“A monk? Are you sure you got the right guy?” Evantra whispered to Noelle out of the corner of her mouth.

  Noelle stared at Evantra, her mouth agape. Noelle had confirmed that he wasn’t using an avatar.

  “Like you’re one to talk? You’re a fucking preacher,” she hissed under her breath. The pair of them turned slowly to stare at the young man dressed in bright orange robes seated in the chair next to them, smiling inoffensively with bright eyes, his hands folded neatly in his lap.

  Which just so happened to contain a Wraithkiller SWS.

  The weapon of choice of the deadliest corpo assassins, the top-of-the-line flagship weapon on offer by Santa Muerte, stealth defence specialists.

  “Om Vasudhare Svaha. I hope my presence is not cause for offence?”

  The young man beamed at them with such sincerity that Evantra blinked to make sure it wasn’t a hallucination. She shook her head.

  “Not at all, we were… surprised that you came as your true self, rather than using an avatar?”

  “Integrity is all we have left when all else is removed. Indeed, it is the key to connection,” the young man nodded serenely, “just as shadeshift rounds are the key to the Wraithkiller Sniper Weapons System.”

  He hefted the sniper in his grip, as if the comparison would allow them to grasp the meaning of his words with greater efficiency and clarity. Evantra heard a spattering of coughs to her left as Noelle choked and doubled over, trying her best to reclaim her airways.

  “I see you are rendered breathless by my metaphors? This pleases me greatly, as does my instrument of peace,” the man inclined into a deep bow, which Evantra attempted to return, narrowly avoiding the edge of the table with her abrupt motion. Then he turned to dignify the weapon in his hands with a loving gaze.

  “Y-your metaphors certainly do. I have to ask… is it… real?”

  The man looked down at the weapon in his arms, before it disappeared into a million motes of shimmering light.

  “We enter this world with no worldly possessions, as do we leave it with none. I need no possessions to be content.”

  Somehow, Evantra doubted that, as she watched the look of sheer anguish that crossed the man’s expression when the weapon disappeared before his very eyes.

  “I’ll take that as… a no. Um… Bring it back, Noelle.”

  Noelle stared at her before she reactivated weapon permissions in the server. With the return of the weapon came the return of the monk’s beaming smile like the rising of the sun at dawn.

  Evantra cleared her throat before clasping his hand in greeting.

  “Well, it’s certainly a pleasure to meet you—”

  Evantra evenly met the man’s eyes.

  “—Benjamin.”

  Benjamin the monk bowed deeply.

  “I am honoured to be part of your conference, Amitabha. May I know your names? I have never met a sentient dryad and a ghost before.”

  They hesitated, staring at Benjamin, as they tried to parse if he was messing with them. He turned to them with innocent, inquiring eyes.

  “Ahhh, I got you there! I know that these are just… what do you call them? Avatars?” The young man let out a hearty laugh before shooting them a cheeky grin.

  “Well, you can call me Wraith. And this is my… friend—”

  Evantra raised an eyebrow as she did a once-over of Noelle’s Avatar.

  “Well, you can call her Twig if you like.”

  Evantra and Benjamin began to chuckle together, as Noelle lightly thrust her forehead into the table surface.

  “You are very funny, Wraith! I believe we will get along very well.”

  Benjamin smiled at her before pausing to regard Noelle.

  “It is indeed a rare thing to find people such as yourselves,” the monk said, nodding his head sagely.

  “Oh?” Evantra’s lips turned upwards. The man nodded, his smile never wavering.

  “Indeed, it is a rare thing to find two who claim to be friends, when such a gulf of apathy exists between them.”

  Noelle froze rigid.

  The monk’s words emerged as a deafening whisper, carried effortlessly across the silent room.

  “Especially when in apathy’s place, should exist love, care and affection. It is a beautiful act in its mastery, but I see no genuine desire for connection.”

  The silence drew on, as Benjamin smiled contentedly, his eyes fixed and unwavering on Evantra’s own. Noelle was shaking, where she was seated.

  Evantra's lips drew into a slow smile.

  Then he chuckled, shaking his head and waving a hand apologetically.

