fic: Frost Fair 5/5 (part one)
May. 20th, 2011 04:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bonnefoisTitle: Frost Fair (5/5 part one)
Day/Theme: 26. desperate situation
Series: FE10
Character/Pairing: Ike/Soren eventual, Pelleas/Micaiah
Summary: Soren, the head CEO of Nevassa Corp, is entirely tired of his mother's nagging, and so
sets out to hire a date for the holidays and his brother's upcoming wedding. After several disastrous interviews, he comes across Ike who thought it was a bodyguard job and really needs the money.
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 5050
Author's note: Last chapter! Thanks for sticking with me, guys. Thanks to Ammy for encouraging me to write this in the first place, and random squeeage along the way. This part had to be split into two because it's very long (on lj, anyways.)
Thanks to Joss for the beta.
*
It wasn't until morning that Soren's absence was noticed. The rehearsal had already been postponed to the next day, due to some untimely bridesmaid and bridesman hangovers. Most had assumed that he had turned in early, and Ike had even left the lights off and tried to go as quietly as he could through the room half-drunk as he was. It wasn't until later, when a staff member noticed the message, that his absence was even realized. There was a smear of blood on the wall, a bloody handprint. Just above it, that same blood was smeared into letters.
Sons will pay for the sins of their fathers.
Buried in the snow was Soren's cell phone–the one he was never without, that seemed surgically attached. Ike was the one who lifted it up from the snow and stared down at the device in his hands.
"This is why we need heavier laws imposed on subhumans," said the first police officer. He had a thick brown beard, and brown eyes set close together. Micaiah twitched at this. Even Ranulf's smile froze on his face. Kyza looked like he wanted to claw out the man's eyes.
Ike just kept staring at the wall with the drying blood freezing there, as if it would impart some magical truth about where Soren was hidden away.
*
Pelleas looked on the verge of fainting. He sat on the bed, and Micaiah rubbed his arm soothingly.
"How could this happen?" Pelleas said. "Oh...how?"
"Okay, what do we know?" Ike asked. He was the most composed of the bunch, unlike Almedha and Pelleas, who were quickly descending into hysterics.
"Not much," Ranulf said.
He was cut off as Tormod barged in. "Hey, we got something!"
He pulled out the phone. "Okay, so the police here are incompetent and I got Sothe to lift it so I could see the specs and I was messing around with his phone for the he–"
Micaiah glared at him.
"I mean, to help, when I found something. Apparently Soren's phone was recording when this was all happening. Just like him to have it be freeze proof or something. Actually this is some pretty sweet technology—"
"Tormod," Micaiah said.
"Getting it! Here."
Tormod replayed the message. They heard the crunching snow, the last taunt and the snapping, crunching sound of bones being broken. Almedha stifled a sob as she pressed a handkerchief over her mouth. A solemnness had fallen over the festivities. Ranulf's face had frozen in a blank expression for a moment. Then he quietly excused himself, in a way which wasn't lost on the only person in the room who was viewing things with a clear head.
Ike followed him outside, the sound of Almedha's sobbing and the murmur of conversation in the room behind them.
"Hey, Ike," Ranulf said. He forced a smile.
"Who is it, Ranulf?" Ike asked.
Ranulf hedged shifting from foot to foot. "What makes you think I know? I mean, I'm a well-connected guy, but that hardly means I know every last laguz. For all I know, it could be one of the hawks, or a raven. They're pretty pissed at Ashnard. We all were."
Ike didn't back down an inch."Who is it?" He asked again. "I saw your face. You recognize the voice. Soren's life is in danger here."
Ranulf sighed. "Listen...she's not that bad, it's just—her sister got taken in, okay? Daein's past isn't all roses, you know. Ashnard used to lure us in, kidnap us, whatever means he could. He'd put us under the feral drug and turn us into the mindless killing machines...We eventually got Lyre back and she's pretty much normal, but ever since then her sister's been a little...well, off."
"Her name, Ranulf. I need her name," Ike said. He gripped Ranulf by the shoulders.
"Hey, hey, watch it. You could break bones there," Ranulf said. Ike didn't respond, didn't apologize, just stared Ranulf down.
Ranulf sighed. "I can't help but feel I'm selling my own out...it's Lethe. I'm sure it's her voice. And no, I haven't a clue where she's holed up. We haven't talked in ages. She went off somewhere months ago. No one has been in contact with her, except maybe Lyre, but she hasn't said anything about Lethe."
"But you'd recognize her scent, right?" Ike persisted.
"I'm glad you have such faith in me, but my nose isn't that strong. There's thousands of smells and the scent grows cold really fast. Plus, knowing her, he probably isn't even in the city anymore. She'd hate to be around beorcs, especially in Nevassa where the whole Feral program started.
"You're a Gallian. What would she be doing now?" Ike asked.
"Lethe....it's difficult to say. Like I said, she's not been...right since then. It's been very 'us-verses-them'. She's really gone against what she considers 'beorc technology' so she's probably taken to the brush. There were high winds last night, so any tracks or scent would be gone."
"Listen, Ike...Lethe, she's lethal. No pun intended. I'm not sure how long Soren has. If he's lucky, maybe she decided to play with him and make him suffer for what happened to the rest of us. If not...." Ranulf let his voice trail off meaningfully.
Ike muttered a curse and slammed his fist into the wall. He didn't even seem to notice when his knuckles had turned bloody.
"We're getting him back," Ike said. "And he's coming back alive."
"I've only seen you like this once before," Ranulf said quietly. "Three years ago."
He didn't say the next words–he didn't have to. Ike just stared back, his expression unchanged from the stony determination.
When your father died. When you lost someone you loved.
"Well, I'm sure if anyone will succeed with these odds, it'd be you," Ranulf said.
Ike nodded tersely and opened the door. There were still flecks of blood there from his hand.
*
His leg was at an unnatural angle. It hurt to breathe. It was cold. He slowly, painfully came to consciousness. The room he was in was dark and cold. So unbearably cold. He tried to reach up, only to find his hand chained to the wall. He could barely tell the surroundings. Some sort of dungeon? A cog, torture implements. It reminded him of his father's secret rooms that he had uncovered–perhaps it was.
"How does it feel to be chained, human?" The voice taunted.
