#((Do I need to tag human trafficking? No; genuine question: anyone here triggered by that because that's a running thing on this blog.))

[forebodingprophet]

Moirai || Clotho C4P1

“Shit, it got away,” Minoru spat as he went to collect the unconscious Ofthalmós.

“Wouldn’t have happened if you were halfway decent at your job, fuckwit,” Roul spat.  “Having to do this twice in one day is not my idea of fun, but 3 out of 4 will have to do.  After all, the main prize is this guy.  That thing wouldn’t have kept anyways if it can teleport,” he cackled, hefting Théo as Minoru handed the man over.  “He doesn’t look like he has any powers, but he’ll still fetch quite the pretty penny.  Enough to offset the cost of raising the other two and losing that egg at least.”

“After all the effort we put in though, it’s such a waste.”

“Wouldn’t have needed to be an issue if you’d done what I told you and raised him up the way they said to.”

“And we wouldn’t have needed to sell him if you hadn’t jumped the gun,” Minoru growled.  Raoul scoffed.  “You and I both know that raising him to be one of us never would have worked.  That house would have dug it out of him one way or another, and it’d have been a lost cause.  And even with this plan, it was a crapshoot at best.  We got lucky when he managed to snag the young patriarch, and you ruined it by throwing a fuss over a children’s fight.”

“Hey.  Don’t forget I’m the one in charge here,” Raoul spat.  “Yeah, we lucked out that the holy brat himself came to do the investigation, but the whole thing was too delicate to leave to some kid.  I’ll just be glad to finally be rid of him.  I always thought it was a dumb idea.”

“You’re not the one that had to play dad for 12 years,” Minoru hissed.  “And all we had to do was get him to bring the kid back to the house just once, and we’d be good.  Kids fight all the fucking time.  If you hadn’t taken him outta the picture, catching the other one probably would have gone a lot easier!”

“As if!  I don’t know what kind of idealistic scenario you were imagining, but that guy had no interest in coming into the house.  I doubt that brat would have made the situation any easier.  And I still did a better job in the last month than you did in those 12 years!”

Minoru scoffed.  The man hadn’t lifted a finger in the month or so they’d been there.  He hadn’t even spoken to the boy.

“I swear, I don’t know why they keep sticking me with fuck ups like you.”  Raoul opened a panel in the floor before dropping Théo inside and shoving him in next to Hikaze and Itsu so the panel would close properly. 

Minoru scoffed but didn’t bother trying to argue.  This man wasn’t the type who would accept anything but total agreement.  This was all way too much trouble.  They’d just gotten here a month ago, and now they had to move again.  He’d been excited when he first got this assignment, but now he wanted nothing to do with it, even if the payout was supposed to be fantastic.  It was too much of a long game.

“Now help me pick up the rest of ‘em,” Roul ordered.  “We can’t have it lookin’ like something actually went down.  Damn thing’s useful in the moment, but I’m not using it outside again.”

“It’ll alter their memories and perception though, so what does it matter if they all wake up in the street?” Minoru grumbled, trudging back outside.

“Fucking idiot,” Roul spat under his breath.  “We still gotta clear out.  It’s going to be at least a day.  We can’t have anyone realizing that something’s up before we take off.  Not to mention, the holy brat himself will probably be the one doing the investigating again.  If anything is even remotely off, we’ll be in trouble!  The organization’s managed to stay under their radar all these years because of this thing.  We can’t let those bastards catch onto us.”

Minoru’s eyes drifted to the pocket the creature was being kept in.  The spheres were only good for a single-use, but they were effective every time.  To make them even more convenient, only certain people could see them, although he wasn’t entirely sure of the requirement.  However, they were never given to someone as low on the ladder as Minoru, so he had no idea how to even use one.

“Dammit, the girls get the easy job while we have to clean everything up before we can leave,” Minoru grumbled, picking up one of the townspeople by their arms and dragging them into their house.  “Hurry up!  We don’t have long before someone comes looking for him!”

