Whoever had grasped Remus so haphazardly was fortunate to have winded him. Otherwise, they would be on the receiving end of a very colourful series of outbursts.
After his vision stopped swimming, Remus rounded on his attacker, eyes wide. His belligerence faded before it could properly form, the only feeling left in his pulp of a body perplexion.
“Hadrian?”
The older man put a finger to his lips, glancing over his shoulder. “Quiet, we must be quiet. Follow me, I have to fill you in on a few things.”
With that, Remus found himself following the Mercenary to a discreet patch of boulders, sitting in the middle of them.
“Hadrian, what’s going on? Why do you keep looking around like someone’s about to jump out at me? Though, then again, it wouldn’t be the first time today . . .”
His conspiratorial air faded in favour of an apologetic wince. “Sorry, I had to get you away from camp before the others saw you.”
“But why?”
More grimacing. “Veida kicked out Violet. Days ago.”
And with that, Remus’ ire had no problem revitalising. “What? Why-”
“I don’t know. But I’ve never seen Veida this angry. I can’t reason with her.”
“Looks like I’ll have to try my hand at convincing her then.”
“No!” Hadrian roared. “Listen to me, please. You need to sneak out of camp this instance. If Veida locates you, there’s no knowing what she’ll do. Can you live off the land?”
This was all happening too swiftly. Remus’ spiralling mind could barely process what was occurring, but the general gist of it sent his stomach withering. Veida and Violet had been so close, as thick as thieves, what possibly could have happened?
“Yeah, I can.”
“Alright, but just in case, take this.”
Hadrian tossed over a sack of general goods. Remus didn’t need to inspect its contents to know they were rations.
“I didn’t have much time to gather supplies, apologies,” Hadrian muttered hurriedly, still peering behind them like he was just now revealing some sort of chronic paranoia, “but this should suffice until you catch up to Violet. Forget about us for now, and leave. Now.”
Remus didn’t need any more persuasion. “Alright . . . I’ll get going. But thank you for the training. I wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for you.”
Hadrian smiled. It came as a shock, which in itself startled Remus. If someone as easy to crack a grin as Hadrian was becoming stony faced, matters were grave indeed.
“Congratulations on your victory Remus.” He gave him one last approving nod. “You deserve it fully. Now, scram!”
Remus did as he was bid, inserting the smaller bag into his larger, before scampering off.
He had to catch up to Violet. He had to reach her before something terrible happened.
----------------------------------------
Violet had found herself in the company of an endless stream of thoughts. Not even the roaring winds raging this high up, in a tiny nook in one of District Eight’s mountains, could quieten the gushing, relentless tide.
Why must everything be so complicated? Violet sighed, staring out from her vantage point.
It was from here that she would await for Remus to show his head. And, if her sanity was to in any form remain intact, that had better be sometime soon. The matter of whether he would survive or not wasn’t a question now, nor in doubt. Violet was more certain than anything that he would succeed.
Or, now a few days past that Duration, that he had succeeded. The prospect of his death wasn't where Violet’s troubles lay. All that was occupying that particular slot of worry now was how long it would take him to locate her. Violet had been keeping to the rough path the two of them had planned out together Passings ago, heeding Veida’s words, regardless of her personal feelings on the woman after that spontaneous eruption.
Speaking of, why had she been so furious? Veida had been a mostly calm woman — stern, true, but level-headed. How could you go from thanking someone for avenging their brother’s death, to exiling them in the span of a few minutes? No matter how many brain cells Violet sacrificed in the countless hours she had spent, mulling things over, no clear-cut answer had occurred to her.
There was something she was missing, some vital clue that without, Violet would never wrap her mind around the precise happenings of that day.
On her shoulder, a series of pecks swept Violet out of misery. Pippin rested there, cooing absent-mindedly. “Ah, Pip,” Violet addressed the sparrow, “you don’t happen to have any solutions to my problems up in that brain of yours, do you?”
Unless a series of incoherent tweets was bird-language for some profound offering of wisdom, no answers fell so readily into Violet’s lap. At the end of the day, whether she consulted Pip’s bottomless knowledge or not, she would have to come to her own conclusions. As gruelling as such a prospect was.
“And I am still yet to receive my vision.” Violet spoke to no one, with words teetering on madness. It was the final cherry of frustration, complimenting the cake of dissatisfaction that served for a fairly accurate analogy of her life.
Too jaded by a Duration’s worth of grievances, Violet didn’t let herself get too bothered by that. After all, she was bound to find . . . bound to . . .
Who is that? Violet thought, getting to her feet, and peering down. Far below, in a valley between a wall of mountainous territory, two indistinct figures strolled by, dressed in a mess of green.
