Out of all the things Emilia did and didnât know about
Conrad
, a few things were clear.
One: Conrad wasnât his real name. The manâs handwriting, little as Emilia had seen, had been shockingly perfectâthe kind of perfect that made her suspect he was from a Free Colony, where writing was often common place. It was taught, more out of tradition than practical use, to Baalphorian students, but was so rarely used that her own writing was barely legible.
People from the Free Colonies had almost always seemed to have much better handwriting. Charles and Jamesâ had been sweeping and dramatic, giant flourishes marking their letters. For the Blood Rain General and the young non-dev he had sent to them during the war, their writing was fluid and graceful, although usually only they could read it, something about the difference in their native languageâs writing making the transition into Baalphorian difficult. Riâs writing had been perfect, with square little letters lined up uniformly on the pageâ
Actually, Riâs writing had been a little disturbing. He had been a prolific writer, making notes and journaling, as well as sending mysterious letters off to the one sibling he liked and
a friend.
The man had rarely given details about either, but Emilia wasnât stupid, and his so-called friend had clearly been more than a friend.
That was beside the point, however. What was the point was the way the authoritarian government of the manâs home had obviously demanded the strictest skill in handwriting from its citizens. Emilia could still picture the manâs letters, written in both Baalphorianâfor his personal practiceâand his native tongueâHigh Falronian, although sheâd seen him write and speak in the more common tongue as well. Despite the varied word length and spacing, every line had been even, running one margin to the other perfectly. It was a skill, on that served as a disturbing reminder of the regime Ri had grown up under.
Conradâs writing reminded her a bit of all that. It was perfect, precise, but there was a flow to it that hadnât existed in Riâs, and the occasional flourish was nowhere near as extravagant as James or Charlesâ.
That led Emilia to point two: he was almost certainly from the Free Colonies, which lead to three: he had probably learned to use his core in the real world. It was possible heâd extended that training through blackaether raids, but Emilia was willing to bet heâd at least learned the basics in his real body.
Emilia glanced behind her as she tugged the last straps of her {Blood Armour} in place. Gale was examining several of her blood weaponsâthe ones Emilia had gone over the basics of with the older children, in case they needed to raid her body at some point. Conrad didnât seem interested in anything. Heâd picked up one of the other blood items scattered through the room, a small figurine shaped like a monster of some sort, and pocketed it. Now, he was leaning lazily against a wall, staring in her general direction.
He wasnât really staring at her, though. Well, he was, but not in the creepy, stalker way she would have expected. After two minutes of stripping down and awkwardly pulling on her {Blood Armour}âalthough it could contract down to a bracelet form, for easier removal, the Risen Guard hadnât been keen to let her shift it, and both getting it off and now on while it was still in clothing form was difficultâEmilia had been able to add another piece to the puzzle of the man: he probably wasnât into her, and possibly not into women at all.
It wasnât that she thought she was so beautiful, no man could resist her! Nothing like that! But she had always been a people watcher and knew that most people⌠had problems keeping their eyes to themselves. Even if they almost immediately realized the person wasnât their type, nudity and revealing clothing called attention, and there was always that bare moment when they glanced and assessed. If they werenât into it, they looked away. If the person was polite, they looked away even if they were, but nearly everyone had a tell: some small twitch of movement or expression or vibe that said,
âIâd hit that.â
Conrad had never even looked. Entirely naked, heâd just absently stared in her direction. If he blinked and asked when sheâd changed, she wouldnât have been surprised. He could just be really polite, she supposedâsheâd watched Charles die of embarrassment over Baalphoriaâs revealing clothing for years, after all.
The point was, it was difficult to avoid looking, but Conrad was doing it like it was nothing. Ergo, probably not into women and definitely not into her. That was fine. Hopefully the lack of sexual attraction would make whatever obsession he had with her less sticky. He kept bringing up his brother, so maybe sheâd somehow slid into being a pseudo-sister? Weird, but she could work with that.
