Simon declared, “Count on me. Use the time I’m gone to recoup and maybe drag Abdul out of his room. We’ll need him when things get rough.” When given nothing but affirming nods, he continued, “If things get too wild, then I’ll bail. I leave at dusk. If you don’t hear back from me in two days, then I’m dead. Move on without me.”

Sasha looked antsy. “What will you do until then?”

“Sleep.”

“Uh, rest well then.”

Simon took his leave into the halls. The rest of the group lingered on the living room couches. As soon as they were alone, Isaac showed a devious expression.

He nudged Elise with his elbow. “Sensing what I’m sensing? It’s like watching a bird leave its nest for the first time.”

Elise said nothing. She just faintly smiled as he picked on Sasha. “These owls must give off some kind of pheromone. First Abdul and now Sasha. Simon better not seduce me next. I’m taken.”

Embarrassed to a bright red blush, Sasha frowned at him. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

From the table, her dagger spoke, “How do you think I feel watching this? Sure, he’s a man I approve of, but romance right now of all times? Think of our priorities.”

“Major!”

Sasha got up from her chair, snatching up the dagger. “I can’t deal with you all ganging up on me like this right now. I’m leaving.”

Isaac couldn’t back down. He lived to clown like this. “Leaving to be with the one.”

“No… Wine. You’re making me want to drink. I’m leaving to find wine. There’s got to be a cabinet or something around here.”

Even though he was just joking around, Sasha felt betrayed. She voiced her bitterness. “You and Elise have been all over each other this entire time and I’ve kept my mouth shut about it. Even though it hurts. Could you give me the same respect? Or would you rather me live lonely?”

Elise pinched and yanked Isaac’s ear. He winced, “Ouch.”

She reprimanded him, “Be more sensitive.”

“My bad. Let’s cool off. I was just messing around.”

Sasha shook her head and left them there.

This confused Isaac. “I hurt her?”

“Obviously,” Elise answered. She knew the truth, but it wasn’t in her best interest to reveal it. Isaac would have to figure it out himself.

He looked troubled. Guilty even. “I never knew Sasha cared about those kinds of things. She was dead set on her training. That’s what I always thought that light in her eyes meant, at least.”

***

Simon stood outside the second floor on a balcony, leaning over its railings with his mask in his hand. He watched the sun descend to disappear from the horizon. He spoke to the cloak wrapped around his shoulders, its eye resting calmly half-opened. “Couldn’t sleep after all. All these years together and I still get nervous before missions.”

“…”

“You know what Teacher used to say though: The day you stop fearing is the day you die. Let it happen and breathe.”

“…”

“It’d be cool if you spoke like the other machina. I get that you understand me. I mean, our souls are bonded and all, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder if anything is going on beyond that eye of yours.”

Snake Eater blinked at him. He shook his head and mumbled. “But that doesn’t matter to me. You’re special. A great listener too.”

A voice startled him from behind. “I’m sure your machina cares about you. They feel just as much as we do.”

He waved shyly to Sasha. “Were you listening?”

“Was wandering the halls and overheard. I’m bored. Did you get some good sleep?”

“Not at all. I’ll regret it later.”

“Leaving soon? Expect the worst in Castle Hemmer.”

“I’m always prepared for the worst. Dusk will be here soon. You won’t see me for a bit. I should be back soon. I should.”

Sasha meandered a bit before going back inside. “Thank you for being there for me.”

“I haven’t done anything yet. Thank me after I’ve proven myself.”

“But you have. Um, you know, under the bed earlier today.” She twirled her hair with her finger. “You made me realize that I’m surrounded by people who care about me. No matter what happens in Hemmer, I feel like everything will turn out okay.”

Before disappearing back into the manor, Sasha turned and spoke with enthusiasm, “Get back in one piece and I’ll give you a re…” She hesitated, darting her eyes away.

Simon gazed at her, intrigued. “Re…?”

The cutest thing about Sasha was that she always tried her best no matter how nervous or uncertain. She took every challenge head-on. This was a new kind of adversity though. It was more foreign than anything else.

Simon smiled at her, asking, “Reward?”

Sasha nodded, shy. “I’ll see you later.”

