Petra stayed in the treasure room for several minutes before she decided she was ready to be near someone else. Her eyes were red. She didn’t know what her price had been, but she could feel its loss all the same. She wondered if it had been like this with Marius, then she realized it was likely a little different if it had gone the way she had thought it had gone.

  The Violet Shadow was waiting outside the door a short distance away. She didn’t know if he had heard any of her conversation with the treasure. He wasn’t facing the door so chances was he was trying to ignore all of it. She was glad that she had found someone who could respect her privacy even if he had been an assassin by trade.

  When he heard her footsteps approach him from behind he turned and looked her over. “I assume you got your wish granted. Do you know your price?” There was a slight amount of concern in his voice.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. The treasure didn’t say. It just said that I would find out after my wish was granted, and I know it took something.” She blinked then narrowed her eyes. “Should we be talking about this? I don’t want you to become a pile of bones before you can help me leave.”

  “It’s fine because we each had our wish granted.” He gave a shrug. “As you can see I have not collapsed yet. I can also see that you have figured out my price. Not all prices can be as obvious as mine. There was a flash of light and then my heart stopped.”

  “Was that how it happened?” she asked just as she began to smell something on the air. It smelled like something rotting and it was strong. She must have been too panicked to smell it before. It must have been nothing. “That must have hurt.”

  “Of course. It hurt a lot and more so because I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t think the treasure tells anyone what to expect when their wish was granted.”

  “I see.” She took a deep breath, ignoring the smell with some difficulty. “I assume because of your price you can’t smell anything? I mean you don’t have a nose.”

  He tilted his head at her. “I can smell well enough. I believe it has a similar reason to why I can see and why I can hear. That is an odd thing to ask so suddenly.”

  She covered her nose. She couldn’t stand it anymore. “Then I’m sure you can smell that.”

  “Smell what?” he sounded confused.

  “It smells like something crawled in here, died, and has been rotting for a month.” She gagged.

  “Isaac.” He said calmly. “I can’t smell anything. The only creature I know of who died in this labyrinth and rotted was me and that was a long time ago. The labyrinth takes care of itself. I think the treasure helps it. It wouldn’t let a corpse sit in here for long before it got cleaned up. They all end up in the sewers.”

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  “You really can’t smell it?” her eyes watered. “It’s so strong.”

  He shook his head. “I really can’t.” A moment passed and he took a step closer. The smell grew stronger. “Your wish. Did it happen to have something to do with justice, or crime?”

  She nodded.

  As soon as he saw the movement he took several long steps back. Her eyes widened as she realized that it smell was fading. He called over to her. “Remember, I am an assassin. Even before that I did bad things.”

  She wiped the tears from her eyes now that they no longer stung because of the smell. “So I can smell crime now, can I?”

  “It looks like it. Don’t worry. I will stay about this distance away until we reach the exit and you can leave me behind without getting lost.” He tapped his chin with a finger.

  “My wish wasn’t to be able to tell that someone has done something unjust though. I already know about how unjust the one I want to deal with has been. I just wanted to stop her.”

  “That just means that the scent has something to do with your price. The wish will be revealed later just like mine was. I didn’t know my bones were immortal until after my heart stopped.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “That is an odd price though, being able to smell injustice.”

  “I think it’s more than that.” He said grimly. “I’m sure it has gotten a bit better in Worthsmist since my time, but I’m sure there is still injustice all over the place. I’m sure that your job as a detective will also become pretty difficult. The price wasn’t being able to smell injustice.”

  She took a deep breath. “It was never being able to ignore crimes even if no one else notices it happening. Depending on how this works…. This could get complicated.”

  Suddenly she felt nervous about her return to the city. Then she took a deep breath. The city was full of many smells. Some of them were good like baking bread and flowers, but some would always smell bad to her. On top of that most people in the city were not professional assassins. This likely only meant that she would smell slightly worse smells in the city, as long as different levels of injustice smelled differently enough, and she could live with that. If she couldn’t she would have to get used to it.

  She looked to Marius. “Lead the way then. I think everything will be fine."

  ##

  The skeleton Marius guided her to the edge of the maze. It felt like he was disappointed she was going and if she hadn’t lost what she had she would have likely invited him to work with her. From the story he had told her it sounded like his life had been arranged just so to make him the assassin he was. She wondered how his life would have been like had he stayed at that orphanage. He for sure wouldn’t have been an undead skeleton roaming the labyrinth beneath the city.

  She didn’t tell him this of course. She kept their good byes brief and she quickly hurried through the sewers so she could leave that place.

  It was dusk when she got back to the streets. Petra looked around and sighed in relief. No one was around. She didn’t have to test her nose before she went to sleep. She sped through the streets she knew well from childhood.

  Then she smelled it. It smelled like spoiled milk, but not all that strong. The smells must depend on the type and severity of the crime. Maybe things would be easier than she had thought. She looked over and saw a few men sitting around a low table. They were laughing. She took note of their faces as she walked past.

  She didn’t stop until she reached the apartment and shop. It was empty and full of dust. A few letters had been slipped through the door. Exhaustion filled her and she ignored the envelopes. Petra had barely made it to the bed before she passed out in her clothes. She slept alone that night. Felix was still at her parents house and he would stay there until she picked him up in the morning.