A feminine voice spoke immediately after, and the sound of the indecisive footsteps of its owner followed right after. She first took a few steps to the right, and then to the left. “Hello? Is someone there?” She stuttered. Luce held his breath, suffocating the last remaining sound in that laboratory. There was a long pause, and the fox had to suppress his temptation to look at what the scientist was doing. Eventually, she spoke again. “I must be imagining things,” she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. Luce sighed.

She kneeled in front of a desk, the one closest to the platform Luce was hiding behind, and pulled at the handle of a drawer. It creaked open, and she thumbed through the folders inside before burying another one that she had been holding. While her head was down, Luce peeped at her. The scientist was a female cat with ashen fur, most of it concealed by the white lab coat she wore, and red glasses with a circular frame that made her emerald eyes stand out. Her appearance matched the description of the scientist in the mission report, down to the darker stripes on her face. That’s Dalia, he thought. Those files must be the ones I need.

Dalia pushed the drawer, and it closed with a short slam. When she raised her head, Luce took cover again and listened to her movements. Her footsteps were getting closer. In case he needed to run, the fox clenched his fists and feet but didn’t move until he was sure. But instead of walking around the podium at the center, she went up the stairs to examine the computer above where Luce’s head was. Her fingers rapidly tapped the screen, and the machine matched her speed with a series of beeps. Sometimes, she stopped and mumbled words too low for the fox to hear. If he tilted his head up, Luce could see the back of the monitor. However, what she was doing remained a mystery to him.

“Okay,” she whispered, “all the important files should be protected now.”

Eventually, Dalia turned around and went down the stairs, walking toward the laboratory’s doors. They were made of centirium. That material allowed mana-users to manipulate it, but most people, including Luce, lacked that ability. A faint lime glow enveloped her right hand when she pressed her palm against the frame of the door, in which a vein-like pattern of the same color blossomed and spread until it covered the entire gate. The white hallway lights spilled into the dark lab until Dalia left, and the door closed behind her. Finally, Luce could come out of his hiding spot, back to his mission. At least, now, he knew where to look.

“I thought I was gonna join you, pal.” The fox placed his hand on the glass of one of the stasis chambers, pretending the corpse inside it could hear him. He felt a burn that caused him to flinch. “Ow, cold!”

Luce walked up to Dalia’s desk and opened the drawer, just as she had. He shoved his hand in and picked one folder, the first he could get his hands on, and scanned through its contents while skipping any words he couldn’t recognize. “Experiments to control the decay of mana in bodies?” He raised an eyebrow. “These people are into investigating some morbid things.”

From his small satchel, the fox pulled out a device that looked identical to a flashlight and pointed it at the files. His thumb fell on the button that switched on the machine, but he didn’t press it immediately. Instead, the fox rubbed his finger against it, hesitating. Then he closed his eyes, raised his thumb, and slammed down on it. Click! Pain spread across his hand and he gripped the handle of the machine tightly so he wouldn’t drop it. It felt like invisible needles were stabbing into his skin to extract something from him—and that powered up the flashlight, now illuminating the paper and the words it contained. No, it would be more accurate to say that the paper itself was glowing and that the machine absorbed that light. The words became dimmer until, after a painful wait, the glimmer faded completely. The pain subsided, and Luce sighed. Never hurts any less, the fox thought. He shoved the folder back into the drawer and picked another one, repeating the same process.

That machine was an invention created in the city of Kythra. It served the purpose of copying written information instantly, and the particular model he held was a modification that allowed non-mana-users to wield it. Mana-users could externalize their body’s mana to use it for various purposes, but others didn’t have that privilege. Instead, they had to rely on dangerous technology that forcibly extracted it from their bodies—and it always hurt. Mana was the basis of life. It was what gave things structure. Consuming too much of it, especially with a body that wasn’t built to use it, could cause serious repercussions.

