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Within a desolate building, a young man is curled up on a plank of wood turned makeshift bed. The rags he is using to cover himself is riddled with holes and badly stitched fixes. His eyes are closed despite having woken up a good ten minutes before. He finds his motivation to get up, force down another slice of moldy bread before making his way out into the streets to beg for work and keep hidden from the Hunters has vanished. He doesn’t see the point in it anymore. This debt is never going to pay off.
Once again, he finds himself cursing his heritage for not having been born with wings. If he had, perhaps he would be with his brother, both their debts paid off and able to live normal lives. But ala-
His thoughts are interrupted by the creaking of the loose wooden panel by the door. He groans and turns, lying on his back as he opens his eyes, expecting to see another loan shark has found him. Instead of the normal buffed, tough looking men, though, there is the outline of a woman, details impossible to make out in the dimness of the discrepelled shack he calls a home.
Ceno blinks in shock, sitting up from his ‘bed’, his pitiful blanket pooling at his legs, revealing an equally threadworn destroyed t-shirt underneath.
“Ceno, yes?” The woman asks, her tone is almost melodic. Sounding… kind. Something Ceno has not had aimed towards him since before his father died. He feels an unknown stirring in his chest as he mutely nods. “Good. Your brother requires you to accept his deal. Come.”
“What? Null?” His confusion causes him to take a moment to fully trigger what was said, once it does, he rises from the bed, eyes wide in panic. “Deal? What deal? What has he gotten himself into? If it's money, put it on me. I’ll pay for him!”
The woman blinks blankly at the small mans panic. She replies with a smirk. “Nothing so… pitiful as money and debt. He has agreed to join my world but wishes for you to join as well. There will be no debt there.” The melodic tone sours slightly at the mention of such things, almost like they are somehow beneath her.
“No debt? A new world? I can’t afford to travel to a new world?”
“Oh, I think you’ll find you can pay perfectly fine.” She steps forward as she speaks, moving into the spattering of light the back window provides, allowing Ceno to finally make out the details. The first thing he notices is her bright red eyes, matching red horns protruding from her skull. She is tall, far taller than most people from his world and he finds his neck straining slightly to see her. She extends a hand, the skin soft and unmarred, a gentleness he, once again, has not experienced. “All I require is some of your memories.” She crouches, four large wings flapping out with a gust, sending billows of dust around them both, “I am sure you have many you would be perfectly happy to forget?” Ceno nods mutedly, staring at this unknown woman in shock. “Good, I am glad to help you with this. Is there anything you would prefer I not touch? That you would like to keep?”
“Null.” Ceno’s response is immediate, his one eye flickering with barely restrained hope. “I don’t care about anything except for Null.”
The woman laughs, not the condescending, disgusted laugh Ceno is used to hearing around him, but a happy one. “Nearly exactly what your brother asked for. I can provide that for you. Do you accept my deal?”
Not seeing much reason in staying where he is, and with the opportunity to see his brother, and be free of debt, Ceno sees no reason not to agree wholeheartedly.