A droplet of water plops close by, splashing my shins lightly.

I look above as water collects through the hole in the ceiling. “So that skylight was actually a drain…” Our little home base down in the sewers had been flooded after the rain, not too much stuff damaged however since Shaz had the foresight to put everything important on an elevated shelf. But, well… I carry a still unconscious Avery in my arms wading in ankle high water.

Yea, no place to set her down. I tighten my grip on her and walk away, leaving the door slightly ajar for draining. I glance back and then walk away into the dark.

“I’m awake…” Avery murmurs then groans. “Where am…”

“It’s me, Polly. You’re safe right now.” I say, worried she might panic waking up in pitch black darkness.

“Oh.” Suddenly a small light emanates through the walls. I look down to see Avery’s finger wrapped in a small fire.

“It is you.” Avery says in a tired voice, after which the fire extinguishes.

“I didn’t know you knew any magic besides water.” I comment quietly.

“I had to learn a little bit of everything growing up. Mostly just some basics for everyday life though.” After which an awkward silence.

“Where is… Where are they?” Avery cuts through the deafening silence.

“I don’t know.”

…

“Are they… You know?”

“They’re still alive.”

…

“…” Avery makes a little noise but goes silent again.

…

“I’ll find you a safe place to stay at. All I care about is that nothing happens to you.” I say coldly, tone not matching the message.

“Okay, okay. You can set me down.” Avery says softly.

“… Okay.” I hesitantly but carefully lift her down to her feet.

Avery stumbles onto her feet. “You sound. Kinda. You know… Distant. Did… Did I miss something?” Avery says, carefully choosing each word.

…

“What would you do if you found out?” I let a little hint of frustration get into my voice.

“I don’t know, I don’t know anything unless you tell me… Sorry.” Avery apologizes to me, for some damn reason.

The air between us grew more and more strained, attempts to communicate broken up by awkward pauses and uncomfortable silences.

The two of us shuffle through the sewers for the next 20 minutes, neither of us talking.

“I’m lost.” I finally announce.

“…” Avery doesn’t respond.

“You’re still with me right?”

“Oh, um yes. I just zoned out. Sorry, I can lead us out.” Avery says casually as the tunnel lights up once more with her finger. Much to my great annoyance.

“Oh was I close?”

“Hmm? Close to what?”

“Well, if you know the way out then I must have been following the right path if you’ve been following me all this time… Right?” Anger seeps deeply into my voice.

“Well that’s uhmm… No not really?” Avery’s voice begins to waver.

“Damn it, damn it, Damn it!” I suddenly punch the wall to my left, dust and stone crumbling under my fist. “What the hell did I choose!?” I cover my ears with my arms. “Why can’t I remember?”

I had him, I had all that I ever wanted right there. I was on the cusp of taking my life back, and yet… This stupid girl, this stupid girl who would blindly follow me even if I was leading her in the wrong direction. I chose to save her for some reason.

“I’m sorry.” Avery finally says.

“Sorry for what?” I say, annoyed by yet another one of her panicked apologies

“Whatever happened… I was probably at the center of it wasn’t I? I don’t remember very well… But I think I’m good at reading situations.” Avery says with unexpected sincerity.

“It’s not your fault, don’t worry.” I just can’t help but blame you. I say the second part silently.

Just. Like. Before.

“Yea, sorry, I was out of line I apologize.” I continue on. “I’ll tell you everything.”

And so, in the darkness of the sewers, I recant all about Yeluh, the death loop, and their deaths; however, I leave out everything related to Dundee and my past. Avery stays quiet and doesn’t interrupt a single time.

“Okay. Then let’s find Torika so we can rescue them.” Avery unexpectedly says after I finish summarizing.

“You aren’t going.”

“I’m a Tetsudo. They won’t know how to deal with me. I… I can freeze them for you!”

“Absolutely none of that matters when you can’t fight in the first place. Stay here and stay alive.”

“All I got to do is point and fire. I won’t get close.” Avery fake punches the air with enthusiasm, her palm completely open

“How many people have you killed?”

…

Finally Avery doesn’t respond.

“I mean, Taiga doesn’t kill either right?” She says.

“Taiga would have died twice already if he were a normal person. Not including his freakishly high learning speed which I can guess you don’t have.”

“Okay, then I can do it. I just have too…” Avery hesitates. “I can do it!”

“What is ‘it?’”

“You know…”

“Yea?”

“Kill.” Avery doesn’t hide her cringe upon even uttering the word.

“Right… Let’s find someone to kill then.” I begin walking away.

“What?”

“We’re going to go outside, drag a stranger from the street, and murder him or her.”

“Wait what? No!?”

“Oh you want something a little more morally tasteful? How about we walk around the alleyways until we get attacked by a thief or something?”

“What are you talking about?! Stop it, we don’t have to do any of that!” Avery cries. “I just… Just let me help in some way alright?”

“You can help out by surviving alright? Cause I really might lose my mind if you die after all I’ve been through.” This girl has no idea the extent of what I’ve sacrificed for her.

“Okay, sure.” Avery finally backs down; however, From her tone I could immediately tell that she was going to do something stupid.

“And I will kill you personally if I find you attempting to come with me when the time comes.”

“O-Okay.”

Taiga

What the fuck is going on?

I keep my eyes closed and my breathing steady, hoping to appear unconscious as I was before.