  “Forgive me, forgive me. My elders always told me that I lacked… what did they call it? Ah yes, ‘emotional intelligence’.”

  Benjamin laughed softly, shaking his head.

  “They also used to call me a ‘troublesome little shit’! Ahh, how I miss them.” Benjamin sighed, staring wistfully into the darkness beyond the pillars.

  Noelle’s body was rigid, and her face had taken on a ghostly pallor. The girl’s eyes met Evantra’s briefly before darting away.

  Noelle cleared her throat.

  “A-alright. Well, Benjamin, we’d best be getting on to business. We were hoping you could help us. We’re in the market for a tech specialist. Someone who could help… teach us the ropes of drone repair. I’m… I’m looking to learn.”

  “Why of course! I am ever eager to be of assistance.”

  Noelle muttered under her breath as she brought up the game interface, scrolling through objects that she could summon into the room.

  “Urgh Mangekyou… the greedy bastards, they charge for everything. Never mind, this will pay off.”

  Noelle purchased the consumer model of the Nezha drone they had found, handing it to the monk, who turned it over in his hand. Evantra watched as Noelle and Benjamin began discussing its internal circuitry to diagnose the issues in the drone they had found, along with what components they had to replace.

  Every so often, Noelle would cast a glance at her before tearing her gaze away. Benjamin carried on in his instruction, his previous comments forgotten.

  Leaving the pair to their devices, Evantra left the chat room.

  There was one final lead that she had to learn about Magical Girls, rituals and the Veil.

  It was finally time to pay a visit to her best friend.

  ---

  “Millie!”

  Evantra wrapped the girl in a tight hug, greeting her in front of City Hall. Millie Radcliffe had frizzy, long brown hair, kept orderly with a single, humble black hairband. She was wearing faded black jeans and a dark blue blouse, with a pistol holstered at her side.

  “It’s good to see you.”

  Millie frowned at Evantra, whom she pushed away at arm's length. After giving her a once-over, Millie pulled her friend into another tight hug.

  “Are you trying to strangle me, Millie?”

  “YES! It’s been two months. Two months, we haven’t caught up. Damn orphanage monopolising my time, the little shits. Not to mention you constantly ghosting me,” Millie grumbled under her breath as Evantra laughed.

  Her friend pulled her along in the direction of their usual spot. They walked under flickering streetlights towards the stretch of restaurants and bars in the heart of Wisptown. Millie stared down a drunk man who approached them, warding him off with nothing but a glare.

  Finally, they arrived at their destination, walking up to an old bookstore with a single flickering filament contained within a broken glass bulb adorning its porch. Millie rapped the door thrice, with crisp flicks of her wrist.

  “Christ almighty, daughter. Keep it down. Evantra! It’s so lovely to see you.”

  Millie’s mother wrapped her in a hug. Adeline Radcliffe’s grip lingered before Evantra gently pushed the woman back, glimpsing the worry in her eyes. Millie frowned at her mother before aggressively gesturing with her head. When she caught Evantra looking, she immediately ceased in her antics, replacing her expression with an innocent smile.

  Adeline Radcliffe looked just like how Evantra recalled when she had last dropped by. Her hair was tied up in long braids threaded together with beads and trinkets, and she wore her traditional garb, an airy orange dress that she often boasted had been sent by extended family from Nigeria.

  “I’ve prepared the usual, go on, you two. When was the last time you got together for a catch-up?” Miss Radcliffe passed her daughter a key to the bookstore as she stepped out onto the porch. “Lock up the shop, daughter of mine. I don’t want it burning down.”

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  “Go on, you old hag. Shoo.”

  Evantra laughed as she watched Millie’s mother stick her tongue out at her daughter, before heading towards her car that was parked a short distance away from the bar fronts. They closed the door to the bookstore behind them, and they ascended to the second floor.

  Evantra gently ran her fingers past the spines of the old books, eventually coming to a halt before two bean bags snugly situated next to a large, circular window which perfectly framed Elsecaller city in the distance.

  “So, you’ve finally completed your training? Going to shuttle the kids around all on your lonesome now? No supervision?”

  Millie laughed as she rolled her eyes.

