I wake up, it was a long day yesterday hunting down traces, and turning up no leads. The police should be getting back to us today too. Part of me wants to fly out there and start hunting again, maybe I’ll have more success when people are asleep and not moving around. I need to eat, at any rate. Twila is snuggled up to me, as she was missing Lillith before we even left the station yesterday. I slip free of her and fly out to feed before there are too many people around. It’s getting easier to find someone to feed on, I’ll miss it when we land on a nature world, and have to go back to animals… I fly up, away from my latest meal, and facepalm, my flight faltering for a moment, as I remember my ability to remote view places. I scurry back to the inn, as it is the safest spot for me to go out mentally. Phasing back into the room, I curl up in bed with Twila and push my mind outwards, scanning in an ever-increasing circle centered around the inn. Twila wakes up a few hours later, surprise slowly dawning on her as she wakes up and realizes I’m still here.
“Why are you still here? I thought you’d be running around again.”
“I realized that I can remote view, I forgot from yesterday’s stress. I’m making much faster progress now.”
“That's good.” Twila mumbles, and dozes off again, her head resting on my stomach. In the six hours it's been, I’ve covered a sixth of the world, and haven’t spotted Lillith yet. It’s another 30 minutes maybe when Twila stirs again, her hair falling over my skin. I absentmindedly brush my fingers through it, lost in scanning the world. She stretches and sits up, then slowly stands and begins dressing herself before coming back to perch on the edge of the bed.
“Found anything?” She asks, Her voice jolts me a little, I’ve been barely paying attention to the room.
“Not yet, I’ll have covered the planet by this time tomorrow though,” I tell her. She nods and glances around, then stands up again.
“I’m gonna go get breakfast, I guess.” She says, walking to the door.
“Ok, don’t take too long, don’t need you nabbed too.” I say distractedly as I refocus on the task of tracing and scanning. Twila nods in the corner of my vision, then slips out the door, shutting it again.
In a while, she comes back. I haven’t found much new, just a whole lot of magic users waking up and doing things with the mech insects we saw at the marketplace. I don’t stay on them long enough to know what they’re doing, but it looks like magic goes into making them somehow. I’m too focused on finding Lillith and whoever took her to care. Part of me thinks that she must have been taken by another magic user, or multiple, or she would have had a better chance at getting away, but it’s Lillith. Lillith, who wants to help people, who thinks the best of everyone, who doesn’t want to cause harm to anyone… It could have been an ordinary person for all I know, keeping her in chains, but… Then why hasn’t she reached out to me mentally? I can’t reach her, all I get is static. She’s not dead. I refuse to believe that. I’ve managed to search for about 45 more minutes when Twila stands at a knock on the door.
She opens it slowly, checking who’s outside, then opens it, seeing the uniforms. I glance up, distracted, part of me still scanning for traces.
“Any news?” Twila asks.
“Not as far as we can tell, Miss. No traces have been found, and the major gangs haven’t claimed anyone, or even had a hit out. I’m sorry. We came to see if there was anyone that you might have angered, or any reason you think your friend would have disappeared.”
“We haven’t angered anyone that we know of,” Twila says, glancing back at me. I nod to confirm what she’s saying.
“Alright then, we’ll keep an eye out for her, but we can’t continue investigating this, with no traces, there isn’t much we can do. Sorry miss.” The man says to Twila.
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I hear the door shut and Twila sits sadly on the bed. Sniffles begin emanating from her end of the bed. “Hey,” I say, “Come here. We’ll find her.” I open my arms and she lays in them, I don’t say anything, but keep scanning. After another few minutes, Twila looks up at me.
“You promise you’ll find her?” She asks, her voice still a little wobbly.
“I promise, I may not be soul bonded, but I love her. I’m not gonna let her just disappear like this.” I pause as I scan another house. Fancy, but yields nothing, again. Just a man eating. I sigh, then quietly ask Twila.
“Would, would you know if she died? I mean, do we know she’s still alive out there?” Twila squirms to look at me.
“Yeah, if she,” She sniffs, and omits that word. “If, you know… I would go into stasis right away. So yes, she has to still be alive.”
“Ok, that’s all the hope I need.” I say, distracted again. There is a trace coming from this next building, but it feels weird, very spread out. I try to get a closer look, but there is a shield, it's a large shield, it covers more than just a building, more of a complex. It somehow repels my remote viewing, and I can’t find an easy way past it. I tag it for return, and continue scanning. After another hour or so, in which I find nothing of interest, my mind returns to that building. It could just be an overly cautious wealthy person, but something about it tugs at me. I get up, and Twila looks up at me.
“I found an oddity, I can’t remote view it, so I’m going in person, want to come with?” I ask her. I carefully mark the spot where I stopped scanning so I can return to it later if necessary. Twila nods and stands up.
“Should I grab something to eat first?” She asks. “It’s nearly lunchtime.”
“Probably should get some food then. It’ll take some time to get there.” I walk downstairs with her and request some food from the lady who flirted with me upon first arriving. She brings me out lunches for two, still hot from cooking. I thank her and carry it to a table in the back. Twila eats, and I eat enough of the food to make it look convincing to the few other people in the bar. We get up and leave as soon as Twila finishes, trying not to look like we are in a hurry. I lead her to a dark alley where I’ve noticed it’s hard to see into on my nightly flights, then turn to Twila.
“Get on my back, we’ll need to fly this next part,” I say, and she nods, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and hanging on as best she can in her dress. I take off smoothly, getting into the smog, high enough that we won’t be spotted, before enhancing my speed to get there much faster. Several minutes later, I land just inside a gated community in a cramped, empty alleyway. I apologize quietly to Twila for coming down as fast as I did, but I didn’t want to be seen. She shrugs it off and hops down, then brushes herself off and straightens her dress. I attempt a remote view, and note that psychic powers are suppressed here.
“Some of my powers are suppressed, but there are multiple magic traces in here. A lot more than my initial scan showed.” I comment quietly. “I can communicate with you in my head, I think, but it will take a lot of effort.”
“Ok,” Twila whispers, “Where do you want to start?” I focus for a moment, my fast healing helping me push back the headache I’m getting from forcing a remote view for an overlook. It shows the tops of the buildings, and I feed the information to my AI and Alastor, then quickly drop the connection to study the layout of the grounds from the image. I match the traces to the buildings, and quickly realize that most of them come from the central building. Plotting a course that keeps us mostly hidden, I take Twila’s arm and slip along the path to the center building. It’s huge, and very elaborate. The grounds are full of cast metal statues and beautiful sculptures. There aren’t many guards, I suppose most of them are at the gate. I see a low window, and we move to it, looking inside. It’s an empty room, and I gently force the window open far enough for us to slip through it. Once inside, I look around, then carefully cross the room and open the door softly. No one’s outside the room, and all the traces are gathered at what I can only assume is a table based on the arrangement. There’s another trace off by itself in the other wing of the building. I start leading the way through corridors, my AI mapping the paths that I can see to help get us to the lone trace. Ten minutes later we are standing underneath the single trace, having seen no guards or set off any alarms, as far as I can tell, no one is aware of our presence yet. I look at Twila and point up. ‘There is a single magic trace right above us. It might be Lillith. We need to get up there.’ I say to her mentally, even though it’s hard, I’d rather talk mentally where we can’t be overheard. Twila looks around and takes a few steps toward a side hallway. She motions me over and I see she found a staircase, we slip up it and I find the door closest to the trace. I try to open it, but the handle won’t budge.