‘I don’t…’ Sham started, ‘I don’t understand. Gresley? Again?’

But the royalist’s involvement was only some small part of the light shed by Julya’s tale. Gresley being the catalyst that sparked Julya’s creation of the Loop was interesting, sure, but it didn’t help Sham now.

There was more than that to Julya’s story, though; another mention of people stripped of skills for one. Sham had put his Investigate The Bodies quest on the backburner, but that didn’t mean more information couldn’t find its way to him. Julya, too, had come across the connection between the skill-less bodies and the PM. There really was no denying it now. Enoch Chambers really was at the centre of it all, and Sham was finding it harder and harder to deny an increasingly obvious truth: the skills in those vials had to come from somewhere.

But there was one last part that most needed interrogation out of Julya while she was here, while she was receptive to talking to him. Sham understood how she’d come to destroy the Tower the first time: she’d been driven to it by rage, armed by Gresley and Asa, and pointed—as a weapon—in the PM’s direction. Nobody could have known that consuming all those vials would rip the world apart. Nobody could have expected the Loop.

But nobody should have wanted to go through it all again.

‘What don’t you understand?’ Julya replied.

‘You’ve died. You’ve exploded. Again and again and again. And you just… keep doing it?’

Julya raised her eyebrows. ‘Like I told you: the voice tells me to do it.’

‘The voice,’ Sham repeated. In all the madness of Julya’s tale, the mention of her interaction with the Fringe—of all fucking things!—had almost slipped his mind. ‘You mean the Fringe? You have the Fringe talking to you, and you think it’s best to do as it says?’

The woman in front of him smiled a knowing smile. ‘Got me this far, hasn’t it?’

‘So that’s it, then, is it?’ Sham replied. ‘All this… This whole damn Loop is happening because you’re… mad.’

QUEST COMPLETE: THE PARADOX

Investigate those involved with the Night That Never Was.

[LEVEL UP]

Select Skill Upgrade: [Magnetism] // [Seasoned] // [[Poise]]

Julya’s continued knowing smile almost went unnoticed to Sham for the quest finally being marked as complete. How could he have known, all those Loops ago, that this would end up being the answer? And important enough a quest it had been to him, too, that it granted him the experience to level up. Not that he had a moment to think about that right now.

Sham turned, stared out his window at his city beyond, covered now in the blanket of night.

‘So,’ Julya said. ‘Will you? Will you leave me be?’

Sham wanted to say yes. He wanted to say yes if only to avoid what would have to come next if he didn’t. But Julya was asking him to exist through a possibly near-infinite number of Loops. And there was little chance of his mind holding out quite that long.

Julya’s face changed; no longer did she wear that strange smile. She knew what answer was coming. ‘Well, then. I suppose this means…’ She edged her hand towards her revolver on the table.

‘Yeah,’ Sham replied, reaching his hand down to an empty gin bottle, so carelessly discarded in this corner of the room by his former self. ‘I suppose it does.’

They stared at one another for a moment, each daring the other to make the first move. Sham buckled first.

FEAT OF STRENGTH (VIGOUR)

You know what to do. You know she deserves this.

Sham launched the empty bottle across the room towards Julya’s head as she swung the revolver in his direction. He dived from the bed to the floor, just in time to both hear and feel a bullet ripple through the air above him.

He landed on the floor with a thud, but didn’t waste any time in hopping back up to his feet. Half-crouched, Sham threw himself into the woman sitting in his chair, knocking both of them—and the chair—to the ground, where they both scrambled for the weapon.

Julya reached it first, but Sham was again quick to react, ramming himself through his front door and out into the open of the exterior stairwell. He ducked for cover behind the wall as another shot rang out.

‘You don’t have to shoot me!’ Sham cried out.

‘You going to let me go if I don’t?’ Julya replied.

‘I’m finding myself more open to talking,’ Sham lied, ‘That is, if you are.’

[HEART OF JANUS] MAYBE I WILL, MAYBE I WONT: SUCCESS

Julya wants to believe you. Or, rather, she wants to believe she doesn’t have to kill you. She takes no pleasure in it, after all.

