Outside the bar located under the shadow of Bagh-e Lazzat, Octavia stood still with her hand on the handle of the entrance.

  The sun was tilting down just above the horizon, and the sky was partially covered by clouds moving at a noticeable speed. The loud music from the main street was diluted into a fading echo as it traveled further into the alley, and the laughter of occasional passersby reminded the festive spirit of the place. Yet Octavia could not smile. Instead, she hardened the grip on the handle of the luxurious wooden door in front of her while frowning enough to create a wrinkle between her eyes.

  Despite today being her off-duty day she had decided for herself, she was not able to rest easy for a single moment. For the past four days, she tried her best to keep herself busy to get the thought about the foul possibility out of her mind, but it did little to stop her from waking up during the night with her throat dried out. And whenever that happened, she looked at Foreigner and thought to herself, while drinking from the plastic bottle with her mouth making direct contact, that she should not have made that request.

  “Uh, um. Excuse me. Are you going to enter?“

  At a voice calling at her, Octavia turned around to see three ladies standing behind her, with the one talking to her blushing her cheeks with her eyes failing to match Octavia’s while the other two were pushing the lady closer to Octavia with a giggle.

  “Pardon me, ladies. Please, be my guest.“

  Octavia held the door open for the three ladies with a smile that melted the hearts of the innocents. Only after the ladies walked inside while twittering about ‘handsome’, she realized how the door was opened and it was her turn to enter the building. She stared at the staircase leading downward and took the first step that felt heavier than it needed to be. The die had already been cast, and all there was left to do was to move the pieces.

  Leaving the door closing behind her, Octavia walked under the atmospheric lights illuminating above her head to reach an elegant bar with classical music playing in the background. The orange lights were dimly brightening the place, with the exception being the display stand behind the bar top where various liquors were glowing under a bright yellow light.

  Amidst the lingering smell of alcohol and cigars, bartenders were busily moving their hands to craft cocktails and their mouths to collect tips, while the servers delivered the delightfulness in the form of liquid to the other side of the room housing chairs and tables. With every step Octavia took over the brown wooden floor, shining with the reflection of lights on the ceiling, she couldn’t help but wonder how much the cheapest booze would cost at a place like this.

  She took a look around the bar top to see if her companion had already arrived, but there was no sign of him anywhere. Which was strange, as he usually preferred the bar top where he could get the attention of the bartender, who would always say the thing that he wished to hear at the right moment. As she wondered if he was running late, she spotted the lonely Vaz drinking whiskey at the table in the corner farthest from the entrance. And that was where she headed next.

  “Mind if I join?“

  Octavia sat down without waiting for a response. She noticed another cup of whiskey sitting on a table with melting ice lying in it and took a sip from it with no further questions.

  “Fancy drink you have here, Ghorban.“

  “You are late.“ Ghorban spoke in a rebuking tone, yet his eyes indicated he was too familiar with this situation.

  “Well, don’t blame me.“ Octavia laid her back against the chair while massaging her stiff shoulder. “It took some time for me to find this place. How do you even know a place like this? You look like someone who would drink cheap booze while being in a fistfight, but you sure do have a different taste from your look.”

  “Hmph.“

  Ghorban took a cigar and a cigar cutter out of his inner chest pocket, then made a clean cut off the end of the cigar. After the ignition from his match, a distinct flavor that resembled cocoa rose to the ceiling and spread in the room as it slowly descended to the floor. With a fresh cigar in his mouth, he brought out another and handed it to Octavia, but was greeted by a gesture of rejection.

  “No thanks. I quitted.“

  Octavia took a sip from her glass as she noticed the attention she was receiving from the side from the ladies she met in front of the entrance. She raised her glass while providing a generous smile to them, and the ladies went momentarily silent before blooming into a chatter mostly comprising interjections of excitement.

  “Since when?“ Ghorban spoke while deliberately ignoring the ladies staring at them, as he was used to it when Octavia was present.

  “Ten months and counting.“

  “I see.“

  Ghorban took a deep inhale of the smoke. As the ember at the tip of the cigar brightened in gold, his face relaxed out yet his eyes were visibly disturbed.

  “Looks like we both are strangers to each other.“ Ghorban spoke after he exhaled the smoke in his lungs slowly through his nose. “All those years spilling blood on a battlefield, yet there is nothing left.“

  He laid his hand on the prosthetic acting as his left leg. Only the occasional phantom pain reminded him of the reality that he once had bone and muscle in the place of the cold steel, and sometimes he refused to take the medicine in order to live under the pain that felt too real.

