by Brhi Stokes
Matthen was staring hard at everything around him. He was particularly interested in the screens and signs we passed with various notes and advertisements.
“What’s wrong?”
“The letters are different here,” Matthen answered as we approached the gate. He followed my lead as I inserted my ticket, headed through the turnstile and collected it on the other side.
“Yes. Does Myrkdraw not have different languages?”
“Well yeah. But we all use the same letters. Besides, Myrkdraw’s not as big as this place. You’d just end up right back round where you started if you took off in an aeroplane for a full day.”
“Well I wouldn’t think too hard about it,” I told him, “you’ll have much more to worry about when we reach the city.”
His lips quirked slightly as he fixed me with a curious expression, but he did not ask any more questions. In fact, he busied himself trying to read the magazine he had taken from the plane, in spite of the language difference. It was probably a good thing because he missed spoiling the surprise before the train finally pulled into the underground station.
It was early evening and the station was packed. We were both a little taller than the locals, which made it easier to navigate, but I could see Matthen’s surprise at the sheer amount of people. I grabbed him by the arm and trudged him towards the exit we needed. I was much better at sidestepping and darting around the throngs of people in our path, and Matthen was happy to let me drag him along until we reached the gates. He looked a little perplexed as his ticket did not re-emerge from the slot, but I nudged him forwards so that I could pass through as well, and he hastily moved out of my way.
Instead of pulling out the scanner, I simply watched him as we stepped out into the cool, bright night. We were surrounded by buildings; the area was alight with colours in neon and moving signs. I moved towards the open gap that marked the road, Matthen following behind as he tried to look everywhere at once. Light from the signs flashed about above and around us and swathes of people stepped with purpose on the way to their destination. Nearby, a small chirp signalled something, and what looked like hundreds of people darted onto a crossing, a mesh of bodies stepping towards, aside and around one another in a scramble. They crossed in every direction instead of directly across the road, and I had to wonder how there were no collisions, as the timer on the crossing began its countdown.
Matthen stared at the area around him until he finally brought his gaze around to look at me. He must have noticed my smile because he was frowning. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” he asked.
“You’re cute when you’re surprised,” I told him, deadpan, hoping he understood the joke and did not take it as a positive response to his flirtations.
He barked out a laugh. “I don’t normally get the time to admire my surroundings. I’m sure it’s the same for you.”
I did. With only a day or two before our bodies started to deteriorate and a job that needed doing, we did not have the luxury of being able to look around at the strange worlds we found ourselves in. Some small part of me was glad that Matthen was able to have this experience. I so rarely got to do it myself, but this was my job. Matthen was just along for the ride and obviously much less concerned about the outcome.
His grin grew wider and I realised I was staring at him. I blinked hard and turned to rifle through my bag for Avilaigne’s scanner. My fingers brushed cold iron and I pulled the chunky device from the bag, nodding to myself as I eyed the dials and switches along its top.
“Hey, Page…” he stepped forward and gently placed a hand on my shoulder.
I looked at him and immediately stumbled back a step and away from the tender look on his face. Raising a hand to my temple, I scrubbed at it. “Listen, I erm… I am not particularly interested in your gen…” As I trailed off, a wicked grin sprouted to life on his face. “Never mind,” I growled at him, thrusting the scanner roughly at his chest. “Just get this thing to work, will you?”
He chuckled, toying with the copper-coloured knobs until the device began to click slowly. “This way,” he said as he pointed the scanner in a direction and the clicking intensified, “it’s a bit of a walk, I think.”
For some strange reason, I was almost relieved that the amulet was still in town.

We stood outside a small set of stairs which led downwards from the main street. A light clicking emanated from the device in Matthen’s hands as he pointed it at the building, slowly tilting it until it was aimed a few stories high. The clicking slowed. As he tilted it back down towards the ground, however, the clicking sped up until it was essentially a low hum. We exchanged glances as Matthen shoved the device into the pocket of his jacket, smiling at me.
“What does she look like again?” he asked.
I frowned back at him as I led the way down the stairs. “You were right there in front of her.”
“Oh, I had my attention on other things.”
“Like Avilaigne?”
He laughed. “Oh, no. Not at all.” There was a purr in his voice that made the hair on the back of my neck prickle.
Thankfully, it was then that we emerged from the stairwell and came face to face with two women in beautifully pressed business attire. Their skirts and button-up shirts were spotless, their hair and makeup immaculate. They bowed to us as we approached and I had to take a moment before I was able to wrench my gaze away from them to survey the room.
The small entranceway held a maître d' counter which the women attended, and there was an immaculate restaurant beyond the beautifully embroidered dividers. Aside from a few stools at an intricately carved wooden bar, the seating was on the floor, around low tables. Everything was touched with gold and pearl amongst the deep wood of the floor and tables. Something about it reminded me vaguely of Evisalon, though I was unsure if that was not simply because of the proximity of the pendant. I glanced about the smattering of guests and the pots of sake and beer that covered the many tables. Finally, I saw the familiar figure standing at the bar. Natsuko was speaking firmly with the bartender, her brow furrowed.
