She woke up.

The giant canine head of Yucian Vast was now a featureless mound of paste bulging out of the floor. Adam floated into view, his point centered on her eyes. Behind him was Hailien, standing dramatically on the mound with her Remark in hand. Around her, all keeping their distance, were the sailors she saw earlier. They had their remarks drawn, a diverse mix, but more a custom than a threat.

“You haven’t been out for long.” Adam began. “The sailors are on our side. They said we’re safe here and can stay as long as we want.”

She was in no danger, somehow this disappointed her.

“They’re all goddamn monsters.” The surge of anger gave her energy free from Adam’s influence. Forcing herself up from the ground, she managed a few steps before falling. Adam changed her positioning so she landed on her hands.

“You need to heal. I’ve done my best and nothing important is broken, but there’s a level of damage there that can only heal through time.”

“Fuck that. I want back in.” She looked at the mound and spat on it. Frustratingly unrecognizable, but she liked to think a part of Yucian Vast was still in there, screaming.

She hated her. Her face everywhere, her voice the first thing she heard in the morning, crowing about those killed in duels and reminding them all who was in control. She wondered, now that she was dead, would they get someone else to do it, or simply rerun old announcements? Surely no one would notice.

“We killed one we can-“ She hesitated.

What the fuck was she saying? That was just one Constant. Devon had only won through luck and surprise. None of them would be that easy, and Yucian was a terrifying foe.

As for lemure… he was on a level far above all of them.

“Will you fill us in on this conversation?” Said one of the sailors. They had remarkably difference appearances and features. The one who talked wore a lower third mask that went down to her neck, and possibly below that. Her rectangular face was framed by heavy black bangs that resembled a helmet.

”I’m” She coughed, her vocal chords far better at clearing themselves under Adam’s direction. It only took one cough and now her throat felt brand new. “I’m just talking to myself, speaking outloud, don’t worry about me!” Pacing herself, she got up again, and this time managed to stay on two feet.

“It doesn’t take a Council Member to know you’re talking to your Remark. Hailien filled us in.” Said another, this one had small red oval glasses covering smaller eyes. The rest of his features were small in the same way, leaving a lot of empty space on his olive colored face. “So that’s Adam… in Remark form. I expected him to be bigger.”

One of them ducked below the mound with a giggle. In a moment of sheer terror for Devon she popped back up directly in front of her face.

She had wild yellow hair tied into two curly tails, and a wide smile that stretched from ear to ear, she talked directly at Adam, yelling into him like he was a mic. “So is it true what they say, that you’re Johann Remainder reborn? If you are, we’re in need of a sixth!”

She was surprised, she knew the name well. “What, is he back?” Johann was a folk hero who killed a Constant, a reminder that being chained to lemure did not mean you had to abandon your ideals.

“I… never went by Johann” Adam said

“He said he never went by Johann, so no” she said, gesturing to him.

They all groaned, suddenly disinterested.

“Well that confirms it.” Said a spiky haired youth with a red nose. Devon immediately disliked him. “This Adam dudes just a nobody, and this girls just some chick who found his remark and got-“

She pressured Adam to put her body in overdrive. Power and motivation rushed through her body like a cool refreshing breeze.

With only a running start of a few feet, she jumped in the air and did a backflip, planning to land next to him, grab the kid by the neck, and hold Adam to his throat.

The dismount from the flip was easy, Adam made seemingly impossible feats possible. On command fight or flight, her body stretched to its limits.

The landing? Well, there were those limits.

She landed on her feet, but the impact immediately hit her legs, fracturing bone.

Not even Adam could dull the pain that followed. She crumbled to the floor, yelling an expletive or two. It was not the impression of a badass who had her shit together.

“I just told you we need to rest.”

“Well, fuck you, I thought I didn’t!” She screamed. Her only comeback being admitting she had not thought it through.

Having just witnessed a terribly botched attempt to make herself seem cool, the crew rushed to her aide. They had a first aid kit they must have already been planning on using. Hailien stayed on the mound, observing this like a coach letting their worst player get hazed.

After a moment of loud and contentious disagreement, they put a metal boot on the damaged leg. Within the span of an annoyed exchange, the color of the boot shifted from red to blue. She wiggled her toes once the boot was removed. All better.

