“Uhm,” the girl started, noticing my apprehension, “is there something on my face?”

  She’d clearly noticed my reaction. “No.” I cleared my throat, “Sorry, I just didn’t expect you to be so close to my age,” I lied.

  “Really? Do I sound old or something?” the girl asked, with a slight tilt of her head. She noticed Godrick’s body a moment later, “oh wow. What did you do to that guy’s face?” her eyes went wide with a sort of childish envy as she examined me. “You’re really strong, aren’t you?”

  “Uh yeah. I guess,” I said, still panicking internally.

  Belial finally said something that surprisingly helped to calm me down, “What I said earlier still applies. I won’t let her take control of you.”

  “I’m Aine.” I said, thinking names might be a good way to relieve the tension. My tension, that is, she didn’t seem to be feeling any. “And this is Waffle.” I turned the purple wombat in my arms so he was facing her. He gave an unruly chuff, no doubt wanting to go explore. It made the girl giggle.

  “I know.” She said, cheerily, rocking back and forth on her heels for an awkward moment, “oh, how rude of me! I can’t tell you my real name but, you can call me Lucia.”

  Waffle kicked his little legs in a way that said he’d had enough of being held. I sighed, giving Lucia a final once-over before deciding she wasn’t a threat and setting Waffle down. “Don’t go far.” I said, smiling as he waddled towards an appetizing sprout nearby.

  Lucia turned, to watch Waffle decapitate his leafy prey, and I noticed the red indentations on her wrists where the cuffs dug into skin. She fidgeted with them, her laughter replaced by a pained tooth-sucking noise that made me feel guilty for not helping her get them off sooner. “Which one of them has the keys?” I asked, frowning when she turned to lean over the hole Godwin had fallen down.

  “That one,” she said, regretfully.

  “I have an idea,” I said, picking up the spear that Godrick had used to catch me.

  I resisted the urge to ask Belial how to use it, knowing he’d just hit me with a ‘how should I know?’ and felt along the shaft for some kind of trigger instead. Thinking it might work similarly to my hammer, I twisted the shaft. I felt something clink inside the spear, and the end shot into the sky, surprising Lucia and causing her to fall backwards on her spine.

  “Sorry.” I winced as she struggled back to her feet.

  After a little experimenting, I discovered twisting the spear the opposite way made the chain retract, with how far you turned it controlling the speed. Once the spear clanked back together, I aimed the tip at the center of the hole. It was too dark to see where Godwin had landed, but having been down there earlier, I guessed from the way he’d fallen that his body probably hit the bottom end of the slope. If I was right, then his body should’ve rolled to about—I twisted the spear, feeling a jolt as one end shot into the abyss. A dull wump sounded, and I twisted the shaft the other way.

  “I think I got it,” I said, the weight telling me I’d found my mark.

  I could see a silhouette of Godwin’s corpse when suddenly, I jerked forward. My heels skidded against the dirt, pulling me towards the hole until I managed to catch myself. I felt a slight tug behind me and glanced over my shoulder to find Lucia. She was facing the other way, clutching part of my dress with her still-bound hands.

  “Thank you.” Feeling a tiny bit better about my decision to trust her, I turned my attention back to Godwin’s corpse. “I think it caught on something. I’m going to pull again on three—one, two—”

  In unison, we rocked backwards and I heard a faint snapping sound from somewhere inside the hole. Whatever had snagged it gave, sending us stumbling back. I landed on my butt, cringing as I heard Lucia’s face hit the ground behind me with an umph. Worried that I’d lost the body, I tugged on my end of the spear, relieved when I felt some weight was still there.

  “Are you good?” I shot a concerned glance over my shoulder.

  “I’m okay.” she said, not bothering to lift her face from the dirt, “I’m just…going to lay here a moment.”

  Curious about all the commotion, Waffle waddled over to render his own inspection, and Lucia giggled as he snuffled around her head.

  A moment later I felt Godwin’s body catch on the edge of the hole. I pushed myself to my feet, grunting as I dragged the corpse over the lip by the still winding chain. I stood panting over it for a moment, letting the spear jerk from my hands as the chain finished winding, and both ends clicked together. The dagger he’d held when he charged at me was lodged in one of his eyes, explaining how he died.

