“Can you map out the places the pieces are located at?” Klein let go of the dust in his hands. The dust scattered and turned against the hundreds of micro-currents in the air finally settled in a neatly spaced line. The goose continued to glow throughout the conversation.

  “Yes. Bring map.”

  “Map of the city? Forests outside? Something more than that?”

  “Eramele.”

  Woah. A nation wide map. Surely one of my neighbours would have it, right?

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  Klein thought about it for a second. The hesitation stemming from the awkwardness of his request. To go around knocking doors to look for a geographic map of the nation sounded very very odd to him. Klein wondered at that moment why he even cared about the other’s view of him?

  He stood up with that motivation, and made a round to everyone who still hadn’t left for their home. It was harder than he thought, the pursuit often led him to chat with the person on the other side and describe why he wanted a map all of a sudden.

  Finally, someone who didn’t ask any questions about his request came to rescue. He was a short and thin boy, with strawberry blonde hair, and black bags under his eye. Steven Kays, Klein remembered his name.

  “Here ya go,” He brought scrolls of maps. Not just one, but three national maps. Why the boy felt the need to have so many, and why he was so willing to give him so many, was lost on Klein.

  “In case ya need more,” Was all he said as he handed him. He sounded almost sad to part with them, and it only fed Klein's curiosity.

  Is he okay?

  He didn’t ask the question, obviously. It would’ve been too rude. But perhaps the question had shown on his face, because the boy explained anyway. After giving him a smirk, of course.

  “My skill allows me to trace lines over things,” He lifted his sleeve as he said it, and Klein saw flickering tattoos on his arm. The tattoos are flickering.

  The tattoos constantly seemed like they came alive and then disappeared the next second. Klein looked at Steven with a newfound respect for the skill to be capable of doing that.

  “Those maps were created by me. It helps me practice my skill,” He explained.

  Ah. Makes sense.

  “Thanks a lot for your help,” He said, and mixed a small bow just in case to appear more sincere. The boy simply waved his thanks, and went back to whatever he was doing inside.

  “Got em’,” Klein said as he walked back into his room. The bird honked at him, perhaps to congratulate or show its moral support at completing such a difficult task. Klein didn’t know if he felt anger or pride at that moment.

  He unfolded one of the maps on his desk, having already placed most of the stuff down on the floor. The map unfurled to cover most of the desk, and Klein was once again impressed by the boy and his dedication to mastering the skill.

  In front of him, he saw one of the most well done and intricately crafted maps ever. The boundaries, and the sharpness of it burned in his retina, and he almost wondered if he had somehow brought one of the printed ones.

  Surely he must be a genius.

  The map had the boundary of the nation, the contours and the terrain features all over it, as well as the location of various cities and states clearly defined on it. He even found Arnaya on it, and then roughly gauged the distance of it to the forest around it. It seemed alright.

  “Well, this is the best map we are probably gonna get. So, what do you think? Think you can point me to a few places?” Klein asked as he looked at the goose.

  The bird honked in return. It glowed, and then the drifting dust landed on exactly 3 places across the nation. Three was less than he expected to find. Given how the bird had sounded, he would’ve expected there to be more pieces than just these.

  “Are you sure there are only these three? Do you need more dust, perhaps?” Klein tried to ask, and in return got an annoyed honk. He sighed, and looked at the places marked on the map.

  He was delighted to find that one of them was pretty close to Arnaya. He wouldn’t have to travel far for it, but he also didn’t like the general area of it. He had a bad feeling about it.

  The next closest was across the forest, and it looked like he’d have to cross through the forest, unless he wished to take the long road and spend weeks getting there.

  Then the last one was up north, way beyond his reach. He’d need much time, and resources to get there, not to mention he didn’t know how he was supposed to simply go off on a wild-goose chase, leaving his academy classes, with no guarantee of the whole thing. Unless he suddenly learned teleportation, this thing wasn’t gonna work.

  This is giving me more headache than anything. But I’d have to do it, if I don’t wanna be skewered by the blades of people after me.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  He looked at the duck again. He still doubted if he should trust it. What if it was simply leading him to a trap? What if it wished him dead for killing its master? There were many what ifs, and he didn’t understand why he chose to trust the goose. There was just a certainty in his mind, like all the information he had received and everything about it seemed to solidify in his mind in a cold hard assurance.

  He didn’t know if he could even trust his instincts in front of someone who could manipulate luck, but what else could he do?

  Let’s go with my gut then.

  “I think we should focus on the nearest one for now. Do you know exactly where the piece in Arnaya is?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s good. We should go and have a look around, just to make some sense of what we are exactly dealing with. We’ll start to prepare after that, okay?”

  The dust didn’t spell anything, but the goose honked and then laughed in its irritating way. He gave it an annoying glare, dusted his hands, and then left his room. The duck strutted behind him, and then flew to sit on his shoulder.

  If Klein was being honest, then he almost flinched when the bird did that. He had almost forgotten that these things could actually fly. They were surely working together, but such proximity to his head gnawed at his mind.

