EPISODE XXI

Crisis of Faith

Three people lived inside the ORHI building; Irene, Jenny, and Coleus. That said, Jenny only slept there rarely, and often not even in the building, choosing instead to rest in one of the trees outside. Coleus always slept inside, but her “bed” was a large bush with giant leaves she wrapped herself in like a cocoon every night. She’d been sleeping a lot more than usual, by her own admission, and she wasn’t entirely sure why.

Irene was the only one with a normal bed, and this bed was in a room behind the receptionist’s desk. She had to admit, it was much better than the couch. However, she still had difficulty sleeping, entirely due to the knowledge that there were horrific things locked in the basement.

She couldn’t even hear any of them. Had she not known they were there, nothing would have kept her awake. But she did know. And as such, the few nights she had spent here had been fitful ones. She had thought they were getting better, but this particular night had been the worst by far. Fitful moments of sleep less than an hour long, to the point at which she was now more angry and grumpy than afraid, but that also kept her from sleeping.

She glanced at the clock.

7 AM.

It was time to get up.

Irene let out a massive groan and rammed her face into the pillow. It was one of the most comfortable pillows in existence and it made her feel so welcome. But she was too agitated. Too grumpy. Too twitchy.

“Irene…?”

Irene sat up. “Orville, didn’t your mother ever teach you not to randomly appear in girls’ bedrooms?”

Orville looked confused. “Why would she? I couldn’t appear i—oh. OH. I’m so—” He was gone, leaving her memory mid-sentence.

Irene groggily got up and got dressed. The only part of her old outfit she still wore these days was her large hat, the rest was replaced with Yeshalo-style dress, which in this case was a blue long-sleeve shirt, pants, and a translucent black skirt overtop of the pants.

She walked out of her room and into the Receptionist’s desk. Orville was sitting on a chair on the other side, looking extremely awkward. She ignored him and went to the coffee machine that was built into the wall, surrounded by various smooth blue vines that apparently kept the electricity from shorting out. Irene didn’t know how and hadn’t bothered to ask Coleus about it. She filled her cup with the blackest coffee the machine could generate and downed it all in a few massive swallows.

Then she did it again with the second cup, barely stopping to breathe in the middle.

After she filled it a third time she opted not to down it like a shot and simply sat down in her chair and fixed Orville with a purposefully fake smile. “How can I help you today?”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t thinking…”

“Amazingly, I’m so fed up with everything that you aren’t even making the list right now,” Irene grumbled, dropping her smile as she rammed her forehead into the desk. “Why can’t coffee kick in instantly…?”

“That would probably be unsafe.”

“I need to cook breakfast…” Irene whined. “Coleus will be waiting for it…”

“Actually, Jenny’s currently cooking in the kitchen.”

Irene suddenly stood bolt upright. “...That kid can cook?”

“I haven’t seen any results yet, and I am doubtful…”

“Maybe it’ll wake me up then…”

Coleus walked in a side door, hand to a mouth that was stuck in a comically long yawn. After she was finished she had to take in a large breath. “Okay, alarm clocks, uh… well they work…” She rubbed her eyes and gave Irene a big smile. “Good morning!”

Irene didn’t even attempt to shift her glowering expression.

“Oh, my, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.”

“Tell me about it.”

Coleus tilted her head. “I think I can get some sleep-inducing flowers for you, though relying on them probably isn’t healthy…”

“I just… need to get used to it… it’ll…”

“You said it was getting butter, right?”

Irene didn’t even register the pun. “Yeah. Until last night. Now I don’t know.”

“And here I am getting too much sleep.” Coleus shook her head. “What strange prob-lemons we have…”

“Concentrated lemon juice. That might do the trick.” Irene stood up and walked over to the mini-fridge, opening it to find… nothing.

“...Didn’t we stock that yesterday?” Coleus asked.

“Yes…” Irene said.

“There wasn’t any lemon anything in there, though,” Orville offered.

“So this was doubly pointless. Yay.” Irene slammed the door shut and slumped back down.

“...Shouldn’t we figure out where the food went?” Coleus asked.

“Orville’s already on it. Probably.” Irene let out a yawn.

“Oh, he was here? Huh.” Coleus rubbed the back of her head a lot. “He doesn’t show up for me very often…”

“I’m his go-to.”

“Oh, whew, and here I was thinking he didn’t like me, but no, he just…” Coleus’ already big eyes widened even further. “Oh. Oh my gosh. That makes so much sense…”

Irene raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“...Um… I don’t think I should be… uh…”

“Jenny took it all,” Orville said as he appeared in Irene’s perceptions.

Irene twitched. “What exactly is she making in there?”

“Pancakes!” Jenny said, suddenly charging through the doors with a tray filled to the brim with pancakes. She set them down on the receptionist’s desk with so much force that a few pancakes went flying. Coleus caught one of them with her mouth.

Irene stared at the pancakes. Even with her addled brain and perpetual grumpiness, she could put two and two together. “...You don’t need anything from the mini-fridge to make pancakes…”

Jenny kept smiling. “Don’t worry about it, just enjoy your breakfast! Fresh and piping hot bonafide Jenny-made pancakes!”

“Jenny, where’s my seltzer water?”

“Well. Uh. You see…” Jenny started twiddling her thumbs.

“Jenny…”

“The toaster oven burnt me so I punched it! There!” She put her head in her hands and refused to look anyone in the eyes.

Irene blinked. “How…”

“Fist,” Jenny said without looking up. “Toaster oven. Destroyed.”

Coleus sighed and made an attempt at speaking without letting go of the pancake she was munching on like some kind of rabbit. “Mmf puff ‘a oh th’ liff.”

Irene continued to stare at Jenny. “I mean, that’s not what confused me. What confused me is why that explains what happened to all my food and… why did you care about being burnt anyway?”

Jenny groaned. “Things went wrong. Things went… very wrong. Just because I can ignore pain doesn’t mean my fingers won’t stop working if they get too hot! And then I’ll drop all the food and cause a fire and the cans will explode and…” Jenny looked to her side, presumably to something Orville had said. She glared at him. “None of your business. …No, don’t go look, I… …dangit.” She put her head in her hands once more. “Why can’t we cook things on a campfire? I’m good at that. Excellent, even. Survival cuisine, that’s me! But noooo, can’t have a campfire inside that’s a fire hazard.”

“...I can teach you to cook, you know,” Irene said. “Anyone can learn.”

“I should already know! I’m Jenny!”

“You don’t strike me as the type to want to learn how to do it.”

“...Eh?”

“Too impatient.”

Coleus nodded. “She’s got you there.”

“Surely sometime in my long life I learned to cook… somewhere…” Jenny furrowed her brow. “I can make a killer s’more. And flame-grilled fish. And… Okay fine I’ll take you up on your offer.”

This improved Irene’s mood markedly, finally bringing a smile to her face. “Good. The culinary delights will soon be at your gloved fingertips. First, though…” She gingerly placed her hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “One rule we need to establish.”

“What?”

Irene tightened her grip down on Jenny’s shoulder pressure point. “Don’t take everything out of the fridge again. Ever.”

Jenny blinked. “...This feels weird. It’s supposed to really hurt, right?”

Irene groaned, releasing Jenny and flopping back into her chair. “I’m a hopeless weakling.”

“You’re not hopeless!” Coleus said.

“Yeah! Just weak!” Jenny added.

Coleus shoved Jenny off her chair.

Orville reappeared. “Even looking back over the memory, I have no idea what Jenny was trying to make. It was… I can’t even describe it, she almost seemed to be throwing things in at random. She spent a lot of time cleaning up her mess. The entire kitchen looked like a warzone but now it’s sparkling, quite impressive.”

“At least she knows how to clean,” Irene said.

“I remember learning that! Worked as a maid for a while!” Jenny said, jumping back onto her chair as though nothing had happened. “Not that I remember what city that was in, but I was a maid! The dirt was my enemy and the sparkle was my reward! Take that, dirt!”

“Uh-huh…”

And so breakfast continued with two grumpy people, one person trying her absolute hardest not to be grumpy or depressing, and Orville. As they ate and talked with each other, their moods slowly improved. The caffeine kicked in, the dark thoughts of the night pushed away, and embarrassing failures forgotten, replaced with idle chatter and what Amaris would have identified as “antics.”

“It’s… it’s going to be fine,” Coleus said, wiping a tear from her eye, but smiling brightly nonetheless.

Irene gave Coleus a hard look. “You… sure?”

