Volaxis: Episode 2

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Volaxis: Episode 2
Source: collected/027-volaxis-episode-2.mp3
SHA-256: 5dfe6b370cb1959b265a0d03d462ac6bee8a7e3b84d99bc852b5e9da616cf6e3
Model: scribe_v2 | Transcribed: 2026-10-10T18:14:24.266051+00:00
Machine transcript — uncorrected. Speaker labels are local to this recording and do not identify people.

[00:00:00.100] Speaker 1: Velaxis.

[00:00:42.640] Speaker 1: Chapter Three: Appointment with an Eraser. Saya Nefarari stood on the balcony and dreamed. It was a beautiful view, all things considered. She had beautiful things, expensive things, but she could not truly appreciate them. It was difficult not to resent one's prison cell, even if the bars were gold. She slid her gloved hands along the top of the wrought iron railing as she walked the length of her prison. The stone towers of Velaxis rose in every direction

[00:01:17.460] Speaker 1: around her, tapering off into more mundane, squat wood and stone buildings in the far south where engineers had not yet bothered to erect proper towers. Those buildings were for outsiders, foreigners. The effect was intentional. If you visited the capital city, you would eternally be looking up at the people you came to deal with. Few towers were higher than Saya's, though. Hers was a floor taller than standard, the noble residences a floor higher than that,

[00:01:52.860] Speaker 1: and beyond all of them, like the lord's own hand burst from the earth and reaching toward the sky, was the Spire, a shimmering hard iron and white marble structure, the only one of its kind as far as she knew. It loomed over everyone else. That effect was also intentional. Saya leaned forward over the railing and took one long, mournful glance at the alley below. The alley was blocked off by stone walls on the

[00:02:27.440] Speaker 1: sides. If she cast herself off this balcony, she would fall into that walled section, another cage. There, her caretaker, warden, and friend of twenty years would extract the stone of power from her corpse to be given to some other luckless soul. A black stone. A memory stone, far more valuable than its current container. Saya turned away from the railing, her long black dress flowing like a midnight river behind her. "Not

[00:03:02.160] Speaker 1: today." She went back into the sitting room. It was a chore to get the rest of her dress's train back inside. It was not a practical outfit. It was Lord Seafall's will that she wear it, or rather, Lady Seafall, because Lord Seafall stopped caring about his eraser the moment she fell into his collection. He'd fought so viciously for her acquisition, yet she'd only seen him once in the many years since. Lady Seafall, though... Well, it could not be long enough until she saw

[00:03:37.200] Speaker 1: her again. There was a polite knock at the door, followed by the sound of unlocking. Saya moved to the small table in the room and took a seat in the only chair. The door cracked open, and a sturdy woman with thick curly hair leaned halfway into the room. "Oh, good, you're alive. You have an appointment." "I have three." "No, just the one now. Apparently Mrs. and Mr. Dacquer made up. They're not ready to forget each other just yet." "Oh, how lovely."

[00:04:11.880] Speaker 1: "Oh, yes. True love, I'm sure." Jules stepped completely into the room and closed the door behind her, then moved with practiced efficiency around the room, picking up. She straightened the sofa cushions and pulled back the drapes, letting that dreadful light in. "You bathed this time, right?" Saya rolled her eyes, poking at the breakfast on the plate in front of her. She was careful not to get any stains on her black gloves. Not that anyone except Jules would notice them. "You smelled to the

[00:04:46.880] Speaker 1: high heavens last week." Jules collected the plate and the silverware off the small table and plucked the fork from Saya's hand. "I wasn't done with that." "Hun, honey, if you haven't touched it already, you're not going to. Now, let me see your makeup." Saya closed her eyes and sighed, then tilted her face up for inspection. She opened her eyes and gave Jules a piercing gaze. "There's my girl. You

[00:05:21.860] Speaker 1: look tired, though. Can't have you scaring off the customers." Jules walked over to the vanity and pulled out a small container of concealer. She started applying it under Saya's eyes with a gentle thumb, just enough concealer to hide the dark circles, but not the crow's feet. That was the trick to convincing makeup. Dull the imperfections without hiding them. Accentuate the features without flaring them. Then Jules pulled Saya into a gentle hug. She let herself be hugged. She let herself be

