The conversation in the cafeteria had left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. For Camille, however, it was nothing new. She was always having disagreements with her brother. The two were polar opposites. Gina, the senior member of the gang, met her squad captain in the evening to discuss what had transpired earlier.

  “Have a seat, Gina,” Hugo said, as he moved a chair towards her. “What did you wanna talk about?”

  They were in the Zaatsu’s apartment at the hostel. The place was nothing fancy – just 2 rooms on either side of an L-shaped lounge and open kitchen combo and just the one bathroom.

  “It’s about Neil, master,” Gina said with a sigh and sat down.

  Hugo stood behind a chair in front of her. “What about him?” he asked.

  “He is becoming more and more agitated and feels even more violent than his usual self.”

  “We’ve talked about that before as well, Gina,” he said then placing his hands on the back of the chair he leaned forward. “And we have already taken steps to calm him down… so to speak. I'll handle him. Don't worry.”

  “Yes, master! I am by no means doubting you or your methods.”

  “But?”

  “What about Camille?” Gina dropped her head down for a moment before looking back at Hugo. “She takes it to heart, and he could not care less.”

  Hugo shook his head and walked away. Pouring tea into a cup, he looked over and asked, “Did something happen today?”

  “We were having lunch at the cafeteria, as usual. And… well…”

  Hugo smiled. “What did she say?” he asked.

  “Not her! It was what he said that had us all worried, but Camille took it the hardest, I think. She looked way more worked up than usual.”

  The Zaatsu walked over with two cups of tea and sat down. He gave one to Gina. “Thank you,” she said.

  “Him I can predict,” he said. “And I also know you people are way too afraid of his temper to say anything even remotely provocative. So, tell me. What got him going? What did she say?”

  Gina leaned back a little in her chair, wide eyed and surprised. Hugo took a sip and waited. For all his Martial Arts prowess, the Zaatsu was never able to keep a healthy relationship with those closest to him. He prioritised his work and that resulted in some unwanted negligence. One of the busiest operatives, he was always out on missions, and when he was not out, he was teaching at different academies around the city or taking care of the hostel. There was no time left for family. Neil was not just his student. He was his brother. And when a younger sibling was treated as a student, it created unwanted problems. His job had lost him a wife already and was now close to losing him a brother.

  Gathering herself, the Sokidu finally said, “Ah… we were talking about Vincent actually, and he said that had you let him, he would've killed him.”

  “Neil?” Hugo asked, wide eyed. “Neil? Kill Vincent?”

  “Yes.”

  He chuckled. “Then did Camille tell him that he could do no such thing?” he asked. “None of you could have beaten him. Even I would have had a hard time capturing him alone.”

  “Camille had already told him that, actually…”

  Smiling, he took another sip. “Well, thanks for bringing this to me,” he said leaning forward.

  “Yeah,” Gina reciprocated then finally took a sip.

  Silence prevailed for a while as the two drank their tea quietly. Hugo was deep in thought running his fingers on the edge of the cup. He had been forced to wonder about his strange and fragile relationship with his stepsiblings. With a shake of the head, he suddenly dropped his head. It was tough. Unlike the calm and collected Camille who loved her brother, Neil was aggressive and doubted Hugo because of his past affiliations with the Outsiders. And the fact that Hugo never gave much thought or time to fixing the broken relationship, worsened the situation.

  “Master?” Gina said, trying to gain his attention.

  “Hmm,” Hugo said, clamping the cup in between both hands, still looking down.

  “You, ok?”

  “Ah, yeah!” he quickly said and raised his head to look at his subordinate. “Yes! Of course. How was the tea?”

  “Tea was fine, but you don’t look fine…"

  “Ha-ha, I am very fine actually. Anything else you wanna talk about?”

  The Master Sokidu said that she did not and, after thanking her captain, got up and left.

  Elsewhere, taken over by curiosity, Camille was ready to sneak into the Atramentum – a sprawling subterranean prison complex designed to contain extraordinarily powerful and supernaturally dangerous criminals. Its architecture was a feat of engineering and magical fortification, combining physical barriers with layers of arcane defences.

