Tayte and Chris slid down the slope to the storm drain with caution.

They found Ryder, and his beloved van flipped over on its side. He was missing his glasses and looking just as shitty as the both of them, with his back against the roof of the van. He smiled smugly upon looking at the two. “Ayo’s dead?”

“Yeah,” Chris responded despondently. “His Relic could’ve been useful for us though...”

“Oh, well, at least we’re still here,” Ryder said as he wiped some blood from under his eye.

“Mhm, we’re still alive. God must be in a decent mood today.” Chris looked over at Tayte and raised a brow.

“What?” she asked.

They both stopped.

“Oh, nothing…” Chris started. “It’s just that I expected you to be, I dunno, distressed? Whatever, it must be the adrenaline.”

“Looks like my bullets saved the day,” Ryder said, pushing his back onto the roof.

“You know you could’ve said something before.”

“So, I was supposed to be focused on the escape route and your ammunition? Shut up and help me with this.”

Chris moved up to the van flat on its side and leaned his back on it.

As Tayte approached the vehicle and turned back, Ryder said, “No, Tatyana-darling, you don’t have to—”

“I don’t mind,” she said and pushed.

Ryder and Chris exchanged looks and then resumed their efforts on flipping the van back onto its wheels.

“She said, it’s just ‘Tayte’,” Chris reminded.

“No, now that I think about it, I don’t really mind,” Tayte said.

Ryder snickered. “Wonderful.” He let out a grunt and then glanced at the two. “Why does it seem like you guys have known each other for a while?”

“We went to high school together,” Chris said, out of breath, “but we barely spoke. Her family is known all around Sugarmaple, but not in a good way. Everybody calls them ‘The Grim Reapers.’”

“Are they all morticians?”

“Yep.”

“My mother is just an embalmer, though,” Tayte added as the image of her frowning mother in her embalmer apron popped in her head. What the hell are you doing? The image said.

“It’s all the same,” Chris said, pulling Tayte out of her head. “You’re all too comfortable with death.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing. Death is never going away and our profession is necessary in all communities.”

There was a short pause.

Ryder was the first to interrupt the silence. “Man, I love your hair,” he said to Tayte. “That’s some really good dye.”

“It’s my natural hair color.”

“You’re lying,” Ryder exclaimed with widened eyes and a smile.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, stop! Just stop with the bonding, okay?” Chris ranted as he moved away from the van. “We’re going to push Vanessa back into place in silence,” He turned to Tayte, “and then Ryder and I will fix you up to the best of our ability and well, when we get you home, you’re going to have to explain to your parents that you got mugged and then get them to put out some bogus police report. But beforehand,” he then approached Tayte, “I am going to need you to forfeit your Relic. Say: ‘I, Tayte Enberg, forfeit the Kamaitachi over to Christopher Nangobi—’”

“No,” Tayte interrupted.

“What?”

Tayte put her hand over her chest, feeling her accelerated heartbeat. “I like it.”

“And I like money, but we can’t always get what we want. Now, forfeit it.”

“No.”

“Tayte!” Chris shouted. “That thing isn’t a toy! Keeping it fused with your soul makes you a participant in the Tombstone Trials. It’s basically walking around with a T-shirt that says: ‘please murder me.’”

“I want to be a participant in the Trials. A Fighter.”

“Wow, she’s already using terminology,” Ryder said.

“Damn it… how much did Ayo share with you?” Chris rubbed his forehead and gave out a sigh. “Look, you don’t want to be a Fighter, okay?”

“Stop deciding things for me,” Tayte said.

“No!” Chris said as he swung his hand to the side. “I’m looking out for you. This was a very, very, very close call. The rest of Post Mortem are even crazier, and definitely more vicious than that guy. And they all have Relics with abilities unknown to me.”

Tayte brushed her swollen cheek and cooed at the pain. “We’ll discover them throughout the battle like we did with Ayo.”

Chris’s jaw fell open. He then shook his head, attempting to keep his sanity. “Tayte. Forfeit the Relic. Right now.”

Tayte clenched her fists and pulled them down. “Are you willing to duel me for it?” She asked, cocking her head to the side.

Chris pursed his lips. “I don’t want to hurt you…”

“Neither do I.”

Chris took a step back as Tayte’s flinty stare lasered right into his eyes.

Ryder stepped in between the two with his hands raised. “Alright, children. Let’s calm down.” He turned to Tayte. “Tatyana-darling. What we’re doing is extremely dangerous. It is a game of death—”

“That I got pulled into,” she said nonchalantly.

“But there is a way out. We’re giving you a way out,” Chris hissed.

“I don’t want it!”

Chris studied her in confusion. After staying silent for a second or two, he asked, “Is it the wish? Is that it?”

“No, I don’t want to wish for anything.”

“So, why are you letting yourself get involved with this?” Chris shouted.

Tayte looked off to the side and sucked in her lips. “Listen, I’ll help you get your wish,” Tayte promised as she patted her thighs gently, hoping it would be enough to get him to back off. “At the end of this, when it’s just the two of us. I’ll forfeit my weapon over to you, and then you win.”

