[Maaike]

Maaike was worried the clan would try to delay again before going after the warehouse Jericho swore up and down held the missing Therians, but they were, somewhat surprisingly given how exhausted they all were, in just as much of a hurry to end this as Maaike was. They spared a couple of hours to hunt down some potions and a Viridis to heal them (the same healer she'd taken Aiden to after his guard buddies betrayed him, actually), but most of them were still limping and sore by the time they got through the portal and reached Espur's docks (because said Viridis liked money and there were far too many clansmen wounded to pay for full healing, only to clear up the worst of the injuries ready for battle).

The water was black and glassy, calm and almost motionless in a way that suggested a huge storm was on its way. Espur's night lights reflected like stars. Wood creaked and groaned as the ships listed gently side to side. The cool ripple of waves licking at the dock was barely enough to mask their approach, even if half of them weren't still shuffling the shuffle of the wounded, and Neme was far too bright to hide them. The scouts had found a way in, though, that wound them around the surrounding buildings. A ship must have come in late into the dockworkers' shift, because stacks of crates had been unloaded haphazardly and provided cover between one warehouse and the next.

Jericho had pointed out fat, squat building that edged right onto the water with its own pier. Covered piers like this one were unusual in Elysia -- much to the consternation of dockworkers who had to continue even in bad weather -- but Maaike figured by now that money blinded pretty much everyone if there was enough of it. Regardless, it was a pretty neat set-up for a smuggling ring: ships could come right in up to the warehouse, and cargo (or slaves) could be transported into the ship's hold without ever coming into the daylight. Even if people had noticed that something fishy was going on here, they couldn't get a good look without getting dangerously close. It had made the warehouse easier to spot, at least. Most of the others were set back from the harbour to give the dockworkers and the sailors room. Thanatos' was pretty obvious, once they knew what they were looking for.

Which meant, ugh. Maaike would have to thank him when this was over, rather than slamming his head into the nearest hard surface. Xanth dammit.

“Jericho just confirmed it. Ten guards patrolling the perimeter, ten more inside guarding the, er, cargo.” Ellery wrinkled his nose at the term, but there was apparently more than just slaves in that warehouse. “And Winston's standing by to COM the local guards with an anonymous tip.”

They were as ready as they were going to be, then. Twenty guards wasn't that bad, all things considered, but, “Threats?”

Ellery wrinkled his nose again. Maaike was beginning to wonder if it was the smell of fish rather than the words coming out of his mouth that was disgusting him. He never had liked fish. “We can't be sure the guards inside won't just kill the captives when they see us coming.”

“So we need to be quick as well as silent.” Ellery nodded and it was Maaike's turn to wrinkle her nose in distaste, glancing sharply at Aiden as she did so -- partly to share her consternation as a sort-of battlefield-humour joke, but also to check him over. Despite the fact that Maaike had slit her own throat and essentially tried to kill herself, she was still probably in better shape than him, and at least eighty percent of his injuries were her fault if indirectly. She didn't even want to think about the direct ones because that way lay a whole lot of guilt she couldn't afford to wallow in right now. Once Sammy was out, she could see about apologising and making things as right as they ever could be with him -- and figure out how far those whole "last words" moments could take them -- but not right now.

But the point was, none of them were particularly light or quick on their feet right now. Maybe Kiel because he always seemed to walk away either uninjured or at least with more energy than he went in with. And that long-haired hulk of his didn't seem hurt either, but Maaike wouldn't put it past either of them to hoard their potions (even if they had pretty selflessly given her one to save her life...) But two out of however many of them were left wasn't going to win them this war.

“We need to long-distance this crap.” A few of the clan were skilled enough hunters, even if their weapons were on the crude "rock-throwing" side compared to the more "civilised" bows that some of Lersa's group came with, but they'd need to co-ordinate their attack to take out all the perimeter guards before they could alert the others. “And then how do we get into the warehouse itself? Climb up onto the roof and dangle from the rafters?”

That... wasn't such a bad idea, actually.

[Aiden]

Neme was unobscured tonight, and it lit the warehouses in cool hues of brown and grey. One could become lost among the tightly-stacked warehouses along Moondrop Row, but Thanatos' warehouse was easily recognizable---especially after Jericho's description of the building. The covered pier, with its small high windows and few entrances, was so secretive that it might as well have shouted 'don't look here' to any skeptic. It was surrounded by smaller buildings that cast shadows along the pathways. Probably ancillary storage spaces, or buffers to prevent common dockworkers from hearing or seeing anything. Small sunstones lit the vicinity, but the glow was discreet enough to avoid attention. Brows furrowing with worry as Ellery relayed Jericho's information, Aiden watched two of the warehouse guards pause at one corner of the building. After a few minutes, one of the guards left to patrol along the cluster of warehouses. Glancing higher, Aiden squinted suspiciously at the shadowy area between the wall of the main warehouse and the rooftop of a shorter building. The location provided enough vantage and was easily missed. He couldn't see anybody hiding there, but skotadis were tricky.

