Chương 107: 20 - ONES WE'RE MEANT TO FIND

Tyene and Vienna. These were the names of the people T'balt had come to Graceland to find. Instead, they had both found him, but not for the same reasons. Vienna pointed her pistol dead at his chest with a stark seriousness in her slim eyes, and Tyene, sitting on the stairs next to her, didn't look at all bothered by that fact. It left T'balt suddenly feeling in danger of being reset. He had his hands in the air, feeling like the perp in a buddy cop film, standing in front of them.

Ellie, Cannon, and Acelin looked ready to come to his defense, but it was an instinctual reaction. They didn't have the loot to do anything from their current distance, even if they wanted to. He turned his open palm to them, hoping they'd get the signal to chill for a moment. Though he was sure they were tired of his " let's see how this plays out" attitude by now. But he had good reason. Once she heard the name German Casas, Tyene's expression changed to something he couldn't define.

It was a mix of several things: surprise, thoughtfulness, and eventually indifference when she blew out another puff of smoke.

"Right. They did say you came from the Hunter's Club. Honestly… it isn't like German to reveal that kind of information to people. But I guess you are a Redeemer. You have your ways." T'balt raised his hands in a shrug.

"It just seemed like he really cared about you."

"Yeah. He does that sometimes." She said it nonchalantly, like it was an annoyance.

"So," he turned to Vienna's gun, hands still raised.

"Can I give it to you?"

"The letter?" Tyene said, flicking her redheaded bangs from her face.

"I'm good. That punk never has anything new to say."

"Punk…" Whatever relationship German had with this woman seemed to be mostly one-sided. He remembered the man, who was very insistent that he had been looking for Tyene for a long time. T'balt only assumed it meant something more than just business. But maybe it was only that… just business. Another job given to him by Mitas Corlander and German always found a way to come through for his boss. But then he remembered the letters, the ones German received from her and how he kept them all.

"Well, let me give it to you anyway. I promised him."

"She said no." Vienna twitched her trigger finger, making sure he saw it now aimed at his head. T'balt took a step towards it, a sudden chill in his voice.

"You should know better than anyone not to threaten a Redeemer with death." The steel kissed his forehead as he met the woman in her dark grey eyes. They didn't blink. Neither did his. He was damn sick of being this woman's captive, and there was no way in his mind he was going to let another Redeemer walk all over him.

"Put the gun down or use it."

"Jeez, you two. It ain't that serious," said Tyene, stomping out the last of her cigarette.

"Vienna, put the gun down. German clearly infected him with his whole 'I believe in the sanctity of contracts," she mocked the words, trying to mimic the man's toneless voice.

"If it makes you feel better, I'll take the letter just so he can say he did it. Cool? Cool." She stood up, putting a hand on both their shoulders with a clearly fake smile. Vienna frowned, more than her natural face already was a frown, and lowered her gun. T'balt released the air from his puffed-out chest. He really didn't feel like taking another two months to get here, so he was glad cooler heads prevailed in the end. Vienna knelt down in T'balt's bag, apparently knowing right where T'balt stored the letter.

She handed it to Tyene, who held the letter in front of T'balt's face almost mockingly. Then she threw it in her coat pocket, not bothering to even read the address on the envelope.

"Look, I get it. Tensions are still high. You're probably still pissed about getting locked in a sex dungeon for two weeks."

"Wait… that was a sex dungeon?"

"No… but see. Could've been worse."

"What's a sex dungeon?" Acelin interrupted. Tyene bent over to him.

"A place where adults go to fuck each other."

"Oh…"

"Excuse me!" Ellie grabbed Acelin, stepping between them.

"What?" Tyene feigned a moment of genuine surprise.

"You and T'balt know what I'm talking about, right? The thing where you put the pickle in the pickle jar. Then you take it back out and put it back in and take it back out again." She made the motion of dipping her finger repeatedly into an invisible jar as Acelin envisioned an actual pickle in her hand. Ellie's eyes shot left and right in a cry for help.

"Alright. Can we please move on?" T'balt stepped in. Tyene started laughing uncontrollably.

"You should see your faces. Like plump tomatoes. You all are a bunch of squares. Come on, the kid looks old enough. Isn't it about time you told him what you get up to at night?" T'balt's face did turn red.