  Only Zaatsus were allowed to have unsupervised chats with a prisoner. Therefore, Camille first went to Hugo’s office inside the Seear’s Hall building. She had a key to the room. ‘One of the many perks, Cami, one of the many,’ she thought as she entered the room. Very quickly she picked up his Zaatsu’s robe and got out. ‘I am so screwed if I get busted wearing this…’

  Hastily leaving the Hall she moved towards the entrance of the prison. ‘Act natural,’ she told herself.

  The Atramentum was situated just behind the Regal Palace and was hidden on the other side by a line of trees and a canal which flowed to and through the city of Ayn. Only a small room with arched pillars and a dome overhead was visible from the rear exit of the Palace. As Camille approached, a nightguard standing outside the entrance noticed her robe, straightened his cap, rechecked and reaffirmed his stance, and saluted her. Giving half a nod, she quickly walked past him.

  Through the entrance door was the reception area with one or two receptionists always present to keep a record of whoever entered or left. There was just one there that night. Camille told him and he wrote her name – Master Baylis. And then she entered.

  The flight of stairs behind the reception area led down to the fabled Atramentum. No one could sense through the walls of this fortified multilayered labyrinth. And these walls were also completely impervious to any Ki charged attacks or spells. No one inside could establish even a telepathic link with someone on the outside. The place was nigh impregnable. But no one was going to stop a Zaatsu.

  Camille walked down the stairs to the central hub of the prison known as the Core of the Atramentum. The prison was divided into three levels: the Vestibule, the Crucible, and the Erebus Sanctum. The Vestibule, the topmost part, extending around the Core, was reserved for suspects, untried prisoners, or those awaiting interrogation. The deeper levels held hardened criminals with severe offences facing long jail times.

  She approached the staff there.

  “May I help you?” said an on-duty operative.

  “Yes,” Camille replied. “I am looking for a prisoner. He was dropped off in the morning. Should be in the Erebus Sanctum.”

  “I’m afraid there is no one there right now, ma’am.”

  “A bounty hunter was captured and brought here just this morning.”

  “Oh, him?” The man laughed. “He was placed in the holding cells right here. He is going to stand trial tomorrow.”

  “Thankyou.” The slightly nervous Sokidu moved on swiftly.

  It was 10 pm – more than an hour past sundown. The Atramentum, made entirely of charmed red stones was looking gloomy as ever. Many of the lamps murmured as bugs hovered atop them. Camille had only once been down there before, and that was in a much brighter time of the day. She kept a careful eye on her surroundings. The deeper she got, the quieter the place became. That was not a good sign. There was no one there – no prisoners and no guards. All the cells were empty save for the last one, and sure enough, she found Vincent there. She recognized him from a far because of his white hair. With his hands tied behind his back, he was lying on the ground in one corner of the small cell. He appeared to be unconscious.

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  ‘Is he asleep?’ Camille thought as she approached the cell. Finally, she also saw a guard standing a little farther down the hallway. “You may leave,” she said, and he left.

  The White Bolt moved. Camille heard a whispered grunt. He lifted his head up and looked at her with half his eyes opened. He tried to say something. His lips moved but then his head fell back down. She tried to read his lips. ‘Did he just say ‘what’?’ she thought. ‘What happened to him?’

  With closed eyes, he put in a lot of effort to push his body towards the edge of the cell. He pushed against the corner where the wall met the bars and half sat himself up. He was breathing heavily.

  “What did they do to you?” Camille asked, as she came and kneeled down right in front of the bars, inches away from Vincent. Charging a small amount of Ki, she snaped her fingers to create sparks. A small ball of fire got lit which hovered into the cell, illuminating the prisoner. The only piece of clothing he had on his body was a torn-up bloody pair of trousers, the same ones he wore when she met him earlier. ‘But there was no blood on them,’ she thought. There were bruises and scars all over his body. She took a good look leaning closer. ‘I didn’t leave you like this. What in God’s name happened here?’

