Seeking Strays

The vertigo faded, and I felt myself being crushed under a disgustingly familiar mass. I struggled, and felt limbs wrap around my body with the motion. Cold limbs. Every breath reeked of blood and death, and yet was somehow sweltering enough to make my lungs burn.

“Help!” I struggled against the corpses burying me, and dug my way toward a small spot of light I could see between crushed fingers. Fuck! Just where did she drop me?!

A blade cut deep into my arm as I struggled forward, and my blood joined that of those around me. My breathing came more and more panicked as the familiar sensations of being buried in a mass grave came back.

”Over here!” A muffled shout came from beyond the corpses burying me, and a hand dug through the darkness. “Grab my hand!”

Others helped push back corpses as I was pulled out of the mass grave. Light stung my eyes, and my breathing became even more panicked as I was blinded. “Where—?”

”We’ve got you, Canary.” Bradson’s familiar voice echoed into my ears, causing me to flinch.

”D-did we make it out?” My eyes slowly adjusted to the blinding light of the sun beaming down on me from above. The sun? In Silverport?

“Affirmative, Operator,” Vigil’s totally neutral voice answered me. “My sensors indicate we are back, with a 37.92% margin of error.”

”That’s not reassuring…” I muttered back to him, and held my bleeding arm.

“This unit's sensors aren’t suited for anomalous encounters, Operator.” Vigil pulsed warmly in my pocket. It felt like the sticky heat of the mound of corpses.

”As far as I can tell we made it back.” Bradson helped me to my feet and handed me a rag. “You, uh, you’ve got some on your face.”

”Thanks.” I started to wipe myself off, and tied off the cut on my arm while I took in the hellish scene around me. We were in an alley of Silverport filled with a mound of corpses. There were… probably thirty-one of them? I recognized the faces from the Church of Repentance.

I felt a crushing weight on my shoulders. Did I really go through all of that effort, just for Lilah to lie and break her promise at the end of it all? No—no, that wasn’t right. I shuffled closer to the mound and inspected the dead. They’d all died just recently, and every one of them bore different causes of death.

The woman who escaped using the sacrificial dagger lay crushed below a heavyset man. Her entire body was covered in wounds, and the dagger clutched in her hands made them all look self-inflicted. From the blood flow, it looked like al of her wounds had opened at the same time.

Near the top of the stack, the sweating swordmaster that’d convinced so many to follow in his footsteps lay pierced by thirteen swords. One stuck out of his mouth from where it’d been stabbed all the way through him. Even if he got back and immediately received medical treatment, there was no saving a body so ruthlessly destroyed. He must’ve lost the swordmaster’s trial.

Another still, one I recognized as taking the Death’s Grail that promised immortality, had been entirely turned into ageless stone. Without fail, every single person in the mound had been killed by what they’d taken from Sister Lilah in various horrifying ways.

Then there was Francis. He was half buried, but I could still make out the state of his body. It looked like every one of his muscles had ruptured, leaving him in an inhuman deflated state. Blood loss got him too. It was recent by the scent of blood… or that was my arm bleeding from where I got caught on one of the swordmaster’s blades.

“They were all still alive when we got here.” Bradson shivered, and gripped his rifle so hard it creaked. “Pyre, I never heard such screaming. Nothing we could do to help, either.”

Is this safe and sound? Alive and unharmed? Even as I mentally beat at myself for not seeing through it, I could tell how she got around it. They arrived in Silverport safely and unharmed—only for their choices to come back to haunt them a moment later. None of them stood a chance.

Do not bargain. She always honors all deals… Just because she honored the words of the deal didn’t mean she honored the spirit of it. I got what I asked for, but not what I wanted. She put me underneath all of them as if to rub it in my face further. Just how spiteful was that monster?

”What about the others?” I asked after a long moment.

”Bojang took Lizabeth across the street to get away from this.” Bradson's expression was grave, though his eyes were tinged with anger. “The Peace Keepers and Harbor are on their way.”

I stared at the mound for a moment. “And Grace?”

“… she’s right there.” He pointed toward the back of the mound.