His mouth was dry. The pain was so severe he felt nausea rising up, but he wouldn't stoop so low as to beg. That was just what she wanted.
He took a shaky breath and forced himself to look his captor in their eyes. It wouldn't do to show weakness.
"How much do you want? I will have it wired to you," he said.
And then traced, and recovered when she was incarcerated.
"Money? Money won't buy your freedom. You'll be turned into a mindless animal from the pain....just like her."
The look she gave him was so vacant with hate. That was what lodged in his mind, his last thought before the blinding pain came again, and she turned the cog, making his bonds turn into a vice. The last thing he was aware of was the sound of his wrist snapping, and blacking out from the blinding pain.
*
It'd been hours, and as of yet, the police hadn't uncovered a thing. Micaiah was the one who dealt with the police, even through their bigotry. Her face clouded over as they said hateful things about feral subhumans running around. But her response was calmer than Almedha, who was ripping apart at the seams, or Tormod, who seemed liable to punch the police in the face if they said 'dirty subhuman' one more time. Obviously there would be nothing but distrust for Ranulf and Kyza, so they stuck to the background lest they get incarcerated on charges of being 'in league' with the kidnapper.
Sothe, too, sat as far away from the police force as he could. He had never done well with the police, given his history of theft and vandalism. There were too many memories of his stint in juvie.
The bridesmaids and bridesmen had gathered, quietly murmuring together. Pelleas and Almedha had pulled away. Ike was there too, standing at a distance, seemingly lost in thought.
"If I may...." Micaiah stepped into the room. "I could be of some assistance."
"You saw something, love?" Pelleas asked.
She nodded in response to his question, but it was the group she addressed, not simply him.
"I have powers beyond the scope of most beorc kind. It is...the laguz blood in me."
Pelleas blanched, and Almedha's gaze hardened. She clenched her fist about her handkerchief, while Pelleas wrung his hands in his lap. Neither commented, save for a little gasp on the part of Pelleas.
Micaiah did not glance their way.
Ike looked more than a little skeptical, as if in Soren's absence, he had to make up for the lack of cynical skepticism and prevent Micaiah from turning it into a feel-good meditation retreat.
"Do you have anything of Soren's that is important to him?" Micaiah asked.
"His laptop?" Ranulf suggested. "He's never without it. And I mean never. I bet he even sleeps with it by his side."
"No...the energies of electronic things will make the aura muddled...I won't be able to read it correctly. Is there anything else?" She asked.
"Soren...he was never really sentimental? Even about computers, he'd just upgrade it when the time came. I honestly can't think of anything he ever held dear," Pelleas said.
Ike reached into his coat and pulled out a thick gold scarf. "I don't know how important this is, but he lent this to me the other day."
She touched over it, her eyes going half-lidded, into an almost trance-like state.
"Yes....this will do. I can feel his energies here," Micaiah said. She closed her eyes, and seemed to faintly glow. For several moments she stood there, holding the scarf and mouthing the words of a chant.
Finally, she opened her eyes again.
"I can find him," she said.
Almedha pursed her lips. Pelleas touched Almedha's arm.
"Mother, don't you think you should go rest? See, they're going to find him..."
Almedha's glance was sharp, and Pelleas visibly flinched at it, but she lightened for a moment, and allowed herself to be led from the room to the promise of tea.
"This isn't a solo affair, right?" Ranulf said. "I mean, it's Gallia's affair and when it comes down to it. We might be able to talk her out of it."
"Of course," Micaiah said. "But I don't think too many should accompany us. We need to move quickly and not have her catch our scent."
"Before we go, I think it'd best to leave the beorc policemen out of this?" Micaiah said. She looked back, giving a meaningful glance to the rest of the room. "If you involve them, the laguz who kidnapped Soren is as good as dead."
"It's fine with me," Ike said. He was already putting on his coat and gloves. He bent to retie the snow boots he had never bothered to change out of.
"All right, then we should probably go out then, let these two love birds have a moment alone to say goodbye," Ranulf said. He motioned to where Pelleas stood, quietly shifting from foot to foot, and waiting for a moment until he wouldn't be interrupting or intruding.
"...Yes," Micaiah said. "I will be there shortly."
Ranulf steered Ike and Kyza out with one hand on both their shoulders, and closed the door behind them.
"M-Micaiah..." Pelleas began. "I..." He shook his head, and paused a moment before he began again.
Pelleas did not come quite as close as he did before. There was a wariness to him now, as if he was still taking in the news.
"Mother's taken a sedative, so–"
"...I think it would be best if you stayed. It could be dangerous. You should watch over her. I promise I'll bring your brother back," Micaiah said. Her voice was quiet, but filled with conviction.
"And I'd just be a burden," Pelleas finished for her.
"I didn't say that," she said.
"You didn't have to," Pelleas said. "We already knew it was implied. No matter what, I'm going to be the weak, useless, loser brother. "
Micaiah sighed. "We don't have time for this. Your brother is in danger."
"Yes, it's always him, isn't it?" Pelleas said.
Micaiah didn't reply.
Pelleas sighed too, and made his way towards the door, stumbling slightly, and closing the door behind him not in a rough slam, but in such a quiet way as if he was apologizing for his mere existence.
*
They bundled up. They couldn't use machines, lest they alert the target laguz. It was slow going, as a storm had come up during the night and dumped even more snow over the rocky surface of Daein.
Micaiah led the way. She held the scarf, looking out with half-lidded eyes as she walked, almost drunkenly through the streets towards the gates.
"She went that way...."
Outside of Nevassa was an arctic wasteland. Most of the roads were out, for what sectors weren't rendered impassable by the tall snow drifts were slick with ice. And yet, it was out here, into the white hills of snow that she led them.
They didn't talk. She'd motion them on with a wave of her hand. She seemed to have far less trouble with the snow, whether it was because of her laguz blood, or being a natural Daein citizen, she walked much easier than Ike, who seemed to be falling into knee-deep snow at alarming frequency.
However, it wasn't deeper into the wilderness that they found themselves being led, but doubling back into the darker forgotten history of Nevassa, and the last legacy of Ashnard.
*
He tasted blood in his mouth.
It wasn't his first time being kidnapped. However, being stolen away wasn't something one could learn from. Soren was too naturally acerbic to have what it took to be a good hostage.