  He opened his eyes and rested his head against the wall. “You look surprised,” he said.

  She could not hear his waning voice properly but again understood what he said from the movement of his lips. “Did they torture you?” she asked.

  “Who’s they?” He coughed.

  “Did they give you anything to eat? Any water?”

  He shook his head in negation and her eyes shivered. In fact, she was trembling all over. The young Sokidu could not believe her eyes. She had heard many a tale of the Eye’s leniency and compassion towards their prisoners. But what was this?

  She got up and looked around. Right next to where the guard had stood, there was a chair, upon which was a bottle of water. The Sokidu took it and, putting her hands through the metallic bars, helped him drink the first drops he had in more than 12 hours.

  After gulping half a litre down, he coughed, and half fell before Camille caught her. With her right hand on his chest, she placed the bottle on the side with the other. “Take it easy, ok?” she said.

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “… you helping… me?”

  “Just returning the favour.” She placed the cap back on the bottle and asked, “What happened?”

  He smiled but could not muster up the strength to reply. Then the smile slowly disappeared.

  Camille thought about her options. ‘I’ve got to go back up and bring him food,’ she thought. ‘But then the guards will become suspicious. But I can’t just leave him like this! Poor guy doesn’t even have the strength to talk right now. He must have eaten before we got onto his tail more than 24 hours ago. Should I even be so considerate towards him?’

  “Favour returned,” Vincent finally whispered. “Now go.”

  He looked at her and tried to straighten himself but could not. So, she helped him, and he rested his head on the wall again. “Can you talk?” she asked.

  Vincent’s resulting chuckle was cut short with a grunt caused by the pain from his wounds. “Depends,” he whispered.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What… you want… t’ talk about?”

  “I have questions that I need answered.” She waited a moment but when she got no reply from the prisoner, she continued, “I am willing to help you.”

  “All ears…”

  “I will give you a small Ki charge giving you enough strength to talk. It will run out in about 10 minutes. So, I want you to be precise, ok?”

  The White Bolt nodded and Camille, placing a hand on his chest, gave him a tiny Ki charge. Vincent opened his eyes and immediately said, “Some days stretch long; others, night endures longer…”

  “Who did this to you?”

  “Not sure. It's been target practice all day. They've been shoving stones at me.”

  “I'm so sorry, Vincent. But since when did stones start hurting you?”

  “Is this some bad cop good cop shit or do you really not know?”

  “What?”

  “These damned ropes on my wrists keep me from charging any Ki.” He picked his head off from the wall and, leaning it closing to her, whispered, “By the way... it’s because of you that I’m in here. I will not make the same mistake twice.”

  “Oh,” Camille smiled. “I thought you’d feel that way.” She moved back and sat down with her legs crossed. “You didn’t pick up Master Baylis moving atop the trees. He was notified about your location by my teammates.”

  “I know where they were. He was nowhere near them. I had markers all over the place, remember?”

  “Hmm, they can be bypassed.”

  “Alright,” his head was resting back on the wall again. “So, Camille from the Zeta Squad… to what do I owe the pleasure?”

  “Oh, nothing much. Just that our little chat was kind of cut short…”

  “Seriously? You went through some trouble to get here, judging by the robe you’re wearing. That’s a Zaatsu’s, ain’t it?”

  “You know a lot about stuff from the Eye.” He smiled but did not respond to that. So, she said, “That brings me to my questions…”

  “Questions?”

  “We never discussed you. Who are you? Is Vincent even your real name?”

  “Hmm…” He took a deep breath and replied, “Who I am is but a matter of believing who I can be, and a name is a portrait of that very thought.” His voice was hushed, and he spoke slowly. “None of us can be defined by just one name. One word describes just one of the masks we allow others to see. To some, Camille may be na?ve. To me, Camille is idyllically generous, to the extent that she is willing to be reprimanded for helping a murderous person just because she thinks he may be hungry, and that her people may have treated him ill. But does that encompass the entirety of what makes you, you?”

