Paramythi I: City of Glass

The details of the mission had been brief when Elias had, unsurprisingly in Kane’s opinion, complied to take the job within a matter of seconds.

There had apparently been some deal made between the previous dock’s manager and one of Capitol’s favoured lawyers a while back before Elias’ sister, Maxa, had taken over the management of the entire coastline and trading mark.

Vague descriptions from collective witnesses had stated that this particular lawyer had been spotted around the docks at night in the last few weeks, lurking specifically to the walls around the place; thus displaying a purposeful means to hide from general sight from anyone who might have been passing by around that hour.

In addition to supporting such evidence, a small band of people who called themselves the ’Junior R’ had taken blurred photographs of the lawyer and had sent them off to Kane.

Usually, such a case as this would mean nothing if it had merely been rumours on the streets or a small discussion within the local bars in the city. Enzo might have been the more enthusiastic of the group to at least address such a thing as vital and possibly problematic. But only a select few on the surface of Emvolo actually knew the address to the Rebellion’s airship and how to get things up there without suspicion or inquiry from Capitol’s top men.

In short, Kane had no choice but to take this mission into his own interest and offer it to the only boy who would have the potential layout of the docks and, ideally, be far more welcomed to stand within ten feet of the ships and supplies docked there than anyone within the Rebellion’s airbase.

“You seem tense.” Psykhe had said when she and Elias stood from their seats within the small craft that had flown them to Tentrail. “If you’re afraid of having a repeat of our last mission…”

The pause for breath had been a chance for Elias to speak up and prove his temporary partner wrong. Instead, nothing but a small grimace of expression was granted on the young man’s behalf and he began walking towards the craft’s ramp with nothing to say.

Even with his back to Psykhe, Elias had heard the small 'tut' of disappointment from the young woman. He decided to blame his lack of response on the mission and how it made him feel; not that it was completely a lie or use of excuse. He was terrified of having to face Maxa in this kind of situation, wrapped up in the tangles of the Rebellion, the very thing his sister hated most in this world.

“I know what it's like to have an older sibling,” Psykhe said as she strode over to Elias’s side. Her face was set and she simply stared straight, looking towards the unopened ramp door as the aircraft came to land. “My brother and I never saw eye-to-eye in any sense. I never really got to know him, in fact.”

With a sigh, Elias mimicked Psykhe’s posture and set his blue eyes to stare idly ahead, mind drifting away from the dangers of the mission and more to Maxa and how he would feel if he had never been smothered in his sister’s love, just as Psykhe had not been smothered in her brother’s love.

“Were your differences in opinion the reason he went to jail?” Said Elias.

“You don’t know all that much about Emvolo’s city, do you?” Psykhe cocked her serious smile and crossed her arms over her chest. “If you did know more about it, you wouldn’t be asking me… or maybe you’re just being nice.”

Such a response as this made Elias tilt his head. He was at a loss for words and could only muster a small frown, hoping it would be enough to encourage Psykhe to continue. It was not as though she had been entirely wrong; Elias had never been well educated on the city of Emvolo and had never had the time to attend any events and learn its history. All he had ever done within its walls was simply attend school and go shopping with Maxa, he had never even been to Capitol.

“The Trezla family have always been heavily involved with Capitol. Our spoils and income within the family tended to benefit Capitol’s side projects and whatever little scene they might be able to make a profit from.” Psykhe lowered her gaze and continued, “my father had quite the distaste for the Rebellion since it would always interfere with the investment of his money and whoever might have been leaking information for deals and more wealthy payments. He was especially irritated when Kane Ruskin had finally managed to grant Emvolo the Sylvannix entry to the city without needing to be brought across the borders as a prisoner or a suspecting criminal of sorts.”

“You didn’t think the same way, did you?” Elias all but whispered, eyes flickering to sneak a glance at his temporary partner's eyes.

