After a dizzying work shift, Sasha laid on her bed, arms crossed behind her head. She heard a firm knocking and leaned up onto the side of the bed. “Come in.”

Randle creaked the door open. “We’re having an important meeting in the dining room. It’s about the future. You should come.”

Sasha followed him to where the twin guards sat with wine glasses poured. Must’ve been a special day for the stingy collector to share. Xavier darted his eyes between the glasses and Randle. “Did you forget that we don’t drink?”

“Oh, yea, I did. Just figured that this may be a good occasion.”

Abdul sipped on his glass with a self-satisfied look, which hushed the room to silence. “You don’t drink, brother, but I do. I’ll take your share if you really want to reject his kindness,” he told his stricter twin.

“Abdul, don’t give into temptation so easy. That’s devil’s blood,” Xavier shot back.

“Temptation this, temptation that. Sin this, sin that. I’m just living a little.”

Xavier sighed. “Whatever. We’ve been estranged from home far too long, it seems.”

Randle cleared his throat. “Let’s save the intervention for later.” He plopped down into his seat with a posture much straighter than usual. “I’ve been penny pinching a while now and managed to save up a bit. We even have hot water. So, it’s about time some things changed. It’s about time we got out of this shithole.”

Abdul grinned as he leaned over, snatching Xavier’s glass. “Ah, so we’re moving shop?”

“Troll’s Treasure will be based in the heart of the Bazaar District. It’ll be bigger and safer, and we’ll get much richer. We’ll get robbed a tenth as much and we’ll sure as hell not have to hear the screams anymore.” He looked at everyone, a smug but warm half-smile sneaking onto his face. “I’ll be counting on all of you. Especially you, Sasha.”

“Right. I’ll do my best.” Sasha stared down her own generously filled glass. She wouldn’t have minded drowning in wine. Could something as simple as moving allow her to escape the city’s suffering? It would follow her no matter how far away. Abdul clinked his two glasses together with a low “Cheers.” and everybody went their ways. Then Sasha sighed before downing her wine as if it was a big shot.

Back in her room, she eyed Primus who now rested up against her dresser. Randle let her keep it in her room to feel more at ease at night since she practically begged him. Her paranoia wasn’t a lie. One day, they may have had to team up again. Better ready than not, right?

Sasha passed out and slept until she didn’t. She snapped awake at midnight with fading memories of nightmares, gasping for air and clenching the mattress hard enough to ache her finger’s join. Horrid wailing echoed outside her window not too far away.

Sasha stumbled up wobbled by slight disorientation. If she were to save the day this time around, then there was no time to think. She wrapped a scarf tight around her neck and face and snatched Primus. It didn’t matter to her how close she’d gotten to escaping the slums. If she were the one crying, Ley would have dropped everything to help. Isaac would’ve been no different. She made a not-so-subtle departure outside out the back after fastening her boots. Even forgot to shut the door.

Taken from his sock, Primus awakened with surprise. “Oh, an adventure?”

“We— We won’t be late this time,” she stammered back amid her sprint down Low Monestate’s streets. Her stride was frantic. Almost dazed.

Primus for once showed hesitation. “Sasha, are you drunk?”

“I’m not! Not at all!”

“My last wielder was an alcoholic. Look at him now. Gods...”

“Gods? They can fuck themselves.”

Sasha skidded to a stop on the sidewalk and turned to face the darkness of an alley in which the screams faded to stiff air. “Seems owls prefer alleys,” she grumbled, dragging and scraping Primus’s edge across the ground in her approach to multiple shadows. Two cloaked men donning the predatory bird’s mask leaned up against the wall as a third knelt to the ground over a stiff body.

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With an icebox at one side and a tray of sharp tools on the other, he wore a plague doctor’s crow mask; one so realistic that some may have mistaken him to be half-beast. “The swamp creeper’s venom will calm him. It’s an unrivaled paralytic.” Then his head swiveled to the right, alerted to Sasha’s presence. “I’d advise you wander off. If you owe nothing, we’ve no quarrel,” he calmly asserted with a raspy voice. Sasha swore his mask blinked.

In the issuing silence, the two guards glared at her, bouncing ideas. “Think she’s the hawk from a few months back?” The first asked.

“I doubt it. The big blade fits, but bitch’s too small.”

Sasha observed The Doctor paint brisk surgical lines across the naked chest of a younger man. The victim couldn’t have been older than twenty. He looked in his prime too. Unable to scream, the guy’s lips and opened eyes trembled.

