Everything was just as Sil had said. Ophelia’s room was empty. She was simply gone.
“What did she say when you talked to her last?” Sil asked, coming into the room right on my heels.
“Nothing? She said that that someone was watching. I asked her about the Wailing Void and she seemed here for a moment, but it didn’t last long. I left her in the exact same state that I’d found her in.”
“That is very troubling…”
I rushed to the window and peered out. It looked like I could reach the roof from here. I glanced down at the street three floors below. There’s no way she had jumped down, which meant up was the only option.
“She can’t have made it far. If we hurry, we can probably catch up to her.” I started to climb out and Sil’s fingers dug into my shoulder.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“Maybe, but if I don’t find her, she’ll be the one that ends up dead.” I shrugged away from his grip and climbed out.
The roof was slanted enough that I had to shift my weight to keep from slipping too far toward the edge. Sil climbed up next to me, swiping hair out of his face. He glanced over the edge and immediately jolted back upright.
The city was dark before us, splotches of light rising from between the buildings.
“She could be anywhere,” he said dryly.
“So we better start looking then.”
We jumped down to the roof of the next building over and began to search. As we did, I let my thoughts wander to everything she’d been through since that day she’d stolen my coin purse.
With the way everything had played out so far, I couldn’t help but wonder if the System’s intervention—when it had pushed me toward infiltrating Aurelion’s warehouse that first time—had damned the girl to a life of misery.
Then there was the still lingering question of why the false empress just hadn’t killed Ophelia. I still couldn’t understand it. Or why Ophelia had never fully recovered.
I’d seen a sparkle of the girl that had stood up to me before in her eyes this evening. But it had been so fleeting. Had it come back again after I’d left?
We spent several hours searching the rooftops for any clue which direction Ophelia might have gone. But, at the end of it all, Sil had been right. She could have gone anywhere and there was nothing I could do to help her now.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true.
“How soon do you think we could put out a message to the network?” I asked Irinda as Sil and I entered the master suite.
She was sat behind the desk, looking over several papers before getting the day started. Sunlight shone through the window that ran along the back wall, painting part of the floor in warm, yellow light.
“Already sent out the first messenger,” she said, looking up at us. “I didn’t tell them who she was, but I gave them a description and told them to get in contact with us as quickly as possible if she was spotted anywhere within the city.”
I let out a breath of relief. I should have thought of that sooner.
The network was an ever-expanding group of men, women, and even street kids that we’d pulled together based on everyone we knew in the city. Lilan's connections with the rebels within the city had helped, but it was mostly people that Irinda and Will had known, connections she’d been able to make thanks to being family.
“Thank the Seven,” I murmured and sank into the chair before the desk.
Irinda gave me a long examining look. “When is the last time you slept?”
I couldn’t remember. I shrugged.
“You should try to sleep.” She said as she straightened up the pages on the desk. “The network will keep an eye on things. I’m going to assume based on how you both came in—and how awful you look—that you didn’t find anything.”
It wasn’t a question, but Sil shook his head anyway. “Nothing. She could have gone anywhere.”
“Maybe she went back to Aurelion,” I halfway joked. Nobody laughed. Something heavy settled across my shoulders.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
If she had gone back to Aurelion… Gods that could spell disaster in so many ways. He already had Felix and gods knows how many other kids running around with System access.
I shook the thought from my mind and focused back on Irinda. “Have our new visitors showed up yet?”
“Yes, they’re resting in the small room on the third floor. The one that used to be storage. I had some of the girls set up sleeping mats up there so they’d have a peaceful place to rest. away from the noise.”
“Good. What about the girl? Yen? She say anything?”
Irinda gave a quick shake of her head. “She seemed mostly out of it still.”
“Fantastic,” I said under my breath. “I’ll see if I can get her talking.”
I tried to ignore the look Irinda gave me as I left the room and headed upstairs.
The small room was only half the length of the room that Ophelia had been staying in. Several crates that used to fill it had been pushed to one side, and two sleeping mats had been draped across most of the floor.
It was so crowded that whoever slept on the mat the furthest in the room would need to climb over the other person to reach it.
“Hey Seth,” I said to the young boy as I settled into a crouch next to his mat.
Sil leaned against the wall behind me, calming notes of music brushing against my senses. He’d thought that one of his restoration spells—one called The Breath of a Peaceful Night—might calm Yen and her brother some. Maybe even get her talking.
“She hasn’t spoken,” he told me, shooting a glance at his sister. “I keep trying, but she doesn’t respond.” Tears pushed at the corners of his eyes.