  “Yeah, yeah. Tease me all you want. Guess who’s leading a field trip to Elsecaller’s Museum of the Veil next week?”

  Evantra’s eyes widened in genuine surprise.

  “You’re going to Elsecaller city?”

  “Fuck yeah I am. HA! Take that Evantra Wraithmarked. I’m going to Elsecaller city before you,” Millie plopped herself down onto one of the beanbags with a contented sigh, reaching for the two cups of hot chocolate her mother had prepared for them.

  “You lucky b— urgh,” Evantra narrowed her eyes, as her friend continued to gloat.

  “Heh. You jelly? Well, you can suck it. I’m surprised you’re still managing to keep down the swearing. Keeping your promise to them, huh?”

  “You know… maybe I should have a word with the matron about all of your language that you’re slinging around and offer up my services instead. Maybe then she’ll take me to Elsecaller in your place”

  Evantra let out a sigh after taking a sip from her drink, her eyes fixed on the city in the distance.

  The second floor of the Radcliffes’ bookstore was arguably her favourite place in the world. If there was one small thing that had been consistent over the course of her life, it was the nights spent with Millie, drinking cocoa and catching slight glimpses into the wonders, mysteries and horrors of the world her parents had so diligently guarded her from. The only reason she wasn’t more well-versed was because her dear mother had had stern words with poor Adeline about the subjects she was comfortable with Evantra learning about.

  “I’m going to go straight in,” Millie said, taking a sip of her drink with a calm expression.

  “Please.”

  “What the fuck Evantra.”

  They sat in silence, Evantra avoiding her friend’s gaze as she took another sip of her hot chocolate.

  “First, I hear about the thing with the Veilsurge in the Alvarez house. Sure. Then you go running into the sewers and almost get yourself killed. I heard they brought you to a hospital in Bastion. Then Cypha—”

  “Hold on a minute, you know Cypha? How?”

  Millie stared at her with a flat expression, as Evantra's eyes widened in understanding.

  “Ohhhhhh. Bookstore, right. Wait, what’s the spiciest book she’s bought? You have to—”

  “Shut up.”

  “Ok.”

  They enjoyed their hot chocolate in quiet silence, admiring Elsecaller city in the distance. The familiar ritual brought Evantra a great degree of comfort.

  “Well… Carmen told me about your misadventures because you don’t have the presence of mind to text me back.”

  Evantra scratched the back of her neck sheepishly.

  “I hear you’ve made a friend.”

  “Not a friend, no.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Millie nodded, her voice quiet. “You’re using her. Carmen told me.”

  “Carmen should mind her own damned business. We agreed to cooperate as colleagues.”

  Millie rolled her eyes.

  “Get off her ass. Evantra, give the poor girl a break. What was her name? Noelle? You of all people should know that people react to the threat of death differently. She froze up, didn’t kick your gun towards you. And what? You’re treating her like someone who tried to stab you in the back?”

  Millie laughed incredulously,

  Evantra finally snapped.

  “You don’t get to dictate who I choose to trust,” her voice like cold steel. “Your parents are still alive, and you didn’t suffer through the same sh— crap that I have—”

  “No, I’m not having it with your usual bullshit. I know you’ve been hurt, I know it’s been hard since your parents died, and you’ve seen the worst in people,” Millie’s voice softened. “But I know you, and I don’t think this is a simple matter of someone burning you and you choosing to be wary of others, am I right?”

  Darn.

  Evantra shifted in her seat, staring deliberately at the city in the distance, taking particular care to avoid Millie’s eyes. There was a reason why she hadn’t reached out to her, even after falling into a Veilsurge, awakening as a magical girl, and almost dying in the sewers. Millie Radcliffe had no issues shining a mirror at her, and holding her account for her bullshit with her lectures.

  “You need to learn to trust again, Evantra. If you keep pushing people away… no, using them, it’ll come back to bite you in the ass.”

  “I’m not using her. I told her very clearly that our relationship is purely transactional—”

  “Stop lying to yourself. You know that she wants to become your friend. Carmen told me about how she’s been busting her ass to repair that drone, finding her a buyer for her house, and all around, being as useful as she possibly can be. She’s living with you, you idiot. If you see her as a tool and don’t have the intention of ever becoming her friend, then have the balls to tell her that to her face.”