Emilia pulled her clothing back over her {Blood Armour}, her energy reaching out to run down the length of Conradâs web. He shuddered, his shoulderâs shaking and eyes flickering shut. When they opened again, he was watching her. Previously unfocused eyes locked onto her as his energy latched onto hers, dragging it along several particular webs towards Risen Guards wandering the compound, andâ
â¸Emilia!⸠a little voice called.
Emilia cursed as she turned and found Caro standing in the doorway.
This!
This was the nosy child the guards outside had been meant to keep out. Now, those men lay tucked into a corner, and when the childâs eyes found them they grew huge and fascinated.
Fucking stars above. Out of all the kids to run into, it had to be Caro: yet another child she was unlikely to be able to shake.
Caro, at the very least, was a useful and sneaky child, and when they pulled a bag out of stars knew where to stuff the extra blood items into, Emilia was unsurprised. Gale snatched it away, dumping everything that Emilia wasn't reattaching to her person or stuffing into her own bag into Caroâs. The child tried to take it back, but Gale wasnât stupid enough to lade the child down with weapons.
Either Conrad was that stupid, or he knew something they didnât, because he handed Caro one of the random blood items. Caroâs eyes lit up, and they snapped the hairpin into their hair, pulling their unruly, dirty blonde bangs out of their face. The aether rumbled with private conversation between Conrad and Caro, and Emilia hoped the man could tolerate kids: Caro was a talkative one.
â¸We canât leave these things with them,⸠Gale muttered to Emilia as she shouldered the bag of blood weapons. She hadnât even asked about
why
the teenager was intent to empty the room, but apparently the girl wanted to explainânot that she had to. Emilia understood how little Gale trusted the organizationâhow much she wasnât willing to leave dangerous weapons in their hands.
It was probably a good thing Gale hadnât been there when she handed over the {Blood Hoop} to Boundary. At the very least, that wasnât being stored here. Hopefully, it had been put somewhere safeâor better yet, maybe Boundary had kept it. Then again, as much as she trusted him more than most of the Risen Guard, that didnât erase the fact that there was another person residing within himâsome corrupted being, created by the heartcores. One that hated visitorsâor was maybe intent to follow Risen Guard directive to the extreme? They hadnât actually discussed the specifics of his other half, unfortunately.
So⌠maybe, in hindsight, it wouldnât be great if he still had it? Although, one person having access to what was definitely a weapon of mass destructionâeven if sheâd personally had no idea how to activate itâwas better than the entire Risen Guard having access.
Oh well, too late to do anything about it now, not when they were once again following Conrad through the winding paths and staircases of the compound, Caro now in tow as well. Another child who Emilia was certain wouldnât be dissuaded from coming with them, even if she tried.
Actually, the small child could probably be sent packing, but that seemed cruel. The Caro who had existed before Kelly had been attacked wouldnât have been pushed off, but the Caro of now might. Leveraging their hurt and trauma over being the first to meet that man to make them stay wasnât something Emilia could do. It would be like dragging a knife through a wound that had only just ceased oozing blood.
Hence, a third child to cart around. At least this child had the energy of a monster, never complaining about the number of stairs they were forced to go up and down and up and down. Even Emilia was complaining! Although scribbling out complaints and curses wasnât the most satisfying complaining sheâd ever done. Gale, on the other hand, had taken to glaring at Conradâs back as they climbed, handing Astra over to him to carry after the second flight. Astra hadnât been impressed, glaring up at the man, but she seemed perfectly inclined to inconvenience him over Emilia or Gale.
All things considered, they made it pretty far, before they faced their biggest problem getting out of the compound. According to a quick noted, jotted down by Conrad as she and Gale caught their breaths around climbing too many flights to count, they were almost to the place Conrad had entered from. Emilia had questioned the sensibility of exiting at the same place, but without any lead on another exit, this was the way they needed to go.
