One moment, Sasha sensed Isaac’s ki alone. The next, King Andre’s was there with him. Panic gripped her as she rushed down the street to his side. Not only that, but the homunculi everywhere were acting strange. They cowered where they stood. Some shook, rattled by paranoia, while others balled up and wept. One within hearing distance to her asked in broken, barely understandable words, “No! Please forgive me!”

  She turned the corner into a great plaza. Isaac sat on the stone cradling Elise in his arms, utterly devastated. King Andre kneeled in front of him, surrounded by a massive entourage including nameless guardsmen and ki artists. Next to the king were most importantly the maid, Ashley, and Champion Gundyr.

  They all exchanged words too low to hear. Isaac let out a heavy sigh. Relief washed over him. King Andre extended his hand out to him, and he took it.

  Sasha trudged up, on guard, and called out, “Isaac?!” She unsheathed Major, sending concerned expressions onto everyone’s faces including the king.

  Champion Gundyr pulled out his long halberd, Metal Gear, and blocked her path. “Care to not interrupt? This is an important meeting. I do not wish to hurt you.”

  An unknown, hooded man emanating warm ki took Elise, who was bleeding out and unresponsive, from Isaac. The stranger walked away with her, accompanied by a dozen royal guards.

  Andre helped Isaac up, who faced Sasha with rigid tension. “Stand down! We’ve spoken and come to an agreement. There will be no more fighting.”

  Sasha stared at him blankly. “What…? You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re negotiating with him? Him of all people?”

  Isaac pointed to Elise as she was taken away, a tremble and weakness to his voice. “He’s going to heal her. I must find a compromise with him here or she’s dead. I knew I didn’t have it in me to fight this fight. I knew it.”

  Sasha put away Major. Filled with uncertainty, she questioned, “And if he’s lying?”

  King Andre furrowed his brow at Sasha. She ignored him. Isaac responded, “Then so be it. Nothing’s in print yet. I’ve made no choices for anyone but myself. All he wants from us is to hear him out. We’re not bound to anything beyond that.”

  King Andre interjected, “You all will be my esteemed guests in Castle Hemmer until our negotiations and the investigation of this World’s Shiver are over. When it’s come to an end, whether we come to an agreement or not, you will be released. You’ll have the freedom to return to your journey to Convergence or your normal lives.”

  Sasha directed her animosity to Andre next, who bowed slightly when she addressed him. “You. I reject you and you come to him next?”

  “All of you are a team, correct? Why do your words weigh more than King Isaac’s? Do you not value them? Do you think you know better, girl?”

  She shut her mouth. King Isaac? He did have a point even if said in a condescending way. Andre continued, “Perhaps consulting the child first was a mistake. I should have come to you first, King Isaac.”

  Isaac shook his head. “Stop calling me “King”. I’m no king. I’ll never live up to that mantle.”

  “We shall see about that.”

  Sasha toiled over the situation they’d found themselves in. Major told her, Calm yourself. Tantrums here will do nothing more than make you look childish. They will help no one.

  I know. My bad.

  She had an important question though. One she couldn’t help but ask. “Andre, what is the point of negotiating with us when you have that book? Can’t you tell how we will answer already?”

  “You’re looking at it wrong. It is because of this book that I have decided to do this instead of choosing a route more…” He looked off into the distance as if distracted. “Violent.” His face became visibly twitchy.

  From the rooftops Andre glared at, an enigmatic figure appeared. A man of silver armor and tremendous purple spirit met the king’s eyes staring. Andre asked, “Now who is this? It’s… unwritten.”

  The others wondered too. Isaac asked, “Abdul?”

  The man jumped off the side of the roof, landed gracefully, and walked his way over. Everyone took note of his aura. The closer he got, the more like Abdul he appeared to be, but the less like Abdul his mannerisms made him seem. The claymore, Primus, was gone too.

  Sasha asked, “Who… are you? You’re not Abdul, are you? Where is Abdul?” Her nervousness spiked. She realized that she had yet to sense his soul anywhere.

  The man responded, “Abdul is no longer with us. In his final breaths, he offered his body to me.”

  Sasha froze up. King Andre was fascinated by this new existence and the implications behind it. Isaac choked out, “No…”

  “I am Primus,” the breathing blade said. He glared at Andre, put off by his disarmed presence. “And what I’m seeing here would rub Abdul wrong, so it rubs me wrong.” He wasn’t keen to get too close to who was supposed to be his enemy, so he kept space between them.

  “Did Abdul fight well?” Isaac asked.

