Steam curled from the dented kettle like a tamed ghost. Raizen lifted it off the flame and poured, trying not to burn his fingers.
Hikari sat on the windowsill with her knees hugged close, watching the Underworks breathe through vents pipes. On the table, a heavy purse sat where Obi had dropped it with ceremony.
"Oh, oh, did I mention the roar" Obi asked from the rug. "It started like a breeze and then - boom - storm. Cheering. A little weeping. I'm pretty sure a man proposed to me. I declined because I'm married to the craft"
"Married to your mouth" Raizen muttered.
"That too. I'm not saying I'm a local legend, but if someone scrawls my face on a wall I won't complain"
Across the room, Takeshi sat in his chair like he always did. The mechanical hand rested open on his knee. His flesh fingers turned a pin while his eyes tracked the web on the wall - new threads, new notes. He didn't speak, but the set of his shoulders said he was listening.
"I had a visitor" Obi said, grin flickering. "After everything"
Raizen's eyebrows went up. "The big guy with the creative spelling?"
"Tempting, but no. Cinderette. Cloak, mask, dramatics - except no mask this time"
Hikari tilted her head. "What did she want?"
"To see the forge" Obi grinned, trying and failing to sound casual. "Pretended she was judging my tools. Was obviously judging my face. We discussed vents. She left before I could offer noodles. Tragic"
Raizen smiled. "Would you look at that. The loud smith and the gas grenade. That's how history will file you"
"Anyway" Obi stretched until his shoulders popped. "How was your day not being a champion?"
"Brutal" Raizen exhaled.
"Don't listen to him, he's getting way better" Hikari interrupted.
"Hey, you shouldn't be the one to judge. You get everything almost perfect" Raizen shot back, but he was half smiling.
A knock. The door swung in before anyone answered. Louissa stepped through with a basket on her arm, carrying warmth the way other people carried knives.
"Evening" she whispered.
Obi saluted with his cup. "Granny, tell them I'm magnificent!"
"You're full of noise, that's for sure" she said, smiling as she set the basket down. "I brought something for you" she added, and then to Raizen and Hikari, "You two. Listen."
They straightened without thinking. Even Takeshi lifted his gaze from the board.
"You want to enter the Lotus Academy" Louissa said. Not a question. "Good. Then you'll need more than will"
"Luminite...?" Raizen asked. The word tasted expensive.
"Stupidly" Louissa agreed.
"Hoarded by soft-handed men who polish their power and call it virtue. Purer luminite cuts deeper. Pair it with what your life can give it and you become something that ends Nyxes instead of patting them"
Obi leaned in. "Last year the exam was riddles, right?"
"Tons of paper and memory. They needed sharp minds to feed the right fire to the right ruin. This year is different. Division One is gone"
The grin slipped from Obi's mouth. Hikari's fingers tightened on her knees.
"Wiped?" Takeshi asked. His voice was a closed door.
"No names. No bodies anyone will admit" Louissa said. "But the gaps are there. When the strong disappear, the Academy stops asking riddles"
"So... A combat exam" Raizen said. His eyes burned a little brighter.
"Or something that should be and then isn't. Either way, you won't reach the door without Luminite. I can give you a road"
"Tell us" Raizen said.
"There's a man. Marcus Valerius. Neoshima official" Louissa went on. "He came down to do dirty business. Keeps a bodyguard glued to his side, and he's scheduled to meet someone soon"
"Where?" Takeshi asked, already looking over the map.
Louissa's eyes sharpened. You could see the other life in them - the broker who knew too much. "Where shady conversations pretend not to be deals. The Maw"
They had heard the name enough times to know not to ask directions. The Maw was in a tone of voice - low ceiling, dim lights that hid more than they lit, dangerous men trying to look bored.
"What's on the table" Hikari asked quietly.
"Luminite" Louissa stated the obvious. "Not a vault, but enough. He'll carry a sample to prove his leverage. He plans to sell to someone uglier than his reflection"
Obi whistled under his breath. "So we borrow the sample before leverage learns to count"
Raizen's smile came crooked and quick. "We scout first. Entrances, exits, roofline. If there's a vent -"
"Windows, crowd flow, where the bodyguard stands when he thinks he's not standing" Hikari added, eyes going distant the way they did when she built a room in her head.
"Or" Obi lifted a finger "and hear me out - we walk up and grab it"
Both of them stared. Raizen raised an eyebrow. Takeshi made a sound that might have been a laugh.
"Simple" Obi said, wounded and theatrical. "Elegant"
"Suicidal" Raizen said, but the corner of his mouth betrayed him.
"Not if you add style" Obi smiled. "Style blinds. People forget to hold their pockets"
Louissa's smile folded into her eyes. "You three shouldn't be allowed in the same plan" she said, fond despite herself. "And yet..."
Takeshi looked around the room. "You need three things" he said. "Eyes. Time. The way they expect, and the way you take instead"
"I have eyes" Obi said. "Time and trickery pending"
"Tomorrow night" Louissa concluded. "Marcus moved the meeting forward. Word came late. It's either a trap or a gift. I don't like either. But a gift feeds more people"
Obi tapped the purse on the table, then tapped his chest. "Then tomorrow we go shopping"
"Unnoticed, if possible" Takeshi said, already back at the web. The Moirai's name sat in one corner, written small, underlined twice. He added a thread and didn't explain why.
They ate while the kettle kept the room kind. The jar held citrus jam. Obi pretended not to like it so he could steal a second spoon. Raizen tried to pay Obi for the earlier pastries with Obi's own coin and got cuffed on the ear. Hikari laughed at a face Obi swore was not a funny face but a heroic expression of triumph. Takeshi cleaned a screw that didn't need cleaning and listened to his makeshift family fill the space where the Underworks couldn't reach.
When the lamplight slid lower on the walls, the plan sat between them - unfinished, unsafe, alive.
Obi hooked the winner's token on his belt, tested its pull like a smith checking work, and grinned at the tiny window. "The Maw won't know what hit its appetite"
No one had to say where they would meet or what to bring. The room held those answers already.
Outside, the Underworks muttered in its sleep. Above, the Tangle hummed and swayed.
The Maw waited like a mouth in the dark.