Chapter 75: Memento

Leo’s eyes snapped open. He shot up, forgetting that he’d been sleeping under the desk and promptly hitting his head against it with a loud bang. He cursed and grabbed his skull—there would probably be a bruise there later—but he kept moving, sliding out and rising to his feet.

“Are you okay?” Allan asked from where he was seated at one of the tables. It looked like he’d been awake for a while; his axe was laid out on a worn cloth, and he seemed to be trying to get some of the Echo gunk off the blade. The [Healer]’s expression was a mixture of amused and concerned.

Leo waved the worry off. “I’m fine. I just, uh, forgot I was under the desk.” He glanced around, noting that they were the only ones in the room. “Where’s Spade?”

Allan snorted. “Probably with Lenore.”

“Oh.” He probably should’ve expected that. The [Fragmentholder] promptly switched topic to the more pressing issue. “Have you seen Kai anywhere?”

Allan paused, glancing up from his axe. “Kai? The receptionist?” His brows furrowed in thought. “I think he might be in the lounge. It looks like the Pearl’s closed today for cleanup, so he’s probably helping out. Why?” He sounded curious.

Leo’s hand moved over to the arrow, still securely tucked in his belt. “I got an idea,” he said. “I might be wrong, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to check.”

Allan nodded slowly, though he still looked a bit confused. “Okay. Let’s go then.”

The [Healer] rose from his seat, pushing the axe aside and making for the door. Leo hurried behind, both of them exiting the room and shutting the door behind them.

The hallway was fairly quiet, though Leo could hear the distant sounds of footsteps and objects being moved around the building. Someone was on the roof fixing the shingles, and up ahead, a voice he recognized as Kai’s whistled cheerily.

It didn’t take long to reach the main room. The front door was closed shut and some couches had been moved, but other than a few piles of dirt scattered about the floor, the reception area looked the same as it had the first day they’d visited.

Kai stood a little ways away from the counter, broom in hand as swept the floor. He looked up when Allan and Leo entered, shooting them a friendly grin.

“Morning! How’d you guys sleep?”

“Very well, thank you,” Allan said, polite as ever. Kai nodded enthusiastically. He seemed awfully chipper considering the Echo attack that had happened last night, but then Leo supposed it was probably the most exciting thing that had happened to the [Receptionist] in a while. A break from the daily monotony.

He stepped forward, scanning the space again to make sure they were alone, then cleared his throat. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Yeah sure, what’s up?”

Leo winced a little as he tried to think of a good way to go about this. He quickly realized there wasn’t one, so he opted for being blunt. Might as well get this over with.

“I know this is gonna sound really weird and probably kind of creepy, but your personal skill is called [Memento], right?”

A beat passed. Kai blinked, staring at him as the words processed. The [Fragmentholder] could practically hear the moment they clicked. The man’s shoulders immediately tensed.

“How the fuck do you know that?”

His voice was low, dangerous. That wasn’t a surprise—personal skills were, well, personal. They had important memories and events tied to their origins, and their uniqueness made them a powerful tool. Anyone would get defensive if someone randomly knew their personal skill without being told. Leo raised his hands appeasingly.

“It’s my personal skill, it lets me see other people’s personal skill name,” he quickly explained. Ideally he would keep knowledge of [Judgement]’s ability from as many people as possible, but if he didn’t tell Kai how he knew about his skill, there was no way the man would trust him enough to tell him what he needed to know.

Leo could feel Allan’s gaze on him as he spoke to the [Receptionist]. He turned, sending Allan an apologetic look.

“Sorry, could you leave us alone for a bit?” He needed to know what Kai’s personal skill did to see if his theory was right, and the man was more likely to reveal it if there was less people in the room.

Allan nodded slowly, expression unreadable. It was a little unnerving to see the [Healer]’s face so flat. He turned and exited the space, leaving Leo and Kai alone in the reception area. The [Fragmentholder] faced Kai again, who looked a mixture of confused, pissed off, and slightly freaked out.

The second Allan was out of earshot, Kai hissed, “You can see people’s personal skills? You can’t just go around telling people that shit!”

“It’s not like I wanted you to know,” Leo countered. “If I didn’t have to tell you I wouldn’t.”

Kai frowned. He still looked suspicious, but a little less like he was considering punching the former [Thief], which was good. Progress.

“So why?”

In response, Leo pulled out the arrow, holding it up for the man to see. The morning light streaming through the windows made the jet black feather stand out even more. It had no shine to it, Leo noted, but was completely matte.

“You know what happened at the auction?”

