I think if I had to pinpoint a turning point, it would be the moment I realized that only idiots order fish burgers.

  "I mean, it's 11:28 p.m, he comes in and orders ten fish sandwiches and fifteen giant meals when we're closing in two minutes! That's abuse!"

  “Maybe, but we don't refuse customer orders. Especially when you're a crew member! You're not even a manager, Marie. Why did you insult him like that? He's a friend of the CEO.”

  “Yeah, well, the CEO’s friend is a fat pig.”

  I don't remember what my chief said in response. In any case, at the end of the discussion, I found myself unemployed again. That fast-food restaurant was my second job after dropping out of university. I hid from my parents that I had tried to work there. Crazy attempt, you might say, as Gabriel had spilled the beans. For once, they didn't give me too much grief after that, probably because even for them, it was too shameful.

  Can you imagine? The Chevalier family, full of executives, having an eldest daughter showing up at a lowly job selling burgers, and not even able to keep it or climb the ladder!

  Ah. You're wondering how I ended up like this, right? In a run-down apartment without a job, even though I could have gotten hired at one of the family businesses? It's as simple as pie: as soon as I was old enough to access the bank account my parents had been growing since I was born, I emptied it playing online poker. Yes, I had to learn how to play before I became (more or less) good at it. It cost me a lot. When my parents found out, it was the last straw. I had already left school, I sometimes smoked to relax, and on top of that, Gabriel was succeeding at everything, so you can imagine that the Chevalier daughter was quickly classified as a lost cause.

  You might think that a parent, seeing their child in distress, would reach out and listen to them. Unfortunately, in our family, the way to correct deviant behavior has always been through pain. My bank account was frozen, I was yelled at and mocked, but for once, I wasn't beaten. Oh. But I was disinherited. No one wanted to hear about me anymore, except at family dinners. Now Gabriel was the new heir, the one everyone was looking up to. Of course, I cried for a long time. A child leaving the nest, without any guidance nor family support, is always a traumatic experience. But deep down, the part of me that was in tune with my innate capacity for self-destruction rejoiced. Finally! Finally, no more need to try to live up to their expectations.

  The smell of burning made Marie want to vomit. At first, she didn't understand where it was coming from. Then, when she looked more closely at the thief's battered corpse, she realized that his head had been burned to a crisp, his hair gone and his skin turned black as coal. His body, which Marie had managed to identify by his clothes, was torn to pieces, turning the alleyway into a pool of blood. A pool of blood that didn't seem to bother the white-haired woman, whose feet were soaking in the red liquid.

  “I thought you would have taken less time to join me. But it's true that you can't smell essences, I should have expected that.”

  That voice was definitely Serpentine's. How foolish of her not to have wondered beforehand what kind of human form this crazy snake possessed. Should Marie be angry that the gorgeous woman who had saved her from the wolves was actually this spoiled heiress? Yes, she should. The sight of this beauty had been the only positive thing Marie had gained from her arrival in this world. In the end, it was just the stupid spirit treating her like an amusing toy. That wasn't okay at all. Not at all. But she clearly couldn't freak out about that now, with a charred corpse stinking up the alley.

  “What did you do?”

  Serpentine innocently tilted her head to one side.

  “Oh well, I had to get rid of him at some point, right?”

  No!

  Serpentine, who didn't seem bothered by her nudity at all, bent down to rummage through her captor's corpse. Marie gagged at the sound of the motionless body creaking. This was so wrong. So so wrong.

  “Wh...what are you doing?”

  “I'm taking his clothes, of course! I can't really walk around town naked, humans will look at me strangely.”

  The clothes were covered in blood, everyone's eyes would look at her anyway! Marie wanted to say a lot of things, but she was paralyzed by the madness of the situation. The fire spirit groaned as she got dressed, clearly disgusted by what she was forcing herself to do. It was when Serpentine put on the boots with an “urgh, how long has this dirty pig not washed his clothes?” that Marie's temperament took over her rationality.

