I need to find her.
The feelings I have for Silver are so much stronger than they should be, considering I’ve not known her all that long. Although, I learned tonight that I’m a shitbag and my body knows her and recognises her, even when my mind doesn’t.
I search every damn room on the lower floor and come up empty. By this point, my hands are shaking and I’m sweating. I need to...
Fuck. I don’t know what my next steps should be. I feel completely out of my depth, out of control, and that’s not something I’m all that familiar with.
I take control of situations. I plan. I strategize.
Right now, though, I’m slumped against a wall, motionless with indecision.
“—the hell happened to the judiciary guards? They should have been posted at every entrance. How the fuck did that thing get in here?”
“It came through the window.”
There are two voices in the next room to where I’m standing, a man and a woman, just audible through the cracked door.
“Iknowit came through the window. I saw it just as well as you did. What I’m asking is how that could have happened.” The first voice becomes shriller until they’re practically shrieking at the second.
“You need to calm down. We all need to keep our heads or we’re going to lose control of this situation.”
“Keep our heads? Lose control?” the woman hisses. “What are youtalkingabout? We have completely lost control of this situation already. Justhowdo you suggest we do that? Were you evenheretonight? Did you witness the same thing I did?”
“A creature from hell threatening a roomful of people and a small girl somehow stopping it single-handed? Can’t say I missed that.”
“How about the part where we all stood there with our thumbs up our asses? We didnothingwhile that thing was about to attack. We looked like fools. Like weak, cowering fools. This can’t get out.”
“We’ll get a hold of any recordings. Destroy them. Arrest the girl. Seems simple enough to me.”
There’s a derisive scoff from the woman. “Perhaps if it were twenty years ago, that would be enough. We could send the word around our people not to speak of it. But the whole damn city’s media was out in force, witnessing the debacle. It was supposed to be the event of the year.”
“Well then, we pay them off.”
Another scoff. “Camera phones. If you don’t think the story has already circulated, you’re more of an idiot than I realized.”
I raise an eyebrow, wanting to hear how this is resolved. That’s Silver they’re talking about arresting. If that’s what the Archarcans plan to do, I need to find her and warn her.
... somehow.
“Fine then. We let out a statement that anyone with the footage is going against city laws. Inciting panic or something similar. We arrest them instead.”
“So we look like we’re both uselessandlike we’re tyrants?” Really, Melvin, can you take a moment to engage your brain before speaking?”
The man sounds like he’s gaining momentum with his plan, though, speaking faster and with more passion. “We spread the story that the girl created those things and let them loose. She’s a danger to society.”
That earns him a thoughtful hum. “It’s an option.”
“But... the voice?” a third voice says.
“Voice?”
“Don’t pretend you didn’t hear it. The voice that told me my most closely kept secret and then said that it would be common knowledge if the girl was arrested. I thought at the time it was just me, but I overheard others talking about it since, so it can’t have been.”
There’s a hesitation and I itch to peer inside the room, to see who’s speaking.
I’d also like to know exactly what their secrets are. Information is power, after all. Especially with these high-ranking elitist pricks.
I heard the voice, too. It knew that Seb’s magic was illegal and threatened to reveal that fact to the city judiciary. He’d be tried and likely his life terminated.
