Aspect sat quietly on Robin's shoulder as she spoke about the girl in the paper. She turned her head to the side as she saw the strange gesture, but didn't say anything. She shuffled her wings as Robin talked about the hourglass. They wouldn't be able to use it, at least not in this case. She was rather disappointed, it was a handy little device, but she understood that power that strong could be dangerous and draining. "I understand," she said, tilting her head back. Her blue eyes stood out in sharp contrast against her black facial markings as she looked around the alley. There was no one here, save for the annoyingly loud man further down, but even he was leaving. It was just them.

Robin was still for a moment, then reached up to remove her hat. Aspect fluttered over toward a box in the alley at the sudden movement. Underneath the hat was a pair of very large pink rabbit ears. Her eyes widened slightly. She had never seen rabbit ears so large, or in such an unnatural shade. It was an oddity she could appreciate, especially, with them being so useful. If she didn't have a beak, the rabbit would have been able to see her smile. She fluttered up to a taller box in order for her to get a better look at them. Incredible. In all of her travels, she'd never seen anything like this sort before. She was unable to decide if the ears were by her original design or some sort of magical ability. Either way, she was rather impressed. 

She was so fixated by the beautiful pink ears, that when Robin made a sudden declaration, she almost fell off the box in surprise. She had to flap her wings quickly and reach out with her claws in order to stay on. Her feathers ruffled in slight annoyance as she comprehended what was being said. She had a slew of questions in her head but had very little time to ask any. She went with Robin's judgment, not that she had much time to form her own assumption. With a quick word, Robin was up and running, leaving her in the alley alone, a trail of dust behind her. She barely had time to open her mouth and give out a short syllable or two before she was out of sight. She closed her mouth and stood still a moment, watching the newspaper fall gently to the ground. She gave an annoyed snort, or at least as good a snort as a magpie could do, before changing form again.

The magpie took no time into changing into the larger gyrfalcon. With a huff of irritation, she spread her wings and launched up into the sky. It took her only a brief period to get above the buildings and spot the fast-moving pink blur beneath her. She tucked her wings in and dived down towards her. She caught herself with her tail feathers and flew along about thirty or forty feet above her. Low enough she could yell down to her, but also high enough that she could see the fastest route to the docks. "Take a right," she called down. "It'll be faster." The docks were soon in sight and from her height, she could see a dispute going on below by one of the ships. With her sharp eyes, she was able to pick out the white-haired elf that she and Robin had seen in the hourglass.

"She's by the ship in the loading docks," she called down to Robin. With a quick flip of her feathers, she dived down towards the earth at a remarkable speed. However, even then, she was only just ahead of her rabbit companion. Just above the ground, she shot out her wings, halting her descent and cheating the impact that was supposed to occur. For a brief moment, she hovered above the ground, before changing forms into that of a standard mongrel, with a wiry coat, a thin body, long legs, and scruffy perked ears. She loped along next to the rabbit as she slowed down to a pace she could keep up with, at least in this form. The dark red dog stopped just behind a dark-haired young man and the pale elf as she watched the ship go out to see. It seemed apparent that the two had intended to board, however, it was evident that their requests were denied. 

She stood with them and watched the ship continue out. All of a sudden a loud noise penetrated the air and the stern of the ship disappeared. She pinned her ears back in shock. An explosion had occurred onboard the ship and she watched the people on the deck scurry around. From this far away they looked like ants. She saw them scramble into lifeboats and were then met further out by the Egjoran navy. She sat down on the dock and looked up at Robin briefly before turning and looking back out to sea. 

[OOC: This is part 1 of my post. Another will be coming on Robin either today or tomorrow. Sorry it’s taking me so long to respond, by the way. :\ ]

Elsewhere in the city, the cloaked figure that had originally been heading toward the docks took a turn away from that area before Nea had been found. The conversations about her had ceased as soon as she disappeared into a group of men heading east, and the lot of them arrived at the entrance to a logging camp around the same time that Nea had been removed from her unwilling host. It was there in that eerily quiet and forebodingly empty clearing that the figure finally reemerged, speaking in a feminine, almost playful voice in the presence of yet another figure: one that had been sitting against a tree on the line furthest into the camp where the lumberjacks had yet to fell most of the trees.
 
“Found you!” The redheaded woman leaned in toward the other figure on her tiptoes while keeping her distance, acting more like a child rather than an adult. She restrained her poorly hidden excitement as best she could, yet couldn’t help but practically dance giddy when she asked her entourage for confirmation. “Is she the one, Harry?”

