Chapter 14 – Apprehension
Beta'd by A.O. Talmidge
Corrin was out wandering again, and as was typical while Lady Camilla was at the Northern Fortress – and sometimes when she wasn't – Selena and Beruka took turns shadowing Corrin discretely; supposedly to make sure she didn't do anything rash. Tonight, it was Selena's turn.
Honestly, Selena thought it was unnecessary. Where could she go? Whatever. It made Lady Camilla happy.
Unfortunately, tonight, it was raining, and the drizzle made Selena's mood, which was already foul, turn toward miserable. She let out an annoyed huff and crossed her arms, returning her gaze to her charge.
Corrin was just standing out there in the rain like an idiot. At least Selena was smart enough to stand underneath an awning.
Though she would never admit it out loud, some part of her felt sorry for the situation Corrin was in. Miserable though Selena's early life had been, watching her world burn – often literally – around her, she was never trapped like Corrin. At least it made it easier to keep tabs on her for now, knowing she would always be at the Northern Fortress.
Selena let out an annoyed sigh. Ugh, it was dull, just watching her standing there, eyes closed, face turned up towards the rain with a slight smile on her face. Was she actually enjoying it?
Maybe it was a manakete thing. Not like Selena actually knew; she had never watched the manaketes she knew like she had Corrin.
Honestly, it was obvious that Corrin was part manakete. Anankos – or as Odin lamely termed it, 'his benign shard,' – had told them so. Of course, even if he hadn't, the pointed ears were a dead giveaway. However, unlike her world, no one here seemed to know what a manakete was. Coming out and telling her that would lead to questions Selena couldn't answer.
Stupid curse. At least Corrin was finally turning to go back inside, away from the cold, gloomy weather.
Wait, no.
She was walking into the pond.
Corrin was walking into the pond.
Selena broke into a run. "Corrin!"
Corrin didn't even look back as she slipped underneath the water. Could she not hear her?
"Corrin, you idiot, what are you doing?!" She dashed up to the pond, but stopped at its edge, as a light burst up from beneath the surface, temporarily blinding her. What in Naga's name was…?
Focus. Camilla was going to kill her if she didn't at least try to follow her, or save her, or do something to stop whatever this was. Squinting her eyes at the light, Selena splashed into the cold water, took a breath and dived toward the luminescence to follow her.
Or, tried to.
A few moments later, her hands hit the mud, plants and rocks at the bottom, stirring up a cloud of silt. Even though it looked like she should be able to go further, she couldn't. Far below, she caught a glimpse of Corrin past the solid bottom of the pond, looking for all the world like she was falling into the ground. What was going on?
The light pulsed from bright to blinding, before it felt like she was being physically thrown backwards into a spin. Her nose burned as water went up it, and she reflexively snorted, letting out more air than she should have. To her side now, the light blinked out, leaving her in dark water.
Her lungs burned with the need for air. Re-orienting herself, she kicked back up.
Surfacing, she spat out pond water, coughing, snorting in an undignified way to get the water out of her nose. She blinked, trying to get rid of the spots in her eyes. She glanced back down into the depths, but whatever that light was, it had vanished, taking Corrin with it.
Corrin was gone.
How was she supposed to explain this?
She swam back to shore, dripping pond water. She probably looked terrible right now with her clothing and hair drenched like this. Her boots squelched with water as she hauled herself out. She peeled off a lily pad sticking to her leg. Ugh. Disgusting.
The sound of boots hitting dirt, and a sharp intake of air.
Selena turned. A short ways away from the pond, a young woman stood, clad in a simple blue dress, dirty apron, sturdy boots caked with muck. Slitted amber eyes, bright azure hair in a simple braid fading to red near the tip. A kerchief on her head covered her ears.
Wreathed in violet flames, the manakete's dispassionate amber eyes narrowed as she casually caught Severa's blade in her hand, snapping it, and leaving her with just a hilt and the broken base. Inigo darted in, tackling her out of the way of the retaliating strike. Behind them a loud crash echoed, signaling Owain's success at breaking through the barrier. She scrambled to her feet, dragging Inigo with her to the opening.