“I think I… finally believe that, now, just… sitting here with you two when you’ve clearly woken up grumpy. The hallmarks of a bad day. But… everything’s still fine. Life goes on. Breakfast is break-fast.” Coleus glanced to the left at Orville. “What do you mean that’s not even a pun?”

Jenny giggled. “Hey, if I’ve learned anything, it’s that life goes on no matter what.”

Irene nodded slowly. “Yes… I guess it does. Until it doesn’t. When a dark creature comes out of the woodwork in the middle of the night and eats you up.”

“I’m immune to that.”

“What if the acid was so strong you couldn’t reform fast enough. What then?”

“Well… actually this happened before, I waited until I went out the other end. Don’t recommend.”

Irene snorted with a mixture of a gag and a laugh. “Jenny! At breakfast?”

“What? You’re the one who brought up being eaten!”

“Yes, but, there’s like… a line!”

“Hmm… line… lime…” Coleus furrowed her brow. “There’s gotta be something there…”

“Quick, change the topic before she figures it out!” Jenny called.

“Too late! My goals have already ali—”

There was suddenly a knock at the door.

“A customer!?” Jenny blurted, almost falling out of her chair.

“We aren’t even open yet…” Irene said, standing up and walking to the front doors. Through the big windows she could pretty easily see the form of a man on the other side in the robes of a Keeper. He was a human with a very thick brown beard…

Irene recognized him.

She opened the door. “Keeper Harold?”

“Oh no…” Keeper Harold said, clearly pained that he was recognized.

“H-hey, no, it’s fine, you can come in, j-just surprised to see you is all…” Irene led him inside. “We aren’t exactly open yet so forgive the mess, but uh…”

“So this is the Keeper Harold Amaris talks about so much…” Jenny said, tilting her head to the side. “...You really do look boring.”

“I… what?” Keeper Harold stamered.

“Jenny! Be nice! He’s a guest!” Coleus huffed. “And… possible customer?”

“I… yes, I saw Scarlet’s story on you and…” he glanced nervously at Coleus.

Coleus sighed, leaving the room without so much as another word.

“You know, she doesn’t bite,” Jenny said. “...Unless you’re a pancake.”

“I just…” Keeper Harold sat down, shaking his head. “There’s so much going on…”

“In her world too.”

Irene sat down in her receptionist’s seat and tried to look professional despite sitting behind several stacks of pancakes. “So, Keeper Harold… what can we do for you today?”

“I’m being haunted by gh-gh-gh-ghosts!”

“Oh?” Both Jenny and Irene raised their eyebrows in unison.

“I knew it, you don’t believe me… this was a bad idea…”

“What kind?” Jenny asked.

“Eh?”

“We talking white ghosts that look like floating sheets, horrid images of dead people, completely invisible ones, the glowing on—”

“Invisible! Invisible!”

“Oooooh, fun, those are the hardest to punch!”

Irene scrambled, taking out a notebook and pen from a nearby drawer. “N-now Keeper Harold, we’ll need to know everything you can tell us if we’re going to help you. When did this all start?”