The man closest to her – whose name was obviously Harry – took one look at the figure in front of him and nodded.

“White hair, avoiding the public eye, blue eyes,” he remarked as if reading from a shopping list. “Yes, that’s her, Lady Melody. We found the perpetrator.” And suddenly it became clear that the hooded figure people had been talking about was actually Melody Gyndnegle. At last, she had come out into the open, seeking the woman that had killed her beloved.

“So you’re the tramp that took my dear Lumerre from me? Hmph!” She stood before the person she thought was Nea, maintaining a safe distance while still acting like she had the high ground. Her disdain was palpable, her tact less so. “Well, have anything to say for yourself ugly?!” She issued a poor insult based on vanity, the best her childish mind could muster; and yet, predictably, the hooded figure in front of her did not respond. She remained silent, at least until the great Melody lost her patience. “Ugh, fine,” she exclaimed as if throwing a tantrum! “Harry! Remove her from my sight!”

I did not move in the face of her threats, however. Instead, I issued a warning to the men that she had ordered toward me even as my haunting crows watched them from overhead.

“You have one warning,” I spoke without amusement or joy. “Do not take another step, because, if you do, you’re going to have a bad time.” But, of course, they didn’t listen. No one ever listens under those circumstances; and these men just chuckled while continuing their advance. It was their final joke, especially since Case 10666’s negative influence was already growing in me. These people would find no compassion on that day, even with how I led off my next statements in that deadly case of mistaken identity.  “What a beautiful day," I began while looking at the sky, "Birds are singing. Flowers are blooming. On days like these, kids like you… “ And, in that instant, the influence spiked. After a sudden blink, one of my eyes glowed an eerie shade of red. My voice vibrated as it conjoined with that of 10666, and the characteristic scarves that each of these private guardsmen wore came alive with a final farewell. “Should be burning in Inferos.”

Melody’s personal guard screamed in unison as one after another met a violent end. Some were hung outright by their scarves, gasping for air before the branches of the nearby trees filled their throats to finish the job. Others were just snapped in two by ephemeral ents that I temporarily summoned, and then left in the branches as everything turned back to a crimson shade of normal. 24 men and one woman had gone into that camp before these events took place, and, at the end, only the woman remained in frantic terror.

“She’s a monster! Somebody! Anybody! Help!!!!” No longer capable of arrogance, the lone Gyndnegle tried to run. Before she could escape, however, a magical web tied her to the ground. One end attached to her neck, while the other to her hips. She was trapped, and could not move away from me even as I approached her from behind.

“From where I’m standing,” I began as I regained a little more of my mind among the carnage I had just unleashed. “There’s only one monster here. You Egjoran nobles really are the cancer of society, especially those who are like you, Melody Gyndnegle.” Moving in front of my captive, I reached out toward her throat with my hand as if to grab it. She winced as she anticipated what was about to happen, but was left surprised when I stopped short with an open palm and loose lips instead. “You came here because you wanted to get revenge with your own hands – or rather the hands of your personal guard – and you didn’t want to listen to your elders who told you to stay out of this arena.”

Shocked by hearing that information that I should rightfully not have known, the girl finally spoke up amidst her whimpering.
 
“How do you know that,” she questioned, to which I simply gave a straight faced response?

“My eyes are all over the city now in the form of those crows that have been following you, and your memories are easy enough to read.” Indeed, Lumerre’s fiance was how I found out about this whole war among the merchant families: a lone, overzealous girl who was at the center of the affair and had a predictably pliable mind once I found her. Her thoughts were all I needed to understand the last bits of what had happened before my arrival, and, in an effort to taunt her helplessness, I elucidated every aspect of that sequence of events that she and her ilk had tried so hard to keep hidden. “At first you were just interested in Lumerre because you loved his taste in fashion. Then your affections turned more serious, but in a pet-master sort of way instead of husband and wife. He was your precious possession, someone you were marrying just so that no one else could ever have him. Yet, shock and surprise, someone took him away from you anyway. You thought it was Ashur Leuvarden at first, the young upstart in your rival family who you despised since that embarrassing birthday party 8 years ago. You even overheard your mother talking with a family spy the day after Lumerre’s store got hit, and he said that he saw the two men conversing with each just a few days earlier. Your prejudgments got the better of you in that instant – as did your impatience – and so you decided to kidnap and torture this perceived threat.” Pausing, I backed off a bit from Melody and leaned against a hanging tree before continuing to taunt her. “But he didn’t talk, did he? Or rather he couldn’t talk because you eventually got tired of his constant smiling. You had the late Harry cut out his tongue, and the poor bastard bled to death afterwards. You broke the cardinal rule in doing so, and, naturally, the Leuvardens retaliated. They blew up your family’s latest achievement in banking, and would have done more if someone hadn’t intervened. Yes, Marcello Medicci, a well-respected elder among your kind, decided to involve himself. He knew that the last thing Egjora needed right now so soon after the divine tragedies inflicted upon them was more infighting, so he found the person who actually killed Lumerre and had the press pin everything on her in exchange for a ceasefire among the families. Your parents, along with the heads of the Gyndnegle and Leuvarden families, agreed to those demands in an effort to keep the peace, and you, as a matter of protocol, were given a slap on the wrist.” Yet again assuming the position of open palm toward my captive, I started tightening the webs on her piece by piece while finishing my recount of past events. “That didn’t satisfy you, however, and so here we are: you chasing me through the forest while believing I am someone else. You got your personal guard killed here for petty revenge, and now you finally know what it is to fear someone you thought was beneath you.”

