by K. N. Lee
A glowing bar above the door scanned my body the instant I walked through it and put a picture of my kingdom issued identification up on the wall with everyone else’s for all to see.
Without the Wind-Walkers, a detailed list who just was out and about was supposed to help cut down on crime. In a place like this, it didn’t seem to matter too much. Of course, I never thought the kingdom cared a whole lot about that anyway.
Turning, I saw Magnus. The barkeeps blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail at his nap. He smiled at me, revealing a few missing teeth from breaking up brawls.
“And, why wouldn’t I come back here?” I asked, biting my lower lip as I rounded the bar and leaned against it. I didn’t need to make a drink order. I was an awful enough hunter to ensure I was in this place at least a few nights a week, ready and willing to barter the only thing I had of any value to keep food in the bellies of the people I loved.
He poured me a glass of spirit water as he responded. “You know why. You never showed up for our date.”
My stomach churned.
“Also, you promised to write me a song.”
“I did?” I asked, as I grabbed the glass, swishing the contents around and watching the way the bubbles rose to the top. “I must have been drunk that night.”
“So, a raincheck then?” He said, leaning forward, his waist pressed against the top of the bar.
“You know I don’t date,” I answered, still looking down at the drink, still marveling at the bubbles. They seemed so free down there, dancing around in their liquid, all different yet all in equal positions.
“I figured, for me, you’d make an exception,” he said. “Don’t I always take care of you when you come in here? Keep the ruffians off. Keep your glass full.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Truly.” Tilting the glass back, I let the spirit water coat my throat, sending warm tingles through my body as it traveled down. It was strong, though, too strong, in fact. I coughed loudly and sat the cup back down.
“Like that?” He asked, grinning. “I figured you could use something a little special.” He pointed to the identification of me, still plastered on the wall along with the others. It read my current blood pressure as -75, a full fifteen points higher than it normally was.
Great, I couldn’t go in to see Exeter like this. I needed to cool it, and quickly.
“Come to sell more of your hair? Or something else?” Magnus asked, eyeing me, quizzically.
I nodded, biting my lip as my eyes fluttered closed and I worked at calming myself.
“Maybe you should come back another night. Exeter isn’t in a very good mood tonight. He got a new arm, and I’m not sure it’s suiting him very well.”
“A new arm?” My brows lifted. “What was wrong with his old arm?”
He shrugged. “No clue. You know Exeter, though. He’s always on the hunt for an upgrade.”
Before I could respond, a woman poked her head out of the back door and rested her hawk-like gaze on me.
“Exeter saw you’ve arrived,” she said. Then, she motioned for me. “He’s calling for you.” The light above the door switched colors, as did the light above the image of my identification.
“Wish me luck?”
“Luck?” Magnus asked. “I don’t even think luck exists anymore.”
For a moment, he looked reflective, distant. There was a sadness in his dark blue eyes that I had never seen.
“I will tell you this, though.” He reached over to brush a lock of hair from my face. “You deserve better than selling off parts of yourself.”
I looked at the him for a long time, trying to imagine what he must have been through in his life, trying to figure all he must have seen.
Then, I exhaled and gave him a quick hug.
I turned toward the woman who waited, and prepared for what was to come—for what I was about to do.
Chapter 4
I moved toward the door, lit with the color to signify that Exeter was ready to see me.
With my anxiety, fear, and the blend of strong alcohol, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep it together in the presence of one of the most dangerous men in Freyr.
This wasn’t close to the first time I had to sell my hair. It wasn’t even close to the first time. They knew me at this place. Hell, they knew me at several places like this around the city.
So, why did I still feel like such an imposter?
Shaking my head and trying to steady myself, I stood outside the door and stood under the light. It read me, scanning and making sure that I was, in fact, the person I was supposed to be. Once it had, the door dissipated into a swirl of moving matter, translucent, and glistening.
“He has to make such a big deal out of everything,” I muttered, as I stepped through the swirling matter and walked to the other side. Once I passed through, the door solidified again, lurching the way old metal always does when it resettles.
The other side of the room was much like I remembered it being. That made sense, given the fact that it had been less than a full work spin since I’d been here. Looking around, I tried to make peace with that, with the fact that I was a big enough failure that I couldn’t go even a short time without resorting to something that I would have found both repugnant and unthinkable when Eden was around.
He wasn’t around, though. Because of that, and because of my own shortcomings, I found myself here. The room was a long rectangle, bright on at the end, where Exeter sat with a pair of his co-workers. The one to his left had a glowing red robotic eye, while the man to the left had a neck and nose of metal. For his part, Exeter’s face and head were still completely organic, though a glance lower confirmed what Magnus said to me in the front of the bar.
Exeter’s biceps were glowing metal, and not just any metal, but rare oricalcum metal. It took all I could do not to gasp when I saw them. Still, the man knew I was more than a little impressed.
“Kid’s got good taste,” Exeter said, looking from one henchman to another. “Did you hear the way her heart sped up when she checked out my new artillery?”
