After their meeting with Naffur for a debriefing regarding the findings of their interrogation, Hydie rather blindly trailed after Derek Moss as they left the building. It was somewhat of a relief when they walked out into the sunlight, but the current climate meant that even in the afternoon, the sun’s rays were pale and weak. The light was as weightless on her skin as the light from a bulb. And Hydie felt…

Well, Hydie’s worries seemed to be multiplying by the second. Despite her best efforts, she-

Hydie’s lowered forehead impacted Derek’s back. Derek had stopped and he turned around to regard her when she bumped up against him. He tilted his head to the side as he looked at her. “Why are you being so depressing? Did you really think we would get a confession about some grand conspiracy from just a single interrogation?”

Hydie swallowed back down a ‘well, it would have been nice’ as soon as it rose and marshaled itself to parade off of her tongue. Although Derek had a fine sense of humor, he never laughed regarding work. Instead, she grimaced and gathered her thoughts. When she saw the patience in his expression, Hydie carefully released the secret fear that had been growing in her heart. “He… he was so nervous and beginning to ramble about why he came to Kharon… and then you pointed out the inconsistency in his story… he froze… but then I sneezed and it-”

“You have really gotten yourself worked up over a sneeze?” Derek asked, his mouth quirking up in amusement.

Hydie abruptly frowned to see him act so flippantly about the situation. “It was a high-stress scenario. We tightened the screws and had him on his back foot. He was panicking, and about to reveal the truth. Then I sneezed due to my damned luck and broke all the tension. It wasn’t just a sneeze.”

Snorting, Derek turned away from Hydie and continued walking forward. Rather incensed, Hydie stomped after him. “What? What is it? What’s so funny?”

“I don’t think this was about you at all, Hydie,” Derek continued. His serious eyes flicked side to side along the streets. Even now, he was weighing the surroundings for threats. “That man… he was sent here by someone, but he doesn’t seem like he was given a mission. It just feels more like he is an alcoholic that was maneuvered into walking into a bar… the rest happened organically. He had the propensity for violence and the opportunity triggered him. Some people find the spirit of Kharon quite off-putting, you know.”

“AND we could have learned that secret from his own lips, rather than relying on all this conjecture,” Hydie huffed. They proceeded off of Kharon’s main commercial thoroughfare and toward the large bridge between Kharon and the outskirts of the Orchard. “Next, time, I promise you I won’t let the bad luck hanging around me get in the way-”

As if on cue, Derek’s hand shot out and snatched an icicle that had been falling toward the head of an oblivious pedestrian in front of them. Derek scrutinized the surrounding roofs but found that this was basically the last remaining icicle large enough to be an inconvenience. It was a stubborn holdout from the storm two days ago, finally succumbing to the sun’s influence.

Despite the fact that even Hydie would admit that the System largely made humanity powerful enough that such an icicle was harmless, she pulled quite hard on Derek’s shoulder to turn him around. Then she jabbed her finger at the pick of ice in his hand. “See? This is why I’m worried! Maybe I shouldn’t be involved in these investigations… I could normally focus my abilities on our enemies, but we don’t know who our enemies are! So the bad coincidences keep piling up around us and you-”

“This?” Derek waved the forearm sized icicle in front of Hydie’s face. “These things happen. You don’t have a monopoly on accidents, Hydie. Bad things happened before you were born.”

Hydie’s glare was vicious as she slapped Derek’s arm to get the icicle out of her face. “How can you be stupid about this? Just because you have reacted well to the hex so far, doesn’t mean you always will. And what will you do if you are injured or killed, huh? What will your son Tim think of that?!? Suddenly an orphan, like all the other brats on this Wandering City. All because you are too proud to admit…”

Suddenly, Hydie ran out of steam. She licked her lips and then bit them. The pale light of the sun filtered down on them, while people walked past the duo. The people eyed the two Order Ducis operatives that stopped in the middle of the walkway but didn’t give their presence much thought. The wind was cold as it whistled past. Abruptly, Hydie flushed. I… probably shouldn’t have thrown his son in his face.

O-o-or… said that bit about orphans...

Stolen novel; please report.

The rather blank way that Derek was staring at her seemed to energize all of Hydie’s insecurities. People continued to walk past in both directions. Her heartbeat began to quicken. Derek’s eyes were dark and heavy as he looked at her. Was he… realizing that what she said about the inherent risks of proximity to her was true? That the two of them shouldn’t be partners any longer?

