Several hours of searching later, Vtraní had finally managed to find Qoréa. It had not been an enjoyable search, requiring them to dodge Fräthk’s loyal at every turn, lest they be dragged into the situation erupting throughout the city. So areas remained calm, of course, the people having simply begun to huddle within businesses and their hos while awaiting the xphern transmission network’s return.
Vtraní rather disliked their xphern—it was an annoying thing, always buzzing against their hip, never letting them rest. It was bad enough on a good day, when aside from ssages from Fräthk themself, only the small group chat they belonged to would go off, whenever soone of the sa rank ssed up on a mission and needed aid. As such things were seen as a slight against their person, few of Fräthk’s most loyal would ever admit to such errors in judgnt, but it did happen. Fortunately, few people outside of those most loyal to Fräthk and their leader themself would ever dare speak to Vtraní—well, that wasn’t quite the truth.
The silverstrains, housed throughout the city, and many of the children and teenagers spoke to them. The few people they would protect, when they could. It wasn’t often—wasn’t enough—but it was sothing—a little balm on their hateful, cruel soul.
Against their hip, Vtraní’s xphern buzzed as more and more ssages ca through. The majority of Fräthk’s people—anyone trustworthy enough to have a xphern of their own, anyways—had been added to a giant chat when Qoréa had first stolen away the Baalphorian man. From then on, everything had been a ss and Vtraní’s xphern had rarely been quiet. Had the network not been down for every xphern save those with private exchange numbers, Vtraní would have tossed the thing away, glad to be rid of it. As it was, they weren’t about to toss away their only way of keeping track of the situation—or more importantly, how to avoid being dragged into the situation more than they already were.
Sothing about Qoréa’s kidnapping of that man hadn’t sat right with them; hence, they had andered their way through the city, wondering why the woman who had swiped the Baalphorian hadn’t bothered staying within the building where he was housed. While Vtraní had already been searching the woman out, so ti after they had spoken with the man and Cheska, an alert had gone out informing everyone that the 17th’s alarm had been triggered. As Hwris had been nearby, Vtraní had been rather happy to no longer be anywhere near that building. At the sa ti…
It was strange, but every step they had taken away from that building—from that Baalphorian man—had felt like a knife through their soul. So strange, and while Vtraní was in no way afraid of Hwris—they were, after all, one of the few people that monster of a man could never touch—neither did they ever want to be near the man.
Vtraní wanted to be there now—wanted to use themself as a shield for… soone. For that Baalphorian man? For the children and Izurial, who they now knew to have escaped the holding cells?
They had no idea, but the escape had turned the already ssy situation into an even more chaotic disaster, and now? Now, there was a hit out of Qoréa. Fräthk had decided that her swiping of the Baalphorian man—who was now being reported to potentially be a non-dev with connections to the Hyrat clones and the Secretary General’s child—had done them no favours.
Fräthk’s most valuable possession had vanished into the city with the Baalphorian man, and Fräthk was not happy. Vtraní was, in a passive sort of way. Porsq, that sweet little boy who always smiled at them and never showed any fear, was gone. They weren’t the sort of child to easily be caught again—Fräthk had taught them too well.
Of course, their passive happiness was short-lived, as when they finally tugged their xphern free of their pocket, they discovered that at least one of the escapees had been recaptured: Xavier, the little child everyone suspected would be a non-dev. The child was certainly a low-dev, but there were enough signs he would be more, if one bothered to look.
That was… unfortunate. Vtraní hated this life for any of them, but for the children, it was always worse, and the fact that Xavier had been swiped up by those won who were taking care of him?
“Is there no way to get his away from them?” Porsq had asked, shortly after Xavier’s mother had died.
The child had been left in the care of those won—if their abuse could be considered care. Vtraní hadn’t liked it either, but they hadn’t been forced to live near it. For Porsq, who could feel the child’s sadness, the won’s cruel disregard and passive abuse, and yet been unable to touch them due to so inherent difficulty that Vtraní didn’t understand—sothing to do with language, Fräthk had once said in that way of theirs: in that way that implied they had no understanding of what they spoke of, and had instead heard it from so other person.
At the ti, Vtraní had considered telling Porsq the truth: those won have that child because Fräthk is—stupidly, in many people’s opinion—trying to force you to evolve into sothing more monstrous than you already are. At the ti, they hadn’t thought it would do any good to put that on the young boy, his power too immature to reach through whatever was guarding those won against his abilities. Knowing Xavier would be left to be tortured by those won for as long as it took for Porsq to work out how to manipulate those won would have done nothing but torture the child, and Vtraní was not in the business of torturing children—really, they would quite like to be in the business of torturing no one. Unfortunately, their abilities made them a wonderful tag-along when torture was on the schedule.
Glaring down at their xphern, Vtraní debated whether they should continue on to questioning Qoréa about why she had decided to grab the Baalphorian man, or if they should work to intercept the won who had grabbed Xavier from the Baalphorian man before they could ransom the child off for their own safety. It was highly unlikely they would be able to reach the won before Sireth did, but Xavier would be safe enough with her. The bigger issue was if Prex reached the won and took Xavier first. Prex was further from the etup spot the won had suggested, seeking to offload the child in exchange for safe passage out of Lüshan for their little family, than Sireth was, but Prex was faster.
