Arc 9 | Chapter 432: Missing an Entire Bloody Person

The person who stepped out of Fräthk’s holding cells wasn’t exactly what Emilia had expected one of the most powerful and loyal members of their group to look like. Tall and wiry, with a crop of grey curls, Vtraní was…

Emilia didn’t know how to put it as she watched them peer around the area, expression blank and careless and holding all the energy of someone who was both infinitely confident in their abilities and knew death couldn’t touch them, and yet, was just sort of… empty.

“Fuck, they’re terrifying,”

Vern muttered.

From where they were hiding, huddled into an alleyway that, due to the odd way Falmíer’s roads rose and fell to make use of the uneven ground and haphazardly pushed together buildings—seriously, some of the roads connected floors of the buildings or existed atop of the buildings themselves—they were a ways above the street Vtraní stood on. They didn’t look up—not that Emilia thought they’d be able to see them, what with the skill she’d pulled over them to hide their group. It wouldn’t fool everyone, but both Jerrial and Rayleen had assured her that while Vtraní was powerful, they were in no way known for their ability to feel shifts in the aether.

They could be hiding their ability to do so, of course, but for the moment, Vtraní just turned and left, their cold grey clothing fluttering as they moved, the entire thing leaving Emilia with the odd feeling that Jerrial and Vern were wrong when they’d described Vtraní as terrifying. Sure, their abilities were rather horrifying, but the person themself? To Emilia, they’d just seemed… not quite sad, but not terrifying or malicious, and yes, she knew well enough that people could hide that sort of energy within themself.

Still, as they began to move to the street below, Rayleen giving them the go ahead and assuring them it was safe to start making their way into the holding cells now, Emilia’s mind slipped back to what Rayleen had said before: that someone amongst her friends and allies might be able to bring Vtraní into a position of being a future ally. Vern and Jerrial had both scoffed at this, insisting that there was no way

someone like that

could ever be their ally.

According to what they’d said as they waited for Vtraní to emerge, after Rayleen had refused to discuss the issue or her supposed relationship with the aether anymore, they were one of Fräthk’s most loyal people—one of the few who were allowed free rein of the city, one of the few who were actually treated at least a little kindly by Fräthk. Admittedly, that kindness wasn’t a lot, but when people lived terrible lives, they were often willing to do anything—even be loyal to their kidnappers—in order to attain a little more freedom and happiness. So, when it had first come up, Emilia had thought it a toss up as to whether Vtraní had simply learned how to work the system so they could have more freedom, or if they were actually loyal to Fräthk—and there was no way Emilia would hold someone too responsible for just trying to survive in the horrible life they had been dealt, even if they left a trail of blood in their wake.

That was the complicated thing about situations like this: managing the reality that the people they might end up fighting—might end up offering aid to—weren’t always completely willing participants in the crimes they had committed. Even Jerrial might have done terrible things—she hadn’t asked. What had his choices been, though? Refuse and hope to be left alone or killed? Maybe he’d be tortured. Maybe Vern would have been found and tortured. Whatever crime Jerrial had refused to take part in would still likely have occurred at some other person’s hand; so, what was the point in refusing when all it would do was add more hurt to the world, this time aimed against him and anyone else Fräthk dragged in, attempting to force his hand?

Yet, this didn’t erase the things Jerrial or anyone else may have done—didn’t bring back lives or spare others from the pain of being kidnapped or stolen from or fuck knew what else. People like Fräthk’s

little bugs

were forced to do terrible things, just trying to save themselves, and while some people could be judged for doing horrific things for their own self-interests, judging people in a situation like this… Well, it was hard and complicated.

So, when Emilia thought back on Vtraní as she pressed her hands to one of the outer walls of the holding cells, feeling around inside and making sure there was no one inside the room she was about to create a temporary hole into—Rayleen insisted it was empty and the building’s security system didn’t have sensor within it, but honestly, the woman was sketchy as fuck—all she felt was conflicted. They had been part of Fräthk’s group for decades, and even based on the few stories Jerrial had told her, Emilia knew Vtraní had taken plenty of lives and were responsible for more than a few kidnapping of those with powerful irregular deviations. Still, if they asked for help—claimed they had never wanted this life and instead wanted out from under Fräthk—Emilia doubted she would be able to say no.

Hopefully, if that happened, they wouldn’t also happen to have someone who had been hurt by Vtraní in their group. That would be awkward, and Emilia didn’t want to deal with that sort of situation! She was just one girl! And yes, she could probably think through all the various moral and ethical quandaries until she was mostly happy with the conclusion, but she was rather removed from this situation! Sure, her soon-to-be lawyer, kinda-sorta teacher, and friend-in-the-making had been kidnapped, but even if whoever had taken him asked her for help, she still wouldn’t be able to say no.

So, with any luck, no conflicts between anyone else who magically managed to find themself in their group of people trying to get the fuck out of Lüshan would arise! Emilia didn’t want to deal with ultimatums, especially when there was a chance the people issuing ultimatums of

this person who hurt me can’t come

had also been hurting people in an attempt to keep their life and spare the people they loved from being used as leverage. Having to argue with people over such things would be time-consuming and liable to give her a headache.

