~29~ Water, Birds, Smoke, and Memories

Unedited.

~

Ruy scribbled on the paper balanced on his knee, writing down Edaline's suggestion before pinning it to the board. He grabbed some string, wrapping it around the thumbtack before tying it back to their fifth theory on Fitz's location. Everyone was gathered around a massive board they set up in the Havenfield living room. A few hours ago, the triplets and Sofia were put to bed in a spare bedroom in Havenfield, everyone else staying up.

"Okay, so we know how they lured Fitz and Sofia to Atlantis. We know what they wanted Fitz for. We know that the Assassins are being held somewhere in the Lost Cities from what I found in the Castello, and it could be possible Fitz and Maria are being held in the same place." Ruy grabbed a small sticky note, writing Gold on it and sticking it in the middle of the board.

"My mother wrote the word Gold next to the missing Assassins. It could be related." Ruy finished.

"But they could also be somewhere other than the stolen Assassins. You say more are missing every week, right?"

Ruy's face was grim as he nodded, "They have their Assassins looking everywhere, but Sophie has our men spread thin right now. It is making it easier for them to pick us off."

"Transporting large amounts of stolen Assassins is risky, and they know that. If they want to keep Maria and Fitz well hidden, they would keep the stolen Assassins away from Maria and Fitz to avoid attracting the Assassins." Grizel interjected.

Ruy groaned, rubbing his temples. They were right.

"Shit, okay. Maria isn't in the Castello. Me or my spies would've noticed her. We need to get some sort of basis to work off of. A description, and lead, anything."

"Sofia said that Vespera was asking about a goblet. Could that be one of those artifacts you mentioned?"

"I don't know, we should confirm with Soph. Did you-"

"I already contacted her." Keefe nodded, crossing his arms as he leaned back.

"She said they'll be here as fast as possible."

Ruy's heart swelled. He'll see Sophie, see her in the flesh again. And this time, they aren't going to be rushing away to their jobs.

"The goblet plays a factor, it has too." Ruy turned to their board, his mind getting tangled in all of the pinned threads and leads.

"Let's take a break everyone. Let's get back to it in 15 minutes?" Edaline proposed. Everyone agreed, dispersing from the living room. Most of them went outside, wanting a breath of fresh air. Ruy sighed, wanting to get a fresh shirt from the small selection on his bed. He bumped into Grady, who was heading outside to join the others.

Ruy swallowed as Grady glared at him. Grady patted his shoulder, "We appreciate you doing this, kid."

Still in shock, Ruy mumbled, "It's the least I can do. And it's the right the to do."

Grady gave him a little smile, "Yes. Yes, it is."

Ruy watched him go, his wings perking up a little bit. Maybe he wasn't completely doomed with Grady.

Buttoning up his shirt, he quietly closed his door behind him and began back downstairs.

"Ruy?" A small voice asked.

Ruy froze, whipping around to see Sofia. She remembered him from the time they saved her from the Neverseen, and her eyes shined when she looked at him. She yawned, rubbing her hand over her eye.

"Hey kiddo, you are supposed to be asleep. Is everything okay?" Ruy asked.

"I couldn't sleep." Sofia mumbled.

"Are we too loud downstairs?"

"No. I just..." Sofia averted her eyes, wringing out her hands. Ruy leaned down to her level, tucking his wings behind him and giving her a gentle smile. When he and Alvar took care of Lilac in the Neverseen base, getting down to her level seemed to help talk to her.

"Is everything okay? Do you want me to get your mommy and daddy?" Ruy asked.

Sofia shrugged, sticking her thumb back in her mouth.

"Sofia? Did you tell him?" A meek voice asked. Bex leaned from the corner, squeaking when she saw Ruy.

Ruy quirked an eyebrow, "Tell me what?"