  “Are you... serious?”

  Serpentine looked up at her with an innocent face. Marie hated herself for finding her adorable like that.

  “Hm?”

  “You! I! Was it necessary to kill him? No, don't answer that question. A dead body... I'm looking at a dead body. Oh no, what am I going to do... what am I going to do... Think, Marie, think. With Gabriel playing the messiah, I can't really find a way to have a normal life anymore. And even less so now that...”

  “Marie?”

  “Now that I've witnessed a murder!”

  “Marie.”

  “That I am an accomplice to murder, even!”

  “Marie.”

  “Have you thought about my future, you dirty snake? No, you haven’t, you never think about anything anyway! Never!”

  “Marie!”

  “What!”

  Serpentine pointed to the end of the alley. The woman turned slowly, not without a shudder. Two soldiers in armor, surely attracted by her tirade, were advancing toward them. The spirit dusted off the sleeves of her new sweater.

  “Do you want me to eat them?”

  How nice of her to ask.

  “You really want to get us into as much trouble as possible, don't you?”

  “What do we do then?”

  “We run!”

  With that, Marie sprinted in the opposite direction from the two guards, whom she heard shouting indignant commands. Certain that Serpentine was close behind, the woman darted through the alleys at random with the speed of a cheetah. The metallic clanging of armor was not only getting closer, but seemed to be growing in number. Marie didn't dare turn around to see how many more soldiers the chase had attracted. Probably quite a few.

  Despite her insistence on running through narrow alleys, her pursuers, despite their colossal armor, didn’t seem to be slowing down. In fact, Marie felt that she was the one who was slowing down. Not known for her athletic prowess, it was already a miracle that she had lasted a good three minutes without stopping. The energy of despair, she thought bitterly. Just as she felt herself stumble, a hand reached out from the adjacent alleyway and pulled her to the side. Powerful arms encircled her and lifted her up like a potato sack.

  “What the?!”

  Her captor, who seemed to have no trouble carrying her on his shoulders, led her not through the alleys but above them with superhuman agility. Marie saw herself lift off the ground. While the image of the helpless soldiers should have made her rejoice, in reality, only nausea filled her mind at that moment. That's it, she was going to die once again screaming in despair, because like a child in a fairy tale kidnapped by an eagle, a kidnapper was making her fly from wall to wall.

  Ah, even from above, this city is ridiculously white. Has no one ever thought of dirtying it up a little?

  Marie closed her eyes and stopped struggling. In any case, if her captor let go of her now, it would be over for her. As if relieved by her sudden immobility, the kidnapper slowed down and, after a moment, landed on the ground to finally, finally, get rid of Marie.

  “Well, you're a fiery one, aren't you?”

  Marie opened her eyes. Standing in front of her was a man in his fifties with Asian features. Although small in stature, he was nonetheless incredibly strong, if indeed it was he who had carried her throughout this escapade. Unable to move or even speak, Marie contented herself with focusing on the sensation of the damp grass beneath her hands. Gosh, she never would have believed that leaving a city would feel so good.

  “You could have slowed down a little, Mr. Cat! I almost lost you, hehe.”

  Serpentine. In her white python form. Strangely, the sight of this familiar creature somehow reassured Marie. She had barely recovered from her emotions when, before her astonished eyes, the man transformed into a panther. The naturalness with which he responded to the snake, as if he hadn't just transformed into a huge predatory feline, alerted Marie for a myriad of reasons.

  “I knew you'd manage to follow me. Besides, I couldn't really do anything else, you two got yourselves into quite a bit of trouble. If any of the guards saw my face, I'll make you pay for it, my lady.”

  “Oh, come on, I had the situation under control. You're the one who got involved without being asked.”

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  The panther licked its front paw disinterestedly.

  “Yes, of course. That's why your human is dressed in togas that are only fashionable among spirits, just to make you stand out. I've told you a hundred times to make an effort with your clothes and not to wear such horrors. We're in the capital, not in your little village of three peasants.”

