These mortals! They look upon us with fear in their eyes, hiding their hearts and minds from us as they like!
They know not the power we offer, free from our existence into theirs!
They know not the hunger of the undying.
They know not that one day they will need our power, and the anger they have turned upon us, casting us out as one does an unwanted houseguest, will be their regret.
We are not the enemy they should fear.
There are forces far worse than us, lingering in the peripheries, awaiting a moment to strike—
Awaiting the human greed like the hungry animal it is.
— Gjura, a homeless child playing on the streets of Livery, several weeks before the current visitation
✮ ✮ ✮
Several dozen city levels later, Emilia, Rin and Key managed to find some sign of life.
⸂They really went all out evaluating people,⸃ Key mused as they waited for Rin to use some sort of Risen Guard technique to determine who was on the city level. She had willing admitted it was far above her level, her training having only briefly touched on its basics.
Now, her face was screwed up in concentration as they waited for her to do… something. The girl hadn’t actually told them what this specific technique did, and the two of them left her to do her thing in silence, moving down to the next landing to sit and chat while they waited.
“Maybe there was no one living on the upper levels to begin with,” Emilia suggested, telling Key what Phlostra said: that the Clarity City System was currently way bigger than it needed to be. “The levels could be sporadically populated.”
Key hummed, seeming unconvinced. It didn’t really matter whether there had or hadn’t been people living on the levels—at least, in theory. In practice, the group bothering to evacuate people showed that at least someone cared about the people living there… or at least cared that they not be allowed the bodies needed to create a weapon of mass destruction. The level she and Carne had ended up in had definitely been evacuated, but that could have been strategic—any of this could strategy or chance.
Shaking herself, Emilia told Key to not worry about it. Unless they came across someone they could question, there wasn’t much point in considering why the levels were empty. Instead, they should talk about him! Or, more specifically, what happened with his sister and Sk’lar and why they weren’t with him and Rin.
Key scratched the back of his neck, averted his eyes. It was cute, and awfully suspicious. He looked about ready to speak just in time for Rin to appear, marching by them and saying nothing but, ⸂Next level.⸃
The Risen Guard trainee seemed to be on a mission, and Key and Emilia slowly followed behind her as they descended more flights of stairs, occasionally passing Rin as she stopped to examine another city level and its population. Eventually, she’d push her way past them again, in a perpetual cycle that didn’t involve her talking to either of them, other than the occasional request that they get out of her way.
Whatever she was or wasn’t finding on the city levels, she wasn’t sharing.
As they went, Key instead told her what had happened since they had last seen each other.
The gist of it was: they had gotten in trouble. From the start, the Stringer Matriarch had been unhappy with Emilia, and when she learned that not only had they been inside the library when it collapsed, but that Key had entered a functioning labyrinth in his search for her and Rin…
Well, shit had hit the ceiling. Also, apparently, Harmony and Sk’lar hadn’t actually been that far behind him, as far as he could tell.
⸂The labyrinth just seemed to… take them the long way,⸃ Key laughed, seemingly unperturbed by his sister and bodyguard’s struggles in the labyrinth. ⸂It’s funny. The labyrinth led me easily to you and Rin. I guess it just sort of picks and chooses who it’s nice to?⸃
Humming in agreement, Emilia summarized her own unfortunate experiences with the labyrinth’s personalities. “I do think there’s something guiding how they work, but I can’t say what. There’s definitely a lot of solid, uh… instruction behind each labyrinth,” she added, trying to decide whether to explain to the Enclave boy what she’d found when she hacked the one labyrinth. In the end, she decided to not temp fate—she’d already been forced to watch V fail at explaining technology to Phlostra and the kids. Instead, she explained how at times the labyrinths seemed mean, at other points nice. They always seemed intent to be won, however.
“Maybe that was part of why it messed with Harmony and Sk’lar,” she theorized. “If they’d shown up sooner, what do you think would have happened?”
