"Four thousand gold!?" Rex cried in alarm, staring the Nopon ticket master down. "What happened to the guild discount!?"
His negotiations were not going particularly well. The boy had hoped that, being a Guild salvager, he would be able to secure a discount for their trip. He wasn't expecting to get it completely discounted—he was dealing with Nopon, after all—but at the very least, he had expected to get the fare at least halved.
"Gogoin apply discount." The blue-furred Nopon replied, crossing his wings as he lectured Rex. "Salvager travel for free, is true, but friend is only salvager in group, yes?"
"I mean yes, but-" Rex replied, only to be cut off.
"And friend have four companions, yes?"
"Oh, uh, two of them are Blades." He interjected, trying to grasp at anything that would allow him to get a better deal out of the Nopon. "Does that affect the fare?"
The ticket master pondered it for a moment. "That white animal Blade behind friend is one, yes?"
"That would be correct, my good sir." Dromarch answered for himself from where he was sitting next to a thoroughly amused Nia.
"And is other Blade human-sized?" The Nopon inquired, the grin on his face making it clear he knew exactly what the answer was.
"…She's child sized?" Rex defended, the fight leaving him as he realized his haggling wasn't going to be working.
"Then four thousand gold." Gogoin replied smugly. "Non-salvagers take four seats, non-salvagers pay fare."
Grumbling, Rex pulled his coinpurse out of his satchel, counting out the money. "A thousand gold per person… That's basically robbery." He muttered, slamming the coins on the counter harder than was strictly necessary. "So, when does the next ship leave? In the morning?" He asked slightly louder.
"Not next morning, morning after." The Nopon replied, already scrawling out the information for the party's tickets. "Tadbir not popular destination from Voltis. Only run smaller transports every few days."
That wasn't exactly ideal, but it could be worse. That rumors about the Aegis had already spread beyond Gormott made it more dangerous for them to stick around, but a single extra day shouldn't present that much more of a risk than being here in the first place.
Of course, that was merely his opinion. Nia, on the other hand, seemed to hold a different position.
"Great." The Gormotti girl sighed. "Somehow, I saw this coming."
"It could be worse." Rex commented as he exchanged the travel fare for the set of tickets. "If we'd gotten here a few days later, we'd have been waiting for most of another week, from the sound of it."
Dromarch made a contemplative noise as he came to his feet. "Indeed. It would appear that it was a wise decision on our part to not make the trip to Lasanne on foot".
His Driver snorted. "Oh, that would have been fantastic." She replied sarcastically. "Right now, the only rumors circulating around are just that the Aegis is awake. Can you imagine how much fun we'd be having if the ones that mentioned us as well had beat us out of Gormott?"
They walked off of the flight deck toward the doors to the inn. "That would have been pretty bad." Rex agreed. "We might have even needed to change up our looks."
"Again." Nia added, tugging at one of the baggy sleeves of her jumpsuit. "I've had to do it before, so it wouldn't be the end of the world, but to be honest, the jumpsuit has kind of grown on me the last few years."
Rex looked down at his own clothing—his wetsuit with only the bottom half of his diving suit on top of it—and frowned. "I can't say I'd be keen on it. I've been wearing my diving gear around for so long that I'm not sure what else I would go with."
"And I'm sure that the fact that you just had to pay to have the vest resized has nothing to do with it either?" Azurda said innocently.
"Yes, yes, very funny." Rex replied in a deadpan tone. "I'm a miser, I get it."
As the group approached the door, Rex noticed in his peripheral vision that Nia had slowed down, her attention pulled in another direction. He glanced over at the Gormotti girl, seeing that she was looking over at the bounty board that had been surrounded by Drivers earlier. They had mostly cleared out by now, with only a handful of people still looking over it.
"Something the matter, Nia?" He asked.
"…Maybe." She said, watching as the last Driver, a young-looking Nothian man wearing a green tailcoat with a Blade that looked like an animated suit of armor, wandered away from the board. "Something I overheard earlier has me a bit concerned, is all."
Walking up to the board, she looked over the posters, her brow furrowing at the contents. Curious, Rex wandered up behind her, looking at the assembled posters.
Based on the girl's behavior, he had assumed that it would be something related to them. Accurate rumors about the Aegis, maybe even their descriptions based on Dughall's attempt to capture them earlier. What he found, however, was nothing of the sort; instead, it was a large and varied collection of missing persons posters for children.
"This is…" He muttered, looking over them. There were so many of them, and they were all so recent, too. Just from a quick check, he didn't see any that were more than two months old.
"Awful." Nia agreed, looking over the posters with keen focus. "What could be happening to so many children? This can't be an accident, can it?"
Azurda leaned over Rex's shoulder. "I should think not." He noted, pointing at a handful of them. "These aren't all from the same Titan. A few of the most recent are from here on Voltis, but the rest? Uraya, Mor Ardain, Mynis… There's no natural force that I can think of that could snatch children away from a dozen different Titans in such a short time span."
Rex looked again, and indeed, the posters were mostly from different Titans. There was even a pair that hailed from Gormott, dated to just before the Consul had imposed port inspections. "I wonder if any of them were from Leftheria…" He wondered aloud, thinking about the children back in Fonsett. Mark, Kazuna, Kirk, Hazel… He couldn't imagine how he would feel if one of them was among the missing.
"Regrettably, there have been a few." A feminine voice, soft and calm, but with a hint of steel lying beneath, spoke behind them.
Nia all but leapt into the air at the sound, apparently not having heard the speaker approach. Dromarch's reaction was more restrained, but it was clear that even the Blade was more than a little disquieted by the fact that he was unable to detect someone sneaking up on them.
The party turned around to face the speaker, who was not at all what he expected. It was a woman, her dark skin almost the same shade as that of the Orsirian bouncers that Bana employed, yet her accent and clothing were both clearly Ardainian. Not to mention her hair, which, despite her youth, was a brilliant white that he didn't think occurred naturally among the Osirians.
"I'm sorry." The woman said, holding a hand to her mouth demurely. "I didn't mean to alarm you; I merely wished to answer your friend's question."
"Oh, um, i-its okay." Rex replied, nervously scratching the back of his head as he averted his gaze. The woman was polite enough, but looking at her was a little awkward; while she was dressed more conservatively than many Ardainian women of her age that he had met before, wearing a blue dress that covered her from neck to ankle with a white cardigan atop it, she also had a figure remarkably similar to Mythra's, and the brass-decorated corset she was wearing over the dress did a remarkably good job emphasizing that.
The difficulty he was having keeping his gaze in check was an annoying reminder that he was going to have to put up with being stuck in this stage of his physical development for a few decades. At least he wasn't suffering alone, though; Nia seemed to be having her own trouble not staring at the woman in front of them.
Making absolutely certain to keep his eyes locked firmly on the woman's own, he turned his gaze back on her. "You said that some were from Leftheria… You wouldn't happen to know where from, would you?"
"From my understanding, the only missing children in Leftheria vanished from the proximity of Alett." She replied. "It's possible that more have disappeared from other areas, but it is my understanding that news can be… slow to travel the archipelago."
Rex let out a sigh of relief at the information, only to immediately feel ashamed that he had. He shouldn't feel relieved just because the children that had vanished weren't from Fonsett; that still meant that there were missing children!
