She linked her arm through mine and I leaned a good deal of my weight on her, raising a shaky finger to point toward the back door. She started to drag me that way, her head tucked down and her stride purposeful, as though she would be able to trick the surrounding sols and dwellers into thinking that there was nothing out-of-the-ordinary going on. It almost seemed to work, too. Some of them turned away from us, going back to their meals.
We cleared the dining room and I pointed again, showing Emmy the way to the Abcurses dorm rooms. It was much faster with her than it was to walk on my own. I gained strength with each step, which meant that we were moving in the right direction, if nothing else. When we were in the hall outside their rooms, I tugged on Emmy’s arm, and we stopped moving. I drew her to one of the supply closets, able to walk on my own now, and gently pushed her inside. We sent two of the cleaning carts into the hallway to make room and then closed the door, sitting against it in the darkness.
“Will …” she started again.
“I’m okay.” I sighed, dragging my hands over my face. “I need a bath, and something to wash out my mouth, but I’m okay.”
“You can tell me what’s going on, or I can sing Leader Graham’s stupid Settlement Anthem until your ears bleed. Your choice.”
“Harsh.” I cringed, but followed it with a laugh. It was almost nice to think about Leader Graham and all of his hair-brained plots to make the dwellers more like the sols. Life had been much simpler then. “I snuck into Topia, and then one of the gods, specifically the god of Chaos—Rau—hit me with this weird smoke ball of light, and I think it did something to me. Also, I stabbed someone, but it was an accident. And I met this cool slave named Jeffrey. You would have liked her. She was a stickler for rules. I’m pretty sure we become Jeffreys when we die. Just saying. I mean, it makes sense. They’re only half of what we are. It’s like the Creator plucked them on their way to death and then set them in Topia, where they would have to continue to serve. For eternity. So when Teacher Marcks told us that dwellers are destined to be slaves, and have no further purpose outside of their slavery, he really wasn’t kidding. You know what happens when a Jeffrey does something bad? They get sent to a banishment cave. They’re bound to it. They turn into these creepy, twisted, shadowy things, and they just … amass. There must be thousands of them in there. Maybe more. Holy shit. I didn’t have time to think about that until now—”
“You can stop rambling; I’ve processed the first thing you said. Mind telling me why you snuck into Topia?” Emmy’s tone was dry, almost sarcastic, but there was a hint of hysteria to it.
“Well, technically, I didn’t want to. The Abcurses made me. They wanted me to steal a cup.”
“Who did the cup belong to?”
“Someone called D.O.D.?”
It was too dark to see Emmy’s face, but she was frowning so hard now that I could almost sense it.
“There isn’t a god by that name, Will.”
“Yeah, that’s what Jeffrey said too. Oh, wait … Jeffrey said something about a Sacred Abil and the Trophy of Stavlini, or Stavriti, or Stav … something.”
“Staviti?” The hysteria in Emmy’s voice was definitely becoming prominent now. “The Trophy of Staviti? You stole the Trophy of Staviti?”
I clapped a hand over her mouth, trying to muffle her shriek. “No!” I answered reflexively. “Or yes. Kind of. Maybe. Why?”
She gave a muffled answer, and I realised that I was still holding my hand over her mouth. I pulled away, allowing her to speak again.
“You don’t know who Staviti is, Willa? Seriously? You couldn’t pay attention in class even for that much?”
“I knew it sounded familiar,” I grumbled, feeling defensive. “Is it the god of … um … food or something?”
Emmy groaned, her head making a thudding sound as she knocked it back against the door. “It’s the Creator. The Original Creator. Staviti. And Sacred Abil? He’s the god of Trickery. Definitely not someone you want to be messing with.”
“I didn’t want to mess with any of them.”
“And yet … you stole from the Creator. Tricked the god of Trickery. Stabbed someone. Probably someone important. Probably the god of Vengeance.”
“Do you think they know it was me?”
“Of course not. You’re a dweller from the seventh ring of Minatsol.” Emmy suddenly launched herself onto me, hugging me tightly. “I’m so relieved. You’re alive. You’re … what was happening back there in the dining hall? And why the hell are we in a supply closet?” She drew back from the hug, a hand still on my arm. She shook me slightly, as though she’d be able to dislodge the answers from me by force.
“Rau’s magic. It knocked me out, and then when I woke up, there was this pain …” I touched my chest, rubbing my fingers over the muted thud of pain that was still present, even now, though it was no longer trying to rip me apart. “The further away from the Abcurses I go … the more it hurts me. If I’m touching one of them, I don’t feel it at all.”