Sighing as Ellery emphasized the quick-and-silent attack, Aiden turned just in time to see Maaike's similar expression of distaste. Other than the distressingly pleasant weather, speed was their greatest disadvantage at the moment. They'd sought for Aniketo's assistance in New Alexandria, but the viridis healer had neither the time nor capacity to completely heal the clan. As result, most of their group still stumbled with various states of injury. He also worried whether Maaike should really be fighting---having lost blood after being throat-cut and all. On their way to Espur, Aiden had tried to talk to her about it once. She'd given him a look, with raised eyebrows and eyes that judged his burnt shoulder and injured ribs, and he promptly dropped the subject. Point taken. Kiel's miracle potion had achieved its purpose.

Shifting uncomfortably, Aiden craned his neck toward where Lersa and her team were hiding. They were further down the Row but able to close the distance if necessary. “Kill them swiftly then,” he murmured as he looked back at Maaike. His lips thinned with worry as he thought briefly, “if they cry out when hit...” Aiden shook his head. “We need to get some sort of head start. Rafters might work. Nate's people can take the waters and enter from the pier.” The dark depths would be enough to hide their approach, and when they emerged, they'd be right in the middle of the loading zone, and most likely surrounded.

((Sorry for the delay! ))

[Kiel]

Like, Kiel had thought that he was over Anoria. Like, not just that wretched continent-island-thing that nobody wanted to revisit ever (except for, like, Dumbass Uberto but no one took him seriously anymore), but the whole trip. From start to finish, the expedition had been, like, cursed or something, but Kiel had thanked Xanth and all her buddies for the fact he never had to sail again. Or, like, crossing the straits to go home was technically sailing but, like... That wasn't the point! The point was, like, he was totally over the whole thing because he never had to see those fangy acidy wormling things or those angry pointy walruses or that Xanth-forsaken ship ever again.

Except, like, the next thing he knew, there was a giant freaking walrus lurching out of the water to crash onto the dock, honking like someone had stolen its favourite stuffed animal and then given it to their dog as a snack. Kiel's first reaction was to totally not, like, flail all over the place wailing "we're all gonna die!" Or, like, that was totally his first reaction and Zeph slapped a hand over his mouth -- a bit too tight for comfort, okay, that crap hurt -- and pointed silently at Aiden with his girly eyebrows up in his girly hair like "do you see my point". Except it took a second for Kiel to actually get what he wasn't saying because they might be married but even Kiel's many hours of trying to learn Interpretive Eyebrow hadn't really resulted in anything more than "oh that one means he's mad for sers, run!"

When the lights went on and all his brain cells came home, Kiel let his mouth gape behind Zeph's hand in a silent "oh" and then wiggled a bit in a happy dance 'cause he totally thought those giant walrus things were way cool when they were on his side, okay? Like, sinking ship equals bad walrus, bad! but Therian playing decoy? Yeah, Kiel could totally get on board that plan.

“So, like.” Kiel tried to keep his voice down as he watched a bunch of the perimeter guards race to shoo away the giant not-walrus, he really did, but he could barely hear himself think over that Xanth-awful honking noise. Luckily, Zeph knew him well enough that he'd kept his hand close. Like, Kiel totally waggled his eyebrows suggestively, but Zeph wasn't even looking at him, and the others were all, like, tensing up ready to run. So mean. Kiel probably should be getting ready, too. “We can attack now. Like, right?”

[Maaike]

Maaike had lived in Espur long enough to hear sailors gossiping about all manner of sea creatures, but she'd dismissed most of the rumours as idiots exaggerating drunken hallucinations. She should have known better, really, given how many weird and crazy-looking creatures lived on land, but it was hard to imagine any of the strange sea monsters she'd heard about actually being real. Many-tentacled kraken the size of a ship? Barely-there wisps of rainbow that hummed their prey into a trance? Massive electric tadpoles?

Yeah, right.

And yet there was one of them smashing down onto the dock with the weight of a dashiri and the spines of a spine-tailed cat. There were other sea creatures with it, flooding up onto the dock to grab up the guards as they came to investigate and shoo away the monster, dragging the enemy into calm black water with barely a ripple -- but it was the giant walrus that commanded Maaike's attention not because it was so big or vicious-looking or angry-sounding or dangerous but because a Therian being able to change into one of those things meant they were real. Somewhere out there in the water were entire herds of these things, and if the giant walrus was real and kicking sailor butt from here to Dardanos, what else was real and dangerous too?

“So, like. We can attack now, right?”

Maaike scrunched up her nose in distaste because it was too dark to really aim a glare at Kiel the way she wanted to, then rolled her shoulders to work out the kinks caused by fighting her way to and through that vlareon Thanatos. When this was all over, Maaike was going to linger in a hot bath for days, she swore to Xanth. In the meantime...

