"It's a beautiful night," Vanya said quietly, looking at the dancers with a wistful glance.
"Hm," was all Kanda was willing to say.
"Vhere's Nthanda?" Vanya asked, cutting to the chase, and Kanda answered, "Safe."
"I trust dat, but vhere?"
"Why do you want to know?" Kanda asked flatly, looking at Vanya with weary eyes.
He should have known better. He did know better, and yet he let himself get sucked in anyway. She was a CROW, a crony for Central to the last, and he had let her manage to get under his skin and make him think that Nthanda was as important to her as the babe was to him. He would curse his naiveté, but he was all out of curses. The only thing left was exhaustion. To think that, at one point, he had saved her life, and now she was a key tool in his betrayal.
He was surprised to see the lines on Vanya's face as well.
"I just vant to help," she said quickly.
"I think I've had enough help," Kanda said.
"I know you know," she continued as he made to get up and leave. "And I ken help."
"Help me what?"
Vanya looked at him almost helplessly, her mouth slightly agape. Finally, in a single breath, she sighed, "Leave."
Kanda's eyes widened ever so slightly at her word, but then, he saw her eyes cut away to somewhere in the dark. All of a sudden, her offer was instead a command, as she stated once again, firmly, "Leave."
Without further ado, Kanda made a beeline for the manor, cutting through the crowds of people. Farther to the sides, he could see dark figures moving quickly in the dark, and his stomach began to tie itself into slithering knots, his hand gripping the sword at his side. His clothes felt all too constricting, the suit too warm for the weather or for the exertion that was to come. He was moving at almost a trot now, and quickly, without hesitation, Ellis strolled up to him. He groaned inwardly, hoping against hope that he wouldn't have to shove her aside. While he was angry at her, he didn't mean to do any lasting damage - though nailing her with a single hit to the ego wouldn't hurt.
"Where ever do you think you're-"
"Bathroom- shouldn't have eaten the crab cakes," he quickly said, excusing himself in a flurry and heading towards the house at a run, leaving a bewildered (and perhaps disgusted) Ellis in his wake.
However, the minute he was inside the rather empty manor, he shed his suit coat and threw it on the nearest chair, pulling his shirt tails out of his pants and unbuttoning the first two of the collar. As he strode along the hallway to his room, he rolled up his sleeves and kicked off his dress shoes, snatching up the pair of well worn travel boots lying next to his door. Quickly he stuffed them on and headed towards the nearest window, looking out towards the stables. He could see, circling the party, a ring of dark figures, almost too black for the eye to discern, but to Kanda's practiced gaze, they were as obvious as bad stage hands.
No doubt, they would realize he was missing and wonder where he went, but until then, he could at least climb out and reach the stables with little interference. As he leaned out the window to take a leap, he saw on the periphery a brightly colored, doll-like figure point a black-suited individual in the opposite direction he had gone, and he felt... something stir in his chest. Perhaps regret. Perhaps thankfulness. Whatever the case, he didn't let it linger long.
He fell from the great height with grace and silence, rolling upon contact, and he quickly raced across the ground towards the stables. The brush barely moved as he quickly made his way towards the low building, and he nearly prayed that he wouldn't be noticed. Of course, he did not hear a second or third pair of footsteps, and he journeyed forward into the dark. In the stables, it was still dark, the sound of horses neighing at the unseen intruder the only noise, and Kanda headed towards the second-to-last stall. Huddled by a large bay mare, Nthanda was swaddled in cloth, gently sleeping on a bed of hay as the prepared horse whinnied at Kanda. He let the horse take a good sniff before picking Nthanda up and quickly making sure the horse was completely saddled, ready to go.
Suddenly, there was the sound of hoofbeats, and his heart thudded in his chest. Things were going smoothly - almost too smoothly - and it made him nervous. There was always something that would go wrong, no matter what. Plans did not ever survive contact with the enemy.
Yet, he also wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He mounted his own steed and headed out of the stables, sure to throw a thick, black cloak over himself. He rode out behind the stable where the other two had managed to meet him. Din was dressed in much the same garb - white shirt, black pants, a cloak of black. Lavinia was in a black riding dress, with a black cloak, but she was more or less ready to leave as well. It was a wonder she'd changed so fast, but Kanda had never been one to question how women performed the magic they did with clothes, hair, and bathroom articles.
