Michellin

Wanderers

Kire was about to answer Envy when he interrupted, and she realized he was listening in on Ysaryn and Ruli. As much as she knew it was intrusive, Kire itched to know what it was. She frowned as Ruli entered and Envy teased him. “You mean, women actually find him charming?” she asked, shaking her head. She wanted to demand more details, but seeing them return to practicing, Kire sighed and turned away. She’d find out later, anyway.

She disappeared, later appearing with her armor in tow, setting it aside for later. Needing to keep herself occupied, she went about whatever tasks needed doing for the refugees, preparing firewood and replenishing their stores, coming back by evening. After another quick meal, she went off again to run drills by herself, partly hoping too that sword practice would mean she’d at least sleep earlier, rather than stew in her thoughts all night. She went back into the caverns after cleaning herself up, wondering how Rulitus’s practice had fared.

Wanderers

Kire nodded at her response, then raised a brow, curious at the favor she was talking about. “He should be with Envy right now, preparing for tomorrow. I’ll go find you when we’re ready, then.” She nodded once, then went back to the kitchen, putting together a simple meal from leftovers. Though she did know that it was a terrible idea and that Envy was right, she spent the meal imagining the many ways she would dispose of Akuma and Itallo in front of their guests. Kire sighed. Even this wasn’t satisfying, not without Ikegai in the picture. And not without finding out why this Gemini is here.

That doll. Rulitus was right, of course, and Kire knew this, that she wasn’t real. An image of her another man had built up in his mind and poisoned. Rather than a beating heart, Akuma had a gem. Kire rubbed her face, feeling the contours, the scar. But that evil, she had gotten that from me. A twisted version of her, but a version of her, nonetheless. Ikegai knew that. He had merely drawn out the darkness that already existed deep within Kire and gave it form, a deadly beauty. “Pulls yourself together, Kay,” she muttered, finishing her meager supper before going to Rulitus and Envy.

Wanderers

Kire fell silent when Ysaryn told her she wanted to come. She gave the elf woman a measured look. The resolve was there, certainly. “I was wondering if you would ask that,” she finally said. She understood, to a degree, how Ysaryn felt. “I won’t say no to you coming along; I had considered your involvement, or your people’s. But stealthier is better, as had been pointed out to me. Bolym, however, must come with us, too.”

She wondered at one other detail that Ysaryn spoke of. The Gemini didn’t stop her? Was it because he didn’t care if one elf escaped? Why? She recalled how the young man looked. The emptiness, the nothing Ysaryn spoke of—Kire could see it. “Tomorrow, Itallo weds Akuma, the doll. We’re wondering if this wedding is a mask for something else, too. We are hoping we would find the hiding place soon, before anything worse happens.”

Kire stood. “Have you eaten? Thinking about impending battle always makes me hungry.” She offered a small smile before turning solemn again. . “We’ll find their hiding place. And we’ll get them out, if we can.”

Wanderers

Kire could see this was difficult for her, as it had been the first time she told this story. She let Ysaryn get it all out, silently noting the details. The part about her capture concerned her. Drugged? From a distance? There were instances back in Amria of that. People, women, disappearing, right around the area where she would later discover Ikegai had been hiding. Ysaryn’s experience sounded like it. She swallowed the well of anger.

“He’s looking for bodies with magical potential. My enemy, he’s been cutting up people for a while now. Trying out which bodies fit with his dollmaking. Female bodies, maybe it has something to do with Akuma too. Finding suitable dolls to make more of her. Maybe it’s because the gems work better when you put them in the womb.” Kire frowned. How likely would they be to take Ruli?

“You’re not a coward. You can’t be blamed for finding a way to survive. And if you hadn’t run, you can’t help them.” She paused, thinking about that detail. The unguarded door. “Did you see somebody, tall, pale with blue-tinged skin, someone who could be a half-Kartaian? Rulitus thinks this person might have let you escape. Your luck would make sense then.”

Underground. How? A way out, not by boat or ship. Kire didn’t like this at all. “I suppose Ruli and I will find out the hard way how they're transporting you."

Wanderers

Kire was waiting for their return outside of Envy’s chamber. She offered a small smile back to Ysaryn’s uneasy one. “I’ll see you after your preparations,” she said to Ruli, before stepping forward towards the elf, twisting off the silver ring. “Let’s talk somewhere with fresh air, if you don’t mind.” She walked out towards the passage that led out the kitchen, finding a spot close enough that was in the cooler shade. She sat down and leaned against the tree trunk. “Yes. We found them, save for the master who made the dolls. But we found the young man with green eyes. And Itallo, he’s going to marry the woman who stole my face. We don’t know why yet, but it can’t be anything good.”

