Four days after the Wisptown memorial.

  “Woah.”

  Lucas’ eyes were wide as the elevator rose.

  The central area of the megabuilding was hollow, giving them a view into each of the floors as they rose.

  “Evantra, look!”

  Lucas excitedly pointed towards a collection of floors near the ground levels, which seemed to be dedicated to food stalls of every conceivable cuisine. A spattering of Chinese, Japanese, German, Indian and French hawkers were visible as the lift flashed past the floors. They watched as drones with blinking lights darted through the air, making deliveries to residents. Others were dedicated to surveillance, ensuring that the peace was kept. The drones of the latter type were easily identifiable by the thin layer of armour plating that they sported.

  “Have you noticed, Evantra?”

  Noelle’s bright green eyes met hers, and the girl inclined her head towards the megabuilding’s heights.

  She instantly grasped the other girl’s meaning. There was a distinct class divide that operated based on height.

  As they hurtled past the lower floors, they began to see others filled with gyms, shops and cafes. Even a school, likely where Tai and Lucas would be enrolled when they settled in. From the sounds of it, Rosewood College was sponsored by Demeteria, and Noelle had some ideas to get them enrolled. One thing was for sure – it was a cultural melting pot, and families from all over the world had set up shop here.

  It was no surprise. Many hungry and ambitious families wanted to enjoy the safety and security of Elsecaller City. Bastion was a great staging point, which allowed them to find their feet and acquire the finances they needed before making the leap.

  With a gentle bell chime, the elevator doors opened, and they emerged out into the hallway.

  The first thing they noticed was the silence.

  Their apartment was situated on the fortieth floor, amidst other apartments dedicated to long-term VR divers. The low hum of full-dive machines could be heard from behind closed doors, and there was a serenity in their surroundings, far removed from the chaos below.

  Finally, they came to a halt before their apartment.

  Unit 40-109.

  Carmen knocked softly on the door, and the soft pattering of feet could be heard. The beep of an electronic lock was emitted before the door opened.

  Tai Tran stood on the other side of the door to receive them.

  The little Vietnamese girl rose to about her waist, and had dark circles under her eyes that had no place on a child’s face. The horn-rimmed glasses that she wore, a pair to her father’s own, were nowhere to be found. Evantra watched Tai lick dry lips, forcing out the barest hint of a smile, before hurrying back inside to her mother’s room.

  She felt Noelle place a reassuring hand on her back before nodding.

  She looks tired.

  Evantra took a deep breath before stepping inside.

  “Noelle… you’ve outdone yourself,” Carmen whispered, as she surveyed the apartment.

  Noelle had secured them a large, three-bedroom corner suite, which had just about taken up all of the proceeds from the sale of Carmen’s house. The apartment featured a humble living room – with space for a sofa, dining table, and a small kitchen island. The apartment was bare, but for the mattresses that Amy had secured. They would have to buy the rest of the furniture. Currently, they didn’t have the funds for it. The drone of the full dive machines in the neighbouring apartments was slightly perceptible, but not to the extent that it was disruptive.

  “Why don’t you two rest up. In an hour or two, we’ll go exploring. Hmm, mijo?”

  Lucas smiled up at his mother with Taco in his hands and nodded enthusiastically.

  “Maybe even check out your school,” Carmen continued smoothly, with a mischievous glint in her smile.

  Lucas froze, and she heard Noelle snort beside her.

  Evantra walked on, pausing to stare at the door to Tai and Amy’s room.

  “Hey,” Noelle whispered.

  Evantra blinked before turning to the other girl.

  “You’ll get time to speak to them, don’t worry, ok?”

  Evantra nodded, swallowing a lump in her throat, before proceeding to her room.

  ***

  Noelle was unpacking her belongings, folding her clothes and placing them in neat piles beside her mattress. They would be sharing a room for the foreseeable future. At least until they were able to afford a larger apartment, or if Tai and Amy decided to move out. Given the prices of properties and rent in the outskirts, neither was a foreseeable possibility, barring an unexpected windfall.

  Noelle glanced at Evantra before doing a double-take and staring in abhorrence at the clothes strewn about Evantra’s mattress.

  Evantra was looking out of the window at the sprawling Demeteria greenhouses and the hulking wind turbines in the distance. The ruins of Wisptown lay beyond them, and she could still see columns of smoke rising into the air, although the ectostorms had put out most of the fires.

  “Does the view remind you of home?”

  “I didn’t live in a greenhouse, Evantra.”

  “If you say so, Twig. Where do we even start?”

  “By neatly folding your clothes.”

  Noelle glared at Evantra for a second before she relented.

  “You told them.”

  Evantra nodded, her eyes fixed on the backpack in front of her.

  “And… they didn’t have a problem with it. Even with Lucas and Tai around?”

  “Yep.”

  Noelle clapped her hands together.

  “Fantastic. Well, we have a lot to do—”

  “How are all of you so casual about this? If it wanted to kill us—”

  “Enough.”

