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Arc F1.8 | Chapter 21: once the puzzle is assembled

So… this was a turn of events Emilia really hadn’t seen coming, a collection of facts within her mind adding up and removing themselves as she looked over the messages that Clemence had been receiving on xphern and not informing her about.So, new facts!

Levi was back! Great. Awesome. He was also accompanying the scary man, which was… interesting? Was it interesting? Emilia had no idea, but leave it to Levi to befriend the most terrifying of men. He seemed nice enough, though? Currently, he was messaging his second in command, asking if anyone in the group who had attacked them knew what had happened with Lux. Considering the group was behaving strangely, the scary man had little confidence they would know anything, but would ask anyways.

Their group had also found a kid who had been with Olivier—and fuck if Olivier having to leave some passed-out preteen behind wasn’t a bad fucking omen from the entire bloody universe—and were heading towards the area where of the indicators for her tracking skill were. In a couple of minutes, a bunch of people were going to be converging there, either onto Olivier or the child who had been hit, Xavier.

Emilia didn’t think she had time to decide what to do—the aether itself seemed to be urging her to move lest she be . For a couple more seconds, however, she would let her mind spin over the new facts—over the reality that the decision she was about to make would create a mess, but she needed to make it.

There wasn’t an option to refuse—to choose a different path.

Codeth had met up with some of the other escapees and were trying to coordinate where he and the Drinarna intern should go next with .

The rest of the drop group was closing in on the holding cells, and in a private message on her xphern, Valor, good little boy that he was, had informed her that there was no way Baylor was going to be stopped from heading down to find her. Hopefully, they wouldn’t get down into the dungeons, and at the very least, Clemence’s xphern now had the decoding function installed on it and one of their new allies had been able to send the decoding function to the xphern Valor had puzzled back together as well.

So, they all knew what was happening on the side of Fräthk’s people, the drop group having been able to slit the throats of a few who had been stalking them in the distance. There was another group watching them as well, the drop group now heading their way—none of them liked the detour, but it was better than leaving too many loose strings stalking them, waiting to attack. More of Fräthk’s people were heading down towards the dungeons as well, but Rayleen wasn’t worried—although, Emilia wasn’t sure the woman was ever worried.

Halen’s group had experienced the least action—more or less, they were still manoeuvring their way through the Secretarial Stand, which was huge and sprawling. Valor was sending them what information he had been able to learn from those decoded xphern messages so far, about what Fräthk’s group knew was happening up there, while Levi was relaying bits of information from the scary man—and yes, Emilia knew that she should start referring to him by his name. Maybe once they were properly introduced. For the moment, he would remain

So, Halen’s group had a list of places to search for Wander, as well as the locations of a few safe rooms that weren’t being controlled by the scary man or Wander’s factions. The latter were things they could potentially —although, it was unclear if would involve a huge fight and killing everyone because they were all corrupt, or if those within the safe rooms were effectively being held hostage by the factions and needed to be freed. What her friends would do—how much they were willing to do to save people, especially if they came across the one Drinarna intern’s family—Emilia had no idea. She could ask. She didn’t have time—didn’t want to waste anyone’s time with asking questions she probably wouldn’t like the answer to.

Behind her, people talked—so many people.

Curtisal—one of their new allies and the creator of the murder playground and the person who had originally told The Black Knot about the situation brewing in the city—hadn’t really explained the playground was down here, protecting all these people. Rayleen wanted to know he had made it down here. The young man wasn’t answering—although, his last message had been an explanation that

A map had come in after that, overlaying with the suspect map Emilia had inside her head, of an area he suggested . It was a little ways away from the holding cells, and according to her map of Olivier’s movements through the city, on the opposite side of where Codeth had met up with the pair who had escaped with him.

Strange, but not her problem—none of her friends were anywhere near that area, and Codeth’s group had already decided to continue towards Olivier’s potential location, in order to meet up with the group conglomerating there. If they ran into either of the other groups of escapees, great. None of that was Emilia’s problem.

