Aylen held her pistol between the eyes of the raggedy boy. He stood there, a mop of curly hair hanging in front of one of his brown eyes.

"Hey! Aylen! He's with me! He's cool," a familiar voice shouted above her music. She glanced over the shoulder of the boy. Alaban stood in the doorway with his hands raised in innocence.

In one smooth movement she holstered her pistol and leaned against the desk. She leaned over to quiet the record player and looked to the two boys expectantly. "So? What do you want?"

The ragged boy furrowed his brow. "Ah, Alaban said you could help me."

Aylen aborted. "With what? You gotta be a bit more specific. I could help you with that haircut and blast it off your head. Might take your head with it but that might be an overall improvement." She fingered her pistol. "Prove that head belongs on your shoulders. Ask me a better question."

He glanced at her pocket in alarm, clearly searching for the best way to phrase his question.

"Be snappy about it or the music is coming back on," she growled.

Caz seemed even more threatened by that than the blaster. "I- he- ah- Alaban said you could help me get my family back. From the Silence."

He's determined, a voice deep inside her whispered. It will get him killed.

She was surprised to hear the voice. It hadn't spoken to her in months. Didn't have the strength to.

"It will," she mumbled aloud.

Expendability can be useful.

"Sorry?" the boy said, confused.

He will walk to the end of the line and right off it. We can use him.

"Fine," Aylen answered.

His eyebrows rose on surprise. "That was... easy?"

"If you promise me you'll do everything I say, I'll throw in my best shot."

"That sounds like less of a fair deal."

She shrugged. "I don't even know your name. You're asking me to take a lot on faith here, I'd say we've got a fair deal."

He held out his hand. "Caz. Caz of house... Raven."

She gave him an enthusiastic shake. "Aylen. Captain Aylen."

He tilted his head. "Captain?"

Aylen winked. "If we're gonna be spending a lot of time together, you'll really want to save my better stories for last."

Caz took a hesitant step back. "Wait, how do I know you can help me? No one has ever defied the Silence. How do I know you can? How do I know you're not just some crackpot wasting away under rubble offering impossible help for cash?"

The pale boy stepped up from behind Caz and rested a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Caz, you've spent a lot of time looking at the memorial wall. What is one of the first few names on that wall? Do you remember?"

Caz looked thoughtful. "That's why Aylen sounded so familiar... but... how? You— where's your familiar? How did you survive? You were one of the first Silenced. How are you... how do you look so young?"

Aylen grinned. "Do you want to spend all of your days listening to my stories, or rescuing your family?"

She knew she was giving the boys very little to go on. She even sympathized with them. But all she knew was she didn't want to answer their questions, and she didn't have time to think of a better answer. Time meant silence. Silence that crept in from every corner, following her, wrapping icy fingers around her throat. She could feel it watching her from every book and cranny. If she stopped, she was certain those fingers would wrap around her and she'd be lost forever.

Finally Caz ended the silence. Aylen hid her breath of relief.

"Where do we begin?"

- - - - -

"Yes, I mean it."

"Do you though?" Aylen snapped. "You have to give everything up. Whatever you once had, forget it. Join me and there's no going back."

Caz reminded her of a stubborn stallion with his broad unmoving stance. "I told you. I'll do anything."

She snorted as she gathered up her few things into a satchel. "We'll see."

Alaban stepped up. "Aylen, I told you, you can trust him."

Caz gave the pale boy a strange look. "How exactly do you two know each other anyhow?"

Alaban ran a hand through his short hair. "Ah-well-look I'm not really great with stories. And it's a bit of a long one. You know me. I get all clammy and pale and blabber on forever when asked to talk about things that are really quite not important."

"... Aren't you all three of those things all the time?" Caz stated.

Aylen surveyed the room for anything else she'd want. She slipped a rum bottle from a drawer into her coat pocket. "It's why we get along so well, Alaban. I do the talking while you keep people captive for me. Not sure why but otherwise people tend to run the other direction when they meet me."

Caz blinked. "... Do you greet every guest with a gun to the head?"

"Ehhhhh," Aylen murmured. "Can you really blame me? If anyone rats me out to the Silence, I'm dead. And I've done that before. It's not fun."

"Actually dead?" Caz questioned. "Not... not taken to asphodel?"

Alaban elbowed him. "You really think they'd let her live after escaping a Silencing?"

Caz pushed Alaban away. "And what do you mean you've done that before?"

"Hey, what did I say about questions?" Aylen retorted.

"... ask better ones?"

"No. Don't ask them. At least ones I don't like."

"When did you say that...?"

"Shut up," she snapped, pushing past the boys for the door. She didn't look but she could hear them following her out the collapsed building. "No, wait, keep talking. — actually, no. I want to talk now. Do you really believe that nonsense about Asphodel?"

"... May I speak now?"

"Yes. Be quick about it."

"I'm not sure if I believe in asphodel, but I'm not sure what else there is to believe in."

On the street outside the building, her long gray coat flapped in the cool breeze. Old glass lamps lit the City roads but few lights could be seen within the buildings. It was as if everyone associated the night and the blue mist that prowled the ground with the Silence.

She couldn't blame them. The quiet alone had her skin crawling.

"It's not real, I'll tell you that," she said, the sound of her own voice calming her.

"How do you know?" Caz asked from beside her.

"Because they took my sister. And she came back a corpse. Whatever happens to the Silenced, they don't go to some paradise world."

Caz halted. "Wait... do you mean that when they're killed by the Silence... they're just dead?"

Aylen shook her head. "No. My sister didn't look slaughtered like a lamb. Something else must have happened to her. But wherever she was, she wasn't safe. And neither are any of the silenced." She picked up the pace to force Caz to follow her again.

"So wait— where are we going? Aylen? Where are we going?"

"Where do you think? We're gonna go find the silenced or die trying."

"Wait— now? Can't I at least go get my things first?"

She paused. "You said you would follow me. Now follow. Going back to wherever you came from would draw attention. We can't have that. And trust me, you don't need any things. Not where we're going."

"And where are we going?" Caz grumbled.

She turned and set off again. "To my ship."