“Two weeks ago the writing started to appear…”

~~~

Amaris stood at the back doors of Harold’s Sanctuary.

She was supposed to be here. She was told to be here. She’d technically been hired to be here. At the back doors that no one was ever allowed in and she had been told so, so many times as a child never to go over here. It was for the Keepers only, not for little children like her to run amok.

“You actually look scared,” Jenny noted with surprise. “It’s just a ghost.”

“If that,” Amaris said. “But no, it’s not that. I’m just reliving moments of being shouted at for being too curious.”

“That seems backward.”

“Children are known to destroy things,” Vayvaresi said from Amaris’ feet. It was just the three of them today—four if Pitch was counted, though as he was currently sleeping that standpoint was dubious at best.

“I was…” Amaris paused. “Okay, I’m coordinated now, but I could be kind of an oaf before. But it wasn’t just me, it was all kids. Just made us want to investigate more and that led to even more shouting…” she shivered. “I almost never think about that anymore.”

“And it’s all coming flooding back,” Vayvaresi observed.

“Yes. All of it. I feel kind of silly. It’s just a bunch of old people in robes they’re not sca—”

“AMARIS KELVIN!”

Amaris let out a scream and hid behind Jenny.

The source of the voice had been a very old, very mangy-looking gray cat in Keeper’s robes. His face sagged so much his eyes weren’t even visible under the folds of his brow. A permanent scowl revealed a mouth with only about half the teeth that belonged in it.

“What are you doing here!? Have you learned nothing!?”

“I’m s-supposed to be here, Keeper Golino Sir,” Amaris managed, avoiding even looking at the cat’s face.

“You? Supposed to be here!? It looks like you need remedial training on telling the truth as well! Shameful!”

“L-look, Keeper Harol—” Amaris stammered.

“I don’t want to hear it!”

“My goodness Amaris, you’ve become Irene,” Jenny said, blinking in disbelief. “He’s just a cat.”

“Just a cat!? I don’t know who you are, young lady but you better learn to respect your elders!” Keeper Golino hissed at her.

Jenny just chuckled. “You don’t even know why that’s funny.”

“Where are your parents, insolent brat!?”

“Don’t have any.” Jenny put her hands on her hips. “What are you gonna do to me now, old sourpuss?”

Amaris gasped in shock.

“What? Seriously, what is he gonna do to me?”

“Jenny! You don’t j-just call him that to his face!”

“Why not?”

“W-well uh… it’s… uh…”

“It’s rude?” Vayvaresi offered.

The rage on Keeper Golino’s face somehow became even more intense the moment he realized it was Vayvaresi who was talking. “A Strider? What are you doing around here, trying to spy on us? Vandalize our Sanctuary? Steal our children?”

Vayvaresi shrunk back slightly. “I was unaware speaking was a crime…”

“Amaris I did not think you could stoop to such lows, I will be having a talk with your parents about… discipline.”

“No! No, there’s no need for that!” Amaris stammered.

“Clearly there is! You’re snooping around where you don’t belong with the worst company possible! A brat and a Strider! I knew you were too curious for your own good but I didn’t have you pegged as stupid. I can feel the corruption wafting off of these two!”

Vayvaresi cleared her throat. “ ‘It is for the weak and corrupted we sacrifice our own prestige.’ “

Amaris stared at her in horror. You did not quote Dia’s Word in opposition to Keeper Golino. It was suicide! It was…

“I don’t have to engage with the likes of y—”

Suddenly, the back door to the Sanctuary flew open, revealing Keeper Harold with bags under his eyes so large it was clear he hadn’t been sleeping recently.

“Oh thank you Dia,” Amaris gasped. “Keeper Harold, explain t—”

“Explain!?” Keeper Golino shouted. “What is there to explain? Harold, look, she’s let the curiosity get the better of her again and the company she keeps i—”

“They’re here by my invitation, Golino,” Harold said. “Remember what we talked about last month about your anger?”

Golino stammered. “Harold, you dare bring th—”

“ ‘Accept correction with a ready heart,’ “ Keeper Harold quoted half-heartedly, but it was enough to get Keeper Golino to shut up. He gestured at Amaris and the others. “Come with me.”

Amaris darted into the Sanctuary like she was running for her life. Jenny and Vayvaresi walked in at a much more leisurely pace, giving Amaris odd looks as they closed the door behind them.

Amaris let out a huge breath and slid to the ground.

“...Are you… okay?” Jenny asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Fine, fine,” Amaris said. “Just remembering cat saliva flying from sharp teeth inches from my face… crying for hours… losing lunch privileges…”

“Um… but can he like actually… do anything to you?” Jenny rubbed the back of her head.

“Well. Uh…” Amaris blushed. “No…”

“I am terribly sorry you’ve had to go through that,” Keeper Harold said with a nod of his head. “Keeper Golino is…” He decided it was best not to finish that sentence and put his hand to the bridge of his nose.

“You too?” Jenny stared at Keeper Harold in disbelief. “You’re his boss! He’s just an old cat! Fire him or something!”

Vayvaresi coughed. “Jenny, I don’t think it is our place to judge the way this Sanctuary runs itself.”

Jenny twitched. “...Fine. I’ll just let people stew in their problems then. Hmph.”

At this point, Amaris stood up. “He really can’t do anything to me, all of that was just… instinct.” She rubbed the back of her head. “Apparently, I had trauma even before I got cursed.”

“C-cursed?” Keeper Harold stammered.

“Cursed to be interesting, it’s why I’m part of ORHI.” Amaris tilted her head. “Did no one tell you that was why I was doing this?”

“Uh. Well.” Jenny tapped her fingers together. “I may not have mentioned a curse… Just that you had a way of getting involved in interesting things.”

“Jenny that’s a more complicated way of saying it, why’d you do that?”

Jenny opened her mouth, glanced at Keeper Harold, and shut it.

“Jenny…”

“Sorry, Jenny is in ‘can’t say anything nice’ mode, please come back later.”

Amaris sighed. “Sorry, Keeper Harold, we’re not getting to your problem. Ahem.” She stood up straight and put on a serious expression. “The three of us are here because you have a ghost problem. Jenny briefed me on the way here, but I want to hear it from you. What exactly has been going on?”

Keeper Harold took in a deep breath. “Two weeks ago, writing started to appear on the walls, written in blood. The deepest, darkest red blood I’ve ever seen…”

Amaris nodded. “Saying things like ‘you know what you did’ and ‘judgment is coming’ and ‘your days are numbered?’ if I remember right?”

Keeper Harold nodded as he started walking down a hallway, leading them along. His Sanctuary was a large one, so there were many halls that were well-decorated. There were many images of Dia’s triangle in different landscape settings made out of stained glass, though a few were of Dia’s smooth humanoid form with pupilless eyes. “Yes, that was all they said, at first. The blood was always dripping on the walls while the writing was there. I managed to get a few pictures of the more recent ones…” He took a handful of photographs out of his robes and handed them to Amaris.

She examined them with a critical eye, Vayvaresi joining her in the effort by standing on her backpack. The images were of decently high quality, showing well-lit walls of the Sanctuary, though sometimes the light came through stained glass making it somewhat hard to read the words on the wall. Every letter was scrawled with overly jagged lines of a blood-red coloration. It certainly looked like blood from the pictures. In the few pictures she had, “YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID” was repeated the most often, but there were other phrases. “SUFFER IN MADNESS,” “JUSTICE WILL COME WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT,” and “BEWARE EVERY SECOND DOOR” just to name a few.

“And here’s the wall where they appear most often,” Keeper Harold said. They were in a back room with a large window that allowed a great beam of sunlight to shine right on an empty wall. “There used to be a painting here but some kid got back here and knocked it over a few months ago, we haven’t fixed it. Making this the clearest wall nearby.”

Amaris ran her hands across the wall. It was completely bare and covered with a light coat of periwinkle paint. There was no sign of damage or tampering and definitely no sign of blood. “When was the last time you saw one here?”

“Yesterday.”

“Hmm… and no one else has seen them?”

“No. They said I was crazy until I got the pictures… but now they say it’s just pranks. Or the dark magic of the Strider come to doom us all.”

“Pretty hard to pull off a prank like this,” Amaris said, tilting her head to the side. “You can’t just unpaint a wall normally. As for the second one…” She shook her head. “Possible, but I don’t think so, unless you’ve personally upset a Strider.”

“The other Keepers are far more likely to have done that…”

“Hmm…” She tapped her foot on the ground. “Vayvaresi, got anything?”

Vayvaresi shook her head. “It feels like a perfectly normal wall. Not even anything lingering on it. If this was a real haunt I’d be able to sense something.”

“How does she…?” Keeper Harold began, but was unsure how to formulate his question.

“I am an ancient kitsune,” Vayvaresi said. “I have… some attunement to the more arcane nature of spirits.”

“So it’s not a ghost?”

“Unlikely. That doesn’t mean it’s not something else, though.”

“...Like what?”

“Let’s sit down to discuss ideas,” Amaris suggested.

With a nod, Keeper Harold led them to his office. For the office of a head Keeper in a large Sanctuary, it didn’t look all that special. There was a desk, a nice lamp, and a lot of books neatly stacked around the walls. There were no pictures of family or even any knick-knacks, the only frivolous thing was a potted cactus sitting in the window.

He nervously sat down. “They’ve appeared in here a few times… on the wall above the doorframe.”

Amaris glanced up and behind her. “There’s not much space there, probably a hassle to get the words right.” With that, she sat down. “Jenny, before I start going through this, thoughts?”

“Ghost or not, it’s clearly a haunting,” Jenny said. “Something’s trying to terrify Keeper Harold specifically. If we could figure out why, I might have a few thoughts about what kind of thing is doing this.”

Amaris nodded. “So, Keeper Harold, I don’t think this is a ‘normal’ occurrence, so you were right to come to us. To pull off a prank like this would be… quite difficult, and the lack of evidence of anything being written on the walls at all is very unusual.”

“I knew it…” Keeper Harold said.

“Now, there are two major possibilities—something from the Strider, and something that has been in Nuk all along. You might be surprised to learn that there are a lot of things we find that have always been here since long before the Strider arrived.”

Keeper Harold’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious…”

“We are. For instance, there are a lot of doorways that just appear in buildings that aren’t on any floor plans and lead to places that there are no records of building. It’s the most widespread mystery we’ve found.”

“...Should I avoid the door on the third floor?”

“They… I don’t know, they seem harmless?” Amaris rubbed the back of her head. “We’ve only personally visited a few but they don’t seem to do anything besides just be there and sometimes take you to places that don’t make physical sense. Regardless, my point is that there’s plenty of things in Nuk already, we don’t need to necessarily examine the Strider. In fact, I find it unlikely that the Striders are involved at all. As you know the Strider was…” Amaris paused. “Destroyed, eight days ago. Any Strider that had been targeting you would likely have changed behavior at that point, but you’ve detected no change at all.”

Keeper Harold shook his head. “The messages became more frequent a few days ago, but not when the Strider was taken.”

“So this means we’ve likely got something that’s been here all along and has a history. And, as it appears, specifically a history with you. But as far as you know you have no enemies?”

Keeper Harold shook his head. “That’s the weirdest part about it, the words seem obsessed with the idea that I know what I did, but I can’t recall anything at all!”

“Could be something you did in your childhood…?” Amaris suggested. “Doesn’t have to be recent.”

“When I was young, I went on a stealing phase, but it was never anything of value since I didn’t really understand value. Beyond that… there are those who object to my teachings, but they would hate any traditional Keeper in Yeshalo. I’m very careful not to broach any controversial topics.”

“...I noticed,” Amaris said, fighting the urge to yawn simply from thinking about the last message and meditation service. “Anyway, maybe you did something you forgot, or maybe they’re mistaking you for someone else.”

“Hauntings of actual ghosts can do that,” Jenny offered. “They mistake someone living for an ancestor and blame them for everything.”

“I hear my grandfather was a violent man, but I didn’t know him very well.” Keeper Harold frowned. “Do you think he did something?”

“Maybe,” Amaris said. “We’ll probably need to look into it, what was his name?”

“Archibald Harold.”

“Got it.”

“I’m not sure that will help the investigation,” Vayvaresi said. “After all, I sensed no ghosts or spirit or anything.”

“All sorts of things can haunt, ghosts are just the most common,” Jenny said. “You could have goblins.”

“...Goblins.” Vayvaresi raised an eyebrow. “Goblins with enough wherewithal to clean a wall spotless without leaving any signs that there had ever been anything on it?”

“Okay, I get the point, but it could be some kind of special monster or light being or something, okay? They can be cursed to haunt things. Or do it just for fun.”

“Which does leave open the possibility of magic prank,” Amaris pointed out. “Maybe it is a prank, just pulled off by someone with access to stuff outside ‘normal.’ Whatever ‘normal’ really is. I think we need a new word to describe the baseline of what people expect.”

“Baseline?” Vayvaresi offered with a smirk.

“You’re funny.” Amaris looked up to Keeper Harold. “However, we can’t rule out the fact that you’re being targeted and might be in legitimate danger. Jenny, would you mind protecting him for the next little while?”

“How long?” Jenny asked.

Amaris shrugged. “Research could take a few days and we have other responsibilities to attend to. Like school. You okay with that?”

Jenny shrugged. “Eh, fine, just don’t go getting attacked while I’m not watching you.”

“I have Vayvaresi for that.” Amaris stood up. “Keeper Harold, Jenny may not look like much but she’s completely immortal and invincible and can punch with enough power to dent trucks. You’ll be safer with her watching you.”

Keeper Harold looked at Jenny with uncertainty.

“Also, if the words refuse to show themselves to anyone but you… well, having her around all the time might make them stop.”

At this Keeper Harold was sold. “All right Jenny, you get to see how a Keeper works for the next little while.”

“Oh joy,” Jenny deadpanned. “I totally don’t already know how this works. Nope. Not at all.”

“Nonsense, a child of your age will never have been let back here…”

“I’m probably far older than anyone you know. I don’t age.”

“...Oh.”

“Just keep to your work, I’ll be watching. And trying not to mock your beard.” Jenny broke out into a grin. “Whoops, my bad.”

Amaris sighed. “At least try not to annoy our first customer, okay?”

“Oh, I’ll try all right.” Jenny chuckled.

Amaris rolled her eyes. “Come on, Vayvaresi, we need to see if we can find Orville.”

