Boundary looked up from where he had been attempting to teach Emilia how to still her mind. It had been working, kinda… sorta.
…
Okay, it hadn’t really been working, but it at least felt like she’d been on the path to quieting her mind. Maybe.
Her own core spiralled outwards, following the trail of his. Nearby, something—someone—rippled.
⸂You are loud,⸃ he noted, her concentrated thoughts on the process of moving her energy through her meridians and sending it off after Boundary’s energy loud and clear through the otherwise quiet room. ⸂Does that actually work? If it does, it is something not taught here.⸃
Emilia glared at the man. He really was terrible, even if—aside from the times his evil, heartcore corrupted personality had tried to kill her—he had only ever tried to help her. Still, he was mean and refused to answer most of her questions. It was annoying, but the man had been annoying her for the entirety of their relationship.
“⸂Do you think it’s the Risen Guard?⸃” she asked, silently—which currently meant through her aethervoice—reprimanding herself for her inability to remember to only think. There was no reason for her to speak anymore, after all.
Still…
⸂We do not silently swear at people,⸃ Boundary sighed when she asked how locals thought bad things about people.
Emilia levelled a look at the man. She had seen Sawyer and Gale argue often enough, seen them glaring at each other across the room with enough venom to know they had been wishing bad things on each other.
⸂We do not silently swear at people,⸃ Boundary repeated as he stood, moving towards the door. ⸂We send very rude vibes and hopes their way,⸃ he added, before telling her he was going to investigate. She was to stay in the room and practice silencing her bad thoughts, because eventually, someone was going to overhear her wishing death on them, and they weren’t going to be as understanding as he was.
Emilia sent a few more death wishes trailing after the man, smiling to herself when softly amused laughter brushed against her.
The man’s lack of answer wasn’t lost on her, despite his attempts to make her forget that he may very well be heading out to face an army of irate Risen Guard.
✮ ✮ ✮ Three Days Earlier ✮ ✮ ✮
Several times, as her stalker lead them through the Risen Guard compound, Emilia braved reaching out towards him with her energy. He didn’t seem to mind, rude and nosy as it was. The man and his abilities were just so fascinating. So much information was relayed to him through whatever technique he was using to read the world, and what she saw was only what could be seen from the outside, her energy winding around his.
For him, what he received was surely more, and yet he barely seemed to notice. Even the few times Emilia was connected to his information network and something big crossed through it—some magic item, she assumed, as the objects definitely weren’t living, but were infinitely powerful—her own steps faltered and her stalker’s never did. Actually, not only was the man unaffected by such power flittering into his senses, he was able to reach out and steady her!
It was truly insane, and Emilia really wanted to ask if he was this powerful in the real world—possibly even more powerful, if his D-levels were on the lower end—or if a heartcore had given him this ability. If one had, it was truly unfair. The ability to hear locals, to read and write, and some ability she had yet to even figure out: these were the things the heartcores had given her, and they kinda sucked.
She couldn’t ask the man about the source of his ability, however. His only rule as they travelled the halls had been for her to be as quiet as possible. They both understood that the Risen Guard were listening, even if they weren’t actively spying on her.
“From what I can tell, they consider this place secure. Th’outer guards monitor for intruders, and th’interior guards trust they’ll not miss anyone. I haven’t felt anyone inside using their core or magic to search for intruders. Their hearing is like ours, though: always on. ‘Specially since they’re worried ‘bout you, they’re payin’ more attention t’sounds in the building than usual. Polite, though. I can feel their ears reachin’, an’ they ain’t lookin’ in here.”
So, quiet she had to be, outside of the apparent privacy of her bedroom. No questions, just holes burning through her curiosity for how much she wanted to ask them.
