One of the perks of being trapped in the Hanging Gardens with two powerful Veilcreatures at your beck and call, was that you didn’t want for food. The sizzle of meat made her mouth water, and Evantra was suddenly aware of just how hungry she was. The only thing she had eaten the previous day had been some dry rations in her backpack.

  She watched as Monsieur Gaston tore into his meal, the nightcrawler fixing her with a gaze. For some reason she couldn’t comprehend, it seemed like she had personally offended the creature. She smirked as she watched Mademoiselle Gigi creep up on an ignorant Gustave, stealing his slab of meat from his makeshift plate. The man began to curse as the nightcrawler danced away, her tail wagging.

  Evantra rose from her spot, carrying over her leaf plate to Gustave and handing it to him.

  “Merci,” he grunted, attempting to conceal how flustered he had been from Gigi’s ambush. He carefully twirled the ends of his moustache as he adjusted himself with a groan.

  “Thanks, by the way. You got shot trying to free me from that Ghostslayer, I owe you one. You feeling any better?”

  The man waved her words away as he dug into his meal.

  “This is nothing. You should have seen the stuff I had to put up with at the troupe,” he continued with a laugh. “Louis, our jester. Getting into all sorts of trouble. He would jump up from behind the rafters, scaring the ladies, and it would be up to me to fend off their pissed-off husbands,” Gustave grumbled, coifed black moustache twitching.

  “Sounds like a menace.”

  “Oui. And so were her and her brother,”

  Gustave said, turning towards Cecile. She was seated away from the rest of the group, close to one of the edges of the tower, staring out over the landscape. Any attempts to approach her had been ignored, and Gustave had advised them to give her space.

  “When we had customers that harassed us… her brother would pull the most devious pranks. He’d wear a headband around his forehead, only to yank it off and scare the shit out of them. Then Cecile would come along, acting all scared like a damsel in distress and scare the shit out of them as well,” Gustave chuckled.

  “Then there was the gaslight strategy.”

  “The gaslight strategy?” Evantra asked with curiosity.

  “Amitabha… contemporary wisdom teaches that the best source of enlightenment is a gaslight. Mind if we join?”

  Unbeknownst to both of them, Noelle and Benjamin had crept up on them, listening in with curiosity. Casting a cursory glance around the camp, Evantra picked out who she was searching for. Henri was curled up against a tent, eating his meal while glancing towards his mother’s tent. Amelie seemed to be making preparations for another expedition into the Gardens.

  To her knowledge… the mother and son still hadn’t spoken.

  When Evantra caught the young man’s eyes, she smiled and waved him over to them.

  “Ah… the gaslight strategy. When local assholes came around to bug our troupe, we’d offer them a free, premium experience. And of course, they would accept,” Gustave said, his eyes gleaming. “First, Cecile would work her charms on them. She’d invite them to a little ‘party’, which the rest of us would attend, of course. And then the fun would begin.”

  “Ooooh,” Noelle and Benjamin echoed as they leaned in.

  “First… Cecile would remove her headband to reveal her eye before placing it back. That would usually get them confused. They’d usually yell or scream, or something of that sort, which is when Renoir, her brother would show up with concern,” Gustave said with a grin.

  “Excellent, Amitabha. You would have had them questioning their reality in no time,” the monk nodded with a genuine smile of admiration. Concerningly, Evantra was beginning to suspect that he was taking mental notes to utilise a similar strategy as and when he saw fit.

  “But we didn’t stop there. We’d act like they were just seeing things. They would usually run away at that point… straight into Henri over there. All it takes is one glance at this mountain over here for them to piss their pants, isn’t that right,” Gustave punched the young man in the arm, causing him to blush and stutter.

  “I-I didn’t mean to scare them.”

  “Then, they would run through the hall of floating mirrors… courtesy of yours truly. That’s when they would run into Louis in costume. The rat bastard gets on all fours and chases them. I still have nightmares about the first time he did it to me,” Gustave laughed raucously. Evantra could see tears glinting at the corners of Gustave’s eyes as he regaled them in his tale.

  “And what about Amelie? She didn’t join in?” Noelle inquired.

