Lanterns lit up New Valentine like stars as the sun sunk beneath the horizon. If new Valentine were a man, it’d be an insomniac dosed up on alchemical pills. Twitching and erratic all through the night—filled with enough juice to keep going until the morning. It was a city of two faces, with a sun-loving mixture during the day for tourists to enjoy beaches and pleasant year-round weather. Then there was the night, where bars and clubs blasted music across the streets.

Beauty and sin mixed together in a single delicious cocktail that nobody could get enough of.

The unique part of the Lantern Festival was that it cemented the marriage of the two parts of the city and tore down the boundary. It carried the regal and traditional attitude of the day into the depths of the night, lighting the path to sin with Lanterns. It was an unholy union of pride and debauchery nominally celebrated life and the Immortal of Light.

Now that we had Bruno, we left the west side of New Valentine. The city started to flare to life as the festival took full swing. A barrage of multicolored lights and lanterns filled every street, along with costumes, complete with mock paper dragons. The festival would keep going until dawn, as everyone did their damnedest to stay sober enough to make it to the first ray of light.

Our bikes swerved past a party spilling out into the street—cars were driving poorly. Yep. Seemed about right.

It was almost tragic that I didn’t get to spend the night with my friends like we’d planned. I imagined me and Eve in a drinking contest or Bruno picking a fight—Suzaki helping me down the street after I got drunk. But no, it wasn’t meant to be. There’d be time another year.

Kayson shot past the Lantern District and into Downtown, leading our troop eventually to Uptown; by then, the fireworks popped in the sky.

For a second, the noise almost startled me into crashing against Suzaki’s bike—I’d thought it was a gun. My exhaustion drove the paranoia, and I might’ve known that, but it didn’t stop it. That and the worry for my brother’s safety was a bad combo.

Kayson stopped us near a small butchery. It had a crimson sign displaying the world ‘Closed for the holidays.’ I snorted. “Bit late for a steak, aint it?” I tried to force a bit of a laugh into my tone—anything to ease the tension humming in me or break Bruno out of that brooding silence. Ever since we left the Sect, Suzaki’s words weighed him down.

“Funny. But no.” Kayson leaned on his handrails, spiders sparking to life on his fingertips. They crawled down the sleek metal handlebars to scurry towards the butcher shop. “I’ve been keeping tabs on the Alchemist the Fourth Division took. One of their squads is stationed here, and they occasionally send out warriors with duffel bags. Those go directly to a couple of select Captains from other Divisions.”

“They shoved him in this shithole?” Eve spat on the ground.

Kayson nodded, his hands spread out and twitching as if he were playing the piano. The occasional glitter of light traced the thin webs running from his fingertips. That scouting ability was always so useful… Could I translate some of that skill set to my Crows—maybe broaden my utility a bit more. Though my Soul lacked any intelligence and reasoning, he seemed to be presenting at this stage.

Guess the lack of raw firepower gave him some advantage. That also extended to the large number of spiders his Soul manifested. I still didn’t know how many he could make if he pushed it.

“This business has been paying protection fees to the Brass Kings for several years now. I asked Captain Atkins to look into it once I determined James was being stashed here. The owner is a fifty-year-old man, compliant, and has nothing but praises for us. Partially because we dealt with a couple of robbers on his behalf and intimidated a supplier to cut him a deal.”

I blinked at the information; Eve let out a soft, “Damn.” Kayson never disappointed when it came to information gathering. Our leader paused, cracking his neck, his fingers twitching once more.

“Confirmed. James is in there, along with a full squad from the Fourth Division. They’ve set up defenses and barricaded James in the backroom.” Kayson scanned the nearby building before returning his attention to us. “No easy way to approach from the shadows, hard to predict their exact orders and what they’ll do if they see Luca. We’ve got to bust in and out quickly.”

One thing didn’t quite sit right with me. “Why are we saving this Alchemist? Ya know, I aint opposed to coming and getting him after we get Alex, since it was fucked up what Tristan did. But this seems like it’ll sap us more and piss off the higher-ups more than anything.

“Where is your brother, Luca?”

“I don’t fucking know!” I threw my hands up, trying to stem the rising tide of anger. It wasn’t Kayson’s fault, but my emotions were already close to the edge.

“That’s my point. We don’t know where he’s stashed your brother. It happened too soon for me to have any way of tracking the whereabouts of him or his men to try to puzzle it out. Captain Atkins is also not directly cooperating with us on this since, as she said—she doesn’t want the hammer that falls on us afterward to also fall on her.”

“Alright, yea, I get that. But how does this Alchemist get us closer to saving Alex?”

“First, it’ll anger Tristan. Your Lieutenant has an obsession with maintaining a close handle on his affairs. Disrupting that will throw him off; he’s certain we wouldn’t make a move like this or likely doubts our capability to attack directly. Second, he’s been using the Alchemist to leverage his bribery to new heights and increase his influence. Instead of money, he can offer power directly and use the money to make it more inviting. That’s made him very popular. Every Captain is competing to curry his favor for pills.”

I scratched the back of my head as he broke the situation down. Yea, maybe the politics made sense. The whole thing with the Alchemist in the first place reeked like a dirty deal—and bribery for someone like Tristan tracked.

“That rat is far too good at what he does.” Eve snorted. “How’s he bankrolling all this?”

Kayson sighed. “He’s obscenely wealthy. But let's not get into that; we’ll find victory here through a shock attack. Sweep in fast, throw them off, and then overrun them before they understand or can contact help.” He moved over and patted Bruno on the shoulder. “You strong enough?”

Bruno shook his head, something was still off, but he gave a thumbs up. “Of course! There’s none more glorious than I. This is a fitting job for me.”

“Going in with ya, big guy.” I added.

“Eve runs in first, you guys begin the attack, then Suzaki and I come in last. My Thread Spinner is poised in prime locations to distract the enemy and provide us an edge. I also brought these.” Kayson pulled out small orange ear plugs—throwing them to everyone but Eve. “Don’t be afraid to make as much noise as possible, with the fireworks going off, we’ll be able to get in and out before anyone notices.”

With that, all of our roles settled. For a grim moment, we stared at the door. This was crossing another dangerous line, but at least we were doing it together. I felt almost keen to face off against my old Division; getting that poor bastard out of there was just the icing on the revenge cake. I rubbed the back of my head, trying to psych myself up for the fight. I needed to push harder, be stronger. My team needed me.

Bruno slammed the door open and ran into the building with a giddy laugh. I Manifested Fickle Fate—this time, I got lucky and conjured three Crows. I let one stay on my left shoulder while I sent the other two ahead to latch onto Bruno. He made an ideal target since bad luck likely wouldn’t end a fight for him, but a dose of good luck would probably take out whoever he punched after.

With my preparations made, I ran in behind him. I was his shadow. Eve came after me, and I shoved my ear plugs in, which turned everything into a dim muffle. We darted past glass tables filled with meat and refrigerators stocked with food.

Bruno threw open another door to the back, finally lighting up the place as overhead fluorescent lights flooded outward. I dodged a dead cow hanging from a meat hook, wincing as I looked at the animal.

Eve got ahead of Bruno as the dull shouting erupted ahead. They’d noticed and were calling themselves to action. I steadied myself on the hanging cow, the cold flesh freezing against my palm as Eve opened her mouth and screamed. I’d still feel a backlash to my Soul, and I didn’t want to put myself in a bad position after it ended.

Luckily it was a brief sound bomb, and then Eve cut herself off. Bruno was already rushing forward to start the fight.