Ederios

Rebels Beneath A Sky of Ash - Part 12

Vin watched the streets outside, leaves fell, not a soul stirred. She sat in the lounge room on the first floor of the two storey house, situated on Sanmon Street, in North Sector.

They had needed to find a new place to stay, Yaon had destroyed their old home, and she also knew where that street was. And, she knew it was in West Sector, which ruled out a whole chunk of Hijekinshyna to stay.

The crisp, brown leaves fell to the cobblestone street. Vin was seated on a mahogany chair, comfortable for its plush velvet cushion. She watched the still dawn, her brown hair the colour of almond. Rain fell like tears against the windows, bouncing off the roof.

"How long are you going to watch me for?" she said.
"As long as it takes for you to lift that leaf." Lei replied.
Vin sighed, "Why do I even need to do this, I saved your asses in East, I don't need training."
"You have powers, along with shapeshifting. Where we can enhance our human form through our shifts, you can do so too along with the ability to fly, throw fire, and you can shift into other human beings."
"And, why do I need training, why can't I just figure it out myself?"
Lei lifted herself from where she leaned against the doorframe, and over to Vin, seating herself in a chair opposite her.

"Imagine this," she said, "You're fighting a Pulmanor, and you just can't. You can't master anything because you weren't taught how to do so, you could hurt yourself badly trying to fly, same with fire."

Pulmanors. The name sent a shiver down Vin's spine. They were ghostly creatures, dressed in black robes, possessing no face. Just a hollow, fleshy inside. They breathed like monsters, and anyone who had ever engaged in a fight with them did not come back.

"Fine."



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meneela sat on the other side of the oak, varnished wooden desk.

"You failed to kill the shapeshifters?"
"Yes, master. They managed to knock me out in East District, and escape while I was unconscious."
"So....you were the cause of the East Sector massacre."
"Yes, I was."
"Good. Those people were slacking on their duties, stupid slaves."
"What do we do with the shifters now, Mistress?"
"I have an idea."
"We kill them?"
"Of course we're going to kill them, but we need to find them first."
"How will we find them?"
"What did you say your shapeshifter form was?"
"Leopard, bird, wolf.."
"Stop. Wolf. There you have it, wolfie."
"You want me to sniff them out?"
"Oh, no! We don't have their scents."
"What are we going to do with my wolf form, then?"
"We're going to kill their relations to take them out of hiding."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yind sat, thinking.
He was looking over plans of finding other shapeshifters. That was their main priority.

"Hello." Lei said, walking into the room, throwing an apple into the air, then catching it and taking a huge bite, "How's the planning going?" she said through crunches.

"Good enough." He replied, "I've picked out a few buildings to search."
"Which ones?"
"Well, most of them just blocks, but we're breaking into a bank."
"What?!" she said, her mouth dropping.
"Oh, please, it's nothing we can't handle. We did break into a prison."
"Not normally a place you'd break into, honest."
"Yes. And we need the money to pay for grapple gear."
"Fair point."

He thought over their obstacles.

"There's the problems, of course, with lasers and guards. Also night watches."
"N-Night watches?"
"Yes. This particular museum has night watches."

Night watches was the patrol of three to four Pulmanors.

"How the fuck do we deal with them?!"
"Hopefully we'll find a distracter. Someone with a power muffling form."

Pulmanors could sense the use of magic, only power mufflers could block their senses.

"When?"
"Two days."
"Two days to find a muffler?!"

"You also have to get Vin trained a bit."
"With what power?"
"Fire throwing."
"Why do we need fire."
"To burn our tracks, remember, Yaon has wolf form. She could sniff us out."
"Good point."
"This is going to be harder than the prison, though. There are much more complications, and if we don't find a muffler, we'll be caught by Pulmanors."
"And we'll be killed."
"I think I died quite a long time before this when I signed up."
Lei laughed.

"We're getting Yaon back."
"I could see her in there – trapped, but still hanging."
"Like a cord of ash."
"We're getting outside these walls, Yind. I promise you that."

Lei couldn't break a promise.
Her promise to Yind was genuine, just like her love.