  “Okay. Seriously, what happened to you?“ Octavia leaned forward as she rubbed the back of her neck to get rid of the strange itch that was irritating her. “You first call out to meet at a fancy place like this and then you are acting like a dying old man.“

  Ghorban chuckled at Octavia’s words and took another sip from his cigar. He raised his head and released the smoke toward the ceiling. Even though he had seen this ceiling numerous times in the past, it felt higher than ever before.

  “I suppose I had too much time in my grasp to rethink the decisions I made in the past.“

  “Well, isn’t that lovely news.“

  Octavia said as she swirled the ice in her glass. Her finger was shaking lightly, but she fixed it by hardening the grip.

  “Sounds like the research I asked about went smoothly.“

  Ghorban took his cigar off and placed it on an ashtray. He lifted his glass and stared at the liquor lightly waving within it. After gazing at the dull reflection of himself on the surface of the alcohol, he finished the remaining whiskey with a single gulp, then brought out the book with a religious cover that had been partially worn out. He slid the book towards Octavia and reached out for his cigar with the tip still burning bright.

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  “What’s the meaning of this?“ Right before Octavia’s lips touched the glass, she stopped in motion as a response.

  “Nothing.“

  “What?“

  Ghorban took a deep inhale with a cigar in his mouth. Octavia waited until he was done with it, but her patience was running out quickly, and Ghorban knew it well. Still, he took his sweet time to savor the smoke passing his throat as the answer he had to spit out was a damnation to his pride.

  “I found nothing about the girl.“

  Octavia waited for Ghorban to finish his sentence, but there was nothing else coming out of his mouth. Only after the ice in her glass made a clanking noise as it melted away, she took the initiative to break the uncanny silence.

  “What’s the meaning of that?“ She asked in a tone that represented the level of curiosity she held.

  “I have said all I have to say. I found out nothing about the girl you asked about. No name. No race. No origin. There were no acquaintances or enemies. Not a single trace of her past life existed. As if she had been created out of thin air one day.”

  Just before Ghorban took another sip of smoke, he pulled the cigar out of his mouth and held it in his hand. The smoke was not delicious as it was once he accepted his failure.

  “So I’m returning your money back.“

  “Well, I’ll be damned.“

  Octavia threw her back onto the chair with her legs crossed.

  “Ghorban offering a refund. I must have done something terrifically amazing to witness such a day.”

  She rested her chin on her hand and swayed her foot back and forth, in a much more relaxed manner than when she was standing outside the bar.

  “Octavia. Tell me the truth.“ Ghorban stared at the light burning at the tip of his cigar. “What’s the deal with that girl?“

  “I’ve always been telling you the truth.“ Octavia finished the liquor in her glass and slammed it on top of the table while wiping her mouth with her sleeve. “I don’t know. Perhaps, as you said, she had been created out of thin air one day. That sounds good enough to me.“

  Ghorban chuckled once before continuing the conversation. “You are glad because you don’t need to shoot her.“

  “Pheh. What? No, I’m not.“ Octavia averted her eyes while shrugging awkwardly, and she met the eye of the lady who was still staring in her direction.

  “You are just getting grumpy, old man. You know what works to cure that?“ As she stood up, Octavia grabbed the book on the table and threw it closer to Ghorban. “A scripture or two. Especially the ones on the rectangular paper with some numbers on it. Try it.“

  As she walked away from the table, the lady who had spoken out to her at the entrance stood up and approached her with blushed cheeks. But before she could say anything, Octavia blocked her mouth with the index finger and winked at the lady without stopping her feet leading to the exit. Once the lady was left alone, her two friends came to her, and the three of them made a maiden’s chatter about how cool it was while lightly hopping on their feet.

  Ghorban chuckled faintly at the scenery Octavia left behind, and raised his hand to grab the attention of the server. Amidst the sound of footsteps approaching from behind, he killed the light on his cigar using his prosthetic and exhaled the fresh air out of his lungs.

  “You owe me one, General.“

  The sun was below the horizon, and the moon was shining dimly above the dark clouds shrouding the sky. It was a starless night, yet the world was bright and lively as it always had been since the age of intellectuals.

  The street was crowded with people who just started to live out their lives after escaping from the rectangular misery within rectangular architectures. Street performers were lining up on the straight plaza in the middle of the street, and the footsteps of people flowing in and out of the buildings provided a rhythm for the singers to follow. Screens on the skyscrapers brought joy to the eye, and the scent of freshly cooked food leaking from the restaurants agitated appetites. A place where all five senses came back to life. That was what a street called Bagh-e Lazzat was.