Green was not the first colour to pop up in Violet’s head when she heard the term Earth Sect. Especially not shades that demanded the attention so readily, in a territory prone to constant land disputes like Territory Eight was. But people of what clan adorned the lime pigment, who would also have a reason to be scouting about this far into enemy territory?
There were bound to be several sects who held a liking for green, but due to her upbringing in First Rite, the only one that occurred to Violet was The Wild Sect.
What the hell were they doing loitering around here? What was their motive?
A dangerous suggestion appeared to Violet. She could easily sneak down amongst them, to eavesdrop, and to take a closer look. But that risked revealing her position. Was Violet willing to invoke such danger, simply because she was bored?
Yes, she discovered to be the answer, her feet trekking down the mountain-side without her mind’s consent. Yes she would.
Getting as close to twenty feet away, Violet kept her back to a corner, and listened in.
“I’m telling you,” a voice that pricked at the ears spoke, “neither of them are here. Let’s get back to Elmore.”
Another presence, this one not quite so nagging, replied. “There’s no point. We’d be left twiddling our thumbs, waiting for him to get back anyway. Look Ash, simply because you’re hungry, doesn’t mean we can quit our search now. Besides, we can’t prepare dinner without Elmore.”
“Why can’t we prepare food ourselves?”
“Because,” the other dragged out the word in emphasis, “you cremate anything handed to you like a neanderthal discovering fire for the first time, my own cooking skills are subpar, and Elmore carried the cooking supplies with him — he knows you too well.”
There was an audible grunt of defeat that signalled the end of the discussion, but Violet kept listening in. Too many questions had been lodged deep into the nexus of her mind, and discovering the truth surrounding these two, if any interesting reason for their presences did exist, would be the most fun she’d had in days.
Unfortunately for Violet, the two seemed determined not to mutter another word to each other. The rivalry in the air was tangible, suffocatingly so, the kind that most commonly spawned between competing siblings. Violet’s past history with Verity made recognising such a bond easy. These two were definitely brothers, though the younger of the two, for some odd reason, seemed much more responsible.
Violet was keeping by their side on a ledge above, when they finally broke the silence.
“Nothing.” The older of the two spoke.
“I told you so, Koa. You know, if you ever listened to me, you’d save yourself a lot of wasted time. We could be back in camp right now, munching down on whatever Elmore hunted for us last night. But nooooooo. We have to mosey around here instead.”
“Come on Ash,” the voice droned, fatigued, “we have to fill our days with something until we find the two.”
“Well at that rate, our grandchildren will be busy purchasing our coffins and picking out nice little squares of land to bury us in, by the time we get anywhere. Honestly, this whole task is a bust.”
“It might very well be, but that doesn’t mean we can return to Juniper empty-handed. Not without exhausting our options first.”
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Another sigh, from whom Violet couldn’t disdain. “I’ll keep an eye out for burial costs in the coming centuries then, shall I? Unless either Violet or Remus decide to conveniently appear before us. That would really help.”
As Ash called out their names in mock sincerity, Violet quivered; her blood running cold. In an abrupt snapping-into-place, she suddenly felt like the world’s greatest moron. These two were hired by their sect leader to hunt down the latest duo of criminals to wander into town, obviously working alongside some more qualified figure. Somebody called Elmore.
Violet crept deeper under her cover, never before so fearful for individuals obviously younger than herself. Seventeen wasn’t too ancient an age compared to some of the most powerful beings in this world, but it should be more than enough to keep her cool in the face of a few adolescents. Though it wasn’t directly these two triggering the drabs of perspiration leaking down her, the wider picture, that their searchers were but a few metres’ distance, was what really sent her spiralling. And Remus was still nowhere to be found.
Violet had to track him down before The Wild Sect did. And if they were to get their clutches on him first . . . well, she couldn’t let that happen.
Violet got to work.
----------------------------------------
Time was relative.
It was a theory several of the sharpest minds of this world held, those not expiring every ounce of their intellect on combat-related equations. By how slowly the last day had dragged by, Remus was beginning to firmly believe it.
Never before did he realise just how much he had been relying on Violet during their Passing of travel to Hybrid. Sure, he could hunt, but it was an unearthly pain, and every second step seemed to come with its own separate problem he was forced to devise a solution to. Like, for example, how he was going to find shelter to sleep in for the night, or how he would manoeuvre around that goat without it taking out his front teeth via a swift jolt of the hooves.
He didn’t get so far as rustling a bush ten yards away before it rushed out of view. Punching a nearby tree, Remus tempered himself, relying on the consoling knowledge that he still had Hadrian’s rations to rely on if need be.
