"I—I didn't know," Tanya said. She stepped forward to look closer.

Fahad and Assistant had stopped writing to look too.

Olena poked it with the plank, scraping the slime of the monsters off to see it better. "Wow. It so beautiful up close."

It reminded Tanya of a marble in some ways. The insides swirled all around in purples and silvers and the more she stared, the more her vision would blur until she noticed and had to force herself to focus again.

"So, it's like a heart?" Ishita asked, peering over the end of the tattoo chair to get a look.

Fahad picked up another plank and began poking it too. Assistant joined in. The sticks left streaks of grime crisscrossing over it as more and more was scraped off.

"No, no, no. Heart is meat. This is magic. You kill mini boss, this get left behind." Olena stood up, suddenly reverent. "This is huge. Is like small twitchy sun—pure stabilised energy. I've seen people kill each other over these."

Tanya's head whipped around. "You're saying—"

Olena nodded fervently. "You plug this into right unit, you get light. Power. Whole building could run for weeks, maybe longer if you ration."

Mrs. Eceer moved beside Tanya, her voice low. "You're saying we could bring electricity back?"

Olena nodded once. "You find converter, some cable, maybe car battery to buffer—you have power grid. Small one. But yours. You can light the parlour. Charge tools. Keep warm. Run water pump. Boil kettle."

Fahad's eyes lit up. "Can we make toast?"

Olena's face brightened. "Yes, little man. You can make so much toast."

Tanya stayed quiet, just staring at the orb.

It didn't look like much. It looked like something she'd avoid stepping on. But the way Olena looked at it—like it could change everything—made her feel like it might already have.

"We didn't know," Tanya said finally. "That it was valuable."

"That's good," Olena said, standing. "Means no one fight over it."

There was a weight to her voice now, something unshakable. Tanya glanced at her. Olena was smiling again, but her hands were clenched at her sides.

"What else can it be used for?" Tanya asked.

Olena scratched her chin. "Not sure exactly, but many uses I think. Different core do different things, but we just wire it up and hope it make normal energy."

Tanya watched her study it closer, walking around it

Ishita let out a small laugh from the chair. Her voice was soft, but steadier now. "We're really doing this."

"Feels mad," Tanya said.

"Hope usually does," Mrs Eceer replied.

"May I?" Olena asked, pulling out a marker and readying it on the wall.

Tanya stared at the wall. It felt so big and final for her to start marking up. But what was she holding back for? To keep this shop a dingy mess? It already wasn't what it used to be so she should make it something new. "Sure," Tanya said.

They all fell quiet for a moment. Just the hum of the orb, the scratch of Fahad's pencil, and Olena's occasional muttering and marker squeaks as she scribbled measurements on the walls.

Tanya didn't believe in fate, or destiny, or any of that bollocks. But she believed in moments. This one felt like it might matter.

She nodded to herself and said what no one else dared to. "So when do we start?"

Olena spun around with a large smile. "Tomorrow? Start with clearing up this place and see what missing, then maybe scavenge."

Tanya gave a sharp nod. "Sounds like a plan."

Olena clapped her hands and half walked half danced towards the door. "First thing tomorrow," she called around the edge of it with too many finger guns.

"Bye Olena!" Fahad called.

"Bye!" came the rest of the chorus.

Tanya stared at the markings on the brick and butterflies flickered in her stomach. "Oh, bye!" Tanya called out, a moment delayed.

Fahad ran to the door and craned his neck to see her walk as far as he could down the street. He turned back round when he gave up and sighed happily. "I really like her."

"Hm," came Mrs Eceer's standard reply. She took a few steps sideways and sat on the red sofa. "I trust that she's not lying, but her ability beyond that… craziness is another matter." She waved her hands around and flared her nostrils talking about her.

Ishita turned to sit up, leaning against the tattoo chair sideways rather than fully reclining on it. "I think she's smarter than she's letting on…"

The day hit Tanya at once and it was like her remaining energy drained out the bottom of her feet and dispersed into the floor. The conversation around her phased out. All she could focus on was the way gravity was bearing down on her.

Tanya yawned. "Mind if I take my bedroom back?" she asked the room. Really, she should be offering it to guests, but after a day like this, Tanya needed the selfish option for her sanity. She felt the ache in her chest from being surrounded by stress and people for so long. Each step was heavier and heavier.

"Of course," Ishita insisted. "Fahad and I can stay down here."

"And there's a pullout sofa too upstairs," Tanya said, looking towards Mrs Eceer.

Mrs Eceer nodded, from her newfound perch on the red sofa, but her eyes didn't move from where they were staring into space at her interface.