With the perimeter guards occupied, screams choked off by water as they were swept into the sea by various but equally terrifying-in-their-own-way monsters, Maaike and the rest had an easier job of sneaking up to the warehouse. Scaling the building wasn't much of a problem for those with monkey-like forms, although Maaike herself almost wobbled right out of the air when a freak gust of wind stormed in off the dock and swept her wings out from under her. The sudden calm gave her even more reason to think there was a storm coming, but she couldn't decide if it would be good fortune for them or for Thanatos; a storm would help cover their tracks when they got out with the captives and make it harder for the smugglers to pursue them, but it would also make the journey more treacherous for Maaike's group too, and might prevent the Espurian Guard from coming out at Winston's call altogether. (Wimps.) It'd probably be better for them all if the storm held off, but one glance at the sky showed that clouds were already blotting out the stars and Neme's light was failing behind a boiling wall of black.

Inside, the warehouse was barely lit -- all the better for a few Therians to drop in behind a crate here or there and wait for the patrolling guards to come within reach while the rest snuck around in the dark to find the cages. They just had to time this right.

* Awww. Maaike considers Aiden (and his family by association) a Sullivan.

[Aiden]

Just as planned, the cacophony of walrus noises was enough to steal attention from the perimeter guards, and those foolish enough to step foot on the pier were quickly swept up by sea creatures. Nate's crew burst from the waters in the shapes of headbutting-seals, snapping crocodiles, giant squid, leaping electric water serpents...Catching a glimpse of Kiel's slack-jawed expression, Aiden grinned lopsidedly, and he felt a little proud of his brother.

The Sullivans made their dash toward the warehouse, shedding their human forms along the way. Tail swishing as he ran in the form of a common bengal, Aiden sprinted through shadows when he could, adding a burst of energy when he passed what he thought would be a high-surveillance area. As they neared one corner of the building, the spotted bengal shrank fluidly into a winged serpent. Angel snakes lacked the wings for true flight, but Aiden managed to wrap himself around the shoulders of some-monkey for the ascent. Letting the monkey do all the climbing, Aiden used the moment to rally his energy and shrug off the pain from their fight in the villa. Aniketos had grumbled about gashes over burns while stitching up Aiden's back, and Aiden suspected that all the running and shifting had aggravated the healing process. Well, that's unfortunate.

Tasting the air, the serpent bobbed warily as its carrier scrambled over the warehouse's rooftop. Somewhere nearby was the caustic smoky odor that accompanied every cloaked skotadi. Pinpointing the foreign heat signature, the angel snake abruptly unfurled its wings and dove toward the rooftop junctions. Wings melted into fists, and vertebrae differentiated into shoulder bones, ribcages, and so on. He barely dodged the shadowy column slapped toward him as he landed on the lower roof. The skotadi was somewhere near the walls. Focusing his still-serpentine eyes on the skotadi's heat patterns, Aiden darted forward with raised arms. Feathers and bones crunched under his two-handed grip, and he kicked the skotadi's kneecap. Didn't expect the shadow cloak to fail, did you? Aiden couldn't see the skotadi's expression, but he liked to imagine it was some type of dismayed horror as he shoved his opponent off the rooftop.

Aiden didn't bother to peer over the roof's edge as a significant volume of seawater splashed below. As he entered the warehouse from the rafters, he landed cautiously on one of the larger crates and then lowered himself to the ground. By now, the interior guards had recognized the commotion outside, and they were riled enough to hunt for therian blood. Aiden just hoped they wouldn't start killing captives. Some of the Sullivans had already engaged combat with the guards too. As a grey wolf finished tearing out the clavicle of one of the guards, Aiden asked urgently, “Can you smell them? And Sammy?”

((Is the timing disjointed? Lemme know if this needs editing!
And awww~ they're all like family! ^x^))

[Kiel]

Kiel had seen actual giant walruses, thank you very much, okay, and it was kinda hard for him to tear his eyes away from the beast on the dock 'cause, like, he was kinda having flashbacks, okay? Unpleasant ones of the "I'm gonna die I'm gonna die" variety. He'd shaken it off by the time the other Therians hopped up with him, like, only a matter of seconds later, and then he was sort of semi-grinning 'cause that beastie was totally on his side and he wasn't gonna die, the other dudes were gonna die, and it was kinda awesome watching this massive sea monster at work from a distance, you know?

Zeph thankfully grabbed him before he could, like, burst out laughing or screeching victory, one big hand slapping over Kiel's mouth and the arm around his neck dragging him off to follow the others. Kiel used the opportunity to grumble, the sound muffled by Zeph's hand, but it was only a couple of steps before the big lug was letting him go and they were both hugging the wall of the warehouse to sneak through the shadows.