At the back, standing with a benevolent smile on her face, stood Grace. Only, it wasn’t the living woman I’d just talked to. It was a golden statue of her, standing there permanently frozen in her last moments. My eyes squeezed shut. Returning a gift didn’t undo accepting it in the first place.

”S-so only four of us made it out?” I hated how my voice shook.

”I… I’m afraid so.” The Peace Keeper let go of his rifle and rested his hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Canary.”

Radiant flames churned to life and danced in front of my vision. They were slow and soft compared to the usually lively motion, almost as if joining us in mourning. Even still, they had a job to do and slowly formed words in the air.

Midway through displaying the words, silver swam through my vision and the Blackwater Anomalous Biosystems displayed additional information.

| Rose Window Ear Link

Type: Equipment - Netherworld

Anomalous Property: Voice of the Penitent

Effect: While speaking truthfully, listeners instinctively perceive your sincerity and are more likely to trust you. |

The fire flickered for a moment, and then condensed midair into an earring. It had a red rose window pendent that caught the light. A chain styled as a thorn vine curled up to an ear cuff. It was incredibly beautiful… so much so that I threw it as soon as it appeared in my hand. It melted into fire before it could even hit the ground.

The rewards didn’t stop there, though. I got one more from an unexpected source, and it was something I was more than happy to take.

++ Anchor survived Netherworld: Church of Repentance ++

++ 100 Vitae Acquired ++

It was more Vitae than I knew what to do with. Had it been any other time, I would’ve been happy about it. I didn’t know what I’d spend it on quite yet, but I’d figure something out.

”Woah, what is this?” Bradson called out in astonishment. In his hands, he held a new rifle. The barrel of the rifle sparked with fire, and a deep red glow emanated throughout the body of the gun.

”It’s a reward.” I sighed. His life just got so much more complicated for having that. At least he was still alive, though. “For surviving an Overlap.”

”Did you get one too?” He looked up from his new rifle, and held it out away from his body like he didn’t know what to do with it. “If anyone, you should’ve.”

“Yes.” I turned away from him and summoned out the Rose Window Ear Link. A warm weight pressed down on my left ear. The last thing I wanted was for Hades to catch wind that I got something from an Overlap, so why not use its properties to my advantage?

“Ah, that’s a relief…” He looked at the corpses, and then swallowed thickly. Just like me, he was trying to distract himself from the gruesome deaths.

“I got them back.” My voice sounded weird when I spoke again. The words were true. The heat radiating down my ear confirmed as much. It wasn’t a lie, though its deceptive placement reminded me of something Lilah would do.

”Oh… right. Doesn’t seem fair, Canary.” He frowned and offered me the rifle. He didn’t seem to notice the flash of flames around my ear—was it an effect only I could see? “Here, you should take this.”

| Saint’s Hellbore Automatic Rifle

Type: Equipment - Netherworld

Anomalous Property: Bullets of the Merciful

Effect: All bullets loaded into this rifle are converted into non-lethal rounds. If enough shots hit their target, the target is incapacitated. |

“Keep it.” I waved a hand and backed away. His reward seemed so much better than mine… though I was hardly in situations where I needed non-lethal options these days. “You’ll get more use out of it than me.”

”Are you sure?” He hesitated for a moment.

”Yeah… and keep it close to your chest that you have it, alright? I’ve heard about these kinds of things.”

“Ma’am!” He saluted me, though sagged once his eyes fell back to the mound of corpses. The rewards were a nice distraction, but they were just that—a distraction. The stench was already pressing into my nose. “And them?”

”Harbor will handle it…” I sighed heavily, and shook my head. So many dead… at least there were survivors this time.

”Right, of course, Canary.”

“One more thing…” I nodded to him and quickly ran him through how to store and retrieve his rifle. By the time we finished up, sirens were already starting to close in. I prepared myself for the long and tedious process of being caught up in something like this.

— — —

Seven hours later, I was released from questioning. As it turned out, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. That was, in part, thanks to my new earring. Answering truthfully and dodging questions got me through it in no time, and writing up the report for Harbor took longer than the actual questioning.

Just as I finished writing up the report, a knock came from the door. “Can I come in?”

