tik-tik~ tik-tik~
The driver pointed through the rain slick window.
"Just follow the trees that way and you'll find the entrance. And if you look to your right…"
"The entrance will be there. It's hidden, but you'll see it."
Valentina and the man opened their doors, unbuckled little Jie's seatbelt, and helped her out.
Little Jie pulled her shoulders up, the wildefowl plushie hanging heavy in one hand while her feathers drooped against her head. The rain made everything shine—the street, the sidewalk and the leaves.
She stared at a single leaf on the ground before Valentina took her hand.
Without paying the cab much attention, Valentina followed the direction the driver had pointed. The man followed just behind them, shielding Jie as best he could with his body.
They found the entrance rather easily.
It was hard to miss when the lights spilled over it.
A handful of people emerged from within, holding umbrellas, bags, jackets and whatever else they could over their heads. The three hurried forward, their shoes splashing against the wet ground.
There was no door—at least, not the kind Jie though of.
Instead, a small security checkpoint stood there, like one she'd seen near the stations, only without the card readers or gates. The night and rain blurred the finer details of the building, but no one stopped them.
And so, she kept walking.
Once they crossed it, they were met by a wide open space.
The ceiling stretched high above them. Far higher than it should have. The sound of rain changed here, sounding muffled, tapping somewhere beyond the glass while the steps and quiet voices filled the space.
On the far side, past the people gathered inside, stood another gate identical to the one they had just passed through.
Most people kept to themselves.
Others spoke quietly with the friends beside them, their heads tilted close together like they were sharing secrets.
They stopped near a wall.
The man knelt down, unzipped Jie's soaked jacket and eased it off her shoulders. Her eyes drooped with frustrated resignation when she handed over her plushie.
Then he reached for both feathered tufts.
He gently tugged and shook them to rid them of the water soaked through them.
"Didn't know this one was still open this late."
Valentina murmured something near his ear. Her bracelet buzzed against her wrist, drawing her gaze down.
She muted it and checked the caller ID.
An older couple hugging each other appeared on the screen, Valentina answered. Once the call connected, she lowered the volume, letting a quiet woman's voice come through.
"Hello? Are you there?"
The voice was clear but with tension in her tone.
"Yes, I'm here."
Valentina responded in a soft tone, speaking closely to the bracelet.
"I'm sorry but my husband got a heart attack on the way...."
Why would your heart attack you?
Jie looked down and placed a hand over her chest, feeling a small thump.
"You'll have to forgive me for all of these inconveniences but my boy will pick you up."
The woman on the call paused. A swallow followed.
"—Could you wait for my son to arrive? Twenty minutes at most."
Valentina glanced at the man and at her.
Her own eyes moved to Uncle, where he was putting her wet jacket and plushie inside a plastic bag.
Little Jie was busy smoothing the feathers on her head, shaping them into tiny horns. One side stayed down no matter how much she tried. She pressed it harder, then let go.
Yet it bounced halfway back.
"That's okay."
Valentina said quietly.
"It's been hectic all month with everything going on."
She rubbed her shoulder, the chill from outside still creeping in.
They spoke a little longer before ending the call. Valentina exhaled, her sigh blending with the soft pitter of rain hitting the glass to their right.
Valentina lowered her wrist and looked at Uncle before speaking.
"We'll be waiting for their son to pick us up."
The two shared a look, raising his eyebrows in a questioning matter.
"He had a heart attack."
He only replied with a low whistle.
"Since we're here...might as well check it out."
The man handed the plastic bag to Valentina, then took Jie's hand.
The open hall stretched wider the farther they walked.
Then she saw it.
Its ribs curved wide enough for the lights to pass through, casting thin shadows across the floor. Its long body curled through the air, tail wrapped in a slow spiral toward the ceiling, like something that had tried to swim upward and never came back down.
Jie slowed.
Her tiny chest tightened while the air around her seemed to grow heavy.
The overhead lights hummed, casting faint shadows through the beast's ribs—a cage of bone and silence hanging over her while the light slipped through and struck her square in the chest.
She could not tell whether it was the cold air or her own heart making her shiver.