In her hand, Emilia’s xphern buzzed with a message from Vtraní, whom she had sent her xphern exchange number to. Something about them, from the first moment she had seen them, in those brief minutes outside the holding cells, had called to her. This sad person, who looked like they needed a hug; who the little boy Levi had found was insisting was a nice, trustworthy person—Izurial as well.

For silverstrains, trust was often a difficult thing, and Emilia could imagine the terrible things that had happened to the man, especially since he wasn’t considered for some other ability.

No, the man was a sex slave, Codeth messaging her to promise he would try his best to make sure the man made it out of this place—that he was allowed to find freedom and happiness elsewhere because even though Codeth found her exhausting, he still knew: she would worry about the man because they were the same; because, in a different world, she might be in his place.

She, like all silverstrains, knew how terrible the world could be, even if they had never experienced the full scope of its potential horrors themself. Still, she knew, and she knew that within that horror, claiming someone was was an important thing.

Vtraní’s message said.

With both Clemence and Valor, as well as the other Drinarna intern, Bireth, going through all the messages that were now decoded, it was only a matter of time before they found ramblings of whatever had happened with Olivier and Xavier. Emilia hadn’t wanted to wait, so, she’d taken a chance and messaged her new ally directly.

They were nice, she thought, a concern for the boy and anger at the situation flowing through their words—honesty as well, laying out in stark reality the fact that the man who was most likely going to retrieve Xavier would do terrible things to his tiny body before returning him to the holding cells.

Emilia was horrified.

Vtraní was horrified as well.

Vtraní was too far away to do anything to help the child. With a little luck, Emilia might be able to get to him before something even more horrific than everything he had already been through happened to him.

If she were lucky, she’d run into the bitches—the other child’s mothers having sent off messages to organize a trade for their safety, in exchange for Xavier—who would dare sell a child to someone Vtraní assured her knew was a predator. Pieces of shit—Emilia would happily slit their throats, if given the chance. Probably, she wouldn’t even care about their child. While she wouldn’t kill the kid, she knew the child would be hurt by the loss of her mothers. Emilia didn’t care; she wasn’t in the business of giving people who would sell a child the chance to do the same thing to another child, another, another.

They were desperate, yes, but this just showed that they were willing to do anything for themselves, and Emilia wouldn’t let them extend their harm into the world further, if only the universe guided their paths together.

Glancing up from her xphern, Emilia’s eyes trailed over the handful of people who had been tucked into the area behind the murder playground—protected by it. No one here was dangerous—although, she’d bet that quite a few had been affected by their time down here, both trapped in safety and held within the realm of that Still, they were safe. Apparently, Curtisal often let people —by which he meant —behind his protective barriers. Why Fräthk continued to put people down here, when they definitely knew about the murder playground’s of them, no one seemed to know.

Yet, Fräthk had continued to stuff more and more people down here.

It was strange. It was something to think about later—although, Rayleen and Clemence had both said that Fräthk’s mental state had been collapsing for years. In the end, maybe there was no meaning behind all of the ridiculous decisions Fräthk constantly seemed to be making. Rayleen had said something, though—had implied that someone else stood in Fräthk’s shadows, pulling the strings, so maybe, there was a bigger picture to be found. It could be an insane picture, or it could be something they lacked the context to fully comprehend, and Emilia didn’t like it.

Emilia never liked things she couldn’t understand, but this just seemed so… wrong.

Emilia said, glancing down at her friend, who was sitting alongside a grumpy looking Vern and the young woman Jerrial had been trying to find.

The woman was frail—Curtisal apparently struggled to get food down here, and in the end, the most reliable source of food had been less than ideal: whenever the group had wanted food, they’d needed to risk going into the main part of the dungeon to acquire food drops from Fräthk’s loyal. The woman was also pressed into Jerrial’s side, their closeness the source of Vern’s jealous annoyance.