Sham felt the atmosphere change in the room, heard Julya stepping towards the door. He remained poised, ready to strike, at the side of his front door.

As soon as he glimpsed Julya stepping onto the stairwell, he pounced, launching himself at the revolver that she still gripped in her hands—she didn’t trust him that much, after all. He struck her with such force that the weapon was ripped from her hands and thrown off the edge of the stairwell, towards the street below.

‘Oh, you fucking—’ Julya started, then began to bolt it down the staircase.

Sham charged after her, but found that though he was stronger, he remained slower than the woman he was following.

‘Should’ve got a Fleet of Foot then, shouldn’t ya?’ Vigour grumbled. ‘Instead of this Joy crap.’

‘I thought you said you liked me!’ Joy protested.

Sham screeched to a halt at the bottom of the stairwell, eyes scouring the crowds for sign of Julya. When he saw her, his heart dropped; she was at the tram stop, and one such vehicle was approaching. He launched himself down the street, dodging pedestrians as he ran, finding himself—against all odds—agreeing with Vigour.

There was one counterargument, though: despite the hardships of the last few minutes, all the fighting, all the lying, all the running, he felt like he was… enjoying it.

‘You’re welcome, sweetheart,’ Joy’s soothing voice rang out.

The tram came to a halt ahead of him, and Sham watched as Julya stepped on board. He ran faster, as fast as his legs could take, but reached the rear of the tram only after the doors had closed and it was beginning to pull away.

Sham jumped onto the lip that protruded from beneath the door, and clung on for dear life as the tram sped up in its route towards the city centre.

A passenger—a woman about Sham’s age, clutching two kids—gasped with shock as she spotted Sham, but instead of helping seemed frozen to the spot. So Sham was forced to take it into his own hands—literally.

FEAT OF STRENGTH (VIGOUR)

Yeah. Yeah, I reckon we can take this flimsy door. Tipped over a bloody casino table, didn’t we? That weighed more than this.

Sham ripped the tram’s rear door out of its frame in one movement, taking care to avoid getting hit as it swung open, hitting the back of the vehicle. With a little effort, he pulled himself inside just as the tram made a sharp left turn.

And inside, down the middle of a half-full aisle, he saw Julya once more. And she saw him. And she raised that bloody revolver.

Screams echoed around the tram’s cabin, causing its driver pulled the vehicle to a sudden halt. All passengers except those seated fell to the ground in a mass of tangled limbs, including both Julya and Sham, who might otherwise have remained standing if they’d known to hold on.

Sham scrambled to his feet as Julya did the same, and half-crouching they leapt across the crowded tram at one another. A shot rang out from Julya’s revolver, and though it didn’t hit Sham, he had no idea where it landed. They collided in mid-air with a heavy thud, and Sham’s outstretched hand butted the revolver out of Julya’s own. It clattered to the floor around them.

With Vigour’s assistance, Sham pushed himself on top of Julya, pinning her to the tram floor. ‘You ain’t taken your vials yet,’ he spat. ‘You can’t hope to beat me.’

‘Vials?’ Julya replied. ‘No. But I’m strong enough the natural way.’ Without giving Sham a moment to reply, Julya slammed the butt of her hand into Sham’s rib cage.

He collapsed, gasped for air for a moment; she’d winded him.

‘For gods’s sake, just how weak you wanna be?’ Vigour mocked him.

Sham watched Julya stroll down the length of the tram for the discarded revolver, and forced himself into action. He scrambled across the sticky tram floor, pushing the discomfort from the winding out of his mind but unable to stand nonetheless.

‘Think fast!’ Recollection shouted.

‘What?’ Sham replied as Julya came within a pace of retrieving her weapon, with Sham still far beyond.

MEMORY UNLOCKED (RECOLLECTION)

You’ve done it. You’ve found the route of the Loop, completed the quest known as ‘The Paradox’. And, at last, you get yourself a skill upgrade. The natural way.

‘Ah,’ Sham muttered.