“Two?” I realised one of the women was talking to us.
“Er… we’re meeting a friend,” I said, pointing in the direction of the bar.
“Ah! Yes.” She smiled widely at me. “Okay. But your shoes…”
I followed her pointing to the neat shelf of shoes nearby and began to kick mine off. Matthen followed suit, though he gave me a quizzical look as he did so. The woman bowed once more and gestured for us to enter the restaurant. We slowed as we approached the bar, and the rapid-fire conversation between Natsuko and the bartender became clearer.
I glanced at Matthen. We had already discussed him waiting nearby in case the girl was not happy to see me. While she was not about to turn around and face us, I did not want to risk playing our ace before he was needed.
My companion was gazing past me, however, and the look on his face gave me pause in attempting to shoo him out. “She’s saying she wants to see the boss,” he told me.
“You can speak Japanese…?”
He smiled and shrugged, cocking his head as he continued to listen. “Guy behind the bar won’t let her. Says he doesn’t understand what she’s talking about.”
Natsuko’s voice was quiet but there was a desperate frustration in it, evident even without an understanding of the language itself. Her outfit was rather plain for a place like this, but I was not exactly in ballroom attire, either, so I had to assume the restaurant had no dress code.
“Doesn’t sound like he’s going to budge,” Matthen whispered to me as we stood somewhat awkwardly a few steps behind the bar. A female bartender smiled and gestured for us to approach, but I shook my head and nodded towards Natsuko, giving the woman what I hoped was a charming smile.
“Time for you to head back out,” I whispered to Matthen. “Follow us if anything happens, but hopefully I’ll be done shortly.”
Reluctantly, he retreated back
to where we had left our shoes and I moved forward to take a seat next to Natsuko. Conversation cut off abruptly as both guest and bartender stared at me. The man took this as a time to make his getaway and stepped through a small door behind the bar, disappearing from my view. Natsuko, on the other hand, was watching me intently. A mix of emotions swam across her features before she finally settled on a neutral expression which gave nothing away.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“It’s a bit of a long story,” I admitted, turning to face her fully. “But I was hoping you might hear me out.” She started shaking her head and I held up a hand. “Please, Natsuko. Just let me tell you why I’m here, and if you don’t like it, you can leave. No strings attached.”
“You want back the item.” Her tone was matter-of-fact as she fixed me with cold, dark eyes. It was her eyes that marked her age, I realised. Her lithe frame and youthful body may have given her the appearance of a very young woman, but her eyes were like pieces of onyx under the dim lighting. They focussed on me without wavering, without warmth or emotion. I wondered if listening to me would even change her mind.
“Yes, but- wait.” I all but tumbled off my stool to join her as she stood to move past me. “Please, Natsuko, just listen to me. I’m willing to work out an exchange. You don’t need the amulet, aside from as a gift to the Masters, correct? So listen to what I have to say and then we can take into account what you might want.”
“You do not have what I want.” She stared directly into my eyes as she spoke and, for the barest of seconds, her expression faltered. Her lips pursed and she blinked quickly to regain her composure.
“Maybe I don’t, but perhaps I can help you get it. All I want to do is talk, Natsuko.”
My stomach knotted in the silence that fell between us, while Natsuko stared over my shoulder into nothingness. Finally, she nodded. “Not here. Let me use bathroom, then we can go together.” She moved past me without waiting for a response and headed towards a small door in the back of the restaurant with restroom symbols on it.
She had only been gone a minute when my eyes flicked up to the green sign above the door. I could not make out the characters on it, but its meaning was international. Trying to keep my footfall steady, I moved towards the door and entered the small, white corridor to which it led. To my right were two doors with small turnable locks. Both were green. A subtle click from somewhere down the hall caught my attention and I swore, unable to remember the last time I had been so gullible.
I launched myself up the stairs towards the exit that I had heard snap shut. I paused in front of it, however, and fell quiet. Something told me that I had to be smarter about this. Softly, the sound of padding footsteps reached me from somewhere above and I turned towards the next set of stairs. The door had been a diversion. Slowly, cautiously, and very well aware of my lack of shoes, I began to move up the stairs. The padding continued, muted by Natsuko’s own bare feet, as the two of us climbed higher and higher, with me in stealthy pursuit.
We had climbed perhaps four or five flights when I heard the sound of a door swinging shut. I had been making use of handrails and walls to haul myself up with minimal noise, but now I dropped fully to the ground and moved towards the door, leaping several steps at a time.
I stepped into a neon-lit night. The buildings across the streets on either side of ours illuminated Natsuko’s figure across the top of the flat roof. She turned abruptly as I slammed the door open and emerged into the night with her. Her expression changed, then; her doll-like features wrinkled into a bitter scowl as she spun away from me and moved into a run across the roof.
I gave chase, very aware that this was Earth, and that I had no extra capabilities, nothing to rely upon but my own speed and strength. Natsuko reached the edge of the building and jumped the small alley between it and the next with one dextrous leap. It was the knowledge that plummeting downwards would probably only kill me - a strangely comforting thought - that drove me to dive across the gap after her. It would be a less than ideal experience coming back without Daniel around, but there was no point in being careful any longer. I had come all the way here and I was going to see this through.