He remembered how it had gone. Someone had taken him and given him to a woman who seemed to despise his very existence–to hate him simply for being.
He had been kept in her damp basement for what he later learned to be months, alone in the dark, the woman seemingly disgusted by his mere presence.
He was rescued later–purchased, really–by a man who thought he might have had a particular talent.
Soren closed his eyes as the last memories came–the realization that came years later when setting his father’s files in order. Ashnard had a filing system which only he could understand, but when Soren had figured out the gist of it–broken through codes and seemingly extraneous information placed to form a shield for the true nature–he realized.
He had been nothing but a pawn, then. His father had wanted a Goldoan to turn feral, but when he hadn’t turned out to be the killing machine his father had wanted, Ashnard had turned to other possibilities.
Such as his mother’s brother.
In the end, Ashnard had orchestrated each part of the kidnapping, watching over with faint interest, keeping him just alive long enough to manipulate Almedha into selling out her own family.
And it had come full circle. Now he was captive of the same feral program he had been a pawn of so many years ago.
It was almost as if this was one last move played by Ashnard from beyond the grave.
*
Through the frozen gates, they slipped into a forgotten part of Daein: A network of tunnels started by their previous king, leading to unknown horrors. After the first tunnel, which up until partway had been filled with drifts that had blown in, and the walls covered in ice, it began to thaw into a dark, murky place that seemed heated by some untold power source.
They came to a fork in the road, where several tunnels branched outwards. Micaiah had been silent until she came to this, but at the sight of the bones, she began to pale.
The tunnels were littered with old bones. Most of them were animal bones–some laguz, others small animals whose bones had marks gnawed into them, and deep grooves–others were beorc, with cloth and hair still attached, but rotting away.
Kyza pulled a delicate lace handkerchief from his pocket and put it over his face.
"Oh..." Micaiah said. She winced, and leaned into the wall. When her hand touched the damp stones, she drew it away as if she had been burned.
Ranulf reached to steady her. "You okay there?"
"The aura here...it's toxic. The poor creatures, their suffering remains here. I can feel their fear, their hunger and pain...he stole their identity away and turned them into beasts."
Her golden eyes closed, and she held tight to the scarf.
"I can't feel him here," Micaiah said. "I'm sorry, but–"
"Well, then we'll just have to look," Ike said. Ike began to peer down each one, shining the flashlight. The tunnels were seemingly identical, with no clues of spots of blood, or a strand of hair wrapped around a rock.
Not that blood would be particular helpful in a place like this.
Finally, Ike seemed to simply pick one at random and began to walk towards it.
"Uh, Ike, these tunnels go on for hundreds of miles–it's like a freakin' labyrinth in here. There might even be a Minotaur stocked away, I wouldn't know. And we're kind of lacking in magic string," Ranulf said.
"We're going to find him," Ike said.
"Ike, my man–lemme put it this way: We could get lost in here and die. We need to think this through and—"
Ike seemed nonplussed. He just kept walking through the one he had picked, the upper left tunnel.
"His bull-headed determination to save Soren is so romantic," Kyza sighed. "And so dreamy."
"Hey, I can be dreamy too," Ranulf protested.
"Of course you can," Kyza said dismissively. "Now I should go help him, so he doesn't get lost and feel alone."
Ranulf frowned as Kyza disappeared too. "Geez, man, that's harsh... But, full speed ahead to save the princess, I guess," Ranulf said. "You wanna stay back, Micaiah? We won't blame you if you do. Maybe you can call in the cavalry or something."
She shook her head. "Can't you feel it like this? Isn't it overwhelming for you?" Micaiah asked.
Ranulf shrugged. "I wouldn't exactly choose this place for a rave, but...I've gotta be strong for them. If not, then their suffering was in vain. And poor Lethe is probably going crazy in here with all these smells--well, crazier, at least."
Micaiah lifted her chin defiantly and stood up straighter, then, as if she were fighting the forces which had so overwhelmed her. "Then I will go on, too. If the family allows, perhaps I can perform a purifying ceremony when this is all over," Micaiah said.
"You do that," Ranulf said. He gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder. "But right now, I'm thinking we should try and catch up. Kyza and Ike sort of have a head start on us."
"All right," she said.
They began to walk towards the upper left tunnel.
*
The tunnel was a dead end. It was in fact, a luckier find than the second tunnel, which had what had once been a beorc impaled on a stake. The skull still seemed to be locked in a scream of agony.
Micaiah bit back a sob as she turned away from the remains.
"Goddess rest their soul," she whispered.
"Not this tunnel either," Ike said. He turned away, without focusing more on the tunnel, or the remains.
Ike had held up the best of them. Despite his earlier bravado, Ranulf had taken on a more haggard expression with each tunnel they tried, and Kyza looked as if the stew he'd eaten before they left might come up again.
They wearily went back to the first path. Micaiah sighed and rested against a large stone.
"This is useless..." Micaiah said. Her silver hair had cobwebs stuck in now. She brushed them away.
"Stay back, then," Ike said.
"You really stick close to your contracts. I bet you'll have that on your headstone. 'He held to his contracts hardcore.'"
Micaiah gave Ranulf a searching look.
"Then what I read was true?
"Er, read?" Ranulf said.
All of them were looking at her now.
"It is one of the skills I possess, along with the aura reading," Micaiah said.
"You should go gambling with us sometime," Ranulf said. "We could make a killing."
"No, thank you," she murmured.
"I sensed a contract, a falseness..and yet something true in all of that charade," Micaiah said.
She touched the stone again and looked down, frowning.
"Did you find something?" Ranulf asked, his curiosity piqued.
"Perhaps..."
She bent before the stone and examined it. It was on the larger side, mottled colors of grey with undertones of brown and flecked pink and slightly pointed at the top. But it wasn't the stone itself which she had brushed, but a square of material packed down near it.
She seemed in a trance as she took it up.
"What did you find? Is it something of his?" Ike asked.
Her only response was a toneless Follow me.
She made her way towards the first tunnel Ike had chosen.
"Uh, hate to harsh your findings and all, but we already went down that path," Ranulf said.
She moved on still, without replying.
Kyza shrugged. "I haven't exactly seen a better way. She did look convincing, though. Like Crossing Over, but better."