"Din, you leave first. Lavinia, you next. I'll leave last. You remember where we're meeting?" Kanda asked.
"Wash a mile out from the gorge," Lavinia repeated, having suggested the place herself.
Kanda nodded, holding Nthanda close. The other two also had bundles in their arms, of comparable size and shape, and hopefully on horseback they could outrun even a fully fledged CROW.
But, as they turned to take off in their respective directions, there was the sound of feet on the stable roof, and Kanda turned in surprise. Above them, decked in a black uniform, a CROW stared at them through the eyeholes of their mask. They sucked in a breath to call out, but before even a single noise could be uttered, another figure in a bright dress tackled the CROW to the shingles, elbow wrapped about their neck.
A pale face peered out from a veil of black hair and, through gritted teeth, Vanya hissed, "Go," squeezing the air out of her compatriot's lungs.
With that, the three took off at a hot gallop under the new moon, almost completely unseen against the dark of the night. Din veered to the left, Kanda to the right, and Lavinia rode straight ahead, each with their charge. Not long after, Kanda could hear shouts behind him as CROW tailed the horses, the sounds of feet always too close behind, and Kanda spurred on his beast, Nthanda still somehow asleep at his breast. He dared not look at the progress the other two were making, and instead, he aimed to reach a promontory in the distance, the mountains rising in a grand carpet beyond the plantations.
Before long, he managed to lose himself in the brush, and here, he had to slow down, though he was loath to. The brush was far too thick, however, and he knew he would never be able to ride at full speed through it, not without crashing the horse into some tree or ditch. However, every rustle of the leaves and twigs was an adversary on his tail. Nevertheless, the horse plucked along at a steady rate, and the forest began to dull to the sound of only background noise. Kanda's ears were still sharp for the inevitable crack of a careless foot on a branch.
Though his ears told him that they were alone, the hairs on the back of his neck rose nevertheless in anticipation for some attack, and he felt a shiver trace his spine. His eyes roamed the dark forest as the horse continued forward, his gut telling him something wasn't right. Too late, he realized that the forest animals had ceased to make noise.
A flurry of spell tags surrounded him, and he shouted in frustration as he felt himself suddenly slow down, his body weighed down by an unseen, heavy hand. The horse neighed loudly as it found itself unable to even lift a hoof, and Kanda heard, somewhere, a voice state into a golem, "Madam, we have-"
Nthanda woke up with a screech, his little body too sensitive to the sudden weight of the immobility tag, and, in a quick, mind-boggling blink, things went POP!
As was customary, Kanda and the horse he sat on were abruptly taken through the between, their bodies stretched and pulled and picked apart as they traversed that strange space that was not space. After an eternity, they were dropped again, in a clearing, and the horse quickly went to its knees with a whicker and a pant. Kanda, shaking with adrenaline, stepped out of the stirrups as the horse fell to its knees, rocking the screaming Nthanda. Wordlessly, he slumped down to sit on a rock, trying to get a hold of his faculties.
That had been much, much too close.
He looked out, down the wash towards the glow of the manor house, and he swallowed hard. Nthanda, somehow, had transported them nearly a mile out. It would be at least an hour or two before the others made it that far, especially in the thick brush. Lavinia was going through the plantations, and she knew the land, so perhaps she would make it first. Din, however, may take longer, and that worried him. He shifted on his seat, Nthanda finally settling down against his chest. The option to move on without the other two was strong, almost overwhelming, but he knew that he needed their help if he was going to be able to make it the rest of the way to Cairo without a map. Lavinia knew the lay of the land for quite a distance, while Din was an adept hunter and tracker. Their guidance was necessary - or so he liked to tell himself.
He knew he could make it on his own, if he really, truly needed to, but the thought of completing the journey alone was nearly painful. With growing horror, Kanda realized he had grown much too compassionate, and he'd gotten attached to his traveling companions. What if he should have to do this alone? He would have to suffer the pain, the guilt, of leaving them behind, when before, he never would have even considered it.
What had become of him?
