Eager to be free of the burdens trailing her so she could take advantage of her newfound wealth, Kano set a grueling pace back to Shorinstown. It didn’t trouble Miusvon or Nove, but the others struggled to keep up. Despite that, there wasn’t a word of complaint from the children, who did better than she expected. Urick ran his mouth for a while, but he was soon breathing too hard to keep it up.

They arrived at the town by nightfall, the buildings a shining beacon in the otherwise dark landscape. A hushed awe fell over the children.

“What is this place?” Thirty-Six asked, acting as spokesperson for the others.

Kano shrugged. “This is the Shorinstown, where Nove and I live.”

“It’s so big…” Thirty-Six said, looking over the city spread out before them. “And the buildings are strange. What do they make them out of?”

“I dunno,” Kano said, sighing. “Various things. Concrete, metal. What does it matter?”

“I want to know more about where we’ll be living. Do you have a house here?”

“Something like that. We should be able to fit you all for one night, but there’s not enough room for you to actually live there.”

Thirty-Six looked down, crestfallen. “Oh. Where will we stay, then?”

“I don’t know yet. We’ll figure that out soon. Quit bothering me already.”

Miusvon chuckled, but Kano ignored her. It wasn’t worth the effort, not with so much else to worry about. Thirty-Six fell back in line with the rest of the children, and the group continued to one of the side entrances of Shorinstown. The small gate of salvaged metal sat beside a low tower.

A large man with a lump of ugly scar tissue covering half his face stood watch on the tower. Kano recognized him on sight. His name was Borit, and he was a pain to deal with at the best of times. Doubly so if he was drunk, which judging by the bottle beside him, he was. In Kano’s view, he was just another greedy idiot, something Shorinstown had an ample supply of. Denied more profitable opportunities, he resorted to squeezing the travelers who had reason to avoid the more populated areas of Shorinstown.

“What have we here?” he called out as they approached. “Did you get yourself some new pets? Or are these little ones fodder for the butchers?” He laughed uproariously at his own joke, though it didn’t sound like he was joking at all.

“These are my new servants,” Kano said. “They’ve come to live here.”

Borit took a swig from his bottle. “And who’ll be paying the new citizen tax for them?” He jabbed his finger in Kano’s direction. “You?”

“Is that really necessary?” Kano asked. “They won’t take up much room.”

Borit shook his head. “Rules are rules, I can’t make any exceptions.”

Doing her impression of an understanding nod, Kano said, “How ’bout if I send Nove here to tear off what’s left of your face? Think you could make an exception then?”

He seized the rifle resting against the wall beside him and leveled it at Kano. “You think you can just fucking threaten me like that? I’m an important man.”

“I’ll be sure to put that on your grave marker,” Kano said. “Go ahead, shoot. See what happens.”

Features twisted in a mixture of outrage and fear, Borit’s trigger finger twitched. But he didn’t fire; he wasn’t drunk or stupid enough for that. Instead he set the rifle aside and sank into his seat with a curse. “I can do half price for the little bastards, but that’s it.”

“It should be at least a quarter,” Kano said. “Look how small they are.” She picked up the unresisting Thirty-Six and held them up over her head.

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Borit crossed his arms. “I’m already doing you a favor. You could cut me a little fucking slack.”

“Come on, look how many of them there are. You’ll still make a killing.”

He stood up and leaned against the wall, counting the children. “Fine. I’m guessing you don’t have the cash with you right now?”

“That’s right.”

“Then I want it by tomorrow night.” He pulled the lever beside his seat, and with a series of metallic clanks, the gates swung open. Several beggars dressed in rags on the other side looked up as they did. They were shuffling over when they noticed Kano and Nove. Averting their gazes, the beggars did their best not to attract attention to themselves.

Kano looked around at the crude buildings close to the gate and felt a sense of belonging. The place hadn’t gotten any prettier while she was away, but it was nice to be back.

A food vendor had a cart set up nearby and called out to Kano. “Hey, Kano. You’re back in town, huh? How about something to eat?”

