Faye ran on until she couldn't run anymore, and bent over, catching her breath. She looked over her shoulder, but no one had found her.
Yet.
They had to have discovered her escape by now. Her first thought was to find Jyri, but she had no idea where to begin. She didn't even know where she was. The woods were unfamiliar to her.
But she couldn't be too far from the escapee cellar. It would be safe there, at least. And maybe Jyri had the same idea. Taking deep breaths, she straightened and wandered deeper into the woods, in search for wooden doors in the ground. Leaves were scattered all around, making it a difficult task. She could pass it without even knowing.
Faye wasn't sure how long she spent meandering, but the sun began to set. Her eyes filled with tears. Not only was she unable to find the cellar, but she couldn't even find a way out of the endless maze of trees. Defeated, she slumped against one of the trees, burying her face in her knees. How long until she was found? Her stomach gnawed at her, and she opened her pack, digging through clothes in search for food.
There wasn't any food.
Frowning, she pulled out her spare shirt and her corset. She even had Jyri's spare clothes from when he transferred his things over to her so there'd be room in his pack for the blanket.
But no food.
At least when she was homeless in the city, she could resort to stealing. But here, in the wilderness, there were no shops. No people. She hadn't even come across a single animal. It had been over a day since she last ate.
Tears formed at the corners of her eyes. Faye took a few calming breaths, and considered her options. She could sit in one spot and risk being found by the wrong people. Or, she could continue wandering aimlessly and run into the wrong people. At least if she wandered aimlessly, she might find a way out of the forest. Or miraculously come upon Jyri. She examined the anti-magic cuffs. Maybe if she could get the cuffs off, she could use magic to do... something. She pulled her knife out of her pocket. Flipping it open, she pressed the tip to the key hole. Unfortunately, the key hole was too small for the tip of the knife to even fit.
A crow landed at her side, and cawed. Faye scooted away, but the crow stood in place, staring at her.
Food.
Faye held up her knife, but the crow flew off, and landed a few paces away, studying at her. Knife still in hand, she stood up and walked towards it. The crow took wing, and Faye, not knowing what else to do, put her knife away and followed.
Night had fallen by the time the crow landed. It pecked at the ground, then looked up at Faye. Faye stared. The crow pecked again, so she bent down to investigate. A handle stuck out from under the leaves. She brushed them aside, revealing a cellar door. She yanked the handle, but it was locked. She knocked, then pounded, but no one answered.
The crow cawed three times in succession, paused, and cawed twice. Then, it cawed three more times. The door opened, and Gren appeared, smiling. "Faye, come in."
Faye climbed in, and Gren shut the door behind them. "What brings you back?"
"I got captured and taken to Milthum, and managed to escape," Faye explained. "I tried coming back here but I got lost. A crow led me here."
Gren smiled. "That crow is Raven. We trained her to find lost magics, and lead them here. How else have refugees found us?"
A crow named Raven. In spite of everything, Faye smiled, putting her pack aside. "She saved my life."
Outside, Raven cawed three times, twice, and three times again. Frowning, Gren opened the door, revealing Jyri and a lynx.
Jyri grinned upon seeing Faye. "You made it out! I was hoping you would."
Faye suppressed a smile. "Yeah, way to leave me behind."
"Like you didn't try to do the same to me."
"I was gonna go back for you," Faye mumbled. But Jyri dropped to his knees in front of her, and wrapped his arms around her, pinning her arms against her body.
Faye wasn't sure how to react. She pulled her arm out from under his to awkwardly pat his back. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gren leave the room, shutting the door behind her.
Jyri pulled away. "I'm so glad you're safe. Sorry about... what I had to do. How's your arm?"
Faye moved her arm to inspect the bandage around it. "I guess it's fine."
"Leave that bandage on for a few days," Jyri said. "If I had the resources, I'd change it and put a poultice on it. It should be fine how it is, though you'll probably have a scar for life."
"Wonderful," Faye said flatly. "Physical scars to match my mental ones."
Jyri ignored her sarcasm. "You wouldn't happen to have my spare clothes, would you? Ran could really use them."
Faye pulled clothes out from her pack, and handed them to Jyri. She turned to face the wall to give Ran privacy to transform into a human, and change.
An awkward silence filled the air that Faye felt a strong urge to break. And she had questions. She flopped down to her side, and looked back at the two. Ran stood in place fiddling with his shirt hem, looking as awkward as the silence in the air. Jyri stood with his arms folded, showing interest in the table next to him.
Faye cleared her throat. "So... you're a huminal tester then."
"Was," Jyri muttered.
"How'd that happen?"
Jyri didn't answer at first, and sat down on the bed by her feet. "It's complicated." He glanced over at Ran, and called him over. Ran kept his eyes on the floor as he walked to Jyri, and sat next to him. Jyri wrapped an arm around him. "This is Ran. My little brother." He introduced him like a proud father would introduce his son. "Ran, this is Faye."
"Nice to meet you," Faye said, holding out a hand. Ran stared at it like he was unsure of how handshakes and introductions worked. Faye dropped her hand, and focused back at Jyri. "So, what makes your career choices complicated? We've got all night."
"I was about to get to that," Jyri said. "It all starts with Ran. He's a shapeshifter."
"I figured that much out, thanks."
Jyri ignored her retort. "I was 6 when he was born, and a few months later, we discovered he wasn't a normal human baby. Every now and then, he'd grow fur that would disappear later. And his ears would be like a cat's. Early characteristics of a shapeshifter."
Faye nodded. "Interesting."