Except, like, they couldn't really climb the wall to get into the warehouse, so they were gonna have to wait for the others to do their stuff before they could help. Unless, like, ooh, there was a guard coming this way. He looked kinda confused and curious, like he'd heard the noise and was coming to investigate, so Kiel crouched a bit ready to spring, Zeph totally breathing down his neck, and waited for the guard to come within reach before lunging out and grabbing him.

Like, there was a bit more of a scuffle than Kiel meant 'cause the guard was totally stronger than he looked, okay, but then Zeph smacked him right in the face and the guard was out cold. Kiel pouted as he dragged the body to one side, silently communicating, "Dude, I totally had it, I had that, I was totally winning, okay." Zeph's eyebrows dipped and Kiel totally interpreted it as, "I know, my dearest love, but I felt lonely and useless all by myself over there" 'cause that's totally what that look said, okay?

[Maaike]

No worries about the timing, it's good! Mine might be a bit jolting, though, to fit Maaike's actions between Aiden's. ^^ Uh, I just realised we forgot about Graeme though. We need to put him in one of these cages.

Maaike was less interested in the guards than she should be, but it looked like the clan had them well in hand. There were Therians stationed throughout the warehouse by now, ducked behind and on top of crates ready to make a co-ordinated attack once the overwatch gave the signal, but Maaike was more focused on scanning the warehouse from her perch for signs of the captives. While Aiden took out the Skotadi, Maaike hopped along a narrow beam past the monkey on overwatch, trying not to ruffle her wings so she wouldn't draw attention to the rafters, hawk eyes flickering in search of her "prey".

The cages were right in the centre. From above, they almost looked like any other crate, but then a skinny arm flopped out (presumably through the bars). A jolt of excitement shook Maaike's whole bird-body, a shock of hope that it was Sammy's arm. It was definitely a kid, her sniffling joining the whimpers coming from another cage, but the arm was just a bit too pale and the hand was all wrong. Maaike tucked her wings in from where they'd flared in her excitement, tapping her beak gently against the beam to draw the overwatch monkey's attention, then went back to scanning the array of cages. From this angle, she couldn't really get a bead on any of them, though. Sammy could be in any one of them. They'd have to just attack, try to keep the fighting away from the cages, and then go through them once the guards were dealt with.

The overwatch monkey apparently agreed, jerking its head in an approximation of a nod. It waited for Maaike to sail down off the beam, wings flared wide and beak wibbling this way and that to keep her target in sight. She squawked when she got close enough, drawing the nearest guards' attention. They started making confused noises -- "what the Hel" "how did that thing get in here" -- and tried to shoo her out. The overwatch monkey shrieked, and the Therians attacked.

[Aiden]

Rushing forward as the monkey cried, Aiden just barely registered the steel bar swinging toward his head. Wind tousled his hair as he narrowly dodged the weapon, and with an alarmed pulse, Aiden tried to grab the other end of the bar as his opponent swung it back again. Terrible idea. Staggering under the weight, Aiden wheezed and finally realized who he was fighting against---a large, bulky man who looked as if he wrestled nagrim daily. Only Zeph could directly face this overgrown 'vari, but judging from Kiel's faint battlecries, their blacksmith friend was nowhere nearby. Aiden wasn't going to win this tug-of-war, so instead, he released the weapon and scrambled up a crate. As the crate met a splintery end, Aiden hopped to a higher crate, and then a lower one. That one cracked too, but this time, the steel got stuck in the partially-splintered wood. With claws ready, Aiden leapt toward the 'vari, and though the man punched and kicked as they fell to the ground, Aiden quickly found his aim.

As the rutilus lay gurgling on the floor, Aiden stumbled to a defensive stance. Some of his stitches had became loose, so his back was leaking red again. His left arm also throbbed painfully from colliding with the 'vari's fist. For a dreary beat, Aiden surveyed the dark for more of Thanatos' thugs. Two wolves patrolled the walkway, and Maaike had also finished her fight. Deciding that their surroundings were mostly safe, Aiden knelt tiredly beside the rutilus to search for keys. When he couldn't find anything in the man's pockets, shoes, and so on, Aiden sat back.

Their brawl had led Aiden toward another cluster of cages. Standing, he walked toward the cells and wrapped each hand around the bars. They needed to release the captives before Thanatos' men decided they weren't worth keeping. Experimentally gathering leopard strength into his arms, Aiden pulled and yanked at the weakest points. It didn't work, which proved that the cages had been reinforced against enhanced strength. Wearily, Aiden rested his hand and forehead against one of the rods. “Can you describe the guy who keeps the keys?”

The captives were clearly drugged and dazed though. Those who were awake simply gazed passed him as if they hadn't even seen the fight. However, one of them spoke in faint whispers and murmurs. The prisoner had his own cage but huddled in the farthest corner despite the available space. Puddles of pungent liquid and mush dirtied the cage, and Aiden had to pull his shirt over his nose as he edged toward the prisoner's corner. “Please speak up?”

