Leo's brain struggled to reconcile the two versions of the same person. The girl from the chat, with her bunny stickers and snack-related panic, and the queen before him, whose presence seemed to suck the little remaining warmth from the air, creating a power vacuum around her. They were the same entity, but one was the mask and the other was the power behind it. He finally understood why Yuki had stopped making deliveries for her. "Sephie-chan" was the bait, a digital persona created to interact with the outside world without the crushing weight of her true nature; Persephone was the hook, the ancient and fearsome sovereign of a realm of shadows.
"Ten minutes," Leo said, his voice coming out firmer than he expected, adrenaline overriding his fear. "The Syndicate doesn't mess around."
"Ten mortal minutes," Persephone corrected, a playful smirk dancing on her lips. "Time flows differently here, courier. It's elastic, treacherous. For your Compliance Agent, crossing the dimensional barriers, it might feel like an hour. For us... it could be the blink of an eye." She tilted her head, her ancient eyes studying him with genuine curiosity, like a scientist observing a particularly interesting specimen. "Which gives me time to decide if you're worth my effort. What could a mortal courier, who smells of fear and portal ozone, possibly have that would interest the Night Market?"
Leo didn't answer with words. He knew anything he said would be weak, insignificant. His only bargaining chip wasn't his wit or his courage, but the spoils of his missions. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the small crystal vial.
In the perpetual twilight of the Pier of Lost Souls, the [Tear of a Satisfied Dragon] seemed to glow with a light of its own. It was a soft, silver, and warm glow, a small star of pure happiness in a realm of grey sorrow. Its aura of contentment was almost a physical thing, spreading through the cold air, for an instant silencing the silent wails of the faces in the river. The souls in the Styx seemed to quiet down, their tormented features softening for a moment, drawn to that impossible light.
Persephone's regal composure faltered. Just for a second, but it was enough. Her eyes widened slightly, and her breath seemed to catch in her throat. She took an instinctive step forward, her pale hand rising as if to touch the vial, forgetting her queenly poise for a moment.
"Impossible," she whispered, her voice now devoid of all its haughtiness, replaced by genuine astonishment. "A Tear from Ignis. And one of... contentment. I haven't seen one of these in centuries. I thought he was no longer capable of such an emotion."
She looked from Leo to the vial and back, a new understanding dawning on her face. "The egg. The Whispering Salt. That was you. You actually did it."
"I was just doing my job," Leo said, feeling a pang of pride amidst the terror.
Persephone laughed, a clear, melodic sound that seemed to push back the shadows for a moment. "You have no idea what you're holding, do you, Leo-kun? In the surface world, this is a rare alchemical ingredient. Here," she gestured to the dark river and the grey sky, "this is a drug. It's bottled hope. For the lost souls, for the fallen gods, for the demons weary of their own torment... a single drop of this is a moment of peace they haven't felt in millennia. They would kill for it. They would tear reality apart for a glimpse of it."
She fixed her gaze on him, her seriousness returning. "Yes. This will do. This won't just get us into the market; this will make you the guest of honor. The center of all dangerous attention."
Leo's smartphone vibrated again, the sharp sound cutting through the heavy atmosphere.
SYNDICATE ALERT: COMPLIANCE AGENT APPROACHING STYX SECTOR. ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL: 3 MINUTES.
"It seems our ride is arriving," Persephone said, her composure returning, the queen's mask settling back onto her face. She turned to the edge of the pier and whistled. The sound wasn't loud, but it cut through the air, echoing over the dark water like the chime of a silver bell.
In response, a thick fog began to form over the river. From its midst, a silhouette emerged, gliding silently over the oily water. It was a long, dark gondola, made of petrified wood and pale bones, with a single lantern hanging from its prow, its light failing to penetrate the gloom. At the stern, a tall, hooded figure held a long oar. Charon, the ferryman.
As the gondola neared the pier, Leo's aura scanner beeped frantically. A new dot appeared on his radar, flashing with an intensity he had never seen. It wasn't the Syndicate Agent. This dot was a deep, dark purple, labeled: INFERNAL - THREAT LEVEL: UNCLASSIFIABLE. It was the ferryman, an entity so ancient the system couldn't even measure its power.
"Hurry," Persephone said, already descending the slippery steps toward the boat. "Charon doesn't like to wait. His time is, quite literally, souls."
Leo rushed to follow, but stopped halfway. His scanner beeped again, this time with a different, sharp, and insistent warning tone.
A new dot had appeared on his radar. It was at the entrance to the pier, exactly where Leo had arrived. It was a sickly green, labeled: ETHEREAL - HIGH THREAT LEVEL. And it was moving in his direction, fast.
"Queen Persephone," Charon's voice echoed, a deep sound like stones scraping at the bottom of a river. "We have company."
Persephone looked back, past Leo, and her smile vanished, replaced by a scowl of pure annoyance. "Ah, fantastic. It seems your little tear has attracted a wraith."
Leo looked back. Advancing down the pier, floating inches above the rotting wood, was a hooded creature, dressed in rags that seemed to float like smoke. Two glowing, skeletal hands emerged from its sleeves, and from under its hood, two points of sickly green light shone with a palpable hunger. It was ignoring Persephone. It was ignoring Charon. It was staring directly at Leo's pocket.
In the same instant, a clean, precise sound, like a scalpel cutting the air, echoed from the start of the pier. A black portal, identical to the one that had appeared in Yuki's restaurant, opened. The Syndicate Compliance Agent stepped out, his expression as bored as ever. He adjusted his glasses and took in the scene: the Queen of the Underworld, the ancient ferryman, the hungry wraith, and in the middle of it all, his target.
His smartphone vibrated one last time, the notification flashing bright red.
SYNDICATE ALERT: COMPLIANCE AGENT HAS ARRIVED ON LOCATION.
Leo was trapped. In front of him, the boat to the market, with an ancient god and his queen. Behind him, a Syndicate bureaucrat with the power to erase him. And closing in fast, an ethereal monster that only wanted the treasure in his pocket. Three factions. One courier. And time had just run out.