  Evantra’s expression contorted into one of frustration, her brows creasing into a glower.

  “You’re as na?ve as you always were. I get to decide who I trust. Whether or not she stays because she hopes that I’ll eventually cave and magically become her friend is her business. Why does she even care?”

  Her milky white gaze would have made anyone else flinch. Anyone else, except for Millie Radcliffe, her best friend, who had put up with her bullshit from the minute she had befriended her.

  Her friend let out a sigh, but Evantra could see the steel in her friend’s eyes.

  “You’re as dense as the plating on a fucking Liberty mech.”

  Before Evantra could respond, the girl had already moved on, undeterred by her strong words.

  “You ever think about how much we’ve grown apart?”

  “Millie…”

  “I was counting the days till you ran off to do something like this. From even before they died.”

  Evantra looked at her in surprise. Millie just rolled her eyes, having regained some of her cheer. Evantra shifted in her seat uneasily.

  “C’mon, babes. You had a deviant streak in you. I knew it. Mum knew it. And she’s as dense as her pumpkin pies. Spending all that time, staring out at the city of hope and horror,” Millie’s voice softened as she looked towards the city. The towering black megabuildings and skyscrapers, lit by glowing advertisements, as thunder rumbled in the far distance.

  “You want to become a Ghostslayer, is that it?”

  Millie snorted.

  “I always thought it would be the other way around. But look at us now. I’m herding the monsters on their orphanage tours, while you’re out there popping skulls with a… what is it you’re using?”

  “Nagantra.”

  “Nice, machine pistol.”

  Evantra’s eyes passed over her friend, the girl leaning back casually as she took a sip of her hot chocolate. She could still see the slightest quiver in her friend’s hand, betrayed by the disruptions in her drink’s surface. Eerily similar to her own, but the causes of which, utterly different.

  “Be careful, alright?”

  “I will—”

  “No. Not of the Veilcreatures. You can put plenty of lead into them. That, I’m sure about. There’s strange stuff happening in this town.”

  Thunder rumbled above them, as black lightning flashed in the dark skies above Wisptown. It always felt like a loving embrace, warm and cosy in the bookstore, as the ectostorms raged outside.

  “Miss Yannick. Did you hear about her?”

  “No?”

  “She was shot. In her home. Not one of the regular gang shootouts – she was a primary school teacher. My point is,” Millie continued, setting her cup down on the table.

  Oh, I have heard about her.

  “The greatest monsters of all are all around you. Honestly Evan? It’s probably the best time to decide to be a Ghostslayer. But you need to learn to trust. You can’t take care of your family all on your lonesome. You need to surround yourself with good people.”

  There it is. I’ve just about had it with people lecturing me, thinking they know what’s best for me.

  “Millie, good people don’t crack when you need them the most,” Evantra gritted her teeth, as her grip around her cup tightened.

  “Fair enough. Look, you’ve always been a better judge of character than me... I’ll give you that. Especially if my ex-boyfriends are anything to go by. But Evantra? Don’t let your distrust isolate you,” Millie continued softly.

  “People aren’t defined by a single act. From what Carmen tells me, she seems to genuinely want to help. I’m not telling you to put your life in her hands… maybe just to make another friend, apart from me,” Millie raised an eyebrow. “It’s a painful burden to carry, being your single friend. I’m fairly sure there are eldritch entities out there with a better social life than you.”

  Millie frowned briefly, a look of concern crossing her expression.

  “Evantra, I just don’t want you to end up alone.”

  Evantra’s shoulders sank as she ran her hands through her hair with a sigh. Then she snorted, raising an eyebrow at Millie.

  “Protecting my family, huh. What about your mum? Letting her go back alone at this time of night?”

  From the look her friend was giving her, Evantra didn’t doubt that she saw the attempt for what it was. Still, the girl wordlessly acceded, seeming to accept that there was nothing more she could say or do.

  “If any gang members come for my hag of a mother, she’ll summon a creature of the abyss to haunt their nightmares, and the nightmares of their extended family – children included.” A smile slowly formed on her friend’s face, and Evantra relaxed.

