The Blessed and the Pure┃🖋

Chapter Ζ

"So, you're saying this Freed knows everything?" Nikas said as Hallie all but dragged him towards what she knew to be Kirphis's house.

Hallie leaned forward. "Yes, Kirphis knows everything."

A Sóma not much older than Hallie furrowed their brow at Hallie's statement and shrugged, resuming their walk.

All this Hallie saw from the corner of her eye, but she brushed it off. Perhaps they knew Kirphis.

"This is confusing, but I can follow you now."

Hallie let go of Nikas and continued onward. She hoped she remembered where the alley was.

Sure enough, she did remember. She saw the space in between the two buildings and picked up her pace. Seeing this, Nikas did the same.

Reaching the alley proved not to be difficult. No one seemed to care if they ducked off the street to who knows where. Although, they received suspicious glares from a few Taktikoí. You win some, you lose some.

Hallie slid into the alley as if it were her home-away-from-home. And for all she knew, it was.

She examined the alley's wall, waiting for the door handle to come out from the shadows and make itself known. Nikas also scanned the wall with mild curiosity.

Soon, Hallie reached the end of the alley with no doorknob to be seen.

"It should be here somewhere." Hallie put her hand out and ran it over the wall one more time.

"What should be here somewhere? I can help find it."

"There should be a doorknob," Hallie said, still running her hands over the wall, probably contracting many horrible diseases as she did so, and straining her eyes for any disturbance in the sleek stone before her. "The doorknob leads to Kirphis's house."

"And you're positive it's on this side of the wall?"

Hallie froze. She turned around to see Nikas pointing at a spot on the other wall. The spot protruded out from the wall to form a tiny handle. A doorknob.

Hallie's cheeks burned red as she made her way over to Nikas. She held up her fist to knock but stopped.

Oh, gods.

Oh, gods.

She was about to knock on Kirphis's door and ask them a question out of nowhere. What was she thinking? She let her curiosity overwhelm her fight-or-flight instincts. Or just her flight instincts. Her fight instincts died a long time ago.

Hallie shook her head. The status of her nonexistent fight instincts wasn't important. What was important, however, was the fact that she was about to knock on Kirphis's door, ask them a question, chat a bit, and leave.

She must have finally lost it. Hallie thought that a lot, especially in social predicaments, but this time she was positive she wasn't being dramatic. She was curiosity, and the cat sat, ready to pounce.

"Having second thoughts?"

Nikas was a mind reader. A godsforsaken mind reader.

Hallie squeezed her fist tighter. "How could you tell?" Rhetorical question, he was a mind reader.

Nikas tilted his head. "You've stood there for about two minutes looking at the wall as if it promised to divulge your greatest secret."

Hallie flushed. "Oh." So, he wasn't a mind reader. Rather, a meticulous observer.

"I'm sure Kirphis won't mind you stopping by if what you've told me about them is anything to go off of. If not, no harm, no foul. We'll leave."

Hallie waved her hands in the air. "But what if Kirphis isn't here, and one of their roommates is?"