MINERVA

Mara was wearing my gloves, tight dark boots, silver vest, and dark ribbons.

‘’If you ruin one single of them’’I warned her. Having Mara as a partner was something to tolerate. But having her as a roommate.

‘’I won’t’’She reassured once more, showing now herself with her hair tied to a tight braid with her hairpin hidden behind all the thick locks. As if it wasn't even there now.

Passing herself towards the window, she made a simple glance at the walls that she painted.’’Can you take care of the boy?’’

‘’Wasn’t he on your care?’’I grinned.’’Giving up so soon.’’

‘’He has to find things here with the hard way’’She explained, tilting her head on the right.’’And you are the right one to do it.’’

Well, if she was saying those words like that. She did not talk a lot but sometimes when she did it felt as if I was talking with Mammon.

‘’Fine.’’ I shrugged as I watched her leave.

In front of Nezha’s room now was that boy. From head to toe his soft-looking hands, round bright eyes to his almost perfect ironed clothes, it was clear that he hadn’t struggled a day in his entire life. Someone would take advantage of him so easily and they did. Mara told me what this boy wanted to find and it made his situation worse. Mammon thought of another way to torture the poor kid. He would never find his mother. It was a fact. So many people have begun missing, and the people have decided to be inside their homes or places like this so he wouldn’t even find her on a corner of an alley.

‘’H-hi’He stuttered, looking up with a darting gaze.

‘’Your name is Pedro right?’’ I frowned.

‘’Pete.’’ He corrected me.

‘’Charmed’’I shrugged. ‘’I am Minerva I will show you around.’’

‘’Mariket’’ The boy said in a different dialect.

Of course, he is noble.

‘’I am not going to lie to you’’I said with a tough voice.’’I won’t pamper you.’’

Pete blinked and I turned the other way, walking far from him. He began following me with fast steps.’’What about Mara?’’

I ignored that question.

‘’We mostly are doing errands, finding information explained, going downstairs, right in the open hall.

My eyes searched the room, watching the rest of the women drinking the alcohol from the once-closed bottles. Maybe the bottles were drugged. If they were drugged then everyone would be asleep or missing. The drinks were terrible, the last choices of Aztlan but they could knock a giant out only if he drank two barrels of it.

They couldn’t be the melca’s from the baker because I was eating them, testing them too. Mammon took security from Lilith so now whoever wanted to kidnap the girls had to get through ten men twice the size of the door.

Looking back I saw Pete letting his mouth open in front of the halls as how afraid he was from all the drinking and ignorance.

‘’Rule number one’’I announced to him and turned on my sight like a soldier.

‘’Do not show emotions, they will eat you right up. We continued walking to the door where the kitchen and the laundry room were down below.

We had only one cook, an ex-soldier who had the strength of the men and the lungs to make the smoke he was inhaling to a fire.

Now he was cooking soup and yelling at our only waitress.

The bold chef turned on us and smiled toothless.

‘’Who is the new lamb?’’He laughed.

Pete replied with a smile.

‘’New one, I am taking him to the laundry room.’’I tried to rush the conversation before-

‘’Hold on owl’’The man laughed, throwing a basket of dirty laundry on my arms.

Turning on Pete’s shaking side, gave me an idea.

‘’As I said, we are doing errands. Most of the time’’ I leaned on his side close. ‘’We are helping other workers.’’

The laundry room was hot with four people in metal collars pouring the water, laundry of rooms and kitchen, and even our clothes in a giant pit and powering the chemicals to get washed. The steam was pouring everywhere, cogs moving people whining and growling from how tired they were, and the scent of powder made your nostrils burn.

We were inside for two minutes and Pete’s brow was showered with sweat as he was throwing the laundry, then the powder. The tall man we had pulled a lever, throwing the hot water, and Pete with the other took the sticks and started meshing the water, the chemicals, and the clothes together.

‘’Won’t you help?’’Pete cried with his hands shaking from the weight of wet clothes.

‘’That is not my job here’’I explained, looking at one of the wooden boxes that came today and found the small tin powder box inside it. The top of it had a smudged picture of the previous Great Ruler with words about how great the medicine inside was. A few years back the Great Ruler had advertisements for many products, including makeup powder, candy, and even medicine. After the previous Ruler’s death, the new one decided to ban this, making everyone on Diyu have what was left form the products.

Inside there were good drugs for headaches and I put the box inside my pocket. But looking back to the box I noticed how little the boxes were this time. Usually, they were around twenty. Now only three.Not that I would miss the red mustache from the box.

