NEZHA

‘’He seems he got stronger’’I shouted at Minerva, watching Pete scrubbing the sheets down to the laundry room. After finishing surprisingly fast, Pete carried easily the wet sheet back to the basket with the rest of them and took everything with almost one hand to the iron,

Minerva took a puff and laughed.

‘’Yeah, the others here told me he was from last night here working.’’

Working in the laundry room was a decent job unlike ours. It needed strength that seemed Pete could grow. The heat was unbearable but once again. Amongst other jobs.

‘’We could leave him here’’ I suggested to her.

‘’No’’Pete shouted from down below, entire body drenched in sweat... He let out his hat and noticed how much hair he had. Almost looking.

For his break we ate down there, a few slices of dried bread and paste. He munched them with disgust letting his bright teeth out. Minerva laughed at the grimace of his and took out all the red paste. Next to us, one of the workers was telling the faith of the others by reading it to a purple deck of cards. Pete noticed it and swallowed harshly.

‘’That’s illegal.’’He pointed out.

The woman’s sweaty lips pouted and then let out a hysterical laugh

My lips grinned at his side.’’Oh, no what a terror’’

I could see him getting as red as the paste and he took a bigger bite of the bread.

Minerva rolled her eyes. ‘’I do not see the point of it. Our fates are already trash’’

‘’Ah, you never know’’The woman sighed, showing the deck.’’Kosana drew those. And I am never wrong.’’

The woman stood up and walked away from her own crowd to get to ours.

‘’Tell you what’’Minerva sighed. ‘’If your so-called future telling is right in the end, I will give you ten million Ek’el.

Her sweaty lips exposed her crooked teeth with a smile.’’How generous.’’

Pete moved closer to me so he could watch the woman mixing the heavy purple deck.

‘’How does it work?’’He whispered.

‘’What? You know that fortune telling is illegal but not what it is?’’

They pouted.

The truth was there was nothing magical or paranormal about it. It was pure luck. And a trick. The fortune teller is usually someone who can read people by appearance only. Then, the cards were strategically placed the way the teller would think the customer would choose. After that it was simple.

Minerva chose three cards and the woman left them on the floor.

The first one was a woman dressed in Green with long curly hair.

THE QUEEN.

‘’You were once from a rich family, far richer than people here.’’The woman sighed.

Minerva’s brow arched and the woman let the other card unfold.

This one was different, a card that a lot of fortune tellers have in different forms of cards.

‘’Mara drew it you said?’’Minerva almost sounded consented.

THE MOTHER OF THE DEEP was a dark figure with silk raven hair and for a face was a smudged pale face that felt almost like it was smiling in front of your soul.

‘’There is a ghost, a shadow hunting you, taking every last bit of light from you.’’

Very poetic. It almost could make a kid from Aztlan feel fear. Well, it did as Pete had clung on my arm.

The woman now revealed the last one.

LORD DEATH.

There was no meaning behind it but only the end of life.

‘’Oh wow, I will die’’Minerva narrowed.’’I thought that I was immortal.’’She stood up. and jerked her head to me and Pete.

Standing up and getting out, I could see Pete being worried with his trembling hands still around my arm. I smiled back.’’Don’t worry’’I whispered.’’She is hard to kill.’’

+++

I watched as Mara was pouring the tea to Mammon’s skeptical and almost pissed presence. Minerva had made a dose that would last for all day. And Mara’s fingers were fast enough to put the small liquid inside the tea.

‘’What takes you so long Mara?’’ Mammon groaned with a loud headache. I could see from a corner that she had her back in front of him while she opened the small flask.

‘’In a minute’’She poured the drug into the herbs and water and started spooning it.

‘’Would you like sugar today?’’She asked, taking the cup with her fingers.

His eyes moved up as she walked to his side, studying the books he was writing.

Today he seemed ten times more exhausted than usual. His eyes were deep dark, his face unsaved and his silver coat was almost worn out.

‘’Is everything alright?’’ Mara frowned, laying the cup on him. And then, he snatched her hand before even living away. He might have noticed the flask in her pocket. He might have noticed her sudden kind look. He might have noticed something.

‘’Drink it’’He ordered her.’’Tell me if it is bitter enough.’’

Mara blinked calmly and nodded as she removed her helm, exposing her scar to him. His eyes narrowed disgusted by it and Mara held the cup with her right hand and touched her covered collarbone with the other as she started drinking it. I started feeling my heart racing as she rested her lips on the cup and started drinking the tea slowly. I could see her gulping. And I saw her giving it back to Mammon with a smile. ‘’It’s bit enough.’’ She said.’’Would you like some sugar?’’Her hand was still on her collarbone.

