The green district was exactly as Sechen remembered it. Different booths selling different wares, but it had the same energy. The same life. Or she assumed it did, since she couldn’t hear anything or anyone. She felt like a baby deer running through an alien forest; the moment her guardians split off, even for a second, she was prey. Well, she was already prey, but not easy prey. She knew from experience that the people who lived here had the uncanny ability to discern who people were under the gold-outlined shadows, and the inevitability that came with that knowledge. She looked to both sides for the fifth time that minute to make sure Prisoner and Gilt were still flanking her, suppressing a sigh of relief when they were still there.
“Prisoner is wondering if he might find what he is searching for in this market.” Gilt ‘said’. “I do not wish to stay here any longer than is necessary, but if it could help Elach, then I am torn. Do you have an opinion on this matter?”
“If you want to browse, do it after everyone else is safe-ish and sound-ish upstairs.” Sechen said as she pointed up. She hoped she wasn’t being too loud anymore. It was surprisingly hard to regulate her voice’s volume when she couldn’t hear herself. “Besides, if what you were looking for is here, you couldn’t pay the price.”
Silence for a dozen seconds. “He asks; why don’tcha think I can pay, ringlet? I’ve got riches beyond your wildest imagination.”
“Do you have wisp corpses?” Sechen asked plainly.
“He says no.” Gilt ‘said’, then paused. “And he did so with disgust. Though how that came through Hoalt’s anonymity Issi, I am not sure.”
“So he’s a freak of a practitioner. Nothing we didn’t already know.” Sechen said.
“He resents that.”
“Oh no.” Sechen said plainly as a sound reached her ears. It was far off and barely discernible, like a whisper in a quiet room, but it was there. The quiet scraping of something moving far, far off in the distance. “Hoalt’s coming. We need to move faster.”
“Prisoner instructs you to empower yourself and start running. And to empower myself, if you have the Issi to spare.” Gilt ‘said’. “I should be able to keep up if you cannot, but it would be a great aid if you could.”
Sechen pressed down on her knuckles to empower Gilt, and though she felt the two rings she placed on him settle, she couldn’t see them. She did the same for herself, their power settling on her like a warm blanket, and she bolted away without looking to see if the others were following her. She felt Gilt’s rings on her right, and she had to assume Prisoner could follow on his own. The stalls of the green district flew by, patrons barely stepping out of the way as they flew by, not so much as disturbed by the interruption to their shopping. These people really were denizens of the other side, even if the veil didn’t snap them back while they were here.
Fifteen minutes passed while Sechen ran at full tilt, the wide-open market of the green district fading away into full buildings with intricate signs advertising their higher-class wares. She saw more than one sign for, how the signs put it, indentured servants. Slaves. Either of one of the few conflicts between the living cities and tyrant grounds on the other side of the veil or to their debts. Prisoners of war or of wealth being sold to the highest bidder.
Those shadier, less moral shops filtered away little by little until the remaining shops were offering food, silks, and other still expensive wares, but nowhere near as despicable. A shop advertising Issi implements, such as refrigerators and ovens, had a sign on the window stating it was going out of business, but Sechen felt like she could remember that place from a year or two back with Revel. And that mattress store had definitely been here last time, but it had a similar sign on it.
“Prisoner just chuckled for no reason. I fear we could be in danger.” Gilt ‘said’. “Do you know if we are close to arriving at our destination?”
“The shops are getting less… shady, so yeah. We’re almost at the residential district.”
“The blue district is strictly residential?”
“Not strictly, but mostly. The university’s here, and there are still quite a few shops, but they’re more like general stores or things families need. Food, non-luxury clothes, that kind of thing.” Sechen shrugged. “It’s by far the safest district, so the Hoalt up top puts the most connection points in and around it.”
“... What would happen if we accidentally unleashed the monstrous tyrant of this city onto the blue district?” Gilt asked worriedly. “If the people make their lives in this district, there is a good chance they might never leave the city. If Hoalt rampages through the district on our account, and the corpses are never brought outside…”
Sechen didn’t say anything, her mouth opening and closing as she thought she was going to speak but didn’t.
“Prisoner has confirmed my fears.” Gilt ‘said’ sadly. “He has also informed me that Hoalt is most likely tracking you. If you connect to the upper city, Hoalt will no longer have a trail to follow and will stop exactly where you left. Right outside of the blue district.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“No.” Sechen muttered.
“He says that he must…” Gilt paused. “He says he will delay Hoalt. That I must carry sleepy with me to the upper levels so he has the Issi to fight.” Gilt made a noise that came across Sechen’s eyes like a toddler’s scribbles. “He has placed a tracking technique on sleepy, and will come find us whenever your trail runs dry. He is looking at you now.”