~~~

Amaris, Rin, and Emma were having lunch as they usually did at the table by the window. Vayvaresi sometimes rested on the windowsill, though today she was curled up asleep under the table. As of yet, no one had questioned Amaris about the strange fox creature that followed her around, and Amaris got the impression no one wanted to.

Amaris noted that people, rather than ignoring her, now gave her strange looks and tended to sit further away from their table.

Emma huffed. “What’s gotten into everyone?”

“Hard to ignore what’s been happening around me,” Amaris pointed out. “Birthday party, the whole fiasco with moving things out of the basement…”

“You weren’t even there!”

“It’s not hard to find out I’m involved, and rumors spread like wildfire thanks to everyone’s favorite bully.”

Rin snorted. “It’s hilarious how ineffective Judit is.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Amaris shrugged. “I mean she’s getting people to avoid me.”

“Do you care all that much?”

“...Not really, no. I’m mostly concerned she’s going to notice I don’t care and try something more drastic.”

“She knows not to try to beat you up at this point.”

“If she gets angry enough, reason will fly out the window. And she’s already really angry.” Amaris took a long, contemplative sip of her soda. “She’s probably going to get roped into something she really doesn’t want to at some point. I hope whatever monster it is doesn’t eat her.”

“She’d deserve it,” Rin commented.

“Rin!” Emma gasped. “Judit may be an absolute jerk, but she doesn’t deserve to be eaten.”

“Agree to disagree.”

“Siding with Emma on this one,” Amaris said. “We aren’t cruel.”

“When this comes back to bite you, I am going to rub it in your face,” Rin said. “You’ll spare someone and they’re gonna shoot you in the back.”

“Maybe. Still gotta try to do the right thing, right?”

Rin put her hand to the bridge of her nose and let out a mixture between a yowl and a sigh. “You are way too idealistic for this job you’ve given yourself.”

“I dunno, it’s working out so far. We already have a customer. Keeper Harold thinks he’s being haunted by a ghost. I have Jenny watching him and Irene and Coleus on research. Orville’s digging through his ancestry. It’s quite fascinating, really…”

Rin’s eyes widened. “...I’d like to see a ghost.”

Emma facepalmed. “Now you’re the crazy one.”

“I want to see a ghost.” Rin folded her arms. “Judge me for being curious, why don’t you.”

“Cats are the curious ones.”

“And what am I?”

“A neko…?” Emma blinked. “You’re not half-cat. That’s ridiculous. …And kind of disturbing.”

“Maybe anyone can be curious,” Amaris grumbled, poking at her food with her fork. “Maybe neko, cat, human, dryad, doesn’t matter.”

Emma glanced at Amaris. “You okay…?”

“Just not sure how to fix problems that everyone has,” Amaris shook her head, turning to Rin. “The haunting’s probably not caused by a ghost, we’ve determined that much. It’ll probably be disappointing.”

“Well, now I want to know just out of principle.” Rin flicked her tail and clawed at the air with her nails. “Maybe it’ll be something I can stab. I did say I was on board with the whole ‘fighting the darkness’ thing. So it’s stabbin’ time.”

Amaris rolled her eyes. “You can come with me next time we do something, but prepare to be disappointed.”

“I’m always prepared for that,” Rin said without a hint of sarcasm.

“Rin…” Emma raised an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t happen to have your throwing knives on you… would you?”

Rin blinked and put on an extremely fake smile. “Of course not!”

“Rin! You can’t ju—”

“Shh!” Amaris said, noticing that a group of kids were coming over. It was Ralph and his posse, and to her shock, they sat down at the table next to theirs, the half-dozen girls around Ralph chattering away. Ralph, meanwhile, turned his chair partially sideways and looked at Amaris. “Good afternoon, Amaris. You all looked lonely over here.”

“Good… afternoon…” Amaris said, confused.

“Oh, Ralph! I—I—I um… hi!” Emma grinned. “Haven’t really talked to you since the… well the birthday party!”

“Great party,” Ralph said, giving Emma a wink.

Emma all but melted in her seat. “Great… you said… great…”

Ralph once again turned his attention to Amaris. “So… I heard you got yourself a job.”

What on earth is happening? “Yes. I’m part of Outer Reality Handling Incorporated, I use my curse to help root out unusual happenings that people don’t know how to deal with, like the Nommer.”

“Sounds like an excellent use of your skills. If you ever need some muscle or connections, don’t hesitate to come to me, I’ll do what I can.”

“Um… thanks, but… why?”

“I owe you, don’t I?”

Amaris considered this. Was Ralph really the sort of person to repay an honor debt? She didn’t think so, but she barely knew him, and he had held himself well during the Nommer fiasco… “I’ll keep it in mind, but I don’t think we’ll need it. Plus if we ‘employ’ too many kids the government might get… testy. My parents are technically the ones that get the paycheck and Irene owns the business.”

“Don’t even need payment, just wanted you to know I’m always open.”

“Got it. Thanks!”

“Don’t mention it. Anyway, I can tell Rin over there is giving me the stink eye…”

“No, really,” Rin deadpanned.

“So I’ll leave you three to it. And I’ll see what I can do about this wide berth of tables around you three.” He turned his chair back around and started… listening to the conversations his posse was having, he didn’t really say anything himself.

“Huh…” Amaris said. “I guess we have an ally?”

“He’s sitting right there oh my gosh…” Emma said. “He winked at me!”

Rin groaned. “And we were just starting to make progress on you too… you’ve already relapsed.”

“I can recognize that my chances are about slim to none at least.” Emma crossed her arms and huffed. “But a girl can dream!”

“He was acting weird, though,” Rin said. “He’s not the friendly sort. Or the sort to go out of his way to do anything. Something’s up.”

“Shock setting in from the whole thing with the Nommer?” Amaris suggested. “You’ve seen how most people handle these things. Not well.” She gestured at Emma.

“I’m doing better!” Emma blurted.

“Yes, you are. Buuuuuut…”

“I’ll… get braver. Just… a matter of time. And screaming.”

“Lots of screaming,” Rin agreed.

“Ehe…”

“Perhaps we should get a training regimen…” Rin scratched her chin. “I bet Orville could conjure up some nightmares…”

“Oh, he probably could!” Amaris lit up. “Training! Let’s see, we can draw nightmares from my experiences… I’m thinking the Predateor was the one that strengthened me the most over a short time…”

“Oh no. I’m doomed.” Emma said, staring straight ahead.

“You were doomed either way,” Amaris pointed out. “Curse and all.”

