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It was me
all along
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Act 3, Scene 3
Guidance Officer Pavlo Perkins was having a terrible day—no, a terrible week—which was surprising because usually he loved his rotation at the Small Services District.
First off, he’d somehow lost his KM-card near the beginning of the week and hadn’t realized it until halfway through the week. This had gotten him and his co-worker in a lot of trouble with his senior guidance officer. Part of his co-worker’s job was to check to make sure everyone who entered the main facility in Small Services had their KM cards and part of his own job was to make sure that he had his KM-card on him.
Secondly, he’d offered to take the shift of his senior guidance officer Nico Fabrizzio to let him spend some time with his family—and to appease Nico’s wrath. Now that wasn’t a terrible thing. In fact, it was a pretty awesome deal since Nico’s husband had given him a dozen ‘Delicious Danke Donuts ©’ from his own famous bakery in the Harvest District in return. The terrible thing wasn’t that Pavlo originally had the day off and had intended to go to the beach and then the mall with some friends. The terrible thing was that his friends had been ringing his work phone all day saying that the Cadence Foxman had not only been at the beach but was also now at the mall. And they wouldn’t even get an autograph for him.
Thirdly, two of his most well-behaved charges had acted up this morning and so now he had to be the tough guy and have a counseling meeting with them. Now, Pavlo actually loved counseling meetings—so long as the ones that he was counseling were on good behavior. If they weren’t, Pavlo had to follow procedure and go through a long checklist of questions that Pavlo personally thought were too invasive.
Thirdly, lastly, and worstly of all, just half a second ago, just as he sat his charges down across from him in his office and prepared to run through that checklist, the facility’s sirens started blaring.
His two charges jumped at the sound and exchanged looks.
“What’s going on?” the younger of the two whispered—more to the other charge than to Pavlo.
Pavlo rose from his desk, offered the two a reassuring smile, and peered out of the doorway into the hall. Rubber boots squeaking against polished tiles and incoherent whispering was audible between the blares of the sirens—the sirens that dyed the halls red. Poor color choice, Pavlo thought.
There were several guidance officers running back and forth. Some were attending to their bewildered charges, others looked just as panicked as Pavlo felt.
“You two come with me,” Pavlo said as he pulled back into his office. “I’ll take you to your rooms.”
The two hesitated, exchanging glances.
“Should we not stay put?” the older of the two asked. Her VNW made her have an unusually authoritative air about her which intimidated Pavlo a bit. “It looks chaotic out there. I don’t believe it would be wise to add to the chaos.”
Pavlo fumbled for a moment. “No, no, it’ll be safer in your rooms while we work on figuring out what’s going on. Come on. I’ll keep you safe.”
The two exchanged looks before the younger slowly rose. She nodded at her older companion before the older relented, and the two joined Pavlo.
Pavlo led his two charges down the hall, past the chaos, and tried to look like he knew what he was doing. He did to some degree—that degree being what he’d learned from the fifteen minute emergency preparedness drill they had here quarterly.
They were in front of the main cafeteria now. The double doors leading to it were open and the threshold was more crowded than usual with green scrub-wearing residents. Something was happening inside. That didn’t seem good.
Well, one thing and a time.
“Come on,” Pavlo ushered his two charges along. “Let’s get you back—”
“Wait.”
Pavlo stopped and turned. Two uniformed guidance officers stood behind him. A blonde woman and a curly-haired man. The man’s hands were gloved so Pavlo assumed he’d just come in from garden duty. The woman looked very unhappy. Pavlo didn’t recognize either of them.
“Is that Agape Rosario and Ferris Hart?” the woman asked.
Pavlo looked back at his two charges and nodded. “Yeah, they are.”
“The senior guidance officer asked for me to take them,” she said. “We have it from here.”
Pavlo’s brows rose as he looked between the two groups. “Oh, alright then.”
Agape and Ferris walked over to the other two guidance officers, and the quartet brushed past him and started down the hall—in the direction opposite Pavlo had been heading. As they brushed past, Pavlo peaked at the guidance officers’ nametags. The man’s read ‘Lucio Vega’ and the woman’s ‘Annie Lang.’
Pavlo froze, ears ringing, and he stopped the woman by a hand around the wrist. The woman whipped back to stare at him while the man she was with tensed.
Wait, Pavlo thought. Maybe he was jumping to conclusions. There was probably a reasonable explanation for this.
Pavlo tried, “Which senior asked you to take them?”
“Nico Fabrizzio,” the woman answered after a pause.
Pavlo’s blood ran cold. He tightened his grip before slapping a pair of handcuffs from his belt around her captive wrist. “Nico is out of office today,” he said, “and you’re wearing my co-worker’s name tag. You’re not Annie. Who are you and what do you think you’re doing with my charges?”
The woman responded by swinging up her foot. She nearly clipped his chin with her boot, causing him to instinctively pull back—but not without using his gift from the tree to extend the links between the cuff on the woman’s wrist and the one in his hand.
“Transmutationist,” the woman said.
A flash of yellow-ish light bathed the woman’s back and suddenly the man behind her was holding a… spear? It looked like one of the ones Pavlo had seen in that fantasy movie his girlfriend had made him watch last week. The man tossed it to the woman who immediately whipped it around like some acrobat and pointed it at him.
Pavlo tensed but he managed to shout over his shoulder, “Hey, I need some assistance! We’ve got an issue here—these two aren’t guidance officers!”
Several guidance officers running past skidded to a halt and surrounded them.
A second later, the sprinklers went off, dousing everyone in water.
“They’re using their gifts from the tree,” Pavlo informed them, wiping the water from his face, “be careful—but don’t do anything drastic. I think they may be VNWs—”
Shrieks suddenly resounded from the cafeteria across from him. Pavlo barely had the time to turn in the direction before something flew out from the cafeteria’s open doors. The something’s shadow passed over his head. Was that…?
A long silver cafeteria table.
Pavlo was jerked violently forward by the cuff he had around the imposter’s wrist. He shot forward and craned his neck back just in time to see the table crash where he’d just been standing. Gulping, Pavlo looked towards the cafeteria doors where the table had come from.
The crowd of residents their had parted leaving only four figures to be illuminated in the threshold there. Pavlo recognized them as rather troublesome resident VNWs who had been locked in solitary confinement. Keyword: ‘had been’ since they were now walking around freely. The most troublesome among them was the newest intake Derik Stein who currently had one of their longest staying residents Albertine Echecs in a chokehold.
“Get me the hell out of here,” Derik demanded, pushing the butter knife in his hand further into Albertine’s throat, “or I’ll fillet this bastard alive!”
A loud clang! resounded. Pavlo glanced down to find that the chain connecting him and the imposter had been severed.
“Mr. Stein, I—woah!”
Pavlo looked down the hall towards the shout just in time to see a man sliding on the slick ground and hurtling towards them. He managed to jump away before they collided but Agape and several other guidance officers weren’t so lucky. They were knocked to the ground like bowling pins.
