“Hello? Hey, even in a normal situation, you shouldn’t sneak around invisible.”

To Alius’s immedient left was a desk, which was a little too high to see over. Alius sighed and stuck his hand up, waving over the desk.

When it rains, it pours, I guess.

“Tell everyone at the hub to keep an eye out.”

Alius yanked his hand down and out of sight.

“You know what, j-just uh, keep everybody on the west side on alert.”

Alius had to hold back his giggles. C’mon, keep talking. Unfortunately, that was all he heard before the person shut up again. He crept back to the doors and slowly pushed one open with his foot, letting it glide shut with a low boom before loudly walking up to the desk.

From there, all Alius had to do was wave his hand over the desk. “Hey!”

“Hello? Wait, gimme a second.”

Alius heard a scraping of wood on the floor, multiple creaks, and then a thunking sound as something was dropped on the desk he was standing at. A small head popped up over the side of the desk.

“Short, huh?”

A girl appearing about Alius’s age smirked down at him. She wore a high ponytail, with black hair that had locks of blue and white along the sides and at the ends.

“Tall for my age, actually.” Alius grimaced. “Just young.”

“Don’t sweat it. I’ve got the same problem,” she grinned. “Come around, and then we can talk a bit better.”

Alius went around the desk, which curved all the way up to the wall, leaving a wide gap to pass through. Inside the bounds of the desk, the space was big enough to be a small room, and was furnished like one. A circle of fluffy chairs with their backs to the inside curled all around the space. The girl climbed down from the desk, making good use of the step ladder placed next to one of the chairs. She skipped the last two rungs, hopping down into a crouch.

Extending a hand, she greeted Alius. “Nice to meet you! I’m Yani, and you would be…”

Alius shook her hand and returned the smile. “Alius. Convario, if you wanted to know.”

“I didn’t need to know, but thanks! Yani Haben.”

“Alright…” Alius glanced down at his wrist, which was lightly tanned, but empty. “I’m actually running low on time, so I just have a quick question.”

“I know.” Yani said.

What is it with people knowing? I feel like I need to know.

“Where is everyone? LIke, all the people.”

Yani tilted her head. “Oh, they’re here. But is that your only question?”

“Yep, thanks!”

Alius scrambled up the ladder and climbed onto the desk.

“Huh? Wait, I’m supposed to tell you something-” Yani’s words fell on empty air as Alius dropped down and threw himself out the doors.

Yani sighed and slumped back into one of the fluffy chairs. “I think he knows.”

____

Alius burst out the doors and immediately turned his head to the sky. Heading towards the general direction that the sun would set, Alius scuttled in between the green structures, finally managing to pick up on the almost-unfamiliar hubbub of people.

Just as Alius turned the corner, he caught a glimpse of a roof speckled with black and white. This building towered over all the rest, and had the coloring clearly marking it as different from the others.

Bingo. Now, to get there.

It was fairly far away, maybe reachable within the three out of ten minutes Alius estimated he had left. But that was assuming Alius had a clear route. Reaching it before Ditus started moving: impossible. Why? The packs of people milling about the streets.

Alius walked up to the shifting mass, seeing a few looks out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned, the eyes had shifted back ahead, as if nothing had occurred. Even stranger were the conversations, the majority of the talking boiling down to-

“Hi, how are you?”

“Doing good. How are you?”

“Good.”

“Good.”

And then the two parties would walk away to repeat their awkward conversation with the next victim.

Nobody spoke to Alius as he approached, continuing their “conversations” with stiff faces. Alius walked into the crowd, but immediately backed out. The people easily parted around him, as if he didn’t exist, but the problem was, once again, his height. If Alius entered the crowd, it would be all too easy to lose track of the black-white building, and from there his wandering would mean Ditus would eventually catch him. Better to leave that to a last resort.

Alius ducked into an alley to think. Taking the time to plan would likely save him more time than rushing in. Before he sat down on some boxes, he noticed a dim light coming from the opposite alley. It was only visible against the dimly-lit walls, and even then, was only a bare glimmer of light.

Poking his head out between the walls and looking around to make sure Ditus wasn’t there, Alius sprinted as fast as he could across the street, into the opposite alley. Placing his hands on his knees, Alius took a moment to catch his breath, looking up to see a box with a hole bored into it, the source of the light. Shaking the box indicated it was pretty solid, and kicking it further reaffirmed that. Hopping on his non-stubbed foot, Alius looked behind the box.

There sat a pointy stick made of metal. About the length of his hand and the width of a blade of grass, it looked like Alius could snap it with two fingers. He picked it up anyways, and unraveled the paper that was wrapped around the bottom half.

Enjoy trying to open the box with this.

-Darius <3

“Oooooor, I could just use this, old man.”

Alius pulled a blade out of his pocket.

The [Dagger of Sorrow]. Alius didn’t know exactly what cutting something with it would do, but last time’s line of liquid gold running though reality had looked decently deadly.

Here goes nothing.

Alius stepped forward and swung, the blade biting deep into the wood.