He watched the back of her head fade away. A new anxiety fell over him. Simon looked down at Snake Eater’s wide eye. The machina was as surprised as he was. “I feel sick to my stomach. What’s come over me?”

His cloak groaned at him. He shrugged as if understanding it. “I don’t know either, but this is the first time I’ve done something because I wanted to. Not to survive. Not because I was forced or expected to. I made the choice.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

***

Simon walked up a steep hill alongside a marching patrol of royal guards. They carried torches, numbering two hundred sets of silver armor and swords. A dozen held up banners showcasing the king’s red flag and insignia. Was such a display of power necessary in the safest street of the continent?

At the crest of the rising street, they met Castle Hemmer’s cast shadow instead of the horizon. It sprawled beyond common sense. The only way to tell that it wasn’t the night sky was distant, blue lantern lights. Confronted by his absolute smallness, a single thing clouded Simon’s mind staring up at it.

There’s a god in there, Snake Eater.

He split ways with the patrol once it steered towards massive rows of rose gardens. Alone in the dark, Simon squinted at them before shaking his head. If such a force marched through Low Monestate every night, Rath Ghul would’ve never gotten as big as it did. King Andre must’ve not cared about his people.

Simon approached the nearest entrance to the fortress: a heavy door studded with iron. It led into a tower that spiraled to the nigh top of Hemmer. If he could climb it without being spotted, it’d make his infiltration into the deeper structure a sure success.

Simon pressed his ear up against the door. Snoring. Snoring and the banter of men.

He opened it with the loudest creak he’d ever heard. The wary gazes of at least thirty men lounging around in casual and night clothes pierced through him. Countless rucksacks and helmets were shoved under their beds. Of all places, Simon stumbled into barracks. He held his breath as one soldier stood and advanced, a mace in one hand and beer in the other.

“Who goes there?”

The man stopped outside, looked around, and shrugged as Simon slipped behind him. “Must’ve been the wind.”

A less drunk-looking guard furrowed his brow. “You’ve gotta pull the door open to get in. How’d the wind open the damn door?”

“Maybe it was magical wind.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Another theorized, “It was a ghost. The place’s haunted. You don’t hear the wailing?”

“We don’t talk about that. Are you tryna disappear? I sure ain’t’nt.”

“Ain’t’nt ain’t a word, dipshit.”

As they bounced increasingly absurd ideas off each other, aliens included, Simon hugged the furthest wall, watching his feet in worry of tripping over helmets. He made it to the winding steps. They twisted upwards for dozens of floors, each rotation housing more guards and more doors leading deeper within. This watchtower alone could’ve held one thousand men, and there were many spaced throughout Hemmer.

At around twelve revolutions up, Simon left to dark, window-lined halls with massively raised ceilings and scarlet carpets. It rained outside. Droplets assaulted the colored glass panes next to him as lightning flashes illuminated his way onwards.

The presence of vast soul signatures put him on edge. At his low level, he usually couldn’t sense ki. This was different though. These presences were so overwhelming that even he was affected. They must’ve belonged to machina or cultivators of the highest echelon. Without a doubt, the second great machina, Lovecraft, was here.

Simon’s breath thinned. It reminded him of the atmospheric pressure of Ailmor’s tallest mountain, Cloud’s Breach.

The aroma of baking bread caught his attention. The king must’ve snacked even at night. One moment, Simon pursued the direction of Lovecraft. The next, he detoured to find the kitchen with a growling stomach. He peeked around a corner, staring into its open doorway. An eerie, predatory switch flipped in his head.

How dare they use psychological warfare against me.

A commonality marked every slip-up in Simon’s career: his appetite and impulsion to eat. He barely met the calories required to maintain his muscle mass his entire life. What did this mean?

Simon lived in a constant state of hunger and couldn’t resist his drive to sate it. This, combined with the stress of the job, created a horrible flaw. He would impulsively snack no matter the situation, no matter the direness, and no matter the reason. Simon followed his nose. Lightning flashed behind him.

With greedy eyes, he stared at the back of Mae’s head as she admired the fruits of her labor with hands on hips. “I did it right this time. Now Ashley won’t hate me anymore.”

