“What?”

“A blood debt,” Mimipe smiled. “He owes you a blood debt. Tell him that, and he will do anything you ask.” Then she stopped smiling. “Don’t tell this to anyone.”

“I swore.”

The suearis appraised Forti for a while. Then she turned around, except instead of leaving, she said softly, “I’m really sorry about Vasi. I tried to stop him.”

For the final time, after days spent chasing the elusive suearis, Forti caught a glimpse of a spotted tail before it vanished behind a wall.

Riel awakened from his rest with a mission, thrilled and pleased. It was rare for Forti to ask for his help, and he welcomed the chance whenever it came. Not only did it let him aid his dear friend, which was the most important reason, but it also let him play out a fantasy he only saw in looking glasses: being a spy. An agent. Witty, quick-footed, and cunning. Every time, he accomplished retrieving information without fail, followed by the thought that he was really good at this and wondering when Forti would give him his next assignment. Although he was aware that his emboldened nature could trip him, he invited the dare with open arms.

Exiting his quarters with a disc the size of a wide platter, he walked down the corridor, out a door, to a balcony. He dropped the disc on the floor. It righted itself flat and afloat. Riel stepped on it, feet and body stuck securely to the small platform, and flew off like a bird from a windowsill. 

Although there were no animals, Riel’s world was bountiful with plants. Remarkable verdure reached out from underneath, stretching their grandeur like cats in the sun while some people walked on thin paths that threaded through them. Buildings, sculptures, and other artificial creations coexisted so harmoniously with the vegetation that they seemed to have sprouted on their own rather than be made by hand and machine. 

Ahead, he saw the ziggurat. At its peak, two large stone slabs leaned against each other to form the mysterious, triangular entrance into a small room that looked to fit only a dozen people if they crammed inside. Numerous people entered the gate, but none ever stepped foot into the room it should lead to. 

He descended down to the fifth level of the thickly terraced structure, one story above the ground, since he was a mere student. He looked forward to becoming an apprentice, rising to the fourth and having sapphire threads adorn the hem of his plain white himation.

Eagerly, he climbed up one of the multitude of stairways that lead to the top with his disc back in hand. A line never formed at the pitch black entryway no matter how many people alighted upon the ancient compound, and soon, he was already passing through into a space where outside did not exist.

There were only rooms, and their totality was called the Astrarium.

Riel walked easily to his destination, a hidden room tucked away from everyone else. He happened upon it by accident, and seeing no one else knew of it or occupied it, it became his, until he noticed that objects were relocating on their own and random recreations of inventions he recognized from other worlds were being developed. 

A room concealed from everyone except him and another, most likely the original user. 

At first, the realization that he was a trespasser had him avoid the place for a week, but he was addicted to the unlimited use of the looking glass there.

He tried to hack into the one he had at home, a recreational form that everyone had for entertainment, but his limited knowledge made the efforts fruitless. His school one in the classroom had restrictions installed for purposes of learning and preventing abuse. Privileges gradually unlocked as one climbed the academia ladder, but he was in the lowest rung.

Although he never chanced upon the other person, he still vigilantly peered in. The golden spheres of the orrery overhead spun lazily, themselves rotating as they pleased. A large, prismic, and transparent booth was left on as always, a holographic image of something wrinkled akin to a brain or a beehive floating inside that the other user never changed. Once, he stepped inside and observed the folds were made of countless little masses of light of varying sizes connected together by shimmering strings of smaller particles, like threads of a spider’s web in sunlight coupling orbs of dew. He didn’t dare touch anything to not leave a hint that he existed.

Straight to the intricate and immense bowl of water, shaped perfectly as half a sphere and raised on a slab, Riel rested his hands on its sides.

With a touch and his will, the water rippled like liquid glass in a pattern, controlled and pristine, then alighted and showed a part of Forti’s world. Both hands operated with trained precision the multiple dials within dials like that of an old rotary phone, searching, clearing, identifying, until Riel had an unobstructed view of Mimipe Metenyu in her home, handling a burner phone in the middle of the night.

He watched her call an unknown number, ring for a while, and a tired voice answered.

“I thought you wanted to never talk to me again,” it said snarkily.

“Remember the girl you shot in Parter?” Mimipe ignored the immediate irritation the voice welled.