Many people in Melody's position would have broken down in that situation. I'll give the girl credit that she had more backbone than that, however, because she put up one last font of strength in the face of her perceived and impending death.

“You’ll never get away with this! My family will hunt you down if you kill me!” Unfortunately for her, that retort - while brave - did little to sway me toward her cause. The statement only incensed my temper further, fueled by an upbringing among callous nobles whom I had learned to hate.

“I despise your kind," I said while the memories flickered in my head from those unhappy times. "You think your money can protect you, that everyone is just a pawn simply because you assume their worth based on the size of their pocketbook.” Tightening the webs even further, I could hear Melody bite her tongue to keep herself from screaming. “By all rights,” I told her just as I was thinking of killing her right there, “I should snap you in two this instant, get rid of the cancer at its root and be done with it.” Yet I stopped myself before the webs could do just that. Part of my mind in that negative swirl of emotions generated by the ongoing release of 10666's vault was still there, and it surfaced just barely in time to spare Miss Gyndnegle a most gruesome fate. The webs eased as my sanity crept back in, and my demeanor returned to one of a very tired woman. “But that wouldn’t teach you anything. It wouldn’t solve anything.” Sitting back on the ground in that moment of reprieve, I summoned more webs to keep my captive contained; but no longer was I trying to kill her. I just sat there with bags under my eyes watching her as SAI played Air to calm me down and professing to this selfish girl in front of me what I now intended to do with her. “I’d prefer to break your pride rather than your back, so you will sit and wait with me among these strange, dangling fruit until I see fit to release you. Judging from what my crows are saying, we’re going to be doing a hostage exchange anyway.”

While the high and mighty were being kicked off their high horses, Efrain was growing more and more agitated with his current predicament. The matter with Stalhadt was resolved but that did little to change the fact that he was still landlocked in the duchy. He and the would-have-been stowaway had parted ways, fortunately before a copy of the latest edition blew by him. His eyes caught the headline, and a quick skim left him with the realization that he likely just had a run-in with the suspect. From the way she acted, she didn't seem capable of murder. Not in the physical sense, but her behavior and general disposition from what he gathered. But the world was full of possibilities. If the poor panicked girl did kill Lumerre, there was a high chance that it had been a complete accident. That wasn't the attitude of premeditated killing. The apothecary's doubts still remained, as the vivid description of the supposed murderer didn't entirely match who he saw. That snow-haired girl was an elf, but she didn't look anything like a spider from his perspective. It could be another case of journalistic libel hyped up to rally the masses into a full-blown witch hunt.

If leaving by air or sea was out of the question, then how in the Conclave was he going to bloody leave? This same question had been unanswered for hours ever since this whole murder incident stirred Egjora into a frenzy. He was at his wits' end, and down the frayed fibers of the metaphorical rope. Then, it hit him. Of course. Smacking himself on the side of the head with a hiss, Efrain muttered. "Gods–! I'm such a bloody fool!" Here he had been walking on eggshells trying to do things the standard way under fear of suspicion. But now that a certain officer had essentially cleared him of all charges–there was no need to skulk about like a wanted man anymore. Heisei said nothing, keeping mum about his owner's belated epiphany. All the better for him, as Efrain wasn't in a very good mood since they set foot on the island. The Rosenite walked with his bags in hand, discreetly glancing to see if any other officers of the law were noticing. When he was confident that they were in the clear, he slipped out of sight into a blind alley and cast the spell.

