Nimor’s movements were too slow. It wouldn’t be able to build enough momentum. Just before the moves collided, I saw Nimor shift, raising one foot and stomping forward like he was bursting his heal through the wind. His foot drove the walls forward, the antagonizing collision shaking the moves into each other, then driving them away from Nimor, back toward the affluent drunk’s chest.

The man’s body caved to the attack and flew backward, crashing into the wall he’d come from.

The room was silent, everyone’s attention drawn to the scuffle.

“What’s all the noise!” I heard a shout from above, following everyone’s eyes, I realized it’d come from the staircase, next to the counter at the back of the room.

The staircase groaned as the tallest man I’d ever seen came down, his width almost matching his height. He beat out Jiren by a good foot on both fronts.

“Very few men would dare make that sorta noise in my store, only one of them would be so weak they’d need two moves to do it.” The man had reached the bottom of the staircase now and I could see him in full. His hair was a full red and his attire shabby. He looked about Nimor’s age and had just about enough spots to count his years.

Nimor was staring right at him with his hands on his hips. “Now that’s no way to treat, what’d they call it again, ’The King of the Colosseum’?” Nimor said, plastered with a smug grin. “That was just my way of knocking.”

“No one’s called you that for a good year and no one cared then and no one cares now, maybe if you win the Titan series, till then you’re still just a chump that earned me some coin.”

“You always give the warmest welcomes, Rakna.” Nimor chuckled. “How’s the air been?”

“Fresher without you, and sweater with Helen.” Rakna sighed.

The two locked up in conversation, quickly taken by the patterns of friendship, and the crowd’s attention drifted. I was stuck awkwardly at Nimor’s side listening in, hoping to be forgotten.

I heard them talk about battles Nimor had missed from the Colosseum. I managed to work out he’d been away for months, and returned there last night, and that the Colosseum was a big entertainment source for the city, people made bets there and Rakna would profit from Nimor’s battles. The colosseum had anything from petty grudges get settled by commoners, to grand tournaments with the strongest and bravest.

“Who’s the boy?” asked Rakna.

With the attention back on me, I started sweating. I assumed as soon as I was more of a problem than I was worth, I’d be gone. And I had no idea how much I was worth.

“A trouble maker just about worth more than he costs,”

“What kinda family he got to stir trouble ‘round you? You playing guard?”

“Bigger things Rak, moved onto bigger things,” Nimor said.

I guessed Nimor meant the book and beads. I felt less burdened without them, like they meant less with Velma’s death. I didn’t even know how to use them. And he’d probably need the other beads. So, we’d have to go back to the village. If he took me with him maybe I could find Lunar. I guessed she was still in the village but she would have been set off by me and Velma’s disappearance. We had been gone for days now.

“Good, you’ve been wasting that skill of yours in that dome.” Rakna winked.

“You flatter me, don’t think I’ll be leaving it anytime soon though, those prizes are worth a bit of risk,” Nimor said.

They both chuckled, then an awkward silence hung.

“Why’d you come to me, Nimor?” asked Rakna.

“I could have just been showing my young friend here around,”

“Nimor,”

“Well, can’t I come to see a good friend without such existential questions? Why does the sun go to the sky? Why does the King go to his throne? It’s just the way the world shapes.”

Rakna scratched at his head, tussling is short red strands. “Since the day I met you wherever you went trouble followed, and now, with the people from the republic too…”

“Some call it trouble, I prefer adventure,” Nimor said.

“Y'all adventure your way right into a cell,”

“Speaking of adventure…” Nimor started.

“Nope, I’m not coming, not again.” Rakna shook his head.

“No need, you’d slow me down.” Nimor dropped his eyes to Rakna’s gut.

Rakna snorted. “Helen’s been treating me well.”

“I’m sure she has,” Nimor said. “Actually, though I was planning on doing as the hydra do, to hunt alone. I just needed you to take care of this kid.” Nimor nudged towards me, and I assured myself ‘take care’ was meant in the friendliest of ways.

Rakna saw my discomfort. “Scythe or poison?” he said quick.

“The kid already thinks I’m a murderer, don’t give him too many nightmares,”

Rakna raised an eyebrow at that.

“Don’t ask, it’s to do with the bigger things I mentioned,” Nimor said. “What matters is this kid is gonna need someone loveable and smart and handsome to take care of him, and sadly the most appropriate man for it is gonna be away…”

“It never ceases to amaze me how you work in your own compliment into every conversation.”

“What can I say, I’m a man of wonders.”