[SELECT SKILL UPGRADE]

[Magnetism] // [Seasoned] // [[Poised]]

[SKILL UPGRADED]

MAGNETISM: Common

Sham locked eyes with a cowering man next to Julya’s revolver. He reached his hand out, splayed his fingers. ‘Give it to me!’ he roared. ‘I’m on your side! Let her have it, and—’

[MAGNETISM] GIVE IT TO ME!: SUCCESS

This stranger just saw his life flash before his eyes; he’d do anything to keep it.

The man hadn’t needed any more prompting. He stuck his leg out, kicked the weapon, had it fly across the tram floor into Sham’s outstretched hand.

Sham allowed himself a sigh of relief as his skin met the cool metal. He pulled himself to a stand, ready to face his attacker, ready to—

Julya wrenches on the lever by the driver’s side, pushing the tram back into a very sudden motion.

Sham—alongside many of his fellow passengers—was once again pushed to the floor, this time tumbling backwards to the rear of the tram. He landed upside down, just at the edge of the gap he’d torn in the vehicle’s rear exit. It took him a moment to orient himself, and in that time Julya had rushed him. Before he could point the weapon in her direction—before he could even think of pulling the trigger—she’d landed a kick solidly in his belly, sending him tumbling out of the vehicle.

He hit the cobbled street hard, and found himself nursing a bump to the head as he watched Julya’s tram accelerate away. It was over.

Another Loop had gone by and he’d failed to stop her. Failed to stop the mad woman. Maybe if he’d acted faster with her weapon, he could’ve…

No. He wouldn’t kill her. Madness wasn’t reason enough for that. She was just like him originally, after all: just another poor soul from the Harbour District.

So there it was. The end of another ninth day. All that was left to do was wait for the explosion to take him. He could—

His line of reasoning was rudely interrupted by a loud horn at his rear. Turning around, Sham saw behind him another tram slowing to a halt.

Just this once, he was happy that two had come along at once.

Sham raised his stolen weapon towards a wide-eyed driver, who immediately wrenched on the lever and grinded her vehicle to a stop, sparks flying and all.

Keeping the weapon trained squarely on the driver, Sham edged around the side of the vehicle and motioned for the driver to open the doors. She did as was told.

‘Alright,’ Sham shouted, ‘I’m afraid this vehicle is now out of service. Now clear off!’

He took the vacant driver’s seat, wrenched on the lever, and spurred the vehicle back into action.

Sham had lost the best part of a minute on Julya, by his reckoning. But he had, perhaps, an advantage on her.

He’d spent his entire life taking the trams of Haven around the city, and in all that time the routes hadn’t changed once. Why fix something that ain’t broke, as they say? These routes had suited the residents of the city fine for all these years; largely because the trams wormed their way through all the residential districts on their way to the main commercial—and governmental—centres. And it might just be what saved Sham.

Instead of taking a sharp left up Drury Lane, as per the line’s typical route, Sham had the tram continue straight, on a route typically reserved for the fast service during peak times. With a few clever turns, he figured, he could close that minute gap, and maybe just come out ahead of the woman he hunted.

‘Ooh, this is fun, isn’t it?’ Joy crooned. ‘I do love sightseeing.’

Sham had to honk the tram’s horn several times in his charge for the centre of town. He’d known from experience that certain people in this city were clueless enough to amble in the way of a hurtling tram, but he didn’t realise until just now how many it was. A few times did he nearly catch someone, nearly hurt someone, and it didn’t help that he was hurtling past stops full of people expecting to board. But the shouts of irritation quickly passed into the distance as he sped by.

And then… there she was.

A tram sat up ahead, at a junction on the end of Ghoul Street. Sham could hear its horn blaring, and when he squinted his eyes could see a figure reaching over the driver to pull on the cord. Julya, hoping to keep the distance between them at a maximum.

Sham pushed his tram to full speed, hoping a collision would knock Julya’s tram from its tracks and stop her escaping once more. Hesitation caught him, though—would a collision at this speed hurt its passengers? He slowed the tram as much as he could bear to.

A path cleared in front of the other tram, the pedestrians scuttling, and the driver pushed it into action. Sham felt his breath catch as he grew close, pushing the speed up once more as it became clear that he might otherwise not reach them in time.