  Marie glared at Serpentine.

  “F-first of all, Olynthe is not a little village. And... maybe I dressed my human like this on purpose so I could find you more quickly, who knows?”

  No, she had completely ignored the instructions and was trying to save face! Stupid snake... The panther shook his head.

  “Sure, sure. How about you tell me why you're hanging out with a human? That's not like you, Lady.”

  Serpentine approached Marie and wrapped herself around her seated body. Now that she knew the spirit’s human form, the gesture seemed much more embarrassing than before. However, Marie was too paralyzed by the events to comment on this detail. Serpentine, her head resting on her shoulder, meowed happily.

  "She's my human pet! She will accompany me on my journey. I’m sure she’ll be useful. She is not looking her best because of our chase, I apologize for that. This morning my servants had braided her hair into this beautiful style, you would have loved it."

  The panther stared at them with a doubtful expression, which Marie amply shared.

  “All right, I'd rather not ask any more questions. The whims of those of high lineage will always be beyond me. I'll send your orders directly to your home. There's no point in trying to retrieve them, since apparently the fire spirits are incapable of coming to town without causing chaos.”

  So this wasn't the first time this kind of thing had happened... no wonder he seemed so peaceful. Taking advantage of her newly found calm, Marie raised her hand.

  “If I may, who are you? I don't understand much of what you've been discussing since earlier.”

  Serpentine loosened her grip slightly while the panther bowed respectfully to her.

  “Right, we've done everything out of order. Honorable human, my name is Hyou, but the spirit world tends to call me Mr. Cat. For a totally racist reason, if I may say so.”

  Serpentine cooed, amusement clear in her voice.

  “Hyou is an earth spirit posing as a human. You can think of him as the only merchant in history to sell his wares to both spirits and humans. He is passionate about fashion, he even made our robes. He is the chief couturier of the great spirit lineages. Except for the earth one, ironically.”

  “I'm afraid my kind has no taste.”

  Hyou's elegant bearing and extreme politeness made Marie wonder if it was him, the heir to a great empire, rather than the goofy snake that weighed heavily on her shoulders.

  “Don't you hate humans? I thought you were being hunted.”

  “I do hate many people. But I have a love that surpasses all my meager desires for revenge: the adoration of money.”

  Serpentine whispered in Marie's ear, always helpful when it came to explaining context.

  “Hyou has amassed more atlas than any spirit or high-ranking human dignitary. If he wanted to, he could close up his shop and open a bank, so rich has he become in recent years. But it's never enough for him.”

  The panther hissed, having heard the snake's barb.

  “I work purely for the love of my art. If I closed, you would find yourselves in a fine mess, you fire-breathing fools.”

  “Hoho, I don't deny it! You've been doing this for so many centuries that it's hard for us to imagine a world without you.”

  “Spirits have the same kind of currency as humans? Seems weird to me.”

  Hyou and Serpentine paused at this observation. While the snake remained silent for once, the panther kept his voice calm as he replied, not without a hint of curiosity in his voice.

  “Indeed. The atla was created by humans to facilitate trade. We spirits use bartering for exchanges. Merchants do not exist in our culture. Nevertheless, there are times when we need goods that only humans and their technological advances are capable of creating, hence my desire to amass atlas. Few spirits share my outlook on life, but many are willing to trade with me. I collect money and goods from humans. I create and sell to spirits who need my services. In the end, everyone benefits when we use each other, right? Young human?"

  “Young? Me?”

  Serpentine whispered again.

  “Mr. Cat has been practicing since long before I was born. He doesn't look it, but he's quite old, a true ancestor!”

  “I'm going to end up raising my prices just for you.”

  This world definitely had some strange characters. For the first time in her life, Marie felt like she was the most normal one of the bunch. Maybe that wasn't such good news, though.

  “Have humans never noticed that you don't change despite the passing years? Or do they also have a longer life expectancy than in my world?”