Her pulse quickened as both fear and anger stirred, welling up to a boiling point. Her eyes narrowed as she took a step forward, her face twisting into a snarl. "You."
In one smooth motion, Selena drew her sword and dashed at her. The young woman's eyes bulged as she saw her charging figure and took a step back, her hands palm up. "Wait, stop!"
She ignored her, taking a jab. The girl yelped and stepped out of the way, and ducked under the follow-up swing. Selena lanced out with a kick, and the girl buckled, stumbling back as the wind was knocked out her. Selena pressed the advantage, knocking her down on to her side.
Selena slammed her waterlogged boot down hard into the girl's side, driving the tip of her sword to her neck. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't do it."
"I," she gasped coughing, sucking in air, "I didn't do that!" The fear in her eyes had to be fake, acting.
"Really." She crouched down and grabbed one arm and twisted the wrist into a painful position behind the girl's back, putting the sword closer to her neck. Beruka's methods must have been rubbing off on her; she didn't know how to feel about that.
She leaned in, talking lowly, intensely near the girl's ear, feeling her trembling slightly in her grip. "Why should I believe you when you're the manakete who attacked me and my friends when we first got to this world?" Selena cut off her response, jostling her slightly and earning a cry of pain. "Don't try to deny it. I'd recognize that hair with eyes like yours anywhere, and your kerchief covering your ears isn't going to fool me. What did you do to Corrin?"
"No, please." Were there tears forming around the girls eyes or was that just the rain? "You have it all wrong."
She scoffed. "Really? You work for him, the dragon." She avoided saying Anankos' name out of habit. "I think the conclusion's pretty obvious."
The girl squirmed. "No! I ran away from that. I'm here to watch over and protect Corrin."
"Uh-huh. You did such a great job doing that."
"I know, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Ugh, she really was crying. If this was a ploy to make her feel bad enough to make her want to let her go, it was working. "Why have I never seen you around the Northern Fortress before now?"
"Because I'm a coward." The girl sniffed, averting her eyes. "Whenever you or your friends were here, I would hide away when you came close. I shouldn't have, but I'm just a coward. I couldn't face any of you."
"So if you're saying you didn't do it, then who did? The dragon?"
"No. Corrin did it herself. I don't know why." She took a shuddering breath. "I was in the middle of cleaning the stables when I felt it happen. I rushed over here as fast as I could, but it was already too late."
"Then you know what that light was, where she went?"
The girl nodded, careful not to let the sword pierce her neck. "Yes, it was a gate to the other place; you know the reason I can't talk about it here."
"Tch." Stupid curse. It could be a trap, and letting her go could be a bad idea. But she had no other avenue of information right now. Intimidating her like this wouldn't get her any father, not to mention she really was starting to feel bad about doing it. The girl hadn't tried to fight back at all.
"Alright, fine then." Selena carefully took her sword away from the girl's neck. "Don't think this means I trust you or anything. Try something and I won't stop to ask questions."
She let go of the girl's arm and straightened, removing her boot from her side. Even so, she kept her sword unsheathed, ready in case she really did try anything. The girl breathed out a shaky sigh of relief, tenderly rubbing her wrist before wiping the tears away from her eyes on the sleeve of her now muddied dress.
She looked so pathetic it made a twinge of guilt rise up in her. She squashed it; right now she needed answers, not pity. "Do you have a name?"
"Lilith."
Ugh. It was such a disarmingly cute name. A far cry from what she would've imagined and farther still from the fanciful titles Odin had thrown around. "Okay, Lilith. What was a gate like that doing here?"
"It wasn't here before. Corrin made it."
"She can do that?"
"Yes, in any large enough pool of water. But those types of gates are only active for as long as the one who made them goes through."
"So I was just too late to go through?" That would be so annoying if that were the case.
Lilith shook her head. "No, I'm pretty sure only someone with clear draconic lineage traced to him could go through a gate like this."
"You don't sound very confidant. Sure you aren't lying?"
