Despite Kano’s wishes to the contrary, Himin insisted she wouldn’t be able to sneak her inside. Apparently she had to be able to pass for a ghoul to stand a chance of going undetected. With great reluctance, Kano watched Himin and Sherp, now suitably disguised as workers, walk into the warehouse. There didn’t seem to be anyone on watch, nor was Kano sure how capable Eomonsa’s ghouls were as sentries, but she didn’t want to risk being seen and kept her distance from the building.

Hunkered down in a dark alley some distance away, Kano hoped that she was hidden from anyone who might look out of the warehouse. Despite the time of day and the town’s general level of activity, the street was deserted. It was almost like the ghouls somehow knew to avoid it, but Kano was fairly sure that was just her imagination. If not, finding this place ought to have been a lot easier than Sherp had made it sound.

With nothing else to do during her stakeout, Kano got as comfortable as she could while her thoughts turned to the past. Of all the disasters and carnage she’d witnessed and often caused. Of all her failures. Though it was minor in the scale of things, Thirty-Six’s death, her sacrifice, was what bothered Kano the most. She wasn’t sure if it was a sign of her own distorted view of the world, but the little ghoul’s death felt the most unfair.

Reminding herself not to dwell on the past, Kano reflected with a self-deprecating smile that she was lucky she couldn’t remember much. The few memories she had contained more than enough failure to keep her occupied. Instead of wallowing in what was already done, Kano tried to focus on the future. But she found no solace there either.

Even ignoring her mortal peril, it was far from bright. At best she was going to give the town over to a self-serving ghoul, probably little better than Shorin had been. But it seemed more likely that An or Eomonsa would win out in the end. Regardless of An’s supposedly peaceful intentions, Kano couldn’t foresee a future that was of much benefit to the residents of Shorinstown. Depending on what schemes the necromancers dreamed up, they may not even survive.

Tragic as the end the town she lived in seemed destined to meet, part of Kano wondered whether any of it mattered. It insisted that whatever happened to the ghouls made little difference; the wretches were basically dead as it was. Kano couldn’t claim to have much fondness for the general populace, or anyone else for that matter, but she wasn’t sure she was right.

For all that the ghouls were—in theory little better than walking corpses—they seemed remarkably alive at times. Had the humans, the predecessors of the ghouls, really been so much better? From what Kano had seen, the humans might have been even worse. They seemed fixated on the past, and it was no wonder they’d practically died out.

Discounting the humans, what exactly was the difference between the ghouls and her? She found it difficult to find the words to explain it, even to herself, but she was sure there was some crucial difference. The differing nature of their souls was an obvious one, but for all its supposed importance, she wasn’t sure what that really meant.

If she had an artificial soul instead of a natural one, how would she even tell? Would she be a completely different person or just a lesser version of herself? Or would she be exactly the same? Much as she wished she could answer that, nothing came to mind. She doubted even a necromancer, for all their supposed knowledge, could really explain the difference.

By An’s own admission, her grasp of the theoretical portions of what they did seemed rather shaky. Kano thought it was amazing that the humans could have created such haphazard creatures. They really must have been desperate. Desperate, incredibly foolish, or perhaps both. Having considered the worst case, Kano tried to be positive and think of the best way things might end up.

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If what An said was true, and she really did succeed in creating a new life-form that could repopulate the earth, what would happen then? Would it be like the humans’ civilization had been reborn, only with An’s creations replacing the humans? Kano couldn’t even imagine it, but she was sure it would be nothing like the world she knew.

Maybe there was grounds for hope, then. Things couldn’t get that much worse, could they? The worst she could think of was that the last embers of life were finally snuffed out, but even that didn’t seem so bad. They could end up trapped as their will and sense of self eroded until they were just another, mindless but alive, part of a collective like Thirty-Six had. But was that actually worse? Kano wasn’t sure. She wanted to believe that it was no worse than dying. Thirty-Six had seemed happy at the end, hadn’t she? That had to count for something.

Vision blurring, Kano wiped her eyes and focused on the warehouse. How much longer were they going to be in there? The building was relatively large, but they should have had plenty of time to search it by now. Kano wasn’t sure how long they’d been in there, but she was tired of waiting. If her barging in wasn’t likely to jeopardize everything they were working toward and get the other two killed, then Kano would have done so without a second thought.

But for some reason she was beholden to this stupid reality which dictated that she sit and wait. She really should have brought Urick or Nove along. This sort of tedious work was about all they were good for. Though, even if she had, they wouldn’t make her watch much easier. But at least she’d have someone to complain to—that would’ve made the wait more bearable. Or would it? It would also mean that she’d have to listen to them and whatever inanities they came up with. Yet another tough decision with no clear answer. She seemed to be plagued by the things lately.

When Kano finally saw a small ghoul leave the warehouse and slink toward her, she felt a flood of relief. At last she was free of this hellish reality which seemed to contain only her own thoughts and squatting in a dirty alleyway.

Sherp reached where Kano was hiding, and after getting her breath back, said, “They’re getting ready to leave. Do you want us to follow them?”

“Maybe. What’s in there? What’re they doing?”

“We’re not sure exactly, but they’ve got a lot of equipment in there.”

“Like weapons?”

Sherp shrugged. “There’s plenty of those, but also a lot of other things that neither of us recognized. But most of it seems to be part of one big machine of some kind, though it doesn’t seem to be turned on.”

Kano could already see ghouls leaving the warehouse, and thinking quickly, she decided it would be best if they kept following Eomonsa’s ghouls. “Okay, you two follow them. I’ll take a look in there after they’re gone, and we’ll meet back at your office when you guys find out where they’re going and why.”

Bobbing her head in agreement, Sherp ducked out of the alley and fell into line with the other ghouls. Kano waited until the long, staggered column of stupefied ghouls passed before creeping over to the warehouse. Now that the ghouls were gone, there wasn’t a single other person in the vicinity.

It was eerie seeing what would normally be a busy part of town devoid of life, especially at this time of day. Feeling an odd heat in her chest, different to what her force field used to generate, Kano peeked into one of the windows. The inside was just as empty, so Kano went in through the front door.

Sherp was right. The warehouse was practically filled with different pieces of machinery. Kano was surprised they’d been able to fit as many ghouls in here as they had—they must have really been crammed in. It was lucky she hadn’t tried to blend in. It would’ve been quite hard to do so in such close proximity.

The machinery formed a series of rough, not-quite-straight rings centered on a single point. In the middle of it all was a recess with a hole at the bottom. At a glance, it looked empty, but as Kano got closer, she saw that there was a thin coating of gray-brown slime. The same stuff she’d seen at the power plant.

Was the machine supposed to create this stuff? It must be used for making an awful lot of it. Kano couldn’t imagine Eomonsa had more than one of these. At least not inside the town. Feeling ill at ease and that she’d learned all she was likely to from the machine, Kano raced out of the warehouse, but try as she might, she couldn’t spot Eomonsa’s ghouls. They’d already disappeared into the town.