The noise of more movement — a different shrub being stirred — sent Remus’ predatory instincts into overdrive. That ancient need to hunt, to sustain his life through any means necessary, led him to lifting his sickle in a noiseless action. Step by step he tread closer, the thought of gathering a meal fresher than rations pinpointing the world to this one goal. To this one instance where he would do his most ancient of ancestors proud.
Poising himself, Remus dived.
. . . achieving absolutely nothing but an aching, empty hand, a powerful presence pushing him insistently into the ground, and a split second of pure bewilderment.
“This is how I find you? Really?” Violet’s familiar voice berated. “And if I was a hare, just to let you know, I’d probably let you kill me out of pity for that form.”
“Violet!” Remus roared, face beaming as she jolted up. “What happened with Veida? Hadrian rushed me out of camp, but I don’t know what-”
“Doesn’t matter,” she cut him off, “we don’t have time to discuss this in detail yet. We have people on our trail, and they’re close.”
Right before Remus was about to express his ample amount of concern at this, Violet spoke. “And congrats on surviving the Infernal Bays.” The smile that mirrored his quickly faded to a questioning glare. “But you do have the shard of Infirnite, right?”
Remus nodded. “In my bag, among some other supplies.”
“Good. Now, keep quiet. Three Wild Sect clansmen are lurking nearby.”
“The Wild Sect . . .” Remus repeated in hushed tones. “One of them doesn’t happen to be . . . never mind.”
“What is it? Spit it out.”
Frowning, Remus continued. “The guard overseeing my cell in Ruling was from that clan. It’s possible they’re one and the same.”
Violet gave Remus a look as though he were suspected of committing every crime in the law book. “Did their name happen to be Elmore?”
A sound up ahead sent them both rigid.
There was a shrill squeak, and Violet didn’t hesitate. The Mark on her forearm blazed in activation, luminous through her leather padding. Remus blinked, and his environment altered drastically.
Most noticeably, was that the bush which they had been patiently observing from afar was now directly ahead of them. And with it, in the least inconspicuous manner possible, a young, brown-haired boy huddled. His head lifted up slowly, hands cradling the crest of his head.
One look at the both of them, and he screamed. Scrambling backwards, his hands balled into fists, and roots arose from the ground in a blur of fuzzy movement. One simple intervention from Violet, and the boy’s summonings were set against him. All it took was a swift distortion of reality, and the oak strips grew dormant once again, though this time, holding him captive in what looked to be a most uncomfortable entanglement.
He struggled in a series of scraps and grunts, which, after proving unsuccessful, left the boy dropping his arms, accepting defeat.
“Are you going to kill me?” He muttered, voice quavering.
Remus’s heart actually ached for the poor child. He didn’t like striking down, but knowing Violet well enough at this point, he could rest assured, knowing that she wouldn't push them too far.
“Of course not! What do you take us for?”
Looking from side to side, he didn’t reply for a moment. “Well . . . you are criminals.”
“Petty criminals.” Violet corrected, arms crossed
“Since when was fleeing to a whole ‘nother city petty? You’re full-fledged fugitives.”
“Bah. Whatever. I’m gonna need you to answer a few questions for me, alright?”
Naive hope leaked into his next words. “And then you’ll free me?”
“No. I can’t have you rushing off immediately to inform the rest of your searching party of our whereabouts.”
Remus wasn’t some valiant, upstanding mentor when it came to morals, but that crossed a line too far, even for him. “What? You’re just going to leave the kid to starve if his group doesn’t find him?”
“Gods above, you two keep talking like I’m some mastermind villain orchestrating all the crime in the mortal realms. Think for a second Remus! If he was able to manipulate the roots into appearing in the first place, he can easily do the same, but in reverse. Though,” she shot him a warning glint of the eye, “I wouldn’t recommend doing that quite yet.”
The boy looked like he was holding back sick, but Remus let Violet continue unperturbed. She clearly knew what she was doing.
“Okay, okay.” Their hostage finally spoke up, after looking away from her leer. “What do you want to know?”
Violet visibly softened. Putting on her proverbial investigator’s hat, she scrutinised him. “You’re Koa, right?”
If possible within his confines, Koa leaned back. “How do you-”
“I overheard you and your brother speaking — Ash is it?”
“Damn. Yeah, that’s us.”
Remus felt the urge to enquire about a few questions of his own. “How are you connected to Elmore? Blood?”
Koa nodded. “We’re cousins.”
“What Ranks are you all at?” Violet took the wise precaution to ask.
“Elmore and Ash are Emblazed, and I’m . . . Enkindled.”
The sidelong glance Ash delivered, to a patch of empty air, was more than enough to gauge his embarrassment. An Enkindled being so mortified at revealing his Rank, when that same boy was younger than Remus, was enough to send his own cheeks flushing in a stark rose.
