Lament of the Traitor King (Complete)

Chapter 20 - Don't Turn Your Back on Me

"Wow. We've been here, for what, three days now - and we still can't find that woman?"

Even Netta had to agree with Ash's grim assessment of their situation.  She had thought that after she had followed the trail of the circus that Ximenia had supposedly been hired by, it would only be a matter of asking the right questions until she could find her estranged Sister. Instead, Netta more often than not found herself deeply embedded in a metaphorical wall. 

Even before Ash had pointed it out, she had admitted to herself that there was no possible way that her Sister could have disappeared without a trace. 

From the street car that felt like it rattled her teeth as it went along its rail, Netta was transcribing notes in her notebook. She was in the middle of writing when her pen died on her.  Cursing underneath her breath, Netta shoved it into one of the pockets of her coat. No sooner than she did than she felt herself being pushed over as a weight hit her in her shoulder.

Disorientated, she was helped up by Ash and by another person, who she recognized as the weight that had sent her toppling over.  He was apologizing to her profusely, but stopped.   His face turned white as he looked up.  His haunted, blank gaze seeming to suggest that he was seeing something. 

Something that there was no way that he could see.   He backed off, mumbling something that sounded like, "Red, eyes..."

Ash helped her to her feet. As she regained her footing, she happened to see something on the street that gave her a jolt.

Seeing that she was fixated on something, Ash turned. "A camp for the poor?"

Netta grabbed Ash's hand and dragged the Monster through the throng of people between her and the exit on the car.  As she ran, she said, "It's like that ringmaster I once met called them, Hoovervilles. It reminded me of my youth, I haven't heard shantytowns being called Hoovervilles since I was young."

She dropped off of the sluggishly moving streetcar as it was slowing down to a halt. She made a beeline directly to the shantytown in question.

Ash, who had caught up to her easily, asked, "That's all well and good, but what does this have to do with your Sister?"

Netta turned around, pointing at the sign that hung over the entrance to the large plot of land filled with perpetually tired-looking people and their small shack-like homes.

Ash stared up at it, Its eyebrows furrowed. ""Kazia's Town". Have never seen one of these places having its own name like that and everything, but what's the importance of it?"

Netta pointed more vigorously at the sign. "Seriously? Okay. It's not the name or anything, it's the little, I don't know, doodle next to the name on the sign."

Ash glanced back up at the sign. "A - a butterfly?"

Netta shook her head and could not stop the smile on her face. "No - it's a moth. A moth - just like the kind that Xi always drew on her stuff. I could recognize that drawing anywhere, because it's like a modified four-leaf clover."

"Huh." Ash had to chase after her a little, when Netta trudged into the shantytown. "Lovely - where do you plan to go in here, who do you plan to ask about her?"

No sooner than Ash asked that than Netta heard a voice, sounding almost dusty, calling out to her. Turning, she discovered the source of the voice behind what looked like a turned-over foot-powered child's toy car.

"Looking for someone here, are you?"  What emerged out from behind the car was a man swaddled in heavy layers of clothing.  As he turned to gaze at her Netta discovered that his face was covered in a beard so thick and unkempt that it was hard to see the man as possessing a face behind the wild and bushy mass.