{-Casrane-}

At first she tried to convince herself that there might be a chance that she was completely misunderstanding the situation, and that it was less serious than she thought it was. After all, maybe she’d just forgotten this part, and this was meant to happen; maybe she misremembered or misread, and their last encounter with the Rune Reactivation Project came sooner than she thought.

But all of that false hope lasted for all of two minutes, when the Rune Reactivation Project members forcefully separated the three of them.

“What do you want?” Casrane tried to ask, hoping she continued to maintain some kind of level-headedness. Frankly, she was on the edge of panic, but she knew that wasn’t going to lead to anything good.

“Told you already,” the leader remarked. “We’re going to give you the fate you deserve. You’ve been causing way too much trouble for us to just let you go without doing anything.” He laughed, looking over at the twins. “We give you to the others, we keep the brats, and everybody’s happy.”

“You’re not getting our necklaces,” Llewel said. It was clear from his expression that he didn’t know what to do, either—not even the sliver of a coded response to come back to. He just had to pull on everything else that he’d heard and seen so far. “And if you don’t want any trouble, you’re going to let us go, too.”

“We don’t want any trouble, alright. That’s why we’re here, you know.” The leader glared at each of the other members of the Rune Reactivation Project. “Make sure to keep the three of them apart. Don’t bother with anything else right now, the other guys will handle that part.”

“Who are you talking about?” Casrane dared to ask. “Who are you doing this for? It’s… not just another member of the Rune Reactivation Project, is it..?”

The leader gestured for them to follow him—not like there was much of a choice. “It’s not, you’re right. Dunno what you did, kid, but you’ve got what I can only describe as the higher powers involved. We made a deal, you see. A deal that’s going to end with everyone happy—they get to do whatever they want with you, and we’ll finally get rid of the annoying descendants of Emmyth.”

“Higher powers..?” Myr looked between her brother and Casrane. Both just looked away again—they wouldn’t be able to give her the same kind of reassurance that she was looking for. They really couldn’t do any more than she could and, in Casrane’s experience, there wasn’t really anything that was going to make that any more or less comforting.

“That’s what I said,” the leader remarked dismissively. “But I’ll let you figure that part out for yourself. We’ve got some fun plans for the three of you! We’re allowed to do basically whatever we want until they get there, and you better believe we’re taking advantage of that.”

The more they said, the further they led the three of them, the harder it got for Casrane to stay calm. She needed to pull herself together. Maybe she was misunderstanding something, maybe these “higher powers” weren’t who she thought they were. She didn’t doubt that her father had the means—she usually played in his office, and he certainly had the tools to interfere—but she wasn’t sure that he really would’ve. He would’ve known how she’d feel about it and he definitely knew what it might risk at this point.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

But somehow, she still feared this was something he decided to do.

She once again forced another deep breath, telling herself that she was going to do what she could to make sure he didn’t regret it later.

She didn’t know where they were going; then again, she knew next to nothing about Anseshara aside from that the heart was in its center. Not knowing anything, though, certainly did nothing to reassure her.

“What’s your plan in all of this?” Llewel asked, even if it didn’t sound like he really wanted to know. “Somehow I doubt you’re just going to wait for whoever else to show up before you do whatever you want.”

“Maybe we will, maybe we won’t,” the leader responded nonchalantly. “But I advise you don’t try to find out. I’m not going to play around with you—you’ll either do what I want you to do, or you’re going to experience the consequences.”

A part of Casrane didn’t want to say it, but she knew it was what would ease things somewhat… if easing was really something that could be done in this situation. “Let’s just go with what they say. I know this is all a bit scary and sudden, but we’ll figure something out. I promise.”

The twins gave nervous nods, perhaps not as sure of her promise as they were of her intentions behind it. The leader scoffed, though, and mumbled something that sounded a lot like, “Whatever helps you stay quiet, I guess.”

…

They walked into an almost-completely-abandoned city, one that was definitely what would become Anseshara City after the story. Now, though, there was nothing but silence, and a few pointed glares from other members of the Rune Reactivation Project as they walked by. She started to acknowledge more and more the fact that all of them were acting only of their own wills—completely in control of every action, every thought, and taking full advantage of the fact.

Then she cursed herself, because she definitely wasn’t fond of the thought, yet it was her doing that made them like that. She’d been so adamant about letting the NPCs have their own thoughts and desires… and, well, she got that.

But she really, really shouldn’t have been focusing on that part. All it was doing was making her more anxious, and she needed less of that, not more. The last thing she wanted was to end up accidentally leaving the twins alone in this situation…

They were led into one of the homes, but Casrane’s very slight relief soon vanished again. The leader of the group practically pushed her into one of the chairs, but the others kept the twins from moving even a little.

“You are going to stay right here,” he remarked, glaring at Casrane. “I was told to keep you out of trouble, so I’m going to. Don’t make me try otherwise. Be a brat and I’m going to have to toe the line between what the bigger guys wanted.”

She just nodded, acknowledging there wasn’t anything that was going to change this outcome. But she still looked at the twins and, as reassuring as she could, said, “You two should listen and stay safe too, alright? I don’t want to see you hurt either.”