Our medical observation ended the next day, and we were told we were free to go. I saw some of the jiaoren who'd been caught up in falling debris and I suddenly felt like you and I'd gotten off relatively unscathed, at least physically.
Mentally, I wasn't so sure.
"What's eating you?"
I looked up then away from you. Your glasses were one of the casualties of our underwater adventure and without them your gaze seemed even sharper. "Nothing," I said. We were walking down the main street of the Under City having just said our goodbyes to Tuesday and her other jiaoren co-workers.
She explained that since jiaoren are born into a world where they can move both up and down as well as around, that they're better suited to computer work than land-based humans and their lateral thinking.
"Are you hungry?" you asked.
I had to smile at that. "I'm not a dog," I said with feigned annoyance.
Yesterday had been chaos in the Under City as everyone tried to find out what had happened and what the extent of the damage was. Today, most that information had already been circulated so, at least above water, everything had quietened down. Under water, I wasn't so sure, but Tuesday mentioned that only the lowest six floors of the SSD had been damaged and of those, only three had actually disintegrated.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Me? I'm fine," you replied.
"Really?"
You eyed me then shrugged. "It doesn't feel good to have Excalibur so far away, but other than that, I'm fine."
We walked on for a while in silence.
"I don't know…" I said, finally breaking that silence. "I just feel… nervous. Like… I don't know what like. Oh, maybe a bit like after we first met."
"You're scared of losing everything again?"
I smiled bitterly. "I thought I already got over that though."
You put an arm over my shoulders and pulled me out of the way of a half-man, half-ox who was driving a small electric scooter with a large delivery box on the back. "Just because you've climbed one mountain doesn't mean you've climbed over them all."
"But I've already climbed over this one."
"And good on you. But climbing over a mountain still uses time and effort every time you do it, no matter if it's the same one or not." You turned us down one of the smaller roads and the smell of freshly baked goods wafted over us.
"...Maybe I am a bit hungry."
"Good. I know a place you'll like."
I certainly liked how it smelled, though I couldn't focus on it. "Bran?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think it'll take them a long time to figure out the currency devaluation?"
You let me go as you cast an eye over the menus sitting out on stands in front of the various restaurants. "You worried about not earning enough money?"
"Well, yeah," I said as I also took a moment to look at the menus. I couldn't read anything of course, but the pictures looks scrumptious. "But also, the faster they finish that case, the faster they can look at my father's case..."
You straightened. "Do you want that solved quickly?" you asked.
"I want it solved well, if that's what you're asking," I said with a laugh. "But... yeah, if I had to choose, I'd rather know earlier what's going on. Everything still feels so... up in the air."
"Mm..." You stopped looking at menus though I still kept an eye on them as we passed. "In that case... I think I know how to maybe speed up the currency matter."
"Really?" I was surprised. Shouldn't you be telling Helen or Tuesday all this? What good was it to tell me?
"Just an idea." You turned to look at me, your sharp eyes a little unfocused. "If you want."
We'd both stopped in the middle of the street and already an overworked take-away delivery man honked us. You took my arm and got us both out of the way.
"...I do want," I said finally, my eyes drifting out to take in the busy street. We were standing close together under the awning of a residential building.
"Alright. We eat, then I want to take you somewhere." You let me go and began to walk again.
"Bran," I called out after you.
You stopped and turned back to me. "Mm?"
I wasn't sure at first how to say what I wanted to say, but, almost like you knew this, you waited patiently for me anyway.
"Do you think you're in danger because you're with me?" I finally asked, hoping my scrambled thoughts were coherent enough for you to understand.
"Do you think you're in danger?"
"I think..." I took a breath. "Well, I don't know for sure, but... that guy with the bells who attacked us is friends with the librarian and they're both involved with crystals and all that, like my father. I just think that maybe that guy attacked us because he was actually aiming for me. Maybe the two of them are working, were working, with my father and the kid came to finish off the job."
"I can't fault that logic," you replied.
"I don't want to lose you." My voice was quiet, barely audible above the bustle of the city, but I knew you heard me.
Your mouth twitched like you meant to reply but in the end, you closed it and said nothing.
A moment passed, then you took my hand and pulled me on.
"I don't want to lose you either."
--
Misha was surprised at how familiar the pawnshop felt. Not its contents, obviously the magical items of a magical world would be very different from the little shops he'd sometimes poke around in in Alba, but the overall feel was shockingly similar: a kind of fascinating curiosity mixed with melancholy.
There were strange winged-creatures with snake-like bodies suspended in large jars, lacquer furniture that hovered unobtrusively in the corner, large and small stones (that I think were mostly jade) secured in glass boxes mounted on the walls, and many, many weapons. Some were also affixed to the walls, but many were just lying about on any spare horizontal surface, and Misha was tempted to pick one up but resisted.
Bran told Misha before entering to not touch anything unless explicitly told to. The warning was said forcefully enough that the dragon didn't think to question it and meekly kept his hands to himself. What kinds of horrors might there be in a shop like this? he wondered excitedly to himself.
As it turned out, it was mostly just the horror of having to pay for accidentally broken goods. There was a large sign below the counter that said in no uncertain terms that all damaged items were considered not just sold but sold at twice the price.
Misha shoved his hands deeper into his pockets and kept his tail still and close to the ground.
But it wasn't all occult curiosities
Among these were also oddly mundane items like lace tablecloths, plastic DVD boxes, and first-generation video console controllers (the kind without analog sticks).
I nodded to them. "Are they real?"
You looked at the controllers. "Why wouldn't they be?"
"Oh just... they're not special, magical ones, are they?"
"Ah," you laughed. "They might be, but-"
"Little Raven!"
A jovial, booming voice echoed across the length of the shop coupled with a heavy set of footsteps.
"Feilou Tong," you said in greeting as a large man emerged between the jumble of items. He was wide, impossibly wide, yet he somehow managed to navigate the cramped shop with such grace that it had to be magic. There were rings on his fingers, with his little most sporting a gold nail extension, and golden thread weaved into the fabric of his Qing Dynasty styled clothes. He had a fake eye and even this too was gold.
"It has been too long," said Feilou Tong, clapping Bran on the shoulder. "And you've brought a friend!"
"He's just accompanying me. He's not here to buy or sell," Bran said firmly.
Misha, already overwhelmed by the newcomer, stepped a little behind Bran.
Feilou Tong chuckled. "Alright, alright. You can't blame a man for trying to do a little business."
He turned and waved them over to the small counter wedged into the corner by the floating furniture. The man, somehow, squeezed behind its glass countertop and opened a large ledger book.
"What can I do for you?"
Bran went up to the counter. "Weapons and information."
--
There were two people waiting by the docks when Bran finally finished their business in the Under City and he and Misha were about to head back to the normal world.
One person was Tuesday (Bran didn't seem surprised to see her), but the other wasn't known to Misha. He glanced at Bran, and it seemed like he didn't know the guy either.
"I thought you had the day off," said Bran as they drew to a stop to the side of the queue forming by the ferry sign. The ferry services were running as normal but there were a lot of people wanting to leave the Under City at the moment, so things were packed.
"I do, but the main office got their printer up and running again so I have a gift for little Misha," said Tuesday as she held something out.
Misha, not entirely sure if he liked being called 'Little Misha' but figuring he didn't have any grounds to dispute it (he was pretty sure Tuesday was older than him), took the card from her. "An ID?" He held it up to get a better look at it. "Oh! It's me as a dragon!"