“It was irrelevant for me.” Psykhe shrugged her shoulders. “Through my eyes, the Sylvannix law was the norm for Emvolo. I didn’t think anything about their coexistence towards us and the city since I was so young, yet I was not oblivious to the hatred my father happened to hold towards them. My brother held equal dislike for the Rebellion and their choices, yet my father was not convinced in him and would always lock himself up in his study instead of spending time with his children, so my brother eventually left the estate and ran away.”

As if on cue, the doors slid back overhead and its ramp lowered with a low groan of metal, landing gently upon the concrete grounds of Emvolo’s lower parts of the city with a steadiness that granted the two permission to leave and begin their mission. Psykhe had stepped out first, placing one foot in front of the other with all the confidence in the world. If it had not been for Elias’ abrupt call, she would have likely disappeared into the crowds of faces; humans, Faeman and Sylvannix alike.

“What happened?” When he had asked the question, he thought it would at least leave his mouth calmly. Instead, it seemed loud enough to almost desperate and had caused one or two heads to look up at the young boy in the mouth of the craft.

Psykhe ignored the collection of peeping eyes and simply came to a stop in her steps, one foot planted on the ground whilst her other foot was up on the ramp, leg bent as she turned her head to look up at Elias and offer him a small smile. “The Rebellion put him in prison.”

The expression written on Elias’ face should have been surprised; although he could not forget Eris inquiring about Psykhe's brother a year ago before their training and why he was arrested.

Swallowing his curiosity, Elias stepped down the ramp and followed Psykhe in silence.

“I trust that you did not allow your young recruits to take this mission without some sort of supervision?” Ciiria’s voice was a light tune as she strode through council room, heels clicking softly upon the polished surface of the floor. She poured herself and drink, adding; “I would imagine it is a price neither of us can afford after the last mission they indulged.”

Kane was sat comfortably at the round table and merely shook his head, eyes glancing off towards the empty chairs littered around. “There is supervision, of course. Reidonn’s keeping an eye on them.”

“Reidonn?” Ciiria rolled her partner’s name on her tongue with additional scepticism as she took the seat beside Kane and placed a small glass of whiskey in front of him. “But I sent Reidonn off to receive an update on our Secondary Recruit Teams from last year, they've been on a three-month mission on the borders of Dioscuri.”

Kane took a swig from his glass. A smile tugged at his lips. “The Secondary Team have recently finished with Dioscuri's mission and have been working on a case within the city to finish up, so I asked Reidonn to visit the docks when she had time just to check on Kara and Trezla's progress,” he took yet another gulp and turned his blue gaze upon the crystal glass, idly running the pad of his rough thumb across the creative patterns just below the rim’s edge. “Though I doubt it will be needed. With all the people in the city, something similar to the previous mission could not possibly occur. I'm just taking precaution and Reidonn was eager to introduce the Secondary Teams to our newest recruits.”

Ciiria’s fingertips ghosted across her own glass as she mulled over Kane’s words. With a sigh, her shoulders slumped. “I suppose you’re right.” Before swallowing down a fairly large gulp, she added solemnly, “but I have no doubt that Capitol's men, or whoever might be involved with these ridiculous occurrences, would simply wait for the crowd to die down before making their move. We should be on alert whether we have allies and crowds in every direction or not.”

“You’re beginning to doubt that all this is connected to Capitol-relations?” Asked Kane, eyes avoiding Ciiria’s face as he swallowed the remainder of his drink and leant back in his seat, hands clasping together against the curve of his firm stomach.

“Everything is related to Capitol, you know that,” Ciiria replied bitterly. “No, it just seems as though Phobos is unable to keep her own people in order these days. I have no initial proof that it was Phobos, or any of her men’s doings that caused this breakout of so-called 'disease.' She fed the wrong amount of information nonetheless when she last made contact with me and warned me of this ‘purifying’ method she had been trying to create.”

“They were using Twyla as the source of this purification. It would have killed them, destroyed Eirini village and put our new recruits in a hospital if Enzo had not stopped it from happening.” Kane inhaled deeply, chest rising and falling as if to suppress the anger boiling within the pit of his stomach.

