The first problem they encountered trying to get out of the Risen Guard compound ca quickly and with no solution other than to let it happen: Gale wanted to co with them.
⸂I do not want to stay here. I do not trust the Risen Guard,⸃ Gale hissed into Emilia as she attempted to say her goodbyes—it was a little difficult, given two of the four kids were now unconscious, one didn’t want a goodbye, and the last was effectively ignoring her.
Nearby, Miira sat gently soothing Stephy’s air, her eyes glued to Kelly’s still form as Emilia’s stalker rebandaged his mangled arm. If Gale’s friend knew she was intending on leaving, she gave no indication, but from what she had seen the last few days, she doubted Miira would care.
“The others are staying,” she pointed out, even if she knew it would make no difference in the stubborn teenager’s decision.
⸂Neither Stephy nor Kelly can move! And even if they could—⸃ Gale cut off, bottom lip pulling into her mouth in what had beco an increasingly common habit of anxiety over the past few days. Emilia wondered who in her life she had seen do it, the habit only finding a ho in the girl now that they were separated. ⸂They wouldn’t co, even if they could. They’re still hoping their parents are alive.⸃
“Miira’s are dead,” Emilia wrote. It wasn’t completely confird, but their restaurant had been abandoned and looted. The Risen Guard were still identifying the bodies of those killed in the stampede, and Lanaira had admitted that there was a good chance so of them would never be identified, due to how trampled they were. A lifeti of never knowing what had happened to their parents was in these children’s future, their minds holding on to threads that they wouldn’t have abandoned them.
Gale shook her head slightly, nose tucking into Astra’s curls, the child still sitting contently on her lap. ⸂Miira fits in here. She wants to beco a Risen Guard, she doesn’t—⸃ The girl’s voice cut off again, wobbling slightly. She didn’t have to tell Emilia that she’d told Miira at least so of what had happened with Carne. Whatever had been said, Miira was still insistent on this path—on a path that Gale saw as dangerous. Perhaps, Miira hadn’t even believed Gale; the younger girl had been incredibly hurt by Gale keeping Carne’s identity and past from her, a line neither knew how to cross had dragged between them in that mont when the truth had co out.
The girl sighed, her eyes flickering shut. Emilia turned back to the others, writing out notes of goodbye for Kelly and Stephy—although Stephy would need soone to read hers for her. Another note for all the other children ca next, another for Boundary, one asking him to make sure the naless boy was cared for and to apologize to the child for her. The boy had already lost so much, and here he would be losing another pillar of support, even if they had only known each other a few days.
“Be good. Do good.” Emilia handed the note over to Miira. There wasn’t much she could say, her own thoughts on the sensibility of the girl joining the Risen Guard clouding her judgnt. The organization had so much corruption, but hopefully the girl would be okay—hopefully she would be able to take what she learned and make whatever world ca to be once the visitors left a better place.
⸂I doubt we will see each other again,⸃ Miira said, and for a mont, Emilia wasn’t sure she would look away from Kelly. Then she did, and Emilia saw the sa thing that had been in the girl’s eyes since she had witnessed Emilia fight in the city: wariness. Not quite fear, but for whatever reason—whether due to her or the man who had hurt Kelly—the girl no longer trusted her as wholeheartedly as she had while they were in the labyrinth.
It didn’t matter that Emilia had never hard her or the others, nor that V was still missing, after risking his place in this world going after the missing children. Sothing in Miira had shifted—so invisible switch that made locals untrusting of visitors switched. Sothing told Emilia there wasn’t any coming back from it.
It had been the sa in her world, during the war, with the Baalphorians who distrusted Free Coloniers, the Free Coloniers who feared Baalphorians. It didn’t matter how friendly they beca with each other, a whisper of that separation always persisted. People learned to deal with it, to work around differences and generations of hatred and war. Usually, it worked fine, and there were enough people on either side who were able to approach the other side with more open hearts—those people who were able to fully let their prejudices go.