Once he was done, Luce put the machine in his satchel again and took a step towards the door to the hallway outside. He had everything he needed for his client. However, the faint light from the computer on that platform caught his attention. There was something about Dalia’s actions that bothered the fox. Why had she come to the lab so late? Just to check on the computer? What did she mean by “protecting files”? Luce knew that staying there for longer could be dangerous, but the questions didn’t let him step out of the room just yet. He turned around and walked up the stairs to the podium above, grabbing the railing next to it. With every step he climbed, he looked back at the door to make sure no one came in. Maybe this will have useful information too, he convinced himself.

“Let’s see…” Luce squinted and raised one of his hands, tapping the screen as Dalia had done earlier. There were several icons, one for each of the stasis chambers in the laboratory. Most of them were green, but the rest were red. “A little clue of what each color means would help,” he grunted. “This one, why not?”

When he tapped one of the green ones, the icon expanded into a window full of graphs and details about that chamber’s patient. Although an identification number replaced the subject’s name, there was a full-body picture of them that someone out there, but not him, could identify. City of origin, Alumbra, Luce scanned through the written details. That is this city. They passed away 3 months ago after suffering cardiac arrest. A graph tracked the decay of their mana, which had only gone down 10% since the moment someone put them in the chamber. When he finished reading through the file, he closed it and opened a new one. He repeated this process, going faster every time he found nothing of particular interest—until he clicked on the first of the red ones.

“City of origin, Rento.” He read those words again, now with his eyebrows raised. “What? But I thought…”

That didn’t sound good. Academies across Sientro were very particular about what was allowed and what wasn’t. He had heard of experiments on the corpses of people who had already passed away, but experimenting on those from a different city went against most agreements he knew about. If there was a reason for there being only one academy in each city, it was so that they wouldn’t step on each other’s feet. This sort of thing could be grounds for a legal battle. He kept reading, wanting to figure out more. Passed away a month ago after overexposure to Excitas. Luce took a step back.

“Excitas?” The fox gasped out the name of that substance, one he was all too familiar with. “Wasn’t that banned after the Vismagus War? Amenias has to hear about this…”

He clicked on more of those icons, holding his breath. If this place had any information about recent incidents with that substance, he had to know. If there was any connection with that bloody war, he had to know. He tried clicking on more of those red icons, but the window with information about the subjects stopped appearing once he clicked on enough of them. Instead, the screen now asked for a password. Shit, he cursed and clicked his tongue. There weren’t any papers or notes where any forgetful scientist had written the password, to his dismay. Luce made his way down the stairs of the platform and opened Dalia’s drawer again, flipping through her folders to find any clues. He only stopped when he heard a couple of voices outside the laboratory and the sound of rushed footsteps that grew louder. So that he could distinguish the words, Luce pricked up his ears.

“No one should be in that lab,” a masculine voice said, “but someone is using the computer.”

“It’s probably just another error,” another man followed.

“Let’s check just in case, it never hurts to look.”

You’re kidding, Luce thought. He shoved every folder he was holding inside the drawer and slammed it shut. He wanted to go back to his previous spot, but he didn’t have the time to run all the way there before the door to the laboratory opened. Instead, he had to hide in the place closest to him—behind the closest stasis chamber, trying to conceal himself within the shadows. Two guards made their way inside, bipedal white dragons with golden ornaments belonging to an entity anyone could recognize. The church guards, Luce thought. If they caught him now, they’d arrest him on the spot.

“You check the left side”—the taller of the two guards pointed in Luce’s general direction, unaware of the presence of the thief—“and I’ll check the right.”

The other guard nodded at him, and they split. The fox tried to be as silent as he could. He wanted to close his eyes and pray that they’d leave, but they didn’t seem to have the intention of doing so until they meticulously checked every inch of that place. Even if he stayed hidden, they’d find him. It was only a matter of time. There was only one option left for him.

Run.

Luce jumped out from behind that testing chamber and sprinted out of the room, leaving behind that laboratory and the two voices that yelled at him to stop. He couldn’t stop. He heard them following him, and their footsteps weren’t getting any more distant—maybe, in fact, they were getting louder. Their legs were longer, and they had trained their stamina for years. If Luce wanted to get an advantage over them, he couldn’t rely on his speed alone. That research facility had the shape of a cylinder. The hallways circled around the circumference of each floor; on one side there were windows leading to the campus of Alumbra’s Academy, and on the other, there were doors leading to different laboratories. Those corridors were wide and didn’t have many obstacles, but that also meant there weren’t many ways to hide or branching paths to take. Instead, he took the door that led to the first set of stairs he found and jumped down both flights of steps. One floor down, seven more to go.

