Children of the Eternal

VI

Swarmed by doubts, Will followed Kate and her friends into the thicker fog. Aoi parted from them, unwilling to venture into trouble. Will struggled to hide his resentment at Kate using him. It shouldn't surprise him too much. The only people who ever approached him at school were those who wanted a connection with his family. She might not want that, but it was all about money.

And it hurt to know she didn't really care if he found out the truth. For a second, Will thought he found a kindred spirit.

"Where do you think your friend is?" Will stepped off the curb, almost losing his footing because of the gray haze. "Where would he hide?"

"We don't really have time for stupid questions," the rude older boy said.

The fog almost seemed to ripple as Kate turned back to scowl at her friend. "Shin? This is all your fault, so you can just shut up."

Shin stuck his tongue out. "We'd be moving a lot faster if you weren't dragging around this rich kid."

Kate let out a huff. "Will? I'm going to look for Matthew's old home in the Edges. If he's not there, there's one place to check only..."

"Only?" Will prompted.

"You might not want to go there, Rich Boy," Shin said in a snide tone. "It's a building where religious services for forbidden religions were held. It was burnt down a few years ago and anyone found there was arrested. Some of the worst bastards still like checking around there so they can turn in heretics to the Sacred State."

"If it's so dangerous, why would your friend go there?" Will asked.

"The place meant a lot to him," Kate said in a hushed voice. "He knows better than to go there. I don't think he would."

"He should be able to go there if he wants." Shin stomped forward, his footsteps echoing in an eerie way as the unnatural silence pressed in on them. "We're all being chased out of our homes by the Dark and the Sacred State's crackdowns. Our only freedom is this area where the Dark could consume us all at any moment."

Will stumbled as everything grew dimmer. "It could?"

"That's always a danger," Kate said in a tight voice, her attention clearly reserved for finding her friend.

"Didn't think about that, did you, Rich Boy?" Shin kept up his fast pace, but turned backward to face Will. Even the ebony fog couldn't conceal the dislike on his face. "We live with that instability every day. Any moment, the Sacred State could decide we're more trouble than we're worth and then bam!" He snapped his fingers, the loud noise thundering in the quiet area. "There's a Darkening and we lose everything."

"You think the priests would deliberately allow darkness to take this area?" Will gestured through the cold mist. "Why would they do that?"

"The same reason they let the Dark take my homeland." The older boy scowled as they passed under a street lamp that brought only the faintest of light to the area. "Easier to just kill off the people who might cause you trouble. Not like anyone with the power to fight back will do anything. The Sacred State couldn't exist without an elite class to help enforce their order. How much money did your old man make when the Hikari Region fell?"

As much as he wanted to retort that his father didn't profit off the tragedy, the words died before they could pass his lips. Because he was no longer sure about his father.

He was no longer sure about anything.

Shin gave an emphatic nod, as if Will's silence proved everything he was saying. "Your father will sleep at night when families in the Edges could wake as the Dark expands over them. Their children will probably die freezing and all of their names will be forgotten while you're in a warm bed, paid by blood money."