Idiots. Selfish bitches. They would hand Xavier over to Prex without a second thought for that man’s proclivities and what he would surely do to that child, if given the chance—and it weren’t as though Fräthk would care, as long as the boy weren’t completely broken.
The worst thing was that as low level as the won were, they were trustworthy enough to have been given xpherns. As a result, it would be easy enough for them to determine the situation between so factions of the governnt, as well as Fräthk and Gëon's people—not to ntion the clones and whatever the Baalphorians in the city were doing, several people having reported a group of young adults taking out any Drinarna they ca across without remorse—was disastrous enough that no one would care if they slipped out of the city. If soone more important than those won escaped, they would be tracked down, but those won had little use to Fräthk—certainly not enough use to risk more people by searching them out.
So, they didn’t need Xavier, and had Vtraní been the one to et with the won, they liked would have killed the pair of them for their stupidity. Sireth likely would as well—she was in a similar position to Vtraní themself: soone locked into their life, trying to make the best of it and failing miserably. As a mother herself, Sireth had a soft spot for the children; for this reason alone, she was never allowed around the children Fräthk kept.
Had Sireth seen the state those children were living in, Vtraní had no doubt she would have tried to kill Fräthk. It would have done no good.
Fräthk, in the end, was nothing but a pawn—had they not been, Vtraní would have slit their throat long ago. As it was, a new Fräthk would simply step up to take their place, their puppet master pulling strings from the shadows. Maybe that mysterious person would have figured out Vtraní was behind Fräthk's death; maybe not. For as much as Vtraní wished they could follow through and slit their own life short, they wouldn’t let their life be smushed out by so hidden force—not when it would leave the children and silverstrains without even their vague protection.
Was it silly, to want to die and lack the will to follow through, and yet have the perfect way to die laid out in the form of Fräthk's cooling corpse and know they couldn’t risk leaving those who relied on their flawed protection for even the briefest of monts alone? Yes. Vtraní never claid their mind or emotions were a sensible thing. They hated life and would happily die, but not for killing a figurehead.
Sireth would spend her last monts of life regretting killing Fräthk, knowing that her child would be left without a mother. Yet, if she managed to get to the won and Xavier before Prex… well, it was going to be rather clear that the child had been not only abused, but that the state Xavier—and by extension, every other child held in the various holding cells—lived in was atrocious. She would snap, and soone—likely Vtraní themself—would be left responsible for her own child.
That child was a being of chaos and mayhem—much too high energy for them. Sireth could, under no circumstances, get herself killed by whoever was manipulating Fräthk and leave Vtraní to manage that feral creature.
Speaking of which, where was the evil thing at the mont?
Vtraní poked through the group chat for a mont—they could feel Qoréa lingering inside the building, clearly panicking for how loud her existence was, as she wondered what to do, how to save herself—trying to determine where Sireth’s child had ended up. They, as well as the quirky, soft-spoken—if also depraved—captive the child had adopted as their bestest friend ever, ever, ever, had checked in once, to say they were at the apartnt they shared and would be staying there until things settled, and then given the occasional update or comnt on sothing being said within the chat. The pair had been disturbingly quiet for a while now—since around the ti Hwris had confird that Porsq had likely escaped the holding cells, their power screaming through the world according to a few of Fräthk’s people with more aether awareness.
Personally, they had felt nothing—their own aether awareness was all but nonexistent. This had resulted in a number of people asking them to go look for Porsq—Vtraní had always implied the child couldn’t feel their mind nor affect them, but Vtraní knew that wasn’t true. Part of them had hoped they would one day be told to guard the child on an outing, due to their supposed resistance, allowing the boy to manipulate them and gain his freedom. That child was too sweet for this life, too powerful for Fräthk and whoever stood behind them to be allowed access to.
These requests for them to seek out Porsq had been left a mixture of unanswered and brushed off—they were halfway across the city and closing in on Qoréa; surely finding her and either killing her or detaining her for questioning made more sense?
Currently, Vtraní was debating blowing that mission off as well, sothing pulling them towards Sireth’s child and their little friend. They were too quiet, and while no one had questioned that silence yet, eventually, they would. Not because anyone cared what happened to either, but because the quirky one managed their hacked access to the city’s security systems. Realistically, they should be filling up the chat with recomndations of where to go, with details of what that Baalphorian group was doing and of where the escaped captives were. Instead, there was nothing but silence, and either sothing had happened to the pair, or they were hiding sothing.
Had Sireth’s spawn not been a monster, capable of levelling an entire city block in their attempts to keep themself and those they loved safe, Vtraní might have assud sothing had happened. As their apartnt was relatively nearby and no buildings had gone down, it was more likely the latter: the pair were hiding sothing.
Sireth was, in the end, one of the few people Vtraní actually liked. Distaste for their child or not, they couldn’t let the thing be dragged into so sort of drama or another—losing her child, feral beast or not, would destroy their friend. At the sa ti, they didn’t want to call another of Fräthk's people here—it would raise too many questions.
Sighing to themself, Vtraní slipped into the building. Quickly disposing of Qoréa—or tying her up, depending on how difficult she was being—and then hurrying off to check on Anarch and Curtisal. Hopefully, no buildings would be taken down by the ti they were done.
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