”Quinn, it’s your office to begin with.” I shut down the laptop and let out a tired yawn. I hadn’t gotten much rest since the Overlap. “‘Course you can come in.”

“Didn’t want to disturb you.” The Guardian poked her head in through the door and held up two paper sacks already darkening with grease. ”I brought burgers.”

My stomach grumbled at just the scent of the food. I hadn’t eaten anything all day, which was totally at odds with the doctor’s orders to get me to fill back out after the Mire. ”You're a saint.”

”Oh no, oh no, nothing of the sort.” She dropped the burger onto the table and grinned. “Well, if you insist.”

I reached for a burger, but stopped just before grabbing one. “You heard about what happened?”

”That my poor Canary got caught in an Overlap, you mean?” She grabbed a burger and pressed it up into my hand. “Mhmm.”

“Harkness told you?” I unwrapped the burger, and my nose twitched erratically. It smelled even more divine up close.

“Who else?” She sighed and shook her head. “I’m glad to see you still all in one piece, Reyna. Seriously, an Overlap? Of all things to be caught in?”

“… you’re taking it better than I expected.” I didn’t want to tell her or Sylvie about it ‘cause I figured they’d panic. I was out anyway, so it hardly mattered.

“Funny how screaming in your car all the way to get burgers calms you down, isn’t it?” She laughed, and collapsed onto the couch next to me. “You literally just got out of the hospital.”

I covered my mouth with a hand and mumbled around a mouthful of food, “sorry.”

“Nothing to apologize about.” She leaned back onto the couch, and stared up at the ceiling. “Not like you chose to go into one.”

“Right, right…” My voice softened, and I stretched up a hand to brush my new earring. I thought things through about the Rose Window Ear Link. Compared to the Visitor’s Pass, there was no point keeping it tucked away.

I mean, it didn’t look anomalous in any visible way. If anyone asked, I finally decided to get my ears pierced… though it was a bit unusual for an Apex to get piercings. The weight was certainly something I’d have to get used to.

She lightly grabbed my tail. When I didn’t pull it away, she curled up next to me and rubbed her face against the soft fur. “Still, Reyna… Pyre, how unlucky can you be? First that Mire business, then this?”

”Tell me about it.” My tail pulled weirdly as she buried her face into the silver fluff. After hesitating a moment, I decided to just let her have it for now. She did bring me burgers. “Sorry for worrying you.”

“It’s fine. I’d rather worry about you than know nothing.” Her words had a bitter tinge as she stared at me. It felt like she was talking about more than just the Overlap. “Our new assignment is totally safe… safer, at least.”

”What is it, by the way?” She’d been a little cagey about it since I got back. She quoted something like ‘since you’re on leave, leave the work matters alone’. ‘Course, that didn't work well when the work matters, like the Overlap, came to me.

“Um… you remember back in the academy how we got sent on field missions under a Canary and Guardian liaison from Harbor?” Quinn let go of my tail, and it snapped back to my side.

”Yeah? Wait, don’t tell me…”

”I… I pressured my father to pull some strings and got us in as the liaisons for this year.” She shrugged, and snagged a burger from the bags. “Should be easier.”

My heart skipped a beat in my chest. She called this easier?! We’d have to worry about stupid kids that just Awakened and even stupider fools who wanted to become Canaries! And! And I was terrible with kids! Someone like me shouldn’t ever be around them. It was—wait… kids that just Awakened?

My tail’s tip gave a traitorous twitch, and a large grin filled my face. Hehe! Was I going to teach Sylvie? Could I really watch my little sister grow into a wonderful Guardian from a front row seat? Oh! And I could help her with her homework and all of that! I didn’t get a chance to learn much at the academy, but combat classes were a piece of cake.

“Figured you’d like it.” Quinn patted my leg and stood up. “You’ll have plenty of time to, um, listen in on other classes too. We’ll be in charge of the freshmen cohorts.”

“Thank you, Quinn!” I lunged across the couch and pulled her into a hug. My tail broke out into full swishes behind me. Best gift ever!

“It was nothing.” She patted me on the back, and pulled back slightly to look into my eyes. “So, are you ready to go back to Silverport Academy?”