For the forr group, however… once that tentative trust was broken, Emilia had rarely seen anyone co back from it. Friendships dissolved because so random Free Colonier had betrayed the Baalphorian. Romances collapsed because a friend of a friend’s Baalphorian girlfriend cheated on them. Hatred and distrust rose back up, and even when it wasn’t directly connected to the person—to the relationship—in question.
Hatred was a toxic thing, eating away at hope and trust and confidence until all that existed was a skeleton, the muscles and tendons that held it together eaten away by doubt.
Miira doubted visitors now, and that doubt extended to her. It was painful to watch, knowing she could do nothing for the girl—knowing she had saved the child’s life, but scarred her nonetheless. Hopefully, once they left, she would leave her doubts behind, her heart opening back up. Hopefully, at the very least, her doubts wouldn’t spread, seeping into the rest of her relationships.
As Emilia watched her and Gale talk, the older girl bidding her own goodbyes—Emilia was under no illusions that she could talk the teenager out of coming with them; much like with Astra, she knew when arguing would get her nowhere—she could see the flecks of that doubt spreading to Gale as well. It wasn’t just the situation with Carne driving them apart, and it was painful, knowing this little girl doubted her friend all the more for the fact that she was choosing to trust Emilia over the Risen Guard—over Miira’s own opinions as well.
Lines drawn. Emilia couldn’t leave Gale here, even if she tried. There was no friendship left here for Gale, not with Miira, anyways.
Miira looked away from Gale and Emilia, and she wondered if the girl had even bid a proper goodbye to her one-ti friend. How far they had co, from Miira crying because her friend wouldn’t talk her to, to bonds reforged and now shattered. If they t again, would it be as enemies? Sothing told Emilia they might very well be. So silly origin story, to be told to Miira’s peers one day, when she and Gale t again and everyone had questions.
⸂Once we were friends. Then, she chose the visitors over the Risen Guard. Gale is a betrayer of the cities.⸃ Then, Miira would unleash decades of anger on Gale, magic sparking through the air and—
And Emilia better make pretty damn sure Gale got to soone who could keep her safe—could teach her the ways of magic. Gale would definitely put up a fuss about going to Carne, even if he could teach her, or leveraging heartcores for the potential of power. Maybe an Enclave family? The Stringers, or whatever family Honey hailed from? Speaking of whom…
Emilia poked her head out the door, scribbling a note for the trainee: “Can you go cause a distraction?”
The girl nodded, looking her normal, cheerful self, and disappeared. Emilia didn’t need to ask to know the girl radiated trouble in the sa way her younger self had. Honey’d get the job done and make it seem like the most natural thing in the world had just happened.
She herself had once started a small fire as a distraction. Lit a curtain on fire before she’d managed to put it out with a skill—a lie, she totally could have activated the skill faster. No one had questioned her, though. Accidents happened to her all the ti—she was both clumsy and reckless—and while that didn’t excuse what had happened, it did make it more believable. The teenagers sneaking out of the upstairs bedrooms they'd been getting high in had gone unnoticed in the wake of her fire and her parents shaking their heads.
Emilia had no doubt that Honey would be capable of the sa subtle trickery. It would be a novel experience, to be the one sneaking out this ti.
Her stalker’s hand slid over her waist in a way too familiar gesture. Emilia smacked the hand, which quickly disappeared, and when she turned to glare at him, she was unsurprised to find him rubbing his hand with the sa over dramatic flair he’d rubbed his arm with after she’d smacked that. Those purple eyes of his glinted with mischief, however, and Emilia rolled her own. She thrust her notebook at him, the question of his na written in angry script over the page.
As she pushed past him, intent to gather up Astra and Gale, she caught the hint of a smile pulling at his lips as he began to write his response. It was cute, and she was pretty sure whatever he wrote was going to be equal parts amusing and annoying.
Emilia held out the note she’d written before handing her notebook off: “Done with your goodbyes?”
Gale’s jaw tensed, like she wanted so admit that she wasn’t—that she wanted to argue her case for leaving with Miira longer. The girl wasn’t stupid, even if she was stubborn and hated to lose, and instead, she nodded. Astra gathered up in her arms, Gale rose, readjusting the child’s weight. She sent Miira one more look. Emilia, nosy as she was wont to be, poked at the aethernet, looking for any sign the two were communicating again. They weren’t, and Gale left without saying anything more to her forr friend.
