The search for Nikolay began with the most obvious first stop.
Upon spotting Raine approach his house, the old ex-diver threw down his newspaper onto the table in exasperation.
“Not you lot again! Your friend already dropped off the junk on my porch. What else could you want from me?!”
In any other situation, Raine would’ve felt attacked by his hostile accusations. But remarkably, those words gave him a boost of confidence and assurance.
“So, he already returned everything?” Raine confirmed.
“Sure did. Made a loud commotion about it too; woke me right up before the sun even rose! Should’ve known better than to lend you the gear if the ruins were just filled with junk…”
“Do you know where he went after that?”
Raine was pushing his luck by asking this man two questions in a row, but he had to get any leads on Nikolay’s whereabouts.
“Didn’t pay much attention to him after he got out of my hair. He just wanted to know if anyone came here recently besides you two. I said, ‘Nah, I didn’t spot a single fly approaching my house’. Then, he buzzed off in the direction of my shed, and a couple minutes later, I saw him walk back to the village.”
The shed? What could Nikolay have found in there?
Raine tried to uncover Nikolay’s intent behind his specific questions, but he couldn’t quite piece everything together. He had no idea what could’ve caused Nikolay to do this alone; so far, it seemed like nothing strange that they couldn’t have done together.
Regardless of his motives, the man stated that Nikolay headed back to Aurelinne Village.
“Thank you for answering my questions,” Raine politely said, retreating down the front steps. “I promise this is the last time we’ll bother you.”
“It better be,” the old man grumbled.
The man opened his newspaper again, ignoring Raine as he backed away from the house. No longer under the pressure of his gaze, Raine turned around and began bolting down the road to Aurelinne Village. With every new piece of information, the sinking feeling in his gut grew heavier.
To his advantage, the village wasn’t particularly big; he’d already passed through half of it when going to the old man’s house. It did little to quell the anxiety squeezing his heart, though, as he ran frantically through the last remaining roads, whipping his head around to catch a single glimpse of Nikolay’s whereabouts.
Eventually, Raine turned into a street that wasn’t empty. Two figures were locked in a one-sided struggle; one figure had the other pinned down, squeezing their throat in a death grip.
As he stepped closer, approaching them from behind, Raine couldn’t tell if he was relieved to see that Nikolay was the one suffocating Gremory. The reason being, he could now see the terrifying expression on Nikolay’s face.
The same dead stare from their encounter with the Order of Truth sorcerer. A cold look that petrified even Raine, despite not being on the receiving end.
And although the sight scared Raine enough to freeze him in place, he still mustered the energy to call out, in the hope that the right person would hear his voice.
“Kolya!”
The sound of his name instantly caused Nikolay to lose his concentration, and he whipped his head around. Upon meeting eyes with Raine, the coldness of Nikolay’s expression faded into a tired one.
“He was the one who caused your air tank to malfunction,” Nikolay said bluntly, jerking his head towards Gremory.
Raine looked over at the accused, who had loosened Nikolay’s distracted grip enough to breathe. It was difficult to picture the seductive, flirtatious man back in the bar when he was currently gasping pathetically like a fish out of water.
“That doesn’t mean it’s okay to choke him to death,” Raine sighed. “I’m still here, aren’t I?”
“But you could’ve! If I hadn’t used my magic, you would’ve drowned! If I hadn’t been there…” Nikolay had started off by shouting, but with the little sleep that he was running on, he quickly ran out of steam.
Raine furrowed his eyebrows. He hadn’t realised that yesterday had affected Nikolay so deeply. Because he had blacked out, the whole incident occurred in the span of a few minutes to him.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” Nikolay growled, turning his attention back to Gremory. “It’s his.”
Realising that Nikolay wasn’t planning to spare the perpetrator, Raine grabbed Nikolay’s shoulder and pulled him away. Even though Nikolay was just as strong as Raine, he allowed Raine to drag him off Gremory, who immediately scuttled backwards as far away as possible. A thread of Nikolay’s magic wrapped around Gremory, preventing him from escaping.
Stolen story; please report.
“Why do you want to spare him? He tried to murder you,” Nikolay asked as they watched Gremory squirm under the force.
“I’m more worried about you, Kolya. When you have your mind set on killing someone… it’s like you lose yourself.”
At this point, Gremory finally spoke. He had to try several times, given that his windpipe was still recovering from being crushed by Nikolay’s vengeful grip.
“I- I can give you information for letting me go!” he shouted, wincing at the way the magic tightened around his body when he spoke.
“What kind of information?” Raine quickly asked, making sure to answer before Nikolay could say something that made the situation worse.
“I know the Order of T- Ack! Tell your friend to loosen his grip so that I can speak!”
Raine threw Nikolay a warning glance, only to receive a begrudging look in return before Nikolay unravelled his threads slightly.
“As I was saying: someone from the Order of Truth told me to tamper with Raine’s oxygen tank. Apparently, the organisation’s set on hunting you two down.”
“We already knew that,” Nikolay hissed, tightening the binds again. “Try again.”
This time, Raine didn’t reprimand Nikolay for hurting their captive. He, too, seemed unimpressed by the information that Gremory knew.