Sechen turned her head to the side and saw Prisoner. Not the gold-outlined shadow she knew was him, but the actual Prisoner. His eyes had become pure silver with a purple design on them where his pupils would have been; a thin circle with four dots inside, all connected with a thread of purple. He nodded gravely and gestured off to Sechen’s right, mouthing words that Sechen couldn’t make out.
“He is entrusting all of our safeties to… you.” Gilt ‘said’ slowly.
Prisoner smiled wide as if he could see Sechen’s surprised expression. He patted her on the head before stopping in his tracks, waving goodbye as Sechen kept running. She watched as he turned around and rubbed his hand on the back of his head, sauntering forward as if in defiance of everything this city stood for. Every shadow was staring at him. Motionless. Though she could hear nothing but the distant rampage of the monstrous Hoalt, Sechen assumed not a word was being uttered. No matter how Revel had tried to break the anonymity technique, she couldn’t get anywhere close. Nobody she knew that had come here had had any luck. Yet Prisoner had done it without using any Issi at all.
“What kind of monster is he?” She whispered.
“Our monster.” Gilt answered, frozen in place with one more gold-outlined shadow added to his burden. “I pray that never changes.”
----------------------------------------
Hoalt’s keening howls reached a fever pitch as Sechen walked into the intermediary area between the green and blue districts. She shivered at the sound, still so far away but getting closer and closer by the minute. But Prisoner had given his word, and Sechen could only trust that he would come back soon. And hey, if he failed, the only people who would die were the countless innocents in the area around wherever they found the connection point.
Sechen chuckled grimly and put her hand on the black brickwork of a building that advertised itself as a book store. But the windows were boarded up, there were no lights on inside, and it looked like nobody had ventured inside in quite a long time. “This place is prime real estate. No way someone hasn’t come along and put in an offer to the landlord.”
“Can you sense the trace amounts of Issi inside?” Gilt asked.
“My sensing abilities are crap.”
“I will take that as a no. There is a sort of Issi inside that building that I would not expect from a bookstore.” Gilt walked up to the bookstore and touched the boards on one of the windows. “These have been carved, soaked, and then lacquered with a myriad of Issi types for reasons I cannot fathom. Whoever resides here is attempting to scare away anyone who might have an interest in this particular store.”
“The perfect place for a connection point.” Sechen said. “Maybe they put up a permanent one. Think I should knock?”
“I do not think it could hurt.” Gilt said. “Though you should prepare yourself for the worst. Gather your Issi and focus on defending yourself.”
“Will do.” Sechen felt her rings settle into position around her arm. “You want one?”
“I am going to stand over… here.” Gilt said as he walked a dozen steps to the side. “Do not waste Issi on defending us.”
Sechen put another two rings over her arm as she raised it to the wooden door that looked like it had been painted gold. She rapped her knuckles against it twice before taking a step back just in case it swung outwards, and waited.
Silence, then a flap swung open around eye level where two beady brown eyes stared out at Sechen. They blinked and narrowed at her, but she didn’t get attacked, so that was an alright start.
Just as Sechen was starting to wonder why they weren’t saying anything, Gilt’s words scrolled across her eyes. “They are asking you what you are here for.”
“I’m looking for a connection point. We need to go up.”
The eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed once more. Gilt’s words came after a far longer delay this time. “To summarise, they feel this city’s Hoalt’s power on you and are suspicious. They do not trust you.”
“Hoalt attacked us and did… whatever this is,” Sechen gestured at her ears, “to me. I can’t hear anything at all, but my friend has something like telepathy and is relaying what you say to me. Please. We need to get out from under this anonymity technique so I can find out what’s wrong with me.”
The eyes turned away, and Sechen saw the back of a mostly shaved head with the exception of a ponytail. Not a black shadow. No gold outline. Whatever the Issi Gilt sensed in there was, it was nullifying the anonymity technique.
The eyes turned back, stared at Sechen for a second, then were obscured by the wood of the door as it slid back into place. “They have instructed you to wait there while they fetch someone higher up to make a judgment.”
“You have a bad feeling about this?”
“No, I do not. If anything, they are applying a reasonable amount of precautions for someone who has Hoalt’s Issi on them.”
It took three minutes for the door’s window to slide open once more, this time with a pair of golden eyes staring out at Sechen. They reminded her of General Temery, but where Temery’s pupils were a vertical slit, these were barely a hair of black down the center with four small bubbles on them. They opened wider, becoming larger than General Temery’s as they looked over Sechen, then disappeared as they turned their head away.
“They are… well then. They are asking for confirmation that you are one of the people a field general described as being potentially an asset to the Gilded Night. General Temery must have contacted Hoalt after we left her.” Gilt said, then waited once more as the eyes returned to stare at Sechen. The door slid open, and Sechen found herself staring at what looked like the inside of an abandoned bookshop, not a soul in sight. “They are inviting both of us inside.”