"A peaceful sleep – what a rarity," he thought.
Last night, for the first time in a long time, he experienced this feeling. No dreams, no anything else waiting for him in the darkness, just a calm, oppressive silence.
He slept peacefully for six hours. He could have slept longer, but refused.
After all, there are more important things to do. Besides, excessive love for pleasure makes a person lazy.
"We need to wait, Ghost."
Standing facing the acidic, foul-smelling icy wind, Kariel squinted and said:
"All the aristocrats will soon learn about the events of last night.
This cannot be hidden for long. And it's not just about houses connected by business interests... even those aristocrats who have withdrawn into their world of entertainment will notice something is wrong after some time.
Their reaction will most likely be as I predicted: they will start fighting for the vacant positions and power... of course, it might be different. But in any case, we will have to wait.
Kariel paused and sighed.
After all, it is now the eve of the Great Purge."
The Ghost thought and nodded, but expressed a different opinion.
"Why don't we kill the rest of the aristocrats, Kariel? We know where they are and how to find them."
Kariel raised an eyebrow with slight surprise, then smiled. A genuine joy flashed in his smile.
"Let's do this, Ghost, I'll ask you a few questions, okay?" he suggested quietly.
The Ghost nodded silently.
"You see a gang member robbing a person. What will you do?"
"I'll kill him," the Ghost answered without hesitation. "He's probably done it more than once."
"Correct. Second question: you see a group of bandits robbing people. What will you do?"
"I'll kill them all," the Ghost frowned. "Gangs deserve death."
"Correct. Third question, Ghost: you see a group of teenagers trying to join a gang and committing their first robbery. What will you do this time?"
The Ghost fell silent.
And Kariel continued.
"They are hungry and naked. Several gang members are watching them from a distance, even shouting at them to kill their victim faster. What will you do?"
The Ghost remained silent. Only the index finger of his right hand trembled, and his expression became more and more serious. This was a rarity, and Kariel was glad to see it.
This meant that the Ghost had begun to think about these complex questions.
"Well, do you have an answer, Ghost?" he asked patiently.
"...No," the Ghost replied quietly. "I don't have an answer."
"Then let me tell you what will most likely happen next."
Kariel lowered his head and, looking at the dirty streets below, which were becoming more chaotic over time, squinted. His voice became even quieter.
"If you kill the bandits, the teenagers will scatter. But that doesn't mean they'll give up. They will continue, join another gang, or return to this one's lair and report what happened...
And if you're lucky, you might even meet some of them again.
And then you'll have to kill them – because they joined a gang.
If you try to stop the teenagers, to convince them not to commit a crime, they will ignore you. Some will gain courage and continue what they started, others will call for help from the bandits.
Only a few will feel a pang of conscience due to your persuasion, but will do nothing. And then bandits, called for help, will approach from the other side of the street."
Kariel turned to the Ghost.
"…And in the end, you'll have to kill them anyway."
Kariel shook his head.
"That's a possible outcome, Ghost. I'm done."
"…"
Silence. Then Ghost spoke with difficulty:
"Why?"
"Because they have no choice."
Kariel replied softly, "They've seen what their parents were like, Ghost. You've seen it too, haven't you?
Workers from the slums, faces black with dirt from the mines on the edge of the city, emaciated, sick…
They work day and night, and when they've been squeezed dry, the factory just throws them out onto the street. And then they lie on rotten planks by the roadside, coughing black dust and blood until they die.
Who would want to live like that?"
"But…" Ghost asked, doubt and despair in his voice, "Do you really have to join a gang?"
"What else?"
Kariel burst into laughter.
He was no longer as pessimistic as he used to be, but he still harbored a deep hatred for the current state of the world. This laughter, carried away by the icy wind, sounded not joyful, but rather like broken grief.
"They have no choice, Ghost."
Kariel said quietly, "Between looking like a human and living worse than a pig, they chose the former. We can't condemn them for it, but we can't forgive them on behalf of the innocently murdered either."
Yes.
Ghost understood this perfectly – they couldn't forgive on behalf of the innocently murdered. Besides the dead themselves, no one had the right to do so.
