by Thomas Green
Not that the day-night cycle would be anything but artificial, yet the night felt uncomfortable. Since I was put into the aether-blocking collar the same day I ate Vishnu’s soul crystal, I had no knowledge of what abilities the soul may have blessed me with.
My heart beat in a swift rhythm and my steps lingered. While I had plenty of combat training, I haven’t used those skills in months and the Upper Prison’s overly comfortable lifestyle hadn’t helped. But on the other hand, almost nobody here in the Upper Prison had prior combat experience.
Muffled clanging of metal hitting metal echoed through the corridor. A chill ran up my spine. I continued, shifting my weight to not make a sound.
The clanging struck my ears again, louder than before. I advanced, turning a corner. The carpet gave way to steel floor. This was a maintenance area where we didn’t go unless we had to.
An open door gaped in the wall like a gate into nothingness. I approached, careful not to slip on the wet floor. I glanced into the room. Red emergency light illuminated broken valves, pipes, and machinery. The displays were dark, often broken with shards of concrete stuck into them. Water splashed on the floor, disappearing through the emergency drain. Overall, the scene appeared as if water exploded in through the wall and the shrapnel of cement and steel destroyed everything inside.
A step sounded behind me.
My heart leapt into my throat, and I whirled.
Sora stood behind me, his hands, sleeves, and shirt soaking wet. “Amarendra?”
I exhaled slowly to calm myself, unsuccessfully. “What are you doing here?”
“I tried to wash my hands, and this happened.” Sora raised his hands as if the move was needed to show me how soaked he was. “And then I followed the sound.”
I stepped into the room and motioned him to join me. “Do you know anything about plumbing?”
“Not much.” He entered the room. His eyes widened as he gazed at the chaos. After few awkward seconds, he walked inside, his steps sloshing in the water, and glanced at one of the broken pieces lying around. “Is this clay?”
My heart nearly stopped when I realized he was right. This prison was thousands of years old. They probably wouldn’t change the plumbing every few decades... or centuries.
He arched an eyebrow. “Why did you stop breathing?”
I inhaled deeply to recompose. “Do you know what this place is?”
He shook his head.
“From what Hades slipped out during parties, Tul Sar Naar used to be an island in the pacific.” I retreated half a step so as not to get my shoes wet. “But with surveillance satellites coming into existence, Lucielle needed a better location. She increased the prison capacity and, using the extraneous aether from extraction, she turned the island into a flying one. We are now flying five miles above the Arctic’s permafrost, wreathed in a mist-engine-generated cloud.”
He gulped. “My friend was a plumber before obtaining the divine soul. His room is in the eastern section, door forty-seven, ask for Kenji.” He headed to the plumbing, bursting water drenching him entirely. “I’ll try to hold this together in the meantime.”
I rushed through the hallways. The eastern wing housed the newest members of the Upper Prison. Door forty-seven soon stood before me and I knocked.
No answer. I hit the door harder and shouted. “Kenji! There’s been a plumbing problem and Sora sent me for you.”
A male voice replied from inside, shouting something in Japanese, most likely a curse. I stepped back and breathed deeply to calm my thudding heart. Pulse beat in my temples and sweat covered my whole body. I haven’t run in a while and apparently, my shape wasn’t as stellar as I thought. That had to change.
The door opened and a young, Japanese man looked at me through tired eyes. Marks of sweat marred his shirt and he panted. “What happened?”
“The plumbing broke and destroyed a maintenance room. Come.” I motioned him to follow me. He did. We ran back to the maintenance room, though this time slower.
When we reached the maintenance room, Hades stood in the hallway, his hair and suit darker than night. He pierced me with his gaze, and I flinched.
“Kenji used to be a plumber,” I said, almost stuttering, “I’ve brought him to help.”
Hades narrowed his eyes. “Why are you awake at this hour?”
I smiled, recomposing. “The call of old age led me to the bathroom, where I noticed a water-related issue which I went to investigate.”