“Now, now,” Ciiria’s hand was gentle when it made contact with Kane’s shoulder and she squeezed some of the tension from his stiff posture. “You and I both know that it wasn’t all Enzo’s doing. According to him and Tovi, Eris Crysanthe passed away specifically due to her sacrifice, and even then such a thing would not have been complete with the help of Psykhe Trezla.”

Kane bit back the groan of frustration and released his unresolved annoyance in a long sigh through his nose. “I know,” he mumbled, arms shifting to unclasp his hands and raise his palm to gently pat the back of Ciiria’s gentle hand. “I want to put faith in her abilities, yet I cannot seem to bring myself to relax so willingly after what happened with Merine.”

“Seven years is a long time.” Said Ciiria.

“Indeed,” Kane turned his gaze upon Ciiria’s, serious eyes meeting serious eyes. “But time is somewhat irrelevant when it comes to blood and family ties.”

With a chuckle, Ciiria patted Kane on the shoulder once again – harder this time — and stood up from the table with a light hum of her voice. “I would like to see you sell that line to Enzo and see how he feels about it.”

“Yes, well, I would like to have a conversation with Enzo, coincidently,” Kane said, shoulders slacking as the prior topic dissipated. He stood, collecting the empty glasses upon the table to hand back to Ciiria. “I haven’t asked him about the interviews he and Tovi engaged with earlier, and frankly, I’m not looking forward to whatever hints might lead to a further investigation and a possible confrontation to Capitol, and until Twyla can recall anything further on their kidnapping, we have very little evidence to bring to light.”

Ciiria took the glass from Kane’s hands and placed it gently on the top of her polished cabinet, eager fingers working to tug the glass lid out from her favourable whiskey flask and pour herself another drink. When she took a hefty swig of the cool contents, an uncivil snort escaped her and she turned to the man, hip jutted against the cabinet as she shook her head and propped her free hand upon the curve of her waist. She looked more than ready to feed the Rebellion’s captain a lecture.

“Kane Ruskin, you shouldn’t be bothering yourself with such an idle outcome as visiting Capitol.” Her hazel-golden eyes glanced Kane’s lack posture up and down, then she smiled. “When you decided to take up arms with your fellow followers and make this kingdom a better place, you must have realised meetings and confrontations could not be avoided. I mean, for goodness sake Kane, we’ve been doing this for years now. Longer than I care to remember…”

It was Kane’s turn to snort.

“All these years you and I have known each other, and yet you still choose to babysit me,” Kane said. He took a step forward and poured his own drink. “Surely you should be able to leave that task with Twyla.”

“Poor Twyla, having to be roped up in such a scheme whilst we drink to our heart's content and make little decisions on what we should or should not do, when or if we happen to walk up to Capitol.” Ciiria laughed lowly and finished her drink, as if to set an example, and finally put the glass away for good. “…so we must do whatever need be, Kane. If not for our comfort, but for our recruits, our friends, and for the ones we love most.”

Kane had no thought or speech in mind when Ciiria gave his shoulder one last squeeze and exited the room. He heard her mention something about Enzo and where he had claimed to be found earlier, in case Kane still wished to talk with him. After that, the soft sound of the door closing filled the room and Kane accepted the truth in Ciiria’s tone and the weight of which her words carried.

Enzo had been busy with collecting a number of documents and resources on whether or not Psykhe’s newfound information had been vital enough to follow.

Sure, if it had been anyone else to share this kind of additional info on to him, then he might have taken it to Kane and Ciiria straight away; but since it was nothing short of a sentence with a number of loose ends regarding Psykhe’s understanding of the horrifying description of entail passed on by Eris’ father, who could have quite easily gone straight to Enzo instead of spilling details to Psykhe alone, Enzo had no choice but to simply keep it low and collect some solid proof before bothering Kane and Ciiria with it.

It would have been an easy task. An easy task that merely required a moment of time to find and read up on anything which might put Psykhe in the right and for Enzo to have a solid lead on the newest mystery to the Rebellion versus Capitol happenings. Alas, it seemed impossible for Enzo to even take a step through the aircraft’s large library without seeing or hearing Zyki creeping in the darkness.

