Alyssa’s legs were shaking. The weight of what just happened pressed down on her very soul. She rolled her eyes and stretched her neck trying to regain her bearing. She tapped her radio.
“This is Alyssa, underwater team be aware that we’ve identified the awakener as the returnee Princess Scale. Please do not attack her when she appears due to her appearance.”
“Copy that, Watergss.”
Alyssa grit her teeth. She tried to turn the radio on and yell but had to stop because—
[The Consteltion, ‘The Mists of the High Waterfall’ asks: “Would you like to renegotiate our contract?]
“W-what?” Alyssa’s eyes widened. “But I don’t have anything else to offer. The contract is already a lifetime service—”
[This one would like to offer you three additional skills, a 1.5x higher mana Seed, and reduce your end of the contract from a lifetime service after your death to a four year service duration.]
Alyssa’s face went bnk. Her hands started shaking.
“Is this about the weird error messages?”
[Please.]
“Something is wrong. Seriously you’re scaring m—”
“Who’re you talking to, Lyss?”
“Aaaaaaaah!” Alyssa practically jumped out of her own skin. She never even sensed Scale’s approach. She turned around and put a hand on her heart, trying to calm down. “You scared the hell out of me!”
“Sorry,” said Scale. She stuck out her tongue and tilted her head to the right. It looked odd because she was still in her half-transformed state.
“Also where are your clothes?”
“Ah, they burned off in the fight!”
“Goddammit. Come with me, quick. Let’s get out of sight. I’ll text Sarah. Those reporters will be back soon.”
The siblings were back in Alyssa’s apartment, fully clothed. They went into Alyssa’s room and activated a soundproofing barrier to continue their conversation.
“So you’re saying your Consteltion is offering you a deal that seems too good to be true?” Scale asked with sparkling eyes.
“Yes. She’s being really insistent.”
Scale’s genuine smile made Alyssa pause.
“I don’t see the problem.”
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” Alyssa snapped back. “You should know that better than anyone.”
“It just means someone else is paying for this lunch.”
“That’s the problem. I don’t know who or why.”
“Maybe another Consteltion wants to sign a contract with you.”
“That doesn’t make sense! People can only sign one—”
“Who told you that?”
“W-what? That’s just common—I mean isn’t it obvious?”
“Lyss, think about it for a moment. Most Consteltions force a lifetime service contract for after the human dies. Mortal souls can only stick around for maybe 100 years at best, but an awakened human has the potential, a small chance, to become a Consteltion themselves and become functionally immortal. These ‘lifetime’ contracts are just Consteltions fishing for sv—subordinates. It’s gambling. If they get lucky they get a new Consteltion added to their faction, one that is obligated to serve them… The reason no human has signed with two Consteltions is because if a different one owns the human for a lifetime already then there’s no point, since the human has nothing else to offer.” Scale paused. She could see questions in her sister’s eyes.
“So you think it’s possible a stronger Consteltion came in to bully mine away, to make me their sve instead?” Alyssa asked the obvious question.
Scale frowned and pinched her brow. “No, they don’t want to make you their sve! I know which Consteltion is—ahem—pressuring yours.” Then in a soft voice her sister couldn’t hear, Scale mumbled, “It’s not bullying.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, well… I guess you could say I’m very close to that Consteltion—”
“Wait, is it yours? You’ve never told me you had one!” Alyssa’s eyes sparkled.
Beads of sweat formed on Scale’s brow. She shook her hands and said, “Anyways, Just accept that Mist girl’s new contract. I promise this is a good thing. It’s not a sve contract.”
“Why. Aren’t. You. Answering. The. Question?~~~~~”
“They’re called [The Judge]. If they offer you a contract you don’t have to worry about them tricking you.” Scale stood up and started moving towards the door.
“Don’t run away, little sister!” Alyssa jumped up and tried to grab Scale but paused because a sudden string of messages popped up and distracted her.
[Please sign the new contract.]
[Please sign the new contract.]
[Please sign the new contract.]
[I will die if you don’t.]
