It took Jayson’s eyes a moment to adjust as he entered the koble’s cabin.

“Wait here,” the koble said. “Don’t. Touch. Anything.” The cabin door swung shut once more.

A small hatched window at the back of the room let in a few shafts of light, and dust motes danced in their wake. The room smelled of wood and oil. It was small, but seemed stuffed with a myriad curios from floor to ceiling. Listing shelves covered the walls, with ranks of strange objects tightly arranged and penned in by thin and crooked wire rails. Jayson’s eyes traced over the shelves, each object more mysterious and intriguing than the last.

One shelf was almost entirely filled with jars containing what looked like body parts. An eye, an ear, a withered hand, each of them suspended stock still in clear liquid. At the end of that shelf was a ship in a bottle, which held his attention for a while due to how real the vessel seemed. It almost appeared to be careening from side to side, sails billowing in the wind. Above these, was a small collection of daggers, and above that, something that most resembled a shotgun was mounted, but with a golden web-like pattern where the grip and trigger should have been.

Koble creations? Jayson hadn’t seen anything like any of these before. He wondered if this one koble had created all of these.

The centre of the room was dominated by a low wooden table. More curios were scattered across it: an iridescent black gauntlet, a tiny vase with a single blue flower poking out, a porcelain teacup with a spoon, a greenfeather pen resting in a pot of dark scarlet ink. The gauntlet was clearly koblin in design - symmetrical, a second thumb where the little finger would otherwise be. Most compelling of all, however, was the large, weathered parchment rolled out in the centre of the table. A map. The wood creaked as he walked towards it.

The islands on the map were sketched in dark grey, and the whole map was divided into two sections by a thick blue line. Each island was undetailed, but labelled with various glyphs and numerals. As he studied it, Jayson also noticed more symbols, marked here and there in blue and red on the map. He frowned. The blue line in the centre must be the Pearl Wall. Did that mean the Upper Isles were on this as well? He had never seen a complete map of TreArkh before.

Jayson leaned forward and traced a finger over the parchment. Pandaemonia, where the voice had transported him to, was the largest island of the Lower Isles, and hung lowest in the sky. Which would mean right now, the ship was flying somewhere around -

The door slammed closed behind him making him jump.

“I told you not to touch anything,” the koble said, glaring at him.

“I didn’t,” said Jayson. “I mean… I guess I did. Sorry. I’ve never seen a map like this before.”

The koble sniffed, and limped past him to kneel on the floor behind the low table. She motioned for him to do the same. He dropped into a cross legged position. The koble dropped a heavy looking book on the table and began turning through its pages.

Jayson would have guessed the koble was middle-aged from her manner, though her face still had a youthful quality about it. Of course, no-one on TreArkh grew older, so age had become sort of meaningless. Everyone remained exactly the same, coming back after every death with the same body and mind, with only a shaky memory of their previous lives.

Jayson wondered idly if everyone on TreArkh recurred at the age at which they had died in the Life Before. If that was true, he must have died pretty young.

The koble stopped riffling through the book and began to trace through a page with a finger. She had the same downy hair and large furry rounded ears common to her kind. Kobles reminded Jayson of mice, small and sharp-eyed. Her hair was tied up in a bun with a couple of needles thrust into it.

She looked up from the book and stared at him.

“What d-” he began.

“Quiet,” she said. She was looking at him with such intensity, it almost felt she was looking through him.

“Where did you get that coat?” she asked.

“Uh, I was given it,” Jayson said slowly. “By a friend.”

“Eljay,” the koble said. Jayson faltered for a moment.

“You… you knew Eljay?”

“I know him,” she replied. Jayson cursed himself internally for the slip.

“And it looks like you know him too. You’re wearing his coat and using his weapons. They look like the real thing to me. So...” She put her hands on the table and leaned forward. “Where is he?”

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Jayson paused. He wasn’t sure what to say.

“Well?”

“He’s… gone. I don’t know where he went,” he replied honestly.

The koble’s eyes narrowed.

“You know something!” she said, slamming her hands on the table.

“I don’t. I -”

In the blink of an eye, something closed around his throat. The black gauntlet had flown at him in a flash, lifting him off the floor by the neck.

“You know something” she repeated calmly, her hand reaching towards him. The runes on her bracelet were glowing. “You’ll tell me everything.”

“I- I can’t,” he managed, despite the gauntlet’s constriction. “I promised him. He made me promise. I swear it!”

The gauntlet clutched his throat a tighter, choking him, then released, dropping him to the floor. It floated back to the desk and dropped with a clank. Jayson coughed and rubbed at his neck.

The koble leaned back again.

“A promise?” she said, lowering her hand. The bracelet dimmed. “He gave you the coat?”

Jayson nodded.

“Along with,” she gestured at the amulets tied to his hands. “Those?”

“He did.”

