Two hours earlier
A girl walked silently through the abandoned streets at the edge of the city. All the inhabitants had long left their homes to celebrate the festival that would start soon at the docks. They took all the noise that usually filled the streets, with them to the center of the city. The silence didn’t disturb the girl at all. On the contrary: she had chosen this exact moment to meet someone. Or rather, her client had. She had no trouble sneaking around, but it was not the same for her associate. And if anybody noticed them and spread the word, it could mean everything they’d done up until this point, could’ve been for naught… These were the final, most crucial moments of the plan. They couldn’t afford even a single mistake.
She stopped before an abandoned shelter, which had been used to store parts of ships back when Vinclum was still a small defensive garrison. When the city started growing and the current harbor became the main point of trade, a lot of shelters in this place were relocated. Most of them were remodeled to workshops and storages, but a few smaller ones like this one hadn’t been repurposed yet. It was a perfect place for secret meetings.
When she opened the door, her client was already waiting.
“Perfectly on time, as expected. Your dependability is commendable.”
The girl closed the door and stepped towards the client, unaffected by the admiration. She didn’t come here for shallow compliments.
“So, I assume the job went well?”
“Positive. There were no issues.”
The man nodded contently.
“How is the girl?”
“Completely disoriented. These last days must’ve gotten the better of her. She didn’t even look up when I removed her shackles and gave her some food and water. While I don’t particularly care, I doubt she’ll be useful to you in any way.”
“That’s alright. She’s not part of the plan either way, so even if she keeps hiding like a wounded animal, it won’t matter. But if my sources are trustworthy enough, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about her.”
“Hmm…”
A short silence filled the room. The girl reached inside her inner pocket and presented a cut wristband. The man accepted the item and immediately crushed it in his hand. When the man re-opened his palm, there was no single trace of the wristband left. A small stream of water dripped down his arm and formed a small puddle next to his feet.
“And the man? Did he spit anything?”
“Just like the other man, he did not know anything. If any of them would’ve had any information, they would’ve loosened their tongue for sure.”
“So, nothing on the whereabouts of Michael, huh. It’s a pity, but it can’t be helped. Those two had it coming for them for a long time, and I’m sure you didn’t mind helping them to the other side either. I’d say this was a win-win situation for both of us, even if the results didn’t turn out to be completely positive.”
The girl did not answer. There was no reason to think about the dead. No matter if they deserved it or not, they were gone now.
“Now that our deal is over, I’d like to ask if you’d be interested in working with my people? We really need talent like yours: determined, skillful and fighting for the right cause. I’m sure if you join us, you will be able to save many more like the ones you saved in this city.”
“No thanks. I’m fine on my own.”
The girl quickly denied the man’s proposal. She had no interest in depending on someone else, ever again.
“…I guess that was to be expected. But it was worth trying anyways.”
The man took out an envelope from his pocket and gave it to the girl.
“As promised, your part of the deal.”
The girl opened the envelope and inspected the contents. It contained several letters, some written in different handwritings. Once she checked the validity of the marks on them, she quickly closed it again.
"There’s a boat on the far end of a smaller harbor near the first district. It’s near the location we first met up, you’ll find it easily. It’s as big as the previous one, so it will be enough to harbor everyone.”
“Alright. And the other promise you made?”
“Don’t worry. The gears have already been set in motion, it’s just a matter of time now. The citizens in the third district will be freed, just like we agreed.”
“If anything happens to my people, I will come for your head...”
“Oh, you would threaten me…?”
The man smiled viciously.
“Well, no reason to dwell on it, since I will keep my end of the deal.”, he continued.
The girl moved towards the exit. Just when she reached out to the doorknob, the man halted her one last time.
“Flori. One of my men told me that’s the name of the courageous girl that saved him on his journey here. Oaken hair, similar colored eyes. She’s somehow able to use all four elements without any kind of visible weapon. Sounds familiar?”
“No clue.”
“I see… And how about a boy named Taro? I heard he almost got sold off at the black market, but for some reason, he got bailed out by Phoenia and accompanied her ever since. You know him?”
The girl swept away a long, crystal-colored curl that had fallen before her eyes. She unconsciously touched one of her crystal-embedded earrings, which had become faintly visible after her earlier gesture.
“…No, never heard of him before.”
“…Alright, I’ll trust your word. Take care, and may we meet somewhere again soon.”