The living bowling bowl finally slid to a stop, hopped up to a stand, and waved at Derik. “Mr. Stein, I—”
“You were supposed to turn off the alarms, Hide!” Derik snapped at the man. “What the fuck!”
“I-I did?” The man, Hide, stammered.
He was distracted. Good.
Pavlo ran at Derik with a sliding kick. The other man barely had the time to shout before Pavlo made contact—with nothing. Pavlo yelped as he slid into the cafeteria and crashed into a table. He quickly scrambled to his feet and back out into the hall. Several guidance officers stared back at him blankly.
Derik Stein and his group, Agape, Ferris, and the guidance officer imposters were nowhere to be seen.
“What the hell…?”
Act 1, Scene 3
“Until you take a chill pill,” the guidance officer said as she pulled open the iron door, revealing a large unoccupied room, “you’ll stay here in the recuperation cell—”
Derik struggled in the woman’s iron hold. “I’m not taking any damned medication you give me—”
“‘Take a chill pill’ means to relax.” The guidance officer rolled her eyes and shook her head at the male guidance officer beside her. “This VNW case must be real bad, Pavlo.”
Derik whipped around but was met with an iron door to the face. There was a medium-sized glass window built into the door at eye-level. Just below it was a thin slot Derik presumed was used to slide food trays into the room.
“There are books on those shelves for your entertainment,” the guidance officer explained, gesturing to areas behind Derik from behind the glass. “There’s a television too and some coloring books. Three meals will be provided to you: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You will be let out quickly if you’re on good behavior, and since you’re new, the bar is set real low, so don’t worry your handsome head.”
“Come on, Annie,” said Pavlo, patting her on the back, “let’s grab lunch.”
The two departed down the hall.
Derik snarled and kicked the door. The metal thud resounded loudly but the door did not budge. Derik swore and whipped around.
A bed with thin linen sheets—too thin to strangle anyone with. A bookshelf full of books. A table set with one of those stupid ‘lava lamps’. An ugly ass chair. A TV.
Derik stomped towards the table and picked up the ugly chair stationed by. He carried the thing to the door, let out a string of profanities, and then began swing the chair atthe window of the door over and over again with all his might.
“Fuck you!”
Bang!
“I’m going to kill you, you assholes!”
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang—
“Could you please stop that…?”
Derik barely caught the quiet question. He lowered the ugly chair. “Who’s that?”
“A new guest, I see,” a milky voice drew muffled, different from the one before.
“Who’s that?” Derik asked again. “If you don’t answer me, I’m going to break through this door and gut you alive.”
There was silence.
Damn it.
Truthfully, Derik really needed information. How did Olive always get people to do what he wanted? The brat had an uncanny ability to get people to listen to him. Even the weird ass Ndoto version of him did. How the hell did he do it? The Hauptmann—both Weingartner and Waltz—did it via intimidation and being authoritative bastards which was hard to do when he was behind this door. But that brat…
“I’m joking,” Derik tried. “I’m just trying to understand what the hell is happening. I’m Derik Stein.”
He wanted to puke at how pathetic he sounded.
“Ah, Derik Stein, how quaint to hear your voice here of all destinations.”
A new person.
“Who are you?” Derik tried his best not to make his question sound like a demand.
“I am surprised you do not recognize nor have not yet heard of me for I am Veles, guild master of guilds and king of the Piscesian sea!”
What the hell was a guild master? It sounded like some dumb thing from one of Klaus’s dumb books. But he’d mentioned Pisces…
Wait. That voice sounded familiar. That name sounded familiar too. Why did it sound familiar? Had he seen this ‘Veles’ in a bar somewhere? Or maybe in one of those creepy rooms that depressed bastard had?
Damn it. Why was his memory so bad? The brat had blamed it on head injuries in the field. Derik had refrained from smacking the kid silly but now he was beginning to think the kid had a point. Then again, he’d never made the habit of putting names to faces. There wasn’t really a point when people had a one to two day expiration date out in the field.
“How long have you been here?” Derik asked.
Veles barked out a laugh. “For as long as I please.”
What the fuck?
It was like they were having two different conversations here.
“Who else is here?” Derik asked next, pressing his face up against the glass.
Silence.
“Usian,” came a reply. It was that milky voice. “I am Usian Imamu. And to answer your earlier question, for my perspective, I have been here for about three or so months. Veles came here after me a few weeks after and Monsieur Echecs a month or so ago.”
“Wait—Imamu?” Derik paused, squinting through the glass towards the iron door opposite of him. He could barely make out a face in the window there. “Like Atienna Imamu?”
“You know Atienna?” It was the first voice he’d heard.
“Of course he knows Atienna, Monsieur Echecs,” Usian said. “Everyone here knows of her.”
“I’m not from here,” Derik interjected. This was aggravating: usually Hauptmann Waltz or Olive handled the talking. “I came here with Atienna Imamu and a couple of others.”
“‘Came here’?” Echechs asked. “‘Not from here’?”
This was getting nowhere.
“Have you heard of Signum?” Derik asked. “If you haven’t, then this conversation is over.”
“You’re from Signum?” Echecs whispered.
“Why don’t you repeat me again, dumbass?” Derik snapped.
Silence again.
“Say, Mr. Stein, what language are we speaking right now?” Usian asked suddenly.
What the fuck?
“And what languages are you able to speak?”
Derik paused.
“I can tell you wish to derive information from us,” Usian continued, “but as you can see, information and knowledge here is malleable as molten metal.”
“Are you sure you came here with Atienna?” Echecs pressed. “What did she look like? How did she seem? What did she say?”
“Knowledge!” Veles barked out a laugh. “Knowledge bends to my—Veles’s—will!”
Usian chuckled. “Knowledge is not bent by you, Mr. Veles, but by the one who holds the garden shears—”
They were all batshit.
“All of you, shut the fuck up,” Derik snapped. “You’re minds aren’t fucked by this place yet, you’ve been stuck here for months, and you haven’t thought of getting out?”
Echecs whispered. “Well, there’s an alarm system—”
“Yeah, I think I’ve got that figured out.” Derik waved him off.
“Still, it’s impossible to get out of here,” Echecs sounded doubtful. “To truly get out of here, I mean—”
“For a dumbshit maybe,” Derik scoffed. “Listen, I’ve got a plan to get out of here. One of the ‘guidance officers’ here is a moron. She told me that all you need to open these things”—he knocked on the door—“is one of those cards everyone carries around. It has to be the card of a guidance officer who works here though with the right clearance. That idiot told me she was one of them. All we have to do is catch her off guard and take it. After that, it’ll be smooth sailing because I’ll call in a favor from a friend.”
“And how’s that…?”
