Ali was, in Helix’s humble opinion, perhaps the most normal person in the entire Abaddon estate.
The man was tall, with unremarkable brown hair and eyes. He had served the family for over a decade and had zero personality disorders, which, considering the household, was a miracle in and of itself.
He arrived at Helix’s room exactly forty-five seconds after being summoned, buttoned into his uniform without a single crease out of place, his expression like stone.
"Young Master." He bowed.
"Ali," Helix said as he grabbed his coat. "We’re going to the 24th Street. Is the car ready?"
"Of course. May I ask why we’re going, Young Master?"
"Meh, I’ll tell you later."
Ali nodded and led the way to the limo.
Helix tried striking up a conversation on the way there, but Ali only offered single-word responses. If the head butler Atlas was the personification of formality and loyalty, then Ali was the nonchalant servant who stabbed you in the back... not that he could, of course.
They sat in the black limo and set off.
Five minutes was all it took to cross from the Abaddon estate to the 24th street of Kor.
The capital of the Abaddon Family, the City of Kor, was built as a massive circle with the Abaddon Estate at its center. Twenty-five concentric streets surrounded the estate, growing larger as they extended outward. Unlike most cities, the streets were numbered in reverse—the 25th Street lay closest to the estate, while the 1st Street formed the outermost ring.
"Hey Ali, what kind of people live here?"
They had just entered the 24th Street and were now underway to a private property owned by the Abaddon Family.
"The rich, Young Master. Influential merchants, strong men and women, professors of the local Kor Academy, and many more."
"Hmm, I see," Helix said as he closed his eyes.
What exactly am I looking for?
He had no idea.
His grandfather had told him to walk in circles and offered nothing further. Maybe he would suddenly gain enlightenment from walking in a circle.
Yes, that must be it.
Helix let out a helpless smile as the car stopped inside a wide church-like building.
The car stopped, and Ali opened the door.
24th Street spread before them a wide, cobblestoned street flanked by monolithic stone buildings and impressive glass-and-steel structures.
The place was the central hub for business and commerce, and it showed clearly. Cars moved across the road, beasts of metal unlike anything Helix had seen in his previous life.
Men and women walked across the street, clad in suits and holding briefcases.
Helix stepped out, rolled his shoulders, and started walking.
"Young master," Ali fell in step right beside him. "What exactly are we looking for?"
Helix snapped his fingers at him without breaking stride.
"I wouldn’t be walking in circles if I knew what I was looking for."
Ali nodded as if his words had made sense. "Certainly, my bad, Young Master."
They walked.
The whole scene reminded Helix of New York, and a dark smile graced his lips. His heart felt heavy, but Helix steeled it and moved forward. It didn’t matter.
Nothing did.
Grandfather, he thought darkly, if this is a prank...
"I’M SURE THIS TIME I’LL DIE! HAHA, YES!"
Helix came to an abrupt stop and looked up.
On top of a building to his left, three stories up, balanced on the very edge of the roof was a boy about his age, crimson hair catching the morning light, arms spread wide like he was welcoming whatever came next.
"Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s a boy, right?" His voice held an edge of uncertainty.
"Correct Young Master."
"Oh...cool."
A normal person would assume the boy was about to jump, and would scramble to help him, but like robots, not a single man or woman broke stride.
Not a single glance was cast towards the suicidal boy.
Absolutely not my problem, Helix decided.
He started walking forward, blending in with the crowd.
Ali, to his credit, also kept walking, though his eyes did linger on the rooftop for slightly longer than Helix’s did.
"Should we help him?"
"No."
"But he said he was going to jump? And he’s a subject of yours, Young Master. Surely you care about your people."
"He said it like it was a good thing. He’ll be fine."
Ali went quiet at that, and they kept on walking.
Round one. Round two. The sun climbed higher, the street got busier, and still nothing reached out and announced itself as the thing Helix was supposed to find.
Maybe this really is a prank, he thought, on round three. Maybe grandfather has been dead long enough to develop a sense of humor, and this is it.
He was mid-thought, mid-step, about to give up, when the world went very, very silent.
The sounds around him didn’t stop; they simply ceased to exist: one heartbeat they were there, and the next, gone. People were still shuffling around him, cars moved on the roads.
But no sound reached him.
Helix’s feet stopped moving without his permission.
Wha—
He could hear everything and nothing at once, the rush of his own blood in his ears, the loud thud of his heartbeat, the sound of his own breath moving in and out of his lungs, all of it amplified to an unbearable degree while the rest of the world stayed muted, as if locked behind glass he couldn’t see.
A chill spread up his palms, then his arms.
Then the cold reached his chest and settled there, wrapping around his heart like a noose, tightening with every passing moment.
What is this?
The question thundered in his ears, echoing as if his head was empty.
Every hair on his neck rose simultaneously. His shoulders pulled inward. His stomach turned to water.
Fear encompassed him like a shroud, thicker than anything he had ever felt before. Prince Caspian had been terrifying; darkness was scary, but what he felt at the moment eclipsed every mortal feeling.
What he felt was Death.
Death is coming.
He could feel it behind him.
It was moving towards him.
It was getting closer.
His heart slammed against his ribs so hard he could feel it in his teeth, each beat arriving faster than the last, and his hands...his hands were shaking, slick with sweat, soaked so thoroughly one would assume he had just taken a bath.
I’m going to die. Die as a miserable First Wing with no achievement to his name. My family is going to die...we’re all going to die. Even Ali...
Ali
The name burned through his thoughts like a fire on oil. Ali was his responsibility; he needed to save him.
His body was already turning, already moving before his mind finished the command.
One hand shot out and slammed into Ali’s chest with every ounce of strength he had, sending the man stumbling sideways, out of range, out of the way.
His other hand drove into his coat pocket, fingers closing around a teleportation relic, a metal coin always on his person.
Helix activated it without delay.
The world lurched beneath him...or was supposed to, but nothing happened.
The coin was shaking inside his coat, as if afraid of whatever was coming towards him.
Abandoning that path, Helix grabbed the hilt of his blade with both hands and swung behind him with every ounce of strength he possessed.
The blade cut through the air. It would cut the presence in half.
Halfway through, the blade stopped, and Helix’s heart sank.