Mammon waited a few seconds and moved his index finger, commanding to come closer to him.

His fingers found her hand diffing his fingers to her skin.

‘’How is the new boy? Any…clue for his mother?’’

‘’He has…’’Mara looked back at me in secret. ‘’I think he is good to stay for as long as needed but there is no sight of his mother.’’

Mammon smiled at those words and stood up in front of Mara. His fingers dug around her face and then her collar.

‘’You are not good at lying, girl.’’He mocked her. ‘’Are you angry at me?’’

Her eyes looked down at the coat. The silver linings that were covering his priest uniform, the slight details of flowers that were slowly fading from the dirt of the forsaken.

‘’Are you still angry about that?’’He asked. ‘’Do you hate me that much?’’

Mara kept her silence. And that made Mammon move his other hand at the remote.

I wanted to get inside, to stop it, but then Mara spoke.

‘’It doesn’t matter what I think, correct?’’She asked, moving her helm back to her face.

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‘’No,’’Mammon squirted. ‘’Because you know what will happen then?’’

Mara lowered her head, looking at Mammon who started drinking his tea all at once.

‘’You remember what you will have to do…’’He said, catching me off guard. What was that? Mara agreed with a nod.

‘’You…’’ He slowly walked backward to his seat, panting and looking above with his tired eyes.

‘’Must…’’ And that was his last word before passing out from the drug.

Mara did not move as she studied Mammon’s exhausted body. I was no fool for not knowing what her gaze meant. What her shaking hands were ready to do.

‘’How did she come here?’’ Minerva asked once.

I wanted to say that I don’t know. All that I knew was that Ao Bing opened an isolated room with her being chained and dressed with a rug. Her eyes were darting as she could not look away from the ground. Her hair was cut uneven and her scar was deep, heavy with still blood being stuck to her face.

And with all of that, she was holding a pin, a pin so expensive that maybe could get her out of the madness.

‘’Who is she?’’I turned to Ao Bing’s cold gaze.

‘’Mammon found her in his room, ‘’He said, showing me a wooden box that had a collar inside of it.’’She seemed to be trying to steal something and he caught her.’’

I gasped and kept looking at her body. Bloodstained on her long fingernails. Back to her scar, swollen, monstrous.

‘’Did he do it?’’’I pointed at it.

‘’She was like this’’ Ao Bing stretched his nape and opened the box.’’He just managed to give her a few bruises before she passed out’’

Another sting on my stomach as I heard those words. Bruises until she couldn’t handle the pain. She seemed to be a frail-looking girl despite her width. Her hands did not stop shaking as Ao Bing caressed the box with his thumb.

‘’Wait’’ I said. ‘’Why does she need this?’’ I turned to her and looked at her shrinking body.’’She is barely eight.’’

‘’And Mammon said that she needs to be kept’’He answered drily. He always did.

The girl finally looked at me with a confused gaze. And then, she opened her mouth, letting out words, and whimpering that I could not understand.

‘’What does she say?’’ I asked with a stutter.

‘’She was found.'' Ao Bing mouthed'' She couldn’t speak, she could not understand and when Mammon sent men to …’’ He made a long pause. ‘’Interrogate her, all of them were…’’ Another long pause.’’She will be sent to a school but it needs extra care.''

I swallowed and faced that weeping girl those muffling cries.

‘’She wouldn’t she is…’’

Ao Bing sighed. ‘’There must be a way for him to control her.’’

The girl kept screaming more and more, struggling with the chains making a ticking sound. That made her scream even more.

‘’But why?’’ I asked once more, confused about what she was, and what she could do.

Ao Bing let out a tired sigh and took out the collar.

‘’No’’I said and walked bravely to the girl’s side.

++++

Mara walked out of the room with her hands clean and with no blood falling from Mammon’s office.

‘’I thought that you would kill him’’I forced a laugh.

She didn’t even try to look at me. ‘’He doesn’t deserve to die.’’ Words gently got out of her mouth.

Maybe hope for sunlight fell on her eyes. Hope that people can change. Because I couldn’t wait to have a chance of killing him. I could do it now. Everyone could do it? Then why didn’t I even try to find the remote, open my collar, or do anything from it? Why am I useless?

But my head could not forget what Mammon said. If it had to do something about Pete’s mother…what was it? And why did Mara know it?

+++

Cutting Pete’s hair perfectly was a mess. It was thick so the pair of scissors could not take a decent amount. He told me that his mother was usually cutting them but now, he could only cover them with her hat.

And he could not wear the hat forever.

