A bird with heavy plumage stomped along the warped sign of Regeles Bre.

Lenith had been to the clothing shop often. More so in the early days, when it still had flaking pastel paint. Enticing promotions for the designer’s new clothing line had hung from the walls.

When the Halibreds arrived at Rugerbin, one of the boys ran it like a real shop. Town Ahnhilt sent irregular shipments. Wanderers smuggled new attire through the area.

Exposed, decomposing understructure remained. Fresh clothes once hung from the rusted display poles inside. The boy had abandoned his capitalistic endeavors as youngsters often did.

The bird sang an eccentric refrain. Only then, hearing its call, Lenith recognized the bird as a vanivani. She waved up at it before entering.

Years had stripped the walls to black brick. The clothing poles, emptied. Commerce was a dead art. Thick, nauseating dust clogged the air. Her breathing labored.

A strip of light shone under a changing station. Lenith had no choice. She approached with a hand extended to guide her through the encroaching dark.

A familiar, muted voice dripped from the other side. She stopped. Her left ear pressed to the cold door. She heard Iggy as clear as the wind.

“Why won’t you come with me?”

Lenith’s tongue stabbed at her top lip. Her hand balled into a fist. She wanted him to be talking to himself. It sounded deranged in her head but she did not need to hear a response.

“Why are you sure you’re leaving?” Nena Vonch. A young, orphaned Secrabite. Eighteen-years-old—a little older than the regime that despised her deep, dark skin. Her home had burned, too. That was the beginning and end of her similarities to Lenith. Had she already forgiven the man with the Mohawk for igniting the blaze?

“Ya saw the fire. Everyone needs to run but they’re all busy crying.”

“We don’t know what to do. Don’t scare me, Iggy.”

“Drub fear. Ya need to listen. I know truths. Being a Graymen for all those years, you learn when trouble’s coming down the street.”

“You’re an old man, Ignacious Heln. Times are different now. They don’t want anything to do with us, even if it’s wasting their bullets.”

“I’m trying to save ya.”

“I don’t need saved.”

“Yeah, ya do.” Iggy sighed. “You’re being stubborn.”

Lenith rattled the door into its pocket. Iggy and Nena lay naked, coiled in winter coats, scattered from the boxes all around them.

Nena gasped and covered herself with the closest, loose jacket. Her nipples were pink against midnight skin. She cried on cue, and Lenith remembered why she hated the girl so.

Iggy remained, flaccid and glistening.

No room to feign innocence.

The distress in the Secrabite’s eyes proved she knew that, too. 

A deranged amusement gripped Lenith as Nena struggled to stand. She bounded out of the store on wobbly legs in nothing but a coat far too short to cover her most private parts. Dust followed her like a hungry beast. Lenith watched her go. Iggy’s glare heated the back of her neck. She gave him time to pull up his pants.

“My dad’s missing, Iggy.” Lenith lifted a pebble off the floor. She had no clue how it snuck in. In the cracks and crevices of a boot. “He said last night he wants to be back in the Gray Area before the suns drop. And now he’s missing. He was up all night worrying, terrified in fact. Now he’s missing.”

Lenith turned to Iggy. Her face had reddened and one of her eyes narrowed with anger. “Last night, you reminded me of Retna.”

“How can I remind you of someone you didn’t know?”

“I was there when she came back. You know that. And, last night, my dad looked as sick as he did then. You’re almost fifty, dammit. You were more responsible when you were twelve.”

He recoiled. It only fueled his anger. “I’m here, aren’t I? I didn’t steal anyone. I didn’t run off. All I’m trying is to save lives.”

Lenith squeezed the pebble. Divots marred the orange calcite. It popped free, swallowed by shadows.

A murmur spread into Lenith’s thoughts as the pebble skittered. Something vile surfaced. If I had my pistol, shitbox, I’d put a dozen holes in you right now. She chose her words with care, for she had lost her sidearm in the flames.

“Help me find him. If the stress brought on a fit then his mind is wandering, which means he’s wandering, too. I can’t be certain of when he left. It’s your fault. Make it right.”

“I don’t gotta. My job’s done.”

The little bird’s wings spread outside. It lifted, pulled into the sky. Excited chirrups faded. Only the wind sucking against old architecture remained.

 “Everything ends in pain out here. If you haven’t learned that yet, I don’t know what to say. Your fa-ther’s gone, and you’re still here.”

Lenith paused. “I was there when Retna came back. I knew her long enough.”

“Leave me alone.”

“The thought’s hard to get out of my head once it finds a way back in. It tends to creep in when I’m alone. Nena brings it back more than anything, though. Will she disappear, too, Iggy? Sold to the highest bidder?”

“Think the Chimayri sold Eby?”

The fist that Lenith had stored since arriving at the door swung. She struck Iggy. It thumped his chest, made him sigh.

He caught her hand before she could pull back. His strength drove her closer.

“One day you’ll understand, Lenith. You’ll see that ya didn’t deserve Eby Belinger. Yeah, ya liked her. Ya loved her, even.” Iggy didn’t need to hit her to inflict wounds. As often was the case, knowing each other for as long as they did meant knowing the best ways to ignite each other. “But your blood is as impure as Nena’s, in another way.”

Iggy snatched Lenith by the cheeks and pulled her forward. She squealed and flailed only to find his palm slipping over her lips to muffle her. He dragged her back into the shadows and all along she questioned her own decisions.

Iggy had never attacked before.

Not like this.

His rage culminated in noise and threats, sometimes slamming tables into stomachs. 

Lenith’s heels scuffed the tiles, limp and heavy. She no longer felt alive. It had to be a dream. A vivid, petrifying dream.

Iggy spun her around. His hand stayed over her mouth.

Through the window—across the walkway—stood an Enieyu. Anti-ballistic plating made him look alien, large, terrifying. The human physique, turned monstrous.

His steel gray helmet reflected the suns above and the stores around him. Thick, black horns curled back along the rounded scalp. Silver stripes framed a broad faceplate. Korvish ciphers circled the base of the horns and the helmet’s rounded edges.

An Enieyu only had one purpose that Lenith knew of: To wage war.

He raised his flat palms to the sky.

A silenced gasp slipped out against Iggy’s palm. Lenith understood. His actions became comprehensible. She wanted nothing more than to dissolve.

An unnatural whistle carried on the wind. Iggy’s arms wrapped around her stomach, releasing her mouth. She thought she could breathe again, at last.

The whistle turned into a shriek, growing louder; closer; deafening. The Enieyu took a step closer. A shadow streaked across the walkway.

Lenith saw far too late what was about to happen. By then, the end had arrived.