Sofia took a deep breath, "Blur gave Fitz a red cloth, and Fitz gave it to me. I didn't really know what to do with it, since you and Amalia told me to be quiet about the Assassins. But Bex saw it in my backpack and said I should come tell you." The sound of Bex still hiding behind the corner was then accompanied by the sound of two other Dizznees, "She says it is important."

Sofia held on to a scrap of fabric, and Ruy carefully took it from her small fingers.

The Cyevan guild mark stitched in dull thread was between his fingers. The thread isn't what they use nowadays, and the red fabric was dated and worn.

"Blur was a Cyevan Assassin." Ruy breathed, his head spinning. He wasn't one that the current Assassins initiated if this old scrap was his.

Sofia kicked some dust on the floor, "Bex didn't want to tell you because she thinks you are pretty and is scared to talk to you-"

"Sofia!" Bex hissed from around the corner, the snickering of her brothers drowning her out.

Ruy struggled to stay calm. Blur was a Cyevan Assassin- The Black Swan didn't even know about the Assassins! Not until before this. They didn't know Leto was an Assassin or that they were a Cyevan branch. Did Leto even know?

Ruy placed a hand on her shoulder, "Thank you for telling me this Sofia. You did the right thing."

"Blur won't get in trouble for being revealed, will he? I know the Assassins are secretive." She didn't fully connect the dots about Blur's death.

Ruy shook his head, "I promise Blur won't get..."Ruy's eyes caught on a floor-to-ceiling window at the end of the hall, where a shadow flew past, "in..." More shadows walked toward the house, toward the group of Black Swan members.

Ruy sprung to his feet, his fists clenched, "Trouble."

"Easy-EASY!" Keefe barked at the Neverseen that roughed him up a bit put his hand on his hair. Grizel and Sandor fought in the grips of four Neverseen members, Sandor more so when they threatened Grizel.

"What do you want?" Grady growled through seething teeth. One of the cloaked members scoffed, getting closer to his face, "Where is he?

Grady fought in their grip, "Who?"

"Ruy Ignis stole a crystal that leads to this location. So where is he?"

"We haven't seen anyone!" Edaline spat, fighting in her captors' hands.

"We were planning on trading him tonight. So where is he-"

Edaline screamed as Ruy's knee met her captor's face, his wings splayed behind him as he soared from the second-story window.

Ruy turned, the ground shaking as he landed. When he looked up, the Neverseen faltered at the anger in his eyes.

Smoke coiled out of his panting mouth, parting around his pointed canines. His Dunmer markings peeked through his shirt, moving and glowing like drops of black ink beneath his skin. He rolled out his neck as he rose to full height, his wings unfurling behind him.

"You have two minutes to leave." He growled.

Shock eventually wore off of a few members, one shuffling in front of him.

"No."

Ruy smiled, "Wrong answer."

It happened so fast. Gone was the somewhat shy and kind Ruy that helped Edaline with the dishes. Instead, here was the son Vespera honed into a killer. The Second in Command at the Cyevan Assassin guild.

Ruy grabbed the cloak of the closest soldier, ripping it off of him and wrapping it around the soldier's neck. Yanking the melder out of his waistband, Ruy fired into the crowd of Neverseen with the cloak tightening around the neck of the soldier in his hands.

"Scatter!" The second closer soldier cried out, everyone running for cover. Ruy tightened the cloak even more around their neck, the soldier slumping to the ground.

"Everyone inside!" Ruy snapped.

Everyone except Sophie's friends rushed indoors.

"What are you doing?!" Ruy spat, ducking beneath a throwing star.

"Helping you!" Tam hissed back.

As if on cue, the Song twins, in complete synchronization, launched from their hiding spots. Tam created a mist of shadow around the soldiers' eyes, Linh stopping for a moment and closing her eyes.

And then, the grass around them turned yellow. Water erupted from the ground, wrapping around Linh like a snake. Tam then yanked the shadows to the earth, tying the soldiers to the ground.

Linh's whip launched out, striking at the stuck soldiers. She chose non-lethal spots, avoiding as much blood as possible.

