The Flow

Sai looked at the money in his hand. “So how do we do this?”

“What do you mean? We go get a room, some actual sleep, and then see what Dex wants in the morning,” Mira replied with a tired sigh as she shook her head slowly.

“I think Sai means we’ve got money for three beds. But we’re four people.”

“Well maybe he didn’t count the dwarf as a person,” Corvin said, staring at Eira with a bitter edge. “Where were you, by the way?”

Eira’s eyes widened, and she instinctively took a step back as Corvin stood up from the bench.

“What I saw or heard, there were no protests from you when I was headed for execution. Not a single damn word. Why was that?”

A firm hand clamped down on Corvin’s shoulder before the words could twist further. Sai stepped up beside him, calm but clear.

“Corvin.”

Mira moved too, placing herself between Corvin and Eira, shielding the girl with her presence more than her body.

Sai raised the coins between his fingers. “How about you and I share the single-bed room? You get the bed, I’ll take the floor.”

Corvin glanced at him, tension still radiating from his clenched jaw. He exhaled and looked away. “Fine. Works for me.”

“Good,” Sai said evenly. He turned to Mira and Eira. “Does that work for you two?”

Eira nodded quickly, avoiding Corvin’s gaze, while Mira placed a gentle hand on her back. “Yes, that will work more than good, Sai. Thank you.”

“Great,” Sai muttered, pocketing the coins. “Let’s get a good night’s rest. And then figure out what the hell we do tomorrow.”

The inn was modest but clean, tucked between the carpenter’s shop and the road near the village’s eastern wall. The owner, a broad-shouldered woman with a kind face and a limp, handed them keys with no questions asked. Word had clearly already spread—she said nothing about Reapers, or trials, or executions. Just offered them a quiet place to sleep and a pitcher of water for the rooms.

Sai and Corvin found themselves in a cramped room with peeling blue walls and a single window overlooking the stone path outside. The bed took up most of the space, its frame creaking as Corvin dropped onto it face-first.

Sai lay a blanket out on the floor, leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed.

Corvin stared at the ceiling. “That guy… Gladius. He smiled through the whole damn thing.”

Sai nodded slowly. “He did.”

Corvin sat up, rubbing his wrists out of habit. “He was enjoying it. Like, actually enjoying the idea of hanging me.” Corvin laid his arms out wide.

Sai didn’t answer at first. His eyes just like Corvin’s were locked on the wooden ceiling beams.

“Do you think Reith was actually a Reaper?” Corvin looked down at Sai.

“No… I don’t know. I barely knew him after all. But he… he saved us.”

“Yeah,” Corvin said quietly.

“He saved us more than once. He didn’t act like a monster, but still Gladius did explain Reapers to act that way tho.” Sai’s head hit the wall as his own sentence confused himself.

Corvin shook his head. “None of this makes sense. I—I hate that they just believed Gladius. No proof. Just a scythe and some showmanship.”

Sai rubbed his temples. “It wasn’t about proof. It was about fear. Reapers… Whatever they are, legends. Nightmares. or something, Gladius used that.”

there was a pause as they both thought it over.

“If we are going to be brutally honest, we do not actually know if he was one or not”

Sai glanced up at Corvin then back down again. “I agree, like i said before, Reith just seems to fit the description too well, at least well enough to trick the villagers into killing you”

Sai thought for a second then spoke again.

“And then public opinion switched, all thanks to Dex”

“he did save us,” Corvin added. “Just… showed up in the perfect time i guess”

“I don’t know, about him yet” Sai said, letting the silence settle between them. “But he did. i guess that’s what matters. Let’s get some sleep.”

Corvin didn’t respond, but slowly turned on the mattress, eyes open long after Sai closed his.

Down the hall, Mira was combing her fingers gently through Eira’s hair. The girl sat curled up near the wall, back to the window, her shoulders trembling ever so slightly under the blanket.

“I should have done something,” Eira whispered. “I should have said something…”

Mira exhaled, brushing a lock behind Eira’s ear. “You froze. That doesn’t make you a bad person.”

“But I just watched them… drag him up there. And I didn’t move.”

“You were scared. We all were. You’re allowed to be scared.”

Eira looked up at her. “Do you think Reith was a Reaper?”

Mira paused.

“…No,” she answered at last. “I think he was strange, yes. Quiet, sure. But he never hurt us. He was the first one up during danger. That doesn’t sound like what they described as a Reaper to me.”

Eira hugged her knees to her chest. “Gladius… he said they start by getting close to the strongest people. By pretending to be helpful. Almost like parasites.”

Mira gave a dry laugh. “If that’s true, then…. No never mind”

Eira sighed at the lack of response.

Mira returned to and laid back on her bed, staring at the ceiling beams. “You know what I think? I think Gladius was scared. You Saw Reith he could’ve taken him. The look on Gladius face during the fight, he was clearly embarrassed. And the second Reith was gone, Gladius needed to prove something to himself, and the people.”

“…So he picked on Corvin?.” Eira asked.

“Yeah. Someone weaker. Easier. Someone he could predict and blame, and in the same time he pulled out that Reaper card giving himself an excuse for almost losing.”

Eira sniffled and wiped her eyes. “I’m glad Dex stopped it.”

“Me too, Corvin may be a jerk but he don’t deserve to die” Mira said softly. “I don’t know who Dex is exactly, but he saved us.”

They lay in silence for a while, the muffled sounds of the village drifting in from the window—shutters closing, the wind rustling the trees, distant murmurs of night guards switching shifts.

“Mira?” Eira asked.

“Yeah?”

“…Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For being there.”

Mira smiled and pulled the blanket up over herself. “Anytime, Eira. Try to get some sleep. We’ll need it.”

Outside the inn, the village had finally gone still. The torches on the walls burned low, flickering in the night wind. Moonlight shined and the sky above was scattered with stars, but a strange wind carried through the trees—cold and sharp, unnatural in the way it moved against the trees of the world.

Beyond the village gates, beyond the hills, the current of the river flowed steadily beneath the moon. The water was quiet tonight—almost too quiet for a moving river. Down its flow it turned and twisted as the water had carved out the path it now followed.

The and clear water shined with the moonlight that was cast on it.

Then something shifted.

A ripple. Not from the wind, nor from fish, nor debris.

From below.

Just for a moment.

A slithering, creeping darkness that glowed faintly at its edges with an eerie black light— unnatural. It was moving with the river as if being dragged along its current. As if the moonlight had hit something metal it was reflected away just as the dark eerie light strengthened. The water parted as a shaky hand reached out.