Aurelius waved at the figure in the distance sitting on the parapet of the bridge. The figure waved for him to come closer. Aurelius looked around at the sleeping city before taking off the hood of his black cloak and heading towards the man.

  "You're the type of person who appreciates things like this, right?" Mephisto said when Aurelius reached him. He flicked a lazy finger at the last flicker of the red sun that seemed to sink into the river.

  "Yeah," Aurelius said, hopping onto the parapet to sit next to him.

  "Don't tell me that's why we had to meet at night. It was a pain sneaking out without Zanny noticing," Mephisto complained.

  "I just wanted some quiet," Aurelius answered. His time in Zalfari has been a constant build-up of stress with no release. Not even Cade could calm his mind when all he could think about was what would happen to them. He found himself gravitating to Mephisto's carefree manner.

  Aurelius leaned his elbows on his knees and looked down at the flowing river far below. He bet the stream was fiercer than it looked.

  "Geez, it's like we're on a date," Mephisto groaned. "Are we gonna kiss now?"

  "I wasn't planning on it, no."

  "Just curious, what will you do if I start humping you right now?"

  Aurelius stared at Mephisto, who was sitting there with his canines gleaming. "Throw you off."

  "Murder? Straight up?"

  Aurelius nodded solemnly. "Straight up."

  "Hey, you would be at least partly to blame. Where do you get off looking that good in black?"

  Aurelius finally broke into laughter, shaking his head.

  "No, seriously." Mephisto pushed him on the shoulder. They got into a bit of a scuffle until Aurelius got Mephisto into a chokehold. "I yield! I yield!"

  Aurelius let him go and jumped back to the right side of the bridge. "Come on, let's walk a little."

  Mephisto hopped off the parapet and pushed him aside to get some walking space. Aurelius saw a carriage coming from the other side of the bridge and pulled up his hood. He waved to the coachman as the carriage went by. Mephisto walked with his hands in his pockets.

  They headed for the outer city. On the way there, they ended up talking about Aurelius' nicknames. It seemed Mephisto had heard almost nothing about his deeds. He had no idea who Orpheus or Gadreel even were. At the end of Aurelius explaining it, Mephisto was in disbelief.

  "What the hell? I knew you were hardcore, but man. You are hardcore!"

  "Hardcore?"

  "It means you're tough shit."

  Aurelius scratched his head, unsure how much of a compliment that was. "Right, thank you."

  Mephisto snorted with a smile. "By the way, your girlfriend, Cade... she said something about me reminding you of someone. What was that about?"

  Aurelius had been expecting it to be brought up again and didn't get so sullen. "He was a companion of mine and Cade's. We had a trio. His name was Balgair."

  Mephisto looked away and then at the black sky, wordless. There wasn't much light in the city past midnight. Everything was so dark you needed enhancement to see.

  "Some people called him Fox. Cade called him Snake-Eyes for a while. He beat me in a fight the first time we met, though he was a little younger than me. He was clever, but he smoked a lot."

  "Smoked?" Mephisto looked back at him. "Like a pipe? I thought only old men did that."

  "No, cigarettes. These little things that smell terrible. They're fashionable back in Mircrest even though they spread cancer."

  "Was that what killed him?"

  "No. He quit. But then we were ambushed by a mercenary group. They were high caliber. All of us took enhancers, but it wasn't enough. Their leader stabbed Balgair to death. I was too slow." Aurelius looked straight ahead, his hands tensing, streaks of essence flickering against his will. "He was so young..."

  Mephisto fell silent, looking around as they arrived in the outer city.

  Aurelius looked at the sky. "You know why he came after us in the first place? Their leader, Izir. He wanted revenge on me. My father killed his father. That's how it goes, I guess."

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  "Yeah," Mephisto said gruffly, "That's how it goes."

  There was a while where their footsteps were the only noise. Then Mephisto brought up something that Aurelius had been wondering about for some time. "I don't know if you've heard, but my father was a traitor. Apparently, he was convinced Kendrick was going to win the war and switched sides. I like to think he was doing it for the sake of me and my mother, but whatever the reasons, it didn't end well. When he was exposed, you know who was there to carry out the punishment?"

  Aurelius looked at Mephisto, his face becoming pale. "No..."

  Mephisto glanced at him with no emotion in particular. "Your father killed my father."

  Breath escaped Aurelius. He looked down at his hands, his eyes stinging. His head swam, and the ground pulled him, but he kept walking with rigid steps.

  "I'm saying this just to let you know that you're not accountable. I may hate your father, but I still think of you as a friend."

  Aurelius looked at Mephisto and then at his shoes, swallowing his tears. Mephisto gave him a slap on the back. "To be honest, you're just in a shit position. Especially now with this whole Kendrick situation."

  Aurelius looked at Mephisto, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Only he could've called the climax of a decades-old war a 'Kendrick situation.'

  "Let's not talk about that right now." Aurelius said exasperatedly.

  "Still, autumn is just two moons away, and you're the one with the power to tip the scales," Mephisto said as if thinking to himself.

  Aurelius glared at him. "Thanks."

  "No problem." Mephisto said with a wink. "No, but seriously, just to be clear, it's the consequences of Kendrick's death that bother you. Not the killing itself." It seemed Mephisto had been dying to ask him some questions. Why him as well?

  "Of course," Aurelius scoffed. "I want to kill him. He deserves to die."

  "How do you figure?"

  Aurelius looked at Mephisto in disgust. "He kills children."

  "So did Alexander the 1st."

  "Ah..." Aurelius opened and closed his mouth a few times. "Well, he's already dead."

  "But his offspring aren't. And now the world is better for all that he did."

  "You can't know that. Things could've been better without the Alexanders," Aurelius blurted out as a counterargument.

  "Then why don't you end their line?" Mephisto kept his carefreeness right up until Aurelius had him by the throat.

  "What?" he seethed.

  Mephisto choked but kept his cool. He wasn't the type to kick his feet. "You have the power. If you want to... you can rewrite the government."

  "Kill my own family?"

  "He doesn't think of you as family," Mephisto rasped. "Alexander sees you as a tool. He's the emperor; you're just a soldier. If you ask me, you should be the one in power." Aurelius let Mephisto go.

  "Why?"

  Mephisto straightened his clothes casually. "Why? I just feel like you should."

  Aurelius scoffed, turning away. "Never bring that up again. Ever."

  Mephisto jogged to his side. "Sorry, sorry. I crossed a line. But you should know, people here don't rule out options just because someone is family. I've watched my mother play politics for long enough to understand that much. 'If you want the best for yourself and the world, you have to gain a higher perspective,' she says".

  Suddenly, words from years ago came back to Aurelius. "The world appreciates authenticity..." Mephisto seemed a little surprised. "Balgair told me that after my first kill."

  Mephisto snorted. "So he really was clever, then?"

  "Yeah... I guess."

  Aurelius took a look around. The outer city had houses with broken walls and dirty windows, but he didn't notice anyone sleeping on the streets. That was already an upgrade from Arkryk and Mircrest.

  The sun had set, and it was all dark. Aurelius thought he saw a bakery in the distance. He recalled that they were in the parts where Zaneth had grown up and walked faster, curious if that bakery was the one he'd heard of.

  It took him a while to notice Mephisto was no longer by his side. He looked back and found him in an alley with a blade of essence pressed to his throat.