Arc 9 | Chapter 394: Another Lavi? Great. Awesome. So What We Need.

For posterity’s sake, Emilia stayed behind to let her recon skill properly deploy through the area at least once, the other three heading off in the direction Jerrial thought whoever had taken Olivier would be keeping him. They hadn’t had a chance to discuss

why

the guy thought this specific person had taken Olivier, nor where exactly they were going, nor even what Jerrial wanted from the person—or, perhaps, from the location. That could wait until she caught up with them; she’d slapped the same tracking skill onto them as she had Cameron, and although the skill took a significant amount of aether to deploy, it was worth it given the group didn’t have Censors or xpherns.

If they were separated, there was little chance of finding each other again.

Other things they could wait to discuss until she microsparked after them? Getting Candence out of there and into the care of the clones. That hadn’t stopped her from contacting the local clones and asking that one of them move closer to the lower end, so she could hand the kid over to them the moment they were close enough and she was sure the men wouldn’t kill her for taking their kid away—if they even considered the kid

theirs

.

Something about them all… Emilia wasn’t sure, but it had seemed more that the two men were friends and had probably just accidentally ended up with the child. Candence seemed to trust them, but neither did she seem super attached to them. Certainly, she’d wanted to stick with Emilia and had only been convinced to go with the men because while Emilia

could

microspark with the child in her arms, it would likely end with the kid puking or even passing out from the strain. She’d do it in an emergency—she and Halen had tested microsparking with pre-Censor clones, under the supervision of Doctor Vickers, who had experience with running human trials for various medic skills—and knew it wouldn’t kill her. Still, unpleasant. Still, better avoided.

Who really knew what the kid’s connection to Jerrial and Vern was, though. The kid was definitely the daughter of a certain Drinarna officer she knew. While she certainly didn’t keep up on Drinarna gossip as much as she did Inner Court gossip, she didn’t think the officer had died or anything, but… but seriously!? Had they really left their kid to the streets? That just seemed too cold—and potentially dangerous, to willingly leave a lavender code to be snatched up by criminals and—

And it was messy because the fact that she wanted to get the adults out of Lüshan was already going to be a minor mess. Since Jerrial at least was being targeted by some sort of criminal group, the Drinarna would probably be perfectly happy to let her have him—assuming that ability of his didn’t make him too valuable for the government to willingly give him up—while Vern may well have just been some homeless person Jerrial had befriended, or he could have been a different sort of powerful. The government would probably be all too happy to give her a random homeless man, not so much if he had power.

For Candence, though? There was a good chance they wouldn’t give her the kid. Not only was she a lavender code, but related to one of the big Drinarna dynasties as well. Chances were high that that family wouldn’t want it getting out that one of their children had created a child

like that.

Not to mentioned that the child had subsequently been abandoned to the streets. Fucking stars. There was a chance that the family might be willing to kill to cover it up.

At the very least, she could argue the kid was better off in Baalphoria, as they had no recent history of forcing lavender codes into roles as human weapons they way some nation did. That said, they did have laws that required all lavender codes to allow themselves to be monitored for the entirety of their lives, the alternative being imprisonment. It was stupid, but far better than what was happening here, and in the Penns—

And in the Penns

what? Was she really considering taking that kid back home and… what? Asking her parents to take on another high needs kid? They were getting old! They’d already been far older than the average parents when they’d adopted her and her siblings almost two and a half decades ago. The clones, then? They could certainly raise children well, but…

But nothing. If she had to get down on her knees and beg

anyone

to take the kid, if neither of these adults wanted to raise her, she would. Fuck, even if she had to disappear into the middle of nowhere to raise the kid herself—

Emilia’s recon skill shuddered to a stop, reaching out as far as it could without risking returning garbage information. Unfortunately, if unsurprisingly, there was no sign of Olivier. There were, even more unfortunately, plenty of other terrible things popping up in her data—dead bodies, people with heart rates so weak they must surely be pressing against death’s door. Somehow even worse, there was a blip that seemed… off. Off in that way that screamed that she should stay far away from it, and when she analyzed it against all the other data that her recon skill had spit out, it was the same sort of blip that appeared when the skill brushed over Candence, just bigger, scarier.

Another lavender code, then? An adult one? That definitely wasn’t something she wanted to deal with, and honestly? She’d rather go back and fight that terrifying man who had literally been able to reduce humans to mush with his energy than face a lavender code. That guy would still be a terror to fight, but at least she’d potentially have a chance. Lavender codes, however, were impervious to virtually all skills while coding. They just had this connection to the aether that allowed them to take it over in the same way junk skills did, just turned up to the max—the normal max, anyways.

There was a myth about a variety of Dyadism with Excess Connection Levels that could overcome even the takeover of lavender codes, but outside of myths and legends, lavender codes were supreme and

no one

could get skills or core abilities to touch one who was coding. As she had several willbrands—including the one she’d stolen from the scary man, which in hindsight, maybe not the sort of man to steal from?—which would work on lavender codes, she could at least try to fight a lavender code. Emilia would really rather not.

Still, before fully microsparking back into the group, she stopped to take a moment to dig through her bag for her willbrand hair clip, clipping it onto the pocket of her shorts, hidden under the long length of Olivier’s sweater. Just in case.

“Did you find anything?”

Jerrial asked when Emilia slid in beside him, Candence almost immediately attempting to wiggle free and return to her arms.

“Not my friend. Pegged another lavi nearby, though.”

Jerrial’s nose wrinkled, but if he thought the random lavender code might be someone likely to come chasing him, he said nothing of it. Emilia was going to air on the side of caution and assume anyone and everyone in the city might be coming after them— Well, not

everyone.