“Are you blind? Didn’t you see how few guidance officers are stationed in this area? Up there there are twenty around every corner. Down here there’s maybe five. Now, are you in or not?”
“What an intriguing offer!” Veles’s voice echoed through the hall. “So you wish to join my guild, do you? Fine, I accept your offer!”
“Sure.”
“You would help us even though you don’t know us?” Echecs.
“Sure.”
“I assume you are acting on pure altruism?” Usian asked.
“Sure.”
Usian chuckled.
No. Of course not. This was a numbers game. The more people he had with him in his escape, the more people he had to serve as decoys.
“I have to ask, Derik Stein,” Usian continued, “why are you so adamant about escaping? Many come here with similar episodes of grandeur—though the guidance officers mark it off as VNW—but not so many have made it out.”
“That’s true,” Echecs muttered, “though none of them have thought of asking us to join them.”
“What is it, Derik?”
What and why?
Derik never usually thought of ‘why’s until recently where the answer to his ‘why’s became a drum of dedicate yourself. The drumming had dulled since he’d come here. He didn’t know what to think of that change, but he knew he felt restless.
“Do you know, Derik?”
“Hey, Usian.”
“Yes?” Usian pressed himself up against the glass.
“Shut the fuck up.”
Act 2, Scene 2
Peacekeeper Ferris Hart let out a breath and steeled her nerves as she took her food tray from the lunch lady and turned to face the rest of the cafeteria. The layout of the area reminded Ferris a bit of the dining hall in the Serpens Establishment—long silver tables running parallel to each other from one end of the room to the other. It was the first lunch hour so the tables were rather crowded save for one table in the far right corner.
Only two men sat at the table there. They were both rather eye-catching in their own way. One of the men—a brunette—had a rather distinctive scar running diagonally across his face. The other was talking rather animatedly with his hands. Derik Stein and… some other residents here in the Small Services District.
Okay, you’ve got this, Ferris told herself. Qu’est ce que tu attends!
She paced over to that lonely table, idled for a moment beside it, before ultimately sitting down across from the two men. She began, “Hi—”
“What the fuck do you want and why the hell are you…” Derik Stein paused and trailed off as he looked her up and down. Then he smirked.
Gross.
“Sorry for the language. What can I do for you, doll?”
Ferris frowned, trying her best to channel with all of her might her Communications Department professionalism. Customer service was key when it came to dealing with not only irate civilians but also irate peacekeepers.
“My name is Ferris Hart,” she began before she extended her hand. “You’re Derik Stein, right?”
Derik eyed it before he smirked and gave her a firm and hard shake. “I am—“
“And I am Hideyoshi, but you can call me Hide!” The man beside Derik exclaimed. He reached over, grabbed her free hand, and gave it a friendly shake with both hands. “I’m here touring the facility! It’s quite a nice recreational destination, isn’t it?”
Ferris stared at his pale green scrubs that indicated he was a resident here.
“So you’ve heard of me,” Derik interjected, pushing Hide aside. He looked her up and down. “I haven’t heard of you… which is a shame.”
“I overheard your conversation with Officer Fabrizzio the other day,” Ferris drew slowly, carefully, “and I think we may be able to benefit each other here.” She whispered, “I’m a peacekeeper.”
Derik, forkful of pasta halfway into his mouth, paused. Then he continued eating. “What? You want me to give you some applause?”
Ferris stammered for a moment, caught off guard by his bluntness.
“You look like you haven’t seen a hard day’s work in your life. You look like you’d be the first to desert if the situation gets bad,” Derik continued.
Ferris felt a stone drop into her stomach.
“If I go with you, I’ll be fucked. If you come with me…” He looked her up and down again. “Well, the outcome will depend.”
Ugh! What a scoundrel!
Ferris took in a breath. “Look—”
Derik held up a hand and stared past her. Ferris followed his gaze and found herself studying Officer Lang walking just behind her. Without warning, Derik stood up, picked up his food tray, and slammed it against Hide’s face.
Ferris yelped and leapt back just as Officer Lang swept past her and tackled Derik to the ground.
This man was too troublesome, Ferris thought—though at the same time she felt a pang of inferiority at her failure to draw Derik into the fold. She wasn’t as charismatic as Gabrielle, after all.
As a crowd began to gather around the scuffle, Ferris slipped away and headed to a lightly crowded table at the opposite corner of the room. She sat down across from her companion and sighed.
“I presume your invitation was declined?” Agape Rosario asked. “I told you, didn’t I?” She cut slowly into her red steak with her plastic knife, somehow slicing through the meat cleanly with only one stroke. “We’ll carry on with that Espada and Aquarian without him.”
Prologue, III
“You’re a dick here, you know that?”
Guidance Officer Nico Fabrizzio ignored Derik Stein’s profanities and continued to fill out the patient intake registration form. Usually this was Nico’s favorite part of his job: filling out information about a VNW-infectee, jotting down his suggestions for their treatment, and seeing them off with confidence. The intake area of the Small Services District’s VNW Recovery building was generally quiet and had low traffic. There was always jazz music playing, cookies being served out on silver platters—courtesy of Tesoro—and a friendly intake officer on duty. All of these things were in place but they were being marred by Derik’s unyielding mouth.
“Stop pulling on your restraints,” was all Nico told him.
Nico had to keep not only Derik’s wrists chained together but he also had to chain Derik to himself to keep the man from running off. A chain going from the cuffs around the man’s wrists straight to Nico’s own belt. He’d received a handful of stares as he’d brought Derik in, but given the circumstances, he wasn’t surprised.
After crossing several more T’s and dotting a couple I’s, Nico slid the intake form to the intake officer across from him. After filling out something on her end, the intake officer gave Derik a frown, Nico a smile, and then handed Nico a pair of scrubs and a name badge. Nico handled the bundle to Derik who promptly dropped it on the ground.
“I’m not wearing this shit,” Derik snapped.
“If you’re not wearing it, then you won’t be wearing anything.” Nico picked up the items.
Derik snorted. “Now you’re just doing a favor for everyone else.”
Bothersome.
Nico led Derik out of the intake room and down the back hallways. The lower half of the walls were white while the upper half of the walls were made of mirrors. It was a security measure, but Nico thought it suited the establishment well.
“This place is bullshit,” Derik was saying as Nico pulled him along. “I didn’t take you for a pussy, Nico, but you really let this place lay into you.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” Nico muttered, “and usually it’s best for people who don’t know what they’re saying not to say anything.”
“Whatever.” Derik waved him off. He pulled against his restraints. “They call this dump a utopia, but I don’t see anything utopian about it. Hauptmann Waltz is a dumbass, you’re just an ass, and the prince is an even bigger ass. There’s no money, no war, only politicians and shitty booze and women. You guys are so bored with doing nothing that you don’t even know what to do with yourselves.”
Nico stopped short as they reached the door at the end of the hall. Derik almost ran into him.
“What do you think you’ll see when you die, Derik?”
