“Princess, shall we return to the capital now? There is nothing new to see in this place anymore. You should now return, your absence will surely have worried your family.”
“Granduncle did not inform mother and father?”
“I am not privy to the actions of the Lord, Princess.”
“Then why do you think they would be worried?”
“Because you had disappeared. The official report indicated that you too were kidnapped along with the scion of nobility but there were rumors that indicated that you had simply disappeared. It had caused quite a chaos in the capital.”
“Then why do you think they would be worried?” Once again Cile questioned Orama who had not replied to her question. She wanted to know. She pretended she wanted to know. That was how she could act as though she was curious. Being curious was to desire to know about something and if you wanted something, you searched for it, questioned for it, and experimented for it.
“How can I possibly know about your family, princess? But they should be, they are your family after all.”
“What about your family?”
“Thanks to the Lord’s help, they are all very well.”
“We will return after I find something.”
Then Orama asked, eyes squinted, “What might that be, Princess? If I can help, I am at your disposal.”
“I will see.”
She no longer talked after that, the past few days of constantly moving about through the various sub-sectors of the settlement, talking, changing her face as the conversations and moods required it, it had been exhausting.
Sline had always been with her as long back as she could remember and with her there, she never had to interact with others to such an extent. But she was required to do any talking, Sline would go through everything, making sure she was not burdened.
The other person she had spent considerable time with was Inero-ie but his case was even more extreme, just like her. Other than a few times, she had never seen him open his eyes and even when he had, they had been useless amidst the pitch-black darkness of the outside. She just ignored his ability to observe his surroundings with those massive number of Threads, her mother had only asked her to act when people were looking at her and he had never looked at her throughout their journey, in the strictest sense of it.
As both of them headed towards the Lift Station, Cile kept her expressions in check despite the exhaustion. The performance, the act, she had to keep them going.
***
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“Was there any trouble afterward?” Revensol asked Harlev who had just finished reporting the important matters that had been occurring as they cleaned all of the mess that had occurred during the operation. Additionally, with the absence of all five noble families, they had to step up and make sure there was no problem before they handed over the settlement to the Knrama.
All these matters had been handed over to Harlev while he worked on the report that was on the cusp of being ready.
“None. You had dealt with it well, sir.”
“If any problem arises, remember to inform me beforehand.”
“Yes.”
“Is there anything else?”
“None. I will take my leave then.” Seeing Revensol nod, Harlev turned and left the room, leaving Revensol once again all alone in the room that was filled with holograms. All around him were holograms filled with unintelligible streams of data that changed many times in the blink of an eye. In front of Revensol was the only hologram that was intelligible and was rapidly being filled by Revensol.
As he organized the report, Revensol kept some of his attention to the holograms around him. After a sigh, he once again started his work. There was still no sign of Inero-ie, as though he had never existed, as though what he had seen was all an illusion. But it was not. But at the same time, there was no sign of his entrance in the settlement.
***
The room was still, a silence that had remained undisturbed for days, and a curtain of darkness that had enveloped the whole place for a long time. The stillness was suddenly broken as Inero-ie jerked slightly, first was his wrist, then his feet. The jerking stopped as suddenly as it had appeared but then a sea of Threads exploded out from his body as he was suddenly aware of even the smallest things in this place.
He stood up, now that he had finally recovered and he could feel the reactor that Fria-al had created returning to its dormant state. It allowed her to use as much power as she required for her experiments without making the system aware of it. For a moment he shifted his attention to it, it was still as blinding as ever under the layers upon layers of isolation. Just a small imbalance and it would result in a massive explosion.
He pushed himself up and it was like he had taken off tons of weight. His body felt as heavy as an ice crystal. No longer was the acute feeling of weakness present in his body, no longer was he feeling that suffocation that appeared when all of the Qi was used up. For a moment he stood still but soon after his body started trembling to such an extent that he was on the verge of falling multiple times. A charred smell filled the room but he did not care for the pain, a result of using current to shock his muscles and tendons back to their optimal state.
Once he was done, Inero-ie jumped out and then left the sub-sector. Melded with the darkness, imperceivable, he made his war towards the Lift Station that had once again started its normal operation in the few days he had been unconscious. As he approached the well-lit Lift Station, he jumped into the dark shadows created by the dense crowd moving in and out of the station, jumping from one to another as he made his way towards the lift.
There was a crowd waiting for the lift to arrive, he hid himself in there.
The lift arrived and the people made their way inside, heading towards their seats, covering the space under the seats from the light, Inero-ie hid there.
Threads spread around the lift, once a habit, now an instinct, he senses his surroundings to be aware of everything, to be prepared for anything. Threads stilled for a moment when he found the princess outside, then he sensed the powerful presence next to her, and was revealed. She was the key to his escape to the Frozen Sea. She could make it happen without anyone knowing, without Fria-al knowing.
A thousand Threads intertwined to become thick so she could easily sense then and then the Threads twisted and turned, forming characters, forming sentences. Seeing her nod, the Threads rushed back into his body like the waves in the Underdark which rushed forwards and then retreated backward.