“Have you ever killed a person before, Tayte?” Chris asked brusquely. The air became heavy. Ryder fixed his curious gaze on Tayte.

Tayte felt something deep within wanting to surface as she stopped patting. She looked down on her hands and then asked, “Is killing the only way to beat an opponent in the Trials?”

“You can also win by knocking out a Fighter directly with the use of your Relic or by getting them to forfeit their Relic over to you,” Ryder cleared up.

Chris sniped a glare at Ryder.

“Sorry,” Ryder said, looking away in shame.

Chris licked his dry lips as he collected his thoughts. He backtracked, passing a hand over his coarse, curly hair. “The people we’re up against have stolen, murdered, and raped for things much less than the prize of the Trials. Do you have any idea what they are going to be willing to do throughout these Trials? They are Post Mortem. The best modern grave-robbing group of the underworld. To beat guys like that, no, to even survive an assault from one of them, you’re going to have to do some depraved things. This is not a fun mission. This is not an adventure. This is not a game. This is not a movie. This is not some novel, okay? This is real life, and it’s bloody and it’s deadly. This is the criminal underworld you’re getting involved with, Tayte.”

Tayte stayed silent. The corner of her mouth twitched, and she lifted her heels off the ground a couple of times and then looked over at Ryder. “Where are you guys heading next?”

Chris threw his hands into the air and paced angrily in circles.

“I am going to take part in these Trials, okay?” Tayte said, teasing a half-smile. “I can either go with you guys or I can go alone. You don’t have to let me tag along with you.”

Chris halted with a look of horror on his face. “Oh, that’s not fair. We leave you, you get murdered by one of Post Mortem and then we have to live with that in our consciousness forever.”

“Oh, don’t worry if I get killed. I won’t blame you guys for it. Water under the bridge.”

“Well, good for you, but that doesn’t absolve us from the guilt!”

“That’s on you. I am here clearly telling you that—”

“Whatever! Fine, you’re coming with us. Damn it!” Chris went back to walking in circles.

Ryder dropped his face into hands and then slid them down. He pointed to the tunnel at the end of the storm drain. “There’s a secret area in there where we’ve got all our money, medical supplies, clothing, and gear,” he explained. “I don’t think we’ve got any women’s clothing, though. This trip is going to be… a while.”

“Could we pass by my home, then? I’ll be quick.”

“Um, sure.”

Tayte glanced at the van. “Even if we flip this over. Will it still be good to drive?”

“Of course!” Ryder exulted. “Vanessa has been through worse.”

“Let me speed up the process,” Chris said, still fuming. “I got an idea.” He stopped and waved his hands to the side. “You guys should step away.”

They did as so. Chris took a couple of more steps back.

“Lukwata,” the young, vexed grave robber called and then pulled out the wet shield from the glowing tear on his chest. He equipped it with both hands and raised it. “Amazzi-go.” he said softly as if afraid of his own words, and in an instant, he became a giant fist of water and torpedoed forward. He caromed off the side of the roof, splashing water everywhere as he and the shield split and flew off in opposite directions. The van tipped back into place just as Chris and his Relic crash landed.

Ryder put his hands on his hips and nodded. “That works.”

###

Chris and Ryder, patched up with evidently amateur efforts, sat in the van.

Ryder was hunched over, resting on his crossed arms over the steering wheel. He stared forward as he said, “Maybe we need to do a better job of making her understand just how dangerous this thing is. Give her a few real-life examples of what happened to some people who crossed paths with Post Mortem, especially the Adisa stories.”

“No, I’m pretty sure that she understands the dangers of it all.” Chris darted his eyes over to Ryder. “I think she just doesn’t care.”

“Is she like… okay? Mentally?”

Chris’s mind was a mess. He picked at a bandage on his forehead. “You know, when I showed up to help Tayte. I noticed something about Ayo. He was covered in slashes.”

Ryder sat up straight and put his hand over the gauze pad under his eye. “So, she used the Kamaitachi.”

“Having your soul fused with a Relic fills your mind with a handful of commands. You instantly get a deep understanding of how your Relic works, but maneuvering it is a whole different story. I’m just wondering how she would’ve been able to swing around a scythe like that.”

A loud thud cut through the silence, and the boys turned their heads back.

There was a gray, stuffed gym bag on the floor and a bandaged Tayte was clambering her way through the tear in the door. Once she was in, she settled on the floor and leaned her back against the wall. “Okay, I’m ready,” she said.

“So, you actually talked to your parents?” Ryder asked.

“No. I left a note.”

“Seriously? That points to a kidnapping,” Chris said.

“Or I just simply ran away from home. I signed it with my name. Wait, what am I saying? I’m 23. I didn’t run. I left for as long as these Trials will take. How long will it take, by the way?”

“We don’t know!” Chris winded down and heaved a sigh, unable to believe he was actually going through with this. “How about your phone?”

“The guy who found me outside the museum snapped it into two, remember?”

“Right,” Chris said, somewhat relieved. “But we can’t be travelling with someone whose face will be all over the news on a missing person’s report.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

“It’s a legitimate concern!”