Beside him, two blurs jetted towards the other soldiers. A green and blue panther and an elk with metal armor. The panther roared, launching towards a soldier's knee while Dex's elk headbutted another.

"Okay then, I guess this is what we're working with." Ruy shot back up into the sky, swooping down and grabbing another soldier by the back of his cloak.

Ruy quickly threw him over the edge of the Havenfield cliffs, watching him dunk into the ocean.

More and more soldiers arrived, all of them here for Ruy.

One got a lucky hit into his side, his injury ringing with pain. Ruy tumbled out of the sky, ripping the grass and dirt as he struggled to steady.

The moonlight went behind the clouds at the same time two more figures stood over him.

"Don't touch me," Ruy snarled.

And then, there was the roar. The roar Ruy knew so well he sometimes heard it in his sleep. Ricin punched through the clouds covering the moon, lightning crackling in his mouth. He shot it at the feet of the men surrounding Ruy, allowing him to get up. Ricin got low to the ground, showing the blonde on his back. She lifted her riding helm, revealing her face as she reached out a hand. Ruy grabbed it, allowing Sophie to swing him onto Ricin's back. Ruy's arms wrapped around Sophie's waist as Ricin lifted into the sky again, going for another round.

Nour and Alvar tackled two guards, Maha emerging from the dark of the forest firing arrow after arrow. Tam stumbled when light mingled with his shadows, shooting from the ground and scalding their enemies. Alexios breezed past him, his face furious. Light emanated from his wrists in pure balls of light, blinding and searing his enemies.

Marella's face was something fierce when she launched fireball after fireball at her enemies.

"Not bad." Mansi smiled at her. Marrella jumped when twice as big burning fire flickered in the pregnant woman's fists.

"Wanna see something really cool?" Mansi took a few steps back, then pushed her fists forward. Flames erupted from them, a tidal wave of heat. After a few moments of red heat, Marella gaped as Mansi's flames turned a raging blue.

"Retreat! Retreat!" The Neverseen members picked themselves off the ground and scrambled for their crystals. In the blink of an eye, their assailants were gone.

Ruy sighed, slumping his head against the crook of her girlfriend's neck. Ricin slowly began to descend, still out of the ear and eyeshot of those below them. He was so exhausted. He placed a chaste kiss onto her leather-clad shoulder when she whispered, "It's all over."

Listening to the sound of distant water crashing against a... was it ashore? Maybe he was along the beach. It can make a man go mad. The torture was tamer than he was expecting, but he had a feeling that it was only going to get worse.

Fitz was up at the sound of footsteps and caught Maria when they threw her back in their cell. She was shaking and crying. The furious powerful Maria Morretti was crying.

"Maria? Maria what happened?" Maria wept into his shoulder. Fitz followed her as she slumped to the floor, cautiously wrapping his arms around her as she quivered and shook. Her arm was crossed over her body, jumping with her panicked hiccups.

Wait.

Her arm. Her singular arm.

Her arm wasn't wrapped around her. It was wrapped around the bandaged stub where her left arm once was, right beneath her shoulder.

"I-It was i-infec-ted." Her hiccuped sobs made it hard to discern her, "They took it-it o..off before I even knew what was-was happening."

Fitz was in shock, avoiding looking at the bloody stub. Fitz squinted at her hair, but the strands of gray running along Maria's head also began spreading on the right. They were small but spreading fast. Only extreme stress does that.

"At least the infection won't spread, right?" Fitz said, his voice shaky. Maria sobbed harder, and Fitz cringed. What could he possibly say in this situation?

Maria pushed away from Fitz, slumping against the wall.

"All I want is my wife and son again. That's all I want." She shivered. Fitz tried to approach, but Maria stiffened. Backing off, he turned to the guards outside their prison doors.

"How dare you?" He started. They glanced at each other as if to check with one another that Fitz was talking to either one of them.

