Polenya sat nestled within a small yet wide and flat valley, carved out of the empty memories of a past city and threaded with crumbling tarmac roads and stone pathways. Buildings of brick brushed pale colours of beige, yellow and white bordered picturesque squares with historic clock towers and fortifications. The skyline behind was imposed by ugly apartment blocks and shiny metal attempts at modern architecture now lost to humanity’s collapse, all together encircled by the mountain ranges with the tallest deep in pristine snow. Although the mountains sheltered the city from the worst of the weather, the cold of winter still bit harshly through Arna’s clothing and she hugged her cloak tight around her body, glaring openly and accusingly at the city as they approached.

No guards stopped them strolling into the city’s boundaries and very few people saw them enter. The streets were quiet, paved with a thin layer of ice while the roofs above glistened with a coating of snow. Most of the ‘modern’ buildings on the outskirts of the city seemed abandoned, left to the whims of the elements and time, but the farther they walked the more the city appeared to stir. With the apartment blocks and concrete buildings behind them, the older and arguably more beautiful part of the city opened up and numerous eyes watched. This was the heart of the city and was truly the only part that was Polenya, the rest merely acting as a buffer to the outside world.

Arna stuck close to Neri’s side, almost tripping her up as they stepped into Polenya’s main square. Bordered by multi-coloured buildings, the square sprawled out before the slightly leaning clock tower with its flaking mustard yellow paint, and they began their approach on a small pastel blue building. Countless eyes focused on them and Arna tugged her hood lower over her face. She saw raiders, travellers, traders, the diseased, and city residents all standing on the same level ground, all drinking from the same water source – all welcome as long as they didn’t cause too much trouble. The atmosphere was tense as if it would all soon crash down on them, all on edge because ‘trouble’ didn’t cover casual theft and attacks in the dead of night. No one could really trust raiders not to try something, and the diseased were ticking time bombs that were easy pickings for the strong.

They had truly walked into the lion’s den, the predators quietly pacing along the pastel rainbow buildings, prowling the ice and snow, watching and waiting. No angel or miracle would save them from the hungry maws of hell; the lions would soon seek their vulnerability and pounce.

The blue building was once a simple shop, the shelves trashed and scarce of anything but cold dust, the door swinging loose on its hinges. The Warrior’s Guild contact sat inside: a wiry haired man with more bone than flesh, perched on a stool behind the shop counter and using one of his long, sticklike fingers to scratch his eye through the tarnished rim of a monocle. He rose as they entered, planting skeletal hands on the splintering counter to push himself up, squinting at their silhouettes in the doorway.

Neri approached, bowing her head in greeting and introducing herself before the man could speak. “I’m Neri of the Warrior’s Guild and this is my companion.” She motioned towards Arna still hovering uneasily at the entrance. “We have just completed a quest from Atsylei and we will be staying in Polenya for a night or two before we return. Are there any quests we can take?”

The man considered them both for a moment before settling back into his seat. “Atsylei…?” he mumbled in a voice just as thin as his body. He fumbled in the drawers beneath the counter, pulling out a stack of papers and shuffling one out in particular, shoving it unharmoniously towards Neri. Arna lifted her chin, trying to read the messy scrawls on the stained page from across the shop as the warrior held it up. The shapeshifter didn’t have a chance of understanding what was written - the scrawled words and lettering were too disjointed and messy.

Neri passed the paper back to the man. “We accept this assignment,” she stated.

He sniffed, rubbing an emaciated hand over his nose and repositioning the empty monocle on his cheekbone. He retrieved a half-chewed pen from a baggy trouser pocket, the fading ink barely illegible as he scribbled another incomprehensible line on the page. “Good luck,” he muttered.

Neri nodded in acknowledgement and they left the shop, making their way across the icy square once more. Arna felt the rapacious stares of the raiders the most, eyes trailing after them like rabid hyenas, drooling over bone ripped clean while dressed in their patchwork military uniforms stolen from old outposts, crackling laughter booming across the square like the predatory toil of a bell signing a death warrant.

Arna watched her feet as they walked. “What’s the job?” she asked quietly.

Neri glanced over her shoulder, leading them past the crumbling dry fountain and dead flowerbeds to the edge of the main square and beyond. “Larius, the leader of Polenya, wants us to deliver something to Atsylei. We’re heading to the City Hall where he’ll tell us the rest.”

