“Wait, say that again.” It was more of a reaction than a real command.

  She repeated the words, sounding extra careful to be deliberate with them. “My name is Ann Patrick. I think I remember when you killed the Redeemer.”

  “What do you mean you think? Are you a Redeemer?”

  She gasped at the word, shaking her head, not to the question but as if she could shake thoughts out of her head. T’balt stared intently, trying to determine whether the words were some sort of trap. But her face told the story of someone in intense mental struggle.

  She started pacing around the house, T”balt following. “I don’t… I saw… it. And then… you. You were fighting them. Then it created you only for you to… what did you do? But something happened before that, I’m sure. I just… I see… you.” She spoke sporadically. He couldn’t be sure if she was talking or thinking out loud. She saw him staring at her and started twiddling her fingers in embarrassment. “I’m sorry. It turns out I don’t remember.”

  “You don’t remember if you’re a Redeemer?”

  “I don’t remember dying. So I don’t think so.” They were in the kitchen now. Ann sat at a round, dusty dinner table in front of a used coffee mug.

  “But you know what a Redeemer is.” T’balt sat in the chair across from her. “How do you know that?”

  “He…” She pointed her finger, but it was unfocused, just aimed at the air around them. “Speaks to me. I don’t really know what he’s saying, but he makes me remember you when I’ve never met you. I can’t seem to think of much else besides you because of…”

  “We don’t have time for this,” he snapped. “Ellie is dying by the second. If you can save her, then save her. Whatever you have to say can wait till after.”

  There was a pause in the room. Ann looked alarmed, not by his outburst but by the room surrounding her. It was as if she just discovered where she was. She put a finger on her chin. “No.”

  T’balt slapped his hand against the table. “Then what’s the point of wasting my time bringing me here if you’re not going to help me!?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Then what? Talk straight.”

  Ann began finicking with her fingers again. Then she stood suddenly. “Would you like some coffee? I think better when I’ve had my coffee.”

  T’balt wondered if he should be paying this woman any mind at all. Every moment wrapped in her scattered thoughts was a moment less Ellie had in this world. He should’ve been thinking about a way to save her, not whatever this was.

  “Please,” Ann said. “I just need to say what I have to and then I’ll help her. But I can’t before I say it to you. I just need to put together what it actually is.”

  “Are you asking something from me? I don’t care. Make the coffee.”

  “Umm... the power will go out in a moment. I need you to restart the generator out back.”

  “The power? What…” That’s when the lights went dark, and the noise of the cooling system failed. He saw her through the light of the sun outside.

  She nodded at him expectantly. “Go on.”

  The generator was a simple fix. It was old and started like a lawnmower. Two pulls at the drawstring, and the engine revved loud as a truck.

  T’balt wiped his hands of the dirt. The woman must’ve been a Redeemer. They were the only ones T’balt knew that could predict the future. But he had never considered the idea before that there were others, more than just he and Monan. That idea would be problematic if she turned out to be like Monan in any way.

  But he still had to consider if that’s really what she was. Loot made all sorts of things possible that he couldn’t explain. It wasn’t impossible that Redeemers were the only ones with a future sense. He had to find out the truth of it.

  She was at the coffee machine when he came back into the house. She looked like a regular housewife, wearing a thin red sweater and a necklace with a locket that hid something inside.

  She was far too focused on the water dripping into the coffee mug. She watched the clear water turn black as it exited the filter and entered the cup. When it was finished, she observed her masterpiece, but left it black, deciding it warranted no extra flavors.

  She held the mug, basking in the warmth and inhaling the morning coffee aroma. Realizing T’balt was watching, she hurried to put the cup on the table. “I don’t remember. Did you say if you wanted some?”

  Before he answered, she was digging for another mug and put it down just to watch the water pour again. When that cup was done, she smelled it again and put it on the table next to its mate. But that’s where they would sit, and she would never notice the cups again.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  T’balt searched the room, only finding Acelin standing in the corner. He seemed to be avoiding eye contact, off in some other world, down near his shoes. Genya was finding interest in a couple of dolls she had hidden behind the fridge.

  There was a long pause. T’balt waited for the restart of the conversation, but it just didn’t come. His fingers started to twitch.

  “WELL, SAY SOMETHING!” He caught himself. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap again.”

  “No… I’m sorry, T’balt. I’m wasting your time. I shouldn’t… it's just that I’m… overwhelmed.”

  “With what?”

  “The pictures. He speaks in… memories. Memories that I think are me, and yet are not me. But what I see, I’m not sure what they mean. I just know they’re not from here. This life. I can see the pictures through a window. Not all of it is there. Just what he wants me to figure out… I was always bad at charades.” She laughed that nervous laugh, the kind of laugh that mimicked a cry for help.