  “In your world?”

  Ah, it had escaped her. Rather than taking offense at Marie's slip, Serpentine nestled her head against her cheek. She really had to stop making herself so comfortable, Marie felt like a stuffed animal.

  "Humans have a short life, a hundred years at most, it's easy to make them believe and forget things, foolish as they are. As spirits, although our bodies grow to a preferred stage depending on our clan and lineage, we cannot die of old age. In truth, the Gods created us immortal, to watch over the planet. Alas, it seems that we are now seen as parasites, since they ensure that humans have every opportunity to exterminate us."

  Hence the presence of the Chosen. Right. Marie wondered if Gabriel's mission, as entrusted to him by Inpou, was to exterminate the spirits of this world once and for all. After all, the jackal judge had spoken of a world in decline. Was that it? Did the Gods consider spirits to be a tumor that needed to be cured? This was problematic, to say the least. Even more so if Marie had to stay with Serpentine, who seemed to hate humanity like no other, to the point of using her, a human, to lure the Chosen. Hyou, whose expression was difficult to guess in this form, observed elegantly:

  “As you know, of course.”

  Ah. What to say to that.

  “She doesn't know anything, that's why we're explaining it to her.”

  Marie didn't know if it was a crime of lèse-majesté to try to strangle the heiress to an empire of magical monsters, but she couldn't stop herself from grabbing Serpentine's body with both hands and pulling her head toward hers with fury.

  “Hey! You shouldn't be telling anyone about my life. Are you sure he's trustworthy? Didn't you say two seconds ago that he was dealing with lots of people?”

  “Yes, but I'm paying him handsomelyyyyy- you're choking me, please stop, ahaha...”

  Marie shook the idiot vehemently, hoping in vain to stop her happy, foolish laughter. It was the panther who interrupted their antics with a salutary:

  “Well, I'm not sure I follow everything, but I get the impression I'm not the only one here. A human so close to a spirit, heir of fire no less, that's a first. I'm sure we could do business in the future, you seem very resourceful.”

  Full of despair would be the most accurate term. Serpentine managed to break free from the human's grip with a chuckle.

  “She’s not the Chosen, if that's what you're thinking, you sly kitty!”

  Hyou's ears perked up.

  “I know that well. He appeared in town a few days ago with great fanfare. Everyone is talking about him. It doesn't look good for you, if I may say so. It seems he even killed Ai in a matter of seconds.”

  Serpentine finally detached herself from Marie with fluidity, flowing to the ground like a drop of water. Her voice dropped a tone, the first time since Marie had met her.

  “The starry wolf is dead? How is that possible, he-”

  "He was supposed to watch over the northern pack, yes. I don't know why he was wandering around alone, but in any case, the news will quickly spread to all the clans. The earth spirits will have to reorganize. Ai was expected to become the next Shogun. Now, the four Daimyo find themselves without a candidate for the centralization of power. With the threat of the Chosen, they can't afford to dawdle."

  Serpentine's tongue darted in and out of her mouth several times in a row, perhaps in an attempt to hide her distress. The discussion had taken a strangely dark turn, which Marie sensed she could not break (not that she was usually good at lightening the mood anyway).

  “I am sorry for the earth spirits for this loss. If I had known, I would have treated the two wolves differently a few days ago.”

  Hyou burst out laughing in a good-natured way that was hardly appropriate for the situation.

  “What are you talking about? We all knew the Chosen would arrive at some point. And between you and me, I don't really care about the fate of my kin, the Daimyo have never been kind to me.”

  “Still-”

  “And besides, it suits you, doesn't it? With the Chosen hot on the spirits’ heels, all the great clans will be more likely to give in to fear and listen to you more readily. Your bet with Glycon may turn out in your favor in the end.”

  The silence that followed was heavy. During this black hole, Marie wondered if Serpentine had been seriously offended by Hyou's remark. To her surprise, however, a malicious laugh made her tremble. Ecstatic, the fiery spirit whispered.