It was not moving.
Yet she felt its weight anyway.
Something about it pressed down from above while piercing straight through her.
It stayed still.
But something inside her did not.
She took one careful step forward, then another, until she found the man beside her.
Without thinking, she reached out and grabbed his hand.
Little Jie glanced up once more, following the creature's tail as it wrapped and spiraled toward the ceiling.
Her own shoes tapped lightly against the polished stone floor while something sat wedged inside her chest.
Little Jie shook her head and faced forward.
The desks gradually gave way to lounges. The lounges ended where the space closed off into rooms, glass panels set high enough for her to peer through, polished wooden walls holding them in place.
To their right, another section opened beyond a stretch of smooth concrete.
Slim lights were embedded in the ceiling, spilling their brilliance toward the outer window, where a small garden swayed in the rain. A help station blinked quietly nearby, a worker typing away at a keyboard.
The trio kept walking until they reached the base of the stairs.
The steps tapered inward before rising into a floor of their own.
Little Jie looked up. Then up some more.
Too many stairs to see.
More rooms wrapped around the staircase and along one side hung a wall full of framed portraits. The faces inside stared out at the open space, all still, all serious, all looking like they knew where everything was.
They moved toward a slim kiosk beside the stairs, its screen showing an image of the building itself—concrete, steel, wood, and glass all stitched into one.
Valentina hesitantly tapped the screen.
"Oh wow."
She murmured.
"It has auditoriums… classrooms. It's much bigger than I thought."
She didn't forget the warning she'd read when they first entered—her voice low while people passed quietly around them.
Curious, she tapped the colored icons scattered across the map. Each one unfolding a new image.
"Huh."
She breathed while looking curiously at the screen, little Jie peeking from below.
"A museum too."
"Is there any book you want to read?"
Jie's head feathers were still flattened from drying them earlier. One tuft curled wrong, but she had long given up fixing it.
The little girl thought for a moment, her eyes drifting until they landed on a nearby screen, where a looping video played.
"Um… Ma...? Ma…gic..."
She fumbled over her words, the tips of her shoes tapping together while she tucked her hands behind her back. Her gaze slipped aside before peeking up at Valentina again.
The faint gleam in her eyes was unmistakable, bright with hope.
Valentina ruffled her hair, mussing the little tufts until they stuck out.
Little Jie puffed her cheeks in mild protest.
"Lets see, there should be something here."
The woman kept searching, a list of numbers and short descriptions popping up as she went.
Little Jie grabbed her hand and Valentina led her up the stairs.
Then they kept going.
And going.
And going.
Little Jie held the railing with one hand and Valentina with the other, her short legs working hard to keep up. The wooden rail curved around the edge of the floor, smooth beneath her fingers whenever she had to let go and grab it again.
At the next level, a long desk of metal and wood wrapped around the space, lined with computers separated only by distance, not walls.
They kept walking until they found another staircase, this one made entirely of metal. They grabbed the railing and started up.
Valentina followed the interior map on her bracelet, checking the platforms where their books were listed.
The upper floors hung from the ceiling, supported by catwalks of metal and opaque tempered glass. Some opened into platforms lined with leather seats, others held shelves, and a few existed purely as quiet spaces to decompress.
Little Jie did not know what decompress meant.
They finally reached their floor.
The shelves were spaced much like the ones below, though the platforms beneath them were set farther apart. The glass under her shoes was not clear, but she still walked carefully, just in case it changed its mind.
Soon enough, the trio found their section, where books and terminals displaying flavor text and cover art filled the shelves.
"Jie."
"Yes?!"
Her voice turned slightly chirpy right when she looked up at Valentina, who was already looking back at her with a thin book in her hands.
The cover immediately caught her eyes.
It showed a sword—a gleaming blade that was neither overbearing nor simple. Blood stained its length, and its golden hilt rested atop a patch of grass standing alone in a boundless desert.
"Do you know…"
Valentina began, her voice softer now, her thumb pointing at the hilt of the sword.
"…of Maides, the Radiant King?"
Little Jie shook her head and waited patiently.
Valentina lowered herself slightly, holding the book where she could see.
