mistralian slums 1:44 am*
Rain beating on the walls and windows were a common occurrence for mistral in the summer, but this storm was its worst in months and unfortunately for Ciri, she had little choice but to entertain herself in a rundown hotel. Going through the small room on autopilot setting up a table for washing, sharpening and polishing her sword and washed her mud and blood stained clothes, so she had to do all her weapon maintenance in a hotel robe and underwear that yang loaned her since she'd grown too big for her other ones.
"Tracking is geralt's special talent, but I need to be just as good" She nodded as she sifted through folders in her bag and found papers on baron and a strange woman named 'Lilac' but strangely no last name, so not much to go on here.
"Perhaps I should dig through the 'red baron' and see if he's anything similar to that man from the continent" she said to no one.
A knock at the door tore her from her work and quickly pushed it all under the bed and opened up to find room service handing her a small cart. Behind the cart was a girl with a hotel uniform that read: happy hungry huntress hotel.
"Excuse my rudeness miss, but I didn't order room service" Ciri commented tapping the cart away, but the woman pushed it into the room and smiled.
"It's on the house madame, you're a huntress, so it's customary" Shrugging she obliged her generosity.
Ciri took the platter and froze at the seal envelope with wax and a pair of swords and a beowolf skull in the center.
Opening the envelope she found a letter, 200 lien and a pair of keys, "huh, never thought I'd see this happen, to me of all...people" she trailed off reading the letter.
In black shiny ichor like ink, the letter read:
Dear little white wolf,
I regret to inform you of this, but I'd advise you cease of this impulsive search for answers, you know the depths of this rabbit hole but not its dangerous endeavors that lurk within.
Our leader wishes you to end your search, and I'm the humble messenger, so take the lien and car parked downstairs, drive back to vale and let this go.
-With admiration and respect, Your humble messenger.
Rereading it twice more, ciri scoffed and threw the paper in the trash, but as she had a small paper cut forced on her left palm and some of the black ichor made its way inside her and sat in wait as it slowly spread.
"No way am I stopping, no master knows success without plenty of failure; I can find anybody I searched for them and I won't stop cause some gave up a week in" ciri said grabbing what she had packed away and rushed out the door knocking over the girl who just left her room.
"Oh, sorry miss, I wasn't-" she stopped hid apology and helped her to her feet to get a closer look.
The girl blushed hard, seeing the beautiful woman in her face like this and couldn't say a word. Ciri moved hair from her right eye, showing an eye patch and scarring around the black patch.
"Your Cinder fall, right?" She finally asked backing away with caution but looked more relaxed to Cinder, so she replied to the white haired woman.
"Yes...but I just warned you about the grimm queen and the saviors but the council and your circle aren't slowing down, so I came to try to get you to listen" leading her into the room with the cart to not rise suspicion she sat down against the door with a breath of exasperation. "I know I'm just another pawn to die for the board, but you need to know that reaper isn't baron's son, he's something not even doctors are capable of creating"
Taking this in, ciri hummed and grabbed Cinder by the arm firm but not abrasively. "come with me and tell me everything you know."
Outside sat a small motorcycle that Cinder recognized but kept quiet about, no one even tried to stop them, as they drove off ciri looked back and yelled "I hope you know how dire your life became coming to me with this!"
Cinder felt more depressed at that and yelled back "I hope so too"
Fewer people trusted strangers and even fewer had joined them to a 5 kilometer sinkhole in mistral, but here cinder was following this...odd person through the sinkhole.
She remembered how terrifying Salem was at first glance; a sinkhole like this was the same effect.
Eyes of all walks of life watched remnant but none felt as intrusive as those of the remnant's security force dubbed The Santorum and these 2,000 operatives were gathered to ensure the sinkhole was protected while the researchers and scientists worked on finding out why and how a hole formed overnight and if anyone was hurt or killed.
"I'll get a closer look" ciri began, turning to Cinder "you should get out of here, no need for both of us to be here" she went to warp into the tree nearest to her position, but Cinder grabbed hold and pulled her back.
"Wait, you need me on this" she blurted out. Cinder clenched tighter and breath hitched in dread.
"I'm sorry, but I can't in good conscience be taking you with" she argued. Ciri yanked out of her grasp, but after Cinder glared, watching her blip out of existence and blip in a tree a few yards from her spot.
"Mistress will reward me for this" she said to herself, sprinting into the borderline and jumped the fence with such speed and grace ciri had not seen from the girl. She was beside herself but knew the need to help, so she figured Cinder was just wanting to help, so she shrugged it off blipping from her tree and took out the surrounding guards Cinder had alerted to their presence.
"She's headstrong, I'll give her that much" she mused leaping into action to put two men asleep from a dust she found in a black bag in a tent. Watching them pass out, she chuckled "didn't think that would even work"
Shooting and running was not her plan, but Cinder had needed to know what had her intent changed for to ask of Merlot's services?
Cinder soon got her answers when she searched keywords in a briefcase computer on the desk beside her after the paperwork turned up less than anything useful.
On the screen, Cinder saw it was flooding with pictures of grimm dissolved and bled into a tank and pushed into cases with clones of the strange boy that escaped beacon all those years ago.