  Noelle stopped Evantra in her tracks. Noelle continued before Evantra had a chance to interject.

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  “Let me lay it out for you. The wraith has been around since the moment you became a magical girl. If it wanted to harm you, or any of us, it already would have. It obeys your requests when you ask it to appear or disappear. It asks for ‘help’, which is the only way it communicates with you. It’s incorporeal, and none of us can seem to touch it. It hasn’t hurt you, save for the first time it chucked you into a ritual, likely in an effort to elicit your help. And what do you propose to do to mitigate this “risk?”

  “Are you forgetting that it almost killed me down in that lab in London? I’ll move out. Rent a place—”

  “The only places you could afford are on the very outskirts of Bastion. You’ll have to deal with other issues there. How long would you live apart from Carmen for? A week? A month? A year? How are you going to afford the rent?”

  I was reluctant to let go of the church. I always thought I could sell it eventually, when I was ready, or if we really needed the money. I guess that hesitance has come back to bite me.

  But… I think I get it now.

  Why they’re responding like this to my questions with these weak justifications.

  Evantra watched as Noelle deliberately avert her eyes as she busied herself with the unpacking.

  “You’re all scared,” Evantra whispered.

  Silence fell between them. Noelle paused for a millisecond before resuming her packing. Noelle let out a long sigh. The calm fa?ade painted across her expression finally cracked.

  “Yes, Evantra. We are all scared. But after what we’ve been through? I sincerely think that Carmen would much rather die with you than be separated from you again. Have you considered that? We might not be making the most logical decisions, because we care about you, you fucking idiot.”

  Noelle shook her head.

  “You’re chained to that ghost, now. You were chained to that ghost, in the course of rescuing Carmen’s son. Do you think she would ever abandon you? In any capacity?”

  She rose and sat beside Evantra. The two sat in silence, Noelle’s words ringing in the air, as they finally registered to Evantra. The words that Carmen would never admit to her, that she hadn’t begun to consider.

  “Listen, you told her about it. That’s all that Carmen cares about, being honest with her. As for Amy? If she refuses your creds, there’s nothing more you can do. Besides—”

  Evantra cut Noelle off.

  “Amy probably hates me. She’ll be out as soon as she can, I’m sure,” Evantra whispered.

  “Sometimes… I really want to slap you.”

  Evantra started, staring at Noelle in surprise.

  “What did she tell you on the day of the funeral?”

  “That… it was Minh’s choice.”

  “Then, shut the fuck up. Get. Your. Shit. TOGETHER.”

  Evantra flinched in surprise as she watched Noelle take a deep breath after she raised her voice, her words emerging as a sharp bark. The girl’s bright, green eyes drilled into her own. Noelle’s voice softened a degree, but the steel in her words remained, fading only a touch.

  “Yes, Amy might resent you. You might even be right. But we don’t have the liberty of guilt or self-pity right now. There’s no point in dwelling on Amy’s view of you—”

  Evantra watched as Noelle tightened a fist.

  “Or on what happened in Wisptown. We have bigger problems. We need to provide for a group of six, and we have way too much to do and not enough time or money in the world. Forget your stupid ghost… no offense… that is terrifying.”

  Evantra’s lips twitched upwards in a hint of a smile as she watched Noelle visibly shudder at her own words. Then, she glimpsed the slightest crack in Noelle’s expression, seeing the grief reach her eyes, and her bottom lip wobble.

  “You with me?”

  Finally, Evantra nodded.

  Noelle returned her attention to her belongings.

  “Good, now focus. We have a lot to do. The first is to find a means of income. Maybe jobs somewhere in the megabuilding, which will allow you to head out for bounties at night. We have six mouths to feed. Unlike Wisptown, Bastion actually has sufficient funding to offer some good bounties for Veilcreature sightings in the area. The second most important objective… finding the Trove Seeker. We’ll get Ben’s help with locating the tracker. If it’s been damaged, it might have defaulted to short-range emitting,” Noelle said under her breath as she paced.

  “Affording Lucas and Tai’s schooling, though I might have a solution for that. Furniture shopping—”

  “The mistheart and Nimue’s rose. I need to unlock their skills,” Evantra said, her fists clenched tightly.

  She brought up her interface.

  Ghostslayer Rank: Ghoul (Level 9)

  Catalyst: Darkstalker (level 1)

  · [Razor claws]

  · [Darkvision]

  · [Clot acceleration]

  Catalyst: Ionian Mimic (level 5)

  · [Conceal]

  · [Object mimicry]

  · [Stonerooted]

  Reserve catalysts:

  · Mistheart (Level 8)

  · Nimue’s Rose (Level 8)

  Rituals:

  · [Ritual of consumption]

  · [Ritual of Veilsight]

  · [Ritual of concealment]

  Veilsouls: 1,010

  Since the events of Wisptown, Evantra had trialled slotting the other catalysts. Switching each of them out took effort and concentration. About ten whole minutes of conscious focus. It felt like attempting to mentally remove something embedded in her heart before inserting the substitute.