He kept going as fast as he could, repeating that same set of steps until he reached the fourth floor and they finally caught up to him. Luce saw a green glow on the door he was about to go through, now impossible to open, and looking back he saw that same color radiating from the hand of one of the guards chasing him. Were all the doors in this place like that? The fox backed away from them, but they closed the distance.

“Surrender yourself!” the taller guard yelled. “We’ve called backup. Even if you keep going down, you’ll just meet more guards on the bottom floor.”

“I don’t think he’s a mana-user…” the other guard pointed out. His eyes glowed purple for a short bit. “Can’t get a reading off him.”

When the taller of two guards ran toward him with a spear in his hand, Luce’s ankles flashed a cyan glow. They had probably thought that Luce had no chance against them—but he had his own tools to defend himself. The glow had a distinguishable pattern; it was the shape of two snakes coiling around each other and biting one another’s tails. The fox raised his right leg so fast that it blurred in the air until it eventually appeared right next to the guard’s head, delivering a kick to his jaw that sent him flying toward the nearest wall. Luce swung his leg back down just as fast and jumped away from the remaining guard. A good kick like that could put a man to sleep fast, and it seemed to have worked. The fox winced and gritted his teeth when he felt a burn on his ankles, and the remaining guard used the chance to attack him. He swung his bulky body towards Luce, who had no other option but to step to the side and try to kick his attacker—but the golden glow of a semi-transparent shield that had appeared out of thin air stopped him. As soon as his legs hit it, the guard pushed back against him to parry the attack. Luce fell backward and groaned when he hit the ground, pain shooting through his back. How was he supposed to win?

The door he had been trying to go through opened, and another group of guards emerged from it. “This ends here!” the guard he had just been fighting announced.

The fox stood up, grabbing the satchel he had been carrying. The guards all readied their golden weapons, believing that Luce was getting ready to attack them again. But that moment never came. Instead, Luce sprinted toward the window—and leaped. He closed his eyes and covered his face with the back side of his arms, and then raised his knees to his chest. The glass shattered on impact, and the shards stabbed into his skin. The guards all ran toward the window, looking at the fox plummeting toward the ground. There were some people still on the campus grounds, who paused what they were doing and pointed up at Luce in horror while the moonlight gleamed against his free-falling body. But then the fox extended both of his hands. The same pattern on his ankles glowed on his wrists, and the swing of his arms blew a powerful breeze of air that allowed him to slow down. The fall still hurt, but at least he wasn’t dead.

Luce didn’t look back. He kept running toward the entrance of the campus. Behind him, the guards still followed—now airborne instead of on foot. However, the streets were much easier for him to traverse. The cities all had the same structure: its academy with its facilities and campus at the center; a ring of more luxurious houses, company buildings, and specialty shops right outside it; and the lower-class residential areas that comprised more than half the density of the city. The deeper he traversed into the streets of Alumbra, the harder it became for the guards to spot him. When he eventually made it to the residential area and hid himself in one of the many dead ends of that labyrinthian collection of streets, the voices of the guards became nothing more than whispers.

Luce sighed, sitting down and hugging his legs. He’d made it out, but his body still hurt. The fresh wounds on his body were still open and itched, but he avoided scratching himself to prevent the bleeding from becoming worse. The worst part was his ankles and wrists, which trembled and burned around the fading cyan marks on them—the sigils he had used to fight back. Sigils were useful tools for people who could not use their mana like him—but they were just like that machine from earlier. They hurt and they put him in danger. Still, they evened the playing field between him and the mana-users. He couldn’t complain too much about the pain, it was better than dying.

“That was too close,” the fox sighed. “Akumu is going to kill me, though.”

