Varhi peered his eyes to the side as they rode in a zeppelin; different from the one where they arrived at the palace with. He was forced to sit up at the front beside Eseras, which made him all kinds of uncomfortable. The other three were forced to sit at the back, furthest away from him. Varhi moved to turn his head to glance back at them.
“Look up ahead.” Eseras ordered him before he could fully turn his head.
There was such… conviction and threat in her voice, that Varhi moved to turn to look back straight ahead instinctively. This was probably the fourth or fifth time he tried to glance back subconsciously, and she had ordered him to look forwards. He couldn’t discern why. Afraid of them trying to communicate with each other, perhaps?
He was about to just ask her outright, but a soldier stepped forward from a room ahead of them, saluting. “We will be docking shortly, Prime Minister.”
“Thank you.”
Eseras said the words, and yet the tone was almost sarcastic. Either way, the man walked back the way he came. Varhi peered his eyes to the side again, but was looking at her this time instead. He realized his knees hurt because he had been gripping them hard for so long.
Why was he nervous? This wasn’t like him at all.
“Where will we be docking?” Varhi asked. “This is a residential district.”
“Right on the street, of course.” Eseras answered.
“Erm… What? Right in the middle of the street?”
“Yes.”
“...Okay, then. Not very discreet.” Varhi commented.
“But given the limited time I have, it is the most efficient.” Eseras stated.
Varhi grunted acknowledgement. “My house has seriously just been sectioned off this entire time?”
“Not just your house, but the entire block. Just the way it was after the initial investigation was concluded, mind the dust and weather.” Eseras answered. "We've preserved it as best we could."
Varhi swallowed saliva, but his throat still felt dry. He wasn’t exactly scared of what he might learn, but it still made him nervous. Him feeling nervous, made him more nervous. How odd...
Despite the soldier having said they were landing soon, to Varhi, it felt like a very long time. Eventually, they did indeed touchdown. Eseras took Varhi’s hand forcefully, guiding him with her like he was a little lost child. Soldiers that sat near them followed, and a few more ushered his allies with them, but forced them to keep a distance. Varhi stole a quick glance towards them. Sairek looked annoyed and pissed, Cyial looked anxious, and Nayleen looked back at him with an expression of pity. Instead of showing what he felt though, he just gave them all a reassuring smirk and a shrug, at least until Eseras yanked him forward.
“Oi, I already have lost my memories, I don’t need to lose an arm as well.” Varhi winced.
“Then stop looking back at them.” Eseras warned. “You’re getting distracted. You need to concentrate.”
“The only one who is distracting me is you, tugging on my arm and making me annoyed. If you want results, then I kindly request that you stop being so condescending and demanding.” Varhi said matter-of-factly. “I get you want to rush due to the time limit, but if I pass out again because you keep pushing me, then that doesn’t do either of us any good. Ouch!...”
Apparently that backfired, as Eseras squeezed his arm and pulled him along faster. He stumbled into the streets and was yanked towards a fairly large looking structure. He was quite surprised; these structures weren’t skyscrapers. They looked like, rather robust single-family dwellings. They even had their own yards and everything. Grass in Kior was an extreme rarity.
They were not mansions, but two-story. Some of them were three instead. Some had stone walls or picket fences, gardens, hedges, fountains on the front…
And then there was the one he was being dragged towards. Unkempt, starting to fall in disrepair, the grass overgrown, the hedges were wild and feral. It was all sectioned off with tape and chains, warnings not to trespass. It killed the vibe of the neighborhood for sure.
Varhi looked around and he saw it wasn’t just the building that was sectioned off, but… there was nobody on the streets. “Why is it so empty?”
“Because only those who live in the area are allowed to enter, but since then almost everyone has moved away, though. We paid them to move elsewhere. Like I said, the entire block is sectioned off.” Eseras answered.
“...The entire street was bordered off?” Varhi heard Sairek ask, and he glanced back to see the Prince.
“The entire block, yes… Hmm... Indeed, perhaps we should start first with the outside.” Eseras replied in a non-answer, pulling Varhi away. “Inside the house isn’t the only point of interest.” She continued, pulling him along the sidewalk of the road. Up ahead, there was another sectioned off area, covered in an incredibly large blue plastic tent, or at least, it looked like a tent. “Because it was outside, we had to make sure no weather messed up the scene.” She explained, as if reading his mind as to why there was a tent just put up in the middle of the road.
“Okay, but what about things underneath the ground?” Varhi questioned.
“We barred that off as well. No insects can burrow underneath the ground to get in, either.”
“Oh,” Varhi let out. “You are… very thorough, Prime Minister.” He wasn't sure he wanted to know what they did to achieve such a feat.
As they reached it, Eseras glanced back at the soldiers and his allies. “Only myself and the boy may enter. Wait out here and watch the other children.” She ordered them. A soldier opened the tent and pulled away the flat to allow them to enter inside. Varhi gave a quick glance before the tent flap closed to see Sairek’s annoyed expression for half a second before the tent obscured him.
Varhi exhaled and inhaled, choking on the air in a surprised cough. The air was stale here. It was large enough to stand though, about the size of a Kiorian military tent; which he was sure this tent was simply just the shell of. There wasn’t anything inside though, other than the road, which as he looked down, his eyes widened.
“That’s… a lot of blood.” He commented, looking down at the stains that had dried long ago to the point that it was brown, almost black. A trail of it was dragged for a few feet, as if whoever had collapsed here had been dragged, or carried perhaps, but it quickly ended off into nothing.
Varhi stared at the dark dried puddle and the stains. There were smaller puddles before the dragging trails. They looked like splatters. He found himself unable to take his eyes off of it, staring for a long time, trying to think of the possible scenarios of what may have happened that caused the stains to get there. A minute turned into two, then three. Nothing was coming up, but he realized that he was strangely drawn to it for some reason.
“I don’t have anything.” Varhi finally whispered. “...But it feels… important.” He admitted.
“Try to remember.” Eseras ordered him.
Varhi pried his eyes off the blood to look at her with squinted eyes. “...What do you think I’ve been doing for the past few minutes?” He sighed. “You’re not exactly helping me, you know. Were there any witnesses to what happened? Give me something to go off of here.”
Eseras looked slightly annoyed with him, but she looked away from him to look at the ‘damage’ in front of them. “There was an… accident, here.” Eseras said, stressing the word. “A child was playing on the streets. Then ran out onto the road as a carriage was running through, and got hit. So the witnesses have said. That child matches your description.”
Varhi felt faint, and he pressed a hand up to his head. It was starting to hurt again. “O-Okay, that’s enough…” He murmured, not wanting to get overwhelmed again.
“This adolescent, a young man of about ten to twelve years of age was hit hard enough that he bounced off the road, and lay in a puddle of blood and was not responsive. Medical teams arrived on the scene to take them away.” Eseras continued anyway.
“I said… to stop.” Varhi grimaced, clenching his eyes shut in pain.
“The problem is… it wasn’t actually medical teams that took him away. It was people disguised as the medical team.” Eseras continued. “When the boy’s parents found out, they sent a missing person’s report and then they were murdered after the posters were posted inquiring the public for information regarding the child’s whereabouts only a couple hours later.”
“You’re a… bad listener…” Varhi forced the words out with a pained grunt, burying one half of his face into his left hand, but glaring at Eseras with one eye angrily.
“Given that this happened last time, with you saying there was an accident, and your reaction now, it’s quite clear to me that you are indeed the victim, that this is your blood, and you are suffering some type of amnesia.” Eseras said. Her tone made Varhi uncomfortable. She slowly turned towards him, examining him. “Yet, when I looked last night by pulling your head back, there was no wound anywhere. And when I had your body searched as you remained unconscious, there weren’t age-old wounds there too. Only fresh wounds on your—”
“Wait a minute… You did what!?” Varhi exclaimed, moving his hand away from his face a couple of inches to now glare at her with both eyes.
“Don’t interrupt me.” Eseras warned.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Varhi hissed with heavy sarcasm. “But perhaps, maybe you shouldn’t undress children to examine their bodies without their permission while they’re unconscious if you don’t want to be interrupted by them! You—” He bit his tongue, preventing himself from dropping the hurl of insults he really wanted to say.
Eseras stared at him evenly. "It was a medical check-up." She declared in a tone that was ordering him to stop.