Lilith winced, averting her eyes. "No. I'm sorry. I just don't know. I only ever used one once on my own, to get away from that place, to find Corrin."
"Well then why don't you do it again now and go after her, bring her back?"
Her expression twisted into a mix of what looked like fear and…anxiety? "I…I can't. I'm too weak."
"Too weak?" Selena scoffed. "You caught my sword with your bare hands and broke it last time we fought." She had liked that sword. "So tell me, how is that too weak?"
"I gave up most of that power when I severed my connection to him. Otherwise he would've been able to trace me here." There was definitely fear mixed in with her voice.
That would explain why she didn't put up much of a fight. And why there were no violet flames. She'd basically just attacked an innocent stable-hand. That was assuming this was all true and not some elaborate ruse; no ruling that out fully yet.
Her thoughts came to a halt. Was she really becoming that cynical? "So you're not even going to try?" Selena asked.
"I'm sorry," Lilith repeated, bowing her head.
"Ugh. Stop apologizing, already. It's annoying." She sheathed her sword. What was she supposed to do now? Obviously, Camilla needed to at least know that Corrin was missing, but she couldn't tell her everything. She glanced over at Lilith; she couldn't let her out of her sight now either. "Whatever. You're coming with me."
"That makes sense." Lilith nodded, looking resigned as if she'd been expecting it. "I assume you're going to turn me in."
"What? No."
"Huh? But I don't…"
"First we're getting out of this stupid rain, and then we're going to find a way to save Corrin, idiot. What else?"
She had no idea where to start looking, but Lilith was the biggest breakthrough in information in all the years since they'd been here. A direct source about Anankos and Valla. She just needed to get in contact with Odin and Laslow without making it look bad.
And she couldn't reveal to anyone here that she or Lilith knew where Corrin went, all the while keeping an eye on Lilith to make sure it wasn't an act.
Nothing was ever simple.
"Azura, are you sure? You shouldn't put yourself at risk so often."
"You know I have to go." That she was going to check Anankos' seal in Valla went unsaid out loud, of course. Azura clutched her pendant, feeling the familiar thrum of power where the shard of the dragonstone contacted her fingers. "I am the only one in any position who can."
Going to the Bottomless Canyon was time consuming, risky, and not to mention conspicuous. As far as Azura knew, she was the only one who could travel to Valla freely like she could. Mikoto might be able to go, were she not tied down the duties of running a kingdom.
"I know, and yet…" Mikoto's expression twisted with a familiar sort of worry. It always did whenever she spoke to her of going to Valla. "Something doesn't feel right. Maybe it would be best if you wait."
"It can't wait, you know that. Besides, I know the land well, better than anyone, and I am not defenseless, especially not there."
"I'm aware of that, but-"
She stopped as the door to the Shirasagi's throne room opened. Both women turned to the figure stepping through. The scar crisscrossing in an 'X' over her face, the deep blue hair pulled back in a sensible ponytail. One of Mikoto's retainers, Reina.
Reined stepped forward, stopping just short with a respectful bow, her expression all business. "Pardon the intrusion. Prince Takumi has returned from Izumo and requests an audience with you."
If Azura remembered correctly, he had gone to Izumo to enjoy the Festival of Spring there because of an invitation. Had something happened to give reason for a formal audience?
"So soon?" Mikoto murmured, before speaking in an even tone. "Thank you for informing me, Reina. Send him in after Azura leaves."
Reina bowed again. "By your leave."
Mikoto nodded her assent. As Reina left, a knowing smile graced Mikoto's lips, and Azura spotted a hint of humor in her eyes. "It's just like your brother to ask in such a formal way to talk to me."
Azura looked to her aunt. "You are the queen of Hoshido. And you know as well as I do that he isn't my brother."
"Not by blood, no. But family is so much more than your lineage, Azura. Both of you are more alike than you care to realize. Takumi cares about you, even if he doesn't know how to show it." She felt Mikoto's hand come to rest tenderly on her cheek. "All of your siblings here do. You need only open up to them."