Swirling energies formed a portal in the fabric of space and time, revealing the busy plaza streets of Adeluna City. With one last look over his shoulder, he darted in. In the blink of an eye the portal closed, vanishing into thin air. Leaving without a trace, Efrain made his final exit as the curtain on this sordid act was drawing to a close. Although his escape from the duchy had been a success, little did he know that this would not be the last time he would encounter the Chadwicks–if that was their true surname. And of course, his draconic assistant would never let him live that brief intellectual faux pas down as long as they could remember.

Back at the docks and far away from the sudden graveyard of “royalty,” Nea had been abandoned once more. Efrain tried to speak to her after she was tossed out onto the pier by that heartless captain, but, in her shock as well as the slight haze of fever now clouding over her vision, she never actually responded to him. He likely took her silence as an unwillingness to cooperate or converse, and so stopped bothering before wasting more of his effort. Either way, the young Rosenite left the beleaguered elf in her stupor once the Chadwhicks had demonstrated the ferocity of the Egjoran navy, and eventually he left the island altogether somewhere further down the line.

Robin and Aspect arrived sometime after that mysteriously unfortunate apothecary had departed. The former had used the directions of the latter to speed up her path, but the seconds they saved by doing so were not enough to arrive before Efrain had time to disappear. Their path, guided by Aspect, also generated some property damage along the way in the form of boot impressions on the building corners to Robin cut - much to the chagrin of the local property owners. Those were ultimately the least of Robin’s concerns, however: thanks entirely to the fact that Stalhadt's group had already surrounded Nea before the rescue party arrived at the docks.

“Gods damn it.” Stalhadt was mumbling unto himself as his men circled the still collapsed elf on the pier. He did not look happy or vengeful at having found her. Instead, his expression was incredibly somber as he compared the faces between the paper he held in front of him and the girl on the ground. Somewhere deep down he knew what he had been ordered to do was wrong, and he was torn between choosing what was dutiful and choosing what was just.

“I almost wish you had gotten away, girl,” he whispered to himself before putting away the poster he had been carrying since the most recent edition of the herald broke. His lieutenant noticed his trepidation in that moment of weakness and walked over to him in concern as the rest of the guard solidified their posts.

“If it’s too much, sir, I can take the shot for you.” But the captain, being a dutiful officer of the seaside city, simply waved him off before loading his crossbow.

“No, I can’t let my pity overrule my orders. If the captain won’t even carry out what he’s told to do, how can I expect my men to do the same?”

“As you say, Captain Stalhadt.”

Robin had been hiding behind some barrels while this conversation was going on, wishing to survey the scene for some way to get Nea out of there without sending the guards into a frenzy. Aspect was hanging around nearby – presumably for the same reason – but the pink haired guardian could see no solution to their predicament in the absence of a miracle. Stalhadt’s lieutenant was backing away, and the captain himself was preparing to shoot a bolt right into Nea’s head. He was going to execute her in broad daylight without a trial, presumably on the orders of the merchant families themselves. Nea, in pathetic contrast, just lay there, accepting her fate even as one of my crows gently tugged on her hair to get her to move.

This story at the docks could have gone a very different way than it ultimately did. I am not without pity, and I very much wanted to help Nea when I saw her through my black spies on that day in Egjora. Yet I was also torn on how to go about that assistance. Even if I saved that small, sad child on that specific day, for instance, I could not guarantee her a happy existence for the rest of her life; and I actually feared that I may inadvertently worsen her lot by interfering at all. Part of me thought it would be more merciful to just let young Nea die right then rather than force her to live out the rest of her potentially cruel existence. It was one of those instances where I decided to let someone else make the final move, even though, thinking back with perfect hindsight, I knew what the outcome would be.

Robin, heroic to a fault, would never stand idly by in such a situation. Before she knew what she was doing, she picked up the barrel of fish she had been hiding behind and threw it into the back of the captain’s head. Stalhadt missed his shot from the impact, instead shooting Amos - the sailor who had so recently watched his ship go up in flames - in the butt before he went tumbling to the wooden planks below. The fish within the barrel scattered all along the pier after that nick-of-time rescue, causing more guards to slip and fall while creating a path for Robin to reach Nea – save, of course, for the lone lieutenant who managed to stay upright.

“We’re under-“ ‘Attack’ was probably what he intended to say before Robin lariated him to the ground, but the lieutenant swiftly joined his commanding officer in stupor just long enough for his pink-haired assailant to grab the target behind him.

