Several hours of searching later, VtranĂ had finally managed to find QorĂ©a. It had not been an enjoyable search, requiring them to dodge FrĂ€thkâs loyal at every turn, lest they be dragged into the situation erupting throughout the city. Some areas remained calm, of course, the people having simply begun to huddle within businesses and their homes while awaiting the xphern transmission networkâs return.
VtranĂ rather disliked their xphernâit was an annoying thing, always buzzing against their hip, never letting them rest. It was bad enough on a good day, when aside from messages from FrĂ€thk themself, only the small group chat they belonged to would go off, whenever someone of the same rank messed up on a mission and needed aid. As such things were seen as a slight against their person, few of FrĂ€thkâs most loyal would ever admit to such errors in judgment, but it did happen. Fortunately, few people outside of those most loyal to FrĂ€thk and their leader themself would ever dare speak to VtranĂâwell, that wasnât quite the truth.
The silverstrains, housed throughout the city, and many of the children and teenagers spoke to them. The few people they would protect, when they could. It wasnât oftenâwasnât enoughâbut it was somethingâa little balm on their hateful, cruel soul.
Against their hip, VtranĂâs xphern buzzed as more and more messages came through. The majority of FrĂ€thkâs peopleâanyone trustworthy enough to have a xphern of their own, anywaysâhad been added to a giant chat when QorĂ©a had first stolen away the Baalphorian man. From then on, everything had been a mess and VtranĂâs xphern had rarely been quiet. Had the network not been down for every xphern save those with private exchange numbers, VtranĂ would have tossed the thing away, glad to be rid of it. As it was, they werenât about to toss away their only way of keeping track of the situationâor more importantly, how to avoid being dragged into the situation more than they already were.
Something about QorĂ©aâs kidnapping of that man hadnât sat right with them; hence, they had meandered their way through the city, wondering why the woman who had swiped the Baalphorian hadnât bothered staying within the building where he was housed. While VtranĂ had already been searching the woman out, some time after they had spoken with the man and Cheska, an alert had gone out informing everyone that the 17thâs alarm had been triggered. As Hwris had been nearby, VtranĂ had been rather happy to no longer be anywhere near that building. At the same timeâŠ
It was strange, but every step they had taken away from that buildingâfrom that Baalphorian manâhad felt like a knife through their soul. So strange, and while VtranĂ was in no way afraid of Hwrisâthey were, after all, one of the few people that monster of a man could never touchâneither did they ever want to be near the man.
VtranĂ wanted to be there nowâwanted to use themself as a shield for⊠someone. For that Baalphorian man? For the children and Izurial, who they now knew to have escaped the holding cells?
They had no idea, but the escape had turned the already messy situation into an even more chaotic disaster, and now? Now, there was a hit out of QorĂ©a. FrĂ€thk had decided that her swiping of the Baalphorian manâwho was now being reported to potentially be a non-dev with connections to the Hyrat clones and the Secretary Generalâs childâhad done them no favours.
FrĂ€thkâs most valuable possession had vanished into the city with the Baalphorian man, and FrĂ€thk was not happy. VtranĂ was, in a passive sort of way. Porsq, that sweet little boy who always smiled at them and never showed any fear, was gone. They werenât the sort of child to easily be caught againâFrĂ€thk had taught them too well.
Of course, their passive happiness was short-lived, as when they finally tugged their xphern free of their pocket, they discovered that at least one of the escapees had been recaptured: Xavier, the little child everyone suspected would be a non-dev. The child was certainly a low-dev, but there were enough signs he would be more, if one bothered to look.
That was⊠unfortunate. Vtranà hated this life for any of them, but for the children, it was always worse, and the fact that Xavier had been swiped up by those women who were
taking care of him?
âIs there no way to get his away from them?â
Porsq had asked, shortly after Xavierâs mother had died.
The child had been left in the care of those womenâif their abuse could be considered
care.
VtranĂ hadnât liked it either, but they hadnât been forced to live near it. For Porsq, who could feel the childâs sadness, the womenâs cruel disregard and
passive abuse
, and yet been unable to touch them due to some inherent difficulty that VtranĂ didnât understandâsomething to do with language, FrĂ€thk had once said in that way of theirs: in that way that implied they had no understanding of what they spoke of, and had instead heard it from some other person.
At the time, VtranĂ had considered telling Porsq the truth:
those women have that child because FrĂ€thk isâstupidly, in many peopleâs opinionâtrying to force you to evolve into something more monstrous than you already are.
At the time, they hadnât thought it would do any good to put that on the young boy, his power too immature to reach through whatever was guarding those women against his abilities. Knowing Xavier would be left to be tortured by those women for as long as it took for Porsq to work out how to manipulate those women would have done nothing but torture the child, and VtranĂ was not in the business of torturing childrenâreally, they would quite like to be in the business of torturing no one. Unfortunately, their abilities made them a wonderful tag-along when torture was on the schedule.
Glaring down at their xphern, Vtranà debated whether they should continue on to questioning Qoréa about
why
she had decided to grab the Baalphorian man, or if they should work to intercept the women who had grabbed Xavier from the Baalphorian man before they could ransom the child off for their own safety. It was highly unlikely they would be able to reach the women before Sireth did, but Xavier would be safe enough with her. The bigger issue was if Prex reached the women and took Xavier first. Prex was further from the meetup spot the women had suggested, seeking to offload the child in exchange for safe passage out of LĂŒshan for their little family, than Sireth was, but Prex was faster.