“What the fuck!” Alyssa cursed and looked up to find Scale had already vanished. She growled and then asked, “Is this Judge really that scary?”
[Yes.]
“Is this Judge my sister’s sponsor?” Alyssa waited. She crossed her arms and frowned. A vein bulged on her forehead. Still no response. Madness swirled in her eyes. Her frown faded and a pyful smile crossed her lips. In a singsong tone she said, “Maybe I don’t want to renegotiate my contract after all~”
[Please. I cannot answer that question. I will die. Please.]
“Five skills, not three. The Seed mana, I want four times the initial investment.”
[That much Seed mana would stunt your growth or it could even turn you into an avatar. I cannot. I will die. Five skills is fine.]
Alyssa’s face went bnk. She mumbled, “I think I’m starting to understand.” She looked over at where Scale had been and grit her teeth.
“I’m going to ask one more question.” She looked vaguely towards the ceiling as she thought about how to word this. Her hands started shaking. She found a path. She found a way to word the question so that if The Mists chose not to answer it was as good as a confirmation.
“Is Scale—”
“Look! Look at the video there! See, a white fsh comes out of the gate at 1:34! Starlight Man said it was a woman, too. It had to be the new Returnee that closed it!”
“All the eyewitnesses, Starlight Man included, said she didn’t look like a lizard at all, though.”
“But the hair color matches and it was an S-rank gate. There’s only one awakener in America that has white hair and is strong enough to close an S-rank gate solo.”
“Are you suggesting—”
“I think Princess Scale has a human form.”
All of the reporters and journalists felt their interest rising. They could smell a story. Nothing got investigative journalists going more than an Exposé. And among this group the most pernicious of all, Hana the Gossip, started to vibrate in her seat from excitement. She had a particur advantage in regards to investigations around Awakeners and their identities. She turned a corner out of sight then pulled out her phone to make a call.
“Hey boss, it’s Hannah.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be covering the gate—” A man’s voice. A particurly bald man’s voice.
“Does the new Returnee have a human form?”
“Shit. Was she exposed already?”
“So it’s true. The other journalists caught wind of it.” Hannah chuckled. She flipped one of her business cards between her fingers. “Do you want me to run interference?”
“If possible. What do you want for it?”
“An interview. Live on my stream.”
“Again? You know I hate the emote spam—”
“Not with you. With her. The Returnee.”
“Ah. I can ask her but…”
“Tell her I’ll be gentle~”
“I’m not going to lie to her. That girl is terrifying.”
“Hoh! She even scares America’s Buddha?”
—Click—
The phone call disconnected. Hannah clicked her tongue and then ughed. She could picture the bald bastard smashing his phone in a rage. She shook her head briefly before putting on a goofy expression and almost like magic her whole vibe shifted. She became unrecognizable and transformed from Hannah Nguyen back into Hana the Gossip. Her stream clicked on again.
“This is Hana the Gossip, coming at you live from where the recent underwater rift was closed—”
Scale watched clouds float by. Her legs were dangling over the edge of a rooftop barrier. She felt conflicted and needed to sort her thoughts. She didn’t want her family to look at her strangely, but she didn’t want to lie to them either. It was a frustrating feeling. They knew she wasn’t human anymore but she had tried to soften that distance. Revealing the totality of her existence shouldn’t have been this hard.
“Why am I like this?”
“Because you’re an idiot.”
“Whoa shit, don’t sneak up on me like that, Watergss.”
Alyssa walked over and jumped up onto the barrier next to Scale. The two sat in silence for a moment and watched the clouds together.
“I signed the contract.” Alyssa was the first to break the silence.
“T-that’s good. I’ll let The Jud—”
“Why do you always overthink shit?”
Scale found it hard to meet Alyssa’s eyes. She looked down and then felt her hand being grabbed.
“I just… I didn’t want you to look at me differ—”
“Propose your contract to me already, Miss Judge.”
There was a long pause. Alyssa turned her eyes skyward again. The two sisters held hands and the only sound heard was the whisper of the wind.
.
.
.
.
.
[The Consteltion, ‘The Judge’, offers you a contract.]