"Yes, that has been a rather long-standing issue." Azurda mused, perched atop Rex's shoulder. "But I suspect that, should this be the work of a malevolent actor, Alett would be the natural target, being the largest town in Leftheria."
The woman pursed her lips. "I wish I could agree, but on the other Titans, the disappearances have not been so localized. Several of the children that have gone missing in Mor Ardain were from Chilsain, for example." Her expression fell as she reminisced. "Poor little Rhona… She was always so cheerful when she came to visit my husband's shop."
"You know one of the missing children, miss…?" Rex asked, realizing all of a sudden that they had not actually introduced themselves to each other.
"Perun." The woman replied. "Perun Wrotham."
Rex and his companions took a quick moment to introduce themselves in return before the woman continued. "And yes, I knew one of the missing children. Her parents are suppliers for my husband's business." She closed her eyes, tilting her head down. "It all happened so fast, too; her mother had taken the girl along to the market with her because word of the first disappearances in the capital had just reached town, and she didn't want to leave her daughter alone. She only looked away for a moment, just to quickly grab something off the shelf in front of them, but when she looked back, Rhona was gone."
"That's awful." Nia commented, her tone uncharacteristically somber. "I can't even imagine how the parents must feel."
"It's been difficult for them." Perun agreed. "They were both inconsolable for days. Even when I left, her mother was still barely able to leave her bed in the morning, wracked with worry and guilt over the event."
He nodded sympathetically, trying to put himself in the position the parents must be in. Thinking of how he would feel if the same situation had happened with one of the children from Fonsett… Nia was right; he couldn't imagine it—not without feeling a nauseating dread roiling in his stomach.
Frowning, he looked up at the woman. "Is there anything we can do to help?" He asked. There were some other things he wanted to get done while they were here, but compared to helping find missing children, they were ultimately trivial.
"I'm afraid that I am unsure." Perun replied, giving the boy an approving smile. "I'm not involved in the search, you see; I offered what little testimony I could give to the investigators currently looking into the case, but beyond that, there is little a woman such as myself could offer."
Although she spoke earnestly, Rex couldn't help but feel like there was something… off about her tone at the last part, as if it were some sort of joke he wasn't privy to. He ignored the thought, instead continuing to listen to the woman.
"That being said, I suspect the investigators would appreciate it if you were to keep an ear open. Only a handful of the disappearances have been on Voltis, but if you see or hear anything…"
Nia nodded, flicking one of her ears. "Fortunately, listening is something of a specialty of mine. We'll pass along any information we find."
"So I see." The woman replied with an amused smile, no doubt because she had noticed how well they had heard her earlier. "In that case, the investigation here is currently being led by a mercenary. I believe he was just here a moment ago, come to think of it…"
"Oh, you mean the Nothian Driver with the green coat?" Rex asked, remembering the man who had left the notice board just before Nia had investigated it.
Perun nodded. "That's him. His name is Ciaran, he's with the Garfront Mercenaries. I suspect you'll run into him at some point even if you're not actively looking for him—the man seems intent on questioning everyone on Voltis."
"Quite the task he's assigned himself." Azurda said, raising an eyebrow. "I wouldn't call it the most practical course of action, considering how much traffic the guilds get, but I can appreciate the thoroughness."
The woman gave him a sad smile. "Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that they have any better leads at the moment, so any information he can find is useful."
Staring at the board, the woman sighed, closing her eyes solemnly. "But… I believe I've taken up enough of your time for now. I hadn't meant to drag the two of you into this, but…"
"Don't worry about it." Nia waved off. "It's not like we're in a hurry."
"I see." Perun replied politely. "Well then, if you'll excuse me…" She said, walking off in the direction of the market.
They watched her depart, particularly Nia and Dromarch, who were looking at her curiously. Both of their ears twitched as the woman walked away, a frown forming on the Gormotti girl's face as she watched.
"Weird." Nia commented, shaking her head as Perun slipped out of their line of sight. "I guess I really was distracted if she was able to sneak up on me like that."
"Maybe the background noise was throwing you off as well?" Rex offered, gesturing vaguely around them. "We're not exactly in the quietest place, after all."
His companion gave a noncommittal hum in response. "…We should probably meet up with Tora and Poppi." She said. "Sounds like we'll want to plan what we're doing tomorrow."
"Right. Let's go then." The boy agreed, shooting a last glance at the notice board before following the girl toward the inn. There might not be much he could do to help with the missing children, both because of his own responsibilities and the number of people already investigating it, but he would keep his ears out regardless. Just standing around wasn't his style, after all.
He just hoped the children were safe.
Even though he knew that it was futile, he couldn't help but pull against the restraints binding his arms behind his back. His heartbeat quickened as he tried, and failed, to free his arms, finding no more success than he had the last half-dozen times he had made the attempt. Unfortunately, the logical part of his mind, which was fully aware of just how futile the attempts were, had long since ceded control to the childlike panic that was currently driving his actions.
(If he had learned one thing during his time in captivity, it was that it didn't matter how precociously smart the teachers may say he was, at the end of the day, he was still an eight-year-old boy, and when confronted by as stressful a situation as he had been, he was no less immune to blind panic than the other children from his orphanage. How frustrating.)
Despite his earlier failures, he continued to struggle against the bonds for several more minutes, desperately trying to wriggle his hands through the loops wrapped tightly around his wrists. He found no success, his attempts doing little more than rubbing the skin beneath raw until it began to bleed, but it wasn't until he had finally expended the last of his stamina that the panic began to abate, and his rational mind slowly, mercifully, managed to regain control of his body.
The boy took a series of deep breaths, trying to settle his nerves as he focused on his surroundings, hoping he could find something useful in allowing him to escape. Unfortunately, all that his observations returned was the same information that it had the last few days: It was pitch black and stuff, implying that something, most likely a blanket, had been thrown over his cage.
(Why did it have to be so dark? He hated the dark!)
He squirmed in place, the thin pad laid across the floor of the cage doing little to prevent the wire framing from digging into his knees. It made the boy regret choosing to wear shorts when he went out to play… however long ago it had been since he and the others had been kidnapped.
Speaking of them, he realized that the others had gone mostly quiet. For the first stretch of the journey, all of the other children (including him) had cried and screamed, hoping that someone, anyone, would rescue them.
As the days had dragged on, however, the desperation had slowly given way to understanding that help wasn't coming. The yelling and screaming for help had given way to sobs and wails as the children began to finally understand the situation.
By now, most of them had gone silent as despondency set in, with little more than the occasional fearful whimper that he absolutely insisted was emanating from the cage beside him (it had definitely been his. No matter how much he insisted that he was calm and collected, he was every bit as terrified) to break the oppressive silence that filled the room.
No, they weren't entirely silent; faintly, he could hear the scratchy tone of one of the other children speaking. He couldn't make our what was being said, but he could identify the speaker—Etene, one of the older girls from their orphanage. Her tone was level, almost relaxing. She must have been trying to comfort one of the younger children.
He had an immense amount of respect for her at that moment. They hadn't always been the nicest to her, often feeling that she was every bit as overbearing as Miss Maia, their caretaker. But despite clearly being afraid herself, based on the waver in her voice, she was doing her best to keep the others calm.
