“Well….,

Another day at work,

Amirite?” Pinoki jokes, now that we are back safely in the unholy city,

Karina frowns her bloodied face disapprovingly

“Give me your mask Kage” she whispers, as the other member’s approach

“Boss!” Tori exclaims what happened,

“Did you have to deal with those two?” she says observing our bruises,

“We had a little trouble with some, err, guards,” Karina’s voce sounding distorted once more,

“It was nothing,

But umm, for now, I don’t want anyone going topside for a while”

“Are you sure, boss?

You know our business is reliant on our frequent trips,”

“Look,” Karina says tiredly, “I need to rest,

“You two,” she turns to Pinoki and I,

“You know where to find me, we’ll discuss this later…”

“……Sooo,” Pinoki quips awkwardly, at my bloodied face

“You want some ice on that?”

****

“Aww aww aww aww!” Zinnia squeals

“Stop acting like its hurting,” Lyra scolds, arms folded angrily waiting for me to be treated,

“I can’t believe you fought them without me, where’s that deceitful Pinoki gone?

Said you were simply going to get some magic stones and get out,

What even happened up there?

“Well-,”I start

“-And I can’t believe you had the audacity to come crawling here all bloody and battered expecting free health care after constantly stalling to help me reclaim my city,

But you gladly go up to help steal from!’

“Your over reacting Lyra, you very well know that”-

A door barges open as Karina storms into the room,

“Look who finally decided to leave that house,” Lyra sneers,

“Fancy seeing you here,”

“The magic stones you have, give them,” she demands ignoring Lyra

I give the stones Pinoki handed me earlier,

Absorbing It Karina moans and slumps into a chair,

“Karina, are you okay?” Zinnia questions

Lyra watches on bewilderedly

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“Get out,” Karina says dryly

“Huh?”

“The two of you go, I need to speak with Kage alone,”

“Who do you think you are!?” Lyra clearly offended,

“You can’t just barge into someone else’s home and make demands like that!

How about you leave!”

“Get out,” Karina repeats absorbing a second stone, her eyes glowing sky blue,

“Don’t make say it a third time,”

“How about no, then,” Lyra challenges

“Maybe we should go for a walk Lyra?” Zinnia implores

“Feel free to go by yourself then, I’ll be here hearing what is so important that Karina has to speak to my ally, Kage, about,”

“Huhh,” Karina shrugs,

“Get,

Out!”

Her voice creating a sonic blast knocking Lyra across the room,

“You bitch! Lyra picks herself up,

“I’ll kill you!”

A cold wind begins to build around Lyra,

I don’t even hear as Karina soundlessly hops to her feet and leaps Lyra,

Grabbing the back of her head she slams it down hard into a table,

The loud thud reverberating throughout the house,

“Take her and go,” Karina instructs Zinnia to the unconscious girl on the floor

Slumping back into a chair she absorbs yet another stone,

“Would you put that bow away,” I’m not going to fight you,

“Sit,” she points to a chair besides hers,

“Just being on my guard,” I say retracting the bow

“Don’t know how much I can trust you,”

“Ha! funny coming from an outsider, I could say the same of you”

“What do you want from me?” I ask sitting beside her,

“I thought you could hear everything that happens here, what could I possibly tell you?”

Karina does not reply, her eyes still glowing as she disassociates,

“I don’t hate her you know she says dazedly, I mean I used to, but that was because she looks like him,”

“Are you talking about Lyra?”

“My father worked so hard to get us in a good position with the royal government, all for what to be murdered?” Karina continues,

I hated that she looked like him, that she shared the same blood as him,

Till one day I thought if I hate someone who killed my family, that I barely knew, so much,

Then how does she feel? he killed her parents too, difference is she was related to him,

Her own flesh and blood.

By the time I realized, it was too late she already resented me as much as I did her, every time I ever tried to apologize or show her, I care, we just fight and hate each other more.”

Karina sighs going quiet, we stay silent like that for minutes,

“Why tell me this?” I break the silence,

“Why not, maybe because I feel like you’re not going to be alive for much longer,

Or maybe it’s that you’re the first person I’ve met that isn’t addicted to something,”

“Like you?” I gesture to the magic stones,

“No, like everyone here. Haven’t you noticed?

Everybody is hooked on something, the difference between what I do and what they do is that I don’t hide it, I embrace it, created a place where ppl could fall into their desires without care,

Tell me Kage, what are you addicted to?”

“I don’t know, I don’t have an addiction,”

“Sex, money, drugs, attention, I can give you all,” Karina’s voice becomes hypnotic sounding

“What is it? Or do you feel at all?

Back up there when that person was attacking us, I saw your face, you didn’t seem that fazed by it, no fear, no despair,

But yet you were running from him, why?”

“Because I knew I had to escape,” I reply entranced by her words,

“I do feel them, fear, despair, pain, I feel them all”,

“Then what takes away those feelings Kage,”

“I don’t know,”

“What makes them stop is what you’ll be addicted that’s why I say everyone has something to be addicted to,

Now, tell me why that man wanted to kill you back there?” she changes the topic

“Because I overheard them, he was talking to someone called Flint,”

“The King? bastard is still alive huh,” Karina rasps

“I think he’s the head priest currently,”

“Anyway,” I continue, “the other person, told him that the enlightenment was soon, and everyone down here as well as there will become one with God, whatever that may mean,”

“My guess is everyone become dedicated permanently,” Karina yawns,

“Look Kage that sounds bad and all but, honestly let them, we can’t keep living down here forever, it was inevitable,”

She gets up, “I thought you would have something more sinister to tell me, that’s why I came here in the first place, now I know it wasn’t that serious,”

“What do you mean not that serious? everything you’re fighting for, ran for, hid her for? It’ll mean nothing.” I get agitated by the girl’s response,

“You Survived just to give up?”

“Look, Kage, in case you haven’t noticed, we already gave up, what do you think,

We were planning to build ourselves a nice little kingdom down here?

Have children who will never see the day’s sky?

The plan was to always die peacefully here,

Then again you can be like Lyra, and die fighting, that’s why I gave her the key, we have to use temporary seals to come and go because I gave her the ticket to her own downfall,

You’re lucky you are an outsider Kage you don’t have to share our fate,

Here,” she throws me the remainder of the magic stones, “keep them,

I’ll be taking my leave.”