  “You're right, yes. Ai's death is a tragedy that will affect the earth lineage as much as the others. An immeasurable disaster, a powerful loss...”

  “Which will lead you to victory.”

  “Which will lead us to victory, Mr. Cat.”

  Later, as Marie and Serpentine walked along the forest paths leading to Olynthe, the woman let herself ask the questions she had held back until now. Alone with the snake, she felt much safer than she had during their entire escapade to White-Church.

  “You made a bet with Glycon?”

  “Indeed.”

  “Is it about my brother?”

  “Yes and no.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Your tone suggests that you’re already losing patience. You really need to work on your temperament, your manners won’t be as easily accepted by the other clans.”

  Marie took a deep breath, trying in vain to calm her nerves.

  “What do you mean? Are you planning on keeping me prisoner for much longer?”

  Serpentine turned her head halfway before continuing on as if nothing had happened.

  “I'm not keeping you prisoner, actually. You're free to leave whenever you want, but I'm pretty sure you won't.”

  She was right, of course. Marie had nowhere to go, but that didn't stop her from refusing to admit it.

  “You don't have anything to say, huh? Glycon is convinced that you'll betray me at the first opportunity. But he's never had a pet. I raised a bird when I was little: they always come back, even after spreading their wings.”

  She really didn't see her as her equal. A pet? Marie? When she had always been treated like a wild animal that couldn't be tamed? What madness.

  “Why are you keeping me with you, exactly?”

  “Because you will be crucial to achieving my goal. I don't know why, but I know it. As soon as I laid eyes on you, it was as if a force had grabbed me. Your essence called out to me.”

  It didn't make any sense.

  “And your goal is…”

  "To unite the four spirit lines under the same banner in order to reduce humans to ashes. I told you, didn't I? That unlike you, I feed on immaterial energy and human flesh. Our greatest feast, our meal of choice, for us spirits, is human life. Alas, we have been rationing ourselves for too many centuries, forced to be careful with our preys for fear of reprisals. For these apes think that everything belongs to them, that their power knows no bounds. They despise us, use us as fuel to power their damned Forge. While it is us, us, who are their predators. These lunatics have overturned the food chain with their unnatural experiments, under the benevolent gaze of the gods. It is time for this to end, for us to feast in the most gargantuan manner. I want my people to eat until they can’t no more and put an end to this world in decline. For that is why we were given life: to take it from those who are not worthy of it.”

  A shiver ran through Marie. If she understood correctly, Serpentine had taken a gamble to unite all the spirits and lead them into a final battle where only chaos and misery would result. The geopolitics of these creatures and this world escaped her, but if it resembled that of her own world even slightly, then it was no wonder Glycon doubted the success of such an undertaking.

  Yet, without hesitation, Marie followed Serpentine. From what she had seen of the city, humanity seemed just as rotten as it was at home.

  Serpentine had described machines darkening the sky and transforming nature, beings incapable of satisfaction and always demanding more, with her brother Gabriel at the center of their beliefs. No. Even after her death, nothing had changed. It was always the same score, always the same notes, no matter how much she tried to escape the staff. She remained only that useless flat note that the musicians ignored because they found the song more accurate without it. It made her want to vomit.

  “I'll help you.”

  The snake turned to her.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I'll help you. To reunite the lines and destroy mankind.”

  Serpentine chuckled.

  “That I know, my human.”

  This promise, which changed Marie's life, seemed obvious to Serpentine, something that didn't even need to be discussed. From the beginning, the heiress knew that the human would follow her, without a moment's hesitation. Somehow, Serpentine had a confidence in Marie that Marie herself didn't even have. The realization of this fact broke her last barrier of sanity : she didn't want the spirits to destroy mankind. No. She wanted Serpentine to do it.

  Water, fire, air, earth. If humanity allows the four lines to unite, then chaos will consume it. - The Truths of Djehuty