I didn’t speak to that. Though I hated the fact that Exeter, like all cybernetic humanoids, could hear the functions of my body—including the spikes in my pulse whenever I got excited. I knew that he used the correct word when he said artillery.
There was no telling what kind of weaponry was hiding inside that arm, inside his new bicep. It could have been anything from a flamethrower to a psionic pulsater. The only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t want to find out. So, as I stepped forward, careful not to make eye contact with any of the men I resolved to try to still my heart as well as make this quick.
“I have things to do, sir,” I said, settling in front of them. “I’m sure you can deduce the reason I’m here. I have people to feed, and they’re getting hungrier by the minute.” I shook my head. “I won’t even haggle with you this time. The usual amount for the usual amount,” I said, pointing to my hair. “Does that work for you?”
Usually, I would have tried to get as much as I could out of Exeter for the hair I was about to give him. Cybernetic people couldn’t access magic, even the old ones who were built before the fall of the energy. It was why he needed my hair so much. Or, at least, that's what I told myself. In truth, I never had the guts to allow myself to consider just what he might be doing with it. I didn’t want to. So long as I got my food, so long as my family could eat, he could be sniffing the stuff for all I cared.
Exeter blinked, a smile spreading across his face that revealed cybernetic teeth. “Oh, Moira,” he cooed. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. “What is there to know? We have an arrangement, and I figured you’d stand by that.” I shuffled uncomfortably. “You’re a businessman, right? Isn’t that what you guys do?”
Standing up to him didn’t come naturally. I wasn’t the type who liked confrontation.
“Normally, I wouldn’t even see you after everything that
’s happened. Just you being here could be a death blow to this place, to my business. But I’ll make an exception this time, but only this time,” the cybernetic man said, which confused me to my core.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, a jolt of panic running through me.
If Exeter refused to see me after today, that could prove devastating. I wasn’t nearly a good enough hunter to make it on my own. I had Ian, and he would help where he could.
Panic rose in my throat.
These were my responsibilities, but if I lost one of my biggest clients tonight, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to meet those responsibilities anymore. Why would he say that, though? As far as I could tell, everything had been going just fine.
“Look,” Exeter said, opening a drawer at the table where he sat. Pulling out a clipper, he continued. “I’ll take it all, and I don’t just mean on the head. I want the eyebrows and whatever body hair you can get me, too. You give me that, then we’ll talk about keeping you safe.”
“Keeping me safe?” My heart began to race, even as I fought to wrap my mind around letting him have all of the hair on my body, I couldn’t fathom what he was talking about.
“Look, if you don’t do it, you won’t live that long,” he said flatly, glaring up at me. “Not with them after you.”
“Them?” I asked, my body tensing as I tried to deduce who he was talking about.
“Obviously,” Exeter said, shaking his head and motioning for the man at his right to walk toward the far wall. The man did as he was instructed, standing and moving into a shadowy piece of the far wall.
My eyes followed him for a second, but were pulled back to Exeter quickly when the man began to speak.
“I’ve got a new arm. Obviously, you saw it. Given the way your heart sped up like a pecker bird, I’m going to assume you even appreciate it.”
“It’s nice machinery,” I answered, nodding firmly and trying to keep my voice, as well as my stance, steady. If Eden was alive, he wouldn’t act like a scared kid in this situation. So, I couldn’t either. Of course, if he was alive, he wouldn’t be in this situation, but I was in the position I was in.
“It’s necessary machinery, and do you know why, girl? I mean, certainly you realize that I don’t spend this kind of money just to look good.” He chuckled hard. “Even though I do look good. No, I spend money because it makes good business sense. I buy your hair, not because it’s cute, but because I can use it. And I bought my arm because the empire is cracking down on people they think are dangerous to their way of life. That includes people like me, people who go out and try to earn a living for themselves.”
The idea almost caused me to scoff out loud, and if I wasn’t so attached to my good health, I might have just done that. What Exeter was making was more than a living. He was stacking power up on the bones and desperation of the less fortunate. He knew it, and if the empire knew it, it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t like it.
Though siding with someone like Exeter, even theoretically, rubbed me the wrong way, I couldn’t help it. I had to stand with those who had my best interests at heart, even if it was only because it served their own.
I didn’t say any of that, of course. Instead, I stood still and listened like a good girl.
“As you can imagine, I’m one of those people,” Exeter said. “And, as of earlier today, so are you.”
“You’ve got me mistaken, sir,” I said, shifting my weight from one leg to the other. “I’m nobody. I’m just a head of hair.”
“Yeah. You’re right,” he answered, looking me up and down. “You are nobody, but the empire thinks otherwise. They put out a bulletin earlier on official channels. Said someone broke into sacred grounds, said they were poaching.”
“People attempt to poach on those grounds all the time,” I answered in a near panic. “I didn’t even catch anything. Certainly, they’re not hung up on-”
“Said they even attacked an imperial knight,” he added.
A flash of the man I spoke to back on the grounds filled my mind. Was he truly an imperial knight? He had worn golden armor and had an enchanted sword.
Made sense.