Her mother sucked in a stabilizing breath, giving her a smile as she laid a tender hand on Azura's cheek, placing a kiss on her forehead. Azura could tell the smile wasn't a happy one, and she could only watch in abject horror as that very hand still on her cheek started disappearing before her eyes. Her mind was still reeling from all the information about Valla. The pendant, newly adorned around her neck, thrummed.
Azura closed her eyes. She'd already had one mother succumb to the curse. She wouldn't risk any of her other adoptive family members. It was her burden to bear as one of the last members of Vallite royalty.
The only reason she had opened up to Mikoto was because Mikoto already knew. She already knew of Valla and its curse. The Hoshidan Queen was her mother's sister: she could dance around the Vallite curse.
"I'm fine, Mikoto."
Mikoto sighed in a long-suffering manner. "You know I don't mind if you call me mother, Azura." Azura averted her eyes and said nothing, and eventually, Mikoto's hand shifted to her shoulder to give a quick squeeze. "Be safe."
Azura walked out of Castle Shirasagi's throne room without saying another word.
Outside the door, Takumi, Oboro and Hinata turned to her as she passed through the opening. Had she had interrupted a conversation?
Takumi's stare turned to a glare, eyes narrowing. "What?"
She realized she had stopped to stare and almost moved on before she hesitated, Mikoto's words still fresh in her mind. Open up to him?
He folded his arms, annoyance clear. "If you have something to say, spit it out already."
She sighed. "It's nothing." And moved past them. So much for that.
Of all her adoptive siblings, Takumi trusted her the least. She couldn't blame him, given her situation. A supposed Nohrian royal and a bargaining chip for a political hostage exchange that would never come to pass. An unfit replacement for what he likely thought of as his real sister.
Her life here was easy, compared to what she could remember of the cutthroat politics of the Nohrian nobility. Of course, that wasn't to say she was loved here by all. Far from it.
Whether or not they cared that she heard, gossip ran amuck about her. Most were quiet about it, but they made their way to her ears nonetheless. They were never slow to point out her supposed faults; different, quiet, a Nohrian spy. Some were petty and focused on how she rarely wore any footwear; a supposed testament of her Nohrian savagery showing through.
It likely didn't help that Azura never cared to correct what they said. Thankfully, most of the castle staff ignored her, and she returned the favor by ignoring them.
She knew the truth, and that was enough.
A quick trip to her quarters to retrieve her blessed lance – a gift from Hinoka – and a small pack, before down and out of the castle she trekked. If people wondered where she was going, it wouldn't matter much. Time passed quicker in Valla relative to the world outside.
At least, most of the time. It was erratic and confusing, but generally, she ended up back in Hoshido long before anyone thought to question too much where she went.
Eventually, she came to a secluded clear lake. Sakura petals still littered the ground and dotted the pond's surface. This was one of her favorite places to come to be away from it all, to think.
But more importantly, to sing.
Bare feet padding on the sandy shore of the pond near the small wooden dock, she began the familiar melody. At first, a melody was all it was, until with a moment of concentration, the verse began to echo with an otherworldly power. The shard of Anankos' dragonstone fixed within her pendant began to glow softly, thrumming where the metal of the pendant met the cloth of her clothes.
Then came the pull, the tug on her psyche, a painful twinge in her mind mixed with the distant sound of rushing waves. She ignored the sensation and continued the song, shivering slightly as she waded into the clear water. So long as she traveled to Valla, the curse would not hurt her.
Her light-blue hair pooled behind her as she waded deeper. The tug on her mind surged and a light erupted from the bottom of the pond. Internally she sighed in relief. Every time, it felt like a gamble on whether or not it would work. She dived, then sank past the bed of the pond.
Until at last, she fell into the ground.
She closed her eyes at the distressing transition between worlds. No matter how many times she did this, that pain remained unchanged.
At the sensation of surfacing, the tug of the curse faded entirely. While she didn't know why, she wasn't going to complain if she was dry every time she completed the transition. She would have cut her hair shorter a long time ago if that hadn't been the case.