“What?” Derik glowered. “Was that a fucking threat?”
“You jump to conclusions way to fast.” Nico arched a brow before his expression flattened. “I’m asking you when you die, when your life flashes before your eyes, what will you see?”
Derik scoffed. “You think I spend time thinking of the dumb bullshit? What the hell does it matter?”
“I’ll see my parents, my family, Werner, Kaiser, my childhood friends,” Nico continued. “I’ll see the day I became a guidance officer, the day of my wedding, the day I became friends with the Foxmans, the day we found Kaiser. That’s proof that I’m alive and that I’ve done plenty with ‘too much time’ on my hands.” His eyes narrowed. “Derik Stein the teacher will see his family, friends, students. He’ll see the day he became a teacher, his first day of teaching, and the day he first met his wife—”
Derik leaned forward. “Wife?”
“Will Derik Stein the soldier see anything?”
“Rather see nothing than that bullshit.”
“You’re telling me you prefer being a dishonored soldier tied to a spoiled prince against your will than being a well-respected teacher with so much free time on your hands you ‘don’t know what to do with yourself’?”
Derik’s eyes widened and he took a step forward. “What the hell did you just say?”
Nico studied the man’s reflection for a moment. “You know, you’re just as fictional to us as we are to you.”
Derik frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You don’t have any loyalty and you abandoned your country,” Nico continued. “Before Scorpio cut you, the only thing you’d ever die for was your own ego. I don’t need anything to convince me to lay down my life for Ndoto and my family.”
“The fuck is that supposed to mean…?” Derik’s eyes narrowed. “You sound like Leutnant Wolff after this place fucked up his head.”
Nico turned to glare at him. “What I mean is that if you’re not willing to fight for your dream or your Signum, why the hell do you deserve it?”
Derik grabbed the chain between them and tugged on it threateningly. “What the hell do you mean by that? What are you—”
Nico ripped the chain out of Derik’s hand. “I’m the one who’ll make sure you won’t be able to do anything to disturb the garden we have here while you have VNW.”
The door they stood in front of abruptly swung open. A female guidance officer stood at the threshold, ogling them.
“Hi, Annie.” Nico unclipped Derik’s chain from his belt and clipped it to Annie’s belt instead. “Here’s our new VNW patient. He’s a talker, so make sure Elizabeta checks him out. Maybe he’s just nippy because he’s in pain.”
Act 3, Scene 2
Pavlo’s KM-card opened the back door of the VNW facility with little issue just as Proteus had said. Sigrid did not believe this meant that they could trust the man entirely.
We need to be careful, Andres agreed from behind her.
Sigrid quietly pushed the door open and found a long and empty hallway. There were no guidance officers in sight, alleged because it was currently 1300 hours and in the middle of the lunch block according to Proteus. Sigrid personally thought it stupid to leave no officers guarding the building even during food hour.
I don’t think they live in the same world as we do.
Sigrid arched a brow at him as they entered the hall.
Metaphorically, I mean.
Upon reaching the end of the hall, they reached a fork in the road. To the left was a set of stairs leading downwards and to the right was a set of stairs leading upwards.
Upwards, according to Proteus, led directly to the communal area of the building and the patient rooms. If they went this way, they would quickly join with Agape Rosario and her companion. However, according to Proteus, this route was full of guidance officers.
The alternative stairs that went down would lead to a holding area that had fewer guidance officers on duty. This area had another set of stairs that led upwards. Proteus had recommended this route even though it would take longer.
The thought of splitting up to be safe and cover all grounds did cross Sigrid’s mind but splitting up from the other two last time had resulted in…
Ready?
Sigrid nodded and descended the stairs with Andres. Eventually after passing through multiple landings, they reached what Sigrid assumed was the lowest level. It was a long and dark hall with white halls lined with iron doors. As she surveyed the area further, she stopped short and held Andres back with a hand.
Several of those iron doors were ajar and in front of one of those open doors were two bodies.
Sigrid crept up first, peering cautiously into each open door and finding no one inside. When she reached the two bodies, she found that they were wearing guidance officer uniforms.
They’re alive, Andres informed her as he inspected the bodies. Only unconscious. He paused. Their cards are missing…
Some patients here must have broken out and knocked them out, Sigrid concluded. They must have taken their cards to gain access to other parts of the building. She frowned. They didn’t think to disguise themselves in these officers’ uniforms. They must be idiots. We should avoid them.
Andres nodded as he stared down at the two officers. You take the woman’s and I the man’s?
Sigrid glanced at him and smiled.
* * *
They had just finished putting on the officers’ uniforms when loud sirens began to blare.
Andres whipped to her in alarm.
It’s not us, Sigrid assured him, but we need to move quickly.
They headed up the stairwell on the opposite end of the hall. On the second landing they found multiple guidance officers on the ground. One was slumped against the wall in front of a control panel of sorts. The red switch labeled ALARM: EMERGENCY ONLY was pulled down.
Not good.
Sigrid headed up the next flights of stairs with Andres trailing behind her. She carefully opened the door at the end of the final landing and was with chaos. Men and women in scrubs and khaki uniforms were running back and forth down the hall. Every so often a guidance officer would stop a patient and cart them off somewhere.
The plan had been to meet Agape Rosario and her companion at the counseling offices on the first floor. Proteus had promised that he had informed Agape of the plan previously and the woman had agreed to meet them there at 1330 hours exactly. At this rate, Agape and her companion would be carted off somewhere before Sigrid and Andres could even reach them.
We need a distraction.
Agreed.
Sigrid started down the hall calmly in the direction of the counseling offices. She took in everything that she could, mind racing. mind trying to formulate an improvised plan of some kind. These sorts of things were Claire’s forte.
Wait. There—
Sigrid turned her head and saw ajar double doors. Inside the room there she spied tables lined up in rows.
Food place like the one in the Serpens Establishment. Kitchen.
Sigrid obtained wisps of Andres’s idea and nodded. They headed together into the cafeteria, brushed past all the bumbling, panicked bodies and entered the swinging door at the back. There they found a large kitchen with a standard center island table and a long line of stoves.
“Leave now,” Sigrid said.
Once all the cooks had left, Andres headed over to the kitchen stoves and began to turn them all on. Sigrid joined him. Once they were finished, they headed back out the door—pausing only momentarily to eye the commotion that was now unfolding at the center of the room.
A man was standing on one of the tables, shouting at three men standing below him. It was difficult ot make out his face since his back was to them. “Get me a fucking knife now!” he shouted. “Get me—”
Another man joined him on the table. It was also difficult to make out his face since his back was also to them. Abruptly, said man began to pull off his shirt.
Ignore them. Let’s go.
They exited the cafeteria together and began to head towards the counseling offices—
Wait, look!
Sigrid turned her head. Agape Rosario and another woman were tailing a male guidance officer in the opposite direction. They were too late.
