“Step outside,” Cyox says. The white light dissipated, and the cold stone walls surrounding him came into view.

  Cade had gotten familiar with this place ever since the incident, the constant check-ups and the feeling of eyes always watching from the places you couldn’t see. The creatures that existed here differed from those who attempted to rejoin the world. They didn’t hide; they didn’t want to become lesser versions of themselves. Here, at The Concord, was the closest thing to the old ways.

  “Move,” Cyox says, leading him through the large open room and down past the front desks where the receptionists' gazes lingered on him, and down into the basement.

  It was well maintained, like the rest of the building, illuminated by more lights than needed and too silent. Each door was thick; no sound could escape from their sealed lips. Down here was where they sent you to talk; a way out only reachable if you said the right words. Cyox escorted Cade into one of the rooms and pressed him down into one of the two chairs.

  “Sit still,” Cyox says, turning back towards the door. “Or I will return,”

  Cade sat on the dense chair and didn’t move. He couldn’t tell if his muscles refused his commands, or he dared not risk whatever punishment would come if he did. Everything in this room was uncomfortable, an attempt to put you on edge, reveal whatever secrets lay hidden. Anything was fair game for the truth.

  Waiting in silence was always the best option; Cade had been here enough times to guess who would interview him, always someone in the middle of the hierarchy, but it felt different this time. Getting in and out was the simplest answer; the cycle can repeat afterward.

  The heavy doors swung open, and a flamboyantly dressed man walked inside. Tightly fitting purple pants and shirt, with green scarves draped over their shoulders. Their heavily ringed hand tapped across a small booklet of papers, which he set gently down on the table. Cade recognized the man from stories, Fay, the man whose work ethic was just as over-the-top as his style.

  “Hello, Cade,” Fay says, sitting down and crossing his legs over one another. “You look pale today,”

  “I’m always pale,” Cade says, scootching his chair forward just enough for it to touch the table.

  “Today is worse. You look like I could catch whatever you have,” Fay says, swatting his hands like they were trying to attack him. “It’s a little repulsive. Has anyone ever told you that?”

  Cade went to answer, but Fay slapped down a booklet onto the table, stopping whatever thought was trying to become a response. “They should have, at least for your own benefit,”

  Fay pulls open the booklet, his eyes darting down the page with one hand guiding his reading, and the other stroking his chin softly.

  “You must be so hungry all the time,”

  “I’m used to the feeling. It can’t cause permanent damage, just discomfort,” Cade says, keeping his gaze fixed on Fay.

  “You ever thought of going for an extra nibble? Never just an arm or something to fill the gaping hole in your stomach? End that discomfort?”

  “No,”

  “Tell me about this, Maria, at the Art Museum,” Fay says, leaning forward with a disarming smile on their face.

  “You already know everything about her. She was the name I was given.”

  “Aren’t the creatures of this world so fascinating?” Fay says, leaning forward onto his arms and resting his chin on his fists. “Some of us can only eat the craziest things, and some of us need to be put down for those appetites, but you are more fascinating than most.”

  “Is that why it’s you today, Fay?” Cade says, leaning forward to meet Fay’s gaze. “Do you think I need to be put down?”

  “That is a loaded question,” Fay says, leaning back into his chair with his hands raised high. “But one has to wonder when you killed those creatures in your hometown. Was it for hunger? Did you enjoy the hunt?” Fay leans forward until he is nearly in Cade’s face. “Did they make you angry?”

  “I’ve answered these questions before,” Cade says, refusing to break eye contact with Fay.

  “I want to hear the answers for myself, not from lesser creatures.”

  “I killed them to protect others. To avenge the small villages they had raided and those they were going to continue to kill. To protect my family,”

  “Protect is a funny word. I don’t think you can retroactively protect something that was already destroyed, burned, and buried away. How can you protect what has been returned to the soil from whence it came? There is another word for that act,”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Cade paused, a strange feeling pinching around his chest as he sighed. “I wanted to protect the village from the fate of my own.”

  Fay swirls his finger in a circular motion, looping over and over, until Cade's eyes begin to track the motions. “Closer to the word I am looking for, but not quite. I was thinking of revenge, punishment for what they took from you,”

  “Does the word we use matter?”

  “Not really, the outcome was the same,” Fay says, fiddling with the ring on his fingers. “And you ate them afterwards because?”

  “Wasting is a sin,” Cade says, leaning backwards.

  “Wasting is a sin?”

  “To honour a kill is to use the whole animal in its entirety,”

  Fay leans back into his chair and rubs either side of his temples. “So then, Maria, a clean kill? All up to standards?”

