Legacy to Zero

4: I Don't Deal With Haryun Heroes

Lars

On the other side of the entrance hall, it was like I'd crossed into a pocket universe.

Chairs were strewn haphazardly around the packed space, the kind that belonged in my old high school cafeteria. I made my way to the curved desk behind a partition wall tacked with missing person's posters, passing a coffee machine clunking noisily and a trio of women building a tower out of playing cards on a layer of glossy magazines.

The surroundings ignited a vestige of familiarity within me, as though I'd been here before—as if I'd seen dozens of places just like it.

It's nice that nothing has changed much outside of Haryun.

In front of me, the detective glanced my way. His rolling office chair rumbled away from his desk, standing to meet me halfway as I approached.

"Can I help you?"

A figment of a smile took over my expression. It had been a while since I'd spoken in English instead of Rynnis—Haryun's common tongue—and my shoulders relaxed, if only by a fragment.

"Yeah. I'm here to give a witness testimony for... Astra Carroll," I said. The name felt wrong in my mouth. It seemed so fast—the way Sachiko had taken Aeris and turned her into something different, now that she was gone. Now that she was just Astra Carroll, when her name no longer held the same weight it once did.

He repeated the name under his breath, leading me into a connecting room. Setting a clipboard on the edge of his mahogany desk, it teetered like it was on the verge of falling.

I lowered myself into the opposite seat, facing a cream-coloured wall and a computer that looked like it was still running on dial-up. Two splotches of peeling paint stared at me from above an electrical socket, forming a shocked-looking face.

The detective reached for a packet of crackers by the trackpad. Crumbs scattered across its surface. Inwardly, I sighed, my empty stomach churning. At least he hadn't asked if I wanted anything to eat. I was already fidgeting enough. The last thing I needed was to have to lie—sure, it would be a little lie to say I'd already eaten—but still. Better to be the guy who'd conveniently always already eaten than the guy with a sensory issue.

His fingers clacked against the keyboard while he typed. I instructed him how to spell the last name, my hands squeezing together at my sides. It's not like I know her personally.

"This happened in this district?" he asked, a note of confusion underlying his tone.

"Well... this was the closest place. It happened off Route 126. In Haryun."

He spun his chair around to face me, tucking his pen into the clipboard. Blinked. "You want to open a case for a death that happened in Haryun?"

"I know you don't usually deal with—things that happen there, but Astra's case needs someone to look for evidence. It needs DNA. Forensics or something like that—to work with a squadron and—"

I hadn't even gotten the chance to finish before the detective shook his head. "It's not in our jurisdiction to take that on. Not in any civilian force, really."

"But—" I searched for a way to explain it, but my mind hit a crossroads. "You wouldn't have to deal with magic. It's just running results through a lab, looking for fingerprints or..."