“Polenya has a leader?” she said incredulously. She had always assumed that the ‘free’ city policed itself, the residents and the visitors casting out any troublemakers while the majority of mishaps went by unnoticed.

The warrior nodded. “Larius’ father was the one who rebuilt Polenya, making the city around the square habitable again from…before.” She looked pointedly at Arna. Before the destruction of war and disease brought humanity crashing down to its knees. “When he died, Larius took over as leader. He said anyone was welcome as long as they didn’t blatantly do anything against the city or its people. Most of the time he just stays in City Hall like a spider in a giant web – makes deals and contacts with anyone who will talk to him, and as long as they don’t kill anyone in front of him, he doesn’t care.”

“Sums up Polenya as a whole,” Arna muttered, eyeing a dying man leaning heavily against a wall while raiders loomed over him like vultures.

The City Hall was housed within the ancient remains of stone fortifications and a disintegrating castle complex, a building consisting of Renaissance, Gothic and Baroque architecture that was all but lost to forgotten memories. Where once it was a seat for a King and his church, a central key to economy and military armaments, it now merely hosted a man and his winnings – a phony king in a collapsed world without a crown and with none of the loyalty.

The insides of the hall were lined with gilded paintings and intricate ornaments, all treasures either bought or stolen. At the head of it all, gazing over his hills of wealth and slumped in a golden chair that barely fit his plump frame, was Larius, neighboured by a single guard hidden beneath layers of crimson velvet hoods and folds.

The man was huge, his belly hanging low over his belt and his face swollen above a trio of chins, chubby fingers playing across his bulging thighs while his other hand dropped morsels of food into his mouth. He looked bored until his gaze found the women approaching. The power of greed lifted him up out of his slouch, wiping his stumpy hands on his knees.

“Ah!” his voice bellowed across the hall, his arms spread wide as if beckoning them both into a sweeping hug – or chokehold. “Welcome to my great Polenya! What have you to offer?”

Arna immediately knew what Neri had meant by calling him a spider in a giant web. He truly was a spider gorging on all who managed to step too close, hiding behind his ‘free city’ where all were welcome when he really only desired to feast on their remains and trade their lives for prizes.

Neri dipped her torso in a flourishing bow, her spine stiff and her hand clenched tight on her sword hilt. Her dislike for the city leader was plain to see, yet he seemed blind to it with the huge grin peeling back smooth skin to reveal stained, blackened teeth. “I am Neri of the Warrior’s Gui-”

Larius heaved a sigh, cutting her off with a sharp wave. “What do you have to offer?” he repeated.

The warrior’s brow twitched with irritation but her calm courtesy remained. “I believe you wished for a delivery to be made.”

The man sunk back into his chair, the golden wood creaking and moaning with the shift of his weight, the precious gems and perfectly sculpted religious figures pressed into its sides almost blaringly robbed of their beauty beneath the man’s hulk and voracious avarice. “Yes, yes. So, you offer your services?”

Neri’s jaw slid to one side, but the tension was blinked away. “To deliver your item to Atsylei, yes.”

“A man in Byska-Tatrá owes me,” he declared, picking at his fingernails and flicking dirty flakes to the floor. “Go to him and bring me what he owes.”

Neri’s serene mask chipped slightly. “Excuse me, but the assignment was to deliver something to Atsylei and not to retrieve something from farther east.”

Fear and dread filled Arna like a river that had broken its banks. Larius’ focus went from his nails to the women. “If you didn’t interrupt me and let me finish, you would know that I do want you to deliver something to Atsylei. But first you need to get it from the man in Byska-Tatrá, bring it to me, and then you go to Atsylei.” He paused, fleshy jowls shuddering with his disdain as he shook his head. “Do you understand, warrior?”

Neri’s grip tightened on her sword hilt, knuckles paling as she nodded sharply and bowed with even less enthusiasm than before. “Of course, Leader Larius.”

“Good, now you best depart-”

“May I request a room and some supplies for our quest?” Neri cut in, her gaze held firm as she met the man’s disgruntled expression. “We shall leave immediately at sunrise, if that would please you.”