Ike had already begun to follow her, and Kyza and Ranulf soon joined them.
She pushed at the wall near where the dead end was. As she rubbed at a place, there was a seal hidden by years of grime. It had an emblem of a wyvern and a spear.
"Well, this is certainly the path less traveled," Ranulf said. "You sure this is the right way?"
"This is quicker than the path the laguz took," Micaiah said just as tonelessly.
"Well, you should know, you're the psychic," Ranulf said.
Micaiah touched the wall again, with a look of deep sadness. "She took the long way, and has seen worse terrors of this labyrinth. The pain in her soul has only increased...."
Micaiah frowned as she pushed against it. Ike motioned for her to step aside.
"Ike, you're strong and all, but that's not going to wor—"
Ike shouldered his weight against the wall, and the hidden door swung open on rusty hinges.
"...forget I ever doubted you," Ranulf said.
Kyza looked starry eyed, while Micaiah's expression was as enigmatic as ever.
"Let us go, then," she said again, in those same even trance-like tones.
The tunnel went on for what they estimated to be about a half mile underground. They noted a sloping feel, as if they were going even deeper underground to whatever untold horrors Ashnard had kept here. But eventually, the path led to a larger room, filled with the sort of torture devices Ashnard reveled in.
Except many of these were modified for animals. The iron maidens augmented in feline shapes, still stained with old blood.
Micaiah stifled a cry at this, and both Kyza and Ranulf seemed shaken. The room was filled with these torture devices, and in one middle one–a vice and shackles attached to the wall–Soren hung, barely conscious.
A Gallian girl paced back and forth in front of her captive. In different circumstances, she wouldn't sensed them immediately, but most scents would be obscured by the lingering stench of blood, fear and pain left in this place. She did not hear them, for she was lost in some place inside herself.
"Let me try first," Ranulf said in an undertone. "I grew up with her."
"But Captain," Kyza protested. "You can't go in alone."
"I won't be. If she freaks, then you'll have my back," Ranulf said.
Kyza smiled as if this was some secret joke between them. "I always have your back, sir."
"See, that's what I'm talking about," Ranulf said with a wink. He walked out as they stayed in the shadow's beyond the faint reach of light from the room.
"It's been a long time, Lethe," Ranulf said in his most casual, soothing tone.
She turned on her heel and regarded him warily. She did not reply, but Ranulf went on, trying to form a connection with her.
"Come on, Lethe. You don't want to do this. It was a great kidnaping and all, but this won't solve anything," Ranulf said.
"They took my sister, and so I will take his son as my revenge," she said.
"But we got Lyre back and she's okay," Ranulf said. "So–"
Lethe cut him off with a growl.
"You've gone to their side! You-You human lover!" She choked back a sob of frustration, and then roared in anger to cover up her momentary weakness.
"Listen to me, Lethe. He's not the enemy," Ranulf said. He stepped in her path, gripped her shoulders. She fought against him, raking her nails to whatever part she could reach, but he kept holding on.
"Not the enemy?! All humans are the enemy! They tortured us. They put us in little cells and made us fight each other for their amusement. They turned us into robots–no feelings, no thoughts–and they did that to my sister! I can never forgive him that, never!"
From the vices, Soren opened his eyes. He winced in pain as he coughed, and then shakily began to speak.
"...Yes, the man who you call my father did that," Soren said. "It was unprofitable, and I dismantled the program. It does not exist anymore."
"But it did," Lethe said. "And that's all that matters. A life for a life."
"...Not surprising. You're nothing but a beast," Soren said. He looked at her with disdain, and coughed again. "...No better than him."
"What did you call me?" Lethe roared. Ranulf fought to keep control of her.
"Do you need assistance?" Kyza asked Ranulf as he hold of her. She struggled, clawed both Kyza and Ranulf while he did little more than flinch, but she couldn't break out of Kyza's hold.
"Yeah, good timing," Ranulf said. "Sorry, Lethe, but I gotta do this... You'll thank me one day." She reached out to claw him, but just then, strong arms gripped her, holding her immobile.
"It's for your own good," Kyza said with a tinge of regret.
"Like you two traitors would know anything about my own well being! You have lost your pride as a Gallian. Look at you now, both of you are working for the same company as the man who enslaved Lyre!"
"This isn't Ashnard. Soren isn't sending us to our deaths—even if I wonder if he's trying to work us to death instead," Ranulf said.
His attempt at humor did nothing to lighten this situation and she let our an angry yowl and slashed at them. This time, they couldn't keep her as she began to transform. Her humanoid shape turned into that a large, sleek dun-colored cat, roughly the size of a cougar. She broke free from them, and bounded towards where Soren was shackled to the wall. He showed no fear, or even alarm as she advanced on him.
But those razor-sharp claws never touched him, for Ike stepped in front of her, and took the brunt of her first assault. Feathers went through the air as the front of his down jacket was shredded. But Ike was quick too, if not quite as fast or with such feline grace. He grabbed her in a wrestler's hold around the neck, and she flailed about, looking for anything of him to tear into.
She sunk her teeth into his arm, bits of feathers turning red as more down was ripped into. He only flinched, and did let go of her.
Ranulf and Kyza ran to him, and together, they were able to subdue her, despite her screams of traitor! traitor!
Ike shakily got up, and made his way to where Soren was.
"Ike..."
"You're safe now," Ike said. He began to try and work free the lock.
"You're hurt..." Soren said.
"Less than you are," Ike said without looking up. "Either way, we'll both get treated when we get out of here."
Micaiah stepped out of the shadows as they finally got shackles on Lethe's wrists.
"Listen,Soren...let Gallia deal with its own problems," Ranulf said. "We could say the laguz got away."
"Please?" Micaiah pleaded. "She's such a tortured soul, and I'm afraid the Daein people would only lynch her to make an example."
"Do what you want..." Soren said between parched lips. His eyes were barely open. Ike bent down to renew efforts where the chain was attached to the wall. He took the chain between his hands and began to pull it apart. At first, nothing happened. Then, as he pulled, the chains broke loose from the stone wall.
Before anyone could protest, he scooped Soren's tiny, battered body up bridal style, oblivious to the bleeding wounds down his chest and arm.
