Storyteller's Universe // See Through
Stirring Handshake



A knock on the door.

I look up from my bags, tools and weapons sprawled all over the floor. I recognize who’s knocking just by how much it annoyed me to have my focus taken away from packing up.

I get up, open the door, lo and behold: Fucking Asher.

“Closing up shop?”

“Swallowing your pride?”

The fox clicks his tongue, reaches into his suit jacket and pulls out a sleeved document. He throws it at me, aiming for the face. I just grab it and give it a look.

Interesting. It’s a PERSA document about Fate. Skimming through it, there's a lot of introductory stuff I already know about him, so nothing really interesting to me. But I do see the document ends abruptly at the bottom of the page. I turn the document over and it’s empty.

“In the printer menu you can select ‘print all pages’ by the way.”

“Oh damn, my bad. Guess I will have to print the rest after the job.”

“This is nothing Asher. Yet another crumpled up paper in the trash bin. For fucks sake, you could’ve at least brought me something juicy.”

To demonstrate, I crumple it up and throw it at the bucket that serves a trash bin’s purpose. I miss.

“But it is juicy, now you know that I have access to the records on The Four and on the Pages in Yellow.”

“Pray tell, how does that prove anything? Pay me upfront, people like you are always full of shit.”

“I’m willing to shake on it.”

I squint at him.

“Okay, you’re only half-full of shit. You know what that entails, right? Are you absolutely fucking sure?”

Asher offers his hand to me.

“I need this.”

“Suit yourself.”

I grab his hand, sourceless wind gusts through the room, strewing my belongings across the floor and picking up papers from cupboards and desks. I squeeze his hand harder and we’re somewhere else, the all too familiar to me hot and humid caves surround us. The rotting stones beneath our feet feel like they’re an inch from crumbling away, wails and screams find us from a directionless long distance away, dread hangs in the air. My voice booms:

“I, Ariel Wormwood the Born of Heaven and Hell, will aid you, Asher Soboleski, on your mission in Nix, Switzerland. In exchange you will provide me with all information PERSA has on Pages in Yellow. Do you accept this deal?”

Without hesitation, the visibly disturbed Fox grips my hand harder and gives it a shake. We’re back at my place, my things all back where they were.

While Asher is regaining his surroundings and trying to shake off the lingering anxiety I go back to packing my stuff up.

“Now that I feel like helping you, let me tell you this: A mere demon would not unveil an entire goddamn town.”