I took a deep breath inside my mask and, with a supernaturally deep voice, I called out.

"Miss?"

"Wait your damn turn, creep!" Ah, Hisa being so nice and cute. "There are nine more ahead of you! Get a number!" Everyone can be that adorable after a ten hour shift in a 24 hour pub. She deserved a medal, being able to keep going with a tray filled to the brim in her hand.

"Hisa, please..." continuing with my deep voice and my extravagant clothing, I moved my cap just enough to show my eyes.

"Ok! Just wait for me a second!" she noticed me and, still, she didn't shift her attitude a bit. That was a good thing, because we were surrounded by the enemy, and no one wasted half a second to look at who spoke to her.

After a minute waiting in front of the establishment, right as I was starting to lose my patience, my old friend finally showed up, without her tray but with her usual annoyed face.

"I don't want to know why you are wearing that or why you spoke to me in the voice of the last stage boss of a stupid videogame, but whatever it is, you came to get me, is that right?"

"...yes" I kept looking around, trying to look nonchalant, but I was evidently nervous. "Don't ask questions, just follow me".

"You wish! All of my coworkers are out sick! I'm the only waitress and every asshole in this stupid city decided to put our cellar to waste! I don't have any time for this!"

"Hisa, those assholes were the ones who made all your coworkers sick!" I replied to her in all seriousness. Maybe it was the remains of the sulfur hexafluoride inside the mask that I used to deepen my voice, or my strange disguise, or the serious tone I used, but I accomplished a raised eyebrow from her. In her unique body language that meant she had all my attention. "You're the only one I can get out of here safely right now... in fact, I should already have left the city, but..."

And then, Hisa, without another word, grabbed my arm and began running away from her pub.

"Finally, a good excuse to get out of that frig of a joint!" In my plans, I had imagined it would take me at least another two minutes to convince her. Never underestimate some people's hatred of their jobs.

"Hold on a minute, please" I asked, as I started to feel my injured knee. "Also, where are you going?"

"To my flat, of course! I need to prepare my luggage".

"You don't understand, Hisa, there's no time!"

"What do you...?" she stopped her running and then her sentence. She glanced at something over my shoulder for just a second, then shifted her gaze back to me. "What did you do?"

"Was in the wrong place at the wrong time" Then I grabbed her hand and guided her at my slower pace. "Are they following us?"

"Three of the patrons of the pub, at least", she didn't turn her head again. "Whatever you did, I hope they don't cause me trouble."

"Too late for that. That's why I came back for you." Between flashes of pain, I felt her fear and, at the same time, the trust she was putting in me. Cynical as she was, I had helped her too many times. She would trust me without fail. "I have a safe house, but we need to leave the city unseen".

"Who's after you?"

"As far as I know, the whole city. I had to escape jail an hour ago and, at the moment, I'm just managing".

Hisa looked at me from head to toe and then turned her eyes up in desperation.

"You can't run, you can't jump, every eye will turn to you as soon as you put away that mask of yours. I assume you don't have any help waiting around, you don't have any hiding spots in the city, no money to bribe anyone, and above all, you went to rescue a friend of yours from your own mistakes." She sighed deeply. "Just peachy. Let's go to the east exit," and again, she took the lead and tried to support me as I limped along. "I have some friends in the zone. If everything goes well, they'll distract the pigs for us".

"And if things go bad?" I dared to ask.

"Let's hope there's at least a crowbar in that toolbox of yours..."

Thanks to her support, we kept a good pace, but with each step we took, I felt more and more presences gathering around us, lots of them behind, some of them moving up ahead. I sensed overwhelming ill intent for us, but none of them took the initiative. They wouldn't try to capture us, but the sirens behind us made it clear that the cops would.

Until that moment, the path of Hisa was pretty orthodox, but once we crossed the diffuse line that separated the internal belt with the external ring of the city, we entered her domain: Before I could react to her stern guidance, we stepped into a workshop with a conveniently opened door. Inside, we found only a distracted assembly line, whose members didn't raise their eyes upon our arrival; at least, until Hisa nonchalantly flipped the fire emergency switch.

Then, most of the workers got up, not even trying to find the reason the alarm was ringing. They all went to the door we'd just crossed and we got mixed in with the rest, who took the back exit.

