The Hinterlands - Early morning

As dawn approached, the Zephyr glider, the Forneus Alpha, landed on the plains of the Hinterlands. Everyone disembarked from the glider.

“We appreciate the ride, good sir,” Sly told the captain, Leif Larkin.

The brute hummed with thick arms crossed over his chest. “Just long as ‘yer keep your end of the deal.” His eyes glanced over to Malakyh.

“You have my word. We've exchanged contact information, so I'll let you know the coordinates once I return home.”

They started to make the trek along the plains when a voice called out Lyra’s name. She turned to see Jude jogging over to them. Lyra met her halfway.

“Er, what's up?” I'm sure you didn't want to give me a farewell hug.”

She rolled her eyes. “Pfft, unlikely, but…” she removed a Voxlink from her pocket. “I do find it best to keep connections. You know, I scratch your back, and you mine.”

Lyra pursed her lips. “I mean, it depends on the line of legality.”

She waved her hand at the comment. “Bah, no need to underline the specifics. Just give me your info.”

They exchanged Voxlink numbers.

“If you need me, call and…” her cheeks reddened as she looked off.

“Jude? You, uh, okay? You look a little red in the face there.”

The acknowledgment made her cheeks even redder. Her eyes widened in embarrassment. “J-just let me know when you meet that Eamon guy. I-I might not look it, but I'm a sucker for romance. So. Yeah.”

Lyra grinned with lidded eyes. “Yeah? Someone's already become a softie, Huh?”

She rolled her eyes. Her face was still red. “Ugh, whatever. You're really annoying, you know that?”

“I know you are, but what am I?” Lyra mocked in a sing-song voice.

“Childish,” Jude responded with a straight face.

“I know you are, but what am I?” Lyra sang again.

“Seriously? We're really doing this?”

Lyra busted out laughing. But before she could say more, Sly grabbed her by the collar.

“We'll take our leave from here. Thank you, Jude,” she said while dragging Lyra behind her.

“Oh, come on, Sly! This is not fair! I'm not a kid, you know?”

Jude chuckled. “They do make a good couple. I hope they end up together.”

Once they entered the forest part of the Hinterlands, they walked the path until they reached the cave entrance.

There was no security.

“Huh,” Malakyh said, looking around the cavern entrance. “I expected there to be a guard or two.”

“How so?” Cassandra questioned. “I would think there wouldn't be anyone who knows about this, per se, except for a select… few.”

Sly shook her head. “No, illegal holding or an Unlawful dystopia would still have people to oversee to ensure no one ruins the ‘peace.’ Something happened.”

With nothing more left to do, the group continued through the cavern's tunnel until they found themselves in the market-like, narrow inner city of the Hinterlands.

Unfortunately, they were too easy to stick out in the crowd and received stern glares.

“Me thinks we aren't to be invited,” Alivier noted. “What should we do? I don't think any of these people will help or answer our questions. Especially not to a couple of Locksmiths, a knight, a pretty boy, and a couple of kids.”

Cassandra raised a brow. “Are you the pretty boy by chance?”

He grinned, straightening his clothing. “Naturally.”

“Hey, we don't have time for the chatter,” Lyra interrupted them. “What should we do now? Before someone decides to challenge us or rip us a new one.”

“Let me speak. You have to speak their language and know how they talk–be right back.”

Malakyh sauntered through the crowd. They were amazed at how easily he blended into the crowd as if he weren't even a part of their group. They watched him go from one booth to another, speaking with the merchants and some civilians, too.

“Let's get out of the pathway and out of prying eyes,” Sly suggested. The group saddled off to the side where a narrow alleyway stone staircase was located.

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They waited for a few more minutes until Malakyh returned to their side.

“What did you find out?” Lyra was the first to jump up and ask.

“So after a bit of tugging, haggling, and coaxing. A few people said they saw a young man that fits Eamon's description.”

Her heart leaped in her throat at finding more proof of where he was after not having anything for weeks.

“...how long has he been around? Who is he with?” Sly asked, also eager to know what happened to Eamon.

“Apparently, he's always seen with some bandaged guy with black hair.”

The same thing Jude told me. “Anything else?”

Malakyh nodded. “He's been seen a few times with some members Of the Dawn Coalition, but since last night… They haven't seen him, their leader, Ludwig Klause, or any Coalition to speak of.”

Lyra’s heart was thrusting fast in its chest. She didn't want to assume or connect the pieces without the full facts, but something told her otherwise.

“Do you know where this Dawn Coalition sided?” Cassandra asked. “Maybe someone came back?”

Malakyh jutted his chin up toward the stairwell. “Should be somewhere in an enclosed alley. Narrow walk space and tight room, one door. But there is one other thing–”

Lyra bolted up the stairs before he could finish and followed the vague clues until she matched the description Malakyh had told her.

The one lone door was partially open. Lyra crept closer and pushed open the wooden frame. There was no one inside, not a soul. There was only a disarray of tables and chairs, glasses, and broken and thrown things everywhere as if a fight had somehow broken out.

Lyra stepped inside and gasped as a horrid scene played out before her. The smell hit her next.

She didn't have time to react when someone yelled, “Freeze and put your hands up!”

Sly grabbed Malakyh’s clothes when Lyra ran off. “What else was there?”