"I said how dare you!?" Fitz rammed his arms through the thin bars, shoving the guard. The second guard stared in shock as his friend smacked the concrete before whirling onto Fitz. It had been years since he had gotten angry like this, felt the white-hot rage in his blood. His head pounded as he gritted his teeth.

"Settle down-"

"Make me." Fitz hadn't seen this side of himself in years. Ever since Sophie went missing, any anger he had was dampened. Snuffed out like a candle.

But, damn. He really did miss it.

The first guard had gotten up from the ground. He grabbed fistfuls of Fitz's tunic, yanking it through the bars. Fitz snarled as his face met the metal.

"Alexi-Fitz! Stop!" Maria gasped.

"I think you should listen to your friend, punk." The guard's spit landed on Fitz's face, but he didn't let up.

"Don't tell me what to do." Fitz's teal eyes blazed, "Listen to me well. I'm never going to break Maria's mind. Never. I'm never going to betray Sophie. Never."

The guards blinked, trying to figure out where this was coming from.

"You are the lowest of the low, you understand me? The worst that anyone has to offer. If it isn't the Assassins that kills the Neverseen, then it will be the Black Swan, and if it isn't them? It will be me."

It was silent except for the dripping of the water outside their cell. The distant sounds of other prisoners even muted for a few moments.

"Take him." The first guard spat.

"But where-"

"Just take him!"

They swung open the door, dragging Fitz down the hall.

"Fitz!" Maria cried, banging on the cell bars.

They brought him up the stairs, clearly deciding what to do with him. The sounds were slightly louder up here. The water... Fitz previously thought it was an ocean, but it didn't sound like one. More like a waterfall. And the sounds he thought was the opening and closing of cells was actually the sounds of wild Inalian nature. Birds and animals hiding in their habitats. He was somewhere in the jungle with a waterfall nearby. As he ascended the steps higher and higher, the fog over his mind became easier to bear.

"Sophie." Her name was a gentle breath in his mind as he tugged on the flittering strands of the cognate bond in the back of his head. It, just like so many times before. But he knew what he heard. He heard Sophie.

"Sophie." He tried again.

And then the smell of almonds and lemon verbena. It was faint, but it was there. The warmth of her mind mingled with his.

"Please-e tell me-me you are...okay." Their connection was shoddy again.

"I don't have long. We are in a place that is next to waterfall and the jungle. These men, they don't have Vatarian accents. They sound elven."

"Fitz, keep the-the connection stro-ng. I'm-I'm gonna... track... you."

The room opened up to massive ceilings and walls, screen creeping into from the few windows letting sunlight in. Mysterious statues lined the walls, and the water from the waterfall dripped through open circle windows. This rock, this smell... he has been here before. He knows it. The men dragged him up the stairs and down the hall, the statues staring at him, their eyes following him. Was that real or just his mind?

(Unkown artist. I want to get better at labeling the art I use, but there is no artist tied to this one wherever I look)

"It smells like smoke." Fitz stared at the rock the walls were built out of, squinting at them, "I think... I think we've been here before."

And then the line went dead.

Sophie wiped away the dirt accumulated in the crack of her amulet, staring at the bluestone. She let her head slump to the side, her mother's shoulder waiting for her. Her real mother.

Edaline rubbed a thumb over the back of Sophie's palm, enjoying the time they had lost. Sophie could still hear the echoes of Fitz's transmission in her head.

"A jungle... a waterfall... and the smell of smoke. He thinks they have been there before." Ruy paced, tapping his foot. Sophie was just so tired. She wanted to crawl beneath her blankets and fall asleep forever. The sun was going to be up in an hour, and they were no closer to finding Fitz or Maria.

"Could it be a ruin? Maybe something that held the smell of smoke and could be overgrown."

"But then which ruin? Is it South America or Asia? North America or Europe?" Ruy slumped onto the couch, his wings limp. "I'm so tired!" He mumbled. Everyone else got up from the couches, observing their pinboard for themselves.

