"Ever wonder how I learned about the Black Circle in the first place?”
So spoke Hisa around the dinner table that night.
"I’m surprised you bring that up, because it’s something that's annoyed me for a long time now," Anaissa replied, still not touching her food.
"I thought you heard about it through your job," I said to Hisa, as I gave little to no importance to the question, but still noticed something really strange about my old friend. “You've always been very aware of everything going on around you. That a rumor about the arena reached your ears isn’t too strange.”
"Not really." Anaissa chimed in, a bit more serious than usual. “The first day, I attracted six people down to my little lair under the city. I chose them because they were more or less influential with the right people. They found me, we sparred for a bit, I told them I was open for bets… they relayed the message to the thugs, and then to their cronies. And, still," she threw her first suspicious glance to Hisa since she'd met her, "you were right there, the second night, right when I started to attract the attention of a highly specific crowd. I was pretty sure I didn’t aim to attract a random waitress to my ring…”
"And, still, you allowed me in." Our maid of sorts was smiling with a confidence I normally didn’t feel from her. “In fact, if I’m not mistaken, you took a liking to me almost the moment I entered the arena." She took a mouthful of her dinner before continuing with her recollection. “If my memory’s right, you were welcoming some thugs, but then you saw me and interrupted your banter with them to hurry over to talk with me.”
"Of course I did!" Anaissa exclaimed. “You were like a lost kid compared to those giants! And, believe me, I built those tunnels in a way no random person could navigate through them by accident. You were completely out of the picture I had in the first place for the Black Circle.”
"It’s weird, isn’t it?" the ‘off’ girl said, regaining her composure, followed by another bite from her plate. “And you know, I felt exactly the same about you. From the first time I laid my eyes on you, I noticed you didn’t fit in, that you aren’t from around here. Actually, that you are a bit like this good old friend of mine," she said, pointing to me with her fork. “Your mannerisms, your words, and that strange way you react to things even before anything's even happened. In fact, I probed you a bit in our first conversation, but no matter what I said, you only seemed bewildered."
"I wondered if you had some kind of nervous tic when you started winking at me so much," Anaissa laughed after finishing her scarce food. “But over the next few evenings, you stopped acting strange altogether. I kept talking with you to figure out what your deal was, and even suggested you bring friends along. I thought maybe they would shed some light on you…but, next thing I know, you brought Renate of all people!”
"Hey, I would never have imagined you two knew each other!" Hisa said, finishing her plate, then helping herself to a second serving. “Still, aside from that, I didn’t get any new information about you from Anaissa, but I suppose you didn’t learn anything new about me from her either.”
"Well, Anaissa's weird and you’re a cynic, what more can I say about you two?" I shrugged it off. Still, I knew this table chat was more serious than it seemed.
"What I love about you, dear Renate, is how oblivious you are about the world," Hisa pointed out as she stuffed herself. “And I say it in the most flattering way possible, really." She chewed the food in her mouth quickly and then drank a big glass of water to swallow it more quickly. “I told you about how useless your aspirations were, how stupid some of your customs are, and we discussed your weird way of solving problems and your obsession with the forest," she smiled. “Ah, how many times I wished I could be like you, who didn’t need anything fancy. But no, I had to get a job in the city and start suffering the need of wanting more and more. I got a bunch of small jobs; I got fired from most of them on my first day and, well, I reached where most Home of the Stork orphans end: ‘The deep end’. But my personality was noted by some, let's say, shady people. Yes, I was fired again and again from every job I landed, but I always got a lot of information about their deep, dark, private secrets. And, well, I was sooooo thankful for them kicking my ass that, well… I wasn’t too privy about sharing little dark secrets about them. From labor felonies to cases of money laundering, I noticed those things in the little time I worked for them. I knew that companies had to cut corners and all that to make a profit but, once I was an adult, I felt that cheating the system was the only way to get some money in this world. So, who heard my ramblings in the dark?" Then, she casually pointed up. “The people of the Eight Rings themselves.”
I raised a concerned eyebrow, as Anaissa remained a bit cold in light of that revelation.
"I see you don’t understand what I’m trying to say," Hisa continued, after seeing the face my lover was making. “The Eight Rings is the centralized government of Earth, installed in the eight orbital rings around the planet. And they want to hear what I have to say. I’m part of what you could call ‘Local Intelligence’.”
"A low rank spy?" Now Anaissa understood her confession.