His anger however caused him not to become compliant like he had done before from the gazes and stares from her. “Just—Just take me to the damn house already! You confirmed what you wanted, so we’re done here!” He hissed venomously, turning around, holding his head again as if it would help stem the pain as he stormed out of the tent flap.
“Varhi—Are you okay?” Nayleen called out to him as he marched out.
“...We’ll talk later.” He grunted, pissed, marching towards the house. Eseras was quick to follow right behind him. He approached the front gates, which were left open, and then approached the front double-doors that lead to the environment. They were locked with a bolt of chains across them though, preventing people from going inside.
“Have it unlocked.” Varhi ordered to Eseras, who again provided an aggressive glare in his direction for being ordered by him, but she made no verbal complaint as she stepped up to the door herself, providing a key from within her robes and slid it into the chains, which the heavy bolt lock snapped open and thudded loudly onto the concrete steps. Varhi brushed the chains that fell alongside the lock away, inhaled deeply, then pressed open the door to his left, turning the knob and pushed slowly forwards. A wave of nostalgia he couldn’t recognize washed through him, as if he had turned the door knob thousands of times before. He recognized it as a muscle memory of opening the door a certain wait, small motions for this specific door, that he didn't do on any others. A muscle memory he didn't remember having.
The door let out a creak as the inside was illuminated from the daylight from outside, aside from shadows casted by he and Eseras at the front door which stretched long into the large house.
Had the place not been in disarray, it would have looked pretty lavish. Hardwood floors in the front living area was a rarity in the city, and filled with decently expensive furnishings. However, the dusty environment, the tossed over furniture and the long dried pools of blood left the place to be a horrific scene even in the present, all caused from a nightmare of an event that has happened a good time ago.
Varhi carefully stepped inside, examining the area. His head hurt more as looked around; it felt familiar to him, but he couldn’t discern anything specific that he remembered; but he knew he had definitely been here before—a lot, as expected if he had most likely lived here.
He looked around, exmaining specific pieces of furniture, trying to see if something would spark anything in his memories, despite the intense pain he was feeling. He even heard a slight ringing in his ears, but none of that seemed to help any. Unlike outside though, the scene to him wasn’t familiar despite feeling nostalgic.
“I wasn’t here when this happened. It’s not the same…” Varhi answere after a long pause. “It apparently happened after my… abduction, guess like you said.” Without further encouragement, he began to walk deeper inside, looking around the house, and then headed up a set of rounded stairs, leading to a balcony to the second floor.
“Where are you going?” Eseras inquired.
“Trying to remember…” Varhi muttered, barely audible for the Prime Minister to hear. Eseras followed quietly behind him, watching his movements carefully as he shambled along the balcony which became a hallway. Upstairs was in better condition; perhaps the rest of the house was untouched. The furniture here was set, and pieces of detailed naturistic art that you definitely would not find in Kior, were framed on the walls to fill in empty space. There were doorways to Varhi’s left, but he skipped the first one, and headed to the second one instead, where he grabbed the door knob and opened it, again, he recognized that he was subconsciously doing minute movements to muscle memory he didn't recall doing for any other kind of doors.
Inside was a singular bed, a writing desk with a chair that had been left pulled out, angled slightly towards the bed. A large box full of toys, some of them looking handmade. On the other wall was a rather large bookshelf, though it was only half saturated with literature. Only a small number of them were thick, most looked to be less than a hundred pages long. Above the desk was a small assortment of metallic ores and stones, and a few small boxes of what looked like to be some sort of powder. On the writing desk itself looked to be a large parchment. As he stepped onto the aged wool carpet of the room under his greaves, he saw that it was a schematic of some kind, a blueprint, hand-made for a greatsword. The drawings were childish and the handwriting looked pretty similar to his, but there were a few different inflictions in it that he may have lost the habit of doing some habits for some letter due to either his lack of memory, or just had transformed over time.
“Ow, shit…!” Varhi hissed, doubling over slightly as he clutched his head with his left hand. It felt like his head was splitting apart. Faint images of him sitting at this very table, reading books to study metal smithing and how to form metals rushed through him, but the details were gone from his head as quickly as he saw them. It was like trying to catch water that just spilled through his fingertips, only leaving his hands wet by the time the memories finished pouring out.
“Well… Apparently this is where my skills of metalworking originally come from…” Varhi chuckled to himself in a low voice. “I think I remember…I wanted to be a blacksmith… Well, no, that’s not quite right… I wanted to invent new designs… Most of my studying of ores and metals… It was trying to find what would be the best materials to use… I... I was doing that... But wanted to take a break... for... a little while... And so I went... outside... Maybe that's when...”
Varhi trailed off. He reached behind himself, pulling out his greatsword from its scabbard slowly and held it out in front of him within both palms as he examined what he could, inhaling, then exhaling to remove a couple layers of dust from the parchment. The sword was the same shape, and though some parts were inferior on the blueprint, like how his sword was actually a crystalline design, with a steel outer shell to complete the look, the general idea was the same; a hollowed steel sword, reinforced on the inside with a harder material to keep the durability but to lower the weight. The blade was indeed the same general shape but the hilt design on the blue print was inferior, but he could recognize himself in this work… This was definitely his, no doubt about it. He didn’t remember coming up with the idea beforehand, but clearly the idea had been embedded in his memories somewhere without him realizing it.
With a grunt, Varhi sheathed his sword, then turned around, walking past an observing Eseras. He stepped into the hallway and moved back to the first door he passed; his parents’ room. He opened the door and stepped inside as Eseras followed him in. He examined the room only briefly through the dark interior, only lit up by a lone window, but he immediately went towards the large double bed in the room and began to haul it from the corner of the room it resided in, then flipped the carpet over to reveal a trapdoor underneath.
“Did you guys find this before?” Varhi asked.
“Yes.” Eseras answered plainly. “Do you remember what’s down here?”
“I… I think I remember… my parents were scientists, weren’t they? Rather than researching magic, they researched technology, and how it could be used in combination with magic… I… I don’t remember any detail more than that…” Varhi murmured, staring at the still closed trapdoor.
“If I remember correctly, my Father… When I was very young, he commissioned extra space for this to be dug out, underground, into a small workshop so that they could conduct their experiments down there, undisturbed. They didn’t want me accidentally exposed to anything. So I wasn’t allowed down there, except when I was old enough to start understanding the basics of what they were doing… I… I think some of the things they researched was medical technology, so sometimes they’d bring in animals as tests, either dead or alive, to examine the effects of things. Right… That was another reason… The smell could stink up the house, so down there, the smell was sectioned off from the rest of the house down in this space.”
“Very good.” Eseras complimented him. “You are slowly piecing your memory back together. Do you want to go down there?”
“No, there’s not much point, but, I think there was a—” Varhi’s head began hurting suddenly again, more fiercely than before, and—
Varhi open his eyes and blinked. He found himself lying face up, staring at the ceiling of his bedroom in the apartment. His upper body was bare and exposed to cooler air underneath the covers. Immediately, he sat upright and flailed his arms around in a brisk defensive measure. “Oi! You bitch! I told you not to do that— Huh?”
He stared back at Sairek, Cyial and Nayleen watching him beside the bed, concerned expressions on their faces. He glanced around where he was, and realized he was back at the apartment they had rented. “What the…? How did I get back here? Didn't we just arrive at my—Ow! Shit… my head…!”
“You… You passed out again, Varhi…” Cyial murmured, his voice one of being scared and of deep concern.
“Ugh, dammit! Not again…!” Varhi cursed, rubbing his head with both hands. The expletive was not only for the fact he had apparently collapsed once more, but also the fact that the pain in his head was rushing back once more. “Why the fuck does it always hurt…!?”
“Shh, relax.” Cyial tried to calm him down, grabbing his shoulders and gently easing him back. “Nayleen, can you get me a cold cloth? Make sure to wring it out well so it’s not dripping, but still damp.”
Nayleen wordlessly got up to fulfill Cyial’s request, her movements brisk. Varhi looked over at her, then at the other two boys beside him on the bedside. Sairek was biting his bottom lip. “Why do you two look so… defeated?”
“What do you remember?” Sairek asked, then shook his head. “Actually, nevermind. It doesn’t matter right now.”
“You can’t say nevermind with an expression like that.” Varhi argued.
Sairek glanced at Cyial, who looked back at him, then gave a curt nod. Sairek sighed, then turned back to look at Varhi.
“You… lashed out at Eseras.” He said after a heavy pause.