With a jolt, the captive's shoulders scrunched close and his eyes widened in distress, as if Aiden had just risen out of the ground. The old man's speech was erratic. At times he spoke too quickly, and sometimes the speech slurred. The old man gaped with a mouth that missed some teeth, and his weathered skin was mottled with dark bruises. Quietly staring into the elder's abnormal gaze, Aiden was seized by a terrifying awareness of who they'd discovered.

“Imustn'tsay...no...turnleft bee-yondthecrypt. ...imps no children but beesunderground...nomore. nO. no. nomore.”

((You asked for Graeme, yes? oxO))

[Maaike]

Maaike tried to stay clear of the fight itself, focused more on navigating the maze of crates and cages. Ellery had told her to stay out of the fray as much as possible, worried that the healing wasn't quite enough to offset the damage she'd done to her own neck, but she wasn't actually indulging her grandpa's worry. Other clansmen had been damaged far worse than she had. Aiden was in a worse state than she was, and he'd waded into the fight like he had nothing to lose.

No, Maaike was more concerned with finding Sammy and getting him out of this Xanth-forsaken Hel-hole. She was perfectly fine with leaving the butt-kicking to her clan if it meant scenting out her son that much quicker.

She morphed into her human form as she came in low, knees skidding on the hard warehouse floor in lieu of a proper landing. She darted between the rows of cages, pausing just long enough to check each one for a flash of dirty blonde hair. There were more children here than she'd expected, though she didn't know why: Therians were much easier to break and enslave as kids, and Thanatos had already proven he had no morals. The sheer scope of his operation, of his willingness to torture children, still made her wobble on her feet and scrape an arm along the corner of a wooden crate when her vision blurred with tears. Her panic ratcheted up a few notches with every cage, with every horrifying shred of proof of what Thanatos's goons did to their captives, with the mounting terror that she wasn't going to find a six-year-old boy but a whimpering shell—

And then she did. Or, Aiden had. Maaike jolted to a stop when she cornered a stack of small crates and almost barrelled into Aiden where he leaned close to a cage. It took a second for the horror on his face to register, and for one stark, terrifying moment, she feared he'd found Sammy, but then the captive's face and bedraggled grey hair registered, his scent tarnished by evidence that he'd been left to sit in his own filth for — Xanth, weeks — and claw marks on his bare arms and blood under his nails where he'd scratched at his own skin until it bled.

“Graeme?” Maaike stumbled, hand automatically planting against Aiden's biceps as all the colour bled out through her feet and her whole body went numb. “But you're supposed to. He's supposed to be.” Maaike's voice cracked and the lump in her throat doubled in size until she couldn't swallow past the — Xanth, she couldn't even — “What did they do to you?”

But the man in the cage wasn't really Graeme anymore. He didn't seem to recognise either of them, still scratching absently at his clawed-up skin, grey-blue eyes flickering left and right but unseeing. He was muttering nonsense to himself.

Maaike whined, right back in her throat like a canine, rushing out a near-sob. “Graeme. Graeme.” He poked at the bars of his cage, still muttering, but didn't lift his head or even look at her. Cowed. Maaike had the awful feeling that if they stripped him of the tatters covering his body, they'd find no evidence of physical torture besides what he'd done to himself — but it was clear that Thanatos had played with his mind like a toy, and then caged him up and abandoned him when said toy broke.

The sounds of fighting had faded. Maaike couldn't tell if the guards were all dealt with or if she was just in shock. Her fingers trembled — her whole body trembled — as she reached out her free hand, the other one still clutched tight around Aiden's arm, and pressed it to the bars. She swallowed painfully, loathe to tear herself away but terrified of what this meant for her baby boy, and told the man who'd been her best friend, “We'll be back for you.” She swallowed again when he mumbled something that sounded like "vampires don't live here stupid", turning away with some difficulty to look up at Aiden. She was fairly sure the same cold horror in her heart was written all over his face, but she could barely see it through the tears.

“Did you get the keys?” She had to try again when her voice broken halfway through.

[Kiel]

On the other side of the warehouse, Kiel, like, dodged a flying wicker basket and the chicken that had been nesting in it, as well as the ensuing array of eggs and the chicken's noisy, clucking, nasty beak when it went for him like he was the one who'd thrown it.

“Wah! Wah! Flying chickens!”

The eggs all, like, smashed on the warehouse floor around his heels as he danced away from the chicken's pecking beak, like, simultaneously side-stepping a series of impromptu missiles with all the grace of a dashiri (which is to say that he totally sounded like a whole stomping herd of them) and, like, smacking his flailing hands into numerous nearby crates several times as he went.

“Ow ow ow ow owowow.”