  “So, which Vincent am I speaking with right now?”

  Vincent smiled again. “Which one do you wish to speak with?”

  “The same one I met in that forest.”

  “This is he.”

  “What do you want with the diamond?”

  “I’m a bounty hunter…”

  “Who gave you that bounty?”

  “I’m a man of principle, Camille. I never give away the names of my employers.”

  ‘This isn’t getting me anywhere,’ Camille thought. “You look awfully relaxed,” she said. “For a guy who’s been tortured for 12 hours, I mean…”

  “Torture? Oh no, no. This wasn't torture.”

  “Really? And you've seen torture?”

  “Oh, I’ve seen far worse…”

  “When?”

  “You have no business knowing that either…”

  “Alright then. One last question.”

  “Yes?”

  “Why didn’t you kill me?”

  Vincent looked at her with scrunched eyes and asked, “That’s what this is about?”

  Camille did not reply.

  “Oh God. Why must there be a plot behind everything? Why must everything be the end of the world? For a very honest person you sure know how to doubt people…”

  “You have killed plenty of people in the past. Even as we speak, I am not putting my guard down.”

  “Oh… that's because you’re an idiot.”

  Camille leaned back as Vincent shook his head. “What?” she said, wide eyed.

  “The rope that is tying my hands is enchanted. It limits Ki flow within a body.”

  “I know. Just like what you did to me?”

  “Not exactly… that wears out after a while. This doesn’t come off until the man who put this on either decides to take it off or is killed.”

  “So, you want me to put my guard down?”

  “Your Ki gift is running out. Anything else?”

  “You never answered my question…”

  “I told you back then and I will tell you again, I don’t kill needlessly. I never draw blood unless it becomes necessary.”

  Camille had many new questions in her head, but the answers were not with the prisoner. She had to look for them elsewhere. Hence, she got up. “I guess this is it then,” she said. “I don’t think we’ll get a chance to talk again.”

  “I just might have to disagree.”

  “Yeah?” she smiled. “How so?”

  He responded with a smile and closed his eyes.

  “You do know you are going to trial tomorrow, and your chances of surviving death are only 7%.”

  “Ha and Ha!” he said shaking his head with eyes closed. “You really have no clue of what these people are all about.”

  “Oh really? And you do?”

  “Yes,” he looked straight at her. “They will never kill me.”

  “Wanna bet on it?”

  “Sure. If I live, you will cook me a proper meal…”

  “Done! Anything specific you want on the menu?”

  “What can you cook well?”

  “You can see my hands, Vincent. You tell me…”

  They smiled at each other. “The Ki boost is almost exhausted,” she said. “I’ll try and get you some food.”

  “Forget the food! Get my hands in front of me!”

  “One would imagine you flexible enough to pull that off yourself.”

  “You can stretch these damned ropes. I can't. Just do it a little.”

  Hesitantly, she helped him. What he was unable to move, to her felt like a light elastic thread.

  “I am definitely in trouble now,” Camille said with a chuckle.

  “For what it’s worth,” Vincent said, scratching his nose, “thank you. But… be careful out there…”

  “Huh?”

  “The world is too cruel for people like you.”

  Camille’s smile disappeared. She felt wrong and thought, ‘this man does not belong here.’ “Just tell me your story,” she said squatting beside him and placed a hand on his wrist. “I may be able to help you.”

  Vincent thought for a moment then looked at her. His expression changed as well. A few lines appeared on his forehead as his lips dropped. He shook his head then said, “In a tragedy, the fair ones die cheaply.” With a sigh, he added, “Please, just stay as far away as possible from all of this.”

  With scrunched eyes she kept looking at him for a few moments. He chuckled and looked away. Thence, the young Sokidu got up and stormed out.

  As she passed the guard she had sent away, she said, “Keep a sharp eye on him, and keep your hands and stones off him.”

  Thereafter, she quickly left the Atramentum.