She left from the stovetop where an assortment of pastries, pretzels, and seasoned buns rested to search through a wooden cabinet on the other side of the kitchen. Holding a wood-woven basket, she turned back to find them gone. Vanished! Poof! Where? Why?

“Eh?” Mae uttered with a wide, blank gaze.

Ashley came from nowhere. “I’ve come to bring His Highness his nighttime snack. He is especially grumpy,” she said.

Mae flinched. She didn’t notice her arrival. It’d always been like that. For as long as she could remember, Ashley stalked up to her without ever making a sound.

Again, Mae muttered, “Eh…?”

“What’s wrong? Why are you shaking?”

“Umm.”

“Where is his nighttime snack, Mae?”

“They were stolen. I swear.”

“Stolen?” Ashley’s eyes sharpened with hatred. “If you need help, just ask me. Have you even started yet?”

“But I’m not lying, Miss Ashley!”

Ashley reared her hand. Mae flinched again, closing her eyes, and said, “I’m sorry. Please don’t hit me.”

“You’re useless. I don’t understand why His Highness favors you.”

Simon scurried down the halls like a thieving goblin of the night, a pretzel in his mouth and bread wrapped up in his cloak-turned sack. He found a storeroom filled with barrels, scarfed down everything, and exited as if it’d never happened.

His machina, Snake Eater, was far more versatile than it appeared. It wasn’t a simple camouflage cloak. It ate what light it touched and manipulated color. Not only that; the power extended to whatever Simon contacted. This included his clothes, weapons, and tools.

Though it was difficult to draw a map in an invisible notebook, with an invisible pencil, this was exactly what he trained to do.

Simon planned to locate both Lovecraft and The Apparatus. He’d work his way backward from them, setting up ideal routes and entry points leading to each. This wasn’t his first rodeo. It wasn’t his first castle either. He imagined Sasha’s reaction to his good work later and got amped up. His mind wandered to his reward.

Simon shook the thoughts from his head and locked in. Focus on the objective at hand.

A royal guard turned a near corner and approached. He wore a full plate suit made of steel and a visored helm. The inner castle guards were armed to the teeth. Instead of evading, Simon met his gaze, stopped, and waved.

Solid Snake.

Snake Eater sensed his intentions and morphed colors. Simon transformed to mimic the royal guard. It wasn’t a perfect disguise, but the chances of it being noticed were low. Not through a visor in this darkness, at least.

Simon hailed the guard, “Brother, I’m on my way to relieve the guard monitoring the great machina. He has fallen sick. Could you remind me of where it is?”

“Champion Gundyr is sick? That’s hard to believe. No one in Ailmor has a constitution as hardy as his.”

“I’ve been wondering the same thing. I won’t lie, I was shocked by the order. Me of all people to replace Champion Gundyr too? They should have chosen you instead. I mean, look at me.”

“Oh, you flatter me. Be more confident in yourself. Only the best of the best are stationed here. You know how selective His Highness is.” The guard remembered Simon’s request, adding, “And the directions… Four floors up. Head west. End of hall. Big double doors. Can’t miss them.”

“Thank you, brother. Stay safe.”

“Affirmative.”

They slightly bowed to each other and marched off to their duties.

Once out of sight, Simon went invisible again. He searched for the nearest flight of stairs and ascended until reaching his destination, passing by two more pairs of guards on patrol. Just as instructed, the double doors to Lovecraft stood at the end of the western wing’s halls. The closer he got, the more oppressive the spiritual signatures inside became.

Simon pulled open the doors with caution. A tall, bulky man clad in golden ornate armor faced away from him in the chamber’s center. He held a halberd machina over his shoulder as if it were weightless. Electric sparks crawled and jumped across his body.

The podium holding Lovecraft wasn’t far ahead. A few steps went up to its glass case. Simon inched back, furrowing his brow. That man is strong. He is a machina wielder and ki cultivator. Lightning nature too?

His presence alerted the great’s guard. The man glared back at Simon with an electric aura flaring up chaotically.

Simon let the door shut and took off. He hid behind a wall many rooms down and looked back around the corner. The guard hadn’t followed beyond the doors. He sighed.

I’m safe for now. Now for the part I haven’t been forward to.

That’s right. The Apparatus awaited.