Rogues

Episode 4 | Em

The moment she began to feel her body fading away, an overwhelming sense of relief hit her. Finally she'd be truely free of everything that that faithful night had caused. She closed her eyes, welcoming the drifting feeling of nothingness.

It was darker than she'd expected, once she'd opened her eyes, but they adjusted to the lesser light in no time. She spotted the others stood around waiting for her and beemed at them as they turned to see who had just arrived.

Botis was a regular Water ghoul, nothing special, no unusual powers of behavior. Compared to her friends, she was really not much to look at. The only reason they had told here about what they were was because she'd seen Prince's titan form once and asked him about it in front of them. She'd been glad that they'd trusted her enough to all confess to being what they were.

When they'd started discussing the self purging with each other, they'd realized that the symbols had to be written in the blood of a water ghoul. A side effect was that whoever the doner of the blood used would be teleported with them after all the portals had closed. They'd asked Botis about it and she'd gladly agreed to donate. She wouldn't be leaving much behind anyway.

Only a few years prier, a Clergy Earth ghoul had snuck into her family's home and tried to kill them. The reason for his actions remained unknown however because, just as he'd brocken down the door to their dinning room where the family had just finished eating, an off-the-radar Quintessence ghoul had tackled him to the floor and murdered him. She didn't know what had happened to the Quintessence ghoul after than night, since he'd ran away the moment the attempted killer was dead, but she would forever be thankful to him. Her two brothers, twins and still only kits, had been sleeping in their room at the time and, if that Earth ghoul had gotten to her and her parent, than they would definitely have been next.

However, her mother's reaction to the event had been far from ideal. She took it as a sign that Botis and her brothers had been saved for a reason and that they were destined to be the best of the best. Botis had been immediately withdrawn from the academy she'd been studying at for years, hoping to become a Clergy ghoul, and homeschooled instead on only the Ghoulish laws and Council teachings. Her mother had decided that the life of a Council ghoul was exactly what she was meant for and had forced the idea upon her every day since.

Botis had hated the thought of being a Council ghoul. Politics really weren't her thing. But her mother had been giving her no choice and had been preparing to contact the Council on her behalf the moment she deemed her to be ready.

In return for donating her blood for the self purgings, Bismuth had agreed to erase her parents memories of her so that they wouldn't file any missing persons reports and there would be no chance of them being found. Her brothers had still been too young to have remembered her properly and, even if they had, no amount of reminders of her could trigger her parents memories to return. Only Bismuth could bring them back.

So, technically, Botis was leaving to Earth for the same reason as the others: To escape the Council.

"You can't stay in there all day, mate." Bismuth called over to her, "We're heading back to Aquaika for the evening." Botis just hummed a response, too relaxed to really think of anything to say.

She was laying in the water pool in the main area, her head resting on the side and her eyes closed. The space had been reserved specifically for her since Water ghouls found it very relaxing to be in their element and it was also a healthy habit to keep their skin hydrated. Prince had complemented her hair once while she'd been in the pool, saying that it 'shined like stars' when it was wet. Since then, she'd always made sure that her hair was completely soaked even if she planned for head to be out of the water for the most part. It gave her a splash of confidence.