cHApTEr 17. DisAsTEr DAy of crisis (3 of 3)

And then the person who always seemed determined to seize the spotlight just had to ruin the moment.

“I’m so touched,” Lokiel said, shaking his bowl cut; his pearl earrings swayed in time. “Erinel, my dear, your little friends are so brave, so chivalrous! It’s all so… underwhelming. I daresay we have overstayed our welcome. We should go, don’t you think?”

“Wait,” Reyna reached out toward him. “I’ve been informed you have companions as well. Can they help us too?”

“Can they help you?” Lokiel repeated, smiling sweetly. He turned to the man in the fedora. “Jean, my friend, what do you think?”

“You’re the boss, Lokiel,” Jean said, brushing the question aside.

“You’re right, I am. How silly of me,” Lokiel laughed in that grating, irritating way of his. When he stopped, he looked back at Reyna Kayree. “My answer is no. They are of no concern to you, and I don’t need that boring little arrangement you have prepared, registration or whatever it is you have in mind.”

Without waiting for a response, Lokiel headed for the staircase, closely followed by Jean, who finally pushed himself away from the wall. The two of them passed Mioray and the others. Lowering her gaze, Erinel decided to join the departing pair. Just as she placed a foot on the stairs, she turned back toward Mioray.

“Don’t exhaust your soul energy,” she said. “You’ll need it when the souls of the dead manifest.”

She wasn’t speaking only to him. Her words were meant for all of them. It was as if she were saying that she did not oppose them helping the victims of the meteorite strike, that she wasn’t forcing her beliefs onto them.

Or perhaps she simply didn’t care what they chose to do.

“So, what is this registration Lokiel was talking about?” Farah asked with a frown once the greanrips and Jean were gone.

“I don’t know how he found out about it, but it’s not like I was planning to hide it from you,” Reyna said, waving a hand dismissively. “It’s nothing serious. Just a formality, if you ask me. I only need to officially enlist you into DEAD, under Lady Anetta’s Foundation.”

“What?!” Mioray exclaimed, along with everyone else.

Behind Reyna, the man named Nadir, with a neat line of stubble tracing his jaw, pulled out a stack of forms and a set of badges bearing Lady Anetta’s seal – a golden swan encircled by spread wings.

“You need to fill these out, and we’ll give each of you a badge,” he said in a flat tone, holding the papers out.

Farah made no move to take them. She only snorted.

“Why is this necessary? And why do you think we’ll agree to it?”

“It will be more convenient for you to operate if you carry our badge,” Reyna explained patiently. She had clearly expected resistance. “There will be fewer questions from rescue teams or the police, and you won’t be forced to evacuate. And I’m sorry to say this, but one way or another, all of you are already on the Foundation’s radar. Once we get past this crisis, we’ll be looking into you more thoroughly. But if you agree to cooperate with us now, it will only help your case later.”

“This was a mistake,” Farah said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“It was only a matter of time,” Kevin remarked. He stepped forward and took the papers from Nadir’s hands. Adjusting his glasses with one finger, he glanced over the forms.

“You’re a lawyer, aren’t you, Kevin Edgett?” Reyna crossed her arms and tilted her head. She looked almost pleased. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading these.”

Kevin’s only reply was the flutter of pages as he skimmed through them with a speed and thoroughness that would have made anyone jealous.

And so, once everything had been said and done, the long days and nights of what felt like a never-ending effort to deal with the consequences of the meteorite strike began. It was demanding work, requiring a great deal of stamina, which, fortunately, Mioray and the others had in abundance. The only thing they needed to watch was their soul energy, making sure the strain on their bodies didn’t drain it too quickly. But even that was manageable now that they knew water could restore it.

Essentially, they just had to stay hydrated.

Physically, they were equipped for it. Kevin and Farah seemed to handle it mentally well enough too, but for Mioray, Mia, and Matt, seeing so many people in pain and distress was devastating. Despite the evacuation, there were still thousands upon thousands of them, and there wasn’t even a minute to pause and take a breather.