“Sorry, sorry!” She repeated the word over and over, my wife, as she was collecting Nea from the ground in a hurry. She had no time to be gentle with the hurt elf, lest she be surrounded when the guards regained their footing. Instead, she bolted at the first chance she got, getting behind the line just before the fish stopped keeping them incapacitated.

Aspect watched the scene before her unfold, her keen canine ears picking up the sounds of the men speaking. The guards had surrounded the white-haired elf that she and Robin were seeking. She couldn't help a low growl in her throat as she watched the guards prepare to shoot the elf. Suddenly, she saw a barrel fly over from the other side of the walkway, seeing the shock of pink hair of it was thrown. Robin was distracting them. She watched the officer miss his shot and then was subsequently subdued by Robin's lasso. Her ears perked in curiosity as she saw the other guards struggle to stand upright over the pile of slimy fish. 

She ducked out from her hiding spot as Robin ran forward to retrieve Nea from the ground. A guard tried to stand upright and shoot at them and she caught his knees with her legs, causing him to fall. She waited until Robin had the elf and was running away before she took off after them. She wasn't fast enough in her dog form to catch up with the rabbit, shifting instead to her pronghorn form. She caught up to them while using both her horns and her bulk to protect the pair from any guards that tried to stop them. Her hooves clattered rapidly on the ground behind the speeding rabbit.

"So what's the plan now?" she asked. They were marked individuals now for helping the elf escape, it wouldn't be long before people were also sent to hunt them down as well. "Where are we going even?" She saw a guard peek out of a door and attempt to make a grab for Robin. She ducked her head and smacked it shut with her horns. She followed her around the corners of the alleyway as they made their way rapidly through the city. She leaped over a box to keep pace with them. She looked at the elf as they ran. "She doesn't look the best, we should take her to see a doctor or something." She was still trying to wrap her head about everything that had been going on. It was hard to keep everything straight, this was more than just a rescue mission. She felt like there was something deeper going on that Robin wasn't telling her. She kept her suspicions to herself as they made their way down the busy streets. 

The guards were quick to respond once they regained their footing, and Stalhadt’s sorrow was broken by a mixture of shock and annoyance at how easily his troop had been duped. He barked out orders to his men, even as the fishy smell surrounding him threatened to consume his otherwise dour expression.

“After them!” Stalhadt’s lieutenant was the first to rise to that call, but he unceremoniously slipped on a cod and knocked himself out before he could be much of a threat. His subordinates were not so unfortunate, but it quickly became clear that they were slowed in their advance even if they weren’t falling all over themselves anymore.

Meanwhile, Robin and Aspect sped on ahead with a dazed Nea in tow, unhindered by the piscatorial minefield that the more pinkish member of their group had left behind. The guards they encountered along their way were official entities of the state trying to stop them, but they were not inherently part of Stalhadt’s unit. They simply heard the voice of a commanding officer and reacted, though Aspect’s horns and Robin’s dexterity were sufficient enough to keep them at bay for the time being - especially given their lack of opportunity to organize.

Regrettably, however, that was the greatest danger in this new situation that the three women were now entering: time or rather the lack thereof. Run as they might, Robin, Aspect and Nea would not even begin to enjoy the comfort of safety unless and until they could leave the island; and now that Nea was running a fever – a fact which Robin was keenly aware of, having to carry the girl on her back  – they also had to worry about finding a doctor who wouldn’t just sell them out at the slightest opportunity. Their clock was already limited, counting down even as the rabbit ran aimlessly trying to avoid the ambushes she heard in front of them.

‘Why must I be so powerless,’ she eventually lamented once she realized the bleakness of this situation she now found herself in? ‘I can’t even save one little girl without screwing up.’ Dismayed at the prospect that Nea might just wither away from her fever while her rescuer was trying to find a way out, Robin thought of and dreaded the possibility that she might just end up having to bury the girl anyway. Thanks to her lack of magical ability she couldn’t just gate travel away, and it wasn’t like she could walk on water either. In desperation, she looked up, hoping for something, anything that would give her hope.

That’s when she saw the crows for the first time. Until now, her eyes had been single-mindedly focused on finding and saving the girl who now rode on her back. She hadn’t actually bothered to pay attention to the sky, and so hadn’t noticed that I was watching her through the crow amulet around my neck this entire time. With the presence of those illusory spies overhead, however, Robin finally realized I was nearby. The flames of hope in her heart sparked alive once more, ever so fragile but still strong enough to where she forcibly willed the heart string on her finger to appear visible.

“Follow the thread,” the fugitive at last said to her pronghorned companion as the heartstring on her finger stretched out to me in the eastern lumber mill. “That’s our way out and our way to a doctor!” Nea finally woke up then, having passed out shortly before Robin dove in to rescue her.