He scanned me for a second, and then nodded in a commiserating way. “I have already alerted the maintenance crew, but they will need over two hours to reach this place.” He motioned into the room. “See what you can do.”
Kenji and I entered. Sora sat inside, utterly drenched, holding together parts of a water tube. The mechanism was now significantly more broken than when I left with most valves crumbled and water flooding the room, filling the drains. Were it not for the room’s lowered floor, water would’ve already been flooding the Upper Prison.
“I’ll need some equipment,” Kenji said.
“I’ve already sent three men for it.” Hades nodded toward the broken valves. “Can you tell us what happened?”
Kenji inspected the mechanism. “The pressure regulator broke… the reserve one too… and the flow-management mechanism exploded through the wall, causing this…” He motioned over the room. “Which part of the prison do these tubes service?”
“Us and the Female Ward, why?” Hades asked instantly.
“Do we have another water source?” Kenji asked, now also drenched. “Because this is not fixable without major repairs. The best we can do is to plug the pipes. If we don’t, the water will reach the Female Ward under too high a pressure and break the local plumbing. In such case, the entire ward would get flooded.”
“We have another source, but the Female Ward does not.” Hades ran his hand through his beard, and I took a step back, doing my best to hide in the shadows. This was a major risk. “Can you close the entry to the pipeline?”
Kenji motioned at a machine with a large piece of concrete stuck into it. “This was its control panel.”
Hades paled. “About plugging the pipeline, can you do that?”
“Depends, how much of the plumbing is steel and how much clay?”
“We changed the entire plumbing in the seventies,” Hades said. “So, everything is made of thick steel. The clay is from the walls.”
“Then I’ll need someone with superhuman strength…” Kenji scratched the top of his head. “And do you have a high-power stick welder?”
I did not bother with pretense. I had no idea what a stick welder was and how it differed from any other welder. And by Hades’s blank stare, he didn’t know either. “Come,” Hades said and motioned Kenji to follow.
“We will need extra hands to help carry it,” Kenji added.
Hades nodded at me and I followed.
We crossed a set of hallways and, behind a door Hades had to unlock with his key, we entered the storage area. Piles of all types of equipment besieged the room. Some appeared relatively new, most old to ancient. If we weren’t in a flying island that had a plumbing problem, I would have stared in amazement at this collection, where clay-shaping tools shared the piles with steel-cutting saws.
Kenji immediately headed to one pile while Hades and I waited by the door. We weren’t going to be helpful even if we tried.
Hades cleared his throat. “Have you seen how Lucifer’s doing?”
My gut clenched. The memory of Lucas still haunted my thoughts. Yes, I had. This time, his stay in the extraction chamber was a lot more troublesome. He was plugged in fewer than forty-eight hours after his last extraction ended and today, after five days of his next extraction, he was a wailing mess of suffering and despair. “He is alive, his bodily functions are not failing, but he may not survive for a full two weeks again.”
“How I wish I could kill him.”
“Would Lucielle be that enraged?”
; “Unfortunately.” Hades sighed. “His aether concentration is phenomenal and his reserve is nearly endless, so extracting him is extremely profitable even given the processing loss. Not to mention she apparently has other plans for him.”
With narrowed eyes and forcefully controlled voice, I asked. “Is his… contribution truly so noticeable?”
“The percentage loss of killing him would be in double digits.” Hades paused for a moment, then glanced at me. “Now that I think about it, I heard Sora had met Lucielle. Perhaps you could find if he knows any information on how to temper her wrath should Lucifer meet his demise.”
“Why not ask yourself?”
Hades snorted. “Sora is hiding something from me. I cannot tell what or why, but after the millennia I’ve been running this prison, I can smell deception. He would never tell me.”
My chest tightened. To seek information that would be used to bring death was against every oath I had ever taken. But if I refused, someone else would be tasked with this mission, and I would lose any chance to control the outcome. “Why trust me with this?”