(Even from the distance, her soothing tone did wonders to drive away the cloying fear that had constantly gripped his heart since they were first taken.)
Good, that was one less thing he needed to deal with. Etene could keep the others calm; she was talented at dealing with them. But he was the smart kid; finding a way to get them out of here was his job! It had to be! (If he couldn't, then what good was he?)
Leaning back, he ran his fingers over the back of the cage, where the wall met the floor. It wasn't a particularly comfortable angle to work with, considering his arms were bound behind his back, but there were some benefits to being as scrawny as he was.
There wasn't a lot to work with. It was a simple wireframe cage, most likely meant for Rotts. The wires weren't particularly thick—maybe the width of his fingers—but they were still solid enough that applying what pressure he could to them didn't cause them to bend.
Worse, they were contiguous. This cage wasn't a bunch of wire panels welded together; the wires had been smoothly bent to form the sides, which meant, rather unfortunately, that there were no rough corners he could use to try and cut his restraints.
Not that it would have done much good at the moment, even if there had been. He was tired, not just from his earlier panicked struggling, but due to a lack of food and sleep. Their captors had been extremely sparing when it came to providing meals, and with his arms bound tightly behind his back, it was incredibly hard to find a position comfortable enough to fall asleep in the cage.
Frustration (and deeply-rooted fear) welled up within him at the lack of progress. While it was difficult to judge exactly how long it had been since they had been taken, it had been days at the least, maybe even as much as a week. He was reasonably sure they weren't on Osiris anymore—the gentle rocking he felt when he was focused on his surroundings made him think they were on a ship of some sort—so they were being taken somewhere. Eventually, they would reach their destination.
That could be either good or bad, depending on what awaited them. If they were on a larger Titan, then any escape they made had a far greater chance of success, but if he didn't manage to get free, to release the others, before their captors returned to take them to wherever...
(He whimpered as visions of what could be awaiting them flashed through his head. The downside of being well-read for his age was that his imagination had plenty of material to draw upon when constructing worst-case scenarios.)
As he contorted his body to run his fingers along the corners to the side of him, a shudder ever-so-slightly rocked the cages in the room. Beyond the veil covering his cage, he could hear the sounds of alarm from the other children.
What had that been? Was the ship being attacked? A momentary flash of hope filled his mind at the thought. Maybe someone had come to rescue them!
No sooner had he felt that hope than he ruthlessly quashed it. There had only been a single shudder, and it hadn't been particularly strong. This wasn't an attack on the ship. And even if it had been, there was no guarantee that the attackers would have been friendly. More likely, that had been…
Somewhere beyond the darkness of the cage, he could hear the faint, echoing clang of footsteps on metal. The shudder must have been the ship docking, the boy realized, and now their captors were coming to do… whatever it was they had planned.
Muffled adult voices could soon be heard as their captors approached, although he couldn't understand what they were saying. (He trembled at the sound, dreading whatever unknowable fate awaited them.) He hurriedly ran his hands against the walls, redoubling his efforts to find something that he could use to cut the bindings on his wrists.
The door to the room creaked open, and the voices became intelligible all of a sudden. It was the same pair that it always was—a pair of gleeful brutes who reveled in tormenting their captives.
"…We'll have to get on it real quick." One of the voices said, a man with a medium, scratchy pitch. "Th' boss don't want us hangin' around any longer than we need ta be."
"Forget about the boss, we're doing this the right way." The other, with a much smoother, low-pitched voice replied. "If any of the brats squeal, we're dead. I'm not taking the chance."
The boy's eyes widened at his wording. T-they couldn't mean…? Were these men going to… kill them? (His pulse quickened at the thought, and no amount of calm breathing was able to slow it. Quite the opposite, his 'calm breathing' quickly descended into hyperventilation.) Why would they do that, after days of keeping them here!?
"Oi, Nem! Get your ass in here!" Scratchy called for someone. The sound of footsteps echoed slowly across the room as someone seemed to pace around.
Below him, one of the other children began wailing in terror, his weak sobs echoing through the room. The boy couldn't blame him, considering his own conclusions about why the men were there. He could feel the pinprick warmth of tears of his own building on the side of his eyes, a reaction he attempted to suppress. (It did nothing, of course—his emotional control was, at best, a polite fiction.)
Their captors seemed to take exception to this, however. The pacing feet quickly moved in their direction, now clattering across the floor with purpose rather than aimlessly meandering.
"Quiet down, you brats!" Deep Voice yelled, a hateful note coloring his tone. There was a loud crash, accompanied by the entire stack of cages he was in rocking violently, as the man apparently kicked the cage holding the crying boy.
Rather than listen, several more wails suddenly joined in from other areas of the room, the children pushed into terror by their captors.
"Architect-damned brats." Deep Voice growled, his footsteps and voice slowly receding. "The handover can't come fast enough."
"Hah. Tell me about it." Scratchy replied with an amused lilt. "Don't worry, I'll shut 'em up." Slightly louder, he called out again. "Nem, I thought I told ya to move your ass!"
Another set of footsteps rapidly approached, rushing through the door. "I'm sorry, sir!" A feminine voice with a slight reverberation answered apologetically. "The boss needed me to grab-!"
"Enough of your damn excuses, Blade!" Scratchy growled menacingly. "Just do your thing on the brats already! At this rate, they'll bring the guards down on us before we even leave the ship!"
"Yes, sir." The woman acknowledged sadly. There was a ripple of wind as… something started happening in the middle of the room.
The boy felt his throat go dry as the woman spoke. This was it. This was how he was going to die. (He quivered like a leaf at the realization, knowing that there was nothing he could do about it. The rational part of his brain attempted to retain some degree of calm, but the primal, childlike fear that had gripped him seized control.)
Before he knew it, he was crying in fear as well, his wails adding to the growing cacophony that was filling the room. At that moment, he wasn't the smart kid trying his best to free his friends; he was just another terrified child, calling desperately for Miss Maia to rescue them.
In the dark, he couldn't see it, but he could feel and smell the sweet scent of something mixing with the air inside his cage. His tear-filled eyes widened, the rational part of his mind understanding even through his fear that this was something bad! Was this that woman's 'thing'?
He covered his mouth and nose in a panic, desperate not to breathe in whatever was in the air. (Could it be some kind of gas? But if he had been able to smell it, didn't that mean he already had? Probably, but… maybe he hadn't… hadn't…)
It was suddenly becoming very difficult for the boy to think. (He realized, distantly, that probably answered the question.) His heartrate began to slow as his panic subsided, no doubt due to the effects of the gas. In the background, he could hear the sounds of the other children quieting as well, so he was obviously not the only one affected.
He yawned, his eyes suddenly growing heavy as the fog in his head quickly became more like a blanket covering his senses. Oh, they must be trying… trying to put them to… sleep.
The boy slumped forward, barely able to complete the thought, as the effects of the gas robbed him of consciousness. His head smacked into the side of the cage with enough force to almost completely knock his glasses from his face, but under the effects of the sleeping gas, even that was insufficient to drag him back from the blissful slumber that had been imposed upon him.
