all?”

“Don’t we all what?” I said.

“Nothin’. Well, I think it goes without sayin’, but if I hear y’all snitched on me for helpin’ you, I’m not gonna let you die in my mind so easily as Andalaf did. I won’t be satisfied until I watch a fast-blinkin’ Sachibomb go off on your fuckin’ chests.”

“Noted,” I said.

Hinote’s mouth twitched, but he managed to stay silent.

“Aight, Chris will show you to the support beam. Good luck, y’all!” Virginia said, and we followed Chris out. I saw that Chris … had a very large swallow-apple.

I smiled to myself and said, “Thanks,” turning to Virginia and waving. She waved back, and Chris shut the door behind us.

We went outside onto the golden front porch with the view of my wonderful landscaping job.

“If you’ll follow me,” Chris said, gesturing a long arm to our left where the porch area went on for a bit, then turned to wrap around the house. There were many plastic plants along the golden path, and I thought they were gaudy, so I gave Shun a look.

“What?”

“The fake plants.”

“What about them?”

“Well, if you live in a mansion, a golden mansion, and if you need plants for decoration, get the real stuff.”

“I think that the fake plants suit this mansion’s purposes well,” Shun said, and we turned left, following Chris to the side of the mansion.

“I get it,” Hinote said gruffly from behind me.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, man. Fuck this plastic shit. You makin’ the money off all these people, get some real fuckin’ plants.”

“Yes,” I said.

“Nin, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard you speak so passionately about anything else,” Shun said.

“I’ve been plenty passionate about other things.”

“Like?”

I paused to think. “Asahi. Chudo for a time. You.”

“Don’t,” she said.

“It’s true. When I thought I lost you—”

“Nin—”

“No, Shun, I went crazy. When I think about things I’m living for, my list was always short, but now it’s down to two things.”

I didn’t tell her about the new person that had been added to my list against my will. I didn’t even admit it fully to myself at that moment.

“And what’s the second one, then? Assuming you mean I’m one.”

“You know what it is.”

“No. I don’t. Enlighten me.”

I breathed out a heavy sigh. My skin turned to goose flesh. “Him,” I said. Even coming close to saying his name in the same conversation as Shun or Asahi made my stomach clench up, and for a moment, I forgot we were trying to save Ai, and I wanted to leave everyone behind to go and find Morfran, wherever he was, thinking he was some kind of gift from God. Or that he was God.

“Ah, yes. On my list as well,” Shun said, jumping up to the overhanging roof after Chris. Her mood had shifted, gone sour, and I wasn’t sure what I’d said wrong.

It was easy to reach the roof, and we pulled ourselves up, Hinote only struggling slightly with his bulk.

The mansion’s roof was tiled in gold, and I wondered how much the whole thing would have been worth before the drilling started and then the Sachi wars. It was probably built before then and was an even more impressive sight. It was more of a representation of wealth, a kind of association without any actual money behind it. Sachi is the money, Sachi is the life force, Sachi is the air I breathe. It’s my medicine and my power.

In the middle of the slanted roof was the golden elevator shaft that went all the way to the Upper-Plateau.

“Just thought of somethin’,” Hinote said. “Well, a couple things.”

“Ok,” I said.

“What?” Shun said.

“Fuck you, Nin. You a cold motherfucker.”

“It’s the Sachi. I can’t be blamed.”

“Maybe you should quit like Virginia said,” Hinote said.

“You don’t want me to quit. I’d be useless,” I said, approaching the golden shaft. The elevator ran straight up and down inside of this golden tube, delivering Andalaf men and women to the mansion where they could get premium service from the slaves. But that was going to change now? Or so Virginia said. I wondered what Andalaf would have to say about that. He probably wouldn’t let it happen is my guess.

“You ain’t useless now?” Hinote said.

I looked at the big man. “Kidding,” he said, smiling and backing away slightly. “No. Virginia said Andalaf thinks we are dead. But Ai traded herself in so the Jonnys would spare us.”

“Shit,” I said.

“So they know. And they have our names,” Shun said.

Chris cleared his throat, making his swallow-apple bob. I thought of how strange this particular fetish of Virginia’s truly was as he said, “This is it. Back there is the metal piece, which is gold, and in the middle is the concrete support. That’s what Virginia said you needed?”

“No need to be bitchy, Chris,” I said, activating the Sachi in my climbing hook with the button on the side. It glowed with faint yellow veins, and I drove it into the side of the pillar. It went straight in.

Hinote laughed behind me. I threw another Sachihook into the concrete above my last. I hooked the wire in through the metal carabiner loops near the handles of the two hooks, then wrapped the wire through the metal loops on my belt, attaching them with another carabiner. I handed the slack to Hinote, who handed the rest to Shun.

“Hook it through your belts and—”

“I know. I saw what you did,” Hinote said, struggling with his wire. Shun shared a look with me.

“If you could say it for my sake, then?” she said.

“Through the belt loops, then to the next person behind you. In your case, Shun, there will be no one behind you. Attach your hooks to the wire as you go, taking out the bottom hook when you pass through them. Call out if we start moving too fast for you.”

“Got it,” Shun said.

“And keep your Sachigrapples somewhere where you can easily access them should you fall. If you slip, they should work just as well at penetrating the walls as your hooks do. Did you see the button on the hooks?” I said.

Shun turned her hook over and then nodded. Hinote was having more trouble. I struggled to keep my face straight, and so did Shun. Hinote caught us and threw his hooks down in frustration.

“Look, I don’t fuckin’—”

“Hinote, it’s alright. It’s scary. I don’t want to do it this way, but as we said, it’s the fastest way, and the—”

“The most discreet. I know. I just… fuck. That’s a long way up.”

“I know. The wire will keep us on, though. You can also hook your belt onto the carabiner loops on the hooks until you grab the last hook or need to set a new one,” I said.

“How do you know all this shit?” Hinote asked.

“I climbed a mountainside with Morfran like this. He … enjoyed it,” I said.

“Why ain’t you scared?” Hinote asked Shun.

“Because I’m not chicken shit,” Shun said.

We all laughed, and I climbed up to the second hook and set my third up above. I leaned down and pressed the release on the bottom hook, pulling its teeth back in and sliding it out of the cement. I repeated the process, and Hinote followed me slowly, but he did fine once he got used to it. Shun followed him with no trouble at all.

Halfway up, Hinote looked down. He fell from his hooks and strained to hold onto something, then grabbed his set hook in the cement as he fell past but missed.

“Hinote!” Shun screamed. The wire caught his bulk and it swung him up against the cement pillar. He grunted, and in his panic, scrambling to move, to save himself, to do something, he detached his belt loop from the wire connecting him to the hooks.

He fell toward Meek Onfidlack, toward the golden mansion below.