April's grip on the black cell bars loosened. She took an unsteady step back, still looking at Hiroko. He looked utterly unfazed by her pleading and crying—which was not a tactic. But she failed to see it his way.
"I understand…" she said, her voice almost inaudible; a resigned whisper.
Hiroko rolled his eyes away, turning back to his golem.
April bit on her lower lip as she wiped her tears. "I've caused you great suffering… so I'll get you out of here in exchange." She declared, still visibly reeling.
"You look capable of walking right through these bars but something tells me you don't have the power to set me free from here." He glanced back, his tone sarcastic.
"I'll find a way!" April raised her voice, her hands trembling. She turned and walked away from Hiroko's view.
He remained staring where she previously stood. "Hah… Idiot." He mumbled.
April's fourth step put her right in front of the next cell, the third one. She looked inside and immediately saw the other young man who had caused a raucous in the courtroom. Sakature Kraufford. She held onto the cell bars and narrowed her eyes at him. He was wrapped up in the silvery rope as well. This time, his arms were secured behind him and he had pants on.
"Thank God!"
She sighed and cleared her throat, wiping her nose.
[That hobo psychopath, was it?] He communicated telepathically due to the muzzle still secured to his face.
"You look like a mess," April evaded his question.
Saka, who did look disheveled, his white hair loose and unkempt, tilted his head back. [That's quite the dynamic you two have. On second thought, he is too smart to be your lover.]
"Tch!" April scoffed, gripping the bars tightly. "I guess that makes you the dumb one for getting yourself soul-bound to me then. And you're behind bars, little prince."
[Not from where I'm standing.] Saka responded.
"Why you…" April gritted her teeth. He was pushing her buttons without even trying. Her emotional interaction with Hiroko wasn't helping either. "So that's it? That's your story? You don't want to marry so you run off into the forest with some crappy excuse to hunt for lycanthrope?"
[Your mouth does the talking but your brain doesn't comprehend a thing you say,] Saka declared.
"Shut your brain trap, snow cone!" April snapped. "I never asked for any of this to happen. Not the vortex, not you, not Hiroko, not the bloody High Council of Dorks!"
[Is it easier for you to play the victim in every scenario?] Saka questioned her, his eyes narrowing.
"Hey! I'm not playing the victim, I am one!" She hissed. "You're the one who killed me, remember?"
[I just threw a tree.]
"It killed me!"
[You stood still.]
"What the—" April glared. "You son of a gun!" She juddered herself against the bars.
Saka scoffed inside her head. [This is you getting angry? Pathetic!]
April screamed out loud.
"Argh! What the hell am I supposed to do to get out of this, Saka? And don't give me crap. I'm not in the mood."
[Piss off for a thousand years.]
April remained silent for a long time, gawking at the paper-white elf bound up. The nerve on this guy! She felt a surge of rage bubble up from the pit of her stomach, shoot up her gullet and rise to her face. She released it through a scream, slipping into the cell.
Saka watched with raised eyebrows as she charged in like a feral cat, her arms flailing. She charged at him. He sidestepped and she stumbled all the way to the back wall. She used her hands to lighten the collision and turned around with her back against the wall, ready to scream.
But she instantly swallowed her scream and all the heat when Saka, who was right in front of her, pressed her against the wall with his lower body.
[I'm not even curious to know what you were aiming to accomplish,] his voice purred in her head as his muzzled face loomed oh-so close to hers, his heated breath blowing strands of her hair from her face. [But I'll bite.]
Her whole body went rigid, her breath hitching.
Well, that backfired immediately.
* * * *
Three hours earlier…
Safatore and Semacoar slowly walked into the enormous room that looked like a storage unit. There were a lot of random objects around; talismanic nik naks, floating orbs, pieces of armors encased in glass displays, claws and other strange animal body parts in jars, glowing parchments, clear whilst opaque glass boxes floating on their own, and shelves suspended against the wall.
"I'll be the first to admit after sixty years that our uncle is strange," Semacoar stated, bringing a handful of nuts to his mouth, roving his brown eyes around the silent room.
Safatore sighed. "Master Calypto is a collector. There's nothing strange about a man having a hobby for collecting objects of old."
"Yes, but why collect them when he can't even see them?" Semacoar scoffed.
The older blonde in blue stopped in his tracks. He turned slowly and set his wide green eyes on the younger blonde, blinking.
"I will smack you." He warned.
Semacoar raised his hands defensively. "I'm just saying."
"Then watch what you say!" Safatore growled scornfully. "Don't just blurt out the first thing that comes to your mind. And don't drop your nuts anywhere! Have some respect for someone's space."