“Come on,” the officer was saying to the two women. “Let’s get you back—”
Sigrid stepped forward. “Wait.”
Act 3, Scene 1
“Back again I see, Derik,” came Usian’s barely muffled voice.
The guidance officer behind Derik, Annie Something, smiled and patted him on the back. “You made friends during your first stay here, Derik? Good for you.” She turned back to the man behind her. “Lucio, could you open the door for me?”
Derik watched as Lucio pulled out a slim card he pulled out from the wallet clipped to his belt. The man paced over to the iron door they were standing in front of, swiped his card in the contraption beside the door there, and swung it open. He gestured for Derik to step inside while Annie gave him a little nudge.
Derik grunted and took a step forward—
—before he swung his leg out at Lucio’s head. The force of the blow sent Lucio hurtling right towards the edge of the ajar door. There was a crack! followed by a thud! as Lucio hit the ground unmoving.
Annie gave a yelp of alarm but Derik threw himself at her. She struggled beneath him and kicked him in the groin several times but he managed to wiggle her into an elbow lock. A couple seconds later and she stopped moving.
Derik shoved the woman aside and pulled her ID card from her belt. He kicked Lucio in the face just because he felt like it and approached the door opposite of him
“Usian?” He knocked on the door. “This you?”
“It is,” Usian confirmed.
Derik slid the KM-card into the contraption beside the door like he’d seen Lucio do before. There was a beep and then the door opened with ease. An elder man, a head shorter than him, stood there with an extended hand.
Shit. The man looked like he could barely run.
Derik walked to the door next to Usian’s. He knocked. “This Echecs or Veles?”
“No,” came a quiet voice, “but please let me out—”
Derik walked away and to the next door. He eventually found Echecs two doors down. The man was blonde and handsome and looked like he rarely went out in the sun.
Shit.
“Thank you,” Echecs greeted him with a forced handshake. “I’ll tell you everything I know.” He then turned to Usian and after some mulling, shook the man’s hand too. “I’ve… heard of you, Usian Imamu.”
“And I of you, Albertine Echecs,” Usian responded.
It was three doors down on the opposite side of the hall that Derik found Veles. When he opened the man’s door, he found that the man shirtless for some reason. The man had a ridiculously large chest, but Derik bet his own chest was bigger and more muscular. So big that he didn’t need to show it off like this prick.
“I am glad you have joined me on this journey, Derik Stein,” Veles drew as he stepped out of his room, spread his arms wide, and walked in a circle around the hall. “I—Veles—will ensure you have the greatest of journeys by my side—”
“Hey, let me ask you something.”
Veles paused and turned to Derik.
“Have you ever thought of maybe shutting the fuck up?”
“You truly are a lexicon, Mr. Stein,” Usian replied calmly.
Derik whipped around. “What the fuck did you call me?” He shook his head. “Let’s go.”
“What’s the plan?” Echecs asked.
“The plan is get the fuck out of here. Now let’s go.”
Echecs was kneeling in front of the two officers.
“What the fuck?”
Echecs stood up holding a card. “We might need this just in case.”
Derik arched a brow. “You’re alright.”
He led the men down the white hall and up a flight of stairs. The stairs led to a landing he remembered seeing when he’d been down this way two times earlier. Two more landings and then they’d reached the cafeteria area. There was a switch panel on the wall one landing up that Derik assumed served as a switchboard to set off alarms and lights. All they had to do was make it past that and they would be in the clear for a while.
Just as Derik finished the thought, they reached the second landing. It was not empty like it had been when Derik was brought down earlier. Now two men and two women stood in a circle there sipping coffee. The quartet turned to them and stared.
Shit.
One of the officers stepped forward. “Wait, a minute. What are you—”
Derik launched himself forward and nailed the officer in the face before leaping at the woman that had been standing beside the man. She was much stronger than the Annie bitch and managed to flip Derik on his back. Just as the woman was about to reach for her belt, she was suddenly picked up and held mid-air.
Derik scrambled to a stand and found Veles holding the woman above his head. A second later and he threw her at one of the still standing male officer behind him. They collided and collapsed on top of one another unconscious.
Derik whistled. “Not bad.”
“Of course, for I—Veles—this is a mere stroll in the park.”
“Nevermind. Shut the fuck up.” Derik turned to the last standing guidance officer who stared at them all with wide eyes.
Veles approached her slowly and took her hand. She flushed as her gaze flitted to his bare chest.
Nothing much to look at, Derik thought.
Then Veles threw her up in the air, caught her, and threw her against the wall. Derik was prepared to cheer but then realized that Veles had not thrown the woman at the wall but at the control panel. As the woman slowly slid to the ground unconscious, her arm caught one of the switches and flipped it down.
ALARM: EMERGENCY ONLY, the switch read.
Sirens began a second later and the siren lights at the corners of the ceiling began to flash red.
“You fucking dumbass!” Derik held his head before he shook it. “It’s fine. I spoke to my contact before I got myself sent down here. He promised to turn off the alarm if it goes off.”
Briefly, Derik thought of the woman who’d come to sit across from him earlier today. He wondered where she was. She was cute.
“The alarms aren’t turning off though,” Echecs whispered.
Fuck.
Derik whipped around and darted up the stairs and tried the door there. Locked.
Shit.
Echecs caught up to him, panting, and slid the card into the slot beside the door. It unlocked a second later. Derik jerked his head at him and burst out into the hall.
A handful of people in scrubs were looking up at the flashing siren lights. There were several guidance officers around too, staring up at the ceiling in confusion.
“I need a fucking weapon.” Derik darted down the hall, skidding to a stop when he saw the doors of the cafeteria.
He hurtled into the cafeteria, shoving aside men and women as he searched the tables for a knife.
“What are you doing?” Veles asked as he paced behind him. “What do you desire? I—Veles—shall grant your wishes!”
In response, Derik grabbed a man who was running past him and ripped off his shirt. He threw it at Veles. “I want you to put a fucking shirt.”
Derik proceeded to hop onto one of the tables and scanned the area.
“What do you need?” Echecs asked from below. Usian stood beside him, looking like dead weight.
“A knife!” Derik snapped. “Get me a fucking knife now! Get me—”
Echecs nodded and darted away.
Veles suddenly hopped up beside him. At least he was wearing a shirt. The man slapped Derik on the back.
“You are fun, Derik Stein!” Veles exclaimed. “Lyrs thought you a dolt, but I certainly—”
“Here!” Echecs had returned and now held out a butter knife to him.
Derik slapped his own face but took the knife anyway.
“Hey, you up there!” came a shout from the doors of the cafeteria. “What do you think you’re doing!”
Derik looked in the direction and found a handful of guidance officers making their way through the crowd gathered at the threshold.
Shit!
Derik hopped down from the table. Veles landed beside him.
“Veles—”
Veles turned and picked up the table behind him with one hand—
Fuck yeah.