  Right away, it was obvious what caused the resistance I’d felt when reeling him up. They were no longer glowing, but I could tell what they were. All along his ribs on either side, roots had begun burrowing into him. Kneeling beside the body, I noticed how sunken in his chest had become, like the roots had been feeding on him.

  “Well, that’s one way to shed a few pounds.” Belial joked.

  Lucia, who was still giggling from Waffle’s inspection of her head, turned to look at the corpse from where she laid. There was a sudden seriousness to her voice as she spoke, “It looks like the tower already started to claim him.”

  “Claim him?” I asked, as Lucia grunted.

  Without her hands, she was forced to use her forehead to push herself up. “Here,” I said, clasping one of the hands behind her back and pulling her to her knees.

  “Thanks,” she said, still kneeling as she shuffled closer. “ah--sorry,” she added, as Waffle followed, trying to climb onto her lap.

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  “It’s okay.” I said, flashing a smile, “I think he likes you.”

  “I think he might,” she agreed, watching with amusement as Waffle wobbled across her lap. He circled several times, struggling to keep his balance before finally flopping down, apparently satisfied with the spot he’d managed. “He won’t--sting me right?” She asked, sounding a little apprehensive.

  I thought back to the description of his collar, “He might, if he feels threatened.”

  “I see.” Lucia said, shooting a nervous glance towards the woman Waffle’s collar had stung earlier.

  “You’ll be fine.”

  Brushing the roots aside, as I began rifling through Godwin’s pockets in search of the key, tossing anything I found to the side. So far, I’d pulled two ration bars, and a vial with a strange milky substance inside. “What did you mean by the tower claiming him?”

  “Oh. I thought you knew. The tower tries to consume anything that dies here, the same way angel trumpets do.”

  “Angel trumpets?” I said, tossing aside a small disk-like object from Godwin’s vest.

  “You know, from the farms, where vita comes from,” Lucia answered, causing me to freeze with my hand still inside one of Godwin’s pockets.

  “Is that what they’re called? I thought it came from people.” I muttered, a sour taste in my mouth as I continued to search.

  “Not people,” Lucia laughed, as if I’d said something childish, “livestock. They can’t think like you or I do.”

  “How do you know?” I asked, turning to look at her and letting a little too much emotion into my voice.

  She jerked her head back slightly, brow furrowed as she answered, “because there’s regulations…rules.”

  I grunted at that, opening my mouth to respond when Belial cut in. “Heyyy partner, just wanted to remind you that trillions of people are watching, so you may want to cool it with the activist stuff…”

  “Why,” I snapped at him, “worried I won’t get sponsored?”

  “Nooo,” he drew out, “I’m worried those kinds of questions might make people uncomfortable, to them, their system is working as intended--”

  “Uncomfortable?” I felt my cheeks flush as anger rushed to my face. Of all people, I expected Belial to understand, the fact that he hadn’t somehow stung worse, “why should I care how their system makes them feel?”

  “Because if you make people uncomfortable enough, they might start asking questions about you. But go ahead, I’m sure it can’t hurt for both of your viewers to start digging into why you care so deeply about this subject.”

  Seeing his point, I exhaled before drawing in a deep breath.

  “I, uhm.” Lucia’s brow drew tight as she fumbled her words, “I’m sorry if I said anything that offended you…I…I need to remember that not everyone was raised the same--”

  “You didn’t,” I lied, forcing a smile that seemed to put her at ease. “Sorry, I just like to think critically about things.”

  The muscles in my face relaxed as I saw how genuinely worried she was that she’d upset me. I had to remind myself she didn’t know any better. To her, and probably everyone else, it was silly to care about people like me. About livestock.

  “Oh. Me too actually. Ethics was my favor..ite…” she finished the last syllable weakly before trailing off and looking away.

  I wondered if maybe she’d said something she shouldn’t have, wanting to ask Belial about it when she interrupted my thoughts.

  “That’s it! The key!”

  I followed her eyes to the round object I’d tossed aside earlier, picking it up. “This?”