Looking now at Pete, he had put all the clothes up and he replied with a smile, celebrating.

‘’Can we go now?’’He asked.

‘’No’’I answered, pointing to the rest who were drying the fabric and then to the long iron pressures.

Pete’s eyes were as red as their hands from the water. Mara told me that I have to be tough. And he is the reason Nezha went to the garden today. Tough lesson it was and I swallowed one painkiller.

Hours later, Pete was drenched by sweat and water as he moved on my side, patting heavily, tears falling from his cheek.

‘’Won’t get better’’I explained.

They tried to catch a breath and they started snotting with one moment before collapsing.

Maybe I was a bit too harsh.

‘’You hungry?’’ I tried to say every word that he might understand.

He murmured a yes and he followed me to the kitchen, his steps being a mess.

‘’We do not have steak or quails or whatever you were eating back on Olympus,´´ I explained to him.

‘’I am not from Olympus’’He defied. ‘’I am from Aztlan.’’

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I looked at the cook who was peeling old potatoes before checking the steering pot. It was boiled vegetables for now. Staring back at him, he seemed to need more meat than greens.

I shouted back at him. ‘’Do you have any kind of beans or pork or…’’

‘’This is no Aztlan Owl.’’He mocked me with a smile.

I frowned and showed the boy to him and touched his arms. ‘’Look at him dear.’’I forced a grin. ‘’Skin and bones, he will die if he steps back into the laundry room.

The boy was ready to say something but I covered his mouth.

‘’Play along, noble boy,’’ I whispered.

The cook studied him from head to toe until he gave up tired, showing with his fat thumb the steel cupboards behind us.

‘’I have a dozen of mellkas, a loaf of bread, and a jar of pork bits.’’

‘’Thank you’’I grinned and took out the cupboard and took out the jar of melka and the jar of pork bits.

‘’Noble boy, take the bread.’’

We sat at the bar while there was no front. I stared at the boy who was trying to decide if he wanted to eat or not the bits.

I muffled a melka inside my mouth and tried to speak. ‘’He always keeps the best parts for himself’’ I explained. ‘’It is better to not make him that fat.’’

He did not speak. But he did manage to bite one pork bit. And then he spat it.

‘’Flirach’’He hissed with his stomach growling. But after that, he gobbled them all up and fast as he was cutting the bread with his other hand.

‘’I assume that means disgusting for you nobles’’

‘’Not noble’’ He said again with a dry cough.

I stared at him confused.

‘’I was from Aztlan, my father is a priest.’’

Oh. I could see his eyes were ready to let tears out once more.

‘’Me and my mother…’’ He muffled the bread.

‘’Do not’’I open my hand at him.

He gasped confused.

‘’Rule number two. Don’t share stories.’’

He was confused, innocent, and probably didn’t know who he made a deal with. Or who had been sent to a tortured home.

‘’Do you know what Mammon does?’’ I asked.

He nodded a no.

‘’Well, let’s say he runs a business. He had his workers’’I show him with my eyes the giant men that were guarding the place.

‘’To do cruel things and then he has us. The Spectres that will gather every information

necessary.’’

His eyes fell to my collar and covered it instantly with my dark coat.

‘’When I came in we were thirty. Now, including you, we are only five.’’

‘’Oh, did they quit?’’

I stared at him, holding my laugh and anger as much as I could. Did he think about that? Doesn’t he have any in touch with reality?

‘’Anyway,’’ I sighed, tilting my head back. ‘’We have an unspoken law. We do not talk about our pasts and we never ask about each other.’’

That caught his attention. And he almost seemed sad.

‘’You wanted to ask about someone?’’

‘’That girl, Mara?’’ He said.’’She said she was going to…’’I shushed him, looking left and right for any snitch.

Well, her story is different. Because there was none.

It was my first day and I walked inside the room, only to find a girl’s drawings scattered to the floor. And each of them was the same. Pretend to be birds, peculiar mountains, and happy-looking people. But my attention fell on the scar she had and the pin she was holding so tight.

I was ready to introduce myself to her but she showed with her index finger her eyes.

‘’Glasses’’That was the first and last word she said to me for a week.

She was staring at my round glasses.

I nodded and I introduced myself to her. And she did not answer as she kept drawing a face.

I asked her questions. Her name, her age, nothing.

Then, I found a few of the other members. Asking about the girl inside the room.

Her name is Mara. They said, Mammon found her begging on the streets and took her in. Poor girl, none taught her how to speak so Mammon sent her to the school before it was destroyed.