  Gustave’s chuckles faded before he gave Henri a sad smile. The young man’s face fell and he mustered a strained smile to reassure Noelle.

  “I’m sorry. D-did I say something wrong?”

  “No, no,” Gustave waved her off with a sigh. “Of the bunch of us… Amelie—”

  “Look at the bunch of you all lazing around. Enjoying your holiday?”

  Amelie strode out of her tent, her hands on an assault rifle which she cocked, sparing them another one of her signature wild grins. Evantra had to admit that the sight of the cybernetic woman with large rifle instilled a sense of fear and awe in her.

  There was something that she admired in the honesty of her implants. Metallic black limbs exposed, housing grey subdermals beneath. Her lower jaw black and burnished, the outer coating having been rubbed away.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Maig, come with me.”

  “Maig?” Noelle raised an eyebrow as Evantra let out a sigh and strode forwards.

  “Don’t ask.”

  “We’re going to scope out the base. We’ll be back soon. Gigi here will take care of you,” Amelie said, turning to the nightcrawler who was rubbing up against Gustave to his distaste.

  “I’m coming as well—”

  “No, you are not,” Amelie waved away as Gustave made to stand. “Eat. Sleep and shit. If he does anything else, mon cheri, hold him down.”

  Evantra watched as mother and son exchanged a brief smile and glance, before Amelie turned away, gesturing for her to follow. Before she did, Evantra strode up to Benjamin, leaning to whisper in his ear.

  “Keep an eye on her.”

  The monk returned a serene smile and a small bow, his eyes darting towards Cecile in the distance.

  With that, Evantra departed.

  ***

  Amelie POV

  Amelie watched as Evantra stared into the blank air in front of her, eyebrows creased into a frown.

  “Everything alright, Maig?”

  Evantra wrenched her eyes away from what she had been staring at, returning a curt nod. The girl looked to be as old as Henri was, in her early twenties. She was pretty, pale with long black hair and eyes that were all too familiar to her.

  To an everyday observer, she looked like someone who had just entered into adulthood, with their whole life ahead of them. But she knew better. The look of someone who had aged past their years. Who had been forced to grow up quickly when she should have been enjoying her youth.

  Evantra reminded her too much of her younger self.

  Then, there were her eyes.

  Eyes of the wraithmarked.

  Mist curled languidly in her irises. Many found them to be an omen of bad luck. Others glorified their appearance. Amelie definitely thought she could see the appeal to either preference. They had an ethereal quality to them that drew you in.

  But when Amelie looked into Evantra’s eyes… she was reminded of his.

  Doctor Antoinne Venn.

  Not only for the superficial similarities – Antoinne was wraithmarked as well. No, they possessed the same calculative, single-minded determination. Evantra’s instructions to the handsome monk hadn’t escaped Amelie’s attention, despite the girl’s efforts to conceal them.

  Neither had it escaped her attention how she had smoothly endeared herself to the rest of the troupe, Cecile excepted. She would like to have believed that it had been out of a genuine desire for connection… and perhaps it had been, to an extent.

  But there was also a measure of strategy in her actions.

  After all, one did not survive in the middle of the Hanging Gardens without allies.

  Amelie leapt over a small gap in the ground, navigating the surface with ease. Her cybernetics surmounting the challenges posed by the unforgiving terrain. When she turned back to glimpse at Evantra, she realised the girl was watching her.

  A young woman to be admired and feared.

  “You’re a woman after my own heart, Maig,” Amelie called out.

  Amelie burst into laughter as the girl’s serious expression twisted into one of confusion and incredulity. Her reaction had a sincerity to it that reminded her of her son. Someone so weathered and experienced in certain respects, but so innocent in others.

  Perhaps, there was still time for her to rediscover the youth she had lost.

  ***

  Monsieur Gaston as he lapped at the pond at their feet. For some reason, the veilcreature was tense, as if poised to burst into action as he lapped at the water, eyes fixed on the pond.

  They had paused near one of the other white towers dotting the landscape and were under the shade of a large tree, its canopy covering the pond.

  “Now would be a good time to tell me about your abilities,” Amelie said as they paused in their advance.