“Well, that didn’t take long” she got up, she could feel the force that was Adam working to distract her body from the aches and pains it still experienced, but he didn’t need to try as hard as he did before the impromptu medical treatment. The crew parted, preparing to head back up.

“Hey, spiky hair.” Devon said.

She raised Adam towards him.

“I don’t think this is necessary”

She ignored Adam. “Lets duel. Not to the Death, but in her vicinity. How about it? If I really am a nobody, then a nobody should be easy to fight.”

“I understand the impulse, and I think you would be able to handle it, but these people are not our enemies” Violence doesn’t need to equal conflict, she thought. Already she was twisting this grudge into an attempt to bond with them. She had never been in a duel before, not a real, official one. Skirmishes with Norman didn’t count. Not when her Remark was a dead fish.

The boy shook his head, looking more reluctant than she expected.

“Come on, Dive, she’s asking for it!” The one with the big mouth said. The others got excited, as excited for violence as the average Gutworth citizen, and they egged him on with variations of the phrase.

“You’re remarkably confident here. Which by all means you should be, you seem stronger than him.”

“Thanks” She took a stance copied from street fights she had been on the periphery of, with Adam wedged between two of her fingers like brass knuckles.

“But that means this is not a test or show of strength than it is a way to flatter yourself. An impulse I understand but don’t think should be trusted as readily as you do.”

“My Adam here wants to stab you in the heart and rip it out slowly. I’ll try to keep his bloodlust in check.”

From Adam, all she heard was a long sigh.

Feeling pressured (and thrown off by Devon’s words) Dive took a mirrored position, his left hand the dominant, sans Remark. “My Remark is really for support, it doesn’t make sense to use here.” He admitted. Boos and heckling from the sidelines.

“He has an impressive temperament. Lets not injure him permanently.”

“But if I do?”

”Yeah, uh, you can use it. It’s fine.” Dive said, assuming she was talking to him.

“I’m not your conscience Devon, I’m just stating my thoughts.”

Hailien was sitting on the mound, watching with such acceptance it was like she had seen this exact moment play out before. Devon hoped, after she won, the towering girl would talk to her. Maybe congratulate her, but she would be happy simply with an acknowledgement. She had killed a Constant after all.

“So please”

Someone yelled, and she took that as commencement. Even a distracted Adam, in the middle of a speech she had no interest in, was still Adam, and she used his ambient strength to double her speed, going for a cross body blow straight at Dive’s raised fist.

It would have been foolish if not for Adam himself, his pointy end lodged in her fingers stabbing Dive in his. It gave him a bloodied pinprick right below his third knuckle joint.

“In a friendly duel like this one-“

He yelped and broke his guard. Devon wasn’t used to having this sort of advantage. By the time she recognized the opening, it was closing, and she glazed his raised fist again. Wincing, he aimed for her chest but checked her shoulder.

“Whatever you do, or make me do-“

Forced into movement, she trotted around him, glazing the crowd and making his attacks more conservative, his swings restained and easier to stay on top of. She got appreciative pats from the crew as she did so, the fight she was putting on more important than where their loyalties lied. He couldn’t move that fast, and she tackled his shoulder and pushed him to the ground.

“For the love of the world, Devon”

On top of him now, she was fighting the only way she knew how, desperately. Punching his face, again and again. He got a few swings in, and so she went harder. The motion was so easy, made so exhilarating, that she didn’t see a reason to-

“I would like you not to kill him”

She stopped. Adam held over her head like an executioner's blade.

Breathing heavily, she dropped him with a clang.

Without his energy, her exhaustion was far heavier, and she put her hands down to prevent falling on her opponent. Dive looked up at her, confused that he was still living.

“Do you yield?” She asked.

“O-of course.” They participated in a short but complex series of movements to entangle themselves from each other.

Someone made a disappointed groan. Honestly in poor taste. “I had ten orbits on you biting it Dive, thanks a lot!” Only the reserved signer came to his aid, administering bandages and casts left over from their supplies.

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Now out of the battle, Devon kept replaying the same moment over and over in her mind. The moment before she ended it, when her arms were raised, and death was still an option. Adam hadn’t said anything to her, but she could tell by the feeling of him that he was grateful she hadn’t done it.

Devon didn’t know how she felt.

“You grew up near the alleys, didn’t you?” Hailien was behind her now. She hadn’t seen her move, neither had she heard her. The sailors faded into the background. They were more concerned with berating Dive as he was nursed back to health.