“Show the girl,” he said, motioning for the man at the far wall. The man flipped a switch, and as he did, my face filled the room, projected on a holo-player. It read my name. It read my address, and it read a reward for my capture.
“Thirty thousand silver credits,” I gasped, realizing what this meant. I could work for ten years and not get that money. Every desperate person in the kingdom would be after me. Every hungry, tired soul who wanted better for their family would now see me as a means to that end. And what about my family?
“I have to go!” I said frantically. “They’ll come to my house. They’ll hurt my mother, my sister. I have to-”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Exeter said. “I didn’t show you this so you’d be informed. I showed it to you in hopes you’d make the right decision. You’re worth more than thirty thousand silver credits to me. You’re magic, literally. You stay with me, you keep growing that magical mop on your head, and I’ll keep you safe. Can’t do much for your people, though. I’m afraid it’s too late for all that. But I will keep you safe. Or, you can say no. You can try to walk away, and my boys here will beat you until you can’t move and-”
“Toss me in a cell anyway?” I asked, my throat dry. “I thought you didn’t believe in slavery? Isn’t that part of your whole thing?”
“The human part of me was held captive by the empire for so long that I forgot where I came from,” Exeter said. “I would never do that to another person, but I’ve put a lot of time and money into you. I’m not about to let someone who didn’t cash in on my investment because you’re feeling frisky. You don’t want to work for me, that’s fine. I mean, it’s stupid, but it’s fine. I’ll have my guys bring you into the palace. At least, I’ll get my money’s worth. Oh, we’ll shave you first, too. Cost of doing business and all that.”
I stiffened, utterly terrified.
I should have listened to Ian—to Magnus—to the little voice inside my head who’d been warning me this would happen all along.
He nodded at me. “So, make your choice, Moira. What’ll it be?”
Chapter 5
My body went stiff as I looked at Exeter.
I was no longer looking at a prospective buyer. I wasn’t gazing into the quasi-mechanical face of someone who might be able to help me feed my family that night. Right now, I was looking at the face of my future.
Exeter offered to keep me safe. He offered to hide me away from the empire and make sure I didn’t die tonight. All I had to do was leave my family to suffer that fate and swear to be his magical hair producer for what would likely turn out to be the rest of my life.
My stomach turned at that idea. Even if I was inclined on taking it, I couldn’t just let my mother and sister die. They were all I had left, now that Eden was gone. Letting go of them would be akin to giving up. It would invalidate all the suffering I had been through, all the work I had done. Because, if I didn’t do it for them, so they would be okay, then what possible reason could there be? What motive, save love, would ever be strong enough to put myself through this?
Of course, I wasn’t sure what choice I had. Exeter was a strong man. His new bicep only added to that strength, and the fact that two people stood alongside him, both decked out in cybernetics as well, was all the proof I needed that this wasn’t a fight I could win. Not that it would have mattered. Exeter wouldn’t have needed the duo to take me out. I was an easy kill, a helpless fawn of a girl. I didn’t train for any of this. I didn’t think I had to. It was upon me now, though, and that left me with only one choice.
I would have to fake it.
“Stay back!” I said, throwing my hands out in front of me in a position not unlike one I had seen a mage use once when channeling magic. My hands splayed out in front of me, fingers wiggling just a little as I turned from one of the men to the other.
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I, of course, had no idea how to use the magic I had been told flowed through my veins and glowed along my birthmark whenever I was angry. This was my only card to play, though. If I did know how to harness the power supposedly inside of me, it would theoretically make me a force to be reckoned with.
Of course, no one I had ever come across knew how to do anything like that. Learning how to wield magic would have been like learning how to grow a tail. It would have been simply impossible.
“Is this a joke?” Exeter asked, standing and eyeing me like I was the craziest person in the whole of the kingdom. “Are you really threatening me right now?”
“I sure am,” I answered, my throat dry and my body dying to tremble. I couldn’t allow it, though. To shake would show him I was afraid, and someone who housed as much magic as I was supposed to have had no reason to be afraid. He would, theoretically, also have no reason to be hungry and have no need to come see Exeter.
Still, I could only use what I had, and this was it.
“You’re a child,” Exeter said through clenched teeth, his cybernetic bicep glowing as he rounded the table and started toward me. Everyone heard the stories of how brutal he was. He was a tyrant, and more than terrible enough to earn his horrid reputation.
As far as myself, I had only ever seen the man get rough with someone once. A kid, not much younger than myself, tried to pass off synthetic lining as genuine fur pelts. The poor guy was trying to get some extra food for his family. He left without the food, the fabric, and six of the fingers he came in with.
Watching that happen almost stopped me from ever coming to see Exeter again.
I tried to push those thoughts out of my mind as I looked at him. I needed to stay strong—to be convincing.
“Children are as dangerous as anyone else when you push them enough,” I answered, my eyes wide and my tone miraculously steady. “I’ve been kicked too many times. I’ve been pushed into a corner. You want me to see what I’m capable of? Keep walking. I think you’ll be in for a surprise.”