Kai frowned. “Sort of. Lenore told us someone shot the ward stone. Crazy fucker,” he added under his breath, and Leo wholeheartedly agreed with the assessment. He nodded.

“Yeah, I saw the guy just before he did it. This is one of his arrows.” Leo set it down on the counter. “We’re trying to hunt him down, but none of us can figure out where he went or who he’s working for.”

He took a deep breath. This was it. “I was thinking, your personal skill’s called [Memento], right? What’s it do?”

Understanding dawned on Kai’s face. “You think I can trace the arrow back to the guy.” He barked out a disbelieving laugh and shook his head. “Off of just the name. How’d you even come up with that? You memorize everyone’s personal skill or something?”

“It was a hunch.” If Sol hadn’t mentioned the “object’s memories” last night, he probably wouldn’t have remembered the brief glimpse of Kai’s stat sheet that he’d gotten earlier.

Once he had, though, he’d started to think harder on the previous night, especially how Lenore had said that she, specifically, wouldn’t be able to track who Asher was working for. She hadn’t mentioned anyone else in the Pearl. It was a long shot, but from what he knew of her so far, he wouldn’t put it past the woman to be so deliberately particular in her wording.

Kai propped the broom up against the wall and stepped over, picking up the arrow. Leo couldn’t help the bit of hope that rose as the man turned it around in his hands, inspecting the object. Personal skill names didn’t always correlate to their abilities, but he hoped it did this time.

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After what felt like hours, Kai looked back up. He seemed to be debating something with himself, but finally, he nodded.

“Yeah, I could probably figure out where it came from. But,” he added, “just so you know, for most things I only get quick little memory flashes. If the object’s got a lot of sentimental value, I can see more, but for an arrow the most I’ll probably get are some hints of its past locations. If I don’t recognize the place, I can’t really tell you where it is. Just a general description.”

“That’s more than enough,” Leo said sincerely. As long as they had something to go on, any landmark or unique decoration, he would check every noble’s house for a match himself if it came down to it.

Kai nodded and stared down at the arrow again. He squinted, focusing on it, and Leo felt the air shift slightly.

[Kai has activated the [Memento] skill]

It didn’t look like anything was happening at first. Kai simply stood there, still as a statue, staring down at the arrow.

A minute passed, then another. The man still didn’t move. Leo was debating calling out to see if he was okay when the [Receptionist] suddenly lurched forward and gasped.

Leo jumped, but quickly recovered from his surprise and hurried over. “Are you okay? Did you see something?”

Kai groaned and rubbed his head. Slowly, he straightened again and threw the arrow back onto the counter with a look of disdain.

“Well, good for you, I know who the guy’s working for. That thing’s got a fuck ton of memories on it; the guy must travel a bunch. But the recent ones’re definitely from Alnwick.”

Kai moved over to the counter, yanking open a drawer and pulling out a scrap piece of paper and a pen. He scribbled something down before standing back and handing the paper to Leo.

The [Fragmentholder] took it and squinted down at the drawing. In the center of the page, Kai had sketched what looked like an emblem. Curving lines twisted together to form the rough shape of a single bird wing bent into a V-shape, the feathers long and jagged. It definitely looked like a noble house’s crest, though the design wasn’t one he personally recognized.

“House Gillis,” Kai said. He shook his head. “If you’re going after them, you’re gonna have your work cut out for you.”

The name sounded familiar. Leo wracked his memories, remembering the day they’d stepped through the city gates into Alnwick. He could’ve sworn one of the guards had mentioned that name.

“You’re the one they hired for the Gillis case, right?”

“Hold on, isn’t that the guy Spade executed?” Leo said in realization.

“Sure is.” A hint of disgust crossed Kai’s features, and the man shuddered. “Marcus Gillis. Nasty case. You know how fucked up you gotta be to get executed as a noble?” He shook his head. “I think damn near the whole city celebrated when he was finally put down. Good riddance.”

Leo stared at the crest drawing warily. “Who took over after him?”

Kai scrunched his brows, thinking. “It was his younger brother. I think his name was Darius? Haven’t heard much about the guy; he’s pretty quiet as far as nobles go. Mostly just tries to stay out of the news after what happened with Marcus.” He shook his head. “I thought he might be trying to turn his family name around, but I guess the shitiness runs in the blood.”

The pieces were beginning to fall into place. Leo carefully folded the paper up and stuffed it into his bag, grabbing the arrow as well for good measure. He needed to talk to Spade—she might know more about Darius Gillis, and Leo wanted to make sure they were as prepared as possible going in.