Most often, people were trapped inside damaged buildings and had to be pulled out from under the rubble. But that was only part of the problem. Many were bleeding out and needed immediate care – disinfection, bandaging, anything that could keep them alive until proper help arrived. Some had it worse, their limbs crushed beyond saving and in need of amputation. The hardest cases were those where nothing could be done anymore, when the person they found was already dead or on the verge of dying, and someone close to them – a child, a parent, a partner – had to stand there and watch, crying helplessly.

This went on for three days, and there was still no end in sight, though the situation was slowly improving. The signal had been restored, so communication was easier, and rescue reinforcements had arrived from neighboring cities. A refugee camp was set up outside the city, and Mioray’s parents settled there for the time being. He had met them there once to make sure they were unharmed, and since then they talked on the phone regularly.

As a police officer, Natalie Lance joined the rescue effort, and so did Chad Haytham. Natalie couldn’t persuade him to stay with his family, even with death breathing down his neck. Reyna Kayree, as promised, kept trying to find out whether another disaster was meant to strike the city, but so far she had no luck.

And because everything had remained relatively calm for three days, some people began returning to the city, to the districts that had escaped the meteorite strike or had suffered only minor damage. Reyna Kayree tried to stop it, but, unfortunately, the officials refused to give in despite her warnings.

For Mioray, simply searching for survivors wasn’t enough. He wanted to do more, unable to come to terms with the deaths of so many people and with the fact that more were still to come. A few times he put on the wooden mask – the storage facility was not damaged by the meteorite impact – and became John Doe again, so he could use his powers without being recognized. Behind the mask, he could breathe more freely and react to danger even when others were watching.

After all, accidents kept happening that placed people in immediate danger. Another damaged house collapsing, its walls threatening to bury anyone nearby, or someone tripping and falling into the pits torn open in the roads. In moments like that, John Doe’s ability to extend his limbs was quite literally a lifesaver.

And by some strange coincidence, the mysterious vlogger Numinies always seemed to be nearby, recording John Doe’s every deed. It was almost as if she knew who he really was and was simply toying with him. At least she wasn’t exposing his true identity. Even so, Mioray decided to lay low and avoid becoming John Doe for the time being.

Too many people already knew about him. Reyna Kayree knew, and possibly all of Lady Anetta’s Foundation did as well. His normal life, or whatever was left of it, was slipping away, reminding him that he was already dead. In retrospect, it only showed how lucky he had been to get eight additional months of something close to a carefree life.

He was walking down the broken streets when someone from a rescue team stopped him. Mioray showed the swan badge and was allowed to continue. A few steps later, his phone rang. Kevin was calling, and that could mean only one thing.

“Erinel is gathering us,” Kevin said through the speaker without so much as a greeting. “The souls have started to manifest. We’re meeting back at the Artery office.”

Then he hung up.

Mioray grumbled under his breath. Was it really too much to expect even a little friendliness from Kevin? It wouldn’t have cost him anything to sound slightly less unpleasant. Mioray looked up at the sky. It was around six o’clock, and the sun was still bright, with no trace of Mars beside it. The red planet, which had loomed so menacingly on the day it struck Reath, had now returned to normal, appearing only at night as if nothing had happened. It didn’t seem likely that another meteorite would fall anytime soon, but something bad was going to happen again in less than eighteen days, and nobody had the slightest idea what it might be.

Mioray was the last to arrive on the top floor of Artery. This time, only the greanrips and the Restored from both groups were present in the office. The first people he noticed were Matt and Mia standing beside Niles and Saria. He greeted them, pointedly ignoring Amika, whose threatening stare he could feel on his back even though, on the surface, she was chatting casually with Farah. Jean, as always, kept to himself, standing alone in the corner of the room like some solitary stray.

Erinel and Kevin stood by the window together with Lokiel and Kiriya. The girl was dressed entirely in black, in a gown with a long, fluffy skirt that made her look like a bride. Or a widow. Her attention was fixed on Lokiel. For a moment, the look she gave him felt too lingering, but Mioray quickly dismissed the thought. He couldn’t imagine anyone coming away with a good impression of that greanrip in the emerald tailcoat.

“You should have consulted me,” Mioray caught Erinel saying to Kevin. “Giving information to that woman is only going to complicate everything.”

“Well, you left, and we didn’t have much choice,” Kevin replied calmly. “It was a calculated decision. She already knew too much.”

