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[Talvieno]

Chapter 58: False Freedom
    This is a standard mass-produced Parasol journal, dated from hundreds of years ago. The only thing that separates it from other journals is the gold star on the cover and the elven script found within. It's possible Vanya chose to write it in elventongue so that Kenzon, and other potentially untrustworthy people, wouldn't read it, but that remains to be seen.

    I was free - I could go wherever I wanted, do whatever I wanted, and nothing could hold me back. At the same time, I was trapped. No matter where I went, the knowledge that Joseph always knew where I was could never leave my mind. Maybe more importantly, I couldn't leave Parasol... and it didn't seem I would ever be able to. Even when I tried to leave, I was blocked by one barrier after another.

    Over the next month, I found myself exploring as much of Parasol's third division as I could. I hated their policies, but their people made it all worthwhile. Yes, some of the dwarves were rude... but many were so kind and thoughtful, it reminded me of Spearbreakers. It felt so good to walk freely among them... something that, as an elf, I'd never been able to do before. I was socializing with complete strangers... I was coming out of my shell. It was terrifying, but at the same time... it was wonderful. Sometimes I would visit Solnay again, and she would show me things like instantly-drying paint, or try unsuccessfully to set me up for a date with her never-present assistant, Gareth. Other days I would simply wander, going wherever I felt like, looking at things I'd never seen before and talking to new people... and those days were my favorites.
    One Wednesday afternoon, I left Katie with Trebor and boarded a shuttlecar, starting it down the tube and trying to surprise myself. It was a game of mine: I'd let my mind wander as it so often wanted to, and I'd see where I ended up. You don't even have to think of a destination for it to take you somewhere... it just takes you wherever you want to go. Unfortunately, I did it so often that it was almost becoming a habit.
    After a while, the vehicle came to a stop at a crowded underwater docking station, and I hopped out, flexing my ankle a little. It felt better, and I felt a little tempted to dance a little, just because I could... but I didn't want to attract the hostile stares of the dwarves around me. Dancing is something dwarves shun as elven - their bodies are too stout for gracefulness. Instead, I left, taking the only path available: a long, narrow corridor with glass walls.
    A few minutes later, I found myself in Division 3's lobby... It looked the same as it had two months before, when I'd first arrived, cowering in the shadows in fear of meeting the reporters.
    Against the far wall, the gleaming megaportal beckoned temptingly, and I followed it forwards quietly, my feet guiding me to the desk. I didn't want to leave Reudh behind at Parasol, especially not with how kind he'd been to me, but I was homesick, and I wanted so badly to go home... even if just for a little while.

    As I approached, the receptionist - a handsome, skinny dwarf a few years older than me - eyed me curiously. He actually reminded me a little of my old friend, John, until he started talking. "May I help you?" he asked mechanically.
    Smiling awkwardly, I leaned forwards and folded my arms on the chest-high counter, looking down at him and trying to make a good first impression. "I'd like to use the portal," I said carefully, trying to keep my voice businesslike as I eyed his nametag: Shaun Toborobok.
    Shaun cocked an eyebrow and smirked in amusement, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the portal. "You're aware of the cost, aren't you? This isn't one of your regular transit portals. This is the big stuff, now. These don't transport single people except in emergencies, and even then, you have to have a pass."
    My face fell, the smile gone in an instant. "Cost?" I echoed.
    Nodding apologetically at me, he said, "Guess you're not taking a trip... Sorry about that." Then, he looked down, tapping at a computer pad under the countertop. "Vanya Carena, right? Former Sleeper? Where were you trying to go?" he asked lightheartedly, leaning back in his chair.
    I hesitated before replying... he seemed pretty friendly, really, almost as if he welcomed the opportunity for conversation, or maybe pitied me... it eased my discomfort, but I knew it was against multiversal law for me to even be there. "I'm from Everoc," I told him quietly, my gaze straying from his face.
    "Ohhhhh," he breathed, as if everything suddenly made sense. Leaning towards me, he whispered, "You're a native, then, aren't you?"
    I swallowed, frowning. "I am... I know I'm not supposed to be here, but..."
    "No, no!" Shaun hurried to reassure me. "It's all right! I just didn't know we had any Sleepers there, that's all. It's okay. Really, I won't tell anyone." He glanced downwards and started tapping at his pad again. "You miss your family?"
    My frown twisted up at a corner. "I don't have a family... not anymore, anyway. I just wanted to visit my home, that's all... I'm just a little homesick."
    "Yeah, I hear you," the dwarf replied smoothly, nodding. His eyes remained glued to his computer's screen. "My little brother used to get homesick, too. It can be a pretty powerful feeling. Where did you live?"
    "A dwarven fortress... Spearbreakers."
    He reacted to it as if I'd just committed treason. His eyes widened to saucers, and he half-stood, glancing around quickly as he hissed at me in disbelief, "Spearbreakers?? Goddamn, are you serious??"
    I felt uncomfortable, but gave a slow, if hesitant, nod.
    Shaking his head in shock, he sank back to his seat, scratching his young beard with a hand over his chin. "Holy shit," he muttered, swearing. "Holy shit."
    I began to grow worried.
    The receptionist looked up at me with an empathetic frown. "I am so, so sorry."
    "Um... did something happen to it?" I asked fearfully. It had been over a year since I'd been there last, and so much can happen in a year... at the time, I expected him to say it had fallen to the armies of Holistic Spawn.
    Fortunately, he quickly shook his head. "No, it's just... Spearbreakers is why we're here." He waved his hands around meaningfully to symbolize Parasol. "It's... The HS-2, the Spawn - they cluster there as an affront to the big god in Everoc's universe. It's... um..." He paused and looked downwards, snapping his fingers while trying to remember.
    "Armok?" I offered, confused.
    Pointing a finger at me, he nodded. "Yes! Exactly. If I understand right, Spearbreakers is in the middle of it all, and it makes things difficult for our soldiers. We're supposed to keep the backwards natives ignorant of us, see, and -" He stopped awkwardly as he realized what he was saying. Frowning, he offered, "Sorry, I'm not meaning to imply that you're... um..."
    I found him a little funny. "It's okay," I assured him.
    He smirked at himself, though a bit sheepishly, as he leaned forwards, keeping himself upright with his hands against the countertop. "Tell you what. You bring me 500 credits for the trip, and I'll get a guy to forge a pass for you." At my dismayed expression, he grimaced and apologized, "I'm sorry - it's the best I can do. Opening that portal isn't cheap."
    "No, it's okay," I assured him gratefully, though disappointed. "Thank you anyway."
    With a slight nod, he answered, "Any time. Only wish I could do more. I'll see you around, Vanya."
    And I left. Halfway back across the room to the shuttlecar port, as I crossed over the magma-and-marble Parasol logo, I glanced over my shoulder and saw him looking back at me, though he turned away quickly. I was a little worried he might report me.
    Somehow, I decided, I would get back home. I didn't care if it was five hundred credits or five thousand... Someday, I would get back to Spearbreakers. If not for Urist, then I would do it for myself. I'd gotten over being homesick an entire year before... but that didn't mean I still missed the place I considered home.

    Back on a shuttlecar, I spoke my destination in my mind: Scheck Kenzon's Weapons Training. The shuttlecar began to move, and minutes later I was flying through the ring-lit underwater tubes, headed towards the underground portion of Parasol's Third Division.
    I was already sure of what was going to happen. Even though it was Wednesday - the day Mr. Kenzon had told me he would teach me - I'd leave without any training, just like always. It's hard for people to gain my trust, and he certainly wasn't doing a very good job of it. I really think the only reason he told me he would teach me was to keep me around Katie, because he thought I could keep her safe. His receptionist, Jade, would tell me sympathetically that he wasn't in that day, or that he had an emergency meeting with a few clients, or that he was being paid overtime for something and I'd have to come back later. This time was no different.
    The shuttlecar slowed to a gentle halt beside the underground, marble entryway, and I hopped off it quickly, running down the ramp even as it finished extending. There was a kind of excitement to it, in a way... before it attached firmly to the vehicle, it would shake unsteadily under your feet. If you didn't keep a light step as you walked, it'd tip you off, and you'd never make it to the other side.
    After the shuttlecar left, leaving me alone in an empty lobby, I walked over to the receptionist's desk, where a young brunette human sat working, her hair tied up in a bun as she studied the books and lists laid out before her. If Katie's guesses was to be believed, she and Kenzon were actually dating... but it was hard to tell. I never saw the two of them in the same room, and it's hard to imagine them together at all - she's nothing like him.
    "Miss Jade?" I asked, alerting her to my presence. "I'm here for weapons training with Mr. Kenzon... is he available today?"
    The woman glanced up quickly, taking off her glasses. She was wearing makeup, just like she always was - her gray eyes rimmed with eyeliner, her cheeks a smooth tone. It felt artificial to me... as if she had something to hide... ...as she very well might have. "Oh... Vanya... Hello. Mr. Kenzon, you say?" Jade asked with a friendly smile. "I'll look that right up." After a few seconds of tapping at her computer screen, she turned back with a sincere expression of sympathy. "I'm sorry, no. He's not available today - he says he's refurnishing his armory. Perhaps next week..." At my slight frown, she added, "If you want, I could book you for a session tomorrow."
    "No, it's all right," I said, shaking my head with pessimism. "He wouldn't be available then, either."
    My comment made her frown with guilt. "It's not a guarantee," she offered, defending him. "He might be available tomorrow... just give him a chance."
    I just didn't care anymore. Sighing, I shook my head. "You know he doesn't like me... I don't even know why I keep coming here." When she replied with a silent expression of pity, I dejectedly turned away.

    A familiar voice called out from deeper within the complex, echoing towards where I stood: "Vanya?" I knew who it was immediately, and my heart seemed to skip a beat.
    "Reudh?" I asked in surprise, turning to look down the white marble hallway. "What are you doing here?"
    He was fully garbed in heavy white Parasol armor, and his adamantine pike was slung over his back, matching the cyan trim of his suit. His hair was wet, as if he'd just taken a shower, and he looked both tired and a little confused. "I'm here for Kenzon's training, as he told me to come every Wednesday. Do not misunderstand me, my dear, I am greatly pleased to see you, and you look as beautiful today as ever... but why are you here, if I might ask?" he asked, continuing down the hallway towards me.
    I narrowed a glare in Jade's direction. "I thought you said he was refurnishing his armory," I said quietly.
    She only looked uncomfortable, sliding her glasses onto the bridge of her nose as she rearranged the books before her. Caught in a lie, it seemed almost as if she didn't want to notice me, and I wasn't surprised. It probably wasn't her lie, anyway, but Kenzon's.
    Facing Reudh as he entered the little lobby, I spoke up, my frustration making its way into my voice. It hadn't been the best day. "I'm here because Kenzon said he would teach me combat skills... but he avoids me instead. I've been here every Wednesday, just like he wanted me to be, but he's always busy... or at least, he claims he is."
    "He was most certainly not busy today," Reudh noted, scratching his chin under his red-brown beard. "Nor has he been busy any of these past weeks! I must say I'm unsure as to why he would say otherwise. I am terribly sorry, however... Might there be anything I could do?"
    I managed a disappointed frown. "No, it's okay, Reudh..." I would've stayed longer, but I was beginning to feel depressed by simply being there. When I'm in that sort of mood, everything bugs me. I almost imagined Jade hiding a cruel smirk behind her desk... Down the hallway, I sighted a dark-coated man with a low-brimmed fedora and my mind immediately labeled him as "shady". Even Reudh himself was starting to get on my nerves. I know he used to do it all the time, but it was happening a lot often then. "I'm just going to go home... Will you visit tomorrow?"
    He smiled amiably. "Of course, Vanya dearest! I will escort you there if you'd like."
    Shaking my head, I turned him down. "No, it's all right. I can get back on my own."

~~~

    Later that night, I sat quietly in the white chair in that single darkened corner of the sitting room, writing in my journal. I was starting to write down the events leading up to the battle of 48D, but I couldn't get my mind off of Reudh and Urist. I've always needed someone to love... It used to be my sister, but after I lost her it became Urist. Now it was slowly, gradually, becoming Reudh, and the thought entered my mind: was I really in control of who I loved? Did I just love whoever was most convenient, and whoever treated me the best? Reudh isn't nearly as handsome as Urist, and I know I can be shallow... but he didn't seem my type at all, so why was I falling for him?
    It was then, in a moment of confusion, that I pulled a sheet out of my journal and started to write a letter. I have it still... I'll copy it down here.

        Dear Urist...
    It's been a long time since I saw you last... a little more than a year now. I don't really know why I'm writing this out, as I have no way of sending it... I guess to pour out my thoughts, without needing someone to listen. It isn't like me to burden someone with my problems, but now, in a way, I’m doing it to you.
    When you met me, I'd almost lost hope, trapped in a prison cell in the darkest corners of Spearbreakers... You risked your life to save me, and you didn't care I was an elf. You were the first person who'd ever treated me as an equal, and I was grateful beyond words for it. When I talked, you listened; when I cried, you cared; when I laughed, you smiled. You went out of your way to protect me and keep me safe, even to the point that you did something I thought I'd never forgive you for. I know you understand it now, but the last day I saw you... it wasn't a Ballpoint soldier you killed, but my sister.
    For the past year, I've hated you for it, loathing myself for any shred of feeling towards you that remained in my heart. In my mind, you'd betrayed me. In my mind, it was entirely your fault, and I'd done nothing wrong. I've thought of you as a murderer... The pain of what you did still hasn't left me, and it probably never will. I would do anything to be able to go back and fix what was wrong, because it's taken me this long, but now I know: It wasn't your fault she died at all... it was mine. You were only trying to save my life, and you did.
    When you sent me the letter on that crumpled page, and that crystal jade spearhead, I realized I'd been fooling myself. I'd told myself I thought about you because I hated you for what you'd done. I'd told myself I wanted to return to Spearbreakers because of the other people there. I'd told myself that I wanted to see you again so I could hurt you - so I could take revenge. In a way, all of that is true, but when I opened that letter, I realized something I've been denying the entire time...
    Urist... I think I'm in love with you.
    My hands are shaking as I write this... I'm almost hyperventilating, and I don't know why. I know you'll never read this "letter", but it's still so, so hard for me to admit it... Urist... I love you, even now. I love you. I love you dearly. Those three words carry so much meaning, and yet we never said them to each other. I was too shy to bring them to my lips, and even now, if we met again, I still don't know if I could.
    And this is the part that confuses me. I'm starting to get those same feelings towards someone else... someone I don't feel I should. How can I like two people at once? How can anyone? How is it even fair?? I'm so, so confused... What would you even think of me if you knew? You're married. I like two different guys. You swore off love. We're nothing more than friends. Is it bad to say I like you as more than that? That when I lie awake at night, it's not only Reudh that crosses my mind, but you?
    I'm confused and afraid, but I hide it when I talk to people. Not even Katie, my best friend, knows. And yet, somehow, I'm spilling this out to you. Why do I do that? Why do I trust you so implicitly? Why do I feel this way about you now? I haven't seen you in a year... just like when you rescued me from my lonely prison. My feelings for you never went away then, and they haven't now, either, only clouded by anger and hatred at something that wasn't your fault. And what do I do now? Do I bury the way I feel towards you and let my feelings for Reudh take over? Do I push Reudh away? Do I ignore both of you and live for myself?
    I'm so confused... I'm a horrible person, and I'm sorry.
        ~~~ V

    Even when it was hard for me to trust anyone right away... I still wanted to see the best in them. I kept giving Kenzon chances, almost like I was hoping he would prove himself worthy of my trust... just like I'd done with Talvi, Hans, Mr Frog, Wari, John, Klade, and now... And now, Urist...
    The sad thing was, I never got any second chances in return. If I only could've gotten a second chance to save my sister, to do the right thing instead of doing what I wanted... If I could've just been smarter instead of rushing out to try to save her from herself... If I only could've gotten a second chance to make things right with Urist, to forgive him instead of leaving him to a torment of silence... If I could've just been stronger instead of running away to try to save myself...

★

Her elven script ends here, the ink smudged by ancient teardrops.

[Talvieno]

Chapter 59: Founder's Day
    These entries, like all the others in Vanya's series of journals, are undated and unsigned, save for a hollow star at the end: Vanya's symbol. It would likely be useful if she would merely change her style enough to include the date, but there's no way for you to persuade her to comply, as she died hundreds of years before these pages came to rest beneath your eyes.

    Patriotism is an interesting thing... It's like feeling a mother's love for the country or fortress you live in, and it's an almost universal feeling: scythods feel it the same as dwarves and humans do, and the inhabitants of Parasol are no different. Despite their apparent loathing of any day of celebration, they set one day aside every year just to celebrate Parasol, the mighty, planetwide company they call their home. It's known as Founder's Day, and in Parasol, they call it March... March the twentieth. It's the first day of spring, and in dwarven terms, that's the first day of Granite, the first month in the dwarven calendar. (Even though Parasol's year doesn't quite match up with Everoc's, I think it's still a good frame of reference.)
    Something very noteworthy is that Founder's Day happens to coincide with Katie's birthday, and this year, it was on a Thursday. Katie told me that her father, Kenzon, had always done something special for her while she'd been at home - something to celebrate her birthday, but she'd also said that Mr. Kenzon never actually celebrated Founder's Day himself. He wasn't hat patriotic of a person, believing that a country was just a place you lived, and nothing more. He had no problem with ignoring Founder's Day completely. Katie, on the other hand, loved Parasol... just as she'd come to love Trebor, even if he didn't seem to love her in return.
    Trebor had said apologetically he would be too busy with Founder's Day to visit her on her birthday, and had said that he'd try celebrating it the next Saturday. I could tell Katie wasn't overly happy with this, and in fact, she'd told him it didn't matter because she'd be busy and wouldn't be around anyway. It was a lie, but a defensive one: she didn't want him to know how she felt about him. Instead, she'd quietly, resignedly accepted what would happen on what she obviously believed would be a terrible day for her.
    I've never actually had my birthday celebrated before... I know I was born in the winter, but not the day. Not having someone around who remembers the day you were born makes it difficult, if not impossible, to know what day you should celebrate on. I suppose I could simply choose a day and celebrate it then, in the way that Parasol's employees celebrate Founder's Day, but I don't really see the point. My birthdays aren't as important to me as they are to Katie, and it hurts me that she could have hers so callously ignored by everyone when she cares so much about it.

    These were the thoughts that were running through my mind on March the Twentieth, as I sat on the green divan across from Katie, watching her poke sullenly at her PEA, slumped over its screen. Outwardly, she didn't really seem to care about her birthday... I couldn't see her face, but it wasn't hard to imagine that it was painted with a depressed frown. Some part of me wanted to help cheer her up, though I wasn't sure how.
    "You shouldn't be locked up in here all the time," I whispered sympathetically. "Especially on your birthday. It's almost like he keeps you in a prison."
    She started, drawing in her breath sharply as she sat upright and raised her eyes to mine. Her face wasn't contorted in displeasure, but rather held a mischievous gleam. "It's a lot like a prison," she replied in a hushed tone, barely concealing the smile that crept stealthily across her face. "You told me you'd been in prison once. How long was it before you saw the sky?"
    "What?" I hesitated in confusion, wondering why she would ask. "It was well over three or four years, but you don't see the sky much when you're living in a dwarven fortress."
    "That's not much like Parasol," Katie said softly, getting to her feet and walking noiselessly to the window, tucking her hair behind a blunted earpoint with one hand. "Here, it's a rare day for someone when they don't stand under the sky at some point... but here, our dwarves are a lot like your humans." She paused for a moment, thinking. "It's been at least a month since I saw the sky."
    I frowned, getting to my feet and smoothing my skirt as I followed her over, looking out the window at Parasol's bright blue atmosphere, the capital city of Division 3 stretching out beneath it: a thousand metal fingers reaching ever upwards. "You can see the sky from here," I pointed out.
    "But it's not the same as seeing it," Katie insisted, trying to get me to understand as I stepped beside her, gazing out the window. "You can't feel the air - you can't feel the sky. I used to participate in jetpacking competitions - you know that, right? The sky has a feel to it, when you stand beneath it... It's nothing you can imitate with a window."
    Thinking I'd found a flaw, I pointed out, "But Parasol's sky is artificial. It looks like the real thing, but none of it really is."
    She turned her head, and I caught her glance as she spoke. "It's real to me. The only other sky I've ever known were the red and gray skies of Everoc's blood plains." Taking a step back, she twirled around walked towards the sofa, picking up her pea and tapping at its screen for a moment before looking up at me and adding with a teasing grin, "Everoc's skies were incredibly depressing, by the way."
    I laughed, staring at my feet and grinning as I walked slowly over to her. "You haven't seen the blue skies outside the blood plains... They're actually really, really beautiful, especially at night."
    "As beautiful as our sunsets?" She asked me, narrowing her eyes slyly. We were trying to one-up each other, a game we played sometimes. "Division 3, Parasol's R & D division, has the most beautiful sunsets of all of Parasol."
    "Maybe our sunsets aren't as beautiful as yours, but your stars don't twinkle," I pointed out in turn. "I get what you're saying, though. You miss standing under the sky."
    Katie nodded in agreement. "I do."
    "And Trebor too," I added impishly, watching her out the corner of my eye for her reaction.
    It froze her for a second. "I do not!" she denied it, bursting out laughing as she sat back down on the divan. "I just want to get out of here for a little while so I can see the sky."
    "Trebor too," I added again in a sing-song fashion, winking at her and playfully sticking my tongue out a little. "I know you, you want to visit him."
    Katie looked up from her PEA suddenly. "Maybe I do," she finally admitted, adding in a low, conspiratorial voice, grinning all the while, "So let's go see him. I've been thinking about it all morning, I just wanted to get you to agree to it."
    "Your dad will find out," I warned her, cautiously. "What do you think he'd do if he knew you'd escaped again?"
    "Does he really have to know?" she asked thoughtfully.
    "I guess not," I said slowly, glancing up at Katie, who was looking at me from beneath her dark-brown bangs, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. "All right, fine!" I gave in, laughing. "I'll help you escape. It's your birthday, after all, and we we can get back before he knows you're gone... but there are two guards outside the door," I reminded her. "We need a way to get past them without them noticing us. Do you have a way?"
    That stopped her. "I'm not sure," she admitted.
    I sat down, pausing, a finger poking at my lower lip as I tried to figure out a way.
    But Katie was ahead of me. "I think I do have an idea," she exclaimed, jumping up and heading to her bedroom with a lightened step. "First, make sure you have the keycard to the apartment with you, just in case!"