[00:05:56.680] Speaker 1: ornamented and perfumed. A few minutes later, Jules was gone, and she was seated on her cushioned chair next to the backless sofa. She could see her own reflection in the standing mirror across the room. Somehow, she looked the part, and she could play that part for a little while longer. There was another knock on the door. Saya pulled her shoulders back and lifted her chin, fixing her eyes on the exact spot where her client's face should be when he opened the door. She

[00:06:31.272] Speaker 1: settled into the cool confidence of mastery. This was a confidence she did not need to feign. It was confidence born of competence. "Please, come in." The door opened, and a man of below-average height idled in the doorway, hands fidgeting. She lowered her gaze, just a little, and let a faint smile play on her face, like a spider greeting the fly. That's what they expected from an eraser,

[00:07:06.312] Speaker 1: after all. The man, perhaps a decade her senior, had black hair turning gray. He adjusted his spectacles and looked around her room in quick, darting glances, as if expecting spies in every darkened corner. [clears throat] "Miss Nefraari?" In response, Saya rose and walked over to him in one long, fluid motion, accentuated by her flowing, ridiculous outfit. She reached partway toward

[00:07:41.092] Speaker 1: him with an upturned palm, waiting for him to take her hand. It was just far enough away that he would have to step into the room to take it. The first step always had to be their own. "I am, [chuckles] I am not certain I'll be needing your services after all." "You came here for a reason." "I did." "Why was that?" "Be-

[00:08:15.831] Speaker 1: 'cause I'm told you're the best." Saya smiled coolly. A subtle touch was best with this one. He would bolt if she tried to force the matter. Mr. Barnes placed a shaking hand in hers. She gave it a reassuring little squeeze and softened her smile just a little. And just like that, he was in the web. No need to torture him further. Saya led Barnes to the couch. He didn't lay down immediately, though. Instead, he alternated drumming

[00:08:50.772] Speaker 1: his fingers on his legs and checking the time on his pocket watch. "I must say before we begin that secrecy is of the utmost importance in this matter." He was stalling for time, like a teenager's first visit to the pleasure house. She liked these clients. There was an artistry here. It was so much better than scrubbing the minds of Lady Seyfall's servants for gossip. "I believe you've already discussed the details

[00:09:25.832] Speaker 1: with my attendant. Your memories will not leave this room." "Yes, but what of your master?" Saya shrugged. "What the Lord and Lady Seyfall do is at their discretion. If they ask, I will purge them myself." "And if they use them against me?" Saya managed to keep the annoyance from her face. There was absolutely zero chance the Seyfalls were even slightly

[00:10:00.372] Speaker 1: interested in this lesser noble's affairs. They rarely interviewed her at all. It seemed paradoxical, but anyone who had really useful memories would never go to their rival's eraser. "You are free to leave, Mr. Barnes." "No, no. I'm just concerned. It's the Black, after all." Saya's smile went a little toothy then. "Yes, the evil Black. It's perfectly safe.

[00:10:35.452] Speaker 1: It will leave a mark, true, but how many of your peers at a party have the mark already? You'll hardly stand out." Barnes smiled sheepishly. "And as you said yourself, I am the very best." "Okay. [sighs]" He lay down on the couch and closed his eyes comically tight, like a child awaiting foul medicine. Saya slipped off her

[00:11:10.252] Speaker 1: black gloves, leaned over Barnes, and pressed her fingers to each side of his head, just behind the ears. Her hands turned black, as if dipped in liquid shadow. There was no need to reassure him further. The moment she formed a connection with his memories, the man fell unconscious. As long as she held his mind, he was trapped here. "I'm looking for a young woman with red hair." Saya rolled her head around and closed her own eyes, letting

[00:11:45.052] Speaker 1: her own mind drift into his memories. And like the fluid strokes of a paintbrush, she began to work on her canvas, a canvas made of memories. Saya skimmed through a life, erasing the memories that didn't fit the story, the story of an aging man with wandering eyes but faithful hands, a man who had seen a beautiful young woman in his store and turned his cheek. She erased a hundred gifts given in secret.