Pete smiled at me, watching himself in the mirror getting a hair treatment.

‘’You are good’’

‘’Thank you’’I said. ‘’I cut my mother’s hair all the time’’I took one more curl and heard the scissors chopping it off fast.

‘’How is Stolas?’’ He asked me.

I shrugged and tried to explain it in every right way. ‘’All that I know is that he is terrifying. Far more than Mammon and far more powerful.’’

‘’Is Mammon actually terrifying?’’He asked.

I stopped cutting her hair. Of course, he didn’t know. He probably had never felt betrayal, a hard life. Maybe Azizos was his first meeting of death.

I changed the subject.’’What kind of person is your mother?’’ I asked.

He smiled. ‘’She has a kind, gentle heart. She was sewing me dresses and made the best apple pies.’’

I laughed, trying to think of what it was, an apple pie. Whatever it was, it made him smile sweetly.

‘’She also told me stories. When my father was taken away, her stories were different. About beasts and heroes. But this time the beasts’’She lowered.

‘’They felt real didn’t they?’’I asked him.

He hummed a yes and kept talking. ‘’When there was a storm, she always made hot cocoa and let me stay until late to see the rain drops from the window.’’

I pulled his hair too much without even noticing before he shouted and turned to me with a smile. I apologized fast and kept cutting his final curls.

‘’What about you?’’he asked. ‘’How is your mom?’’

My mom?

My mom loves things. Loves Nektar, loves wine, loves drugs. She loves all of them so much that made her sick of touching them and smelling them and in the end, she could not even move from her couch.

Even when she took little by little, even when she stopped. My mom loves me. Loves me so much that every time there is a check in her mail, she calls me and tells me how proud she is of me. And when I call her, she asks if I can make her proud once more.

I smiled.’’She is lovely.’’

Getting ready had to be perfect. Even if it was in an area without any money, even if we were low, it was ARS GOETIA. I Had seen people getting there looking like kings and queens of Elysium.

I took a look at my clothes and the ones that Ao Bing left. Even Dolia gave me a few for Minerva. For Mara was different as all of Dolia’s clothes were either too high or too tight for her

I wore a burgundy suit, almost clean with red-orange stripes looking at flames at the end of the sleeves. The pants were tight with my leather boots and the hair slid back. I gave Arsu a top with no sleeves as he wanted to expose the tattoos on his hands. Two rising suns and two fallen ones on each hand. I wondered if he just came to thank Stolas for the head or to try to kill him himself.

I turned to Pete and gave him one of Ao Bing’s old cream ciel shirts and dark blue vest. His pants fit her perfectly but the vest was far too wide.

‘’Do you think that..’’ He checked himself in the mirror.

‘’No’’I winnked. ‘’It will fit’’I moved to him, fixing his shaking shoulders.

The door opened with Minerva staring at me.

‘’I am completely naked’’I said, fully clothed, covering my body.

She rolled her eyes and showed herself, exposing her long black and silver suit. It was clean and beautiful with her hair free, facing her back. Her eyes, turning from her shoes to me, waiting for me to say something.

‘’You are beautiful,’’ Pete said with a gasp.

Minerva smiled and moved inside for Mara to come out too. She wore a casual-looking long black skirt, covering her ankles with her white cream tunic underneath it. Still, her helm covered her scar. Her hair was tied together with her pin. A pin that someone would think could stab someone.

Pete expected her for a couple of seconds and turned to the closet, taking out one of Ao Bing's cream-blue ties.

‘’For your hair’’He said, offering it to her, facing her feet. ‘’I think that’His cheeks flushed red. ‘’Blue suits you.’’

At first, I thought that he had noticed her pin. He thought the same thing as me. But no. He just offered her a piece of color. Making Mara’’s ears flush red. Her sharp nails caressed the fabric slowly before taking it and moving it back to her hair as a ribbon around her hair

‘’Thank you’’She mumbled.

Minerva blinked and looked at me. I nodded and turned on the closet, taking out one helm. ''I think it's time''I moved on Pete's side. His round eyes lit up looking at the helm.''To have one. The smell is not great but...''

A wide smile grew on his face.''Thank you, oh thank you''And then moved it up on his face and almost gagged. All of us let out a sort of laugh, even Mara.

‘’Alright’’I said with a grin. ‘’Here are the rules, we go, we blend, we ask the right questions’’ I paused and turned on Mara.’’And not acting out.’’

She scoffed and looked away.

‘’Alright?’’ My eyes turned to the rest, trying to gain every inch of a leader as I could.

Everyone nodded in sync.

‘’Then let’s go’’