‘Am I dead?’ she thought to herself as my wife’s pink hair came into focus. It wasn’t long before she realized that this was not the case; because, despite the fever’s effects on her, she could tell from the hollering of guards and townsfolk alike that she hadn’t actually been shot. The figure her arms were wrapped around had apparently saved her, and they were now trying to run away alongside a deer-like companion that could talk.

“Why are you two trying to save me,” the sick elf mumbled with this realization, not even questioning the oddity of her saviors at this point. “You could easily escape without me. Just let me go and you can get away.”

But Robin would not listen to this request. Despite being unwilling to admit it to herself, this was her chance to be more like me: to be a savior rather than someone who was always being saved. It was also a situation that was slowly morphing into a fantasy of hers ever since she realized Nea had white hair just like me. Her interaction with the girl up until that point had been about passing forward the good will she had been afforded earlier in her life at Nea’s age: a way to pass on a second chance at life to another girl who didn’t deserve the hand that fate had dealt. Now, however, that motivational story was twisting into a false narrative about saving family. The young rabbit saw me when she looked at Nea, and subconsciously started equating her to a daughter, perhaps even the daughter she wished she could have with me.
 
“No,” this confused but adorable rabbit finally responded to the elf on her back when that thought pattern solidified. “I won’t abandon you.” Ironically enough, Nea started hallucinating at that point. She couldn’t actually see Robin’s face, but her fever addled brain imagined it like the picture that Njall always kept of her mother in the living room. The young girl knew that was impossible, having been told from an early age that her mother was dead; but she wanted to believe at least for the moment. And it was in that belief that a single word came from her lips just before she fell back to sleep.

“Momma.”

Aspect bounded after Robin and the white-haired elf. She could see the girl's condition deteriorate as she rode on the back of the pink bunny. The fever, though originally flushing her face of all color, now caused her cheeks and nose to be a stark pink. Her pale complexion making the shock of color even more prominent. As she pulled level with Robin, she could see her face. It had changed it seemed, from powerful and confident to sad. She seemed distracted by something. Her eyes had glazed over, almost as if she was in a trance as she was lost in her inner thought. Aspect worried about her for a moment.

She looked up to see a guard focusing his crossbow on the pair. She sped up and ducked her head, catching the contraption in her prongs. After a very brief struggle, she commandeered it from the guard. It remained attached to her horns as she continued to catch up with Robin, she hadn't even seemed to notice the guard at the time. Suddenly she looked up, noticing the flock of crows that had been following them almost the entire day. Suddenly a string appeared out of nowhere from Robin and leading to a place out of sight. Aspect looked at her confused when she said to follow the thread, but she had no other ideas on what to do, so she followed it.

It led them to a lumber mill on the far side of the city. They had run a short distance before she flung the crossbow and it's attachments aside. They were heavy and awkward and had made seeing difficult. She continued to run next to the rabbit, glancing up to see the elf girl's eyes start to open. She perked her ears as she listened to the girl speak, low and mumbled, but still speaking nonetheless. She didn't know how to answer these questions and was momentarily relieved when Robin chose to answer them. She heard the elf speak one word after Robin answered her questions. She was slightly shocked by the statement and said nothing.

She followed Robin up to the lumber mill, which quickly became in sight after a brief run through the streets. It was an older building and from the looks of it, relatively abandoned. There were no people here that she could sense or see, except for one and she couldn't see her right away. This woman emitted strong power and as they got closer she could make her out. She was thin and pale, with long white hair, very similar to the elf on Robin's back. They stopped at the mill and she stood nearby in case either Robin or this new woman needed help with anything. She shifted quickly back into human form and waited, watching the young elf carefully.

Robin’s mind fluttered in response to Nea’s mistake. There she was, saving a girl that she knew barely anything about, and yet that same girl had just called her “momma” during a time in her life where she craved hearing that word more than anything else. It was an interesting mix of confusion and overprotection that this event brought to the young rabbit's head, but the end result was undeniable: she started to move faster.

While it’s true that Robin didn’t notice the crossbow being trained on her in her moment of hesitation – the same one that Aspect managed to stop – the archer who was aiming at her would’ve missed anyway following the "mother" mishap. His target’s jump in acceleration following Nea's case of mistaken identity was too great of a difference in magnitude for him to follow, and the fact that Robin took to jumping on the rooftops shortly thereafter made targeting her an impossible task for any average marksman. She had secured Nea’s body to her back in the heat of the moment as well, so her speed increased naturally even more than it already had in the absence of having to worry about dropping her “daughter." Conclusively, that made the hare's escape a vastly expedited process, far more than Stalhadt had anticipated.