“I guess…”

~~~

Jenny was not the sort to sit through services, either teaching or meditation. Her sense of ‘spirituality’ was that there was certainly something watching over everything; she’d seen too many freaky coincidences and things in her long life to think it was all random. If pressed she’d say “probably Dia” and wave a dismissive hand. She was an ever-changing enigma, nailing down a specific philosophy and trying to live by it forever wasn’t really her thing. She was what she was and reality was what it was, and that was that. Add this to the fact that she didn’t like sitting still or listening or being respectful, one could understand why Sanctuaries and Jenny didn’t mix.

But she had a job right now and that job was to make sure Keeper Harold wasn’t eaten by not-ghosts or whatever.

It was day two of this task. The man was involved in three services every day, and while he generally only led one, he was still part of them. Morning meditation, afternoon message, and evening mixed meditation-message.

Everything Amaris had told Jenny about how boring he was couldn’t compare to the actual messages. Everything was dull. Large portions of it were just methodical readings that were often inscrutable, and then Harold would “bring out” only the most obvious and least confusing thing about the passage, leaving everything else in the dust. Nothing to get anyone angry, nothing to get anyone excited, just… almost substanceless drawl.

She vastly preferred it when he wasn’t the one leading. Keeper Gollino got angry in the time he led. That was excellent to watch, very entertaining. Got a lot of people to walk out in the middle too, that was hilarious.

Currently, much to Jenny’s chagrin, Keeper Harold was speaking. Beyond boring. Focusing on the creation of the world, a story so widespread even Jenny knew it by heart. Yada yada Dia yada yada what came before yada yada the Seven Great Crystalline Ones yada yada yada yada…

Jenny almost didn’t notice he was wrapping up she was so bored. But the moment she put two and two together she stood bolt upright and started making her way toward the stage—the Sanctuary was large enough to have a proper stage with lighting and everything. She needed to keep a closer eye on him. At this point, when the service was over, people would often come up and greet him, perhaps ask a few questions, and it was prime opportunity for someone to try something.

“You look tired, Keeper Harold…” someone said.

“Been a rough few weeks,” he responded. “Don’t worry about me, I’m working on it.”

“You should take a break if it becomes too much.”

“I will, I will.”

Almost all the conversations were equally pointless pleasantries. Keeper Harold was never unpleasant or upset with anyone who came to him, but he never seemed to have much emotion either. He had clearly done this every day of his life for decades. It was almost automatic.

After the commotion died down, he wandered the back hallways, Jenny trailing behind him.

“Y’know, I know it’s not my place, but maybe you should take a few days off,” Jenny suggested. “You look about ready to fall asleep.”

“I could do all this in my sleep, it is no trouble,” Keeper Harold said with a yawn. “Furthermore it is my duty.”

“If you say so.”

“Thank you for your concern though, Jenny.”

“Also, every time you’re up there I’m falling asleep. Don’t you have any more interesting material?”

“Oh, plenty, but that’s not what they’re here for. You saw Gollino’s message.”

“Best one by far.”

“Really?”

“For my entertainment, I couldn’t care less about what the rant was actually about.”

“Ah…” Keeper Harold nodded.

“Not gonna call me out on that? Isn’t that your job?”

“I am a Keeper of this Sanctuary. Where is the requirement that I have to correct you?”

“I may be kind of clueless and rebellious, but I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be spiritual guides or something.”

Keeper Harold shrugged. “I did not get to where I am by ruffling feathers. Though you clearly did; Dia takes all sorts.”

“Uh-huh…” Jenny put her hands in her pockets. It’s like talking to a brick wall…

They passed by the room with the blank wall, currently bathed in light from outside. They were about to leave it behind… when the words appeared, emerging from the wall like sweat, but the consistency and color of blood.

COWARD.

Jenny jumped into a defensive stance between Keeper Harold and the words before the Keeper even noticed they were there—the moment he did he let out a terrified gasp. More words appeared.

PROTECTING YOURSELF WITH A CHILD?

“Hey!” Jenny shouted, pointing at the wall. “You watch who you’re calling a child!” She clenched her fist and lit it on fire. “You might regret it.”

The words currently present absorbed back into the wall, leaving no sign they had been there, only to quickly be replaced by a new set of words.

A CHILD WITH BLASPHEMOUS MAGIC! YOU HAVE DENIED YOUR OWN CREEDS!

“Pretty sure I’m not a demon.”

HYPOCRISY! HYPOCRISY! HYPOCRISY!

Jenny punched forward. She had enough sense about her to know she shouldn’t do anything to damage the wall, so she used a windy punch and drove her fist into the “H” on the middle “Hypocrisy.”

The words remained, undeterred.

YOU ARE POWERLESS BEFORE US. YOU FALL FURTHER AND FURTHER INTO SIN.

Jenny growled. “Oh, me? I don’t give a rip, and if you want to get to Keeper Harold you’ve gotta go through me! Got it?”

YOUR SINS HAVE MADE DIA HAND YOU OVER TO US.

“What sins?!” Keeper Harold blurted. “Please, tell me what I have done and I will do whatever I can to atone! I just want this to end!”

YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID.

“I don’t! I really don’t! I know nothing at all, please, what do you want!?”

YOUR LIFE IS FORFEIT.

And with that, the words were gone.

“Well,” Jenny said. “That was fun.” She glanced at the shaking and blubbering Keeper Harold. “You’re a lot more interesting when your emotions break out in full force, I think I like you like this.” She chuckled. “Anyway, we’ve gotten some new information. Time to get Amaris…”

Keeper Harold was still shivering and blubbering.

“Or we can wait for your legs to start working again. That works too.”

~~~

Amaris, Vayvaresi, and Rin arrived at the Sanctuary less than an hour after the “incident.” This time they didn’t even wait for Keeper Harold to come get them, they walked right up the steps and entered the back door, scrambling through the hallway and past the shocked expressions of a few Keepers.

They found Keeper Harold not at the scene of the occurrence, but in his office, sitting in his chair with his head bowed, muttering what Amaris thought were prayers, but she couldn’t be certain.

“Okay, he’s terrified,” Rin said.

“Hey, his life was threatened, give him a break,” Amaris said. “Ahem. Jenny, was there anything you didn’t mention on the phone…?”

Jenny shook her head. “I told you what the words said. I think. Half of them insulted me. You’re lucky I didn’t break the wall.” She put her hands on her hips and grinned, as if she were expecting praise for her restraint.

Amaris gave her none, instead opting to leave the office and check the scene of the incident, leaving Jenny to guard her charge. The room looked exactly the same as when they’d last been here, save for a rearrangement of dust due to Jenny’s punch, which had left a small scuff on the wall. Amaris ran her finger over it. Dry.

“I sense Jenny’s power,” Vayvaresi said, brushing her tails against the wall. “That girl has the most unique signature, even such a small use of her power stands out like a lighthouse. But I sense nothing else.” Vayvaresi smirked. “And yet, curious is it not, that she confirmed that there was something here that ‘magically’ appeared? Truly… perplexing.”

“The letter was there, she punched it…” Amaris frowned.

“She said it was blood, right?” Rin asked. “Did any get on her?”

“Hey Jenny!” Amaris called down the hall. “Did you get any of the blood on your hand when you punched it!”

“You don’t need to shout, I’m right here,” Jenny said, turning the corner with a shaky Keeper Harold right behind her.

“Oh. I figured he’d take a bit longer to calm down.”

“He wanted to see this. Anyway, uh…” Jenny furrowed her brow, then she checked her glove. In the folds she found some paint dust, but that was it. “No blood.”

“And if it had been there it would have wetted the paint dust,” Rin said. “It’s an illusion.”

“Well, yeah…” Amaris said. “But one run without magic.”

“You can project an image on a wall without magic,” Rin said, crossing her arms and flicking both her tail and her ears at the same time.

“Project…” Amaris slowly turned to the window, putting the pieces together. “Keeper Harold, have you ever encountered the words in a room without a window?”

Keeper Harold thought for a minute. “No…”

Amaris slammed her fist into her hand. “Bingo. Someone’s projecting these things from a distance, probably through the window.”

Rin ran to the window and opened it. “Y’know, I was really hoping for a ghost…”

Vayvaresi hopped through the window onto the grass outside, sniffing the air. “Hmm…” She put her nose to the ground and kept sniffing.

“Got something?” Amaris asked.

“Maybe.”

Everyone started crawling through the window—but Keeper Harold put a hand on Amaris’ shoulder, keeping her back.

“Oh, sorry Keeper Harold, you wanted to talk to me?” Amaris turned her back to the window.

Keeper Harold nodded. “Y-yes, I, uh… I meant to ask you, do you… do you really think my life is in d-danger?”

“It’s possible, but it’s looking more and more like whatever this is just wants to scare you, or maybe it wants to hurt you and can’t, possibly because all it can do is project things from a distance. I’m formulating a plan; we can have you hide in rooms without windows for a few days, make whatever’s doing this a little upset, then lead you out to specific windowed areas so we can catch them in the act of projecting. Then instead of looking at the words we look out the window and check for any hints about where this is coming from.”

“That… you really are capable, little Amaris.”

“Thank you, had to be.”

“I must apologize, I did not believe in your adventures when I first heard of them.”

“No need to apologize, I’m a kid, kids are known to exaggerate.” Amaris put her hands behind her back. “I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have believed me.”

“Yes…” Keeper Harold frowned. “Amaris, do you think I did something?”

Amaris tilted her head. “Eh?”

“To anger these… words.”

“They sure seem to think you did, but they aren’t giving any clues to hint at what it is. And you’re too… I’m going to say mild-mannered to do anything that would justify this in my book.”

He crossed his arms. “I just… I have this feeling. Like Dia is trying to show me something, and I can’t see it.”

“And you, the Keeper, are asking a kid with a curse and trauma, to shine light on a spiritual question?” Amaris raised her eyebrow.

“Sometimes we need words from outside. And you know our ways, you do not wear that necklace in vain.”