"You're safe now," he said again. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you." He brushed Soren's hair away from his face and murmured something soft and comforting.
Day/Theme: 26. desperate situation
Series: FE10
Character/Pairing: Ike/Soren eventual, Pelleas/Micaiah
Summary: Soren, the head CEO of Nevassa Corp, is entirely tired of his mother's nagging, and so
sets out to hire a date for the holidays and his brother's upcoming wedding. After several disastrous interviews, he comes across Ike who thought it was a bodyguard job and really needs the money.
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 5050
Author's note: Last chapter! Thanks for sticking with me, guys. Thanks to Ammy for encouraging me to write this in the first place, and random squeeage along the way. This part had to be split into two because it's very long (on lj, anyways.)
Thanks to Joss for the beta.
*
It wasn't until morning that Soren's absence was noticed. The rehearsal had already been postponed to the next day, due to some untimely bridesmaid and bridesman hangovers. Most had assumed that he had turned in early, and Ike had even left the lights off and tried to go as quietly as he could through the room half-drunk as he was. It wasn't until later, when a staff member noticed the message, that his absence was even realized. There was a smear of blood on the wall, a bloody handprint. Just above it, that same blood was smeared into letters.
Sons will pay for the sins of their fathers.
Buried in the snow was Soren's cell phone–the one he was never without, that seemed surgically attached. Ike was the one who lifted it up from the snow and stared down at the device in his hands.
"This is why we need heavier laws imposed on subhumans," said the first police officer. He had a thick brown beard, and brown eyes set close together. Micaiah twitched at this. Even Ranulf's smile froze on his face. Kyza looked like he wanted to claw out the man's eyes.
Ike just kept staring at the wall with the drying blood freezing there, as if it would impart some magical truth about where Soren was hidden away.
*
Pelleas looked on the verge of fainting. He sat on the bed, and Micaiah rubbed his arm soothingly.
"How could this happen?" Pelleas said. "Oh...how?"
"Okay, what do we know?" Ike asked. He was the most composed of the bunch, unlike Almedha and Pelleas, who were quickly descending into hysterics.
"Not much," Ranulf said.
He was cut off as Tormod barged in. "Hey, we got something!"
He pulled out the phone. "Okay, so the police here are incompetent and I got Sothe to lift it so I could see the specs and I was messing around with his phone for the he–"
Micaiah glared at him.
"I mean, to help, when I found something. Apparently Soren's phone was recording when this was all happening. Just like him to have it be freeze proof or something. Actually this is some pretty sweet technology—"
"Tormod," Micaiah said.
"Getting it! Here."
Tormod replayed the message. They heard the crunching snow, the last taunt and the snapping, crunching sound of bones being broken. Almedha stifled a sob as she pressed a handkerchief over her mouth. A solemnness had fallen over the festivities. Ranulf's face had frozen in a blank expression for a moment. Then he quietly excused himself, in a way which wasn't lost on the only person in the room who was viewing things with a clear head.
Ike followed him outside, the sound of Almedha's sobbing and the murmur of conversation in the room behind them.
"Hey, Ike," Ranulf said. He forced a smile.
"Who is it, Ranulf?" Ike asked.
Ranulf hedged shifting from foot to foot. "What makes you think I know? I mean, I'm a well-connected guy, but that hardly means I know every last laguz. For all I know, it could be one of the hawks, or a raven. They're pretty pissed at Ashnard. We all were."
Ike didn't back down an inch."Who is it?" He asked again. "I saw your face. You recognize the voice. Soren's life is in danger here."
Ranulf sighed. "Listen...she's not that bad, it's just—her sister got taken in, okay? Daein's past isn't all roses, you know. Ashnard used to lure us in, kidnap us, whatever means he could. He'd put us under the feral drug and turn us into the mindless killing machines...We eventually got Lyre back and she's pretty much normal, but ever since then her sister's been a little...well, off."
"Her name, Ranulf. I need her name," Ike said. He gripped Ranulf by the shoulders.
"Hey, hey, watch it. You could break bones there," Ranulf said. Ike didn't respond, didn't apologize, just stared Ranulf down.
Ranulf sighed. "I can't help but feel I'm selling my own out...it's Lethe. I'm sure it's her voice. And no, I haven't a clue where she's holed up. We haven't talked in ages. She went off somewhere months ago. No one has been in contact with her, except maybe Lyre, but she hasn't said anything about Lethe."
"But you'd recognize her scent, right?" Ike persisted.
"I'm glad you have such faith in me, but my nose isn't that strong. There's thousands of smells and the scent grows cold really fast. Plus, knowing her, he probably isn't even in the city anymore. She'd hate to be around beorcs, especially in Nevassa where the whole Feral program started.
"You're a Gallian. What would she be doing now?" Ike asked.
"Lethe....it's difficult to say. Like I said, she's not been...right since then. It's been very 'us-verses-them'. She's really gone against what she considers 'beorc technology' so she's probably taken to the brush. There were high winds last night, so any tracks or scent would be gone."
"Listen, Ike...Lethe, she's lethal. No pun intended. I'm not sure how long Soren has. If he's lucky, maybe she decided to play with him and make him suffer for what happened to the rest of us. If not...." Ranulf let his voice trail off meaningfully.
Ike muttered a curse and slammed his fist into the wall. He didn't even seem to notice when his knuckles had turned bloody.
"We're getting him back," Ike said. "And he's coming back alive."
"I've only seen you like this once before," Ranulf said quietly. "Three years ago."
He didn't say the next words–he didn't have to. Ike just stared back, his expression unchanged from the stony determination.
When your father died. When you lost someone you loved.
"Well, I'm sure if anyone will succeed with these odds, it'd be you," Ranulf said.
Ike nodded tersely and opened the door. There were still flecks of blood there from his hand.
*
His leg was at an unnatural angle. It hurt to breathe. It was cold. He slowly, painfully came to consciousness. The room he was in was dark and cold. So unbearably cold. He tried to reach up, only to find his hand chained to the wall. He could barely tell the surroundings. Some sort of dungeon? A cog, torture implements. It reminded him of his father's secret rooms that he had uncovered–perhaps it was.
"How does it feel to be chained, human?" The voice taunted.
His mouth was dry. The pain was so severe he felt nausea rising up, but he wouldn't stoop so low as to beg. That was just what she wanted.