She paused to let the information sink in for Ysaryn before continuing. “We also found the place they may have taken you. But they’re in the middle of destroying it and moving somewhere else. It seems, too, that they have a half-elf helping them, though Rulitus thinks he isn’t there by choice.” She looked at Ysaryn. “We’re going to hunt down the place where they’re taking the elves and hope Ikegai is there. Rulitus will be using himself as bait, while I keep close watch and track him. For that, we need as much information as we could get. Could you tell me what happened, the day you were taken? When it happened, how, and how you escaped. What else you know about Itallo and the slavers.” Kire looked into her pink eyes. “You asked me if I was here to hunt or to help. In order to hunt, we need you.”

Wanderers

Kire frowned when it seemed Ruli hadn’t been listening, so his response to her question didn’t particularly reassure her. Was this how everyone else feels when I tell them I’m about to do something terribly dangerous? Her gaze followed Ruli as he left the chamber, leaving her with Envy. She turned to him when he spoke softly to her, and she could feel the fear and anguish in his voice. She knew it must be unfair to him; Ruli had only just come back, and here she was, conscripting his adopted son to a dangerous quest. Kire stood up, feeling the weight of this particular promise. “I promise. I will bring him back alive.” The rest of her sentiment she left in silence: Nobody else has to die for this, save for myself.

Wanderers

“You mean, harmless in the right hands,” Kire pointed out. She rubbed the palm of her hand. “I’ve wondered that for a while. It makes sense. And yes, it would be very useful in this case. I’ve fought with Ikegai’s dolls and illusions so often I have a sense for them now, so magic like that would leave a strong imprint, especially since I’m already in close contact with you. Make sure it’s a strong memory, enough of me to get a sense of you, too. Let’s leave out going back to Ziad.” She thought about the Gemini wearing her knife. Why? It bothered her, his presence there. Someone this young, carrying out blood magic rituals? Even by Amrian standards, he looked too green to be proficient in the kind of magic Ikegai and his former Gemini teachers had.

“There was one other thing I found useful for tracking them. The gems used in the dolls. I kept the one from the dead Kartaian doll from Ziad. I had a gem from one of his failed dolls back in Amria when I first arrived, and while it didn’t display any magical traces while it had been in my possession, when I got closer to the other doll the two gems called to each other. Though that wouldn’t be too stealthy, given that it goes both ways, and it would be more useful as a way to find other dolls.” Kire sighed.

“Alright. I agree to the use of that Touch. If you’re able to get back your former proficiency and we get Ysaryn to provide us with details, we’ll make arrangements for this plan. Worse comes to worst, I could show them my real face. That should give them a jolt.” She smirked a little at that, then went thoughtful again. “Are you absolutely sure about this? This is very, very dangerous. I’m usually the one rushing into something incredibly stupid. I know I said you’re too stubborn to die so easily, but this is pushing it.”

--

Gavin had a busy day full of the mundane tasks one expected when dealing with a royal wedding. Though, he had never been to a royal wedding, or experienced anything of a nobleman’s life before. He felt worn out, spread thin—more so than usual. The part of him that stayed at the back of his mind, whose voice was drowned out by Ikegai’s imperative, knew the source of this emptiness. That part of him screamed that everything about this was wrong, that what he was doing was wrong, but it was never as strong as Ikegai’s voice, in the guise of Akuma’s soothing tone, that this was his destiny. He didn’t belong to this world. He had a home, a people, and if he wanted to find them, he would do as Ikegai told him to do. And so, he was here, a blood mage’s apprentice. And yet…

He washed his face in the porcelain basin of his quarters, then looked at the gaunt expression in the mirror. Like staring at a stranger’s face. He didn’t understand the emotion people felt at the procession. Why was everyone so joyful, so gods-be-damned happy? Gavin rubbed his face, mussed up the hair that had been slicked back. That was more like him, like he used to be, but even then something felt false about it. Something disturbed him, had been disturbing him, for a few days now, and that voice that stayed locked away had grown a little stronger.

A few days ago, he had been sent to the ruins of Ziad to investigate what had happened to the first Kartaian scouts. After a while of searching, he saw the bodies. Gruesomely executed. This woman, this hunter, was strong. An executioner from another world, Ikegai had told him. This is what awaits you in that world. Misunderstanding. Hatred. Distrust. It was then that he found the hunting knife. When he touched it, he felt—strange. When he had first met Akuma, there was an otherworldliness to her that called to him, and he knew, even as she sank her hooks into his mind, that she wasn’t from this world. So was her master. The caravan to which he had been sold as a young boy had been on the way to Ziad when the attack had happened. His cruel master was killed. So were the others in the caravan. And yet, Akuma and her master spared him, for the same reason he had been drawn to them, himself. Like called to like.

