Emilia was unsure if she was a hostage or not. Well, maybe hostage wasn’t quite the right word. Unless V suddenly reappeared—or the Stringer family—it wasn’t like anyone would be coming for her. Perhaps she was more of a generic captive, being held semi-against her will by the Risen Guard?

It was unclear. Extremely unclear. She had been treated nicely enough, in the two days since they’d been brought to this place by Boundary, who had promptly disappeared, leaving a blandly smiling woman in his stead.

Lanaira wasn’t exactly unkind, but she was certainly unhelpful. That probably wasn’t her fault. All the kids, save Astra and the boy who still refused to speak, wanted to know about their parents. Lanaira had no answers for them.

Things in Livery were a mess, and the Risen Guard were still working to sort out what had happened and where everyone had ended up. The stampede had happened so fast that the elevators and landing pads hadn’t been shut down or even monitored as people started evacuating, and once the Risen Guard had realized the local guards had panicked and shut people in? That the labyrinth entrance had been damaged and the area’s overseer hadn’t informed the higher ups?

Yeah, it was a giant mess. A mess of politics and bodies and missing people. There were also still people inside the city, trapped. The homeless population, plus everyone who had been locked inside and was too afraid to enter the labyrinth. No one had any idea how many people had entered the labyrinth, and the Risen Guard was currently sending members into it, searching for people lost or stuck or dead. From what Lanaira had told them, searching the labyrinth was extremely difficult, as there was no set path. Essentially, the Risen Guard was left to send in guard after guard, hoping they’d run into people.

They’d found a few dozen people so far—many quite seriously injured or dead—and located another dozen who had made it out the other side and popped out in one city or another. Apparently, while some labyrinths had set exits, others had none. The Livery labyrinth in particular could open exits virtually anywhere. The only good thing about that was it meant that even if the Risen Guard didn’t find V and the missing children, it didn’t prove they were dead or gone. Then again, some closure might have been nice.

Of the people the Risen Guard did find, some had been stupid enough to touch the heartcore, creating even more headaches for the Risen Guard. Given what they’d heard from Emilia and the kids about Livery, in the days since their arrival, the guard had also realized some amount of the population was unlikely to report they were residents of of the city: this chaos was the perfect escape from lives they abhorred. It was too good a chance to pass up.

Within the city itself, there had been riots, and while the Risen Guard would normally send in people to control the situation, they were currently stretched thin. The visitors who had escaped the Risen Guard were causing problems throughout the city system—possibly even outside it, if what Emilia gleaned from overheard conversation and words left unsaid was correct. Incidents like the one in the library heartcore city and Livery were happening everywhere, and there weren’t enough Risen Guard to go around.

According to Lanaira, the fact that Boundary had even shown up to help them was sheer luck. He’d been in a nearby city and felt the tug of a new potential Risen Guard.

He’d come because of Benny—because the little boy had been filled with uncontainable curiosity. It was a stupid thing to do, but if he hadn’t done it, they may have all died in that city. The Enclave member, the two members of that family, Carne; there were so many places where things could have gone wrong.

So many, in fact, that Emilia wasn’t sure she believed it was a coincidence that they had all crossed paths.

Thankfully, she had Caro, nosy little child and gossip.

Caro had, thankfully, be reassured publicly by Boundary that what had happened to the homed children was not their fault. That man would have found them anyways, they simply found Caro first. Some of the children still muttered about how Caro had caused it, but those words were quickly shut down by Miira, who had fallen effortlessly into her role as mini-maternal figure of the apartments they’d been placed in. She was doing pretty good, working under Lanaira to guide the children through their—hopefully temporary—new life.

Caro was mostly back to their cheerful, flighty self, but was still sticking close to Emilia, apparently trusting her to death glare anyone who said bad things about them. After a short stint of begging with Lanaira to either translate or give Caro access to the messaging system or send someone else along to translate for them, Emilia had been bestowed with a Risen Guard in training: Honey.

Honey was cheerful and clumsy and an Enclave spy.

Okay, so Emilia wasn’t positive on that last point, but the signs were there! If Honey weren’t a spy, Emilia would eat her hat… if she had a hat, anyways.

Luckily, Honey was also completely content to translate for her and Caro, offering up their own information as they went. Emilia was pretty sure Honey wasn’t supposed to be telling them so much information, which was part of what had convinced her the young woman was a spy. Only part of it, of course.