~~~

    Twenty minutes later we were sliding down an improvised rope of bed sheets. We'd fastened one end to my bed, and after checking to make sure it would reach the next balcony below us, we'd started downwards, laughing and giggling with both fright and excitement. There's an undeniable thrill involved in dangling from a makeshift rope, hundreds of feet above the ground. Behind us, the world of Parasol loomed, with all its flying cars and shimmering towers, the streets paved with the glint of metal, the shuttlecars flashing through their glassy tubes... It was exhilarating just to look at it, but to Katie, it was better than a dream. She loved her home world, and the thought that she'd get to see it on Founder's Day, her birthday, excited her to no end.
    We landed a little roughly on a smallish patio-balcony two floors below my window: first me, and then my friend, letting go of the sheets and dropping down the six-foot gap between them and the ground. We dusted ourselves off, laughing at our clumsiness, and then fixed our hair in the mirror surface of the apartment's window. When we were done, we quieted our laughter and opened the door. It was an apartment much like Katie's, and we saw a couple dwarves sitting in front of a televiewer, watching some sort of action movie.
    Katie, smiling mirthfully, waved at them as we passed. "Don't mind us, just passing through," she assured them playfully. The two men only stared at us in dumbfounded bewilderment as we walked quickly across the room towards the door. Opening it, we exited into the hallway... and almost immediately doubled over in gales of quiet laughter.
    "Did you see the looks on their faces?" she wheezed, unable to control her merriment. "'Duh... what's goin' on here?!'" she said in a put-on accent.
    "'Don't mind us, just passing through!'" I repeated her words, laughing. "I don't think they had any clue what to do."
    Katie nodded, giggling. "I know!! It isn't every day you see two girls randomly walk through your apartment!" Suddenly, she stopped, and the smile started to fade as she thought of something. "Vanya... how will we get back up there?"
    The smile faded from my face as I realized my mistake, and I looked downwards, thinking. Seconds later, I heard someone snickering, and looked back up towards my friend, who was grinning and trying not to laugh at our lack of foresight. I couldn't help but smile, and it wasn't long before we were headed towards the elevator, laughing mirthfully at our situation. When you're really, really happy... it's hard for anything to get you down for long.

    "So where do we go now?" I asked her as the car descended, glancing at her from the glass wall of the elevator. "Should we visit Trebor first?"
    She didn't pull her gaze away from the view, but nodded. "Definitely Trebor... Maybe we could get him to spend the day with us?" She drew her eyes away from the landscape and studied me thoughtfully for a moment. "I know you don't think he likes you much, but I'm sure if you just gave him a chance, his true colors would show through. He's a really good person, Vanya," she said, trying to convince me.
    I didn't really need convincing, although I felt my chest tighten a little in apprehension at the thought of spending the day with Trebor. "It's your birthday, Katie," I reminded her. "We can spend the day however you want, even if it's just sitting on a roof and looking at the city down below."
    Tilting her head forwards a bit with a half-nod as the car stopped outside the shuttlecar station, she said in playful merriment, "Definitely, definitely Trebor."
    Before long, we were on our way, speeding through shuttlecar tubes towards where Trebor lived with his family.

~~~

    As we rode up the excessively fancy, gold-and-glass walled elevator of the Metalbrook building, Katie was talking excitedly about how wonderful the Founder's Day celebration was supposed to be, and what Trebor had told her they'd always done every year. I was listening, but just barely... the Parasol skyline is mesmerizing, especially to an elf like myself; I lived 20 years on a completely different world. The tall, vertical buildings, the sweeping, curving glass shuttlecar tubes, the hovertaxis and the brilliantly colored sky, the light of the artificial sun striking shadows the cityscape... it's too beautiful for words, and Metalbrook, just beyond an artificial lake, was much less closed-in than Rubywood.
    "Trebor's family is a very well-to-do one, with strong ties in the military," Katie was explaining excitedly in a rush. "Trebor's father, Traetin, is an admiral in the Parasol military, while his mother, Alexia, is a drill sergeant. Just about everyone in his family is in the military, and they're all really patriotic!"
    Just then, the elevator chimed and the doors slid open smoothly with a hiss. I spun around, and the first thing that caught my eye were the banners and flags hung throughout the wide, two-story hallway beyond - all in Parasol's theme of white, black, and cyan.
    "I mean, just look at how they decorate!" Katie exclaimed with an awed gasp, finishing her train of thought and walking forwards. "I can't remember if their apartments are on the left side, or the right side," she mused, walking forwards and leaving me, smiling with amusement, in her wake. It wasn't long before she was ringing a doorbell on the left side of the grand hallway, next to a set of wooden double doors that were labeled very clearly with a gold plaque that read "MALLARKUS" in all uppercase letters.
    Katie stepped back a couple paces from the door and we exhanged a suspenseful glance.
    After we'd waited for a moment, the left half of the double doors swung open, and a clean-shaven, black-haired dwarf slightly younger than me appeared with a friendly (if somewhat surprised) smile. "Hello, and happy Founder's Day!" he greeted us cordially. "What brings you two ladies here?"
    Moving forwards, Katie introduced us. "I'm Katie Okablokum, and this is my friend, Vanya. We're wondering if Trebor is around...?" she trailed off hopefully, almost leaving it as a question.
    The man raised a cautious eyebrow, as if confused as to what he should do, and then raised a finger at us. "Just one moment, hold that thought, okay?" He watched us for a moment, and then nodded rapidly before disappearing inside the apartment, leaving the door open without even inviting us inside. Turning down a corner down a hallway, he called, "Lydena?"
    "Who was that?" I whispered to Katie.
    She shook her head in response: she didn't know.
    Moments later, a slender dwarf with long, wavy red hair falling about her shoulders approached us from the same hallway, jogging to the door, her Parasol-themed skirt and shoulder-hung purse bouncing as she walked. "I'm soooo sorry about that!" she laughed, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "He's so funny sometimes. I'm Lydena, and that was my husband, Cor. We don't live here, so he wasn't sure what to do when he answered the door and saw two people he didn't know." She paused briefly, looking us over. "You're Katie," she guessed, pointing first at my friend, and then me, continuing, "and you're Vanya, right? I've heard so much about both of you from Trebor! How are you two?" She was bright and bubbly, and pleasantly so.
    "Very well, and thank you," Katie responded quickly, displaying a far stronger grasp of social situations than me. "We're actually looking for him - is he here?"
    Lydena's red, lipstick-coated lips puckered into a little surreptitious smile. "Oh, wanting to spend the day with him?" she whispered, giving us a wink that showed she could already guess Katie's feelings for him. "I gotcha. I gathered as much from when he's spoken of you, but he's never yet guessed it. You do like him!" Katie blushed visibly and started to protest, but Lydena held a finger towards Katie's lips, chuckling with amusement. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. And no, he's not here right now... I actually haven't heard from him since last night, which is a little strange... especially for today."
    Katie, slightly disappointed, nodded with a grateful smile. "Thank you anyway, Lydena. It was really great to finally meet you! Trebor's mentioned you a lot."
    "I hope he hasn't been saying anything bad," Lydena smirked. "If he has, I have some stories I could tell about him, too. But, for now, my husband and I have to finish getting everything ready, so I'll have to see you two some other time! If you're ever up in the East Side, come see us, okay? I love getting visitors. We're in the Foresthill apartment building, floor 56. Don't forget, now!"
    After Katie had responded, the door closed behind her, leaving us alone in the hallway once more.
    "Well..." I said, raising an eyebrow with a sigh, "What next?
    Katie stood there for a moment, pondering what Lydena had said. When she finally moved again, it was towards the elevator, waving for me to follow. "Founder's Day, silly! We still have all day ahead of us."
   
    The rest of the day was amazing. We hurried onwards to the festivities, down Division 3's wide Main Avenue, lined with tall, acorn-less oaks on either side. It was beautiful, and the celebration was amazing. At one point, the sky darkened artificially for "fireworks": amazing swirls of sparkling colors in the sky, with explosive sounds and the smell of gunpowder. It might not be something a dwarf of Everoc would like, but to Katie and me, it was absolutely incredible. There were all sorts of foods at stands lining the streets, and all of it was free. There were banners, streamers, confetti, parades... it was everything we could have wanted, just like a holiday back home. Katie had never been to the Founder's Day celebration, and didn't quite know what to expect, but I think I gave her the best birthday present she'd ever had. I'd given her the gift of freedom, even if only for a day... and there's something about being free that unfetters the heart and soul as well. You feel like you could fly.

    It was with joyful thoughts and jubilant smiles that we headed back to Rubywood Apartments... and towards something that would ultimately erase those same smiles from our faces.

~~~

    "The elevator won't stop on our floor?" Katie asked in surprise, repeatedly tapping the touchpad on the elevator wall where it said "82". It refused to light up, just like the car refused to move. "All right, we'll go to floor 81 then," she laughed, shaking her head as gave up and pressed the number beside it. The doors slid slowly shut, and although we felt no sensation of movement, the view behind us out the elevator's glass window began to drop away, as we shot higher and higher through the building.
    "Why won't it stop at 82?" I asked curiously.
    Katie shook her head, smiling and propping herself against the metallic rail across the window, as she looked outwards over the city she called home, the artificial sun setting in the distance. "I don't know, I've never had it happen before. I know that you can shut it off remotely, but I haven't had it happen before, and I don't know why they would. Maybe the button is broken?" she suggested.
    I nodded. Things break; everything needs a little maintenance every once in a while, and it made sense that it would happen at Parasol, too. Somehow it seemed too convenient to be that, though.
    A few seconds later the doors opened, and we exited into the hallway of floor 81, headed for the stairs.
    "Did you have fun?" I asked her as I walked behind her skipping steps. I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear her admit it.
    She laughed in response. "Yes, I did," she admitted, spinning around as she walked to level a playful, mischievous glare at me. "You know I did."
    "I thought you would," I told her happily, nodding as we started up the stairs. "Want to do it again sometime?"
    "Pfft, we won't be able to, you know," Katie said, rolling her eyes teasingly. "Someone forgot to invent a way to get us back inside without the guards finding out."
    I laughed at her poking jest, pushing open a door at the top of the stairs and following her through after she'd passed. "It's just as much you as me. We'll just say we left through the front door, but they were on coffee break or something," I offered, checking in my pocket to make sure I'd remembered the key to Kenzon's apartments.
    She threw back her head and laughed. "Oh, that's brilliant!" she said in teasing sarcasm. "Of course they'd happen to be away while we left the room. And my dad used to work with security, too, but there's no way he would know."
    "I doubt they'd want to admit they let us past them while on duty, so maybe they'll just let us back in," I offered, smiling along with her as we turned the corner onto her hallway.
    We both stopped abruptly as we caught a first glimpse of our floor. Black-and-yellow tape was stretched across the hall, and white-uniformed Parasol security forces were milling about outside the doorway to her apartment. Two translucent holograms lay in odd positions on the floor - holograms of the bodies of the two security guards that had guarded Kenzon's apartment only hours earlier. Katie's hand flew to her mouth as she let out a little cry and rushed forwards away from me, realizing what had happened only seconds before I did. It was a crime scene, and Kenzon's security guards had been murdered. Someone had made a third attempt on Katie's life, and this time, the only thing that had saved her was our little rebellious birthday excursion. Shaking my head in shock, I tried to convince myself that none of it was real. I could see Kenzon himself milling about among the guards, his hands on his head as he tried to stay calm and keep from panicking.
    "Dad!" Katie shouted towards him as she ran, and I started afterwards her at a jog.
    "Katie!" he called back, relief and happiness apparent in his voice as he shouldered his way past the police, ducking under the black-and-yellow tape and breaking into a jog. As they met in the middle, he scooped his daughter up in his arms and held her close.
    "Dad, what happened?" she asked him.
    As I drew closer to them, I could hear him speaking. "I thought I'd lost you... I'm glad you're all right. I got a call at work saying there had been a double murder and a burglary, and that the apartment was empty - I thought someone had kidnapped you and Vanya, or worse."
    I heard my name and stopped, ten feet or so away, standing alone and very conspicuously in the center of the hallway. As Kenzon spoke my name, it appeared to remind him of my existence, and he turned his head towards me, narrowing his eyes as he set Katie's feet back down upon the carpet.
    "Vanya..." he said slowly, deliberately, leveling a painfully piercing glare at me, "I expect you to explain this."
    I glanced from him to Katie, who was looking at me sorrowfully with regret, and then back again to him. "If Katie had been here, she would've been killed, so what did I do wrong?" I asked uncomfortably.
    "Far more than you should have..." he said under his breath, a hint of anger in his voice. "Maybe more than you know."

