After I mumbled my confusion out loud, Kelly pulled back from my shoulder. She wiped her tears away and looked at me. “What?”

  “Sorry,” I said. “W…I just looped.” I almost messed up and admitted the others were looping with me there.

  Kelly looked around the alley and back at me. “Just now? I didn’t notice anything.”

  I patted her shoulders. “You won’t. Sorry to cut this short, but we have to move. Oh, by the way, you’ll need to change your pants.”

  Kelly looked puzzled then checked out her pants. “Why?”

  I pointed to the liquid on the ground. “That stuff we were sitting in is caustic and eats through cloth. My backside will be showing in about 30 minutes and I don’t want you to have your clothing disintegrate on you in public.”

  Kelly’s eyes bugged out. “My home is an hour from here!” She didn’t waste time and began running out of the alley.

  “Remember to visit Vark’s parents!” I called after her. I couldn’t remember if I’d suggested it at this point or not and had to be sure.

  “My Lord?” Tizek asked after Kelly fled. “Did I fail to protect you again?”

  “No, buddy, I forced the loop myself,” I replied. “Come on, I’ll brief you two while we run. We have to get back to the Teeth.”

  As we jogged, since I was still not in the best cardio shape, Lia spoke. “Oliver? What about your shorts? They’re going to fall apart.”

  “I’m not worried about that right now. Having my keister showing to the wind isn’t important,” I huffed. “I noticed you were beat up, Tizek. What happened?”

  “I believed we were invaded by Lisa. I was wrong,” Tizek said. “They defeated me and bound me.”

  “Right, but why were you beat up? You could have healed yourself,” I replied with a wheeze.

  Tizek didn’t respond. I looked over at him and he seemed ashamed.

  “Still struggling with healing, buddy?” I asked. He did so well in the cistern battle, but it seems he’s still got issues with his attunement. Tizek only nodded.

  “And you, Lia? They do anything to you?” I asked.

  “No,” Lia said quietly through her towel mask. “The Guard kept looking at Mira in the carriage, but the Captain was there to stop anything happening.”

  I shuddered and engraved the marmot and wolverine-clan Guards’ faces into my memory. I’ll see what I can cook up for those two if I ever run into them again.

  During this time of day, people running wasn’t an unusual sight. Leoren was a busy place and, right around now, people on the verge of being late for wherever they needed to be were doing the same. Of course, they weren’t smelling like alley gunk and hoping their clothing would hold out before reaching their destination like I was. Plus, the stakes were far higher than being late for work.

  We reached The Gnashing Teeth about 20 minutes later. I was sweating buckets and huffing hard from the run and the others were also not doing so well since they skipped cardio when I was in my manic phase. We also had the long trip out to Gesper Village, which reduced our running regimen.

  During the run, Void briefed Lia and Tizek on what happened because I was too busy trying to not suffocate. The plan was for the two of them to distract Doun and Mira up front to allow Void and I to sneak in through the back. Whatever was down there, Doun and Mira really wanted it hidden.

  We arrived at The Teeth at around 9 Mor. Lia and Tizek went inside while Void and I swung around back. Hespeth and her crew were still there and gave us a brief bow before stepping aside.

  In the rear, I looked through the kitchen window and noticed it was empty. I signaled to Void, who used her key to open the back. We slid in, again I found myself wondering why I was suddenly so stealthy, and quietly closed and locked the door. Then we descended the stairs to the larders.

  It took a couple of minutes to find the hidden compartment. Even knowing generally where it was, the brick was so flush we couldn’t easily tell it apart from the others. Void was able to use her thick nails to squeeze the brick’s edges at the mortar and slide it out.

  Inside were papers. Void picked them up and flipped through a few of them. Her face screwed up in confusion. “I can’t read this.”

  “What? You were an excellent student and can read both Low and Standard Vialinan,” I commented, wondering why she couldn’t read it. “Is it in code?”

  She shook her head and handed me a page. I looked at the document and scanned the words. No wonder Void couldn’t read it. This was High Vialinan, which is the script used by the nobility. It’s a tremendously difficult variant of the writing system to read.

  The system isn’t a big secret in Vialina. The reason only the noble households and a few of the rich merchants of the city could learn it was the time involved.

  In Vialina, public schools, which were where laborer class kids usually went if their families could afford it since it’s not universal or free, ended when the student reached 14. Public school only ran three days a week and for four hours a day. They barely had time to learn the already difficult Low Vialinan writing system by then.

  Void went to the next level up, Private School. She went there until she reached adulthood at 16 and joined the city Guards. Private School went two hours longer per day and ran five days a week.

  Nobles and the wealthy had their own system. Nobles sent their children there free-of-charge while wealthy merchants and other high society commoners paid outrageous amounts of money. They were eight hour school days and they ran through to the 18th year then continued on either at the Leoren Royal University, the Mage’s College or the Army Academy. They had a lot of time and the best instructors, which included teaching High Vialinan.

