"Ravus Industries.co" was in front of him.
"Sir!" the driver called him back.
"What?"
"The payment," he said, with an awkward smile on his face.
Kaelen reached for his pocket and found a wallet, not his. It had thirty-three veyr inside it. The exact amount he had in his own.
"How much do I owe you?"
"Ten veyr," he said, rubbing his hands against each other. Instead of keeping his hands still, he was rotating them. With a face that made children uncomfortable.
His eyes closed as he handed over the ten veyr.
The air was thin, and a long courtyard waited to be crossed.
The courtyard made no sense. It only slowed him. There weren't any vehicles parked. Only green grass stretching long. And the air was reaching the points of his body that even he hadn't felt before.
The door had no handle. The seam was clean. No means of opening it.
He walked towards it, ready to be embarrassed.
The door was automatic.
Before Kaelen could react, something changed. The corner of his vision blackened, and his body strayed away from himself. Slowly reaching a place hidden inside of him. His body was losing its presence; not only had it turned lighter, it had also shifted to a new host. The way it walked, the way it reached out for the lift button. Kaelen reached out for his chest. His hands flowed straight into nothing. He brought his hands in front of him. There were none.
Yet his body kept moving.
He sank into the deep empty space until he was fixed. His vision came back. And when he felt control, he pressed the second-floor button without his permission.
The second floor led to a silent hallway. Lights were dim, and doors were everywhere. A maze looked simpler than this; it gave you a few options at every turn, with some being dead ends. It was easier to navigate through. But there was no certainty of what was on the other side of the doors. At the far end of the hallway was another one on its right.
For a few minutes, his body kept moving straight before it reached a bigger, more decorated door. With a tag on it, it was the only one with a tag, "2??". His fingers were curling and pointing towards the doors.
The tag glowed, and the tag changed to "222".
The door opened. It was messy; walls had random codes written on them. Files scattered across the room. The desk told another story, clean. Everything aligned perfectly in its position.
A figure sat at the center of it. Not on a chair placed in the middle. At the center of the table. Ravus Corax.
His torso was short with an unusually long wingspan. Kaelen could only imagine fighting someone like that and getting jabbed a hundred times before he could close the range. It was this dry humor of his that removed his fear of the man he had feared a second ago. And suddenly, he was no different from a fat guy with a long wingspan. Who looked like a creature that would change to walking on four limbs while fighting.
"Long time no see, Rowan," said Ravus.
Listening to the name, it clicked to him. The identity Aurelion had informed him about had taken over his body. And its name was Rowan.
"You shouldn't try to sound cold to me. That works on your slaves, not me."
Rowan gave out a loud laugh. "Don't take me for your friend, Rowan. You said it when you left." He cleared his throat and said in a goblin-like voice, mocking Ravus. "I don't wanna be a part of this. You are a terrible person. Blah blah blah. You are trying to do something you can never." He laughed again. "Oh boy, how wrong were you. And you coming back a day before it tells me a lot. But I am generous enough to let you try."
"And fail," he added a second later.
Rowan smirked and said, "I am here to discuss work."
"If that is what you want," Ravus tossed a file to him. "Go to the factory and take notes on the last page. You can take my car, because you will never have one."
Rowan slammed the door when he left. And gave Kaelen control. The transition felt natural. Kaelen immediately knew he had control.
As he entered the lift, his fingers wandered toward a button before Rowan pressed it for him. He didn't take full control this time, only a finger.
In the parking lot, Rowan took control again and started the car. With no intention of letting control slip. His grip was tight and movements precise.
The city wasn't all sunshine as Kaelen had thought at first look. He could see the beautiful city he had already seen far from his current road. But he could also see the cost of it near him. In the outskirts of the city. People were coughing blood while searching for an employer to come from the main city. They had inns for everyone. There were a few houses too, but they belonged to employers. They were trapped, hopeless. Every one of them had come into the city with high hopes. And soon their dreams shattered. The terrifying part was that the "How to go to Halvyr" book was still in his drawer.
It didn't take long to reach the factory. Even there, Rowan didn't let go. He surveyed every corner and every worker, taking notes as Ravus instructed.
When Rowan looked done with his work, he approached a construction worker, a laborer most probably from the outskirts. "Do you have a cigarette?"
The worker looked at him, his eyes popping out of his skull.
"Do you have a cigarette?" he asked again.
The worker searched in his pockets, slipping past the box many times.
Rowan was about to ask again when the worker dropped the cigarette out of his pocket. "Sorry!" he shouted while covering his ears and crouching. He picked up the cigarette.
He extended his hand to pass the cigarette. Midway, he stopped and pulled back his hand. He looked at the cigarette like it was something precious, rotating it and his head, looking at it from every angle.
A second later, with his hands still pressed against his chest, he threw the cigarette at Rowan's chest.
Strangely, Rowan didn't smoke it there. He searched around for a spot and climbed up the stairs. At the roof, Kaelen got control back.
Kaelen looked at the cigarette in his hand and shrugged. He reached out for his pockets. There wasn't a lighter. Not that there should have been one. But what would Rowan do with a cigarette?
No, it was a signal. To Kaelen.
Kaelen rushed to the edge of the roof. There he looked at the entrance, confirming his theory.
Rowan had chosen that path on purpose. To show Kaelen what they were fighting for.
Kaelen smiled and stared down at the city with an unlit cigarette in his mouth.
A footstep came behind him. A loud one.
A man stood in front of him. Well dressed, similar to the magician he'd met before Aurelion.
For seconds, he stood there. The footsteps didn't fade. It was a warning. Whoever it was, he was confident in his skills.
Kaelen waited for some more time. The man didn't move, blinking.
Kaelen rushed first. The man planted his lead leg.
Kaelen hit him with a Superman jab and pretended to lose balance.
The man didn't shy away from it. He lowered his body and raised both his feet off the ground, pulling his whole body into an overhead hook.
Kaelen slipped and fell as he grabbed the man's legs. He rag-dolled him into the ground, the man's back facing the floor.
Kaelen sat on top of him. His knees held the man's abdomen. Kaelen pulled his body back and slammed his elbow onto the man. Again and again. The man's face gradually opened up. But he stayed composed, waiting until Kaelen accidentally removed his left hand from the ground.
The man's hand moved toward Kaelen's chest with no power behind it. Kaelen couldn't notice it at first. There was a small shard in the man's hand. But it was too late. His hand was an inch away. Kaelen slipped behind, loosening his knees. Kaelen fell on his back.
The man quickly repositioned himself on top of Kaelen, inserting the shard inside him. It caused almost no pain. Though it didn't matter. Pain wasn't the measure of danger in this field of work.
The man pulled his hand back and made a fist. Kaelen closed his eyes; he had accepted his fate.
Until suddenly, a footstep came from the stairs. The man hit Kaelen one last time as hard as he could, then ran.
When Kaelen got up, the man was nowhere in sight.
The footsteps had gotten faster. A worker came out of the stairs.