Upon arrival, Enzo had been stopped by the Allowa in question and had been asked a number of things regarding why he would even bother coming to this room of all places since he seemed to avoid it at any given chance otherwise. The response which Enzo had provided was, of course, nothing but a jumble of words which made no particular sense once it had been formed into a sentence to use on Zyki; yet it was somehow enough to keep the Allowa at a distance while Enzo busied himself with checking into the deeper sections of documents and archives.

Finally, he came to the long row of cardboard boxes stacked together tightly within the confines of old and damp wood, making up the shelves and the bookcase supports built around the area. This part of the room was darker and the temperature felt a lot less comforting with every low breeze that rustled Enzo’s long hair. Even with it tied in a loose ponytail, resting between his shoulders, there was nothing to protect the small hairs on the back of his neck from rising and he shuddered, mentally telling himself to hurry up and leave the cold behind before he caught something or froze to death; which might have been a tad exaggerated.

“You know, you could always ask.” Came Zyki’s low tone of voice, followed by the rattling sounds of the bookcase shuddering in its spot.

Enzo looked to his left, further up the corridor from once he came and towards the warmer parts of the library. It took only seconds before Zyki came into sight, swooping through the corridors on one of the many rolling-ladders attached to the rattling bookcase in question. This was, in all respects, Zyki’s ‘territory’ and they probably felt threatened due to Enzo's choice of secrecy. Friends or not, Allowa were very territorial creatures by nature and humans were more than well known to be territory-wreckers.

“Zyki, it’s kinda complicated… I dunno what I’m even looking for.” Enzo sighed, fingers tracing one of the many boxes stuffed with overflowing documents and previously obtained evidence from prior missions. “And I wouldn’t want to bother you with it, especially if it doesn’t mean anything.”

A low chuckle wisped its way through the room and Enzo gulped, feeling a handful of disturbed dust flow from his right and down to his shoulder. Blinking, the man turned his head to the top of the rolling-ladder. Zyki had disappeared. Be it a collection of mere seconds before Enzo spotted Zyki again, his heart rate managed to climb immensely and he swallowed down his unsettled nerves, hoping his panic was not nearly as visible as he felt it should be.

Leaning idly against the bookcase to Enzo’s left, Zyki inspected their fingers and tapped the ends of their false, metal claws together. The quiet ’chink’ echoed lowly and carried on throughout the library, reminding Enzo it was only the two of them within the large space; specifically, at the back of the room where no-one usually tread.

“Brains are my speciality, you know?” Zyki cooed and shifted, pressing their shoulder against the bookcase. They stared at Enzo with hollow eyes. “I know how yours works, and I also know how reliable you are as a member of this Rebellion.” They reached out to trace the tips of their cool, metallic claws against Enzo’s flushed cheek and smirked, “and if you decided to come into my little haven all by yourself just to look for something that might not even be here, well… I think that deserves a little help from yours truly, no?”

Enzo closed his eyes with a strained sound and shook his head, defeated. “You’re right, I do need your help.” He admitted, more to himself than to anyone else. A hand reached out and he traced his palm across the old, stacked boxes laid out in front of him. “Psykhe told me something that could potentially link to the incident at Eirini village. If it’s true...-”

“So what if it’s true?” Zyki hummed, skipping to the side in their usual crooked manner. “I, for one, think it is quite admirable that you’re taking the Trezla girl seriously. Just imagine how the rest of us might look at her; a little girl with the possible influence of her older brother hanging down wherever she looked. To think that you, as Theo’s partner, would be willing to take the side of a family who would like nothing more than to see the Sylvannix race get what’s coming for them!”

Luckily for Enzo, he had known Zyki for quite a while now; thus he knew just how unique they tended to be. Being spiteful, witty and sarcastic was just who Zyki was and Enzo found no reason to take such comments to heart as he pushed the topic aside and explained the details in full to the Allowa.

During which, Zyki made no comment and only listened, eyes wide and lips pulled back in a half-smile of disbelief.