ARO Hawken Trent. Polite. Cute. Such a decent young man. Also a virgin, from what I heard. Hawk never has fun with girls. Probably because Jesus forbade him. And so he pretends to be a hero, protecting another girl from me. He calls me an aggressor. Inadequate. Reckless. A criminal. Let him call you whatever you want, I've heard worse words. Hawk might try to get between me and my money, but he's never had to fight for food. The rich, neat schoolboy has no guts for this. HAWK I surprised her. You should have seen her face. Having no criminal record, honey, doesn't mean my hands are clean. I just know how to avoid getting caught. But this time it looks like I've gone too far. We're caught in the act. There is darkness all around. The police arrive. We have no choice. We run down the High Street to Quinn's Bakery, where I take Aro to a speakeasy that everyone forgot existed decades ago. The doors are locked, the cops have cordoned off the building, not even suspecting that we are under their noses. I'm forced to hide in plain sight in the company of a mean girl indefinitely. Tough. Rude. Dirty. Thieves and criminals. However, lost with her among many empty rooms, I begin to get to know Aro from a completely different side. She's smart. Brave. Affectionate. Sexy... Everything changes. It's about this place. It has some effect on people. There is a stupid urban legend in Shelburne Falls about mirrors: you can't lean your back against them because they are gates. And we consciously stepped into the Looking Glass. I don't care about the data from the district archives. There has never been an underground bar here. This is the Carnival Tower.