Hallie stared at the ceiling. It stared back.

It's not that simple.

Of course, it wasn't. Nothing ever was, least of all the love-hate relationship between Sómata and Taktikoí. Mostly hate. Actually, scratch "love" out completely.

Hallie rolled over to stare at the wall. It stared back.

It was insulting how she never figured it out herself. She of all people knew an advantage could lead to a disadvantage, to put it lightly.

Hallie closed her eyes and sighed. She could still feel the ceiling and wall staring at her.

"Figures." She arched her back and stood up. "Typical me."

An itch fought its way up in her stomach. Hallie scratched it, but a bubble of curiosity took its place. Who, Sómata or Taktikoí, objectively had the upper hand in society?

Hallie reached down, pulled her clothes off the floor, and threw them on. She walked out of her room and sought to find the stairway like she did yesterday and the day before that. After she traversed the stairs, she found her way outside.

The cold morning air clung to Hallie's skin, and a light wind blew through her hair. The sun was still rising, painting the sky with pinks, blues, and purples.

She took a step forward, hesitated, and stepped back.

Was it too early to wake up Nikas? And not just from sleep, but from a friendship perspective as well.

The sleep part was easy. No. What mortal, in their right mind, would want to get up while the sun was rising? Maybe before so you could watch the sunrise, but never during.

The friendship part took a little thought. Were they close enough friends that she could wake Nikas up at this ungodly hour? No, definitely not. They met the day before. If this were happening four and three-sixteenths years from now, it would be a different story. At least then she would know for certain if Nikas was a fan of horror movies. She had yet to work up the courage to ask him that. No, she'll wait until they get off from work.

Speaking of work, what was Hallie supposed to do until it was socially acceptable to go to work? Stare at the wall? Hallie snorted. As if. She was going to stare at the ceiling.

---

"I'll see you tomorrow, Hallie."

Hallie stared at Nikas. Staring at the ceiling prepared her for this. Not asking them to help her with her hypothesis - no, no, no - rather staring at them. Staring at them and procrastinating.

"Um, Hallie, are you okay? You've stood there for about a minute now. You're getting kind of pale."

The familiar wave of dread enveloped her system. It roared from within her gut, fighting to take down her curiosity. Who would win? Her curiosity or her overwhelming aversion to asking Nikas for help?

It was a battle to the death. Dread started strong, beating back curiosity like a lion in a cage. But curiosity wasn't giving up that easily. It struck like a viper, sinking its teeth into dread and refusing to let go. Dread wriggled out of curiosity's grasp and tackled it to the ground. It was a mess of punches, kicks, and bites. Dread was winning, and it would keep winning unless curiosity made her open her mouth and voice her question. Dread flung itself onto curiosity and pinned it to the floor. It placed its foot on top of curiosity's head and-

"Hallie? You're scaring me. Are you okay?"

Hallie jumped, eyes wide and continuing to stare at a perplexed Nikas.

Nikas took a cautious step forward. "Are you okay?" they said again.

Hallie swallowed. "Y-Yeah, I'm okay. I just..."

Nikas looked at her. "You just what?"

Hallie swallowed again. Dread was creeping out of its cave. "I-I just wanted to ask for your help with something."

"Help with what?"

It was too late to turn back. Dread strode out of its cave and morphed into apprehension.

The back of Hallie's throat closed up. Sweat coated her palms.

"Um, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to see who, on average, has the advantage in society?"

Nikas bit their lip. "How are we going to do that?"

Hallie stared at them. She was doing a lot of staring lately. Good, now she'll be prepared for impromptu staring contests. You never knew with Niobe and Cois.

Hallie stepped back. "Wait, you're going straight to the how? What about the why? Or who's the 'who' I'm talking about?"

Nikas shrugged. "I'm bored. I figured why not?"

Hallie exhaled. Apprehension retreated for curiosity to take over. "Okay, thank you."

Nikas rubbed his hands together as over-the-top-evil villains do in plays. It was Hallie's philosophy that it was never too late to decide someone was creepy. Unless you met them four and three-sixteenths years ago. By then, it's too late.

"Alright, who's the 'who' you're talking about?"

"Um, the Sómata and the Taktikoí?"

Hallie thought Nikas would oppose such a proposal, but they nodded along like she said, "Pray you, come hither, I have need of you." To be fair, Cois and Niobe must have desensitized them.

"Okay," Nikas said. "Do you know how we're going to see which group is better off?"

"No." Hallie winced. "I didn't think that far ahead."

"That's alright." Nikas closed their door. When did they open it? Probably when dread and curiosity were dueling gladiator style. "We could go to the public archives and see if anyone did a study on this."

"That's... That's actually a good idea."

"Well," Nikas walked away from Hallie and halted in front of the stairwell. How they found it so fast, Hallie may never know. "I had the same question a few years back when I first moved to Kardiá. I never actually tried to find an answer, but I thought of ways where I could get an answer should I muster the motivation. This seemed like my best bet."

"Really?" Hallie jogged to catch up when she realized Nikas was heading now the stairs. "Is that why you were so willing to help me? Even though I'm not sure if you like horror movies?"

"Yeah," Nikas eyed her. "and I suppose I like horror movies every once in a while."

Oh, look, dread came back. And is that a menagerie of terror it brought?

---

"For the last time, no."

"May I ask why?"

"You know why, you dirty Mitec."

Nikas stared down the bookkeeper to no avail. They both had a spine of iron.