  “He did. He fought until the end and found peace in death. Abdul… wanted me to express his gratitude to all of you.” Primus responded. But then his eyes fell back upon Andre. “He didn’t have to die though. Who shall I blame for this?”

  “You all took on the risk coming here, did you not?” Andre responded. “Whether I created these monsters is up to you, but I did not release them. This is a result of a clown’s antics. Anyway, shall we be on our way?”

  Sasha couldn’t look up from the ground. If she had accepted Andre’s deal earlier, the homunculi could’ve been stopped before taking Abdul’s life. If she were stronger and faster, she could’ve cut them down herself. She could have saved everyone. Elise wouldn’t have gotten hurt and used as leverage to bring Isaac onto Andre’s side.

  There were so many ways it could’ve gone better. All the possibilities swirled inside of her head, making her sick and dizzy. She tried to shake them off for now. She had to focus on the moment. She had to stay vigilant. “Primus, it looks like, for now, we’ll be going with the king. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize to me. I’ll restrain my kill drive until I get a reason not to.” He glared at King Andre.

  Andre ignored Primus. “We’ll be off then. Elise is in dire need of attention from my healer. I wouldn’t want King Isaac to lose his queen.”

  Sasha asked, “Are you capable of such things?” She didn’t want to make a big scene about it, but Elise did look bad. She couldn’t fault Isaac for his decisions if Andre truly could bring her from death’s door.

  Andre shot back with, “Of course I can. I’m the king. I house a great healer in Castle Hemmer. He possesses rare life-natured ki.”

  “Life nature?”

  Major explained, “One of the most valuable. They cure diseases and mend wounds. Not even he can stop the body’s natural degradation, though, right Andre?”

  Andre chuckled. “You know me well.”

  The now giant group headed off to Castle Hemmer together as the royal guard culled terrified, surrendered homunculi with no resistance. Sasha turned back toward the clock tower. Simon…

  ***

  Ashley bowed to Sasha, gesturing to a door in a hallway deep within Castle Hemmer. “This is your room, madam.”

  “…”

  They stared at one another in silence, Sasha’s gaze far colder. Ashley eventually broke it. “I understand your hostility, but to think you wouldn’t even try to hide it. Be generous to your king.”

  “Generous? That man isn’t my king.”

  “If only I could kill you myself. I don’t understand what His Highness sees in you. This must be some big joke.”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I don’t get it either.”

  They caught onto the fact that they’d agreed on something. Both scoffed and gave each other cold shoulders. Ashley walked off to duties she found more important. Sasha called out to her, “Are you not tasked with keeping an eye on us?”

  “We have no such orders. Don’t steal anything.”

  “As if I would.”

  Sasha was left dumbstruck outside her room. Are we truly guests here?

  It would seem so, Major responded.

  A trio of royal guardsmen on patrol walked by. They didn’t even give Sasha a glance. It was as if she were invisible, and her realizing that only brought thoughts of Simon. Sasha explored her giant room tiptoeing with heightened eyes sweeping over everything. There were no souls in her room, and no suspicious souls in her hallway.

  After letting out a prolonged sigh, she plopped down on the bed. Her palm’s contact with the blanket underneath her sent projections throughout her mind. It’d specifically come from sheep on the northern edge of the continent, commissioned by King Andre, and made by an old beastwoman decades ago.

  Sasha shook the blanket’s past from her mind. “Major.”

  “What is it?”

  “How can I have access to so much knowledge yet feel like I know absolutely nothing?”

  “Youth is my answer.”

  “Youth? Can you explain?”

  “A normal human mind can only absorb so much information and remember so many names. It’s worse in your case because your juvenile brain isn’t fully developed.”

  “Why do I feel offended?”

  “Youth.”

  “Ah.”

  “Yes.”

  “Major?”

  “Yes?”

  “Should we investigate?”

  “Do as you wish but just be careful. Now isn’t the time to start trouble.”

  “I won’t start anything. I’d like to visit Isaac, but I don’t know if he wants to see me. And Simon? Is he still waiting on that clocktower?”

  “You left him there, Sasha.”

  “And for good reason. I just hope it’s not cold.”

  “It’s most likely freezing.”

  “Fuck me, of course it is.”

  Major steered the conversation away from their abandoned ally. “At the very least, I don’t sense lies or evil in King Andre’s comrades. He himself is unreadable, but everyone else is in the same boat as us. Confused, going along with his whims.”

  “So, it should be safe then? To sleep?”

  “Perhaps, but who knows what will come from Andre or World’s Shiver?”