The most unfortunately thing, however, was that she’d spaced and forgotten to ask the man’s name! Now, she was left referring to his as the man and her stalker, and it was terrible! She would be able to ask it once they got to the infirmary, of course, as she still had her notebook—she probably would have bitten anyone who dared try and take it from her—but stopping in the hallway to ask something so mundane seemed like asking for someone to come upon them, no matter how much the man’s energy could see. Plus, she had more important notes to write as they moved.
That said, her stalker didn’t seem particularly concerned with running across anyone. Apparently, he could usually differentiate between the children and Risen Guards—and indeed, as they grew close to the infirmary and the number of people lingering around them increased, even Emilia could feel the difference between someone trained in magic and someone not. With so many people around, however, it was harder to differentiate them, and occasionally a body she thought was a single person split and became two or three, their forms appearing under her stalker’s web of understanding. Suddenly, where the latent magic of a child had been, wild and uncontrollable, a Risen Guard would appear, surrounded by the wild but weak energy of a child or two.
Unable to speak, and not willing to risk the kids giving her away, Emilia slipped into the infirmary with a finger pressed to her lips. It wasn’t a universally understood symbol for silence, Emilia now knew. She and the older children had discussed it after arriving at the Risen Guard compound, Stephy having asked what the movement meant. As a result, even though the local version of shush was actually something quietly whispered through private conversation, the children in the room understood she wanted them to be quiet.
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Kelly and Stephy blinked up at her from their beds, while Gale frowned back at her from the chair she was pouting in. She glared at Emilia, then at the man stepping in behind her. If Stephy recognized him, she gave no indication of it. Miira, who Emilia hadn’t noticed lingering by a snack bar on the other side of the room, froze when she turned.
Emilia pressed her finger harder to her lips, willing the girl to stay quiet. They needed to talk, but not about the man helping her escape. Beside her, Astra pressed a finger to her lips as well, and when Gale glared even harder at the man behind her, Emilia was unsurprised to find him making the same gesture when she turned back. One smack on the arm later, he was no longer making the gesture and instead rubbing his arm and pouting, three of the children laughing quietly behind them—she hadn’t hit him hard, and it certainly hadn’t hurt, but at least the mood was lighter.
Stepping forward, Emilia held up the note she had scribbled as they ran, the one explaining that yes, this was the man who had chased them, but he may be her only chance to get out of here, and they were leaving, but not before he had a chance to apologize and look at Stephy’s legs.
The group exchanged a series of glances, aether rippling between them in private conversation, the kids having understood that all communication needed to be private—which even the Risen Guard couldn’t overhear, as far as any of them knew—or through notes.
The man stepped in front of her, moving to stand beside Stephy’s bed. He bowed to her, offering her the note Emilia had written, explaining it was an indication of apology for scaring them that night. The world rippled as Stephy spoke to him alone, he nodded and stepped closer.
Gale looked about ready to launch herself at him, but Emilia was between them before she could, scribbling out, “He might be able to help her heal faster or better.”
The teenager glowered at the note before her voice slid through Emilia. ⸂Where are you going?⸃
“I don’t know, but hopefully, wherever I end up, I will be able to search for a way to end the blood curse.”
⸂And you can’t do that here.⸃ Gale deflated, sagging further into her pout. Even as she said it, her voice shifting between question and statement, the teenager clearly knew the truth in what she said.
“No. I wish I could stay and the Risen Guard would help me and the other visitors try to fix this world. They will not.”
Emilia had actually been able to ask Boundary, Honey and Lanaira about that. All of them agreed that the higher ups would never approve trying to break the blood curse. For them, the risk was just too great. They had learned how to live with the curse. Getting rid of it would be great, but they weren’t willing to risk another curse being brought down on the world.
Both Honey and Lanaira had looked accepting that this was how their world was, Boundary vaguely frustrated. Emilia didn’t believe Honey, however, and when the Risen Guard trainee suddenly walked into the room a moment later, Emilia was unsurprised to see them smile, glance between her and her stalker and disappear back the way she had come.
