Ace Up My Sleeve

***

“Lucius, is that you?” He called out a name of my great-grandfather.

“No, sorry to disappoint, great-great-grandpa, but it’s me, Zehn.”

His brow furrowed before his expression softened into reluctant recognition. “Oh… Zehn, it’s you.” He exhaled, brushing imaginary dust off his sleeve as if the moment of uncertainty had never happened. “Very well, what brings you here, boy?”

His casual demeanor struck me harder than any blunt question could’ve. No hesitation. No shock.

Perhaps he knew.

I took a step closer, my voice steady but firm. “I’ll cut to the chase. Have you still not found the Alpha Biocore?”

His head tilted slightly. “Pardon?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know!” I snapped, my frustration boiling to the surface.

He sighed deeply, rubbing the bridge of his nose like he was dealing with an overly persistent bureaucrat. “I’m not acting, you silly boy. I told you already—Yggdrasil disappeared.”

“Yggdrasil?” I repeated.

His sharp gaze locked onto mine, and he raised an eyebrow. “My goodness… I knew you weren’t listening back then.”

He turned toward a nearby cabinet, rummaging through scattered papers and dusty trinkets before continuing, his tone more exasperated than serious.

“When you first enrolled in the Association, I explained this already. The mythical Yggdrasil, or as it’s officially known, the Alpha Biocore. How a dedicated task force called Team Alpha was formed specifically to locate it. They’ve been on the hunt ever since, although we haven’t made contact with them for the past few days for some reason.”

“Oh… you explained this to me already?” I blinked, trying to summon even the vaguest memory of such a conversation. But all I found were fragments of field missions, long nights under artificial skies, and the weight of a laseraxe in my hand.

“Yes, I did!” he said, throwing his hands up in mock disbelief. “But clearly, you were too busy swinging axes and trying to impress your instructors to retain any of it.”

A guilty chuckle escaped me as I rubbed the back of my neck. “Well… to be fair, that was nearly 70 years ago.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose again, muttering something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like “Hopeless…”

“Anyway, Kael believes that the Alpha Biocore—or Yggdrasil, or whatever you want to call it—is still out there. And I think it might hold the answer to reversing our conditions.”

“Give up on it, boy,” he said with a heavy sigh, his hand brushing across the smooth surface of his desk. “People have been chasing ghosts for centuries. No one has found it, and no one will.”

Centuries...

I pondered for a while, but then Kael’s voice echoed in my head.

‘According to this ancient book, the Alpha Biocore disappeared once the generation of people who never breathed oxygen emerged.’

That was it.

I shot up from my seat so fast that a sharp crack in my knee made me freeze halfway, clutching the armrest and hissing through clenched teeth.

“Please, great-great-grandpa, let our team go on one final mission!”

He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples as if I had just asked him to pull a planet from the sky.

“Absolutely not,” he said flatly. “Team Alpha’s expeditions consume more Kyslicium than this entire building produces in a decade. I will not authorize another costly failure.”

“Please!” I said, the words bursting out before I could stop them. “If my hunch is correct, we will save humanity for at least the next millennia, that’s how valuable this Yggdrasil is, right?!”

His expression softened for just a moment, a fleeting crack in his iron composure.

“You’re so stubborn…” He sighed, the sound long and drawn out like air escaping an old valve. “Alright. But you get one shot, Zehn. One. And your team is not going alone this time.”

Relief flooded my chest, and I nodded quickly.

“Got it. Thank you, great-great-grandpa!”

“Just… no kisses on the cheek,” he muttered, trying to maintain his stern facade. “But tell me, boy, how are you planning to convince your crewmates to follow you? Have you seen them lately? They’re… not themselves.”

I smirked faintly, my tired face managing a flicker of confidence.

“I’ve got an ace up my sleeve for each of them.”

***

Kael was easy—I owed him a phone call admitting he was right.

But then came the hard part: Serena.

