Well, with that out of the way, it's really going to become the children's story now. Like I said, there is a happy ending. Promise.
Jolie sat on the stairs, eavesdropping on her aunt's conversation.
"Hey, Juline. I wasn't expecting to hear from you. Where's Fitz?"
"They left to rescue Jolie from the Neverseen along with the rest of the Collective and never came back. We don't know what happened to them."
Her aunt sounded confused and worried. "What are you talking about? I just sent Jolie up to bed half an hour ago. She's never left my care."
"Then all of then are likely captured or dead. We've sent a few people to check and none of them have come back either. So we don't know what's going on. It's like a black hole. No communication. It's like it doesn't exist."
"I'll break all links to the elvin world after I end this call, except for my emergency crystal. Hopefully this call isn't being tracked."
"You can't track Imparter calls."
"Oh, that's not a thing?"
"No, it's not a thing. Dex wanted to make it a thing, but I wouldn't let him."
"Okay. I'll leave the Imparter, but locked in my safe with my guns."
Their voices dropped lower and Jolie scooted down a few stairs and leaned forward.
"Is Fitz one of the ones missing?"
Juline sighed. "Yes. So are Dex, Biana, Keefe, Linh, and Tam. The entire Collective. Many individual members who went on their own. In fact, I may be the last member of the Black Swan alive. Lord Cassius was never able to get his cube to open."
"I'll let Jo-Jo know. Is there any evidence they might still be alive?"
"Marella was the only one to return. She said she was the only one to wear a cloth over her mouth and nose, which is why she survived. The island is covered in an airborne poison that doesn't have a cure. I set a protocol in place Dex created. It's erased Jolie from the minds and databases of the elvin world. We don't want to risk her being found. I've returned to Rimeshire with the quintuplets and they are living as one identity. I'll get back to you soon with more information."
"Okay. Bye Juline."
"Goodbye, Amy."
Jolie heard the imparter click off and her aunt sigh. She realized too late her aunt was coming up the stairs and scrambled to hide.
"Jolie, what are you doing out of bed? Were you eavesdropping on my conversation?"
There was no sense in denying it. "Yeah. Is Dad really gone?"
Her aunt sighed. "Yes. I'm sorry, babycakes. Looks like you're stuck with me."
Jolie broke down crying, clinging to her aunt's shirt as Amy pulled her up and led her to bed.
Juline rubbed her forehead as she put her Imparter in the drawer and locked it. The quints were in bed asleep and Marella had just left after delivering the horrible news. How was she supposed to tell the five girls in the other room that their father, aunts and uncles were dead?
She decided to leave that for the morning and take her own time to grieve.
When she and Kesler had let Dex leave for his apprenticeship, they had known and reconciled themselves to the fact he may not come home. When he and all of his friends had come home more or less unscathed with the news that this fight was over, she had cried in relief. It had been seventeen wonderful years with her family and later, grandchildren. It was the kind of bond only forged through the worst of hardships.
It was supposed to be over. They had won. They were done with the stupid war. She had been waiting for her husband and son to come home, for it to be safe again, only to receive the news that it was never going to happen. Her family was never going to be whole again. She had no idea what had happened to Kesler. She could only assume he was working things out with his clan and would be home when he could. At least Marella had been able to tell her he was safe.
The triplets had never gotten wrapped up in the Black Swan. They were safe in the Lost Cities right now, with no idea what had happened. Of course, they were privy to some non-classified information, such as the fact that Dex and everyone else had gone into hiding. But they didn't know they would never see their brother again. She had to tell them eventually, but for now she tucked her head in her arms, forehead against her desk, and cried for the family she'd lost, after barely pulling them together again.
Maria knew everything was about to be turned on its head. She'd been a model student for the rest of last week and now it was a new week. She could start her reign of terror once more. She fussed with her pin, trying to fasten it without sticking her finger.
"Maria, take that off. You're not going back to Foxfire."
"What?" She turned around to see her grandfather in the doorway to her room. "What do you mean I'm not going? You put all this effort into me 'upholding the family honour' and then say I'm not going?"
He cut her off. "You're not going because something or someone has killed almost every member of the Black Swan and you may be one of their next targets. You don't have a bodyguard and we cannot obtain one for you. So you and your sister have to stay out of the public eye until further notice."
"O-Oh."
"Natasha already knows. Change out of that and go to the safe room near the top of the building, the one the vortinator doesn't reach. We may have some unwanted visitors soon."
"Y-Yes, Grandfather." Suitably frightened, Maria changed with shaking hands and ran to find her sister.
Natasha was curled up in her room crying. Maria hugged her tightly and they cried together for a few minutes. Then she dried her eyes and her sister's, pulling Sha-sha upright and both of them walking to the vortinator.
"Floor 200!"
After the vortinator, it took them a few tries to find the hidden staircase. It was narrow and winding, but anyone more than a few inches taller than Maria would have serious trouble getting past the first few steps.
The 'safe room' actually consisted of two floors at the top of one of the towers. It was rather Spartan in design compared to the rest of Candleshade. Two bedrooms, a kitchen and pantry stocked with plenty of food, and hidden leaping crystals to take them to various safe houses. It was simple and hidden. The only other way to access it was with a temporary crystal with certain angles. That information had died with their father.
"Ri-Ri?"
"Yeah Tasha?"
"What's gonna happen to us now?"
Maria squared her small shoulders. "We're gonna be okay. After this blows over, life's gonna be just like it was before. We'll go to Foxfire and find out our abilities, and train and everything. We'll be okay, Natasha. We'll be okay."
