The sombre memorial weighs heavily on Niel's mind, so he decides to continue his walk through the city. He forgot to take his wallet with him, but he strolls through the Heartstone Market nonetheless. There aren't many people around this early in the morning even in the heart of the city, but knowing how well the weather will be today, he expects that to change very soon.

He isn't familiar with the city from here, so he coordinates with his phone's map to find places of interest. There's one that he recognizes not too far from here: the ornate building that he and Reed stopped in front of after he beat up Mavrick. It's an old library. He doesn't know anything about it, so he decides against going to it for now. He'll likely be paying it a visit at some point anyway, knowing the others.

Letting his heart and map be his guide, Niel wanders throughout the city on foot. The city's largest park is grassy and flat like the riverside park, but there are more things set up, like a large playground and water fountains. Its greenery is cared for much more intently as well, with neatly trimmed trees and shaped hedges. The statue of the city's founder stands in front of city hall, though Niel doesn't draw near because there's a demonstration occurring. He doesn't know why they're protesting or what their signs say, but it's not his business to get involved so he moves on. He'd also rather not draw attention to himself by coughing in a crowd, especially while people are recording.

He finds himself in front of the sheriff's office when his phone begins to buzz; it's Mabel calling him. She asks where he is and that he should come home soon for lunch. Well, that ends his tour. He says he's on his way and hangs up, then uses the map to mark out the shortest route back home. The estimated time is almost two hours, but he can cut out roughly a quarter of that by taking a shortcut through an alley. If he were unawakened or had a Mute ill-suited for combat, he likely wouldn't chance it, but he'll be fine with his Dust.

Niel reaches the alley after an hour of walking, and between his sore legs and his hunger, he already can't wait to get home. He enters without hesitation, but he pulses his Dust around him like sonar to keep a watchful eye on his surroundings. The alley is dirty and filled with litter and debris, and Niel nearly steps on a needle as he wanders through. Black bags of garbage are scattered occasionally alongside the walls and next to large green dumpsters. There's only one person around, thankfully, and it's a lone man sitting on a set of stairs leading to a building door. He wears a large black coat, and a black toque covers a head of messy long hair. He scatters Dust on the man for safety as he passes, but he doesn't get up. Instead...

"Hey. You looking to buy?"

The man is talking to him. Niel can see that he has some kind of bag in one of his coat's pockets. He's likely a dealer of some sort, and Niel assumes that because he's wearing his sweater zipped and his hood up, he's taken Niel as a potential customer. Ignoring him could lead to trouble, so maybe he should feign interest and make an excuse to leave. Niel turns his head slightly so he can see the man while also keeping the majority of his face hidden.

"What are you selling—"

Niel is betrayed by his own throat as he's cut off by a cough, and the man looks none too pleased.

"You sick or something?" the man asks.

"Yeah. I've had this cough for a few days now." It's a believable lie.

"Keep moving, then. I don't want it."

"You really don't."

It's not the way Niel intended to get out of this encounter, but it sure as hell worked! Niel doesn't increase his pace, but he's eager to get out of the area. He puts the alley behind him with no further complications, and it's a smooth walk home from there.

"Geez, you've been up for a while. Where'd you go?" Reed asks as soon as Niel walks in through the front door. Everyone apart from Illia is sitting at the table and eating sandwiches.

"Around the city, and you've just been in your bed for a while," Niel shoots back.

"Well look who's developing a sense of humour!"

Niel is genuinely confused by Reed's comment, so both of them give up and drop it. "How's Illia?"

"Still very sick," Mabel says. "I think she's asleep now, but she was throwing up a lot while you were gone."

Hearing this, Lydia gives Niel a sharp, angered glare.

"There are a few sandwiches here for you," Gabriel says to Niel.

The latter is more than ready for food and rest, so he pulls up a chair with a flourish of Dust. But when he does the same with half a sandwich is when the others properly take notice.

"You've been using your Dust a lot recently," Gabriel observes.

"I don't have much of a choice," Niel says. He moves to pull the Warden's Key off of his neck, but Reed interrupts him as he does so.

"Why don't you?" Reed interrupts.

"Because..." Niel spins the chain of the Warden's Key around his hand until the top of the glass teardrop lays in between his index finger and his thumb, and he presents it to them. Apart from a tiny clear spec of space, inky liquid has taken up the entirety of the chamber within the glass. "The Warden's Key is almost full."

"Why does that matter again?"

"I can't stop generating power for Dust, so if too much builds up in my body, I start experiencing bad side effects. I can put excess power into the Warden's Key, but when that's full, I have to resort to wasting it purposely."

