a quill dipped in silver blood writes again

    It was way too dark in here. Way. Too. Fucking. Dark. Fae squinted into the pitch-black van- maybe a normal human, or another hybrid would have marginally better sight right about now, but the same eyes that afforded her double vision in the light failed her in the dark. She could hear at least three- maybe four- other people breathing. She wasn't alone, she knew that much, but she couldn't tell who was trapped in here with her and who was an enemy. The sedatives from the beginning of the ride were finally at their tail end, and her thoughts were mostly clear again. Which meant she was painfully, painfully aware of the cuffs securing her wrists and ankles at just slightly wrong angles against the walls and floor of the van, of every single bump and movement along the road numbing her hands and slightly jarring her legs, and the way her breath had to snake its way out of the edges of the muzzle around her skull. Because obviously the threat of getting kicked and shocked wasn't enough to deter... small talk between the subjects. Oh, the humanity.

    Well, to be fair to them, it wouldn't have been enough to stop her from insulting the enforcer(s?) in the back with them, and they'd probably have had to muzzle her anyway for biting. But that probably didn't apply to every poor soul in here, being shuttled off to fight for others' entertainment. She closed her eyes- not that it made a lick of difference, but she tried to focus harder on the sounds of the breathing. She could pick out at least two, one on her right, one across from her, who also seemed to be breathing through a barrier. But she couldn't tell anything diagonal of her. Not like it really mattered, but it was something to do while she waited for the van to finally stop. She let her head drop back against the wall, sighing as she heard at least one of her fellow captives jump slightly at the thunk.

    It all happened so, so fast.

    One instant, it was quiet and dark. The very next, a horrible screeching filled the air- and then, so did evening sunlight, striking brilliant orange into everything, and the world was careening sideways, or maybe she was the one careening, and fire shot through her limbs as her body contorted in ways that wholly contradicted the way her ankles and wrists were bolted down to the van. She could hear voices screaming, muffled and desperate, and the rough grunt of an enforcer as they, untethered to their position, slammed into the opposite wall of the van- but all of these were overshadowed completely by the ripping, tearing metal as the opposite side of the wall caved in, and glass shattered into the hold, and as soon as Fae could get her bearings, she found herself lying effectively on her back, staring straight above into a wrecked, hollow wall.

    Wait, there were people there, she thought, remembering the breathing she'd been focusing on, and the answer was right on either side of her. The impact had damaged the panels and their cuffs- one of the others had an ankle hanging at an odd angle, its owner staring at the destroyed joint in absolute horror and agony, and the other sprang into action, leaping for the unconscious guard that had accompanied them. They tore through the uniform's pockets, looking for- oh. They held up the device they'd confiscated- it was the tablet that controlled the cuffs, and Fae grinned under her muzzle. In a few moments, every person's cuffs had clicked open, and Fae scrambled to her aching feet and started to open the back door of the van. The light that finally streamed in was a blessing, and with a few shoves, the formerly-left, now-bottom door swung open, leaving ample room for the group to escape. She looked back- the one who'd grabbed the tablet was supporting the one with the broken joints, and Fae motioned for them to go.

    The last one- so there were four- was clearly unconscious. A small trail of pink-ish blood pooled underneath the blue tiefling's mauve hair, and Fae was glad that their wound didn't seem to be too bad. It meant she could focus on getting them out of here.

    She gathered them up in a bridal carry, and they were shockingly light- that wasn't a good sign. Still, she carried them out of the van, limping a little on her injured legs, but getting out of here was more important than anything else. She completely ignored the rest of the crash- it looked like an autodriver, and the enforcers were the least of her problems- and dropped down over the edge of the road, keeping a hold on the unconscious tiefling as she slipped into the unfamiliar woods. Cover was a higher priority than direction right now, because no doubt there'd be Onyx enforcers here twelve hours from now looking for the four escapees. And she'd rather not be a sitting duck- ha- when they got here.

   It was only a few minutes away from the site that the person she carried began to stir. She'd have liked to be able to stop and make sure they were okay, maybe figure out how to take off these fucking muzzles, but it was too soon- she needed a better head start, probably half an hour, before they rested for even a few minutes. Luckily, the person didn't seem to be totally back awake. Instead, they curled into the hold a bit, holding their arms to their chest protectively. She needed to get them somewhere safe.

    In the next ten minutes, Fae felt her new charge slowly become more conscious. She was nervous about what she'd do when they woke up and were suspicious of her- even without being cuffed in the dark, it was hard to communicate with leather holding her mouth shut. Although hopefully their matching, numbered attire and the muzzles would be enough to say hey, I'm like you, I'm trying to get you out of here. She hadn't really paid attention to the person's number- she'd ask their name when they woke up, when they were both able to talk. She never liked attaching a number to her first impressions of her fellow captives, much to the chagrin of the people who assigned them. It was around 15 minutes, though, that their eyes flew open, a fearful gaze locked onto Fae's eyes, and they began to try to pull away from her. She spared a quick glance behind her, and made a snap decision to stop running and put the tiefling gently onto the ground in front of her, and step back with her hands up. She tapped on her muzzle, and they looked confused for a moment, before they put their hand up to their own face and blinked.