—and then he hurled it at the entrance. The table knocked out several officers and several bystanders as it hurtled out the door. Before Derik even had the chance to savor the carnage, the sprinklers above his head suddenly turned and rained down a torrent on them.
“W-What do we do now?” Echecs stammered, shielding his head with his hands. “The officers will be on us, Mr. Stein!”
Derik stared at him, grabbed him by the arm, and then smirked. “Ready to be a dame in stress?”
“W-What?”
Derik responded by putting the man in arm lock and pressing his newly acquired knife against his throat.
“Oh my,” Usian said.
“Shut up, useless,” Derik snapped as he dragged Echecs through the cafeteria doors into the hall.
Derik could barely see anything past the rain from the sprinklers but he pressed the knife deeper into Echec’s neck nonetheless and snapped, “Get me the hell out of here or I’ll fillet this bastard alive!”
Act 1, Scene 1
The sign across the street flashed from a walking figure to a red hand.
Matilda ran across the street as fast as she could with boxes full of chocolates in her hand.
A horn blared. Screeching resounded followed by the smell of burnt rubber.
Matilda collapsed to the ground, bookbag catching her fall, as she stared directly into the high beams of the vehicle that had almost run her over. Her boxes of chocolate clacked and clattered down beside her as she tried to catch her breath.
The door of the vehicle swung open and a man stumbled out and over to her in a panic. He was wearing a khaki uniform.
“Are you okay?!” The man asked as he assessed her and then held her gently. “You need to look where you’re going! I could’ve hit you!”
Matilda stared at him wide-eyed.
“Well?!”
Then she began sobbing and sniffling. “I-I just wanted to s-sell all of my chocolates before school tomorrow. All my friends have already sold all of theirs and—and—and I—and my teacher—”
The man’s gaze softened. “Oh, I see. Is this chocolate-selling thing for a school project?”
Matilda nodded and sniffled.
“How about I go ahead and get the rest of those chocolates off of your hands?”
“R-Really?”
The man beamed. “Of course! I bet they’re really tasty. Plus, if I get them off of you, then you won’t be wandering out here, right?”
Matilda nodded enthusiastically before reaching into her bookbag and pulling out a sheet of paper and a pen. “You just have to sign here and here and say how many boxes you’re taking! I have forty!”
“Forty…?”
Ten signatures later, the man was carting away toppling pillars of chocolate boxes into his car. Matilda helped him along the way, listening intently as he rattled on about his daily activities at his profession. After they loaded the car, he walked her over to the opposite side of the road, waved her goodbye, and sped off in his car.
After watching him go, Matilda glanced at the interest that she had taken from him for the chocolates. It was an invisible interest—in other words, an interest he didn’t know about. She’d slipped said interest out from his wallet while they’d been gathering the chocolates. A KM-card, they called it.
Matilda smirked as she glanced at the name on the identification. She already knew it as she’d spotted the man a couple of times around the Small Services District’s VNW facility. She also knew his daily patterns—including driving this way after work. He always got caught at this red light and also always hit his foot on the gas as soon as the light turned green. It was quite easy to set this up with his predictable and routine habits—though Matilda had noticed with an ueasy stomach that almost everyone here had a routine that rarely changed.
Matilda shook off her unease and sang, “Thank you, Pavlo.”
Act 2, Scene 1
“Why are you helping us?”
Sigrid pressed the knife harder against the man’s neck after Illunaria asked the question.
“First with the girl and now with this,” Sigrid said next. “Why were you following her? Speak now.”
Matilda stared at the man from where she stood behind Andres a few feet away.
Proteus kept his hands raised and his smile calm. “Our paths just happened to align. That’s it.”
“You aligned them with your own hands,” Sigrid pressed hard, breaking skin, but paused when she saw no blood. She steeled herself. “Why?”
“I don’t understand or see the use of the Small Services District,” Proteus replied. “What’s the point of respecting everyone’s happiness and then denying the happiness even if it’s a delusion… from VNW or not?”
“You’re lying,” Illunaria drew.
He’s lying.
I agree.
“Not seeing the use of it is one thing. Offering to help break someone out is something else.” Sigrid gestured to Matilda with her head. “You met her in front of that building. Why were you there?”
“I was visiting a close friend of mine there,” Proteus replied calmly. “I saw a kid in distress. I’m not so cruel as to turn my back on children.”
“A ‘VNW infectee’,—the person you visited,” Illunaria concluded. “You want us to break them out.”
Proteus shook his head. “She’s happy there. I wouldn’t want to disrupt that.”
He isn’t making any sense. I don’t trust him. This version of him looks harmless but he is still that Alpha.
“You know the explosion that went off near the gates?” Proteus inquired. “I used to be a member of the group that was responsible for that. I was cut out of the group but my opinions remain very much the same.” He studied them before he chuckled. “There is no ulterior motive here, but…” He glanced down at the knife at his neck. “I’m very curious about how quick you are to resort to violence.”
Matilda hesitantly stepped forward. “How much do you know?”
Proteus shrugged. “Only what I heard out there.” He pointed to the ajar window, the window that Sigrid had just pulled him in from a couple minutes ago.
Matilda flushed. “Sorry. We usually keep the windows open in my country.”
Andres put a hand on the girl’s shoulder while Illunaria gave her a comforting smile.
Matilda steeled herself and asked, “Why did you really follow me?”
Proteus seemed to mull over it before he offered a shrug. “I honestly don’t know.” He smiled wanly. “I tend to not know what to do with myself most of the time and find myself in trouble because of it. It’s like the universe dropped me here without a plan for me.” He looked back to Sigrid and then Andres. “I am curious though… I figured the girl knew those two women back there in the facility so that’s why she wants to free them… but what about you two? Do you know those two women too? Or is there some reason you’re going in there…?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Sigrid said, slapping him once in the face. “You don’t ask the questions.”
Proteus winced and nodded. “Okay, fine. I guess it doesn’t really matter anyways. But I’ll give you an answer instead. I used to volunteer in that facility and I know the layout of the land so to speak. I know the best way to get someone in and out of there without anyone else noticing.”
“You’ll show us. You’ll come with us.”
Proteus winced again. “I’ll just be dead weight.”
“You’re luring us into a trap”
“A trap?” Proteus snorted. “Why would I do that?” He studied her. “It sounds like you’ve been watching too many movies.”
He was strange, Sigrid thought. An Ndotoan for sure. Ndotoans were not trustworthy but ironically in this case this Ndotoan version of Proteus was more trustworthy than the Signum version.
Strange, Andres agreed. It doesn’t feel right going with someone who wronged Maria, against someone who—
—is sacrilegious? Sigrid could feel Andres frown at the tease.