Kano was about to decline when she heard a high-pitched whine. It came again, and she realized it was Nove. Looking back at the gaggle of children behind her, their eyes wide with anticipation, Kano sighed and walked over to the man’s cart. “How much for whatever you’ve got left?”

The old man smiled and scratched his head as he did some quick mental arithmetic. “I’ve got at least forty mystery sticks left, I’ll give you the lot for… one tenth.”

From what Kano could remember, that was no discount whatsoever, and a lot of them were probably old too. But she decided she was in no mood to haggle. With Borit it had been more about teaching him his place. She handed over a tenth of a soul matrix—most of the currency she had on her. Taking two for herself, she left it to Nove to distribute the rest. The meat was gristle with a liberal coating of grease, but at least it was food. She finished both in a few bites and tossed the sticks in a pile of garbage as she passed.

The streets narrowed as they got closer to Kano’s home until they were forced to walk single-file. A figure rounded the corner ahead, walking toward them. It was Virtur, his body as mutilated as ever, half his brain and part of his organs exposed for all the world to see.

Kano tensed up. Had he come for revenge? But no, as he got closer, she saw the disgusting grin on what was left of his face. He’d just come to harass her again.

“Kano?” he called. “Is that you? It’s been so long I hardly recognized you.”

Kano spat on the ground in front of him. “If smashing your head didn’t make you forget me, then I doubt a few days would either. What do you want?”

“The same thing I always want,” Virtur said, his voice high and sweet, “to see your lovely face. To bask in your presence. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less.”

It was more or less the response she’d expected, but it still sent a chill down her spine. Why must he continue to hound her so? “Well, you’ve seen my face now, isn’t that enough? I’m too busy right now to deal with you.”

“Oh, no, no, no. That won’t do at all. Not after you treated me so poorly before. I deserve at least a little of your time, surely?”

Kano vehemently disagreed that he deserved anything whatsoever from her, but she could see that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. And given his practical immortality, she didn’t have much ability to refuse in the manner she’d have preferred. Kano turned back to Nove. “Take the children to the house. I’ll catch up with you soon.”

A frown of disapproval on her face, Nove shuffled her clawed feet. “Are you sure? I could—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kano said, cutting her off. “I’ll be fine.”

Kano cast a final glance back. Urick was walking away while Miusvon regarded her, eyebrow raised. Not wanting Miusvon to cause any trouble, Kano waved her on. With a shrug, the natural followed after the others. Kano turned onto another street, and soon her companions were lost from view. She put her back against the wall of a nearby building and faced Virtur. “Here I am. Is this going to take long?”

He leered at her. “Not if you’re cooperative. Those little… things that were with you, are they yours?”

“For now. What do you care? I thought you just wanted to ‘bask in my presence.’”

“Oh, and I am!” Virtur declared, beaming. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t gather a little information while I do so. So, tell me, where did you get them?”

Kano couldn’t understand why he cared, but she also didn’t see any reason to keep their origins a secret. It’s not as if they had any real value. “I took them from a necromancer after I killed him.”

“And this necromancer… What was his name?”

Kano scratched her head. “Gri-something. I forget the name. He was living in some old tunnels. They’d built a whole little community in there.”

“And what was he using them for?” Virtur asked, all the cheer fading from him.

“I don’t know; I never really asked. What does it matter anyway?”

Virtur flashed his grotesque smile. “Clearly it doesn’t to you. Well, thank you very much for your time, Kano. It was a real pleasure, but I’m afraid I can’t stay any longer.”

Happy to be rid of him, Kano watched him leave. She was glad he hadn’t wanted more of her, just a few questions about the children. But she still had no idea why he was so interested in them. She’d have to ask Thirty-Six more about their lives underground. That was the plan, at least. But by the time she got back she was too tired to do much of anything.

Leaving the others to deal with the children, she went straight to her room. She left the orb she’d taken from Gresitosis’s lair on the ground and collapsed on her bed.