After they had met back up with Tora, Rex and Nia caught the Nopon and artificial Blade up on some of the things they had learned while separated. Of particular focus was their conversation with Perun about the missing children.
Tora, it turned out, was rather enthusiastic about the prospect of spending the wait helping look for information about the missing children. Far more enthusiastic than he had been about anything besides Poppi and Drivers so far. He didn't explain why, but Nia was left with the impression that missing family members were something of a sore spot for him.
It made the girl wonder about his family situation. Tora had mentioned his father and grandfather had both worked on the artificial Blade project with him at one point, but by the time they met him, the Nopon had been living alone for at least a year. He had mentioned both of them before, too, yet he always seemed so sad when he did…
She wasn't going to press him about it, of course; that would be rather hypocritical, considering how reticent she was to share her own. Still, it did make her wonder if anyone in their group had a past that wasn't marred by tragedy in some way. She had… her background, Rex was an orphan of some sort, and if she was right about Tora…
Beyond that, the rest of the day passed without issue. According to Tora, Umon's customer had been pleased with the ship and the speed at which they delivered it once travel from Gormott was allowed again and had agreed to pay out the extra fee to the shipwright. Satisfied that he had done his honorary uncle proud, Tora had ended up retiring early.
Not that any of them ended up staying awake much later. They were all happy to sleep in an actual bed after a week at sea, and only a few hours after dinner were all happily asleep.
The next morning went just as smoothly. Over breakfast, the group had agreed to fully stick together, knowing that rumors of the Aegis had already made it here, and thus planned their approximate route out. They all had things they wanted to do, after all: Rex needed to pick up his diving vest, Tora wanted to shop around for more parts for Poppi, the artificial Blade herself wanted to learn more about Nopon culture, and the entire group was keen to do their part in helping find the children.
Predictably, their plans fell apart almost the moment they were put into action. They were successful in picking up Rex's diving vest, resized and with the hole that Jin had put in it when he stabbed Rex in the back repaired, but they barely managed to get three stalls past when the boy, still fiddling with the zipper of his vest, ran straight into a distressed Ardainian woman.
Rex, being himself, had subsequently roped them into helping the woman chase down a Nopon merchant that had scammed her out of a load of high-value cargo. Fortunately, he was more than willing to repay the woman when faced with a trio of Drivers.
This was followed up almost immediately by them encountering a child who needed to run some important errands for his parents but, due to the recent disappearances, was terrified to go out alone. As such, they agreed to escort him while he did his shopping.
No sooner had they finished that when they encountered another such issue, and then another after that. Really, Nia wasn't sure if she should be impressed by just how frequently Rex managed to run right into people needing assistance or by his eagerness to help.
It was a little annoying to be dragged from one end of the Trade Guild to the other, handling the various odd jobs that Rex seemed to attract like a magnet, but even she had to admit that it was at least useful. All of that running around gave them plenty of opportunities to listen in for more clues about the missing children.
Not that they found any, of course; there had been very few clues from the outset, and what few morsels of information they were able to find had apparently already been found by this 'Ciaran' fellow. Really, had it not been for the fact that they were legitimately helping people in the process, she would have considered the search a wash.
At least the locals gave them snacks for their trouble.
Which, of course, brought them to here, sitting beside a salvaging crane while Rex performed a dive to find a Star Nozzle that one of the locals had asked him to acquire. Never mind that it would have been far simpler to just purchase the part; Rex had insisted on collecting it himself, claiming that he wanted to test his suit out anyway.
Nia suspected that he was just eager to perform a dive after more than two weeks away from the job. Oh well, at least the treats were good.
"How long Rex-Rex take on dive?" Tora asked, sampling a choclit truffle from the box they had gotten from the mother of the boy they had escorted. "Tora buy much from salvagers, but never watch while working."
"Probably not that long." Azurda assured him, resting atop Dromarch's head again. "The cylinder he used only has about an hour of air, but Rex always likes to push those as far as he can, so probably no more than…" The Titan pondered. "Maybe another fifteen minutes?"
Nia calculated the timing in her head. Fifteen minutes, but he had already been down there for almost forty… "He's cutting it a bit close, isn't he?" She asked. "He's only giving himself, what, five minutes of buffer on his air supply? Seems a bit risky to me."
"He prefers seven, and yes, it is." The Titan replied with a frown. "As I like to frequently remind him."
"And he still does it?"
The Titan let out a beleaguered sigh. "I would like to see you convince a teenage boy not to behave recklessly, young lady. They always think they'll live forever." He replied, grumbling, "You would think that having actually been killed would make him more cautious, but it would appear that I was expecting too much from the boy."
She leaned back, dipping a salty cracker into the jar of Narcipear jelly that the Ardainian merchant they had helped had given them. "Huh, I never thought about that." She muttered. "I know he's reckless in combat, but he always seems more level-headed when he's not in a scrap."
Dromarch raised his head. "And you believe him accepting the job from the chairman before learning the details of the task just because of the payment to be 'level-headed', my Lady?"
The girl raised a finger, pondered for a moment, before slowly lowering it again. "Okay, point." She admitted. "Sometimes he can feign level-headedness."
"Nia-Nia not be so hard on Rex-Rex." Tora chastised. "Tora not see any recklessness of Rex-Rex. Only bold fightyness!"
"Masterpon only see Rex fight one time." Poppi pointed out. "From talk with Special Inquisitor, Poppi count seven instances of behavior classifiable as 'reckless' according to behavioral database."
Azurda chortled at the comment. "Oh, at least that many! I swear, the stories I could tell you of the trouble that boy got into as a child…" His eyes held a nostalgic glint as he spoke, a mischievous smile on his face as he teased embarrassing stories about his surrogate grandson.
Personally, she wasn't sure if she should take the bait. Yes, Azurda was offering to tell them, but as with Tora's past, she was a little bit leery by default about asking into other people's backgrounds, if only so they wouldn't do the same.
Then again, she was more than a little curious about exactly what made the boy tick. She had heard snippets about it from the interactions between the Blade Eater and Titan, so it would be nice to have some additional context…
"…Okay, I'll bite." She said, matching the Titan's sly grin. "What'cha got on him?"
The Titan chortled. "Oh, I have plenty." He replied. "But I like to think the stand-out one was the incident with Rex, the other children from Fonsett, and the Squood."
Beside her, Tora and Poppi leaned closer to the Titan, eager to hear the story as well.
"So, for context, Rex was about seven at the time. He and the others had gone off to the next island over to look for treasure, when-"
"Excuse me?" An unknown voice called from partway across the salvaging deck. "D-do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"
They looked up at the sound of the voice, focusing on the speaker. It was someone that Nia had only seen briefly before, the Nothian mercenary who was apparently running the investigation into the missing children.
He was much younger than she had been expecting, probably only a few years older than Rex. The boy, and he really couldn't be called anything else, was rather scrawny. His green tailcoat, worn over a nice-looking vest, was loose on his frame, as if it had been meant for someone bigger than him. His features were still quite boyish, his chin rounded, and his cheeks barely visible under a thick smattering of freckles across his face.
Even the pair of horns poking out of his brow, the identifying feature of Nothians, were rounded and stubby, barely standing out between his orange eyes and dark hair that had been messily pulled back into a ponytail.