"What the hell did you do this time, Hisa?" the foreman grabbed my other arm and helped me to run even faster than before. "I'm a bit fed up saving your sorry butt from all your accidental slaps".

"It seems more serious this time, Boss-man." Once every worker had left the workshop, Hisa closed the door behind her and we continued our path, weaving through patios, discreet backdoors, hallways, and inconspicuous windows, far away from the open streets. "We need to get out of the city, unseen if possible. Any exit through the water system?"

"I don't think so. Maybe if we try the sewers..." he was as serious as she was. I knew that Hisa had contacts with a lot of people, but this seemed way more intense than I'd ever imagined of her. "An hour ago, the number of coppers got insanely high in this part of the city. They usually leave us to our own devices, but for some reason, now they're too worried for our safety" he threw me a quick glance. "Is it because of her?"

"Long story short, yes." I replied. We reached a dark storage room without windows and a manhole in the floor.

"Long story long is no, then" he said as he looked inside my toolbox and found a crowbar, then used it to pry open the manhole. "I've never seen you, ok?"

"I don't even know your name, Boss-man." Hisa said with a cynical smile on her way down. "I'll repay you as soon as I can!"

"I'll just repay you now." I threw him a shimmering red stone of the size of a fist. "Even so, I still owe you a big favor" I bowed my head in gratitude and then followed along behind my friend. That stone of aluminum, oxygen, iron, and chrome (aka, a huge pure ruby) was a meager payment for his, until now, unconditional help.

After struggling with my knee throughout the descent, we reached a reasonably clean sewer, so much so...

"From now on, silence..." she warned me in a whisper. "If there really is a lockdown in the dome, police will be posted in the water tunnels. This is an unused sewer that goes near there, so, for all that is holy, don't make a sound while we walk under the city's wall, ok?"

I gestured an okay with my fingers and followed her footsteps into the darkness, broken only by the subtle green light of her wristwatch. And, just as she had warned, we heard shuffling feet and whispers through the walls along our secret route.

We kept our pace at a crawl, so not a single step could be heard from our tunnel. Tense, stressful, too long, and above all, dark. Whispers, pain, and the dread that comes from putting a friend in danger. The only safety came from the fact that the Snow told me that no one was following our trail.

But, after more than an hour of walking in complete silence, we reached a dead end, as it seemed this sewer tunnel was never finished. There were only some steps to a manhole cover that would take us just outside the city walls.

Hisa went first: she climbed, opened the cover, and climbed out...

"You, brat!" a male voice came down the hole to the tunnels. "Stop struggling right now or your friend gets it!" I froze. What was the meaning of all of this? I didn't feel their presence at all! "You've got ten seconds before...!"

"Okay, okay!" I yelled, trying to find any signs of life up top, but strangely, not feeling anything aside from my friend. "I'm here." I climbed the ladder slowly. My knee felt even worse, horribly swollen after such a prolonged time standing up. Even if I had wanted to fight now, my body couldn't, being unable to even walk properly.

After peeking my head out of the sewer, three pairs of hands lifted me out and threw me to the ground. Then, before I could even snarl anything, I felt a kick in my already-injured knee.

"Stupid brat! All day behind your idiotic ass!" or something like that. I'm not completely sure if he snarled that because the strike had knocked the wind out of me, almost making me faint right there.

"Did I order you to hit her?" A more authoritarian voice made all six men tense up and move aside to give him space. "Don't ever act unless I instruct you to. Am I clear?" The one who hit me didn't reply but even his silence exuded panic. "Sorry about that. Maybe I yelled at them too much when they lost you back at the jail. I'd heard lots of things about you, but seriously, you're a box full of surprises".

It was my brother's boss, the man who Anaissa called Vazet, whose pitch black eyes gave away his birthplace. He sure looked important and strong, with all his height and huge body, but that aside, he didn't exude any authority through his clothing. In fact, despite its quality, his garments weren't so different from those of a Thaebian druid: linen black robe, red velvet vest, braided leather belt, and simple sandals. Was he, seriously, the mob boss that had increasingly dominated the city from one day to the next?