She hoped.
Ry knew something was wrong. He may not have been able to see, but he could hear. There had been a lot of people running by outside his room for the past few hours. There were yelling voices and Aunt Ro hadn't come to visit him. Some orges had come and packed up his things and moved them. Whatever was wrong, it was big.
Heavy footsteps came to his door and opened it. The ogre didn't identify themselves. They just picked him up and started running down the hallway. Ry panicked, not recognizing the ogre from their armour, and struggled against their grip. "Let me go! Who are you?"
The footsteps slowed. "My name is Bo. I was one of your mother's bodyguards. I'm not going to hurt you, I'm just taking you to Ro."
"O-Okay."
The ogre named Bo passed him to Ro after some time. He'd learned the difference between her and the other orges over time. Her hands had calluses in different places, her skin was softer and her armour was different. "Aunt Ro, what's going on?"
"Don't worry, kid. You're just moving to an apartment deeper in Ravagog. It's got all the same stuff in the same positions. It's exactly the same as your old one, just a little safer."
"No, what's going on? Why am I moving? What's all the fuss? I know something weird is going on and I want to know what."
She was silent. He could hear her walking along a stone tunnel, well he assumed it was a tunnel, but he could be wrong.
"Does it have to do with Papa?"
"Yeah." she said quietly. "But I don't want you to worry, okay? Marella, you know her, she's going to come train you. Like, really train you."
"I'm going to learn how to fight." Ry whispered.
She didn't deny it.
"Here's your new place, kiddo." His feet met the floor and he wobbled a little before getting his balance. "The door is right in front of you."
"It's cold down here. And hard to see."
"Sorry. The light source I have doesn't give off heat." Aunt Ro placed her and on his shoulder to help guide him.
Ry felt for the doorknob and opened the door. The walls inside were just heated enough so he could see them and he knew there was furniture around him. "There's an extra door, over there." He pointed.
"That's Marella's room. It doesn't have the same modifications as yours. She wanted to be close to you in case an accident happened while you were training. I know you've got good control, but better safe than sorry."
"Okay." He turned around, using her hand as a guide. "I still want to know what's going on. I know I'm only six, but I'm the youngest person to manifest ever and as a Pyrokinetic out of everything I could've been. This is probably a grownup problem, but I still want to know."
Aunt Ro sighed. "Yeah, it is a grownup problem. I can't tell you right now because I don't know what's going on either. Neither does my dad. Your grandma Juline told us we needed to take all possible measures to hide you, so we did. We're getting more information soon. Sorry, kiddo."
"It's okay. I understand." He hugged her tightly around the waist. "I'll wait in my room, okay?"
"Okay. Give me a few hours, but I should have something for you. Even if it's classified or against direct orders, I'll get some information to you. This is about your family. You deserve to know."
"Thank you."
Ry was waiting for several hours. He went through a few basic forms his aunt had taught him, sliding through the stances and only stumbling a few times. As Aunt Ro had said, everything was in the same place, so memory served him well.
Loneliness was not new to him, since he had no way of telling the time, but he knew when it had been longer than it should have been. He had a few books written in a language Aunt Amy had called Braille. They weren't very common, but the ones he had he enjoyed. They were thick and heavy, so he always had to set them on a table when he read.
He had worked through another chapter of Lord of the Rings when a knock sounded at his door.
"Who's there?" he called, struggling to close the large book.
"It's Marella, Can I come in?"
"Yeah."
The door opened and footsteps came toward him. It took him a few seconds to place where they were, since his ears were used to ogre stomps. "Hi Aunt Marella."
"Hey big guy." She set her hands on his shoulders before picking him up and setting him in front of her. "You're six now?"
"Yeah."
"Wow, you're getting so big. How are your forms?"
"Aunt Ro says they're as good or better as we can expect them to be. I'm trying, but without the dynamic training floor Uncle Dex made for me, it's a lot harder. But I think I'm doing good."
"Awesome. I'm gonna teach you some things I learned when I was younger. I had someone teach me how to firebend. It's like pyrokinesis, but it's a lot more powerful and you can do things that aren't possible with pyrokinesis. I want you to be able to at least hold Everblaze by the time I have to leave again. You don't have to be able to do anything with it, just hold it. I want to know if it affects your vision at all."
"Okay." Ry went to hug her, but the strange feeling under his fingertips made him jerk back. "What's that?"
"Oh. I'm wearing leather armour. That's why it feels strange. Here."
He heard a rustling sound and her arms wrapped around him. "Is this better?"
"Yeah." He wrapped his arms around her neck and set his head on her shoulder. She must have kneeled down. "What's going on? Aunt Ro said she doesn't know yet. And where's Papa? Why didn't he come?"
Aunt Marella sighed and she was quiet for an uncomfortably long time. "He's not coming back, Ry. He's gone. The Neverseen killed him and everyone else."
"N-No." Ry started crying, clinging to his aunt. "You can't be right. He must be hiding, faking it, o-or something."
"That's what I thought too, kiddo. But I checked. The person called himself a Shadeslayer and he broke your dad's neck after he killed him. He did that to everyone to make sure they were dead. I'm so, so sorry."
Ry couldn't do anything except sob in his aunt's arms, feeling her tears mingle with his.
Well, yeah. That's happened. Sad kiddos and sad chapter. It's going to have a different feel to it from now on. Please review! Reviewers get teasers for the next chapter! (Let me know if you don't want on.)
Shine brightly!
Ruby