Things Caro knew:

One: Carne had grown up in Livery

⸂I don’t know why everyone was so surprised he’s Gale’s brother?⸃ Caro mused as they fiddled with one of the toys Lanaira had secured for the children.

“Not her brother.”

⸂What? But they’re… brother and sister? My mom knows their mom and dad. She says Gale and Ash looked similar, just like their daddy, so they can’t be, you know…⸃ Caro’s cheeks lit up and Honey helpfully supplied the missing words, which Emilia didn’t recognize but assumed was a local equivalent of affair child.

Emilia shook her head, explaining that family was more than blood—choosing your family was just as important—as she put more food on Astra and the silent boy’s plates, the two children having remained her responsibility along with Caro. Gale had decided she didn’t want to be Carne’s sister, and as her friend, they should respect her decision, and that meant not thinking of them as siblings.

Caro nodded along, a little furrow between their eyebrows. They could be a bit young for this sort of conversation, but Emilia really had no idea. Neither did Honey when she asked.

⸄I don’t have any kids in my life. Most Risen Guards don’t. Lanaira comes from a Risen Guard family, so she sees her family more often, and has a few younger members she’s close with. I think that’s why she was assigned this gig.⸅

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“And why were you assigned this gig?” Emilia wanted to ask, but something told her now wasn’t the time.

⸂Okay, so, I don’t know why nobody knew Carne was Gale’s… uh… former brother?⸃

Emilia nodded, it was good enough. “Well, you knew Gale and had seen Carne and knew Gale once had a brother who looked like her, so it would be easier for you to know. Did you tell anyone?”

Caro shook their head. ⸂I think Sawyer knew too? And maybe Benny? But, Benny isn’t that observant. Carne left before most of us were even born!⸃ Caro’s eyes blew hilariously wide, as though the fact that things occurred before they were born was the most amazing thing in the world. Vaguely, Emilia wondered if they knew their entire life could pass in the span of a few minutes to days in her world, depending on how fast the platform maintainers ran the world once the raid was over.

“To become a Risen Guard?”

Two: Carne had once been a Risen Guard in training

⸂Yup!⸃ Caro cheered, going on a long, winding tail about how some Risen Guard really, really suck, but some are really cool.

Honey laughed and added in a few of her own thoughts on the organization, distracting the children with stories of her terrible and wonderful peers and seniors.

“Where does Boundary fall on your scale?” Emilia asked, poking at the food that had been bestowed to them. It was, unfortunately, the same terrible, faux-bloody lumps she’d been given during her first visit to the Risen Guard. Luckily, the children didn’t seem to have a problem eating it.

Honey contemplated for a moment, telling them she didn’t know the man personally. ⸂I’ve seen him a few times, heard a lot about him. I don’t think he’s very nice to most people? Kinda standoffish. He’s really skilled, but not the most skilled Risen Guard by far. I think I heard he went back into training a few days after you visitors arrived, though? People have mixed views on that.⸃

“Why?” Emilia asked, as nonchalantly as she could manage.

⸂It’s dangerous.⸃

“Too much power?”

⸂Mhm!⸃ Honey responded, munching down a handful of dried snacks that looked far too much like dried bugs for Emilia to even contemplate eating.

Her original Risen Guard babysitter had told her none of the food in this world was meat—too much blood involved—but did bugs have blood? Emilia wasn’t sure. They must have something running through their systems, but was it close enough to whatever was affected by the blood curse to also be affected? Certainly, bugs being affect by the blood curse seemed like the sort of thing that would end the world.

The cities seemed to be devoid of animals, so no fights could break out between strays or badly trained pets. It was nearly impossible to keep bugs out of anywhere, however. After over a hundred years of the blood curse, Emilia supposed it was possible the bugs had been driven out of the cities, but that seemed unrealistic. Plus, the Stringer compound had been outside! It seemed much more likely that bugs were unaffected by the blood curse, or their blood not enough to actually activate it, otherwise stepping on bugs would be dangerous!

Not being in a position to request a random excursion out onto the street—and not wanting to interrupt the flow of the conversation—Emilia could only guess at such things. Personally, she wasn’t about to risk eating an actual bug. Logically, she knew it wasn’t actually a bug—or anything, really. It was just random data for her body to convert into digital energy. She still wasn’t eating it.