Jyri smiled. "I thought it was. Our parents, however..."
"They wanted to get rid of me," Ran said bluntly. "It's only because of Jyri that I'm here."
Jyri nodded. "I had always wanted a brother, so naturally I threw a fuss when I found out their plans. They ended up keeping him, but locked away in the attic. As you know, anyone not fully human is shunned here. They thought him to be a disgrace." Jyri wrapped his arm around him again. "I practically raised him myself."
"Except when you left me to go off to boarding school," Ran said.
"Father made me go. You know that."
"Interesting as this bit of backstory is," Faye said, "what does it have to do with you torturing huminals?"
"Right. Because of Ran being a shapeshifter, I wanted to know more about them. Which led to me being interested in other nonhuman types. Like elves, and fairies. I spent my free time studying them. I wanted to do something involving them."
"So you ended up experimenting on them." Faye's voice was filled with disgust.
"No, I wanted to help them. So when the time came for me to choose my career path, I chose to be a doctor for them." Jyri rubbed his forehead. "Our parents worked in the King's palace. Lyon's father was king at the time. King Rukin. And they needed a new doctor- one who specialized in nonhumans. My parents put in a good word for me. And that's how I started working there."
"Why would King Rukin need a doctor for huminals?" Faye asked. Although less extreme, she knew he shared a similar ideology with Lyon in regards to huminals.
Jyri chewed his lip. "It wasn't quite what I thought it would be. I mean, I'd have nonhumans coming in, sick or wounded. I'd treat them. Nothing too out of the ordinary except..."
"Except what?"
"They didn't talk," Jyri said. "They never told me how they got the wounds they had. And sometimes I'd see the same patients again and again, wounded in different parts of the body. Or suffering from strange illnesses I couldn't diagnose. They also seemed lost in a sense. It creeped me out at times. But the pay was good, and there were no other downsides."
"And then King Rukin died," Ran said, fiddling with his shirt.
Jyri nodded gravely. "King Rukin died, and Lyon stepped into power. I'm sure you remember what happened after."
Faye did. That was the year Lyon sent soldiers to round up huminals. She had barely grown out of the orphanage when the soldiers came around. Luckily she knew better, and snuck out. She'd been on the streets ever since, keeping her wings and ears hidden.
"King Lyon came in to meet me. He said he was pleased with my work, and wanted to move me up. I was happy where I was, but he was insistent, and I was too nervous to decline."
"He made you test on us," Faye said.
Jyri didn't need to confirm. "Apparently it had been going on during King Rukin's reign, but nobody ever told me. It was only the criminals who were tested on, as a punishment. Doing such things was hard at first. Especially given I had spent many years healing instead of hurting. But those around me convinced me that it was okay- these nonhumans were criminals who did despicable things. I kept telling myself that, but it didn't make listening to their screams any easier. The experiments got worse. Many started dying from them." Jyri fell silent, a distant look in his eyes.
Chills ran down Faye's arms. She wondered how many he had killed, but figured she was happier not knowing.
Jyri continued. "I spent my entire life studying nonhumans. I knew everything about them." Ran raised an eyebrow at him. "Alright, not everything. But I knew more than anyone else there. I knew how far to push them. The things I've done..." Jyri's voice wavered. "It should've killed them. But I knew exactly when to stop, and how long to let them recover before continuing."
Faye's gut twisted. "Wouldn't it have been kinder to let them die?"
"I'd thought about it often," Jyri said. "But I was being praised for it. People would come to me for advice. King Lyon made me the leader. I felt important. And these were criminals with a life sentence. Murderers and rapists who deserved it." He sounded like he was trying to justify it to himself more than anyone else. "But innocent ones trickled in. And the testers treated them no different than the criminals. The cruelty I've seen towards them..." He closed his eyes, seeming unable to go on.
Faye tried to sink this all in, but found the whole thing hard to stomach. She also had a strong feeling many of those "murderers and rapists" were only framed as such. Jyri sounded distraught enough, so she kept it to herself. Ran twisted a lock of his hair around his finger, staring at the barren wall. She fiddled with her magic cuffs.
Jyri noticed. "Sorry, I forgot..." He pulled a small key out from his pocket. "Give me your hands."
"Where'd you get the key?" Faye asked as he unlocked her cuffs.
"I nicked it this morning when the guard was distracted by the spriggan." Jyri tossed the cuffs aside, keeping the key inside one of the cuff's keyholes.
Faye rubbed her now-free wrists. "So... what made you leave?
He shrugged his shoulders. "Couldn't handle it anymore."
"Did you release all the huminals on your way out the door?" Faye asked. "And that's why Lyon's been after you?"
Jyri let out a half-hearted chuckle. "I wish it was that simple..." His eyes grew distant again.
Ran cocked his head. "What did you do?"
"Saved an elf. That's all."
Faye narrowed her eyes at him. "I thought you said it wasn't that simple."
"I'm hungry." Jyri stood up, rubbing away what might have been a tear. He walked to the door, then looked over his shoulder at Faye and Ran. "Come on. Maybe they still have food left over from dinner."
"You hate food," Faye called after him, but he had already left. Everything was so cryptic with Jyri, and it was really starting to irk her. She let out a groan, and turned to Ran. "Has he always been like this?"
Ran nodded. "It causes him a lot of grief, so don't tell him, but I'm secretly glad he is. Mother and father never gave me enough to eat, so he'd always sneak me his scraps when they weren't looking." And with that, he walked through the door. Not knowing what else to do, Faye followed.
ns 15.158.61.23da2
