“Does the Tea Witch remember everything, too?” Alex clarified, receiving an affirmative nod.

“Nor does she seem to have nightmares, but I never saw her after sunset. She's weird, that's for sure. And he knows everything about the city, as if he has been living here since the day it was founded. Maybe it is, but I don’t want to think about it at all, I still work for her. So we laid out our trembling lives before her, and she offered us a deal on behalf of the city.

— Deal? With the devil?!

“Almost,” the Fox chuckled, “with the city. We remain to live in this city and never leave it, we also give our memories and our names to the city. All who and what we were before our arrival no longer belongs to us. We won't try to get it back. In return, the city provides us with protection.

“Hmm, what?!” Protection from what?

“Protection from our past and everything that haunts us from this past. Considering Zoe's fate, the exchange is quite worthy. They were already breathing down our backs , so