Back when she first met him, Nia had thought that Rex looked like a child dressed up in his parents clothing, but at least his gear actually fit him. This guy, on the other hand, seemed to be taking it almost literally. Had it not been for his Blade, what appeared to be a set of animated rusted armor rimmed with ether lines, thin wisps of black smoke leaking from the joints, she would have thought him just that.
"Oh, hey." She greeted, coming to her feet. "You're… Ciaran, right?" The girl asked. She was pretty sure that was what Perun had called him. "What can we do for you?"
"Y-yes!" He replied nervously, scratching the back of his head. "You've, um, heard of me…"
"It would be hard not to, considering how thoroughly you've been investigating the disappearances of those poor children." Azurda commented.
Ciaran looked over at the tiny Titan in surprise, his eyes flicking from his face down to the crystalline patch on his chest. "O-oh, you're a…" He nodded to himself. "I suppose it makes sense that you'd have more than one Blade, miss… uh…?"
She rolled her eyes. "Nia." The girl replied. "And the old man isn't with me; he's with Rex."
"Oh, um, I see… the, uh, salvager boy?" He asked, looking around. "Y-yes, I heard about him. Is he around as well? I would like to…" He trailed off as all five of them, including Dromarch, pointed at the savaging crane Rex was using. "…Right, salvager. I suppose that makes sense."
Nia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. She understood the boy was nervous, but it was really starting to get annoying. "Look, you obviously want something from us. Want to just spit it out?"
The Nothian boy shrank in on himself slightly. "Um, well…" He said, clearing his throat. "I-I've heard that your group has been running around the trade guild all day, and I was wondering if you had heard anything about the missing children."
"Not a peep, beyond what you probably know already." Nia replied, her face falling at the thought. "We kept an ear out, but everyone we asked had already talked to you."
Ciaran's shoulders drooped at her words. "I-I see." He muttered, glancing over at his Blade worriedly. "I was afraid of that. It seems like nobody here has heard a thing about them!"
"It does seem strange how little word has spread." Dromarch noted. "Despite how many children have vanished, and how long this has been going on for, even we had not heard of it before yesterday."
"Oh, um, that's actually not that strange." The boy said, perking up as he began to explain. "Despite how widespread the event has been, international communication hasn't exactly been at its peak of late, so most authorities investigating the case were unaware they were anything more than local occurrences until recently. Even we didn't know that it was so widespread until we were hired to investigate one of the disappearances and started asking around."
"That make sense to Tora." The Nopon nodded. "Friends have been on Gormott for last few weeks; not much news coming and going when Titan was under lockdown."
Ciaran blinked in surprise. "Gormott?" He asked in confirmation, pulling out a small notepad. "Has there been any more disappearances there as well? We haven't been able to get in contact with any of our normal sources there because of, well…" He muttered. "You know."
"Not that we heard of." Azurda denied. "But with the trouble concerning those Core Crystal thieves, it is entirely possible that such an event would have faded into the background."
He didn't seem to be particularly pleased with the answer, but nodded in acknowledgement. "I see." He said, chewing on his lower lip. "Well, I suppose I'll have to send word back to the boss about that. He'll want to know that Gormott's opened up again."
"'Boss'?" Nia asked, curious. "I was under the impression that you were in charge of the investigation."
It was interesting to see how quickly the boy went from calm to nervous when she said that. "W-what!? No! I'm just… um…" He stammered, taking a step back.
A slender, armored glove placed itself on his shoulder. "Breathe, Ciaran." A strong female voice echoed from the helmet of his Blade.
The Nothian boy gave his Blade an appreciative look, taking a deep breath. "R-right, sorry. Um…" He started again, looking at Nia. "No, I'm not in charge." He clarified. "The Garfront Mercenaries as a whole are working the case. I'm just leading one of the teams that was sent out to collect information."
"It's his first time in charge of a mission like this." His Blade explained, her hand still resting on his shoulder. "He's a little nervous, but please do not let that mislead you; he has been doing an admirable job asking as many people for information as possible."
He smiled up at her. "Thanks, Lyta." The boy said earnestly. "I'm just afraid of messing this up. I don't want to let the boss down after he's trusted me with this job, you know?"
Something about the Blade's comment bothered her. He was apparently leading a 'team', but where were his subordinates? She hadn't heard about him working with anyone else from Perun…
"A team, huh?" She asked. "Is it just you and your Blade, or…?"
"Oh!" The Nothian boy looked around. "Yes, I suppose she would be expecting there to be more people." He said to himself. Speaking louder, he added, "We actually spilt up when we arrived. The others have gone off to some of the smaller Titans in the area to see if there have been disappearances there as well, while I'm off to my own destination."
"You're headed somewhere else, then?" She supposed it made a certain amount of sense. Voltis was a transportation hub, after all—you might as well just have someone investigate it on their way through rather than send someone there specifically.
Ciaran nodded. "Yes, I'm actually on my way to Tadbir. That's where the earliest reports came from."
Her eyes narrowed. "Tadbir, huh?" She asked, suspicion growing in the back of her mind. That can't be a coincidence, can it?
"Friend going to Tadbir too?" Tora asked excitedly, completely missing any potential warning signs. "So is Tora and party!"
Poppi, at least, seemed to understand how suspicious it seemed. "Masterpon," she said with a hint of disapproval. "It rude to share travel plans with stranger without consulting friends first."
"'The earliest reports came from there', you say?" Azurda asked, fluttering up to eye level with the Nothian boy.
He nodded in response. "Oh yes, almost a month before the first children vanished from Uraya, there was a rash of disappearances in Tadbir with a similar profile." He explained. "I'm hoping to find more information while I'm there, since several of those cases were partially solved."
"If you do not mind me asking, exactly what does 'partially solved' mean in this context?" Dromarch inquired politely. "The children were recovered, but the culprits escaped?"
Ciaran's face fell at the question. "S-something like that." He replied, a sorrowful look on his face. "Three of the children were located, but by the time they were found…" The Nothian boy trailed off, leaving the implications in the air.
Lowering his head respectfully, Dromarch replied. "I see." He said quietly. "That is… truly lamentable."
"Personally, I'm hoping that the cases aren't connected." The boy said softly. "The rumors didn't say how it happened, but…" He shook his head. "With luck, those taken from the other Titans are still safe."
An awkward silence fell around them after that; nobody really sure how to respond. It wasn't a particularly nice thought that many of the children may already be beyond saving.
Eventually, the silence was broken by the sound of a hook embedding itself into the side of the platform. The group turned around just in time to see Rex flip over the railing, landing perfectly on his feet with his arms splayed out like a professional gymnast who had completed a trick.
An image that was strengthened by Tora and Poppi clapping enthusiastically at his landing.
"Showoff." Nia muttered, glancing over at the boy.
The boy popped the seal on his helmet, wiping the sweat off of his brow as he tilted it over his shoulders. "What, jealous you can't pull off a jump like that?" He teased, walking over to the salvaging crane.
"I'll have you know I could pull off a much better one!" She insisted with a huff. "I just don't waste time showing off like that."
