"What do you want with me this time?"
Van was seeing Silco again only a few days later, and once again, the man had moved to yet another office.
No wonder Sevika always had to bring him. If Van had to find Silco on his own, it would be a nightmare.
Still, Silco's rise had been even faster than the pace at which he kept changing lairs. Just like his offices, which kept getting higher and higher, his position was climbing by the day.
The Undercity, which had been a complete mess not long ago, was gradually starting to answer to a single voice.
"Shouldn't you be busy these days?"
"Not as busy as I expected. They're just a pack of shortsighted idiots."
Silco leaned back in his chair, eyes half-closed, looking like he was in a foul mood.
He stayed like that, hand to his forehead, silently thinking about something, while Van had no particular urge to make conversation either and simply sat there, bored out of his mind.
"You've got people seriously on edge lately."
After a long silence, Silco finally spoke.
Van frowned. Had Silco really dragged him here just for that? Since when did he care so much about whether people lived or died?
"Relax. I know what I'm doing."
"Mm. I'm not going to interfere. But the street near the bridge and the one by the station belong to me."
"I understand."
The reason the Lanes mattered more than the other areas was simple: it was the part closest to topside.
If Van kept even the part near the Bridge of Progress entirely in his own hands, he would start losing track of who was supposed to be the one in charge.
After those two brief lines of negotiation, the office sank back into silence.
"Your tavern's doing well?"
"...It is."
"Being a boss at your age must be a lot to juggle."
"...You know I'm swamped, and you still hauled me here to talk nonsense?"
Van raised what was left of his brow in confusion. Was Silco really just making conversation? Since when had he become this chatty?
Silco lowered his hand from his forehead, lit a cigar, drew in a long breath, and let it out slowly.
"Tell me honestly, Torvan... don't you hate me?"
"Huh?"
Van's brow furrowed even deeper, his face full of confusion. Even so, he casually reached into the cigar box Silco hadn't put away yet, pulled one out for himself, and lit it.
"What's wrong with you?"
"I asked you a question. Answer it."
"...All right. I thought you already knew. Some things never stop weighing on you."
Van held the rich smoke in his mouth for a moment, tasting it, then let it out through his nose. This time he knew better than to inhale it properly.
"Mm. Then what about Jinx?"
"Jinx?"
Van stared blankly for a moment before realizing Silco meant Powder.
"Powder? What about her?"
"I never deny what I've done. But I won't carry blame that isn't mine... The explosion, that was Jinx's doing, wasn't it?"
Van fell silent and slowly let the smoke drift from his mouth.
"That's your sin. Don't dump it on a child."
"Just tell me what you think."
Silco suddenly sat upright, his one clear eye locked tightly on Van.
"Don't you resent her? Don't you blame her?"
"Me? I..."
Van hesitated, clearly torn. Truthfully, with a disaster that huge and all those people dead, to say there wasn't the slightest bitterness in him would have been a lie.
As he fell into silence, the air in the room seemed to harden.
At last, Van slapped a hand down on the desk and rose to his feet.
"I'm not some saint. I can't pretend I see this cleanly or fairly. Powder is my sister."
He looked straight at Silco and pointed a finger right at his face.
"I won't blame her, and I don't want to blame her. She made a mistake... and everything that came after that was your doing."
Silco did not look angry at all at this shamelessly biased answer. Instead, he gave a slow nod and leaned back in his chair again, as if some weight had just fallen away.
"No problem. I'll take that blame."
"Huh?"
Van, still standing there with a finger pointed at him, froze in confusion, having no idea what Silco was playing at.
Click.
A small sound came from the corner of the office.
Van turned and saw a little figure step out from behind a cabinet.
"Powder?!"
He had barely turned around before Powder crashed into his arms.
Whatever she had been suppressing all this time broke loose at once, and she burst into ugly, uncontrollable sobs, smearing tears and snot all over his chest.
Van slowly came back to himself and wrapped his arms tightly around the small body in his hands, still not entirely sure what to do.
By the time Powder finally cried herself tired and quieted down, Van gently lifted her in his arms and looked toward Silco, who was still sitting behind the desk, calmly smoking.
"Why?"
"Why what? You thought I was going to use her against you?"
"...Then what do you want from me?"
"Nothing. I already told you."
Silco kept his head turned slightly, gazing out the window as he slowly shook it.
"There is nothing I would trade her for."
Van looked at Silco's profile with a complicated expression, as though he were seeing him clearly for the first time.
"Thank you..."
"Do you remember Felicia? You were old enough when that happened."
Silco ignored the thanks and brought up another name instead.
Van knew exactly who that was.
Felicia was Vi and Powder's mother.
"She was remarkable. Zaun is no place to raise children, and still she had the courage to do it... Hmph. A stubborn kind of defiance, bringing children into a world like this."
Hearing that, Van glanced down at Powder's pale, exhausted face in his arms, and something in his eyes shifted.
"And now a part of that belongs to you too. That's enough. I'm busy. Go."
Silco waved a hand, stubbed out his cigar, and returned to his papers without another glance, clearly dismissing them.
After one last long look at him, Van turned and walked out of the office with Powder asleep in his arms, spent from crying.
...
...
Van carried Powder all the way back to the Last Drop, taking care not to wake her. Right outside the entrance, he ran into Ekko, who was just coming out to throw away the trash.
"Powder?!"
Ekko spotted her instantly in Van's arms.
His voice woke Powder from her exhausted sleep. She blinked in confusion, then, the moment she saw Ekko standing there frozen, hurriedly jumped down from Van's arms.
She looked at him carefully, all timid nerves.
"Powder!"
Ekko dropped the trash at once and rushed forward to hug her.
"I missed you so much!"
The nightmare that had haunted her for days finally cracked, and the moment she felt that real forgiveness from one of the people she had feared facing most, Powder burst into tears all over again and hugged him back just as tightly.
"I missed you too, little man..."
Van stood quietly to the side, watching them, and suddenly felt his whole body go light, as if the exhaustion of the past weeks had slipped away in that moment.
He let out a slow breath, and for the first time in a long while, a warm smile spread across his face.
Then another thought rose in his mind.
Zaun's children deserve more.
Inside the tavern, Zeri had heard the crying outside while sweeping up and came dashing out with a broom in her hands, ready for a fight.
Instead, she found Ekko hugging a blue-haired girl she didn't know, both of them crying their eyes out. She scratched her head in total confusion and looked helplessly at Van.
"What happened? What's going on? What is this?"
[End of chapter]