She left the building and walked down the street towards the small harbor. Her job here was done. Even if it had only been for a short time, the things she’d seen in this city had blown her respect for humans even further below sea bottom. Every day that passed, she got more disgusted by the dirtiness, foulness and demonic practices of those that claimed to be the right and just.
The girl stood in front of the small boat. A few figures on the boat noticed her presence and waved happily. Their bodies were worn, their horns were broken and they had been separated from their family and friends. Despite their poor conditions, they were smiling. They had finally been cut from their shackles and had regained their freedom. One that had been rightfully theirs, but had been taken away by the greed and arrogance of these humans.
She hated them. Loathed them. Cursed them.
That’s why she hoped…
… this city and all the humans within, would be completely eradicated.
Taro was closely following Tenessa through the quiet halls. Her navigation was as expected from someone who spent most of her days running from one corner to another: she knew every single crook and nanny in this building. The guards on duty were few and far in between, making their infiltration a piece of cake. Not much after their entrance in the main building, they stopped before a door close to the main hallway. Tenessa took out two metal wires and proceeded to put them into the lock. Not much later, a faint clicking sound marked her success. She opened the door, revealing a small but heavily decorated room beyond.
“This is…?”
“Phoenia’s room.”
Taro stepped inside and inspected the area. To his surprise, everything inside looked casual and modern. There was no indication of her status at all: no fancy portraits, overly designed furniture or gold-embedded attributes. On the contrary, it felt like he accidentally walked into a collector’s backroom, where they hide all their unique and time-limited wares.
The room was a mess. The walls and the floor were filled with miniature crafts of all kinds: animals, houses, boats, people… There were even some unfinished or straight-out sloppy works, as if they had been made by a complete beginner.
“Are you sure this is the right room…?”
He turned towards Tenessa, but his gaze met with the wood of a closed door. When a soft clicking sound followed, Taro knew immediately he had been locked in. When he tried to pull the doorknob to no avail, his suspicions were quickly confirmed.
“Hey, Tenessa, what are you doing? Open up! Hey!” Taro started bonking the door from the inside.
“Shhh, or else they will hear you.”
The response was Tenessa’s voice, which meant she was still standing on the other side.
“Sometimes the guards check the door, and they might notice if we leave it unlocked. I’d rather not get caught when opening the door from inside, so I’ll wait outside until you’re finished. I’m not sure if the book is in her room, but I don’t know any other place where she might hide it. Also, on other days this place is way more crowded and well-guarded, so tonight is our only shot to search it without any risk of being discovered, and I’d like to use that to its full extent.”
Tenessa’s reasoning made sense, but Taro wished she’d warned him beforehand. She’d only briefly explained her plan to him, while continuously proclaiming the urgency of their actions. In his earlier burst of inner rage, he hadn’t asked many questions because he had only been focused on getting his hands on the book. It seemed she had left out a lot of details in her explanation, including this part.
“Anyways, I’m leaving before they notice me. I’ll be back in an hour. If you find the book, feel free to read it to kill the time. If you don’t find it, well… You’re in a woman’s room, I’m sure you’ll find something distasteful to keep yourself busy with.”
After that stingy remark, her voice vanished from the other side. Taro was completely alone now, locked up inside the room of one of the most powerful people in this city. If Tenessa didn’t keep her word and someone found him in this place, that barrage of explosions would be a heavenly dream in comparison to what she’d do to him. He did not have the skill to break out on his own, and trying to force the door would only increase his chances to get caught. The only thing he could do, was rely on Tenessa’s goodwill.
While he was locked up, there was no other option than to follow her guidance and search the room. After all, he was going to be stuck here for a full hour. First, Taro inspected the room in more detail.
The figures he’d noticed earlier painted the majority of the room. He took a random one from the ground out of curiosity, and gave it a closer look. The figure in his hand was clearly not made by a skilled craftsman: the edges were rough and unfinished, the features were not measured proportionally and some surfaces even showed small cracks. Despite this, Taro could very well determine what he was holding: a woman with a whip on her side, holding her hand above the head of a little boy. The boy was holding a block-like item in his small hands, but Taro could not determine what it was. On the bottom of the statue stood engraved in big letters: ‘For Phoenia’.
Taro put the statue back down and moved further inside, while evading the strayed pieces on the floor. Apart from the figures there was not much else in the room: a bed, a closet, a desk and some boxes and sacks, stacked away in a cornet. Those had the biggest chance to contain anything useful, so he decided to start searching them first. But as soon as he opened them, Taro couldn’t be more disappointed by the sight of the contents.