Rex pushed the level on the crane in its upward position, causing the winch to retract. "Right, right." He waved off, watching as a dark shadow began to grow beneath the surface of the Cloud Sea. "And I'm sure those little dances you do when you think nobody's looking aren't showy?" He asked innocently. "Don't get me wrong, they're pretty adorable, but I don't think they're particularly practical, you know?"
She blanched at his jab. "Y-you saw those?" The girl asked nervously. Dammit, those were for good luck! Nobody was supposed to see those, or else they wouldn't…
"Hold on, what exactly do you mean by 'adorable'?" She asked, a grin curling on her face.
It was her companion's turn to be taken off-guard, taking a step back from the crane control. "That was…! I mean…!" He stammered, his cheeks coloring as he held his hands in a warding gesture.
"P-perhaps I should go?" Ciaran coughed into his hand awkwardly. "You two seem to be busy right now."
Azurda guffawed as Rex nearly jumped right out of his diving suit as the Nothian boy spoke up.
"N-no, it's fine!" Rex scratched the back of his head awkwardly. I just didn't see you there." Holding out a hand, he greeted the other boy. "You must be Ciaran, right? I'm Rex."
Ciaran cautiously reached out to grab the offered hand. "N-nice to meet you." He said. "I heard you did a lot of good work around the Guild earlier."
"Aw, that was nothing." Rex denied. "Just giving a few people a hand. What can we do for you?"
The other boy averted his eyes nervously. "I, um, actually already finished my business with your friends while you were diving." He explained. "I was just about to head on my way."
"Oh, shame that." Rex lamented. "But I hope you were able to get what you were looking for!"
Before Ciaran could comment on that, Nia placed a hand on Rex's shoulder. "I'll catch him up on the conversation. Don't feel obligated to stick around on our account."
Behind the Nothian boy, his Blade chimed in. "We should get moving, Ciaran." She agreed. "There are still plenty of people to interview."
"Yes, of course." He said, looking over at the group. "Thank you for your assistance, and have a lovely day." The boy said, before turning away and walking off the salvaging deck.
Rex leaned against the crane, activating the winch again. "So he came to interview us as well, then?" He asked, looking over at Nia.
"He did." She confirmed. "But he did pass along some interesting information. You see, apparently…"
"… -onger do yo- ….. …. -e asleep?" A distant, unfamiliar voice asked.
"Wh- ….., ….. -t least ano-… …. -r two." A second voice replied.
He scrunched his brow, groaning at the prospect of waking up. It had been at least a few days since he had properly slept, what with how uncomfortable the cage had been, so the cool ground beneath him, while hard and damp, was almost a blessing in comparison.
Wait a moment, what?
The boy shot straight up, looking around frantically. The last thing he remembered was their kidnappers talking about killing them, that woman with them doing something, and then he…!
Oh. He had passed out. The woman must have put them to sleep somehow. That… that must have been what Deep Voice meant. In retrospect, that made far more sense.
(It still didn't make him feel much better. Even thinking about them made him quiver in fear.)
That also explained how they had been taken in the first place. One minute, Etene had been leading them back to the orphanage after a day playing in the nearby park, the next, they had woken up in their cages on the kidnapper's ship.
But where was he now?
He was laid out on a rough stone floor, covered in a thin layer of damp straw. The walls were much the same, except for one, which was instead a grid of rusty iron bars. In the corner, there was a discolored channel set into the floor, angled slightly to allow fluids to flow into a small copper pipe set into the wall. (Yuck. He didn't much want to think about what that was supposed to be.)
It was a very typical dungeon cell, like the ones in the stories that Miss Maia read for the younger children (of which he was still counted among) every night. It would be fascinating to see, had he not been stuck inside of it.
Of course, he wasn't alone, either. Several other children were in there with him, a few of whom were also from his orphanage, but most were unfamiliar. Indeed, none of the new faces were Osirian, for that matter. There were a few Ardainians and Urayans, a Gormotti, and another that he didn't recognize, with pale skin, orange hair, pointed ears, and some odd facial markings.
(He hoped that none of them were mean. He had better things to worry about than bullies in this situation.)
The other two Osirians, Ermias and Seble, were still asleep, carefully laid out on the straw. One of the Urayan girls was kneeling over them, holding a damp rag to their heads with a worried expression.
"Hey, you're finally awake." One of the Ardainian boys, a blonde with blue eyes, greeted him. "You were asleep for a while; we were starting to get worried…" He glanced over at the other two. "Maybe that means they'll be fine too."
"Don't say it like that, Ewan!" The Urayan girl chastised him. "I told you they'd be fine! You're just trying to scare him, aren't you!?"
'Ewan' crossed his arms. "Nuh uh! I'm not trying to scare him! Better that he knows we've been worried! Besides, you're the one who said that weird sleep gas might have hurt them!"
"No I didn't!" The girl retorted.
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
Grumbling, the boy snapped at the bickering children. "Can you two please stop it for a moment!?" He yelled, pressing a hand against his forehead. His brain was still a little foggy from waking up.
"Look, I get it; this is all a little scary-" (Very scary. Where was big sis Etene?) "-But fighting isn't going to make it any better." Glancing over at the others, who were currently silent, he asked, "Does anyone know where we are?"
There was an exchange of glances between the others as they looked to see if anyone else knew, before they all shook their heads. Well, all of them except one, a red-haired Gormotti boy who was still mostly covered in his juvenile fur.
"Umm, a dungeon?" He said, crossing his arms. "That's a stupid question. Nobody was awake when those bad guys took us, or when they brought us here."
"He's just trying to help, Rhys!" An Ardainian girl in a tattered green dress yelled at the boy. "Why do you have to be so mean!?"
The Gormotti boy petulantly averted his gaze. "I'm just bein' realistic, Rhona. We already asked everyone, even the kids that were already taken away, and none of 'em were awake for anything!"
"Wait, wait." The boy cut in. "What was this about some of the others being 'taken'?" (The phrasing made his heart drop. That sounded like they were never seen again. Were they going to be taken too!?)
Ewan glanced through the bars of the cell at another on the far side of the hallway. It looked to be nearly the same as theirs, save for the fact that it was empty. "Yeah. The bad men… every once in a while, they'll come and take a whole cell away. No idea what happens afterwords, though." He glanced at the empty cell. "That group was taken earlier today, a little before they dumped you three in here."
"D-do you think that means we'll be next?" The boy whose origins he couldn't identify quivered in fear. (It took every ounce of his willpower not to follow suit.) "I-I don't wanna be taken!"
"Shut up, Leon." Rhys muttered. "Nobody likes a crybaby." The fact that Rhys was also shivering didn't help his argument.
Glancing back at Ewan, the boy prodded further. "So, you don't see them again?" He asked for confirmation. "They aren't just put in another cell further away?"
The Ardainian boy shook his head. "No. We can talk with the kids in the other cells if we yell loud enough. Pass their names along, the like." He shook his head sadly. "Even when they fill a cell back up, it's always new kids. We never hear from the others that were taken again."
He furrowed his brow at Ewan's words. "Why did they dump us in here, then?" The Osirian boy asked, looking at his two unconscious companions. (They were still breathing, right? They had to be!)
"Who knows." Ewan shook his head. "They always split the new kids up among the cells. Maybe they don't want us to be with friends?"