So, despite his head yelling at him to get aboard the now-recovered horse, his heart weighed him down, and he waited.
"It's about time you got here."
Nthanda was awakened by Kanda's low, almost churlish baritone. The baby yawned heavily, stretching out its arms and putting a tiny fist into Kanda's face in the process. The tyke scrunched up his face and began to whine, but Kanda did little to alleviate the suffering that was called 'morning'. All the boy remembered of the night before was that there had been a terrible weight atop him and Kanda as he was lulled to sleep by the rocking step of a horse, and he'd had to get them away. Luckily, his hand was already curled in Kanda's hair, or else he would've never had an inkling of where to go, but with such a clear idea in mind, he'd taken it upon himself to get them out.
What ever would they do without him?
Nthanda squinted his eyes and burbled unhappily as he surveyed Din and Lavinia, who dismounted from their horses. The morning sun was just beginning to light the sky. Despite his protests, the baby was passed over to Din, and Nthanda pouted mightily at the unwanted embrace. He squirmed discontentedly, but Din was used to this treatment already.
"Had tah take a bit of a back road here," Din said as he tried to get out of the way of Nthanda's flailing arms. "CROW near caught me, but I tossed deh 'babe' at 'im 'n - well, he were more interested in dat. Saved my skin wit' a bit of cloth 'n rocks. Couldn't be more proud."
While Nthanda didn't appreciate being manhandled by anyone who wasn't Kanda, Din's pleasure was contagious, and Nthanda began to calm down a bit and allow himself to be carried, his chest to Din's forearm.
Din began to rock him as Lavinia recounted, "Oh, it was... something, I will tell you that. I lost them the minute I went into the plantation grounds. I took a back way that most don't know about. They would've had to be twenty feet higher to see it, but it's nothing but bushes all the way down. I thought for a moment I was most definitely going to bite it when Curly nearly put a foreleg in a post hole, but she managed it well."
Nthanda looked back at Lavinia talking with a bit of a pursed lip, her high-pitched voice tinny in his young ears. While she was no longer the massive nuisance she once was, he still found her almost insufferable, and he could tell the others did as well. What he couldn't deny was that the woman had strong, strong feelings, and, under all that bluster and denial and hopeless romance, was a good heart.
"Where to from here?" Kanda asked, and to Din, and Nthanda's, surprise, all in attendance stared at Lavinia for direction.
The Comtess opened her mouth and slammed it shut again as she considered the situation. She turned in place, looking about in every direction, as she thought of the possibilities, and Nthanda quickly began to try and reach for her, his pudgy hands grabbing at her.
"Oh, what's dah mattah, boy? I din' think you liked Lady 'Vinia," Din said with a chuckle as he rocked the child.
Oh, what fun! There was something dizzying about being rocked side to side like this, as if he were about to fall, the heady sense of danger without any of the repercussions. Din, after all, had strong arms and was attentive - he wanted to get to Lavinia, for goodness sake! There was no way she could have a single, real thought in her head, and Nthanda wasn't about to miss that. Besides, if she was deciding where they were going to go, maybe he could just take them there himself. Of course- he didn't know how he did the thing where he jumped to the comfortable place with the voices, but he was sure he would figure that out all on his own.
However, Din merely played with him, bouncing him high in the air, and Nthanda eventually wiggled out of his grasp to be put on the ground.
"That way is Massawa. We can take a train there - it will take us a few days, yes, but it will be worth it - and from Massawa, we can take a fast steamer-"
"No boats," Kanda groaned.
"Yes, boats! It is the fastest way there," Lavinia complained. "At most, it would be four days at sea, and we'll almost always be in sight of land. It's not like we'll be in the open ocean. We go by steamer, get up to Ghadarqa port in Egypt, then take camels all the way to Cairo."
"And the CROW?" Kanda asked.
Din gave him a look as he mentioned, "And money?"
Lavinia flapped her hands at them and said, "A-all taken care of, I assure you. I have the funds."
"Where, up your skirt?"
Nthanda, who had been busy heading towards Lavinia as Din's mind was elsewhere, stuck his head under Lavinia's dress as this was said, much to the girl's embarrassment. Indeed, Nthanda was able to catch a glimpse of a belt tied around her leg, before he was yanked forward and landed heavily on one knee.
