The Sixth | Ekko

Chapter Fifty

Momo hadn't gone back to the Firelight hideout since discovering Zuke was actually Four. She knew she needed to confront him eventually, but right now her mental state felt as frail as the first signs of ice skimming a puddle of water in the beginnings of winter.

Instead, she remained in the Vatalia hideout working on her shimmer medicine research, which she realized she had been neglecting lately. It worked as an effective distraction, and she found herself relieving stress through her love of science.

She leaned back in her chair, the wood creaking from the movement. She was stuck on which herb to use next. So far, she hadn't made any progress in figuring out a success concoction.

After some thought, she decided to refer to some of her old notes. She leaned forward and reached for them on the far end of the desk, but in the process accidentally knocked one of her notebooks onto the floor.

She reached to pick it up when a glint caught her eye.

There, settled amongst pencils and papers, was the knife that was used to pin Derora's pit fighter symbol to her desk.

The notebook now forgotten, she picked up the blade and brought it up to eyelevel to study the indistinct carvings etched onto the handle. A snake with a wavy slither, blotches of scales scattered loosely amongst its serpent body. She ran her finger over it. The carvings were so light she could hardly feel the dip in the wood. She reangled the knife, pausing when she noticed a small blotch of something smeared on the very end of the handle. It was tan-coloured and crusty.

Curious, she collected a fragment of it and dispersed it with distilled water before dabbing the combination onto a slide. Under the microscope, she observed tiny, flat, hexagonal particles, revealing the substance to be clay.

"Momo, you there?" Ekko's voice sounded from her walkie talkie.

She pulled away from the lens, suddenly remembering she had an inventing lesson with Ekko today.

She grabbed her walkie talkie from her bedside table. "Be up in a sec."

Ekko was waiting at Ms. LeLock's shop as usual. But this time, instead of waiting outside like he normally did, he wandered the shop, looking at the various dried herbs displayed on the shelves.

"What are you doing?" she asked, walking up behind him as he sniffed a jar of crushed herbs, recoiling as the scent tickled his nose.

Ekko fumbled, nearly dropping the glass jar in startlement. Catching the jar, he placed it back on the shelf and turned around.

"Just browsing," he answered while entering a casual stance—arms over his chest, widening the distance between his feet and accidentally stepping on Pompom's tail, causing the feline to hiss.

"Shit—"

"Aw poor Pompom," Momo said, bending down to pick up the cat. She scratched behind his ear, and he began to purr, immediately forgetting about his tail being stepped on.

"I got us some food from Jericho's stand." He raised his hand, revealing a bag that she hadn't noticed until now. The scent of sauce and cooked meat wafted from the takeout containers in the bag, causing her mouth to salivate.

"Again? Didn't you eat there yesterday too?"

She moved to set Pompom onto the counter, who immediately flopped and showed his belly to Ms. LeLock for some belly rubs.

"Can you blame me? It's the best food in the undercity." His face went oddly solemn when he recalled something he noticed on the way there. "Daunter's still after y—"

Momo grabbed his hand and made for the door, Ekko automatically following her. She spared a glance at Ms. LeLock and Teeny, who seemed too distracted with their coin counting and attending to Pompom's needs to notice have noticed what Ekko had said.