  “It would also be a great time for you to kill me, now that I’m separated from my friends,” Evantra replied, eyeing the older woman.

  Amelie let out a raspy laugh, grinning wildly.

  “I knew I liked you.”

  Evantra replied with a smile of her own.

  “It would be easier if I showed you.”

  [Razor claws]

  Black claws burst outwards from her fingertips, and she watched Amelie nodded approvingly.

  [Object mimicry]

  Then she watched as Amelie’s jaw dropped open when she turned into a cardboard box.

  “Maig…”

  Evantra released her skill, looking expectantly at the older woman.

  “You make a great cardboard box,” she said with a grin.

  Evantra had considered withholding her abilities from the other woman to have something reserved in the event of a betrayal. But she knew very well that if Amelie had wanted to kill or betray them after learning about Noelle’s identity, they would have been long dead. The only reason she had survived as long as she had were due to the nightcrawlers. Gigi and Gaston’s ability to sense out and drive away other creatures from their territory was likely what had kept her alive for this long.

  Evantra briefly broke down her other skills and rituals as the woman listened carefully, nodding along. She explained how she obtained skills by consuming artefacts, describing the appearance of the previous artefacts she had chanced upon.

  The single thing that she did omit… was the blade of Galahad’s true nature.

  If there was an item capable of getting people to turn, it was a sword capable of killing ghosts. It was why she had been so nervous disclosing its identity to Uriel and Jack, but there was no other way of explaining just how she had managed to drive off the poltergeist.

  In a mythical realm infested with Veilcreatures and ghosts?

  Evantra recalled the look on Carmen’s face when she had returned from the Veilsurge leading to the abandoned laboratory. The look on her own mother’s face as she held back the wraith. Despite their apparent distance… she knew that Amelie would do everything in her power to protect her son.

  “So… why are we out here? Are you planning on raiding one of Demeteria’s outposts?”

  “These artefacts… the flower of a ghost. A beating heart, a shifting cube. They come in different shapes and sizes, no?”

  Evantra nodded, frowning while trying to discern the purpose of the woman’s question.

  “I may have come across one such artefact.”

  Her eyes widened as she froze.

  “A marble. Small silver thing that I’ve seen racing around at the foot of Yggdrasil.”

  “Yggdrasil?” Evantra said with a frown.

  “Remember the giant tree in the distance we saw from the clifftop? That’s my name for it. Cute, no?”

  She was referring to the tree in the distance, large enough that it eclipsed megabuildings and skyscrapers. What had been covered by writhing plants of a similar nature to the enormous veilcreature that covered the side of Demeteria’s base.

  Evantra eyed the older woman.

  That seems surprisingly… intellectual of her.

  I didn’t expect her to be such a nerd.

  “I never got a chance to explore it… too many deadly plants hanging around,” Amelie said with a wild grin and a wink. “Had to rip Gigi away from the marble. She would have spent all day and night chasing it otherwise.”

  “Could the marble have been a Veilcreature?”

  “Hmm… perhaps,” Amelie said. “But unlikely. It moves constantly, and it doesn’t stop. I observed it for a while,” Amelie said tapping her temple, while her optics gleamed. “I mean no offence… well, maybe a little bit,” Amelie said with a teasing smile. “Your skills are contextually useful, but you have nothing that gives you raw power,” Amelie continued.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice,” Evantra said with a groan, Amelie laughing as she heard the frustration in her voice.

  “But… don’t forget where we find ourselves,” Amelie said with a deadly smile. “If there was ever a place to find the creatures needed to unlock your skills…”

  “A mythic realm would be the place to be,” Evantra completed with a nod.

  “Have you seen any of those… ‘quests’, by any chance?”

  “Yes,” Evantra nodded.

  “As it happens… I have.”

  MISTHEART QUEST: OFFERING DETECTED

  Difficulty: Level 14 [Imp]

  Description: Slay the abyssal pitcher

  MISTHEART QUEST: OFFERING DETECTED

  Difficulty: Level 17 [Darugr]

  Description: Slay the depth eel

  At long last, an opportunity had been presented to her.

  She was going to make the best of it.

  The Hanging Gardens awaited.