  The bird once again showed exceptional understanding, jumped off, and walked ahead of him.

  This is going to be a little hard.

  #

  Klein picked up his anchor as they made their way through the city. It was a message from Alain, he realised as the message played in his mind. Apparently he had finished the last of the blankets, had contacted the buyer and told them about him, and in the end there was a simple see you later.

  Klein sent back a simple thank you, and turned off the anchor for any connections. Considering where he had found himself in the search for power and safety, he couldn’t afford anymore distractions.

  He was in the slums of Arnaya, often referred to as the Charting Borough–named after the Charting river which flowed at the edge of it. He had always remembered it dirty and death-ridden. Bodies of the unconscious, maybe even the dead, lay on the streets, until one of the guards would come to knock them away and figure out if they belonged to the living or the dead.

  There were strict laws against people occupying public places for sleeping, and it showed in the dead and glossy eyes of the ones who traversed these roads.

  Klein had always remembered it as poor and dead. He just never remembered it so… dangerous. There was a tingling sensation on the back of his neck as walked. His eyes passed through the people he walked. Through the hawkers who looked at him a second longer as he passed by them, through the subtle shifting glances the shopkeepers passed him, the following eyes from the buildings around him, and even his own reflection on the glass of a dainty coffee shop.

  He held the goose in his hands as he walked–it was almost therapeutic–and stayed vigilant. The problem was… it was getting harder and harder to stay vigilant when so much happened at once. There was information pouring in his brain from every direction at a pace he couldn’t handle. Too much shifted, too much phased, and it felt like the whole world crumbled and devolved into a single singularity until all that was left was darkness.

  The unexpected chime which cut through it all brought him back to the world. He was in the coffee shop, he realised, and the chimes rang above him. The goose honked in his arms, its eyes contemplative.

  Klein sighed. He ordered a black coffee, paid 2 bronze, and took a seat by the window.

  It had been 6 years since he left the borough. Six years ago, he had gotten a job at the local library and was finally able to leave this life behind. Life hadn’t been easy in the other parts of the city, but it had always been better than here.

  What happened?

  He looked out of the window, and it felt just… natural. Like it had always been. There was no scrutiny, no hints of what he had noticed earlier.

  Was I hallucinating? What even was that?

  He had felt this great influx, this charge in the air that he himself couldn’t define. He wished he could, but there was no way for him to. Something had happened to him, and he couldn’t describe it.

  It’s just like during the fight. With all the dots and lines.

  He sat there gazing at the passing living dead of the borough. Two streets away would be the factories, he remembered. The air would be even worse there. He always hated it.

  Finally his coffee came, along with a familiar face he wasn’t ready to meet.

  “Klein? Klein fucking Skyla?” A girl asked, and Klein looked up.

  She had brown hair, tied in a neat bun on her head. Red cheap lipstick on her lips, freckles along her hollow cheeks and drooping eyes. She was thin, he realised, and wore an oversized uniform of the coffee shop. It was blue with white stripes, and in the middle it said, “Stay Happy!”

  “Freya?” He asked hesitantly.

  “Look at you, mage boy. You’ve gone and all grown up. Earned some mage money too. Spent it on a pet too, I can see. What brings you back here to us poor folks?” She said, her voice deadpan. Klein noticed some white hair mixed in her brown. The goose in his hands honked at the pet part.

  “Work…. How have you been, Freya? I see that you’ve gotten a job at the cafe,”

  “Some cafe this is. Just a piss-poss of a store. I’m sure you’ve seen better shit than this one here,” The coffee splashed out a little on the table as she put the cup down.

  “I don’t think I can get a replacement on that one?”

  “Try me motherfucker.” Klein didn’t try her in fact. Despite being stronger than her, he knew better than to use his powers on civilians, or on a friend for that matter. He drank it a bit, and it tasted just as he remembered. Bland, too bitter, and too rough on your throat. Just what everyone who lived here needed to stay a few more hours awake.

  “I guess Benson still pours his bronze alcohol in the coffee?” Klein asked.

  “Of course,” She replied. She was about to walk away, when Klein stopped her.

  “What? Don’t tell me some piss-sob story that you’ve come to take your old roommate out of her dirty ass,” She glared at him, and Klein raised his hands in surrender.

  “It’s nothing like that. I need your help. I want to know what all has happened in the borough since I left. I can pay you if you want!” She looked at him as if he had grown extra heads. Like he had demanded something too ostentatious out of her.

  “Why in the name of the grey fucks, would you wanna know that?”

  “I need something. It could be dangerous. I want to know, I have to know. Please,” He looked at her with the most genuine appeal as he could muster. She looked in his eyes, as if looking for something. Some form of joke, like he would start to cackle at her, but he didn’t give her anything. In the end, she looked at the goose, and sighed.

  “Fine. You’ve got me. But you better pay me for all the tip I’m gonna miss because of you,”

  “But you don’t get tips here…”

  “The deal is off.”

  “I’m sorry sorry! I jest!”

  “Use a normal fucking language!”

  #