Sophie started, perking up from Edaline's shoulder, "Well if you actually went to sleep at a normal time-"

Ruy snorted, "Don't you lecture me on going to bed at a good time. That is the most hypocritical thing ever."

"I'm just saying!"

Ruy grabbed a pillow, shoving his face into it, "You're such a mom."

Sophie smiled, nudging Ruy's wing with her foot. She looked up, quirking an eyebrow at Edaline's smile.

"What?" She asked.

Her mother shook her head, looking from her to Ruy, "Ruy mentioned how close you two are." She whispered. Sophie's head whipped to her mother, her eyes wide.

"W-What?" She looked over her shoulder, where Ruy had pulled his face out of the pillow, nodding.

Oh, gods, "Mom, I know what you are thinking. But I promise you he treats better then any man has before. He has been by my side through all of this and I love him-"

"Sophie." Edaline grabbed her daughter's hand, leaning into her ear, "I really like him. Don't worry, I haven't told Grady yet. Yet."

Sophie watched dumbfounded as her mother got up from her seat, collecting all the hot chocolate mugs. Sophie shared a look with Ruy, who also seemed to be in disbelief. No one had caught on to the interaction that just happened, leaving both of them reeling.

Sophie smiled at Ruy, proud of him.

"I really like when you do that." He whispered, snuggling back into his pillow.

"What?"

"Smile."

Sophie bit her cheek, looking away. She was fighting the growing red on her cheeks.

"You need stop doing this to me."

"What? Flirting with you?"

"Flirting with me while things are supposed to be serious." Sophie sighed, pushing herself from the couch. She crossed her arms, staring at the board. Ruy shook his head, "Where the hell could they be?"

One description stuck with Sophie.

"We've been here before." She breathed.

"Soph, you and Fitz have been to hundreds of places-"

"I just have to remember which ones is the right one."

"He could be wrong you know,"

"Maybe. Or he isn't."

A silence settled over them, and Ruy nudged her fingers with his own.

"I need to tell you something... about Blur."

"Just... wait. Wait, I'm on something."

Where had she been that was in the jungle?

Cariana had lush jungles. Even Inalia did. But Fitz said they had elven accents, so that crosses out the Vatarian cities.

Fitz said we. They had been there together.

A waterfall. Atlantis possibly? With all of the running water?

How the hell would a jungle get down there? And how did all of this happen without anyone noticing if it was Atlantis?

And the smell of smoke. Smoke didn't linger unless it charred something, like trees or animals. So it was somewhere damaged.

A lush jungle... something like South America. Or Africa.

The smell of smoke... the Carvo birds Sophie burned alive with her lightning. The smoke of her burnt hair.

A waterfall... like Lumangwe falls.

Sophie gasped, grabbing Ruy's shoulder.

"What is it?"

Sophie spun on her heel, turning to the Collective, "What happened to the Lumangwe base after I left?"

Squall blinked, "We abandoned it a month afterwards. It was comprimised after the battle. And it smelt like smoke with burning flesh after the fight and the little show you put on with the Carvo birds-"

They froze, realization settling over the group.

Sophie was already moving, sliding the overcoat of her robes back on, checking her weapons.

"Inner Circle, with me. Black Swan, you better come too. Dex, can you set up communications between all of our imparters and minyamas?"

"Y-Yes."

"Mansi and Ruy will stay here and work mission control-"

"Like hell we will!" They complained, synchronized.

"Ruy, you are injured from your escape of the Castello. Mansi, you are carrying a child. You both stay here." The Vacker family perked up when Sophie announced that.

"But-"

"That's an order." Sophie glared at the two of them, pinning them to their spots.

"Fine." Ruy gritted through his teeth.

Sophie nodded, turning out the door while pulling up her hood.

Sophie pulled on those strings at the back of her mind, pulling on them as if they were chains attached to Fitz's wrists, forcing him to listen to her.

"We're coming to get you."

Poor Maria :(

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_Sibylline_