Key thought about it, his face scrunched up in adorable concentration as they let Rin pass them again. ⸂Sk’lar is powerful. He wasn’t just assigned to be our bodyguard at random.⸃
“Oh~ not hiding that bit from me anymore?” Emilia teased, leaning in to bump his shoulder, probably unsafely, given they were currently near the top of a flight of stairs.
The boy shook his head, explaining that being childhood friends had been their cover story for a long time. ⸂It wasn’t really meant to hide anything from you. I actually think it would have been less obvious something was weird with our relationship if we’d just come out and told you the truth.⸃
“Why didn’t you?”
Key shrugged, and when he said he didn’t know, she believed him. ⸂Sk’lar probably would have burned through the labyrinth, if he’d caught up with us. The way Harmony told it, he flew through all the challenges they faced. He would have won the labyrinth, but…⸃
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“But it wouldn’t have felt fair, or like we visitors won,” Emilia finished. She’d already been told that labyrinths tended to focus their attention onto visitors, choosing to ignore locals in favour of tormenting them. If Sk’lar had come in and won the labyrinth in their stead… well, who knew what would have happened. Emilia didn’t think the labyrinth would have been too happy about it, at any rate.
⸂I guess? Maybe?⸃ Key didn’t seem convinced, but he didn’t offer up any more about his opinions on the matter and Emilia let the topic drop, the local boy instead returning to his original story of what had happened since they separated.
Essentially, once Harmony and Sk’lar had managed to get Key and Rin down—a whole production, apparently—they had exited the labyrinth and returned to the Stringer estate where they had promptly all been grounded.
“Is it normal to ground people as old as you four?” Emilia asked, laughing when Rin—who they had passed again during Key’s story about how his sister and bodyguard had managed to get them down for the cage after a significant amount of trial, error and yelling—passed them once more, flatly stating that no, it wasn’t normal to ground adults.
⸂Rin! It isn’t that weird among Enclave families!⸃ Key insisted, his face beginning to redden under his… embarrassment? Anger? It was unclear, although looking a little wrecked suited him.
If only she had a modicum of top energy in her body. Key would be just the sort of adorable bottom she could see enjoying having under her…
⸂Why are you looking at me like that?⸃ Key asked, his eyes nervously flickering between Emilia and Rin.
Emilia had no idea what her own expression was doing—although she had been told by more than one person that she had a very clear thinking about sex face. Rin’s expression, on the other hand, was blatantly disbelieving.
⸂I know enough about Enclave families—and even more about your family in particular—to know that being grounded is not common.⸃
“Maybe Enclave members are just known for being obedient, so you’ve never heard of it?” Emilia suggested, trying to break up the argument.
Rin rolled her eyes, looking like she wanted to argue more. Instead, she simply muttered about how she knew full well how badly behaved certain members of Key’s family were, Emilia’s mind going back to the two children she had seen sneaking off, that day she had woken up at the Stringer estate, as well as Rin’s previous comments about Key and his father being too lax with them.
“It must have been really serious, then, if you guys got in so much trouble,” Emilia noted as they watched Rin leave them behind once more. Hopefully, she’d find something soon, the fact that she was running out of time within the raid ticking in the back of Emilia’s mind.
Key nodded. ⸂I think part of it was what happened with the Valoren family. Their destruction of the library caused a lot of issues. Plus, when Taoran and V didn’t return to them…⸃ Key shook himself, his steps stalling as he sucked in a deep breath, eyes fluttering shut.
“Something happened to them?” she asked, unsure whether to offer the boy comfort or not.
The boy shook his head, looking more a child than usual like this: with his eyes closed, his strawberry-blonde curls shifting with his movements, his freckles standing out against his pale skin. ⸂Yeah. It… it wasn’t good.⸃ His lips quirked, half-amused, half-sardonic. ⸂I don’t really care. The fact that they were the sort of people to destroy the library was a pretty clear message they weren’t good people. It was a reminder, of what can happen when an Enclave family messes up, however. Then there was that stampede in Livery, and well…⸃
⸂And there used to be a path from Salsetrun to Livery,⸃ Rin finished as they walked by her. ⸂It didn’t take a genius to realize you were responsible for that.⸃
Emilia bristled, insisting that while she had been there, she had just been an unfortunate catalyst for what happened, and had taken no actual part in what happened. “Other than being attacked by the person who was responsible for that, all I really did was rescue a bunch of kids off the street,” she told them, adding that she’d then blow up the guy who had caused all the death in Livery.