"And this 'power' is that black liquid?" Mabel questions.

"Correct. It's a hyper-concentrated and condensed version of the chemical that's in my veins."

"How are you able to move that from your body to the Warden's Key?" Gabriel asks.

"I'm honestly not sure—I was taught how to use it, not how it works. It's almost like flexing a muscle to transfer power to and from the Warden's Key, but only when it's hanging from around my neck."

"Could it be something on the back of your neck running it through the chain?" Reed says.

"If there is, I was never told."

"Let me go look for something," Gabriel says as he stands up. He walks off, and after roughly three minutes, he returns with a sheet of paper in his hand. "Here's a document from the hospital," he says.

The document is just a bunch of writing, but it clearly articulates that through a scan of Niel, some unknown material or device was discovered within the back of his neck.

"Huh. I didn't think I'd be right," Reed admits.

"Because you usually aren't," Lydia jabs.

Niel takes the Warden's Key off again and examines the chain. It just looks like a regular silver-coloured metal, but it must be more than just simple steel or titanium. Though, he supposes that the 'how' and 'why' don't matter much, just that it does. He feels nothing on the back of his neck either—or at least nothing that stands out to him. It certainly feels like his real skin, as opposed to his forearms.

Niel decides to stay inside after lunch due to his fatigue. He watches TV for half an hour, but Lydia's glare from earlier crosses his mind. What was that for? It was... Right, it was when Mabel brought up Illia's condition when he was outside. Is she angry at him for not being there when it happened? Seems hypocritical—she wasn't there either. And it's not like staying with her will cure her, or that it's his fault she's sick in the first place.

Though, Niel would be lying if he said he didn't feel any guilt for it.

Niel abandons the TV and makes his way upstairs in Shadow Dive to prevent making footsteps. He faces both her door and a dilemma at the top: he was told to knock if someone has their door closed, but he doesn't want to wake her if she's asleep. He's already walked in on Reed before, so he'd rather not do the same to her if she's undressed or something.

He contemplates scanning only the floor to see if she's standing or putting his ear up to the door to hear if she's moving or not, but then he realizes: what if he just knocks lightly? No need to overcomplicate things. He does just that, and after a second of buffer, he slowly opens the door. Turns out he has nothing to worry about.

"Oh, you're awake," Niel says to Illia, who is sitting upright in bed.

Niel has already seen the inside of Illia's room a few times, but he's never actually been inside of it before. Her room is surprisingly similar to his, as it only contains a bed, nightstand, dresser, desk, and laptop in a near-identical layout. Where hers differ, however, is in the pink walls and the random toys strewn about, though it isn't easy to see everything with the curtains blocking out most of the light.

"How do you feel?" Niel asks as he weaves a chair of Dust to sit on. The Warden's Key provides some light.

She wobbles her hand at chest level—so-so.

"Have you been able to keep anything down?"

Illia shakes her dejectedly. It's after this reaction that Niel notices the sick bucket by her bedside, and upon viewing the contents, he wishes he hadn't.

"Did Reed or Lydia come to see you yet?"

She shakes her head again and reaches over to her phone. Niel's been asking yes-or-no questions to keep her from needing to type, but he won't stop her now if she wants to.

'Where did you go on your walk?' Illia's phone reads.

"All over the city," Niel responds.

'How come?'

"I just wanted to see more of the city." While his walk did turn into that, he can't tell her the real reason why he left in the first place.

'Can you take me with you next time?'

"Once you feel better."

Illia smiles for a moment, but her expression quickly changes to anguish as her stomach quickly sours. Niel is quick to pass her the bucket as she retches. Once her nausea settles down again, he assists by dumping the contents of the bucket into the toilet and chilling the cloth that was on her head with cold water.

Illia places her hand over her chin and lowers it towards Niel; Mabel has told him before that this means 'thank you' in sign language.

"You're welcome," Niel responds.

>>>>>>

The next day comes and Mabel's worry is steadily growing as Illia still can't keep anything down. As much as he hates it, there isn't anything Niel can do for her, so he decides to take another walk. His motive—outside of clearing his head—is to buy her something to cheer her up. He knows she likes random toys, so he'll try to find something she doesn't already own. His cough is all but gone now, so blending in with the healthy will be easier than before.

