Gilded Ashes-Chapter 76: You Want to Know

They followed the quadcopter down outside. Alteea took them on the same omnidirectional elevator, heading towards the Med wing now (this time everyone gripped the railing tightly).

The evac craft settled onto the Med Wing’s east intake pad outside - legs extending, rotors winding down - and the medical doors opened before it finished landing. The Med Wing was really close to the Lotus Academy. They were mostly split by the opening where the runway came to surface or hid itself.

A team in white was already waiting. They pulled Hazel out, locked the stretcher’s wheels, and pushed her through the corridor quickly. The eight caught only a glimpse as the cart turned a corner - Hazel’s face slack, two bands tight at her thigh and forearm, her staff laid across her body. Then the doors closed behind her and the corridor was empty.

Rune didn’t go in.

He leaned against the wall outside the medical wing, wingsuit unzipped to the waist and hanging from his hips, the fabric dark with sweat and a few drops of blood. His pale blue hair was plastered to his forehead, right hand clenched around nothing - knuckles white, fingers locked. He stared at the closed door.

Alteea crossed to him slowly. She put her hand on his shoulder and looked at him straight in the eyes.

"Save it, Vanguard." she said. "Blame won’t patch a wound."

He nodded once. Short. No words.

Alteea turned to Kori. "I’ll need these miracles tomorrow. V-1 block. You’ll get a formal request if you need one."

"You’ll get them" Kori said, throwing a quick look over the eight, making sure they were still together. Saffi remained in the Lighthouse, nodding shortly at each Royal scholar before they left.

Alteea tipped her chin. Then she and Rune went through the medical wing door. The frosted glass closed behind them - their shapes reduced to silhouettes.

Kori rolled her shoulders once. Checked the wall clock. Looked at the eight.

"Well... I didn’t have anything else planned for you today, and Kenzo’s on duty in Haldor. Don’t blow anything up" she said. "Be back before midnight. If you get arrested, text me. Preferably don’t."

Arashi blinked. "You’re - where are you going?"

Kori was already walking. She raised one hand over her shoulder without turning around. "Obviously, something involving pastries."

She disappeared around the corner.

The eight stood in the open ground. A few rays of warm sunlight managed to sneak through the clouds and caress Raizen’s face.

Feris still held her plush whale against her side. Lynea’s fingers fidgeted at a seam on her sleeve.

"Park?" Keahi said. Her voice came out rougher than she meant. "I need air."

Nobody argued. They walked into the Academy’s garden - a stretch of grass and stone benches beyond the main buildings. The runway was now gone. The lane that launched the F-51 into the sky like a railgun twenty minutes ago had already retracted. Grass covered it. The only trace was a faint seam in the turf, where the plates met.

They spread out the way people do when they want to be alone but don’t want to be apart.

Raizen and Hikari took one bench. Feris and Lynea took another - the whale’s shiny black eye pointing at the sky. Keahi stayed on her feet, arms folded, next to Arashi. He sat on a bench, stood up, sat again, and then leaned against the backrest instead, as if that had been the plan all along. Esen perched on the top of a bench with his heels on the seat. Ichiro stood a step apart from the group - not far enough to be separate, not close enough to be included. The distance was careful.

A bell rang somewhere in Crown Spine. Half-day mark. The clouds above the Lighthouse were as always - low and gray, moving slowly.

Raizen’s hand went to the inside pocket of his jacket. Checked the packet. Still there. He pulled his hand back.

Then Ichiro breathed in.

Not deep. Not dramatic, like Esen would have probably prefered.

"You want to know" he said. Not a question. He said it the way you say the weather - true whether you like it or not.

Nobody moved. That was enough for an answer.

"The first thing I remember is already being on the streets" Ichiro continued, voice low. He brushed the edge of his cloak. "I don’t know how long before that. Long enough that I stopped trying to count."

Keahi’s jaw tightened.

"Neoshima doesn’t like strays" His carried no self-pity, no performance. Just facts arranged in order. "The city likes clean, flawless systems."

Hikari opened her mouth. Closed it. Whatever she wanted to say - I’m sorry, probably - she decided it wouldn’t help. She folded her hands tighter in her lap.

"I mostly lived in vents" Ichiro said. "Behind laundry rooms. Once inside a supply crate, for three days, until someone bothered to open it." He said it the way someone would say "I used to live on that street".

Arashi looked at his boots.

"You learn the city differently from down there. Which alleys have cameras. Which walls have gaps. Which rooftops connect if you’re small enough. Where the heat vents blow warm in winter. Which bakeries throw out stale bread at the same time every night."

Lynea’s fingers had stopped moving on her sleeve completely. She was looking at Ichiro with an expression Raizen recognized - the look of someone hearing their own story told in a different voice. The Underworks and Neoshima weren’t the same place. But the shape of being thrown away was.

Feris made a small sound in her throat. She pressed the whale closer to her side, and buried her face in it, like it could help.

Ichiro’s shoulder pulsed. A powerful visible throb, even through his cloak. He didn’t look at it. With time, he learned not to look at it. The moment he did, his secret would have been revealed.

"The Wardens found me" he said. "Once. Twice. I ran. Got good at running." He paused. "But that kind of luck doesn’t last."

Raizen looked at Ichiro with an empty look. Sure, he felt compassion, but the memories he had behind it were worse. "...And they caught you."

"...They caught me."Ichiro agreed with a small nod. "Tagged me. Took me down." His eyes moved to the grass at his feet.

"The Underworks" Arashi said quietly.

Ichiro nodded. His shoulder pulsed again – slightly more violent this time, as if responding to the word. "They didn’t keep me long. The Underworks wasn’t built for holding people. Someone else was already looking for strays like me."

"The Moirai" Raizen completed the image.

He said it before he decided whether saying it out loud was right. He didn’t say Takeshi’s name, but he felt it - heavy, present, a cold weight on the back of his neck that had been there from the grave room and hadn’t lifted since.

Ichiro looked at him. For the first time since Raizen ever met him, his eyes weren’t lost. Weren’t staring absently. They were now fully focused on another person.

"Yes" he said. "The Moirai."