  Octavia was sitting on a bench with both her arms resting on the backrest to kill some time before she headed back to the inn. She was occupying an entire bench that could hold two to three people by herself, but there was no guilt in doing so as there were three free benches in the area. People on this street were busy navigating from one point to another instead of resting, which was ironic considering that they were using more energy to relax than when they were working. Though it provided an opportunity for Octavia to do some people-watching, so she did not mind it at all.

  “Why don’t you wear it? It looks really good on you! I promise!“

  “B—But it’s embarrassing to wear this in public…“

  “Lahlahlah, I don’t want to hear it! Just wear it, Amonet! Like how Sakurako wore her new dress right away!“

  “Ms. Crescencia. Please lower your voice.“

  Through the white noise of the crowd, Octavia heard a voice she recognized alongside two other voices. A Sirenetani in short pants and a top revealing her belly with a loud and slightly annoying voice. A tall Gelip in a white one-piece dress with a shopping bag in her hand. And an unknown race that pretended to be Shakh Sah, who was excited about the hangout she was having this morning. Luckily for her, it seemed like she was enjoying her time off from the job hunting she had to do for the past three days. Soon, they rushed into the crowd and disappeared from sight.

  For Octavia, nothing happened today. She met an old friend and got nothing out of it. Still, she couldn’t help but smile at everything that had happened today. After all, the looming worry that was growing in her heart got eradicated, and the tranquility she was going through would last a tiny bit longer. That was all she could ask for.

  As Octavia closed her eyes with her face heading upward, an enchanting, yet somewhat irritating, voice singing a nursery rhyme came from the wall of crowd surrounding a street performer. It was only a mere moment when the opening between people allowed her to look at the performer, and she understood why she was annoyed by such a beautiful voice. It was the perverted Gelip she shared a room with on the Khorasan Express, mesmerizing her surrounding in a pure echo she released without the assistance of audio instruments.

  Fly, fly away, little white bird. To where you were once born.

  To the place where one star shines above the night sky. To the place where twenty-four blades protect you from your foe.

  Fly, fly away, little white bird. Ride the wind and become one with it.

  Follow the guiding voices of the four beasts. Follow the raging flames of the thirty spiders.

  Fly, fly away, little white bird. To the far end of this world.

  Until the seven nights are over. Until the twenty-three lights glitter in your eyes.

  Sleep, sleep away, white little bird. At where you belong, sleep.

  Once the Gelip took a breather after the song was over, an applause that would be too loud for a street performance struck the air. Octavia thought to herself sarcastically that true art was dead, in a bittersweetness that wished to deny how beautiful the voice was. Even though she knew absolutely nothing about the Gelip she was looking at, she still hated her from the bottom of her heart. That was just how it was.

  “That was a fantastic performance! Excuse my intrusion, but I work for the Northern Lighthouse. Here is my business card, I’d like to talk to you about the opportunity.“

  One male in a suit came forward with his business card in his hand and handed it over to the Gelip. The crowd murmured as the response to the term Northern Lighthouse the man spoke out proudly, and Octavia was slightly surprised as well. It was a mega-corp agency with its headquarters in Hiberia, but it had spread its roots throughout the world to conquer the entertainment industry within its grasp. Anyone with a connection to the civilization knew the name of the company, and Octavia wondered if the Gelip had that much to show for the corporation as such would be interested in.

  But the Gelip herself looked at the male with despicable and belittling eyes that made the air go chill. Instead of taking the card, she rolled her eyes slightly to her left and found Octavia staring at her with a cynical look. She pushed the man in front of her to the side and walked straight to Octavia, splitting the crowd in two like a ship sailing on calm water.

  “That would be nine dukelt.“

  Gelip made a damnable and oddly specific demand as she extended her hand. She was smiling in a seductive yet spine-chilling manner that struck the hearts of the men in the vicinity, yet it just made Octavia feel her guts twisting inside.

  Octavia had no money to waste on her, but her wish for the Gelip to get lost from her sight was greater. She pulled out nine dukelt out of her wallet and placed them on Gelip’s hand with more force involved than needed. Then she walked away to where she needed to be, without knowing that she would regret this day for two things.

  One, she should have saved those nine dukelt for a better booze.

  Two, she should have placed a bullet in her skull.