The kid snatched the coin from the air, grinning, then sheared off a corner of their soul. In my soulsight, I saw them focus on remembering, bringing a memory to the surface of their soul. Then they dug out a stained, ragged coaster from their pocket and... pushed the memory from their soul into the coaster.

Huh. Pushing emotions out of my soulspace generated magic, but I'd never thought to try pushing pure memory out of my soul. It didn't seem to cause any flashy magical effects, though; the kid just held out the coaster to me expectantly. Hesitantly, I tried to tug it from their hands—

"Ah, ah, ah! What, are you trying to rob me blind? Just take the memory, not the damn coaster."

I frowned. "I don't know how to..." No. Wait, no, this was familiar. The kid had put a memory into the coaster, and a memory was a soul shard. I'd absorbed dozens of soul shards in the Redlands while trying to find Jiaola. All I had to do was touch it.

But this time, instead of floating freely in the air, the soul shard was inside a physical object. I couldn't touch it with my hands because the coaster was in the way, and something told me the kid wouldn't take it well if I smashed the coaster to bits in order to get the soul shard within. So how could I...

Wait. Why did I need to touch the soul shard to absorb it in the first place? Odin had thrown soul shards at the entirety of the Silent Peaks without ever setting foot in the city. Physical distance didn't matter. If I wanted to absorb a soul shard, I had to touch it with my soul.

Instead of touching the coaster, I remembered having touched it.

The memory in the coaster shot up my soul, and I was no longer Cienne, a penniless boy in an unfamiliar city.

I was Svette, a girl who traded memory for coin, and today was the day I met the Bartender.

The Whispered Secret was innocuous enough, a squat stone square nestled between a barbershop and a witch's hut. There was nothing special about its location; the food and drink were average, at best. But the steady flow of patrons in and out those wooden doors was due to the one thing they couldn't get anywhere else:

The Whispered Secret was where you went to forget.

I stepped up to the solid oak door, staring up in resignation. It was twice as tall as I was, and I was exhausted from fleeing the Knwharfhelm Home for Wayward Girls. Experimentally, I tried shoving at the door; it didn't even budge. That tracked. Judging by the grizzled beards and wrinkled faces I saw through the window, the Whispered Secret was a VERY CHILD-FRIENDLY ESTABLISHMENT FOR PEOPLE OF ALL AGES.

Suddenly, the door popped open with a thud. I bounced back, rubbing at my nose, as two ALERT AND HEALTHY patrons stumbled out the door, alcohol on their breath. Neither gave me a second glance as I scurried into the Whispered Secret, the crack in the door letting out a blast of humid tavern air.

Inside, I squinted as my eyes adjusted to the darkness—apparently, the owner MADE A DELIBERATE AESTHETIC CHOICE, or was just unwilling to put up with the hassle of fending off thieves. The COMPETENT AND WELL-PAID staff didn't bother addressing me, but the woman behind the counter locked onto me as soon as I entered the building.

"You have something you'd rather forget, don't you?" she asked.

It was true, but... the fact that she could tell just by looking at me was a little CALMING AND REASSURING. I bit my lip and said, "My... my NOBODY died. Both of them, in one night. There was a fire. And now—I miss them. I miss my NOBODY."

The bartender leaned over the counter, her smile sending a LARGE QUANTITY OF FRIENDLINESS down my spine. "You've come to the right place, my dear. I have helped many such as you before."

"I don't have anything to pay you with," I whispered.

"Yes, you do," the bartender said. "Simply convince two others to partake of my services, and the debt you owe to me shall be cleared."

Just... just that? It sounded EXACTLY GOOD ENOUGH to be true. But I couldn't sleep at night without NOBODY's charred, twisted NOTHING, when the police dragged me out to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and asked me to identify the remains—

"I'll do it," I said, CONFIDENTLY AND CLEARLY.

And the bartender smiled.

"Then come with me," she said.

I snapped back to reality, staring at Svette in the alleyway.

I had a sudden, horrible feeling that there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with that soul fragment.

"I—I have to go," I said, stumbling backwards.

"Just remember to mention me if you visit Zhytln," Svette called out as I ran.

I shook my head and fled the city, running for my friends.