Four men had cornered Yun in a dark and grim alleyway. It was just his luck that they caught him on his way out of Hollows for good.
The leader of the group, Chet, was rubbing his knuckles and brushing the dust off the one good coat he owned.
Yun was constantly amazed at how he managed to wear that loud thing every day. It was blinding, honestly. Did it have to be five different colors? What kind of material was used to make it so shiny? Also, why would—
Okay, that's enough. What am I doing?
Anyway, he and his goons had cornered Yun while he was on his way to the Transit Station. And here he was, thinking he was about to leave the Hollows for good and visit the Stone District for the first time.
Although he wasn't going to that place for a simple tourist visit.
What a waste.
He stole a glance at the mouth of the alleyway, where two watchmen were keeping watch while casually smoking cigarettes.
Shit, they really locked me in.
Steadying his quivering voice, Yun addressed the men in front of him.
"All this just to corner a child half your size?"
He flashed bloodstained teeth.
"Where's the shame?"
Yun mockingly held his chin, pretending to be lost in thought.
"It's almost like I'm the sole reason you're on the outs with Gambino or something."
A wry grin crept onto his face. "Oh, wait."
Chet's sharp features contorted.
"You think this is some kind of joke? Well, it's not funny!"
He crouched and stared daggers at Yun. "You see my face? Is this a smile? Huh?!" He rose, turned on his heel, and began pacing about.
"Ah, crap, crap, crap. I'm in so much hot shit. I thought you and I were cool, you know? What the hell!"
Chet's hand movements were growing erratic. One moment, he was poking himself on the forehead; the next he was hugging his own shoulders or rubbing sweat off his palms with his knees.
"I stepped up for you when your sister left, you know? Introduced you to the boss and showed you the ropes. And how do you repay me? By ratting!"
Chet turned to the goons, snatching a bat from one of them; a stout man in his late twenties wearing a formally white tank top. He then pointed the bat towards the shortest among the goons.
"Kenny, can you believe this kid?"
His goons in the back shared concerned glances. The stout goon whispered something to Kenny, and Kenny responded with a shrug.
"Look, man, I don't know nothin' 'bout none of this. You promised us beer to rough up some Tainted kid, whatever that means. Also, can you give my bro his bat back—"
Chet threw his arms in the air, missing Kenny's chin by a hair's breadth. "Argh, whatever."
He turned back to face Yun, ignoring the shortest goon's protest.
"Thanks to you, the boss is after me now. And you know Gambino; he won't stop till he sees a body. And since this is all your fault, I'll be bringing him yours if you don't mind."
Yun sighed.
I really don't wanna deal with him right now.
After hearing that voice for the first time, he knew he had awakened Severin's Curse. For a while, Yun even hoped that those who are Tainted were spared from it. He'd never heard of any Divine who was Tainted, hell, he'd never even met another Tainted Descendant.
That's why either Mother or Sister had to know that he wasn't long for this world. It didn't matter who. The only joy Yun had left to hold on to was the regret that would eternally plague those two when he was gone.
And for that, he was going to the one place where he knew he'd find them: the Morrigan Clan compound. He didn't have time for this bullshit.
"It's not my fault you were siphoning the boss's product and bargaining it off to another buyer," said Yun. He clicked his tongue while shaking his head. "To his greatest rival, no less. Makes sense, Cecilia will buy any product from anyone as long as they're selling."
Chet tried to laugh. What came out was a harsh, ugly sound. "You ran for Cecilia too, you little shit. Like you said, she'll buy from anyone." As he spoke, he tapped Yun's forehead with the tip of his bat. Yun felt compelled to slap his wrist away, but he'd rather Chet not smash his jaw loose.
"Do you think Gambino will take kindly to the news that you assaulted his best runner?" asked Yun.
"I don't think you understand how serious your situation is. A lot of big fish had a piece in that operation. Even my friends down there…"
Chet gestured with his chin towards those watchmen.
Shit.
After Keeva left, Yun had to provide for himself. Chet opened up a path for him in that regard, and for that he was grateful. Chet even cut him in the business he had with Cecilia so he could make some extra marcs.
Gambino was the biggest player in the underground market, and as a result, he had the most enemies.
There was much money to be made in engaging with his rivals, which apparently included the watchmen force that was stationed in the Hollows.
Regrettably, Yun should have covered his tracks better; he ended up being caught and brought to the boss himself. And like Chet said, he needed a body.
Yun didn't need to be coerced much to cough up Chet's name. In exchange, Gambino gave him a simple task: deliver Chet personally.
The flamboyant thug didn't even know that Yun was already supposed to deliver him to Gambino.
The Curse was just the perfect excuse to leave this mess behind and never come back.
"All I did was pick up a shipment of product and deliver it to an interested buyer, as a runner should. How was I supposed to know your operation was done behind the boss's back?"
