Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign

Raizen had permission. A little paper with a little stamp and a nurse who said the words twice like she was trying to convince herself:

"Temporary leave, and no more than three hours. Light walking only. No stairs. No lifting friends. No lifting anything. Breathe like a normal person. If anything starts to hurt, return immediately."

Obi stood beside her with his hand up like he was in school. "I swear on every hammer I own that I will return him in one piece"

"You said that already" the nurse said.

"For the fifth time" another nurse added from the door.

Raizen tried not to smile. "We can just say I go for a walk"

"That is what I said" Obi told the nurses. "A walk. Very slow. Like two grandmothers racing/"

"Just go already…" the nurse said, handing Raizen a soft jacket. "Before I change my mind."

They got out of the Med Wing with their dignity and most of the rules intact. The automatic doors breathed behind them and the city air reached in and put a hand on Raizen's face. Clouds wore orange like someone had lit a fire inside them and told them to keep it a secret.

Obi held the door for him like a gentleman who also looked like a problem. "Don't run" he said.

"I can't" Raizen rolled his eyes.

"Good. I am a man of my word"

"You lied to the nurses"

"I lied beautifully" Obi said. "Comes with the trade. Also the truth is there… Half... I intend to return you alive and mostly intact. The rest is a surprise"

They slid into a quiet street lined with glassy fronts and plants, bullied into perfect shapes. A park sat to their right. Metal arcs, padded ground, a small climbing tower that cost three people a month of salary. A kid's paradise.

A boy held a drone that buzzed like a trapped fly. He wasn't smiling. A girl sat on a bench with a dog so clean it reflected.

Raizen watched and kept walking. "They look… Safe"

"They look very supervised" Obi said. "Which is a kind of sadness"

"You don't like supervision"

"Oh, but I love supervision!" Obi said, cheerful. "It keeps my shop legal for around ten minutes a day"

They cut off the respectable street and took a narrow lane. The Spire reigned in the center, visible from all corners of the city.

Raizen's wrist monitor blinked green every few seconds, telling the world that he wasn't doing anything exciting. His ribs were quiet in a way that felt like a gift wrapped in terms and conditions. He took smaller breaths than his body wanted and let his steps find a rhythm that didn't hurt.

Obi turned left where an alley pretended to end.

But it didn't. A skinny door sat in a brick rectangle like a secret that had chosen a bad disguise. The paint was already peeled off, where someone had written STORAGE on.

"Well this looks legal" smiled. Typical Obi stuff.

Obi put a hand to the handle. It creaked like a theater actor dying in the third act. "Very legal" he said. "Come on. Your nurses said no stairs. They also said a lot of other things. Ignore them!"

Then he added, behind his shoulder: "Like you always do"

"I love your leadership style"

Inside wasn't storage. I mean, there wasn't even a room. Instead… A staircase. Metal steps. A rail rubbed smooth by many hands. The smell hit first - not the usual Underworks damp that got into your clothes and told stories later. This was cleaner. Warmer. Light sat on the steps the way it sat in kitchens.

Raizen looked down. He did not say no. He said what his mouth always said when his brain had already decided. "So, another entrance. Pretty hidden"

"Pretty pretty" Obi agreed.

They started down. Raizen took his time. Obi took less. Halfway, he stopped and checked Raizen's face like he was reading a manual he respected but did not trust.

"I am fine" Raizen said.

"You are lying beautifully" Obi smiled, and offered a hand.

"Comes with the trade" Raizen politely refused it.

"That's my line"

The staircase emptied into a corridor that did not match Raizen's memory. The Underworks he knew had been a place where water made its own plans and pipes dripped all over the place, hissing like constipated dragons. But this? This was different.

The floor was dry. The lamps along the wall were newer, glass clean, filaments shinier. Someone had painted a line down the center where carts should go.

"Feels… Different"

"Well… Alteea yelled at me about the last four cameras I took apart. We made a deal. I stop dismantling them in my spare time. She makes the power do what power should. Now the lamps in the Underworks don't flicker like dying fish. See? Fair trade" Obi confessed. "Come on. You have to see the market"

They walked into streets with their old names but without their old faces. The stalls were fresher, small merchant banners hanging in joyful colors. Someone had scrubbed the walls and found brick that still wanted to be brick.

Near the sidewalks low boxes held soil, with small bushes. Two corners away, someone had planted small trees.

"Greenery? In the underworks? Are you insane?"

"That was me" Obi said, proud in a way he did not try to hide.

"Of course it was you. But what genius idea came to your mind this time?"

"Not my idea, hah. More like… Cinderette's small dream. She wanted green. Now I bully people into watering. "

"Cinderette would like this?"

"She does" Obi said. "Her place is still a plant war. You go in and you come out with oxygen for a week"

Laughter rolled behind them. Real. A group of kids tore past with a cart that was a shelf in a former life. Two rode. Three pushed.

The cart lost a bolt. No one cared. They cheered when it made a brave noise near the corner and kept going.

A boy threw a handful of screws into a bucket and shouted like he had scored a goal. Two girls argued about whose turn it was.

Raizen watched the motion. The light here mixed with cooking smoke and machine oil into something that… Knew where it belonged. He thought of the park above - perfect toys, quiet children… but he didn't say anything. He just let the difference sit in his mind.

They hit the market and the air went busy. Skillets sizzling on top of flames. Spices everywhere. Meat pretended it wasn't expensive. A stall with four pans and one old woman had more customers than two stalls together.

People saw Obi. A man with a door hinge held like a trophy called "Fixed, Obi! Thanks!" Another: "The pipe you straightened isn't leaking anymore!".

A mother, and thanked him again, for taking care of her little one.

Raizen raised a brow. "Is the kid alive? Or did you feed him to the anvil"

Obi slapped his back with too much affection. Raizen coughed and tried to make it sound like a laugh. "I told the doctors I only guarantee one piece" Obi said. "They didn't ask about dents"

"Noted" Raizen said, rubbing his sternum and pretending it had always wanted attention.

They kept walking through stalls. A man selling knives held one up and smiled too wide. Obi smiled back the way you smile at someone else's hobby and kept walking.

A tailor shouted a price at a coat that deserved way more. The whole place was… Alive. A kid tried to sell Raizen some gingerbread he insisted was made by the best chef in the underworks. Raizen bought them anyway, despite not believing the story

They reached the Tangle and stopped. The wires and pipes had acquired more lanterns like jewelry. Golden light strung itself across iron like a romantic sunset. Balconies wore hanging plants that reached down, leaves a beautiful green.

"I could carry you up the stairs" Obi offered, delighted. "Like a princess. Let the Tangle witness"

"I decline" Raizen immediately refused.

"Tragic. I have strong arms"

"I know" Raizen admitted, but still refusing.

A sharp sound broke the scene, somewhere behind the corner. Not loud, but loud enough. A plate hit concrete and broke into a lot of shards.

They looked at each other, moving without saying a word. A small stall stood with two wobbly tables and chairs, and there, in the center of attention, two silhouettes.

Another stack of bowls already broken on the floor. A man had another by his shirt at the neck and was holding him off the ground like he weighed less than a grocery bag. The man's feet bicycled in the air, and his hands tried to free himself, clawing at the wrist, but the grip was too strong.

People had already backed away in a half circle. No one ran, no one panicked. This was the Underworks, after all! A plate breaks, a man is lifted... You make room and see what happens!.

Then, Raizen could see the two faces.

"…Kenzo?"