His chins trembled. “Please me, she says,” he hissed, throwing a glare at the figure stood behind him. The person clothed in what appeared to be a massive and expensive red curtain hadn’t moved nor spoken since they arrived. There was something odd about them, but Arna acquiesced in an attempt to reassure herself that absolutely everything here was odd. “Fine, fine. Second door through there.” He pointed a round finger at a tiny corridor exiting off the side of the hall, the walls so close together that Larius had no chance of fitting through the opening. “Supplies will be left outside by sunrise.”

He closed his eyes with a huff, slouching ever further into his seat. The warrior bowed her head once more even though he couldn’t see it and gave a rehearsed line of appreciation before leading Arna into the dark corridor. Sure enough, the second door was unlocked and inside revealed a bare mattress fitted into a sun-bleached wooden bedframe with very little else decorating the room. He clearly doesn’t host guests very often.

Neri approached the bed, dropping her bag heavily beside it and grumbling as a cloud of dust billowed up around her. She wasn’t any more impressed by the chamber pot in the corner nor by the lack of blankets. “He definitely keeps all the riches for himself,” she muttered.

“He seemed a very nice man,” Arna deadpanned, locking the door and throwing her own bag beside Neri’s. “So kind-hearted and generous. Do you not think so?”

“Oh?” A small smirk pulled on the warrior’s lips. “Oh, but I must agree! Such a considerate man to provide us a room! So thoughtful to gift us…” She picked up the unlit lantern from the floor and lifted it high like a trophy. “This beautiful and amazing lantern! Oh, if only we weren’t so impolite to not bring our own oil!”

Arna sat down on the end of the bed, a hand over her mouth as she bit back a laugh. “How could we!” she exclaimed with a gasp.

Neri met Arna’s gaze, her smirk now a large grin until it softened, a gentleness tempering her features. She stepped in front of the shapeshifter, her legs now brushing against Arna’s knees as she looked down at her. “Are you okay?” she asked, reaching out a hand to caress Arna’s cheek. “Really?”

“No,” she answered with no hesitation. “But I’ll be glad once this over and we’re gone.”

Neri nodded. “We should be able to get to Byska-Tatrá and make it back in one day. I doubt Larius will be amicable enough to let us stay another night though.”

“What will we do then?”

“Start our trek back to Atsylei.”

Arna blinked. “Only one night?”

A slight frown framed the glimmer of concern in the warrior’s eyes. “You’ve not stopped shaking since we got here and I know it’s not just from the cold.”

Arna looked down at her hands clasped together in her lap. “I’m sorry.”

A finger beneath her chin pulled her eyes up to meet worried green, Neri’s face now so close she could feel the warmth of her breath dancing across her skin. “No. I’m sorry for forcing you to come here.”

“We had to,” she softly replied.

“We did,” sighed Neri. “But I wished we hadn’t. I hate seeing you like this.”

“Neri…” she whispered.

The woman hummed in response, her thumb brushing back and forth across Arna’s cheek.

“The past is the past,” she said, echoing the warrior’s words. “I’ll be fine.”

Doubt flickered across Neri’s face before her expression suddenly blanked, the hand at Arna’s cheek moving to her shoulder and lightly pushing her back, careful not to touch the healing scars at her neck. Arna allowed the movement, falling backwards onto the mattress and shuffling up until her head lay where a pillow should have been. She watched Neri unclasp her armour and set it down beside the bed, unsheathing her sword in a fluid motion and propping it against the wooden frame. The woman climbed onto the bed, edging herself up and then relaxing so their bodies pressed flush against one another. Neri rested her face on Arna’s chest, her ear above her heart, and exhaled long and hard, the tension leaving the warrior’s body in one great breath.

“We need a shower,” Neri mumbled, wrinkling her nose.

“Thanks,” Arna snorted quietly so not to disturb the woman laid on top of her.

A comfortable silence fell around them, the darkness growing as night descended and swallowed them whole. Arna shifted, awkwardly pulling her cloak off and wrapping it around them both, the heat of their bodies fighting off most of the chill.

“Are you scared?”

Arna stared into the dark. “What?”

She felt Neri move, sensed the woman’s eyes on her own glowing in the night. “Your heart is beating so fast.”

The statement was said with such concern, so genuinely and in a voice so close to sleep, that Arna couldn’t help but laugh. Yes, she was scared. She was scared of being here, of travelling even farther into it all, and scared of what the feelings aching inside her chest meant. She recognized it; she knew full well now what it was – but fate had a way of cheating her of everything she wished for.

But then again, Neri was stronger than fate.