"Nothing to say?" He kneeled in front of me, eyes fixed on mine. "Hmm... given your tattoos, are you from the northern tribe of Soregir?" Again, his statement scared me. How the hell did he know about my tattoos if they were covered by my disguise?. "No need to give me that face, girl... hmm... oh, I see now: you're Uruk's sister. I knew you were from Thaeb but he never told me that little detail about you. Very loyal man, I must give him that."

"Who..." I stopped my question halfway "...what are you?

"That doesn't matter much." Vazet felt like a monster, not from the control he had nor from the information he apparently kept finding about me, but because I couldn't feel anything of the Snow coming from him. "You escaped me since the first mention of my name. You know I want something from you, but you never let me ask you anything." I remained silent. "That girlfriend of yours, she's of the strange sort, don't you think?" He laughed a bit. "You asked me what I am." Now, he laughed even harder. "She's so strange, you probably don't even grasp what she really is."

"What do you want?" I tried to remain cool, thinking through every trick in the book to escape this situation. The kick had rendered my leg useless; some of those grunts were pinning Hisa down; some of them wielded guns; in that open patch of the forest there was no escape or hiding spots, and worst of all, the intense pain I felt prevented me from finding the peace of mind needed to create the simplest thing.

I'd nearly lost all hope.

"I want lots of things." Despite having everything already under his control, he tried to look humble. "I find a lot of things annoying in this city... on this planet, in fact. So, I'll change them. It's as simple as that. And, as a good stern father, I won't stop just because some whiny kids don't do as I say. It was like that in Thaeb, it's the same over here."

He was making no sense, but it allowed me to buy time for my screaming knee to calm down. Seven people at the same time... it was really hard to pull off, but I could sleep them for a while, as soon as I could focus properly.

"Though you probably won't understand it," he pulled up the leg of my jumpsuit and exposed my name tattoo. "Coward, I see. You don't seek strength, only survival," he vehemently denied with his head. "That's not enough and you know it. Didn't your father teach you properly?

"Who the hell do you think you are, saying that to me!?" I shouted. Him mentioning my father shattered my focus, causing me to lash out angrily with my words.

"Oh, I touched a nerve," he stepped back, humbly. "My sincerest apologies. But my point remains, either way. I need that friend of yours. She's the only vessel of despair on this planet and..."

...and, in that very instant, something landed right behind him.

No, not something.

Someone.

And she was angry.

The hostility I felt from Anaissa that time I called her special? If it was tense then, it was scorching now. She was so furious, I doubt she'd hear anything but her own internal monologue.

"...and here she is," Vazet sighed, not in relief or satisfaction, but in an ironic way. "Could you...?" He hadn't even finished his sentence before all his grunts were flying to the ground. I didn't see her lightning-fast movements, but I could see the broken bones once the men fell. "No, you won't." And, even with her demonstration of raw power, Vazet didn't so much as flinch. "I so wanted to speak with you, lady vessel of despair." And then, as if she were some kind of religious figure, he knelt down in front of her. "Please, heed my voice now that..."

"Shut your putrid trap! If she didn't dislike killing, I would have ripped your guts out already! So, keep your mouth shut or I'll make you swallow all your teeth before you reach your next word!"

Anaissa was dead serious. With such overwhelming bloodlust, she likely couldn't stop herself if she wanted to.

Vazet didn't say anything, or move for that matter. Anaissa walked around him and centered all her attention on me.

"Let's go," she said, as softly as she could, while she loaded my heavy body over her shoulder. "Does she come with us too?"

"I don't know why you'd ask." Hisa said, trying to sound tough, but she was both impressed and scared of the real strength of the queen of the Black Circle. She stepped up from the ground and was concerned for my health.

"Don't follow us." Anaissa ordered Vazet, who remained still.

"D" he replied.

"Don't play with me!" She raised her leg to kick him but...

"M" she stopped suddenly. I felt it on her: her burning rage nearly subsided!

"...how...?"

"Z" and then, the very same burning rage started to boil again with all its strength and her raised foot descended with all its might onto his face.

"You've got guts, idiot!" She said as she walked away. "But you should learn to not play with fire!"

And so we abandoned Colony 32.

Never to return.