The chicken continued pecking at him, but it wasn't like he could kick the stupid bird back. Or, well, he kinda could, but then Chloe would be all, like, "animal murderer!" and Laces would be all, like, "duuuude" (except in, like, not-Kiel-speak) and Shane would be all, like, getting fat on chicken thighs and choking on feathers 'cause there was no point in, like, wasting the meat, you know, but Kiel had no idea how to pluck poultry 'cause something about ripping feathers out of even a dead bird kinda made him feel bad and he'd skipped that whole lesson on "how to live alone because if you don't move out I'm going to murder my own son" and Zeph kinda stereotypically preferred red meat and so did Kiel so there wasn't much point in learning how to pluck a bird after he'd moved out, you know?

“It's not my fault, it's not my fault! Go peck him!”

Kiel flailed around to point at his assailant but kept dancing anyway because the chicken wasn't listening and the stupid human thug, having, like, run away from Kiel's battle cry not ten minutes earlier totally chased by Kiel, Zeph and half a dozen Therians, had, like, scaled a mountain of crates and was using their contents to keep them all at bay. (Don't ask why there was a live chicken involved. Kiel was too busy dodging its snapping beak to figure out if its packers really expected a live animal to still be live after crossing an ocean. Maybe they thought, like, even if the adult chicken was dead by the time they reached Dardanos, they could eat it and the eggs would have hatched and they'd totally have half a dozen new chickens to play with raise.)

The Therians who had initially accompanied Kiel on his "I'm so mad I'm going to eat you" race to tackle the human thug had all, like, ducked behind cover, abandoning him to his Dance of Death 'cause they were all total cowards, but that was okay, that was all fine, 'cause Kiel was, like, a bonafide hero, okay, and he totally didn't mind being bait so long as Zeph got a hurry on and saved him, okay?

“Hubby to the rescue!” Kiel screeched as the chicken's beak came crazy close to parts of him he really liked. “Hubby to the rescue, hubby to the rescue!”

And just like some kinda godly statue come to life, Zeph sailed down from a higher stack of crates to land on the human thug like a ten ton weight, (less) girly hair flying and his axe swinging. Kiel flung up his arms to whoop in victory as the human kinda just, like, crumpled in half under Zeph's weight, even though he was still dodging chicken wings 'cause this thing really had it in for his ankles, and then the Therians were swarming out from behind their cowardly hiding places, those cowards, and one was snapping the chicken's neck with a hungry look in his eyes, and Kiel was all, like, “Awwwww.” Well, it's not like the eggs needed their mama, anyway, the warehouse floor was awash with yolk and eggshells.

So of course, Kiel totally cracked out, “Hahahahahaha, you could say this situation is no yolk, ahahahaha.”

Kiel was kinda the only one who thought it was funny, and that only lasted as long as it took one of the cowardly Therians to pat down the bent-in-half human (Kiel hoped the dude was dead, that looked painful, man) and lift a shiny silver key aloft like some kinda drama queen, yelling so the whole damned city could hear him, “We found a key, we found a key!”

[Aiden]

Their eye contact lasted a mere second before Graeme shied away to scratch and mumble at himself. There was no indication that he'd recognized Aiden. The man wandered in his cell, paced toward the prisoners on the opposite cage, and upon noticing the inhabitants, scurried right back to his original corner. He habitually scratched at his arms, stomach, and neck. The skin was rubbed raw. Back in the Fae, the spy made it sound as if Graeme was dying, but this seemed almost worse. Captivity and torture had broken the man.

Thanatos was strong enough to force Maaike into slicing her own throat after just a few minutes in her presence. With revulsion, Aiden wondered if the magistrate had anything to do with Graeme's self-inflicted wounds. What could they even do to unravel the damage? Heart pounding furiously as he watched Graeme through the bars, Aiden was suddenly overwhelmed by the desire to club Thanatos in the face. How could slavers be so cruel.

“Graeme?” Maaike voice was so hushed and anguished that Aiden almost wanted to shield her from seeing Graeme completely. But Graeme had been Maaike's only loyal friend for the longest time. She deserved to know. Neither Maaike's presence nor voice sparked Graeme's consciousness though, and by the end of her attempts, she was shivering and seemed on the verge of collapsing. Aiden could only stay and offer a shoulder for her to lean on and watch the area for intruders. The fighting and shouting noises had subsided in the warehouse, although Aiden could still hear Kiel's peculiar laughter the distance.

As Maaike made her promise to Graeme and turned away from the cage, Aiden gently took her hand and led her down the hall to continue looking for Sammy. Haltingly, he tried to reassure Maaike and also himself. “We'll figure a way to help Graeme...the...aurumus know how to deal with mental issues...and there are lots of talented healers at the Cloud Palace.” As he spoke, Aiden dreaded how and where they'd find Maaaike's child. Kidnapping aside, the sights, sounds, and smells were beyond traumatizing for a child of Sammy's age. It would be a mercy if Thanatos' goons kept Sammy under heavy sleeping charms.

“WE FOUND A KEY!!!”