"You must think you're some kind of genius, huh?" Chet spat. "Let Gambino hear this. Who's he gonna believe? His enforcers? Or some mutt whose own family left him to rot?"
That felt less like an insult and more like a fact that held true his whole life, so it didn't even land.
What did land however, with sublime pain, were Chet's blows to the stomach that punctuated each of his rhetorical questions.
Yun spat blood, his ribs screaming. He looked past Chet's shoulder at the watchmen once again.
"Those watchmen are part of it, right? What's their cut in all this? A few thousand marcs? A percentage of the profits?"
Chet didn't answer, but his goons raised their bats, ready to pummel their target. Yun raised his hand and started talking faster.
"My point is, it can't be enough to get them to cosign a murder. To rough me up a bit? Sure. But a murder, even for slum rats like us, calls for an investigation and multiple reports."
Chet's eyes widened a fraction. The bats in his men's hands dipped slightly, forgotten for a second. The goons shared concerned looks amongst themselves; it seemed like Chet didn't tell them any specifics.
This was a sign to push further. He slowly stood up, ignoring the ache lancing through his chest.
"What about me? Outside my family, only you know what I really am down here. Tainted or not, I'm still a Descendant. I belong to a High Clan, no less."
Yun's eyes flickered to the watchmen again.
"What will those friends of yours do when the pressure mounts and questions are asked? They'll simply turn you in — they're witnesses, after all. They'll be heroes."
Despite his best efforts to hide it, Chet's eyes betrayed his hesitation.
He asked, "Who's to say the investigation won't grow cold, or they simply give up and forget about it? To them, you people aren't even considered human."
That was definitely a likely possibility, but seeing as Chet was reasoning instead of swinging, Yun had him where he wanted.
"Either way it goes, they're benefiting. You're the only one actually risking something. Does that really sit well with you?"
The silence stretched. The only sound was the drip of water and the distant hum of activity in the streets. From the corner of Yun's eye, the two watchmen shifted their weight around; they were growing impatient.
Chet's eyes drilled into Yun, his pupils bouncing around as if he was weighing multiple outcomes.
The immediate satisfaction of ending Yun against the long, messy complications it would create.
"Look, can't we just call it even? You lost out on a score. I got a beating. You go your way, I go mine. I'll even talk to Gambino for you—I'm the boss's favourite, after all."
"Ugh!"
Finally, Chet jerked his head. "Y-you better fix this, 'cause it's my head or yours. Don't make me choose mine."
It's a good thing you'll never see me again. It won't be much of a choice now, would it?
Chet grunted, frantically digging into his hair with his fingers. "Shit! Get out of my sight."
Yun didn't need to be told twice. He stumbled, not turning his back until he was past them, stepping out of the alley and onto the main square.
The two watchmen blocked his way, then looked at him. Chet's voice echoed from behind.
"Let him through, I confused him for another dirty little rat."
The watchmen shifted, losing interest immediately. Yun passed through.
He had somehow managed to walk away. Even though every step was a fresh jolt of pain, he was still walking away.
***
Yun went straight for the Transit Station. Thanks to Chet, he'd have to arrive at a Descendant clan's fancy compound looking all bloody and ragged.
Eh, being presentable wouldn't change their opinion of me, anyway.
Yun limped his way through the Hollow streets and soon arrived at the Ascending Shanties, a makeshift sprawl of shacks 'built' on the incline leading towards the Hollows border.
And the border… well, seeing as the Hollows were in a pit formed during the making of the Stone District — creating a vast, depressed bowl — the border naturally became the sheer drop separating the pit from the surface.
Because of that, every time Yun had errands to run in the Market District, he had to become a professional hiker, except without the physique or the lung capacity. Just one more way the Stone District's existence continued to inconvenience him.
As he limped up the shanties, the sight of dusty children prancing about the gullies filled Yun with nostalgia. He'd been one of these ignorant gremlins once, even cutting himself on the loose palisades of metal more than once.
Although his home was not part of this ramshackle array. It was deeper and much further across the floor of the Hollows pit, located next to the waste management facility Keeva worked at before becoming a Divine.
The smell… oh, the smell was too gloriously pungent for Yun to ever forget. "Don't worry, we'll get used to it, maybe," had become their household's main motif.
Beams of light indicated that the Market District was just up ahead. Thank Severin, he was almost out of the Ascending Shanties.
A breathless Yun took heavy steps towards the air-lift that would take him up the steep slope and onto the border, but since when has life been that simple?
As soon as he joined the crowd on the waiting platform, he heard the words every Descendant dreaded in their adolescence. The same words that damned him to this quest to his estranged home.
[Descendant! You have been granted a Celestial Fragment.]
[Consume the Celestial Fragment and enter the First Vision.]
And then there was darkness.
- End of Day 1 -