Like a startled crawlcow she jumped and turned, the motion effective but far from elegant. She tried her best to make herself seem tall and capable. “Yes, I’ve fought before.”

She hadn’t outside of today. Nothing more severe than reacting against bullies, and none of those encounters went well or lasted long, except for beating Norman twice.

Hailien nodded, seeming to buy it. “You have the instincts for it, and the power to back it up. I assume the Remark helps with that. How long have you had it?” She raised her arm and twisted her hand back. At that moment, the crew made their way towards the closest hatch, moving in stops and starts that made their eventual exit seem accidental.

“You don’t need to lie here either” Adam said, the most forceful she had heard him be.

“It’s always been mine.” She grimaced when Adam responded with a resigned chuckle. She preferred herself as she was now, everyone did, why admit she was ever anything else. “The one they called Adam was an extension of my remark, a corpse I was puppeteering.” She smiled as she said it. It felt good to claim it as a truth.

Imagine if she did have that power.

Hailien cut her bullshit short with a swing meant to decapitate. Clipping the side of the boat, and slicing off hair at the top of her head.

Adam backpedaled Devon’s body, moving her through awkward jumps and skips until she was at the downward edge of the room, panting furiously. “What the fuck was that?” She yelled.

“A punishment for liars. You’re Devon Near, only just recently was made the newest number. And only just recently having gotten that Remark from Adam.” She rolled her shoulders ponderously, the motion was so exaggerated it was like a automaton being tested. “Congratulations by the way, you just made the worst mistake of your life. They haven’t put the oil in you yet, so there’s still time.” She had been wondering why a vein hadn’t sprouted in the shape of a number.

Adam darted out of her hand and made its way to Hailien, moving in and out of her range of motion like a energized floatrat. Devon could do nothing but stick to the wall and watch, suddenly powerless. It was not fun to revisit.

“This is proof enough, but we need to be on the same page. So-“ A grunt, Hailien was on the defensive, not fully aware of Adam’s capabilities, or the level of independence he had. “Brandish your Remark, your real one.”

Flying away to build up speed, Adam careened, appearing to be aiming for all the world to plow right through Hailien’s stomach. Her Remark was an effective shield, keeping her body safe as the impact and momentum caused her to skid backwards, stopping only inches from Devon. Adam had a lot of power, and he kept Hailien locked in that position. Meanwhile, Devon, feeling a lot weaker without his help, ran towards her with her own remark, the dead fish that felt just as useless as it always had been. (Through there was something about it that felt more… substantial?)

Awkwardly, the fishy blade was placed at Hailien’s neck, the lips puckered around her metal hinge. Pressured by Adam coming closer and closer to breaking her guard, she slowly lowered her Remark, and raised her hand in surrender as it faded from reality.

“I yield. But I wasn’t even trying.”

“I don’t care” Devon said, panting, exhausted from such a short fight. “We won. We killed your Constant. And now, with nothing but kindness, I’d really like it if you let us off at Luminescia.” Or maybe Gutworth, maybe she already was strong enough to kill Morgan.

Hailien simply stared, the look she gave made Devon’s blood boiled. “It’s not that easy.”

Before Devon could respond, Hailiein’s Remark appeared again. She threw it.

On the other side of the room, Hailien caught it. Somehow, she had outraced her weapon to the other side.

“I didn’t use my trick, and you would have died if it wasn’t for Adam. You don’t deserve to go anywhere, not yet. And… you have two remarks.” She smiled, an impressive expression to pull off for one with a metal lower jaw. “Am I correct in calling him a parasite?”

“There’s no harm in telling her.”

She relented. “He’s a remark who can make bonds with people. Has his own brain, I guess. Even when they die he’s still in control of the body.” She tapped her chest. “I’m still getting used to it, but right now it’s like, I’m at the front of the ship, and he takes over when it’s necessary.”

She didn’t seem impressed. “Understood.” She put her Remark behind her. It stuck to her back without the help of any straps.

“Do you think.” She said “That a ship is only as good as it’s captain?”

Devon knew her answer would be pointless. She could tell just by the tone, Hailien already had an answer locked and loaded, and anything she could say in response would only delay the punchline.

“I don’t like that metaphor. I’m not a ship.”