“There you go again. Fine, but he’ll have to work for it and find his own food.”

“but-” Nimor tried.

“None of it, you think I’m gonna lower my portions and miss out on some profit?” Rakna laughed then turned back up the stairs. “I’ll prepare a space for ‘em,”

He was actually going to leave me be? This is what I wanted. I could get back to Tomav and find Lunar and see Ju.

But how? I had no money and knew nothing about, and no-one in, Tomav. I didn't trust my odds of getting out of the city, let alone all the way back to the village.

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I couldn't think clearly. First I tried to get rid of Nimor and now I wanted to follow him.

I just want to find Lunar.

I needed to accompany Nimor back to Tomav.

“I know where the rest of the beads are. I’ll help if you take me back to Tomav.” I wasn't lying but the words still came shakily. I knew some of the beads must have fallen in the tomes. I could help him and he could help me.

“Let me guess, the floor of the tomes when you passed out again by Elon’s lackeyes? Or do you think there’s more in that desk you found them in? You’d think a merchant’s daughter would be better at keeping Jewellery.” Nimor shook his head.

I was speechless. How did he know? “were you spying on the tomes even then?”

Nimor sighed, “I never spied on the tomes, I spied on Velma.” Nimor tried to defend himself. “Okay that sounds worse, but I needed to, I’m the good guy, trust me.”

“Why would I believe you when you killed her?”

He took a moments thought, “I haven’t killed you now yet, have I?” he said.

I didn’t like his response. But the more time I spent with him I’d grown to trust his actions more and more. I doubted he was going to kill me without cause. Though if he abandoned me in a city I didn’t know, it was basically the same thing.

He did heal me. And Velma was not, obviously, the good guy in all of this. I was still wary. He took the beads from me, though I’d only just found them, it felt like I’d lost something important.

“What even makes you think I killed her? Last I remember you passed out like you were labour-burdened at the campsite,”

I ignored his comment, “You told me.”

“Oh right, I did, didn’t I.” Nimor stroked his chin. “Well, that wasn’t a lie... nor the truth.” Nimor fidgeted uncomfortably. It looked odd for him to be uncomfortable in front of me. At first, I thought it because of the people around, but his eyes made me feel like he was pitying me.

“Don’t worry about the people, they can’t hear us,”

I started to look around and realized no one was even looking our way anymore. But I knew it didn’t mean they weren’t listening.

“Hah, you don’t believe me,” Nimor snorted. “Reach out your hand.”

I was hesitant but I tried it. I slowly spread my left hand outwards, not sure what to expect. When it came, I almost jumped from shock. It felt like my hand was passing through a webbed watery glass. I could almost feel like thick air, or threads joined, resisting my hand moving outwards, slowing it until static.

Nimor seemed to take to emotion like a candle lit to flames. He’d started laughing. “Your reaction was gold. You really are from the nowhere aren’t you.” He said.

“What-” I started.

“Craft boy, you should have been more impressed by my hands when you slammed the steaks. This is nothing.” There was definitely a hint of pride to his tone.

His ego dampened my wonder, and Nimor eased away from his laughter.

“I guess that proves it. Okay, let me just start from the beginning.” He said.

And he did.

Nimor told me he had been following Emra since he discovered Emra had stolen Rahr’s eyes from the church. I did not ask how he found out. Rahr’s eyes had shown there was activity from a world artefact in the village. But signals would rarely show, and when one came, it’d always be brief, so they would never find the source. Nimor investigated down to likely suspects, as the signal would always remain within the village. He’d investigated all the embers and then moved on to the most likely ashen.

“What did you find out about Heliar?” I interjected, remembering him asking about the Tak. Then Velle came to mind, her scent twirling in my mind and distracting me enough to miss Nimor’s words.

“…interesting. He has some powerful friends in the kingdom of light too, too bad Emra killed him.” He responded. “So, as I was saying-”

“Wait what? Wha-what about his children, what-”

Nimor took a second to eye me. “You fell for the girl, didn’t you? Or did you actually consider yourself and Edric as friends?”

I flinched, disturbed by how much he knew. “I tutored Edric for a year, of course, of-course it matters-”

“So, it is the girl.” Nimor gave me another wink. Somehow each and every one of those winks was delivered the same.

”I don’t know kid. They’re Heliar’s family, not mine.” Nimor said. “From all the complaints I heard from Vam, I’d have thought you’d be better at lying though, I’m kind of disappointed.”

I chose to ignore him again, “Why are you following them at all, why do you actually need the beads?” I asked.

