Lils’ hands paused over the keyboard, her slender white fingers grasping the handle of a mug.

  The dull gray ceramic mug bore a soot-stained rabbit print, its handle lukewarm from the muddy coffee. Staring at the rippling liquid, Lils inhaled its bitter aroma, rubbed her eyes, and took a sip, grimacing.

  The comm device embedded in Danan’s mechanical arm could be forcibly activated with a single computer command. Even if he shut it off, Lils’ keystrokes could make their conversations audible, storing every word in memory. No secrets could be kept. Even if Danan thought he’d closed the line, Lils saw through everything.

  “…”

  She was intrigued by the data Danan retrieved from the Fruit of Knowledge. She wanted to rip out the memory device in his mechanical arm and examine its contents. It might hold the information she’d sought for years—the secret of the tower her late father had risked his life to uncover, the truth of the world. To calm her racing heart, Lils took another sip of coffee, wincing at its sharp bitterness.

  Just as Danan rarely spoke of his past, Lils kept her own secrets from him—not just one or two, but an overwhelming trove of information. Her parents, her origins, everything before she met Danan and formed their partnership… For eight years, she’d assigned him jobs, analyzing data he brought back from ruins, building hypotheses that brought her tantalizingly close to the tower’s truth.

  The girl who knew more about the tower than anyone, who understood the weight of Eve’s words, clutched a locket she always carried, muttering something under her breath before pulling her knees to her chest and draping a blanket over her head.

  “Lils, honey,” a voice called.

  “…”

  “You look exhausted. You should rest.”

  “…Don’t worry, Liars. Danan’s coming back, so I need to stay awake or things’ll get messy, right?”

  Liars sat in a worn chair, its synthetic leather peeling, sponge stuffing spilling out. Holding a paperback between steel fingers, they traced the text. Dark skin, bulging muscles, visible veins, and a mechanical right eye… Despite their feminine tone, Liars looked every bit a rugged man. Combing their impressive mohawk with their fingers, flipping the book’s pages, Liars turned their mechanical eye to Lils, dark circles under her eyes, and smiled quietly.

  “You’ve got the face of a girl waiting for her man, Lils.”

  “…”

  “You and Danan are so alike. It’s like watching me and that person from back then.”

  “…Don’t be ridiculous. Danan and I are strangers. We’re nothing alike.”

  “Keeping secrets, aren’t you?”

  Lils’ heart leapt, her blood running cold. Hiding under the blanket to mask her trembling, she glanced at Liars through a mirror on the desk.

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  “Doesn’t every woman need her secrets? You’re saying strange things, Liars.”

  “Sure, secrets are a woman’s weapon and shield. Keep lying, keep pretending, and you can make it all disappear, Lils. But that only works for women. I’m saying it’s too soon for a snot-nosed kid like you.”

  Liars’ voice, a deep masculine rumble, struck Lils’ ears. Their steel arms creaked, closing the book as if flaunting its title.

  Faust. Goethe’s tragic epic. Its old, frayed cover was moth-eaten, the brown spine blackened and faded.

  “Faust sold his soul to Mephistopheles for a future. Mephistopheles tempted him to win a bet with God. I love this play, you know.”

  “You, enjoying a play? That’s surprising.”

  “Yeah, just a passing interest. I don’t care about its deeper meaning or want to. But if I had a chance to do it all over, I’d make a deal with the devil himself, like Faust, to seize that moment when time seems to stop, the most beautiful instant.”

  Unexpected. Liars—rough, unwaveringly feminine in tone, always gazing ahead with a resigned air—saying such things… Lils’ fingers tapped the keys, storing Danan’s comm records while saving the ongoing audio, listening to Liars’ words.

  “They say the Lord claimed those who keep striving will stray and lose their way. I don’t disagree—I think so too. Humans are creatures who wander, struggle, and suffer. They lie to themselves, turn away from pain to keep living. But I also think the Lord’s words are wrong.”

  “Why?” Lils asked.

  “Striving without results is meaningless. Reason or instinct—whatever drives you, it’s the choices you make that shape your path. You hold the reins of fate, not God or the devil toying with your heart and soul. No matter how much sin you bear, how great the evil you carry, it’s humans who forgive.”

  “…”

  Liars’ copy of Faust was only the first part, an incomplete tale. What would they think upon understanding the full story? Would they condemn Faust, saved by Gretchen? Would they empathize with Gretchen, burdened by the sins of child-killing and premarital relations, executed as a sinner yet becoming a saint who prayed for Faust? The first part of Faust is a tragedy. But from Act I to Act V of the second part, it’s a story of sin and redemption.

  Selling your soul to the devil for a future, etching the most beautiful moment into your eyes. Praising its beauty, savoring profound happiness, Faust died before Mephistopheles could claim his soul, saved in the end. Through lament and pain, through a journey of indulgence, he grew, gaining new perspectives and finding that ultimate moment.

  “…Even if humans grant forgiveness, it’s humans who impose sin and punishment too, Liars,” Lils said.

  “True enough.”

  “Do you think Danan can be forgiven?”

  “I believe the kid that person raised isn’t weak.”

  “…Who’s that person? Why do you care so much about Danan? You’re from the undercity too, right? Undercity folks don’t trust anyone, do they?”

  “…That person taught me what it means to be human. I loved them, wanted to support them, help their foolish ideals. But reality wouldn’t allow it. Because it wasn’t permitted, I carry an indelible guilt, and they fell as far as you can fall. My child too.”

  “…”

  Liars’ eyes, briefly revealing their past, carried a deep sorrow. Unable to reclaim what they’d lost, forced to see only what they wished to avoid, their gaze had long forgotten beauty.

  “Lils, honey,” Liars said.

  “What?”

  “Keep lying, keep fooling yourself—it’s fine. I’ll let it slide. But protect your own place to belong, always. Don’t forget who you’re fighting for, what you’re moving toward. You’re like the old me, and Danan’s like that person, walking a different path as fools. Call it an old hag’s meddling, but… you can’t fool your own heart.”

  Liars said no more, taking Danan’s cigarette, lighting it. Thin purple smoke curled upward, sliced apart by the ceiling fan, dissipating into mist.

  Lils understood. She knew what Liars meant, what they were trying to say. Yet she kept lying, reaching for the truth. Even if it meant losing everything, she’d made a deal with the devil to achieve her goal.

  “…Liars,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Where… is your place to belong?”

  “That?”

  Lost it along with my place to die, Liars said, stroking the book’s cover, gazing at an old coat with nostalgia.