She had a different take on who the ship was supposed to be, but didn’t want to argue with her passenger. “You’re trying to bait me into a fight, a real fight, not gonna fucking work. You can’t expect me to be anywhere close to you strength wise.”

“Why not?”

Devon shook her head, this question was ridiculous. “Because I spent most of my energy every day on doing my job, anything left over was used to guarantee I didn’t go insane.” The few hours she had to herself, well, the attention box that came with her room always seemed to know what to show her. During her downtime, it was easy to forget that she even had qualms that needed to be addressed. She wished this was a show she was watching, she could get all the highs without any of the lows.

Hailien bought her hands up. “A remark is only as good as it’s wielder” she punched the empty space in front of her, her strikes so quick and precise that Devon swore she could hear the air splitting. “I was a hole puncher.”

Devon was familiar. During the worst days at the diner, she could always take comfort in the fact that she wasn’t a hole puncher (known by the Legacy as a hole attendant, cause it was nicer). The job was to take watch at one of the many holes that peppered the drum. Holes too small for another human to enter, but big enough for an Aberrant, or even a malformed Contender. If anything crawled out, you killed it.

Anything with too many teeth, or muscles strong enough to tear, were to be reported, confirmed, and then left for the nearest Number to deal with. The turnover rate for such a job was high, but very few people had the chance to quit. Knowing this was her background explained more about Hailien than her actions ever could.

“early on I realized I was undersized and underfed, an awful realization. Nothing in my life before this could have prepared me. Certainly not in a way more forward than an Abberant popping out like a tragedy, reducing me to a newborn screaming on the ground just before a much stronger friend massacred the thing that by all rights .” She cracked her knuckles one by one, each with a sound like a cannon shot. They were not done fighting, not by a long shot. “Confide in me your life. Whats your variation?”

“My Father was stabbed to death in front of me.”

“By Abberants?”

“No.” Devon had never seen one, through she had often heard their screams at night, they would climb as high as they could on the other side of the wall and wail. “By you.” At the end of the day Hailien was a member of the Legacy, and she was complicit.

“I’m sorry.” It was a genuine response. So genuine that it seemed to surprise Hailien herself. She cleared her throat before continuing. “I think you know my story after that.”

“You’re the second of two people that makes me think being a Lemure doesn’t instantly turn you into a psychotic loser.”

“Well I’m sorry I mislead you. Joining them is an awful idea and it will turn you into… something you won’t recognize.” She paced from right to left while talking. When she got to a wall she acted surprised, and would turn back reluctantly. “Lemure’s Legacy is Lemure’s bloodbag. He is old and infirm, and his worst impulses are slowly taking him over. We need to give him injections just to keep him lucid, did you know that?”

Devon shook her head, through there were rumors. “I knew that instinctively. Leaders almost never deserve their reputation. Especially those that rule by force. It’s insecurity expressing itself as a cancerous mass that will continue to grow unless kept in check.”

“The voice in my head has some dangerous ideas.” Devon said with a smirk.

In response, Hailien punched her. It was a punch without any warning or mercy. The enhanced senses and reaction time Adam gave her was enough for her to clench her jaw, but nothing more than that. She fell hard, hitting her head on the harsh carapace of the floor.

“There was no need for that” Adam said in Devons voice. Before she hit the ground he was out of her hand and once again attacking Hailien, his target where her body went from metal to flesh.

The pain only got bad when he was gone. Devon was too busy trying not to cough up whatever was lodged in her throat to see Hailien catch Adam in her hand. A fountain of blood burst from the back of her hand, but Adam stayed trapped in her grip.

“Call him off” Hailien said. Her enclosed hand moved oddly, like it was about to erupt.

When was the last time she ate? It didn’t matter, she just got punched. Focus on that, Devon. Focus on being in a boat with a woman who you killed a Constant with, she thought, and figure out fast if you have to kill her as well.

“This isn’t right. Shouldn’t we be… helping each other, helping me, atleast?”

“I have only been helping you..” She said this like it was obvious. “But you haven’t been helping yourself. How can you hope to defeat the other Constants when, by your own admittance, you’ve never trained for such a thing.”

“I told you.” She said, frustrated. “I didn’t have anytime, I-“

“Thats an excuse and you know it. They murdered your dad, revenge should have grabbed a hold of you and molded you into a weapon long before our meeting. I should be dead, killed by your hand. Now tell him to stop and we can make up for wasted time.”