Now, he just needed to wait until the situation calmed down. I thought I wouldn’t have to sneak into someone’s deliveries again, but if I enter a travel nexus like this…

“Oh well,” he glanced up at the night sky. “Mission successful, I guess?”

But something still didn’t sit right about what he had seen in that laboratory. He had found what Amenias wanted—but why did it all tie back to that war again? Luce needed answers.

“You're lucky there were only two guards from the Church that night,” the priest scolded him, and Luce could have sworn Akumu's grip on his ankle had become tighter for a moment. “If there had been more of them, they could have split up, and the stunt you pulled wouldn't have worked on them.”

“I did two weeks of surveillance. It wasn't luck.”

The fox closed his eyes and turned his head to the side, but the silence he was met with told him that his excuse had not worked. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself staring directly into the unblinking third eye the priest had on his forehead—a dark shade of purple that contrasted with the white of his other two eyes. His brows were slightly furrowed, and his expression was stern. Nothing gets past you, Luce rolled his eyes and leaned backward to admit defeat.

“Fine, I didn't pay enough attention to the guards' schedules. The mission had a really tight deadline, and I spent most of it trying to figure out how to access the laboratory I needed to steal from.”

“If you knew it was dangerous, you should have turned it down.” Akumu lifted his paws from Luce's ankles, but the warmth of his touch lingered. “Your life is more important than a job.”

“No, it isn't. Not to them.”

The fox scoffed and pushed himself up when the black feline was done examining him. He lifted both legs, one after the other, and then ran in place to check whether the pain was gone. After doing that, he took another look at Akumu's face, who was still sitting in front of him with a worried expression. Luce froze in place, feeling a pang of guilt that made him want to avoid the other's eyes, and sat down again with his legs crossed and his hands resting on his knees.

“Look, I'll be a little more careful next time.” That didn't satisfy the priest, who frowned as if to remind Luce of all the times he had said that before. “The reason I accepted this mission is because the scholar from Rento that wanted these notes—” Luce grabbed the notebook he had stolen and gave it to Akumu, who flipped through the pages. “—was one of the lead scientists developing power-enhancing potions for that war from ten years ago.”

“The Vismagus Succession, so that's what this is about...” Akumu muttered. “You still haven't given up on the search for that boy you told me about?”

“I haven't had the chance to search for him in the past, how could I give up when I've just started? A lot of people close to me died that day, but he's the only one whose body I didn't see. Maybe he's like me, and he also got sent to a town close to Lucatago,” Luce looked at his legs. “Even if that's just a stupid hope, I want to know for certain.”

Luce heard the wooden boards below him creak, followed by the feeling of gentle hands stroking the fur on his head. When he looked up, he saw the face of the priest smiling down at him. Was it pity, or was it meant to be supportive? Regardless of what the answer was, it made Luce feel understood. Akumu always understood. Ever since he had been brought here ten years ago, Akumu had been taking care of him and a few other children. They had been sent away from Lucatago by their parents when the war happened. Now, most of them were adults. Some of them were mages who had left the town to study under various Academies, and some chose to stay in the comfortable simplicity of the village after seeing the cost behind the luxuries offered by the cities. There were even a few of them, like Luce, who had chosen riskier lifestyles. But Akumu always smiled and took care of them all the same.

“One day, you're going to give me a heart attack.”

Akumu flicked Luce's forehead, and the fox rubbed the spot the priest had hit and laughed.

“You could always just come with me,” the fox stood. “I bet your all-seeing eye could help me figure out a thing or two.”

“A wonderful idea. An official priest of the Lucatago Church, working with a common thief with possible ties to insurrectionists. I'm sure Head Priest Vismagus Tàiliàng would be pleased to hear the news.” Akumu turned around and raised his voice every couple of words, trying not to laugh. “The sun won't rise for another hour, you should rest before you leave for Rento. And try avoiding Alumbra for a month or two. They don't tend to remember the faces of every thief they catch for long, but now would be too soon.”

“Good night,” the fox paused for a second, and spoke up again before the feline could close the door, “and thank you, Akumu.”

“Sleep well, Luce.”