Eventually, Hydie couldn’t stand the silence any longer. “Hey, Derek, I-”

“We have work,” Derek interrupted in a rough tone. Then he turned away and flexed his hand, crushing the icicle into harmless snow powder. “With the police force gone, we are standing in for the patrol officers. Besides… can you feel it in the air? The people of Kharon are angry. Looks like word of the attack has spread. Our job is especially important at the moment.”

Derek had taken several large strides forward before Hydie blinked and scrambled after him. For whatever reason, her heart was still uneasy as she looked at his broad shoulders. But Hydie knew that now that he had brought up work, he was absolutely done with the prior subject. So Hydie could only bury her anxiety and ask, “Would people getting angry be a problem? Sometimes… sometimes people get angry, but it really doesn’t mean anything…”

“You are right about that,” Derek grunted. They had reached the archway that housed the segmented rope bridges swaying down to the city below. Of course, most people didn’t need to utilize the bridges to get down; they possessed enough Endurance and Vitality to just jump off the edge and crash into the ground. But both to prevent damage to the surrounding area and for the sake of appearances, they made the bridges. “It might not mean anything that the people of Kharon are angry by itself. But that means we need to be extra careful that there isn’t any further spark to set this place ablaze.”

Derek continued to walk forward toward the main thoroughfare into and out of Kharon, but Hydie’s steps gradually slowed. Her eyes were on the fragile ropes of the bridges that creaked side to side with the wind and people’s casual steps. “Derek… aren’t we just supposed to patrol Kharon?”

With more speed than Hydie had expected, Derek spun around and studied her with sharp eyes. That gaze became a blade that lanced through her body and pinned her to the ground. While he watched her, Hydie felt like a rare butterfly that had been extremely difficult to catch, now victoriously suppressed by a grudge-holding insect collector.

But gradually, Derek’s expression eased. “...we won’t be leaving. And I suppose waiting here is fine.”

So the two stood, Hydie staring at the ground and wondering if he was mad at her and Derek looking toward the bridges. They waited for about three minutes before a skinny man with excessive arm hair walked up onto Kharon proper and looked around. Even though Hydie’s image detection was much less acute than Derek’s, her gaze immediately locked onto this young man when he entered her line of sight.

The man scratched his arm habitually and looked around with a gaze encumbered by extremely deep, purple bags under his eyes. From the curl of his lip, it was clear that he didn’t have any positive intentions toward Kharon.

Derek immediately stepped forward. “Excuse me, sir, can I ask you a few questions?”

Derek’s voice was low, but he immediately drew the gazes of everyone going in and out of the arch. Those people subconsciously slowed their pace to get a better look at what was happening. In the face of Derek’s calm smile, the man with the heavy bags under his eyes looked uneasily side to side.

Even those not from Kharon would recognize the eye-catching sigil of the Order Ducis on Derek and Hydie’s arm. The young man cleared his throat. “I… I’m sorry, do you have the wrong person? I’m just here-”

“Kharon is home to some of the most sophisticated image users in the world,” Derek interrupted. His smile widened. “Did you really think that you could walk in with all of that resentment and ill will and not be noticed?”

Hydie flexed her fingers and then dropped her hands to the pair of handcuffs at her belt. Even if she was still feeling somewhat worried about Derek’s opinions of her, this was at least a good distraction. Since they were filling in for patrol officers, Hydie was ready to work out some of her frustrations through an arrest.

What she didn’t expect was for the young man to stare at Derek for a long time and then burst into tears.

For the moment, they took him back to the station to be put in a holding cell. Then, for the next six hours, Hydie rushed after Derek Moss, watching him avoid the misfortune that came along with remaining near her and also casually intercepting other individuals with malicious intent as they came into Kharon. All told, they had caught five such people before their shift was over.

Hydie understood the principles behind what Derek was doing. The moss spirits of Kharon were naturally attracted to people who loved Kharon and avoided the people who hated Kharon. And because of the sheer amount of moss spirits that the city was producing, basically every person who wanted to enter Kharon couldn’t avoid passing through areas at least sporadically filled with moss spirits.

Derek was simply monitoring the whole of Kharon, looking for minute deviations of moss spirit movements. Which was especially difficult because moss spirits behaved erratically even at the best of times. Just thinking about it gave Hydie a headache.

Basically all of Hydie’s enthusiasm had returned once they had all the perps in holding cells. She grinned over at Derek. “Hehe, no way we don’t get a commendation for this! We captured these fools before they could even accomplish anything.”

Derek frowned. “That’s… not necessarily true. If someone was watching carefully, they would realize that Kharon has the ability to detect infiltrators. To a force with nefarious motives, this is quite an important piece of information.”

“You are always so negative,” Hydie muttered.

Derek shrugged. “Comes with the job, I guess. Anyway, ready for some more interviews?”