Almost immediately, shouts echoed from various parts of the building as Sullivans described cage locations. Metal clanged as the first cage opened. He already heard a crowd clamoring near Kiel and the key, but he hurried there anyway in case some of the slaves were alert enough to share intel. Anxiety gnawed at him as he walked. The warehouse was large, but the Sullivans must have covered the entire area by now, whoever found Sammy would have shouted even louder than Kiel...

When they reached the center of commotion, Aiden saw that most of the slaves were groggy and weak. Some eyed the Sullivans unbelievingly as the clanmembers half-pulled and partially coaxed the slaves out of their cages. Most remained in stationary confusion as Sullivans cautiously freed them from their tangle of sleep charms. Only a few of the slaves appeared to be sharp enough to provide their own assistance. An extremely disheveled person shuffled forward and clasped Aiden by the forearm. A dark purple bruise covered the right side of the prisoner's face, and the scabbed marks on his fingers and arms suggested that the man had fought frequently during confinement. The prisoner's grip still possessed strength, and under the tangled and clump beard, a chapped mouth opened to speak hoarsely. “Didn't expect to see you here.”

Briefly surprised, Aiden recovered in time to grasp Ninian's arm in greeting. “We're looking for a six year-old boy. Blonde, dark blue eyes...been here for less than a week. He's kin. Have you seen him?” And after a pause, “Your employer is with us too. He didn't want to give up on you.” After all Jericho's done for them, the 'pet deserved at least one good word.

[NPC]

Ninian scoffed and scrubbed a trembling hand over his face, wincing at the sting of bruises and broken fingers. “Yeah, sure.” He never really knew what to think about Mortimer Jericho, but the guy was too selfish for his attempts at a rescue to be any kind of altruism, and Nin was in no mood to make apologies for his boss like he used to. It didn't exactly bother him — Jericho was Jericho, and usually upfront about that with his employees if not his clients — but Nin was tired and aching and his ears still rang with tortured screams and broken whimpers. He knew all too well he was only still upright and marginally intact himself because they just hadn't gotten to him yet. Give it another couple of days and he'd be one of the Therians huddled in their own filth or wasted on whatever drugs and mind control the slavers used to break their "pets".

“Blonde, huh?” Nin glanced at Maaike, barely recognising her for a second as the woman who'd marched her way across the Acanthan wilds. Nin tipped side to side, face screwed up in painful thought. “Seen a couple about that age, but.” He studied Maaike's face again and clucked his tongue. “One's got your cheekbones.” He jerked his chin at Maaike because his fingers had started to heal bent, then tipped his chin to the right and said, “'Bout three stacks down, I think. They dragged him past me and I heard a clank. Sounded like he put up a fight.” He tried to smile on the kid's behalf but he didn't want to worry Maaike. He'd learned the hard way that putting up a fight wasn't a good thing in a place like this.

Actually, Nin kinda wanted to see the kid for himself, now. Make sure he was still alive and all that. He was no relation of Ninian's, but he was still curious to know.

“C'mon, it's this way.”

[Maaike]

Something about the way Ninian smiled when he said Sammy had put up a fight made Maaike think she would be finding her little boy in worse state than Graeme, and her knees buckled even as her heart swelled with pride for a six year old who wouldn't go easily or readily into captivity.

Maaike clung to Aiden without even really knowing she was doing it, every step closer to her son punching like needles into her heels and through her heart. She almost wanted to turn around, turn away, to deny that Sammy was ever here — but she walked on, collecting family as they went. First Ellery fell in behind them, and then Dioghna still in wolf form and snapping fangs at the bodies of fallen guards as if tempted to rip into their flesh until nothing was left.

They passed other Therians, too, wrangling cage doors open and reuniting with their own family and friends. Some of the slaves were shrieking as if monsters were at their door, but others fell into waiting arms and sobbed their relief.

By the time they reached the stack of cages that Ninian had mentioned, Maaike was trembling hard enough to shake herself apart, her fingertips digging like claws into Aiden's arm and her stomach heaving. There was only one cage occupied here, the body covered in filth and the hair matted and too-dark. For a second, Maaike was convinced this kid wasn't her baby and almost turned away sagging, but then he turned those brilliant blue eyes to see her coming and there was the slitted pupil, almost buried by dilated pupils, and Sammy was squealing and straining through the bars to reach her and yelling, “Mama! Mama! Mama!”

Maaike flung herself at the cage, not sparing a second for her own discomfort as she pressed her face to the bars and filled her nose with the stench of waste and vomit and drugs, oh Xanth, they'd drugged her baby and made him sick, but he was alive and he knew who she was and his tiny nails were scratching up her arm in his effort to get through the bars by osmosos. His eyes filled with tears and Maaike's too.

“Mama!”

“I'm here, baby. I'm right here, we're gonna — Aiden where's the k — where's the key? — get you out, baby, I'm right here.”