“Okay, then tell us,” Matilda said suddenly. She seemed to notice the stare Sigrid gave her so she quickly explained with a puffed up chest, “This is how we do business in the Twin Cities. Obviously, you can’t trust everyone—anyone, actually. But… there are some parts of them you can trust as long as you get a sense of their motivation…” She crossed her arms and eyed Proteus. “No one gets anywhere without a little bit of gambling.”
Proteus smiled at Matilda. “I like how you think.” He glanced back at Sigrid. “If it helps any, I can help you get messages across to your two friends in the facility. They won’t suspect me too much since I come so frequently.”
Sigrid pulled back her knife slowly. “Who do you visit so much?”
Proteus’s smile finally dropped. “Oph—”
Sigrid felt her body tense.
“—elia. Her name is Ophelia.”
Prologue, II
Nico…?
Matilda had been sneaking around and surveilling the streets—and by that she meant following a rather cute white cat she’d spotted two blocks back—when she spotted the man heading into the glass building. Cadence hadn’t recognized her, so Matilda was doubtful Nico would either since he’d been even less familiar with her back in the Twin Cities. The pang of that rejection still hurt, but Matilda was still curious
Once Nico disappeared into the building, Matilda approached the door he’d disappeared into. It was a heavy steel door with a metal box built into the wall beside it. There was a tiny slit in the box. She’s seen Nico slide his card into it before entering.
She tried the door. It wouldn’t budge. Maybe the box was a keyhole? Whatever the case was, she was certain this was a back door into the building.
Matilda began walking around the building, inspecting its glass walls curiously. The Twin Cities had many art museums in its Gamma District and Matilda was certain this building belonged in it.
As she rounded the corner of the building, she was surprised to find a strange enclosed area connected to its side. It was an open field that extended for some distance and it was dotted with a walkway, some benches, and plenty of floral bushes and trees. Matilda would have mistaken the area for a park if it were not for the fact that it was entirely surrounded by see-through glass that stretched several meters high.
She rapped on the glass. It echoed slowly, dully, indicating that it was thick.
Was it a fence of some kind?
A large group was heading across the walkway inside now. They were all wearing light green tops and bottoms. A uniform?
Two women broke off from the group. It took Matilda a moment to realize they were coming right up to her. She prepared to bolt but stopped short as she heard a familiar, authoritative, muffled call—
“Matilda. Wait.”
Matilda slowly turned. The two women stood across from her behind the glass. She recognized one of them. And one of them recognized her. She felt weirdly relieved.
“A-Agape?” Matilda stammered, straightening herself and coming closer to the glass. “Miss Agape? What are you doing in there?” She glanced at the very pretty woman beside her.
“Firstly, do you know Signum?” Agape asked.
Matilda nodded.
“Good. Are you with someone?”
Matilda hesitated.
“Yes or no, Matilda.”
“Yes…”
“Are they capable?”
Matilda thought of Andres and Sigrid before she nodded furiously.
“Things have changed for us in here. You must get us out.”
Matilda looked up in surprise.
The woman beside Agape looked between them hesitantly. “Agape… she’s just a child…”
“She is not just a child,” Agape corrected. “She is a member of the Romano Family.”
The woman beside her frowned deeper but Matilda felt as if she was high above the clouds. She nodded furiously.
“Don’t worry, Miss Agape, I—”
“You there! What are you doing!”
Matilda startled as a hand pressed against her shoulder. She whipped around to find a woman in a khaki uniform frowning down at her. A guidance officer. The officer looked at Agape and then back at her.
“What’s going on here?”
“I…” Matilda’s mind raced. “I was just taking a walk…” She pointed to the glass fence. “My school taught me about the Small Services District, so I—”
“And your school told you to come here without an adult?” The guidance officer shook her head. “Here, come with me. Tell me what district you live in and I’ll go check in with that school—”
“I’m so sorry about this!” a familiar voice came from behind Matilda. It sent shivers down her spine. “I just left her for a minute…”
Agape and Ferris stared in the direction the voice had come from with wide eyes.
Matilda turned. A young man with brown hair and heterochromic eyes was heading towards them with a wave. She had never seen this man in person, but she had heard of him and had heard his voice too. A dangerous man who had stolen away so many of her friends—
The man stopped beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Really, I’m sorry about this.” He smiled down at her.
“Are you her guardian?” The guidance officer asked, squinting at the man.
The man nodded sheepishly and placed his free hand to his chest. “I’m so sorry about this again.”
The guidance officer sighed and straightened her hair. “Well, just be more careful next time. If you want to tour the Small Services District, there’s actually a program we offer for that.” She crossed her arms and smiled down at Matilda. “Minors have to be accompanied, of course.” She glanced at Agape and the woman beside her. “You two can be friendly but not too friendly, alright?”
Both women nodded.
“Of course.” The man smiled back.
The guidance officer departed around the building. The man removed his hand from Matilda’s shoulder. She immediately took a step back and stared at him.
“You’re…” The woman beside Agape was pale. “Alpha…”
Alpha glanced at her and chuckled. “Well, that was my designation when I was in ELPIS, but I’ve been since kicked out. I’m surprised you even knew that. I’m just Proteus.”
“What are you planning to do?” Agape asked tersely, eyeing Matilda before returning her gaze to him.
“Hm?” Proteus glanced down at Matilda causing her to tense. “Nothing. What do you mean?”
There was tense silence.
Agape nodded at Matilda, signaling her to back away. Proteus seemed to catch onto this and took a step away himself with his hands raised. Suddenly, Matilda became hyper aware of the fact that he was wearing ridiculously flared out pants and a rather ugly striped shirt.
“Obviously, I’m making you uncomfortable here.” Proteus took another step back. “I’ll go. Don’t worry. I’m not like that.”
Matilda watched him half-tense, half-curious as he departed with a wave.
Prologue, I
Andres pressed his palm against Sigrid’s. It was cold to his hot. If Claire was here, he would equate him to the wind, the steam that resulted from their two temperature fronts meeting.
“You are too romantic, Andres.” Sigrid pulled away her hand. She walked over to the table behind her and ran her fingers along the grooves of the spear conductor he had just conjured her. A moment later she was doubled over and holding her mouth.
Andres felt the same wave of nausea that she felt but managed to make it over to her side to steady her. Are you alright?
Sigrid wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and nodded. She glared at some point in the distance before she turned to him. “Something is not right.”
There’s a lot not right here, Sigrid, Andres answered. Especially if what you saw outside of here is true. He paused. Are you sure you’re alright? I can have Matilda run to get medicine for you.
Sigrid grimaced. We are better off without her. Without Illunaria. We are better off without anyone. We are better off alone.
Images of the snowy caps of mountain ranges ablaze came to Andres paired with the smell of mud and rotting corpses and a tattered Capricornian flag and a singed Aquarian flag raised on a pole together. A voice echoed in a memory not his own— “She is not well enough to serve!” and “Fight, Sigrid. Fight.”