     Fae saw recognition flare into their eyes, and she nodded. Slowly, they used the tree they'd backed up against to pull themself into a standing position- and she could tell by the way they winced and put their hand to their head that the crash had left them sore. However, they tapped their muzzle again, and mimicked the motion of taking it off. Fae considered for a moment- she wasn't quite sure how to remove these, but she could sure as hell try. She tapped the buckle on the back of the head and then pointed to them, making a little twirling motion with her finger. They seemed to understand, as they turned around and tilted their head back to her. Slightly congealed pink blood was crusted in their hair, but the wound seemed to have stopped actively bleeding. She stepped closer again, examining the mechanism- it looked to be a clasp button, but on closer inspection, it wasn't that simple. Oh- ha, there it was.  A tiny, tiny lever near the bottom of the buckle, indented just enough that it would be impossible to find without seeing. When she flipped that, and pressed the button down, the contraption split apart and the muzzle fell down into the forest floor. Almost instantly, the tiefling gasped for air, drawing blessed oxygen into their lungs and breathing it out almost reverently. They turned back to her, rubbing the area around their mouth that was reddened from the pressure.

    "Thank you," they sighed, looking as though the weight of the world had been lifted off their shoulders. "Oh- let me get yours," they said, the airy demeanor fading quickly. She turned around as well, resisting the urge to flinch at the hands near her head. But, soon enough, the pressure released, and her own device fell to the ground.

    "Ohhh my gods," she said, finally able to free her voice. "I hate those things, so much."

    "You and me both," the other said quietly, picking up the contraptions off the ground. "We... we should hide these."

    "Don't wanna leave a trail, yeah."

    "I'll just put them..." they said, their words ebbing at the end as they bent down to a small rabbit hole. With a few quick movements, they shoved the muzzles in, and covered the hole with some leaves and pine needles. "That should be good enough."

    "Yeah... we should definitely get going."

    "We?"

    "I mean, do you wanna wander around in the middle of nowhere alone? I sure don't," Fae tossed back.

    "I was, um... I was joking. Strength in numbers and all."

    "Oh- ha. Right."

    There was a short, awkward silence. "So... let's just keep walking."

    Fae nodded, starting back off in the direction she was going before, grateful to have some weight off her injured limbs. It was about a minute before she decided to break the silence. "So... what's your name?"

    "Legally? E46, apparently. But I'm Merit."

    "Faelynn," she replied. "Merit's a cool name. But y'know, we don't actually legally exist."

    "Wait, really?" The person- Merit- looked over in mild disbelief.

    "Yeah," she said with a bit of a laugh. "It's just another scare tactic. We can't even be officially traced back to that lab unless we go through this whole legal process to be registered as, well, existing."

    "Huh. Nobody ever told me that."

    "It's not something Onyx would want us to know."

    The conversation trailed off again. It was another five minutes of quietly trudging through the woods, crunching leaves and listening to the birds around them. The birds... the birds. Fae smiled, paying close attention to the chirping, and she remembered the first time she’d heard a bird’s song. It was right outside her window at BioTech, it’d landed on the balcony and she was so excited to see the type of creature her wings had come from. But that was a long time ago. They had more pressing matters right now.

     This time, it was Merit who spoke first.

     "So... you're a fighter?" He glanced over to Fae, who looked slightly uncomfortable. "I mean, we don't have to talk about it, sorry... I'm just curious."

    "No, it's- it's fine. Yeah, I'm a fighter." She squinted into the distance, trying to figure out if there was an end in sight to the trees. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

    "I've always wondered what that's like. I'm just one of the lab rats," they sighed. "Well, I was. I had real bad reactions to the last few tests and they just... kinda stopped."

    "It... it sucks, really. I know how to fight, I could take any one of them out given the opportunity, but everything is always so... restricted." Fae pauses for a moment. "Wait- they don't take non-fighters to the rings. Why were you there?"

    Merit went quiet, as if they were trying to remember something. "I think... they said something about a 'buyer.'"

    It was Fae's turn to be in stunned silence.

    Merit clicked their tongue against the roof of their mouth. "Yeah..."

    "Holy shit, that's terrifying."

    "Hah, yeah, don't have to tell me twice," they quipped gently. "Thank you for getting me out. I don't know how you did it, but..."

    "It wasn't really me," she deflected. "I mean, I carried you out, but there was a crash, and one of the others got the cuffs off, and... just, dumb luck I guess."

