Pieces of Sonder

Freya ran alongside Hamra as their group of four ran back to the docks. Heilong and Scrimmancer ran behind them. Freya was surprised by both necromancers’ stamina. They were running downhill, but even without the artificial advantage of putting points in stamina, Hamra was keeping up fine. It would be interesting if she became a game player.

They had decided to split into two groups: one to explore the mansion as they originally planned, and the other to find the Player Card. Now that they had a good idea of its location, the possibility of another new player was real.

The thought had crossed her mind before, mainly in the context of not wanting Sangen to find it. But she had entertained the idea of bringing it back to give to her shaman master. Or any other shaman, maybe even Yina. Surely anyone could benefit if educated about it. Yet, at the same time, she couldn’t completely rule out it wasn’t a curse. 

Heilong had been the first to suggest Hamra to take it. After they investigated the shaman residence, they retold their findings to Nightscythe and Hamra, who were waiting outside. At the end, the native necromancer only said, “We should look for the card, but I don’t know if I will actually touch it.”

Freya could tell she was still deep in thought now. As they ran through the empty streets, Freya couldn’t help but think again, If I went back in time to before I touched a Player Card, would I do it knowing everything now?

But she wasn’t able to mull over it for long. As soon as they got in sight of the docks, Freya’s vision turned white.

“Did you find anything?”

Backing away from the source, Freya finally recognized the white cloud as a spirit. 

“Prince Toychi,” she courtesied and took a breath to calm herself. She almost forgot that their original goal was to complete the King’s request of bringing his brother to peace. The prince wanted to know why demons overtook the district. 

“We found some interesting things. But before that, can I ask: was there a shaman that came to the docks to help?”

The spirit of the prince turned around. With his back still facing her, he answered, “Yes, one did finally come in the end.”

“Do you think they died here?”

He turned back around, “I’m not sure. The shaman went to help people further in town supposedly. I never saw him again.”

Scrimmancer sighed heavily, “So he didn’t die near the docks.”

“What does it matter where he died? How did you know a shaman came here in the first place?” the spirit demanded.

Freya began to recount everything they found at the shaman shop and her own theorized  timeline of events. The prince’s hazy face turned clearer in anger as he heard about Aziza’s death at the hands of the shaman, but then he became cloudy again when Freya recounted the shamans’ deaths. 

When Freya finished, Heilong looked back and forth between them. Or, from her perspective, between Freya and empty space.

“I hope I’m not talking over you, but,” Heilong looked to Freya for confirmation; the latter nodded for her to continue. “In my opinion, there’s a lot of different people responsible for this tragedy. The shamans didn’t do their job, but the mayor or whoever was supposed to supervise them also did nothing. The citizens got angry and killed the shamans, which probably didn’t help, but at that point, the Port District was already doomed. By the time you arrived here, nothing would have helped. It wasn’t your fault.”

“We should have caught it earlier then. We should have known what was going on in our capital’s districts. If we don’t know that, how are we supposed to rule over a whole country?” Prince Toychi said, crossing his arms and shaking his head.

Scrimmancer whispered his answer to Heilong, but the marksman didn’t have a retort. The prince clenched his fists and paced in front of them. Despite being a spirit, Freya could almost hear his harsh footsteps. His expression was a mix of fury and sadness. Then he suddenly stopped.

“Did you lose some of your friends?” Prince Toychi said sadly. “There’s not as many of you here this time.”

“Oh, no. We just split up. The others are exploring the mansion for any other clues. We just came here, to um, let you know what we found so far.” 

Freya had left out everything about the Player Cards. The game was difficult enough to explain to non-game players, much less spirits. 

“Hm, really? You must all be strong individuals. To be able to enter this area and split up into small groups… Do you think you could eliminate all the demons in the Port District?”

Freya looked to the others and repeated the question for Heilong’s sake, “Could we eradicate all the demons here?”

“The Port District is an important trading hub for Soliya and the whole country of Suen,” the prince continued. “If you could clean up all the demons from here, I would feel much better about my country’s future.”

“I think it’s possible,” Heilong said, rubbing her chin. She hadn’t heard the prince’s words, but she didn’t need any convincing to consider it. “None of the demons here have a very high level. All we need to do is-”

Heilong squinted into the distance behind Freya. Then her eyes went wide.

“Fuck!”

“What?” Freya asked, turning around. She didn’t see anything.

“I think I just saw Sangen,” Heilong said. “And he had a green ID box, like a game player.”