“I think she’s an Enclave spy,” Emilia scribbled in Baalphorian and held up for her stalker. When she pulled it back, she jotted down the question of his name. Something for when he wasn’t busy letting his energy flow through Stephy’s body. Something that she was not going to forget to ask.
⸂Do you think they’ll let us leave?⸃
Emilia looked back to Gale, finding the teenager glaring around her and at the other visitor’s back with all the anger and suspicion in the world. She hesitated before telling Gale they would be letting most of the kids go. Lanaira had told her arrangements for the new orphans were already being made, as their assessments came back. They would be going to their new homes soon. As for the children whose parents were still missing…. Emilia assumed they would be letting the kids return home, except in the case of the older children. It was, unfortunately, easy to imagine the Risen Guard viewing the older kids, who had learned stars knew what from her and V, as potential threats. If they did…
⸂I don’t trust them either,⸃ Gale spit out, eyes sliding up when her stalker appeared behind her.
The man took her notebook and pen, asking her to tell Stephy he was going to help her, but it was going to hurt, and she needed to keep it down.
Miira sat with her while he broke and reset one of her legs, the girl’s energy wrapping around the younger girl in both support and suppression of her aethervoice. It was similar to what Carne had done, snuffing out the aethervoices of the children. She’d seen Lanaira do something similar to the children, when they wouldn’t quiet down for her as well. She was almost positive the Risen Guard wouldn’t have outright taught Miira how to do the same, but the girl had obviously been paying attention.
Stephy sucked in heaving breaths as the man finished, his energy shifting to a healing slide that seemed to make her sleepy. When Emilia poked her own energy at the girl, she found that whatever the man had done seemed to be encouraging her body to heal faster as well.
“Tell them she will be fine,” the man wrote out, his writing surprising crisp and precise. Emilia did so, translating his words into the local tongue, and then a few dozen more lines, when he wrote out various pieces of recovery advice. They probably didn’t have time for this, and he would be in much more of a bind than her if they were caught—although she could still sense Honey outside, lingering and likely standing guard for them—but he was doing it nonetheless. For her—for the brother she reminded him of.
The man slipped over to Kelly as she translated his instructions, Miira diligently looking over her shoulder, one hand wiping sweat from Stephy’s forehead as she read. Behind them, Gale continued glowering at the world, although she did allow Astra to climb into her lap.
Her stalker was surprisingly gentle as he examined Kelly’s arm, pulling the bandages off and examining what his brother had done. Focused on translating as she was, Emilia only vaguely knew that he was doing something, holding up the note Emilia had given him that read “This will hurt.”
Whatever he did, Emilia felt Kelly’s energy shake, his need to scream so loud that even though he managed not to, he couldn’t quiet his core itself from raging. When she did look up, the boy was blessedly unconscious, the blood covering her stalker’s hand slowly being pulled back inside him.
Stephy gazed over at them with glassy, unfocused eyes, she blinked and suddenly the man’s energy was surging down on her and she was out. It was probably a good thing Astra was on Gale’s lap, the child the only thing keeping the teenager from launching herself at the man.
“I just helped her rest,” he wrote, obviously reading the hostility aimed his way. “I reconnected several of the boy’s blood vessels. With those missing muscles, he will never regain full use of the arm again, but with luck, he will regain use of his hand and some movement.”
Emilia quickly translated, fighting back tears. Regardless of what this man was or wasn’t, how he felt about these kids and any obligation he had to them—this was all his brother’s fault, after all—he had still helped them. He had even helped Kelly, without her asking because even she had thought it a lost cause.
Not him. For whatever reason, instead of dragging her out of there, demanding she give her goodbyes and let them leave, he had helped… probably. Technically, knowing little about medicine, she supposed he could have made them worse.
She didn’t think so. This was just her stalker doing what he—or more likely his mysterious brother—thought was the right thing to do. It was sweet, and it made it so much harder when helping her and the kids fucked him over.