“Can’t believe they just up and left us behind.” Saia hissed under her breath with twitching eye, and Mirabelle looked annoyed as she nodded in full agreement, towering over the other woman with her two massive shields. Both swallow and armadillo eagle hurried to catch up with the others as both City Guards and Babylon Operators began to join in the growing gathering ahead.

Saia felt anger for more than just that reason, she was also angry with herself. As confusing and alarming as the situation had been, it didn’t excuse her loosing track of her charges! If anything, she should have been even more attentive because of it and noticed Jak and Myra’s disappearance much earlier. But as much as the guilt was eating away at her, she wasn’t about to let this distract her from the now. She simply didn’t have the luxury to fret at the moment. Not with the less than stellar basis for cooperation the gathering ahead was built upon.

———

The air was tense atop the small mountain hill overlooking this section of the cavern, giving Vee the feeling that she was completely out of her depths. Her aunt and Lagua were tending to the still unconscious Rehn while Kai tried to menace at Ruth and Kass to keep the two Babylon Operators in line. The dragon mare looked wholly unimpressed as she just ignored him to help Leora and Lagua out with Rehn while Kass brazenly gave him the finger.

“Her heart is calming down, no swelling of the head and beyond a few cuts and a rather painful bruise around her shoulder she is healthy.” Lagua noted clinically.

“Good, what is the reason for her current unconsciousness?” Leora exhaled audibly, keeping her relief in check. Before Lagua could voice his uncertainty regarding the cause, Ruth chimed in.

“Violent Arc Overcharge. Considering the spatial chaos all over, it was likely cause by the water monster. Splitting headache for the next few weeks. Further problems unclear for now. Always differs between people.”

“What do you mean, Arc Overcharge?!” Leora immediately whirled around, glaring at Ruth. “She is the daughter of the Chief Deputy Commander!”

“Cute.” Ruth just drawled with a deadpan stare. “But her Arc is awakened. Blood and status are irrelevant.”

Ruth bit down her more insulting responses as she didn’t want to aggravate the situation more than it already was. Ebenerz was among the least accepting countries in regards to personal expression through arcane means, and Dampfstadt was the focus of it all. Amber Mages were at least somewhat tolerated but anyone with an Arc would be banished immediately. Understandable considering their history but nonetheless had overstayed its welcome by a good century already. Idly Ruth wondered if the Chief Deputy Commander would be trying to circumvent that rule, if he even still could by the end of the day.

“Damnit! Then you should have just stayed quiet!” Leora cursed out loud, glaring furiously back as she punched the stone floor hard. Hissing, she ignored the painful aching as her bones had most likely cracked at least somewhat.

“You could just stay quiet.” Vee surprised herself as she spoke, sitting down at the edge of gathering. Anger was smouldering within her chest and she readily fed it to a burning blaze. “Not like anyone up there will know exactly what has happened here.”

“Don’t. Just don’t.” Leora hissed out, feeling her heart ache, and tried to glare down her niece. This wasn’t something they should be talking about. Not here. Not now. Her eyes met Vee’s and she felt herself unable to endure. Averting her gaze, she spoke what had been an unspoken rule through all her life. “They will know.”

The cold anger in her turned towards Ruth, wanting to blame the dragon mare for putting these words into Vee’s mouth. But she knew better.

“They will know.” Ruth surprised her as she nodded in agreement. Only to casually shrugged in disregard. “Not that it matters. Rehn and Vee will come with us. And you should, too.”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

—Lets turn back the time by a few minutes—

Myra yelped in wide eyed surprise as she found herself suddenly falling out of the sunlit sky above Dampfstadt, the Dampf Tower speeding past her. The city looked small as it stretched out below. But it was growing alarmingly quick in size again! Shaking off her flailing confusion, Myra whirled around midair and ripped away the cloth hiding her gloved arm. The bunny cat had no idea how she had gotten here but she wasn’t going to let herself be turned into a splatter on the pavement!