He took a shaky breath and forced himself to look his captor in their eyes. It wouldn't do to show weakness.
"How much do you want? I will have it wired to you," he said.
And then traced, and recovered when she was incarcerated.
"Money? Money won't buy your freedom. You'll be turned into a mindless animal from the pain....just like her."
The look she gave him was so vacant with hate. That was what lodged in his mind, his last thought before the blinding pain came again, and she turned the cog, making his bonds turn into a vice. The last thing he was aware of was the sound of his wrist snapping, and blacking out from the blinding pain.
*
It'd been hours, and as of yet, the police hadn't uncovered a thing. Micaiah was the one who dealt with the police, even through their bigotry. Her face clouded over as they said hateful things about feral subhumans running around. But her response was calmer than Almedha, who was ripping apart at the seams, or Tormod, who seemed liable to punch the police in the face if they said 'dirty subhuman' one more time. Obviously there would be nothing but distrust for Ranulf and Kyza, so they stuck to the background lest they get incarcerated on charges of being 'in league' with the kidnapper.
Sothe, too, sat as far away from the police force as he could. He had never done well with the police, given his history of theft and vandalism. There were too many memories of his stint in juvie.
The bridesmaids and bridesmen had gathered, quietly murmuring together. Pelleas and Almedha had pulled away. Ike was there too, standing at a distance, seemingly lost in thought.
"If I may...." Micaiah stepped into the room. "I could be of some assistance."
"You saw something, love?" Pelleas asked.
She nodded in response to his question, but it was the group she addressed, not simply him.
"I have powers beyond the scope of most beorc kind. It is...the laguz blood in me."
Pelleas blanched, and Almedha's gaze hardened. She clenched her fist about her handkerchief, while Pelleas wrung his hands in his lap. Neither commented, save for a little gasp on the part of Pelleas.
Micaiah did not glance their way.
Ike looked more than a little skeptical, as if in Soren's absence, he had to make up for the lack of cynical skepticism and prevent Micaiah from turning it into a feel-good meditation retreat.
"Do you have anything of Soren's that is important to him?" Micaiah asked.
"His laptop?" Ranulf suggested. "He's never without it. And I mean never. I bet he even sleeps with it by his side."
"No...the energies of electronic things will make the aura muddled...I won't be able to read it correctly. Is there anything else?" She asked.
"Soren...he was never really sentimental? Even about computers, he'd just upgrade it when the time came. I honestly can't think of anything he ever held dear," Pelleas said.
Ike reached into his coat and pulled out a thick gold scarf. "I don't know how important this is, but he lent this to me the other day."
She touched over it, her eyes going half-lidded, into an almost trance-like state.
"Yes....this will do. I can feel his energies here," Micaiah said. She closed her eyes, and seemed to faintly glow. For several moments she stood there, holding the scarf and mouthing the words of a chant.
Finally, she opened her eyes again.
"I can find him," she said.
Almedha pursed her lips. Pelleas touched Almedha's arm.
"Mother, don't you think you should go rest? See, they're going to find him..."
Almedha's glance was sharp, and Pelleas visibly flinched at it, but she lightened for a moment, and allowed herself to be led from the room to the promise of tea.
"This isn't a solo affair, right?" Ranulf said. "I mean, it's Gallia's affair and when it comes down to it. We might be able to talk her out of it."
"Of course," Micaiah said. "But I don't think too many should accompany us. We need to move quickly and not have her catch our scent."
"Before we go, I think it'd best to leave the beorc policemen out of this?" Micaiah said. She looked back, giving a meaningful glance to the rest of the room. "If you involve them, the laguz who kidnapped Soren is as good as dead."
"It's fine with me," Ike said. He was already putting on his coat and gloves. He bent to retie the snow boots he had never bothered to change out of.
"All right, then we should probably go out then, let these two love birds have a moment alone to say goodbye," Ranulf said. He motioned to where Pelleas stood, quietly shifting from foot to foot, and waiting for a moment until he wouldn't be interrupting or intruding.
"...Yes," Micaiah said. "I will be there shortly."
Ranulf steered Ike and Kyza out with one hand on both their shoulders, and closed the door behind them.
"M-Micaiah..." Pelleas began. "I..." He shook his head, and paused a moment before he began again.
Pelleas did not come quite as close as he did before. There was a wariness to him now, as if he was still taking in the news.
"Mother's taken a sedative, so–"
"...I think it would be best if you stayed. It could be dangerous. You should watch over her. I promise I'll bring your brother back," Micaiah said. Her voice was quiet, but filled with conviction.
"And I'd just be a burden," Pelleas finished for her.
"I didn't say that," she said.
"You didn't have to," Pelleas said. "We already knew it was implied. No matter what, I'm going to be the weak, useless, loser brother. "
Micaiah sighed. "We don't have time for this. Your brother is in danger."
"Yes, it's always him, isn't it?" Pelleas said.
Micaiah didn't reply.
Pelleas sighed too, and made his way towards the door, stumbling slightly, and closing the door behind him not in a rough slam, but in such a quiet way as if he was apologizing for his mere existence.
*
They bundled up. They couldn't use machines, lest they alert the target laguz. It was slow going, as a storm had come up during the night and dumped even more snow over the rocky surface of Daein.
Micaiah led the way. She held the scarf, looking out with half-lidded eyes as she walked, almost drunkenly through the streets towards the gates.
"She went that way...."
Outside of Nevassa was an arctic wasteland. Most of the roads were out, for what sectors weren't rendered impassable by the tall snow drifts were slick with ice. And yet, it was out here, into the white hills of snow that she led them.
They didn't talk. She'd motion them on with a wave of her hand. She seemed to have far less trouble with the snow, whether it was because of her laguz blood, or being a natural Daein citizen, she walked much easier than Ike, who seemed to be falling into knee-deep snow at alarming frequency.
However, it wasn't deeper into the wilderness that they found themselves being led, but doubling back into the darker forgotten history of Nevassa, and the last legacy of Ashnard.
*
He tasted blood in his mouth.
It wasn't his first time being kidnapped. However, being stolen away wasn't something one could learn from. Soren was too naturally acerbic to have what it took to be a good hostage.