“Yeah, why?” The voice turned serious. “Are the diapo after you?”

“No, nothing like that. I just wanted to tell you she’s alive.”

“Oh… So what? Do you need me to come finish the job?”

“What? No! I’m just- Why are you like this?”

“What do you mean ‘why am I like this?’ Why are you calling me just to tell me some girl’s alive?”

“I don’t know, just… it means it’s one less person you killed.”

“...Mimipe, I’m not a serial killer,” the voice sounded a little hurt, but Mimipe knew better. It was annoyed. “I only kill someone when I need to.”

“But you didn’t need to then, not there!”

“Oh, so you’d be fine if that girl blabbed to her friends that you do drugs? And then think that you’re from Deodunge? And before you know it, the school kicks you out because they found out, is that what you wanted?”

“She didn’t even think I did drugs in the first place! She thought you were mugging me, remember? Also, you’re the one who wanted me to try making a vein there, so actually, if it wasn’t for that girl, everyone would have thought I did drugs anyways if I listened to you!”

“So she’s alive,” the voice disregarded the entire rant. “Is she causing you problems?”

“Her sister is.”

“And what do you want me to do about it?”

“Nothing, I just wanted to tell you she’s alive. She’s in a coma, though.”

Mimipe heard a groan and prepared for an argument, but a deep sigh resounded instead.

“Look, I know you want me to stop killing people, but you know how it is.” She could imagine the responder sitting down and fidgeting by flicking their claws together, a mindless habit she occasionally followed to remember home. “It was my bad for going to you, though. I thought it was a good business opportunity, but I didn’t get how much you hated it-”

“I hate everything about it. I wish you got out.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it. Stop whining. Anyways, I won’t be going there and trying any of that again so just focus on what you’re doing. Don’t mind whatever’s happening here, it’s just the usual.”

“...Ok.”

“A’ight-”

“Wait, Jaekyul.” The call became silent, but no clicking sound of its end came.

“What is it?”

I’ll come back, Mimipe wanted to say. I’ll get you all out of there, so stay out of trouble. I’m going to study hard, get a rich job, and earn lots of money. How is everyone? Are they doing ok? Does Mephet still think I abandoned him? I want to talk to him. I’ll come back.

“...Goodnight.”

“...Night.” The call ended.

Riel stared into space. Mimipe didn’t just know Vasi’s shooter. She was familiar with him. He thought about pursuing after Jaekyul, but deciding how much to tell Forti was always a delicate and difficult matter. It was a dilemma he suffered from ever since he first talked to her, but if he didn’t know the information either, then there was nothing to tell.

And Forti was highly capable on her own. He simply dropped hints and she perceived more than he ever could without the aid of a looking glass. 

Riel watched Mimipe for further clues. She was continuing her homework, but reread the same lines over and over. 

Using this looking glass to analyze an individual scared him. It had no limitations whatsoever, and to see a person’s everything, or at least the potential to, frightened him with a fear he couldn’t apprehend. Maybe it was because he was still a student and too accustomed to the constraints set for him. It felt strange, even perverse, to try, but there was one factor he liked to see out of all the possibilities that were not permitted to him.

He looked into Mimipe’s dream.

A big happy family. People eating well, smiling and laughing, healthy and free.

Riel then peered into her intentions and promises of returning to the dark city, her worries and regrets of leaving, and her aspirations of wealth and comfort.

She’s not selfish, he thought. 

Would Forti understand? How much should I tell her?

He wasn’t sure if he should share this much about someone to another. 

After playing for an hour, clearing the looking glass, and checking no one else was around, he fled back to his quarters and settled on plainly telling Forti that Mimipe knew the shooter. 

His name was Jaekyul and they’re from Deodunge. They’re very familiar with each other, but the bullet was something the girl didn’t want and the boy didn’t mean. But he did mean to. Or I think he did. Or maybe he didn’t know how else to resolve a situation given his circumstances. I should’ve just found out who he was.

Deduction was a rudimentary skill all students of his level practiced, but often the example scenarios were straightforward, such as why did the infatuated boy tell the other he liked him or why did she blame someone else for what she did wrong. Riel conceded his current ruminating was too advanced for his station.

Forti would know what to do. She would come up with a plan and everything, his brilliant friend.