Idiots. Selfish bitches. They would hand Xavier over to Prex without a second thought for that manâs proclivities and what he would surely do to that child, if given the chanceâand it werenât as though FrĂ€thk would care, as long as the boy werenât completely broken.
The worst thing was that as low level as the women were, they were trustworthy enough to have been given xpherns. As a result, it would be easy enough for them to determine the situation between some factions of the government, as well as FrĂ€thk and GĂ«on's peopleânot to mention the clones and whatever the Baalphorians in the city were doing, several people having reported a group of young adults taking out any Drinarna they came across without remorseâwas disastrous enough that no one would care if they slipped out of the city. If someone more important than those women escaped, they would be tracked down, but those women had little use to FrĂ€thkâcertainly not enough use to risk more people by searching them out.
So, they didnât need Xavier, and had VtranĂ been the one to meet with the women, they liked would have killed the pair of them for their stupidity. Sireth likely would as wellâshe was in a similar position to VtranĂ themself: someone locked into their life, trying to make the best of it and failing miserably. As a mother herself, Sireth had a soft spot for the children; for this reason alone, she was never allowed around the children FrĂ€thk kept.
Had Sireth seen the state those children were living in, Vtranà had no doubt she would have tried to kill FrÀthk. It would have done no good.
FrĂ€thk, in the end, was nothing but a pawnâhad they not been, VtranĂ would have slit their throat long ago. As it was, a new FrĂ€thk would simply step up to take their place, their puppet master pulling strings from the shadows. Maybe that mysterious person would have figured out VtranĂ was behind FrĂ€thk's death; maybe not. For as much as VtranĂ wished they could follow through and slit their own life short, they wouldnât let their life be smushed out by some hidden forceânot when it would leave the children and silverstrains without even their vague protection.
Was it silly, to want to die and lack the will to follow through, and yet have the perfect way to die laid out in the form of FrĂ€thk's cooling corpse and know they couldnât risk leaving those who relied on their flawed protection for even the briefest of moments alone? Yes. VtranĂ never claimed their mind or emotions were a sensible thing. They hated life and would happily die, but not for killing a figurehead.
Sireth would spend her last moments of life regretting killing FrĂ€thk, knowing that her child would be left without a mother. Yet, if she managed to get to the women and Xavier before Prex⊠well, it was going to be rather clear that the child had been not only abused, but that the state Xavierâand by extension, every other child held in the various holding cellsâlived in was atrocious. She would snap, and someoneâlikely VtranĂ themselfâwould be left responsible for her own child.
That child was a being of chaos and mayhemâmuch too high energy for them. Sireth could, under no circumstances, get herself killed by whoever was manipulating FrĂ€thk and leave VtranĂ to manage that feral creature.
Speaking of which, where was the evil thing at the moment?
VtranĂ poked through the group chat for a momentâthey could feel QorĂ©a lingering inside the building, clearly panicking for how loud her existence was, as she wondered what to do, how to save herselfâtrying to determine where Sirethâs child had ended up. They, as well as the quirky, soft-spokenâif also depravedâcaptive the child had adopted as their
bestest friend ever, ever, ever,
had checked in once, to say they were at the apartment they shared and would be staying there until things settled, and then given the occasional update or comment on something being said within the chat. The pair had been disturbingly quiet for a while nowâsince around the time Hwris had confirmed that Porsq had likely escaped the holding cells, their power screaming through the world according to a few of FrĂ€thkâs people with more aether awareness.
Personally, they had felt nothingâtheir own aether awareness was all but nonexistent. This had resulted in a number of people asking them to go look for PorsqâVtranĂ had always implied the child couldnât feel their mind nor affect them, but VtranĂ knew that wasnât true. Part of them had hoped they would one day be told to guard the child on an outing, due to their supposed resistance, allowing the boy to manipulate them and gain his freedom. That child was too sweet for this life, too powerful for FrĂ€thk and whoever stood behind them to be allowed access to.
These requests for them to seek out Porsq had been left a mixture of unanswered and brushed offâthey were halfway across the city and closing in on QorĂ©a; surely finding her and either killing her or detaining her for questioning made more sense?
Currently, VtranĂ was debating blowing that mission off as well, something pulling them towards Sirethâs child and their little friend. They were too quiet, and while no one had questioned that silence yet, eventually, they would. Not because anyone cared what happened to either, but because the quirky one managed their hacked access to the cityâs security systems. Realistically, they
should
be filling up the chat with recommendations of where to go, with details of what that Baalphorian group was doing and of where the escaped captives were. Instead, there was nothing but silence, and either something had happened to the pair, or they were hiding something.
Had Sirethâs spawn not been a monster, capable of levelling an entire city block in their attempts to keep themself and those they loved safe, VtranĂ might have assumed something had happened. As their apartment was relatively nearby and no buildings had gone down, it was more likely the latter: the pair were hiding something.
Sireth was, in the end, one of the few people VtranĂ actually liked. Distaste for their child or not, they couldnât let the thing be dragged into some sort of drama or anotherâlosing her child, feral beast or not, would destroy their friend. At the same time, they didnât want to call another of FrĂ€thk's people hereâit would raise too many questions.
Sighing to themself, VtranĂ slipped into the building. Quickly disposing of QorĂ©aâor tying her up, depending on how difficult she was beingâand then hurrying off to check on Anarch and Curtisal. Hopefully, no buildings would be taken down by the time they were done.