More figures. No matter how many boxes he searched, they were all filled to the bottom with these silly, ugly figurines. When he opened the last box, a figurine with an evil smile stared at him, as if it was mocking him for his futilities. Taro had an enormous urge to break its face into a hundred different pieces, but he managed to keep his cool. He could not do anything that would notify anyone he’d been here, he knew that much…
Next to the boxes, there were two sacks. Taro expected them to be filled with more toys, but this time around he found something completely different.
A blinding white sword. Its hilt was decorated with small rose buds and engraved with small curls. Even though it was stashed away in a corner, its blade was cleanly sharpened and maintained. For some reason, Phoenia was taking proper care of it, yet Taro had never seen it before. He also didn’t notice any sword on either of the figures. The only thing she was always carrying with her was her signature weapon: her hellish whip. So, this was just another collector’s item, then…?
Taro put the sword back into the sack and inspected the other one. It was completely empty. Disappointed with his results, Taro left the corner and moved towards the desk. A few papers and an ink pen were lying on top of it. He scoured the contents in search for anything that would expose her underground connections, but they all seemed to be casual letters and briefings. It seemed she had been in contact with a lot of different people, given the amount of distinct handwritings. A lot of them were also subscripted with the correspondence’s name, but none of them sounded familiar to him. After about ten minutes, he had searched through every single paper but had gotten none the wiser about Phoenia. The only thing he clearly noticed, was that no matter who was writing her, they seemed to hold her in high respects. For Taro, that proved the fact that she was continuously hiding her true, despiteful nature to the people she surrounded herself with. Just like the first impression she’d given him, and almost completely lured him in with. If he didn’t find proof of her association to slavery and murder, he’d probably still think she was an astounding leader.
Next up was the closet. Again, Taro was blown away by surprise when he looked at the inside, but this time for an entirely different reason. Cute, frilly clothes were hanging side by side in the closet’s racks. There was no trace of any formal clothes, like she had been wearing ever since he met her, or anything even remotely normal. It was as if all of the most innocent, adorable clothes had decided to hold a tea party inside a single closet. Her formal clothes must’ve been gathered in the armory, where he got (un)clothed earlier by Tenessa. In other words, what he was seeing here, had to be her personal, out-of-duty clothes, which she wore while taking a stroll down the docks, or meeting up in a local diner with her friends…
…No. Taro couldn’t possibly imagine Phoenia wearing these. The thought alone almost made him burst into laughter. They were probably collector’s objects, just like those figures and that sword. Even though he didn’t know Vinclum had such exemplary tailors, it was not impossible. After all, he had barely seen a glimpse from the city. Talent could be found everywhere, so even in a place like this, it didn’t seem far-fetched to think there were a couple of people that strayed from the craftsman’s path and steered towards a more fringe direction.
The real question was why Phoenia was gathering all this stuff. To please the citizens? Self-satisfaction? Because she genuinely liked this stuff? Taro did not care for the answer. It was all just a mask either way, so there was no reason to think deeply about it.
The last place remaining was the bed. It was a classic that people hid their dearest belongings underneath or inside of the mattress. However, for anyone who really had something to hide, that marked the worst hiding spot for exactly that reason. Nonetheless, he gave it a try.
He lost count of how many times this single room had surprised him, but one more got added to the equation. When he lifted the pillow, the cover of a book smiled back at him.
“The third wall”, followed by the number 42.
The design, the handwriting, the size. It all checked out with the ones in Tenessa’s room. Taro could not believe his eyes, and in disbelief he opened the book to check if the contents matched up.
On the first page, there was a small intro from the writer, followed by a unique signature. He clearly recognized the name of Tenessa’s father. Everything checked out with the ones he’d seen in the other books. No doubt, this was the missing volume, the one they’d been searching for. Stashed away in possibly the easiest place one could think of hiding it. Did she seriously expect nobody to search there…? Was it a trap or some kind of reverse psychology? Maybe she was so confident of her ability to hide her crimes with her firm and leaderlike appearance, that she didn’t deem it necessary to go to great lengths to hide it well.
In any case, the reasoning did not matter. The book was finally in his hands. He would find the reason why he was dragged from one corner to another in this damned city, why Liss and the others got abducted and where they could’ve possibly been brought to. He knew he staked a lot of his hopes on a collection of pages, but it was the only thing left that he could trust in.
Taro turned the second page. The third page. The fourth. Page by page, sentence by sentence, he started devouring the dreadful history of the city, in hope for the answers and clues he was owed…
…and he would not be disappointed.
