Just as Zhen Liu added the finishing touches on rging so cores into more powerful, if slightly unstable, ones, he received the weirdest bits of news from Razorstella and Frosttusk at the exact sa ti.
That news being...well...
’Dafuq you an both of you found that [Ti] guy?’
[As I said director,] Razorstella answered first. [That weird dude with the stop watch is sitting right here in the middle of Stone Claw, selling what appeared to be...fish-shaped cakes? I know there was a word for this...]
[Taiyaki?,] Screamira helpfully suggested.
[There we go!]
[That...doesn’t...make...sense...,] Frosttusk interjected.[Because...I...see...him...here...in...Willow... Scale...selling...people.]
’Slavery is a part of the economy there, still trying to figure out how to dismantle that.’
[He...also...looks...younger...]
’How much younger?’
[Enough...to...question...my...mories...]
’Oh...
...Several monts ago, to help provide context...
Razorstella’s and Screamira’s point of view.
"Co one, co all! Co and try so tasty Bream Bean Cakes!," the street cook yelled as he poured batter into a special pan with fish-shaped indents.
Once every indent was filled with batter, the street cook proceeded to scoop and drop in the center a dollop of red bean paste. When every dollop was finally placed, the street cook closed up the pans and began to subject them to an open fla.
The sweet sll of baked good began to waft into the air as a result of his actions, attracting a respectable crowd of hungry on-lookers.
"Oy! How much for one of those Bream Bean Cakes?"
"Only two copper coins for one!," the street cook announced while opening one of the pans in order to show the crowd what the finished product looked like.
As he did, a collective growling of stomachs could be heard.
"Well, co on then! Plenty for everyone!"
"Wooo!"
While this was all happening though, a human disguised Screamira and Razorstella were off to the side, hiding while keeping an eye on the aforentioned street cook.
The two hadn’t taken on their "mini" forms because they both felt it was unnecessary for sothing as simple as this...that and they didn’t feel like it.
[Hmmm. You sure this guy is the sa as the one from the footage? Sothing about him feels...off. He also has too little facial hair,] Screamira comnted as she looked over the street cook and his set-up.
She wasn’t exactly wrong when it ca to that facial comnt, since she rembered that the guy from the Strange Blood’s ancestral mory had a full-on beard, while this guy had a pencil mustache at most. Then again, a lot of fleshy humans looked similar to her.
Razorstella, however, was sure of it.
[I’m fairly certain, since this guy has similar looking eyes to that other guy,] Razorstella explained.[That and one other small detail.]
[You’re being mysterious now? That’s unlike you,] Screamira observed.
[Hey, just because I like to cut to the heart of things, doesn’t an I don’t like a good mystery now and again.]
[That sounded like a pun.]
[Might’ve been, anyways, you see that chain connecting the front of his clothes to one of his pockets?]
[Yeah...]
[The director’s mory of the guy includes a pocket watch that looked off. If I had to hazard a guess, that sa pocket watch is in his pocket.]
[Ah...,] Screamira nodded in understanding before stopping and realizing sothing. [Wait a minute, how are we gonna confirm that watch is the watch we’re looking out for?]
[Quite simple really. He’s going to willingly show us,] Razorstella answered in an oddly enigmatic tone of voice. [We just have to ti it just right.]
[Ti what?]
[The crowd.]
...Back on the other side of the sea...
the old slave rchant shouted with an unusual amount of vigor from the deck of his vessel.
In a series of cages behind the slave rchant, a variety of Bloodliners could be seen either standing in attention in their cages, sleeping or looking as if any semblance of life had left their eyes.
At various point, the rchant would grab a random salve and expound to on-lookers why they should buy any particular slave.
As this crowd of wealthy socialites, sect leaders and nobles alike partook in this immoral exchange of coin for life, a trio of out-of-place warriors kept their eyes on the proceedings from afar. More specifically, they were watching the man who was selling the slaves.
[You know, I never really t this guy and I already don’t like him,] Kit comnted as they watched the man sell a teenager with fox ears to a guy who looked how he slled. [If I were a more impulsive individual I would-Rodenia, out the barrel down.]
[But this is wrong!,] Rodenia replied while still keeping a barrel filled with rotten fish firmly in her grip over her head.
[Rodenia, don’t blow our cover. Good intentions are good, but the key is figuring out when to act on them. Doing it now does nothing but spook our target and probably makes things worse for them,] Kit replied while gesturing to the slaves being sold. [Besides, if you wanna do sothing like free them, you need an escape plan and plan to care for them along the way. Otherwise you’re just condemning them to a cruel death.]
[Fine...,] Rodenia relented while dropping the barrel. [Still can’t believe that this guy was sohow friends with the Storm Queen...]
[Indeed.]
[Hmm...]
Despite not being physically present to the Strange Bloods eting, Kit and Rodenia were given a rundown and mory share of what had occurred during the aforentioned event. As such, they could see the physical similarities between this seller of flesh to the guy who helped rescue their lord’s girlfriend, they just couldn’t believe it.
How could soone, who was friends with the embodint of rebellion and anti-slavery, also be a seller of slaves?
It didn’t make sense.
Then again, despite having very similar looking faces, it didn’t help that this guy looked a lot younger than the guy who appeared in the Strange Blood’s mories.
[Hmmm...I have...idea...to see...if...it’s...him...,] Frosttusk eventually rumbled as the group continued to watch people being sold left and right like cattle.
[Oh?]
[When...jarl...first...t...him...he...had...a...pocket...watch...with...a...chain,] Frosttusk explained. [If...we...get...close...we...can...confirm...]
[Okay...how are we going to get close enough though?,] Kit asked, while dreading the obvious implications.
[How...else...?]
Rodenia and Kit looked on at the exchange happening with increasingly angry expressions on their faces.
There was no way in this world or the next that they would-
"WHAT?! Where did he say she was from?"
[Whoa!]
[What the fuck?]
That is...they weren’t going to do it until they heard Frosttusk verbally shout for the first ti...and in a coherent sentence.
...
=Drawing a massive blank, but...i feel like there might’ve been a reason why I have a folder here literally labelled, "If [Ti] is detected"...=
=Probably...non-zero chance they’d use [Ti] shit to slip out of our grasp though.=
=It does...huh.=
=It says here that one of the ways to lock soone with [Ti] abilities down is to use the blood of a certain type of cat aether beast. One that can exist in life and death at the sa ti.=
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