She opened her eyes to the wild landscape of Valla and inhaled deeply, breathing in the magic in the air, feeling the way it thrummed in an almost visible manner through the air.
The smell of home.
Unfortunately, she knew that unless she was lucky, her time without opposition would be short. She glanced around. Every time she came here something about the landscape had moved, changed or broken. But she came here so often that it rarely mattered.
Eventually, she was able to orient herself from a familiar landmark. Using her lance as a walking stick to keep it handy, she began walking towards a nearby transporter.
She remembered that she had tried to escape many times before.
This time, she was determined to make it all the way out.
A moment of negligence from her creator was all it took. Ignoring his cries of protest, she shattered many of the instruments he used before breaking through the door to his lab with strength of the blood he had given her.
Up stairs and through holes in ceilings she went, running, crawling, as fast as she could. As she ran, she passed her accomplices, the creatures, the decrepit looking humans with masks. As was normal, their breath came out visibly tinged with a purplish miasma. Most stood idly by simply tracing her movements with eyes glowing red – like hers – while she passed.
Their voices still echoed in her head, encouraging her, urging her to a freedom they would never have.
But not all seemed content to allow her to pass. She came across a group that stood in her way, wielding rusting weapons – swords, lances, axes – all approaching the point of being useless. The one in front let out a horrible, ear-grating screech that echoed in the dark, sand filled corridor. Even though she winced at the sound, she stood her ground, in her mind she roared at them to back off.
And to her surprise and delight, they listened.
It was the first time she could remember feeling joy. A feeling, like a thrill, bubbled up inside of her while continued her escape. The other voices urged her on. They wanted her freedom just as much as she did.
But in the end, it didn't matter. In the end, she came across an impassable door, locked from the outside. She had attempted to break through, but was forcibly pushed back, repulsed by some force that at the time, she couldn't fathom.
She had tried to escape, only to find it was pointless.
She was sealed in.
Trapped.
She sulked in front of that door for a long time. Some of the voices, the masks, gathered around her. They chided, criticized; some mourned with her. Eventually, her creator found her. The voices parted at his instruction.
She expected her captor to chide her, punish her in some way. That was what the voices told her to expect to happen.
Instead, he scowled just as scathingly at that door as she did. Something almost instinctual told her how he hated that just as much as she did, and in that brief moment she felt more connected to him than she ever would again.
"Mmm," he rumbled. She heard a curse. "The Council's seal."
She only realized later that she hadn't heard him speak that curse aloud.
He turned to look down on her still small form. "You seek freedom, but now you know that you are just as trapped here as I am. That," she saw him gesture to the door, "is a problem for another day." His expression turned in an instant ecstatic, overjoyed. Giddy. "For now, let us focus on the good that came from this."
He had laughed, exuberantly. "You're learning to control them! Much quicker than I expected too, even wresting control of them from me. But, no, I shouldn't be surprised at all, should I? After all, this was what you were created to do."
He laughed again; that same focused, mad laughter. "Fantastic! This requires further tests, my creation. Your control of the thanatophages needs to be perfect, or this will all have been for nothing."
She had grudgingly consented to it and the voices concurred as well. Better for them to be under her direction, than the control of the mad man who had tortuously brought them back to this semblance of life.
But, once that was done, like the voices urged her to, she would kill this man.
Anna woke up.
A slight headache greeted her before she realized a hand was shaking her. She blinked rapidly, before rubbing the crust out of her eyes with her thumb and forefinger, her sight resolving into Robin crouching near her bedroll.
"Ah, finally. Your turn for watch." His voice was quiet, likely to try and not wake Kaden. "You were sleeping pretty soundly. Did I wake you up in the middle of a dream or something?"
Had he? "May-" Anna yawned, sat up and stretched, earning satisfying popping noises from her arms. "Maybe." The headache pulsed, and she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"You okay?"
She slapped her cheeks and took a deep breath of the cool air. The headache receded slightly. "It's just a small headache. Probably just need to drink some water and I'll be fine."