  “Secluded from prying eyes. Minimal noise,”

  “Anyone else get in your way over there?”

  “No, I went for one purpose. The approved hunt after she abused a relic,”

  “And which relic was that?”

  “A cursed needle, used against her sister,”

  Fay watches Cade, gently shifting around the papers on the desk. “What do you think about The Concord?”

  “I think they’ve existed for as long as memory serves and will live long into the future at the forefront of humanity,”

  “Others wouldn’t say such things. Some would say it should be eradicated from the world, while others, like Agiea, feel we need to be less lenient on those who do wrong in our society.”

  “You must carve your path; nothing is equitable,” Cade says

  Fay pushes the papers around, twiddling the ring on his index finger as his eyes move toward the ceiling.

  “Then tell me about the dead Concord employee Cyox found beside you? What do you know about that?” Fay says, his eyes sinking low, and whatever traces of neutralness existed disappeared. “I don’t believe in coincidences. Those are the fool's way of explaining things that are connected but who lack the fortitude to find out why,”

  Cade swallowed hard, his eyes locked on Fay. He had to find his following words very carefully. Fay could place an order that would just erase Cade from existence if he disliked the answer.

  “I went to the roof to clear my head, stretch my legs, when I heard voices from below me,” Cade says, keeping his gaze fixed on Fay, waiting to see how he reacted. When he softly nodded, Cade continued.

  “An old woman and a man with large wings were talking to a frail man on the ground. Something about a child who they couldn’t grab, and…,” Cade pauses, seeing Fay spot his hesitation, and leans forward. “She who Burns,”

  “And after that?”

  “They killed the man, and the two fled the scene. You know I can’t control fire. There would be no way for me to do that to someone,”

  Fay gathers the pages, smacks the stack against the table to line them up, and presses them together from both sides. “You probably think whoever wanted to join the Concord gets in, but that would be a misconception,” Fay stood up, placing the paper bundle underneath his arm and reached for the door handle. “Creatures are all liars, and are much closer to animals than they care to admit. When animals get pressed into a corner, they’ll surprise you with what they are willing to do to escape.”

  Fay opens the door and stands in the frame, looking back at Cade on final time before leaving Cade in silence. Fay could have killed him for less, and even if they had any doubts, they could just throw him down in the bottom of a hole somewhere and let the hunger gnaw at him for eternity. It wouldn’t kill him; it would be constant, unnerving pain that would lead to insanity.

  Cyox returned and pressed Cade along a very straight path, opposite the way they had come, towards rooms of grey stone. Cyox reached for his skin drum when heavy knocks bashed against the door, when two guards reached for his hand, and held the drum in place. Cyox grabs one by the neck, pressing him against the wall, while the other keeps the skin drum secure.

  “Safety inspection,” one of the men says in monotone as he presses past Cyox and into the room, examining Cade.

  Cyox released the other's neck, while the man holding the skin drum followed suit. The two men searched the room quietly, then swiftly closed and locked the door.

  “Madam Agiea wishes to see him, urgently,” One of the two men says.

  Cyox looks down at Cade, then back at the men, draws his glaive back, and nods. Cade had no choice in the matter, regardless; turning down a request from a high-ranking member of The Concord always ended badly. He’d go and accept whatever strange fate awaited him, but twice in a row was alarming.

  “I’ll go,”

  Cade held both sides of the door, watching the two men eagerly turn to walk back down the white stone hall. Cade could only follow their swift pace as they made their way deeper into the building, climbing a set of stairs, and waiting for Cade to follow.

  “Time is moving, and we are not,” The man says, gesturing to a pristine wristwatch. “Follow,”

  Cade sighed as the men fell silent again, only the sound of their heeled shoes tapping against the floor with every step. Cade followed them up the building, past the receptionist they did not wave at, and further up a winding staircase. This level had few rooms, spread out over a large area that could have held triple the number it had.

  Cade crumpled himself behind them, his posture low and back contorted like a uncooked shrimp as their footsteps echoed through the halls. There was nowhere to hide in this oasis of white stone; every movement was visible, and their sound would have altered everyone on the floor if they simply looked out their door.

  “Are you sure this is the right place?” Cade says, trying to slow his pace, but the men persisted without pause as they rushed ahead.

  “We do not make mistakes,” The man says, keeping their gaze fixed forward as they pull towards a door near the end of the hall, with a grand doorknocker on the front of a strange creature with thick horns and wild eyes.

  “Agiea is inside,” The man says, banging the door knocker three times, and opening the door just wide enough for Cade to enter. “Don’t keep her waiting,”