Amaris fingered her necklace, flipping it over to examine the fragment of her old shirt’s mathematical function. She flipped it again to gaze into the shimmering crystal of the pendant. “You’re right… I have seen some things out there. I’m not… completely clueless.” She looked up to him. “Keeper Harold, if there’s one thing I’ve learned out there, it’s that everything happens for a reason. Those horrible things changed me in just the right way so I could do what I needed to do. This here… may be a huge misunderstanding and have no basis in truth. But even so, it might still teach you—or all of us, even—something.” She paused, scratching the back of her head. “I… don’t know exactly where we’re told that, but I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere.”

“ ‘The time is Dia’s, every laugh and every cry is ordained in its fullness.’ “

“Yeah, that one.” Amaris smiled. “So… yeah. That’s what I have to say about that.”

“Thank you, Amaris. Before you go, I shall do my best to help you in turn.” He rested his hand on her shoulder. “You are a good kid who is being built up for much. I implore you to carefully examine the company you keep.”

Amaris’ smile dropped instantly. “...You’re talking about Rin aren’t you?”

“Amaris…”

Amaris pushed his hand off her shoulder and started climbing through the window.

“Look, Amaris, she’s a—”

“We need to end this conversation now, Keeper Harold. You don’t want to finish that sentence.” Without so much as looking back out at him, she marched off in a huff over to the others. They had gathered around a tree. Vayvaresi was poking around in the branches, sniffing the leaves.

“Woah,” Jenny said, glancing at Amaris. “What happened to you? You look like you want to strangle something.”

“I do.”

“...I’m good at being strangled.” Jenny offered her neck.

Amaris lightly shoved Jenny in the shoulder. “Wouldn’t be the same. Probably not good to feed it anyway.”

“Worth a shot.”

“What did he ask you?” Rin asked.

“Oh, stuff about the job, and then we had a good moment of actual bonding where we recognized each other as people, and then he basically told me not to be friends with Rin. You know. The usual.”

Rin chuckled.

“It’s not funny!”

“Oh, but it is. Secret jerks are everywhere, Amaris.” She stretched out her tail and leaned on the tree. “You know, if he wants to leave me out to dry, we could just leave him out to dry…”

“Rin, no.”

“What? He’s upset you, upset him back. Let him be tormented by these words.”

“Rin, that won’t solve anything.”

Rin’s amused expression soured. She crossed her arms. “You were like this with Scarlet too. Amaris, sometimes you need to take revenge.”

“Why?”

“Why? Justice has to be done! The world isn’t going to do it, so you have to take it into your own hands. People need to be shown what-for, people need to be taken down a peg.”

“That sounds like exactly what Freddloi was doing, cursing people because of some flaw.” Amaris narrowed her eyes. “You up for that? Cursing people?”

Rin scowled. “If they deserve it.”

“Well. Maybe think a few moments about what you deserve.”

“I deserve a lot more than I have.”

“Oh really? Like what?”

“Basic respect? I can’t walk around in public alone, it’s too dangerous!” She poked Amaris angrily in the chest. “I get unusual glares from basically everyone, and any friends I try to make have to either hide me or put up with everyone in their life telling them that I’m some stupid sneaky thief who’s going to betray them one day!”

It was at this point Amaris realized she was crying. She wiped her eyes, looking at the dampness of her hand almost in disbelief.

Rin took a step back and awkwardly put her hands in her pockets. “...Forget it. I’m just mad.”

“Rin…”

“I said forget it.”

“I… um…” Amaris swallowed hard. “Okay. I’ll… I’ll try.”

There was silence around the base of the tree.

Jenny coughed very loudly. “So! Kitsune of the tree, what have you found?”

“Evidence of people,” Vayvaresi said, dropping down onto Amaris’ backpack. “Two different scents, neko. And I sense magic.”

Amaris immediately perked up. “Really?”

“Yes. In fact, it’s a kind I know well enough to properly identify. It’s pure crystal magic, the kind that comes from those crystals you have.”

“Huh… so it is magic…” Amaris put her hand to her chin. “So the projection itself is magically produced, but once it goes a distance… I see, I see…” Amaris tried to turn to Vayvaresi, but given the kitsune’s position that was impossible so Amaris gave up on that. “What can you tell us about what ‘crystal magic’ can do?”

“I was never a wizard, I just spent time in some places that used it. Give me a moment to recall…” She swished her tails over Amaris’ head. “I know there are a handful of different colors and they all do different things. There’s a color that deals exclusively in light, purple.”

Amaris snapped her fingers. “There it is. They’re projecting the messages through windows using these light crystals. I think I have a plan… though now we might want to bring the anti-magic crystals an—.”

Suddenly, Orville was in front of her. “Greetings, Amaris.”

“Got any news, Orville?”

“You don’t look so great… oh, uh, well… nothing that helps. Keeper Harold’s grandfather was indeed a cruel man, but I haven’t found anything that I think pertains to this. The man never even set foot in Nuk. He did like popping heads off of chipmunks with his bare hands, though.” Orville shivered. “The things I see in the past…”

“Did he have anything in particular against… nekos?”

“Hmm… actually, no. Which is surprising considering what I saw happening around him. I think he thought them too ‘easy’ of targets for his ire.”

“Okay… well, get Coleus or Irene to write down what you’ve found in case it matters. We’ve got a plan to set up.” She turned awkwardly to Rin. “...Still want to catch these guys?”

Rin shook her head. “Not really. They’re nekos, Amaris. Think for five seconds about what’ll happen to them if they get caught.”

Amaris’ eyes widened. “You’re right… they could be killed just… because…”

“So I suggest we just not catch them.”

“But what if they really do try to kill Keeper Harold? We can’t let that happen!”

“He’s just a…” Rin stopped herself, a look of horror crossing her face. She leaned against the tree and sat down.

“Rin… are you…?”

Rin let out a particularly nasty swear and punched the ground, letting out a yowling cry right afterward.

Amaris crouched down until she was at Rin’s eye level. “Rin…”

“I’m thinking!” Rin spat. Amaris nodded, staying completely silent while Rin thought.

During her thoughts, Rin’s tail flicked back and forth, her ears twitched in every direction and she kept scraping her nails against each other, scraping off the colorful polish bit by bit.

Eventually, Rin sagged her head in defeat. “...You’re right Amaris, we can’t let that happen.”

“Rin, what’s going on in there?”

“Just got a real good look at how nasty I am.” She squinted her eyes, obviously trying not to cry.

“Rin, you’re not nasty…”

“I wanted to just let them kill him! I didn’t care! He was just another lousy human who would get what’s coming to him!” She put her hands to her ears and tugged at them. “But that’s exactly what they think about us! Agh! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” She suddenly looked Amaris right in the eyes, her slitted pupils extremely dilated. “...You can’t say that’s not nasty.”

Amaris shook her head. “No… I can’t. It is nasty. But… you see it.”

“Well, yay, what am I supposed to do about it?”

“I…” Amaris paused. “I don’t know.”

“If I may?” Vayvaresi asked.

“Knock yourself out,” Rin grumbled.

“Simply being aware of it is enough,” Vayvaresi said. “Be honest about what’s inside you. Take it seriously. That is already an improvement.”

“But it sucks.”

“Oh, did I give you the impression you could be happy about it?” Vayvaresi shook her head. “That’s not the way things are. Fortunately, life is about more than just happiness.”

Rin grumbled. “Fine, fine, yeah, good wisdom old fox, can’t find any problems with it, mff…” She hung her head back and groaned. “This sucks.”

“You won’t get any arguments from me, little Rin.” Vayvaresi flicked her tails.

“Yaaaay…” Rin crossed her arms. “...We still need to come up with a plan.”

“A plan to catch them without handing them over to the police,” Amaris shook her head. “That’s a tall order…”

“I’m sure we can figure something out!” Jenny said, grinning very awkwardly. “Right, gang?”

Rin snorted. “Jenny, you suck at this, and none of us are really good at it so that’s saying something.”

“Really?” Amaris tilted her head. “I think Vayvaresi’s pretty emotionally intelligent.”

“Yeah, but she sounds so old and wise and arrogant…” Rin twirled a hand in the air as if illustrating her point.

“I do have experience,” Vayvaresi pointed out.

“Just because it makes sense doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“Naturally. I do believe I said something similar earlier about happiness not being the only point of life?”

Rin scrunched her nose. “You really are extremely annoying, you know that?”

Vayvaresi lifted a paw in the equivalent of a shrug. “I’ll say what needs to be said regardless. Such as bringing us back on task: the plan.”

