Despite her initial enthusiasm, the girl was not that eager to leave the chamber. Once the excitement subsided, she realized that some of the loose parts that littered the floor were salvageable, and promptly got distracted.

It was all etheric metal, sure. Some of these, however, looked like perfectly good copper or bronze. No one could tell the difference if she gave it to Hala to sell. She began to rummage through the ancient odds and ends.

Nua was becoming increasingly aware of the presence that seemed to dwell at the back of her mind. She didn’t notice it at first, subtle as it was, like a background sound or an important, forgotten promise. Anki was silent, but she could tell that he was watching. She was already having second thoughts at the rash decision of attaching a thousand-year-old Forsaken king to her own soul. Even if according to his own words the arrangement was supposed to be temporary. It really seemed like the only way to survive, though.

“Why are you collecting these?”, he finally asked. “If you are looking for something in particular, I could help.”

“It’s treasure.”, Nua explained. “All the metal scraps are precious. There’s not much copper or iron left in the mines. Auntie could sell it on the market.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t my vault full of better treasure?”

Nua sighed.

“It is. It’s full of wonders to die for.” She said. “And that is exactly what would happen if I took one of those. Were you ever poor?”

“Not in my lifetime, no.” Anki sounded curious.

“So, I’m poor. And a scrawny ass, and Unsagga. If I have copper wire, then well, I got lucky. Guys on the street can still kick my butt and take it from me, but if I’m quick and if I’m careful I can sell that off. Or give to Auntie for her to sell off. But one of those beautiful etheric knives? Well, sure I had to steal it from a noble, or a rich merchant, or a gang leader. There will be someone who claims exactly that, gets back to me and then it’s their word against mine.” Nua sighed again. She rarely got the chance to put her thoughts into this many words and it was tiring. “So, this is being poor. It’s not just you don’t have nice stuff. You literally can’t have nice stuff. Because you’re poor. That’s how it is.”

“How’s your plan of being the best thief in the Bottoms supposed to work, then?”

Nua deflated.

“You’re right. I didn’t think it through.” She muttered, then started again, with her enthusiasm refreshed. “Say, I can be the best food thief. Even the poor can have food. Fresh bread every day. With butter. Oh, I could eat heaps of butter. That would be something.”

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“Or you could work on it gradually,” Anki suggested. “You know. Time and training, and getting less poor step by step.”

“I’m no good at gradually. Hala tried to teach me how to read and write. Gradually. We both gave up. Mind you, I’m not that stupid. Just can’t follow through very much. I forget, I get distracted.”, she shrugged.

Anki went silent for a while.

“I see. I will show you then a few spools of wire I have left in the drawers of my workbench. Choose the best and least suspicious one. Take your time.”

Nua had to look harder to notice the bench, a simple piece of furniture made of black painted metal, submerged under the sprawling machinery. Then she proceeded to scramble through the cables and put them aside to get into the drawers. In the meantime, Anki asked questions. Bit by bit, he poked and prodded, until he got all the details of her encounter with Flavius and the following events.

“There are things here I still don’t understand”, he finally said. “Which is not a surprise considering that I have a millennium to catch up. I’m certain you can’t tell me which nations became the Azurians, for example. Or how my own tribe ended up in such an unfortunate position, although I can imagine.”

“I’m sure you will learn it when you regain your strength and jump over to a better whatsitname.”

“For this, it is usually enough to be observant and listen.” He replied. “The marketplace or a tavern are all good for collecting gossip. Oddly, you seem to be a person that can go anywhere unnoticed and provide me with intelligence.”

Nua burst into laughter.

“Huh?”

“I’ve never heard the gossip called that, and it’s real funny I’m the one giving you intelligence, that’s all.” She replied. “Oh look, these are awesome.” She picked up a spool of copper wire. “All glimmer. How can you do that thing with metal not getting green or rusty? Oh, never mind. I can take one that’s half-used. Doesn’t look like stolen. Oh wait. I can take the whole one and then split it, and make it look used.” She plunged the spool into the pockets. Then hesitated. Then took another one. “Hala’s going to give me a talking to, but she could use the coin for the kids.”

“Aren’t you one?”

“Me? No. I mean the little ones. I’m not a kid. I'm just short, from all the times we didn’t have food and how my mom was sick when she had me. I’m nineteen. That’s old. Well, not for you, probably.”

She exhaled. “Now, let’s get out of here. I’ll have to bleed on the door and I already hate it.”

“Such a barbaric and roundabout way to unlock them. Of course, blood carries life force, so that works.”, Anki remarked. “But you can just use ether.”

Nua laughed. Then she realized it was not a joke.

“Uhm, yeah, I don’t know how to use ether.”

“Now you do.”

The silence was palpable.

“Uh, you don’t mean I can actually…”

“You’re neither awakened nor trained. I was a proficient user, though. And every Unsagga has an aptitude for sorcery, although most talents are minor. Now that our souls are in a symbiotic relation, I can use ether through you. As much as you can handle. Which is not very much at the moment, just enough to open the door.”

“Ah… excuse me,” Nua said, then sat on the floor, held her head in both hands, and proceeded to breathe for some time. It was so easy to forget that Anki was a powerful ancient king and not an imagined voice in her head. She was starting to get used to his odd manner of speech or the bits of knowledge he casually threw in every now and then. He had promised her power. She didn’t think much of it, before. Having her own scouting ghost was awe-inspiring enough. But this – the ether coming from inside of her to perform actual sorcery - was overwhelming.

At last, she got up and dusted off her pants.

“Right. On it. I want to try.”