[00:12:20.662] Speaker 1: She erased the smile of a pretty young woman with red hair. She erased dozens and dozens of evenings of naked playfulness, most of which never involved the act of sex itself. She erased poems and long walks through his rooftop garden, until there was only the story of an aging man who longed for the connection to a younger and unexpectedly interested woman. Until the only memories that remained told a story, a perfect story

[00:12:55.722] Speaker 1: of a frustrated but faithful husband. A perfect story and two small black scars behind the ears where she had entered his mind and extracted the truth. An hour later, Saya was washing her face in the basin, removing one layer of performance, when she heard the bolt on the door unlock. Jules came back into the prison. I forgot to mention, the washers are coming today. Didn't

[00:13:30.582] Speaker 1: want them to surprise you when they start working outside. Saya went back to dressing down. Why the stones need to be washed is beyond me. Doesn't the rain put them out of a job? Jules just shrugged and left the room, bolting the door again from the outside. Saya gripped the edges of the sink basin, her knuckles going white. Then she began to put her makeup back on. Her performance was not done for the day.

[00:14:08.642] Speaker 1: Chapter 4 Pursuit Tessa followed the two men in black at a great distance, just long enough to confirm their direction. It had been easy to guess their destination. There weren't many erasers in the city. Once they disappeared down the next alley, she stepped around the corner. She knew roughly where she was. It was the kind of place she usually worked very hard to avoid. These were commonry slums, towers so decrepit that the layers of moss and slime actually

[00:14:43.302] Speaker 1: dyed the stones a sickly green-brown. Most of the entry doors were sealed up. As bad as things were inside the towers, the people relegated to living here didn't want anything coming in from the ground floor either. She moved quickly between the stone buildings, trying to avoid the worst of the filth. It was an impossible task. The remains of birds and rodents dotted a carpet of bird droppings and human waste. The acrid, putrid scent was so strong it was nearly a solid thing.

[00:15:18.722] Speaker 1: Long wet stains ran down the towers from the windows, making them look like tear-stained statues. It took Tessa ten minutes to make her way to a public tower with an open entryway. Three teenage boys with wooden clubs stood outside. When she tried to push past them, they stepped in her path and one of them put their hand out, palm up. Toll is three bronze. Tessa gave him a weary look. This was a toll, but it was also a

[00:15:53.482] Speaker 1: test. You think I'd be here if I had three bronze? She waved down at her clothes. The same grime she'd tried to avoid now caked everything beneath the knee. There was simply no avoiding it down here. Another boy sniffed the air, then curled his face up in disgust. This is blue boy's turf. You ain't coming up here. I can trade. The first boy shoved her back a step. Not hard enough to knock her down, just hard enough to get her moving

[00:16:28.522] Speaker 1: in a different direction. But the second boy who'd spoken motioned for him to leave her alone. Trade what? Tessa made a show of fishing around in her pockets. She deliberately avoided the pocket with forty brass coins wrapped in cloth so that they wouldn't make a noise. She couldn't pay them. If they knew she had three coins, they would see if she had more. No one had exactly three coins. I've got a chew stick. She

[00:17:03.382] Speaker 1: raised the half-chewed stick into the air. It was Dawn's. She never touched the stuff. It was cheap and it gave you a pretty good buzz, but it made your teeth turn yellow if you did it too much. The second boy snatched it out of her hand. Give me that. Then he motioned for her to go past them. The other two boys, for all their earlier pestering, obeyed immediately. The blue boys parted and she went inside. Like every tower, the base of the tower was almost entirely stone. She had no idea

[00:17:38.142] Speaker 1: why. It seemed like there was a lot of wasted space here. There were no other rooms. There was only a narrow hallway and a set of stone stairs going up. Tessa took the stairs all the way to the seventh floor rooftop. There was no one up here. She pulled a loop harness from the crate at her feet and tested it by pulling with both hands. It felt sturdy enough, so she attached an iron hook and put her arm through the loop harness and hooked it onto the cable. She dangled at the start of the zip line, supported by the harness under her armpit

[00:18:13.042] Speaker 1: and standing on her tiptoes. Slowly, she moved forward towards the edge of the building. Tessa gave the hard iron cable a pluck with her other arm. It hummed back with a deep, resonant twang. Then she shrugged and walked over the edge of the tower and stepped off into thin air. There was that feeling of nervous anticipation in her stomach that never quite went away. That moment when you thought, maybe this is the time I fall. And then the flexing cable caught her, and instead of falling,