"Oh! Nthanda, don't you do that! That's rude," Lavinia tutted as she picked him up and dusted him off, though he didn't quite appreciate being handled.
"You were saying," Kanda stated.
"I have the money," Lavinia assured as she put a wriggling Nthanda upon her hip. Nthanda blew a raspberry in agreement, trying to reach for the gun slapped over Din's shoulder to look down the barrel.
"The CROW, dat be your job, Mistuh Kanda," Din sighed. "At least, we got Vanya keepin' 'em off our tail, but we don' know for how long she kin keep dat up."
Nthanda perked up at Vanya's name, but, upon realizing she was not in present company, he went back to trying to steal Din's gun.
"It'd be easier if I went alone," Kanda admitted.
"Except that you don't speak Italian, or Eritrean. And you hate water. And you've no sense of direction," Lavinia pointed out with a huff.
"Says the girl who set a whole field on fire by walking," Kanda grumbled as he got up and took Nthanda, sadly before he could get a hold of that beloved, forbidden rifle. Din, realizing that his gun was nearly purloined, quickly moved it to his other shoulder as Kanda took Nthanda towards a horse.
"We'd best get moving," Kanda ordered. "CROW will be on our tail any minute."
"Right witcha," Din said as he went to mount his horse again.
Lavinia groaned a bit as she realized how long a ride it would be without water, a good breakfast, or a bath. It was a long, long way to Massawa, and there was little to no infrastructure on the way there. It would be fastest to reach a rail line, but there was no telling when that would be.
"Lead the way," she sighed as she strode forward and mounted her horse.
Ellis paced the living room, ignoring the many CROW who were seated about her vicinity. She squeezed her eyes shut as she put her hands to her mouth in a prayer position. She had not a clue what to tell Malcolm. Somehow - someway - Kanda had gotten wind of their ruse, and now he was, no doubt, halfway to Cairo. Along with him had gone Lavinia and Dingane, and it drove a knife into her heart to think she had split their party for Leverrier's foul purposes. Yet, the allure of action had always glittered so sweetly to her, and she couldn't deny that she had immensely enjoyed planning everything down to the last jot...
Alas, for naught - on many fronts. He had played them all like a fiddle, using decoys to split their numbers, before using their superior knowledge of the land to cover their tracks and make finding them even more difficult. With Lavinia as his guide, he'd taken swift horses out onto the plains somewhere, and from one CROW's account, he had even managed to escape a spell with Nthanda's help. The three had gone ahead without them, leaving Vanya behind with her, and now there was no way to know where exactly they were. It would be difficult to stage men in all the major cities, and even if she could've, she would have hated to. There was far too much ground to cover.
It seemed her efforts were to all be in vain. She was all that was left, on her lonesome, despite so many people surrounding her. The CROW were little more than furniture, the real occupants of the house, mere flies. The only person who seemed the least bit real was Vanya, and she knew that the girl had more than likely betrayed their purpose to Kanda, despite the fact she had saved informing the woman of their plan to the latest moment possible.
"...knew she was nothing but trouble! Her mother was too soft-hearted, I tell you, too soft-hearted. You can take the girl out of the tenement, but you can't take the tenement out of the girl," the Comte railed as he poured himself a brandy in the sitting room, and Ellis did her best not to let her eyes roll all the way to the back of her head. If she'd thought Lavinia was insufferable, her father was tenfold the nuisance. More than once, she had been tempted to have a CROW 'put him to sleep' for a few moments, just to get some peace. He hadn't stopped talking of Lavinia's sudden escape since the night before.
"I kept her because my wife's goodwill lived on in her, but now I see it, that she's a lowbrow, common girl, running off with men in the middle of the night. I should have known it. But Marcella, oh, she wanted to have a girl, yes, she wanted a girl so badly, and she got herself one from a crumbling building, crying for its mother in Godforsaken Ireland," the Comte grumbled to himself.
"Excuse me, but do you mind?" Ellis finally said, gesturing to the room full of operatives and her own, thinking self.
The Comte looked up as if in surprise, and he said, "Oh. Pardon, I -"
"No, no, no, no. You want to rail on and on about your daughter - yes, daughter- but you've no words to say of your brat of a son?" Ellis finally said, scathing as boiling oil.