“W-What do you think you’re doing?” She sputtered out.

“Collecting. He’s run out of luck, regalia, and use. Only thing left to take is flesh.”

“I can’t let you.”

Sasha moved forward, so much so that The Doctor’s owls felt threatened. They revealed longswords and blocked her path. The tension diffused a bit though after the shorter one made a realization that made him chuckle.

“Are you intoxicated?” He asked, confusion visible even through the owl’s mask.

“A little wine never hurt anybody,” she responded with a slight slur.

Primus sighed and mumbled again. “Gods…”

The Doctor cleared his throat. “She must’ve been kicked from a tavern for being too rowdy. I won’t permit anymore interruptions. This expensive creeper venom will dissipate soon.” He then motioned to the first guard. “Ryan, escort the lass home like the true gentleman you are before I lose my patience and do what owls do.”

“Fine by me. Not a fan of killing women anyway. My ma raised me too decent,” Ryan responded, placing a hand on Sasha’s shoulder to usher her away. “Now, where do you live? You lost?” Then he pondered a second before slipping off his mask to reveal blue eyes and a smile. “See, I’m not actually an owl. We’re human. Don’t worry. You can trust me.”

Sasha gritted her teeth and raised Primus into the air. “Bonk.”

Ryan’s eyes widened as if she spoke in riddles. “Bonk? I’ve never heard of that street.”

Primus repeated it too. “Bonk? Right now? In this economy?”

“Yes. Bonk. Right now.”

Ryan found the machina fascinating. “And what a massive machina for a girl to carry around so easily. You must be strong.”

Primus howled, “Bonk!”, and slammed a dent into Ryan’s skull with the umph of a descending piano. The only decent owl crashed and ate concrete to everyone’s surprise except Sasha’s. Ryan’s partner froze before readying his blade, falling into a combat stance.

The Doctor sighed. Then he groaned steadying himself up to his two feet. “Interesting. So, she is the hawk. Al Yara will be intrigued.”

The two sides halted to a cold standstill, glaring at one another. Then The Doctor shook his head. “This fight isn’t worth it, Hayden. You can’t predict her machina’s power.” Then he looked down at his victim who’d started to regain bodily control in the toes and fingers. “She just wants to save Desmond here. I’ll allow it for now, but he won’t be able to hide for long. The inevitable is merely delayed.”

Owl Hayden stared down Sasha who shot daggers right back at him. “But she’s just a girl. I can win.”

“She killed Vance, you novice. You’re nothing. Obey.”

Hayden scoffed before sheathing his blade. “I could never touch Vance in sparring. He was something else. But Ryan!”

The Doctor addressed Sasha directly. He talked down to her as if she were an unchained heathen. “Child, you vastly underestimate what adults are capable of. This isn’t some fairy tale. You will pay for your actions and for the needless deaths of Vance and Ryan. Master Al Yara will call for it. You’ll kneel before The Circle. You’ll beg. I will never forget your face. Those green eyes, your brunette hair, and bratty voice. The day we meet again, you won’t even know it.”

His droning voice implanted a deep-seeded anxiety into Sasha’s mind, dwarfing anything she’d ever suffered through. It was a malicious, calculated promise. Before he could continue, she stepped forward, showing off Primus. “I get it, so fuck off!”

The Doctor nodded before slowly leaning over to pick up his belongings, grunting again. He strolled away with Hayden, gazing over his shoulder at Sasha until disappearing. She rushed to the side of Desmond whose shirt had been sliced in half. He gasped for air and strained to move up to his knees. “Gods you saved me, but… but…” Desmond started before beginning to rip at his own hair. “They’ll come back. They’ll find me. They always do. They found my dad then mom then brother!”

Sasha honestly didn’t think this far. She saved him, but what next? “You need to get out of here. Desmond, right? You’ve gotta get as far from Monestate as possible,” she told him hesitantly.

Desmond let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and cry. “I already left New Gareth. Then Ethela. Even tried my luck with rundown villages. Rath Ghul always knew though. Somebody always hunted me. Where am I gonna go? Where? Where!?”

He pushed her chest violently. Sasha fell backward onto her butt. Her mouth dropped agape. “I don’t know.”

“Then what was the fucking point of butting in? If I’m gonna die anyway, then spare me the suffering.”

She gazed down at her hands. “I don’t know.” Sasha scrambled up to her feet and took to biting her thumb. “I’m truly sorry.”