[00:18:47.942] Speaker 1: she went gliding forward and out. The wind blew her short hair out of her face and made her eyes water. She found it impossible not to smile. That line ended on a platform, ten buildings away and three floors down from where she'd started. She climbed a set of exterior stairs, eyeballed her destination, and picked another zip line going in roughly that direction, and began the process again. It took just five more minutes to get as close as any public zip line could take her. No one without the

[00:19:22.982] Speaker 1: right passes got any closer to noble residences. And dressed as she was, a sewer rat had a better chance of getting past the checkpoints. So Tessa climbed down to the ground floor again and waited. She needed another way in. Fortunately, she knew of two men carrying a blanket that were headed this way who might have some ideas on how to get in. Why create your own plan when you could just use someone else's? Ten minutes later, two

[00:19:57.962] Speaker 1: men in dark blue uniforms walked through a nearby intersection. They didn't have a suspicious blanket, but they did have a big wooden cart loaded with ropes, brushes, and buckets. Tessa watched from her hiding place as they approached a guarded checkpoint at the next intersection. This was her chance. She sprinted after them, waving her arms in the air. Hold on, guys, wait for me. The very same two men who had taken Reese stopped just before the checkpoint and

[00:20:32.582] Speaker 1: stared flaming daggers at her as she approached. She grinned wildly as she slowed to a walk. Tessa grabbed a spare worker's hat off of a hook on the cart and placed it on top of her head. The one without facial hair shot a nervous glance back at the armed guards not ten feet away from them. She'd timed it perfectly. You can either take me up there with you, or I can blow your cover. I'm guessing you're not stone washers. I'm a friend. Let me prove it. Choose fast. Guards

[00:21:07.462] Speaker 1: are watching. Their glares softened to mere murderous intent. But these people were professionals. Yes, her gamble was working. They turned around and kept walking toward the checkpoint. Bringing my niece today. Hope that's all right. The first of the two guards looked up. Learning the trade? The FMR agent managed to look even more bored than the guards. He offered up a noncommittal shrug in reply. Might as well. She ain't good for

[00:21:42.502] Speaker 1: much else. The guard gave him a lazy nod, and then they pulled open a series of iron gates to let the washers through. Tessa gawked up at the noble tower, letting her mouth hang open. She flashed the guard a huge smile. It's my first day. The guard shook his head and then closed the gates again. Well, try not to fall off then. The three of them rounded a corner, just out of view from the guards, and Tessa was careful to drift out of reach from the other two. She was careful to

[00:22:17.522] Speaker 1: leave her hands in plain sight. The cart stopped rolling. Silent, calculating stares. Bring me up. I want to see her. The one without facial hair looked at the other. So that was the one to talk to. Tessa leveled a serious but non-threatening stare at the one with the goatee. He was tense as hard iron cabling, but he didn't move. Not yet. Why?

[00:22:53.022] Speaker 1: Because I'm worth more alive than dead, and I need the eraser to prove that to you. The FMR agent stared her down for a full ten seconds. Perhaps this had been a bad idea. There was such a thing as going too far. He could kill her if he wanted to. He could tell the guards she'd fallen. But he relaxed, just a little, and started untying the ropes from the outside of the cart. We'll see.

[00:23:30.162] Speaker 1: Saya Nefari watched as three stone washers hoisted their platforms to the top of the tower. They made a show of washing the stones around her balcony before sliding a heavy blanket of tools onto the balcony. The two men, Will and Arnos, if those were their actual names, got off first. The third was a young woman with her back turned. Will and Arnos unwrapped the load they'd brought with quiet efficiency. When they finished unloading the blankets, Saya's heart skipped a beat.

[00:24:05.022] Speaker 1: She recognized this man. Is that And then, just as the young woman was climbing onto the balcony to join them, Arnos grabbed her by the arm and held her between the dangling platform and the safety of the balcony. Who is this? He shook the young woman once, still holding her dangerously over the edge. Saya's heart skipped again. Put her down! Arnos let her climb down onto the balcony. The newcomer took off her hat and brushed the short,

[00:24:39.942] Speaker 1: dark hair out of her eyes, a broad smile on her face. Hi, Mom. Tessa Rin Nefari, what have you done?