But this knife. Gavin had asked to keep it. Said that he would one day bury it in the hunter’s neck. Akuma let him have it, and she—meaning, Ikegai, too—seemed to like the idea. But every night he would hold the knife, observe the craftsmanship. Etched into the handle was a dragon winding around it. Gavin would trace the snaking body. Though it was a hunting knife, something about its make gave him the impression of something made with care. And something about the faint aura that had stayed behind, the aura of its owner, the hunter—he didn’t know why he was so disturbed by it. He had formed an image of the hunter in his mind from what Ikegai and Akuma had told him. A twisted version of Akuma. And yet…

Gavin dropped the knife, sank onto the floor, cradling his head. He hadn’t had a night of confusion this bad since the beginning of his time with Akuma and Ikegai. His head throbbed. Images of the elves they had captured and mutilated flashed in his mind, and that voice screamed with each face that flashed in his thoughts. He took the knife, aimed the point to his neck, his hands trembling. This wasn’t the first time he had done this, either. But it had been weeks since he had last had the impulse. Why did it come back now?

Calm down, sweet child.

The voice soothed him, made him drop the knife, and he stared at his expression in the mirror again. His eyes stared back, empty.

Wanderers

Kire looked from Envy to Ruli when he spoke in Elvish, then realized Envy was in the dark about her Ring. “What kind of magic are we talking about?” she asked him. Still being cryptic. “If I knew exactly where I was going, I could get those beacons in Ziad. It might alert the Kartaians, but they know I’m somewhere around here, anyway. If I’m quick enough, I could get it—though, if she knows where your home had been, it might be a trap, too.” It wasn’t that she liked the idea of Ruli being the bait the most, but everything else was a hair more terrible than that. “If you can practice that magic of yours and get it right by the time we need it, yes, I can use that. If that doesn’t pan out, we come up with a new plan.” She looked at Ruli. "I'd need to know what it is, though."

Wanderers

“I’m not going to kill them that way,” Kire promised. “I’m not saying ‘yes’ unreservedly, to be clear, and tracking spells and scrying would have been ideal, but we need to get creative with our way in. I would have volunteered to try something similar, but you would have a better chance of Shadow-Walking yourself out. I couldn’t risk losing the Ring.” She crossed her arms, fingers tapping against her arm in thought. “It was a big feat to track him to another world. I can sense magic, and with more exposure to that magic I can recognize its ‘signature’ when I’m within its range. Crossing to another world, though, it took more than one person to cast a tracking spell, with the help of a Seer, and even then it was spotty, given the gap of time and distance. I imagine it would have been more accurate if the spell was cast here, in the same world. It at least led me to the last big ‘surge’ of magic he had used: when the Kartaians used whatever enchantment he had placed on them to resist the sunlight. He might have been there during the slaughter, using his magic, though he must have worn some sort of disguise or glamour then.”

Thinking over his question some more, Kire nodded. “To an extent, yes. I know your signature. The Shadow-Walking, and this illusion you made for me. As I know Envy’s, which I sensed when I stepped into the wards in Ziad and here. But to track it the way we would for a mission like this, absent of a tracking spell I need to be exposed to your magic right before we begin, on a larger extent. Maybe successive Shadow-Walking would do the trick. I can’t be too far from you, either.”

Wanderers

Limiting his abilities? Kire looked down at her hand, remembering how it felt when Ruli gripped it earlier. She knew he had other abilities than just Shadow-Walking, but he always seemed to be too touchy about the subject to actually tell her what it is. With that touch, and Envy’s cryptic remark, Kire had an idea what it might be. Talking about the wedding reminded her of the smell of orchids earlier, and of aura that emanated from Akuma. She smelled like our orchards. Her hands closed into fists again. Orchards, and blood spilled on the grounds.

She looked up again when Ruli talked about an idea he had for getting in. He’s been drugged before? She looked from Ruli to Envy, who clearly didn’t like the idea at all. Now he was turning to her wordlessly, gesturing as if to ask for her help in dissuading Ruli. “It’s incredibly risky,” Kire pointed out. “I’d sooner slaughter the newlyweds in front of their adoring crowd. However.” Here she looked at Envy with an apologetic shrug before turning to Rulitus. “If we’re considering this, how are we going about it? I would need to be following you closely enough so I can get you out in case the half-Kartaian lead didn’t work out the way you thought it would.”