"Alright. Remember, don't hesitate to wake both of us if there's any trouble and don't-"
"-go off on my own or try to fend of the foul creatures of the night, or be a hero." She gave him a scathing look. "I know how it works."
"Never hurts to have a little reminder." He stood, and made his way over to his bedroll.
She shivered from the night's chill as she rose from her own. Spring may have started, but the nights were still cold. Or, was it technically morning at this point for her, since she was on third watch tonight? Whatever.
She laced up her boots, buckled her sword firmly to her hip and drew her traveling cloak around herself to fend off the chill. There were clear signs of travel on the cloak, most notably the stains of mud near the bottom from trekking mud in the aftermath of the rain a couple of days ago. She needed to clean it as some point.
The night crawled onward on her watch. She stirred the embers of the fire some, rubbing her hands together to get feeling back in her fingertips. As usual, being on watch left her without much to do, so she squandered away the time thinking. Her mind turned in useless circles.
Like she had feared, none of them knew what had happened when she and Robin had disappeared. She wasn't sure if knowing he didn't know was more unnerving than not knowing at all.
The memories of that place – or whatever it was – remained stubbornly there, but not there. Blocked but not blocked. Muddled by contradictions that made no sense.
She wrapped her cloak around her tighter after an involuntary shiver went down her spine. She still wasn't sure what to think of being on the run. Even though she was currently doing it, it felt like the reality of it hadn't quite settled in yet. Part of her still expected to wake up, and find herself back on her next trade route. But instead-
Something was not right.
She startled, then paused. Listening out into the night, she stilled her breathing and rested her hand on the pommel of her sword, eyes darting into the tree-line. The time stretched on and she couldn't make out what had made her wary.
Had she imagined it? That didn't seem likely. Her heart beat a nervous rhythm in her chest.
Until a resounding crack echoed through the forest, making her jump, heart thumping wildly. The ground began shaking slightly, followed by another crack mixed with the sound of jangling metal. A heavy sounding thumping grew louder, closer.
Drawing her sword, she turned to wake Robin and Kaden, only to find them thankfully already stirring. Honestly, they'd better not have been able to sleep with all the noise that was going on.
"Something's coming," she announced.
A guttural noise, like a choking roar, echoed through the trees.
"Obviously." Robin retrieved the battle tome from inside his cloak.
The thumping grew frighteningly close, but she couldn't tell which direction it came from. The wind rustled, then picked up and dragged a horrible smell across her nose. She covered her nose, barely resisting the urge to gag. "What's that smell?"
Kaden sniffed before his nose wrinkled and he rubbed it furiously. "Ugh it smells like rotten-"
"Through the trees - scatter!"
A hulking creature burst into their little clearing. Anna had just a moment to take in how immense and green the thing was before self-preservation kicked in, and she jumped back away from the thing's fist slamming the ground where she was a moment before.
The force of the impact sent her teeth rattling and dirt flying. She stumbled and nearly fell, before the stance resetting exercise she'd been practicing stopped her from being entirely knocked off her feet.
A flare of light came from Robin as he conjured a fire ball and cast it into the air, fully illuminating a monstrosity. Hunched over, it still stood a good head or two taller than her. Its bulging muscles rippled as it faced them with its black mask; the empty sockets covering it freaked her out.
She'd never seen one in person, but knew what it was.
The Faceless let out a guttural roar, and slammed its fist down again, seemingly in frustration for missing its first strike. Kaden, in his foxlike beastform dashed by it, raking his claws along the beast's back as he went past. The Faceless didn't even flinch, and twisted around, nearly smashing the kitsune as he barely slipped away.
But it left it wide open for her.
Her blade slid down through the flesh of the arm with startling ease, severing the hand above the elbow. It almost immediately faded to dust when it hit the ground, leaving only the shackle and broken chain lying there. A spear of lightning – that was a thoron spell, she reminded herself – came from her left and lanced through the Faceless' center, tearing clean through, leaving a smoking hole.
She darted back as the Faceless stumbled, then let out what might have been a grating roar of outrage. Anna lurched to the side, feeling the wind from its swift uppercut from its other arm disturb the hairs on the back of her neck.