“This is all because of Natalie,” Erinel said, looking out through the glassless window, her expression pensive. “I understand her hatred toward me, but I didn’t think she would give you up. I overestimated her relationship with Mioray.”

Hearing that, Mioray felt a sting of guilt. Erinel wasn’t directly saying it was his fault, but he wasn’t sure she wasn’t implying exactly that. He had been the one to contact Natalie and tell her about the coming tragedy. And it was true that Natalie was angrier with Erinel than anyone else for keeping it secret until it was almost too late. As for the deal with Reyna, Mioray didn’t think it had been wrong. If anything, it had been the right choice.

“Ouch,” Lokiel said with theatrical pain. “You can be terribly caustic at times, my dear Erinel. Which, if memory serves, is very much in character for you.”

He looked at Mioray and winked, his tongue poking out slightly. Mioray couldn’t hide the concern on his face, and the greanrip did not waste a chance to mock him for it.

“You have been very talkative lately, Lokiel,” Erinel remarked. “It must be because it’s been a long time since you last spoke with a fellow greanrip. From what I’ve heard, the others usually avoid your company.”

“It’s their loss,” Lokiel threw his arms wide, seemingly unfazed by her comment. “I’m quite certain I know things they would find… peculiar.”

It was hard to get a proper grasp on Erinel’s relationship with Lokiel. On the surface, they clearly did not care for each other. More precisely, Erinel barely tolerated him, while Lokiel was vile to her in the same way he was vile to everyone else. And yet something connected them. They both wore that ring with the jewel the size of a walnut, and Mioray doubted it was a coincidence that Lokiel was the one who arrived when Erinel warned her kind about the mass deaths that were going to happen in the city. Lokiel had his own reasons for being here, but what exactly they were remained a mystery Mioray could not yet crack.

“So, how long are we planning to stand around here?” Suddenly, Mioray felt a presence right behind him. He turned and found Amika smiling at him with a predatory gleam in her eyes. “Are we going or what?”

“But we don’t have those badges,” Saria said. “What are we going to do if the rescuers or the police stop us?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll deal with them then. It’s not a big deal. Or,” Amika slipped an arm around Mioray, “I can ask this little bird here to help me out. I can count on you, right?”

“Ha-ha.” Mioray ducked out from under her arm and moved to a safer distance. “Why do I get the feeling it won’t be you needing my help, but them?”

Kevin let out an impatient sigh.

“Calm down, everyone.” He pulled a handful of small devices from the inside pocket of his coat. Mioray recognized them as earpieces. The walkie-talkie earbuds they had bought for the mission to get Mia back. Kevin began handing them out. “Take these. With them, we’ll be able to stay in constant contact and coordinate our actions, including in situations exactly like the one Amika just described.”

“Huh, so you really thought of everything.” Amika took the earpiece with clear approval. “You hear that, Mioray? Now you won’t be able to get me out of your head.”

Lucky me, Mioray thought, his expression turning sour.

He took an earpiece as well and put it in his ear. Kevin explained how they worked. The devices had two modes. In the first, they recorded sound continuously. In the second, they only received signals from other devices and had to be touched manually if the wearer wanted to transmit anything on their end.

Meanwhile, Erinel and Lokiel turned their fingers into twigs in order to share their spiritual power. Their hands now looked almost clawed, and Mioray found himself wondering whether they had ever used them as lethal weapons in the past. One by one, they touched the hearts of the undead.

Erinel was about to approach Mioray, but Lokiel cut her off and pierced him with his twig-like finger. The sensation was cold and repulsive, nothing like what Mioray felt – or wanted to feel – when it was Erinel connecting with his heart.

Lokiel stepped away, and Mioray immediately noticed the green auras glowing calmly above everyone else except the greanrips. He moved to the window and fixed his gaze on the crater in the distance.

Spiritual sight showed him a different picture from what he had seen before. For the most part, everything was the same. The jagged edges of a desolate wound, bordered by ruined roads and collapsed buildings. But the crater’s bed now glowed with a faint mint light. Thousands upon thousands of iridescent, translucent flames filled what had seemed empty before.

So many souls of the dead.