Aspect did well in keeping up during this chase, following the thread alongside her rabbit companion until they reached the lumber mill. The guards, on the other hand, did not.

“Regroup!” Stalhadt called to the last of his men once it became clear that the criminals had evaded the watch's disorganized and impromptu ambushes. He hadn’t planned on anything more than a single, tired – albeit magical – girl; and now his ill preparations were showing. The guardsmen, stretched thin by the rabbit and shapeshifter’s maneuvering, would be foolhardy to pursue them any further without regrouping; and so the senior captain called them back.

Of course, their retreat was only temporary: the calm before the storm. Robin’s justice had won out in this particular instance, but the Guards’ duty could not be so easily extinguished. They slowly encroached upon the lumber yard, surrounding it with the full intent to take victory from the jaws of defeat.

Amnesia

Thankfully, though, Robin no longer cared what her pursuers were planning once she made her way into the clearing. Her faith in me was almost blinding – a stark contrast considering my own lack of self-faith – and so the mere sight of me proved to be enough to lift her spirits in the face of encroaching doom.

“Natsumi” she cried out as soon as she saw me sitting on that log, smiling against her better nature! Her rose-tinted lenses blinded her to the reality of her surroundings, at least until she drew near enough to me and the clear signs of fatigue that riddled my face. “Natsumi?” Suddenly her smile faded when she saw the full detail of my gaze. My eyes were dead and listless – the sign of an insomniac who had missed one too many nights - and the gallant hero that she had been expecting to see at the end of her tribulation was nothing more than a mere husk of the mental image she kept.

But typical of the woman I fell in love with, Robin didn’t shy away from this hot mess that currently wore her wife’s skin when she saw it. Instead, she kept coming closer with a new emotion in her eyes: not happiness or fear, but concern. “Are you alright?”

Forcing a smile despite myself, I greeted my friend’s disquiet with what warmth I could muster. I looked upon her face as best I could, and tried to project some semblance of peace in a very unromantic setting.

“No, I am not, Robin. But that is not our concern for the moment.” By then, I had already moved the bodies from earlier further up into the surrounding trees so that they were out of sight. There was no need to frighten Aspect, Nea or Robin at all, and since I knew they would be arriving ahead of the people I truly intended to frighten I had already made preparations. Now I was easily able to walk toward Robin and Nea, placing the back of my hand on the latter’s forehead like a properly concerned doctor instead of a deranged psychopath; especially since I had gagged the still alive heiress so she couldn't interrupt me from her hiding place. “She has a fever,” I remarked after pulling my hand away from the limp elf in that situation, and not once did I display any hint to depict the corpses that secretly surrounded us all. “But it’s nothing we can’t handle,"I continued. "Adel and Eden will be able to attend to her back home.”

“Then we-“

“Yes, for now.”

Thanks to my telepathic bond I shared with Robin, I knew what she had been thinking from the moment she had lunged out to rescue Nea at docks. I felt incredibly apologetic about the whole affair from the beginning, forcing her to choose like that; and I had already come to the conclusion that I would accept whatever choice she made regarding Nea’s fate. I was fully prepared to commit to that, long before she could even convey her request in words; and I had already prepped a sick bed for the young Nea back home in anticipation of my wife's delivery.

Even after all these years, however, Robin was still shocked by that level of foresight. She had expected having to argue with me because of my stinginess toward the children situation, and was thrown for a loop that such a thing didn’t occur this time. That’s why her words caught in her throat when she realized I was already planning to take the young elf home; showing her vulnerable, more girlish side that I so adored.

There were caveats, of course, but I was quick to explain them while opening a portal to the house.
 
“You don’t have to ask or beg or anything in between. I already know your feelings, and I’ve been watching you since you called me here. I agree with you that we can’t simply leave her here when we have the resources to do otherwise. We will adopt Nea, but only so long as she herself accepts that arrangement. Until she is cognizant enough to make that decision for herself, we will tend to her and make sure she is safe enough to grieve.” Hugging Robin weakly, I rubbed Nea’s head with one hand and then said my farewells to the two of them. “Take her back to the house. I will deal with our guests and then meet you there shortly.”

Ears folding in happiness, the bun basked in my embrace for the brief time that it occurred. She carried Nea with her to the border of my portal henceforth, but stopped just short of it so that she could turn toward the mercenary shapeshifter that had followed her this entire time.
 