Footwork. It was all about footwork.
But, seriously? Even with one arm cut off and a massive hole in its center – now oozing something she didn't want to think about – it was still going?
A yowl and the Faceless toppled forward, tackled to the ground by Kaden, who was now pinning it to the ground. He looked at her. "Stab it through the head!"
Anna rushed forward, took her sword in a two handed grip and jammed it down through the mask. It let out a gurgling noise, struggling, flailing its remaining arm widely before it slumped and stopped moving.
Panting slightly, she braced her boot against its head and yanked her sword out. She glanced away in disgust at the substance now covering it. Kaden hopped off the dead – redead? – Faceless. It was tough to tell but he looked a little shaken. Then again, she was too, now that the skirmish was over.
The Faceless' body bulged in a grotesque way. Her eyes widened and she took a step back.
"Get back!"
She heeded Robin's warning and turned to run, but didn't make it that far before with a thunderous boom, the creature exploded. The heat and force of it slammed into her, knocking her clean off her feet. Air whistled past a moment before she felt herself land, rolling to a painful stop on her back.
Her ears rung and she blinked, dazed. Something that felt like rock was digging painfully into her back. She felt the ground shake, rattling her whole body through the contact. Her hand clenched and she realized her sword had fallen out of her grasp. Shaking off the daze and pushing past the pain, she rolled over, pushing herself to her knees. She looked up.
Another Faceless looked right at her, an open hand poised to smash.
She needed to move now.
Her adrenaline spiked and she yelped, throwing herself to the side as the open hand smashed down where she was a moment earlier-
Pain slammed into her, and she felt rather than heard something crack. Her breath rushed out in a painful gasp. She'd rolled right into the path of the creature's other hand. It became difficult to breathe. Her ribs?
Her vision swam near to unconsciousness but she denied it, even though it would be really nice right about now. In the corner of her eye she could see Kaden pinned to a tree by another Faceless. More Faceless crashed through the trees around her.
With a figure in a cloak at their head.
Kaden's ears rung painfully and his singed fur burned. Since when did Faceless explode like that?
"How convenient that you highlighted your location, sending up that light as you did. You have my thanks for making this easier on me."
Kaden saw Robin, looking rather singed, send off another spear of lightning, which the approaching man sidestepped. Pulling out a staff, he muttered something before waving it. The runes swirling around Robin for his next spell died.
Not good.
To his credit, Robin simply dropped the tome and drew his sword, going into a wary stance. "What was that?"
"Much as I loathe Hoshido, their Silence Festals are quite useful for capturing mages."
"And you are?"
What Kaden could make out of his face under the cowl of the cloak was ghostly pale. He could see the mouth move into a smirk. "The genius who's about to capture you, of course."
"I meant your name."
"Unimportant to you for now. Don't try and move to attack me. You've already witnessed what these creatures do when they die, but if needed I can make them do it on command. If you don't want your friends to get caught up in that point blank, then you will come with me willingly."
There was something about that voice. He'd heard it somewhere before, recently. His eyes widened in recognition, before he sent a glare at the man. "You're the one who was spreading news about us at the inn in Albah."
"Oh, so you noticed that, did you?" The man didn't turn to face him. Drat. He'd hoped he would've taken his eyes off Robin a moment to give him a chance to try something. Kaden squirmed uselessly in the Faceless' grip. "I'm flattered, really, I am. But…" The man snapped his fingers.
Kaden cried out as the pressure from the Faceless increased, crushing him against the tree, making it impossible to breathe.
"Don't think me so gullible not to realize that you were trying to distract me, kitsune. Now, Robin, if you value their lives, you will surrender."
A pause. Couldn't…breathe. The world was going dark around the edges of his vision.
"Fine, but let them go."
"I'm afraid that's not possible. If I do that, I lose an edge against you. All of you are coming with me."
Kaden went slack as his world slipped away.
A/N: How do you make Faceless a threat?
You make them explode. Thanks, Conquest.
Also, Lilith needs a hug.