Mioray lowered his hands onto the windowsill in despair.

They were supposed to guide all those wandering souls to the afterlife? Establish rapport, explain the rules of death, convince them to step across the threshold – that could take days, if not weeks. Sure, souls could be guided in groups, but that was riskier too. If even one soul refused to cooperate, the defiance could spread, quickly turning into a crowd unwilling to leave their lost lives behind.

And what if one of those souls transformed into a Soul Collective? That would be a disaster in itself. The crater was like a feast laid out for one.

“Don’t forget that we only get spiritual sight for several hours,” Kevin said. “Because of that, I recommend finding Erinel or Lokiel every four hours for a recharge. Also, keep an eye on your own soul energy. With spiritual sight, it’ll be easier to notice how quickly your aura is fading.”

“Why can’t we get spare sticks filled with Miss Erinel’s and Lokiel’s power?” Matt asked.

“The power inside them fades with time,” Saria told him. “So by the time your spiritual sight runs out, those extra sticks won’t be of any use.”

All in all, everyone was ready to head out and begin the soulwork, but they were interrupted by the most unnatural, loud, and prolonged yawn.

“This is boring,” Lokiel drawled, his eyes half-closed as he lounged on the desk. “Like, seriously, where’s the fun in that?”

“This isn’t supposed to be fun,” Kevin said, raising an eyebrow.

“You say that, but I disagree.” Lokiel stretched his arms wide like the host of some grotesque talk show. “We need a little spice. Make it entertaining, thrilling even. I propose a competition.”

“We don’t need that,” Kevin said flatly. “This is not a game.”

“Shut up, I’m not talking to you.” Lokiel’s mouth twisted into one of the worst versions of his triangular smile, while his eyes narrowed into rising half-moons. The expression alone was enough to remind Mioray that he was not human, only something else wearing a human face. “What do you say, my dear Erinel?”

“I fail to see what good that would bring.”

“A wager,” Lokiel said, his eyes burning green. “As to which team, mine or yours, collects more souls in the span of four hours. If I win, I get the Cursed Blade.”

Erinel gave him a haughty glance. “And what do I get?”

“Ah, my dear, dear Erinel.” As if to prove once again that he was anything but human, his smile widened into something even more unsettling. “Didn’t I mention that I know a peculiar thing? We both know what it is you want. And I’m delighted to tell you that I know how to get it.”

He was talking about something only he and Erinel understood. Come to think of it, Mioray had no idea what Erinel wanted. He had always assumed that all she wanted was to preserve the order of life and death as it was meant to be. He looked at her. Her face remained hidden behind a stony mask.

But the golden shimmer in her eyes betrayed her. She was interested.

She was considering Lokiel’s proposal.

“Erinel, don’t,” Kevin warned her.

But his warning only seemed to push her further.

“It’s a deal,” she said firmly. “The blade in exchange for your knowledge.”

The reaction to this sudden turn of events was mixed. Kiriya clapped excitedly, and Amika grinned, keeping Mioray in her sights. Farah rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed that the competition would only make things more troublesome, while Saria shook her head in disapproval. Matt looked intrigued, perhaps because, after everything unpleasant he had been through, the idea of turning this into a game still appealed to him. Niles only smiled shyly, scratching the top of his head. Jean remained in his corner, as neutral as ever, as if none of it concerned him.

Mia and Kevin took it the worst. Mia was signing furiously, and for once, strangely enough, Farah was the one trying to calm her down. Kevin had gone pale, outrage gathering behind his glasses.

“What are you doing, Erinel?” he hissed. “Why are you risking the blade?”

“It’s none of your concern, Kevin,” she replied. “Besides, if we win, the blade will remain mine.”

“Ah, about that,” Lokiel said, raising a finger and drawing everyone’s attention. “You and I won’t be participating. Only our friends here. But then again, Niles would be at a disadvantage, so he won’t participate either. Which is fine, because thanks to his ability, he can oversee the process and act as our referee. You know, to make sure no one is cheating. So it should be four against four. One of yours will have to stay behind as well.”

Erinel looked around in silence. She was clearly deciding whom to keep back and whom to let take part in this absurd competition. She was taking it seriously. Why had she agreed to anything coming from Lokiel?

