Sextday, Rami 20th 067.M42
They finally caught us up again this morning. Well, to be perfectly honest, I don't know if they actually caught us up so much as they just have the people… creatures… on their side to watch all of our possible escape points. I think it was the former from the simple fact that, well. I'm still here to write this entry. But the distinction is splitting hairs, really. The point is that they were there.
I've stayed indoors, not even so much as looking out the window, for the last two days. I didn't want to give them anything that they could use to find us. I think they tried the dreams again, at least a couple of the points when I was napping, I got the strongest feeling that Arlean was calling for me, that if I just turned around and looked for her I'd find her and she'd be safe again. I wanted to. I still want to believe that my sister can be saved. But they're speaking to me through dreams, using witchcraft and warp trickery. Emperor knows you have to steel yourself against such heresies, as succumbing to them is how your soul becomes forfeit.
But I think they realised that I… we were onto them. They gave up on the dreams after a while when they weren't producing the hoped-for result - be that discerning our location from my mind, or somehow finding a way to take control of me and bend me to their whims.
Because I didn't have anything else to do the last couple of days and mostly spent it napping on and off, I was awake when Maddy came back to our hideout and said it was time to move. So thankfully there was that. I've discovered that it's a particular type of nightmare to be woken from a dead sleep and told it's time to run. It takes forever for the adrenaline to wear off. There's still some adrenaline from being told that it's time to go right now, but it's less abrupt and jarring than being woken up to do so. And it's not like I had anything to pack or pick up. Everything except my slate and my ID were back in the room I'd booked.
We made our way out of our bolt-hole and headed out toward our destination. Maddy had told me while we were coming down from the floor we'd holed up on that we were heading for one of the outlying lifter platforms. She hoped that by heading in toward the core for a while, then doubling back out again wall-ward that we'd give them the slip, at least for a little while. The streets were so quiet. I know the lower hive works to a different rhythm than the upper levels (and the upper levels are different again to the spires), but something just felt wrong. It felt like the hive was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen. There were still people moving around the streets, still vehicles heading for the lifter queue. But there was none of the desperate, raw energy that I'm used to associating with this place. Even compared to a few days ago, it felt like a blanket had fallen over everything.
I tried to keep my eyes open for strange things - weird hunched people, anyone looking too closely at us, hooded figures in the alleys as we slunk from shadow to shadow. I didn't see anyone, but that doesn't mean they weren't there. I don't know if Maddy was looking or not, she seemed very focused on getting us there, but I can't imagine that she wasn't at least keeping an eye out around us.
I suppose it was too much to hope that we'd be able to make our way out without issue. These creatures are cunning - Maddy has said as much on several occasions, but I've seen evidence enough of it first-hand too. They don't seem move unless they have the upper hand in some fashion, whether it's numerically or by setting up some kind of ambush - or both. Maddy had changed from her black gear (I want to say assassin's gear, but she took great pains in the last few days to clear the fact with me that she's not an assassin. She wouldn't say much more than that, except to say that if I ever met a real assassin, if I was lucky I'd have a fraction of a heartbeat to recognise the fact.) into what looked like generally grubby workers' clothing - coveralls and boots, her hair scraped back tight and a hat pulled low over her eyes.
We didn't move straight to the lifter to wait for it, instead we found a vantage point nearby and watched the small crowd milling about down there, looking again for any sight of our pursuers. Once we could see the warning lights flashing, warning of the impending arrival of the platform, and we hadn't seen anyone who looked likely to be on our tail it seemed safe enough for us to go down and to mill around in the general crowd. My heart was pounding, fit to have a conniption at this point. Most people were bound up in general knots of humanity, drinking recaf or harder libations, quiet conversation occurring. None of them paid any attention to Maddy or myself. There were no black eyes staring, no hoods and robes, no curious pallid baldness. I dared to hope that we'd actually managed to give them the slip and get away.
It was as the platform settled and we all started shuffling on, trying to avoid the heavier vehicles moving around us that I felt it. A tug to turn around, to look back the way we came. I looked to Maddy, but she didn't seem to give any indication that she felt something. I didn't want to give away our presence in the crowd, so I didn't say anything to try to grab her attention. I think this was a mistake. Every step closer to the lifter platform made the itching on the back of my neck grow more intense, the draw to look that much stronger. So I looked.
I saw Arlean. At least I think it was Arlean. I don't know any more if my own memory of events can even be trusted. I think there were others there with her, but all I could see was her - brilliant and shining amongst the dirty ferrocrete and burned-out lumens. I wanted to go back, I needed to go back. I think I'd turned to do so when Maddy grabbed my arm and pulled me with her, away and out of sight behind a parked cargo mover. I was livid, and it took everything in me no to fight her off and make a scene of things. I was so mad at her for dragging me away when Arlean was right here, so close that I could have gone and just grabbed her and taken her back with us. She nearly had to slap me to break me out of it. To get me to see how stupid I was being. They'd inserted dreams of Arlean into my mind. If that was even her standing back behind us, not just some illusion or trick that they'd pushed on me again, then there was every likelihood that she was enraptured under whatever foul sorcery they had been using to try to get to me.
I think I'd wanted to hold some hope of a daring rescue. Of finding her again and bringing her back, despite Maddy's dire predictions a few days ago. But I think I also realised, seeing her there. She's theirs now. If she even still exists as a person, not just some hollowed-out cult creature.
After I'd finally calmed down, we tried to find a point to watch the streets behind and the loading corral, but they were long gone by then. We took the lack of our being rushed and assaulted as an indication that they hadn't made it onto the platform, and as we finally started to ascend, I think I took my first real breath of the morning.
We're still on our way up now. Thankfully the lifter has a working Feed repeater on it - it seems they weren't able to take them out, because the lifters use them to connect with the cogitators on each level, and they are constantly in motion. Maddy's asked me not to contact anyone until we're back up home and safe again, but she's letting me read the newsfeeds and pick up my messages. The latter I'm choosing to ignore for the moment, nothing except some missives from work are marked urgent, but the former seems dire. The Hadrigans have completely shut up shop, locking down access to all of their offices and warehouses across Asphodel - even to the Arbites. There's a motion before the governor to mobilise the PDF against them and to start taking military action, and the Kai-Tens are whipping up a frenzy, shouting that these actions are proof that the Hadrigans are corrupt, heretical and out to destroy Imperial interests from the inside out, that if they had nothing to hide then they would welcome the scrutiny of the upholders of the Lex, would they not?
Nobody else seems to be suspicious about just how loudly the Kai-Tens are rattling the war-drums here. It's terrifying.