☆

[Talvieno]

Chapter 60: A Temporary Home
    The journal continues, Vanya's small, elven font filling every page, one after the next. It seemed she was wanting to fill the journal as completely as she could, but even now, you can tell you're reaching the end... the back cover isn't very many pages away.

    Katie's father was seething. He turned, motioning for Katie and me to follow. "Vanya... Let me show you what you've done."
    Following Kenzon, we walked towards his apartment, ducking under the black-and-yellow tape with him. Several security guards, standing at attention, guns in hand, kept their eyes trained on us cautiously as we moved. Two more scanned our faces with their PEAs as we passed, tapping rapidly on their screens as they wrote something down.
    However, Kenzon ignored everyone and walked straight to his room, his step heavy and deliberate, and finally pushed open what was left of the damaged door. It looked like someone had kicked it in, but the apartment beyond it was even worse. Every door was standing wide open, many of them split, smashed, or falling off their hinges. All the furniture was overturned, the cushions strewn seemingly at random about the room. It was busy, with Parasol Security guards moving about, some scanning the floors and walls with a purplish light emanating from their PEAs, others scanning with flashing grids of red lasers... with so many people there, I began to feel very much on edge.
    "How did I do this?" I asked quietly, aghast at the display of wanton destruction. "I wasn't even here..."
    "He followed you here, Vanya," Kenzon said, spinning to look at me, glaring at me with his eyes. "All your recent excursions attracted his attention. I don't suppose you ever thought to check whether someone was following you?"
    "No..." I said slowly, processing the information. "Couldn't it have been you, though? Maybe they followed you."
    "You've noticed that I've been using teleports to travel to and from work, haven't you?" He watched me with his eyes, and when I nodded, he went on, "This is why. I didn't expect you to go anywhere that the killer would expect to find you, but you did: My place of work. He already recognized you from the mall incident, and today, he saw his chance – all of Parasol Security was preoccupied with the keeping the Founder's Day celebrations from getting out of hand."
    It seemed impossible. "What? How would you even know this?"
    A guard straightened beside us, glancing at my eyes as he rapidly tapped his PEA, scanning my face with it. "We caught it on camera, Ms. Carena. An unidentified figure wearing a black trench coat and fedora followed you home from Scheck Kenzon's Weapons Training, taking a second shuttlecar and keeping his distance. We have proof that it was you he was following from the shuttlecar logs." Turning his PEA towards me briefly, he showed downwards-angled video footage of a man boarding a shuttlecar, dressed all in black. "No cameras managed to catch a glimpse of his face due to his wide-brimmed hat, unfortunately." He paused for a moment and then started to walk away, leaning closer to Kenzon as he did and saying quietly, "Be careful of what you say, Mr. Kenzon, we still haven't finished checking the area, and the apartment may be bugged."
    My eyes drifted to the floor as I shook my head in shock. I could remember the man from the day I'd seen Reudh at Kenzon's workplace, but his head had been downcast... I hadn't seen his face. "How did he even know I'd be there?"
    "He didn't have to," Kenzon said quietly. "I was there, so if he was looking for Katie, it would make sense for him to watch for me to leave. That's why I teleported to and from work, despite the extra cost."
    "Vanya couldn't have known," Katie spoke up defensively from beside me. "It's not her fault."
    "Maybe she couldn't have known," Kenzon admitted in a tight voice, as he walked towards Katie's bedroom door, "but it's still her fault. I've packed bags for both of you already. You'll be staying elsewhere until the killer is caught, and Vanya..." Here he paused, picking up two heavy duffel bags and handing them to us before he leveled a piercing gaze at me. "You will not continue your random excursions. You are to stay put until Katie's life is no longer at risk. Understand?"
    I nodded quietly, swallowing back my inclination to protest. It didn't seem fair that simply walking around Parasol had endangered my friend, but I wasn't going to knowingly put her at risk again. I took my bag from Mr Kenzon and whispered, "I understand," unwilling to meet his gaze. Turning, Katie and I walked, downcast, towards the shattered doorway of Katie's home.
    Outside the doorway, a Parasol Security guard opened a temporary portal and motioned for us to step in. Katie understood my misgivings and looked at me sympathetically as we walked towards it. "I'm sorry," she mouthed with a sympathetic frown, and I nodded silently. It wasn't her fault, really. I didn't know who was trying to take her life, but I'd vowed I'd protect her, a couple months before. I wasn't going to let anyone hurt her, even if that meant I lost my newfound freedom in the process. Freedom is important... but if it means you lose everyone and everything you care about, can you really say it's worth it?
    And with that, we stepped through the shimmering, wavering oval, feeling the sensation of twisting, unfolding, transforming...
   
~~~

    Kenzon had been unwilling to tell us exactly where we were headed, but as soon as we'd exited the miniportal, it was obvious: we'd materialized outside the apartment belonging to Jade, his receptionist. She met us at the door, her reddish-brown hair tied up in a ponytail behind her head. Her face had a prim, tight look to it, with rounded cheeks and a tiny chin, and there was the faintest possibility of freckles beneath her cold, gray eyes. She wasn't wearing glasses this time, nor makeup, and she seemed closer to 30 rather than the 25 I'd guessed originally.
    "I'm Jade Medell," she greeted us in a friendly manner, albeit a somewhat awkward one, her hands clasped in front of her. "I'm a friend of your father, Katie, and he wanted to let you live here for a week or two."
    "Don't you work with him?" I asked. I recognized her immediately from my visits to Kenzon's workplace, although I wasn't sure Katie wouldn't have seen her before. "You're the receptionist where he works."
    I looked over at Katie on my right in time to catch an amused glance from her. "Probably more than just a friend," she guessed quietly, saying it just loud enough for Jade to hear.
    Jade blushed visibly in embarrassment, appearing very, very flustered. "We're just friends," she insisted, "and yes, I do work for him. Anyway, come on, I'll show you where you'll be sleeping."
    Katie had clearly hit upon a particularly soft spot, and it didn't seem like Jade felt like discussing it any further. As we followed her into the apartment, I switched my duffel bag over to my left hand so I could lean a little closer to Katie, and whispered, "Kenzon has to be at least ten years older than she is..."
    Frowning, Katie gave an acquiescent shrug. "Closer to fifteen," she whispered back. "Humans age differently than dwarves."
    "Do you really think they're together?"
    "That's my dad for you," she sighed, rolling her eyes at her father's taste in women. Suddenly, she gave a broad, innocent smile in Jade's direction as the object of our conversation looked suspiciously over her shoulder towards us, and that was enough to draw the subject to a close.

    Jade's apartment was situated nearer to the center of her building, and as a result, there wasn't a window anywhere to see out of. It was also smaller and furnished far less richly than Kenzon's, but at the same time, it felt homier: it lacked the same sense of sterility, with wicker chairs, soft, cushy sofas of a milk-chocolate colored fabric, cream-colored walls, wooden bookcases and shelving lining the walls here and there. It felt cozy, in a way. You could tell it had been lived in, much unlike Kenzon's, who always had everything put away: A small stack of paper magazines were sitting on the coffee table in the middle of the Jade's living room, accentuated by a tall, plastic cup. A remote control for a televiewer was stuck between two couch cushions, and a used bowl and spoon sat on an end table in the corner of the room. It didn't have the same artificial feeling that so much of Parasol had, but it wasn't overly dirty like Eltsha's place, either. In a word, it was homely.
    Our hostess showed us to her little guest room room, which was at the end of a short hallway and furnished with two beds. "I'm sorry I don't have rooms for each of you," she apologized, "I'm lucky I have the spare room. Renting an apartment isn't cheap, and I can't afford to buy one outright."
    We thanked her, assured her it was all right, and sat down across from each other on the mattresses of our iron-framed beds, looking through our bags to see what Kenzon had packed. Katie was removing everything from hers, laying it out almost at random on her bed's dark pink sheets, while I was prying through my bag carefully and trying to look under everything. I didn't like the thought of taking anything out of my bag... I suppose it comes from having been a skulker for so long.
    "He didn't pack my PEA," she said suddenly in consternation. "How am I supposed to talk to Trebor without my PEA? How will he even know I'm okay??"
    I shook my head. "I don't know," I said quietly, lifting out my suit of armor and wondering why Kenzon had decided to pack it, along with my daggers and Almory's sword. I supposed that maybe he'd just packed everything he was absolutely sure was mine... I didn't get as many clothes as Katie, but at least I still had my journal.
    "This is going to be horribly boring," Katie groaned, her eyebrows drawn together in worriment. "We can't leave here now, and we don't even have anything to do."
    "Why would he leave your PEA behind?" I asked her curiously. "Is it possible he forgot it? Or maybe he's worried that the killer will be tracking it or something?"
    She shook her head, rummaging through the outer pockets of her bag and pulling out a toothbrush and a comb. She looked at them disappointedly as she replied, "No, you can't track PEA's like that. Phones, maybe, but mine broke, remember?"
    I nodded. I remembered it very well; it had happened on the day we'd been attacked at the Mall. "Maybe he thought that the killer could track us with it anyway... I guess I could sneak out and get it," I mused, almost to myself. If there really wasn't any danger inherent in it, and the person was after Katie, not me... it shouldn't pose any problem. However, Katie didn't seem to hear me, and we didn't speak of it any further. It didn't seem the wisest of ideas to begin with.

    Jade cooked dinner herself that night. It was some incredibly spicy kind of Parasol dish that was basically stuffed peppers, and she made green tea as a beverage. I absolutely loved the tea – it was my first time trying any – but the peppers were different. Being from Everoc, I wasn't used to them... I was hardly able to eat food that was so spicy. I sat at the little square table in Jade's cramped dining room, sniffling from a runny nose as I tried to blink back tears, my eyes watering.
    Katie, sitting across from me, giggled at my antics. "It's not that spicy, but I'll get you some water anyway," she laughed, getting up from her seat and trying to figure out where Jade kept the glasses.
    "It's not funny!" I said, laughing nervously myself as I warily attempted another bite. "They don't have spicy food where I come from."
    Beside me, Jade seemed curious. "They don't? I've never heard of a place without spicy food... Why don't they have spicy food there? Where are you from?"
    Her question stopped me for a moment, and I gratefully accepted a glass of water from Katie as she sat down, using it to buy time as I tried to think of an appropriate answer. I knew it was illegal for someone from Everoc to be at Parasol, and I wasn't sure how much she knew. "I've lived a lot of places," I eventually said guardedly. "Maybe it's just elves that don't eat spicy food," I suggested. It wasn't a lie, really, though I couldn't help but wonder why dwarves on Everoc didn't eat spicy food at all.
    "You're an elf?" Jade asked quizzically, leaning sideways in her chair and peering at my ears. "So you are..." she muttered when she'd seen, with just enough of a hint of disdain to make my cheeks redden slightly. "Huh. I'd thought you were dwarven."
    "I get that a lot," I whispered, taking another bite out of my food and silently cursing my elven heritage. You always have to be on your toes when you're in the minority... there will always be someone that will hate you just beccause of what you are.
    She glanced down at my arm. "What's that bracelet, is that some kind of strange jewelry for your species?" She was pointing at my portal bracelet, which I always wore with me to remind me of my old home, and her voice sounded almost derisive.
    Katie seemed to sense my discomfort. "It's not her fault she's an elf," she said defensively. "I'm part elf, part dwarf, and part human."
    Jade's head turned quickly towards her. "That's not possible," she said bluntly, putting another bite into her mouth. "People can't mate between species."
    But my friend merely put down her fork, turned her head to the side and pulled back her hair, showing the dull point of her ear; an ear that was clearly neither elven, nor human, nor dwarven. Our hostess seemed to do a double take, leaning forwards just a little as she peered at Katie's ear in disbelief. "It's not possible..." she said, shaking her head slowly in confusion. "I was with a dwarf once, I know they can't get humans pregnant... or elves..."
    With a mischievous smirk, Katie settled back into her chair. "I'm different," she said simply. "And who do you think my mother would've had to be? You already know my father."
    It was somewhat surprising how quickly Katie could pick Jade to pieces: the woman had stopped mid-chew and was sitting frozen, staring at Katie tensely as she tried to figure it out. "It's not possible," she said again quietly, but the conviction had left her voice, and she turned her head towards her plate as she continued eating in silence, clearly not liking the image of Kenzon with another woman, and especially not an elf.
    The rest of supper was uneventful, and we helped Jade put everything up afterwards, carrying the dishes to the cleaner and then putting them into their respective cabinets.

    Later, I'd asked Katie, "How did what you said make Jade fall silent so quickly?"
    She'd only smiled. "It's not the first time I've had to deal with dad's girlfriends. They never like thinking of him having sex with someone else, and especially not someone who's half elf, and half dwarf, like my mom." It was clear she didn't want to continue the conversation, though. Her mother was still an unreachable topic, and I let it drop.

~~~
   
    That night, we lay in bed. Katie was in hers, and I was in mine just across the room, so similar to the first night we'd spent together, back on Everoc. My mind wasn't so much on 48D's trench, though, instead focusing more of the preceding events of Katie's birthday. I thought about what had happened earlier that day... how someone had tried to break into Kenzon's apartment under the cover of Founder's Day, hoping to kill Katie, and how we hadn't found Trebor at his apartment. Somehow, my sleepy mind managed to put the two together. Lydena had  even expressed that it was very unusual for Trebor to be missing, especially on Founder's Day, and the idea popped into my mind: What if the killer wasn't after Katie at all? What if he was after me?
    It made sense... I got attacked in the mall and was injured far worse than Katie, and then, later, the killer had followed me home, perhaps trying to get a clear shot at me. If he was after me, and not Katie, it would still make sense for him to show up on Founder's day... And if the killer wasn't just a killer, but was actually Trebor... it provided a perfect reason for him to try to get rid of me. He would never try to harm Katie, but I knew for a fact that he loathed me for what had happened to his sister, Almory.
    "It dooesn't make sense," I remember thinking. "Why would he not have attacked me any of the times he'd spent the afternoons there with Katie? There had been so many opportunities for it... is it possible he simply didn't want Katie to find out he'd killed me? Does want to kill me, but love her enough to want to keep her as well?" My musing got me nowhere, though, until I remembered that Katie had told him she would be busy on that day anyway. She'd fibbed and told him she wouldn't be at home.
    Suddenly, everything made sense. I was the target, and Trebor was trying to kill me... which meant, of course, that if I went and got Katie's PEA, it would be my downfall: Katie trusted Trebor implicitly, and would tell him where Kenzon was keeping us without a moment's hesitation... and then Trebor would come and kill me. All he would have to do is decide to follow Jade home, and then he'd just have to wait. Eventually, he would get his opportunity, even if he had to sneak into the apartment at night and kill me in my sleep, with Katie sleeping unaware beside me.
    It was hard for me to fall asleep that night, with so much on my mind. The only thing I couldn't decide was what I was going to do about it all.

☆

[Talvieno]

Chapter 61: Preparations
    Between entries, you glance upwards across the table at "Sally", and notice she seems confused. "What's wrong?" you ask her.
    The woman shakes her head. "I don't understand," she mumbles. "I should've shown up in her story by now..."
    "Perhaps you're from an alternate timeline?" you suggest curiously.
    Regrettably, at that moment, Dr. Thian Russ walks in, and Sally motions for you to be silent. Nodding in assent, you look back towards Vanya's Parasol journal and continue translating.

    Two weeks after Kenzon had sent us to live at Jade's apartment, there still hadn't been any sign of the killer. As we lacked any real purpose or project, we occupied our hours in the same ways we always had while we'd been confined to Katie's home. Unfortunately, without her PEA, without my books, and without my being able to access the outside world, it really was far more boring than it'd been before, especially for Katie. Before, Trebor had visited her regularly, but now, he didn't even know where she lived.
    Every weekday, Jade would get up early, cook something to eat, and then fix herself up for work. She wasn't overly modest, nor much of a morning person. Sometimes she stumbled out of her room half-dressed, and once, she wasn't dressed at all... before she remembered to her extreme distress and embarrassment that she had guests in her apartment. Despite how disorganized she is, I still haven't seen her late for work, and that made it easy to plan ahead for things we could do after she left.
    Early on, Katie tried to get me interested in a "TV series", or "televiewer series". It's basically like a book you watch on a televiewer in 3D instead of imagining it in your mind. While it was fascinating for the first few hours, I quickly grew tired of it, which was something that Katie couldn't understand. It just wasn't interesting for me to sit in one place while I was spoon-fed a story. I liked to imagine things by myself, and the shows on the televiewer contained far too many Parasol references for me to really understand what was going on. To Katie's credit, she understood my explanation and stopped trying.