“These are my conditions, anyway,” Lokiel added. “You may refuse if you find them unfair.”

“Erinel, please reconsider!” Mioray urged her. Maybe she would listen to him. “Lokiel is obviously plotting something! He wouldn’t propose this if he wasn’t sure he was going to win!”

She didn’t listen. Instead, her gaze settled on Matt.

“I’ll stay,” Kevin said before Erinel could make her choice. When the others looked at him in surprise, he added, “I’ll make sure there’s no funny business here.”

“Really?” Lokiel giggled. “Not the boy? Or the girl who doesn’t talk?”

“Yes, really. Matt is more than capable of communicating with souls, and Mia has never let us down either. Farah and Mioray are a different matter, but we’ll have to work with what we have. You said Niles would oversee the process with his ability. I’d like to hear more about that.”

“Well, I suppose there’s no point in keeping it secret anymore,” Niles sighed, stepping closer. “It was fun watching you all try to guess how I could ‘see’ without sight. My ability is sort of… shared vision. I can borrow sight from others when I establish a connection with them through touch.”

“See?” Lokiel echoed brightly. “Let’s allow Niles to touch everyone, and he’ll be able to see through your eyes! Well, actually, he can already see through the eyes of my companions, so it’s only your side, my dear Erinel.”

“To tell the truth, I can already see through Mioray, Matt, and Mia,” Niles admitted, lowering his head in embarrassment. “Sorry, guys, for not telling you earlier. But I promise, I never peeked on you when I wasn’t near you! I don’t want to violate anyone’s privacy.”

Mioray frowned. So did Mia. Matt was the only one who still looked impressed, not giving much thought to the fact that he had been watched. Niles claimed he hadn’t been spying on them, but could they really trust his word? Mioray recalled the night at the hot springs. That moment, however awkward it had turned out, belonged only to him and Erinel. He didn’t want anyone else to have been part of it.

Niles’s ability, if it really worked that way, was unsettling. At least the part about seeing through other people’s eyes had to be true – it explained how he could stay aware of his surroundings without eyes, with a blindfold tied over the place where they had once been before they were taken from him.

Farah’s laughter, sharp with disbelief, rang through the office.

“You seriously expect me to give up even more of my independence? First this Lady Anetta’s Foundation bullshit, and now my eyes?”

“Don’t worry, love, it’s only for the duration of the competition,” Lokiel said, waving a hand carelessly.

“What if I don’t care about that?”

“The condition for the competition to be valid is four participants,” Lokiel said with a shrug. “Erinel already agreed to it. If she can’t find a fourth, then she loses by default.”

“Well, sounds to me like that’s what she gets for being reckless.”

Lokiel dropped his head onto the desk with a thud.

“But that would be boring!” he complained, lifting his head again. “Come on, love, you’re going to do soulwork either way, so why not enjoy it a little? And from what I understand, you like being compensated. Jean, my friend, pay her.”

Jean pulled out his phone and typed something into it. A moment later, Farah’s phone buzzed with a notification. She glanced at the screen, and Mioray saw her eyes light up.

“Okay, now that’s how I like deals being made,” she said, slipping the phone away. “So what was it about giving my sight only for the duration of the competition?”

Niles stepped forward.

“The link between me and another person can be severed,” he explained. “There are two ways to do it. Either I need to be taken down – then I’ll lose all borrowed sight – or the other person does, in which case I’ll lose only that person’s sight.”

“Got it,” Farah said with a nod. “Then when the competition is over, be ready to be taken down.”

Niles froze, his mouth falling open.

“Did I stutter?” Farah patted him twice on the cheek. “You’re the one who’ll be taken down to sever the link. Not me.”

Mioray sighed. Money. That was all it took for Farah to change her mind. Maybe he should have tried bribing her himself at some point, buying her something or paying her off so she would let go of her grudge against him. He had never considered it before, but seeing how easily Lokiel brought her into the competition that way, it suddenly seemed like a reliable method.

With the final obstacle gone, the competition was set. The disaster that had killed thousands and caused so many souls to appear in Reques City had turned into a reckless wager between two greanrips.

All while another, still unknown threat hung over them.

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