“That's right, this lady here is our newest security guard.” Herald had an aggressive glee on his face, but Jim just sighed and closed his eyes. Samuel meanwhile hadn't moved, facing forward, but with a menacing look on his face. I stared down at the muscular man as I stood up, the three thugs looking up at me in surprise.

  “Really now? You got yourself a bit lady and think that's going to scare me off?” Ollie stepped back between his goons and shrugged, he was smiling crookedly but it didn’t reach his eyes.

  “Aud, Pan, show Jim and Herald what happens when they aren't protected by me.” The two of them grinned and began upending the nearest tables to them, the patrons yelling in surprise and most getting up to leave or move to the walls of the restaurant. One man stood up from his table, a stocky, beefy looking guy with a receding hairline and rage on his small featured face.

  “Hey! We're trying to eat here! Fuck off and leave em’ alone!” The newcomer said, stepping towards the tall blond man with balled fists. The tall man didn’t even have a chance to do anything as the short woman pounced. She grabbed hold of one of his fingers and twisted, breaking it and eliciting a yelp from the man. He staggered back as she, quick as a flash, punched him square in the nose, a spurt of blood gushing from his face as he fell on his backside.

  “Stay down, or you'll have more than some fingers and your nose to worry about.” The short woman flashed a knife his way and smiled down at the man. He started crawling backwards away from her.

  “You crazy fucks!” He yelled as he quickly got up off the ground and staggered out the door. I took this opportunity of distraction to walk calmly over to the tall man, he turned and looked at me standing above even his height.

  “Aren't you a tall glass of water? How’s about you quit security and join up with me, eh?” He said, but I wasn't really listening as I wrapped my long arms around his body and squeezed. He laughed at first, struggling against me, and then when he realized he stood no chance at breaking free he panicked. He started flailing in my grip, yelling to let him go and then begging when he started to feel his elbows pop. I dropped him to the ground, disappointment on my face. In my better days I could have squeezed this man so hard his bones would break, I had fallen low. Wherever I was, the people here were not only smaller but weaker than even the weakest of mine. I was malnourished, dehydrated and lacked sleep and yet I just squeezed this man so hard he passed out.

  “Hey! What'd you do to him!?” The small woman said, brandishing her small blade at me. She started towards me and my eyes met her unflinching. She came to a stop and her constant scowl faltered for a moment before she steeled herself and charged me. She slashed out with her weapon, I sidestepped, they were slower than me too. I sent my knee in a trajectory to land in her face, but she saw it coming and managed to move out of the way at the last second. She slashed out at me and managed to graze my thigh, but the blade barely penetrated. I threw out a left hook and she dodged again, though this time she was late. My fist half connected with her side and she hit the floor holding the spot where I felt ribs crack.

  “That's enough of that.” The now calm, serious voice of Ollie came from where he hadn't moved nearby. I turned to see he was holding something, a handle attached to a cylinder at a ninety degree angle. He was pointing a gun towards me, a frown creasing his square face. I remembered guns, though they had little effect against anything higher than a lesser Void beast. There was a way normal weapons could be purified in some way to work against the more powerful beasts, but I didn't understand how it worked. I took a deep breath and didn't move, unlike most of those Void beasts I was flesh and blood, a bullet would be bad for me.

  “You two okay? Get up, come on, we're leaving.” The woman was trying to stand again, though struggling with the pain of cracked ribs, and the man didn't move in any way besides the steady rise and fall of his breathing.

  “Fuck! Just you wait till there aren't any witnesses bitch! I'm gonna find you again!” He slowly backed away and out the front door. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding and looked over at Jim, Herald and Samuel. Jim looked terrified, Herald looked ecstatic, and Samuel looked perplexed and surprised. I walked back over to where I was sitting before and sat once more.

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  “My burger?” I said, and then looked over to see Jim had dropped it on the floor at some point. I looked on in disappointment, I hated waste, especially after living as I had for so long. My mood brightened when I had a thought though. With how many people seemed to be in this city there must be plenty of food. Jim moved to stand behind Herald, he seemed scared for some reason. I realized then that maybe it was bad manners to fight people in someone else's building.

  “Oh, I'm sorry, was I not supposed to do that?” I was worried they would be angry with me, the first people I had met and spoken to in years had treated me so nicely.

