Balton came out of the meeting room pulling up his trouser zipper. He stopped briefly in front of the door, adjusted his belt with a casual movement, then stepped into the mayor's office like someone who had just come out of a dining room.
The man was tall and large. His shoulders nearly touched both sides of the door frame as he passed through it, his arms as thick as an adult's thigh, and his long black hair was left loose and untidy down his back.
His way of walking was strange, his body swaying left and right with each step, like someone who had just finished drinking but was not drunk, simply carrying that large body in a way he found comfortable.
"Sorry about that, Mr. Mayor." Balton raised one hand toward the floor near the meeting room door without looking there. "I dirtied your floor. Have someone clean it later."
Harven Dross sat behind his desk with both hands folded on top of it. Every muscle in his jaw appeared to be working hard, but his voice came out in a nearly flat tone. "It is fine, Balton, leave it."
Balton stopped in the middle of the room and stretched his back, his bones cracking loudly. His smile had not changed since he entered. "You know, I feel like the luckiest man in the world today." He rolled his neck to the right and to the left. "Getting the first chance to explore Lucy's body. I did not want the wicked men out there to take it from her first, you understand, don't you, Mr. Mayor."
Harven did not answer. His eyes stared at the blank paper on the desk.
"Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Mayor." Balton patted the man's shoulder once, then walked out of the room with the same swaying gait.
The moment the sound of Balton's footsteps disappeared at the end of the corridor, Harven stood from his chair. His steps were quick, almost like running, toward the meeting room door that was still open. He entered and closed it from inside.
In the corridor, no sound of any kind came out from that room. But Mara's shoulders, as she stood near the stairs, dropped slightly when she realized it, because a silence that was too loud was sometimes heavier to hear than any sound.
Balton had already descended to the second floor when he took out his phone. His fingers moved to find the number for his unit's main office, and he pressed it while continuing to walk.
"Hey, what is it, you were looking for me," he said as soon as the call connected.
The voice on the other end spoke for a few seconds. Balton listened while descending the stairs to the first floor, his expression unchanged until a certain word came from the other end.
"Jason?" Balton stopped at the foot of the stairs. "Defeated?"
The voice continued its explanation. Balton leaned against the wall with one shoulder, one hand going into his trouser pocket.
"An unknown man and an elf, is that right?" Balton's lips moved slightly, "I wonder what it feels like to sway an elf's body," he thought to himself.
He muttered quietly, almost as if talking to himself. "Elf ...."
His hand tapped the side of his thigh twice. "Kill the man. Bring the elf to me alive. Understood?"
The voice on the other end answered briefly.
Balton almost ended the call, but the voice on the other end spoke again. This time longer.
Balton did not move.
The hand that had nearly lowered the phone from his ear stopped midway. The smile on his face disappeared slowly, not from anger, but from something heavier. His eyes that had been relaxed narrowed toward the wall in front of him, focused on something that was not there.
His jaw tightened.
"Repeat that," he said, his voice dropping lower.
The voice on the other end repeated it.
Balton did not answer immediately. He stood still at the foot of the stairs on the first floor of the Blackridge mayor's building, with his phone to his ear and his gaze far ahead.
***
Night had already blanketed the land when Ash and Shiva sat among large boulders outside the eastern gate of Blackridge. Grass grew in the gaps between the rocks, uneven and irregular, but enough to serve as a place to sit. The sky above them opened wide without obstruction, and the wind that passed carried a cold different from the cold inside the city.
A small fire burned between three stones Shiva had arranged, its flame stable because he tended it with a small spell he applied without much movement.
Ash opened his food can with a small knife at his waist, its contents a mix of peas and soybeans that were not very appealing in color and ordinary in smell. He placed it near the fire to warm it.
"You have no destination at all?" asked Ash without lifting his eyes from the can.
Shiva stared at the fire in front of him. "I do. But my goal is not toward a place." He moved a twig at the edge of the fire to a better position. "I am free to go wherever I want."
"Except one place."
Shiva did not answer immediately. "Except one place," he repeated, with a tone that sealed that topic tightly.