“You should not give the aether ideas,”

Rayleen whispered when they popped out the other side of the {Hidey Hole} Emilia had split into the holding cells, and you know what!? The woman was incredibly creepy and unhelpful!

“Are you telling me the aether has something against people who are over-thinkers, or who just want to be prepared for various scenarios? Cause, if you are, the aether can go fuck itself. This is how my brain works, and it's very rude if it's gonna treat me differently because of it,”

Emilia sniffed, Jerrial giving her an inquisitive look, while Vern looked some mixture of baffled and annoyed. It was cute, and Emilia took a short video of the man, catching his looking at Jerrial’s back as well, soft love suddenly filling his gaze as though his heart couldn’t help itself.

Adorable.

“The aether already treats you differently,”

Rayleen stated like she should already know such things—she didn’t.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Emilia was aware that a few Free Colonies considered silverstrains to be

blessed by the aether

, although those nations were relatively few and far between, and the exact reasons they thought such things had mostly been lost to time.

Averie had once told her that there was a myth that a silverstrain would one day reach into aether and do

something

to it, all to end a great conflict—it was part of the reason why her family, the royals of their nation, only married other silverstrains. Occasionally, a genetic spasm would cause the dominant silverstrain genes to morph, and all non-silver strain children would be removed from consideration for the throne. The most recent child to be removed was actually Averie’s older sister, who Emilia had never actually met. It was all exceptionally awkward because although Averie had only occasionally attended any diplomatic events—this

may

have had something to do with the pair of them continuously competing to see who could get random boys they met to fall into their bed, rather than the other’s—her sister had never come with her. Being removed from the line of succession didn’t mean her sister had been exiled from the family or anything either; rather, for some reason that even Averie wouldn’t speak of, her older sister—whose name Emilia had never even been able to learn—just wasn’t allowed to come.

It was rather mysterious, and Emilia really hoped it was something relatively benign keeping the older girl back in Kokorsh, rather than something insidious. With any luck, she’d manage to visit the tiny little Free Colony one day and actually meet Averie’s sister. Hopefully, when that day came, she wouldn’t be awkwardly stealing the older girl away because instead of having some chronic illness or something—one of those

relatively benign

reasons—she was actually being used as target practice or something… although, being used as target practice

could

lead to chronic illnesses, so she should probably make sure the chronic illness wasn’t being caused by something insidious?

This was not a useful thing to think about, but maybe, if she let her thoughts wander into even more insane places, the aether—should it be listening to her thoughts and be tempted to listen to her brain as the future became the present—would instead choose to ignore her. It wasn’t really a thing that Baalphorians generally believed, but even they joked that saying or thinking things might manifest them into reality. Usually, it was only mentioned in teasing remarks or wishes for the future—things that were low stakes or only positive. People joked that they hadn’t been specific enough when they wished for a boyfriend who would give them flowers—they needed to specify they be flowers that weren’t withering or toxic, after all! Or, they’d lament that the only reason they failed an assignment was because of a passing worry that they’d fail it, as opposed to the cause being that they hadn’t studied enough.

So, while Rayleen being able to guess that she was overthinking the situation, going over all the things that could go wrong and considering how she’d handle it—the person who made the ultimatum was generally, but certainly not always, the one in the wrong—was annoying and creepy, her pointing out that her thoughts

could

very well have an effect on the physical world wasn’t a new idea to her. If anything, Emilia probably believed

that

more than other

the aether has a personality or will

type beliefs. Mostly, it was thanks to Coral and a handful of other abilities that varies forms of Dyadism and other irregular deviations gave people. If Coral could feel people’s emotions through the aether, why shouldn’t those feelings have an effect on it? Why shouldn’t their thoughts seep out into the aether until all that energy was colliding together to shift… something. Emilia had no idea what it would shift, but if someone told her a bunch of people got together to think

really hard

about moving a building two feet to the left and they’d actually succeeded with thought alone, Emilia would be dubious but not completely unbelieving.

Still, it seemed ridiculous to think a single person’s thoughts could affect the aether enough that they could… what? Manifest a person falling into their path who would eventually issue them an ultimatum about another person they’d end up trying to get out of the city? The aether might be powerful—something that could snap life out with barely more than a handful of lines of code and a few flying thoughts, something from which energy could be pulled to create beauty and destruction—but creating entire people… No, it couldn’t do that, and if her thoughts

were

going to affect their future so immediately, Emilia was pretty sure her thoughts would actually need to be affecting the past? Pushing the aether of the past to put a person into her path who would have a history with someone worthy of issuing an ultimatum and—

And as though the aether itself were fucking with her—were literally putting answers about its power straight into her path—Emilia turned a corner and ran straight into someone. Each of them

oofed

, and you know what!? On top of the fact that she was burning her Censor keeping her awareness of the world as stretched as possible, Jerrial and Rayleen were both monitoring the area as well. So, between the three of them, how had they managed to miss an entire bloody person!?