He swung around the bend at such a rate that he felt his tram might topple from its tracks, and then he was behind Julya’s tram. But they were going at no slow pace themselves, now. When the trams finally collided, they were moving at close enough speeds that it did little to dislodge the vehicle in front from its tracks.

Sham could see Julya now, through the crowd of her tram, shouting at the driver. But despite Julya’s protestations, the driver was slowing her vehicle down, which slowed Sham’s down in turn.

He seized the opportunity, wedging the lever at full speed with a disintegrating shoe, forcing the tram to push against the breaking one in front. Then he rushed for the door and jumped, barely grabbing onto the tram in front and just about avoiding hurtling to the fast-moving ground.

Sham pushed himself into the vehicle, through the hole he’d made only minutes earlier. He stood in the centre of the aisle, and raised the weapon. His glare dared the crowd to part, to give him a line of sight to the woman he pursued.

‘I’ve got you, Julya,’ he announced.

The woman grabbed the last of the passengers to notice Sham’s raised weapon, and pulled him tight. It would take far sharper a shot than Sham to hit her and not the man she’d turned into a meat shield.

‘It’s over,’ Sham said. ‘Just give up.’

‘Give up?’ Julya replied. ‘You heard my story. You heard what he did to Marm. You want me to give up on justice?’

‘We’ll find another way.’

The woman glanced out the window of the slowing vehicle, gulped, as though considering Sham’s response.

‘Two words,’ Julya finally said.

‘Yeah?’

‘My stop.’ She dived out the tram door, and only then did Sham notice where they were; the red tiles of Government Plaza surrounded them.

Sham pushed through the crowd to hop off the now slow-moving tram too, and pursued Julya across the square, toying with the idea of firing her weapon at her.

There were shapes, scattered here and there across the square. Red shapes. Burgundy shapes.

It wouldn’t be a finale without the Citizen’s Police.

‘Oi!’ the closest shouted, charging after him.

But Sham disregarded it, his eyes fixed on the woman ahead of him. His eyes fixed on Julya, who at this moment was fast approaching an unaware, armed member of this new police force.

‘Her!’ he shouted, pointing at the woman ahead, but his now-pursuers seemed to take no notice.

‘Stop there!’

A shot rang out, over Sham’s head.

He ducked a second late, flinching away from the path of the bullet, and continued running full pelt towards Julya.

His target had reached the oblivious officer, had tackled him to the floor. Sham had an advantage on this Loop; he had Julya’s weapon. That had never happened before. But she was about to void that advantage by ripping a new one from the arms of the officer underneath her.

Sham pulled Julya’s weapon on her. Aimed it. Prepared himself to fire, ignoring the pit in his stomach that shouted at him, that told him this was wrong.

‘You kill her, you break the Loop. Isn’t that what you want?’ Recollection asked.

‘Yeah,’ Vigour added, ‘Ain’t that what you want?’

With a solemn gulp, Sham moved to pull the—

A figure emerged from nowhere, tackling Sham to the ground. His hand hit tile, spasming, causing him to drop the revolver. ‘No!’ he shouted at the woman pinning him down. ‘Her!’

Mona looked down at him.

‘Ah,’ Sham mumbled.

‘Well you did let her father die, didn’t you? Perhaps if you’d been a little more careful with your alcohol—’

‘Take the weapon!’ Mona shouted to a compatriot, pointing to the brass revolver just out of Sham’s reach.

Bullets flew overhead, causing Mona to duck. Nearby, a heavy thud announced that a member of the Citizen’s Police had been felled. Mona shrunk, keeping her body small, reducing the chance of getting hit by one of Julya’s fired rounds.

Her colleague threw her the discarded pistol, and she began firing, without hesitation, in Julya’s direction.

Sham moved to push her off him—he did have Vigour after all—and was met immediately by his once-colleague’s new weapon being point at him.

‘You move to help your friend, and I shoot you,’ Mona said. There was little malice in her tone, only frankness.

‘No, Mona, no!’ Sham cried. ‘You don’t understand. I’m not with—’

A bullet caught him in the head.