Andres frowned now and felt a pang of empathy. I’m sorry—
You see what happens when we get involved with others. Sigrid whipped around but did not meet Andres’s gaze. Claire was a fool.
Is, Andres insisted. Is. That’s why we’re alive now. Because ‘is’. He paused. Your father is alive too, Sigrid. I know it. He wrung his hands. Matilda said she spotted him in the Small Services District, so we should go—
Sigrid stared right into his eyes. Go? Even though we can’t feel him?
We must have hope, Sigrid. Andres placed a hand to his chest to calm the heaviness there. We must have faith.
Sigrid looked away for a moment. After a while, she said, “So you agree Claire is a fool?”
Epilogue, II
Kuroihoshi Hideyoshi somewhat missed the blare of the sirens that had been echoing throughout the building earlier. Hopefully Mr. Stein was no longer upset about them and the misunderstanding. ‘Turn off the alarms for me’ could have meant many things, after all!
“Exactly!” Louise sang from beside him. “I thought he meant to turn off the morning alarm clocks! Like how you did for me before I left!”
“Exactly! Exactly!” Hideyoshi nodded.
He returned his attention to the area where his bed once was against the wall. He had moved the bed to the center of the room not too long ago. It had taken some time since he had been soaking wet and cold from the sprinklers, but he had managed it with Louise’s cheering. She had cheered him too in his mad dash to his room.
“A wonderful cheerer you are!” Hide repeated out loud.
Louise chuckled before her expression suddenly became somber. “Albertine was with him… do you think he’s alright?”
Hide paused. “He was with that Derik Stein who was with the Ariesian prince. The prince is a good person and good people surround themselves with more good people. I’m sure he will be fine.”
Louise nodded firmly before she pointed to the rug on the floor in the corner that had been beneath Hide’s bed. Hide strode towards it and then pulled it off the ground in one swell motion. Louise clapped as a deep hole beneath the carpet was revealed.
Hide flourished his hands, spun in a circle, and waved to no one in particular. “Farewell, Ndoto! You were certainly a beautiful tourist attraction!”
Hide moved over the hole and prepared to jump right down into it. He paused, however, as a movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.
A woman stood there, her form transparent like a ghost.
“Are you sure you wish to leave?” the gardener asked.
Hide asked in return, “Will you let me leave?”
“Louise has already left,” the gardener continued. “She can see how it is out there, can’t she? Or perhaps, she can’t. Not like you can, servant of the Hoshi Clan.”
Flowers began to bloom along the ground beneath her feet. Hide admired them for a moment. They were quite beautiful. More beautiful than the blood-stained sakura flowers than had bloomed in the house of that to-be concubine whom he had struck down with his blade in the name of his clan—
“Hide!” Louise’s voice called out from the darkness of the hole.
Her voice rang brighter than the flowers and so Hide gave the gardener a two fingered salute and leapt into the abyss.
The gardener watched him go, debating on whether or not to save him by keeping him in Ndoto or curse him by letting him go.
Act 1, Scene 2
“You, bastard! Stop!”
When the humming dark-haired man continued down the garden path, Derik stepped forward and grabbed him by the shoulder. He whipped the man around and studied his dark eyes and angled face.
“It is you!” Derik snarled. “The bastard who tried to kill the brat in Sagittarius! I could kill you for that…”
The man stared at him blankly before he laughed. “Correction, sir, my name is not ‘bastard’. You can call me Hide!” He gestured at the gardens around them. “Are you touring this area too? Would you like a companion? My Louise was here not too long ago but she’s off in the lakes of Cancer now!” He glanced over his shoulder. “It’s lovely, isn’t it?”
Derik followed his gaze. “There’s no one there.”
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying,” Hide laughed. “She was here before she left! The guidance officers were in a frenzy about it because they probably wanted to show her more of this scenery!”
A group in scrubs passed them by.
Derik opened his mouth and then shut it. “Wait, how did she escape?”
“Well, she and I dug a hole beneath my bed with a spoon,” Hide exclaimed. “Then I—”
Fuck. He was crazy and an idiot.
“—turned off the alarm and she left in the early hours of the morning!”
Derik paused. “What? There are alarms here?”
Hide nodded. “A handful of them for different purposes—”
“And you can turn them off?”
Hide nodded. “The guidance officers here—the tour guides rather—said I earned a privilege or what not! For good behavior!” He rubbed his chin. “I understand that some tourists can be quite rude so—”
Derik threw an arm around the man’s shoulder and pulled him close. “You and I are going to have a good time.”
Epilogue, II
“Where are we…?”
“How the fuck should I know? You–you’re the Aquarian bitch, aren’t you? You’re looking good as always…”
“Please calm down, everyone. I think we all might be in the same boat so—”
“I concur. I—Veles—so rightly declare that everyone shall fall silent immediately!”
“Hello, Veles.”
A barking laugh. “Agape! I’ve made it so that our paths cross today. Is this not a grand reunion?”
“You know each other…?”
“Wait,” came a squeak, “Aren’t you the duke’s brother!?”
“It is, isn’t it…?”
The two groups that had plotted to free themselves and each other from the facility now found themselves surrounded by tall reaching white pillars instead of tall white walls. Beneath their feet was a patterned floor: circles within circles, centering on a single dot.
“What the hell is this?” Derik Stein stomped on the ground.
Andres pulled out his notepad and quickly scribbled. Monadism.
“Fascinating…” Usian murmured.
“Not really,” Agape said. “There’s no rhyme or reason to it, but this place appears to be a reflection of Signum in the far past. Ferris and I here have slipped here many times before—most of the time without warning.”
“Right,” Ferris confirmed, “so please don’t panic. Well eventually get back to where we were before and then… we’ll…” She bit her lip. “I hope they don’t send more guidance officers to the facility. It’ll be so difficult to get out…”
“Hey, you there!”
The group turned at the shout. There was a short flight of marbled stairs behind them and a man in a white toga was descending towards them. In his hand was a spear.
“What are you doing in the temple?!” The man demanded. “Are you accompanying a Knowledge Bearer?”
Four more men and women in similar wear and carrying similar weaponry descended down the stairs after the man.
Derik wielded his butter knife threateningly which just made the robed men and women brandish their own weapons.
“Trespassers!”
“They’re not trespassing,” came a voice familiar to a handful of the group. “They’re with me.”
The robbed guards turned as a slender figure came down after them.
“Sagittarius!” They greeted him.
But the members of the newly arrived group who did recognize the figure did not recognize him as Sagittarius. Instead, the one they saw descend the stairs was someone they knew as—
Sigrid breathed, “Claire.”
Six Chances 
whew. this past week was rough. i’m one of the only 2 swe at my work place and my chief took a week long vacation and i was so stressed that i was physically sick for two days. anyways, i like writing anachronistic things like this and haven’t done it in a while so this was fun! thanks for reading–
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fun chapter! also very interested in Andres and Sigrid being able to communicate
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