When Zuri and Aldric shuffled back inside the warehouse, they found Kalindi futilely scrubbing at the windows, Jem lying supine on the floor, and Chike sweeping around her with an old broom that was missing a fair percentage of its bristles.
Zuri and Aldric dropped their supplies to the floor: canned vegetables and beans, a loaf of bread, some old blankets they'd found outside of a clothing boutique, a jug of filtered water that would last them through the week if they rationed it properly. The other three Celestials looked up, but no one spoke, as if Zuri was simply going to pick up where she had left off.
Aldric inched backwards to nudge the warehouse door shut, and then he just nodded at her.
Zuri cleared her throat. "The deal is off."
Kalindi froze, dropping her rag. Jem sat up in alarm. Chike just sighed.
"The deal?" Jem sputtered, dragging herself upright, setting her glasses straight upon her nose. "Hang on—you mean with Sorin? What does that mean? He's going to tell everyone Kalindi's here?"
Zuri wandered towards a small set of stairs, one that led up to what had once been a loft or office space. There, she collapsed against the steps, letting out a long sigh. "I don't think he will," she said. "I know too much about him for him to do that. Outing us would mean outing himself too."
"Know too much about him?" Kalindi asked, and paused. "I don't understand. You spoke with him again? Did he attack you?"
Aldric and Zuri shared a knowing glance. "He attempted to, yes," Zuri said. "But only after I provoked him."
Jem looked at her tiredly. "And why the hell would you do that?" Her eyes shot to Kalindi. "I thought we weren't poking the bear."
Aldric snorted. "He's a bit smaller than a bear."
"What?" Jem asked.
Zuri didn't think there was any way to say it except bluntly, so that's what she did. "Sorin is one of us," she said, and watched as varying degrees of surprise flashed across the others' faces. She didn't blame them, as she'd felt much of that herself: the shock at meeting another one so like her, the bittersweet realization that their similarities were what tugged them apart at the seams. "He's a Celestial; he can disguise himself as a cat. That's why he's been so hard to keep track of."
A wordless breath passed, long enough that it made Zuri wonder if perhaps they hadn't heard her.
They had, however.
Jem collapsed into laughter, flailing back against the floor, her whole body shaking with the effort. Kalindi was shaking her head at Jem, while Chike and Aldric both had a look on their faces that said they wanted to laugh but at least had the self control not to.
Zuri didn't blame them, she guessed. The omnipotent, inscrutable force that was Sorin commanded a certain bout of fear that didn't exactly match that of a common domesticated feline. If anything, though, the fact that he had managed to torment them in spite of that made him all the more terrifying. That, and she couldn't erase the flickers of his past from her mind: the betrayal and the utter loss of innocence that had made him who he was.
Ever since the visions had shuddered through her, ever since she'd looked into his eyes and saw the fear pulsing just behind them, there had been a pang in her heart, subtle but undeniable. Only then, as Jem clamped a hand over her own mouth to stop her laughing spell, did Zuri realize what it was.
She felt sorry for him. Against all odds, she did.
"Jem," Kalindi said, dragging the other girl to her feet. "Are you done now?"
Jem nodded, but there was still a faint wheeze at the end of her breath. "Sorry. It's just—terribly hilarious. You don't agree? Mr. Tall, Mysterious Evil Guy—ooh, leave Sinje or I'm gonna destroy you—and he's just an alley cat. Our troubles are over the second we throw catnip at him and run."
Zuri shook her head. "I don't think we can underestimate him. Cat or not, he backed us into a corner. He's smart, Jem. If we're not smart, this won't end well for us."
Aldric shrugged. "Hey. The catnip idea might not be so bad."
He and Jem looked at each other, and once again burst into laughter. Zuri had to fight the urge to throw something at them.
Luckily, Chike was nearer to them than Zuri was, and silenced Aldric with a quick but harsh stomp on his foot. As Aldric groaned and keeled over, Chike gave Jem a pointed look, as if to ask if she, too, wanted a few bruised toes. She coughed and went quiet.
"Zuri," Chike said, his gaze switching towards her. "I'm assuming you found this out by looking into his memories?"
Zuri nodded.
Any mirth hiding in Chike's expression vanished; now he just looked at her earnestly, his head slightly lowered. "What else can you tell us?"
"Quite a bit," she said. "For one, his full name is Sorin Kircher. Liesel is his adoptive mother."
"Liesel?" Kalindi gasped. "The woman Schmitt is looking for?"
Aldric and Jem were certainly done laughing now; all eyes were on Zuri, the room bristling with tension, but the sort of tension that was bred out of newfound hope. "Yes, that Liesel. Sorin's not from Sinje. He grew up in the burrows in Sunom and got his powers just like us when the meteor hit. His parents found they could make a good profit off of his...uniqueness, so they sold him illegally to a rich landowner here."
