I swallowed in fright.

They had me in check, and there was nothing I could do to escape from that situation.

I let the Sharp-Shooter put a rifle against my head. How could I have allowed that to happen?

They had even figured out who I was. They would sell me now or call the Inquisition and have me executed… fuck.

Had I learned anything these long seventeen years? Had I forgotten how to act just because I had gotten myself some freedom?

This was not the way. I shouldn’t have gone so low.

And what about Nova, now? No… anything but that, I could not allow her to lose the way, because, sure as the Abyss, if she suffered my loss, she would forever lose what made her who she was.

I tightened my fist; I couldn’t allow that to happen.

“Easy there, Hunter,” said the Sharp-Shooter pushing the rifle against my head.

Yet the big man, the one called Christoph, intervened for me, “Sawyer, let him go; he won’t do anything; he’s one of us. Come here, Maysoon will fix your nose."

“If you say so, boss.” Saying so, Sawyer removed the rifle from my head and took the broken-down ladder to the ground.

“Just give me a couple of minutes, Gustav. I’m a fan of this young man,” said Christoph.

“You’re everybody’s fan. Just be quick about it,” answered the Outlander.

Christopher Ronen looked at me, and then he jumped up.

He jumped.

Reaching the floor on which I stood in one huge leap. I had never seen anything of the like. His Strength wasn’t even that high. He hadn’t even used any movement techniques. Just… how had he done it?

When the man came near me, I was entirely dwarfed by his stature. He was bigger than Alistar; the Kob wouldn't even compare.

“So,” he said, with his happy voice, “what is the Night Hunter doing here. The Sun is still so high in the sky.”

“I…”

What was happening to me? I couldn’t find any words, “I was wasting my time,” I found myself saying.

“Wasting your time? But your time is valuable, my friend. Why would you waste it? Never. Never waste your time. Do you hear me? Now repeat after me, I will never waste my time.”

What? Is he for real? I thought, and yet, I did as he had said. I repeated his words.

“I will never- I will never-” but then I shook myself awake. “What in the Abyss, stop doing that to me!” I shouted.

Christopher chuckled, “I’m not doing anything to you, really. Listen, Night Hunter. I like you, but I’m going to need you to leave. Go on with your business, and try to stay away from the Dumps. Things have changed as of late. These places are changing jurisdiction,” he said.

“They are yours then?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t consider them mine; who would really want all this garbage for himself? No, but I consider being mine the people that live here. I can’t stand looking at them, the way they live their life, just because they are Sundoor’s rejects.”

Sundoor’s rejects? I didn’t think the bums around here might have been Sundoor's ex-citizens.

“There are a lot of things that Sundoor rejects,” I found myself saying.

“Indeed, young man, indeed there are. You are one of them, are you not?”

And I felt my knees tremble.

Yeah, I was one of them. I was an outcast. Exactly like the derelicts in the Dump. Maybe… maybe even worse.

I had been rejected by the City, by my parents, by the village. I was indeed an Outcast.

I did not answer, though, nor did he need me to.

“Listen here, you already heard by now, but my name is Christoph. I am a Citizen of Sundoor, like all the people you see in this dilapidated building. We are not good people, or at least not in the way Sundoor’s standards allow. Still, we are necessary. So, if you ever found yourself wanting… more from your life. Or even just a family. Come find me, and you will get yourself one.” Saying so, he placed his enormous hand on my shoulder, then literally turned me around and pushed me, saying, “Now go, and stop wasting your time.”

I did, I left, I looked back once, but I left.

By the time I recovered my senses, I was on the ground and moving away from the building. I didn’t even remember using transfer, but I could recognize the frost layer flickering to the ground.

“Sunny shit… Sunny shit. How did that even go right?”

I had found myself among two monsters that could annihilate me within a second, yet I still stood, alive.

It was about time I got the Abyss away from that place, and I knew exactly where to go next.

----------------------------------------

Loki and I ran through the frozen Drylands; a small trail of creatures ran behind us, but we did not stop to fight them; there was no need to; those that had remained were not fast enough to catch us.

There were other things on my mind right now than Soul fractions. Answers. It was about time I got some of them, and I knew the only person who had them.

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My arrow found its way through the Skull of one of the Wrecknecks that had dared push themselves too close to the hill-house.

It had not been easy to have Loki walk through the net safely, but he had learned to follow my steps by now.

When we reached the house, I did not find Harlow; that was to be expected. But there was Logan, the one I was looking for.

Logan had his glasses to see minuscule things on, and he was coming up from the basement. There was likely some way with which he could tell if somebody had come or not, still, another of the many things I knew nothing about.