"That's why killing is never the best solution to a problem. Even if you kill all the aristocrats, the gangs will remain…
And the gangs will sooner or later turn into new aristocrats. It's a vicious cycle, Ghost. Our task is not to enter this cycle by killing, but to break it."
"Break it?"
"Yes, break it," Kariel nodded.
Ghost blinked and returned to the topic they had already discussed: "So, Kariel, did you find that way?"
"I saw its beginnings."
Kariel replied softly, "But I don't know how to explain it to you, Ghost. I'm not very good at expressing my thoughts, I can only try to describe…"
He raised his right hand and opened his palm.
"It's like a flame that has just been lit… but in this world, full of special fuel, it will quickly engulf everything around."
Kariel clenched his fist sharply.
"And then, perhaps, I won't have to explain anything to you anymore."
Ghost nodded silently, memorizing every word. He understood some things, only partially understood others, and didn't understand some at all. But his intuition told him: you must remember this.
"By the way… since we have a day off today…"
Kariel smiled slightly: "You wanted your own knife, didn't you?"
Ghost's eyes lit up.
…
Nostramo is a world rich in adamantium.
In fact, to say "rich" would be an understatement. The core of Nostramo contains an enormous amount of natural adamantium.
Enormous.
Therefore, it is safe to say that it is a world shrouded in adamantium.
Of course, like everything else on Nostramo, the adamantium was in the hands of the aristocrats.
They used it to trade with neighboring worlds, which was an extremely reliable source of income. The aristocrats profited from the adamantium, exchanging it for whatever they desired.
They, of course, didn't care how much human blood was on these ores.
Jump, fall, land – all as usual. Kariel had done it many times, but this time something was wrong.
He frowned.
Before, Kariel had always prepared for the landing and softened the impact. This time he did the same.
However, upon landing, his muscles and knees seemed to tell him: "You don't need this."
"You don't need to be so careful," they informed their master with a slight recoil. "You've become completely different."
"What's happening?
Last night, when we were returning to the Sanctuary, everything was fine. Why have such changes occurred in just one night?
Is this some side effect of resurrection that I don't know about? Or has the power that strengthened me not disappeared?
Is it permanent?"
Kariel pondered, his brows involuntarily furrowing – this feeling of incomplete control over his own body was extremely unpleasant to him.
"What happened, Kariel?" Ghost asked from behind him.
"…"
Kariel did not answer, only slowly widened his eyes.
He had noticed something.
The feeling of threat – that instinctive sensation that arose whenever Ghost was behind him – had disappeared.
"Kariel?"
"…I'm fine."
Kariel said quietly, forcing himself to forget about it for the time being. He raised his hand and pointed to the other end of the ruins: "Remember that mine, Ghost?"
Sitting on the edge of a ruined building, Ghost nodded.
Of course, he remembered. It was in that mine that he had met Kariel.
They were on the northwestern outskirts of Quintus. The edge of the hive city, slightly better than the wastelands beyond it, but only slightly.
There was no electricity, the houses had long since decayed. No one except the miners ventured here. And the miners didn't live here; they just passed by, preferring to set up their simple tents closer to the mines for rest.
After all, the houses on the outskirts were dangerous. So dangerous that there were few rats – most of them lived in the mines.
You'd better not know why.
"It's already abandoned."
Kariel straightened up and stepped over a hole in the roof of this building. Darkness reigned around, and only at the entrance to the abandoned mine in the distance was a dim light visible.
"But it seems there's someone there," Ghost said quietly.
"Of course, there are people there."
Kariel replied calmly, "The mine may be abandoned, the gang responsible for transporting the goods may leave, and the mine owners may leave, but the miners won't."
"…But the mine is abandoned, isn't it?" Ghost asked, confused.
"The miners are also abandoned," Kariel replied, turning around.
"…"
Ghost pursed his lips, not knowing what to say. But Kariel nodded encouragingly, almost imperceptibly.
"Don't say anything," he said quietly. "Let's go see them. If we're lucky, maybe you'll even meet someone who knows you."
Ghost's eyes widened.
***
Read the story months before public release — early chapters are on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Granulan