Sham and Riot ambled in silence down the coastal road of the Harbour District. Sham found himself wondering whether Riot’s casual body language was an accurate reflection of her inner feelings; so few women he’d known would be comfortable traversing this area of the city at this hour. If she really was at ease, was this some cultural divide? Was her home area so devoid of crime that women could feel comfortable being out so late without fearing for their safety? Or was it the revolver that existed in her jacket pocket, and her confidence in using it? He’d considered asking, but the brain fog was beginning to creep in once more after the last few days’ strenuous activities. He needed to conserve energy. For now. Until he finally got that damned Vigour vial that awaited him at the end of this journey.

There was a decision to be made here, of course. Pressing Asa on the matter of just why in the hells he’d need a floorplan of the Tower might anger the man. Might make him even less likely to give Sham the vials he thought; maybe even dropping Gresley’s name wouldn’t be enough. And maybe—

‘I’m a little confused, here,’ Riot suddenly said.

‘What?’

‘I’m confused,’ she said again, then didn’t continue, apparently expecting the obvious question.

‘You gonna tell me why?’ Sham asked.

‘Well… we know a few things here. We know that Asa gave away a good number of skill vials in return for this document. And—’

‘Yes, I was just there. I remember.’

‘—therefore we know that this is of a great value to him. But I can think of only one person who would have any need for it, and that’s…’

‘Julya,’ Sham replied with a nod. ‘I was thinking the same thing. So he gives her the map, so what?’

‘Well, it’s just… You implied before that in one of your previous Loops you stumbled across—’

‘We,’ Sham corrected her.

‘We?’

‘Yes, you were there. It was your fault I was there too, to be honest.’

‘Right, well,’ Riot continued, ‘we stumbled across the Target at Asa’s warehouse. And so it’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to suppose that she receives her vials from him. So… what does he get out of all this? From our current level of understanding, his net gain is in the negative. In the negative one crate of skill vials.’

Sham nodded, allowing himself time to think. A night tram rattled past, near empty with its few passengers gazing blankly on at the pedestrians. ‘We don’t know that he gives up the vials willingly. He doesn’t have the benefit of remembering the Loops, remember; Julya could be taking him by surprise every Loop.’

‘From what you remember—’

‘Oh, he remembers…’

‘—did Julya seem like she was in conflict with Asa and his…’ She waved her hand, as though looking for the right word.

‘I’ve been going with “associates”,’ Sham said. ‘And… no. It seemed like they were in it together.’

‘In what together, though? We can only assume, based on the information at hand, that Asa is encouraging the attack on the Tower. But what would he get out from all this?’

Sham opened his mouth as if to provide an answer, but then found that he had nothing to offer. He shrugged. ‘Don’t know.’

‘And that,’ Riot said, ‘is why I’m confused.’

‘Yeah, I… I suppose.’

The woman scoffed. ‘You “suppose?”’

‘I dunno, I guess I just hadn’t thought it through like you have. I’m not… I’m not, like, a lateral thinker like that, I—’

‘Right…’

‘—am more of a “make it up as I go along” kinda guy.’

‘And you think that would work in situations like these, do you?’

Sham felt his cheeks turn red, and felt thankful that Riot’s gaze was steady on the pavement before them. ‘Didn’t say it’d work. Just said it was how I’m wired. That’s all.’

‘Good job I’m here, then,’ Riot mumbled.

A sigh. Sham was surprised to find that it had come from his own lips. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I suppose it is.’

As they arrived at the dusty old warehouse on End Street, it occurred to Sham that Asa might not be awake to greet them, or to fulfil his end of the bargain. But these fears were put safely to bed once they were ushered inside to see the man himself waiting for them.

‘My new friends!’ Asa called out with open arms. ‘Everything go alright, yeah?’

In response, Sham pulled the document from his jacket and waved it gently in the air. ‘Got your payment right here,’ he said.

A smile fixed itself on Asa’s face. ‘Then I got yours, and all.’ He turned to one of his associates. ‘Oi. Get the vials, yeah?’

Sham furrowed his brow as Asa stepped towards him. ‘Just like that?’ he asked.

‘What, you think I was gonna stiff you?’ Asa responded as he pulled the document free of Sham’s grasp.

‘He tried to do just that last time…’

‘Well, yeah, the thought did cross my mind.’

‘What is it for?’ Riot piped up, apparently abandoning all attempts at tact like Sham had internally planned. ‘The floorplan. What’s it for?’

If Asa was irritated that they’d taken a look at the document, he didn’t show it. His smiling face glanced to Riot, then back to Sham.

‘What?’ Sham said. ‘You didn’t tell us not to—’

But Asa waved him down. ‘Yeah. S’pose I didn’t, did I?’

‘You didn’t,’ Riot clarified, noticing a mark near the waist of her trousers, wetting her finger with her tongue and trying to scrub it off. Did that absolutely need cleaning right then, or was Riot trying to seem uninterested?

‘Don’t think it matters why I want it, does it?’ Asa went on. ‘I got what I wanted, and you…’ He watched his employee haul a crate closer—one not unlike Sham had offloaded at the docks. ‘You’re getting what you want. Any questions are—’

‘Does it have to do with Gresley?’ Sham tried. It was his only angle; Asa was a glorified—if shady—middleman, and he could only assume that this document was not for Asa’s benefit, but someone else’s.

The answer came in the form of silence. Pointed silence.

‘I see,’ Riot murmured.

‘Who are they, then?’ Sham continued. ‘Gresley’s employers that he talks so much about? Who are they?’

Asa remained silent for a moment longer, and Sham could virtually see the cogs turning in the man’s brain. They moved slowly, needed oiling.

