“Like all our access?” Felix’s spoon clanked off the side of the cup as he stirred, watching Kyrylo more intently than his drink. “Just like that?”

“He says we’re cleared,” Kyrylo replied. He felt someone trying to squeeze past him in the cafe, attempting to get into some different seat. They bumped into his chair several times. “You can go across the street and try it.”

Felix eyed Kyrylo with suspicion. “What’s the catch?”

“We need to complete the investigation into what we found and report back.”

“So he wants us dead?”

“That’s what I said!” Kyrylo kicked the table a bit as he sat up, rattling the cup again. Felix glared at the few drops that had spilled out. “Sorry, it’s just that’s what I thought too. But he said no.”

“Bold to say that to his face. I respect that.” Felix took a long sip of his drink and then shook his head. “But knowing Webb, that’s probably just to avoid the paperwork.” Felix sank back into the chair, an older antique with needlework flowers on the upholstery, part of an eclectic collection of seating. “This means we’re clear to go back down there?”

“We’re expected. We kind of have to.” Another person going by. Kyrylo was getting irritated. They hadn’t been able to get the usual spot in the corner, occupied. So they had to keep their conversation vague and broad and also deal with people shuffling by to get to a free table. “We have to go in, basically. And then fill out reports on what we find.”

Felix looked a little perturbed at that explanation, staring past Kyrylo out the window. “But to what end? We just go in there and…look? Forever?”

Kyrylo shrugged. “He named some names. It sounded like major spirits or something that they’re tracking. He said it might be related to the Rat King.”

Felix didn’t flinch at the suggestion. “Ok, well, we can just lie about that forever and basically do whatever we want?”

“I guess.”

“And just figure out how to undo the fusion? Whatever else we want.”

“I mean, if there’s something else you want to do, I guess?” Kyrylo was painfully aware of Webb’s other request to have him watch Felix and report on him. He didn’t want to be a snitch in this way and he didn’t plan on handing over everything he found out. But he also wanted to know what Felix was up to, exactly. He knew about a mode they shouldn’t have, had gotten a different Officer to step in and grant him authorization to use it retroactively, was doing some sort of extracurricular exercises. None of it sounded like the Felix who had trained him. “I thought you hated being down there.”

“It was fucking terrifying,” Felix countered. Someone at another table glanced over at them, doing a little sneer. Felix gave them one back. “I’m in a pretty nihilistic position here so yeah, I mean some parts were enjoyable.” He dropped his voice and leaned in. “I like massacring spirits. I like knowing they have kings and shit that can be killed.” He sat up again and stretched out his neck until Kyrylo heard a crack and shuddered in response. “I can have reasons to go back.”

“Well I already said we had to so…”

“So?”

“I just mean the reasons don’t actually matter since we have to.”

“Then why are you asking me?”

Kyrylo sighed. That was the Felix he remembered. Someone shoved into him once more and he was done, hopping out of his seat as Felix gulped down the last of his coffee. “Whatever, let’s just go then.”

“Like right now?” Felix was struggling to keep up as they weaved through the different tables in the cafe. Kyrylo didn’t wait for him, knowing their next move was already locked in. They both knew where they were going to go.

They were back in the same alley down the street from the RIF offices. It had only taken a minute, with no further argument from Felix as he followed. They weren’t technically supposed to be back on duty yet and had nothing scheduled, so they could skip out on morning meetings, any required training. They had the entire day to get right back into their work with no further questions from the RIF, no oversight. Kyrylo was increasingly feeling the pull to return there, to get more answers and find more questions. And Felix, by his response, must have felt the same way.

The glimmer wasn’t there anymore. That was normal. Glimmers were always coming and going, moving around in the world and fading from existence. Kyrylo knew so little about them outside of their functional usage as portals.

But he didn’t know how to go back to the spirit world to the exact same spot as before. The best he could guess was that by entering into the realm somewhere around here and waiting he would most likely drop back down into that town and be able to pick up from where he left off. Felix wasn’t putting up any fight so he assumed he felt the same.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“We’re going to talk to Oleg again?” Felix finally asked as they stood there, awkwardly.

“Yeah,” Kyrylo answered, peering around for a glimmer. “He seemed knowledgeable, maybe he’ll take us more serious this time.”

Back to silence between them. Kyrylo couldn’t keep track of time passing as they stood there. He knew it wasn’t actually that long but it felt like forever.

“Hey,” Felix cut in again. He rubbed at the back of his head and hesitated, pondering something. “That girl from before, the one at the coffee place.” Kyrylo felt his chest tighten at the new line of questioning. “You cut her off, right?”