That didn't seem likely to him, but he admitted that there was no way to determine if it was correct or not. For all he knew, they could just be ensuring the cells had equal numbers of captives.
"How long until the next time they come?" He asked, taking a seat on the cold stone floor. He grimaced at the cold feeling in his pants as the damp straw slowly transferred water into them.
"Who knows?" The Ardainian replied. "None of us know how long we've been down here. We think they've been bringing us food twice a day, so maybe another few hours? But there's no sun, or clocks, or stuff to keep track."
That wasn't ideal. There was no way to know when the next group would be taken, if that was the case. If they were going to find a way out of here, they would have to be fast.
(How was he supposed to get them out of here if the other kids hadn't found a way out yet? He was smart, yes, but surely at least one of the kids here must be just as smart as him. What chance did he have if they hadn't?)
Shaking his head, he looked around the room. Ewan said something else, but by that point, he was too focused looking for ways to get out. He had failed on the ship; he refused to fail again.
For all of the bustle during daylight, the activity in the Voltis Trade Guild ceased rather abruptly once evening fell.
Perhaps it was, at least in part, a result of the outdoor nature of many of the Guild's business venues. While the bazaar that served as the focal point of most commercial activities on the Titan was equipped to operate during the night, with strings of lights hanging between the poles that held up the awnings that provided a warm glow to the deck below, the market was noticeably chillier at this hour than it had been during the day.
Not that cold was much of a concern for her—quite the opposite, in fact.
The reduction in foot traffic made it easier for her to patrol the area unseen, keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity from the rooftops. It wasn't how she would have operated back when she had first awakened, preferring instead to patrol from the street level, but years of working as a vigilante had taught her the value of operating in a more covert manner.
It didn't mean that she liked sneaking around, of course—she still did, and always would, prefer to confront her opponents head-on. However, there was a time and a place for everything, and at the moment, stealth was the only real option available to her.
Peering over the side of the market deck, she quickly scanned the return port for any signs of activity. There was no guarantee that the kidnappers were going to strike Voltis again; they had already snatched several children here over the last few days, and if they were sticking to the same pattern they had used in Mor Ardain, then if they hadn't already moved on, then they would soon.
Unfortunately, if they did decide to act now, then she had no way of actually catching them before they struck. That meant the only way that she could apprehend them was by putting a child in danger.
The very idea rankled her, but she knew that there wasn't much choice: If she didn't capture them now, then she would have no way of locating the rest of the missing children. Even finding that they were active here had been more a matter of luck than anything else; if they were to move on, it was unlikely that she would find herself in a position to catch them red-handed again.
She turned away from the edge of the deck, leaping from the port warehouse to the roof of the residential building. To make matters worse, there were two potential ports that she needed to keep an eye on, but only one set of eyes to watch them. That meant she needed to be constantly switching between them, watching for suspicious activity.
It was extremely inefficient and almost guaranteed to end up with her missing something important. There was a reason she hated working alone on jobs like this, and the fact that her husband was much better at skulking around like this was only part of it.
As she prepared to leap over to the starboard warehouse, the sound of shuffling feet caught her attention. She immediately crouched down, trying to make herself as hard to spot from the ground as possible, even as she peered over the eve of the roof.
Below her was a pair of men, mercenaries from the look of it. They were followed by a pair of common Blades, a slender male and a beast. All four of them were trying their best to avoid detection, gazing around furtively as they moved.
Their behavior would have been suspicious on its own, but it was made even more so by the suspiciously child-sized bag that the man in the lead, a burly Urayan with a Greataxe on his back, had slung over his shoulder.
Every instinct in her body positively screamed at her to stop them, to jump down and bring down the righteous retribution that they so deserved. Yet, a voice in the back of her head (that sounded suspiciously like her husband's) noted that if she did that, she would definitely save the child they had grabbed, but in doing so, she would consign the rest to whatever wicked fate these criminals intended for them.
So instead, she leaned back, checking that the additions to her equipment were in their proper positions. It wasn't a necessary task by any stretch of the imagination—after years of using them, putting them on before she even left was second nature—but it helped settle the knot growing in her stomach as she watched the kidnappers move.
After confirming that they weren't being followed, the criminals quickly slipped into the starboard warehouse, no doubt headed for the port beneath it. She cursed as they vanished from her sight, leaping across the narrow alley onto the roof of the building they had entered.
She dashed across the roof, sparing only a moment to peek through one of the skylights to ensure she didn't lose them. There may only be a few exits from the warehouse, but if she chose the wrong one to watch, it was possible they could escape before she realized her mistake.
Fortunately, they seemed to be going exactly the direction she assumed, out the warehouse door that led to the furthest wharf, which was conveniently also the most concealed from most angles of view. She would call it predictable, but it was frankly the most logical place for them to be moored, considering what they were doing.
The woman dropped down from the roof, quietly landing on the frame of the door the kidnappers were about to exit. As she suspected, there was a ship there, a submersible-type Titan of a configuration she couldn't immediately identify. Not that identifying Titan ships was a specialty of hers, of course, but after more than a decade living in a busy port town like Chilsain, she could at least recognize most models used by the nations that traded with Mor Ardain.
Definitely a clue for later.
Like clockwork, no sooner had she landed than the criminals walked out onto the deck, glancing around as they hurried toward the ship. Good, that was the confirmation she needed that it was their ship.
Pulling out her weapon, a wicked-looking Megalance that ended in a three-pronged blade, she gathered ether into her Core Crystal. A chill breeze that even she could feel rolled off of her as cerulean lines lit up along her exposed shoulders and legs. She drew her arm behind her, aiming for the center of the criminal's formation, and threw her weapon like a javelin.
The enemy Blades felt the fluctuating ether levels, immediately opening affinity links to their Drivers as they spun around to defend against whatever attack was coming. She had been expecting that, of course, and had aimed with the assumption in mind.
As such, the barriers the two Blades projected did exactly nothing to stop her lance as it flew over them with room to spare and dug itself deep into the planks of the deck.
No sooner had her weapon struck home than a rush of ether burst forth from it, rapidly solidifying into an ice floe that washed over the criminals. The two Blades, who had reacted to the sensation of her building attack, were still taken off-guard as they were struck from the opposite direction than the one they were defending toward. Their Drivers, who hadn't even been afforded a proper warning beyond the sudden affinity links, had only barely begun to turn around when they found themselves frozen solid.
She watched them struggle, a feeling of grim satisfaction at their instantaneous incapacitation her only reaction as she leapt to the ground and sauntered over to them. It wouldn't be long before the local guards arrived to investigate the racket, so she would need to get as much out of them as quickly as possible.
The woman walked past the pair of Blades, both frozen nearly solid, and approached the Urayan man. He was solidly iced over from the waist down, but above that, half of his torso was still free, although both of his arms were still imprisoned. It had been by careful design that she had done that, freezing him in place while still leaving his suspicious cargo free to be removed.
"Gah, what…?" The man sputtered, trying desperately to free his arms from the block of ice. She paid him no mind, instead grabbing the bag off of his shoulder. "O-oi, let go of that!" He protested.
