{-Verity-}
She quite liked the feeling of a mission successfully completed. It nearly made her willing to ignore the terrible smell of smoke and ashes.
It took a while to set it all up, and then a little bit longer in order to actually do it. Then, of course, they had to watch, just to make sure that everything they needed to get rid of was gone. The entire mission could very well depend on the tiniest bit of information that would have otherwise been considered insignificant, after all.
Finally, she thought that it was a sufficient enough time to ask, “Do you think we’re almost done here?”
She hoped the answer was yes. She was ready to return to the comfort of Sanctuary, back where she could relax within the gardens before allowing Elle to fawn over her. Verity never had been able to let go of that desire to have attention.
Neville looked over every part of their surroundings, perhaps mourning for all of the information they had made sure would never see the light of day. “Once the flames have calmed down naturally, we can check one more time. After that, I believe that we’ll be ready to return.”
Suddenly, another voice came through on the charm—and one they had, unknowingly, likely all been waiting to hear. “Hey! It’s Kiri. I wasn’t able to get to you until just now. What’s the situation?”
“Handled, for the most part,” Neville responded.
“Verity mentioned that there was a mortal involved, right? How did that go?”
Simply, Verity answered, “We got him to leave. We had to use a bit of force in the end, but as long as he’s smart, there wasn’t any real harm done. It could’ve been a lot worse.”
“We tried to find a more peaceful solution,” Jacqueline offered nervously. “But… he was a little too curious. It was the only option that we had… If he hadn’t left when he did, there was no telling the kind of information he could find, and that wasn’t something we could risk.”
There was an almost-uncomfortable hmm from Kiri, then they gave a proper response. “So you were able to get it all handled without me? Everything’s been sufficiently taken care of..?”
Verity nodded, even if they couldn’t see it. “Just wrapping things up here. And since I’m sure we’re all curious and we’ve got nothing better to do while we wait, what were you doing when we contacted you? It took you quite a while to get around to responding, you know.”
“I was busy.”
“There’s a lot of things you could be busy with. And, frankly, you being vague about it doesn’t make any of us less curious—or worried.”
“There was just something important that came up. I wasn’t able to warn you guys, and all of the Fos that know how to operate the charm are out on missions right now. No one could contact you, until I was able to get back to this right now.”
“Sokratas knows how to operate the charm, doesn’t he?” Neville prompted. “I’m actually quite certain he, Vaso, and Faidon all do—they were responsible for their creation, after all. Even if Vaso and Faidon both have other matters to attend to, Sokratas often doesn’t if most Fos are out on missions.”
That was, actually, a very good point. And a point they probably would’ve all preferred if he kept to himself, for that matter, given the other implications it would have.
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“They were all busy,” Kiri answered, but they all knew that what they said was only the half of it. “Besides, things happened suddenly enough that I don’t think it really crossed anyone’s mind to contact you. But you know what? All of that isn’t important right now. If you really want to know, then maybe we’ll talk about it when you all come back to Sanctuary. For right now, though, just focus on wrapping up your mission. Good job so far.” And then there was the sound signaling that they were no longer listening.
“I wonder if they acknowledge how absolutely suspicious that was,” Verity remarked.
“Let’s just hope it was nothing serious…” Jacqueline mumbled. “They’re usually pretty honest when something happens. If they’re avoiding it, then it was either embarrassing or something they don’t want us to worry about…”
“We’re not going to know at this point,” Neville pointed out. “We can see if they’re more willing to talk about it once we’re all together—perhaps the others can also help. I’m assuming, at least, that if the situation had involved the others, Kiri would’ve been more open about it.” He shook his head. “That’s a conversation for later, however. Let us just focus on doing what we can to get this done now, and we can worry about the rest later.”
The other two gave mumbles of agreement, even if the words left unspoken still clearly lingered between them.
That’s when Jacqueline asked, “Do you think Askel’s going to be alright..? What if he tries to come back here, or to another place, once he’s gotten all the supplies he needs again?”
“Not our problem,” was Verity’s curt answer. “As far as we’re concerned, our mission ends with this. Since we’ll be doing our job thoroughly, there’s nothing here for him. If he wants to come back, fine, but there’s not going to be anything else for him aside from these ashes.”
“We did what we had to,” Neville confirmed to reassure his sister. “We had proven that we weren’t going to be able to convince him to leave in any other way. In the end, it was our only option. In truth, we should likely be glad that we didn’t have to resort to more drastic measures.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered if we did,” Verity pointed out. “Our job as Messengers rarely has anything to do with the direct wellbeing of mortals. It doesn’t matter what they do, as long as they stay out of our way—and if they do get in our way, then they’re asking for some kind of intervention. What we did was all a part of a mission—a mission that, need I remind you, would’ve gotten completed a lot sooner if you had both been more willing to accept what needed to be done. I’ll say it again, you’re both a bit too sentimental for your own good. It’s going to lead you into an unsuccessful mission one way or another, and that’s far worse than simply hurting a mortal.”
“I think it’s a good thing not to get used to it, though,” Jacqueline said. “Our lives as mortals… they may have ended a long time ago, but we wouldn’t be here without them. I don’t believe it’s right to just abandon everything that led to us becoming Messengers, or to forget what lands we first came from. It should never be easy to hurt someone, or to take a life. I’m sure we can all think of Messengers who are too quick to choose that kind of option and, honestly, I think it poses just as much of a risk as trying to find a peaceful solution.”
Neville nodded wisely. “The best way is to determine all of the options, and which one will bring the best results. Impartiality is important, but… I do believe a certain level of compassion towards mortals can go a long way, as well.”
Verity sighed. “I’m in a losing fight no matter what I do. Just try to promise you’re not going to do anything stupid because you think it’s going to save a mortal, alright? Even if you think you’re helping someone, you could just end up making the situation worse. No one wants that.”
“As long as you agree not to resort to violence at the first opportunity,” Jacqueline said. “This should be a group effort between all of us. Now that I think about it, it should be a rather good topic of group discussion. It’s been a while since we’ve gone over made up scenarios.”
“That might be wise, if Kiri gets busy again,” Neville agreed. “It could be entertaining, as well. We could ask some Fos to provide us with their experiences with modern mortals, too, to allow us to understand their current struggles better. It would serve many purposes.”
The thought actually gave Verity a vague sense of dread. “Not another one of those…”
But of course Kiri had to chime in to say, “I think it’s a great idea! I’ll talk with Micah to see if the other Messengers could come, too. It’ll be a lot easier to quickly and effectively complete missions if there’s some groundwork about how it should be done.”
Hoping that, possibly, if she distracted them long enough she could keep the boring, days-long meeting from happening, she gestured to their surroundings and prompted, “It seems that the flames have started to die down, shall we make sure everything is taken care of?”