Varhi stared for a couple seconds, then blinked twice. “...Huh?”
“...We were waiting outside, and then we heard you let out a blood curdling scream.” Sairek continued. “The soldiers holding us outside told us to wait as they went to investigate, though we tried. They came out minutes later, and you were limp and unconscious. That’s what they said happened, anyway. Eseras looked none-too-pleased. You used your letter opener on her apparently…”
“I... I don’t remember any of that! I hate her for apparently stripping me the first time I went unconscious, but not to attack her in cold blood—”
“Excuse me?” Nayleen asked, coming out of the washroom with a cloth in hand. “Did I hear that first part right?”
“The bitch stripped me! That’s why I was so angry coming out of that tent! Says it was to check my body, but like—Could you not!?”
Nayleen placed the damp cold cloth over his forehead, and Varhi moved his hand to keep it pressed to his forehead. It didn’t help much with the pain, but it felt a little relieving at least. His forehead had been sweating and he did feel a little feverish; though probably that was because of his contempt and stress of the situation. He glanced over at Nayleen, and she looked livid, but wasn’t saying anything.
“We… Did the same thing.” Cyial admitted, side-glancing to Sairek. “Except we kept everything below the belt on.”
“See, that’s okay. I trust you guys to do that. Especially if it’s Nayleen.”
“...Now’s not the time, Varhi.” Nayleen muttered.
“What do you mean? I’m being honest.” Varhi gave her an inquisitive look. “She’s trying to exploit me. You wouldn’t do that to me, right?”
“...Oh! I thought you were referring to… Um… Nevermind.” Nayleen stammered. Cyial and Sairek turned to look at her with appraising looks. “...What?” She asked. Sairek gave her a wry smirk. “What?” She repeated with emphasis when they continued to stare.
“Um... Nothing.” Sairek relented. Nayleen squinted at him, but didn’t pursue any further.
“Well… How much damage did I do?” Varhi asked, laying back fully into the bed, trying to will the pain out of his head.
“Erm… It’s not what you did to her, it’s what she did to you.” Cyial corrected.
“...Aw no, let me guess; she’s a mage.” Varhi grunted.
“Err… How did you figure that out?” Sairek asked. “I know we talked about the potential mind attack thing earlier, but that was just a guess. We had no idea if she was capable of using magic or not.”
“It’s the only reasonable explanation why I’d ever lose to anyone, even if I wasn’t aware in this case.” Varhi sniffed.
“...Ah, right. Of course… It explains everything.” Sairek lamented dryly.
“I think you told Sairek this already, but the military and leaders are an exception to the rule.” Cyial said. “And we don’t know exactly what she did to you, but when I checked you out afterwards, you had injuries similar to that of being crushed; which I could only assume was by pure force of will; which only extremely powerful mages are able to do without a magic utensil, or unless you have a jewel like Sairek’s; which I don’t think she has. She’s not to be messed with if she can do it without a jewel or a weapon, Varhi. She probably restrained you, hard, by sheer willpower. And she restrained herself from going all out still. The injuries were basically minor. Not only does she have that much power, but she has an intimidating amount of control over it.”
Varhi sighed. “Just another reason to dislike her… Nine more days of this? Damn.”
“...So, what did she do to set you off to try and attack her?” Nayleen asked.
“Uhh… Didn't I just answer that?” Varhi questioned. "She told me that she stripped me, and I guess I just blanked out and went savage on her then."
“What? No…? When you attacked her, you were already inside the house.” Sairek corrected him. “You don’t remember?”
Varhi paused for a moment, before simply asking: "...My house? We never went inside of there.”
Nayleen, Sairek and Cyial looked at each other, their expressions becoming horrified on their faces as realization began to dawn on them.
“I… I hate to say this, but… I think we better call for Eseras…” Sairek muttered.
“I, will, uh… get on that.” Nayleen volunteered, quickly standing up and briskly moving out of the room.
Varhi could only blink, watching them. Why were they so concerned?
* * *
“He... regressed?” Eseras inquired in genuine curiosity and annoyance. Sairek glanced at Varhi in the bed, who looked like he felt uncomfortable, sitting in the bed, half dressed with her around. Actually, he was probably uncomfortable with her in his presence in general. He had protested when they brought her here to the apartment, but Cyial wouldn’t let him get up; only to allow him to go to the bathroom, then the demon basically forced him back into the bed. “What is the first thing you remember today, Varhi Vloyis?” Eseras asked, three soldiers guarding her from behind.
“Waking up and going for a piss.” Varhi replied bluntly.
“Varhi…!” Sairek hissed.
“What? She asked the question!”
Eseras pressed her lips together thinly. “His ostentatious attitude is still intact, I see. A pity..." She sighed. "I'm not a professiona, but I suppose if his behavior is still the same, then I doubt the memory regression is severe.” She stated, turning towards the mercenary sitting upright in the bed. “What is the last thing you remember before your blackout period?”
“Me getting pissed at you for saying you stripped me when I blacked out the first time in the palace, which by the way, I'm still upset about.” Varhi hissed. “I began storming away out of the tent and… that’s it. I woke up here.”
Eseras shifted her posture into a thoughtful one. Cyial spoke up. “Um… While we were waiting for you to arrive, I tested his memory of the past few days and weeks, and his memory seems to be in tact there…” He offered.
“So he only forgot the events right before entering the house. Something traumatic must have happened indeed to have this kind of reaction. Interesting though. You said you don’t remember any incident taking place when you examined the inner entrance, but something about your parents triggered your reaction and to lash out.”
“Uh, sorry about that, I guess?” Varhi offered lamely. “How about we call it square, since you strip searched me without my consent?”
Eseras didn’t even acknowledge that part. “Well, this is no good. If he forgets half of the investigation every time we try to get him to remember, then this whole thing is pointless. I’m going to have him transferred to a facility and have him evaluated by someone… better equipped than I.”
“Screw that!” Varhi refused immediately.
“This is not an option for you.” Eseras stated clearly. “If you don’t do this, I will see it as you no longer cooperating with me and will deem it a breach of the contract. Something about your amnesia is preventing you from being useful. I thought bringing you to the crime scene would help trigger memories for you to remember, but apparently that is doing the opposite instead. So we are going to find out directly what kind of amnesia you are suffering from and see if we can do anything about it, or at the very least, try to work around it if that fails.”
“No, I don’t want to. I don’t want to go to some random facility.” Varhi continued to deny, clutching the ends of his blanket tighter and pulling it up closer to his chest as he sat on the bed.
“Now you’re being difficult…” Eseras frowned, glaring at Sairek and Cyial. “Well?”
“I— I…” Sairek stammered, looking back at Varhi helplessly, only to be shocked as he saw Varhi crawl under the duvet to hide. “This… This isn’t like him…”
“Just… Just leave me alone… And get out!” Varhi shouted, pulling the blanket up over himself to hide underneath the blanket. “Go away! Get out!” He shouted again, muffled slightly underneath the quilt.
“Varhi…!” Cyial tried, biting his bottom lip.
“Everyone, give him some space and get out. Let me try talking to him alone.” Nayleen ordered, giving a shooing motion with her hands.
“Are you ordering me—” Eseras began.
“If I recall correctly, the word cooperation works both ways, doesn’t it?” Nayleen questioned her rhetorically. “So unless you want to break the contract on your end by intentionally making this more difficult than it needs to be, you’ll let me do what I need to do to see what’s happening to my friend, alright!? Stop antagonizing him and get out!”
Sairek stared, dumbfounded by her defiance, but he recovered quickly. “Y-Yes, she’s right. Let’s just step out for a bit and give him a bit of space first.” Sairek agreed. “We’ll... talk this over. Come on.” He gestured to the door, walking out, holding Cyial’s hand to guide the other boy out with him. Cyial gave a concerned look back at Varhi, or the bundle that was Varhi, current underneath the blankets, but followed Sairek’s beckoning.
Eseras let out an annoyed sigh. “Fine… Vacate the room.” She ordered her soldiers, before glaring at Nayleen. “You’ve got fifteen minutes. If he’s not willing to comply by then or we don't come to an agreement, I will have him dragged there by force.” She threatened.
Sairek watched as Nayleen stared Eseras down, up until the door closed, separating them. Which soon meant he was now the target of the Prime Minister’s stare. He managed to suppress a gulp. “Well, what do you plan to do about this, Prince of Ceareste?” Eseras asked. “You call me here in the middle of the night, and the boy isn’t even willing to cooperate with me anymore and he forgot half of the investigation today, not to mention he passed out on me again mere minutes after it started. It seems like I may be taking your demon’s citizenship after all...”
