Erin knocked on a door in a rhythmic beat, different from Jace's first impression with a barging entry.
A few seconds later, a young woman with messy, dark violet hair opened the door. She wore a beige, oversized buttoned shirt with sleeves that lazily hung from her arms. It was a miracle the shirt's length was low enough, just hovering over the section of her lower thigh.
Because who would ever know if she wore anything else underneath.
Agnes's murky gray eyes sparkled with joy.
"Sunshine!"
Then she opened the door further, and added:
"Oh, he's here, great."
Jace hated the obvious change in her enthusiasm when she noticed his presence.
"I didn't agree to this. Do you seriously think I wanted to come back to this dump—"
Erin exchanged looks with the auburn boy, silently gesturing to him to keep his kind words to himself.
"You wanted to see him, Agnes, here he is."
Agnes hummed a cheerful tune, already rummaging through the basket of candied delights.
"That depends. Is he going to be a brat again?"
Erin kept her eyes locked on Jace, as if she was holding back whatever comment he was brewing behind that tightened face.
"Could we come inside?"
The young woman clutched the straw basket closely to her chest, disappearing through the darkness.
Erin followed, before she said to Jace.
"Behave, jumpy."
Jace mumbled some curses and contemplated using his silver sword as a medium for all the insults they've directly thrown at him. But he also followed inside, kicking away some of the mess that crowded the entrance.
Agnes set the basket at her counter, digging through the colorful assortment of candies and complained:
"No taffy? Where's the taffy?"
Erin looked around, familiar with the unkept trash that littered the young woman's house. And by the look on her face, she didn't seem to care.
"It's the leftovers at the cafe. If you wanted taffy, or anything particular, you could have told me when I was up there."
Agnes waved her off, disregarding the treacherous idea of venturing into the outside.
Jace opened one of the curtains of the house, being almost blinded by the immediate flood of sunlight.
The slobby woman hissed, shielding her eyes behind her arms as if the sun's rays were causing her health to deteriorate.
Erin sighed, turning to the immature auburn boy.
"Come on, really?"
Jace said back indifferently:
"It's dark in here, don't you think?"
"I can see through the dark."
"Lucky you."
With some persuasion, Jace kept the house's dark curtains slightly open, providing a decent light throughout the place. Though, it didn't make sight of the horrid, cluttered mess any better.
Agnes hoisted herself onto the counter, kicking her legs giddy like some unsupervised child ready to indulge in mountains of sugar.
Jace only wondered if there was any day she would dress properly, darting his eyes away from her lazy top.
Agnes spoke from her full mouth, dropping crumbs from the sweet, miniature tart she was chewing on.
"Our conversation from yesterday, if your brain could remember, wasn't about my tragic exposition of resigning as a Climber."
Jace diverted half his attention from the cluttered mess to her voice, turning his body slightly in her direction.
The young woman continued.
"It was actually my upbringing, as you can see, I get to live away from humans—completely unbothered!"
Jace decided to keep his words in his thoughts.
'If you can call this living…'
But he asked her a question, one that had been in his mind since their first interaction.
"Are you from the Second Generation?"
Erin also picked from the straw basket, intent on hearing their conversation as she snacked with another decorative tart.
Agnes shook her head.
"I'm from the Third, just like you. Does that mean you get to talk to me like a normal person?"
Jace looked into her murky gray eyes and responded:
"I never mean to disrespect you, if that's how you see me. I just don't like having my time wasted."
"Oh, really? Was helping with my delivery a waste of time?"
"Talking in pointless conversations like this is a waste of time."
The young woman laughed, tilting her head in a suggestive manner.
"I remember you asked me for something…a Climber's license, yes?"
Jace turned his eyes to Erin, watching her much on her own products before turning back to the young woman.
"I asked for you to forge me one."
Agnes pursed her lips, turning her gaze through her thoughts.
"If you were a few years early, then I could. But as of right now, my occupation has changed from that."
"So, you can't."
The young woman lazily shrugged, finishing the sweet tart as her gray eyes smiled mischievously.
