Chapter 26:

Inattentional Blindness

The Empathy Curse: Hopefully My Understanding of Psychology Can Help Me in Another World


It wasn’t easy to hide in the city of Nautia. The broad strokes of main streets crisscrossed the urban landscape, isolating buildings into their own cliques. Moving into the back streets would only confine us to a single island of dwellings. Traveling across the city meant we had to cross multiple main streets and potentially expose ourselves to the patrolling soldiers.

Under the protection of our cloaks, Coyote and I managed to do just that through patience, crossing main streets only when we couldn’t see any soldiers patrolling nearby. To ensure that the inevitable search party wouldn’t find us, we snuck far away from the store into a random building close to the city wall, waiting for the right moment for our next move.

The long-awaited night descended on the realm. Coyote and I hurried to finish the preparation for our escape, and then we inched closer to the main gate. Lanterns illuminated the soldiers standing guard; that spot was brighter than anywhere else in the city. Guess they used the high-quality lanterns for the more important places.

We took cover in the shadows at the mouth of an alleyway, waiting for our groundwork to come to fruition. Time passed some more, and there was shouting in the distance. A soldier ran to the guards at the gates, updating them on the situation.

After relaying the message, the soldier went on its way, and the gate guards remained at their posts. That was to be expected. We were only grasping at the slim chance that their panic led them to make a foolish decision.

As for the emergency, it was a fire, one that was surging in the city. A fire set by us. Set at a place with plenty of fuel: Zeroc’s garden. We smashed what we assumed to be the magic cooler, found holing up at a corner, so the flames should burn more intensely than otherwise. The plants there served as ample feed for the starving inferno. I remembered Zeroc gushing about the price of some plants there, so I quickly thought of a scapegoat: I could blame this on the money-losing curse of the city.

We swiftly pivoted to Plan B. The first building that Zeroc raided was a challenge to find in the darkness. After the soldiers stormed the place, fewer citizens collected their share of food there. The building became a desolate husk, abandoned by people, but the passage to the network of secret tunnels should remain untouched, indifferent to fleeting sentiments.

Finding the switch took less than a minute, since we knew what to look for. I lit the lantern using the same tool I burned down Zeroc’s garden with. Just when I got ready to venture into the gaping jaws of the revealed tunnel, I received a peculiar thought from Coyote.

An expression of utter confusion was all I could respond with, so she pointed to her shoulders and repeated her idea in words: “Get on. We’ll pretend to be an adult. I took a larger cloak just for this.” This explanation clarified nothing. I remembered her formulating this plan when we were in the storage room, but I didn’t know she was serious.

“How can you see under that? Can you carry my weight for a long period? Wouldn’t our movements be suspicious?” I didn’t want to pick apart her suggestion so bluntly, but we were pressed for time.

“They must be searching for two kids, so pretending to be an adult would be less eye-catching. We can move slowly along the wall so I can sense the path with my feet. And you can always whisper to me to give me directions. This will work.”

With that, I conceded and climbed onto Coyote, riding on her shoulders. As I said, we were pressed for time. Coyote did have a point. People usually pay more attention to what they aim to find. Our pursuers would probably scrutinize every child they come across closely. Conversely, they would never expect us to come up with such a goofy disguise. The diversion of the garden fire and the scarce lighting in the tunnels could also work to our advantage.

This plan could work, but it just felt so stupid.

As we wrapped a cloak around our stacked bodies, the pinnacle of ridiculousness, I wanted to object to the plan again, but with the lack of a better one, I could only accept this.

With the lantern’s light to lead the way, we infiltrated the heart of the enemy’s operation. Soon, we came across the first person in the tunnel, a tall man, who was still slightly shorter than me with my newfound height. I never thought I could feel like an adult again. I silently thanked Coyote for coming up with such a brilliant disguise.

“Excuse me, how do we get outside? I got orders to pick up a special package.” I asked in the deepest voice I could muster.

“Whose orders?”