Anger flashed in Sairek’s eyes and he tried to hold his temper back. He bit on his tongue, very hard. Almost to the point of bleeding. “First off ma’am, my name is Sairek Ceareste, secondly, I am starting to question how much you genuinely care about this investigation in itself.”
“...You dare question my loyalty to my country?” Eseras brooded darkly.
“No, I question your loyalty to us, considering how much you are trying to undermine us.” Sairek glared. “I don’t know why, but Varhi told me he wanted to find out more of himself, regardless of the truth, and I only want to honor that request and support him in that endeavor. That was why I signed the contract with you, but you are making it more difficult than it needs to be.”
“A child trying to lecture me on empathy…” Eseras scoffed.
“Oh yeah? What in the Flaming Lands was that just now, then?” Sairek demanded, gesturing to the door. “That’s the first time I’ve seen Varhi genuinely terrified, and Varhi never backs down from anything! Yet as soon as you mentioned taking him to some facility, he immediately shriveled up. That isn’t like him. And if you had any empathy within you, you would have noticed — like we immediately did!
“Clearly whatever he is “forgetting” is because he’s subconsciously blocking it out. Forcing him like that is just going to damage him and then you lost your shot at this investigation and scarred a child whilst at it. Is that the hero Prime Minister of Kior you want to be remembered as? Someone who traumatizes children—?” Sairek spat.
“You wouldn’t dare…” Eseras growled.
“I wouldn’t dare do… what? Tell the truth?” Sairek warned. “Keep trying that path and that’s exactly what’s going to happen and I won’t be the only witness.” Sairek threatened, pointing at the other three soldiers with them with the shake of his head. “You know he has amnesia and yet you are intentionally antagonizing that trauma! It’s not Varhi’s fault that you lack the empathy to work around his volatile condition and I would argue that intentionally instigating such harm would be in violation of the contract on your end! It's not our fault if you do actions that sabotage your investigation and just in case you forgot, bringing harm to anyone in within the contract, including Varhi, is against the terms of the contract!
“You may technically be the ruler of Kior, but you’re not legally the ruler of Kior yet. I think you should remember that. Those who question your loyalty would surely spread the news of what happened and that would cause you to lose support. There’s always a pinch of truth within rumors… So if Varhi doesn’t want to go to the facility, then don’t make him. Do what’s best for his mental health for crying out loud instead of giving more reasons to shut himself in!”
“Tch…” Eseras tsked. “What are you, a doctor?” She spat. "Who are you to try and lecture me how to handle my citizens?"
“I am.” Cyial spoke out clearly, glaring at her. “And if I recall correctly, as Nayleen said, the contract requires both parties to cooperate. So if you are hurting Varhi, whether damaging him physically or mentally, we would consider it as violation of the contract. We’re both after the same goal, and you causing Varhi more trauma by pushing him beyond his limits are jeopardizing the investigation right now, because when it comes to traumatized victims or victims of abuse, they can become closed off very quickly. That’s the state that Varhi’s original benefactor found him in. Apparently to him, it took months for Varhi to finally come out of his shell. It’s extremely likely he will recede back into that state, as is evidence of him losing some memories of what happened today if you continue to try and force him like this, not only traumatizing him, but impeding your investigation by your own hand!”
Eseras looked annoyed, but there was a thoughtful expression on her face as well as she was thinking.
“We’re the best ones who know Varhi, so I’d like to offer a proposal...” Sairek suggested.
“Oh? And what is it that you have the audacity to offer?” Eseras asked, voice laced with a toxic quality to it.
Sairek ignored her tone. “Let Cyial and I investigate his house, while Nayleen takes care of him here for the night and calms him down for tomorrow. It’s possible we may find something else out. We know just about as much of Varhi’s past as Varhi knows himself.” Sairek said, pointing at the closed bedroom door. “Going to the scene of the incident causes that to happen; it causes him black outs and memory loss. If we take parts of the scene to him in an environment where he feels safe, comfortable, surrounded by support, then that may reduce the trauma that is caused and we can bring him back up to where the investigation left off today. Perhaps piece-by-piece over time, we can puzzle everything together, until we have a full picture. To do this, I just need a couple of things.”
“...Such as?” Eseras inquired dryly.
“One of those things that takes pictures, and the removal of these.” Sairek said, holding up his brace, and pointing to Cyial’s collar. “Give us temporary access to magic while on the scene.”
“Absolutely not.” Eseras refused. “You could tamper with the crime scene easily like that.”
Sairek glared at her. “Are you kidding me? Is that what you honestly think this is about? That’s just an excuse and you know it. We already showed you our allegiance with signing the contract and put our trust in you and you already know how valuable Cyial is to me or you wouldn't have claimed stake to his citizenship; I'm not stupid." Sairek seethed. "Are you not willing to do the same, Eseras? Because I was under the impression that this was supposed to be a mutual benefit venture, therefore, both sides must pull in equal amounts of weight, no? Trust needs to go both ways for such a relationship to exist.
“This is your one potential break to find those missing people and crack this case. Are you willing to trust me, or are you willing to let this chance slip through your fingertips? Which one will you bet on?”
* * *
“I can’t believe you managed to convince her…” Cyial murmured, massaging his neck, now free from the collar.
“...Not sure I would call it 'convincing' her... It's more like I… half blackmailed, half embarrassed her in front of her escorts.” Sairek clarified, peering his eyes back behind him to glance at the three soldiers that had been with Eseras, as well as several more seated behind them on the Zeppelin. It equalled to a dozen people. “...Whatever. We’re not planning to sabotage the scene anyway. We just need to keep our voices down and watch what we say when it comes to gossiping.”
“Why did you want the bracer and collar removed, though?” Cyial questioned.
“You mean besides that we just hate them?” Sairek questioned, and Cyial nodded. “There may be something we just can’t see with the naked eye. I’d like all of our senses to be available, and yours are much sharper than mine.”
Cyial shrugged. “Yeah, I can sense magic now with that device thing she put on our ankles, but it’s still a fairly... muffled. There’s not a lot here, except on that giant dome. Even though it’s so far away, its presence is so large, you can’t help but feel it above us. Honestly, it is really unnerving now that I can feel it… Constantly being watched… Under surveillance…” Cyial physically shuddered at the thought. "It might be part of the reason they remove your magical senses. Without them, the surveillance is much more subtle and it wasn't even subtle in the first place. With it, it's just... gross."
“...I don’t even feel that. See, I told you that you could sense better than me.” Sairek smirked.
Cyial blushed. “Oh. I didn’t realize my senses were that keen in comparison… At least under these circumstances, they are, I guess.”
“It makes sense. Like Fuyiki said, demons are made more out of magic than humans are. I’ll concentrate on looking at the physical stuff. I want you to concentrate on just trying to sense if anything is amiss.”
“Okay.” Cyial agreed, reaching his hand for Sairek’s and giving it a gentle squeeze, which Sairek reciprocated back to him. “I really missed sensing all of you.”
“You couldn’t?”
“Not really. It was muffled, like it is now, but only for things further away. Up close like this though, it’s almost clear. I couldn’t even feed a nibble from you when we had our little… ‘romp’ previously.”
Sairek blushed. “I felt… tired though. I could feel the energy you were trying to take was leaving me.”
“The dome took most of it away, I think. It’s like once the energy leaves the body, it gets absorbed up. Not too unlike how I do it myself I guess, but it’s a far more powerful magnet than I am.” He frowned. “I guess that’s by design. The demons wouldn’t be weak and frail, easy to control, if they could feed and obtain their own black magic without vials of the stuff. If I was starving as much as I was back then, I would be in real trouble.”
Sairek frowned. “Are you going to be okay? I know you’re still hungry…” He glanced back, gauging the distance of the soldiers again, and spoke in a quieter tone just in case. “Maybe we should do more than just kissing and educating me? Would that help?” He asked.
“H-How tempting... Thank you, but no, I’ll be okay for now. Keep your concerns instead for Varhi.” Cyial chastised him. “Also, the education thing is mostly the hunger’s… kink. The saliva, while technically a poison to you, it’s like pouring a condiment onto food for my hunger before it feasts on dinner. Really, any ‘bliss’ you feel is like that. It makes you more tasty, but not necessarily more filling, and I’d rather not put you in such a state if I can help it… Erm, unless you wanted to, that is.”
