Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign

For a heartbeat, both forgot how to move.

Saffi's palms sank into the sheet on either side of his chest. Her cut breath hit his cheek. The monitor kept its calm metronome, steady green after a huge spike.

Raizen stared at the ceiling and then at her, close enough to smell her pleasant flower scent. Everything held still.

Then pain woke up. Not a knife - a bright flare that rolled across his ribs like heat off iron.

He winced. It was small, but she felt it.

"Oh no-"

She pushed herself up too fast. The chair clipped her shin, the rolling table nudged left, a pencil skittered to the floor and made a noise bigger than a pencil should.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean - are you - did I hurt you again?"

Raizen tried to say no but it came out as a cough. Two coughs.

"Water - I'll get - "

She grabbed the cup, realized it was empty, ran to the sink, almost tripped on the same chair for the second time in ten seconds, filled, turned, and returned with the speed of a well-meaning disaster.

"Here!"

"Th- thanks."

He took a sip. The water was too cold and perfect. The pain settled back down.

"I'm fine" he said between breaths. "See? Still in one piece."

"You made a face" she said, eyes pinned to his chest like she could scold the ache out of it.

"Faces happen" he said. "It's natural. Except when it comes to Obi. That guy's faces should be illegal."

Saffi covered her face with one hand and made a sound that was part groan, part laugh, part static. "I am never coming back."

"You are already here."

She lowered her hand. The flush in her cheeks had deepened and somehow made her look both younger and sharper.

"I am so sorry…" she said, softer. "I should've been more careful."

He shook his head. "If it helps - it didn't hurt like before. Not really. Just for a split second. Then it calmed down."

He set the cup on the small table. "You don't have to worry about me so much"

She made a face at the floor. "You say that like it's easy."

"It is, what do you mean? Look! I'm alive."

"Barely" she responded, rolling her eyes. "Sorry. I didn't mean - "

"It's true" he said. "But hey! I'm getting better."

She nodded once. Her gaze went to the bandage edge under his collar and then away again, like that, too, was a thing she wasn't supposed to look at.

Silence came back, this time smaller and kinder. He could hear the distant clack of a cart wheel, the little breath the air vents took every minute. The slate on the table sat dark, pretending it didn't hold ghosts.

"I shouldn't have even come" she whispered to herself into that quiet, not quite looking at him.

"Come on, don't say that! It was nice of you."

"I should've stuck to my investigations" she continued, quiet and fast, like saying the words quickly would make them less real.

He tipped his head. "Investigations?"

She opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again. The fight in her face was obvious - the one between the part that guarded secrets and the part that didn't like lying to him.

"The scientist" she said.

"What scientist?"

"The one who survived… A North Range expedition, if I remember correctly."

The words landed heavily. Dozens of words ran through his mind, all at once. Old slate. Classified document. Mission report. Unknown. Fourteen dead in nine minutes and forty-three seconds. No Nyxes. No Eon.

"You're looking for him too?" he said.

Saffi's fingers worried the edge of the pink bag, folding and unfolding the paper until a crease admitted defeat. She nodded. "I am, why?"

"How did you even find out? I thought that the document was classified!"

"Alteea flagged a file that was duplicate. The document was a copy, and the truth is still unknown. And before you ask me "Why?", I was bored"

"We both know that you don't have time to be bored. We're always busy."

"You're busy not dying" she said. "And I wasn't sure if my lead was stupid or dangerous or both."

"What lead? A name?"

"Maybe. Possibly."

"In the walls or outside?"

"Inside" she said. Then, after a beat, almost a whisper: "And closely tied to the Heart."

He stared at her. The room shrank, then widened. Everything at once. The monitor kept its calm time anyway.

"Tell me" his eyes shone a tone brighter.

She looked at the door, at the slate, at him. Then she shook her head once - not no, just not yet.

"I'll show you" she said. "But only when you'll get better."

"Come on! I can't even get a name? Anything?"

"Quiet. I don't want to hear anything. And no more letting the boys carry you anywhere."

He tried to smile and it came out real. "I can manage. Mostly."

"Good" she said, and some of the tremor left her voice. "Because if I'm right, we're not the only ones who've been opening old boxes."

Her hand tightened on the pink bag. He could see the shape of fear and resolve in her at the same time. It looked a lot like responsibility.

"Where did you even find this lead?" he asked.

Saffi drew a breath like a diver about to go under.

"Weird files, around the same period…"

"Wait. You have access to Alteea's entire data library?"

"With her approval, yes. Why?"

"Then we have all we need! Locations, IDs, reports…"

"It's not so easy, I already tried to put together every scrap of information I could find. The data isn't helping us. I keep finding corrupt files, false documents, fake stamps… Whoever that person was… He made sure to cover his tracks, and delete any report. I remind you, he was from the inside. And he's still alive."

"So he's smart, too. Then, what do we do?"

"You stay here and recover as fast as you can. I think…"

She paused for a second, looked back at the door, then turned to Raizen again.

"I think I know where I can find him."