He removed his glasses, “Loke, you’re early. If you’re looking for Harlow, you will find her at-”

“I was looking for you, actually.”

He grinned, “It’s for the weapons, isn’t it? You just can’t wait to see them.” He chuckled, “Alright, but I’ll just let you take a quick look at them.”

“Logan, I’m not here for the weapons. I’ve… Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding, but what would you say if I told you that I’d met a man named Gustav Hernàndez.”

Whatever Logan was holding lost its integrity as it shattered in his hands; no wonder his Tungsten Fingers Skill allowed him to shape metal with his bare hands.

“How… why did you meet that man?” He said, drawing closer.

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“It wasn’t on purpose. I was hanging out on the eastern Dump; I met a Sharp-Shooter that wanted to shoot me because I had gotten too close to their territory, and when I retaliated, I found that Gustav,” I answered.

He gripped my shoulders, “Was there… was there a red-headed woman with him?”

I locked eyes with him; they were wide open. I had never seen Logan like that in my life before, never.

“No… no, there was no woman… no woman looking like Harlow,” I said, “There was another man, another absurdly powerful man. He belonged to another group, though, Christopher Ronen.”

“Gustav… and Christopher? Were they trying to kill each other?”

“No, not at all, they were doing… business, I think.”

“This…" he moved away, "you can’t be right.”

“No. I’m pretty confident about it."

He looked at me, studying me intently.

“You are not lying. You don’t even know them; why would you?” He was practically talking to himself then.

He started pacing the room. “This is wrong, oh, so wrong. And yet, if they ever joined… it would be… it would be possible…”

“What are you even talking about now? Logan? Try to make sense, please.”

“No, you don’t need to know. But, wait, how did you survive? How are you here speaking with me if you killed one of Gustav or Christoph’s men?”

“No, I didn’t… The Sharp-Shooter, I didn’t manage to kill him; I was drawn in by that absurd Willpower the giant man had,” I honestly answered.

“Oh, right, but that does not justify why you are still here. Did they speak with you?”

“They knew who I was, I mean, they knew of the Night Hunter. Christopher said he was,” I chuckled, almost as if I thought it was an honor, “he said he was my fan.”

Logan chuckled, “Yeah, he’s always had peculiar tastes.”

“Oh, thank you for your honesty, uh…”

“You’re welcome,” he answered without even following or ignoring the sarcasm.

“Loke, what else did they say to you?”

“Well, I believe they offered a place for me; Christoph did, actually.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Logan answered, nodding. “Don’t you dare accept, Loke, did you hear me?”

“Okay, but... but why? Just who are they? What did I see?” I asked, surprised about how much I cared about it. Maybe it was because I met two men that could kill me by just wishing for it if they wanted it to.

“Gustav and Christopher Ronen are the two pillars of Sundoor’s vast underground business. There are many bosses in Sundoor’s underground, but the only ones whose organization power is vast enough to make a real difference are theirs,” he said.

“They are so powerful that they can easily stay in the open, everybody knows them, and no one can as much as raise a finger at them,” he answered.

“What? That’s crazy.”

“No, it’s not, Loke. Believe me. But they are dangerous, too dangerous. They spell death. Whatever ground they walk upon dies and becomes forever infertile.”

Could it be that bad?

“Why do you seem to know them so well, Logan?”

“I… that would mean telling you my story,” he said, weirded out.

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“It would take too long, and it’s dangerous. Also, I can’t allow Harlow to know some of those details… especially those tied to her mother… that is… I just can’t do that, for her own good."

“My parents fit in there somewhere, don’t they?”

Logan’s gaze rose to meet mine; he nodded.

“Then, I guess I need to know. I won’t say anything. Nothing you’re about to tell me will ever leave my lips. I swear it on Grandpa’s soul.”

Logan sighed. “Then take a seat, and grab us the food. One day won’t be enough to tell you all that there is to know… but Harlow is sleeping at your place. I guess we’ll be able to do this in a week or so.”

One week!? Sunny shit, he had a lot to tell. The man had definitely lived an eventful life.

When I brought us what would be our dinner, he sat heavily on the chair. He had taken an entire barrel of his self brewed booze and it was almost half-emptied already.

Logan sighed, downed a glass of the red ale, and then he commenced with his story.

“It all started when I was nine… but before that, take that bottle over there; it's for you."

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My mind was still trying to metabolize Logan Raive's absurd life…

It was incredible how a week of doing nothing but listening to a man speak about his past had filled my days so much that I felt as if they had been so eventful that when I got to my bed, I would fall asleep despite my Shadow Vigour.

I was now perched on the big lonely tree by the hill-house, staring at the breaking of dawn.