◊◊◊

               The first thing Hikaze registered was a profound aching that covered almost his entire body.  His back was especially bad, but his shoulders and arms clearly didn’t like anything about the way he was laying.  His stomach and ribs were also in some pretty intense pain.  He recognized the clattering of wooden wheels and the dusty smell of a wagon, but couldn’t immediately remember how he’d gotten there.  The carriage went over a bump, knocking him a few centimeters into the air before gravity mercilessly brought him back down, slamming his head, hip, and shoulder into the hard wood and making him cry out.  He moved to sit up only to realize he was restrained.  No wonder his shoulders hurt.  His feet were bound too.  Hikaze groaned as the memories came back.  Right, he’d been beaten within an inch of his life by his uncle, but he couldn’t remember anything after that.  Did his family decide to move?  He started looking around, trying to find Itsu, but all he saw were unlabeled boxes and bags.  What caught his attention, however, was the sight of another person, laid on his side with his semi-long black hair fallen over part of his olive-tanned face.

“Théo?” Hikaze asked weakly.

               “Good morning, Hikaze,” the man replied, in his usual polite tone.

               “Why are you-”

               “I came to deliver the young master’s pay for you.  They, unfortunately, got the better of me.”

               Hikaze grimaced.  “I’m sorry.”

               “Well, given that you’re also tied up here, unless it’s some elaborate ploy to earn my trust-”

“Never!” Hikaze cut in, looking genuinely horrified.

“-it’s not your fault,” Théo replied, smiling reassuringly.  “But we should probably be quiet.  If they know we’re up, they may come to check on us.”

Hikaze felt his heart stop for a moment and nodded carefully.  Then, as if to further cement that fact, the tarp at the back of the carriage pulled aside.  Hikaze instinctively closed his eyes as soon as the light hit him, but his breathing wavered.  He hadn’t been able to get a good look, but the adrenaline rushing through him made even the clacking of the wooden wheels beneath him sound muted.  Heavy footsteps fell between them, and while he couldn’t see it, Hikaze could feel their owner shifting to stare down at him. 

“You got a shit poker face, boy,” came the gruff voice of his uncle before Hikaze felt himself launched into the side of the wagon.  Having taken another kick to the stomach, his eyes shot open, and he gasped for air, trying to get his bearings but struggling since his hands were bound.  “Don’t try to play dead on me.”

“Well, I wasn’t awake before,” Hikaze grunted out with a cracking voice, “but I am now.  Should you really be manhandling the merchandise?” 

His uncle scoffed.  “You still clearly have enough energy to mouth off, so don’t push your luck, or I really will beat you within an inch of your life.  And enjoy it.” 

Hikaze huffed and blew a lock of hair out of his face.

“Just be quiet and behave yourself.  The more I gotta deal with you, the worse you’re gonna get.  We’re almost there anyways, so just shut up and stay put.”  With that, his uncle turned around and jumped back out of the moving carriage.  Hikaze briefly caught a glimpse of two horses, one of which was mounted, and realized escaping wasn’t going to be as simple as he’d hoped.

“You alright?” Théo whispered, re-opening his own eyes.

“Yeah,” Hikaze replied, still sounding a little pained.  “I’ll be fine.”

Théo sighed in relief.  “I have to say, I was rather surprised when I woke up to see you laying across from me,” Théo added.  “I hadn’t been permitted to meet with you, but I never would have expected you to be here.”

“You and me both…  Hey, they captured Itsu with me.  You haven’t seen him, have you?”

Théo sadly shook his head.  “Apologies.  I haven’t been up much longer than you have, so I cannot say.”  The two of them looked around the carriage as best as they could.  It was filled with boxes and chests stacked at most two high, some of which had toppled over, and although Itsu may have been in one of them, it was impossible to tell unless the little soldier started making noise.  Hikaze sighed and returned his attention to Théo.

“So what-…” Hikaze hesitated, unsure if he actually wanted to ask this question.  “-what’s going to happen?”  Even though he knew some of the stuff Esaias had gone through, what few stories Esaias had been willing to tell him had been vague, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was going to come next.”