“You and your wife have a spotless record, Doctor.”
And I promised my wife I wouldn’t endanger our position. “Very well.” I forced out my professional smile. “I accept.”
Kenji kept rummaging through the supplies. He came back with a small welder in his hand. “This is all I could find.”
Hades and I exchanged a puzzled glance. “And will it suffice?” he asked.
“Not really,” Kenji said with an awkward smile. “It’s a low-power MIG welder. For smaller repairs, it’d be perfect, but I really need an industrial stick welder for the pipes. This is like using a needle to hunt an elephant. If someone with super-human strength helps me, I can half-plug the pipe to regulate the flow, but it won’t be a permanent solution.”
Hades paused for a second, looking nowhere. “What would a permanent solution require?”
“Well…” Kenji rubbed his chin. “I can teach others to use a welder, so about a dozen industrial stick welders with appropriate protective gear.”
“Why so many?” I asked.
“We didn’t find the broken pipe instantly and despite Sora’s effort, most of the too-high-pressure current is reaching the Female Ward as we speak. If their pipes don’t break completely, they will still need revision and potential repairs. I can’t do that alone.”
“I will commission the required supplies.” Hades motioned to the door and we exited the supply room.
Repairing the pipes took the entire night. The essence of repairs was Hades and Kenji going into the maintenance duck, Hades using his aether-imbued strength to put steel plates into the pipe to reduce its maximum flow-through while Kenji welded them into place.
The maintenance crew Hades called arrived after four hours but was not equipped for this either. Nor did they seemed to be qualified since they were hired for minor repairs. Led by Kenji, they reinforced the steel plates half-blocking the pipes. And then they opened the connecting pipe between male and female pipe systems—that normally served to balance pressure—leading to a steady current flowing toward the Female Ward.
I returned to my quarters, more exhausted than when I went to sleep.
Jasika sat in front of the mirror, braiding her hair. She did not look at me when I entered. “So, you cheat on me now?”
What? I paused for a second to speak calmly. “Not precisely.” I smiled to soften my tone. “Water pipes broke, and I’ve been helping Hades fix them.”
“What do you know about pipes?” Her tone gained an even sharper edge. “And why you?”
I stepped behind her and gently massaged her shoulders. Without leaving anything out, I told her the story of last night. Her expression softened as I did.
She sighed. “Sorry… I shouldn’t have accused you of cheating.”
“I deserved the question.” I leaned down to kiss her on the neck. “So, what happened?”
“I don’t know.” She dropped her head and shoulders, using her hand to brace her forehead. “I just really don’t want to go back to the Female Ward.”
“Don’t worry. You won’t.”
“Seriously, Amarendra,” she almost shouted. “I’d rather kill myself than return there.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. “Why would you say that?”
“Haven’t you noticed seventy percent of Upper Prison members are women?”
“Isn’t that because Hades does the choosing himself?”
“Yeah, he’s not the most loyal type.” She chuckled bitterly. “But the Female Ward isn’t like the male one.”
I paused. She never spoke about her stay in the Lower Prison. When I asked for the first time, she said the topic was forbidden and I hadn’t tried again. “The Male Ward isn’t pretty either.”
She scoffed. “It’s a paradise compared the female one. When your ward has too many prisoners, they kill each other until the population returns to normal. But women don’t do that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Female Ward had twice as many prisoners as the Male Ward has despite having the same capacity.”
That was one way to interpret how the Male Ward worked. While the past weeks with Lucas going on a rampage on every occasion was excessive, when I thought about it, there wasn’t a week where one prisoner didn’t kill another one. Sora alone killed over seventy prisoners in the time he spent in the Lower Prison.
And since this facility was, first and foremost, a factory for liquefied aether, it would make sense for Hades to balance the unstable production of the Male Ward by overfilling the female one.
I kissed her neck again. “Don’t worry. You’ll stay here and be safe.”
“Will I?” Her voice started shaking. “One more Lucas’s rampage and women will have to start serving as guards.”
