“Describe it to me.”
Raime looked at her, during their walk from Byzance to the Grand Gate they’d become aware that the Capitán had started to respect their boundaries, instead of naturally gravitating towards whoever she was talking to. It had become easier, much like with the Major, to talk with the hand of the Cors. Such a steep climb for an anticlimactic summit, but did all of their life needed to be fraught with misfortune? Their chin started itching.
“You have no idea?”
“How could I?” The Capitán answered without a shred of irony.
And how could they even describe the Hull to someone who couldn’t see their own face?
“You know… your own height, the Major’s height.”
“More feeling than fact.”
“I’ll have to rely on this, I think… Let’s say between you and the Major’s, there’s an average height, like mine, and the Hull… the wall we’re facing right now, it’s all of Last Kunlun in height, stacked close to each other to make a dense curtain. You know curtains?”
“I can know what I don’t need,” The Capitán chuckled.
“It’s like that, but solid enough to hold all of the Hull inside.”
“Inside a wall?”
“Oh no uh, you’ve never been inside either?”
“Neither me or the Major, I believe I’ve mentioned this, I left the district to its own devices for all of my… career as the Capitán of the Cors. It’s just now that I feel there’s a stable peace that I’m willing to extend my hand. And so I want to know, I want to have an idea.”
Their talk during the short walk had been more personal, on the side of the Capitán. A short history of the Cors, their members, the trials they faced. It was obvious enough she wasn’t revealing of her story, listening to her it was as if the Capitán had been born as the Capitán, iron purpose and Major under her arm right out of the womb. Now she was lending the spotlight to Raime. Secrets upon secrets, it was only fair, Raime couldn’t blame her, as they would hardly care about the upbringing of someone who flirted like a sleazeball. They’ll humor her anyway, trying to describe the melting pot they had been raised in to a blind could prove to be fun.
“Hmm… you take baths?”
“Careful now.”
“You could take showers! I don’t care about that!”
“I am familiar with the concept of a bathtub yes.”
Her smile hadn’t dropped an inch, making Raime exhale.
“Then imagine that. Same imagery as before for the scale, it’s so big if it fell over the whole city would topple save for maybe Helix. And it’s full inside, walls on the side to keep everything in but no roof. It’s carved in the middle, right in front of us and that’s the only entrance and exit. Inside are layers and layers on top of each other, whatever the opposite of order is, that’s how everything is laid out. Chaotic? But not in a harmful way, people are usually pretty tame all around. Also, strangely, the best place in the city where you can see the stars is in the upper stratum!”
Standing idle right in front of the Grande Gate, Raime started to notice the flow of people usually going in and out of the Hull recoiled around them, as if caught against a magnet of similar polarity. Was she aware of this? She had to, over so many years, was this why her own sense of personal space was so skewed? Raime couldn’t help it, in such a situation, from pitying her.
“Stars above then, and what about below?”
“Below? Er, below… smells worse, could be what we focus on if you can send someone to help with maintenance or anything. The lack of natural light is fine, I heard, people get used to it but even if they ignore the smell… it gets to your head.”
“Where’s the smell coming from?”
She truly knew nothing about the Hull, had she been purposefully ignoring the district instead of just laying it aside? The more Raime learned about the Capitán the smaller she felt. Her stumbling for Raime’s help, the Major eagerly following a human professor like anything was ever worth learning for him. And yet passerby all around them maneuvered out of their daily routines to avoid any chance of ever crossing her path, without the Major in the vicinity. Wait then, a moment of introspection. Before that day in the underbelly, Raime might as well have been noone, another face in the sea of Last Kunlun residents, roaming around with no particular purpose. But now, they were…
“Hm?” The Capitán poked Raime’s ankle with her cane, right on the bone.
“Black Lake. The lowest levels are completely flooded by whatever drips down, doesn’t smell like soap. It rises bit by bit but you know, with the Sun and all, it’s not rising fast enough for people to worry too much.”
“When has this Black Lake begun to form?”
“Uh, no idea, I’m only 23 it’s been here before I was born I’m pretty sure.”
“You were born in this bathtub?”
“No, adopted.”
“Oh? Where did you get picked from?”
“The blue line,” Raime snickered.
The Capitán didn’t laugh. Her eyes looking to grasp onto something in whatever her eyes allowed her to see.
“It’s better we know Raime,” The Capitán said solemnly, “It’s a good start, if we can get this lake under control it can only benefit everyone. Does that sound fine to you?”
“For sure, yeah.”
“Then there is my task for you. Ask around, high and low, seek someone as old as they can be with a throat that can still pronounce words, they could help understanding Black Lake before we step in. I won’t be chaperoning you, neither will the Major, we’d only get in your way, but if you find a contact that is willing, come back to me.”
A hunt for old bones, sure.
“Then,” The Capitán turned to face them.
“Then?”
Raime could see her squinting. Even getting used to her smile, seeing it widening ever so slightly still unnerved them.
“You don’t need to be a volunteer, Raime. You can have wants, you can have needs. I will impress the importance of the quest I’m sending you on once more, the Capitán of the Cors opens her hand to you. What do you want?”
Raime scratched their chin absentmindedly. Would she still smile if they told her what they sought was far beyond her control? Before blurting the question outright, Raime made their second most important request.
“You know… skeleton keys?”
The Capitán raised an eyebrow.
“Small thin cards?”
“Yeah, yeah, that. If you can get me one, I’m game until you don’t need me anymore.”
The Capitán had anchored her cane to the ground, looking somewhere near Raime’s left shoulder as she probably wanted to lock her eyes somewhere. She was thinking about it, at the very least. Raime figured that someone in the city with much more credentials than Gale must’ve had a stash on hand, if he could stick a bunch in random Hull residents pocket, she could spare one for yours truly.