"I don't know what you're implying." He hadn't actually had a chance to touch Ellie in that way since they left the Hunter's club. Not that it was any of her business.

"Listen, is there a place we can go to clear our heads a while?"

"Eager to get going again? How many rooms? I mean, does the big guy join in or does he just like to watch?" She was keeled over at this point, out of breath, laughing at her own vulgar humor. It was a sharp contrast between her and Vienna, who was as straight-faced as a brick wall, as Tyene used her to hold herself up.

"I don't get it. Watch what exactly?" Acelin asked. Cannon took a knee to meet him at eye level.

"Listen. She's right, you're almost at that age. And since no one else will do it, the responsibility falls to me. Have you ever heard of the birds and the bees?"

"You mean like the giant bone bird we killed the other day?" T'balt crossed his arms at Tyene's amusement.

"Are you done yet?"

"Oh, he's a poor sport." Tyene wiped the tears from her face.

"Yeah, I've got a place for you to stay. With those need-nullifications in you, though, you won't be getting any sleep. So I wonder what you'll be doing instead." She said teasingly. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"Can you just take us there?"

"Fine. Fine. Follow me." It was still bright in the afternoon. Many of the Gracelandians were out working their day jobs. Though only a few of them actually looked like they were working, trying to fix the magic-damaged architecture, rounding up delinquent kids, or making sure the foliage on the buildings didn't get too long. Even though Tyene told them the place had a population of two thousand, only about ten of them were outside on their way to their destination.

It was a small building, shaped like a duplex with two wooden doors painted blue leading to separate apartments. There was a clerk outside who watched them enter it. He looked as if he should've done something about it, but shrugged it off, reading some old magazine.

"This is you," Tyene presented the door.

"The right one. Vienna and I have the one on the left. And there's no open-door policy, so no weird late-night visits." When she opened the door, it was a quaint room, minimal like something in a motel. Two beds, a kitchen table, an ice box for food, and something of a bathroom. A makeshift sink and a toilet. Instead of typical drainage systems, they both were just differently shaped bowls with deep, dark holes in the middle.

Either way, it was better than what any of them expected with how the rest of the place looked. Each of them was too eager to sit down, not realizing how exhausted their bodies were. Having the need nullification loot inside them was a strange feeling. It never felt like their bodies were at a hundred percent. More like constantly mediocre. It didn't need sleep. It didn't need food. It just existed in some central state of neutrality, which didn't beat the sensation of waking up after a good nap.

"If you want, Vienna can take those need nullifications out." Tyene offered.

"Umm… it doesn't feel like I should, but…" Ellie trailed off.

"Yeah. I get it. Just because you don't need it doesn't mean you don't crave it," she said, rubbing her stomach.

"It would be nice to sleep for the first time after two weeks," added Cannon.

"Pfft. Sleep is for the weak. I don't need it." Acelin posed like he was some nighttime vigilante.

"Suit yourself," said Tyene.

"Uhh... take mine out too, please."

"That's what I thought, tough guy." Vienna did as she was told, taking out each of their loot, leaving their necks completely empty.

"I'm good," T'balt said when it was his turn.

"But if you don't mind, I'd like a chance to work in my notebook." After the two women argued about it for a moment, Vienna returned T'balt's book, but only his book. They would still keep his bag of loot in their room for safekeeping. He knew he wasn't going to get anywhere by arguing, so he took what he could. Tyene and Vienna left soon after that, announcing that they'd come talk more after they took care of some things. Tyene spared him a secret wink before she went, and Vienna scowled.

Once they were gone, T'balt wanted to check back in with his team, see how everyone was doing, and make a game plan for how they were going to handle those two going forward. But it seemed that taking out the need nullification was the equivalent of giving them all sleeping gas. They were passed out on top of the beds before the door closed, sleeping harder than a group of hibernating bears. T'balt made sure they were comfortable and under the bed's cotton blankets before sitting over in the corner.

Hours passed as he took note of everything he wanted to remember for his next iterations. Writing it down was just another way of beating the information in his head. Drawing pictures, making mind maps. It was how his mom used to teach him to take notes back when she was a teacher. Before they separated. But though he kept writing, he kept getting distracted, unable to forget Ellie's words in the dungeon.