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  Of course, I knew all three along with Ancient Vialinan, which there were only two fellas at the university in the civics college who could read it. Part of learning it involved breaking into instructor Lansen Benswell’s office to steal his research. I didn’t mind tossing a rock through his pretty ground-floor office window because that guy’s an arrogant prick.

  “It’s written in High Vialinan,” I told Void.

  “How can you rea…” Void started before she shook her head. “You can read a dead text I never heard of before, of course you can read High Vialinan. What’s it say?”

  “It’s just a bunch of names and some places that I think are villages I never heard of,” I replied. “One of the pages is a magical schematic of some sort. We’d need reference materials to figure out what all this means. I never had access to the Mage’s College to learn this.”

  “Void! Oliver!” A shout from the stairs startled us. There, Doun and Mira were looking at us with terror in their eyes. Lia and Tizek followed down closely behind. “How did you find that?” Doun asked.

  Shit, we didn’t talk about how we were going to explain knowing this was here.

  “One of the Guards I used to work with stopped us,” Void said quickly. “He warned us there is a raid coming here tomorrow and the Guards know about this hiding spot.”

  Good job, Void, for coming up with that one.

  When Mira and Doun didn’t respond, Void snapped a page from my hand and shook it. “What is this that’s so dangerous? And when did you learn High Vialinan?”

  “Void,” Mira said with a stern voice. “You need to forget that exists and mind your business.”

  “Mind my…” Void stuttered. She then shoved her hand back in the hole and opened the door to the sewers. “You’re doing something that’s going to get my home raided by the Royal Guards! My contact told me you’ll get the Max Sentence for this! Do you know what that means?”

  “We know the risk we’re—” Doun started saying.

  “Your risk? What about mine?” Void shouted. “The Royal Guards are coming tomorrow! We’re going to lose the pub and you’ll be stuck in the city brothels for 15 years. I won’t be able to see mom and the only way I can see dad is if I buy his services. You know they require everyone to have intercourse to dissuade family from showing up for visits. I won’t see you until I’m in my 40s. I…”

  Void’s knees buckled out from under her and she slumped to the floor. I knelt beside her and rubbed her back as she started sobbing.

  Mira and Doun looked guilty when they saw Void break down in tears. Doun turned to Lia and Tizek. “Mind heading upstairs for a bit and keeping watch on the place? We need to have a private family talk.”

  Lia and Tizek silently nodded and headed back up. When they left, Doun and Mira approached then sat on the floor. They waited until Void composed herself before speaking.

  “We don’t know what’s written on those pages,” Doun said after Void calmed down.

  “It’s something to do with the Anti-Slavery League,” Mira added.

  Void looked up. “Anti-Slavery League? The group smuggling slaves with long sentences out to Daulien? Why do you care to get involved in that?”

  Mira sighed and looked at Doun. He nodded then Mira spoke. “It’s time to tell you some things about our past you didn’t know before. First of all, we can barely read Low Vialinan and can’t read a word of Standard Vialinan.”

  Void’s eyes widened. “What? How? You’re running a business.”

  “We only read enough to write down menus and comply with basic regulations. We barely knew enough words between us to apply for the Exterminator’s Guild,” Doun replied. “Have you seen either of us with a book?”

  “But what about school? You said you met at the academy. How can’t you read?” Void exclaimed. That’s right, I always knew the two met during their schooling years and Doun didn’t ask Mira out until they joined the Exterminator’s Guild.

  “We lied about that,” Mira said as she looked at the floor. “We didn’t come from the middle-class district. I grew up in the slums.”

  “And I was left in the slums orphanage when I was a baby,” Doun added.

  That one was a shock to me. Of course, this never came up in the three-month loops, so I couldn’t have known.

  “We also have another confession,” Mira continued. “We’re not 45. We’re 39.”

  In that instant, I really wanted a beer in my hand so I can spit it out. I could see Void doing the same math I was. I mean, it explains why they looked young for their age. They weren’t their age.

  “That’s not possible! Am I adopted?” Void asked with a look of confusion on her face.

  Doun shook his head. “No, you’re our precious little girl.”

  “But that means you were both…” Void trailed off.

  Mira’s face formed a nostalgic smile. “The slums isn’t a great place, especially for kids left to fend for themselves. I met Doun on the streets and we ran in a gang for two years. He was a bit wild in his younger years and we decided to experiment some. It really was our first date, though.”

  Mira turned to face me. “Why do you think we named our little girl Void?”

  I had gotten used to it over the years, but now that I think of it, Void is a rather unusual name. I never ran across anyone else with it in my centuries here. “I’d like to know.”

  “Because she filled the one we didn’t know we had in us,” Doun said. “Dr. Payan was doing charity work back then and saw Mira when she was getting sick a lot. Turns out little Void was in there.”

  Mira reflexively rubbed her nose. “The Doctor wasn’t too happy about my irresponsibility.”

  “It did get us to reflect on our future,” Doun said. “We got some odd jobs and learned enough rudimentary words to join the Exterminator’s Guild. After we got someone to forge new documents to change our age, we joined up right after you were born. The rest you know is the truth.”

