I needed to bide a bit of time to think. I turned around slowly, taking in the streets below. The roof was wide so I struggled to see much.

“W-where is she?” I asked. I was asking about Velma. I didn’t expect a response but asking made me feel like I still had the power to question him.

“Dead.”

The word came like a bullet, leaving me shaken.

I didn’t want to believe him but I knew it true.

Her voice before I blacked out came back to me. She screeched as she tried to reach for her last few words. The strain of someone clinging onto life.

A part of me thought good, she never cared for me or Lunar. But another, bigger, part of me wanted to return to Tomav. To go back to sitting cross-legged in the upper tomes, the sun shining bright through the big window, the air dusty from the books and me, Lunar and Velma reading in comfortable silence.

The man noticed my tense body. “Ease up kid, she didn’t care for you, all that women cared for was money and power.”

His voice carried no malice, which felt worse as any truth to it was all the clearer. I didn’t want to think about Velma. That was a matter for later. But she was always obsessed with the tak… no, I couldn’t think about that. I couldn’t just deny what he said like I wanted to either. Frustrated with my chaotic thoughts I busied my mind trying to figure out how to escape.

So far, I’d realised my best bet was to make it to the street. I had to jump down and hope he’d try and avoid making too much of a commotion or using any chaos to my advantage when maneuvering the floor. I would try it at his slowest.

“who are you?” I asked cautiously.

“That question again. To be honest with you kid, I don’t really know either.”

“Are you Nimor?” I tried.

“Some days, the beard really has grown on me,” he gave me a wide grin.

He was actually willing to talk though things. I needed to make the most of it. I might even be able to get a few straight answers from him. Something had been on my mind since he said it. Well more than one. He mentioned a seventh domain too, and although I had ideas of what it was and why it was so amazing for Velma to be able to do it, I did not want to risk him thinking I knew too much or, depending on what he thought I knew, too little. “You said you were from a republic?” I asked.

There were five nations, all united under the church. None of the texts for the testing mentioned a republic.

“So, you know even less than she did? The blind leading the blind.” He rolled his eyes. “The Republic is all that’s worth shit in these kingdoms, while all of these kingdoms waste their talent training one craft we train them all, as it’s meant to be.”

He didn’t sound like he was lying. And I still didn’t understand why he talked so easily, I couldn’t imagine this same man killing Velma. The idea was somewhere between frustrating and confusing. I refocused myself. I wanted to hear more of his story too but knew this was the best chance I had, he was impassioned talking about it and that’d be when he was at his slowest to react- distracted by his own stories- even if only slightly.

“Where is it?” I asked.

“Ah you’re allured? It’s headquartered near those sloths of the Kingdom of Earth. We’ve expanded into the other kingdom’s now, but the church and the kingdom patriarchs are really-”

I tried to run. It took three good steps to reach the ledge. I’d even managed to time the escape with his blink, giving me an extra moment maybe. I didn’t waste time with theatrics. I allowed gravity to pull me downwards quicker than I could have pushed myself off.

It wasn’t too far from the roof to the streets so I’d almost reached the ground. I felt a tug on my shirt on the descent. I managed to earn a few side eyes and a yell from what looked like the owner of a food hut but no one that saw me really cared as I was yanked back upwards.

It was almost as though a boy falling from the sky was normal here.

I wondered how he reached me with one hand so looked up. What had grabbed me was more of a rock-based leash. It realled to bring me back to the top of the roof.

The leash brought me back to the rooftop, morphing back into a hand as it released m and returned to the man.

“I healed you, fixed your clothes and answered all your questions, and you try to run from the bill?”

I felt defeated. Unsure what I could do I gave up trying to escape. At least for now. “What do you want from me?”

“Now we’re talking.” He laughed.

***

Everything from the entry to the forks were oversized. The waitress dropped two slabs of wood, both with juicy chunks of meat-still tender, hints of blood at their centers – on the table. Nimor sat opposite me, focussed on everything and nothing at the same time. Nimor’s impassivity and the redness of the meat gave me haunting flashbacks of Velma. It was all I could think about.

We’d walked into a bar in a cleaner part of the streets. Nimor said what he wanted from me needed a full stomach. To ease my nerves, on the journey I’d watched the roads and learned them to be nothing like my village. The paths were wider, bursting with movement and they were somehow both dirtier and cleaner.

Everywhere there were people: in taverns gambling, on rooftops eating, through markets shopping. I’d even seen men working with pyre. Nimor said most of everyone just called it craft, except the Kingdom of Fire. Tomov’s province.

I was surprised when I saw blacksmiths using craft to power their hits. In the village, the black smiths were golds that didn’t make the army. They lived well, being the strongest of the village they were considered just below embers along with the village guards. Here they weren’t much more skilled. I’d expected them to be able to shape their own fires, or will the shapes of their metals, but they were just like the back in Tomav with their hands and hammers.

When we entered the room, it was just filled with men, the kind you’d expect to communicate only in growls and nods. I saw a few stares at Nimor, but he gave none of them any attention. We sat next to the wall. I wasn’t sure if that was more animosity than they would give to anyone else, but very few were giving me the same stare. I made a mental note, maybe I could use it to escape.