“I know, but… With these things on our ankles, apparently the dome gives a wider… uh… berth or something if we’re wearing them?” Sairek glanced down at his boots. “I didn't really get the brief explanation Eseras gave us, and I'm not sure I even believe it, but maybe—”
“Nu-uh, no. I still don't trust them. They could be tracking us or something for all we know. The bracer and collar could do that, according to Varhi, so an anklet directly from the government of all things doing it would not be surprising at all.” Cyial grumbled. “In fact, after this is done, I might just remove it myself, if she doesn’t take them back from us. As long as I don’t have that damn collar on me, I’m okay.”
“...You’re probably right.” Sairek frowned, disappointed, but such feelings didn’t last long. He abruptly nearly got lurched out of his seat; only saved because Cyial was still holding onto him, and pulled him back before he was flung too far forward.
“Are you okay?” The demon asked him.
“Oy vey…” Sairek grumbled, plopping himself back down. “I guess that means we’ve landed finally.”
Sairek collected his staff from beside him where they sat on the benches and he waited with Cyial until he was given the order from the front to disembark. So he, along with a small army of guards following him, stepped down from the zeppelin, back onto the street, though this time at night. One of the soldiers passed Sairek a black… tube thing.
“Um… what?” Sairek questioned, turning the item around, seeing glass at the front.
“It’s a torch light. Press the button to turn it on?” A soldier told him, questioning his intelligence with the tone he gave.
Sairek rotated the thing around. “Oh.” He let out, finding a switch that literally said “ON”, then flipped it to that position. “AGH!” He yelped into the night as an intense light invaded his eyes as he still had the tool pointed at his face. He dropped the torch, which Cyial reacted to and quickly caught before it smashed onto the ground.
“Hey! That’s government property! Be careful!” Someone scolded Sairek as he blinked tears out of his eyes.
“Um… I think I’ll handle the light for you, Sairek…” Cyial murmured, pointing the beam of light around their surroundings, testing it.
“Y-Yeah. Okay… That sounds like a great plan…” Sairek grumbled, prying his gloves off momentarily and wedging his staff under his right armpit to rub at his eyes, which danced with lights and patterns over his vision. He blinked several times and wiped his eyes a few more times to get his vision back under control before sliding his gloves back on. Then, fishing for the keycard Eseras had given him before they departed from their apartment. Sairek walked towards the tent, which Eseras had instructed him to go through first, with Cyial following behind — and many other soldiers.
“Eseras said there was a pool of blood here or something.” Cyial murmured, fishing into his robe as he held the torch light in one hand and pulled out a folded slip of paper which he pried back open with his fingers. “Something about Varhi probably having an ‘accident’ here, and where he was taken from, most likely.”
Sairek unzipped and stepped into the tent with Cyial, then glanced back at the soldiers. “Too many people in the tent will mess up the evidence.” He smirked, before slipping inside. He’d let them figure that out amongst themselves, but that would give him at least a minute or two alone with Cyial as he stepped inside, whispering still. “They’re watching us like hawks anticipating their next meal. They don’t mess around.”
“I know…” Cyial concurred, shining the light around the tent before going to the floor. “O-Oh.” He uttered. “I um… wasn’t expecting this amount.”
“Well, you’re more of an expert on this stuff than I am. What do you think?”
“Wh…What does that mean? I’m a doctor, not a detective!” Cyial blanched.
“Y-Yeah, but… y’know. Blood? Doctors deal with those things, right?” Sairek tried.
Cyial turned his head and gave Sairek an even look with his glowing garnet eyes in the dark. Sairek gave him a disarming smile in return, causing the demon to roll his eyes. “You’re lucky I love you,” Cyial sighed, bending down to examine the blood. Both boys glanced back as the tent flap was opened and a soldier stepped inside, but they both turned back, ignoring them like nothing happened. “Well, if you want my best answer… I have no idea how Varhi survived this. This is… a lot of blood. And he survived it without a scar at that. If the report Eseras gave us is correct, this much blood, from the head…? One shouldn’t be able to survive that. It would be an instant killing blow, or at least turn him into a vegetable.”
“A… vegetable?” Sairek questioned.
“It means to be permanently stuck in a comatose state. The body is alive, but the brain effectively ceases to function and is dead.” Cyial clarified for him. “I don’t think people even breathe properly in such a state, but, Kior does have great advanced medical technology, so there’s machines that can do the breathing for you to make sure you get enough oxygen. Such people are basically dead, for all intents and purposes. They never wake up, and they don’t even dream… But as long as the body is alive, then that person's soul will stay within the body until it's completely dead.”
“Well… It’s Varhi we’re talking about. He survived being poisoned by something that would kill someone in minutes and he didn’t even realize it. It only inconvenienced him.” Sairek frowned. "We still have no explanation on how he does that, either, and he just thinks it's because of him training really, really hard."
Cyial was silent as he stared at the blood, an uncomfortable look on his face. “Medical personnel arrived to assist, but they weren’t actually any authentic medical team…” He murmured. "Varhi is afraid of going to any medical facility… That’s too much of a coincidence I think, Sairek. People don't just fear things for no reason. The fear is born out of something; especially Varhi who fears practically nothing."
“Yeah…” Sairek agreed. He didn’t want to draw any conclusions just yet, but…
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a rational reason. Just the thought of it may simply set his trauma off, because it’s a reminder of what happened, even if he doesn’t actually remember.” Cyial mused. “But my line of thinking could be off. It could be something totally different. Yet saying that, on the boat…” he paused, looking back at Sairek to see if he was following.
The Prince thought for a few seconds, but nodded in reassurance that he was. “On the boat, he did look a bit uncomfortable when he was getting treated for his wounds there, but he didn’t freak out then. He got very annoyed when he got stabbed with a syringe which is… a normal reaction, I suppose. Maybe it was completely forgotten about before then, but now that all of this is happening, now it may be starting to peel back the hidden memories little-by-little? Or it was specifically the word Eseras used…” He surmised, glancing towards Cyial and appraising him. “After all, he doesn’t freak out with you at all. Sure you don’t necessarily look like your standard labcoat physician, but you apply the same methods and knowledge when you can. And it may matter, it may not, but even tonight, he clearly stated that he trusts you—trusts us, so it's okay in his view...”
“Either way, we have a good hypothesis in understanding why he doesn’t want to go at least. Now we need to figure out what happened, and why.” Cyial said, standing back upright. “Still… That much blood should have killed someone. Varhi is resilient… but even he has his normal human limits. We saw that more than once in K—Masirean.” Cyial corrected himself, remembering there was a third party listening to them as they discussed thing.
“He’s more resilient and determined than most, but his durability is still ultimately like any other human with any hard endurance training. Half of the time he keeps going is simply through sheer willpower and stubbornness.”
“Maybe the technology here is just… better at saving people?” Sairek questioned, eyeing the soldier who was with them, as did Cyial. “Can you help us out here? How would doctors here attempt to save someone like this from severe blood loss to the head? As Cyial said, technology can be used to give someone oxygen to keep the body’s functions going to prevent complete bodily death but… This much recovery, from this much bloodloss from a mortal wound?”
Underneath the helmet, they couldn’t read the expression, but the clearing of the throat, feminine, surprised Sairek a little. He couldn’t tell who was male or female with the armor.
“It's true that the technology we have here makes saving lives more fruitful than what other countries have. However, when it comes to blood, that is still experimental in the field. We’ve tried blood transferring before from one patient to the other. Sometimes it works, and other times it doesn’t, and when it doesn’t, the results are of the patient having seizures and usually death within mere moments. We’re not entirely sure why it’s like this yet. It is possible he was saved via blood transfer as a last-resort desperate measure and was lucky that it was a success. Given the shortness of the accident and arrival of this supposed medical team, it was less than a minute. If they had the technology on standby, then… maybe?” She shrugged.
“I see…” Cyial murmured thoughtfully, looking back at the large puddle of dried blood. “Donating blood... I never thought of that. So hypothetically, the amount of blood here doesn't matter as much if there's a chance that donating blood can be successful. Still, why would some random group save his life, but kidnap him? That seems to be a lot of work. Even if a blood transfusion was that effective, it… doesn’t make sense to me. Varhi’s fortitude or not.”