  Sasha rolled over onto her side, gazing at the bedside lit lantern. “Guess we’ll see soon. I’m leaving the light on tonight.”

  Her sleep did not last long. Sasha awoke to Major growling her name. “Sasha! Girl, wake up!” She rolled over to a flickering lamp and multicolored whisps through the walls dashing in every direction. Souls in movement. Hundreds of them across Hemmer, half malignant red and half human.

  The walls shook, sending dust to fall from the ceiling. World’s Shiver intensified through the windows blood red. Reality quivered. For a moment, Sasha was in a hellscape with rolling ashen hills, rivers of lava, and millions of corpses impaled on jagged stakes. Sasha burst out of bed to find her room in Castle Hemmer back to normal, though still stirring with chaos. She grabbed Major and took to the halls.

  She came face to face with a creature that, until now, only existed in nightmares and imagination. A walking skeleton stood eight feet tall with eight mangled arms and a skull perpetually aflame. It stepped over the burnt corpse of a Royal Guard. The flame of this hellspawn caught on a draping tapestry, spreading from there. Smoke raised to the ceiling and blanketed.

  The creature reached for Sasha. With her heart pounding, she heaved Major, cleaving it in half. It crumbled into a pile of bones and ash, easier than expected. Moments later, though, the thing began to reassemble itself. It roared at her, speaking, “The time for reclamation is nigh! The Arbiter has arrived!”

  “That isn’t a homunculus. It’s a being straight from lower Yellen,” Major said.

  “Through The Apparatus?” Sasha responded.

  “Most likely. We need to destroy it. Immediately.”

  “We’ll need the others though.”

  “Then find them.”

  She looked back at the creature nearly back on its feet. “What do I do about this thing?”

  “If you can’t kill it, ignore it.”

  She sighed. “What is even happening anymore? It’s good that I didn’t bring Simon into this.”

  “Is he the only one you think of now?”

  Sasha didn’t answer that. She sprinted down the halls of Hemmer, going straight toward the closest human souls she could sense. Most were wounded soldiers on or nearing their deathbeds. After turning a corner, she ran into Champion Gundyr and his halberd machina Metal Gear. The warrior missing half of his silver armor, yet still helmed, loaded shells into a sawed-off double barrel shotgun.

  He let out an intrigued, “Hm?” upon seeing her. Then, without looking, he aimed and blew the skull off a lunging fish-frogman. Lightning natured ki coursed across his body.

  Sasha yelped, surprised by the loudness. Her ears rang.

  Purple, steaming blood erupted from the monster’s exploded head, landing on Gundyr’s hand. It melted through his gauntlet, skin, and went to the bone. He dropped the shotgun and held his hand to himself, groaning in agony. It was pain horrible enough to make him froth at the mouth.

  Sasha approached him, asking, “Gods. Are you alright?”

  “I doubt it.” He nudged the gun on the ground with his foot. “You take this. I can’t use it now.”

  “What is it?”

  “A New Age prototype. The gun. Pick it up.”

  “Alright then.” Sasha picked up the shotgun, immediately looking down the barrel.

  Gundyr sighed. “Don’t do that.” He set Metal Gear against a wall. “Give it to me.”

  She obliged and watched him struggle to instruct her on it. “First, break open the gun like this.” He opened it up, launching two empty shells from his side of the barrel. “Give me two more shells from the satchel hanging on my left side.”

  After she handed them to him, he shoved them in. “Make sure they go in this way. Not the other way. Then you close it and pull the hammer back. Pull these two triggers down here and whatever’s in front of the barrel dies.”

  He shoved the gun towards her. “Don’t aim her at anybody you want to live. Don’t pull her triggers unless you want her to shoot. Clean her. Take care of her. Don’t drop her in the mud. If she breaks, don’t throw her away, and don’t take her to just any bumfuck for fixing.”

  “Her?” Sasha asked. “Is she a machina?”

  “No, but she’s a good girl.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Boomstick Betty.”

  Sasha hung the shotgun from its leather sling around her back and took Gundyr’s satchel of shells. “I’ll take care of her. Thank you, but why me?”

  “It could’ve been anyone. If I die here, I don’t want her to rot away in such a place.”

  “Your actual machina must be jealous.”

  Gundyr shrugged. “I’m guessing you’re looking for your people. So am I.”

  “These creatures seem to be coming in through The Apparatus. We intend to destroy it,” Major interjected.

  “So, we could have a goal in common. Could work on this together, all of us, after we regroup.”

  Something came up in Sasha’s mind. “I do have a question. Is Jericho still alive somewhere in here?”