"We're still people." She was right. At the end of the day, they couldn't understand what it was like to be a Redeemer. And maybe… what he was doing to them was manipulation. It wasn't real. Every time he met them in the beginning. He knew exactly what to say to get them to listen, to get them to follow him. Not because of his charisma, but because he had an unfair advantage. It was the better of two evils, knowing what happened if he left them alone, but he still made the conscious effort to make them follow him.

In the end, was that any different from what Monan did to people? It was a strange feeling he had, one that he didn't know if he could put into words. He knew they couldn't understand it if he tried. There was a knock at the door. No one heard it but him. It was the middle of the night, so he was hesitant to answer. But then he heard Tyene's voice.

"You guys still alive in there?" He opened the door.

"What about no weird late-night visits?" She made a motion like she was dancing in place. Her head tilted, looking past him.

"Oh, they're still asleep. Good. How about a walk? Just us two?" T'balt hesitated, but there was a strange excitement on her face.

"I guess sitting by myself isn't exactly helping me clear my head."

"Good." They walked out into the city, lit by the stars and several fire lamps lighting the streets. In the nighttime, it was almost beautiful with the dark blues from above and the dancing oranges below flowing together in a peaceful dance. There was no one out but them. But that made T'balt think about other things. Namely, Lila Bloom. She was still out there, enslaved to some man, and he told her that he would find her. But there wasn't much he'd be able to do lootless.

That felt like a promise he needed to keep, but this woman, Tyene, strange as she was, was the one holding him in the palm of her hand. Though he didn't like it, he didn't feel threatened by it either. Not only her.

"Is Vienna following us?" he asked as they walked alone, an uncomfortable feeling behind her.

"She's my bodyguard. Of course, she is." Tyene smiled, moving her body to an invisible song in the moonlight.

"The real question I like to ask is how many weapons do you think she has on her? What do you think?" T'balt glanced behind him, seeing no one.

"I don't know, two."

"My guess is five. Two hidden blades, a pistol, a disassembled rifle, and a taser."

"Is that typical?"

"Mhmm…"

"She must take her job really seriously, then?"

"Do you think about her a lot?"

"Uhh, what? Why would I think about her?"

"I bet you spend a long time thinking about what the other Redeemers would be like. Trapped in a little box. It must be confusing. Being constantly surrounded by people and still feeling so alone." T'balt stopped walking.

"I mean. No one can really understand what you're going through. The burden. The immortality. Everything you do, everything you change, the constant questioning. Where is my humanity?" She stopped as well, several paces in front of him.

"That's why you came here, right? Looking for people who were just like you. People who might really understand." He had no words.

"But you're also afraid. What if they've all gone crazy? What if that means I'll go crazy too? What will I turn into if I keep going?" She looked up.

"The moon looks beautiful tonight. Does that ever give you comfort? Knowing that if you die, you can come back here on this day at this time, and the moon will look exactly how it does now." His voice caught in his throat. It was the word "how." But before anything could squeak out, she spoke again.

"Monan told us about this place, too. Do you think that's a coincidence?"

"He did?"

"Isn't that right, Vienna?" That was when Vienna stepped out of the shadows, far closer than he ever imagined her being. She came from behind a building, just behind him.

"When I beat him in his game. He told me to come here if I wanted to relax a while. Of course, we didn't come at first, assuming it was a trap. But then things started resetting basically every day. So naturally we thought to investigate here and found that it was… livable." T'balt's face flushed red, knowing he was the cause of that resetting but not wanting to speak it out loud.

"So what do you think that means? Could there be more Redeemers here?"

"If you're here, then why not?" Tyene said. He started to consider. Then there was a sound. A familiar sound that made his heart quiver. There was no cloud in the sky, and yet came the sound of vicious thunder. And then a man appeared in the open space where there had been no man before. It was German. His eyes were red in the bright glow of his tracker's loot. He saw them. He saw Tyene. She started to mouth the words, "German, wait," but they never made it out of her mouth.

He flashed, suddenly in front of her, and then again. T'balt flinched, and when he looked back, both German and Tyene were gone.

"What was that? Why did he have the Wanderer's Loot? Why did he…" He felt a strange pressure next to him. Like a sudden feeling of bloodlust dripping down his throat. At his back, Vienna was seething, and that rage, as well as her gun, was aimed directly at him. BANG!