The bookkeeper crossed their arms, taking a threatening step forward. "You're not getting in here, so you might as well leave. Don't make me bring you two to court!"

Nikas stepped back on a reflex. Hallie cowered behind them.

The bookkeeper's smile turned upwards into a smirk. "That's right. Now get out!"

What the Bookkeeper wanted them out of, Hallie wasn't sure, but she was sure that was the fastest she ever ran in a good long while. Her ability must be growing.

A couple of blocks away, Hallie stopped to give Nikas some time to catch up. They fell behind after Halie took off. Sómata may be fast, but that didn't mean they could always keep up with each other, even if they wanted to.

Hallie's head swam. She needed something to get her blood sugar up and replace her depleted storage of fat.

Nikas placed a hand on a nearby building to steady themself and sighed. "Well, that was the last one. We're not having the best luck today, are we?"

Hallie couldn't help but grin at that. "Nope, clearly not. But are you sure that was the last one? Surely there's one more that will let us in."

Nikas shrugged. "If there is, I've never seen it. I guess all the bookshop owners are Kardiáns who don't like letting in two teenage Sómata."

Hallie giggled, swaying on her two feet.

Nikas took her by the arm and led her down the street. "We need to get us some food. It's time for dinner, anyway, but we can get some olives on the way."

"M'kay." Hallie shook loose of Nikas's grasp and followed them down the street.

The road wasn't crowded, but there were the occasional Somá out for a sundown jog. A few of them nodded Hallie's way, very different from the treatment some Taktikós bookkeepers showed them.

Hallie was used to that kind of treatment, but never was it so blatant. The bookkeepers either hated Mitecs, Sómata, or both. Not neither. Never neither.

"Here we are." Nikas glanced over his shoulder to make sure Hallie was still following them. "This guy mostly trades expensive jewelry, but he'll sell you bread and olives if he feels like it."

Hallie didn't like the sound of that. "What if he doesn't feel like it?"

Nikas shrugged. "He always feels like it. If he for some reason doesn't, there are always other places open this late. And if we have to, we can always pull out the 'it's-illegal-not-to-feed-us' card."

"Nikas? Is that you?"

Nikas turned around and zeroed in on a cart a few yards away from them. Hallie followed their eyes and found herself staring at a middle-aged Taktikós holding a gold bracelet in one hand and a sewing needle in the other.

Nikas strode over to the Taktikós. "Hello, Hoiples, yes, it's me. What are you up to?"

"Nothing much." The Taktikós set down the sewing needle and bracelet. "I was just now trying to see if it was possible for a Taktikós to sew some threat into a pure gold bracelet bare-handed."

"The verdict?"

"It is not possible."

Nikas smirked and rolled their eyes. Hallie couldn't help but chuckle. Big mistake.

The Taktikós looked her over. "Who are you? Friend," They picked the sewing needle up again and held it in front of Hallie's face. "Or foe?"

Hallie went cross-eyed. "F-Friend."

Nikas gently pushed the Taktikós's arm down, sending them a warning look. The Taktikós dropped the nettle on the table and gave Hallie an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to scare you."

The moisture returned to the back of Hallie's throat. "I-It's alright. M-My name is Hallie Nephus. Friend," she added. It couldn't hurt to remind them.

The Taktikós grinned. "Nice to meet you, Hallie Nephus! You can call me Hoiples." They jerked a thumb over their shoulder. "How do you know my boy, Nikas? Did he finally crawl out of his apartment on his hands and knees, begging for some form of social interaction with another mortal being around his age he deprived himself of since he couldn't be bothered until the fateful day he snapped?"

Nikas facepalmed. To be honest, Hallie expected nothing less from them.

"No, a-actually I work with him. A-At the amphitheater."

Hoiples's expression froze, their beaming grin dropped like the trickling of water. Soon enough, their face was ash white with plenty of terror knitted into their features.

Hoiples took their time turning to face Nikas. Hallie could actually see the sweat glistening on their palms and the back of their neck.

"From the amphitheater?" Hoiples croaked, eyes bulging out from their sockets.

"Yes, Hoiples, from the amphitheater." Nikas stepped forward to lay a reassuring yet firm hand on the Taktikós. "But she's not like them, I swear."

Hoiples stared at him, leaving Hallie to watch the odd scene play out.

"'Not like them'?!" Hoiples snapped his head to face Hallie. "How can you bear, when you are borne yourself?"

The words flowed off Hallie's tongue like it was all she ever said. "Don't know: but anyhow my shoulder's aching."

Clearly, that was the wrong thing to say. And judging by Hoiples's resounding shriek, not wearing earplugs all the time was the wrong thing to do.

"She has it memorized!" Hoiples backed up to pancake themself to the building behind them. "There's three of them! The world's ending!"

"The world is not ending." Nikas walked over to Hoiples but stopped halfway to steady himself. "Listen, I'm sorry I ever introduced them to you, but Hallie's not like Niobe and Cois. Now, do you have any food you can spare? We ran all the way here."

"A-Ah, sure. I got some olives somewhere..." Hoiples didn't take their eyes off Hallie as they inched their way back to their cart.

Hallie stood there, watching Hoiples fumble with the jewelry around their neck as they stooped down, retrieving something from the bottom shelf of the cart.

It felt strange, knowing someone was that frightened of her. Usually, it was the other way around.

Hallie hated the feeling.