“She just needs a little time,” I told him, ruffling his hair. An idea struck its way across my mind. If it worked, I might be able to ask Yen more about Ophelia. It wasn't a guarantee, but she had known the other girl longer.
“Hey, I’m going to try to talk to your sister, okay? Did you get enough food earlier?”
Seth nodded. “Yeah, that lady, Miss Irinda? She gave us lots of sugared oats and toast.”
“Good, good. Well, what if you went with my friend Sil here to get something to drink? Maybe something warm for Yen, too?”
His eyes danced from me to his sister. “Do you think that will help?”
“Yeah, I do.” I kept my voice soft. I needed him out of the room if I was going to put this idea to work.
“Okay.” He seemed to perk up at having some kind of direction.
I tucked that though away, in case I needed it later, and motioned to Sil. “Can you keep this up while not in the room?”
He shook his head.
“Alright, that’s fine. Keep it going for him then, and get him some warm milk or something.”
“Yeah, of course,” Sil said, stepping out of the room with Seth.
Once they were gone, I stepped over Seth’s mat and crouched down beside Yen.
“I won’t lie to you and say I know what you’re going through right now. I do, but that isn’t what’s important. What matters is that I can give you a way to get back at the person that caused it.”
I watched her face for any sign of movement. When none came, I continued,
“You probably blame yourself, but the truth is Eian’s fate was sealed the moment that you all started operating under Aurelion’s direction. He’s a conniving man. Calls himself a lion, but he might as well be a snake.”
Her mouth twitched, her jaw clenching. I glanced down to see her hand squeeze into a tight fist.
“I can give you a way to get back at him.”
Her head moved, her eyes meeting mine. She bit out the words as she spoke them.
“All he has done is taken from us and forced us to do what he wants.”
I nodded.
“I just wanted to protect Seth. Staying was smarter. Safer.”
“It was,” I agreed.
“But now it isn’t.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “It isn’t. The pieces are going to start falling very soon, and when they do, the game isn’t going to lean in Aurelion’s favor.”
“What does it get you?”
I thought about lying to her. I could. I could tell her I just wanted to help her get even. Help her feel better about what had happened to the stupid kid that she’d stabbed. Tell her that if she hadn't done it, I would have.
Instead, I said five simple words. “It will make you stronger.”
*** *** ***
I stared at the message before me; the words hovering next to Yen’s face.
=User Information=
Name: Yen Darrenhal | Title: First Talon of The Dragon’s Wing | Class: Warrior | Subclass: Spirit Blade
“It feels… strange,” she whispered. “I don’t really feel any different… and yet…”
She tightened her fist and then punched it into the sleeping mat beneath her. The small mattress-like pad let out a puff of air as the cloth split where her fist had connected. If she’d punched any harder, she might have cracked the wood beneath it.
“It will take some getting used to,” I told her. “Did it say anything about a restriction?”
“Yeah, something about 15 hours remaining.” Her eyes glazed over as she got lost in the System’s various windows again.
I let her, instead turning to the other messages it had spit up at me.
Party Leader +1
New Skill Perk: Commander’s Call - Beckons all party members to return to your vicinity when activated. Applies Commanded buff to all members who pass within 20 meters of the Party Leader.
It seemed even the Party Leader skill could be upgraded, just as my other skills could. I wasn’t exactly sure what that got me, other than the new Skill Perk, but it did sound like a useful skill.
The biggest question, though, was would it work on Ophelia? I hadn’t thought much about the Party Leader skill since I’d unlocked it. Could I have used it on her sooner to figure out what she knew about the Wailing Void?
I cursed myself for continuing to forget about the real advantages that I had at my disposal. I didn’t agree with what Aurelion was doing… if he really was forcing those kids into his service. But I also couldn’t argue it was an effective way to grow an army.
At least I had given the first members of mine a choice.
Sort of.
“Try not to get too lost in everything,” I told Yen as Sil and Seth returned. She was too overwhelmed with the new world I'd just introduced her to, and all my attempts at steering the conversation toward Ophelia had fallen short.
I said goodbye to the boy, who was ecstatic when his sister called out to him, and then left the room with Sil, explaining what I’d done along the way.
I left out the part about the Party Leader skill—that was something only Irinda and I knew at the moment. It was also a big part of why she hadn’t wanted to accept the System’s access before. I couldn’t blame her, especially after the way Aurelion was handling things.
“I think I know how to find Ophelia,” I told him. “Or, at least I’m going to try something. I guess we’ll see if it works.”