The Risen Guard compound occupied the entirety of a city floor. They had been confined to a single building during their stay, and much as Emilia had suspected while inside it, the structure was huge. Exiting the building via what appeared to be an emergency exit and erupting onto a clattering metal landing, Emilia took in the city. As with all internal cities, the ceiling above was covered in circles of light eating material, the covers of these ones open and plunging the world into dark.
Inside, there had been no windows, and instead Lanaira and other Risen Guards had informed them of when it was time to turn off the lights. Smaller versions of the light eating holes marked most ceilings, opening with the touch of energy to an arrayâsome inside, many more outside, the room in question. According to the timing of those bedtimes, this was their third day in the compound, although Emilia had already begun to question thatâshe used to joke her internal clock got all of her internal mapâs potential. The fact that it was clearly night outside, while there were still many hours until lights out, more or less confirmed the fact that the Risen Guard had been fucking with their sense of time through their windowless rooms.
Given the way Gale growled into the aether, she had realized that as well. If there had been any hope of talking the girl into at least tolerating the Risen Guard before, it was gone now.
Down they went, following the zigzagging stairs from metal landing to metal landing. It was noisy, but Conrad had come up fine enough, so perhaps it was an excepted noiseâperhaps the Risen Guards used it to change shift or sneak out for a smoke break. Not that Emilia had seen anyone in this world smoking.
The building was just as big as sheâd expected, spanning blocks and blocks of space and reaching nearly to the ceiling. Below them, a collection of smaller homes dotted the level, light slipping out from behind curtains and blinds, but the majority was occupied by the main building. There were also, rather surprisingly, several courtyards with what appeared to be plants growing in them, lit up by glowing dots of light. Far away and nearly pitch black as it was, Emilia couldnât be completely positive, but if they were covered in greenery, they would be the first plants she had seen inside a city level.
Emilia reached out, touching Conradâs web again, letting him guide her along it to the closest people once more, before he let her go. Her energy wandered through his map, searching out the signatures of people she knew and cared for. A huge group of people were gathered near the infirmaryâHoney, most likely, causing some sort of scene. Hopefully the trainee wouldnât get in too much trouble. Even more hopefully, no one would realize she had been causing a commotion in order to give them a chance to escape.
Things should have gone smoothly from there on. There was no one nearby. No one wandering the night, out for air or on guard. Shapes were tucked quietly into the smaller houses, while the compound was filled with people living their out-of-time middle of the day. None of those shapes were running or sending sparks of their own energy searching through the world for her or the missing children.
Everything was fine, until suddenly, it wasnât.
It took Emilia a half dozen steps to stop, her eyes and body having been idly staring ahead as she followed Conrad and wove her way through his energy. Despite the mental strain of seeing so muchâor perhaps even because of itâit had been soothing in a way she wasnât used to, and the suddenness of its disappearanceâof Conradâs disappearanceâwas more jarring than she would have expected.
She looked back, meeting the panicked eyes of Gale and curious expression of Caro as they looked around.
â¸Where did your friend go?⸠the child asked, and Emilia let every curse she knew float through her head.
They had known this was a riskâhad known that the Enclave that Conradâs family had attached themselves to could call him back at any time. They should have prepared for them to steal him away, but they hadnât. Now, they were alone with only the vaguest of idea where they were going.
âFuckâŚâ
Emilia groaned to herself, turning back the way theyâd been heading. They were close to the city wall, but nowhere near the gate. She had no idea if there was some hidden path they were headed to or whether Conrad had been planning to use the wall as an edge of safety as they went elsewhereâto the opposite side of the city for all Emilia knew.
Emilia glanced back the way they came. They couldnât go back. Miira might have been kind enough to not tattle on them, but she doubted the girl would hide their failed escape if they returned. She didnât trust them, and there was no place for them inside that compound anymore.
Forward it was then, even if forward was surging into a great big unknown.