My blood froze in my veins. Her words carried truth I hated to admit. Doubly so because that was clearly the intent. The amount of potential guards was limited and the fewer the numbers, the easier time Lucas would have escaping. But I would not allow my wife to serve as a guard, to be his next victim. To ensure such fate wouldn’t befall upon us, I had to get close to Hades.
The afternoon arena matches came, and I sat down next to Sora on the Upper Prison’s tribunes. His friends, who were ascended after the last Lucas’s killing spree, sat by his other side. Kenji had his eyes closed, and posture relaxed. The other two drank champagne, mildly bored.
Jasika sat at my other side, heaving a sigh.
Sora arched an eyebrow at her. “Is everything all right, Lady Kali?”
She snorted. “I’m fine, just tired.”
Sora nodded and turned his gaze to me. “Quite the night, wasn’t it?”
“That’s one way to put it.” I forcefully unclenched my muscles into a relaxed posture. Sora was a former intelligence operative, hence prying information from him was bound to be difficult. But I accepted the mission from Hades himself and thus had no excuse. “Lucielle will not be pleased.”
“She never is.” He eyed me for an uncomfortable moment. “But there are ways to appease Her Evilness.”
Involuntarily, I chuckled and so did Jasika. But my face soon turned serious. He picked up on my question too quickly, as if he had expected it. I couldn’t help myself but ask, “What did Lucas do to you that you hate him so much?”
“He sent me and my friends here.”
He already told me that and I didn’t quite buy this being the entire reason. Yet if a lie lay hidden within the words, I did not see it. “How could Her Evilness be appeased then?”
“She is selfish, petty, and greedy.” Sora flashed a grin. “And she loves nothing more than money and her statue collection. The more opulent the statue, the larger forgiveness it can buy.”
Interesting. “How opulent?”
“She’s a billionaire, so the price for base materials alone needs to be in tens of millions of dollars.”
Trumpets announced the competition’s start, and so we fell silent.
At the after-match soiree, I coursed among the tables to find Hades, Jasika by my side. The carpet beneath my feet was thicker than anywhere else, draperies embellished the walls and classical music graced our ears. The tables featured delicacies from across the world and I couldn’t help but wonder if the prison’s owner truly knew what the Upper Prison looked like.
Hades stood next to his wife, Persephone, and engaged in conversation with his brother, Zeus. As I approached, Hades turned, and so did his wife.
“If I may have a moment,” I said with a broad smile.
By his hardening expression, he understood. “Persephone, darling, why don’t you show Jasika the deserts buffet?”
Jasika glared at me, her eyes narrowing into slits.
Persephone nodded and stepped to Jasika. “Come, the crème brulee is quite lovely tonight.”
Reluctantly, Jasika let go of my arm and walked away with Persephone.
Hades and I stepped to the side. “Have you found something?” he asked.
“The Devil collects statues, though her tastes are rather expensive.”
Hades frowned. “How expensive?”
“Sora said the requirement for the statue is tens of millions of dollars in base materials alone.”
“That is far too much.”
I shrugged. “Forgiveness always has a steep price.”
He shook his head. “We will do this differently. Does Ares have a medical examination before his match against Lucifer?”
“Yes, why?”
“I will tell you how to further loosen his collar to allow him to use more aether than normally possible.”
I frowned. “Even if Ares were to win the match, that wouldn’t quite solve the Lucifer problem.”
Hades conjured a smile that sent a chill down my spine. “True, Ares is an athlete, so he would not kill Lucifer. But if our dearest fallen angel would receive serious enough wounds to be sent to the medical ward, he could disappear before reaching the destination. With that, I could file him dying as the match’s result.”
My first instinct was to object, saying that is not compatible with my oaths. But I had no such option. Jasika’s words about her rather killing herself than going back to the Lower Prison popped into my mind. Contesting Hades could lead to that. With a tightened chest, I nodded. “Yes, that would indeed solve the problem.”
