As the fight in the center room ensued, some of the hooded men ran into the basement and began trying to take away the children.
Staying closely to Xirius had taught Kael a few things, and one of them was how to untie himself. But the intruders didn't seem to care about the children's wellbeing either as they began taking them away and running off with them. Kael ran up from the basement and into the mansion's kitchen where there were more vampire henchmen. Immediately one of them spotted him, he threw a vase at Kael's face sending him flying across the kitchen. As the man came closer, Kael took the knife from the table stabbed it directly into the man's heart. That was something else he inadvertently learnt from Xirius: it was that the only way to kill vampires was to expose them to sunlight or seriously damage their heart. The ones in the house clearly wore something preventing the sun from burning them.
One of Kael's eyes was already soaked in blood, so he only had one open.
But Kael began to see something strange with his other eye. He began to see lines, glowing threads over the heads of the vampires in the room. He then saw all the various memories attached to those threads. As the vampires came closer, he screamed and all the threads ripped apart.
"Wh...what did I just do" He asked himself panting. Just then, all the vampires fell down and began whimpering like children. He had seeming torn all the threads connected to their learned behaviors!
Using the distraction of the fight in the center room, he quickly slipped past Xirius and his men and whoever it was floating in the air. He quickly took one of the horses tied to the caravan and ran, letting the horse take it anywhere it chose. Besides anywhere was better than Xirius. He lay on the galloping horse crying his eyes out as he realized he had not saved any of the children, not one.
He spent days in the forests with his new best friend, eating whatever he could find. He kept traveling and travelling till he reached Ostyx where the horse dropped him in front of a large gate after he fainted from exhaustion.
......................
"I am not going down there….it's putrid like hell"
"You've never seen hell Vyny. No one has" Kael replied her as Lysera jumped into the hole.
"If I get sick Fynn I will..."
Fynn quickly pulled her in as they both jumped into the sewer.
"Ughhh...my boots" Vynella remarked as the shallow water beneath her feet splattered on her.
"Which way do we go then?" Lysera inquired.
"I guess straight then" Fynn replied as he lit up an old lantern they had borrowed with a match. It was the only light they had and the oil wasn't much.
They spent time talking along the way, as they made unsure turns and took unsure rights.
"Aaaah!" Screamed Lysera.
"Told you she was afraid of rats" said Fynn as he noticed the rat passing by.
"I am so not!"
"That's not what it seems..."
"WHO ARE YOU?!" They got interrupted by a fourth voice down the tunnel.
"What on earth are you doing down here?!"
The friends kept quiet, scared to the bone. The voice didn't sound like an adult's but rather the voice of a teenager.
The boy raised his lantern to his face and used it to find his way from the tunnel to them.
He had light brown hair, light freckles and hazel eyes, which Vynella thought were pretty.
As he came closer they kept backing away slowly, with Fynn's hands crossed over the girls behind him.
"What do you think you're doing down here?"
"We could ask you the same question..." Vynella quickly closed the gap between them. Now the boy was stepping back.
"A pretty lady like you shouldn't be down here" Said the boy as he looked her in the eyes and smiled. Fynn looked at him intently, his brows forming a v over his eyes.
"Name's Mykah by the way..." He said as he put forth his hand to Vynella.
"Fynn..." He said as he swiftly took the hand and gave Mykah an uncomfortable smile.
"She's Vynella and that right there...is Lysera"
"So..." Mykah turned and looked at Vynella, completely ignoring Fynn as he stood in front of him.
"What brought down a fine angel like you here?..." He asked looking at Vynella.
She giggled.
"Look Vyny, we're running out of time. We have to go!" Fynn said in an effort to separate them.
"Does this...chatterbox speak for you?" Mykah asked still uninterested in Fynn.
"I mean...not all the time..."
Before Vynella could finish her sentence, Fynn came rushing at Mykah, trying to close in him.
"Who are you calling chatterbox?" Fynn's face had a tinge of red, his fist clenched so hard the veins on his hand were very visible.
Luckily, Lysera came in before the situation could escalate.
"We're looking for a boy, 'bout yay tall, green eyes...."
"You have a friend who's missing too?" Mykah asked curiously.
"Yeah...what's going on?" Vynella asked concerned.
"A bunch of children have been missing throughout the Capital....your friend might be one of them"
"That doesn't sound right..." Fynn remarked. "Then what are you doing down here then?"
"I'm looking for someone as well"
"And your first idea was to look through a sewer?"
"It's one of the few places people would think to look for kidnappers" Mykah answered.
"Used to explore these places when I was a kid..." He continued.
"Some of these tunnels lead to building structures on the surface..."
"Kael must've escaped through one of them" Lysera noted.