    Eventually, Katie and I started working on my spells again, more out of boredom than anything else. We didn't have nearly as much room in Jade's tiny apartment, so we had to be more careful, but for hour after hour, Katie patiently tried to teach me Guiding Wings, the first spell she'd shown me: "deovaang liagen". It was far more difficult than my shield spell, and I couldn't seem to get a good grasp of it. I managed to complete the spell properly once, and only once, but as soon as I'd tried to turn around to see what my "wings" looked like, the spell broke, and though I worked just as hard ever afterwards, I never got it to work again.
    At long last, Katie gave up and said I ought to start on a simpler one: "Shadow Cloak", which was a lower-level spell. Her first demonstration of it was impressive, although it wasn't nearly as spectacular of a spell as the others she'd shown me. It did little more than hide the caster, creating a shadowy form where the person stood. In near-darkness, Katie became almost invisible, but as she moved into the light, she become a sharper and sharper silhouette, until she was even more noticeable than if she'd never cast the spell at all.
    Unfortunately, it proved difficult for me to use Shadow Cloak as well. Katie tried to explain why it was so much more difficult: my god, Armok, hardly has any presence on Parasol at all. He has a little, but only from the portals people have created to and from Everoc's universe. The gods are fighting a supernatural war in the cosmos over the entire universe of Everoc, and Armok is losing: the gods of Parasol and Ballpoint are crowding him out, and with the demon Sankis backstabbing him from his own universe, it's becoming even more difficult for him to maintain his power. It's part of why Katie had such an easy time casting her spells while she was on Everoc. While she can still cast her spells here on Parasol, it's hard for me to cast mine at all. Armok simply doesn't have much power here.
    I spent the first week trying to learn it, alternating between trying to learn to pronounce the words, and praying to Armok. At one point, she suggested I switch to her god, Winteos, but I refused. I figured there must be a reason Armok had engraved the runes on the jade spearhead. I kept with me always as a talisman, and I still have it with me even now. "Armok is having a hard enough time already," I'd told her, "I'm not going to make it more difficult for him." She raised an eyebrow at my loyalty, especially considering Armok is the god of blood... but I perservered, until finally, late one night, I managed to say it correctly: "Armok, scata clontas!"
    My legs vanished in a deep red, velvety smoke as I stared at them, dissolving rapidly, the effect spreading up my body, down my arms and to my fingertips. As the spell matured, it faded to a deep crimson, the color of blood, and finally to black. When I stood in the light, I could partially see through my own arms, and I experimented with it, walking around carefully so as not to upset the spell. I soon found to my delight that I could move my arms around at will, even though that breathless "mana drain" feeling quickened its pace.
    Katie was applauding, and I hardly heard her, absorbed in the magic of it all, dashing about Jade's tiny apartment and seeing just how invisible I could become when hidden in darkened places. I never managed to become truly invisible, but when I hid in the dark, I was at least far more difficult to see... so I considered it a success.

    But that was it, for a time. Katie soon got bored even of teaching me magic spells, and started worrying about Trebor instead. She misses him terribly; sometimes she cries at night before she goes to bed, worrying he'll find some other girl while she's away, and by the time we get out of this place, it'll be too late to get him back. I empathize with her: I used to feel the exact same way about Urist... and sometimes, I feel the exact same way about Reudh. At times like this, I sit next to her and put my arm around her, hugging her and telling her it'll be okay, just like she did for me back on Everoc when I got my package from Urist. She still sometimes wakes up with nightmares... I didn't realize just how often she had them until I was sleeping in the same room with her, but she often wakes up crying, or hyperventilating. Even though she refuses to talk about it, I have a feeling it has to do with 48D's battle... but I have no way to be sure.
    Jade noticed that Katie seemed off, one night at dinner, but misunderstood the reason. "It'll be okay, I know how you feel," she'd said sympathetically. "I bet I can come up with a way around it, though."
    Katie only gave a dejected nod, but after a moment, did a double take and looked upwards from her food, surprised not only that Jade would be so understanding and empathetic, but that she would even suggest such a thing.
    Unfortunately for Katie, it turned out that it didn't have anything to do with Trebor at all. "It's from being cooped up in here for too long," the woman went on. "You just need to get out into the sun once in a while. I'll talk to your father at some point tomorrow and see if we can get him to let you up onto the roof for an hour or two. The sunshine and fresh air up there should do you some good – it always does for me."
    My friend pursed her lips and lowered her head again towards her soup, but not before shooting me a look that clearly meant, "I knew that was too good to be true." It was no secret that Jade loved being outdoors... and certainly no secret that she fantasized about becoming Katie's adoptive mother, despite openly denying that she was in any way romantically involved with Kenzon.

    Later that night, after we'd retreated to our room and changed into our nightclothes, Katie and I sat across from each other on our beds, talking quietly just as we always did. It was a sort of bonding time for us, and we had a lot of heart-to-heart talks there. A lot of times, we talked about things we didn't usually feel comfortable with bringing up. Tonight was different, though... what I had to say sounded pretty ridiculous.
    "I'm going to get your PEA back," I finally managed in a quiet voice.
    Katie looked over at me in surprise. "Are you serious?? Did you forget what happened last time we disobeyed my dad?"
    "Look," I said, trying to explain my thoughts. "It's not like the killer is going to be watching everywhere for me, and if he's trying to hunt me down, he'll be watching Kenzon, not me. I'll just leave after Jade goes to work, Kenzon won't be at home, and... I can do whatever I need to."
    "It sounds like it might work," she replied cautiously, "But what if he does find you? What if he attacks you?"
    I had a solution for this, too. "I'll wear the armor Mr Frog made me, and I also have the spells you taught me. I'll be fine."
    "You can't go anywhere he might expect you," Katie warned.
    Nodding, I scooted up on my bed and slipped my legs under the blankets, covering myself up to my shoulders. "Don't worry, I won't."
    Finally, she gave in. "Thank you, Vanya," she whispered, biting her lip with emotion. "You're an amazing friend... you have no idea how much this means to me." She paused, thinking. "Are you sure you'll be able to find a way into my dad's apartment and back here in time with the PEA? What if he catches you, or you aren't here when Jade gets back?"
    "Don't worry, I'll find a way to get everything done that I need to," I assured her, although I personally wasn't so convinced.
   
    I was somewhat vague on this last, because in actuality, my plan wasn't to get Katie's PEA at all. It was to confront Trebor. Over the previous two weeks, a plan had been forming in my mind, and while I thought I might eventually head to Kenzon's apartment if I could, first off, I was going to seek a little help from Lydena.

~~~

    The next morning, Katie and I were up at sunrise, just as we usually were. Jade didn't suspect a thing: She stumbled out of her room wearing pajama pants and a brassiere, ate her breakfast, got herself dressed and fixed up, and left for work, just as she always did.
    "Are you ready?" Katie whispered.
    I nodded in response. It was a Friday morning, just over two weeks since Kenzon had sent us here, and we still didn't even know how to leave our own building. I'd escaped from harder situations before, like escaping from a fortress's prison, or worse, escaping Ballpoint's outposts, so it didn't really worry me. What did worry me, however, was the confrontation I was going to have with Trebor... and with this nagging me at the back of my mind, I went to my room. As quickly as I could, I stripped out of my everyday clothes and put on the Ballpoint-gray armor that Mr Frog had commissioned for me just over a year before. I seriously doubted he had any idea of where I was now, but it was interesting to wonder what he was up to.
    After I'd finished pulling on the boots, I got up from the bed, straightening, and checked my pouches. In one, there was a little gorlak doll, little worse for wear – I'd kept it safe all this time to remind me of the monster I'd been, and to try to keep from ever becoming it again. With a slight frown, I put it in the duffel bag I'd been storing my belongings in – I didn't know if I'd return, and it didn't need to come with me. In another, there was Jack Magnus's cap, which I hadn't used to hide my ears since I'd arrived at Parasol. In a third pouch, I found Reudh's comb, pristine silver with a star of sapphires embedded in its surface, and I smiled as I knelt and put it in the bag with everything else. Finally, I pulled out Urist's crystal jade spearhead and let it lay in the palm of my hand, studying the little runes etched in its surface. They no longer glowed as they had the night Armok had carved them there, but they were still clearly visible: "Vanya, my favored daughter... Your struggles amuse me. Fight well, my conduit." Closing my fingers around it, I shut my eyes, praying to Armok for protection as I slipped it into one of the pouches at my waist. Picking up my vampiric daggers, I slipped them into their sheaths before straightening and leaving the room.
    "Be careful out there," Katie warned me as I walked through Jade's apartment, feeling anxious and afraid. "Don't go anywhere the killer would expect to see you, and make very sure you're not followed."
    I hardly heard her, nodding listlessly as I unlocked the front door, turning the doorknob. "I'll be okay," I assured her, though my faltering voice betrayed my worriment.
    I was the one Trebor wanted, and I thought that if I could just reason with him, I could make him stop attacking me. I've lost a sister too – twice. I know how it feels, and I've also been through blaming it on someone else: Urist. There had been a time when I would've liked nothing more than to hear something bad had happened to him, but I'd gotten past that, and as painful as it had been to blame myself, I'd realized in the end that it was for the better. I hoped that I could help him understand that too. If I couldn't, well... I had a theory that he wouldn't try to wound me in a public place where his identity would be revealed. It seemed like it would be stupid of him to do.
    Somehow I hadn't pieced that theory together with the fact that the first time Katie and I were attacked, we were standing in the middle of Parasol's Mall.

    After I'd left the apartment, I was completely unsure of which way I should go because I'd never really seen the rest of the building. I eventually decided to just choose a direction and start walking. The dimly-lighted hallways were floored with a cheap brown carpet, while the walls were of stucco, and seemed to wind their way almost at random through the interior of the building. Despite this, it wasn't long before I'd found the outer wall, and finally, the elevator. It had solid, metallic doors, unlike the other apartment complexes I'd been to, and when the car arrived, I discovered it didn't have any windows, either.
    When I'd entered the elevator, the doors closed themselves behind me with a hiss, and I started to feel my calm slipping away, as though I'd left it in the hallways. I hated small, enclosed spaces, and a tiny metal box suspended in midair from a cable really, really wasn't somewhere I wanted to be. It'd been so much easier with glass windows from floor to ceiling, like at Rubywood. Trying hard to forget my claustrophobia, I scanned the little panel of buttons with my eyes until I'd found one labeled with the silhouette of a shuttlecar. I pressed it, and felt the floor jerk around me as the car began to ascend. I almost stumbled and fell because I hadn't expected it: the other elevators I'd ridden in must've had some form of gravitational control, because I'd never been able to notice their acceleration. It seemed Jade's building was more cheaply built, and I was beginning to appreciate the amount of money Kenzon's business had raked in.
    The elevator door opened to a dim, narrow, elongated room furnished with cheap sofas, and sported the same brown carpet and stucco walls as the rest of the building. The only exception was a shuttlecar platform at the end, which boasted a waiting shuttlecar.
    It wasn't much longer before I had my hands on the console, speeding off into the Parasolian sunrise and watching Jade's building drop behind me into the distance, one word running through my mind: Foresthill. It was where Lydena had said she'd lived, on floor 56. I hated lying to my best friend, but if Katie got her PEA and told Trebor where she was before this was taken care of, I was sure he would kill me. The only way I had to find Trebor was through Lydena, so I hoped she wouldn't mind me arriving so early in the morning.

~~~

    "Vanya?" Lydena stood just inside her door, looking at me curiously. "It's only nine in the morning... is everything okay?" Dressed in a flowery red dress, she seemed fully awake, but also appeared to be somewhat put off to be receiving a visitor so early. It had taken me some time to find her door, but with the names of the tenants so clearly printed beside them, it hadn't been difficult to find her apartment, even without knowing her's and Cor's last name, which was now revealed to be "Tasnobaar": Lydena and Cor Tasnobaar.
    "Everything's okay," I replied, nodding. She didn't seem to be quite as friendly with me as she'd been with Katie, and I wondered if it had anything to do with Trebor, or perhaps the fact I was an elf.
    She hardly gave me a chance to talk, running her eyes up and down me almost suspiciously now. "Is that a Ballpoint suit?" she asked curiously, drawing ever so slightly back into her apartment. "Where is Katie? Why didn't she come with you?" Faced with the unknown, she was all about the facts. "Trebor's been worried about her lately. She won't respond to any of his messages, and he thinks she's avoiding her," she added informatively.
    "Katie's why I'm here," I explained quickly, trying to get it all out before she interrupted me again. "Mr. Kenzon – Katie's father – is trying to keep us out of sight for a while until whoever is after her goes away." I watched her closely as I spoke this last, but if she knew anything about the killer's identity, she kept it hidden. I continued, "I'm trying to get a message to Trebor, actually. I was hoping you could tell me where he is, or perhaps ask him to meet me..." My thoughts raced, and I hurried to try to set up the meeting before she could interrupt. "Could you ask him to meet me outside the Vynalus Forums sometime today? I have some important things to talk to him about, related to Katie." This was a lie, but I was hoping it would coax him out into the open. The Vynalus Forums, where the award ceremony had been held, always had people milling about... and more importantly, there were armed guards.
    "Yes, of course," Lydena agreed, appearing somewhat lost for words as she pulled a PEA out of a case at her waist. "I'll ask him to meet you there on his lunch break, at two in the afternoon."
    My heart thudded in my chest as I thought of what I would be facing in little more than four hours. "Thank you, Lydena... this means so much to Katie and me."
    Lydena's emerald eyes flicked up at me fleetingly, and she smiled with a mischievous air, seeming to relax. "We're breaking the rules to help Katie and Trebor get together," she mused thoughtfully as she tapped at her PEA. "It's actually pretty fun when you think about it. She really does like him, doesn't she? I knew it, ever since Trebor told me about how she'd asked him to come visit her more often. Her lips curled into a mischievous grin, and she leaned forwards secretively, saying in a soft voice, "Trebor told me he loves her, but don't tell her that."
    Hearing that, I felt certain I was right. As far as I knew, it was probably the only thing that had kept Trebor from killing me while Katie was there. "I won't tell her," I promised, and then added, "I have a couple other things to take care of before then, so I have to go. Thank you again!"
    She nodded in acknowledgement, smiling as she backed into her apartment, still tapping at her PEA. "All right! Trebor doesn't think too highly of you, Vanya, but I think you're all right. Don't let him know I told you that, though!"
    "I won't," I said, and as her apartment door closed behind her, I turned, starting back towards the elevator. I wasn't going to go straight to the Vynalus Forums, especially not with five hours to spare. If I wanted to have a fighting chance against Trebor, I would need an edge... and that meant talking to Solnay.

☆

[Talvieno]

Chapter 62: A Tense Meeting
    When you pause between chapters, you immediately notice that the woman across the table from you is still visibly upset. You glance around the room, and notice the guards have resumed their positions, and Dr. Thian Russ is sitting in a chair at the far side of the room, boring into you with his eyes. You get an uneasy feeling from the man, and it isn't the first time. "Please continue," he advises you in an icy tone, and with a slight frown, you press the button to start recording again as you continue translating Vanya's journal.

   Leaving the shuttlecar, I walked to the center of the little lobby.
    "Welcome to Applied Sciences' Liquid-Cooled Unit 3-403-F96BTS, codename Cephalopod," a feminine AI's smoothly modulated voice intoned. "Identifying employee. Please remain still."
   I'd been to the underwater laboratory where Solnay worked a few different times, and I knew what to expect, standing straight and erect as patterned laser grids scanned me. "Vanya Carena, military grade classification," the voice spoke again. "Invitation granted by tier three researcher, 'Solnay Hylcelon'. You may proceed."
    Before the AI had even finished speaking, I was already walking quickly towards the doorway on my right.
    "Would you like a tour?" the AI asked, just as it always did.
    "No thank you," I answered, adding, "and I'm fine without directions." The laboratories were familiar to me now. During my days at Mr Frog's, he'd honed my memory to the point that I could easily remember the path through Solnay's building after just one visit.