“What? Yes. Why?” Kyrylo was replaying the scene with Isabelle in his head. There was that random woman he had freaked out over, just some coincidental person. Was she working with Felix somehow? Maybe that had been Officer Vrabec and he just wasn’t looking closely enough? Did Felix even have other friends in the RIF or any contacts? He never brought anyone up, just kind of worked with them when needed. Was Webb playing both of them? Kyrylo was watching Felix, Felix was watching Kyrylo?

“It’s just…you were like sobbing for a week when you left your parents behind. You didn’t stop talking about your brother.”

“Because it was horrible,” Kyrylo replied, trying to be as curt as possible to shut down the discussion. “You were heartless.”

“You gave up on her for nothing?” Felix asked and Kyrylo’s heart sunk. He wasn’t being stalked. He just worked with Felix almost every day for months. He knew him. “Seemed like you liked her a lot.”

Kyrylo spun around, staring at the wall in front of him instead and doing his best to keep his composure. At this point, he was a living crime and Felix knew that. There were so many infractions the two were sitting on top of that there was nothing Felix could really threaten.

“What if I didn’t?” Kyrylo answered. He balled his fists at his side. He had to remind himself to unclench them and slowly unfurl each finger, one by one.

“I don’t care at this point. Just curious. I guess you were always going to fuck me on the rules. There’s one over here, by the way.” Kyrylo checked to his sides until he spotted the ripple in the air.

“Let’s just do this then.” Kyrylo stepped through the rift to the usual feeling of the spirit realm.

“I really like our dynamic,” Felix said as he followed through the glimmer. “It’s almost like we hate each other.”

Kyrylo smiled. “It’s growing on me, sure. It would be easier if you weren’t so cryptic about yourself.”

“Yeah, well, earn it, I guess. I thought after training I wouldn’t have to deal with you anymore but now it looks like we’re stuck.”

“You can leave,” Kyrylo countered. “Just go a different direction in here.”

“What if the spirits fall to their knees and worship you as the Rat King? I wouldn’t want to miss that. Besides, I’m just killing time while this happens.” Felix gestured at the empty void around them. Kyrylo nodded in acknowledgement. They had several minutes to waste and they still didn’t know if this would actually work and they’d be back in front of Oleg’s bar.

Eventually, the foggy boundaries of the city undulated in front of them, outlines of buildings taking shape before solidifying into consistent lines. The old stones, the eerie lamps, it all came back, same as they left it before.

It was strange to feel a sense of familiarity in a place they didn’t realize existed a week ago. Even stranger that it, in theory, was trying to kill them at all times. Kyrylo still couldn’t explain why some of the spirits they had encountered seemed to have no interest in their lives.

He checked around as they settled into the city, the damp fog pressing onto his skin wherever it could and sinking into his clothes everywhere else. The old stone buildings looked too similar to each other for him to really discern them and he certainly wasn’t so familiar with this place that he could say he recognized them.

But then there it was. The door with faded yellow painted on the front. Metal beams across to reinforce it. Oleg’s bar.

“Kind of crazy that worked out,” Felix said, stepping next to Kyrylo. His hand was hovering over his side and something clicked in his head. “Oh shit, dude, we didn’t get our swords back.”

“Relax,” Kyrylo replied. He pulled out both of their weapons from his back and handed them over, relishing the moment Felix had normally held over him. “Webb gave them back when I was leaving.”

“I wasn’t even thinking,” Felix continued, snatching away his sword. “It was just like usual patrol. I always have it on me.”

“A king has to watch over his subjects,” Kyrylo said, doing a slight bow.

“Watch it.”

Kyrylo chuckled and approached the door, starting to push on it before pausing to wonder if it would even be open. Or how time worked here. He shook the thoughts away. “We’ll just check in with Oleg and see who else he knows. Do our own investigation, right?”

“Right,” Felix answered, nodding. He had holstered his sword and his hand was back above it for comfort, his jaw tight with his anxiety.

“Just be cool,” Kyrylo said. “I’m a living legend now, right?” He shoved the door open and stepped inside.

There was Oleg, standing behind his bar, cleaning a glass like he wasn’t a humanoid-deer-hybrid-thing. He was wearing another crisp shirt, different from before but well within his established style as uptight bar owner. It was a bizarre amount of class to attribute to a spirit but he owned it well, nodding at the pair as they entered, a faint smile on his lips. Silvestia was at her table, still wrapped in her rags and hidden away. She had a drink in front of her and she waved it in the air gently as a gesture of greeting to the pair that had arrived.

And across from her sat another figure, a hulking mass of muscle and grey fur.

With only one arm on its left side.

It turned towards Kyrylo and Felix as the door slammed shut behind them, a familiar rat face coming into full view, one burned into Kyrylo’s memory that he thought he had left behind, collapsed at the bottom of the sewers, dead as far as he was concerned and stripped of title and threat.

“You!” Shychur exclaimed.