    "Well, thank you anyways," they insisted. "You coulda just left me there."

    "Why would I have?"

    "Self-preservation."

    "Not my motif."

    "Fair enough."

    Ten minutes of silence, this time. There was an awkward camaraderie, one that comes from them both knowing what they'd escaped from, and what might happen if they didn't go far enough. Without a real way to keep track of time, though, they couldn’t tell if it had been minutes or hours. Time tended to lose meaning when you haven’t seen a clock in months.

    "Do you have somewhere to go...?" Fae asked first, beginning to look for safe places to hide out.

    "Like a home, or what?"

    "Yeah."

    "No, not... not really. I haven't been out long enough in a row for that."

   "Ah." She stopped for a few seconds to stretch, and Merit slowed down. "Do you want to crash at my place? I live in Okishara City, at BioTech. They're the ones that keep doing raids on Onyx and busting us out."

    "Isn't that another lab?" Merit asked skeptically, tossing a look back at her.

   "I mean, technically? They do a lot of other shit too though, it's not like Onyx if that's what you're asking. They have apartments, a hospital, all that stuff. They kinda saved my ass a couple of times."

    "Interesting. I'll consider it," they mused. "Is it safe?"

   "I mean, I'm a bit safer than if I were just wandering around. Almost everybody there knows what it's like, knows where you probably are if you disappear, and there's a whole squadron there to back you up if you're in trouble."

    "Huh." Merit took a few seconds to stretch as well. "Do you know how to make a fire or anything?"

    "I'd rather not smoke-signal the brigade," Fae quipped, tossing a weird look at them. "Hopefully it won't be too cold."

   "Right, right." Leaves crunched and twisted under the pair's steps. "I might be able to pull something together for a minor warmth spell, depending on what we have around here..."

    "Huh. You're good with general magic?"

    "Mhm. 'Bout the only thing I can do, but it’s fun sometimes. Just need materials."

   "That's pretty neat. I can't do that kind of stuff very well, it just tends to backfire for me," Fae explained. She closed her hand into a fist in front of her for a moment, and then flared it open- a ball of brightly glowing mist began to gather in her palm. Within a few seconds it was the size of a baseball, and its vaguely blue luminescence reflected off of brush leaves. "I've got this though," she said, making wisps break off and swirl around her fingers. She snapped the fingers on her other hand, and a much darker blue flared up. "And this."

    "Whoa- is that fire?" Merit exclaimed, coming closer and putting his hand out towards it. His expression dropped from curious hope to utter confusion as he realized that instead of heat, the temperature radiating from those flames was cold. "Holy shit."

    Fae laughed, extinguishing the fire. "Yeah. Pretty useless for keeping warm, but it's useful in some situations. Ever wanted to make ice cream by hand?"

    Merit snorted along with her. "That's pretty cool."

    "Literally," she said with a grin. "It's getting dark. I think I'll keep the light on."

    "Gotcha."

   The next twenty minutes was mostly small talk and quiet as they watched the golden sunlight leave the canopy. It was nearly dark by the time they decided it was safe to rest for a little while- they spent a few minutes sitting against a tree, and another few gathering ingredients that Merit recognized might be useful for a warmth spell. Then, they realized neither of them had pockets, and resigned themselves to carrying them.

    By the time another hour had passed, it was dark except for the gleaming mist that floated near Fae's shoulder. Crickets were chirping around them, and the hybrid took comfort in them. She could never hear crickets in the lab, the night sound there was a muted buzzing from the forcefield that stood between her and freedom. Luckily, the night wasn't too bitter, quite warm actually. How long had she been in Onyx this? How many months had it been? It was the tail end of winter when she was taken, and now it was warm even at night... they probably wouldn't need that spell.

    "You think it's been long enough?" Fae asked, sighing. "Sun's down, if I turn off the light they'll have a hard time finding us. And we... probably need sleep."

    "Yeah," Merit agreed. "Sleep's important, 'specially if we're gonna get anywhere tomorrow."

   "We're gonna have to double back towards the highway, I think," she mused. "See if we can catch any road signs that mean anything."

    "Oh, that's, uh, definitely a bit smarter than my plan," they said with a small laugh. "I was just gonna keep going forward until we found a town."

    Fae laughed a little too. "Well, can't say that's not an option." She sat down against a tree, briefly rubbing the back of her head against the bark as if to scratch an itch, and then scooted over to the bush about a foot away. "I could always try to fly and scout out, and you could..." She trailed off, looking back at her wing. Of course. She forgot her wings were clipped. "Never mind."

    "We should just sleep for now. We'll figure it out in the morning."

    "Right, yeah..."

   She felt Merit settle on her right, just barely brushing skin, and she whisked away the light beside her. And once again Fae sat, staring into the darkness with someone to her side, listening to the breathing.