“Are they nearby?” Violet continued
“Within the mile.”
“Will they come looking for you?”
“Given enough time.”
She pressed further. “Which will be?”
He half-shrugged amongst the boroughs. “Perhaps half an hour? I can’t say.”
Violet held herself a little more tightly. “How grave will our sentencing be?”
“I’m not a jurist, but it's not good.” Koa put it bluntly. “You likely wouldn’t have faced much repercussion yourself, until you tagged along with the Death-Marked in his own flee. Evasion of the law is not favoured in the legal circles, not at all.”
“Fabulous.” Remus felt the word slip out of his mouth. “Looks like I won’t be visiting the family for some time.”
“That’ll be the least of our problems.” The reality of their situation seemed to finally become apparent to Violet, and her eyes flickered to her feet darkly. “Damn. There’s no way we can show our faces in First Rite now, or likely ever again. This won’t be something that just blows over in a few Passings.”
“We’ll worry about that when we amass enough power to challenge the systems that did us dirty,” Remus said, “though a little news about the place won't do us any harm. How is the Carpentry Sect doing?
“I can’t say I pay particular attention to the Labour District.” Koa admitted. “Probably fairing as they normally have. I was ushered out of the city to track you two down before the Wealth Sect really cracked down on them, but their future isn’t looking particularly bright.”
“New news, old news,” Remus scrowled, “always the same.”
Violet evidently wasn’t interested in enquiring about her own clan, for she skipped over to other matters. “Is it just Juniper trying to track us down? I can’t see how The Wild Sect is involved with this in the first place.”
To her surprise, it was Remus who answered. “Likely this is due to Elmore failing to carry out his duty as a guard. It wouldn’t have done his reputation much good to have two Death-Marked breaking out, under his supervision.”
“The fault went to the wider prison as a whole, so it wasn’t entirely making amends that motivated Juniper into dropping the task into Elmore’s lap,” Koa corrected, “several other sect leaders were disgruntled with what had occurred. Namely Nova-”
“Don’t mention him. “ Violet visibly shivered, despite it being a warm day. “Just don’t.”
All of Koa’s blood ran to his head — and if the situation wasn’t so dire, Remus would have been marvelling at how so much golden liquid could induce a face so red.
After a split second where pure terror stole his words away from him, Koa continued. “I think Juniper likes to keep on top of things, reaffirming her concrete status as a leader not to be meddled with, via clearing up issues like these. Plus, it served as an excuse to bring me back to First Rite.” Koa abruptly stopped there, as if putting a leash on his misbehaving tongue.
“But why you and your brother?” Violet asked. “I get Elmore being sent out — based on the bits and pieces I’ve heard, he seems to be more-or-less an adult — but you two are virtually children.”
“He’s training us,” Koa answered, sounding a little butthurt at the passing comment. “Or mainly me.”
“Okay,” Violet sighed, the conversation drawing to an end, “do you know where we’re headed next?”
“Immediately?” Koa began. “No, but you're obviously following the Trials of the Earnest. So, eventually, you'll be heading deep into the Shifting. To your deaths, presumably.”
“Tone down the optimism.” Remus piped in, the conversation so unbearably serious.
Judging by their blank expressions, neither of them appreciated the humour.
“Well, thanks for the cooperation.” Violet said. “It made this a whole lot easier than it could have been.”
Slowly at first, Koa angled his head towards Violet, suspicion written across his lips. “Wait, what would have happened if I had kept my mouth shut?”
“Nothing.” Violet revealed plainly. “It’s not like I’m going to torture someone for information, let alone a preteen.”
Koa bore into the ground at his feet, as though the entire world had betrayed his trust. An aggrieved “I’m not that young . . .” was all he could murmur.
“Well, pleasure doing business with you.” Violet smiled in a completely innocuous fashion, tapping the wood of Koa’s confines.
It fizzled out of existence, with the boy in tow.
Remus rushed forwards, clasping onto nothing but fading air. “What are you doing?” He screeched.
“Relax Remus. I only changed his location. We can’t have him informing Ash or Elmore of what direction we’re headed in.”
Sense returned to him. “Right.” He allowed himself a deep exhale, before redirecting his attention. “Speaking of, for the second trial, are we sticking to the plan? To take down Styrmir?”
“It’ll be a long way ahead, but yes.” Violet agreed, the two of them picking up a swift march. “You sure you won’t die of boredom on the way?”
“I’ll refrain from dropping dead until I have a Mark glistening on my arm. Now then, for what possible reason did Veida kick you out?” A lick of anger lingered on the words.
Violet groaned. “I haven’t the slightest idea.”
“Tell me what happened then, that’ll be a start.”
Violet exhaled. “It's a long story, but if you insist . . .”