Chương 6: Wisp
"Sel! We're going to be late! What are you doing?" The classroom had filed out, and every bench of the lecture hall was empty except for Selyana. She held Jorr's Key and just stared at it. She had tried to pry it open a myriad of times now and the thing wouldn't budge, how in Maia's name did that idiot open it? The thief was probably dead or worse than dead by now, the Hayworth family aren't a forgiving bunch, and he'd pissed off their most obnoxious son. She would almost surely have a target on her back now as well, but she could handle herself. Worst comes to worst she can put on the mask and never take it off, disappear into the Pillow Tree ranks to never be seen again. As she stared into space, there was a light tap on her shoulder, pulling her back down. "Sel!"
Helena loomed over her with exasperated anger. Her long dishevelled blonde hair matching her quick temper. She liked that about her, out of all the rich spoilt kids that attended the university, she was one of the only ones who didn't act like she had a stick up her arse. It meant no one else really liked her, and no one certainly liked Sel, so it was just the two of them, and it was, nice. At least she had someone in this dense den of frivolity.
"Sorry. Just lost in thought for a second," Sel said, pocketing the pendant.
"What even is that thing anyway?"
"Gold ball,"
Helena gave a frustrated look, a hefty tome held to her chest.
"Some guy left it at the bar, so I took it,"
"You were out in the Rast District again?!"
Sel stood up, slinging her satchel over her soldier, "What of it, it was a gloriously entertaining evening I'll have you know."
Sel and Helena fell into step, exiting the lecture hall into the corridor. Every which way you looked; the décor attempted to intimidate with blindingly expensive chandeliers, immaculately kept floors and portraits of various ghouls of the Lighthold family.
"I just worry you're going to run into the wrong people someday. One wrong turn and you could be whisked away into a Pillow Tree cellar, never to see the light again."
Our reputation is as terrible as always. Understandably.
"The wrong people are within these walls I'm afraid, it's just coated in a pretty paint so you can't see."
Helena smiled, "But not me, right?" she asked. Sel laughed, "No, not you."
"Stars above. I think if you shot Lector Faranir into the depths of Maia, he'd still believe in all this ancient non-sense. Why must we be taught by someone who thinks Maia's aurora is her 'mind at work'. What starry old drivel!" Sel lost her temper most days at the university, the syllabus was much the same star fisted hot air they served back home. She was fed stories by Kaiyeun about the wonder of advancement that the Sellians were setting forth, about how the root of truth was finally being unfurled. But it seems Kai was more knowledgeable about the world than anyone within these curtained walls. No one knows anything about anything.
Helena walked along side, the evening light a warm glow in the background. The grounds outside we're growing quieter as the day came to an end. "So, what is the aurora then?" Helena asked.
"I don't know! No one knows!"
Sel paused, retreating from her huff and puff.
"One thing I do know. The truth will prove to be far more interesting than this fantasy."
They continued to walk, the sun slowly descending into the horizon of endless buildings. The Kellen District's architecture was much more uniform than the rest of the city, the universities grand and rigid halls a distinct outcry from everything around it. Every District in Moonfall felt like its own world with no care for the outside. Everyone in Kellen does exactly as they're told. They're told how to live, told what to believe and told who to hate. Every need taken care of.
"There's one thing you'll never have an answer to," Helena stated.
"And what's that?"
"Why does anything exist at all Sel? Who made all this?" Helena said, gesturing at the world.
"Don't you know? It was me of course! I'm Sel the Infinite. Eternal God and Creator of the Universe! I now endow you with my knowledge of grandeur!" Sel exclaimed, a grand theatrical performance to match.
Helena rolled her eyes, "I'll see you tomorrow Sel, don't get kidnapped in some backwater Rast District neighbourhood tonight if you can help it."
"Sounds fun. You sure?"
Helena smiled and set off back to her home. Sel stood and watched as the sun was snuffed out, the sky grew dark, and Maia shone bright, a peaceful whistle in the air, just audible. "Time to go."
Sel brisked the Rast District rooftop's, sticking to every shadow as if light where a disease. The chain between the pommel of her two swords rattled silently. She was dressed head to toe in a ragged black, her face showing nothing but a featureless black mask. The Foundry's tendrils of energy danced in the air, along with the writhing streets just below. When the night falls in this city, the people don't. The city shines just as brightly as if it were day, and everyone was up to no good.
Sel hopped from one roof to another, a silent splash into an ancient puddle as she landed. The meeting point was just up ahead, hopefully an uneventful evening was what lay in store. It was just muscle for a Wonderlust drop, nothing more. She'd done a dozen of these since she started working for Pillow Tree, everyone as boring as the last. She preferred that to the unlawful intimidation she was usually used for. But that was the deal, she lives happily in the city and attends the prestigious University of Moonfall, whilst offering her services in turn. Although, every day she attended sewed more doubt to the worth of this arrangement.
Just over the roof of the next building she could see a male silhouette cracking his wrist over and over. Middling height and a giant trench coat, his hair as sleek as his posture. Sel approached quietly, sliding down a slanted roof top, "Snail." Snail turned and ceased his wrist cracking, "Evening Wisp. Pleasant day?"
"Always. This just the usual?"
"Err, mostly. One of our suppliers in the Labyrinth was murdered today, so I've brought a few extra men with me today just in case."
"Lighthold's doing?"
"We're not sure just yet. We have the killer, but somethings off. Just see it as some healthy paranoia, nothing more. Take up position over there and intervene as you see fit."
Snail was pointing at a blacked-out balcony just over the thin street.
"Who else did you bring?"