  “Wow,” Void said. I could tell she was processing this huge change in how she thought of her past. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re in with the Anti-Slavery League.”

  Mira stood up. “Doun? I need to go get it. Can you tell your side for a moment?”

  Doun nodded and after Mira walked upstairs, he continued. “Do you know the primary reasons why children end up in the orphanage?”

  “Drug addicts, adventurer deaths, diseases, families hiding unwed pregnancies and murder,” Void rattled off.

  Doun sighed. “Many of those end up in orphanages in nicer parts of town or with relatives. The slums? The top two are addicts and women in the penal brothels.”

  Void’s mouth dropped open. That was something I, unfortunately, already knew. Lia’s mother was also likely one of the two as well.

  “You can tell the kids from addicts. They don’t turn out right. Since I don’t have problems, it’s most likely my mother, your grandmother, was in the city brothel,” Doun said.

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Void argued. “The city brothels give everyone contraceptives.”

  “They don’t always work,” Doun replied. “The brothels aren’t entirely cruel, they do allow mothers to name their children and are allowed to reconnect with them when their sentence is up. But most never do, they don’t want to be reminded of that part of their life in their senior years when they’re finally free.”

  “So you’re part of the League because of this?” Void asked.

  Doun nodded. “Yes. The brothel system stole away the mother I never knew. Sure, I may not exist if things had been different, but I’d rather work to make sure fewer orphans are made in the future. It’s a cruel system and people there need to be freed.”

  Void sat in shock for a while as she processed Doun’s story. While she did, Mira descended the stairs. In her hands was an old book. She extended it to Void. “Here, I can’t understand half of it. I asked Dr. Payan to read it to me years ago.”

  I accepted the book because Void was a little too out-of-sorts right now to take it. “What is it?”

  “It’s a journal from my older sister. When someone is given a Max Sentence, they’re allowed a journal to pass the time,” Mira explained. “I received this 15 years ago.”

  Void looked up and she had a shellshocked expression on her face. Mira looked concerned about the state of her daughter. “Do you need to rest? I know this is a lot.”

  Void shook her head. “No, continue.”

  Mira closed her eyes and sighed. “Since we’re hitting you with all these revelations, I have one more. It’s about my father, your grandfather. He’s rat-clan.”

  That definitely was a bombshell. Void was already overloaded with information at this point and could only nod. I could see the heritage if I looked closely. Mira had sharper facial features, a thin frame and a thinner tail. It just was something I never paid much attention to.

  “After my mother and father met, my older sister, Judith, was conceived. As you can imagine, my mother’s parents were livid and disowned her. As bad as people treat the rat and rabbit-clans today, it was worse then,” Mira explained.

  Mira adjusted herself and leaned against Doun. I could tell she was getting upset thinking about her past. “They tried to live with the rat-clan people but my mother always felt out-of-place. The rat-clan people are kind but a little isolated. My mother and father ended up moving out on their own after my sister was born.”

  “Things were hard. My father could only find work as a mine spotter,” Mira said. I winced. That was the job that went down tunnels and warned the miners if monsters were coming.

  “Shortly after I was born, the iron mine he was working in had a mana surge and he didn’t make it,” Mira said. “My mother ended up having to take care of the both of us. When I was six, my mother came down with a miasma and passed away. That left my sister at 14 years old to take care of me.”

  “One day,” Mira continued after she wiped away a tear. “When I was 10, Judith went to work and never came back. I had no idea why she disappeared until 15 years ago when I received that journal from the brothel. I spent much of my life assuming I was abandoned.”

  Mira placed her face in her hand and took a few deep breaths. Doun rubbed Mira’s back to help her compose herself. “When that journal showed up, I took it to Dr. Payan. She’s the only one who knows the truth of our past. She told me it came with a letter detailing what Judith did. It claimed she attacked a noble and received a Max Sentence. I was given her journal because she died in the brothel. The brothel didn't even deliver it until years later. Judith only lasted eleven months there. She died a few months after her 19th birthday.”

  Mira’s expression changed to pure rage. I’d never seen her look like this before. “It makes no sense! How could Judith attack a noble? We lived in the slums, nobles never go there. It had to be a lie. Judith took more after father and had obvious rat-clan features, so someone must have been out to get her. Then Dr. Payan read me the book and it broke me. I knew I had to stop this system so more people like Judith wouldn’t get hurt.”

  I looked at the journal in my hand. It was a simple leather-bound book without any identifying markings on the outside. The paper was thick, yellow and it had a small leather string to mark pages.

  “Do you want to read this?” I handed it to Void.

  She shook her head. “Can you? I’m struggling.”

  “You can read?” Mira asked with a sense of surprise.

  “I thought you only learned a few basic words with Void,” Doun added.

  I held back a grin, now wasn’t the time to be cheery. “I’m an academic from home. I learn fast. I can read Low and a little Standard Vialinan.” I left out the part of being a top expert in four variants of Vialinan script because I couldn’t make that believable no matter how smart I presented myself. “You don’t mind if I read it?”

  Mira shook her head. “Please.”