“So what happened to him? Where is he?”

“I can’t, I’m sorry.” Jayson shook his head. “I can’t tell you that. I made a promise. And I keep my promises.”

"Then the angels have him?"

"I- I don't know. I really don't know where he is"

The koble sighed.

“So he’s gone, and you can’t tell me where he’s gone, or how, or why. Something happened to him but you can't tell me what. Can you at least tell me when he will return from wherever he went?”

“I’m sorry,” said Jayson. “I don’t know when he’s coming back.”

The koble closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was quiet long enough that Jayson considered saying something just to break the silence. Her eyes snapped open.

“We’ve met before. You don’t remember?”

Jayson was completely confused. He’d made friends with several kobles living in Mekha, but he was pretty sure he’d remember if he’d met this one before. He rubbed at his sore neck. She was fairly memorable.

He shook his head.

"Of course, if you've died much since then, you might forget," she said quietly.

They sat there in silence for a bit. The koble seemed deep in thought.

“You look different,” she said finally. “Your face looks… older. How is that?”

Jayson wasn’t sure how to reply to that. He’d already wondered about that, though he didn’t understand it. He felt sure he'd grown a little taller, a little broader in the last few years. Unlike everyone else on TreArkh, he seemed to be growing older as time passed.

“Well people keep beating me up, so I'm sure that doesn't help,” he said, still rubbing his neck.

The koble’s grim expression dropped like a mask. Unepectedly, she smiled. “I apologise for hurting you. We… we have to be careful. The angels' eyes are everywhere." She tapped her fingers in thought. "I shouldn't be surprised you can't tell me anything of any use. Everyone has questions on TreArkh, and no one has any answers. That’s how it’s always been. If Eljay swore you to secrecy...” She stood up, took her crutch and limped around the table. “Well, I was hoping Eljay himself had returned, but I guess you’ll have to do. What's your name?”

“Uh, that’s alright,” he replied, holding out a hand. “My name’s Jayson.”

“Jayson,” she said. "Yes, I remember now." The gauntlet rose, and Jayson flinched a little. It took his hand and shook it. “I’m Thimble.”

The gauntlet released his hand and floated back to the table. Thimble limped the door to the cabin, peering outside for a moment.

“Well then, Jayson,” she said, returning to the desk. “I've been waiting for Eljay to return and tell me the plan. But now it looks like I have to put my trust in you instead. So, what’s the next step?”

Jayson raised an eyebrow. “Uh, next step? Sorry, I don’t even know about the first step.”

Thimble frowned. “You don’t know anything? What Eljay did? What we are trying to do?”

Jayson shook his head.

"How can you not know? Don't you live on Pandaemonia?"

“No. I've been staying on Mekha.”

Mekha, the home island of the kobles. His home for the past three years. His mind wandered back to that small workshop in the koble city, where, beneath the garage, was a small room that he had called his own. He'd snuck away from time to time, but only to explore the city. He hadn't left the island in all the time he'd lived there.

“You're from Mekha?”

He nodded.

"So how did you end up falling out of Hell?"

Jayson sighed. Might as well tell her everything at this point.

"I was sent there. There was this... voice. It plucked me out of Mekha and it told me I have to go to the Tower. The Tower at the end of Hell."

"The Tyrant's Tower," Thimble whispered. She frowned. "Why?"

"To save people. People I care about. People I lost.”

“Is Eljay one of these people?”

Jayson swallowed. “I think so. I think I can bring him back.”

Thimble chewed her thumb.

“Did the voice say anything else?”

Jayson tried to remember. It wasn’t easy after getting knocked around so much.

“It told me I have to get to the Tower. The Tower at the end of Hell. And it said it’s time to finish what has been started."

"Finish what has been started? That would mean...” Her eyes narrowed. “And this voice, you're sure it wasn't Eljay?"

"I'm pretty sure. Unless he really didn't want me to know it was him."

"Well, whoever this voice is, it knows what we are trying to do. I would hazard it is on our side."

On what side of what conflict, Jayson wondered.

Thimble rubbed at her brow once more. “Since Eljay’s not here, and you're not sure what you're doing, I suppose I may as well be in charge. So I want you to listen very carefully and do exactly as I say.”

"As long as it doesn't involve me getting beaten up again," said Jayson.

“I can’t promise that,” she said. “This world is at war. Gears are in motion. And, like it or not, you're a part of this now. This 'voice' could have chosen anyone on TreArkh. It chose you for a reason. Perhaps because you're the only one who knows where Eljay went. It says it wants you to finish what Eljay started, and that can only mean one thing."

“Uh, and what's that exactly?”

"What Eljay was trying to do." Thimble reached forward and flipped the map around 180 degrees. “What we’ve all been trying to do for a thousand years. We’re going to turn this world upside down. We're going to bring about the Cascade.”