    With a brisk step, I walked down Cephalopod's hallways, brushing past solitary researchers idly examining their PEAs, headed towards Solnay's lab. It wasn't long before I reached it, pressing my palm to the handprint scanner by the doorway. Moments later, the door slid open smoothly, and I went inside.
    Solnay and her assistant, Gareth, were standing hunched over a table, wearing protective goggles as they pored over a sizzling piece of equipment. It was actually the first time I'd seen Gareth. Usually he was elsewhere, or Solnay had him running errands for her, like she had the first time I'd visited her. I only knew who he was because of Solnay's description: he was skinny with thick, straight blond hair, and he looked like he was a few years older than me.
    "It's the primary transmitter," he was explaining. "When you squeezed it too hard, it overloadedthe capacitors and started sending electrical pulses through the secondary feedback loop, and the induction coils there are creating the electromagnetic interference that's sending an erroneous data stream to the onboard computer. It's glitching out the firmware and expanding the portal's iris to its maximum diameter." I'm still not sure what any of it meant.
    "That's impossible, sweetie," Solnay replied in her regular patronizing tone. She went on to detail how she thought it didn't make sense, but I didn't understand a word of it either.
    Quietly, I walked up beside them to see what they were working on. In the center of the little table was the handheld thrusters Solnay had shown me the first time I'd been at Parasol... the ones that had tiny portals in them through which a fiery jet was released, to permit the user to thrust themselves upwards. It was actually one of the things I'd been hoping to get while I was there, because I thought it would be useful if I could jet away from Trebor if he decided to attack me. Unfortunately, the model they were working on was in pieces, the circuit boards splayed out over the table, loosely attached with color-coded wiring. If this was the only prototype they had, it didn't look like I'd be using it... and I didn't even know if they would have let me borrow it anyway. Really, I was only there on the hope that Solnay would loan me some sort of an edge.
    "Hello?" I asked softly, when they still didn't notice me.
    Gareth jerked his head up quickly in surprise as he stared at me, wide-eyed, apparently forgetting where his hands were: he almost knocked over a couple of flasks that were sitting on the table, and had to jump for them clumsily to keep them from falling over. I had to stifle a laugh at his awkwardness; this wasn't at all like Solnay had described him. Still, it was a little cute, in a way.
    Solnay's reaction was one I more expected. "Vanya, sweetie! You came to visit me!" She was already stripping off her gloves to greet me with that same warm, clammy hand-squeeze she always did. "And Gareth is here this time, too! I've told him so much about you," the researcher went on.
    The man swallowed, nodding awkwardly. "I, uh... um... hello?" he managed, looking embarrassed. Suddenly he lurched forwards to keep a shifting stack of glass discs from falling to the floor, barely managing to keep them together. It was almost comical, but then something else caught my eye: his ears.
    "You're an elf," I blurted in astonishment. He was the first elf I'd seen at Parasol.
    He nodded quickly, unable to meet my gaze. "Yes, I'm uh, an elf." His hand moved upwards as if going to wipe moisture from his forehead, but stopped halfway, pausing indelicately before he turned it into scratching the back of his neck. He changed his mind about that as well, seeming terribly uncomfortable as he let his hand fall to his side. "I'm... There's nothing wrong with that, is there?"
    "No, it's okay, I'm an elf, too," I replied, trying to help him feel a little less awkward. "It's just that I've never seen another elf at Parasol."
    When Gareth responded with a nod, Solnay took over. "Sweetie, if you came to watch me play with stuff, today isn't the best day – we already have a project we're working on. My VPTs – the portal thrusters – one of them broke, and we're trying to figure out why."
    "FPTs," Gareth insisted quietly, looking at his feet. Solnay didn't respond to it with anything more than a wide smile.
    "Actually, I'm hoping you could do something for me," I began hesitantly, shifting my eyes back and forth between them, watching their faces. I felt a little guilty that I didn't have anything to offer in return, but I didn't really have any options. "I'm going to be doing something dangerous in a few hours, and I need some sort of an edge. I may be attacked, I don't know... Someone is trying to kill me, and I'm trying to confront them outside the Vynalus Forums."
    Solnay dipped her head a little, frowning as if in disbelief. "Trying to kill you? Why, whoever would want to do that?"
    "I can't talk about it," I answered, frowning apologetically. "I'm really sorry, but I don't want to get them in trouble or arrested."
    With an understanding nod, Solnay took my hand again in both of hers, giving it another squeeze. "I understand. I'm very sorry, though – none of my work is supposed to leave the laboratory. I wish I could help, but we can't give you anything without losing our jobs."
    My heart sank, and I nodded listlessly. "I understand," I whispered softly. I hadn't really thought about the finer details of my plan, and I didn't want Solnay to lose her job for my sake... especially as I hadn't been able to save her husband, Jonah. "Thank you anyway... I'd better go get ready then," I said, offering them both a forced smile before I turned, walking towards the lab's doorway. If I didn't have an edge from them, I'd have to just trust on my instincts and hope that my gods would watch over me.
    Suddenly, Gareth spoke up from behind. "So, that's why the, um... that's what the... what the armor is for, yes?"
    I nodded, looking at him over my shoulder as I paused, reaching for the panel beside the door. "Mr Frog made it for me. It's supposed to look something like Ballpoint armor."
    "Given that you're going to the Vynalus Forums, that's not a good thing – the guards would assume you were Ballpoint and attack you on sight. We, uh... we can't send you out with any of our equipment, but... um... well," he paused, searching for words. "We could paint it," he suggested, glancing over at Solnay to make sure she approved.
    "That would help," I agreed, turning and examining my gray-and-black armor with a thoughtful stare. "Wouldn't it take too long to dry, though? I only have three or four hours left..."
    Solnay smiled. "I could fix that, sweetie," she cooed with a sly wink.

    I spent the next few hours in a corner of the laboratory, sitting on a chair behind a makeshift cardboard changing screen, completely naked except for my dysfunctional portal bracelet. Mr Frog had designed my armor so I’d be comfortable in it, and as people on Everoc don’t generally wear undergarments... the armor he made for me didn’t require any either. I'd slipped out of it and handed it to them one piece at a time, and they'd put it on an armor stand and started working. Solnay had mentioned it before, but it hadn't occurred to me: one of her projects was a type of latex paint that sprayed on dry, so you didn't have to wait while it was wet. It seemed ingenious – the only caveat, she'd told me, was that it was more or less untested.
    "Just be careful with it," she warned me, laughing in her overly bubbly way. "I've needed a field test of it, and this is the perfect opportunity. It may scratch away if you're not careful."
    "All right," I said, poking my head out around the screen to watch them. I found Gareth particularly amusing: it was obvious he wasn't at all sure how to handle himself, with me sitting naked less than twenty feet away, and he felt incredibly awkward about the whole situation. It seemed to make him clumsier than usual, which was cute. Unfortunately, "spraying paint" and "clumsy" don't tend to go well together, and eventually Solnay had to take over the spraying herself, while Gareth moved to a computer console at the other end of the room to try to fix the VPT software.
    In all, it took a lot longer than I'd expected. Even without waiting for the paint to dry, it's a tedious, time-consuming process – especially with Gareth off by himself where he couldn't cause any harm.

    "I've made this look as much like military gear as I could," Solnay assured me as she sprayed the last colors on. "I used to be in the military myself, you know. I was a soldier for Parasol, but nothing special. That's where I met my Jonah, during the war of 183... he was such a good boy... I married him after the war was over. When they re-drafted me in 200, he stayed behind to work on his theories. Then I got captured five years later. I did eventually escape, but I lost my leg." Here she pulled up her lab coat and pants leg to show me a leg made entirely of steel, and gave it a kick to demonstrate its functionality. "When I got home, he was gone... he'd joined the military to try to find me, but he got stuck in 48D."
    "I'm sorry, Solnay," I said quietly.
    "Don't be, sweetie," she told me in response, putting a few finishing touches on my armor in cyan paint as she did. "He was a good man. He died protecting everyone... and I'm very proud of him." Straightening, she looked over her work. "That looks to be about right," she said, taking the chest piece off the rack and bringing it over to me, a very slight limp in her step. I hadn't noticed it before, but her artificial leg apparently wasn't as effective as a real one.
    Thanking her, I slipped the armor on, while she went off to get the other pieces. It felt odd to see white armor in my peripheral vision, rather than Ballpoint's gray, but I figured I could get used to it.
    It wasn't long before I was fully dressed. The black trim I'd had before stayed the same, but she'd sprayed the gray areas with white paint, and put cyan detailing on the rest of it to better match Parasol's colors. I felt... shiny. The new paint reflected light a little better than I would've liked it to, but I figured I could live with it, especially since armor at Spearbreakers had been made of metal, and therefore even shinier.
   "Thank you for helping me out," I said, trying to keep the pleasantries short as I hurried towards the door. "I stayed a lot longer than I'd expected, and I need to hurry."
    Solnay motioned for me to stop. "Wait!" Hurrying over to me, she held out a little card. "It's a security bypass card I use to get into R&D archives," she explained quickly. "I don't know if it will help, but I have a spare and it shouldn't hurt my job by giving it to you, so long as you don't say it's from me. If it's really life and death, then..." her voice trailed off, and she watched me expectantly.
    I looked at it curiously for a moment before thanking her and putting it into one of my pouches. I wasn't exactly sure where I would have a use for it, but I figured it couldn't hurt to have it with me.

    It wasn't long before I was walking up the little ramp to a shuttlecar, meaning to start towards the Vynalus Forums... but I didn't have my edge, only a suit of freshly painted armor. I didn't feel at all ready to meet Trebor, and I was horribly afraid of what would happen... but I didn't really have a choice.
    Placing my hands on one of the two sets of glossy black control panels, I heard the now-familiar voice of the shuttlecar's AI in my head: Please remain still while we make the connection...

~~~

    The Vynalus Forums were just as beautiful as the first time I'd visited, but this time, the weather seemed a lot less friendly. Sometimes it's easy to forget that while the planet is artificial, the weather is every bit as real as it would be for a normal world. Parasol has wind and rain, too, and there isn't much they can do to control it.
    I walked down the shuttlecar ramp and left the station as quickly as I could, looking for an appropriate spot to wait. I needed to be ready for anything. Above me, the darkly clouded sky did little to help my anxiety, and neither did the giant trees that swayed gently far above, their young spring leaves fluttering about in the wind. Finally I reached the middle of the main walkway, halfway between the shuttlecar station and the Forums' main entrance. It would hopefully give me enough time to spot Trebor before he saw me, and there were plenty of people idling under the trees, talking among themselves. Guards patrolled the path at varying intervals, and as they walked past me, none of them so much as batted an eye at my "Parasol armor", and I thanked the gods for watching over me. If I hadn't gotten my armor painted, I probably would've gotten shot down as soon as I'd set foot onto the grounds... something I'd overlooked.
    After a moment's pause, I decided to stand up against one of the tree trunks, out of the way. Once I had, I turned down the tree-lined path, facing the shuttlecar station, and began praying to Armok. I didn't know if I'd have to use either of my spells, but I didn't want to wind up being forced to without having put any prayer in.
    And so I waited.

    Before half an hour had passed, I spotted him: Trebor Mallarkus, walking swiftly from the shuttlecar station, turning his head left and right as he scanned the area for me. I didn't see that he was armed, but I also knew it wasn't difficult to conceal a weapon... with that in mind, I slipped a hand into one of the pouches at my waist to reassure myself that my daggers were still there.
    Thunder crashed in the distance with a roar, lending a dangerous feel to an already perilous situation. Feeling breathless, my heart pounding in my chest, I stepped out from behind the tree and headed towards him, my hands held a little out in front of me. I was ready to form a magic shield at the slightest sign that he was going to try to kill me.
    And then he saw me. It was difficult to see his overshadowed face beneath the trees, especially with the group of people who were standing right in front of him, but I saw him break into a jog, and I tensed, watching him vigilantly and bringing my pace to a crawl.
   I was terrified.
   It was coming.
    He broke past the people who were standing before him and continued to jog in my direction, his dark jacket flapping in the air as he ran. Every fiber of my being urged me to run, but I fought against it, praying to Armok, wherever he might be, for protection. Finally, Trebor reached me, slowing to a stop a careful fifteen feet away from where I stood. For a minute, we stood silently on the tree-lined path, eyeing each other carefully, both of us tense, our hands at our sides.
    "So, you wanted to talk to me about Katie?" he finally asked, looking at me suspiciously. He couldn't help but notice I was wearing armor, and I think it put him even more on edge than he would've been otherwise.
    Thunder boomed from afar, the grass on the fields around us rippling with the wind. The air tugged at my hair, whipping strands of it across my face, but I ignored it and swallowed back my fear. "I wanted to talk to you about the reason she's in hiding," I replied, raising my voice slightly to make sure he heard me. "Kenzon thinks someone is after Katie, and wanted us to stay hidden until the danger was over." The entire conversation felt forced, and very, very awkward.
    "Ah, and that's why she hasn't been returning my calls, then," he guessed, folding his arms and glancing uncomfortably at a female security guard as she passed us. "You know, that makes a lot more sense. I'd wondered if she'd started hating me."
    "She doesn't hate you," I assured him. Here it comes, I thought, clenching and unclenching my gloved hands nervously. "However... I know that you hate me."
    Trebor smirked. "Oh, it's that obvious, is it?" He paused, and added with careful emphasis, "Hotlips?"
    "Kenzon thinks someone is after Katie, and maybe that's what he was supposed to think," I said slowly, cautiously, "But I know they're after me. Not her."
    With a smile, Trebor raised his head in a half-nod. "Ah, and I'm supposed to be involved, aren't I. How about you just be blunt? You think I'm assisting this... 'mysterious killer'... with information because I hate you. That explains why you brought me out here. A mystery is solved!"
    "You know I know," I said, glaring at him. "Why don't you come right out and admit it?" His nonchalant, mocking attitude was starting to get to me, even though I was trying really hard not to let it. I was beginning to feel incredibly stressed out by the whole situation.
    He folded his arms, seemingly amused by our conversation, and possibly a little irritated, too. "Come out and admit what? I'm doing nothing like you think I am, and even if I was," he scoffed, "you don't have any proof. You don't even have a motive for why I would be doing it. ...Hypothetically, you know." He gave a wry smile.
    If I hadn't been before, now I was sure. I furrowed my brow in frustration. "If you kill me, it still won't bring your sister back," I began, ready to try to convince him killing me wasn't the best idea, but that was as far as I got: my words really ticked him off.
    "Armok's beard..." His mouth fell open and he stared at me, astounded. "You think I'm trying to kill you? Are you serious??" He put ran his hands through his close-cropped black hair, shaking his head. "You're insane... How on Parasol did you come up with that harebrained theory?"
    His reaction really wasn't one I'd expected, and it threw me for a loop. "You're... not trying to kill me?" I asked him, trying unsuccessfully to brush the hair out of my eyes before the wind could sweep it back.
    "No, of course I'm not trying to kill you!" He seemed legitimately disgusted at my accusation. "I'm a doctor, Vanya. We take a vow to heal and protect – not kill every person we feel the slightest bit of hatred for!" Shaking his head, he started to walk away.
    "What about Almory?" I asked in confusion.
    "Almory?" He turned around stepped closer, having seemingly changed his mind about leaving. "You think I want to kill you because of what happened to my sister, right?"
    I swallowed guiltily. He was clearly upset.
    "That was my fault!" he hissed quietly, moving even closer until we were almost toe to toe. His head slightly downcast, he stared me in the eyes as he spoke. "That was my fault, Vanya, not yours. I left my coagulants at the trench and I could've saved her if I'd remembered to bring them along."
    "Then why do you hate me?" I took a step back to put distance between us.
    His lips pursed while he seemed to internally debate something, but he finally said, "It's a stupid reason, but it's because I would've died along with her if you hadn't come along. Everyone would have – all of 48D – and you took that away." He pointed at me accusingly, dramatically, with a piercing glare. "Here I am without her, when I ought to be dead, and it wasn't even your fight to begin with. You don't belong here, Vanya, and you sure didn't belong there, either. Sometimes people don't want to be saved... not if their loved ones die."

    I'd definitely been wrong about the person who'd tried to kill us. It wasn't Trebor like I'd assumed... but it left open the question of who the real killer was.
    It wasn't much longer before I learned of a way I could find out.

☆

[Talvieno]

Chapter 63: Returning Home
    With a cautious eye on Dr. Russ over in his corner, you continue reading. The woman across from you watches with a defeated, hopeless gaze.

    Trebor and I stood facing each other beneath the towering trees on the lawns of the Vynalus Forums. I don't think we were still worried that we were in danger from each other, but the atmosphere was tense. Thunderclouds rolled in overhead, while wind whipped leaves about before us, lightning flashing near the horizon.
    "I'm curious to know – why did you think it was me?" Trebor queried, still glaring at me with disgust and hatred. "And why would you think it was all about you? Nobody here even knows who you are, and even if they did, there are plenty of Everoccans here besides you. Oh, and I heard about the double murder on Katie's birthday, by the way. Am I exempt from that, or did you think that was me, too?"
    I paused before I answered, feeling guilty about the accusations I'd made. "We went to your family's house, trying to find you... Lydena said you weren't around, and that it was unusual that she hadn't heard from you. I also overheard Katie telling you that she wouldn't be at home..." I knew I had to continue, but I felt awful. "If you wanted to kill me without her finding out, it would've been the perfect time."
    Trebor frowned at me disappointedly, shaking his head. "Well, that's typical of you, isn't it... If you only knew," he muttered quietly. Then, glancing around, he asked, "Did you bring Katie along?"
    "No..." I responded cautiously. "Why?"
    He hesitated for a few seconds, until finally, with a sigh, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a little black box. Then, he stepped towards me, and I reflexively took a step back. He rolled his eyes. "Look, Vanya. I'm not going to hurt you. I don't think I could hurt you with this, anyway, unless you're in love with Katie." Saying this, he opened the little black box.
    My eyes widened when I saw what was inside, and I gasped: it was a breathtakingly gorgeous engagement ring, set with red gems. I knew Trebor's family was wealthy, but it was still astonishing. Then I realized what it meant. "You're going to marry her? You're not even together!" I exclaimed in surprise.
    "Not yet," he told me quietly, snapping the box shut and slipping it back into his coat. "Founder's Day is as much a day for commercialism as celebration, and most businesses have early-morning sales, in case you didn't know. While you were looking for me, I was hunting around the city, looking at all the different stores for a ring I felt was perfect for Katie, and that, more than anything else, is why I wasn't around."
    "You love her," I whispered, barely audible over the roaring of the wind. "I thought you did, but I wasn't sure..."
    "Of course I love her," he answered affirmitavely. "And I'm pretty sure she loves me, too, but it's a little harder to tell with her than me. I wasn't going to propose anytime soon, but Founder's Day is the biggest sale of the year, and I couldn't just pass it up in good conscience. I was planning on showing up at her place to surprise her, before she suddenly decided she wouldn't be home."
    I nodded silently, feeling uncomfortable. Although I wasn't sure if Katie would like him knowing, I felt strongly compelled to play the matchmaker... I wanted Katie to be happy. "Katie does love you, but she's afraid you don't love her. She did only just turn 18, and you're..."
    "I'm 23, yes," he finished my sentence for me. "I'm very well aware of the age difference, but she and I get along remarkably well, if you haven't noticed. We've spent a lot of time together, too, so I guess that helps. She's a wonderful person, and it's hard not to want to be around her..." I could see his love for her in his darkened, distant eyes as he spoke; I could hear it in the thoughtful air that pervaded his voice. Love isn't something you can easily fake. "Is she okay?" he asked worriedly. "Where is he keeping her, can you tell me?"
    Frowning, I shook my head quickly. "I can't, I'm sorry. I don't even know, myself... but I can help you talk to her again, I think. Kenzon didn't pack her PEA, and I told Katie I was getting it today."
    Trebor thought this over, looking downward as he absently scratched his clean-shaven chin. "So, I'm guessing that means she doesn't know you thought I was the killer... That's good, I guess. At least there's that."
    "I kept it to myself," I explained awkwardly.
    "I never thought I'd say I was grateful to you, but I am, just for that... And, I have something for you to give her, if you will." As he spoke, he reached into the other side of his coat. "It's the book she and I wrote together. I knew she'd want a copy, so I brought one with me for her in case she decided to show. I grabbed one for you, too, if you want it. Katie wanted you to have a copy." He held out two stapled-together stacks of small, pale blue paper. "It's not been officially released yet, this is just something I put together myself."
    I nodded, taking them from him and slipping them into one of my pouches. They were narrow, but I still barely managed to fit them in without bending them. I thanked him, adding, "I'll get her PEA for her, too, so you can talk to her."
    He frowned, looking me over with a curious, disdainful expression, his head tilted to one side. It felt like he was trying to figure me out. "All right then, Vanya," he finally said. "Duty calls, so I'll see you around. I'll look forward to being able to talk to Katie again." And with that, he started to walk away.
    I almost forgot to ask him until he was out of hearing. "Trebor!" I shouted after him, and saw him turn around. "Can I tell her you love her?"
    Trebor nodded before he turned away once more.

    As his figure faded away into the distance, I thought over what I'd learned. One mystery was explained. Trebor wasn't really the killer, and the reason I thought he'd changed was because he had changed... but only towards me. However, two mysteries still remained to be solved: who was the real killer, and what did he want with Katie?
    I couldn't stay and loiter for long, though: the thunderclouds above me started sprinkling. It wasn't quite a full rain yet, but it shook me from my thoughts enough to remind me that I needed to get to Kenzon's apartment. As little droplets of rain began to fall ever more thickly around me, I hurried towards the shuttlecar station in the distance, hoping I could make it inside before I was completely soaked.
    It wasn't long before I'd boarded another shuttlecar, and with my hands on the console's surface, I let the words enter my mind: "Rubywood Apartments..." And the car started to move.
    As the vehicle took me out and above the outstretched city below, the rain pounding inaudibly against the glassy sides of the tube through which I sped, I couldn't help but wonder why the killer had actually had to follow me home to find Mr. Kenzon's apartment... Couldn't he simply just think, "Sheck Kenzon's apartment" and wait to arrive?
    Whether I wanted it or not, that question was going to answer itself before much longer, though I didn't know it at the time.
   
~~~