‘And you know this Gresley, then, do you? Spoken to him recently?’ came Asa’s reply.

[HEART OF JANUS] WHAT KIND OF ANSWER IS THAT?: SUCCESS

Lots of words, so little said; Asa just told you precisely nothing with that response.

‘Have you?’ Sham replied.

Asa went silent, and the lack of reply was answer enough.

Sham glanced at Riot, and found that she was already staring at him. ‘What do you think?’

Riot nodded. She was on the same wavelength as him. Nothing else needed to be said here, in front of Asa. Nothing else needed to be said else risk their prize.

Asa turned away, a near scowl on his face, but plucked a vial free of the crate despite his apparent irritation. ‘Here,’ he said, placing the glass vial into Sham’s hand. ‘Vigour. That work?’

‘How did you know?’ Sham asked.

Asa shrugged. ‘Like to think I’m good at reading people. Am I wrong?’

‘No, it’s just…’ Sham started, and felt his face go pale.

‘Sham?’ Riot asked from his side. ‘What is it?’

Sham looked from the Vigour vial in his hand, to Riot, and back to the vial once more. There was a truth here that he couldn’t ignore; the vigour vial would help him, yes. It would help him overcome his illness, would help him overpower others who he came upon in the course of completing these quests. But he couldn’t imagine a world where the skill—even at a legendary grade—would do more to help him than having Riot at his side. And, besides, there was always next Loop, and the one after, and the one after… Plenty of time for him to get the skill, or skills, that he so desperately wanted. What was nine more days of sickness, when he’d already managed years?

‘No,’ he finally said, pushing the vial back into Asa’s hands.

The criminal’s eyes widened with surprise, an eyebrow raised. ‘No? You don’t want it?’

‘Recollection,’ Sham said. ‘That’s… that’s the one I want.’

While Asa furrowed his brow, Riot’s eyes lit up; she’d understood what Sham was doing.

‘Are you…’ she started. ‘Are you sure, Sham? I know how much Vigour would mean to—’

‘I’m sure,’ Sham cut her off. ‘Recollection. That’s the one I want.’

Asa smiled, his eyes glistening. ‘How’s this, then?’ he said after a few moments of consideration. ‘Take both.’

Sham narrowed his eyes; this was far too generous an act for the Asa he’d come to know thus far. ‘What’s the catch?’

The criminal shrugged. ‘No catch. Just if, you know, us two ever meet again, I might ask a favour.’

He could’ve asked what the favour would be. Perhaps he should have asked. But, right then, Sham had two legendary grade skill vials being waved his way, and all he could think about was taking them. ‘Deal,’ he said.

‘You should come back to mine,’ Sham said, in the shadows of the tram stop.

‘What?’ Riot replied, alarmed. ‘Why?’

‘To take the vials. We should be together.’

Riot’s eyes narrowed, staring into Sham’s eyes as though trying to peer into his brain. ‘Why does that require us being together?’

Sham gulped. This was a moment he’d not planned for. ‘There’s… something I haven’t told you about my legendary Recollection skill. The skill that you have in your jacket pocket. It…’

‘It what, Sham?’ Riot’s voice was gentle, her eyes… scared? Worried?

‘Well, like…’ Sham started, finding his eyes sink to the ground. ‘They tell you boono has downsides. And they’re not wrong about that. But I reckon these types of vials do too. You can’t just take the easy way out all the time—mastering skills in an instant—without paying some kind of price. There… There has to be a trade-off. With these vials, the side effects aren’t initially obvious, but… And people can hide them. Lots of people do, I reckon. Except for the Loopkeepers, but they have weird religious beliefs around it and…’

Riot stepped in close, her face cutting Sham’s line of sight to the floor. ‘What is it, Sham?’ She waited patiently for him to respond.

‘Go on Sham. Tell her. Watch her think you mad again. Watch her run away,’ Recollection slurred.

‘It’s... The skills have lives of their own, see, at this level. They have thoughts. They have feelings. They have… Well, for lack of a better word, they have power.’

‘You’re saying…’ Riot prompted.

‘I’m saying—’

‘He hears me.’

‘—I hear him. Recollection. In my mind. It’s manageable. And it’s a price I think we have to pay if we’re going to break this gods damned Loop, but… It’s something that takes some adjusting to.’

No response at first. Riot took a step back, facing towards the road, her shoes on the very edge of the curb. She spoke without turning. ‘They talk to you.’

‘Yes. But I’m not… I’m not mad, Riot. I just—’

‘No no,’ she said. ‘I don’t think that. But I’m not sure it’s necessarily a good idea for me to take this, if what you say is true.’

‘I know it’s not ideal.’

Riot scoffed.

‘I know it’s…’ Sham started again, trying to find better wording. ‘I know it’s a high price to pay. But what’s the alternative? Remain in the dark? Live through all these Loops only to wake up back at the start without remembering them? What if these Loops go on forever, Riot? What if you’re trapped here, in these nine days, for an eternity? Without even knowing it. I don’t… I don’t want that for you, Riot.’

His friend remained at the curb, staring out onto the street. A night tram rattled past, its headlights bright, its carriage empty. Such was the lateness of the hour.

‘I’m not going to yours,’ Riot finally said.

‘You’re not taking it?’

Riot finally turned. ‘No, I didn’t say that. We’re not going to yours, because we’re going to mine instead. I hope you don’t mind me making any assumptions here, but… I think my residence might be more comfortable. For both of us.’

Sham breathed a sigh of relief. ‘No, Riot, I don’t mind that at all.’

‘Good,’ Riot replied, ‘Now let's go put some voices in our heads.’