The Comte's mustache wiggled indignantly at the implication, but Ellis wasn't finished.
"Your daughter has helped me in our endeavors across nearly half of Africa, risking life and limb to help us on our journey, and you've the nerve to call her lowbrow, common tenement trash? Yes, she has her head in the clouds with a silver spoon stuck in her mouth, but goodness gracious, man! You can't see for that bush you call a mustache under your nose, that the child in front of you is spoiled rotten and stinking for it. I'd be ashamed to call you the father of a monkey - it'd be an insult to the animal," Ellis spat.
"What does it matter to you? She helped your quarry get away, has she not?" asked the Comte, spittle flying from his mouth. "She's been nothing more than a hindrance and waste of money."
"And yet, she possesses more finesse and charitability in her pinkie finger, than you have in your entire house," Ellis retorted. "And while you have my gratitude for allowing me to use your space as a headquarters, that is where my goodwill ends."
The Comte huffed, ready to sling something else at the bespectacled, bedraggled woman, but a knock on the door interrupted them.
A CROW with bruises around his throat holding onto a familiar Rhodesian ridgeback stood at the door, the dog barking and straining at the collar to race towards Ellis and get himself a good head rub.
"Vanya said that this was your animal," the CROW stated, letting the dog go.
With a great bound, he stood up on his hind legs and began to lick at Ellis' face. The old lady, while not in a particularly good mood, allowed the dog to get in a few good kisses before sending him down to the ground, where he began to sniff at the table, the other CROW, and the furniture within nose's reach.
Ellis's eyebrows furrowed, and she said, "Go and get something from Exorcist Kanda's room, if you don't mind."
"I'm not done with you -"
"- Oh, but I am," said Ellis, waving at the Comte with a hand as she gestured for the CROW to file out of the house towards the backyard, where the servants were cleaning up the evening's leavings.
The dog followed her happily, and she smiled fondly at the hound. She had sorely missed the dear, more than she realized. He seemed the only friendly face in the whole household, and it was a delight to see someone who was glad to see her.
"Vat is going on?" an alto voice asked and Ellis turned to see Vanya with the CROW who'd run to retrieve an item from Kanda's room.
She wore again the black raiment of a CROW, obviously having given up affiliation with their former party, and it almost pained her to see the mask yet again in place, her face as smooth and impenetrable as porcelain. The Russian girl was no bigger than a china doll, her long hair hidden under the four-cornered hat, her body's shape disguised in the loose folds of the inky fabric.
"We are going to find our wayward son," Ellis stated, her hand held out for the item.
To her dismay, it was Kanda's tie, discarded no doubt the night he fled. She took it in hand and held it to the dog for his inspection. Voraciously, he sniffed the garment before barking happily, recognizing the human who had previously worn it.
"Yes, yes, good boy. Now, can you find him? Go on, get him!" Ellis said, pointing out to the wide expanse of plantations and brush beyond.
For a few moments, the dog stood still, head cocked to the side in confusion. Ellis felt disappointment well up in her chest as she realized that the dog was no hunting hound, trained to go after a man in -
The dog suddenly took off into the underbrush, and the CROW followed as well with dizzying speed. Ellis held her hair in place as the whole entourage raced to follow the dog into the jungle beyond, and she glanced back, wondering if Vanya had, instead, chosen to stay with her.
Alas she had not. Ellis stood upon the wide, open grounds, alone. After a few moments of silence, she walked towards the house. She had a few phone calls to make. Her cousin would be less than happy.
The journey to the nearest railway took less time than they'd thought, but, unfortunately, there wasn't a train on it to board. Rather than risk waiting for a train and be discovered, they spent the next day or so following it, hoping that, at some point, they would get lucky and have a free ride to... somewhere. While Kanda was more inclined to travel by horse, as it was marginally faster, there was the fact they had to water and feed the horses, and the farther away they rode, the less likely they would be able to go back home to their stables.
"You would think trains would be more common through here," Lavinia whined at the front of the column, leading the way at a canter, while Din and Kanda stayed behind, Nthanda dozing in Kanda's arms.
