Zunoder bought a coat with Ty's smile. The vendor gave him the coat, a hood, a pair of heat-sticks, and an apology he had not asked for.
"Returned one, forgive the delay."
Zunoder turned the heat-stick between Ty's fingers. The fingers obeyed better now. At first they had been sentintal. They reached toward pain, toward the skeleton, toward a woman with white eyes in a room that stank of floodwater. They twitched when soone nearby said Jade. They hated the new owner in small practical ways.
He had bitten the inside of the cheek until the body learned who held the mouth. Now the hands closed when he told them to. Mostly. He put the heat-stick into the coat pocket.
"What delay?"
The vendor's eyes flicked to the scars across his chest and ribs where the sickles had kissed him.
"I only ant the lane is running slow, sir."
"Do I look like a sir?"
"You look like soone with a sponsor problem."
Zunoder laughed. The vendor flinched at the sound. Good. Ty's laugh had been too warm. People leaned toward warm things. Zunoder needed them leaning, then stepping, then signing.
He stood beneath Applause Junction, where the lower lane climbed into the bones of the public galleries. Above him, thousands of feet stamped, shifted, scread, laughed, and pretended the arena had not lost control. Sound fell through the ceiling grates in dirty waves.
The station slled like fried spice, wet coats, lamp oil, and fear pretending to be business. Workers moved fast. Vendors moved faster. Everybody knew a disaster could beco profit if a person put a table in the right place before the blood dried.
That pleased him. It was honest. A boy with a tray of at buns stared at his face. Zunoder smiled. The boy dropped two buns.
"You are him."
"Am I?"
"The returned demon."
"Is that what they call ?"
"Sotis. So call you the bone traitor now."
Zunoder crouched and picked up one bun. The boy's tray shook.
"Do not worry," Zunoder said. "I am still deciding what they should call ."
"My mother says you saved people."
"Which people?"
"I do not know. Rich ones, maybe."
Zunoder bit the bun. The body hated the taste. Too much oil. Too much salt. Too much life. He swallowed anyway.
"A man can save people and still be owed better."
The boy nodded because children nodded when adults offered a sentence shaped like a lesson. Zunoder took the tray from him.
"How much?"
"For all?"
"For all, plus your listening."
The boy nad a price that was too low. Zunoder paid twice that from the coin pouch he had taken off a dead collector. The boy's eyes widened. Now people nearby watched with interest instead of fear. That was the first turn.
Money softened a crowd faster than truth. Zunoder lifted the tray.
"Free food," he called.
The first few people hesitated. Then a woman in a patched gallery coat took one bun. A second worker followed. A betting clerk reached over a railing and grabbed two. Good. Hands busy. Mouths chewing. Ears open. Zunoder climbed onto a crate.
Pain cracked through his ribs where Ty had cut him. He let the body feel it and smiled wider.
"They are lying to you upstairs."
That got heads turned.
"The King?" soone asked.
Not angry. Interested. Interest could beco anger if fed cheap enough. Zunoder pointed toward the arena floor above.
"The skeleton stole the returned fighter you cheered."
A few people laughed. One man spat.
"We saw the bones move."
"You saw bones steal a story."
The crowd tightened. He changed Ty's face then: the part every poster had printed, the part JJ's money had sponsored, the part Yun-Jin had fought, the part Rusuf had allowed to live, the part Jade would look for first if pain made her selfish.
He made the face tired. Human. Wronged.
"I fought with that thing inside ," he said. "I carried its fire. I carried its hunger. You all watched bleed in a body that was never allowed to be mine."
Soone whispered, "He sounds different." Zunoder found the whisperer. A woman with a cleaner's cart. Gray hair. Red hands from soap. He pointed at her.
"Would you sound the sa after a skeleton crawled out wearing your na?"
She looked away. That was the second turn. Sha. Crowds loved sha when it belonged to sobody else. Above them, a public crystal blinked as the arena broadcast tried to recover. It showed the King's face, then static, then a frozen image of Ty's skeleton in the Earth gym, sickles crossed in front of Jade.
Perfect. Zunoder raised one hand.
"There. Look at it. Does that look like a contestant? Does that look like a man? Or does it look like the thing the King should have killed before letting it near your children?"
The crowd moved. Not far. Just a shift. Enough. A betting clerk climbed onto another crate.
"If you are the real one, prove it."
Zunoder looked at him.
"Na a mory."
"What?"
"A public one. Sothing you all saw."
The clerk grinned, thinking he had found a trick.
"Restaurant robbers. Dine n' Masteries. What did Rusuf do?"
The body answered before Zunoder shaped the words.
"He killed them too clean and threatened too politely."
The crowd laughed. The clerk's grin faltered.
"What did JJ bring you?"
Zunoder felt the na hit the body's ribs. The old reflex reached for warmth. He crushed it.
"Books," he said. "Food. Too much money. Not enough caution."
More murmurs. He owned enough mory for a crowd. Crowds rarely demanded a full truth if a partial one arrived with confidence and free food. A crow landed on the station sign above him. Black feathers. Red eye.
Zunoder looked up. The crow dropped a strip of white cloth into his hand. Jade's shelter slled on it. Blood. Bleach. Basent dust. Her. The body's fingers shook. Zunoder let the crowd see the shake.
"The skeleton went to Earth," he said softly. "It touched a woman there."
The crowd leaned in.
"It will use her next."
The cleaner with red hands whispered, "Monster." Zunoder let the word sit. Better to let her own the word. He stepped down from the crate and handed the empty tray back to the boy.
"Tell anyone who asks that Ty Hockenson is alive."
The boy nodded fast.
"And the bones?"
Zunoder pulled the hood over Ty's face.
"The bones are an imposter."
Above Applause Junction, the recovered broadcast crystal flashed a new line.
PUBLIC CLAIM DISPUTE REGISTERED
BONE PARTY APPROVAL FALLING
Zunoder smiled under the hood. Then he walked toward the upper stairs while the crowd began doing his work for free.
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