A detailed document stated that the process was absolutely abominable to say the least. Limbs rotten off to grimm limbs and parts were bursting open with blood and bone but no muscle.
Organs boiled and liquified, eyes reddened, and lips blue and swollen...worst yet was the tendrils ripping through pores and the heads of the clones who had mutated with no success of survival...all 12,752 attempts and only one clone had survived, unfortunately that clone had been stolen, but not before documents read that the clone was all the worst qualities the host had inside it but not before it had flat lined two hours after the clone had been taken.
"Mistress Salem, you'll be pleased with this" Cinder snidely comments as she ripped every piece of evidence that she'd need to earn her place back.
While she got out with her spoils ciri had been getting the evidence that the sinkhole was created because of a large explosion all throughout the ground but nothing yet on what or who did it, she guessed that it was because of a nest of ground dwellers bore through the ground over the years, and it collapsed under the weight.
She was not content, so she pressed further into the compound looking through for more answers, in any other instances ciri wouldn't keep going but geralt taught her different.
She snuck into office after office directly next to the crater searching but all the conclusions everyone had come to a head with the same assumption...all but one.
"Looks like conspiracy more than evidence of anything...let's see what you got mystery desktop" she quipped logging in.
Clicking through this one, it strongly suggested that all overlooked evidence was of explosive dust and residue of demolition grade incendiaries, metal for armor and more interesting was that clothes and food, medical supplies and rotting bodies of some people long since dead most were men, but it was evident that they were dug up and burned before reports were made. All reports this person recorded were the only copies, so ciri went to work copying them all.
A good 79% of all files downloaded onto her laptop when the files were halted and power was cut to the central mainframe, Channel subsystem, The mainframe channel subsystem and network links, all of it abruptly shutdown and a man dressed in black armor crashed through the wall the figure had Atlesian knight armor modified for a person to pilot and the power behind the punch knocked her into the data towers and smashed dozens of years worth of documentation and information that was now lost thanks to the armored assailant.
Ciri's instincts told her body to move, and then she found herself behind the figure running with the laptop and not a single cell in her body told her to fight, it told her to get out of there and not even the security personnel forced her to surrender nor did Cinder shoe to help, so she figured if she needed to fight this wasn't it.
Fist-to-cuffs was her weak point, but she tried to put up a fight swiping and jabbing them but crunching fists were met with a resounding haymaker and a few crosses and uppercuts, her vision burred and fogged in and out as her body was wrathfully beaten on until she forced herself to focus on retreat and living tomorrow so surviving was her next best thing.
Blipping the laptop to geralt she lost her footing and for sending it away her payment was a blast of burning air to the shoulder as she'd twisted in the fall throwing the laptop. Her sword wasn't on her, and so she had to escape or die...she failed to escape the right way, so she decided not to fight this person.
"You're not exactly sure if you chose the right way or you're just plain stupid girl, I'll enjoy breaking you" the figure said cramming his fingers in her hair scraping her scalp and punched her in the face repeatedly till ciri grunted before swiftly stabbing the person in the armpit with a long piece of glass from the ground making them drop her harshly.
"Luckily, I'm not dumb enough to stay an' play" she replied blipping out with a green wave surround her and disappeared.
Ciri fell on a bed and bounced off the side and corner, crashing to the floor coughing hard from dust and blood getting in her lungs last she heard before she fell unconscious was yelling and her name being called out distressed, her body was numbing, mind was foggy and there was a taste of copper in her mouth. Her last words she said were unclear to her, but she hoped for the best.
Cinder on the other hand successfully got out of there mostly undetected, her plan worked a treat, and now she had a vital impact on how she could redeem herself in her Mistress's eyes and become her grimm knight and possibly more if she had more...unfortunately for her baron's enforcer showed up upgraded and almost killed ciri while she'd ran off.
"Good job girly, you made quite the distraction. Still, though, you were told not to take the path I provided, and you failed to read in between the lines" she giggled and hugged the documents in her hands to her stomach gleefully hoping Salem would promote her from a simple pawn to 'daughter' (or bishop in simple terms) but Tyrian held his own bishop rank.
If only her luckiest survived the baron and his saviors she'd still have power over vale gangsters but no, emerald was gutted, mercury was torn up by sewer grimm, hell that neo girl and torchwick disappeared from her radar.
"My life should not be so complicated" she complained.
Tendrils ripping through the darkness of the corner of her room grabbed her by the throat and hung her from the ceiling corner.
"Oh Cinder, how good you were to get little to nothing to save your life from my wrath...you are such a disappointment, truly dreadful honestly" Salem said flowing from the shadows with glowing eyes and a motherly love that put no one at ease with how her tone stood out as it always did; like a winter's chill down her spine.
"You failed me twice over and lost my respect...you barely deserve it, but I'll allow you to explain why you want it so badly"
"My Mistress, I merely wished to earn your love and supply you with what you wished for as your right hand-"
Salem chocked her last words off and said coldly to her "having you as my right-hand...well, Cinder, I'd sooner cut my whole arm off"
Extenuated by the last words Salem wrapped more tendrils around her body crushing and ripping Cinder apart around the room before she could even scream.
"Cole Valentine...my dear Sigma, soon you'll be mine forever"