“Okay, enough arguing.” The two looked over at Ryder. “Look, this is really messed up, but we have no more time to argue. It’s almost 5 a.m. We need to meet with old man Schmidt.” Ryder gave life to the engine, shifted gears, and hit the gas.

“Who is he?” Tayte asked, scratching the gaze over her nose.

“Ex-military guy. Specializes in transporting illegal goods around the world. With his connections, he has found ways around flying through airways, raising no alarms. Lots of people use his services in the underworld. He’s a friend of mine and gave Chris and I a discount to Kajjansi.”

“Where is that?”

“Uganda,” Chris said. “It’s where my family is from.”

“Oh, I’ve never been to Africa before.”

“Yeah, it’s going to be really easy blending in with a white girl with the most conspicuous gray hair.”

“I’m half-Japanese, you know this.”

Ryder snapped his fingers and waggled one at Tayte. “That’s what it is. I knew there was some kind of mix in there.” He made a right and then darted his eyes to the rear-view mirror. “From Kajjansi Airfield, you and Tayte will get your hands on a car and enjoy about a one hour drive to Mityana and check into a hotel we saw online: Lakan Hill Resort. While I’m going to drive to Kampala to meet up with an old contact to fix up Vanessa.”

“So why exactly do we have to go to Uganda?” Tayte asked.

“Another condition for a Fighter to win the Trials is that they must pass all Tombstone Checkpoints. Scattered across the world, there are these special tombstones set in dangerous places. Touch it with your Relic to light the flame. The route starts in Mityana and ends in Fujikawaguchiko.”

“Is it always the same route?”

“No,” Chris cut in and was already regretting what he was about to do. He grabbed a crank to the side of the lounge chair, spun it back, and it reclined. “Lukwata,” he called and plucked the soaking wet Relic from his chest. He laid it flat on his stomach and pressed his hand into its face. An ashy cloud puffed up and formed a smoky map of the world. “Each Relic comes with a map, which you can consult.”

Chris found Tayte’s childlike gazing at the gaseous visage amusing.

There were two glowing dots in the eastern-center of Africa and two more on an island to the far east of Asia.

“You can also use your Relic to consult the list of Relics roaming, but not their abilities,” Chris mentioned. “Like this…”

And he showed her the list of roaming Relics. The werehyena Relic wasn’t listed.

Chris pressed the face of the shield again, and the ashes dissipated. He continued, “But the Trials can’t start until every Relic has selected a Fighter. Even if you get to the Tombstone Checkpoint, it won’t light until the Trials have started.”

“The Tombstone Checkpoints have to be done in order, too, and only at night.” Ryder said.

“That’s actually how Post Mortem came together,” Chris stored the shield under the chair and spun the crank in the opposite direction, inclining back into place. Horrendous memories were bubbling up. “After the Tombstone Trials ends, a new arrangement of Relics are scattered all over the world and it can be decades until they are found and sometimes the people who find them don’t even know what the bigger picture is. Adisa and Mayumi always knew, though. Those two knew the Trials couldn’t start until every Fighter had been selected, so for years, they’ve traveled the world hunting down Relics and then the right Fighters to give the Relic to.”

“They chose their opponents?” Tayte said incredulously.

“There was no other way.”

“Why not choose weaklings, though? Those people all looked strong to me.”

Ryder clicked a flashing button. Soothing music played. “Trying to understand Adisa Swain and his pet will just make your head hurt. It’s not worth it.” He started swaying gently to the melody.

“It puts all of us at a disadvantage,” Chris said. “Every recruit they gave a Relic to meant that they knew which Relic they had. They don’t know its abilities, but knowing who has what goes a long way. And it gets even more disadvantageous for new recruits down the line.”

“With every recruit, the ones who came before them, including Adisa and Mayumi, know what their Relic is,” Tayte said.

Chris gave a look at Tayte, her excitement was bothersome. “Exactly, and I was the last to join.”

Ryder hissed.

“Bad luck—”

“Oh, don’t you start,” Ryder interrupted.

Chris decided not to rant about his perpetual misfortune and resumed. “Obviously, the ones recruited before would never show or tell their Relic to the recruit.”

Tayte nodded. “And why are you helping him?” She asked Ryder.

Ryder grinned. “I’ve been with him ever since he started off as a grave-robber. I kept my distance when he joined Post Mortem though, and then when I heard about his plan. It sounded like mad fun, plus the money he was offering was pretty good, too.”

“So, you don’t want anything from the Trials, either.”

“Well, I’m not participating. I’m just the driver. The safety of Vanessa means a lot more to me than the both of you. I’m sorry, but if it comes to it, I’ll always prioritize Vanessa over you two.”

“No problem,” Tayte said.

Chris studied her. Impressed by how well she took Ryder’s flagrant in comparison to him when he first heard it.

Tayte was focused back on him with her usual blank face and asked, “When did you become a grave-robber?”

“It was around college…” Chris muttered.

“Why did you become a grave robber?” Tayte pried.

Chris stared out the window. Fighting back some feelings that wanted to be heard. He settled with, “I love History.”