“You’ve shared so much about your home I’ll share one more piece about my work. In my early days I did a lot, and a lot of cleaning up, confiscating dangerous technology so that Byzance or Yama wouldn’t turn into a second Caldera. Technology I left to Armageddon, mostly, I doubt she left any in usable form…”
Raime bit their tongue almost instinctively now. Maybe they had stepped far too confidently, they had no idea the cards were considered such liabilities that the Cors had mounted a whole crusade to get them off the streets. Thinking about it for a second more, it made sense, even if Raime wouldn’t use the key for anything more than their own enjoyment, there would be a lot more people interested in that kind of utility for more nefarious means. The Capitán inhaled, hands resting on her cane.
“You get started, get moving a little, I’ll find you one if I can see we’re making progress.”
“I’d be making so much more progress with one though…”
The Capitán hadn’t refused and without thinking, Raime already continued bargaining. It made sense, as far as efficiency went, and they didn’t figure the Capitán was the Pillar of Ethics anyhow.
“Show me how the “wanderer” works, and I’ll give you wings.”
“…Sure.”
“That’s settled then, any further questions? Any grand opinions about the Cors or any of their members?”
Raime suspected she was fishing for another comment they would have rather kept to themselves, spinning a mental wheel on the remaining members of the Cors, the hand fell on the one who ended up making them feel the most uncomfortable.
“I didn’t know Doctor Closer was a part of the Cors…”
“Honorary without honorifics, what about him?”
“Don’t know… never seen him before, does he look at everyone with this kind of… intensity?”
“Can’t say that’s been ever a descriptor for his behavior I’ve heard about, he was looking at you funny?”
“Yeah.”
“My, my, if I’m not careful we’re going to get a sexual harassment case in my own halls! Who knew Doctors shoot this low?”
“I don’t- I really don’t think… maybe I was imagining it.”
“Well as long as he keeps his hands to himself then no problem right? He’s more valuable than you currently so make sure to not stay in his sights for too long, I’d hate to terminate our collaboration so soon.”
“Forget I said anything.”
“I’ll keep everything you tell me preciously in my brain, sorry to say. On the topic of carnal desires, the Glassway called to me earlier, see you later, wanderer!”
“Ew.”
The Capitán swung her cane around her arm, laughing heartily, heading back in the middle of the great street, noone to stand in her way. With her aura fading away, the flowing crowd gradually collapsed towards Raime, who needed to once again make an effort to stay out of the way. Leaving the ever persistent river of people in front of the Grande Gate, their feet led them to the street lodged between the Hull’s wall and Yama. Guided by some kind of wicked nostalgia, they closed in on the small shop where they had experienced the culinary disaster that had preceded a much more substantial disaster. Scratching their chin again, the repetitive motion had started to draw blood. Feeling a rush of panic, Raime wiped away the droplet with the back of their hand and stuck it in their pocket. Reaching the storefront, the exact counter where they’d sat, they couldn’t help feeling hungry, as if last time hadn’t been a valuable enough lesson. At this time of day, there wouldn’t be much life around the district either way but Raime was surprised to see the inside was in the process of being redecorated. A lone human, their face covered in tatted runes, was on a stool painting the walls of the kitchen. Beneath the Sun, the color being painted and the one being painted over could have been anything, for them it looked like a more vibrant gray replacing a rusty gray.
“Scuse me?” Raime asked, clearing their throat beforehand so that their voice would reach inside.
“Hm?” The human looked to them, letting the slide of paint power down.
“Is Balem renovating?”
The human looked confused for a second then stammered apologetically, “Ah, I’m sorry, if that’s the previous owner you’re talking about, I think he died.”
“Why?” Raime asked, almost certain of the answer.
“No idea, sorry, I’m just painting.”
That night in Yama, barely a week ago, felt like it was part of another life. A previous, hollowed out existence where they’d made such an effort to not send any ripples in the water, not catch anyone’s eyes. Now were they the only one that remembered that night? The human wearing orange, the myrrh draped in optical illusions and the large cook who served them all. Raime should have died that day again. How many times, short of a gruesome incident like with Prys, had they been supposed to perish from their own mistakes? A drop of blood pearling from the bottom of their chin fell on the counter, which Raime expressly swiped away with the sleeve of their suit, heaving.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, I didn’t get to this part yet, you can puke on it too if you want, but don’t, haha.”
Something Raime had been dreading, not willing to even think about it, was coming back for them. The unnatural sense of well-being they were feeling in their body since that day was starting to fade. Their arm still on the counter, over where the blood had been spilled, they felt the sweat bead on their skin under the cloth. Under the skin, above the bone, something crawled, flexing, expanding, begging to be let free. As hard as pulling a door from its hinges, Raime forced their eyes to focus on something else. A tile, in the process of being painted over, almost nothing of its original shade remained. Raime couldn’t even remember what Balem’s shop was decorated with.
“What’s the new… color?”
“Hm? Oh, aqua blue, like those old mosaics in Freeway if you’ve seen them. Well, it’ll look better once… you know.”
Raime nodded, cracking a feeble smile. Even if their arm felt like lead attached to their body, they lifted it off the counter. No dark stain remained, the clear counter would hardly remember them. They had moved so far since that night, there was so much they still needed to do, so much they could do. The Capitán had offered the path, one Raime could peer into. Her, The Major, their two weird acolytes and that Doctor, they could chase their own make-believe “World-Eater” for as long as they wanted. Raime only needed the key. Even without their body acting satisfied just by existing, they would find the resolve to go forward. They’d looked up, that night, and all that stood at the apex had been them and the Sun.