Heart's tale

Chapter 4 part 1

The one who had no name yet opened his eyes. A big dark blur hovered over a smaller blur, connecting with it in some particularly disturbing way. This picture caused an inexplicable revulsion in the newly awakened one, and he immediately closed his eyes again. In the ensuing emptiness, he felt pleasant waves of peace. Though, he might not have been able to give a name to any of the feelings he had just experienced.

However, this idyll did not last long; his hearing began to break through. The two melodies that emerged from the void intertwined, then soloed, appearing to his inner eye in waves of colorful dancing. Eventually, one and then another melody turned into voices. One of these, deep and gruff, like the screech of a rusting gearbox, was overpowered by the other, which sounded like the ringing bell of a chime. They intertwined and separated again unpredictably, unlike any conversation the awakened one had ever heard.

But had he heard any conversations before? And what is a gearbox? As soon as he thought about it, he was surprised to find these very words in himself, giving names to the events he was aware of. And then he was surprised that he was able to discover the very fact of thinking. In an instant, many urges arose in his whole being: to get up, to walk, to help those who were talking. Perhaps he could be useful to them. But no one called him. And yet he should be called. How strange. He fidgeted uneasily and then suddenly fell, crushed by his own body.

"Did it twitch? You said..." asked the ringing voice, belonging to a young man in the Cult robe, with his head hooded.

"I did..." the big guy in a flight suit with a flushed face answered gruffly.

He looked even more intimidating in the light of the morning moons, but the young man showed no signs of fear and held himself with confidence.

"Yeah... You can't be trusted with anything. You use the signal, you bring in the doll that supposedly doesn't function... Or maybe it has the 'eye' in it? And they're looking at us right now out of that metal ass," he pointed at the clumsily fallen doll, and then applauded, "Well done."

The big guy walked over to the doll, picked it up by the leg and sat it down on the stool, leaning its back against the wall. The doll slouched in the pose of a sad drunkard.

"Is that all right with you?" he looked angrily at the man in the robe and hissed through his teeth, "We had no choice. We waited as long as we could. We followed Lila's trail and stumbled upon it in the canal alleys. What were we supposed to do? Leave it there? It's our last lead."

"I've already heard that," the young man replied sadly, and walked toward the column. The wall of the town hall, sticking out in the middle of the thick white fog, was descending behind it into the darkness.

This heartforsaken quarter did not rise to the second, much less the third tier of the City, so it was surrounded on all sides by a fence of tall houses. The bell had long since been removed from the tower – and there, at its very top, on the planked floor, the man in the robe kicked a piece of brick that had fallen from the wall and sadly disappeared into the white veil. The young man sighed and continued:

"And I'll say it again. I can't help you, I don't know where they took her."

Snorri bared his teeth and struck one of the columns so hard that the plaster fell from the domed vault above their heads, and the column twitched treacherously, risking the entire structure collapsing on them.

"Hey, easy there, last thing I need is to die because of another hysteric of yours," the gurgling voice of the octopus came from the dark corner. "Although something tells me someday I will."

"You can't help the Heart if you kill us all right here," the man in the robe sniggered.

"Don't joke with me," the big guy snapped, turning away to another arch.