He's cut off on his way to the Heartstone Market by a call from Mabel, who asks if he can pick up more anti-nausea medication for Illia while he's out, and that she'll pay him back for doing so. He agrees and diverges from his route to the Market towards a nearby store Mabel highlighted. The medication is quite expensive, so he hopes it will work. He brings up the map to plan his way back home, and he realizes that the fastest way to get there is through the same alley he went through yesterday. He'd rather not, but he doesn't want to waste any time getting this to Illia.

Upon reaching the alley again, he looks around to find a safe place to Shadow Dive unseen, but there's nothing around that guarantees privacy from random passersby. He can't tuck in somewhere else and dive through due to the sunlight being bright enough to give him away, and the buildings are too low and too spaced to let him jump across unnoticed. It's like this alley in particular was designed to keep even the stealthiest of Phase Mutes in the open. With few other options, Niel commits to walking down the alley again.

There are few to no other people around, much to Niel's relief, but those that are around are watching him out of curiosity. At least, he hopes it's just curiosity. He rounds the bend where he saw the man from yesterday, and sure enough, he's there today as well. However now, there's a second man with him. They're both facing the wall and talking close and quietly to each other—looks like a deal is happening. When Niel scans them, though, is when the real motive is revealed. The second man is taking the dealer's money and product at knifepoint.

Niel weighs his options. He could get involved and stop this robbery, but that will lead to unwanted attention. It would also put him in the dealer's favour. Should he leave without being noticed, there will be nothing gained and nothing lost. The dealer looks over his shoulder and spots Niel, leading the thief to notice also. Running away now will lead to further negative interactions with the dealer should he pass through this alley again. He has to choose.

"Give him his shit back," Niel calmly demands to the thief.

"Fuck off, you little brat," the thief retorts bluntly. "Or what, you want some too?"

The thief approaches Niel knife in hand, but instead of running off, Niel weaves his way behind the man and breaks his arm at the elbow with his knee powered by Dust. The thief screams in pain as he flails on the ground, but that doesn't stop Niel from kicking his broken elbow again.

"You— You... FUCK!!"

Niel stares him down for a few seconds before he remembers the knife. He turns around and fetches it from the ground, shielding his hand and fingerprints with a thin layer of Dust, and examines it. Thin 20cm blade with myriad scratches from a previously botched sharpening job, black handle with rubber for grip, faded skull-and-bones decal—it's not a phenomenal weapon, but it could certainly take someone's life. As Niel approaches the downed man with the knife in hand, the dealer takes a step towards him in apprehension, but goes no further.

Niel flips the knife around in his hand and offers the handle to the thief, who snatches it and takes a pained slash at Niel's neck. However, to cut with a blade, you need a blade, and the thief realizes that he quite literally only took the handle; the now-severed metal still rests in Niel's hand. Niel slips the blade safely into a Dust sheath hidden beneath his sweater's sleeve and grabs the man by the collar of his sweater to haul him to his feet. He also strips him of the stolen property.

"Now, you should go get your arm looked at... A broken elbow is very serious. It could fuck up your arm for life if left unchecked," Niel says, his monotone words full of jaded sympathy and flat smugness.

"F-fuck you!" the man screams as he stumbles off. Once he's out of sight, Niel gives off a large sigh.

"Are you alright?" Niel says to the dealer behind him, making sure to not turn around so he doesn't see the Warden's Key alight under his sweater.

"Better than him," the dealer responds. "Like, holy fuck, you didn't have to be that brutal."

Niel watches silently as the dealer repacks his bag with dollar bills and baggies filled with green buds. He was taught a bit about drugs and trafficking after he was infected by Dust. Appearance, effects, usage, value—it's something he was supposed to do as a side job to help fund the lab. He refuses to partake now as it will be another lead back to him. At least this knowledge saves Mabel and Gabriel an explanation.

"You're that kid from yesterday, right?" the dealer asks.

"The sick one? Yes."

"Thanks for helping me, but still keep away from me. I don't want to catch what you have."

A thought crosses Niel's mind after a few silent seconds. "Was he that thief with the Electric Mute?" Niel asks.

"Huh? Oh, I don't think so. Pretty sure that thief's a kid, not a grown man."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Some small fry with a nasty Mute. Strong-arms wallets out of the toughest dudes with electricity."

"A rare Mute."

"Damn right it is. Kid might as well be riding around on a unicorn."

As the dealer zips up his bag, Niel scans down the alley in the direction the thief ran off to, and he spots the unmistakable uniform and gear of two police officers. They're around the corner and thus are not visible directly, but they're approaching fast.

"Shit, cops," Niel grunts as he crouches down, causing the dealer to do the same in a panic.

"The fuck? Where?"