Honey offered no more information about the dangers of Risen Guard training, and when their eyes met, Emilia could see a hint of… something. Something that added another note of suspicion that Honey was a spy.

“So, Carne was excited to become a Risen Guard?” she asked, filling in the unsaid parts of Caro’s story.

⸂Yup! He was! He wanted to become someone great! Come back and help the people of the city. My mom and dad said the entire city was looking forward to celebrating his success!⸃

“But that didn’t happen?”

Caro deflated, whatever happy memories they had of being told Carne’s origin story by their parents fell away. ⸂No… there was an accident. I was nearby when Gale’s family was told.⸃ Their eyes blew wide, and suddenly, they were promising Honey that they hadn’t meant to listen in, it had just happened.

Honey smiled and told them it was fine, pushing more food towards the gangly child as she told Emilia that Ash’s story was famous among the Risen Guard—a tale of what can go wrong during training.

⸄It was a few years ago. There’s no way Caro had enough control over their hearing magic to control what they did and didn’t hear yet,⸅ the trainee explained.

“I see… so, what happened?” she asked, wondering which of her companions would explain.

Both, each explaining and filling in details as they went, although it was clear that either Honey didn’t know everything or was purposefully leaving things out—probably both. Whatever Caro knew was public knowledge, Honey was just adding in the facts they had forgotten. Perhaps adding in a bit more, but certainly not much. Just enough that they wouldn’t get in trouble for telling her things she shouldn’t know, Emilia suspected.

Effectively, there had been some sort of training accident. It was an expected risk that all trainees were informed of before they began certain aspects of their training. Usually, things went fine. In Ash’s case, it hadn’t, and they had been fatally injured.

Except they hadn’t been.

⸂From what I understand, no one expected Ash to survive,⸃ Honey told Caro when they admitted they had thought they’d heard the Risen Guard informing his family of his impending death. ⸂He did survive, and then… he left. I don’t know anything about what happened with that!⸃ she added quickly, and Emilia was inclined to believe her.

⸄Honestly? I think the Risen Guard want him dead, but something is stopping them. No idea what, but it’s common trainee gossip. Oh! And we’ve been told to avoid him at all costs, and to not fight with him, no matter what.⸅

Well, that would explain why Boundary hadn’t attacked the man when they talked, despite his obvious desire to. Still, it begged the question of why Carne was so dangerous. He clearly had some insane core control, and the fact that he’d found them, having apparently followed the will of the universe to them, travelling stars knew how far to get to them?

⸂There are hundreds of things the heartcores can give people!⸃ Caro had cheered as they examined the heartcore. Most of the children would go nowhere near it, for fear of touching it, because you never knew what sort of gift it would give you.

⸂In the stories, some gifts are more common than others,⸃ Miira had added, Sawyer telling them that the grannies said there were statistics involved, his young brain fumbling over the word. He had subsequently been unable to tell the others what statistics were, and Emilia had been forced to give an impromptu math lesson.

⸂Your ability to hear is considered common, in the stories about visitors,⸃ Miira explained after several of the children had begged for the math lesson to stop. Apparently, many of the stories about previous visitations were now considered myth, but were regularly told by parents and grandparents. It was unclear how much of them was real, and how much dramatic detail or errors of time.

⸂Some of the abilities are really terrible. Life changing or deadly,⸃ Gale had grumbled, glaring at the heartcore from across the room.

In hindsight, perhaps it made sense that she would get nowhere near the thing, if she knew touching it potentially led to becoming a Risen Guard—or, that one had potentially stolen her brother from her. According to Zach, heartcores were where visitors and locals alike expanded their power. They were now largely controlled by the Risen Guard and Enclave, making it nearly impossible for locals to accidentally acquire new abilities.

It was possible Ash’s training accident had involved the heartcores, something about the power given to him toxic and dangerous, creating the man he had become. Something disturbing and feared. Perhaps, Gale even knew that, although how, Emilia wasn’t sure. Caro and Honey had simply called it a training accident, but then again, siblings talk.

Just as friends share secrets they shouldn’t, so do siblings. It was easy to see Gale and Ash whispering secrets about his training during the rare breaks that brought him home, the same way Rin and Key did… just with slightly less malicious intention.

Emilia would love to ask Gale about it. The problem? Emilia was positive they were all being watched.