Chapter 84
Chapter 84
***
“Big Cat.” Gamon addressed Isaac in his office within the glass-domed mansion.
Isaac, leaning against the window smoking a cigarette, glanced at Gamon. He knew why he was there.
“I hear the little bird flew the coop?”
“Yes.”
The Remains Retrieval Unit’s residence was under constant surveillance by Black Tiger’s hounds. They knew Benjamin, driven by ambition and suspicion about the forest, had secretly slipped away. Isaac had instructed them to turn a blind eye should the nobleman try to leave.
“Just as I predicted.” Isaac scoffed at Benjamin. “Arietta chose him…”
Strictly speaking, Arietta hadn’t chosen anyone, but that’s how Isaac framed it. “She left me for that imbecile.”
Her ability to find a suitable host has deteriorated, he thought cynically.
Arietta, just you wait. You’ll see how pathetic and unreliable he is. He intended to make it crystal clear to her. He wanted, above all else, to make her suffer.
***
The compass pointed forward. Viscount Benjamin Lenota cautiously advanced.
General Soluten had insisted, right up to the last minute, that Benjamin needed an escort. Benjamin had snapped at him, telling him not to be ridiculous. It had been difficult enough to evade surveillance alone; two people would have been impossible. And then everything would have been for nothing. He needed tangible results to justify taking Arietta with him.
“Just don’t go too deep,” Isaac had warned. Benjamin could agree with that much. He didn’t have a death wish.
The one unsettling factor was that he was unarmed. Benjamin was a skilled marksman, but Isaac’s blasted conditions for visiting Downstream required him to be weaponless.
The stolen vehicle slowly came to a halt near the forest. Benjamin looked at the trees—broadleaf giants, easily ten meters tall. They were grotesque, their slender trunks stretched towards the faint light, their leaves the size of human faces. A stark contrast to the balanced trees of the sky city.
Benjamin felt a primal revulsion.
Between the sparsely placed trees, he saw dwellings. He cautiously entered the forest, reminding himself of his purpose. The Downstreamers wanted to prevent the Celestial City’s Remains Retrieval Unit from investigating this area. Likely because the creatures’ remains were here. He would find proof and return. He wouldn’t venture any deeper than where the shadows grew too dark. Safety was paramount.
It didn’t seem particularly dangerous. Primitive and crude, yes, but there were signs of human habitation.
Just a few families, forming a small community? he wondered, cautiously looking around. He might be able to glean something by asking around.
One thing was certain: it didn’t seem nearly as dangerous as Isaac and Gamon had warned. They were definitely hiding something.
Benjamin hurried towards the dwellings. The houses, built on the dark soil, looked as if they might collapse at any moment. By Benjamin’s standards, they weren’t houses at all, more like temporary shelters. True to Downstream style, there were no windows. He hesitated for a moment, then knocked.
No answer.
He carefully pushed the door. It creaked open, lacking even a handle.
The interior was even smaller and more desolate than he’d imagined. A bed made of piled branches and grass, a similar grass rug on the floor, and a few meager, crude possessions. This seemed to be where the lowest of the low in Downstream ended up. The forest was on the outskirts, after all, and the rumors of danger, however exaggerated, weren’t entirely baseless.
Benjamin clicked his tongue and closed the door.
As he turned, he came face to face with someone who had approached silently.
Or rather… something?
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.