Luce swore he could feel a bit of hesitation when Akumu closed the door, pausing halfway through before finally shutting it. However, the weight of his eyelids was too heavy to allow him to think of that for long. He allowed himself to fall on top of his bed, taking a passing glance at the room around him before falling asleep. Its contents never changed—a couple of bookshelves, a small bed, tools pushing open the doors of a closet that was too small to fit them all, and a table where he occasionally wrote something—but it gave him a sense of comfort. Those days, he barely spent any time in this place. Eventually, he fell asleep.

The sun had reached its highest point by the time Luce woke up from his slumber. After a quick meal, Akumu and Luce left the temple towards the town's travel nexus. Although both points were on opposite sides of the village, it took no longer than a 30-minute walk to make the journey. Towns were much smaller in scale than the cities they surrounded, which could be nearly ten times wider. However, their layout differed greatly. The cities were narrow, with suffocating streets that only served as connections between one place and the other. The roads of the towns were much wider; while they walked along the dirt path carved between grassy plains, Luce and Akumu often spotted kids playing on the side of the road and people chatting away.

“Luce, is that you?!”

A feminine voice exclaimed at them from afar while they made a temporary stop by one of the local shops. The fox's ears perked up, and he turned around to find the one who had beckoned him. On the other side of the road, there was a park with a group of kids gathered in a circle around a woman, tall and covered in copper scales from top to bottom. A mane of pale ash-brown hair extended from the back of her head to well below her shoulders, flowing from the gentle breeze. The woman seemed to be reciting a story to them, and the kids looked at her with wide eyes so as not to miss even one of her gestures. She waved at Luce and, following her steps, most of the kids immediately stood up and did the same, twice as loudly. The fox scratched his cheek, embarrassed at the attention he received. Knowing her, she had probably fed them embellished stories of his missions as if he were a hero.

“Does she always need to make a scene?” Luce joked, and the feline next to him snickered. “I'll be right back.”

He crossed the road, not even bothering to check both sides before he did, and made his way to the group, raising a hand to greet them. The park was clean and tidy, with a fountain in the middle where they often gathered. The cold breeze of winter made the leaves rustle, a scenery that could only be found in rural areas like this one. This was home.

“What have we got here? Are you Lavinia's new army of soldiers?” A few pounced at Luce and hugged his legs, almost making him trip and fall backward. “Friendly fire! Friendly fire! Lavinia, you traitor!”

She laughed and beckoned at the children, who obediently retreated and left the fox alone.

“They missed you, idiot,” the woman gently punched his shoulder. “They've been waiting for weeks to hear another heroic story from you.”

“Maybe next time. I'm still in the middle of a mission.” Despite what he said, Luce kneeled in front of the kids and whispered just loud enough for them to hear. His dramatic tone made Lavinia roll her eyes. “It's a super secret mission. Illegal experiments from an evil scientist who wants to take over the world, and the Academies know nothing of it. You can't tell anyone, you got it?”

When he winked, the children gasped and nodded at him. He kept narrating the events of the past month, weaving them into a story. He spoke of elaborate traps he narrowly avoided, and a monologue from a crazed scientist—far from the real, sterile halls of the laboratory he visited. They didn't need to know, though.

“How brave of you,” Lavinia didn't even try to hold back a smirk. “Was that the reason you were limping to the temple yesterday night? Did you get in a fight with that evil scientist?”

Of course you heard about that, you witch, Luce thought.

“I had to use the sigils.” He sat on the ground to show his legs, where that strange tattoo was. The children crowded around him, admiring the mark with starry eyes. “I know they're not the safest thing, considering how much mana they drain, but I had no choice. I wish I were a mage, so I could control how much mana I use instead of relying on these things.”

“You crybaby. Are you all right now?”

Luce gave her a thumbs up. “Akumu patched me up.”

“Good. I'm guessing you're heading to Rento, now?”

“Yeah, but it shouldn't take too long unless a new mission pops up.”

“I think Pius was going there, too,” she looked up, tapping her chin with one of her claws. “You'll probably find him in the travel nexus. Say hi to him for me while you're at it.”

