7 in 3

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Scarlet

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I try walking for about twenty minutes, but with this white nothingness’ complete lack of perspective it’s impossible to tell if I’m even moving. Eventually I just sit down on the white void that looks just like every other direction, but is apparently the ground. After what feels like hours the small voice of the system pings into my mind. 

What? That sounds… ominous. The air in front of me slowly becomes blurry. I blink, unsure if I’m actually seeing something, or if my brain is just desperate to see anything besides pure white. Gray words filter into view, matching what I just heard in my mind. Once the words are clear enough to read the voice continues. 

I did WHAT? Before I can recover at all, the system continues.

Wait hold on a second. Another flash makes my vision go white. Eventually I realize I can see again, only because I can see my legs. I quickly pat myself down, checking for any changes. My dress is definitely shorter now. After scouring myself for any other changes I only find that my ears now have a slight point to them. 

Suddenly Hack falls from nowhere, landing on his rump in the white nothing. He looks around before spotting me. Just as he starts to run over he skids to a halt. He looks up and tilts his head, as if listening to someone. 

“Hey, are you messing with my kid?” I threaten the white void. 

Deciding what? I try to walk forward just to find my feet are stuck in place. Dammit! I watch Hack continue to look around confused. Eventually he stops and looks at me again. He beelines straight to me and hugs my legs. 

I sit down, my legs now free, and pull him onto my lap. Did he get smaller? He looks up at me with a concerned face. “Mom… The lady in my head asked me something that confused me.” I feel annoyance at the system flare up in me. 

“What did they say?” I ask.

 He looks up at me, unsure. “They asked if I want to be a girl.” My eyes widen in surprise, the system asked that? Hack continues. “They said that they were unable to determine my gender due to indecisiveness.” My child struggles to say the last word correctly, but I get the meaning. 

“Well, what did you tell them?” I’m curious why the system asked that. Hack shrugs.

“I didn’t answer.” They look troubled.

“What's wrong bud?” I rustle the grass green hair on their head. “Is there a reason you can’t answer?”

Hack strangles out a response. “Yeah! When I got made you said I was a boy, and I love you and want to make you happy.” They’re starting to tear up, a sweet smell coming from their face. I hug them tight.

“Oh honey, that’s because I… I thought you were just a pet.” My voice is struggling to come out. “I didn’t realize I was treating a person like that, I should’ve checked… somehow.” Hack looks up at me, staring into my eyes. I- I named Hack thinking they were a pet, a dog. A thought comes to me. “Hey, what if I gave you a new name, as my child?” They look unsure so I keep talking. “I’m really sorry for treating you poorly.” 

The little dragon wraps their arms around me, the best they can, and gives me a hug. “It’s okay Mom, I know you wouldn’t hurt me.” I feel tears running down my face now. 

“You can be a girl, or a boy. Don’t pick because of something I said.” They nod at me, sitting back into my lap. They start staring off into space, probably talking with the system. 

After a few minutes the now familiar presence pings into my mind. 

I nod, somewhat excited. Instead of a beam of bluish light creating it like with the device in the church, the rectangle just fades into being in front of me, words already written. 

I start laughing, all tension leaving me. I really didn’t expect that. My daughter looks up at me, bewildered. I try to come up with something clever but the only thing I can think of is Trim. I guess Trim is pretty good. Maybe as a middle name? Hmm… this is much harder when the person is a person and not a dog. 

After a moment of inspiration, I finish picking the name and confirm it to the system. The rectangle recedes from view before quickly fading back in.

High in almost everything? I look down at my daughter, who is dozing off in my lap. High? Am I high right now? And that blessing, that better not be what I think it is. 

The panel fades back into the foggy abyss. The flat voice fills my head again.

 

No! No more! I want to go home! 

With that the ground under my rear suddenly becomes much softer. I look up to see the Priest sitting there confusedly fiddling with the stone tablet. 

“I don’t get it, it flashed red but then showed the status anyway? Whatever.” He gives up and walks over to return the tablet to the large machine at the back of the room. Then he leads us back out to the main hall before disappearing through a doorway without a word. That’s fine, I don’t really want to talk right now. 

I quickly get into the carriage with Tarra sleeping in my arms, excited to get home. 

 

】〓〓〓〓【

Jet 

】〓〓〓〓【

 

Rain, rain is a strange thing in a tiered settlement like Wornsbirth. And the place where it's the strangest is the middle tiers, where I happen to be at the moment. In the distance you can see the murky sky and pouring rain past the edge of the layer. But at the same time, where I am, near the center of the tier, is brightly lit, as if it’s a sunny day. The day-lights embedded into the underside of the top tier make sure that the one below it isn’t dark all day. 

So, the murky darkness of a rainstorm doesn’t make it past the top tier, but the water does. Water finds its way through every tiny crack and small hole through the two layers. When the town was built, there were hypothetically none of them, as the design is to be waterproof. That doesn’t last long though, and with no real way to fix it you get leaks. 

So as I walk through the alleyways of the commercial district, pillars of water fall from the sky, like someone had turned on faucets at random places. The streams from the roof tended to be the diameter of a faucet too. I dodge the leaks as I make my way towards a larger street. Nobody is following behind, hissing whenever water touches him. 

When we finally pop out onto one of the main roads the day-lights intensify. With no buildings to block them they are much more focused on the area below them. I scan the crowd, looking for any lone children.

“The water back there is awful, but I prefer it to this light!” Nobody whines as he stumbles out of the alley. He’s covering his face with his hand, which is bandaged. I’m not sure if he can even be hurt physically, thanks to his physiology, but he claims his wrist is sore. 