The woman also wasn’t all there, as far as Emilia could tell—none of these people were. A few were further gone than others, and had already been pointed out as potential risks—it wasn’t uncommon for them to lose themselves and attack, much like Arinesi had, back in the stairwells. Heart clenching at the reminder of the woman and the fact that she was still trapped like that—would it be heartless to ask one of her friends to kill the woman, and put her out of her misery?—Emilia motioned for Jerrial to come with her for a moment.

she said quietly, nodding to a wall that, based on her maps, lead towards one of the underground rivers that the sewers had once led into. When she’d let herself be kidnapped by the trafficking group, there had been murmurs of them using the rivers to get their victims out of Lüshan, as the winding, branching rivers led through to Crishar, Mitine Dyn, and the southern continent. Several sections of the many-branched subterranean river erupted out of the earth in the canyons that separated Lüshan and Crishar—they were due to arguments between the two nations about pollution and the general grossness of Lüshan’s shit and piss flowing into Crishar.

Jerrial looked at her like she was crazy, which was probably fair, but they didn’t have time to argue about it—she just needed him to trust her that she to do this.

Jerrial said, as Emilia quickly explained the Xavier situation to Vern and the woman, who had wandered over after sitting in awkward silence together for only a few seconds.

the woman offered, despite looking like she was about to topple over—and really, how long would these people have lasted, had they not ended up down here today? she said, smiling at Emilia with soft-brown eyes. Probably, Emilia should ask the woman’s name, but she wasn’t sure they’d ever see one another again and… and it was what it was.

Emilia said, catching Jerrial’s eyes. It said a lot that, despite how little time they’d known each other for, she was sure he could tell that she wouldn’t be taking no for an answer.

he said, sounding exceptionally unhappy. Emilia didn’t blame him, but it felt like if she didn’t go now—if she waited until they were out of here to try and reach the boy—it would be too late. Maybe she would have to turn back and then deal with exiting the holding cells by herself—although she doubted any of Fräthk’s people would be left alive, if Baylor made it into the building. Still, she had to at least try to get to that innocent little boy.

Jerrial’s hands pressed to the wall, and for several long seconds, the last Lowdouran just breathed, his chest pressing outward with each tug of air into himself, his friend’s fingers pressed to one of his wrists, then, his power shattered outward. Around them, a few people glanced their way, but most people, due to some mixture of fatigue and their nerves having been rung dry by or having little aether awareness, simply remained how they were: staring blankly into space as Rayleen and the woman who seemed to be charge of the place organized to get everyone up and moving.

he said, accepting a hug and a from her before she gave Vern a hug of his own, the man grumbling but hugging her back.

he whispered.

she laughed, releasing her new friend and stepping back, unwilling to linger a moment longer.

Hand grasped to the rough rock of the opening Jerrial had created, which would hopefully lead her all the way to the subterranean rivers and she could use them to quickly get closer to Xavier’s bright dot, lit up across her vision, Emilia glanced behind her one last time. Clemence had been pulled away by Rayleen, the woman’s golden eyes catching Emilia’s because she knew that, were the teenager to know what she was doing, she would try to stop her—or come with her, at the very least.

It was only a moment of eye contact, but in those seconds, Emilia felt as though the woman were trying to tell her something—that she would be safe, perhaps. Emilia wanted to believe her—wanted to believe that there was some meaning in all of this, strange as it was.

Eyes skimming over the room and all the people once more, Emilia failed yet again to find the little silverstrain child she had seen—the one recorded in her Censor but not on the video Vtraní had sent her. There she was, staring at the spot the child had just been—where the child was, within her Censor’s recording but not the security footage.

Vtraní had added, after forwarding her the video, and maybe that explained it—explained why Olivier had left them, why she hadn’t noticed his wandering away?

Maybe; maybe not. Emilia felt like she was losing it, and in the end, maybe it was easier to believe the aether had some sort of will or personality or plan for the universe.

In many places, silverstrains were treated as scum; in other places, they were called It was crazy to think it, but bits and pieces of information—of stories that didn’t match up, of facts and figures tugged into alignment and sent askew—lined up within her head.

It was a mess, and Emilia didn’t have time to line each piece up perfectly, but one day—one day soon, when a little boy wasn’t at risk of being hurt by a terrible man because the women who had taken him were evil creatures—she would line each fact up, puzzle them together.

Emilia wasn’t sure she would like what she found, once the puzzle was assembled.