  “She’s all clingy like ‘ee it’s my little darling Evantra, whom I love so much more than my daughter’, then BAM she shoots you in the face and steps over your rotting corpse and uses you to fuel her rituals—”

  “Corpses don’t rot that quickly.”

  “In the presence of my dear mother, they do.”

  “Seems like you take after her, at least in regard to the clinginess,” Evantra shot her friend a teasing smile.

  They fell into a comfortable silence, as they watched the ectorain pour down.

  “Well, was I not supposed to be excited when mum said you were coming over? Then I realised what you were really after. Wanting to spend the night in my mother’s basement doing research, instead of catching up with me, hmm? Well, too bad. I caught on, and now you’re stuck with me for a little while longer. You don’t have a choice.”

  Evantra avoided her eyes, looking into the warm cup in her hands.

  “Oh, now she’s getting all shy. Hey?”

  Evantra met Millie’s eyes, bright hazel, the dim light of the bookstore dancing within.

  “You going to tell me what happened in that Veilsurge?”

  “No. I’m… sorry.”

  “Huh. Alright, now I know you haven’t been possessed and replaced by some spirit. The ice queen is going strong,” Millie stuck her tongue out at her, and Evantra’s smile quivered, and her voice shook.

  “I really am Millie. Maybe… one day.”

  “Girl? You’ve been cagey your entire life. I’m not going to start getting mad at you now.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Go get therapy, friend. Actually? Bad idea. If you got therapy, we’d need to find your therapist a therapist for themselves, the chain would never end. You’d tie up all the therapists in the region.” Millie snuggled into her sleeping bag with a large yawn. “Go on, do your research, I’m crashing here.”

  “Thanks, Mills.”

  Evantra let out a sigh, and her body began to shake. Millie’s soft snoring reached her ears, and after a few minutes of silence, Evantra finally stilled.

  She sat in silence, watching the ectorain pour down, as black lightning tore across the skies above Elsecaller city. Eventually, Millie’s soft snores reached her, from where the girl was snuggled up in her beanbag.

  Her friend’s words still rang in her mind, echoing what Carmen had told her. Pleading with her to open herself up to others, to trust.

  Milile and Carmen both, desperately attempting to convince her to be vulnerable. To let other people into her life. Carmen assumed it was because she had been betrayed by other people, and she had. But it was only Millie who knew the real reason why she had such difficulty in trusting other people.

  “There’s a reason why you’re my only friend, silly,” her words coming out as a whisper, as she watched her sleeping friend.

  “You and Carmen, both. You’re too loving. You let people in so easily. Then you’re surprised when they take advantage of your kindness, after they realise just how much they can squeeze out of you.”

  Evantra crouched next to her sleeping friend, giving her a soft hug, which she was hesitant to release.

  “You’ve got a bigger heart than you should have any business having. That’s the reason why the two of you need someone like me to be the bad guy.”

  Evantra slowly relinquished her friend, watching as Millie snorted happily in her dreams.

  “You keep harping on about forgiveness, but you don’t get it. When someone shows you who they are, you don’t get to act surprised when it bites you if you ignore it. I know Noelle Laurent’s type. I know, when someone is all talk, shallow. Prancing around Wisptown, treating this like a game. Still, you have nothing to worry about.”

  She gently brushed a single strand of hair that tickled her friend’s nose out of the way.

  “I know that she’s more informed than I am. In almost every single meaningful way that I need to be, to be a competent Ghostslayer. In that sole regard, she’s useful, and I plan to extract every single bit of value out of our little ‘transaction’.”

  Evantra smiled to herself.

  “I don’t trust her, Mills, because she’s never experienced a moment of adversity in her short, easy life. The gun was just a reflection of the truth that I already knew from the very moment I set my eyes on her that day, in the store. But you would never understand, and I love you anyway.”

  Evantra rose, milky white eyes cold.

  “I hope you never have to understand. That you’re never forced to. Don’t change, Mills.”

  With a final glance towards her best friend, Evantra made her way towards the basement. Entering one of the bookstore’s side rooms, she softly paced down the creaky wooden steps into the dark room.

  There were rituals to study.

  15 chapters ahead on my Patreon.