“I don’t know! I’m new here, and everything is so chaotic. Please help me. I don’t want to get into trouble,” I injected a fistful of desperation into my tone. The man nodded and gave me detailed directions to the path out of the city.

Everything was going well, although taking each unnatural step was a drag. To anyone we came across, I claimed that my legs were injured but still wanted to help. They accepted our words at face value more readily than I expected. It scored us a few sympathy points and prevented them from asking us too many questions. I felt a little bad for deceiving them, but our desperation was real. Even if they weren’t all brainwashed, I doubted they would help two random kids who were on the wanted list.

We navigated the maze-like tunnel system with ease, thanks to the tall man’s directions, and were nearing the exit. Close to freedom at last, but then a voice called out to us.

“Hey! You there! Do I know you?” I recognized that voice. It came from Res.

My muscles froze, and I turned my head slowly to prevent any flaws in our disguise from showing. Res leaned against the wall, sizing us up with curiosity. Of course, she had her trusty stack of paper by her side, and a lantern in her other hand.

“No, who are you?” I decided that feigning ignorance was the safer option.

“Hmm… Let me take a look.” Res skimmed through her pile of notes.

I was sure that her notes wouldn’t help her identify me, but it was better to be on the safe side. “Sorry, we will go now.”

Res raised her head, picking apart my sentence with a single word. “We?”

Inside, I was panicking; I felt Coyote doing the same. “Well… You and I together… Because you look so beautiful.” I tried to salvage my blunder with a pickup line.

Res shrugged, unimpressed. “Tell me your name. Maybe some version of me in the future will be interested.” And here I thought she had no conception of the future.

“My name? My name isn’t worth sharing.” I turned around before she could reply. Coyote, acting as my legs, took this as a cue to speed up toward the exit.

Hopefully, this cringe line would deter Res from following me. To confirm whether that was the case, I snuck a glance behind me. To my relief, she was gone.

We reached the end point of the passage, and it granted our wish in the form of a trapdoor on the slanted wall. My heart almost leapt out to open it. With a simple push, encountering less resistance than I thought, needing less force than I thought, the trapdoor flapped open, and a rush of night breeze greeted us.

The open grasslands were within reach. Just when our destination was in sight, I heard a wave of footsteps growing louder, marching towards us. The number of feet involved made me think they had found us out. Coyote also had the same conclusion.

I hopped off Coyote and climbed out of the trapdoor with her. Coyote turned to shut the trapdoor. She covered it with her cloak and sat down. “Run! I’ll keep this shut.”

“What are you doing?” I yelled. My mind was in disarray from the shock of hearing her bold declaration. Coyote’s thoughts didn’t warn me about this at all.

“They will catch us both at this rate.”

“We can both make it.”

“I’ve been chased enough times to know that we can’t.”

Her logic was sound; sacrificing us both wouldn’t achieve anything. But I couldn’t move a muscle. The noise under the trapdoor grew louder, but I still stood as if my feet were glued to the grass. I gazed into her determined eyes, all the while listening to the fear and uncertainty in her mind. She might be able to hide her expression, but her thoughts spoke the truth.

“Please, let me be a good big sister,” Coyote said.

“But I’m older than you…” I could barely speak.

Sacrifice… How could you sacrifice something priceless? Res might not even harm Coyote, at least she didn’t seem to. Still, I wanted to stay here. To be caught together. To put all our plans to waste. An invisible chain bound our fates into one, commanded by little bursts of feelings in my heart.

“Get Lyla back!” Coyote’s inner and outer voice united into a single request, a message delivered from the depths of her mind. It was the excuse she granted me to run away. The air of maturity exuded from those words convinced me for a moment that she was really my elder sister.

“I will, I promise. And I swear I will save you.” Making promises that were out of my control didn’t suit my style, but it didn’t matter. Whether I was respecting her wishes, or fleeing with the selfish desire for survival, or maximizing the probability of success. The explanations ceased to be relevant, as I had no need to calculate my moral worth. For now, my only purpose was to blow out the lantern light and run as fast as I could.

Engin
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Uriel
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