Jace groaned, storming his way to the door just like before.
'She's useless to me.'
Erin wiped her mouth, setting aside the spare tart and called to him.
"Jace, wait—"
Then Agnes said loudly, her voice covering every crevice of the cluttered home.
"Neither does that mean I'm out of that commission. Anyone in the Tower knows of my name, you just have to know who you're asking."
Jace turned, his face clearly in no mood for further charades.
"Can you, or can you not?"
Agnes smiled, rummaging through the basket again for her favored treats. But she said confidently to the auburn boy.
"If you want it by tomorrow, that could happen. If…you are willing to give something in return."
Jace scoffed and said back:
"I don't have any sweet treats to give you."
The young woman smiled in anticipation, unwrapping a piece of hard candy.
"When did I say anything about sweets?"
Jace realized what she was offering.
"Who are you?"
A wide smug formed on her face as she turned to the auburn boy.
"I am your Soul's best friend."
Without much to detail off from that vague answer, Jace looked at Erin for a real sense of clarification.
To his surprise, Erin added:
"Agnes can look into your Soul, which you've seen before, and can tell whether you're holding a Curse or not."
Agnes waved her finger and corrected the blonde girl.
"Not just that, sunshine, I can do far greater. Instead of turning my life to harrowing expeditions, the (Curse of Insight) changed it for the better. You could say I'm a genius of my craft, or so."
After swishing more pieces of hard candies in her mouth, she continued with her line of strange work.
"I look into Climber's Souls, young and old, and help them determine the value of their future. If you haven't noticed already, there's a little unfairness with how the Soul treats its subjects."
Jace felt his shoulders had lightened from some invisible weight.
"You're saying as if the Soul is a living being."
Agnes nodded, tossing the auburn boy a piece of hard candy.
Jace caught the candy through the dark, opening his hand as the wrapper crinkled on his palm.
She continued with her perspective.
"Some are cursed with the Soul and some were chosen by it. I can tell which is which because each Soul has its own weight and depth. The heavier, the more mature and additional abilities it possesses. But the deeper…the more potential the Climber has."
Agnes leaned forward, spilling more messy strands of dark violet hair over her thick glasses.
"Your Soul, Chase, it's nothing like I've seen before."
Erin exchanged a glance with Jace. He only shook his head, giving up the effort of helping the slob pronounce his name.
Agnes squinted her eyes through the dense lenses of her glasses.
"Despite your adolescent Soul, not only do you have a Curse, you also have a Blessing? How is that possible?"
Erin cleared her throat, trying not to giggle in the process.
"It's…not what you think."
Agnes raised an eyebrow, turning to the blonde girl.
"Really? What does it do?"
Jace groaned loudly, cutting through their short conversation. For some reason, he was genuinely interested in what the slob was saying. It was like she was finally explaining why his Soul had been so pitiful.
Agnes shrugged, picking another candied delight from the straw basket.
"So, Chase, what will it be? Would you give me the honorable permission to gaze into your Soul?"
Jace said back with some apprehension.
"That depends. Are you my enemy?"
The young woman answered, her tone colder than before.
"No…unless you want me to. Besides, you want a forged license for Climbers, this is your deal. Did you honestly expect I was going to find you service because you're friends with Erin?"
"You're not going to see anything interesting."
"And you're not the one to decide that."
Erin bundled up the discarded wrappers, blatantly stuffing the trash in one of the drawers under the counter. Then, she asked Agnes:
"Was this what you wanted all along?"
A wide smug formed on the young woman's face again as she took off her thick glasses.
"Be still for me, Chase, it's more harmless than you think."
Jace noticed her gray eyes had looked more pronounced, as if her pupils were swallowed behind that milky mass of color. If it wasn't for her disheveled hair, and the thick frame of her glasses, her face would have been photogenic.
Sadly, the slobby woman had no care for her health and only satisfied her tastebuds for sugar.
Agnes blinked a few times before concentrating her eyes at the still auburn boy. After a few minutes of climatic silence, she finally spoke.