⸂Good,⸃ Rin growled, Key nodding along before continuing his story.
⸂At this rate, it’s going to take me until the bottom of the building to explain everything that happened,⸃ Key laughed. Considering they had no idea how many floors the building had, that was quite possible. Chances were, by the time they got to the lower levels, however, someone would notice them wandering about.
The rest of Key’s story involved details of his escape from his family’s estate—not exactly hard, if you knew places you could teleport that held a lower risk of accidentally killing yourself or someone else. ⸂Not exactly recommended,⸃ he admitted, ⸂but almost everyone who can teleport finds a few places they can evacuate to, if needed. There’s always the risk someone might be standing there, or a new tree will have sprouted, but sometimes, the risk is worth it.⸃
Rin and the others had quickly followed him, unimpressed with his escape and then subsequent visit to the Risen Guard’s traditional first labyrinth. While the group had argued about it, they’d eventually agreed to help him seek out information on her.
“How did you convince them to help?” Emilia asked, legitimately curious as to how the local boy had convinced two people who clearly didn’t like her—and probably blamed her for a lot of what had happened—to help look for her.
⸂Rin just wanted to help, I think. She didn’t put up much of an argument either way. Personally, I think she was a little conflicted, and maybe wanted answers from you about what had actually happened, more than anything else?⸃
That tracked. Emilia knew Rin had already had mixed feelings about helping her and the Enclave in their attempts to break the blood curse. They had become friendly over their travels, though, trusting each other as much as two people who didn’t really know each other could. Realizing her connection to Livery… and then the Risen Guard… and then Clarity… yeah. Emilia could understand why her friend would want answers.
Then, of course, they’d had tension and misunderstandings since meeting back up.
⸂As for Harmony and Sk’lar…⸃ Key continued, looking incredibly uncomfortable—ironic, considering neither his sister nor his bodyguard were anywhere near them, while Rin had probably heard him throw her private feelings out there and wasn’t likely to be very appreciative of it—“I kinda… sold the idea that if we killed you, it would lessen the risk to our family? They were pretty easy to convince, although I think they maybe took it too far.⸃ He grimaced, explaining that both of them had gotten it into their head that killing her would make everything better—would fix the Stringer’s dwindling reputation.
Emilia blinked at him as she halted on the latest landing. Key refused to look at her, although he did have the decency to stop and stare at the wall.
“That’s… a pretty good tactic,” she finally admitted. “Can’t say I’m too happy about Sk’lar potentially coming for me, but it did get you to me, so. Good to know I really shouldn’t trust him, if he shows up.”
Key frowned, finally looking at her. ⸂Well, that why we left him and my sister behind, so they couldn’t hurt you. They’ve probably been taken into custody by the Enclave by now. I feel a little bad about that, but they’ll eventually let them go. A good thing, too! The last thing you want is Sk’lar coming after you. He’s… terrifying. I know he didn’t really seem it, when he fought that Risen Guard who was supposed to be watching you, but that’s because he wasn’t really going all out. I mean, it probably took an entire unit of Enclave members to take him into custody— What?⸃
They blinked at each for several long moments, Rin catching up to them once more. The girl stopped at the top of the last step, blinking between each of them. ⸂What?⸃
“You guys don’t know,” Emilia breathed out, wondering how—why—no one had informed them what happened. “Harmony is still with the Enclave—being questioned and refusing to answer questions, from what my contact knows—but Sk’lar is gone. Has been for a while. Did he… did he know where this place was?”
Neither of the locals had to answer for Emilia to know the answer: Yes. Sk’lar knew where they were, and he was coming for her.