Miira didn’t look as they left, and only Emilia looked back. She and Astra, the child peeking over Gale’s shoulder as she passed Emilia’s stalker…
Conrad.
An obvious lie, the writing of the man’s na stilted in a way that none of his previous precise script had been. Oh well, not everyone could be as stupid as she was and use their real na in raids.
Below the na, the man had written, “but if you like, you can call …” followed by a string of inappropriate nas. Emilia would most certainly not be calling him babe. Asshole, maybe. Not babe.
Quickly, she translated the na for Gale to read and communicate to Astra, ignoring the worm in her head telling her to give them the wrong na just to spite him. The child, despite never speaking, shot Conrad a look that Emilia could only describe as strange. Actually, the little girl had barely acknowledged Conrad, now that she thought about it—not that that was necessarily odd. Astra rarely acknowledged anyone Emilia hadn’t handed her over to, and even then, she tended to treat them with the suspicion of soone who didn’t like people who weren’t Emilia. It would have been cute, if slightly concerning, were they in the real world. They weren’t, so instead it was just really fucking concerning.
Mostly, Emilia was just hoping that eventually they’d co across soone Astra liked more than her. It would hurt—Emilia rather liked having the child’s attention so firmly placed on her alone—but would be for the best. Astra couldn’t co with her, and therefore, Emilia needed to figure out a way for the girl to be safe and content once she left.
So far, this plan had largely failed. Astra hated Lanaira, and even among the other children, the girl only tolerated Gale and Kelly—not that she would be seeing the boy again, most likely.
Emilia wanted to sigh dramatically as they followed Conrad through the halls. She had no idea where they were going, mostly just trusting that the man hadn’t screwed them over yet and was therefore unlikely to start.
It was a therefore a surprise, when they turned a corner and shadow magic surged out of him towards two Risen Guards. The n gasped, but Conrad’s core energy wrapped them, snuffing out any attempts they might be making to get help—and their own energy had certainly been preparing to send out a distress signal.
The n’s eyes blew wide, but as much as she’d been briefly too shocked to move, Emilia had recovered quickly. She flew forward, fingers pressing perfectly into a collection of pressure points—another technique she’d picked up from Rafe’s family’s library. On a whim, she threw in another technique she’d seen people from the Free Colonies do: pushing their energy into pressure points.
She’d only seen it a few tis, but it had always seed impressive to her that soone could turn such a light touch into one capable of knocking soone out. Indeed, where previously she would have had to press harshly into neck muscles to knock the n out, now it barely took a spark of energy floating through her ridians and into the n to have them falling to their knees… and then onto their faces.
⸂Ouch,⸃ Gale said, a little too much humour in her voice, as the n smacked noisily onto the sticky floor—it really was unfortunate that this building had the sa sticky feeling that those first few buildings she’d been forced to explore had. ⸂Also impressive. Can you teach ?⸃
“Later. If you behave,” Emilia signed, suppressing her own smile when the teenager rolled her eyes and muttered about how she always behaved. Had she not been carrying Astra, Emilia was sure she would have crossed her arms in exaggerated offence.
Conrad stepped past her and the unconscious guards and opened the unlocked door. Given the Risen Guard didn’t seem to think the people inside the compound were a danger to them, that wasn’t too surprising. Most likely, the n were there simply to keep nosy children out.
And the contents of the room definitely needed to be kept away from tiny hands. Not only was the room they pushed their way into filled with both her stolen blood weapons and armour, but a dozen more objects ford by the blood curse as well.
Conrad raised an eyebrow before making an after you motion.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Emilia signed back, although she had no idea if the man understood any sign language, although she’d switched back to standard BSL in case he did. If he did understand, he gave no indication of it, instead turning to examine the items of the room as well.
Emilia tugged at her clothes. They didn’t have long, and her {Blood Armour} was the one thing she would not be leaving this room without.
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