Nimor’s chest lifted, and the edges of his lips tugged up. I could see he was about to make another joke. “You killed Velma.” I said, deadpan.

He’d started for words but took to pause. When he spoke, his words sounded almost authentic. Almost.

“I didn’t realise she mattered so much to you, she tried to kill you! If this isn’t prisoner’s complex, I don’t know what is.”

“She taught me everything I know.”

“And do you know why?” Nimor said, rolling his eyes.

“…the tak.” I mumbled.

“So, you aren’t as dumb as you look.”

Nothing was said for a moment. “Do you know why she started the tak?” He asked.

I was slow to answer, “Money?”

“Information… and then money.” he said, “She wanted a convenient way of communicating with a bunch of informants, that way she could trade and research the Qyos without being suspicious. I still don’t know how she got her hands on it, the first of them to top it off. There was also another reason for the tak…”

“What?”

“Alibi.”

“What?”

“I’ve told you, she’s the daughter of a merchant, but not just any merchant family, she’s from the Clearstone family. They’re of the richest three merchant families across the kingdoms.” Nimor looked at my increasingly tensed brows.

“Forget about it, she left home as a rite of passage to learn to earn money, probably came across the first Qyos trading with a fool, hah, it was probably an idiot from your village, the texts of the Qyos are more valuable and dangerous than her whole house- most houses really, she wanted to keep it to herself rather than tell her father. So he made the tak to earn money and convince her family she was being a good little merchant daughter, while she figured the first Qyos out. She learned a fair bit too, some of the things she did…”

I thought back to their fight. Then I remembered her scribing the informant in the tomes and lunar’s ultra-hearing.“ does the book improve your hearing?”

Nimor audibly laughed. “Improved listening? Why would you focus on something you can do with just craft attunement? You could learn that in a week at the academy if you were good, the Qyos, find all of those and you could make the world louder.”

I squirmed awkwardly for a moment and then decided it was time to ask. I had nothing to really lose. He wasn’t after my life, just information and the beads. I might as well turn the former into a trade.

“How do you know so much? I mean about me and Velma, and Heliar’s family and everything. How long were you spying on us? How could you know so much about everyone?”

Nimor’s eyes shifted uncomfortably. “It’s… my job.” He didn’t look quite right in saying it, “When researching where the first Qyos could be Emra and his gang were aware of Velma, but only as a daughter of the Clearstones. The only blimp she’d made to society was she dropped out of the academy so she was easy to overlook. I, on the other hand, went through the academy with her and knew there was more to her. As soon as I recognized her though I scouted the tomes. It’d only been a week or so. I only did it to start figuring out where she might hide the Qyos if she had it, she’d been hiding the beads in plain sight the whole time though.”

I figured he must have set up inside the tomes. He was probably there when I met Velle, I almost blushed. Then I remembered how ordinary the beads looked and how they were just on her desk. Velma hid them without hiding them. I didn’t know whether to praise her or think less of her for it.

“You were in the academy together?” What he’d said dawned on me. “How old are you?”

From his face, I could see he thought the question odd, but he answered.

“Twenty-six, I know, I don’t look a day past twenty.”

I was shocked but I don’t know if I expected him to be younger or older. I took a mental note of the academy.

“why do you want the beads?” I asked. When no response came, I thought I’d overstepped. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it.

A response eventually came, “All I want is forgiveness and a home. The beads are just part of the path.”

I could see he wasn’t up for more questions. His voice noticeably dropping. I still felt there was way too much to know about this guy. But I could tell I wanted to like him, but I still didn’t trust him.

“So, you want the beads to sell them?”

He didn’t answer me, instead asking a question.

“Do you know how many there are? The beads.”

He didn’t know there were meant to be seven? He must have tried to use them and realized nothing happened. I was about to try and lie to him, out of instinct, but this could have been a test of trust. I was tired of obscurities and maybe I could leverage his trust,h ”There’s seven, when I woke up with Gorma and I only had three of them on,” the words felt the ones in the necklace you took but I don’t think they do anything by themselves.”

“A little advice before I leave, the city is large and loud. Don’t go to the blessed roads or the church, especially not the church. No colosseum and don’t talk to anyone who looks rich enough to buy you.”

“What am I going to do…? And What’s wrong with the church? where are you going? what if-”

“Don’t get caught up with what the moon does.” Nimor said, turning to leave.”Answers are always welcome, while questions often lamented.” With that he decided enough words were exchanged, leaving like the wind.