"They're just around the corner. We need to move."

"Wait, where? How do you know—"

Niel grabs the dealer's arm and pulls him away, and they slip away down a narrow side portion of the alleyway before they're seen. Once they reach the main road, they blend in with other pedestrians as a police cruiser passes by, lights flashing.

"Fuck, man, we should be running!" the dealer nervously mutters to Niel through gritted teeth.

"No. Don't run—walk. Running will only attract more attention to us," Niel responds, trying to suppress his own unease. "They won't find what they don't know they're looking for. We just need to leave the area."

The pair keep walking into the city, more than eager to escape their predicament. Once they feel they're far enough away, they stop and regroup.

"Alright. We just need to lie low for now," Niel says as he offloads the broken blade into a garbage can, careful to keep the blade hidden both out and inside the garbage.

"Guess I won't be going back there. Fuck, man, and that was a good spot, too."

"To deal?" Niel makes sure he doesn't speak too loudly.

"Huh? Yeah. Lots of customers, lots of money."

Due to a lot happening since he bought the medication, Niel checks his phone again and realizes that he is running horribly late.

"I need to run," he says to the dealer.

"I guess I do too. Thanks for the help, kid. I mean it." But just as Niel turns around, the dealer stops him. "Actually, what's your name, kid?"

Niel turns back around and looks the man in the eye. "Niel."

"Callum," the dealer introduces. Niel nods in recognition, but turns around and leaves right after.

Niel sticks to shaded areas as much as he can to Shadow Dive as often and for as long as possible to speed up his movement. This combined with jogging, and then full-on sprinting once he reaches his neighbourhood gets him home only a tad late instead of extremely.

"Oh, there you are," Gabriel says as soon as Niel walks through the front door. "Why are you out of breath?"

"I took a wrong turn and ran to make up for lost time," Niel half-lies as he hands the box of medication and the receipt to an approaching Mabel.

"Thank you," she says sincerely.

"You didn't really need to run, though. You could have just called instead. Besides, Illia's been asleep for the last two hours now, so she doesn't need it right away," Gabriel explains, much to Niel's shock.

"I... suppose you're right," he responds.

* * *

Callum looks over his shoulder as he draws close to the front door of his house. In this run-down section of the city, there isn't much in the way of security, so he needs to do what he can. He slips in through the door and shuts it behind him, then examines the deadbolt in the doorframe. While it lays firmly in a metal cuff bolted to the wooden frame, it's only a wooden frame and will give in fairly easily to a heavy object, such as one made by a Mute. He should find some scrap metal and reinforce the door soon. An extra chain or two would also help keep any lock pickers out.

"Daddy!" a young voice calls from a nearby room. Running up to him is his daughter, with shoulder-length dirty blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes that match his, though hers still retain their innocence. Callum sets his backpack down and picks up the young girl.

"Were you being a good girl for daddy?" Callum asks his daughter.

"Yep! I didn't open any windows or doors!"

"Good girl." He sets her down and pats her head affectionately. "Let's have supper now."

"Yay!"

While supper only consists of cheap microwaveable food on a worse-for-wear table, Callum is happy that it's something warm for once, and he observes that same sentiment in his daughter's smile. That alley was a great spot, though it's thanks to that kid that he was able to keep the cash. What was his name again? Neil? He'll have to find a way to pay him back for helping.

After supper is eaten, he puts his daughter to bed so she gets to fall asleep on a full stomach. There's more for him to do, though, such as tending to his marijuana plants and his drying harvest down in the basement. His daughter is strictly forbidden from entering. The growing operation is fairly amateur, as he doesn't have the money nor the experience of other dealers. His ventilation system, for example, is compromised of a pricy air fan and filter from days gone by to keep air flowing and Phase Mutes out, along with jury-rigged piping and electrical work he did himself. The re-wiring job is most definitely illegal, but the city doesn't give a shit about this area, anyway.

He looks up at the memento mori hanging on the wall above his dry buds: a queen of hearts.

As he sorts through the buds to prepare for tomorrow, he's reminded again of the robbery today, and in turn his Mute. Argon may sound cool, but it's so goddamn useless in a fight. He can try suffocating someone with it, but they're still left with more than enough time to shoot or stab him and turn the gas off. Phasing can get him out of a rough spot, but it doesn't let him take his backpack with him, which he needs to hold his weed, money, and food. Neil more than proved himself in a fight, but he doesn't want to ask any more of the kid.

The playing card watches on with silent eyes. He needs to do whatever he can for their little girl.