He remembered how it had gone. Someone had taken him and given him to a woman who seemed to despise his very existence–to hate him simply for being.
He had been kept in her damp basement for what he later learned to be months, alone in the dark, the woman seemingly disgusted by his mere presence.
He was rescued later–purchased, really–by a man who thought he might have had a particular talent.
Soren closed his eyes as the last memories came–the realization that came years later when setting his father’s files in order. Ashnard had a filing system which only he could understand, but when Soren had figured out the gist of it–broken through codes and seemingly extraneous information placed to form a shield for the true nature–he realized.
He had been nothing but a pawn, then. His father had wanted a Goldoan to turn feral, but when he hadn’t turned out to be the killing machine his father had wanted, Ashnard had turned to other possibilities.
Such as his mother’s brother.
In the end, Ashnard had orchestrated each part of the kidnapping, watching over with faint interest, keeping him just alive long enough to manipulate Almedha into selling out her own family.
And it had come full circle. Now he was captive of the same feral program he had been a pawn of so many years ago.
It was almost as if this was one last move played by Ashnard from beyond the grave.
*
Through the frozen gates, they slipped into a forgotten part of Daein: A network of tunnels started by their previous king, leading to unknown horrors. After the first tunnel, which up until partway had been filled with drifts that had blown in, and the walls covered in ice, it began to thaw into a dark, murky place that seemed heated by some untold power source.
They came to a fork in the road, where several tunnels branched outwards. Micaiah had been silent until she came to this, but at the sight of the bones, she began to pale.
The tunnels were littered with old bones. Most of them were animal bones–some laguz, others small animals whose bones had marks gnawed into them, and deep grooves–others were beorc, with cloth and hair still attached, but rotting away.
Kyza pulled a delicate lace handkerchief from his pocket and put it over his face.
"Oh..." Micaiah said. She winced, and leaned into the wall. When her hand touched the damp stones, she drew it away as if she had been burned.
Ranulf reached to steady her. "You okay there?"
"The aura here...it's toxic. The poor creatures, their suffering remains here. I can feel their fear, their hunger and pain...he stole their identity away and turned them into beasts."
Her golden eyes closed, and she held tight to the scarf.
"I can't feel him here," Micaiah said. "I'm sorry, but–"
"Well, then we'll just have to look," Ike said. Ike began to peer down each one, shining the flashlight. The tunnels were seemingly identical, with no clues of spots of blood, or a strand of hair wrapped around a rock.
Not that blood would be particular helpful in a place like this.
Finally, Ike seemed to simply pick one at random and began to walk towards it.
"Uh, Ike, these tunnels go on for hundreds of miles–it's like a freakin' labyrinth in here. There might even be a Minotaur stocked away, I wouldn't know. And we're kind of lacking in magic string," Ranulf said.
"We're going to find him," Ike said.
"Ike, my man–lemme put it this way: We could get lost in here and die. We need to think this through and—"
Ike seemed nonplussed. He just kept walking through the one he had picked, the upper left tunnel.
"His bull-headed determination to save Soren is so romantic," Kyza sighed. "And so dreamy."
"Hey, I can be dreamy too," Ranulf protested.
"Of course you can," Kyza said dismissively. "Now I should go help him, so he doesn't get lost and feel alone."
Ranulf frowned as Kyza disappeared too. "Geez, man, that's harsh... But, full speed ahead to save the princess, I guess," Ranulf said. "You wanna stay back, Micaiah? We won't blame you if you do. Maybe you can call in the cavalry or something."
She shook her head. "Can't you feel it like this? Isn't it overwhelming for you?" Micaiah asked.
Ranulf shrugged. "I wouldn't exactly choose this place for a rave, but...I've gotta be strong for them. If not, then their suffering was in vain. And poor Lethe is probably going crazy in here with all these smells--well, crazier, at least."
Micaiah lifted her chin defiantly and stood up straighter, then, as if she were fighting the forces which had so overwhelmed her. "Then I will go on, too. If the family allows, perhaps I can perform a purifying ceremony when this is all over," Micaiah said.
"You do that," Ranulf said. He gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder. "But right now, I'm thinking we should try and catch up. Kyza and Ike sort of have a head start on us."
"All right," she said.
They began to walk towards the upper left tunnel.
*
The tunnel was a dead end. It was in fact, a luckier find than the second tunnel, which had what had once been a beorc impaled on a stake. The skull still seemed to be locked in a scream of agony.
Micaiah bit back a sob as she turned away from the remains.
"Goddess rest their soul," she whispered.
"Not this tunnel either," Ike said. He turned away, without focusing more on the tunnel, or the remains.
Ike had held up the best of them. Despite his earlier bravado, Ranulf had taken on a more haggard expression with each tunnel they tried, and Kyza looked as if the stew he'd eaten before they left might come up again.
They wearily went back to the first path. Micaiah sighed and rested against a large stone.
"This is useless..." Micaiah said. Her silver hair had cobwebs stuck in now. She brushed them away.
"Stay back, then," Ike said.
"You really stick close to your contracts. I bet you'll have that on your headstone. 'He held to his contracts hardcore.'"
Micaiah gave Ranulf a searching look.
"Then what I read was true?
"Er, read?" Ranulf said.
All of them were looking at her now.
"It is one of the skills I possess, along with the aura reading," Micaiah said.
"You should go gambling with us sometime," Ranulf said. "We could make a killing."
"No, thank you," she murmured.
"I sensed a contract, a falseness..and yet something true in all of that charade," Micaiah said.
She touched the stone again and looked down, frowning.
"Did you find something?" Ranulf asked, his curiosity piqued.
"Perhaps..."
She bent before the stone and examined it. It was on the larger side, mottled colors of grey with undertones of brown and flecked pink and slightly pointed at the top. But it wasn't the stone itself which she had brushed, but a square of material packed down near it.
She seemed in a trance as she took it up.
"What did you find? Is it something of his?" Ike asked.
Her only response was a toneless Follow me.
She made her way towards the first tunnel Ike had chosen.
"Uh, hate to harsh your findings and all, but we already went down that path," Ranulf said.
She moved on still, without replying.
Kyza shrugged. "I haven't exactly seen a better way. She did look convincing, though. Like Crossing Over, but better."
Ike had already begun to follow her, and Kyza and Ranulf soon joined them.