Ash did not ask further. He looked around briefly, the large and silent boulders in every direction, the sky that had no ceiling, and no sound except the wind and the small fire in front of them. This was different from sleeping under the roof of his house in Pinedale. But complaints would not change anything, so he did not voice them.
Shiva glanced at the can in Ash's hand. "You need to learn to hunt if you want to live like this."
"I know that." Ash began spooning the contents of his can when it felt warm enough. "I can hunt."
"But you brought canned food."
"For the early journey." Ash snorted. "I am not incapable of hunting."
"Fine." Shiva nodded with an expression that was serious but not entirely serious. "Then don't ask for a share of my food later."
Ash glanced at him once, then returned to his can.
Shiva raised both his hands slightly, his palms facing the dark area behind the large boulder to their left. There was no big movement, no spell spoken aloud. Only a small concentration visible from the way his fingers curved slightly.
A forest rat appeared from behind the rock, its body as large as a full-grown cat with a long tail and wide ears. Its body lifted from the ground without touching it, its legs moving and scratching at the air, then Shiva clenched one hand in the air and the rat struggled harder with a loud squealing sound like something being choked, until that sound slowly disappeared.
Ash stared at the rat now lying beside the fire. The hand holding his spoon stopped for a moment. He said nothing, but his jaw moved once to the side like someone seeing something he wished he could do but could not.
He went back to spooning the contents of his can.
"I did not know elves ate meat," said Ash.
Shiva began cleaning the rat with his small knife. "There are some creatures that are not allowed to be eaten, but a rat is not one of them."
Ash finished half his can before speaking again. "Give me a little."
"No."
"I have never tried forest rat before."
"Hunt your own if you want to try." Shiva turned the meat over the fire with the tip of his twig.
Ash grumbled softly, his voice not forming any clear words, and Shiva laughed quietly without turning toward him.
The fire licked between those stones. The rat meat began releasing an aroma that turned out to be not as bad as imagined, more like beef grilled over wood.
Ash was still spooning his can. Shiva was still watching the fire. The two of them did not speak for a while, and the silence did not feel awkward.
Then suddenly Ash stood up, his can falling to the ground.
There was no sound beforehand, no sign that he was about to move. He just suddenly stood up, both hands at his sides, facing a direction away from the fire.
Shiva raised his head. "Why–"
He stopped speaking when he saw it.
Thin veins of bright blue covered the entire visible surface of Ash's skin. Not only on his neck and arm like earlier in the city, but now spreading to his face, to his temples, to his jaw, to the back of his hands. The pattern widened like cracks growing in every direction, glowing faintly under the light of the fire.
"Ash." Shiva stood slowly.
Ash raised one hand, not toward Shiva, but toward his own temple. His hand trembled. His breath came out irregularly, going in shorter than usual. His skin on the arm area began to redden, like heat rising from within to the surface.
"Go." His voice came out with great difficulty. "Go now."
"What is happening? What can I–"
"Go, Shiva."
Shiva did not move. His eyes moved from the blue veins on Ash's face to his trembling hands to his reddening skin, trying to understand what he was seeing and finding no answer.
Ash turned around.
His gaze fell toward Shiva, and Shiva immediately knew that what was looking at him now was not entirely the same person who had been eating beside him earlier. His eyes were still Ash's eyes, but their focus had changed, dropping from Shiva's face to the area of his chest that was only covered by a tight cloth with no hoodie over it, and did not move from there.
Shiva swallowed. "Ash, I am going to leave now."
There was no answer.
Shiva lowered his body posture slightly, bending his knees, adjusting the weight on his feet. One breath in, then he leaped.
His feet left the ground at full speed, his body shooting forward, passing the large boulder to the right of the fire. However, before even a second had passed in the air, something grabbed his ankle.
Shiva's body was forcibly stopped in midair, half of his body already past the rock and the other half held back. He turned his head around.
Ash stood below him, one hand raised gripping Shiva's ankle, the blue veins across his entire arm and face glowing brighter than before under the small flame of the fire.
Shiva drew a deep breath, and for the first time since they had left Blackridge, no words came from his mouth.
***