Chương 21: Imaginary

"Do you not intend to follow?" Nix woke to an eye floating mere inches from her face. She reacted. Her hand swung forward as a yelp found its way out of her throat, and she dived into the wall bordering her bed. Once again, her fingers slid through Little God's gaseous form without disrupting its flight.

"Why do you have to be so creepy," Nix said as she calmed herself and leaned back against the wall. Her mind spinning off the sleep and lingering on the words that awoke her.

"What do you mean follow? Follow what?"

"K'tan." That oversized eyeball spun in the air, never taking its gaze away from Nix.

"Were you not interested in that man?"

"I don't know if I would describe my thoughts as interested, but sure." She checked to make sure her night gown still covered her feathers… and the new wrinkle in her chest, even if it would be difficult to see.

"What about him?"

"He has just left."

"What?" she startled.

"Through the hole in metal." Nix simply stared as Little God twisted to look at the wall. Her mind must have grown inspired after having returned in time. Not only was her imaginary friend speaking now, but it was fabricating events. With a groan, she slumped back into bed. She wished she knew what time it was, but clocks had a bad tendency to break when observed. Only the expensive ones had any lifetime to them. Yet, even those caused problems.

Clocks and corruption were simply two things that should never mix, regardless of the efforts some put into making one that worked. Her eyes clenched shut, but it was impossible to sleep. No matter how much she knew it was her imagination playing tricks on her, the thought that K'tan was up to something prodded at her. If he was out and about, she wanted to know. Another groan, and she rolled out of bed. Her new robe found its way onto her body before she was creeping towards her door.

This would be a good way to prove to her mind, once and for all, that Little God was a creation of her own. Maybe then it would finally correct, and get rid of the guy. At the very least, a late night walk might be nice. Nix peeked her head out into the hall, and upon seeing nobody, left her room. She donned her hood as she took a few silent steps to the room that hid the hole, before slinking inside.

Padding over to the base of the left-most bed, she pulled up the thin floorboards to reveal the wide hole through metre-thick metal. The blemish was just as smooth as the last time she'd seen it. And just as dark. While Nix had never actually used the hole herself, the curiosity had at one point in her past led her to search for it. It had been pretty easy to find. But for anyone who didn't know to look in the first place, the floorboards hid it incredibly well. No casual cleaning would reveal it.

It had been too intimidating in the past for Nix to even consider. Both breaking K'tan's rules and diving into the darkness had terrified her. Now? Well, the very idea that the past her wouldn't have done it was enough to dip her legs down, then slip into the hole. She landed on a scaffold that hugged the ceiling of an old maintenance passage. Three steps and she was down on the main walkway. A long strip bathed the tight corridor in a dim blue light.

It was barely enough to illuminate the ground before her feet, but she had no problem making her way through. As she reached the end, she found the hatch already opened… no, where there should have been a hatch, it had been stripped from its hinges. Whether that had happened recently, or a hundred years ago, Nix couldn't say. Regardless, she moved to climb out of the maintenance access, and into the main tunnel.

"Stop." Nix jolted at the voice in her ear. Little God had the worst tendency to sneak up on her despite always being by her side. She was ready to snap back at the eye, but it continued before she could. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"K'tan does not know you are here." The orb floated out ahead of her and stared down one side of the tunnel. Rolling her eyes, she peeked around the corner and found — as she expected — nothing. Nix was ready to forgo her imagination's words and simply keep going, but as she turned back to Little God and found it still staring ahead, intent on whatever it saw, she hesitated. A silent sigh escaped her lips as she relented to the figment. She needed to practice with her Feat, anyway.

She focused on that new sixth sense and pushed it into the tunnel. It was slow, and as the distance increased, it only became more difficult to move. For a good minute, she questioned what she was doing. She was never going to find anything doing this. What were the chances that she would land on a random name by flailing in darkness. But as she continued to use Little God's stare as a guide, she actually did; she stumbled across a name. It was a simple, single component name. Likely an additive.

But as she moved her ethereal fingers, she found six more additives and a core name that held seven components. An evolved name, if she had to guess. Was this really K'tan? She peeked her head around the corner again and found nothing despite the light. Shadows were plentiful, but it didn't look like there was anything hiding. Nix cast an eye towards Little God, who remained as focused as ever. Was this just more of her imagination, or should she trust it? The shadows twisted slightly and Nix felt the name move.

As if it had been waiting for the perfect time, It entered a set of stairs that rose to the surface. It moved quickly, and soon snapped from her Feat's sense, but she never saw it with her eyes. Little God floated forward, and Nix took that as an invitation. Careful to keep quiet, she ran down the hall until she reached the stairs. Still nothing. Besides the light of the accretion seeping around corners, she could see nothing.

Still not convinced she wasn't imagining all of this, she made her way up onto the bright surface, following the eyeball that seemed to know where to go. After walking a few blocks without pulling its glare from something far ahead of them, Little God finally spoke.

"K'tan is turning around." Deciding that for now, she would trust that this was all actually happening — despite the lack of evidence — she scrambled down a side alley before the overseer could turn back down the street Nix had been creeping along. She slumped in the shadow of a building's overhang, hoping that her dark robe would keep her hidden. The intense light of the Great Iris made it difficult to spot things in the dark. Hopefully that would be enough.

Nix followed Little God's gaze as it turned to follow a single point. The eyeball remained out in the open without care, and eventually, its eye followed something that passed along Nix's alley. Only in the open space where it couldn't walk from one shadow to the next, did Nix finally spot something. There was a warp in space; like light forgot how to work and became a shadow for a brief moment before it could reach the ground.

It was a small effect, but it was enough to prove to Nix that Little God had actually been watching something. It wasn't acting the way it was for no reason. Poking her head out of the alley, she watched as the shadow appeared every now and then when there was no shade within a dozen paces. It eventually disappeared, but Little God didn't move to follow, so she didn't either. A minute later, she found K'tan appear from thin air. He shook a cloak off his shoulders and tried to shove it into a bag.

Nix watched with rising shock as the cloth seemed to fight back; it tried to twirl around his arm and cling tight, momentarily removing his hand from sight. K'tan had a skulk shroud? How? Those things were expensive. An overseer wage should never allow him to afford one. The man turned, and returned to the path he was taking before. Scoping out the streets first? Nix guessed. She returned to her shade, but as he passed her this time, she found there was another person with him.

They were covered with a traditional hood, so all Nix could tell about them was that they were much smaller than K'tan. Almost as small as Nix. Now that they were visible, it was much easier to follow the pair. They spent a while walking along the surface before eventually descending into Inner-Coral again. Following Little God, Nix could descend without being spotted herself. K'tan was wary. His head flicked around at the occasional night-scream, checking to make sure he wasn't being followed.

If not for her little eyeball, Nix would have been discovered a dozen times already. She was sure it was the same back when she couldn't see the man at all. He was wary, but the hooded figure beside him was not. Their head stayed steady. Their steps were regular and evenly paced. Yet when K'tan brought them to a stop their body swayed. After a confusing number of turns that Nix really hoped she remembered well enough, K'tan passed through an area Nix simply couldn't follow.

He strode through a large archway guarded by four cultists each holding a weapon with a memorable mix of flesh, steel and teeth. No weapon was identical. Some held blades, while others had rifles. But each of the weapons was twisted with the distinct skinless flesh that one cult favoured. The Fleshsmiths. It was unlikely this was a Fleshsmith forge — what with how close they were to the safe-zone — but it was clearly one of their joints. Maybe a warehouse?

What was important, was that the guards hadn't so much as looked K'tan's way, but Nix would not be so free. Nix could no longer follow the overseer, but she still needed to know what he was doing.