  He could see that she was suffering. Like she had dementia—a life she lived that she couldn’t remember. There was a fear in that. Not being in control of one’s own thoughts. It reminded T’balt of his grandmother shortly before she passed.

  “Can I check your loot?” he said.

  Ann’s eyes lit up. “Oh sure.” She moved her hair as T’balt walked around to check her.

  She only had a loot stack of two. Neither of them, he recognized. The first resembled an upside-down question mark. The second showed two people, one on the ground and one standing upright. No ouroboros.

  “You’re not a Redeemer, it looks like. What are these two? Where’d you get them?”

  “The second, Genya gave me when I got to this city. It saved my life. The first I’ve had since before Zero Day began. I don’t… think it’s from this lifetime. I remember everything from this life because it was me. Not the other mes. They’re different. I’m sorry. I feel like I’m going crazy.”

  “It's alright.” He thought a moment. It was another power similar to the Redeemer loot. It traveled between timelines, a loot once gained attached itself for eternity. Was it that that gave her these strange visions? Why not? It could make sense that there was a loot capable of giving her memories of another life. But he couldn’t quite convince himself that it was god on the otherside of that.

  “What else do you see?” he asked.

  “You. 6 of you. A hospital bed and an invisible woman with dark hair and an eye patch. Do you know her?”

  “If she’s invisible, how would I know what she looks like?”

  “No, then? That’s fine. It's mostly you. You look different, but it is you. And you’re fighting the Prime Redeemer.”

  “Who’s the Prime Redeemer?”

  She got caught in a momentary trance as if she had just seen something tragic. There was a slight red glow in her eyes, but it quickly disappeared. “The one you gained your powers from.”

  “Is that the Looter God?”

  “It's not him. It's his vessel. One of many, but the Redeemer is his most useful.”

  “Is that what he told you?”

  “That is what I know!” she tried stand, banging her knees on the table. The impact spilled one of the coffee mugs over, as the steam hit the table, the smell of coffee filled the room. Genya waddled over with a flag of paper towels and cleaned up the mess, humming a song to herself.

  Ann sat back down. “I’m sorry. Can I make you another coffee?” She was rubbing her fingers like she could tear all the skin off. The sandbags under her eyes were heavy, and the creases of age started to fill her face.

  T’balt put a hand on the table as a peace offering. “You said Ellie doesn’t have long. Just tell me the message… please.”

  She laid her head down on the table. “Ellie… what a nice name.”

  “Ann…”

  “When tragedy strikes you. You must live on.” She lifted her head as if realizing the answer to her question. “That was the message.”

  “What? What is that supposed to mean? What tragedy?” He stood.

  Ann stood to match him, saying with intensity, “The door to victory can only be breached through the unknown. Overcome your fear or continue to die for it.”

  He painfully dragged his hand down the length of his face. “I can’t take this backwards talk. Tell me straight, Ann. Is Ellie going to die?”

  “That, I think, is up to you.”

  “All I want to do is make sure she doesn’t die.”

  “Momma, I broke the leg.” Genya ran up, hugging Ann by the pants. At first, the woman was surprised, then smiled, caressing the girl's hair.

  “You don’t need to call me Momma, Genya. But it's okay. I’ll fix it later.” She glanced back up at T’balt. “She grew attached to me really quickly. I’ve only been in this city for less than a week. But I was really sick when I got here. Pneumonia.” She was speaking more confidently now. She no longer had to bother with the confusing images of past lives.

  She continued. “I was dead sick. Until this little one found me. A gift. That’s when he sent me another vision. A second-chance loot. Genya has very good tracking loot. She can find almost any loot you ask of her.”

  “So that’s how she found me.”

  “Yes. Because I asked her to find the Redeemer. But before that, I was bedridden. I was so sick I couldn’t even move. As white as a ghost. Then I died…”

  “You what? What do you mean you died?”

  “My body and brain don’t understand it. But the Looter God’s power knows no bounds. I died. Now I’m alive again.”

  “Back from the dead…”

  “Any wound I had before is magically gone, too.”

  Amazing. Then it could heal her arm, too. We need to find another second-chance loot. Why didn’t you just say so? With Genya, we can find it easily.” He knelt. “Genya, can you track down another?”

  The little girl’s eyes softened, shining with red spark, and she puffed her cheeks. “There aren’t anymore.”

  “What do you mean, there aren’t anymore? What about healing loot?”

  The girl shook her head. “Nothing nearby.”

  “T’balt.” Ann put a hand on his back. “It's too late for healing loot. She’s too far gone. Ellie will die. The only way to save her is with a second chance.”

  “You can’t know that.” He was growing nervous, the grim reality setting in.

  She felt his heart beat with the back of her hand. “You’re speaking with your heart. What is your mind telling you the truth is?”

  He closed his eyes. “What are you asking of me, Ann?”

  “For Ellie to live, you have to take my loot.”