  “Before I answer…, you don’t mean to ally with him, right?”

  “If push comes to shove.”

  “Hemmer’s dungeon. At the end of the West Wing. Do know that he and I won’t get along.”

  “Noted.”

  Sasha drew Major, alerted by a presence. “More demons are coming.”

  Gundyr planted Metal Gear into the ground. “Rules of Nature.” Its gears turned. The air around them shifted, but it wasn’t in a way Sasha could pinpoint.

  The dark red signatures ahead slowed to a lulling pace, and their colors shifted warmer. “What did you do?” she asked him.

  “Erased violence.”

  “What? What is violence? Major?”

  Her blade squinted. “I’m unsure.”

  “You’ll soon remember. Let’s go,” Gundyr said.

  They walked past wandering otherworldly horrors that seemed to lack purpose. These creatures looked at the paintings dotting the halls and smelt the potted plants as Sasha led Gundyr to the next friendly soul signature.

  Gundyr spotted the utter confusion on Sasha’s face. He explained, “My power lets me shift reality by changing its rules. Sounds strong, but it has its catches. Temporary, ki-exhaustive, short range, and only one shift at a time. Not to mention that we all follow the same rules. It’s hard to hurt enemies without hurting myself.”

  “If you’re power takes a lot, then you should save it. Don’t waste it to help me.”

  “I’m more so giving myself a break here. Can you handle the monsters?”

  “Of course I can. I’ll point them in the right direction.”

  “Sasha would help anyone without a second thought. Even a monster,” Major added.

  His power was dispelled, and violence was restored. In that moment, Sasha realized what he’d meant by the question. A scaly, serpentine beast raced toward them with fanged jaws wide open. It bounced off a wavy shield of ki she manifested in the last second. She drew Major and sliced its head off as Gundyr backstepped to hide behind her.

  “Can you not fight?” Major asked him.

  Gundyr held his hand closely to his chest. He was sweating profusely with a heavy breath. “No. I can barely move my power arm. If things get dicey, I’ll activate my machina. Put swinging by the healer on our to-do list.”

  Sasha nodded at him. “No issue with that. I’ll get you there.”

  “But that’s only if he hasn’t abandoned his station with this place going to shit.”

  “He wouldn’t do that, right?”

  “Who wouldn’t?”

  Elise and Isaac came up in Sasha’s mind. If her healing was interrupted, it would be one thing to lose her, but how would he take it? “We can’t let that happen.”

  Their travels took them to a great bridge linking the East and West wings where another of their allies hopefully awaited. A single guard with dented up armor and a blood puddle underneath sat against the railings with agonal breathing.

  “Put him out of his misery,” Gundyr ordered.

  “Alright,” Sasha responded.

  She unsheathed Major and laid the guard to rest with a single, carefully placed swing.

  “May you rest with your brothers,” he said to the man now deceased. He gave a bow that Sasha joined in on. They crossed and passed through to the West Wing.

  An unrecognizable corpse flew by, exploding against a bedroom wall which caved in. “Bring it! Is that all you’ve got?” a metallic voice beckoned.

  They met Primus as he ripped arms from demons in a pool of blood, frenzied with excitement. Who was the real monster there? Gundyr slipped behind Sasha to use her as a meat shield again.

  “Primus?” Sasha asked.

  He dropped the demon and straightened up. “Ah, Sasha! You’re here in one piece!”

  “How are you taking the freedom of having legs?”

  “It’s great. I can kill any— I mean do anything I want. Were you perhaps looking for me?”

  “We were.”

  Primus was elated. “I don’t know where these fuckers are coming from. Think this castle has an infestation.”

  “We’re taking care of it. We need you. Come with us.”

  The group became three, though Gundyr and Primus looked jittery next to each other. It was like they’d start brawling at any moment. “You look strong,” Primus said, sizing him up.

  “I enjoy a challenge, but right now isn’t the time to pick a bone with me.”

  “Then after this is over?”

  “Sure. I hope you are a good loser.”

  Sasha counted on her fingers as she went over names in her head. “Now, where is Isaac at?” She turned to Gundyr. “And who are you looking for?”

  “I take orders from the king, so him. And wherever he is, the maid will be,” Gundyr said.

  Primus put his hand on Sasha’s shoulder to get her attention. “That’s where Isaac went. To Andre. He wanted to protect his girl.”

  Sasha could see that easily. “That’s like him. So, we go that way and find everyone? The king, Isaac, Elise, and that maid included.”

  All eyes fell on Champion Gundyr. He met their expectations with due diligence. “I’ll lead you there. More the merrier.”