“Well…”  Hikaze could tell that Théo was hesitant, and he couldn’t blame the guy.  Hikaze was technically 12 years old, but he had the memories and experiences of an adult in his head, so he should be able to handle it better than a normal 12-year-old.  ‘Should’ being the key term.  “I can’t speak for what will happen to you, but the fact that you haven’t been killed yet despite how beat up you look raises your chances.  I’m not saying they won’t kill you, it may have just been inconvenient for them at the time, but given that you haven’t, they may see some further value in you.  It means they may be thinking about selling you.”  Hikaze pulled a face of disgust, but, in Théo’s eyes, this was a good thing.  Having value meant they wouldn’t kill you or do anything that might lower your value before a sale is completed, which insured some degree of safety, although Hikaze’s perceived value wasn’t particularly great right now, but the man wasn’t about to tell him that..  “As long as you hold value, they won’t do anything that might jeopardize their ability to profit from you.”

“Are you kidding?  I don’t need a mirror to know I look like shit right now.”

Théo gave a wry laugh.  “I can’t deny it.  When I first woke, had I not seen that you were bound, I would have thought you dead.  With any luck, you may receive some degree of medicinal treatment once we arrive at our destination,” he replied optimistically.

“… And?  What about you?”

“If I’m lucky, I’ll be sold off as a male concubine to some noble, I’m sure,” Théo replied.  “I don’t have any powers, but it isn’t entirely rare for the gift to skip a generation.  There’s no shortage of nobility around the world who covet the house’s powers.”

“That still sounds disgusting,” Hikaze replied, his face pale.

“Which is why we should probably come up with an escape plan,” Théo replied.

“Well, I can tell you one thing we have in our favor: all we got holding us back are ropes,” Hikaze pointed out with a smirk.  C’mere, I’ll chew through yours if you chew through mine.  Then we can start looking for Itsu.”

“An excellent idea.  I was about to suggest the same.”

◊◊◊

To most of the rest of the house, Anastasios was almost the picture of a perfect patriarch; calm, always on the moral high ground, and able to solve most any situation without even letting so much as a hair getting out of place, so to say that his family members were alarmed to see him sprinting through the quiet halls would be an understatement.  He all but skidded into the teleportation point and had to pause and lean in the doorway to catch his breath.  The woman there, an aníschyros in her late-20s, stared at him like he had two heads.

“Wow, Stasi, did you run anyone over on your way here?” she asked sarcastically.

“Shut up,” he hissed between breaths as he brushed loose hair out of his face.  “Just tell me what’s going on.  Why is Skirí here, but not Théodore?”

“Beats me,” she replied, exasperated.  “Skirí can’t communicate telepathically yet, so I haven’t been able to learn anything in the ten minutes it’s been since I sent you the messenger.  All I can tell is that she’s pretty shaken.” 

Anastasios looked over at the Espurr in front of her who was holding out her little paws as she walked towards him on unsteady legs.  First things first, Anastasios had to figure out what’d happened.  He crouched down on the floor, reaching forward and scooping the furry thing into his hands.  Skirí had been with Théo since not long after Théo had become Anastsios’ attendant, so she and Théo had gotten incredibly close.  She’d never been able to communicate telepathically, but that had never been a problem… until now.

“Skirí, where’s Théo?  What happened?”

The Espurr squeaked and mewled pitifully, but, unfortunately, Anastasios couldn’t get anything out of her other than that she was scared and confused.

“Celia?”  The Darkrai rose out of Anastasios’ shadow and took the small Pokemon in his hands.  The Espurr mewed at her for several moments, and then Esaias set her down.

“It would appear that Théodore has been abducted.  Unfortunately, Skirí’s memory of the incident is somewhat hazy.  All she remembers is that something was called out and struck everyone present with debilitating fear.  Whatever it is can also tamper with memories, but Théodore gave her the order to run before it could fully affect her.  She has some pieces missing, but she does remember that Hikaze’s family is involved.”