Ignoring him, she carefully unwrapped the mouth of the burlap sack, revealing the contents within. What she found was exactly what she had expected—a child, an Ardainian boy probably no older than ten, unconscious but breathing steadily, with a large, darkening bruise on his temple a similar size and shape to the butt of the Urayan man's Greataxe.
She disentangled the boy from the bag, gently picking him up and carrying him away from the iced-over patch of ground. Leaning him against one of the bollards running along the edge of the wharf, the woman carefully checked his condition once more, making sure it was safe to leave him be before turning back to the Urayan man.
"Architect-damned pile of shit…! Get the fuck out of here, you bitch! A little ice won't keep us here forever!" He spouted a string of curses at her, still desperately trying to free himself from the ice, as she approached again. "You think you're so tough just because you caught us off-guard? Two can play at that game!" He announced, the words timed with a sudden movement in her peripheral vision as one of the blades broke loose from the ice. "Get her, Kamin-!"
Without even bothering to look, she dumped more ether into the ice, and a series of icicle spears lanced out, impaling the humanoid Blade. He was in no danger—she had intentionally avoided targeting his Core Crystal, and he would be able to regenerate once the spears were removed, but it was a promise to the Driver exactly what she could do to him if she wanted to.
Another, smaller spear rose from the ground between her and the Urayan Driver. With a single, smooth motion, she grabbed the tip of it, breaking the last ped of the spike off and holding it in her hand like a dagger as she approached the man.
Before the man could even consider getting another word in, she grabbed him by the hair, pulling his head closer as she held the ice spike to his throat. This wasn't the way she would normally go about this, but considering her time constraints, she may as well borrow one of her husband's favorite interrogation techniques.
"Listen, and listen closely." She spoke, barely loud enough for the man's partner to hear, but carrying a threatening tone every bit as sharp as the blade pointed at her target's throat. "You are going to tell me exactly where you were going to be taking this child, as well as any of the others inside your ship there. Do you understand?"
He glared at her, contempt smoldering behind his eyes, but his gaze quickly snapped over to the struggling form of his Blade, still impaled a short distance away. The man's lip curled in distaste as he looked back at her, seemingly contemplating his options.
"I said. Do. You. Under. Stand?" She pressed again, applying pressure to the icicle. Even with his skin still hardened by the ether his Blade was providing, blood still welled at the tip.
"Yes! Yes! I understand!" He hurriedly replied, his eyes widening as he felt the skin of his neck begin to part. "Tadbir! We were going to take them to Tadbir!"
She narrowed her eyes. "Tadbir? Why? And for who?"
"I-I don't know!" He defended. "We're just contractors! Some bigwig just paid us to snatch up random kinds, 'round the age of ten or so, and bring them back to Tadbir! We've never met our employer!"
"Where did you deliver them?" She asked, refusing to let up the pressure. "A warehouse? A dock?" Her eyes narrowed. "The academy?"
"A dock! A dock!" He replied in a panic. "It was never the same one! We just had to pull into the main slip, and our employer sent men to grab the cargo during the night!"
The woman stared at him for a moment, looking him in the eyes. She wasn't certain that he was telling the truth in the slightest, but she didn't exactly have the time to push the interrogation any further; she could hear the sound of feet rushing down the stairs inside the warehouse, meaning the guards were coming.
Flicking her hand, the ice covering the lower half of his body slowly began creeping further up. She took a step back, watching him flail in an attempt to get free as the ice grew around his torso before slowing to a halt just below his shoulders.
She turned away from them, sparing a glance back toward the warehouse just in time to see the first of the new arrivals coming to investigate the commotion. To her surprise, it wasn't one of the guards, but the Nothian boy who had interviewed her a few days before, Ciaran. He was followed closely by his Blade, her weapon, a jousting lance with the entire shaft and head composed of ether crystal, held firmly in his hands.
Good. He'd be able to interrogate the criminals too, so she wouldn't have to engineer a way of passing the information along to him.
Turning away from him, she walked over to the kidnapped boy and checked his status, just to make sure he didn't require any urgent medical attention. As he had been when she placed him down, the boy seemed to be fine, save for the bruise on his head.
"W-what in the Architect's name is going on!?" Ciaran said, looking around at the frozen criminals. "Is this really the sort of hour to be fighting like this!?"
"They were attempting to abduct the boy here." The woman said, not even bothering to turn around. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say 'refusing to turn around', considering she didn't want to risk him recognizing her, even with her mask and altered appearance.
Ciaran drew in a deep breath of surprise. "The kidnappers!?" He muttered, looking at the frozen criminals. "You caught them!? Unbelievable!"
She heard the sound of shifting metal plates as his Blade made her annoyance known. "Y-yes, of course! Thank you, Lyta." The man muttered to himself, before speaking louder. T-the boy… is he okay?"
"I believe so." She nodded, turning her face only far enough that she could see the visible relief on his face. "But it would be prudent to have him looked over by a healer regardless. The other children inside the ship as well; I've not been able to check on their status."
The woman didn't wait for a reply, instead weaving around him fast enough to keep her face concealed as she headed back for the warehouse. Within, she could hear more movement, probably the rest of the respondents, although after the last person to leave the building, she couldn't guarantee it was the guards. It was probably for the best that she leave now; the last thing she needed was those two Driver kids she had talked to yesterday to make an appearance as well. They had interacted recently enough that those two might recognize her from her voice alone, even if she wasn't feigning demureness right now.
"Wait!" The boy behind her called, trying to grab her attention. "Where are you going!?"
"You appear to have this well in hand." She replied, a complete lie considering that he had only just arrived on-scene, but with how effectively she had handled the criminals, she doubted he would have a problem in the thirty seconds he would be alone before more backup arrived.
"B-but, y-you…!" He sputtered as the woman continued to talk away. "You're just…! W-who even are you, anyway!?"
She came to a stop, just close enough to the warehouse that she could easily jump to the roof. "Call me… Tokiha." She replied ominously, not even giving the man the chance to process her alias before leaping up onto the warehouse roof.
'Tokiha' didn't bother looking back, knowing that the boy was dutifully enough to focus fully on the captive rather than pursue her. In truth, she desperately wanted to stay and make sure the boy was safe as well, but she knew that he would be in safe hands now.
Besides, she had her own tasks that needed to be handled now. The kidnapper had given her a lead, one that was far too crucial for her to ignore, even if she did suspect the man had been trying to mislead her.
She quickly made her way back up to the main deck, taking a brief moment to return to her civilian guise before dropping back to the ground behind one of the support pillars of the upper warehouse. Glancing around to make sure nobody was coming, she slipped out of her hiding place, idly brushing dust off her dress.
With nobody the wiser, she made her way in the direction of the Flight Deck. The ticket counter should still be open, even at this hour, so the only obstacle she expected to her mission was the availability of transports to her new destination.
Author's Notes
So, a lot of new characters this chapter! I had planned to introduce Perun at the end of the last one, but that didn't end up working out at the time, so she gets to make her appearance in the same chapter as the others.
Working her Blade Quest into the plot has required a fair bit of reshuffling things around, so don't expect it to turn out more than superficially similar to how that played out in canon. That's about all I can say about it at the moment.
I may or may not post a chapter next week; I've been ill the last few days, and it has made it remarkably difficult to focus on writing.
