A World Without Power ⊹ kotlc

06 - themis

I sigh and wipe my brow, wishing I was back with the gnomes at Wildwood. They had been kind enough to take me in after I was branded Unworthy, and here I am, working day and night at Red Zero listening to reports. Reports of failure.

Over and over again, mission after mission. Spy after spy after spy after spy, caught or wounded or trapped. And now one of our best infiltrators, Dolos, would be out for a long amount of time with a serious injury.

I couldn't do this.

After the group has light leaped away to their respective homes, I turn to head back to my tent when I hear a slight rustle. Frowning, I stretch out my Guster senses and feel no one in the wind. Reassured, I move to walk again, but a weak male voice stops me.

"Wait." I turn towards the sound of the voice.

"How did you sneak up on me?" I ask, trying yet again to sense their presence. "I don't know you. What is your name? How did you get here?" 

"I followed the group with the wounded girl and the woman in the cloak. I need your help. The Red are the only people who can help me save everyone."

"How do you know about the Red?" I ask, my voice becoming a whisper. 

"I was once in the Black Swan," the person says. "I come from the family who, in the olden days, was the most powerful in all of elvenkind. I was best friends with the tortured boy who sits on the throne next to Empress Gisela, forced to watch as the girl he cared for more than anything, his father, and his closest friends were executed. Let's just say I...have some connections."

I gasp and form a mini tornado with both my hands, feeling the wind rush through my hair and sting my face. "You work for Gisela."

"No," he says, and I feel my wind slowly melt away. "I want to stop Gisela. And it will start with saving her son. Read this." A piece of thick parchment is pressed into my hand, and I blush. Obviously, this person has not figured out my blindness yet, and I intend to keep it that way.

"I don't have time for that. Just tell me what it says." 

"It's a letter from Keefe Sencen. And it seems he wants out." The man reads a few of the sentences to me, and I blow out a breath. He really wasn't kidding.

"Let me contact someone," I tell him. "Hold on." I reach a hand into my pocket and withdraw my Imparter. "Show me Flicker." I feel the gadget vibrate. "What's up, Themis?"

"You need to come to Red Zero. Now." My voice must've been as commanding as I had wished, because she clicked away immediately. A few minutes later, I hear the stone doors grind open and soft footsteps pad into the clearing.

Flicker.

Blind in one eye. One of the Red's top spies. An unassuming, Unworthy Froster.

She would be perfect for what I needed.

"Who is this?" she asks. 

"That is...an informant. He has a letter. Keefe Sencen is breaking. He needs to get away from Gisela. We we have to help him get out! This could be the key to fracturing her empire! The key to remodeling the elvin world. The key to getting rid of everything. We have to conduct a mission." I can practically feel Flicker's disgust through the air.

"Keefe Sencen? No way he wants out. He's a Mommy's boy through and through. He does anything she wants, without complaint. And sure, it'd be nice to get rid of him. But there's no saving him."

"If I may," the mystery person interrupted, "I knew Keefe once upon a time, and he was the least of a Mommy's Boy I've ever met. He loathed his mom with every fiber of his being. She just came back to haunt him in the end."

"I think we can do this," I told Flicker. "He seems sincere. And we really, really need this opportunity. Gisela's getting stronger every day, especially with her son by her side. We need to change that." Flicker blows out a breath.

"Can I ask you something?" She asks the mystery man. 

"Sure. Ask away."

"How do I know I can trust you? I don't even know where you come from. I don't even know your name!" He chuckles.

"Oh, I think you've heard of me. You can trust me because I'm Fitz Vacker, that's why."