  She nodded as I turned the cold metal disk over in my hand, noticing a slight depression in the middle filled with rows of metal teeth. It didn’t look anything like a key, or like anything I’d ever seen before, but in fairness, there were a lot of things I’d never seen. Lucia shuffled closer before turning round. The movement annoyed Waffle. He hopped from her lap and ambled towards me instead, chirping in protest when he saw my lap wasn’t available at the moment either. “Not now,” I said, scratching his head as I knelt behind Lucia, trying to figure out what to do with the key. “What am I looking for?”

  “You’ve never used a rotary key?” she sounded surprised, “I guess they are pretty old-fashioned. There should be a groove where it fits on one of the bracelets, stick the key side there.”

  The key side? I wasn’t sure which side that was, but something told me it was probably the side with the weird rows of metal teeth. Feeling around on Lucia’s cuffs, I finally located a dip in the metal that seemed about the same size and set the key against it. After a series of faint winds and clicks the bracelets both swung open. Lucia heaved a sigh of relief, thanking me repeatedly as the cuffs clattered on the ground. I used the same key on the single cuff I wore, then cursed as I saw Waffle near Godwin’s body, gnawing on one of the roots.

  “Waffle!” I hissed, attempting to pull him away from his new-found snack. He refused to let it go, kicking at my hands with his hind legs. “Ow—stop it.”

  Lucia laughed as I finally wrestled Waffle onto my lap. I groaned, seeing he managed to take a twelve-inch-long section of vine with him. His little eyes watched me warily for an attempt to take it away as he continued gnawing. “Waffle, that’s disgusting.” I said, tugging on the other end of the vine and making a gagging sound as I felt the other end of it was wet. Wet for reasons I didn’t want to think about, considering where it came from.

  “It shouldn’t hurt him.” Lucia said, still laughing, “if anything it’ll make him stronger.”

  I frowned, not sure I really wanted Waffle any stronger, he was stubborn enough as a toddler. He held his tentacles in the way of my hand as I reached for him, moving them away when he realized I only meant to scratch his head, and not steal his precious root. I could tell he was still worn out from his underground adventure; his eyelids started to droop as I pet him. I held his pocket open and he eyed it groggily before giving me a distrustful stare. “I’m not going to take your stupid root.” I said, wiggling the opening. In truth, I was planning on it. He was getting way too smart.

  After a moment he turned and backed his way inside, His pocket had stretched a bit from last time he squeezed himself in, and after a little wriggling he managed to fit without issue. Unfortunately, he hadn’t let go of the root. Instead, the length of it dangled outside my pocket, periodically swaying and shaking as he continued to munch on it.

  With Godwin’s pockets already emptied, I set my sights on Godrick’s corpse next. In my stimulant induced frenzy, I’d really done a number on him. I noticed the shoulder pads he wore and wanted them to replace my own since the stim effect was apparently a one-time use. As incredible as it felt, I wasn’t sure I’d want to go through that again. I could already feel my body craving those chemicals, an expectant shiver running up my spine every time I thought about them. Becoming dependent on something like that couldn’t be good.

  The roots had already started working their way into Godrick’s body, prompting us to hurry in stripping any valuables, since Lucia warned the tower would begin to cannibalize anything on his person given enough time. With a look of revulsion on my face, I hovered over his body, struggling with the clasps for his pauldrons. They had a brushed-metal finish, and were a bit larger than mine, but judging by the padding underneath I’d be able to make them fit just fine. I tossed them towards the growing pile of loot, about to move on to the next corpse when I noticed a slight bulge behind the leather vest he wore. There was a hidden pocket, which I found running my hand along the vest’s side. My fingers wrapped around an oval shaped object made from something that almost felt like stone, only on closer inspection, the material was black had a metallic sheen to it.

  “What’s this?” I asked Belial, when he didn’t respond right away, I showed it to Lucia.

  “Oh! That’s right. He had a mule.”

  “A mule?”

  “Yeah, you know, those drones that carry your gear. It’s too bad it’s registered to him, most of their gear is probably stored on it.”

  Disappointed, I almost tossed the rock aside when Belial spoke up, “Hang on, I might be able to do something about that.”

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