Garnet Dorado: The Stranger In The Cell III

A man struggled as he was pulled along by the scruff of his neck. He was shouting in a language Garnet did not recognise and couldn't be bothered to listen to. He had heard about half of what the woman had told him. Upon realising he didn't recognise her, she used a false name. He could tell it was a false name. Anemone had been his sister's name. That was the false name the woman chained in the corner was using. She was a Sanctuary operative with a family and she...nope, that was where he had stopped listening. Nemone was okay though. Nice girl. The man speaking the foreign language was thrown in and the cell was locked behind him. He stood and went to the bars, still yelling indignantly.
"Please." Nemone moaned. "They won't understand you and even if they do, they won't give in to anything you say. You're in Mevolent's dungeon now. You're basically his plaything."
The newcomer paled considerably and slowly turned to face them. "Firstly," he began in a heavily accented voice, his English poor, "that sounded pervert. Secondary, they have my sister and I don't know why."
Garnet forced himself to sit up. He plastered a weak smile on his face. "You'll be okay. I'm Gar, that's Nemone. What brings you here? Where you from?"
He frowned. "I am Erik. I am from Norway. Son of an Elder."
Gar looked like he pitied him at that point. "Rough, man. Rough. Son of an Elder? You are so screwed."
"Garnet!" Nemone scolded. He jumped and apologised softly.
"Really everyone here is screwed, once we enter these cells, once Mevo's lot gets their grubby little mitts on us...he'll want information about your Elder parent, don't give it! No matter what they do, if you know anything that can help you, say nothing! You could be the difference between Norway as it is now and a Mevolent-run Norway."
Erik nodded shakily. "I understanding." he mumbled, going white. Garnet smiled.
"They've found a rather unique way of getting to me, I must say..." He then seemed to lie down and drift off to sleep. Erik stared at him for a few minutes and shrugged.

-----

B-J Maleficent sat on her father's bed, waiting. She wasn't sure what for. Maybe he was going to come back and lecture her soon, or hug her, or lecture her then hug her...she wondered how Garnet was doing and about Rasputin. What about Advantageous? Where any others of Esra's friends still out there?

The answer was yes. There was a mess of vampires locked below that Tewdews was forced to join. it was dark and smelled. In the corner was a man, shivering with nerves, fiddling with something in his lap. His hair was shockingly blonde. It shone even in the darkness. He was so pale and ridiculously skinny. She picked her way across and sat beside him. He was muttering to himself. "Hi, I'm Tewdews."
He looked up at her with wide hazel eyes. "Erin. Erin Hades Motionless. The man who turned me...we brought me here, made me fight, I was supposed to fight and kill Mevolent's men, maybe even get killed myself, but here I am...I was defeated...I'm a failure..."
She rested a hand on his back. "Nah, the ones above us are the failures. Still, that Twist guy has a plan, so I have faith."
"Twist?"
"Twist, yeah. Short bloke, specky, brown hair, has a ginger wife who never shuts her mouth."
"Advantageous Twist? He's here? He's here now?" Suddenly, Erin grinned. "He's my best friend, besides Esra. Or Jerry...or Darren...but Mr Twist likes me more than them, so he's my favourite. Oh God, i can't believe he's here!  He...he's here to fight Mevolent...right?" Tewdews nodded. "Oh...oh dear...why? What could possess him to...? Well, I support the Faceless but not Mevolent...Mevolent's insane...he's wrong...he doesn't do it right. He'll just anger them, and he'll never succeed in...in bringing them through...but why is Twist returning? Why now?"
"Something to do with Mevolent killing all his friends and kidnapping one of his friends' sisters. I don't know."
"All his friends? So...so Esra's...and Abla? All...Oh..."
"You're a vampire, you shouldn't have the liberty of friends."
He glared at her and she took her hand away, shuffling back a little. "I would once have agreed with you, but Twist and Sunshine and Vehemence and Hazardous...them and more, they probably saw me as a really annoying tool for their crimes, but they were still certainly my friends."
She shook her head. "You're an idiot."
"I think you'd need more evidence to back that up, Tewdews." That was the point where she realised she had already forgotten his name.

-----

Arachne and Arduous were looking over the gloves. "B-J's made a mistake." Arachne conceded. Arduous turned the gloves over in his hands.
"Maybe there is someone we can get God Killers off of...but I doubt we can do it under the radar. I doubt putting our faith in B-J for that is a good idea..."
"I trust her explicitly, Arduous."
"I don't."
"You don't trust anyone except Prosperity, who may I remind you is a strong Faceless supporter?"
"I have my reasons, Arachne. Prosperity will do as he's told when it comes round to it. Will B-J?"
"And who would you trust to retrieve God Killers?"
"Two people who already have them." He flipped his phone open. "Billy-Ray? It's Arduous. Shut up and listen, I don't care how much you hate me. I need a favour." Arachne listened to him badger the Texan on the other end of the line and realised that he knew exactly how to persuade different people.

-----

Esra's body lay limp on the table, already looking too far gone to be brought back. Then again, how far gone was Baron Vengeous' body before the son of Serpine had brought him back? There were five people looking over the boy's notes, trying to figure out what he had done. They had a necromancer and a science-magic user and they went to combine the two in as a good a mimic of the way described in the notes as they could, but such notes mentioned Sunshine and his friend Darren Shadow specifically as the men who had given the factors. A specific mention of uncertainty of how different power levels would effect or the relationship between the users or even confidence or personality of the magic users. Without Shadow and Sunshine, the affect would be very different.

Esra stayed dead. A dead maggot on his arm began moving again, but otherwise nothing happened. Serpine was standing by and hid his disappointment. Even if he hadn't, he would have made an excuse. Esra Sunshine would later be reburied between Carmichael Hauter and Jerry Vehemence.

Serpine took the revived maggot. It was placed in a matchbox which was then placed beside the cage of Esra's spider, Lily, which had been at the castle ever since the vampire incident. The maggot was nicknamed Mitchell.

((uh...nyeh...nyeh...hey look, dead people and random sentimental stuff and I don't even know anymore.))