“I- I hadn’t finished yet! Ahem… Even though they’re supposedly trying to capture you two, they aren’t putting too much effort into it. Sure, they’ve got traps and lackeys prepared, but all their more powerful members haven’t made any moves.”
“So?” Nikolay replied with a sceptical expression. “Maybe they’re just a bunch of lazy shits.”
Raine asked Gremory, “What do you think it means?”
“Well, either they think that you two aren’t worth spending the effort, or they’re confident that you’ll end up coming to them sooner or later.”
“Must be the latter,” Nikolay said to Raine. “They wouldn’t let us escape again. Especially since we were right under Guthasar’s nose last time.”
Raine nodded, deep in thought. The possibilities were endless as to what their grand plan was. It was making his head hurt just thinking of the most plausible explanations. Who knew what kind of tricks an immortal would have up his sleeve?
“You’re overthinking again,” Nikolay crossed his arms. “I know that concentrated face of yours.”
Raine rolled his eyes at being called out. “I have to do the thinking for the both of us, since you’re clearly not pulling your weight.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“I find it hard to believe that you’re suddenly unable to understand English.”
Nikolay huffed in false annoyance, all traces of seriousness now gone. “I prefer you when you’re trying to crack unfunny jokes.”
Unfortunately, Gremory interrupted once again, reminding them of his presence. “So… this is your truth, Raine.”
“Elaborate.” Raine narrowed his eyes.
He thought back to their encounter at the food stall. Gremory had mentioned something about finding the truth, but Raine hadn’t expected him to go this far. One thing was sure: he didn’t want Gremory running around loose with a false conception of him.
“I can see a fleeting glimpse of it, as an onlooker from the outside. The bond between you — I’m certain that it’s connected to your ‘truth’.”
Raine was pretty sure the only bond between him and Nikolay was a boatload of blurred lines and concealed thoughts.
“You make it out to be a divine mechanism beyond comprehension. It doesn’t need to be complicated, nor do we have to put it in words,” Nikolay replied. “The more you tug and pick at the thread of reality, the more it will unravel. Until all that you are left with… is a tangled mess of unrealised dreams in your hands.”
“And what if my life’s purpose is to understand the truth? Depriving a bird of its view of the sky isn’t any better than brutally clipping its wings.”
“You…” Nikolay sighed wearily. “My job isn’t to counsel misled individuals. I won’t argue with you any longer.”
Nikolay turned to Raine with an open expression, and he instantly knew what was about to be said.
“What should we do with him?”
There it was. A question conveyed so casually, as if he was asking Raine to decide where to eat for lunch. The words weighed on his heart like iron shackles, forcing him to face the serious implications of his answer.
“We shouldn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re asking,” Raine started. “Since I know that’s what you would’ve done if you hadn’t asked for my opinion.”
Nikolay contemplatively glanced back at Gremory. “Do you have any other means to silence him?”
Surprisingly enough, Gremory didn’t seem fazed at all by Nikolay’s wording. Was it faith in Raine’s benevolence? Or had he already come to terms with the outcome, no matter what it was?
While Raine would’ve liked to throw his hands up and simply walk away from the situation, Nikolay had a point.
“Is there some way you can use your magic to make sure he doesn’t leak anything?” he asked.
“I’m… not familiar with that sort of manipulation,” Nikolay cast his gaze down at his hands. “Apologies.”
“That’s not a problem. Don’t worry.”
Turning his attention back to Nikolay’s original question, Raine attempted to conjure a potential response.
They could cut Gremory’s vocal cords, so he wouldn’t be able to speak. But then, he could still write to communicate with the Order of Truth. Should they break his fingers too? They would heal back eventually, though. Just chopping them off altogether would be more efficient. But back to the original problem: did Nikolay know how to sever vocal cords without damaging any of the blood vessels or nerves? If Gremory ended up dying, they would’ve gone right back to where they’d started.
No, no, no. What was he saying? All of those options were too cruel to carry out on somebody who they barely knew.
Nikolay noticed the change in his expression and shot him a concerned look. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking.”
Despite his placating words, Raine couldn’t help but wonder whether those thoughts would’ve even crossed his mind a couple of months ago.
“Anyway,” Raine continued, stopping himself from ruminating any further. “I think we should just let him go. It’s unlikely that they’ll get anything important from what we just said.”
“If that’s what you believe is best,” Nikolay complied, unwrapping Gremory’s binds.
The suspect doubled over in the absence of the strings holding him up, bracing himself against a wall to steady himself. Although he looked considerably worse due to Nikolay’s rough handling, there was no trace of resentment in his eyes. Instead, a fire sparked in his gaze, seemingly fuelled by Nikolay’s response to his pursuit of the ‘truth’.
Gremory bowed deeply. “I thank you for making the most mutually beneficial decision. My life is forever in your debt.”
But was his choice really the best option? Only time would tell, naturally. He just wished that the outcome would show itself before it was too late to correct his mistakes.
They watched Gremory limp away, rounding a corner and disappearing from their sight.
Nikolay spoke first. “The Order of Truth has already made its move by luring that rat to tamper with your oxygen tank. We shouldn’t stay in Aurelinne Village any longer, lest they try to do anything else.”
Raine nodded. He didn’t enjoy the prospect of sleeping with one eye open, knowing that there were Order of Truth agents lurking in the village.