When I arrived at her restaurant, the scenery was different.

The place, once bustling with life and filled with chatter and clinking plates, stood eerily quiet. Through the frosted glass windows, I could see empty tables and overturned chairs.

I pushed open the ornate glass door, and a bell chimed faintly above me.

“Welcome to Heavenland! How can I serve you today?”

Her voice rang out brightly from behind the counter, but as Serena turned and recognized me, the cheer evaporated from her face like steam from a kettle.

“Oh. It’s just you—wait… Zehn? What happened to you?”

I tried to smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace. “Long story.”

She stared at me, her green hair cascading down her shoulders in voluminous waves, glinting faintly under the restaurant’s golden lights. Her outfit was a stark contrast to the Serena I once knew—no oversized hoodies or lazy buns. Instead, she wore a luxurious sheepskin coat draped over her shoulders, her slender fingers adorned with golden rings, and her neck glittering with a necklace that caught every ray of light.

“How can you even work dressed like that?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I have to dress like this, Zehn,” she said sharply. “If I don’t, I feel… empty. Unfulfilled. Like I’m less.”

I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. “I thought this restaurant was supposed to be your grand dream, but this...”

“It was!” Her voice cracked slightly as she gestured to the silent tables around us. “When I first opened, the place was packed. People came, traded their valuables, ate, and left! But now… now they say it’s a waste to come here when they can just download a meal for free.”

Her gaze flicked to her rings, and she twisted one around her finger absentmindedly.

“I don’t know what to do, Zehn. I feel this need—this insatiable want—for more. More clothes. More gold. More… everything.”

Her voice softened, and she stepped closer, her painted lips curling into something between a smirk and a plea.

“Unless, of course… you came here to give me everything… I… want?”

She reached out, her fingers brushing under my chin before slowly trailing down my chest.

I caught her hand gently, halting her motion.

“Geez, enough with the games…”

I released her hand, letting it fall to her side and then continued.

“No, I can’t exactly give you ‘everything’. But I can show you something even more valuable than ‘everything’.”

***

My next stop was the hospital, hoping I’d find Liora still working. But as I approached the reception desk, the nurse on duty shook her head with an apologetic smile.

“She stopped coming in last week.”

Without wasting another moment, I hurried to her home.

When I reached her gate, it creaked open before I could knock. Above me, a small surveillance drone hovered silently, its lens locking onto me before retreating out of sight.

I stepped cautiously through the gate and made my way toward her modest home. As the front door slid open, my breath caught in my throat.

Liora stood in the doorway, her skin was ghostly pale, stretched thin over her fragile frame. The black spots had spread across her arms, neck, and shoulders—everywhere except her face. They looked almost alive under the dim light, clustered like ink stains on fragile parchment. Scratches marred her skin, some of them raw and red, evidence of relentless itching.

“Liora… how do you feel?” I asked as I stepped closer.

She glanced me up and down, her lips curving upward into something faintly mischievous.

“Better than you, apparently,” she said, gesturing vaguely toward my lined face and silver hair. “I don’t feel terrible,” she admitted, her voice softer now. “But… sometimes I black out. It’s like slipping underwater and not knowing if I’ll come back up again. Other times, it feels like my skin is on fire. And the vomiting—it just happens, without warning.”

“That does sound terrible!” I said, louder than I intended.

She flinched slightly, but her eyes remained locked onto mine.

“Listen to me, Liora. There’s a way to help you. I promise that the next time you vomit, it will be because of morning sickness!”

***

My final destination was Toren.

He wore our old Wood Hunter mask, its filtration system shielding him against the air we all shared.

Toren had made it clear he would never again breathe the same air as the creatures around him.

Since his warrior-like pride as a Wood Hunter was unshakable I decided to keep it simple, explaining that he could go hunting one last time.

But his response caught me off guard.

“You can count me out. I will never board a ship with a bunch of lowlifes like you.”

Chapter 10: END