“Well, let’s go into the house now I suppose. I doubt we’ll find anything that’ll explain much about what happened here specifically, but at least perhaps we can understand Varhi’s past better. Through that, maybe we can get through to the memories Varhi has closed off.” Sairek surmised. He pointed at the blood and looked towards the soldier. “Get someone to take pictures of this, please,” he asked as he stepped out with Cyial in tow.
Stepping underneath the “DO NOT TRESPASS” tape guarding the house, and unlocking the re-bolted house with the keycard Eseras gave him, Sairek slowly opened the door, preparing himself for the scene that would be awaiting them inside.
It was a good thing he did, though his imagination did overdramatize it a little bit to the reality of it. Not that the scene was pleasant, of course…
“So um… What are we looking for in here, exactly?” Cyial questioned the Prince, looking uncomfortable.
“Everything and anything we can.” The Prince replied. "We're going to take pictures of every square meter that we can."
“What? That’s… going to take hours, Sairek.”
“I know, but we have to be thorough if we want this to work..”
“...Oh. Oh dear. Alright, then…” Cyial sighed.
* * *
“Varhi, remember what we talked about earlier?” Nayleen tried to pressure the mercenary, reaching underneath the blankets to hold onto his hands. Varhi was still underneath the blankets, calmed down some now that Eseras had left, but he was still clearly shaken. “What is it that you’re feeling right now? Can you describe it with imagery? We aren’t going to take you somewhere you don’t want to go, and Eseras isn’t here anymore. You’re safe.” She attempted to soothe him.
This was the fifth time Nayleen had tried to ease him into speaking, but Varhi had completely shut down aside from labored breathing. It sounded almost like he was in pain; he probably was to some extent, if the headache had resurfaced, but it was just an assumption on her part.
She was silent, still holding Varhi’s hands underneath. He was pretty limp, and felt a little colder than he should have been considering he was under there, but his palms were sweaty.
“...Pain…” Varhi mumbled, the first word he said in nearly an hour. Nayleen perked up and squeezed his hands more firmly in reassurance.
“Do you hurt anywhere? Where? Your head?” Nayleen asked.
The bundle underneath the blankets moved, and Varhi’s head slipped out, his brown hair somewhat disheveled. His eyes were slightly swollen and red, though she hadn’t heard him sobbing at all.
“I remember… a sharp pain to my head…” Varhi mumbled, just barely a whisper.
Nayleen hesitated for a moment. “...A sharp pain… just like you are feeling right now?”
“...Yes…” Varhi whispered. “I was, I was fine… a-and then…”
“...An accident… and something hit you that caused… that blood on the street?” Nayleen asked. She hadn’t seen it herself. But Eseras had described what was in the tent to them after Varhi had initially passed out.
“I… remember something large approaching, and it hit me… and…” Varhi stopped, his expression changing.
“Aieah—!?” Nayleen yelled out as Varhi began vomiting abruptly. She wasn’t completely unscathed, and she reflexively let Varhi go as he released the deluge over the bed and partially onto the floor. “Aww man…!” She hissed, but recovering quickly, she was back to Varhi's side. “Are you okay?” She asked.
“Uhh, uhh…” Varhi moaned, clutching his stomach and beginning to slide limp onto the bed.
“No, no. Here.” Nayleen warned sternly, grabbing him and sitting him upright before he could collapse right onto his own sickness. She moved him to sit upright. He was conscious, but completely limp and heavy. She moved him so he was sitting upright, leaning against the wall as he sat on the bed.
“...S-Sorry…” Varhi grunted weakly, closing his eyes tightly in a grimace. “Came… outta nowhere…”
“Well, at least it seems like we’ve got you back. That’s good.” Nayleen said.
“Head hurts…” Varhi mumbled in a raspy voice.
“Stay there and try not to fall over. I’ll get you some water. And wash my hands…” She murmured. “We can clean the bed later. There’s probably spare blankets somewhere.” She said, urgently moving to the bathroom. There were a few plastic cups inside one of the cupboards. After drenching and quickly drying her hands, she filled one with water and left the other empty when she came back. “Here, rinse your mouth out and spit into this other one.” She instructed, holding the cup of water to Varhi.
Varhi complied, taking a hearty mouthful of water and swishing it around in his mouth, then when Nayleen held the empty cup up to his lips, he spat into it. She rinsed and repeated two more times until the plastic cup was drained. “...Thanks…” Varhi mumbled his generosity.
“Now drink this for real.” Nayleen said, stepping back into the bathroom, rinsing the one cup out and refilling the water one before she stepped out once more and put the cup to Varhi’s lips. “Drink now.”
Varhi complied to her instructions once again, drinking slowly but steadily until the cup’s liquid contents was drained. Nayleen looked him over. With his armor off, even like this, he was sweating. It was beading on his forehead and there was a faint sheen on his upper body as well. She placed the back of her hand up against her forehead. “Oh geez, you’re beginning to burn up badly.”
“I ain’t ever caught a cold before…” Varhi grumbled.
“Burning up all the same. Here, let me just…” Nayleen began, grabbing the tail end of the blankets and sheets and with a hard tug, pulled them out and off of the bed. Varhi let out a weak grunt as he was jerked and moved some, but was still remaining slouched where he sat. “Sorry.” Nayleen apologized. “You can lay down now without laying in your puke though. Here.” She offered, gently helping him reposition once again on the bed.
“Feels cooler like this…” Varhi slurred closing his eyes when Nayleen rested his head atop of the pillow once more.
“Your body is pretty hot, too.” Nayleen noted, placing a hand on his torso.
“You said that before…”
“...I don’t mean in that way, you smartass. Yeah, you’re definitely feeling at least somewhat like yourself again.” Nayleen huffed, bemused. Varhi’s lips curved upwards into a faint smile. “Alright big guy, let me get a damp cloth for you. I’ll be right back again.”
Entering the bathroom for a third time, finding a cloth to use, soaking it, and wringing it mostly dry only took a handful of seconds for Nayleen to do. However, when she came back outside, Varhi’s breathing had already changed into that of an uneasy sleep.
Carefully, Nayleen folded the cloth and placed it atop of his forehead after brushing strands of his hair away that clung to his sweating forhead, letting it help combat the growing fever. She grabbed a chair and pulled it to the bedside, seating herself on top of it and watched Varhi rest. She reached a hand to his, the one closest, and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“We won’t abandon you, Varhi.” Nayleen whispered out loud.
* * *
“...Sairek, we’ve been at this for hours. This torchlight is starting to die out and the sun is going to be rising soon.” Cyial cautioned him. “You’re not going to be able to help Varhi if you collapse from exhaustion. We’ve taken pictures of every nook and cranny of the place, including the cellar. Come on. Let’s go back to him.”
“What if we’re missing something, though?” Sairek asked, looking carefully through the dozens of pictures of the household he had the soldiers take. Really, almost every room and angle had been covered.
“Then we can come back again.” Cyial denoted. “We have enough information to sift through for a while anyways. Don’t forget we also need to try and piece everything together, and given how Varhi is, that may take a while.”
“...Ah, I hate how you’re always right.” Sairek bemoaned. “It makes me jealous. Alright, I understand.” He agreed, standing up, looking back to the other soldiers. “Let’s head back to the zeppelin.”
“Oh my gosh. Thank goodness, finally,” Sairek heard one of the soldiers grumble behind him as he walked back, “and here I thought they’d just loaf around the entire time.”
It made his left eye twitch. Cyial glanced at him, saw the annoyed look, and tried to resist a mirthful smile, but it showed itself anyway.
Thinking about everything he’d seen whilst on the zeppelin to ride back to the apartment, Sairek was… annoyed. There was no obvious clue. It really seemed like the family was just attacked for no reason after Varhi’s disappearance, other than to maybe keep them quiet. That was probably it. It didn’t look like anything of value was stolen. The rest of the house other than the main hall was far less impacted. It almost was like somebody went through the house looking for anyone else that may have been here, but didn’t find anyone, and so left.
While searching and taking pictures for clues though, Sairek did learn a few interesting facts about to case as he peppered the soldiers accompanying them with questions one after another:
Varhi has been the only child that has been missing from the list of people. There have been other missing children in the city, but investigations believe it to be unrelated to this specific case.