“Come on! Gotta grab onto something…!” She mumbled anxiously and rotated around midair, outstretched arm aiming her hook towards the only possible direction for her to grapple onto. Towering far above the rest of the city, the Dampf Tower was still rapidly rushing past her. Windowsills, ledges and more all offered potential purchase for her hook to catch.

Myra took a breath… and fired her shot.

With a loud clank her hook impacted the side of the tower and quickly pulled the rope taut. She didn’t hesitate to push her Amber rings to maximum, echoing with a loud hum as they worked hard to slow her fall down. Grinding her teeth, she felt the rope pull painfully hard at her arm and her fall was redirected into a swing towards the tower.

“…this is going to hurt…” Myra winced, preparing herself for the impact with the large window framing the side of the tower as she rapidly rushed towards it.

—At the same time—

Smiling bemused to himself, Qilby hurried alongside Verena through the hallways of the Dampf Tower and up the stairs along its side. Their disguise as City Guards wasn’t exactly fool proof but it was enough to get an easy pass at a distance. Which was more than enough for what they were doing since Quilby’s Arc made sure they wouldn’t have to actually get anywhere near close enough to anyone who actually would notice something was off.

It had been a hot minute since he had done actual field work but so far thing had been going quite well, Well enough to make him a bit suspicious even with the valuable intel his Arc provided.

Sadly the Erz-Mayor was smart enough to not keep his secrets locked up in the basement, far too close to the caverns for his tastes, and had instead ensure that everything of particular importance would be located within the upper parts of the tower. And with the current Chief Deputy Commander living right above, it was quite well protected.

“I’m not envious of the staff working here…” Verena groaned as they had been forced to climb over a dozen stairs by now. The lift system was scattered throughout and didn’t actually connect directly through the entire tower, only a few floors every other floor. “Reminds me of Friday nights.”

“Heh, we get the most visitors then, after all~! Gotta entertain those poor guys and gals after a hard week of work.” Qilby chuckled in response.

The duo felt a bit more relaxed at the moment as the current section of the Dampf Tower was deserted of anyone who could have spotted them. Only the cleaning staff had passed them by earlier when they pushed their wagon into the lift just as they existed the very same. A jaunty tip of the hat and some pleasantries had been given and for a grinning Qilby the bemused rolling eyes and chuckles had been reward enough. Verena had to hold back a exasperated sigh at her commander’s antiques, though.

The feeling he noticed from his Arc readjusting wasn’t easy for him to describe, but a pinch would probably be the closest comparison. And right now it was twinging startling much.

Wondering curiously, Qilby couldn’t stop himself but gaze out of the window onto the city below. He had ordered a variety of distractions to occupy the City Guard with during their dual operation but the chaos his Arc measured below was far too extensive for what he had planned this early into the mission.

“Well, well, well~ Must have already started cutting off the steam.” He mused with a grin as he saw multiple attractions slow down all around. And then blinked as his Arc suddenly flickered through a dozen possible pathways leading to the hideout which just felt nonsensical. He raised his brows owlishly. “Now, what is this…?”

Distracted as he was, Qilby halted in his tracks, startling the bat girl at his side. She glanced outside the window as well and her eyes widened, though for completely different reasons.

“Uh, we’ve got someone incoming…!” Verena called out just before Myra impacted the window with a loud ‘Dooooong’ and bounced off of the strong and flexible glass.

“Sorry…!” The bunny cat called out reflexively as she lightly spun around herself from the rope. Her voice was strong muffled by the thick glass and the powerful winds outside. It was honestly a surprise that they could even hear her at all.

Myra bumped three more times against the glass before she finally stopped spinning and hung with a gentle sway before the window. Sheepishly she waved at the two disguised Babylon operators.

More than a little perplexed, Verena and Qilby glanced at each and then back at the bushy tailed bunny cat.

“… Haha! Well, can’t say I expected this!” The jellyfish toad finally laughed heartily and clapped loudly in his hands. With a wide grin her turned to his companion. “Verena, if you would be so kind as to let this young woman inside? I feel like things have gone not exactly the way we’ve been expecting.”

And wasn’t that an understatement?