“Will do,” Luce stood up, and brushed away the blades of grass that had become stuck in his fur. “One day, you've got to come with me. The life in the city may be boring, but they've got some banger liquor you'd probably like.”

“Sorry, I can't kiss ass the way you do.”

Luce feigned offense at that comment by pretending to gasp and turned around towards the park's exit. Akumu had long since finished shopping and stood there waiting for the fox to finish his conversation. Once he was close enough, the priest spoke.

“They truly admire you.”

“The kids probably do. Their captain probably wishes I'd stop going on these espionage missions.”

Luce walked ahead of the path, but Akumu stayed behind to look back at Lavinia. She stood at the entrance, her eyes lingering on Luce's back as it became more and more distant. The way she gripped the gate while watching him go made Akumu wonder what she felt. Worry? Longing? Or, perhaps, even jealousy?

No, the priest thought. I think she admires you more than anyone else.

As they approached the edge of the town and the travel nexus, the faint hum of magic gates opening and closing grew louder, drowning out the laughter of the kids from the streets behind them.

Starting Observations: After being forcibly woken up with Excitas gas, the patient immediately proceeded to bite his own fingers. He failed to notice me until I tapped the glass of the containment chamber, approximately 10 seconds after they began. By the time that happened, ID0025 had already ripped off half his index and middle fingers. After the last experiment, this left the patient with only 5 remaining full fingers.

Experiment Procedure: The experiment proceeded as follows:

1. ID0025 was given a new experimental drug that enhanced his body’s ability to recover itself. The intention was to dissuade the patient from cannibalizing his own body.
   • Result: The patient started biting himself at an increased rate, matching the rate of recovery and eventually outpacing it. Though ID0025’s fingers all eventually recovered after an hour, it took only another hour for the patient to eat 5 of their own fingers again.
   • Conclusion: Even when it is futile, the patient will keep devouring their own body.
2. ID0025 was given a known drug that increased their body’s physical resistance. With this, I hope to stop the patient from being able to keep biting through his own flesh.
   • Result: The patient could not manage to keep tearing apart his own fingers. However, they kept trying. As the previous drug made their torn-apart fingers grow back, ID0025 began to sob uncontrollably while attempting to eat them before they could fully grow. After 30 minutes passed, only one cannibalized finger remained. The patient broke a few of his teeth while continuing their attempts. Eventually, all his fingers recovered.
3. After an hour with his fingers recovered, ID0025 began to repeatedly bash their head against the glass of the containment chamber until their skull cracked wide open. At that moment, ID0025 died.

Background Details: ID0025 was a runaway criminal who had strangled his wife to death a few years prior. The patient changed his name and performed an illegal operation on himself to change his appearance in hopes of escaping his previous life. One day, he approached me after repeated episodes of PTSD in which he felt himself strangling his wife at repeated intervals. The truth serum I gave him forced him to reveal everything, but I promised to keep everything a secret if they agreed to help me with experimental research in return. The procedure caused his fears to manifest, and ID0025 began to bite his own fingers in guilt for what he did.

Result: By extracting the memories from ID0025’s brain after his death, I have managed to fine-tune the potion I made to deal with violent urges. When dealing with thoughts of harming someone else, the brain will receive negative stimuli from watered-down versions of ID0025’s memory and hopefully prevent the person from acting on those thoughts.

Rabu entered the containment chamber and tapped the body of his subject with one of his feet, smiling down at him while crossing out the image of the patient on the page with red ink. Seeing people suffer saddened him. But they always seemed to be much more peaceful after dying. No longer could they act violently at others or themselves, no longer could they torment each other with words, no longer could they feel any form of pain. Instead, the only thing that was left was a comfortable silence that embraced them.

“Don’t worry,” Rabu knelt down in front of his patient, caressing his flesh with disregard for the blood that glued itself to his fur. “I’ll put your pain to good use. This will help a lot of people… You’ll live on in everyone’s mind.”

He stood up, not expecting a response from the deceased. Rabu turned around and left the containment chamber.

“I wish he didn’t die, though. I had a lot of experiments planned for him…”