It almost sounded like a complete lie. So, I asked Ao Bing as he seemed to know more than the rest. He always knew more than the rest.

And yet he said the same thing. Then, to Nezha.

‘’What did Ao Bing say?’’ He asked.

I said the truth.

‘’Then,’’He scratched the metallic collar.’’That’s the truth.’’

‘’Sorry, boy’’I muttered, patting his hat and noticing how red his cheeks were.’’We do not share stories here. My eyes found a glimpse of the twins and waved my hand at them.

‘’I will be back in a second,’’I informed Pete and walked away.

I was walking down to the kitchen once more. When I saw one of the dancers smoking Mana in the corner of the stairs. Her tired eyes found my uncovered face and her red lips curled to a sneering smile.

Stepping closer to her, I let my hand down, waiting for a cigarette. Usually was giving it to me, letting me rest my mind for a while.

But this time she just offered me a piece of paper.

‘’What’s this?’’ I asked her, confused.

‘’A strange man’’She coughed dry, letting the heavy smoke out. ‘’Handsome.Told me to give this to you.’’

I rolled my eyes and took the folded paper from her and snatched the cigarette from her other hand.

The scent was sweet as always as it got to my lips, to my tongue, and my longs. It wasn’t as sweet as melca but it was enough to calm everything down.

‘’Give it back’’She cried on my side.

‘’Fine,’’ I gave it back to her and opened the paper to find letters printed on it.

The same one as the one on the previous week. And the previous and the previous.

‘’Secret admire Minerva?’’ The woman grinned flirtatiously.

‘’Not interested in that’’ I laughed and walked away.

I walked outside from the emergency door and took out the bag of mana and a piece of paper. People are getting addicted to drugs. That is what Akhet says about them. Messing your mind, and your life, making you someone you wish you weren’t.

And yet they do not say about stopping my bloody headache. I put slightly mana to the paper before lending one small white filter at one end of it before I began curling, making a roll.

And then, I remembered that I had forgotten my lighter.

‘’Shit.’’ I hissed, ready to get back inside.

‘’Here’’ A voice broke near me as a hand appeared with a small golden lighter.

I am not stupid to take a lighter for a stranger. I was about to leave and take mine from my room. But that would mean a small possibility to see Mammon or Mara.

Looking back at the hand I noticed the silver glove of his.

‘’Oh,’’ I took the lighter from his grip and lit the mana slowly as I inhaled it from the beginning of the filter.

My head began hurting less and less.

‘’You are late’’He hissed.

I wore my glasses back and tried to find something familiar to him. His voice was brooding, mysterious, and yet so unreal.

‘’I was busy.’’I tried to lie but it seemed that I couldn’t when I had a meeting with him. As if I succeeded in lying, he would detect it.

‘’Do you have what I need?’’I asked.

He nodded. ‘’Just whispers. About a monster, tracing around the area.’’

‘’A monster?’’ I laughed harshly. ‘’Everyone is a monster here.’’

''Well. monsters have always a different shape.''

I sat down with my legs crossed.''Nezha thinks that we should go to the phone center. ''I admitted.

''You won't find any valuable information.''

''Does that mean that you know everything?''I shrugged with a grin.

‘’If you do not believe me,’’

‘’No’’I said. ‘’I do not believe you’’I took a step forward. ‘’You are giving me information’’

''People usually are grateful for that.''

''Free information''I explained even more, forcing every word out.

This man appeared a few weeks ago out of the shadows and offered me information about a target Mammon needed. And it was surprisingly the right one. After that, he visited me at almost every job as if he knew that something was happening.

At first, I panicked, thinking it was a prank or an enemy. But now it got annoying.

‘’You want something in return and I need to know.’’

I was bought by Mammon because my parents wanted to go to Aztlan. If I have to bargain with my life, at least, at least I want to know about it.

There was a far long pause.

‘’I might need something.’’

‘’What?’’

‘’When the time comes, you will understand.''

‘’Are you mental?’’ I panicked.

‘’If you do not believe me when the clock strikes six at night, try to look outside. In the road of pleasure.’’

He was about to leave but I stopped him. The first night he met me, he asked me what information I needed. The next time he met me, he told me the information and then asked me what I needed again. This was a long circle with no end.

‘’I lost someone’’ I said. ‘’His name is Ao Bing. Twenty years old, seven feet tall, white hair and blue eyes.’’

I waited for him to say something. For a minute I thought he vanished.

‘’What do you want in return?’’ I asked curious, fixing my round glasses as they balanced wrong under my nose.

One more minute. And then it was certain that for now, he was gone.