"More like a ‘Bridge Agent’ of the global government, if you will" Hisa laughed. “A girl must do a lot of things to survive in that city: serving drinks, putting up with idiot patrons, abide orders from entitled bosses and, from time to time, deliver a message here and there, follow shady people into tunnels that didn’t exist three days before, or infiltrate some companies to find some dirt about their head honchos. I get the information, I cause my own downfall from the company, I earn some nice money, the agency pats my head, I get new assignments, rinse and repeat. I’m not, by any means, a big shot, but I’m good at my job. At least, that’s the way I bring food to my own table. Sometimes I hear about some bureaucratic back doors a few people use to evade taxes; other times I uncover cases of corporate sabotage; and, from time to time, the typical cheating husband.” Then, she stopped smiling altogether. “At least, until that Vazet guy showed up, that is" then, the cold feeling returned to me. “Like me, there are several dozen agents in Colony 32, keeping an eye on everything. I know a handful of them, like Bossman. Some weeks ago, I noticed that several of them stopped reporting entirely. They just disappeared from the face of the Earth. Two of them worked as undercover nurses in the Central Hospital, and a third one who, as a wholesaler, it seems, dealt with pharmaceutical stuff recently. Latest rumors they shared with me pointed out the same name: ‘Vazet Messiah’. Even I, as a common run-of-the-mill waitress, tended some cocky brats with more money they deserved, and, of course, they also mentioned his name." Her usual cynical attitude disappeared completely. She behaved like an entirely different person, one I’ve never known. “Whoever that guy is, he’s a dangerous one. If what Renate told me about what he’s doing to those who fall victim to his drug is true, then I need to relay it to the agency as soon as I can. But, since I’m not in the city and I am, most likely, blacklisted, I can’t reach my usual contacts to warn the Eight Rings of Vazet’s plans. So…”
"You’re asking for our help," Anaissa concluded. “Or you’re offering us yours.”
"As long as the Eight Rings aren’t corrupted themselves, they could distract Vazet from his obsession with this orphanage. It’s a win-win scenario. I need to reach another colony with a space elevator as soon as possible, so I can bring the news directly to my bosses. I need all the information and proof you can provide. Because, you two are now the most knowledgeable about Vazet I know.”
Anaissa remained silent throughout most of dinner, the same as me. Anaissa knew something was off about my old friend, but I never imagined half of what she had just told us. Still, Anaissa and I noticed all the Snow coming from her. As icy as it was, everything she'd revealed to us was true.
"…but…" I mumbled. “Where? I mean, we can’t be sure that Colony 32 is the only city controlled by Vazet.”
"A good point," Anaissa replied in all seriousness. “We could leave you to your own devices in a city, but there’s a strong possibility you'd disappear for good this time. I could bring you directly to the orbital ring but, again, I’m the only who knows how to translocate this place, and with Vazet following all our movements, I don’t have the luxury of leaving, even for a few hours.”
"Can’t Renate do it?" Hisa suggested.
Blessed ignorance…
"I wish," Anaissa and I sighed at the same time.
"Maintaining the cohesion of all these buildings is extremely complex. As talented as she is, Renate’s too green for something of this caliber," Anaissa clarified. “That said, I need to check on Vazet's guys soon, to determine if we need to jump away again." She stood and walked to the kitchen door. “Renate, come with me, please.”
I followed her and left Hisa cleaning the table. She simply shrugged it off and smiled at me in her typical fashion as I walked away.
"She’s right about one thing," Anaissa said as we descended the twisting path to the Aleph. “It would be better for all of us to have a second ’pilot’ here.”
"And, with all my pride, I couldn't achieve even a fragment of what you can right now, even pushing myself to the brink of death.”
"I know," she embraced me with one arm as we walked down, perhaps out of frustration or relief. “Also, I’m worried about the point you raised: there could be more cities under Vazet's control. Until now, only one freighter had been following our jumps. Even if we jump to the other side of the world, that really only gives us six to nine hours of respite, regardless of the weather or location. The day he notices us near another of his cities, if there’s more, he'll probably throw a second vessel at us before we can even react. " We finally reached the Aleph, where she sat down and watched the latest news. A few seconds later, she stood up, not bothering to hide her irritation. “I’m so fed up with that guy, always tracing my jumps." Then, she stomped her way to the pilot seat to do her usual thing. “I can’t mask the entire orphanage’s Snow, he’ll keep going for me. I can’t risk leaving this place and I still have to take care of eighty possible hostages and their forty caretakers." No wonder she seemed so silent lately: the stress was getting to her. “I can’t stay on the defensive the rest of our lives; I’m too impatient for this…" She took a deep breath and opened her arms, calling me for a hug, one I happily obliged. “Hisa is right: I need someone able to control this place in my stead," she pressed me against her chest even harder. “And, for that, I need you. You need to learn the real final step that any Blizzard Lord must undertake to receive such a title. And for that…" she released me and made me look into her eyes "…you need to go.”
Then, she kissed me dearly…
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