    There was a silence in the hallways, an ominous, foreboding feeling permeating everything. It felt as though the entire world was holding its breath, waiting for something terrible to happen, and it made me uneasy.
    I stood outside Mr. Kenzon's apartment, Katie's keycard in my hand. I'd grabbed it before Katie and I had left to spend Founder's Day with Trebor, but I'd never had the opportunity to use it. Now, it was finally becoming useful, especially because Kenzon didn't know I still had it. He'd never made good on his promise to make me one of my own, and I can't help but wonder if that was intentional. With a cautious glance over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't being followed, I slipped the card down the side of the keypad, wincing at the beeping that sounded from the pad's speaker as the door lock clicked. As I turned the knob and entered, I slid the card back into my pocket, and then closed the door behind me as softly as I could.
    It was still the middle of the afternoon, but it was so dark and stormy outside that his apartment seemed dim as dusk. Rain pounded loudly against the glass, muddling the image of the outside world. I could still clearly see, at least, even with my non-dwarven eyes in the fading light. Kenzon had placed the furniture back exactly the way it had been previously, all the way down to that untouched corner of the living room that Katie's grandmother had once claimed. It looked cleaner than it had while Katie and I had lived there, but that didn't surprise me overmuch. Kenzon had as much of a penchant for tidiness as he did for controlling his daughter's life.
    I was glad to find that Kenzon definitely wasn't home: every light in the house was off, and even though the door to his room was open, I didn't feel pressured to move quickly. Turning left from the door, I made a beeline for Katie's bedroom, turning the doorknob as I reached it... only to discover that it was locked. For a minute, my hand hovered hesitantly before Katie's keypad as I struggled to remember the keycode... but then I realized she'd never given it to me. Fortunately, I remembered something else she'd done.
    With my fingers figuratively crossed, I walked down the wall to the nearest potted plant – a synthetic bush with greenish leaves – and worked my fingers into the damp, dark soil... just as Katie had done when we'd first arrived from Everoc. When I felt a keycard beneath my fingertips, I let out a sigh of relief, feeling pleased with myself. I pulled it out and, after brushing it off, slipped it smoothly down the side of the pad. Just as I'd hoped, the door unlocked.
    Carefully, I slipped the little card back into the little bush's soil, and entered Katie's room, looking around. Her bedroom, unlike mine, didn't have a window, and it was all but pitch black. I felt tempted to turn the light on, but I didn't know if that was something Kenzon could track, and I really didn't want him to figure out that I'd broken into his home. Instead, I just felt along the top edge of her dresser, careful not to knock anything over... then I felt across her bed. Finally, I felt along her desk, and that was when I found it: Katie's PEA, lying by itself under a little pile of folded laundry.
    "There we go," I whispered, slipping it into the pouch with Trebor's books. Now I just needed to get back to Jade's place.
    Unfortunately, things are never that easy. Now, writing this, it reminds me of my old theory that Armok amuses himself by tormenting me however he can... it's ironic that his name was the first thing on my lips as soon as I found myself in trouble.
    Just as I exited Katie's room, closing Katie's door behind me, a portal opened up beside the doorway to the hall. I jumped in surprise, startled half to death, and my mind rushed to try to figure out what to do.
    "Armok, scata clontas," I said hurriedly, and without even checking to see if the spell had worked, I rushed towards the darkest corner of the room that I could find: the corner Katie's grandmother had claimed. I hadn't even managed to reach it before I heard footsteps behind me. As noiselessly as I could manage, I dove behind the armchair, hoping I hadn't been seen. My heart was beating like a drum; I hadn't expected anyone to show up while I was there.
    The light flicked on in the room, and while the corners were still dimmer, especially the one where I crouched, it was far too bright for comfort. I turned my head, looking towards the center of the room, and my hopes fell: I saw Kenzon walk into view, followed by another human I hadn't seen before, who was holding a briefcase in one hand and wearing a long, dark coat.
    "Detective Weldon?" Kenzon asked expectantly, and I moved a little to get a better look at the man. I was very, very glad that my shadow cloak spell was working. "I'm sure you had a good reason to pull me away from a client."
    The other man, "Weldon", nodded, sitting down on Kenzon's divan and opening his briefcase on the wooden table in front of him. "You know it, so let's not waste time with idle chit-chat. I have other business to worry about after this, and a few more suspects to hunt down."
    Shaking his head, Kenzon muttered, "I never understood your predilection for holding these meetings in the middle of thunderstorms."
    The offhand comment made Weldon give the other a sly smile, as he sifted through several stacks of papers in his briefcase. "I generally tell my clients it's to garble any bugs or wires that might be about... but really, it's more for show." Gathering a few sheets of paper in hand, he stood and offered them them to Kenzon. "Read those," he advised.
    I was starting to feel a little worried. Because of how far they stood apart from each other, there wasn't much of anywhere I could sit without being seen, and I was afraid to move in case they might spot me... but it wasn't easy for me to hold a spell for too long, especially not on Parasol.
    Kenzon looked the papers over, flipping through them. "These are from the phone company," he said slowly.
    The detective nodded. "Dated for the day Katalina was attacked at the Mall. Someone broke into Division 3's Intelligence Center – specifically, the communications department – and hacked into the archives."
    "Really..." Katie's father raised an eyebrow at his friend, before turning back to the files he held. "I remember hearing about that on the TV."
    Nodding, Weldon went on, "As I'm sure you've already figured out, that's how he knew Katalina was at the Mall when he set up his ambush – he got the ID for Katie's phone and tracked it down. I hate to say it, but, they never found the perpetrator. I'm sure you've guessed that yourself."
    With a grimace, Kenzon handed the papers back, crossing his arms. "Do you have any leads?"
    "Just one," the detective said. "The hack job was clean, clean enough to suggest that it wasn't the killer's homegrown work. I'm going to snoop around and see if I can't smoke out whoever gave him the software he used. I also have reports of several well-hidden bugging devices having been discovered within the facility, but I can't get in there myself to look for more." He held up a number of other papers for Kenzon to review.
    Kenzon only uncrossed his arms enough to wave them away, communicating that he wasn't interested in looking at them. "How long will it take?"
    The private investigator shook his head apologetically, putting everything back into the briefcase and closing it. "If I could get into the Intellicence Center, I could puzzle out who the killer really is... but, without that, it could take six months, or it could take six years. I've tried to cross-reference other murders in the past decade with these attempted killings, but nothing comes up. We'll find him eventually, but it could take a very long time."
    I'd been holding my spell for at least two minutes at that point... I was beginning to feel incredibly strained. It isn't easy holding a link to Armok for so long while you're at Parasol. I was starting to feel lightheaded, and my breath was drawing shorter. I was lucky that there was rain pounding at the nearby window... if it hadn't been for the thunderstorm, I'm sure would have heard me.
    "Just get back to me when you find something," Kenzon said quietly. "Thank you for updating me, Detective."
    "I will, don't worry. And make sure you turn your apartment's portal shielding back on." With that, the man tipped his hat and walked out of view, leaving Kenzon standing alone in the middle of the room, scratching the side of his balding head in thought. I heard the door to the apartment unlock and open; after a moment, I heard it close back once again.
    I couldn't hold it any longer. Jerking myself out of view of Kenzon, I pressed my back up against the armchair and I whispered as softly as I could, "Armok, taunke." The spell ceased, my arms and legs openly visible once more. I felt dizzy. As my head cleared, I listened to see if Katie's father had noticed.
    He muttered something inaudible, walking over to the window on my right and gazing outside at the Parasol skyline, past the rippling rain as it moved down the glass in torrents. As I watched silently, stilling my breathing as much as I could, he lifted a finger to his face. It was hard to tell... my hair was in my eyes, and I was too afraid to move it, but... I think I saw him wipe away a tear.
    Finally, Kenzon turned away, walking out of view. The lights in the room switched off, and I heard the door open behind me, soon shutting once more. I was alone.
    I closed my eyes, thanking Armok for deliverance with several well-practiced prayers. Eventually, after a good number of minutes, I figured I'd prayed enough to replenish my prayer pool, I stood, hurrying to the door of his apartment. On reaching it, I said for a second time, "Armok, scata clontas." Then, as softly as I could, I opened the door and left, closing it quietly behind me.
    It wasn't until I reached Rubywood's shuttlecar station that I felt comfortable lowering my spell once more.
   
    I didn't stop the killer that day, but I did learn much, much more than I could've hoped to. I learned that Trebor wasn't actually trying to kill me; I learned that Trebor wanted to be with Katie; I learned that the killer had tracked Katie's phone. It made more sense now that he was after Katie and not me... I just hoped that they found him soon, because I really didn't see any way we would ever escape Jade's apartment otherwise.
    The one thing that I couldn't get out of my mind was the tear I thought I saw running down Kenzon's face. His daughter was safe at Jade's house, and he knew that. It couldn't have been that he was worried about her, no... it was that he missed her. He just wanted her home, though he didn't want to say it aloud... I felt for him.
    And the shuttlecar carried me away.

~~~
   
    The rain had since subsided, but the stormy sky still menaced with doubt and depression. Parasol's "sun" was setting, and night was falling. I still wasn't back at Jade's place.
    It was here that I saw firsthand why the killer couldn't simply ask the shuttlecar to take him to Kenzon's place, and why he had to follow me home: it didn't recognize the names of residents, and without knowing the name of Jade's apartment building, it wouldn't take me there. I could think "go to where Jade Medell lives" all I wanted, but the shuttlecar only moved around seemingly at random, hopping between switchpoints as my mind moved between different locations.
    Not knowing what else to do, I mentally guided the shuttlecar about Division 3's capital city, watching for anything that seemed familiar. It took me a long time, but I finally saw Jade's apartment building... I was fortunate I'd watched it fade into the distance as I'd left that morning, or I might never have gotten home. Breathing a prayer of relief, I pointed the car in that direction with my mind and felt myself relax. It wasn't long before I was headed towards Jade's apartment.

    I soon arrived at Jade's door, knocking and praying that she wasn't back yet. Fortunately, Katie opened it, although she looked very put off.
    "You were supposed to get back hours ago! I thought something had happened to you!" she hissed, grabbing my arm and pulling me into the room. After she'd closed the door behind us, she turned and looked me over. "Your armor is in Parasol's colors now," she noted suspiciously. "What were you doing? And what ]took you so long? I thought you were dead! I've been freaking out!"
    Shaking my head, I unfastened one of my pouches, pulling Katie's PEA from it, along with the books Trebor had given me. "It's a long story," I said cautiously, "but I talked to Trebor." I wasn't sure how she would take it, but there wasn't any other way to explain how I had them.
    Katie's eyes danced at the mere mention of his name, but it was clear she hadn't yet forgiven me for the scare I'd given her, only waiting expectantly. "...And?"
    For a minute, I hesitated, watching her face. "He loves you," I said softly.   
    It took a few seconds to sink in. When it had, she crumpled towards me, a smile emerging on her face as her eyes moistened with tears, throwing her arms around me as she wept with happiness. "Thank you, Vanya," she whispered. "Thank you so, so much."

☆

[Talvieno]

Chapter 64: A Mysterious Stranger
    As you continue reading you hear gunshots coming from the hallway outside the door. The woman across from you seems alarmed, but the guards standing on either side of Vanya's coffin bolt to the door and exit, leaving you to wonder what was going on as you continue reading.

    If there's one thing I've learned from my travels, it's that when things are "normal", they never tend to stay that way for long.

    Jade stayed at home the next weekend just as she always did. She never figured out I'd left, which is good: if she or Kenzon had ever known, they probably would've taken Katie's PEA away and moved her somewhere else. It's very possible that I would've gotten kicked out, too. After all, she and I are just friends... but I suppose Kenzon thought the killer might try to extract information from me if I was on the streets. I can't come up with any other reason that he would have kept me living with her, besides the fact that I don't have anywhere else to go.
    As it was, Katie had a way to talk to the outside world again, and she was happy. With her occupied, though, I had very little to do. For a while I tried watching the news on Jade's televiewer. Spurred onwards by Trebor's speech, Parasol was gearing up to wage a fullscale war against Ballpoint within the next year, which was exactly what Joseph wanted: he wanted them to destroy each other, and from Jade's apartment, there was nothing I could do about it. Really, even if I'd found a way to leave, I still don't think there's anything I could've done. In the end, the news programs only made me worry even more about Spearbreakers and Everoc. Katie still watched them frequently, but I wasn't really as interested anymore.
    To get my mind off it all, I eventually decided to occupy my time trying to write out the story of 48D's final battle in my journal, and that involved cutting up my copy of Katie and Trebor's book to help tell the parts of the story I hadn't witnessed personally. I've been writing it my native elven language so Mr. Kenzon can't read it if he tries, but the text of Trebor's book is in Dwarven Standard... as I pasted portions of it into my journal, it bothered me a little that I was mixing the two languages, but I didn't really have a choice. During all this, I discovered many things Katie had never told me... like how she'd had to personally destroy the zombie of her former boyfriend, Saemin Lo; Eltsha's son. I can't imagine how traumatic that must've been for her, and it at least partially explains the nightmares she still has.
    Fortunately for me, Jade didn't ask any questions about Trebor's book. I suppose she'd never paid attention enough to know that we hadn't brought them with us. Over the weekend, though, I found myself wishing I could leave again. I'd managed one succcessful excursion, and as far as I knew, Kenzon's detective simply wasn't going to finish his job. Katie missed Trebor... and I missed Urist. We both wanted out, sooner rather than later.
    I suppose that's part of why Katie and I decided I needed to leave again. Although Katie had Trebor's PEA address, I didn't have Reudh's, or Solnay's... and that was something I wanted to change. Our plan was to obtain Solnay and Gareth's assistance in getting Katie and I out of there, and there was no way to do it if we couldn't contact them. Somehow, I felt sure that with their help, we could figure out who was really behind the attacks, and make whoever it was stop, once and for all.