I knew that Nova and the others would have already reached Murkstall, and they would be coming back with Harlow’s huge Flow-cart, the one she had built for our use.

They would likely be here in a couple of hours or so.

But today was even the day in which I would meet Aisha.

The sparrow would be getting here in a few hours as well. Or maybe Aisha would show up herself, given that she already knew she would find us here.

She always brought gifts to Nova, and my sister was getting slowly attached to her. It was surely better than the bond she was slowly building with the Church of the Sun, or at least that was so, in my opinion.

Why was that? I still could not tell… sincerely; it was not about revenge for having spilled details about me. I did not hate that nun, not even a bit. I was grateful for all that her sister had done for us. I was thankful she cared enough to come all the way to our little corner of the world to help us… it just… it was too late. They should have done so before, but they didn’t.

Yeah, maybe I knew why; perhaps I did understand why I hated them.

Thinking about that and other small things, time passed. Hours passed.

Then I could finally see the big Flow-cart that Harlow had built all by herself, coming toward us.

She had built it without a top. In fact, it allowed me to see them all, my Harlow, Nova, Alistar, Roana, and Faruq. They were all there.

I got up and stood straight on the branch.

A few hundred more meters, I thought to myself, as I gauged the maximum distance at which I could shoot my arrow.

I readied my bow then. I wanted to surprise them.

When I released the arrow, it arched across the sky; I was not the best long-range shooter there was, but I could indeed gauge the direction in which my arrow would fall.

My arrow would steer roughly to the left. Falling right in front of them.

I followed its course all the way through, making sure that my prank wouldn’t endanger anyone. Although, I guess Roana might have seen it and intervened with her Foretell.

When the arrow was on his descending curse through the morning sky, I pulled myself through.

The wind blew against my Shade Season clothes made of fur when I transferred and caught the arrow mid-flight. The wind made me feel their fresh smell.

If the City had the same commodities the clock-engineer’s house had, then I would love, really love going there.

Not having to wash my clothes with elbow grease was already a dream; this thing called a washing machine worked with Crystals. It could have all the Crystals it wanted as long as it took the chores out of my hands.

Those and other thoughts passed through my mind as I let myself fall through the sky, but there it was, just a few moments sooner than I expected it, the Flow-cart passed near me.

Roana was looking up, and from her grin, I could judge that she had said nothing to the others.

I threw a pebble at the Flow-cart passing under my nose, aiming just a little bit in its front. It would go the way I wanted it to, or I might end up with my ass on the ground; either way, it was worth the trick.

The second transfer dropped me right in the middle of the carriage area, between Alistar and Roana.

“Hello there,” I said out of the blue.

“Son of a-!”

Alistar jumped from the scare, while Roana exploded into gushing laughter.

I even heard Faruq’s gasp for the first time since I had known him.

“Loke!” Exclaimed Harlow and Nova; they were sitting in the only two front seats.

“So, are we going somewhere nice? There’s this place called the sea; I guess we should manage to get there in a couple of months; what do you say?”

----------------------------------------

As the other climbed the hill, Harlow and I remained back, carefully checking that Logan was not out of the house. He was still in the basement.

She took me into her arms then and gave me one long and caring kiss.

“I’ve missed you, Loke. The last time you came to visit was two weeks ago; you know that?” She said, faking hurt. Or maybe not? She had always been hard to read.

“I know, I’m sorry, I needed to get something. Which I’ve brought to you as a gift, by the way.”

“You brought me a gift?”

“A rather big gift, yeah. You want to see?”

“Of course I want to see. What kind of question is that!?” she replied, stamping me with another kiss.

“Then take a look,” I started digging into my satchel and took out the Dark Crystals.

“So, how many do you need?”

“Loke… how… you did it? Incredible! But… I can’t take those. They are yours…”

“No, I’m sincerely offering them to you. Take as many as you need.”

She embraced me then, “You are… incredible, you know that? Do you know how much these are worth?”

“Oh, I know, but trust me, I will find many more of this. We’re going Dungeon delving. I need you on top conditions, or I won’t be able to focus.”

She chuckled. “Alright then, I think I’ll use them right away. I just need two.”

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We all stood around the garden table. Waiting for Logan to come out from the basement.

We were holding our breaths like kids on Lunar Eclipse Day when our parents brought us gifts.

The waiting was not long, but we shook with anticipation.

Logan’s serious weapons... we would be receiving Logan’s serious weapons today.

When I finally saw his shape coming out of the basement stairs transporting a couple of big bags of equipment with him. I couldn’t help but say, “There he is. Prepare yourself. This is going to be wild!”