“Thank you,” Leo said, heartbeat racing with renewed excitement. They were finally getting somewhere; the fragment wasn’t completely lost. “Seriously, you really helped us out. Can I pay you or something?” A hand was already moving to his coin bag, but Kai waved him off.

“Nah, it’s nothing. Unless you can get me a date with your hot friend, but I’m guessing not.”

Leo snorted. “Allan? Sorry dude, you’re out of luck.” Back in Sindrey’s slums, he’d personally witnessed the former [Rickshaw Puller] turn down every single person who’d approached him. And there had been a lot.

“Yeah, I figured.” Kai sighed dramatically. “Oh well. Seriously though, don’t worry about it. I’m just glad my skill was useful.”

“It’s a cool personal skill,” Leo said, and he meant it too. “You could get a lot done with it.” Especially considering the Pearl’s ties to the black market and Lenore’s job as an informant.

“Yeah, that’s true.” Kai leaned back against the counter and stared out the windows. By now the sun had fully risen, and the warm daylight made the glass seem to glow. “You know, it’s kind of funny, but I used to really hate my personal skill.”

Leo raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yep.” Kai pronounced the ‘p’ with a pop. He gestured vaguely at the streets through the window. “I was abandoned as a kid, never knew who my parents were or where I came from. I only had an old earring to go off.”

He sighed. “Pretty standard slum rat background, I know, but I was really obsessed with knowing who my parents were. Built up this whole story in my head about them. I thought for sure if I just found them, they’d welcome me back and we’d be a family again.”

The man’s gaze shifted down to the floor. He laughed bitterly. “I guess I was so obsessed the System decided to give me a personal skill for it. Long story short, it turns out I didn’t actually like the answer, but what can you do.” He shrugged. “I was so pissed off I didn’t use my personal skill for a bit after that. I thought the System was mocking me or something. I ended up getting over it though, and now I’m here.”

Leo nodded. It was a familiar story, and an experience many could likely relate to. Personal skills were formed from significant events and moments in a person’s life, but because they were unlocked after the fact, it often felt like they’d come too late to matter. Never there when they were needed the most.

“Yeah, I get that,” he said quietly.

Kai was silent for a moment, lost in his own thoughts. After a while, he shifted. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” he began, “but how’d you end up with a personal skill like yours? I mean, I’ve never heard of that sort of thing as a personal.”

Leo could hear the curiosity in the man’s voice, and he didn't begrudge him for it. Identification skills were rare as is and usually tied to specific class abilities, not personal skills.

Memories rose unbidden in his mind, flashes of cold stone walls, the clattering of chains as he yanked against them, the distant sound of screams. Hissing fire and red hair billowing in the wind. A cold body lying limp on the ground.

It took a single day for him to lose the only family he’d had in the world, and it had been his own fault. If he closed his eyes, he could still remember his brother’s face.

Leo shook the memories away and pursed his lips.

“Let’s just say,” he began, “I had some bad judgement.”

—

Allan was waiting in the hall when Leo returned from the lounge. The [Healer] stood with his back against the wall, arms crossed and more visibly tense than Leo had seen him in a long time. He turned to face him as the [Fragmentholder] approached.

“Did everything go okay?”

Leo nodded. “Yeah, I know who Asher’s working for. Darius Gillis. Turns out Spade executed the last head of the house.”

Allan hummed, but his expression was still oddly flat. There was none of the usual warmth. Leo shifted his weight uncomfortably.

“Listen, about my personal skill,” he began, but the [Healer] cut him off.

“It’s fine. I probably should’ve realized what it did a long time ago. I’m not mad at you for not telling me.”

Leo’s shoulders relaxed slightly, though the tension didn’t fully dissipate, and he nodded. A few beats of silence passed before Allan spoke again.

“…Can [Judgement] see what skills do?”

The [Fragmentholder] blinked, surprised at the question. He shook his head. “Nah, just their names. Maybe it’ll be able to at a higher level.”

The moment he was done speaking, it was like a weight had been lifted from Allan’s shoulders. The lingering stiffness vanished, and his expression returned to his usual amicable smile as if nothing had happened. The shift in demeanor was so jarring that it took Leo a second to process it.

“Okay,” Allan said. “I just wanted to check.” He pushed away from the wall and gestured down the hall. “Spade got back a few minutes ago. You probably want to ask her about the Gillis case, right?”

Leo nodded slowly. Taking that as an answer, the [Healer] turned and began making his way down the hall.

Leo remained in place a little longer, hazel eyes staring at the man’s retreating back. Questions, old and new, rose to the surface of his mind, but he pushed them down. Another time, he told himself. First they needed to get the fragment.

Shaking his head, he stepped down the hall.