Additionally, his parents were the only known casualties to have been assassinated outright. Most people disappear without a trace, but Varhi’s incident did leave a trace, which was extremely odd. The only case to have done so…
It seemed how the disappearances happened changed shortly after Varhi’s case, though. It was no longer just the slum dwellers that began to vanish. Even officers that were actively on duty, pursuing different cases and being escorted by demons have gone missing since then, never to be heard from again. The amount of people who go missing is small in comparison though. A few here and there, over the course of months, but all disappearing without a trace, with Varhi being the only exception. And his parents are the only ones confirmed to be murdered, and not captured. Their corpses were not even left in the house, but given the violence of the scene, even though they were technically missing, the investigation just classified them as deceased. The intent of the crime was violent and pretty evident.
For now, there was not much they could do. The pictures would take time to develop apparently before they could even view them physically. So for now, it was probably best to just return back and support Varhi, as Cyial suggested. Leaning back, Sairek let loose a yawn, and winced as he stretched his jaw a little too much, his left hand rising up to try and soothe the pain.
“The ride will be a while. Try to get some rest, Sairek. I’ll wake you up when we get back.”
“Mmkay,” Sairek agreed, shifting his form, then leaned his head against Cyial’s upper arm. Cyial smiled gently, repositioning himself so the Prince could lean his weight against him more comfortably. “After all, I have the best bed in the world right here with me…” Sairek teased.
* * *
“Mmm… unhh…” Varhi groaned, his eyes slowly fluttering open, then closed, then opened again as consciousness began to return to him. He could see morning sunlight beaming its way through the bedroom window which was streaking across the floor to the room and reaching partway up the wall. He closed his eyes again, blinking slowly as his vision cleared, turning his head to his left where he saw Nayleen, sitting on a chair with a… huge platter of food?
“Huh…? What?” He questioned, slowly sitting himself upright, going to rub his eyes, until a cloth splattered onto his lap from his forehead. He blinked a couple times, then rubbed his eyes. “Nayleen… Did you sit here and nurse me back to health the entire night…?” He asked, his words coming out groggy and a little slurred from just waking up.
“Yeah.” Nayleen answered plainly. “As did Sairek and Cyial, actually. They’re still downstairs. They wanted to make sure you were okay. Sairek ended up passing out next to you on the bed, so Cyial carried him to rest on a sofa downstairs instead.”
“What…? C-Come on, I don’t mean to sound unappreciative, but it was just a little fever. There’s no need to worry about me—”
“So! Now that you’re awake, it’s time for breakfast~” Nayleen interrupted him. “A growing boy like you needs a BIG hearty meal to start the day!” She chirped, digging a fork into the food. It was meat; chicken, he believed. It was steaming hot, like she had just finished cooking it. She dug the fork into the chicken breast, pried off a sizeable piece, then held the fork up towards his mouth. “Open wide and say 'aaaahhhh~'”
“Uaaah!?” Varhi yelped out, not quite the way Nayleen intended for him to go ‘aah’, “C-Cease this behavior immediately!” He bristled, bolting upright and leaning away from her until his bare back thudded against the wall.
“Oh! Sorry, my bad. It's still too hot for you, isn't it? Here, I’ll blow on it to cool it down for you.” She cooed. “Fuu~ Fuuu~” She went, cooling the piece of chicken with her breath.
“G-Gaahh! This is disturbing! Knock it off!” Varhi shivered, leaning even further away from her.
“Aw, but why? There was a book in the apartment that I was reading! It was about how to handle colds and fevers for children, and it said coddling them can help speed up their recovery and feel loved!” She explained, smirking knowingly.
“Like the bloody Underworld it does—!” Varhi protested, waving his right hand frantically in a defensive warding gesture as Nayleen neared the fork towards him again. “I’m not five years old and I don’t want to be ‘coddled’ for goodness sake!”
Nayleen booed sadly. “Alright, fine then.” She surrendered, relinquishing the fork away from him for a second as she spun it around and presented the handle towards him instead. When Varhi squinted at her suspiciously, then tentatively reached over to grab a hold of it, she leaned in, whispering teasingly into his ear. “Be careful not to poke yourself in the eye or something with that thing, alright? It’s a very dangerous utensil!”
Varhi’s left eye twitched. “...And a lovely morning to you, too.” He grumbled, taking the fork and tearing the bite-sized portion off of it, chewing on the meat hard before swallowing. “...You’re lucky it tastes damn good or else I would demand an apology for traumatizing me with that greeting.” He sniffed with his mouth full of chicken.
Nayleen smiled warmly. “Uh-huh. Good to have you back with us again.”
* * *
“...Do I hear yelling…?” Sairek mumbled, yawning after he asked his question. He lifted his head slightly up from Cyial’s lap, who sat on the sofa Sairek was also laying on.
“...It’s nothing.” Cyial reassured him, trying to surpress with a mirthful grin. “Varhi’s awake again, it seems.”
“We should go and see him then…” Sairek mumbled again, yawning once more.
“Nayleen’s there with him, just keep resting for now. You were up all night.” Cyial soothed him, moving to comfort him with an arm.
“Mm…kay…” Sairek mumbled, closing his eyes again. Within moments, his breathing had slowed once again.
“...You really do work too hard for us…” Cyial murmured to himself, gazing down at Sairek’s sleeping form with a warm smile.
He let Sairek continue to sleep, looking up when the bedroom door opened, and Nayleen stepped out, looking over to the balcony down at them both. She gave a big smile, and held a thumb upwards in his direction. Cyial glanced at Sairek briefly, then lifted his free hand, and gave Nayleen an okay sign back to her, then gestured to her to be quiet with a finger up to his lips, giving another look to Sairek as he slept peacefully.
Nayleen stepped back into the bedroom momentarily, then walked back out, with Varhi in tow, dressed in his leather armor, but nothing else to accompany it like his cape or gauntlets. Varhi looked down at his direction, before looking away somewhat sheepishly as his gaze fell upon Sairek and Cyial. He and Nayleen descended down quietly towards the stairs.
“...Sleep well, Sairek.” Cyial whispered to the Prince, gently easing his head off of his leg and down towards the couch. Sairek didn’t even flinch or show signs of being disturbed. Still holding his head in one hand gently, Cyial eased one of the pillows that was propped against the armrest of the sofa under Sairek’s head, before slowly letting go, and quietly stepping away.
Cyial joined Nayleen and Varhi in the kitchen. They were sitting together at the table. Cyial joined them, sitting next to Nayleen, but on a different corner-side so he could face them both. Varhi’s hands were on the table, one hand clutching the other in a self-soothing gesture to himself as he stared ahead, not acknowledging Cyial aside from a brief glance with his eyes. Cyial waited patiently, placing his own hands atop the table and watching Varhi closely.
Varhi eventually let loose an exasperated sigh, and hung his head. “Damn, this is embarrassing…” He grumbled. “I can’t believe I acted like that in front of everyone…”
“You know… being embarrassed is an emotion, right?” Cyial offered.
“...Yeah, I don’t think I like it.” Varhi grumbled dryly.
“Hm. Is that why you’re dressed this morning?” Cyial questioned.
Varhi stared at him for a moment, then moved his hands, reaching for the hem of his leather shirt. He unfastened the belt and began to pull the leather shirt upwards in a slow, deliberate motion, mis midriff becoming exposed and climbing higher.
“Woah, woah, okay, hold on, I was joking. Keep your clothes on. Geez…” Cyial deadpanned when Varhi’s torso was exposed. Varhi let out a snort and yanked the shirt back down and reaffixed his belt back into place. Cyial glanced back towards Nayleen. “I guess he is feeling better after all.” He grumbled dryly, getting up from the table towards the sink, seeking a cup of water for himself.
He was about to finish filling a cup when Varhi spoke again. “Cyial, can I ask you something?”
“Of course. What is it?” Cyial replied, beginning to sip on his water.
“What is it that you and Sairek do when you’re alone all the time?”
Cyial’s eyes bulged a little and he spun around away from them, spitting his gulp of water into the sink and coughed a little. “What the— What kind of question is that!?” He spluttered, coughing a couple times again as he turned back around to face both he and Nayleen; the latter who was holding her hands over her mouth. "Hey! It's not funny!" He chastised, then looked at Varhi sternly.. “I’m not answering…” He started, then trailed off as he studied Varhi's expression. “You… You are being serious, aren’t you?” He wheezed.
“I am. So?...”
“We… I… Uh. Why… Why do you want to know?”
“Because I am confused.”
“That… doesn’t help me!”
“Well, can you help me help you help me?” Varhi questioned.