“Fine” Devon threw up her hands, wobbling a bit from the sudden shift in positioning. “By all means Adam, stop tearing her shit up, I need to get stronger first.” She really did, as much as it pained her to admit it “and she’s the only one who can help… apparently. So no more murder.”

“I do prefer that” Adam floated out. The inside of Hailien’s hand was a battlefield. She closed it quickly, and did not seem to feel what looked like immensely painful wounds. “While I hate that our path forward requires violence. We certainly can’t leave this place. I’ve seen the history, what they’ve done to it, and you yourself, you know first hand.”

“And what’s stopping us from leaving right now, killing all of them that remain.”

“I am.” Hailien said. She had changed her position, now she stood in front of the closet hatch up to the deck.

“Wait, you called him off just to make me fight you again?”

“A stipulation, like I said. Show me that you’re strong without him. He can use his trick to heal you and numb the pain, as well as provide you with quicker reflexes and skill as needed, but nothing more than that. Is that something he can do from range?”

“I believe so. One moment.” Adam moved away from her to the other side of the room, the way he did it, slowly floating away on a horizontal line, was almost comical.

“Oh you’re going along with this quickly aren’t you.” Devon said, as annoyed as she was amused.

“What she’s saying makes sense.” Adam admitted. “We got lucky with that kill. You’re smart Devon, I am happy to be bonded with you, but” Wanting to be gentle, he chose his next words carefully. “I was controlling not only your motor skills, but the choices you made, outside of using the hole at the end. But the strength you had, most of that was me by necessity.”

“Do you know what I did with my free time?”

“Work on being an asshole?” She was finding a wit in her that she had been denied for years.

“I punched walls” She opened the hand that Adam had bruised. A canvas of scars and wounds.

“Only some of it was the work of your friend, the scars he made joined countless others. I hit the strange metal of the wall, starting with a clenched fist, then I moved on to hitting them open handed, partly because that seemed like a logical progression, and partly because I was a very very vert angry young woman. Only things that hurt felt truthful to me back then.” She looked up, not at anything in particular, just up. “I’m not sure if I can say I’ve changed much.”

She focused back on Devon. “My point, if I have one, is that you are not yet strong. You want to fight and kill the other Constants, that is a worthy goal and I support it, but you can’t expect to replicate that success five more times in your current state. You do not get strong through a remark, you get strong through making an effort to do so. It’s not fun, but I have good news. I think strength will suit you well.”

Devon thought about this. She saw the parallels with her obsession with the flame, the way she trained herself to tolerate pain. For once she didn’t ignore what the girl was saying out of principle. “It’s just hard.” She said after a moment. “It’s fucking hard… I wanted so badly.” She clenched her hands into fists. They hurt more than she could bear. “I wanted to end today with Lemures head on a pike.”

“Would you settle for six months, maybe five?”

“Fine then” She put her hands down. “I don’t need Adam, I’ll fight you… just as me.” She sighed, not deluded enough to think she was a match. “So no remarks.”

“And no Trick either” Hailien dismissed her, through the match still felt anything but fair. “This will take atleast a few weeks, so lets lay down some ground rules, if I pin you, then we can consider that-“

But Devon did not want to wait. She felt her only chance here was to surprise, and hopefully slip out without even have to fight her.

Cowardly, yes, but she knew she wasn’t strong enough to fight Hailien, and it was not a truth she was ready to confront head on. In her mind all she had to do was to prove she was smart enough to get out of here, and then, with Adam back in her control, she could do anything. If she needed more power, surely she would get that from beating the other Constant. There was something inherent in killing another, you gained their strength. She felt it now, running towards the hatch, Hailien yet to move a muscle, perhaps she didn’t even need Adam now.

“It’s not gonna be that simple.”

Working with reluctance, Hailien stopped Devon with an open palm slam.

Once again, she hit the ground hard. It didn’t hurt any less the second time.

The broad body of Hailien approach, made even more massive by this angle. She slammed a foot down on her shoulder. It seemed unnecessary. It wasn’t like she was gonna get up any time.

She got down low, and tilted up Devon’s head so they were staring face to face. It was compassionate, and considered. “By the time you walk out of here, and I’m unable to stop you, then you can do anything you want.”