Anastasios was struck with a strong sense of dread.  Now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, he knew that someone was going around abducting members of House Ofthalmós, and, to make matters worse, they’d taken his attendant.  Théo was privy to a number of classified pieces of information about how the house ran itself, including information about where family outside the house was located and, of course, what times Celia left the house unguarded.  Being Anastasios’ attendant gave him far more value than simply being from House Ofthalmós.  He had to find him before they realized that or it wouldn’t just be Théo in danger, but the whole house.

“… Did you see Hikaze?” Anastasios asked, hesitating.  The name tasted like pith in his mouth.  Skirí chirped, and Celia shook her head.

“She doesn’t remember seeing him.  She remembers being told that they couldn’t meet with him.  They said he wouldn’t leave his room, but something about it felt off.”

Anastasios knitted his brows.  Hikaze must’ve left with Itsu on his own journey without talking to his family.  For now, Anastasios needed to think out a new plan of action.

“For now, I’m going into town.  Skirí, I’d appreciate you taking me there.”

The Espurr hesitated, chirping quietly.  She was obviously terrified, and it’d be cruel of him to force her to go back, but, without her, the trip would take hours, and he didn’t have time for that.  Finally, Skirí nodded,, and Celia handed her over to Anastasios.

“I promise, I’m going to find who took Théo,” Anastasios assured her before turning to the other Ofthalmós in the room.  “Cosíma, if I’m not back by dinner, assume something has happened.” 

“Uhhhh… don’t think our Patriarch will be happy with his heir going off on his own like that,” the woman pointed out.

“Well papu can suck it!” Anastasios spat.  At that moment, the messenger Cosíma had sent to him finally arrived, breathing heavily and carrying Fotiálos who vigorously wiggled about in his arms, trying to get to Anastasios.  Apparently, when Anastsios took off, the small flame soldier had tried to follow after him but couldn’t keep up.  Everything about him screamed ‘Take me too!’  Finally, the person holding him let go, and he darted over to Anastasios’ side. 

Celia shook her head.  “The training regimen you’re used to is complete,” she said to a confused Fotiálos.  “We are not going to see your brother and his trainer.”  Fotiálos looked up at Anastasios.  Until now, every day had been spent with Hikaze and Itsu from the day he’d hatched.  Perhaps that had been a mistake.  However, at the time, even Anastasios believed that they would all be going on a journey together.  The fact that such a thing would no longer come to pass made his chest clench.  He didn’t want to admit that he’d been looking forward to it more than he let on.  But he’d made a mistake in how he handled the issue of Hikaze, and now, no doubt, the boy would want nothing to do with him.  He needed to distance himself from anything and everything to do with his former best friend.  No matter how much that may hurt.  What he was doing now was more important.  But the small voice of Esaias inside of him said that there was no way that Kazuya would abandon Esaias over something like this, and that went the same for Hikaze.  If he just apologized properly-

Anastasios bent down again and patted the soldier on the head.  “We won’t be seeing them again,” Anastasios told him, trying his best to keep a neutral face.  “Hikaze and Itsu have left.”

Fotiálos snorted in indignance.  ‘Why would they leave?  We were all supposed to go together.’

“That’s just how it turned out.”  He couldn’t bring himself to tell him that they left because Hikaze was rightfully angry with him.  “We’ll be on our own from here, but right now there’s a different problem.  I’m going to investigate, so you have to stay here.”

“Bring him along.  Was such a thing not the point of all that training he did?” Celia pointed out.

“True.  I don’t expect a battle this time, however-”  He hadn’t exactly expected a battle last time either, and even if he took Skirí, she wasn’t equipped to handle battle.  He glanced down at the small cat in his hands who still seemed to be working up her courage on whether or not to come.  “Yes, you’ll come along too, Fotiálos.  Does that help, Skirí?”

Skirí hesitated but then nodded.  She would take them.

“Good.  Let’s hurry.  The sooner we investigate, the sooner we can catch up.”