"He's gettin' big. You ken barely hold 'im now. How old you think he is?" Din asked, pointing a long finger at the boy.
Kanda shrugged wordlessly. He was no expert on children, and he'd hardly been keeping track of the days that went by. If it wasn't for train schedules and the brief stops in towns, Kanda would have no idea what day was what, or what month they were even in. Often, he'd come back to the Order surprised to find that, while he'd left in, say, April, it was nearly June by the time he'd returned from some foray with Marie to Barcelona, Izmir, or Copenhagen. There was no telling how long they'd been on the road.
"He was barely nine months when we started. How long has it been?"
Din pursed his lips as he thought, counting on his fingers, and he finally said, "Eh... mehbe two and a half? T'ree?"
"He's nearly a year old. Good thing we don't know his birthday. He's not about to get a party," Kanda sighed.
Din seemed taken aback by the idea.
"No birthday party? Mehbe we make up a birthday for 'im? After all, it ain't 'bout the birth day itself, but we showin' him we're glad he's here wit' us," Din said, poking the child in the chest to wake him up a bit.
Nthanda fussed at Din, waving a hand at him to get him to stop, and Kanda helped him turn away from Din, the older man smiling at his annoyed reaction. The boy would be a handful when he was older, but with the right rearing, he would make for a fine, strong young man. The drastic change between how the child was when they first picked him up to how he was now, could almost bring a tear to his eye. His skin was glossy black, his hair a thick, tight mat of black curls. He was plump, energetic, fussy, and amazingly resilient. He looked forward to seeing the boy grow up.
Then, behind them, they heard the rumble of a train, and all three turned to look towards the locomotive slowly making its way towards them. Din's face split into a grin as Lavinia whooped excitedly. Kanda grunted in affirmation as he wheeled his horse back and around. The three traveling companions dismounted and, luckily, managed to board the train with little problem. The horses began to walk back towards their stables, and Lavinia tearfully waved goodbye to her mare, Curly, while Kanda rolled his eyes and Din laughed at the girl's near-sobbing.
Before long, they would be in Massawa, and then... only four days to the port, and then a week to Cairo. Kanda's heart sank as he thought of how near the end of their trip was approaching, but alas, that was not something that could be helped. Nevertheless, he held Nthanda a hair tighter as the train trundled closer and closer to their destination.
"We've lost their trail," a CROW, a young man by the name of Dorian, stated apologetically as he knelt beside her feet. "The dog was able to pick it up to a set of train tracks, but after that point, we lost them. We believe they've taken the light rail towards one of the other cities. That particular railroad goes to several different cities at a junction, and we're not sure which they've decided to take."
Ellis, sitting in her room at the vanity, put her hair brush down as she continued to unpin the complicated array of hair ornaments from her tight bun. Her glasses sat on the vanity as well, and somehow, the lack of them made her look far older. Her hands fumbled with a difficult catch on one of her many barrettes, and she said, "Go on."
"We have reason to think that they will make for the nearest port and set sail to Cairo rather than travel overland," Dorian continued. "It will take them, perhaps, two weeks to reach Cairo."
"Then there is no point to spending so much money and wasting so much time catching them, now is there," said Ellis pensively as she examined her long hair in the mirror.
She was going to need a haircut soon. Her locks were more hindrance than boon on journeys, and she hated to have to put it all up. Back in the day, she'd had it cropped quite short, but that was not befitting of a lady who had her own household. Perhaps now that she was a 'free' woman, she could cut it again, but she would sorely miss looking at least half-way feminine.
"Chart the fastest course possible for us to reach Cairo. I care not for the price - Leverrier is taking care of that, and in fact, the more money you can spend, the better. That'll teach him to intervene," Ellis ordered.
The CROW stood up to leave, and Ellis leaned out of her chair to yell after him, "And bring me my mutt! Heaven knows he's the only happy face around here."
She continued unleashing her hair, letting each successive strand fall with a soft swish. It was going mostly gray, with a few strands still retaining a bit of their native brown in places. She had loathed to go completely silver, but her husband had assured her that the look made her appear regal, like a lioness or a fox. Of course, that would be followed up by a devilish grin. Ellis smiled a bit at the memory, though it quickly turned bitter. Those halcyon days were far behind her.