She pushed at the wall near where the dead end was. As she rubbed at a place, there was a seal hidden by years of grime. It had an emblem of a wyvern and a spear.
"Well, this is certainly the path less traveled," Ranulf said. "You sure this is the right way?"
"This is quicker than the path the laguz took," Micaiah said just as tonelessly.
"Well, you should know, you're the psychic," Ranulf said.
Micaiah touched the wall again, with a look of deep sadness. "She took the long way, and has seen worse terrors of this labyrinth. The pain in her soul has only increased...."
Micaiah frowned as she pushed against it. Ike motioned for her to step aside.
"Ike, you're strong and all, but that's not going to wor—"
Ike shouldered his weight against the wall, and the hidden door swung open on rusty hinges.
"...forget I ever doubted you," Ranulf said.
Kyza looked starry eyed, while Micaiah's expression was as enigmatic as ever.
"Let us go, then," she said again, in those same even trance-like tones.
The tunnel went on for what they estimated to be about a half mile underground. They noted a sloping feel, as if they were going even deeper underground to whatever untold horrors Ashnard had kept here. But eventually, the path led to a larger room, filled with the sort of torture devices Ashnard reveled in.
Except many of these were modified for animals. The iron maidens augmented in feline shapes, still stained with old blood.
Micaiah stifled a cry at this, and both Kyza and Ranulf seemed shaken. The room was filled with these torture devices, and in one middle one–a vice and shackles attached to the wall–Soren hung, barely conscious.
A Gallian girl paced back and forth in front of her captive. In different circumstances, she wouldn't sensed them immediately, but most scents would be obscured by the lingering stench of blood, fear and pain left in this place. She did not hear them, for she was lost in some place inside herself.
"Let me try first," Ranulf said in an undertone. "I grew up with her."
"But Captain," Kyza protested. "You can't go in alone."
"I won't be. If she freaks, then you'll have my back," Ranulf said.
Kyza smiled as if this was some secret joke between them. "I always have your back, sir."
"See, that's what I'm talking about," Ranulf said with a wink. He walked out as they stayed in the shadow's beyond the faint reach of light from the room.
"It's been a long time, Lethe," Ranulf said in his most casual, soothing tone.
She turned on her heel and regarded him warily. She did not reply, but Ranulf went on, trying to form a connection with her.
"Come on, Lethe. You don't want to do this. It was a great kidnaping and all, but this won't solve anything," Ranulf said.
"They took my sister, and so I will take his son as my revenge," she said.
"But we got Lyre back and she's okay," Ranulf said. "So–"
Lethe cut him off with a growl.
"You've gone to their side! You-You human lover!" She choked back a sob of frustration, and then roared in anger to cover up her momentary weakness.
"Listen to me, Lethe. He's not the enemy," Ranulf said. He stepped in her path, gripped her shoulders. She fought against him, raking her nails to whatever part she could reach, but he kept holding on.
"Not the enemy?! All humans are the enemy! They tortured us. They put us in little cells and made us fight each other for their amusement. They turned us into robots–no feelings, no thoughts–and they did that to my sister! I can never forgive him that, never!"
From the vices, Soren opened his eyes. He winced in pain as he coughed, and then shakily began to speak.
"...Yes, the man who you call my father did that," Soren said. "It was unprofitable, and I dismantled the program. It does not exist anymore."
"But it did," Lethe said. "And that's all that matters. A life for a life."
"...Not surprising. You're nothing but a beast," Soren said. He looked at her with disdain, and coughed again. "...No better than him."
"What did you call me?" Lethe roared. Ranulf fought to keep control of her.
"Do you need assistance?" Kyza asked Ranulf as he hold of her. She struggled, clawed both Kyza and Ranulf while he did little more than flinch, but she couldn't break out of Kyza's hold.
"Yeah, good timing," Ranulf said. "Sorry, Lethe, but I gotta do this... You'll thank me one day." She reached out to claw him, but just then, strong arms gripped her, holding her immobile.
"It's for your own good," Kyza said with a tinge of regret.
"Like you two traitors would know anything about my own well being! You have lost your pride as a Gallian. Look at you now, both of you are working for the same company as the man who enslaved Lyre!"
"This isn't Ashnard. Soren isn't sending us to our deaths—even if I wonder if he's trying to work us to death instead," Ranulf said.
His attempt at humor did nothing to lighten this situation and she let our an angry yowl and slashed at them. This time, they couldn't keep her as she began to transform. Her humanoid shape turned into that a large, sleek dun-colored cat, roughly the size of a cougar. She broke free from them, and bounded towards where Soren was shackled to the wall. He showed no fear, or even alarm as she advanced on him.
But those razor-sharp claws never touched him, for Ike stepped in front of her, and took the brunt of her first assault. Feathers went through the air as the front of his down jacket was shredded. But Ike was quick too, if not quite as fast or with such feline grace. He grabbed her in a wrestler's hold around the neck, and she flailed about, looking for anything of him to tear into.
She sunk her teeth into his arm, bits of feathers turning red as more down was ripped into. He only flinched, and did let go of her.
Ranulf and Kyza ran to him, and together, they were able to subdue her, despite her screams of traitor! traitor!
Ike shakily got up, and made his way to where Soren was.
"Ike..."
"You're safe now," Ike said. He began to try and work free the lock.
"You're hurt..." Soren said.
"Less than you are," Ike said without looking up. "Either way, we'll both get treated when we get out of here."
Micaiah stepped out of the shadows as they finally got shackles on Lethe's wrists.
"Listen,Soren...let Gallia deal with its own problems," Ranulf said. "We could say the laguz got away."
"Please?" Micaiah pleaded. "She's such a tortured soul, and I'm afraid the Daein people would only lynch her to make an example."
"Do what you want..." Soren said between parched lips. His eyes were barely open. Ike bent down to renew efforts where the chain was attached to the wall. He took the chain between his hands and began to pull it apart. At first, nothing happened. Then, as he pulled, the chains broke loose from the stone wall.
Before anyone could protest, he scooped Soren's tiny, battered body up bridal style, oblivious to the bleeding wounds down his chest and arm.
"You're safe now," he said again. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you." He brushed Soren's hair away from his face and murmured something soft and comforting.