I sigh, we’ve been at this all day and have found nothing. The loose kids we did catch were just streetrats. Which soured my mood, being reminded of my past. As I grumble to myself a child stumbles out of an alleyway, walking straight into the middle of the street. 

The main streets are mostly for foot traffic, but there’s two wide lanes in the middle that have grooves carved for bullgrubs to walk in. The kid is tumbling straight for one of the deep divots. Without thinking, I start sprinting. 

I move as fast as I can, but he’s on the far side of the street, which is massive. The child is stumbling around like a drunkard and noticeably limping. I jump over the first set of ditches as the kid loses his balance, dropping towards the ditch. I launch myself forward, my chestpiece scraping on the cobblestone as I slide to grab him.

My hand clenches around his arm, and I stop him from plummeting to his probable death. I give the kid a smile, but I can’t make out his face. Or hers. They’re completely covered by a cloak, which has a hood that's pulled up. 

Just as I try to get up the cobble under me gives way. The masonry crumbles and I start to tip forward. Fucking dammit! Then I inexplicably jerk to a stop, no longer tipping over. Suddenly I’m being yanked backwards by the pants, landing on my ass with the kid in my lap. I look back and see Nobody’s arm stretched out and laying all over the street. At the end of the elongated limb his hand is grabbing my belt. 

“Dammit Jet!” His hand releases me as his arm starts to retract. “You know how awful that felt?” I just point at the kid, a bit shocked that he saved me. I know I defended him as a person, but I… weird. The kid lets out a groan as they slump over in my lap. 

I pull back the hood carefully and see the face of one of the missing kids, a boy named Danny. Danny has a massive scar across his face, a new addition, and a freshly missing eye. I notice a scar on his neck that continues down under his shirt. I check him over a bit more and see he’s missing his right foot as well. 

“What the fuck?” I look up at Nobody, who seems just as confused as me.

 

【〓〓〓〓】

 

After taking Danny back to the knight’s hospital the Chief Medical Mage pulls me aside. He leads me into his office and sits me down. His face is horribly grim.

“Jet, what the hell did that child go through?” Chief Nabb’s way of speaking without titles always rubs me wrong, but no one wants to piss off the medics. I let out a sigh, not sure what to say.

“He was a missing persons, we found him on a random street. He was barely walking and almost tumbled into a grub ditch.” I rub my forehead nervously. The medic’s eyes go wide. 

“Are you kidding me Jet? That child was up and walking before you brought him here?” I just nodded, what is he getting at? Nabb pushes his palm against his head. “Jet that child is missing a good chunk of his organs, most of which aren’t fully understood. On top of that his foot was amputated very recently, he was walking on a fresh wound.” The elderly mage is clearly distressed, his voice getting higher as he speaks. “He must’ve been hopped up on adrenaline, or drugged, there’s no way he should be moving like that.” I nod, that makes sense to me. I’ve seen what berserkers do with adrenaline. 

Nabb runs his hand through his remaining gray hair. “Honestly Jet, this kid needs a miracle to make it.” He shakes his head. “We can replace the organs we understand, but the others we don’t even know how to fix, let alone replace.” 

Just at that moment the small communication stone on Nabb’s desk blinks a light blue. He looks at it quizzically. “I swear I disabled that.” He taps it once and a screen of light appears above it. 

Instead of a face inside the rectangle, there’s nothing but a bright blue ring with a small diamond in the center. “Hello Chief Nabb, Captain Jet. I am Vone, and I have a proposition for you.” I look at Nabb, who just stares in shock. “It's about the young boy, Danny.” 

Instantly my blood pressure rises, and judging by Nabb’s face his does too. “How do you know about that? Did you do this to him?” I bark angrily. The blue ring turns orange and spins for a second.

“No, Captain, I had nothing to do with it. Although I have a fragment of evidence you may find interesting. That’s for later, first the boy.” The small diamond inside the ring focuses on Nabb. “I can help you replace the essential organs you don’t understand.” The ring pulses as it speaks. I swear I’ve heard this voice before.

Nabb looks unconvinced. “Why would I just follow your advice? You could easily be trying to use me as the dagger to cut that poor boy’s neck.” The ring folds in on itself, giving the whole thing the impression of a glaring eye.

“Besides my ethical reasons for not doing that, it’s not like you have much choice. That child will die if you don’t operate.” She pauses. “So what will you do, Chief Nabb? 

 

【〓〓〓〓】

 

An hour later, and against my recommendation, Danny is being cut open with the assistance of the strange Vone. I couldn’t sit still so I went back with Nobody to where we found Danny. The road is cordoned off on the one side, a few road workers patching the spot I crushed. 

We check the closest alleyways, but find nothing but the homeless. Eventually we make our way two and three layers away from the main road. That’s when we finally hit paydirt. 

In the middle of a small alleyway is a circle of dark soot. I crouch down, seeing the vague shape of a spell circle and some runes. The spell seems to have been set to self-destruct after use. 

“So the kid came from here?” Nobody says, pointing at the scorched stone. I tilt my head.

“Why would you say that?” He shrugs at me.

“Because that’s a teleport circle.” He points at small bumps along the outer edge of one half of the circle. “Those bumps are a telltale sign of a teleportation spell, I’m not sure how they got it to explode afterwards. Maybe they’re shit at magic.” 

Well this certainly sounds like where Danny came from. “Nobody, is there a way to trace this to the source?” 

Nobody shakes his head. “Not unless it’s intact, which this one isn’t” I slam my fist into the cobble, causing a small crack to form.

“Is there a way to find an unactivated circle?” Nobody starts to shake his head no, but stops.

“Actually… maybe. We should ask Coil for help.” I glare at the mon- guy

“Lord Coil.” I correct.

“Right! Lord Coil… oops.” His tone isn’t very sincere.