⸂Hey! It’s you!⸃ Caro cheered when they finally reached the man. The child wiggled out of Emilia’s arms, and after a moment of thought, she dropped Astra and bolted down to help Gale, who had fallen slightly behind.
Above her, Emilia could feel Conrad talking to the children, but their conversation was private. At least in Conrad’s case, the man clearly had insane control over everything about himself. It wasn’t quite as annoying that he had managed to perfect his aethervoice in so short a period of time as it was with Astra and V. Still a bit annoying, but nowhere near as aggravating or frustrating.
For once, Gale didn’t shrug off her help, letting Emilia rip the bags away from her and then tug her up the last few flights of stairs by the hand.
⸂This is it, I die,⸃ Gale said, collapsing against a wall and sliding down as Emilia turned to Conrad.
Deep purple eyes met hers, an amused smile pulled over his too big mouth.
“Your Enclave hosts didn’t kill you,” she said, giving him a once over. His clothing had changed, but other than that he looked about the same, even if he had clearly been through a labyrinth since they had last seen each other.
⸂And th’labyrinths didn't kill you. Props for finding that way out. I doubt you would’ve found the way I was intendin’ t’take you.⸃ Conrad’s eyes slipped over her in the same assessing way. ⸂Ready to go?⸃
Emilia shook her head. “Just the kids. I have to go back.”
Astra was unsurprised, but when Conrad—who had no idea Astra as a visitor—translated her words, neither Gale nor Caro looked happy.
⸂You can’t be serious,⸃ Gale hissed. Seated on the floor as she was, her glower wasn’t completely successful, but she still tried glaring Emilia into compliance. ⸂Just go get V and get him to come with us!⸃
Emilia shook her head. She hesitated before asking Conrad to translate for her, a quiet reminder to Astra to keep quiet about her origin. Quickly, she explained to Gale why she couldn’t leave, counting on Conrad’s phantom brother’s beliefs to help convince him as well.
“You were in that meeting. You heard how they talked about questioning people at the Ingogia estate: like they were willing to torture them for information. This raid…” Emilia’s head spun as she tried to explain as quickly as she could the reality of the situation to Gale: that anything could happen to visitors here, and those things would chase them. “It isn’t fair to the people of this world if Clarity agents torture answers out of them, nor is it fair to some random visitor if they’re tortured because they might have answers.”
Conrad snorted as he translated, pointing out that everyone who entered raids like this knew what they were getting into, in theory anyways.
“There’s no age limit,” Emilia pointed out, thinking of a barely legal Astra, as well as Cade and the boy she and V had met after exiting the Library Labyrinth, both of whom had seemed like mere children to her. Children who had joined a raid because their parents either didn’t know how to manage their virtual raid activity or who simply didn’t care what they got up to. Whoever the Harbinger for the Ingogia family was, they could be a child, and they didn’t deserve what was coming for them… probably.
Emilia had mixed views about whether they deserved it if they turned out to be a terrible person. Stars knew that if circumstances had been different, she would have been tempted to torture Conrad’s brother for the terror he had inflicted upon Livery.
Conrad didn’t exactly look convinced by her argument, and she couldn’t really blame him. He opened his mouth to say something before he shook himself, a quiet reprimand to speak with his mind. ⸂And if I disappear? If you remember, I’ve a teleportation array burned into me.⸃
Caro perked up at that, the aether bubbling as they tried to reign in the thousand questions that were surely aching to be let out. Even the child knew the situation was serious and there was no time for such things, however.
“Well, yes,” Emilia agreed, stepping forward and reaching for the hem of the man’s shirt, “but I’m hoping I can do something about that.”
Obviously, she hadn’t known if she would meet Conrad again, but when she’d been inside that second labyrinth after their escape, hacking it to make sure she could get out as quickly as she could and do so with the ability to speak with locals—not that that skill had turned out to be anything but a nuisance—she had gone with her first instinct when it came to that second, potential gift: the ability to negate arrays.
Way back in the kitchen of Livery Labyrinth, she had tried to negate the magic circling through several of the arrays Astra activated. Even with her skill in negating moving magic and skills, she had been unable to do anything to the arrays. The energy circulating through it was too powerful, made more stable by the lines of the array.
In theory, if the last labyrinth had cooperated and granted her that second gift, she would be able to wipe arrays out of existence just as easily as she could moving magic.
Conrad watched, more curious than worried, as she tugged his shirt up. Caro popped up beside her, oohing and aahing as they examined the array burned into the other visitor.
“Does this allow them to track you as well?” Emilia asked.
Of course, with her new ability to read arrays, she knew it did. Mostly, she was curious as to whether Conrad was aware that the array could do so. That, and she was trying to silently signal to the children not to let the man know she could read arrays now. The aether rippled around the children, Gale privately telling them to keep her ability to themselves, she assumed. If Conrad thought it weird, he gave no indication.
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“This might hurt,” she said, pressing the flat of her palm against the brutal looking array. It looked hand carved, none of the lines quite right, although that didn’t stop the magic under it from flowing perfectly. Had they had to hold him down to do this? Force him to stay still while they carved magic straight into him, possibly against his will?
⸂Can’t hurt more than it did goin’ on,⸃ the man replied, confirming her suspicions that applying it had hurt.
“Don’t say that,” Emilia whispered, her voice so low even she could barely hear it. “This could very well be the most painful thing you’ve ever experienced.”