"It's a simple story."
The tale of a young man, the king of a distant land, and his journey through the sands of Sabahran. A journey to gather wealth beyond imagination, to collect vast fortunes and treasures of every kind.
He was the most prosperous Intermezzian of his age, a master of countless spells, a builder of endless fortune.
Yet in his pursuit of riches, he came upon a satyr lying half-buried in the endless backlands of golden sand.
Little Jie's eyes moved to the picture on the cover again.
Amused, the radiant king kept the creature company, humoring its riddles and laughter for ten days and ten nights.
"And when all was said and done, the satyr granted the radiant king a wish—everything he touched would turn to gold."
Even his food.
Her fingers curled slightly.
The king could not accept such a thing, and so he set out once more across his realm, hoarding every glint and shimmer he could claim.
Until the day his own fingers grew too heavy to lift, and his heart too still to move.
Valentina's voice softened at the end, all while little Jie listened with full attention.
"But even in regret, he did not mourn his riches—only his touch."
"So, Jie." Valentina said, her tone playful.
"Was this man good or bad?"
Her thoughts bumped into each other until her mind cleared.
"Neither!"
She said at last, proud enough for her little voice to carry throughout the building.
"...!"
"Mmm?"
For a second, something felt off.
Her body became light and heavy all at once, like she had stood up too fast. The lights above stretched themselves into long pale lines while the shelves blurred together, brown and endless like a desert.
"...?"
Jie looked down at her hands, then at the book.
The hilt on the cover gleamed under the library light, just the same.
"Jie?"
The little girl lifted her head, trying to find her words but her nose twitched first.
Her eyes squeezed shut.
"nn-chh!"
The last bit of wakefulness inside her scattered like crumbs across the floor.
"Sleepy?"
Jie tried to shake her head. Instead, it came out as a wobble.
Then her eyes closed.
Her body sagged gently into Uncle's arms, the library lights warming her face. The sounds around her thinned one by one—rain, footsteps, and at last, the voices.
"Looks like that's enough for today."
Some time later, the three of them were back where they had started, standing near the larger crowd waiting for the rain to pass. The twenty minutes were nearly up when Valentina answered a call buzzing at her wrist.
"He's here? Okay, hmm. Alright, see you soon."
She ended the call before turning to the man.
"It'll be the white car in the front."
Once they were ready, they stepped outside and headed toward the front, searching for a car with its hazards on. They spotted one through the rain, its headlights cutting across the downpour while they hurried toward it.
Uncle walked up and knocked on the glass.
The window rolled down, the dome light giving both sides a clear look at each other.
"Come on in!"
Valentina pulled open the rear door and climbed inside, taking Jie when she was passed over. The door shut with a dull thump after the man climbed in beside them.
"The heat's already on so it won't take long."
The young man said, throwing a glance into the rearview mirror, making sure they were settled and buckled. The steady rhythm of the wipers filled the silence, blending into the slow crawl of traffic.
"Sorry about the wait."
Valentina gave a small nod, the three of them easing into the seat.
They stopped at an intersection and waited for the light to change, the signal hanging above them through the rain.
A few long seconds passed.
Then—green.
The young man pressed the throttle lightly, easing them forward while a horn blared somewhere in the distance.
Bright headlights cut through the downpour dead ahead.
For a second, they were all anyone could see.
"Wait—!"
He slammed the pedal down. Tires skidded across the wet asphalt, the car jolted forward just when the other vehicle tore through the crossing.
The oncoming car tried to swerve out of the way, but its wheels could not hold. Its chassis twisted sideways, still barreling straight toward them.
"OH F-!"
The city folded in a single violent jerk.
Metal shrieked, glass sheared off.
The force snapped Jie sideways. Her seatbelt bit once before giving with a slap and throwing her forward.
Her small body lifted into the air, the street spinning past in a blur of light and sound. Both vehicles' horns wailed without stopping, their cries blending into one deafening scream.
She tried to breathe, to cry out—but nothing came.
Pain coursed through her, her limbs flailed, her eyes burned through the haze swallowing her vision.
The whole street collapsed into a single sound.