Someone tried to nudge her aside so they could get better leverage on the lock, but Maaike wasn't budging. She squeezed her arm through the cage bars to pet Sammy's hair, dislodging all manner of filth and probably a few lice, and Sammy pressed his face close and babbled so fast it all sounded like nonsense.

By the time Sammy was out and clinging to her neck like a limpet, Maaike was sobbing hard enough to shake her teeth loose but laughing too. She wanted to bury her face in Aiden's chest and keep Sammy in the safe space between them. For a second, she knew there was a reason she shouldn't do that, but then Sammy was trembling in her arms and she couldn't remember why she shouldn't, so she grabbed Aiden by the shirt and threw herself and her baby boy against him, babbling right over Sammy's gibberish.

“We got him back. We got him back, Aiden, we got him back!”

[Aiden]

As they followed Ninian through the dim warehouse, Aiden felt cold fingers slide past his elbow and grasp his wrist for support. The hand belonged to Maaike, and apprehension had sapped all color from her skin. Tilting his free hand toward hers, he squeezed her wrist gently but tightly. They'd found so many children in the warehouse, yet none of them had been Sammy. If Ninian was right and the boy was Sammy, Aiden could only hope that the child hadn't been mistreated. Not bruised like Ninian or Graeme.

Fraught with anticipation, Maaike was already trembling toward the brink of heartbreak when they reached the lone child in the cage. Layers of grime covered the small figure, and they didn't need to be close to the cage to smell the foul odor coming out of it. Despite the dirt and disheveledness, the child was still recognizable, and Aiden heard Maaike draw a short, disbelieving breath. Sammy.

Following Sammy's joyful shriek, the area soon filled with the Sullivans' voices as they reunited with their youngest. Tearing himself away from the group, Aiden bolted back where he'd last seen Kiel to half-drag the startled 'vari toward Sammy's cage. Joy and relief made him so delirious, that it hadn't even occured to Aiden to simply borrow the key from Kiel.

Within moments of Kiel's arrival, Sammy was out of the cage and leaping into Maaike's waiting arms. She was hugging and sobbing tears of relief, so carefree, as if the presence of Sammy had melted all her worries in that moment. As Aiden tried to make room for the rest of the Sullivans, Maaike's hand latched onto Aiden's shirt. Stumbling forward, Aiden's suddenly laughing and hugging them too. Inhaling deeply, Aiden wrapped his arms tightly around Maaike, sandwiching Sammy until the child giggled and scrambled for a higher foothold. In a flash, Dioghna appeared beside them to embrace Maaike and plant a kiss on Sammy's left temple. Similarly, Ellery clapped Aiden on the shoulder before stepping forward to rub Sammy's back. “You're safe, Sammy,” laughed Aiden as he ruffled the kid's hair. “We've got you.”

===

The warehouse was in disarray, and Aiden was almost proud of the damage that the team had accomplished. Even as the slaver's captives eagerly rushed out of the warehouse, some remained with the Sullivans to help evacuate those who were sleep-cursed. Runners would lead them to the safehouse, where they'd recoup before returning to their homes via Espur's portal. Sometime during the exodus, Ninian had approached Aiden and Maaike to thank them, saying that he'd pass their regards to Jericho. Eilisa and two other therians darted among the groups to collect leftover sleep charms...they'd need to dispose them safely, but Aiden wasn't quite sure how. A few therians had remained within the warehouse to search for anything or anyone they might have missed. The slavers found still alive were promptly shoved into a cage.

The sprinkles of rain had subsided since earlier in the hour, though it was still chilly to stand outside. Shuddering from a gust of wind, Aiden felt a hand clamp on his shoulder. “Shivering, and you haven't even taken a swim yet.” Rolling his eyes at the familiar Dardanan, Aiden turned to smack his brother, but paused. Something had happened to Nathan's arm, and someone had created a haphazard splint for it. The wooden splint was more scrap wood than a proper cast. It was too wide at some places, and the color was familiar...

“Did you tear part of the building to make that?” Aiden asked as he thoughtfully turned his gaze toward one side of the wall.

“No one's gonna miss it,” Nathan replied blithely as he followed Aiden's line of sight. Leaning his good elbow on Aiden's shoulder, Nathan chuckled. “What's annoying you now?”

“Nothing,” a pause, “Actually...can your crew take apart this side of the wall? Would be a shame if the city didn't get to see inside of it.” Once the people of Espur saw cages within the covered docks, they'd start asking questions and, hopefully, doubt the sorts of trade they harbored. For Aiden, it would feel almost satisfactory to throw parts of the warehouse into the sea.

((Omg I'm so so sorry for the delay! I was pulled away for a business trip earlier this month, but that's no excuse! I'll try my best to be faster in September. But blah, my writing feels like a puddle these days. ><
Also, I hope you're feeling better this month. *hugsquish*))