"Dredge and Spinner."
Sel glanced over the edge into the vacant side street and saw the two idiots throwing pebbles at each other. What comfort this brings to a job fuelled with fresh uncertainty.
"Our best and brightest."
"They're not paid for their smarts. Go, get in position."
"Aye, aye," Sel said, a sarcastic salute to boot.
She balanced at the lip of the roof and leapt over to the other side of the street, landing in a dignified roll. Her chains rattled a little too loudly for her liking, but their compromise in silence was a small price to pay. She hovered above the balcony and fell a short distance down into a crouch. Across the way, Snail was making his way down the steps, cracking his wrist again. Spinner sat on a disused barrel, cutting his nails with a giant knife, a delicate tool. Dredge had moved on to swinging his knife at some of the Foundry's residual scraps of energy fluttering in the air as Snail reached the ground.
"Oi, Dredge, put that thing away, they'll be here soon."
"They're making fun of me!"
"Who is?"
Dredge flailed his knife at the Foundry's light.
"You probably deserve it."
Dredge sheathed his knife in its pocket, a frustrated sulk sweeping his face, "The lights evil, I know it is, I can sense it, always have."
"Have you now," Snail lightly said.
"We concur! Yes, yes, yes!"
An unfamiliar voice swung through the abandoned street from a patch of shade. An odd chuckle reverberating. Wonderlust suppliers were often an odd bunch, but this man was on an entirely different level. He lumbered along with a giant bag; the light still not strong enough to make out his features. As he stepped into the light, he was more horrifying than she could possibly imagine. Burn scars all over his face and amidst them, deathly pale skin. He scratched at his knuckles furiously, so much so that his hands were bleeding. Small vials and bottles were hanging off every belt strung around him, like leaves on a tree. He stopped just short, silently giggling to himself.
Snail stepped in front of Dredge, hand in his pocket, "I thought there would be two of you tonight? Didn't Porter say Mack was doing the drop?"
"Ah! The accidents!"
"Mack had an accident?"
"The accidents!"
Snail scrunched his brow, Sel gripped her blade tight. This man was bad news, that much was obvious. He unslung his cumbersome bag and set it down, the bottles strapped to him, clashing together with an eery ring. Snail hesitated, an explosion of suspicion winding through his brow.
"Open it."
"Why yes! Sense makes this!"
The man unbuttoned the bag and flung it open to reveal the inside. Hundreds of dull, colourless, inert looking rocks. All shapes and sizes, everyone as boring as the last. They looked just like any other rock, hard to imagine how these things were found in the first place among the rhyming rabble.
Wonderlust, an unbelievably potent drug found largely in the Shimmering Bay, just off the coast. The Lighthold family made it illegal some hundred years before, but its presence is the highest it's ever been. Snail knelt and plucked one of the smaller stones from the back of the bag, "May I?"
"Ah! Yes, I understand! Yes!"
Snail scrunched his face in confusion, "Right." He pulled out a small blunt hammer and took it to the stone. The rock cracked, and with it, a pink cloud escaped which grew, then diffused. Snail paid good mind to keep his head from getting enveloped in the reality bending drug, holding on to his nose for good measure. Breathe in once and you won't know up from down, left from right, friend from foe. The entire world would be torn asunder, and the recipient would be but a mere passenger. For some, the reality Wonderlust offers becomes their new experience. Every one of them unable to discern what's real and what isn't in the vast despair of their meanderingly miserable life.
Snail nodded to himself before digging into inner jacket pocket to procure a weighty bag. "1000 matz. As agreed,"
"Of course! Yes!"
What an odd man. His pitch was all over the place. One word would be as high as a child, the next as low as a Tenner who'd been around the smokestack all his life. Snail tossed over the bag of matz to the man, the heavy divisions clattering in the bag through the air. Foundry light twinkled and danced as he snatched it from the air.
"Why do you talk like dat?" Dredge said, chiming in.
"I talk! Talk!"
Snail walked over to the bag, dropping the spent Wonderlust on the floor, "You have a name?"
"Ahhhh! Keee! No! Ogek! Ogek!"
"Snail. Give Porter my regards."
"Yes! Shall, yes! The Wisp! Here is she! Is she? She!"
Sel froze. Her laxing grip on her right sword grew tight again. The black garb that wrung tight around her face was the only thing peering over the balcony, acutely observing the scene on the ground. Snail, Dredge and Spinner all firmly stared at Ogek, another questioning look out of the myriad he had earned since he came into view.
Snail began cracking his wrist again, "No. She isn't. Why?"
"A fan! A fan I am! Great gruesome exploits! Yes!"
Snail knelt and buttoned up the bag. He picked it up and delivered it, all of a few feet to Dredge who rolled his eyes. Snail turned giving a snide smile.
"Sorry to disappoint. Even if she was here, I'd doubt she would step out the light to meet with an admirer."
"A shame! A shame!"
Ogek then turned on the spot and walked down the street with a gangly strut, out of sight. Sel was stuck, in awe of one of the most disturbing men she'd ever laid eyes on. How did he secure this job? Who would put up with such a person? The whole situation was seething with questions.
Spinner stood up and sheathed his knife, "Yes! Yes! Yes! Let's fuck off home!"
Snail and Dredge laughed, "A few sparks loose on dat one,"
Snail ceased his wrist cracking, "More than a few. Come on, let's get back. Lockhouse is up this way."
"Isn't Treehouse closer?"
"It is, but we need to clue the Boss in on our new associate."
Snail took them up the steps he came down, and Sel began to follow suit. In the end, another uneventful drop.
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