"My nuts are safe in my sack," Semacoar responded.
The other man leaned back with an appalled look. "Don't ever say that again."
Semacoar cackled before they both turned to find a blue griffin standing in front of them. Semacoar screamed while Safatore grasped his coat and exhaled in relief, frowning at Semacoar.
"Oh, Reza, it's just you." Safatore reached for the creature which nickered ominously as he rubbed its beak.
"Creepy bird," Semacoar muttered bitterly.
"Where's uncle, Reza?" Safatore smacked the back of Semacoar's head, causing him to spill some of the cashews on the ground. "Oh, good grief." He watched the young man kneel down to collect them one by one.
"Why do you seek me?" Master Calypto's voice responded immediately.
"Uh, I…" Safatore glanced around, only to realize a moment later that the voice was coming from the blue winged griffin in front of him. "We seek audience, Master."
"Noooo. Safatore seeks audience with you." Semacoar scrambled off the floor, taking a cautionary step back. "I'm not even privy to his intentions for dragging me here, Master."
"I'm here to ask you a question," Safatore continued talking to the half-bird, half-lion creature. "What is the possibility of dark elves still existing?"
"A stupid question," the voice flowed out of the griffin.
Safatore huffed. "Yes, but what about from another dimension?"
"Another stupid question."
Safatore paused, pressing his lips into a thin line, his eyebrows pulling together. Semacoar nudged his side and cackled quietly. The blue paladin exhaled.
"Uncle, do you know that April is part dark elf? I think Zera and the others are trying to mate her."
Semacoar spat out all the nuts he had stuffed in his mouth, coughing dramatically. "My ears better not be working." He scowled.
"Master, where are you?" Safatore sighed, crossing his arms impatiently. "We need to discuss this in person. She's apparently a predator as well."
The blonde man in grey robes with listeless eyes appeared out of thin air behind the brothers.
"I know about that."
Semacoar and Safatore swerved from the griffin to face the other youthful man, Semacoar dramatically grasping onto his heart area.
"You knew April was a mix of predatory species?" Safatore asked, his green eyes narrowing.
"Yes," Master Calypto answered matter-of-factly as Reza the griffin circled around the boys and stood next to him. "I'm the one who studied her residual sands before those three artificers did. She's a dark elf and a predator half-breed."
Semacoar and Safatore exchanged glances.
"Fine. Then why did you not tell me before I found out from the council?" Safatore asked, stepping closer to the blind man.
"More importantly," Semacoar stepped up between them. "Why am I the last to know? I bet Saka knew before me!"
"Cease your petulance, both of you," Master Calypto answered, holding his arms back. "I didn't tell you because that would have made your familiarity with her nature and lack of surprise suspicious to the High Council and you'd all be in for another chaffing." He sighed. "You're trying to bridge the gap between the council and the crown, aren't you?"
"Are we?" Semacoar drawled, squinting. His uncle's blind eyes turned to him in an icy, calculated manner. He ate a single cashew in response.
Safatore pinched the bridge of his nose. "Never mind that now, Master. The fact remains that April is going to be bred!"
"That would yeild nothing but domancy." Master Calypto crowed.
The two brothers paused and gawked at him. They didn't say a word for a moment, staring quietly at him.
"Say again?" Semacoar muttered.
Master Calypto walked past the two, his arms still held back. "She corrupts aura."
Safatore blinked rapidly. "But the artificers said their Heliomorphosis—"
"Meant when the sand is ingested." Master Calypto interjected.
Semacoar and Safatore exchanged wide-eyed glances. Safatore looked utterly confused and the only person who could muster a question was Semacoar.
"So… she makes a man weak?" He couldn't hide the amused grin on his face. "I can see why."
Master Calypto stopped by a floating orb, listlessly gazing at it. "It's my hypothesis that her aura or rather, her sand rubs off a man's Heliomorphosis speed. Gradually."
"Wow, that's dark." Semacoar cackled.
"Wait, so that proclamation is all based on a hypothesis?" Safatore asked, a hint of disbelief in his voice. "What if her other half prevents that dark elf trait? It does have dual purposes, that sand."
Master Calypto silently sat down with a sigh, his griffin sitting on its hind legs behind him. "I wish well to whichever sycophant who'll be bound to her."
Semacoar and Safatore glanced at each other.
The poor sycophant, indeed.
"But Saka didn't have Heliomorphosis to begin with," Semacoar whispered as they walked out of the room. "They're going to make you marry her, to cripple the crown, aren't they?"
Safatore avoided the question and turned away, losing himself in his thoughts. He already knew whom they were going to join April to.