“Thank you for your help, Aspect.” The shapeshifter had assumed her human form once more by this point, and had been on standby like a respectful audience. She probably had a response to give to those last words she heard from Robin, but she had nary a chance. The rabbit was gone in a flash, disappearing immediately after her message of gratitude. I closed the portal behind her for safety, and then immediately turned my gaze toward the woman left behind.
 
“Now then, back to business.” Shifting my personality to a more professional one in the absence of my wife, I regarded Aspect with a straight face and recalled my past memories of her whilst SAI transitioned me into my plague doctor attire. “You certainly seem to have luck on your side Aspect. Last time I saw you, I sprung you from prison in Karith to retrieve an artifact for me in this very city. However, that was ages ago, and I did so under the guise of a long dead sailor. Even if your memory survived my purge of the world, I doubt you would even recognize me as I stand before you now.” Under normal circumstances, I might have shown her the face of the same sailor I had impersonated those many years ago; but, suffice to say, I felt that was a waste of energy in the moment leading up to my next comments. The story was probably enough, and, even if it wasn’t, Aspect seemed so different this second time around that I almost felt it was irrelevant to bring up such memories – a view that was reflected in my followup. “But that was another lifetime. Fact of the matter is that I’m more focused on your self-sacrifice today.” Summoning a sack coin containing the exact value that the city watch had promised to pay for Nea’s capture, I tossed it gently in Aspect’s direction and then continued. “Consider this sack of crescents as hazard pay for forfeiting the job you took and also slandering your name when you didn’t have to for the sake of my wife. I can also provide transportation off the island should you need it, but only after I deal with the guards. No doubt they will be here soon, so, if you have questions, I recommend you ask them now.”

Aspect watched Robin run up to a woman who was sitting on a log. The woman was pale, her hair completely white in color. She appeared older than both her and the rabbit, but it was apparent that she held a very close bond to Robin. She was silent as she watched their interaction. She watched carefully as the white-haired woman checked on the young elf they had brought with them through the city. Quietly, she remained standing near the young elf, unsure of what to do or say in such a situation. Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw the older woman create something in the air. A portal of some sort, unlike any she had ever seen before.

She listened as the older woman spoke. Robin carefully picked up the elf next to her and carried her over to the entrance of the portal. She called out a brief thank you to her and she couldn't help but smile. She opened her mouth to call back, but the rabbit had already turned and left into the portal, taking the young elf with her. Moments after Robin disappeared, the older woman closed the portal and turned her attention to her. Her gaze was something unique and Aspect felt herself begin to grow uncomfortable. She felt the woman was more than what was initially assumed and this quality was disconcerting. She thought for a moment that this is what others felt when looking upon her, the shapeshifter that she was.

The woman's tone changed to one more serious, and for a moment she was prepared for a scolding of a sort. She watched in both awe and disgust as the woman's clothes bubbled into a new form. She mentioned meeting her before, back when she was a prisoner in Karith. The memory of the sailor was very faint, almost like a dream partially remembered. It was hard for her to believe that that blurred memory was this powerful woman before her. It was so long ago it almost didn't feel real, so much had changed since then. For the most part, Aspect had remained out of trouble since then and had gone on to live a better life than she had before. Criminal acts, in the long run, didn't seem to pay out as well as she originally thought. 

The woman paused for a moment, allowing Aspect to collect her thoughts. But before she could speak, the woman began again, this time in gratitude. She summoned quite easily a small sack of which could only be money of some sort. The woman tossed them to her and she caught it with both hands. She eyed the woman a moment, in both hesitancy and surprise before looking inside the small bag. It was indeed money, crescents, enough to pay for her room, board, food, clothes, whatever she needed for a long time. She turned to look up at the older woman, her mouth open but no words coming out. It took her a short amount of time before she was able to speak.

"Thank you," she said, almost breathless. It wasn't often she was given gifts, never anything so valuable as this. She held it in her hands and looked at it, still having a hard time believing it was real. The woman mentioned the guards and she was drawn back into the reality she was in. She was still a fugitive and the guards would be here in no time. This woman appeared ready to handle them but it also meant that she didn't have much time to talk with her. Slowly she reached out and touched the older woman on the shoulder, her gray eyes meeting the older woman. "Please just answer me this," she said quietly. She thought about the sailor in her dreams, that evidently wasn't a dream. She thought about the armor bubbling up and changing forms in an instant. The older woman, so quiet and self-assured, whose presence was unlike any others she'd ever encountered in her life. "What is your name?"