Energy ripped free of her, burning down each delicate, brutal line of the array. It sizzled under her hand, rupturing back through her, and she might have been screaming. Conrad might have been as well, but a bubble of dark, fathomless energy had wrapped around them—where had that come from? Conrad? Maybe. Some extension of his terrifying core control: the ability to hide them away in the world through his energy. He hadn’t been able to do that before, though. When they’d escaped the Risen Guard compound, they’d had to be quiet, just in case.
Then again, they were so far off, maybe no one would hear them? Their screams wiped out by distance and totally not bouncing down the stairway for anyone to hear.
Yeah, she didn’t think that was likely either.
Just as quickly as the pain had come, it snapped out of existence. Everything was black, and it took Emilia a painfully long moment to realize that not only were her eyes were closed, but she and Conrad had fallen to the ground.
“⸂Were we screaming?⸃” she asked blearily, realizing too late that whatever magic Phlostra had been using to keep her aethervoice at bay had cracked apart during… whatever that had been.
⸂Yes,⸃ Astra said, one of her tiny hands brushing hair from Emilia’s face. ⸂But…⸃ The girl’s eyes slid to Gale, who was searching through their bags, tugging the blood weapons they had swiped from the Risen Guard out.
There were so many, and Emilia wasn’t sure how she would possibly find one that had… what? Contained their sounds? Created some sort of barrier that kept everything inside it?
Stars, how did the girl even know one of the items in that bag had—
⸂Because we saw it!⸃ Caro offered. They had come to kneel between her and Conrad and were bouncing excitedly as they explained what had happened.
Basically, a giant red mass had exploded out of Gale’s bag the moment Emilia activated her ability. They had poked at it, trying to figure out what it was doing. Caro in particular had attempted to read the will of the universe through it. They couldn’t, nor could anyone hear anything outside it, compared to now; if they focused now, they could hear the tiniest of sounds leaking through the city level next to them. Then it had contracted back just as she and Conrad had collapsed, like it knew whatever Emilia had been doing was over.
⸂It was like it knew what was coming!⸃ Caro cheered as they poked at Conrad.
The man groaned, rolled over and promptly threw up. ⸂I take it back. That was worse.⸃
⸂Ooh! I bet that’s it!⸃ Caro gasped, scrambling towards Gale.
In her hand, the teenager held a delicate looking ball—although, like all blood items, it seemed practically impossible to destroy. It was hollow inside, the outside a shiny mesh with holes of various sizes through it, and small enough to fit comfortably in even Astra’s palm.
As they watched it, it pulsed slightly, and on a whim, Emilia reached for one of their water bottles. It would be a shame to waste the array on it, but she was curious about a few things, including whether the ball was the item they were looking for.
It was. The moment she began to activate her array destroying gift, its pulse stalled, and it exploded outwards, wrapping around them in brutal efficiency.
Other things Emilia figured out: her gift still hurt, but significantly less than before. There were a handful of possible reasons why. Inanimate object, less complicated array, or the other reason she’d been willing to try again: curiosity over whether she could erase part of an array.
The barrier contracted, sliding back over them in what felt like a silent reprimand. Emilia blinked into the middle distance. She didn’t think she’d screamed that time, at least not out loud.
⸂You did scream,⸃ Gale confirmed, her face scrunched up like she was in pain. That was fair, Emilia was pretty sure her brain had been screaming as loud as it could, even if her throat had been unwilling to scream again. ⸂Did it work, at least?⸃
Emilia blearily turned her eyes to the array on the water bottle—the one that could refill itself with water summoned from the aether. Where previously there was a limit on the amount of water it could summon, the array automatically shutting off when it reached the bottom of the rim, it now appeared to need someone to manually stop it.
Astra—who, as the only member of their group who could consistently activate arrays, was responsible for managing the bottles—took it from her and unscrewed the lid. The array activated under her hand and water began to spill out of the array etched into the bottom to fill the bottle. Up and up the water level went until it reached the bottom of the rim. Water continued to flow, spilling over the edge of the bottle, until Astra forcibly deactivated the array.
⸂Cool,⸃ Gale said, sounding very much like she actually thought it was a waste of both their time and the bottle, and not in fact cool. ⸂Can we go now? Before someone finds us?⸃ She said this to Conrad, rather than Emilia. Well, at least someone accepted she wasn’t going with them.
⸂Are you sure about this?⸃ the man asked as he examined the skin where his array had been burned into it. It was still there, technically, scaring over his dark skin, but the magic under it was gone. It might have been a bit lighter, but with her vision still blurry from the blowback of the technique, she couldn’t be sure.
“⸂Yes,⸃” she croaked, smiling and telling him she couldn’t go like this anyways. ⸂I’d give you all away so fast. Take the kids and go. Get them somewhere safe. I feel like you don’t care about winning a blessing or even winning the raid, so protecting them can be your mission now.⸃
The man’s head tilted as he examined her. It felt like he did so forever, his attention heavy and somehow all seeing, yet she was sure it only lasted a few seconds. ⸂Alright,⸃ he said, pushing himself up before extending a hand and hauling her and then Caro up. Apparently, he wasn’t stupid enough to offer his hand to either of the girls—they might have bitten him.
⸂Be safe,⸃ Emilia said as she and the children hugged. ⸂I will see you soon,⸃ she promised, hesitating before pulling out her notebook and scribbling a note onto it and tucking it safely into Astra’s hand. ⸂In case we don’t actually see each other again. Only if you want. No pressure.⸃
She gave Conrad one more withering look, a smile tugging at both their lips, before she took off back down the stairs.
No one could see inside their room.
No one could realize the kids were gone, or this would all fall apart.