"Jyou look nice, wit' your hair down."
Ellis looked up into the mirror to see Vanya standing in her doorway, and she didn't bother to turn around.
"Why, thank you. I tend not to undo it, as it's so much work to put it up."
"May I help?"
"Of course."
Vanya approached softly, still in CROW garb, and Ellis felt a thrill of dismay as she clinically began to search for the pins and undo them. She had never noticed how taciturn she was in the beginning, perhaps because she had not been in her employ, much less her acquaintance, but now, she found her silence unnerving.
"Vhy are ve doing dis?" Vanya asked quietly.
Ellis' shoulders fell as she seemed to deflate. She leaned back in the chair, Vanya brushing each strand with the brush that had been left on the vanity. Ellis chewed over her answer, the dim light of the electric lamp outlining the wire-thin wrinkles around her mouth and eyes. She rubbed her face and finally answered.
"I'm not so sure anymore. At first, it was the allure of adventure for me - duty for you. All Leverrier wanted, in the beginning, was for me to keep an eye on things. And then, that began to progress from mere note-taking to real participation. He dangled a carrot in front of my nose, and he set me a-walking, like an idiot rabbit," Ellis admitted. "He promised me that I could take over as Head of Operations at Central, do something more with my time than sit and dust books in a library, and I... I jumped at the chance to be useful again. I've never been good at sitting still."
Ellis chuckled a bit at her small joke to herself, shaking her head.
"And you, my dear... I don't know why you didn't just run off with Kanda and the rest. You would've been within your rights to," Ellis said.
"I... am a CROW."
"But you are just as much Nthanda's mother as Kanda is his father, and a mother's love is heady and frighteningly strong," Ellis murmured. "Almost as heady and strong as a grandmother's."
The two looked at each other through the mirror, and the pain of separation from their small, hodge-podge family was evident in the beads welling in their eyes.
"What are we doing here?" Ellis asked in a whisper.
Vanya lowered her gaze.
"Ve are vat ve are," Vanya stated. "End dere's nothing ve ken do to change dat."
A/N: Halloa, my dear readers! So glad to have you hear for the 28th installment of Afrikaan Voices! It looks as though things are finally winding down for the gang, as they get closer and closer to Cairo! Will they make it there? Guess you'll have to find out!
To my reviewers: Thank you so much. I have just been deluged by reviews since the last two chapters came out, and I am so glad to see so, so, so many comments about the whole thing.
amenokuma: Your last review was wonderful, as always, and I greatly enjoyed your insights. I hope that this chapter sated the need for speed! Kanda is indeed a man of action!
pikaree1: Wow! So many, many reviews! This is an amazing look into what the story looks like from an outsider's perspective!
FrenchMacaroni: I plan on continuing the story, no worries. I hope to see this one through to the end as my second, finished fic.
karina001: Again - thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm so glad that this was a pleasant distraction and read while so much is going on! I'm always happy to give you something to beta, as your insight is always magnificent and wonderful to digest. ;D
Menesong: Oh my! There were, indeed, a few things that I got wrong (this fic is quite old - in fact, it's probably my third oldest on the site), but I'm glad that it still reads well even though I started it waaaaay back in 2012 or so! So happy that you've binged on it, and I hope that this next installment has kept you on the edge of your seat!
flyingbugs: Aaaah, yes, Allen. He was, indeed, in America for a little bit, chasing ghost lights in the swamps near the South. He shows up in Chasing After the Wind, another story of mine, towards the end after his sojourns there! Feel free to take a peek, though I do warn you that Allen shows up rather late in the story.
To all of my subscribers and favoriteers, you have my great, great gratitude. I love to know that so many people are willing to follow the story to its end. Hopefully, I can deliver.
Now- discussion! If you had to pick a major theme for the story, what would it be and why? Do you listen to music whenever you read? If so, what do you listen to? If you could put a soundtrack to the story, what would it be? What elements of the story (like plot, characters, locations, etc.) do you like the best? Do you identify with any of the characters?
Thank you again, and I hope that you all have a great time hunting down more fics to read as I put out the next installment! God bless you all, and happy reading!