Tanya staggered towards the exit with a tired sigh.

Oh, Assistant.

Knowing that he disappeared when she fell asleep made him the weirdest roommate ever. It reminded her of that overly clingy boyfriend she'd had, the one that insisted they always sleep at the same time, but only ever on his sleep schedule.

Tanya turned. "I'll let ya finish what you're doin'," she said awkwardly to Assistant, rocking backwards on her heels. "Uh, before I sleep, I mean."

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Assistant twitched a finger for yes.

"Awesome, thanks Tanya!" Fahad said.

The buzz of the room faded behind the front door swinging closed. She saw Mrs Eceer walk over to push the cupboard back behind her.

With a single tug, the door to her flat fell off its hinges and she felt a flash of frustration. She caught it on the way down and it smacked into her fingers. With a huff, she tensed her eyes shut and jumped up and down.

Real fuckin' smooth Tan.

It fell the rest of the way but only made a quiet clatter. She tried to remind herself she was just overwhelmed and exhausted, but it didn't stop her stamping her foot on the pavement, to try and displace the urge to kick the door at her feet to pieces.

She walked towards her flat and into the bedroom on autopilot, holding herself back from going into the kitchen to make a bedtime drink. The kettle wouldn't work anyway.

Tanya sat on the edge of the mattress that sagged a little too much in the middle. She peeled her boots off slowly, then let herself collapse backwards, staring at the ceiling. A hairline crack zigzagged across the plaster like a dry riverbed.

Her limbs were tired. Not sore, not bruised—just… used. Like the tension had been wrung out of her.

The sounds of the others moving around the building faded. Someone coughed. A door creaked. Fahad giggled—followed by a muffled "shhh!"

She reached for her phone without thinking. Tapped the screen. No signal, no bars. A tiny corner of the battery still clung to life.

She opened her gallery. Flipped past old photos—fuzzy group selfies, dinner spreads, a hundred iterations of a flyer she'd once made for some more publicity.

The calendar app caught her eye and she opened it without thinking, scrolling through the plans of days that were already gone. A brunch with Maria before she left, two bookings with Laura from the Florist. Her heart sank when she saw the event for tomorrow. She'd titled it "Badass Book Ladies."

She still remembered the lady giggling on the phone like a schoolgirl. She'd nattered all morning, but Tanya hadn't minded; it had been a slow one.

Tanya had leant back in her chair, the warm rays of sunlight pouring in through the front windows of the Wyrm and Needle. She stretched her legs out, propping them up on the desk, and let the quiet pops of the old radiator settle into the background. Her hair was scented with lavender soap—god did she miss that soap. She'd used it up a few days later and never gotten more. The morning had been slow, and she was enjoying the peace while it lasted.

Her phone buzzed in her hand, and she glanced down at the number. The area code was local, but the rest was unfamiliar. She answered anyway, bringing the phone to her ear with a cheery "'Ello?"

"Oh, hi!" The voice on the other end was shy and giggly like she felt like she was doing something naughty. Tanya expected a teen; it was normally the fresh faced 18 year olds trying to book tattoos that they'd been thinking about for all of two weeks. She'd have to let them down easy. The trick was making them think that waiting about it for longer was their idea.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything! My name's Valerie, and I was wondering if you have any availability for a group booking? We'd like to rent out the whole parlour for a few hours."

Tanya smiled, settling into her chair. It had been a while since one of those. Hen do maybe? "Not interrupting at all. I'd be happy to help. What's the occasion?"

"Well, it's kind of a funny story, actually. You see, I'm turning fifty next month," Valerie said tittering. "And my husband and I… well, let's just say we're not together anymore. Anyway, I thought, what better way to mark this next chapter than with a tattoo?"

Tanya raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "A tattoo? That's a big move, 'specially after such a big life change."

"I know! I know," Valerie chuckled. "But hear me out. I've always wanted one, and it just felt right, you know? A friend of mine suggested we do it as a group thing. Like, rent the place out for a few hours, and everyone gets the same design. It's a book club thing—our favourite book and we all want to commemorate it."

Tanya's heart softened. Friend tattoos were some of her favourites. Far better than the alternative—either some grand scheme to win them back or something they'd wanted when they were 20 and would regret in a week. "That sounds like a great idea. What book is it?"

"Oh, it's called Tangled in a Spy Web…of Love," Valerie replied.

Tanya could almost hear the eyebrow wiggle.

Valerie laughed. "I know, I know, it's corny, but we've all been reading that darn Alice May series together for years now, and it just makes me think of them."