  When she had attempted it, this was what she had glimpsed.

  Nimue’s Rose (Level 8)

  · [Skill locked]

  · [Skill locked]

  · [Skill locked]

  Mistheart (Level 8)

  · [Skill locked]

  · [Skill locked]

  · [Skill locked]

  The trend of artefacts offering three skills continued, but Evantra was hoping that it might change as she acquired higher-levelled artefacts. It also seemed as if she could only slot a maximum of two active catalysts concurrently. Her brief ventures out into the greenhouses in search of the Trove Seeker hadn’t revealed any more quests she could complete to unlock the skills.

  Evantra’s expression darkened.

  “I know that look. You beating yourself up about not unlocking the Mistheart’s skills sooner?”

  Noelle shook her head.

  “If you had attempted to, you’d likely be dead out in the lost territories. Unless one of those locked skills is a nuke, you barely made it out alive as it was. This will always be an issue you’ll have to face because of the nature of your system, Evantra. At any one time, there will be skills left locked. The unpredictability of it all makes it hard to strategise and unlock them. Short of exposing yourself to the highest number of Veilcreatures remotely related to the artefact, there’s not much you can do. So, learn to accept it and move on.”

  Evantra managed a slow nod in response to Noelle’s steely words.

  “Now, if I hear any more talk of regret, or dwelling on the past… I’ll take a page out of Carmen’s book.”

  Evantra turned to Noelle with a hint of a smile.

  “And do what, exactly?”

  “Shoot you.”

  She’s right.

  Snap out of it.

  You’ve done just about enough dwelling.

  Think about what you can work on, right at this moment.

  “Close combat,” Evantra said, dismissing her interface and rising to her feet, her backpack in her hands.

  “Right. Close com— wait a minute, close combat?”

  Evantra nodded slowly.

  “I’m going to need to train the old-fashioned way. Close combat is one of my weakest areas that I want to shore up.”

  Noelle seemed to pause, narrowing her eyes as she peered at her.

  “Fancy that,” Noelle said under her breath.

  “Huh? What?”

  Noelle shook her head with a hint of a smile.

  “Nothing, it’s a surprise. You won’t have to worry about close combat. What else… research into sentient Veilcreatures,” Noelle clenched her fists tightly. “Spirits and… revenants. Sentient ghosts emerging out of Mythic Veilsurges, which is meant to be impossible. Anything else?”

  “Alfiera.”

  Noelle’s breath caught at the name of the magical girl that Adeline had informed them about. The same magical girl that her grandmother had collaborated with in her lab in the UK. The single lead that they had about the laboratory in the UK. Her thoughts turned to the wraith and its request to her. Ever since her discussion with Amy and Carmen, it had failed to reappear to her, no matter her attempts.

  Help.

  Evantra reached for her haversack. She pulled out the first item.

  She withdrew Clark Hallewell’s pistol. It had a dark silver finish with two gleaming red lights embedded on either side of the gun. She also withdrew two magazines of incendiary rounds, which were meant to be used with the weapon.

  Both the pistol and its ammo were made bespoke from Kali Arms – an up-and-coming Indian Arms manufacturer specialising in personalised, high-end weapons. While the quality was undeniable, it also meant that the rounds weren’t easily replaceable or easy to source. Evantra had a hunch that Kali likely attempted to force a monopoly over the ammunition produced for their bespoke weapons – it ensured a steady stream of revenue after making the sales.

  “I know what you want to do with it, Evantra. You can give it to Tai after you use the rounds, alright? If she doesn’t keep it, it could probably fund the remainder of her education. Still, let’s be practical about this. You’re going to need every tool that you have at your disposal. Besides…”

  Noelle trailed off, watching Evantra closely. Evantra shook her head.

  “I’m not going to buy her forgiveness, you don’t have to worry about that. The only question is how I—”

  “Make up for it?”

  Evantra hesitated, as Noelle twisted her lips into a wry smile. For a moment, the girl stared out of the window, eyes tracing over Demeteria’s continental greenhouses, solar and wind farms arrayed out around Bastion. Her voice fell and was barely perceptible.

  “Thankfully, I’m an expert in that regard.”

  And I’ve got a lot to learn.

  Best that I start now.

  “Indeed.”

  Seeing Evantra’s grin, Noelle rolled her eyes, regaining some of her mirth. Evantra strode to where Noelle was standing, halting next to her. The teasing tone fled, and Evantra’s voice dropped.

  “You’re right. And for the record, colleague Twig? You have made up for it. Many times over.”

  Evantra smiled as she watched Noelle’s cheeks redden.

  “Thank you. For speaking to me. You’re right, there’ll be plenty of time for regret later.”

  Finally, she reached for the last item contained in the bag, extracting it from within.

  “Now, we’re just left with the small matter of figuring out just what we’re going to do with this.”

  CATALYST DETECTED

  · Blade of Galahad

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