“Yes, right, plan…” Amaris folded her arms. “Plan…”

~~~

Two nekos pressed themselves down to the ground, walking on all fours with their tails down so the bushes could hide their presence. Even most nekos considered balling up one’s fists and using them as extra feet distasteful, so virtually no one ever did it, but in truth neko bodies were not exactly like that of a human, and were comfortable in such a position for short periods of time. As such, what should have been an awkward motion that revealed their presence right away simply didn’t.

Were someone to see the nekos, the fact that they were twins would have been evident—a brother and a sister; older teenagers, possibly even young adults. They wore very ratty, dark clothes that definitely weren’t sufficient to provide any sort of warmth and were barely enough to avoid getting arrested for indecency.

They crept along in nearly absolute silence, only rustling the bushes slightly as they approached their target—the tree. The tree was the best spot; it had a lot of escape routes, low foot traffic, was a decent distance from the Sanctuary, and most importantly had a very large window in clear line-of-sight. The two of them jumped into the tree, landing on the two branches that kept them hidden from outside eyes but allowed them to see easily.

The girl pulled out a pair of binoculars. One of the lenses was cracked and useless, so she used it like a telescope, which functioned well enough for her purposes; watching the Sanctuary window very, very closely.

“I wish you’d let me do it again…” her brother whispered as he unrolled a piece of leather delicately, using his thigh as a table.

“You clearly have a harder time, we can’t afford to be sloppy.”

“Still…”

“Just give them to me.” She held out her hand without taking her gaze off the distant window.

Her brother sighed and finished unrolling the leather, revealing multiple small shards of purple crystals, most of which had taken cubical or nearly-cubical shapes. All of them had little pieces of string tied around them. He delicately picked up one of the crystals by the string and gave it to his sister.

She was careful, even without looking she made sure only to clamp down once she was sure she was holding the stringed area between two of her fingers. She wanted to make physical contact with the crystal without slicing her fingers open on the impossibly sharp edges. Numerous markings on her digits indicated that she had failed to do this numerous times, but with pain came experience, and she was now able to hold it without incident.

All she had to do… was wait.

Sometimes they waited here for hours and he never showed up. But when he did…

“I hope he has a heart attack today,” she muttered under her breath.

“I’m saying we can’t keep trying for that, we need to do something more direct.”

“I have a knife.”

Her brother sighed. “I’ve told you multiple times, we can’t just be that direct, they’ll find us and this will have all been for nothing.”

“I’m getting tired of playing with illusions.”

“Look, we don’t have enough of the crystals to try to learn something else, so just…”

“He’s here.” She flicked her tail back and forth but didn’t move her body at all. There he was, Keeper Harold, looking terrified out of his wits. Good. Of course, the girl with the magic fists was also there. Which was less good, but from what they’d seen, she was an idiot and, even more importantly, was slower than them. There was also no way she could see them from all the way over there.

The girl clenched her fingers down a little tighter on the crystal and willed an image to manifest. The crystal itself sparkled slightly, but bizarrely cast no light directly. It did, however, project words that looked like they were made out of overly realistic blood. This time she even opted to add a few floating skulls—they needed to spice up the show or it wouldn’t go anywhere.

She couldn’t actually hear anything that Keeper Harold or the punching girl were saying, but vague words of doom didn’t need to make much sense in response, the physical context was enough. This time she started with discussion of grinding Keeper Harold’s bones and…

…the red-gloved girl was opening the window.

“...She can’t possibly…”

She started running right for the tree.

“We’ve been made!”

“W-what!?” her brother stammered.

“Bail!” she shouted as she jumped out of the tree.

Without making any attempt to be quiet, he rolled up the crystals and bounded after his sister. They did not run on all fours, for their top speed was still at full sprint on their legs.

Out of the corner of her eye, the girl saw a man in a bowler hat… wait, there was no one there. What?

They glanced behind them. The red-gloved girl was still pursuing, but her legs were short and she was falling quickly behind. She wasn’t even going to be hard to shake, just a left, another left, then a right, and a left and they threw her completely off the trail.

Even though they stopped running at this point, the two of them didn’t speak a word until they had returned to the dregs.

“How did she see us?” the brother asked, putting a hand to his head. “She’s not that observant…”

“It was almost as if she knew we were there before we showed up,” his sister said, putting a hand to her chin. “Perhaps Keeper Harold also hired investigators in addition to a bodyguard…”

“We’re doomed. They’re going to track us down…”

“The girl only saw us briefly and they can prove nothing.”

“But they know who to look for now. We can’t go back.”

His sister froze. “We… no, that’s unacceptable. We have to finish this.”

“How?”

“How is irrelevant, the need is evident. He must pay.”

“We still need a plan.”

“If you don’t come up with something, this knife has his name on it.”

Her brother let out a low whistle.

“I’m serious. Think about Grandpa.”

“You’ll cool down in a few hours and then we can think more rationally about this.”

“Rationality went out the window the moment we decided we wanted him dead.”

“Coming from you, that’s rich.”

She huffed and made sure to walk just a little bit faster to annoy him.

The two of them went deeper and deeper into the dregs, until they got to the very center, where the homeless beggars lived. There were no real buildings here, just a lot of junk consisting of broken down cars, shipping containers, repurposed dumpsters, and anything else the nekos could get their hands on that couldn’t just be taken away by someone strolling in.

Their “home,” such as they had one, was made out of cardboard, a poor material even by the standards of the other nekos in the area. They were fortunate that there hadn’t been major rain since they’d erected it. It was little more than a place to sleep and store what few belongings they had.

Their Grandpa lived there with them. He was there currently—but it wasn’t like he could go anywhere else very easily, seeing as he only had one leg and struggled to get around even with crutches. The crutches were the nicest thing they owned, and even they in all their metal glory were starting to show signs of wear.

The twins had expected to see him. They had not expected to see him dining at a table with guests. Guests who largely weren’t even nekos! There was a girl with black hair and a huge backpack, a neko in a frilly dress that made the twins angry just to look at it, a woman in a large hat, and… a fox creature clearly from the Strider. No wonder they hadn’t been attacked, no nekos around here wanted to deal with the Strider.

Grandpa turned to his grandchildren. “Ah, Iwakiri! Kirishima! Come, I’ve made some excellent friends!”

Kirishima twitched her tail, refusing to sit down. “Grandpa…”

Iwakiri put his hand over his sister’s mouth, laughing nervously. “Let’s not be hasty here, uh, Grandpa, care to explain?”

“Explain? Hmph. I thought you two were raised better than that.” He crossed his arms. “These four came by on an investigation and were offering food and assistance in exchange for any information. I didn’t have anything to tell them but then we got talkin’ and whew they’ve got quite the set of stories here! Did you know Amaris here is cursed to be interesting? Absolutely amazing!”

Amaris beamed at the neko twins. “I’m sure you two are part of that curse too, though I generally consider it something of a gift. Here, let me introduce you, that’s Vayvaresi under the table, Irene over here shaking in her boots, and Rin, who is currently watching out to make sure nobody tries to shank us. This is shanking town. after all.”

“They do worse things than shank you here,” Rin grunted.

“Ah, but we have you and Vayvaresi!”

“That only helps until they form a mob.”

“Bah, they’re too hungry and depressed for that around here,” Grandpa said, slapping his only remaining knee. “Not like me! Really am sorry I couldn’t help you with your investigation, though.”

“It happens, we’ll just have to look somewhere else,” Amaris said.

“Investigation…” Kirishima asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Yes, we’re part of ORHI, Outer Reality Handing Incorporated. We deal with unusual magic things that normal people can’t handle.”

Kirishima gingerly took a step back. “Magic? What sort of magic?”

“Well, we’re currently looking for some purple crystals with powers related to light. Seen them?”

The twins considered running right then and there, but one glance at each other communicated all they needed to. They couldn’t leave Grandpa here with these people. So they were going to have to bluff.

“Strange,” Iwakiri said, shrugging. “But no, we haven’t seen anything like that.”

“Strange,” Vayvaresi said. “Because I smell it on you.” Before they knew what was happening, Vayvaresi was behind them and had the leather roll in her mouth. It unfurled, dropping the purple crystals to the ground, shattering a few of them.