With this, half their problems seemed solved. But what would they do if they met with child kidnappers? They were all horrified at the thought, except Mykah for some reason.
........................
He stopped in front of a steel ladder that led to a small square door. The ladder was attached to the roof of the sewer and whatever was behind that door would bring his journey to a close.
"This has to be it" He thought.
Kael began climbing the ladder as gently as he possibly could. He carefully opened the latch and lifted the door. He first looked in the building, before deciding to jump out and close the lid.
The building looked like an old barn, but it's interior was ginormous. It looked nothing like what he was used to seeing. It had stacks of hay on all sides of the building and it was very tidy. He took his time to take in fresh air before deciding to walk out of the barn.
He opened the door to find a wheat farm and across it was an old house. The surroundings seemed pretty deserted as there were no houses in sight.
He bent low, and with the wheat covering him he slowly crept to the old house. He was only about twenty paces away when he began hearing the muffled sounds of children. He stopped in his tracks when a man walked out of the house with a dagger nicely tucked into the sheath on his waist.
Luckily for him, he was camouflaged by the wheat. A few seconds later another man brought out a child. She had her eyes closed and her hands tied behind her back. The man pulled the gag out of her mouth to allow her vomit. He then gagged her again and took her back inside.
Kael began slowly creeping back into the ban. He sat in the middle of the barn and thought for some minutes before deciding to go back into the sewer.
..........
"Are you even remotely sure you know where we're going?" Fynn was getting frustrated.
"Yes…unfortunately this is a longer route" Mykah answered. Fynn gave him a side-eye.
"By the way Mykah…" spoke Vynella. "Where are you from?"
"Fitzheim. My parents…" he continued "moved us here when we were seven. Back then Lord Giles was still in charge…"
"I'm sorry. Us?" Vynella chipped.
"Yeah. My sister and I. She's all I've got left. I'm very sure she'd be happy to meet you"
"Yeah sure…we're very stoked to meet another version of you" Fynn said, dryly.
"Does she know you're down here?" Vynella asked with a concerned look.
"Well…she has a way of finding me"
The group seemed divided. Vynella and Mykah were walking in front, with Mykah holding their lantern. They were chatting and giggling all the while, about things and stories Fynn couldn't care less about.
He and Lysera were walking closely behind and he was staring at Vynella.
"Hey chad" Lysera said to Fynn, nudging his shoulder.
"What" He said, making his face squint.
"What's up" Lysera replied.
"Nothing" Fynn replied with a straight face, trying to act oblivious as to what Lysera was getting at.
"Is that jealousy I see…" she smiled mischievously as she bent low to see his full face.
"What do you mean jealousy…the smell of this place is repugnant. I wonder how people can laugh away in here" He replied, looking at Mykah and Vynella.
"Did you ever try getting your feelings across to her?" Lysera continued.
"I doubt she'd even notice. One time she's so caring and understanding, another she's so cold and distant. She might either accept or reject me according to whatever her mood is"
"You're like the only guy in her life…what do you mean she won't notice?" Lysera asked with a slightly more serious tone.
"What do you mean I'm the only guy! There was Kevin who she wouldn't shut up her mouth about. He got adopted. Then there was Steve who she called the Absolute partner, then there was Lynx..."
"I get it! I get it…Jeez you were really drowning in the friend zone" Lysera replied, exhausted.
"And now there's this one…" he pointed his palm to Mykah. "Just met him an hour ago"
"Look Fynn, aren't you being a little paranoid?"
"I'm paranoid?!" Fynn asked, his eyes wide.
"I mean, he is a nice guy. Besides, Vynella isn't the only girl in the world, there's a plothera of people you can find out there…they may even be better for you than her"
Fynn gave her a stare, one that made Lysera quickly shut up. Looks like she's been talking too much.
"I'm sorry…" Fynn apologized.
"You don't have to apologize. I understand"
"Thing is you don't. It's not like you've ever liked a guy before…"
"I have!" Lysera chipped in, her tone a little shaky.
"Who then?" Fynn asked, smiling with oblivious curiosity.
"I don't think I need to tell you" Lysera replied with a smug face.
"What do you mean you're not telling…I told you about Vyny"
"Well that was your fault"
They both kept quiet and then started laughing.
"What are you two laughing about?!" Vynella turned to look at her friends.
"I wanna join in the fun. C'mon Mykah…"
"GUYS!" A familiar voice shouted from a tunnel towards the left.
The person approached them, slowly coming out of the shadows.
"Kael!" The three of them shouted in unison.
Fynn left Lysera and ran and gripped him tightly.
"Is this who you were looking for?" Mykah asked, pointing to Kael.
"Guys…" Kael continued "Not to ruin this celebratory moment…but there's something you need to see".