The buildings sat against each other or were separated only by small alleys, and I easily cleared the gaps as I pelted after Natsuko. My bare feet smarted as rough concrete and small debris caught at them, but I focussed my gaze on the girl running ahead of me and quickened my pace.
At the end of the street was a large intersection. Beyond it, I could just make out a park across the road. Natsuko had nowhere to go as I leapt onto the final building myself. For a moment, triumph was a warm glow in my chest as I moved towards her. However, I noticed something and the warmth dropped into a cold pit in my stomach: Natsuko had not slowed down at all. She had no intention of even pausing before she hit the end of the roof.
Her feet grazed the edge of the roof and she threw herself towards the empty air. With a desperate burst of speed, I made it to the edge, my hand darting out to catch her own as it flung out behind her in the leap. Skin on skin contact was a jittering shock to my system as I latched onto her wrist and held fast. My other hand reached desperately for the side of a nearby vent as I was pulled along by her momentum. Natsuko’s body jerked to a stop in mid-air before she dropped back towards the building. My arm was nearly wrenched out of its socket as the girl hit the bottom of her fall and slammed hard into the side of the wall. A pained cry left her lips as she dangled against the building from my outstretched hand.
Taking a second to balance myself, dropping to my knees for leverage, I started to haul her up. Panic set in and her feet scrabbled against the wall, her free hand pulling herself to the top of the roof as I dragged her upwards. Between us, she was pulled onto the roof, but this time I was not going to give her a chance. I rolled on top of her the moment she was up, pinning her beneath my frame.
The two of us remained where we were, breathing heavily. Natsuko’s eyes were closed and, in the shimmering light that filtered up from the intersection, I could see that her face was contorted in pain.
“Are you hurt?” I asked, releasing her wrists from my grip, but refusing to let her up.
“Why won’t you people just let me fucking die,” she snarled, her usually soft voice thick and grating.
A single pair of hurried footsteps sounded from the other edge of the roof, but I continued to stare down at Natsuko.
“Pardon?” I asked, before frowning. “I’m sorry… but I couldn’t let you leave without hearing me out. The amulet-”
“You take it and I can never die,” spat the girl bitterly. I could see now that tears streaked down her face, smudging the dark makeup around her eyes and mingling with the bloody scrape on her right cheek.
At my side, Matthen’s voice murmured, “What…?”
“This is the item from Evisalon. One of them. The Masters have been wanting them for so long.” She was not looking at me as she spoke, instead her head tilted back so that she could stare across the dark roof on which she was restrained. Slowly, I pushed myself off of her until I could stand. A touch at my shoulder told me that Matthen had moved to my side. Natsuko did not rise, however, she simply pushed herself slowly to her knees and remained upon them. I could now completely see the scrapes that the impact against the wall had given her as a thin trail of blood flowed down her right arm. The three of us stood there in silence for a long moment until Natsuko continued.
“Only a person with good feelings for what they will do with it can take them from the churches.” Her eyes were locked on the ground a few metres in front of her. “I tried before. I could not take it with me. But you had it. How did you take it?”
Matthen and I shared a glance. Avilaigne had been the one to pluck the amulet from the statue, I recalled. I had simply taken it from her and disappeared with it.
“Avilaigne said she grabbed it,” Matthen said softly. “And all she wanted was to use it to bargain with others so that they could help h
er cause. So that everyone could have a better standard of life. It was never going to work, but I guess that’s all she really wanted.”
And what had I wanted it for? To do my job? There’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve got no time for noble causes, I told myself, but even my inner voice seemed unsure.
“I was going to keep it from them until they let me go,” said Natsuko, still on her knees.
“Let you go?” Matthen asked. “You don’t want to work for them anymore?”
She met his eyes so suddenly and with such vehemence that I felt Matthen’s body tense next to me. “To let me die.”
“I know what we do might feel like a lot, but I don’t think dying’s the answer,” I told her softly.
The girl let out a bitter laugh. “You are new. You do not understand. You do not know. I have been this- this tabibito for so many years. So long.” She met my gaze and I could see in her eyes the weight of her years. Even her youthful visage could no longer hide it. “So many times of dying. But never dead.”
“You don’t need to die,” I said gently, unsure why the words caught in my throat. “There’s still a big world out there, you could just stop doing jobs for them.”
With a shrug, Natsuko began to dig around in the pocket of her jeans. “I do not need you to be so nice.”
Despite knowing there was no way the fixer-murdering gun could fit in there, my heart still sped up a few notches. Beside me, Matthen shifted and tensed as if preparing to move swiftly. Needless to say, we both felt a little silly when she produced the Sacred Oath from her pocket. She held it out towards us with one hand, its chain dangling delicately between her thin fingers. “Take it and let me die.”
“There has to be something left for you, something more than just death,” I found myself saying.
Natsuko’s eyes flicked in my direction. “I am not talking with you,” she said, and I saw that her gaze - and her offered hand - were directed at someone behind me.