Grandpa’s smile vanished in an instant. “My Kiris… what was that?”

Kirishima drew her knife. “Something we’ll talk about later! Now w—” There was suddenly a man in front of her. She slashed at him and stumbled forward into nothing, a headache forming in the back of her mind. Rin jumped into action while she was confused, throwing a knife at Kirishima’s knife, knocking it out of her hand and clattering it to the ground.

“You can’t win and we have you surrounded,” Rin said. “So stop being a couple of idiots, sit down at the table, and talk.” Her glare was intense and violent.

Amaris, meanwhile, just gave the two of them a warm smile. “Don’t worry, we don’t want to hurt you. We can if you make things difficult. We have no intention of handing you over to the police unless you make us.”

“The police…?” Kirishima’s eyes widened.

“Had you not even thought about it until now!?” Rin shouted. “How stupid are you two?”

“Oh, we thought of it,” Iwakiri admitted, sitting down with a much calmer expression than his sister. “But the plan was not to be caught, obviously. I’m curious how you did it.”

“We used magic,” Amaris said. “Specifically, we have a memory ghost working in our employ. We had him wait around with Jenny until she spotted you running out of the tree, then he jumped into your memories and found out where you lived. The rest of us just drove here.”

“They shot at us…” Irene said with a shiver.

“The Retrograde is bulletproof.”

“I know. Now.”

Grandpa turned to Amaris. “So, wait, this was all a ruse?”

“Well, you be the judge of that,” Amaris said. “I never lied to you, after all, and I’d like a peaceful resolution to this.” She leaned back in her chair. “So, Kiris, you want to explain what you’ve been up to, or do you want me to?”

Kirishima glared at Amaris. “You don’t know what you’re doing…”

“I’ll explain it,” Iwakiri said, nervously folding his hands together. “So, uh, Grandpa, remember when you broke your leg?”

“Not… an easy one to forget,” Grandpa said with a sigh.

“Well, we found out who did that to you.”

“You what!?”

“Found some witnesses…”

“You were trying to take revenge on a human!?”

“Told you they were stupid,” Rin said.

“You can shut up, brat!” Kirishima shouted at Rin. “You don’t know the half of it. We used to have a home, princess. We had to sell that to pay for the medical bills. We had to sell everything. And then they botched the operation and had to amputate his leg! All of this happened because of that precious Keeper you’re trying to protect!”

Amaris folded her hands together, closing her eyes. “And how did he do this?”

“All Grandpa did was say hi and he lashed out in rage.”

“That’s not true,” Grandpa said.

“Multiple people saw it!”

“He was terrified that he was being mugged by a neko.”

“Oh, so he was afraid of you and not angry, big difference.” Kirishima hissed. “You were still nothing to him, and he ruined everything.”

“...Orville says they’re telling the truth,” Irene said. “He couldn’t find the event in Keeper Harold’s memory, but he could in Gramps here.”

“He doesn’t even remember!?” Iwakiri stammered. “Wh… what!? He just ruined a life! He has to know what he did!”

“...Evidentially getting scared out of his wits by a neko on the street is a common occurrence for him.”

Amaris sighed, rubbing her hands against her temples. “This man, I swear…”

“You don’t even like him!” Kirishima declared, slamming her hands on the table. “Why are you even helping him? I bet it’s money, it’s definitely money isn—”

“Would you shut up for five seconds?” Rin asked. “If it was for the money we would have ambushed you at the tree and hauled you off to prison to be ‘mistakenly’ offed by another inmate! That’s what people normally do.”

“Then… why didn’t…” Kirishima frowned as she answered her own half-spoken question. “And you call me the stupid one.”

Rin blinked. “Holy cow, she figured it out, Amaris. How can she be so stupid in her life choices but still be able to do that one?”

“Rage is blinding,” Vayvaresi offered.

“I’ll blind you,” Kirishima spat.

“Can someone explain to a poor old man what’s going on?” Grandpa asked. “I am… quite confused as to why all this is happening.”

Amaris nodded. “Kirishima just figured out why we’re here. To find out a way to stop them while also saving them from the police. To stop the torments on Keeper Harold while also keeping their mistakes from eating them alive.”

Iwakiri narrowed his eyes. “Why though?”

“They think themselves heroes,” Kirishima answered in response. “You think you’re all high and mighty don’t you, Amaris? Cursed to be interesting… I think I see you, now. Thinking you can thrust your nose into everything, make it better, save lives…”

“I mean, it’s working pretty well so far. We’ve captured several dangerous creatures, ended some monstrosities, and are cataloging the dark depths of this city.”

“Also she stopped the Strider from destroying Nuk,” Rin offered.

“That was a team effort…”

“Wouldn’t have worked without being interesting.”

“Well… yeah.” Amaris rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. “Aaaanyway let’s not inflate my ego too much here. I guess I am trying to be the hero. What are you going to do, stop me?”

Kirishima snarled.

“There’s a very simple way to do that, refuse my help and attack, which will get you arrested.” Amaris frowned. “I really wish that wasn’t a death threat but it is. Your other option is to stop tormenting Keeper Harold.”

“Deal,” Iwakiri said without missing a beat.

“You two are so far into your hate you’d try something the moment you think our backs were turned,” Rin said.

Iwakiri held his hands to his side. “Dang, they’re good.”

His sister twitched. “I… am not… letting that man go free!”

“You are,” Amaris said, expression suddenly hard. “I am not giving you a choice.”

Tears started rolling down Kirishima’s face. “Then there truly is no justice in the world.” She jumped for the knife on the ground. Everyone endered a defensive stance—save for Amaris, who jumped at Kirishima.

Kirishima’s target wasn’t any of them. When she grabbed the handle on the blade she thrust it wildly toward her neck.

She was blocked by Amaris’ arm. The blade cut deep into Amaris’ flesh. Amaris let out a pained scream, but still managed to twist herself away from Kirishima, taking the blade with her.

Kirishima stared at the bloodied Amaris in disbelief. “What in th—”

Iwakiri tackled his sister to the ground. “What in Dia’s name were you doing!?”

Kirishima had no words, she only stared blankly at Amaris as the others tended to her. The knife was deep in her arm, but it was stopping most of the blood flow on its own. Amaris managed to, slowly, regain control of her breath and her shouting. Leaning on Irene and Rin, she stood to her feet, glaring right at Kirishima.

“You’re right. There isn’t any justice in this world.” Amaris took in a haggard grasp. “The world is dark and evil. I’m here to change that.” She gave the two of them a shaky smile. “Our proposal… is that you join us. We keep an eye on you. You get to fight real injustice. And you get a home for your Grandpa.”

Kirishima could only stare at Amaris in shock for the longest time. Then her eyes welled up with tears and she started bawling in her brother’s arms.

Iwakiri held her tight, unable to keep the tears out of his own eyes. “Where… where did you get such kindness?”

“Not sure,” Amaris admitted. “Probably has to do with all the things I’ve suffered.” She turned to Grandpa. “...This okay with you…?”

“I’m… not sure I understand, but I know an earnest heart when I see one. And…” he glanced back at the broken down house. “I would be a fool to turn it down. I am wasting away here…”

“Good. Now… I think I need to get to Coleus before we try to take this knife out.” She paused, taking a moment to catch her breath. “Orville will be watching you two for a while. He’ll tell you when we need you… your first mission is to figure out where those purple crystals came from and make a report. Yeah… yeah that sounds like a good idea.”

“...Old Man Fidget dropped them one day,” Kirishima said through her blubberings. “That’s… all we know…”

“You can find out more,” Amaris said.

Kirishima nodded slowly.

“...I do hope I’m not making a mistake here,” Amaris continued. “This… this is a risk. Please don’t make me regret it.” She let out a shark breath as she stumbled away with the others. “Someone call Jenny and have her tell Keeper Harold we’ve chased away the troublemakers…”

Soon, there was only Kirishima, Iwakiri, and Grandpa. And Orville, but he was only visible to one at a time and generally kept his distance.

Grandpa folded his arms. “I want you to promise me something, you two.”

They looked up at him, eyes wide.

“Leave that Keeper alone.”

“Bu—” Iwakiri began

“I’m accepting nothing less. Nothing less. Nothing makes me more ashamed than to know my own grandkids were taking revenge on my behalf.”

“...We promise,” Kirishima said. “And… we’re… sorry.”

“Don’t say an apology you don’t mean.”

“...We are sorry,” Iwakiri said, hanging his head. “We disappointed you.”

“We never wanted you to have to think anything of it…” his sister added.

Grandpa shook his head. “You two are…” he sighed. “This is gonna be a long, long talk. Can’t believe you two got this far off the path… You have any idea how lucky you are? I haven’t seen that level of insane kindness in decades!”

The twins hung their heads as their Grandpa continued to berate them—for several hours, all the way until the sun started to set.

When it rose again, they would have new lives.

~~~

It was midnight.

The corn in a field rustled in a light breeze.

A vole ran across part of a crop circle.

The crop circle lit up with a blinding yellow light for a split second.

The smell of burnt vole persisted only for a few minutes.