There was no way the majority of the clones—only the

older clones

would ever dare hurt her, as they were always a mild to moderate threat, simmering in the back of her brain, but there shouldn’t be any of those clones nearby—or her friends would ever be a threat. Wander and some of the other Drinarna officers… she doubted they would be a threat. More, the risk was that they would consider Jerrial or Vern some sort of threat to national security, and she and Candence might get caught in some sort of fight between each side. As she was sort of person to be very picky about who she actually refused to defend, unless the Drinarna and anyone else who tried to attack them had some very compelling reasons, there was a good chance she’d end up on the opposite side of anyone trying to hurt them.

“So…. where are we going, then?”

Emilia asked, giving Candence another bite of her snack, more crumbs tumbling between them. While she didn’t mind the crumbs—Emilia wasn’t exactly known for being the most coordinated eater at times, especially when she was signing in the midst of a meal—neither did she want to accidentally ruin Olivier’s sweater.

She had to give it back to him, eventually. If it had stains on it… he would understand—Olivier was the sort of person who would, of course, understand that feeding the small child she had suddenly found herself responsible for took precedence over keeping herself clean, but she still wanted to return it to him in okay condition. Was she always going into a situation where there would likely be more blood and weapons that could potentially destroy his sweater? Yes, but for the moment, Emilia wasn’t thinking about that.

Instead, she just adjusted Candence to let the crumbs fall to the ground before tugging her closer, Jerrial explaining in his rasping voice where they were going and why he thought Olivier might be there. Seriously, though, the guy really needed to lay down, and Emilia cursed herself for knowing only emergency first aid skills. Luckily, there were a few people coming with her friends who would be a little better equip to deal with the olthagri. Unfortunately, only one of them had likely ever had it themself, and chance were when they’d all packed their things, they hadn’t prioritized meds for an obscure disease found only in the Free Colonies.

In the background, she asked the clone who was heading their way to potentially pick up Candence if they could also grab some meds—assuming there actually were meds to help more quickly than standard treatment. Clones, who were often stationed in Free Colonies where they might come into contact with olthagri, were exposed to it as children, so it wouldn’t interfere with their work later. According to Nivel—a clone who was actually only visiting and didn’t officially work at the embassy—there were some meds that would help, but could cause other problems in the long term.

The way he explained it, easily accessible meds erased symptoms, but at the cost that they allowed the person leave to exert themself, as they’d feel virtually perfect. In the end, that exertion would come back to haunt them, as once the meds wore off, they’d be all the worse. Mostly, the meds were meant to remove symptoms while the person rested, so they’d be a little less miserable. That explained why Hurinren and Yujao had never offered to try and find her any meds when she’d had olthagri: she was definitely the sort of person to take feeling better as a reason to go running around like the wild child she was inside. They knew her well enough to know leaving her miserable and sick was the safer option.

Something about Jerrial told her that, under better circumstances, he would be a good boy and rest. These weren’t good circumstances, however, and there was no way he could lay down and rest. Still… having him be in better condition for going into what he was currently describing as the

holding cells

for a local criminal group would probably be for the best, even if the consequences would be bad.

“What makes you think this particular group is the one who’s working with the Drini to set up the scary guy?”

Emilia asked, wondering if this was all just some ploy to use her to get whatever Jerrial wanted from these holding cells, or perhaps the base that existed around it—he hadn’t said much about what he wanted, other than that yes, he was willing to risk his health going to get it.

“They have a cross… over of industry,”

Jerrial explained, adding that the person he was thinking of and the scary man actually worked for the same overall organization, but hadn’t been friendly in a long time.

“They both… make a point of collecting valuable people. Originally… it was just… the person who took your friend. But the guy you met… started to pick up strays after… a local trafficking group broke up… a few years… ago. His power… has gone up fast. He is also—”

Jerrial’s words caught in a cough that lasted far too long for Emilia’s liking, especially since they weren’t even moving

that

fast. It really sucked that he was the one who needed to come with her—the only one who knew the way, Vern taking directions from Jerrial whenever they came to a crossroads. Having the guy die on her because he had to keep moving would be really bad.

“He is also… the better of the two. Controlling, yes. He… keeps his little ones close, but doesn’t treat them too bad. I would rather be picked up… by him than by the person we’re going to, who… had me… before,”

Jerrial finished, Vern muttering something about how he still thought his friend was stupid for planning to give himself over to the scary dude—and it didn’t escape Emilia’s notice that neither ever said his name, as though just saying it would bring him crashing down on them.

“You were going to willingly go work for that guy?”

Emilia asked when they turned, heading towards an exit because Nivel was close enough that they could meet up and try to convince the guys to let him take Candence—not that she’d told Jerrial or Vern that yet.

The smile Jerrial gave her was sad—accepting of the fate the universe and his genetics had given him.

“I’m too valuable. I will never find peace in this city… without someone like him… protecting me.”

“Someone like you?”

Emilia asked, almost afraid of what Jerrial would say, although her mind had already come to conclude what he most likely was, as impossible as it seemed.

Light-brown eyes soft—broken, almost—Jerrial sighed and ignored Vern’s warning call of his name.

“I am the last remaining Lowdouran,”

and yup, that was what Emilia had been worried about.

There was no fucking way the Lüshan government would be letting her take Jerrial out of there if they found out what he was—after all, he was apparently effectively a living myth, which begged the question: how did he exist when the Lowdouran had supposedly disappeared so many millennia ago that no one was actually sure what they were even capable of?