~~~~

    Wearing my freshly painted armor, I left Jade's apartment early Monday morning, closing the door softly as I went. Katie stayed behind, just as she had last time, although she'd made it clear she'd really wanted to come with me. Despite how much she disliked Solnay, it would've meant getting out of the house, and that was something she never got to do enough. Unfortunately, one of us needed to be able to stay behind to cover for the other, in case we didn't finish fast enough... and we decided it would be better for her to stay. If Jade got back too soon, Katie would simply tell her that I was napping in our room.
    As I walked down the stucco-walled hallways towards the elevator, my mind was turning. I wasn't entirely sure Solnay and Gareth would help, and I didn't even know for sure if there was even anything they could do... but over the past couple of days, Katie and I had been hatching a plan. Kenzon's private investigator, Weldon, had said that he hadn't managed to get into Parasol's Division 3 Intelligence Center, but he'd implied that if he could have gotten in, he would've been able to figure out who the killer was. That was my goal. It would be risky, and probably illegal, I knew... but really, as Katie was so fond of pointing out, I have a penchant for breaking the rules.


    It seems that whenever I'm lost in thought in unfamiliar places, bad things happen... and that day was no exception. Still preoccupied with my plans, I exited the elevator onto the station's floor, walking towards the shuttlecar platform just like I always did. This time, though, someone was waiting.
    "It's you!" a female voice hissed from the shadows on the far side of the elongated room, and I jumped, raising my eyes abruptly to the noise. I didn't get a very good look at her at the time, but it was enough to notice the long, dark coat she was wearing, and one thought ran through my mind: It's the Killer. As the woman left the shadows she revealed her battle-scarred face and walked towards me purposefully, a hand on the pistol at her waist.
    I didn't stop to see more. Spinning around in a panic, I pressed the elevator button and looked up at the display above the doorframe for a second, before changing my mind and darting for the stairs as fast as my legs could carry me, terrified for my life. I suspected she must've followed me home three days before, when I'd gone to get Katie's PEA; I didn't have a clue how the person would've even known to look for me at Kenzon's place, but really, right then, that didn't seem as important as running.

    Sprinting down the stairs two steps at a time, rushing to get back to Jade's apartment on floor 12, I could hear heavy footfalls above as the mysterious figure gave chase. "Stop! Where the fuck do you think you're going?" she called after me in aggravation as we descended the square spiral staircase.
    I was too distressed to even consider answering, hyperventilating with fear. I didn't want to die. When I looked upwards, I could see her gaining on me, and it frightened me enough to make some foolhardy maneuvers. Praying for my life, I leapt sideways over the stair rail and plummeted downwards to the next set of stairs, a flight below me. I barely managed to land with both feet on the same step, catching myself with my hands. Before I'd even had time to check to see how much ground I'd gained, I stumbled to my feet and kept running, watching the numbers on the wall as I descended: 33... 32... 31...
    She was just above me - as if her stomping feet weren't enough to tell me where she was, the woman added colorful language to the mix: "Damn it all, you bitch, get back here!"
    My heart was pounding like a drum, and I was panting heavily from exertion. My temples throbbed, pulsing with every heartbeat, and I was working up a sweat. I was running on pure adrenaline, and my fight-or-flight response had definitely tuned in to "flight". The only weapons I had were my daggers, and that's no match for someone wielding a pistol with murderous intent.
    As I passed a doorway labeled with the dwarven runes for 18, she shouted once more, "Where the fuck are you going?"
    At that point, I just didn't care anymore, leaping over the railing again, and again. My next two landings were lucky, but the third wasn't: I landed halfway on the edge of a step, extremely lucky that I didn't twist my ankle again as I tumbled down to the next corner, my armor absorbing most of the damage. Aching, I picked myself up and continued rushing downwards. The woman's footsteps weren't as loud as they'd been, but I could tell she was still following me. I continued my descent as fast as I could: 14... 13... and finally, finally, I reached floor twelve, pushing open the heavy metal door and rushing through, trying to calm my panicked mind as I tried to remember where Jade's apartment was.
    All the way there, I was afraid that if I looked backwards, I'd see that woman right behind me. Instead, I made up my mind to quit watching for her and just run.

    On reaching Jade's door, I knocked urgently, praying that Katie would open it up quickly. The moments between when I knocked and when she opened the door seemed an eternity, but it wasn't really too long before she did.
    "Vanya?" she asked in surprise, looking me over in growing anxiety. "Are you okay? You look –" I put my hand over her mouth to silence her and pushed past. As soon as I was inside, I closed the door behind us and locked it.
    "Safe," I whispered, collapsing onto the floor with my back against the doorframe, wiping the sweat from my brow as I tried to slow my breath. My head was pounding; I could actually hear my heartbeat. I don't think I've ever run as fast in my life... at least not while wearing my armor.
    "Vanya, what's going on??" Katie asked, starting to panic herself. "Is he out there? Is he after you?"
    I nodded, blinking and trying to swallow, but my mouth was so dry I almost couldn't.
    Katie face fell, and she slipped to the ground beside me, whispering, "Oh my gods... how did he find us?"
    "It's a she," I managed quietly. "She chased me down the stairs from the shuttlecar station."
    "She???" My friend bit her lip, her eyes falling to the floor as she shook her head in dismay. "She must've followed you home after you went to get the PEA... What'll we do?"
    I closed my eyes tightly, thinking and trying to calm myself down a little bit. "We stay inside. We can't go back out there if she knows what building we're in." There was a pause, and the only sounds in the room were our breathing. I strained my ears to listen for any sounds outside the door, but heard nothing.
    "She'll recognize Jade," Katie whispered finally. "If she's still around when Jade gets back, she'll recognize her immediately and follow her here."
    Katie was right, and my plan to get back home, while successful, appeared to not be as safe as I'd hoped. "We don't even know who this person is. I've never seen her before in my life."
    "What did she look like? Maybe I'll have known her," Katie suggested.
    Nodding, I strained to picture her face in my mind. "I think she was a human, or a really tall dwarf," I said slowly, remembering, "and her face was scarred pretty badly, but not like Eltsha's: they were battle scars. Her hair was... her hair was light brown, and came down to... I guess to her shoulders, and it looked like it hadn't been kept up very well."
    My friend frowned. "I haven't met anybody like that before."

    At that moment, my heart leapt into my throat; someone knocked loudly on the door behind me. "I found you, come on out!" ordered the woman's voice, muffled as it was by the wooden door.
    Katie and I sat frozen in silence, staring at each other in terror. The knob above my head rattled for a moment, and I was thankful I'd remembered to lock it. Neither of us moved or made a sound.
    "Open up!" the voice called out again. "I could hear you through the door; I know you're in there."
    "Leave us alone!" I said in response, loud enough for her to hear. "We never did anything to you. Why are you trying to kill us?"
    There was a pause. "Kill you? I just want to talk!" the woman said, sounding surprised. Then, in a somewhat quieter tone, as if worried someone might overhear, she went on, "I know you're from Ballpoint, got it? Just let me in."
    Katie raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Ballpoint??" she mouthed.
    I shook my head in response to her inquiry. "I'm not from Ballpoint," I called back, half-turning. "You've got the wrong person."
    "I saw you at the Everoc outpost with Bugi," the voice argued, seeming irritated now. "Bugi Thoramuma. I know it's you, I never forget a face. I'm from Ballpoint too, okay? I saw you at the Vynalus Forums – you were yelling to someone and I followed you here."
    Turning back to Katie, I saw she was looking at me with worriment. "Did you meet somebody named Bugi while you were at Ballpoint?" she whispered.
    I frowned, nodding. "This could be a problem," I whispered back. I definitely remembered Bugi. Bugi had been the first nice person I'd met at the Ballpoint outpost, and she'd actually kept me from being sexually harassed in their barracks... but I hadn't been part of Ballpoint. I'd been sent there as a spy by Mr Frog, disguised as Ballpoint's Vanya Carena... who I'd later learned was my sister.
    "We have to get her to leave," Katie stated, furrowing her brow.
    Outside the door, the woman kept trying to make her case, her voice quiet, muffled, and difficult to hear. "It was four years ago. You're Carsenla, right? Or Carlena... Carla? ...something like that. Shit." She muttered something inaudible.
    That was enough for me. Getting to my feet, I motioned for Katie to step back as I unlocked the door and opened it slightly, peering out and following an old black wool coat up to her face. The woman was tall enough to be a human beyond any shadow of a doubt. "Who are you?" I queried, examining her with a suspicious eye. She wasn't drawing her gun on me yet, so there was that in her favor. Her demeanor implied she was a rough, brawler sort.
    "I'm Koth," she replied, still seeming irritated that I'd taken so long to open the door. "Koth Onarith. I'm guessing you're here on assignment."
    I bit my lip. "Well... it's complicated," I mumbled apologetically, glancing down the hallway as I saw a Parasol citizen approaching out of the corner of my eye. "You'd better come inside." Opening the door for her, she walked in, smelling... dirty. It was clear she hadn't made much of an attempt to keep herself cleaned up. She wore a pair of dirty jeans under her coat, a pair of dark boots, and had black, fingerless gloves on her hands.
    "Nice place you got," Koth said in bland approval, examining Jade's living room idly as I closed the door and relocked it. "Ballpoint's taking good care of you. And who's she?" she asked, pointing at Katie. "Looks kind of the same... are you sisters?"
    Before I had a chance to respond, Katie had grabbed my arm and was pulling me away. "Give us a minute," she said over her shoulder to our guest. I didn't resist, and she pulled me down the hallway to our room, making no attempt to hide her irritation. "She's Ballpoint," Katie whispered accusingly. "And you just let her in our home."
    "I didn't think it would hurt..."
    My friend narrowed her eyes at me, giving me an almost vicious glare. "Ballpoint killed Saemin, Captain Almory, and a ton of other friends of mine, and you're being nice to this 'Koth' person now, who is part of Ballpoint, and is probably lying about who she is on top of everything!"
    I felt guilty. "She knew who I was," I pointed out, trying to defend my actions. "I figured it couldn't hurt to hear her out..."
    "Right," Katie growled. "Well, I don't like this. There's something off about her. Not to mention that she's Ballpoint," she added, spitting out this last word with aversion.
    "Give her a chance," I suggested. "My friend John was Ballpoint once... Not all Ballpoint contractors are bad people."
    "They're trying to kill everyone at Parasol," Katie reminded me vehemently.
    "So what do we do, tell her we changed our minds and send her out?"
    Katie just glared at me for a minute, before finally releasing my arm. "Fine," she muttered. "But I don't trust her. And she needs to know we're not from Ballpoint."
    "And what do you think she'll do then?"
    She shook her head. "She can leave then, I don't care. I won't have anybody think I'm from Ballpoint, and I definitely don't want to invite any of them in for tea, like you just did. What were you thinking, Vanya? She's our enemy."
    "People are just people," I whispered, though I knew I was losing the fight against Katie's prejudice.
    "A murderer is still a murderer even when they're not killing someone," she argued. "Either you tell her you're not from Ballpoint, or I'll do it myself."
    Sighing, I turned back towards the living room. I was already very worried about how this would turn out.

    Koth was sitting on Jade's sofa, waiting for us with her arms crossed on her knees. "So?" she asked. "You can get me back to Ballpoint, right? I got stranded here a couple years ago."
    Apologetically, I shook my head. "I don't think I can get you back to Ballpoint by myself..."
    "Vanya has something to tell you," Katie said sharply to the woman, glancing over at me expectantly.
    I hesitated. If I did as Katie wanted me to, then I was just about to admit to a Ballpoint employee that I'd spied on them, basically... it didn't seem like a good idea at all, but I knew Katie would hold true to what she'd said: if I didn't say it, she would, and she'd likely say it with much less finesse than I might manage. With this in mind, I swallowed, taking a deep breath. "I'm not from Ballpoint," I managed quietly.
    Koth looked back and forth between us, before getting to her feet. "What do you mean, you're not from Ballpoint?"
    "I'm from Everoc, and Mr Frog was sending me to get something of his that he'd left behind."
    "But your credentials... And I know I saw you other times besides just that," she said skeptically, turning it over in her mind.
    "I was impersonating someone," I admitted, feeling very nervous.
    At that, Koth did something neither of us expected. Glaring at us heatedly, she pulled her pistol from its holster. Katie gave a terrified yell and fell to the floor, while I held out my hands for her to stop. "Wait!" I cried out urgently. "We might be able to help you somehow, don't do this!!"
    She ignored me. "You were spying on us??" Koth demanded to know, brushing back her hair as she pointed the pistol steadily at my chest, walking slowly around the sofa. "You impersonated one of our soldiers??"
    "It's not what you think!" I said as quickly as I could, trying to keep the sofa between us as she circled. As I did, Katie crawled into Jade's little kitchen. "It wasn't one of your soldiers, it my sister, who was a mole for Joseph."
    The woman shook her head at me derisively, hatefully. "You're the one our commanders made such a big fuss about, aren't you? You led a squad in and got a lot of good people killed! Do you realize how many lives you destroyed? A lot of those people were my friends, you bitch!"
    "I didn't want to get anyone killed, and it wasn't even my squad!"
    "You fucking whore," she spat out. She wrinkled her nose in anger, shaking her head disgustedly at me. "You're a horrible person, and I should kill you where you stand."
    "You're one to talk!" Katie shot back from the kitchen, out of our line of sight. "Ballpoint is trying to kill everyone in Parasol and Spearbreakers!"
    "Spearbreakers is just a job for a client," Koth said under her breath, "and Parasol is trying to kill us, too! What are we supposed to do, let them destroy us?? We've got to strike first or we won't get a chance to strike at all!"
    I felt about ready to cry, but I didn't know if it was from fear, or frustration. "Joseph wants Ballpoint and Parasol to destroy each other! That's why he gave Ballpoint the job of obliterating Spearbreakers!"
    "And who's Joseph?" the woman asked. After hearing the name a second time, she seemed slightly curious, but it was clear she didn't buy it.
    "He's your client, the leader of Eris," Katie called out, poking her head around the doorframe.
    Koth turned her head towards Katie, examining her face for a moment, and then glanced back at me out of the corner of her eye. "Eris... I've heard that before," she said slowly, pondering the name.
    "Joseph hates both Parasol and Ballpoint and wants them to destroy each other," I explained as simply as I could, still tense as I kept an eye on her gun. "He's trying to stop them from breaking multiversal law, and experimenting with universes like Everoc's. Eris is the name of the group he leads."
    Looking back towards me, Koth asked, "What, so he's part of The Tribunal?"
    "What?" I hesitated. I'd never heard of The Tribunal. "I have no idea. I don't think so..."
    There was silence. For an unbearably long time, we stood frozen in the room, watching each other as Koth appeared to think over her options. After several tense minutes, she slipped her pistol back into the holster. "I'll bite," she said cautiously, "but you'd better be telling the truth. So what's your story?"
    I finally relaxed, and Katie let out a sigh of relief. "It'll be hard for you to believe," she said with a nervously mischievous smirk.