Chike winced. "I don't imagine that landowner welcomed him as a part of the family, did he?"
Zuri sighed, closing her eyes. The images had gone by fast, but she was glad they did. There were some details she never wanted to know. "Not by a long shot," she answered. "But he...escaped, and that's when Liesel found him."
"Schmitt is looking for Liesel, and Liesel's adoptive son is looking for Schmitt," Jem repeated, a deep frown at her mouth. "So we were right, then. It's a family thing? That's why he's trying so hard?"
Zuri shrugged. "He pulled away from me too quickly for me to make sense of it all, but given what we do know, that seems likely."
"What's our next move, then?" asked Kalindi, her arms folded delicately, the rings banding her fingers flashing gold in the afternoon sunlight. "Knowing he's involved with Liesel helps, but we still don't know where to find them."
"Actually, we do," said Zuri, and tapped her temple. "I saw the house they live in, and I also saw Liesel's face. I think we know more than enough."
A slow, cunning smile spread across Jem's face. She got to her feet, dusting off her knees.
"Zuri," Jem said, removing her glasses from her nose and hooking them on her blouse instead, a new confidence in the way she stood. "Forgive me for ever doubting you. You're a fucking genius."
"Hardly," Zuri said with a quick shake of her head, but nevertheless there was a smile at her lips. "Really, I just know how to use the human mind to my advantage."
It had been a long time since Sorin had felt so scattered, like he'd mistakenly stepped over the edge of a cliff and was scrambling to regain his balance before he toppled into the abyss. He hated it, abhorred it, because it reminded him of the person he'd been years before, a foolish child who existed only to be taken advantage of. He couldn't let that happen again. He refused to.
He reached the rug shop in record time, skittering over rooftops and awnings, all the while fighting the heavy fog that seeped slowly into his mind. A city that was usually so loud, so alive with the varying footfalls and breathing patterns of humans and animals alike, was all stifled, like he was listening from the other side of a wall. He knew the streets of Sinje as he would the back of his hand, and yet he had never felt so lost.
Liesel's window was open, as it always was. He slipped through, hopping over the sink, landing on the floor in graceful silence. The upstairs apartment was empty, but he was relieved to find nothing amiss. The futon was messy as usual, pillows tossed astray, blanket dragging on the floor. An empty bowl and a spoon sat on the counter like a still life painting, the leaky faucet dripping water in soft, rhythmic tinks.
Sorin shuddered back into his human skin, unfurling himself from his crouch and shaking the tension from his muscles. His steps dragged, as if he were moving through molasses. It had to be a result of that girl's ability, he thought; why else would he be so sluggish? Rage filled him up, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth. When he climbed down the stairs, he nearly tripped.
He managed to catch himself against the wall, this time not so gracefully. Liesel looked up from where she was arranging the rug racks in alarm. "Sorin!" she said. "Are you hurt?"
"We need to go," he said, and even his words seemed to come slower. At once, he was overrun by the need to flee, to get away until he could make sense of what to do next, and the need to lay down and shut his eyes for a while. The fight between those two itself was exhausting him. "Zuri, the Nainoans...they know—"
"Who's Zuri? What's going on?" Liesel said, leaving the rack behind. She crossed the room, taking Sorin's face in her hands, tilting his head forward and back as if conducting an offhand medical examination. After a moment, she stepped back, her hands on her hips. "Oh, hang on. Don't tell me you started day drinking again."
"I did not," Sorin huffed. "I'm sober. I'm serious! It's not safe here, Liesel. We need to leave now."
"Right. I'm sure we do," said Liesel, shaking her head at him. She took his arm, guiding him up the stairs. "I need to go out and run a few errands. I need some more dye for this braided rug I'm working on, so I need to grab that, and I think we're also out of potatoes. Why don't you get some rest while I do that, and we can talk when I get back?"
Every fiber of Sorin's being was screaming No at him, demanding he keep her from walking out of that door. But her hand upon his arm was warm and comforting, and he let her haul him back up the way he'd came, like he was a child being carried to his sickbed.
Once they were upstairs, Sorin slumped onto the futon, hitting the cushions like a sack of bricks. "Liesel," he murmured. "Don't go."
Don't go. The words echoed from some place deep within him, some place he'd long since closed up, some place he'd forced himself to forget about. Mama. Papa. Please don't go.
But Liesel just smiled at him, getting to her feet. "I won't take that long. Half an hour, at most. I'll be back. I promise; I'll come back."
He wanted to reach out to her, to trap the fabric of her dress between his fingertips and keep her here—but his eyelids were heavy, and he was falling, falling away from the present, falling away from everything.
He didn't hear her as she left.