  “You did great!” Herald exclaimed and practically jumped over the counter to hug me. I was surprised but happy, I had done the right thing then.

  “No! No, no, not good, Herald! We're screwed now! Ollie and his goons are just the beginning, you know that! He'll tell his boss and his boss will tell his bosses boss and so on up the chain! We're gonna get killed or run out of Westown all for what? Three, maybe four Hundred Currents?” Jim was fuming, and scared, and Herald turned to face him.

  “We've wanted to escape Westown for years Jim, and she might be our ticket! Look what she did to them! The three of us are past our prime, but she's a damn monster! We just get her in some fights and–”

  “No, Herald! We barely know this person, not even her name, and you want to sponsor her in the ring? When are you going to give up on this!” Jim tore his apron off and threw to the ground, storming off to the back. Herald stood for a moment before rushing off to follow him. I looked down at Samuel and saw him clenching his fists on the bar, eyes closed and face looking down. I was worried for a moment that he got hurt or something in the scuffle, but then he raised his head again and looked over at me, a fire in his eyes.

  “Why did you help them?” He asked in a calm voice, his gaze unwavering. I thought about that, why had I helped these basically total strangers, putting myself at risk. I had avoided risks for so long before, why did I stop here and now?

  “Because it felt right.” I said simply, shrugging. The tall goon started groaning and stirring and the small woman crawled her way to a stool and stood up, wincing with pain. She looked at me for a heartbeat and then slowly made her way towards the exit, rage bubbling greater than the scowl she held truly showed.

  “It felt right, huh?” Samuel never stopped looking up at me and he finally smiled. He stood up from the bar stool and stretched his back and neck before walking towards the door to the back and waved me to follow, and I did.

  “Well if you want to make your way in this world you have to have conviction, guts and be good at something. You seem to have all three, same as I did when I was young.” He pushed through the door and walked through the kitchen to another door, which led out to a back alleyway.

  “Do you like fighting?” He asked me as we walked down one end of the alleyway. Jim and Herald were nowhere to be seen. The question was a hard one to answer for me. Fighting is all I have known for a very long time. Surviving is different from fighting, surviving means there is hope, a chance to win, fighting can be done and you can still die.

  “It is something I can do, and as long as I survive then yes, I think I like it.”

  “I knew I had a good feeling about you, kid.” He turned his head to look at me, a smirk on his face.

  “How about we find a bench somewhere, my knees aren't what they once were and I'm tired of walking for today.” He angled off towards the forest we came out of and we walked down a sidewalk next to it in silence for a time. I listened to birds sing, the wind rustling leaves on trees, people far off just living their lives. This place was real, not the afterlife or some trick of the Void, I could feel it. Eventually Samuel found a bench that wasn't being used or unclean and sat down, I sat beside him.

  “I don't want to just pull you right into the deep end, so I am going to explain some things to you and we can go from there, you get some knowledge and can make your choice. That sound fair?” He was speaking casually, but it felt like this was a serious conversation. I nodded and he continued.

  “First I want to ask you some questions. Do you remember anything from before I found you?” I sighed and looked up at the blue sky above us. Nobody here knew of the Void, that felt obvious to me. I couldn’t come up with an explanation as to why I knew nothing of this place, so having no memories before that point would potentially be the easiest way to skirt questions.

  “You really don't know what the Void is? And where on Lathea is this place, Havenreach?” I tried one more time to get something out of the man, and frowned in unrecognition.

  “No, the Void doesn't ring a bell. Is it a gang of some kind? A company or group? And I don't know what Lathea is, but the world is called Terra. Havenreach is a couple hundred miles give or take off the West coast of Lokne. Ring any bells?” Nothing he said made sense to any knowledge I hadn't forgotten about Lathea. There wasn't a place called Lokne, nor had I ever heard of somewhere called Terra.

  “No, nothing. I really don't remember anything.” He let out a hum of contemplation and scratched the scruff on his chin.

  “Well, I guess if you have any questions just ask. I'll try to explain things to you as best I can.” He thought for a few moments, getting his thoughts together. After those moments he then started in on what Havenreach was, and a little about it's neighbors, basic information that usually any kindergartener would know. The more he talked about the deeper it sank in… I was not on Lathea anymore.