Cyial stared blankly at him for a moment, then sighed. “I am assuming you mean the more… intimate things we do…?”
“Uh-huh.”
Cyial looked over across the apartment to see Sairek still sleeping soundly in the distance, then sighed. “Well… We do a lot of… kissing. And hugging… And that’s most of it, to be honest… Not going into more detail than that even if we did do more.”
“Don’t you feed? I thought that required him to… y’know.” Varhi questioned.
“Well… no, actually. It helps to uh… teach through a physical demonstration, and the better he um, ‘feels’, the easier it is to feed, because the mind becomes distracted and more ‘into that moment’, and my saliva can help with that... Some spiders exist that do the same thing, just more… deadly and potent. What my hunger really gets off of doing ultimately is ‘teaching’, though.” Cyial cleared his throat dryly.
“Teaching?”
“All the ways one can explore themselves. I… don’t know why it’s like this. It’s different for every incubus. Well, it’s different for every demon. There’s one thing they have that they just ‘have’ to do. I guess it could be what you call their ‘destiny’ in life. It can be as simple as eating a specific type of food or material, or doing something like stealing. If… it were you as a demon, I suppose it would be battling. There’s some demons like that, too.” Cyial answered.
“Isn’t that annoying to Sairek, though?” Varhi asked.
“Maybe. He hasn’t said it does annoy him, but he’d feel normal once the saliva wears off, if um... Well, still in a heightened state of arousal. And… if he so wishes to, he has the knowledge I’ve ‘taught’ him to... take care of that issue himself. I did teach him how to handle it by himself, so… But there is one detail about that.”
“What’s that?”
“Well… Considering the saliva is like a poison, and a mind affecting one, sometimes the memories are… foggy to Sairek. Sometimes he doesn’t even remember exactly what happened, and so… the hunger would have to teach him again. It kind of prolongs the feeding process, I suppose. At least Sairek doesn’t seem to hate it…” Cyial grumbled. "All he remembers is being excited and feeling good... Like a drug."
“So does Sairek remember afterwards what happened the first time after he’s taught again the second, or third time?” Varhi questioned.
“I… don’t know. We never got that far. I told you, what we do is mostly just kissing. It’s more for the affection for us rather than the… pleasure… Um—why are you asking all of this again?” Cyial frowned.
“Well… to me, my memory is a fog, but… it doesn’t go away. I didn’t think it was what happened, but I just wanted to rule out the possibility that I was drugged, or poisoned, or something.”
“Even if you were, such substances would have weaned out of your body long ago. Especially with your level of constitution.” Cyial answered.
“I… I know… That’s the problem.” Varhi frowned.
“...What do you mean?”
“...What if… after I got taken… something was done to me?” Varhi asked in an uneven voice. “If I am still alive, not because of my level of constitution… but because it was given to me after the incident in order to save my life? My freakout at going to a medical facility… I don’t remember what happened… but my body seems to remember.” Varhi whispered, looking towards Cyial. “...I think you’re right. I’m not normal, because it’s possible something was done to me…”
“But one of the soldiers said a blood transfusion would have been possible as a last resort…” Cyial tried to reason.
“Do blood transfusions give you incredible regeneration abilities and prevent scars from forming?” Varhi questioned. “The pain in my head I keep feeling… It’s nostalgic. It’s not a theory that was what happened to me… I’m pretty certain it did. Maybe I don't have a physical scar on what happened, but it's pretty obvious to me at least, that it left quite a damn imression mentally, even if I don't remember it on a conscious level. It's like a phantom pain, rooted deep in my head."
“Well… no.” Cyial frowned. “I mean, they don’t quite understand why it works; most of the time it just kills the patient, but…” He trailed off.
“I can’t remember… but something is telling me—my gut is telling me that something was done to my body.” Varhi’s voice was quiet, but it was a growl. “I guess you saw the blood yourself; you know the chances of survival from something that damaging would kill someone immediately, and if they somehow survived, would be in critical condition. I’ve had to have been taken somewhere, and somewhere nearby, Cyial. That isn’t something just donating blood would fix, especially without any scar afterwards. Kior's medical equipment is the best, but what we see, at least in public, isn't that good that it can just erase physical scars like that. I'm not speaking on just assumptions. I've had partners in my line of work receive less impactful wounds in less critical sections, and still end up with scars. I'm the only one who doesn't.”
Cyial was quiet, then glanced towards Nayleen. “Did he tell you all of this?”
“Nope.” Nayleen answered acutely.
“Oh. Um… Well then…” Cyial rubbed the back of his head as he thought.
“You’re the closest one to a doctor here… So how does the monastery handle patients, and the logging of them?” Varhi asked.
“Well, it’s probably different everywhere, but someone does log the patients as they come in, what’s wrong with them, and if they come out, when they were released and if they’re better or still have ailments, and such. Or… died. The thing is that anyone can come and go into the monastery; it’s a free hospital, but it’s also not just a hospital; it’s a lot of things. It probably isn’t the same here at all, but I’d assume logging patients would be even more strict.”
“I see… I guess I know what I’ll want to look for, then.” Varhi nodded.
“Let me guess, you want me to do some sleuthing for you?” Nayleen asked.
“No.” Varhi shook his head.
“...No?” Nayleen asked, surprised.
“No. This is as far as we take it.” Varhi mumbled.
“But… didn’t you want to learn about your past?” Cyial questioned.
“I do, but think about it… People are still disappearing. This isn’t some cold case, Cyial. It’s still on-going. It’s dangerous to get involved and I don’t trust Eseras. She’s after something, some ulterior motive, I swear. And she only cares about the end result, not anything in between that goal.” Varhi answered. “Looking too deep into it may get us targeted by whatever this group is. I already got you guys involved with Karvadean. I’m not suffering the guilt of putting you through something again that could at least be just equally as dangerous, if not even more dangerous. I don’t trust Eseras and it’s too dangerous for everyone. It’s better if we just stop here. I have a lead to look for later when a better opportunity arises. So… I am content with that for now.”
“Are… Are you sure?” Cyial asked.
“Positive. We still have bigger things to worry about, like getting to the neutral council and I need to get Jimmy out of Masirean custody… He’d know better how to proceed with this information than me anyhow… So I don’t want to pursue it any further for now. Definitely not blindly with such a disadvantage like this.”
“If we stop now, Eseras is going to…” Nayleen trailed off, looking towards Cyial.
“Y-Yeah… What about the contract?” Cyial asked timidly.
“Of course. I wouldn’t do that to you, Cyial. The contract demands my cooperation in helping the case, but it didn’t demand us to solve the case. I’ll still cooperate with her. I’m just not going to give her any more ideas. Any memories she forces me to recover, I’ll tell her matter-of-factly, but she’ll have to make her own judgments from there. I don’t want her to find out anything before I do. At best she’ll cover it up and I’ll never know the truth. And at worst, she’ll get whatever she’s apparently after. She’s not a good leader. She’s a leech and I don’t want to give her any positive publicity or any more power, even if indirectly.”
“I understand.” Cyial replied. “I guess… I’ll tell Sairek when he wakes up. I think he’ll understand, too.”
“What should we do now, then?” Nayleen asked.
“What we originally planned to do. Prepare to leave and head to the council. At least someone will have to watch over me though to make sure Eseras doesn’t go too far with me. Probably Sairek. It may be a good idea for you to be with him as well, Cyial. You two are like two sides of the same coin, after all.”
“Leaving me to do all the grunt work, eh?” Nayleen said, bemused.
“Sorry. But hey, at least you still got more time even now. Eight more days left of me suffering.” Varhi retorted. “Also, we don’t need half of the things we did before since we’ll be able to sail along the desert instead of walking through the damn thing.”
Nayleen rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever.” She smirked. “Man, I guess that means in a few weeks I’ll be returning home. I can introduce you guys to my parents! Feels weird. They’re going to hate what I did with my hair.”
“Um… Is that a good idea?” Cyial asked. “What if they prevent you from leaving again?”
“Nah, not gonna happen.”
“She sounds so confident…” Cyial mumbled to no one in particular.
“I mean, what can they do to stop her? Chain her up? She’d probably still find a way to escape anyway.” Varhi replied to Cyial dryly as he glanced over to her. “In a way, she kind of scares me.”
“I scare you? Do I need to coddle you again?” Nayleen asked.
“No, no, no, no, no, no. We are not doing that again.”