    Over the course of the next hour, I told Koth my story from the beginning. There were some things I left out, though; I didn't entirely trust her, and it was unnerving to have her glare at me the entire time. In the end, she heard about how I'd talked to Joseph, and how I'd saved Talvi's life... she heard about how Urist had rescued me, how I'd served under Mr Frog, and why I'd left Spearbreakers. I told her some things about the battle of 48D, and here, Katie joined in as well. Katie was surprised to hear that I'd talked to Joseph again after the battle, because I'd never told her, and she wasn't too pleased about that fact. Eventually, we arrived at how someone was trying to kill us, and concluded my tale by explaining my hopes to get into Division 3's intelligence facility.
    Koth sat there for several moments, drinking it in, her arms crossed. After a minute or two of silence, I asked her, "What about you? Why are you here?"
    She shifted in her chair. "Ballpoint ran an operation here," she said simply. "I was one of Bugi's squadmates. They got away, but I got stranded. That was two years ago. I've been hiding here since." She appeared to be debating something internally, but finally, she added hesitantlly, "Look, I've got to trust you guys. I could use getting into the intelligence facility, too; there's probably a way for me to get back home there. And that's all I want," she added pointedly to Katie. "I'm not here to kill everybody, and I've killed very few people while I've been here. Most of what I've done has been sabotage of equipment. And Carena, I've got to get back home, just the same as you, so maybe we can help each other."
    It was an odd sort of alliance... but it wasn't the first time I'd found myself calling on unusual people for assistance.
   
    It wouldn't be the last, either.

☆

[Talvieno]

Chapter 65: Making Plans
    The gunfire in the hallway outside, long since ceased, breaks out again. Dr. Russ seems completely calm as he listens to your translation of Vanya's journal, and you wonder if the reason he left earlier was to create a reason to lure the guards away. At this point, you realize that Dr. Russ is just as mysterious of a figure – if not more so – than Sally, and you risk a glance in his direction.
    "Who are you?" you ask him quizzically.
    "I am Dr. Thian Russ, as I told you before," he responds coolly. "I am a historian and an archaeologist, much like you, although my line of work has me frequenting the library far more than ancient, unstable ruins."
    "And your friend?" you ask.
    His steady gaze ventures in her direction; she returns the glance with a warning glare as he speaks. "She would prefer to keep her identity hidden at the present time," Dr. Russ replies, choosing his words carefully. "However, it is my sincere hope that she will eventually reveal herself to you. Now, please... continue reading."

    The next few weeks passed by slowly, despite how busy we were.
    Koth proved to be a better ally than we could've hoped. I'm not sure why, but she trusted me almost the same as if I'd been a Ballpoint soldier too. I guess it might have helped that I'd told her my story, though I'm sure she never actually felt any pity for me. Despite this, she managed to get Katie's PEA address to Reudh so we could talk to him. She also tried to do the same for Eltsha, but while Koth owned a PEA, Eltsha didn't. Koth also didn't have access to Solnay's labs. I did, though, and that necessitated another trip. I would write about it, but not really anything happened that was noteworthy while I was there. I simply gave Solnay and Gareth the address to Katie's PEA.
    Katie herself wasn't too happy about our friendship with Koth, and I don't think she ever got over her initial prejudice of the woman. To her, Koth was still just a Ballpoint soldier, and it would take her redeeming herself before my friend would see her as anything more than an enemy. To her credit, she kept quiet about her feelings, although she tended to keep herself too busy to think about it much.
    While Jade wasn't around, Katie spent most of her time tapping or speaking at her PEA, if not on a video call. We used it to keep in touch with everyone, but she mostly wanted to spend as much time with Trebor as she could. She missed him; she missed being able to talk to him in person. Her relationship wasn't quite a long-distance one, but it might as well have been. While Koth had informed us that Jade lived in Overgrove Apartments, Trebor was worried that the "killer" might follow him there, as he'd glimpsed a shady figure stalking him on occasion. Because of this, Katie never got to see him face-to-face. At the same time, she'd been ecstatic lately, and for good reason... Trebor actually came right out and asked if she would be his girlfriend, and she'd said yes. I hadn't seen her happier since before Saemin died.
    Beneath it all, though, we were still trapped in Jade's tiny apartment. My claustrophobia wasn't giving me any problems, at least, but after we'd waited for two months with no sign of the killer turning up, it was starting to look like we'd never escape, and during Koth's weekday visits, it became clear that she was starting to lose hope in us. Kenzon's private investigator, Weldon, had said it could be years before the killer was caught, and I wanted to be back at Spearbreakers far before that.

    Our plan was to break into Division 3's Intelligence Center and try to find something in the system that would give us a clue as to who was after Katie. Koth had sabotaged government facilities for all of the two years she'd been at Parasol. If anyone knew how to do it, it would be her, and she couldn't figure out a way to break in. The place was built like a fortress. Simply getting through the front gates required an access card, and there were cameras mounted almost everywhere. Even if we could disable the cameras, there were guards everywhere, too, and they would be sure to notice anyone not wearing Parasol Security gear. The doors to the building were all keyed to handprints, and on top of that, even if we managed to get inside, we'd have to hack the archive mainframe if we wanted to get any data out at all. Finally, if we managed to get past everything and exit the building safely, there were mechsuits parked right outside in a cargo bay, according to Koth's scouting reports... we wouldn't stand a chance against even one of them, armed or not.

    Early on, I suggested we teleport directly inside, but Katie shot that idea down immediately. She said the building was likely protected with portal shielding – or PIGs (for Portal Interference Generators) – to forcibly prevent portal exits from forming. She made sure to helpfully add that PIGs were common enough that all Parasol shops had them, and most houses, too, to keep burglars from porting in and stealing things. While you could remotely deactivate them, you couldn't do it unless you had the passcode.
    It seemed hopeless. For a long time, I was worried about letting Gareth and Solnay in on the secret because I didn't know what they'd think, though. Reudh didn't like the idea at all, and said it wasn't right, but that he would follow me wherever I went – he's a brave, loyal dwarf. It's hard not to like him, once you get to know him... but romance was the last thing on my mind. Day after day, night after night, I wracked my brain for solutions, but I really couldn't think of a way to get inside. As time passed, eventually, Katie and I gave up, and Koth stopped visiting us. Gradually, my progress on my journal resumed, until I'd filled my first Parasol journal with the battle of 48D, and started on the second journal that Katie had bought for me. I finally grew too frustrated to write, but not before I was well into writing about my time at Parasol.

    A solution did eventually come to me, but in a way I hadn't previously imagined.

~~~

    It was a regular, dreary weekday at Jade's apartment. Katie was tired, and had given me her PEA so I could talk to people while she took a quick nap. With it being a Wednesday, I couldn't talk to Reudh, as he was training with Kenzon. Solnay was busy, and the only other friend I could talk to was Gareth, Solnay's assistant. He was a nice guy, really, even if a bit awkward and clumsy. Although I wouldn't normally talk to him, I didn't have anything else I wanted to do.

     I was curled up in a corner of Jade's old sofa, my legs drawn close beside me as I spoke to Gareth's image on the PEA. We'd talked about Solnay's inventions, and we'd talked about the novelty of how we were both elves, but those subjects had grown old quickly. He'd asked about my ideal career choice, and I'd answered with journalism or writing; he'd responded by saying he was best at electronics and programming, and had never really cared to read anything besides non-fiction. Before long, this topic died, too, and we found it even more difficult to continue our conversation. I was also getting the sneaking suspicion that he was trying to impress me with his vocabulary.
    "So, whatever happened with... that latex armor paint?" he asked during a lull in the conversation. "Did you convince the person to, uh... cease their belligerent activities?"
    Shaking my head, I answered, "I still don't know who's trying to kill my friend and me, but it wasn't the person I thought it was."
    "Ah, yes, of course... so, it therefore follows naturally that... Is that why you stopped visiting?" He seemed more disappointed than confused.
    "Mhm..." I was a little surprised that he'd figured it out so quickly. I suppose he's a bit more intelligent than I give him credit for. "Whoever it is, they're trying to kill Katie," I explained. "Or me... I thought it was me for a little while, but nobody else at Parasol knows who I am, so I'm guessing it's her."
    Gareth frowned slightly. "So you haven't left the premises even once in the past several weeks?? Well... besides to give Katie's PEA address to Solnay, I suppose..."
    "Not really... I mean, my friend's father has a private investigator looking for the killer, but he doesn't want to let us out until he's found."
    It seemed to hit a nerve with him, and he opened up a little more. It was very clear he and the government weren't on good terms, and he made no attempt to hide it. "They'll never find him, you know," he said quietly with a hint of annoyance. "The Parasol government oppressively controls their accumulated data. The amount legally available to the public is limited to what the public already knows."
    "What?" I didn't like the sound of what he was saying. "So, basically, I'll be trapped here forever..."
    "Not necessarily," he answered tentatively, half lost in thought, and his gaze dropped to the floor as his mind worked furiously. "I said legally, mind you..."
    A tiny smile crept across my face. He was thinking along the same lines as I had... I felt a sort of kinship with him, suddenly feeling like telling him my unfinished plans, and that one tiny decision made all the difference in the world. "Katie and I were thinking of breaking into the Intelligence Center here," I cautiously mentioned, watching his face. I was prepared to play it off as a joke at the slightest sign that he didn't like the idea.
    But he didn't seem to mind it at all. In fact, it seemed he'd already figured it out himself: "Yes, yes," he mumbled without raising his eyes, "I've gotten that far. The question isn't where, the question is how... I know people have done it before in the past few thousand years... mostly terrorists, hardcore hacktivists, and the like. They don't pay particularly close attention to keeping it locked down, as they don't keep any important military secrets here, but the hard part is keeping them from knowing who we are."
    "Terrorists?" I asked, surprised.
    He looked up at me for a moment, giving a brief nod. "Yeah, terrorists – government facilities are prime terrorism targets. Plenty of people there to injure, so on, so forth. If you hate the government, there's no loftier goal than to strike at the government itself, you understand." It was interesting to see how his shyness had completely disappeared now that he'd focused his mind on a problem.
    "Terrorists... okay," I said slowly, an idea evolving in my mind. "Gareth..." I paused for a second, afraid of looking stupid, but then pressed onwards anyway. "You said you were good with electronics... what if you were to build something that looked like a bomb..."
    Gareth stopped short, his eyes flicking up to my face as he froze. A few seconds later, he nodded skeptically. "Yes, I could do that... I have a rough idea of a bomb's construction techniques, even though the chemical composition is outside of my, um... outside my area of expertise."
    "It doesn't have to actually blow up," I added hastily. "You just need to scare people out of the building while they try to disarm it."
    He nodded inattentively. "But I don't see how that would help conceal our identity... Unless..." He paused, a faint flicker of a smile piercing his formerly leaden expression. "...Unless we use that opportunity to disable the cameras! We could enclose a fake payload inside a canister, and they'd never know the difference until they opened it... And, if we rigged it so that it looked like it would explode if someone opened the canister..."
    "It would buy us even more time!" I finished for him, smiling brightly. At that moment, I was so happy and excited I could've kissed him. We were finally, finally making progress towards catching the killer, and I couldn't wait to tell Katie.
    For a minute, Gareth fell silent, examining my features with a strange sort of appreciation, almost as if he felt attracted to me, but he soon caught himself and continued the conversation. "Anyway, we'll need two bombs," he said with finality. "I'll use readily available materials so they won't be able to track them to us – they need to look like something that anyone could've built at home."
    I nodded. "All right."
    "I'll have to wire both of them to electrical systems so they're afraid to remove them," he went on. "I'll rig it so it looks like shutting of the power will trigger an explosion, and add in a motion sensor to make them afraid to move the bombs at all... We'll put one on the main building, and one outside the facility, where one of us can draw their attention to it and make them search for the second. That introduces the problem of how we're going to get away from the security forces, though...
    "I have a friend who would be able to draw their attention to the bomb and disappear without being questioned," I suggested, thinking of Eltsha. I imagined that her past as a former skulker would be perfect in helping her disappear when she needed to. "Will we actually be able to do this?"
    "It'll be difficult... This is a professional-level job, you know," Gareth muttered, his brow furrowed in thought. "I can hack computers, but cameras are a different matter entirely."
    "I have someone for that, too," I answered his musings. "Her name is Koth, and she's pulled a lot of smaller operations like this by herself."
    At this, he leveled at me what amounted to a piercing stare. "She's an anti-government activist, then?" he asked curiously. At my hesitation, he added quickly, "No, no, um... no. It really is fine, I used to want to do that kind of thing myself. Not many people will take a stand against government oppression."
    "Yes," I confirmed with a nod, "she's an activist. She's done a lot like this over the past couple years." It was a lie, but I thought it would be a lot easier than explaining how she was actually a Ballpoint contractor.
    "She'll be perfect," Gareth decided with a nod. It was clear he greatly enjoyed helping me hatch our little plan. "After they start evacuating the building, we use the confusion to port into the grounds without anybody noticing us. Then, your friend – Koth, was it?"
    I nodded.
    "Koth can disable the cameras, and then we can approach the main building. I'll hack one of the doors when nobody's looking and we'll get inside," he continued. "From there, we just need to find the archive access areas. We'll need standardized Parasol Security uniforms to keep from looking conspicuous, and the armor Mr Frog made you isn't going to be good enough, even with the new coat of paint."
    "Where are we going to find Parasol uniforms?" I asked.
    Gareth shrugged, shaking his head. "I'm not sure. This gives us something to go on, at least."
    "I'll need to get in touch with Koth and get her to visit Eltsha," I said, voicing my thoughts.
    "Yes, good idea," he agreed. "I'll, um... I'll get to work on those two bombs. I'll talk to you another time, Vanya."
    "Talk to you soon!" I said after him, and the screen went dark.

    Really, Gareth had a brilliant mind, and he was eager to prove himself. More than that, I think, he liked helping people... but at the time, I'd assumed he had a crush on me, and I figured that was the main reason. Even though he never said it straight out, he'd said things that had seemed to suggest it at the time. Looking back, I may have been reading into it... I wasn't sure how to take how he'd acted, and I didn't really have any way to know for sure, so I just let it pass. Besides, that was hardly important by comparison. From the looks of it, we were finally going to figure out who the killer was.

~~~
   
    Over the course of the next month, we were all hard at work pulling our plan together.
    After Gareth had gotten off call, I got in touch with Koth on her PEA and told her everything. She said she thought it was risky, but that she would agree to assist, so long as it would help her get off of Parasol and back to her company. She seemed to think there would be something in the Parasol intelligence archives that would help her find a way to escape, and I knew better than to suggest otherwise. In addition to that, I wanted to prove to her that Joseph was real, and that I hadn't been lying.
    Katie, to her credit, loved the idea Gareth and I had put together, and was able to contribute with the knowledge that her dad had once been a Parasol Security officer, pointing out that there were likely suits of Parasol armor in his armory. Getting them out was a problem all to itself, and it took Gareth, Katie and I putting our heads together to come up with a solution... and even that took a while to completely work out.
    What we finally decided on was that Reudh, during one of his Wednesday visits to Kenzon, would disable his portal shielding, so that Koth could teleport into the armory and steal several suits. Convincing Reudh was difficult, as he very strongly disliked the idea of stealing from Kenzon, and pressed me until he learned the extent of our plan. Reudh liked the idea of us breaking into Parasol's intelligence facility even less... but after a while, I managed to persuade him to help. He told me it went against everything he stood for, but that he was willing to follow me to the ends of the world, just as he'd promised me back on Everoc. He also insisted that he come along during our "heist", as Katie was starting to call it, but nobody had any trouble with his request.
    As to Solnay, I avoided letting her know about any of our plans. Gareth actually advised me against telling her, saying she would most likely put a stop to it if she could, and from what I knew of her, it seemed likely. I also didn't think there would be much reason for her to go in the first place. When I'd visited her and gotten my armor painted, she'd made a point out of saying that she didn't want anything to leave the lab because it was Parasol property, and she didn't have anything to look up in the archives that I knew of. It was all just as well... all she really brought to the table was her military experience, which Reudh already had. With her bad leg, I didn't think she'd be able to help much.
    Things didn't go quite as planned when Koth went to talk to Eltsha, though. Eltsha pointed out that she had her husband and her daughter, Mina, to take care of, as well as a part time job. She also wanted Koth to take note of the fact that she had easily recognizable scars all over her face, and an unusual accent. Eltsha was right, though, and we had to decide which of us would take her place. Eventually, Katie, Gareth, and Koth decided it should be me: I was the only one who didn't have an immediate, pressing reason to be elsewhere, and they figured my skulker talents should come in handy.
    Katie insisted on coming along, against my better judgment, but she had me on a few points: she would know better than anyone else who might be after her, and would recognize names that I wouldn't. Perhaps more importantly, before she'd followed Saemin into the military, she'd been training to be an archiver, and archives were exactly what we were going to be dealing with.
    Finally, everything was ready... all we needed to do was wait for a Wednesday so that Reudh and Koth could steal the Parasol uniforms.

    There was one small detail I'd overlooked, though... and that was what eventually proved to be my downfall.

☆

[TheImmortalRyukan]

Holy Damn... This is fucking epic... I know its a necro... but still, I bring this back to page one for all to see and enjoy Talvi's work...

Damn

[Talvieno]

Lol, thank you! I'm glad you like it. I never did get around to finishing it, though. It was a lot of work, and demand for it wasn't that high. In the end, other things took priority.

[snow dwarf]

Holy Damn... This is fucking epic... I know its a necro... but still, I bring this back to page one for all to see and enjoy Talvi's work...

Damn

+1 Too awesome to be lost...