THREADING x FAVORS
⟢───── Ashes × Aether ─────⟣
X’OMNERA — “A POTTY” — BACK ALLEY OFF THE PULSE
The shop was a narrow room tucked behind two holo-billboards, door half-open, a strip of teal floor lighting, marking the space like a line that said enter with intent.
Shelves of X'Omneran medical gear, diagnostic tools, aether stabilizers, and a counter wiped clean enough to eat off of.
The trio stepped in.
Talla whispered, “This looks… legit..”
A woman answered without looking up:
“Good. I'm not running some hole in the wall.”
Vei stood behind the counter checking a small monitor.
Forty-something, brown-skinned Zeraphen migrant with tight braids wrapped into a bun, gold nose pin, simple black blouse, sleeves rolled.
Competent and expensive.
She finally lifted her eyes to Set — one glance, nothing more.
“Sit.” she said.
Set sat without arguing. Riven and Talla hovered behind him, trying not to touch anything.
Vei pulled a scanning rod from the drawer — sleek, silver, X’Omneran make, but heavily modded with Zeraphen accents. She swept it over Set’s forearm.
The glyph lit through his fur in thin cyan lines.
Set's tail flickered behind him.
Vei just nodded once like she’d seen this a hundred times.
Talla crossed her arms. “Can you remove it?”
“Half of it, yes,” Vei said. “Which is what Otto paid for.”
All three groaned.
Sets claws clenched. “We didn’t ask him for anything.”
“People like Otto don’t wait for you to ask,” Vei said. “They build the favor before you ever realize you owe it.”
She set a metal stabilizer frame around Set’s arm, precision-engineered clamps with a silk safety lining.
“This part will sting,” she said.
She didn’t warn him twice.
A soft click.
A flash under the frame.
Set’s muscles locked for half a second as he let out a low hiss, no scream, but enough tension that Talla stepped forward until Riven held her back.
Ten seconds later Vei removed the stabilizer.
A faint crackle ran along Set’s arm, then a thin layer of cyan residue flaked off his fur onto the floor.
Vei collected it in a vial. The ones made in Nardox marketed for their solar-tempered glass. Then stored it on a shelf with samples from previous treatments.
“That’s the surface thread removed.”
Set exhaled slowly. “So it’s gone?”
“Like I said, that was the surface thread,” Vei said. “Glyphs dormant.. for now"
She opened a tablet and turned it toward them.
SECOND TREATMENT REQUIRED
750,000 LUM (No Longer Accepted)
OR
750 YOYOS
DUE WITHIN 7 DAYS
Riven nearly choked. “Seven days? Are you insane?”
“No,” Vei said. “If you leave it longer than that, the glyph roots itself into his channels. After that, you’ll need someone much more reckless than me and you’ll probably lose the arm.”
Set stared at her, his pupils retracted. “..Damnit.”
Talla stepped in. “We don’t have that money, no one's hiring these days. So what now?”
“Most don’t,” Vei said. “But you three? I hear you’re not ‘most.’
And Otto clearly thinks you’re good for the debt.”
Riven slumped. “Perfect. We owe a cartel baby boss and a witch doctor that doesn't take insurance ”
Vei shut her tablet and leaned against the counter.
“Witch? Witches cast spells on idiots. I profit off them. Now there’s one way to make that much in one night,” she said. “But you won’t like it.”
Set didn’t blink. “Tell us.”
“The UCL,” Vei said. “Underground Crownfall League. Runs under BlackJack’s gambling hall, About a mile into the Pulse. High pot. High stakes. No rules. Just win."
Riven muttered, “I already hate this.”
Talla frowned. “How many matches?”
“One or two,” Vei said. “Depending on how desperate you are. Winners are paid out after every match."
Set didn’t hesitate.
“One.”
Riven stared at him like he’d volunteered them for execution.
Talla slapped Set’s arm. “Stop trying to sound cool. Think.”
“I am,” Set said. “This needs to be done fast.”
Vei opened the curtain between rooms and nodded toward the street.
“You have seven days,” she said. “After that, that you are no longer welcomed back at my place of business.”
She paused, looked at Set, the first time she allowed even a hint of curiosity.
"When this ends, you owe me one truth.
Not payment. Not blood. Just the truth."
The trio exchanged looks.
They had a target.
They had a deadline.
They had no choice.
⟢───── Ashes × Aether ─────⟣