“The Imperial Military has been snooping because a supposed attack on them happened on the road. People believe they're after the person we know as Eamon— he and this Ludwig Klause guy were the last to be seen.”

“Oh no,” Sly looked panicked as everyone else did, but the most distraught was Aurora.

She bolted off in the direction Aurora had run off, too.

“Aurora!” Sly called out to her.

The little girl quickened her footsteps. Her eyes blurred with tears, hoping the worst had not fallen onto Lyra. She's okay. She's okay. She's an Ashbourne. She can always get out of trouble, she said.

Except for this time.

Aurora gasped when she reached the entrance to the alleyway and saw two Imperial Military and Lyra handcuffed and being dragged away.

Aurora stood still. She wasn't sure how to react or feel–she was angry, but most of all, she was scared–before anyone saw her hands reach out and grabbed her, covering her mouth.

“Keep quiet, and don't make a sound.” Malakyh’s voice said. Using magic from the Primal Weavers, he had turned them invisible. So when the Military walked past, they kept going–not seeing them.

All the while, they stared helplessly as Lyra was being carted away, and the soldiers said in passing, “She must be an accomplice.” They waited until the military disappeared, just as Sly and everyone else appeared, too.

Malakyh was about to tell Sly what had happened. Aurora ran into Sly’s chest and started crying. Sly coaxed her with her hand running through her hair soothingly.

“...I know. We saw.”

•†•

It had been over twenty-four since Lyra had been arrested, where she was taken to the Empire and thrown in jail. Despite the jurisdiction being hard to dictate, that unfortunately didn't apply to Locksmiths. They were a part of the government, and to see them fraternizing in the same area, the Empire was also banned from getting too close, so there was a need to prosecute.

“Stupid. Stupid. I should have been more careful. Why didn't I sense them in time?” Lyra spouted to herself as she paced the square, cramped dungeon. There was no window, only a single bench, a broken sink and toilet, and dirty floors with suspicious markings.

She thought she might have been close. She felt that there would be proof of Eamon himself. Lyra thought that she would be able to see him again and pull him back to her.

How stupid was I…

She yelled in a battle-like cry and smashed her fist into the stone wall to make her point—no Essentia.

And She was surprised when… the wall broke, leaving her hand dirty but unscathed and unbroken.

She pulled back her arm and examined her fists in disbelief, turning her palm to face her as she examined her hand and then the wall.

“Well, I was wondering what that noise could be.” A disembodied yet familiar voice called out to her from the other side of the cell.

Lyra turned her head to see blonde hair and a military uniform.

“Of course, it's you.” She sighed, holding her wrist despite it not being broken.

He smirked. “We have got to stop meeting like this, little Ashbourne.”

Lyra furrowed her brow. “Nikolai, still a pompous jerk that only a Veilspawn could love.”

He chuckled. “And only your grave insults seem to keep me up at night with delight when our next encounter would. I daresay I'm almost obsessed with you.”

“Ew,” she said, making a face. This time, however, she got a better look at him. His face was marred with several cuts, and a long scar ran across his left eye. His arm, thought behind a cloak, was propped up in a sling. “Uh, what happened to you? Because I know that wasn't me.”

He grinned. “Unlikely. You wouldn't have left me with such ghastly bruises and scrapes or splitting my arm in twenty different places.”

She hissed in pain. “What could have done that?”

Nikolai shook his head. “Not what, but who, and I think you know who.”

Lyra gasped. She shook her head, not wanting to believe it, but as she looked into the man's eyes, she knew it was true.

“This was Eamon?”

“Well, more or less. You have come to know the Dormant as Blackthorn. Led a party of the Dawn Coalition to their deaths as they tried to rob a cart going to the Empire. Possibly to free those who had agreed to be drafted.”

She looked disgusted by his answer.

He raised his one good arm in surrender. “I still have to follow the rules, too, doll. The real issue we need to worry about is stopping Blackthorn. It's been known that a man named Ludwig Klause was a part of that rebel group, and Blackthorn took him. To where, you may wonder…?

“...Walsh.” she breathlessly said.

Nikolai nodded, repeating, “Walsh. I don't know for what reason, but it has everything to do with the exact thing your group has been tracking down.”

“Why are you telling me this? I can't do anything while I'm locked up.”

From his pockets, Nikolai let jangling keys hang from his hand. “Not anymore, you aren’t. You’re free to go. I’ll handle the consequences for this.”

He inserted the key into the iron-wrought doors. Lyra stepped out but stood before Nikolai, looking up at him.

“Why help me? Didn’t you say before that was my last get-out-of-jail-free card?”

He smiled. “You’re starting to grow on me. Now, go. I have my own goal at hand. I need you to handle this, you and your friends seem to be capable of stopping whatever is at large. Now go, you’ll find your weapon, bag, and Voxlink toward the front. No one will stop you.”

Though she had a million questions, they would have to be for later. She hurried down the cell hall and found her way to the waiting area where Nikolai said her stuff was being held–unguarded.

She grabbed her sword, bag, and Voxlink. She messaged Sly to let her know she was okay and where to meet her.

Next she messaged the last person:

Seems like I'll need that ride sooner rather than later. You in? The message came in a few moments later.

Sure, but it's gonna cost ya.