Shaz was next to me. I think. My hands and legs had been tied together, and my mask was…

Forty feet away, across to rooms to my left. I had recently been able to feel its location without my mask on somehow.

“Hey, are you awake?” Shaz nudges me in the shoulder and whispers something.

“You were awake this entire time?”

He continues whispering, but I can’t hear him due to my poor ears.

“What did you say?”

“I said! I think we’ve been captured by the Iquen!” Shaz seethes through his teeth.

“Then, all I gotta do is wait for my mask to come back. We’ll be fine, relax.” I focus on my mask, willing it to return to my side.

From getting thrown around a hurricane, getting surprise attacked by Polly, finally the slave caravan, my mask always coming back with perfect timing. It’s happened three times already. It’s time to take a hint. The more I will my mask to return the faster it happens. It’s spiritually linked to me.

I visualize my mask on my face, it phasing through the wall, rounding the corner and pummeling through the pure metal cell.

…

…

“AHHHHHHH!” My focus is interrupted by a sudden scream and bang from the rooms next to ours.

“What the…” The banging continues.

“LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! I HAVE TO AGHHHH.” The yells continue as loud thuds could now be heard as the man punches the wall repeatedly, the thuds soon turning fleshy.

I stop thinking about the mask and just stare at the wall in shock. As soon as I stop thinking about the mask the thuds and screams abruptly stop.

“Shaz? Did you hear that?” I turn to Shaz, who was crouching down rubbing the floor.

Wait… I feel the floor around me as well. “Is this black metal?” I ask Shaz.

“Yes.”

“I thought it was insanely expensive, how is it possible to make an entire cell out of it??”

“It’s not, it’s just a very thin layer spread across the floor.” Shaz stares at the ground, deep in thought.

“Hm?”

“Stop talking and don’t reveal anything technical. I don’t know how you aren’t feeling it, but they’re trying to get information out of us.” Shaz starts sweating, before he starts poking down on his carotid arteries. A pressure point on the neck that, if pushed hard enough on both sides, can cause a loss of consciousness.

“Punch me right now.” He says. “Don’t argue, please—”

I reach forward and smack him right in the jaw as soon as he says this,

“Ow! What are you doing? Don’t hold back, don’t tell me you’re this weak without your mask.”

“I’m fucking trying!” I smack him again, this time spinning around for a kick to the liver as well.

“You missed you blind fuck!” Shaz squeezes his eyes shut in pain as he continues block his brain of blood.

“Prepare yourself Taiga, this is not just another jail cell. Don’t reveal anything about yourself.”

Suddenly the room begins to fill with smoke, almost immediately I could feel a rise in drowsiness as the air reaches my bloodstream through my lungs.

“We’re… Stay strong.” I quickly figure out what Shaz was trying to communicate and grunt at him as we both go down.

“That’s right, this is not a jail. This is a lab.” A new voice filters through as I fall asleep.

“Been a while since we’ve had to use a traditional anesthetic. Never seen anyone with no Anku.” In my final waking moments the door opens and a tall shaded man walks in.

A sudden fear grips my heart. A fear that completely overrode the effects of the sleep gas. I bring my hand up to my face and blink. Anku surges throughout my body as my mask simply appears, no logic based in reality to its appearance just like with Polly.

“Interesting.” The man holds up a hand as I spring at him, a new vigor driven completely by fight or flight. In the air, I wind up my arm, but quickly feel as if a hundred pound weight was dragging my entire arm down. So… Slow, I didn’t feel this slow before… It’s like… My Anku’s been…

The man catches my fist effortlessly and smiles.

“Any other powers you want to show me? Or is Anku really the only thing in that mask right now?” He asks.

This guy knows about the mask’s abilities, why does he know?!

Don’t reveal anything about yourself.

Shaz’s words resonate and I stop struggling, letting weakness take me under.

“I can make things a lot easier if you cooperate. Don’t be a hero.” I hear the shaded man’s final words before I lose myself.

Avery

I stare at my palm, making, reforming, and melting an icicle over and over again. The wooden floor underneath me drips with water.

I just gotta get it sharp enough to pierce skin.

Polly forbid me from coming but… I have to help back. They both stepped up when I needed help so I have to return the favor.

I wince as I visualize myself launching the cold pike into someone’s body. In my thoughts I could see the blood slowly seeping through, turning the water red, the gap in flesh fully visible through the transparent ice.

After that the ice would shatter, shards cutting even further into the exposed flesh, melting and frosting, freezing vessels and organs until they’re rendered useless, rending from the inside like a trapped snake grafted into your skin, scratching and squirming and—

Suddenly the door beside me rustles. I yelp and hurriedly fall to the ground desperately mopping up all the water back into my hand.

“Sorry to bother, but that Shesuan girl asked for all meals to be delivered to the room?”

“Yes, yes! Just leave it on the floor, I’ll pick it up.” I respond as water dries up from the floor.

“Okay.” The servicewoman responds simply. I hear a thump as the tray’s placed on the ground and footsteps as the woman behind the door walks away. I feel my chest to a racing heart.

I ball my hair up into a fist in frustration. I shouldn’t fight, I have no experience and I’ll just drag her down, but it’s good that I know my own limits, I need to make sure I’m not in over my head.

No! That’s the mindset that…

I interrupt my thoughts before I spiral and take a deep breath.

I take another deep breath.

Right.

All I have to do is make an icicle and launch it.