Tanya smiled, her fingers lightly tapping the edge of the desk as she listened. She'd read some of that series. It was spicy as hell and had the kind of Mary Sue protagonist that only worked because of how tongue-in-cheek it all was. She pulled out her diary. "How many people you thinkin'?"

"Oh, just four of us," Valerie said. "Hmm, It'll need to be this Saturday or maybe next Tuesday—It's a crazy time. Janet's husband's got another round of chemo on Sunday and Stella's ex is picking up his things Monday—he cheated. Then Richie—" she paused, realising she didn't have a point about him. "Well he just wants an excuse to get a tattoo, honestly. But we're all in this together, you know?"

Tanya's heart warmed at the way Valerie spoke about her friends, and she couldn't help but feel a little moved by the simple strength of their connection. "Sounds like some real good mates."

Valerie sighed softly, the sound full of contentment. "Yeah. It's been tough, but we've always been there for each other. And now this... this tattoo thing—it feels like a new start for all of us. Something for ourselves, you know? After everything that's happened."

"I get it," Tanya replied. "It's kind of like saying, 'I'm still here. I'm still going.'"

"Exactly!" Valerie's voice brightened, and Tanya could hear the smile in it. "I knew you'd understand. Anyway, I was hoping you'd be able to fit us in for the tattoos. So what about next Saturday, if that works for you?"

The conversation faded in her memory into a back-and-forth of dates and times.

Tanya clicked on her messages. The last one from Valarie had "IT'S SOON!" in block capitals. Tanya had hearted it. The "soon" had never quite arrived.

With the ache in her joints and the drain consuming her brain, she felt more numb than sad.

She opened her notes app and sorted by date descending. The first was a list of possible shop names. The one beneath it said 'IF YOU OPEN A PLACE, DON'T HIRE YOUR COUSIN'

She smiled, just a little.

Her thumb hovered over the call log. Mom. Nan. Her brother's number was marked with a little star. All unreachable. She didn't try them again. She didn't cry either. She just stared at the names like they might blink first.

Eventually, she locked the screen. Set the phone down on her chest. Let it rise and fall with her breath.

She thought about the shop—not just fixing it, but really building something. Just a tattoo parlour again? A shelter? A halfway point for the broken world to find its feet?

She didn't know yet.

The door creaking interrupted her from her thoughts. Tanya jerked up to see. Assistant hovered in the doorway.

"Uh, hi," Tanya said.

The hand waved back with the same awkwardness.

It hovered over to the bed and then landed next to her.

"You, uh, still mad?" she asked.

The hand tilted side to side like kinda, but not really.

Tanya flopped back down again into the covers. "Yeah, too tired."

It crawled over the squishy duvet, sinking into each mound of bunched-up fabric. Then it flopped on the pillow beside her.

"I'm sorry, ya know," Tanya said. "'Bout not summoning you sooner." She kept staring at the crack on the ceiling. "It's not an excuse or nothin', but, I haven't taken care of anyone in a while, or lived with them or anythin'. Now suddenly there's me and you."

Assistant poked her shoulder and Tanya looked over. Assistant pointed to the sketchbook on her bedside table and made a come hither motion.

"You want it?" Tanya said, surprised. "Sure." She grabbed it. It was mostly for ideas she woke up with and needed to scribble down before they faded fully. Flicking through the pages, she saw that in most cases she'd failed. There were all sorts of strange scribbles, and pictures missing whatever was needed to really identify it.

She found a new page and passed it over with the pencil.

Assistant began to write and Tanya watched with bated breath. She'd seen kids learning to write before, but this was different. Whereas kids were learning writing and the language at the same time, Assistant seemed to be created with an innate knowledge of spoken English so that it could respond to her. That led to perfectly worded sentences with really strange spellings and grammar. Even then, they were real words.

Tanya read it in her head. It took her a moment to get her head around it, but it was just very simple phonetics. She guessed that Fahad had told it what each letter sounded like in a word, as well as "th" and "oo" but not gotten any further.

'i undurstand it hurt at furst that yoo not brung me owt sooner iym yur asistent an it woz tatoo werk but ther woz meny things goin on an this is awl noo for yoo as wel.'

"Assistant, this is really good!" she exclaimed.

'reely'

"Yeah, absolutely. You could have only had—what—a couple hours?"

Assistant tapped once for yes then proudly wrote it.

'yes'

Tanya grinned at it and Assistant wiggled its fingers like a little happy dance.

Tanya picked up the page, running her thumb along the paper.

"I think I get it now—Polyglot Script. You just want to be understood."

Instead of replying, Assistant placed down the pencil and crawled over to her arm. It lay there until it disappeared back onto the skin.

It felt like a thank you and forgiveness all in one.

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