Tidehaven looked serene from the upper causeway, towers of sandstone rising from the sea like pale ribs threaded together by translucent walkways that bent the sunlight into shifting blues and greens, water flowing not just beneath the city but through it, glass tunnels cutting directly through the ocean so that fish drifted past at eye level like living murals, and Felicity stood at the railing with her ears tipped forward and her tail swaying and said "it's beautiful" and meant it completely and had no idea that half the city had already clocked her existence and was in the process of forming opinions about it.
Victor's arm settled around her lower back with the deliberateness of a statement being made, and Voss positioned himself on her other side with his posture deceptively relaxed while his eyes counted armed personnel and calculated choke points and assessed elevated positions, because Tidehaven impressed him and he trusted it approximately as far as he could throw it.
The rhythm of the city shifted the moment she stepped fully into the main thoroughfare, subtle but tangible, heads turning and conversations slowing and the air thickening with something that had nothing to do with the salt and steel of the harbour and everything to do with the unfamiliar scent of a fox beastwoman moving through a city that had not seen one in a very long time, and Felicity didn't notice because she was looking at the fish in the glass tunnels overhead with an expression of genuine delight, and Victor's grip tightened at her back and he said "stay between us" and she nodded without hesitation.
A soldier stepped closer than politeness allowed and Victor's aura snapped outward with surgical precision, heat and cold folding together into something sharp enough to sting the lungs, and the man staggered back with his boots scraping stone before Victor said "not yours" in a voice that carried considerably farther than the words themselves, and a second man approached with a smile that suggested he thought himself charming and Voss redirected him with a single look that left him retreating at a near jog, and Felicity glanced up at them both confused by the tension she could only partly sense and said "you don't have to do that" and Voss said gently "we do" and Victor said "you don't see it yet, that's a good thing" and steered her deeper into the city.
Above the district, Pia watched from the upper terraces with her trident resting against her shoulder while her officers observed with open interest, and one of them said "she's softer than I expected" and another shook his head and said "look at how Snow Team moves around her, that's not softness, that's leverage" and Pia's expression hardened and she said "they won't be able to keep her forever, no one ever does."
The residence was beautiful in the specific way of things built by people with resources and intent, polished stone floors softened by woven rugs, crystal panels glowing in the walls mimicking sunlight through water, a recessed bathing pool releasing gentle curls of steam, and Felicity turned slowly in the space touching everything with quiet curiosity before stopping at the wide window where a silver fish hovered at eye level as if studying her in return, and she laughed softly and said "I've never lived anywhere like this" and Victor watched her like the room had rearranged itself around her presence and said "you deserve a castle, not this" with his eyes fixed on the horizon as if he could already see one there.
The mission orders arrived before they had fully settled, an escort contract, a trade caravan moving between Tidehaven and an inland base, cargo valuable enough to attract every hostile group in the region, and Victor accepted immediately and the warmth he carried around Felicity slid behind command in a single clean motion and Voss was already outlining routes before the briefing finished, and Victor told Felicity she was staying and her smile wavered slightly but she nodded and said "I know" and he pressed his forehead to hers and lingered a moment longer than necessary and Voss rested his hand on her head with measured steadiness and then both of them turned and moved toward the door, decisive and deliberate.
Victor insisted the cubs go with them, real terrain and real threats, and Felicity knelt and tightened Luna's travel straps and checked the fit and squeezed her arm and said "you'll do great" and Frost attempted to look brave while his tail betrayed his nerves and Luna wrapped her arms around Felicity's legs and said "I'll bring you shinies" and Victor smiled faintly before leading them out, and the door sealed behind them and the water resumed its slow drifting movement outside the glass.
Rose stalked the perimeter the moment they were gone, her footsteps measured and the vines beneath her skin rippling with each pass, and Felicity said, "You hate quiet", and Rose shook her head slowly and said, "Not this kind," and Felicity felt the specific unease of a woman who should have listened to that.
Miles away the escort route collapsed into chaos, zombies surging from ruined buildings with bodies hardened by fused bone and metal, the caravan nearly breaking apart when a trader was dragged screaming into a collapsed storefront, and Victor tore space open in violent bursts while Voss snapped the formation back together under pressure and Luna unleashed telekinetic force that crushed three undead at once while Frost held the shield line beside her with stubborn determination, and between engagements Victor gathered what he could, food and weapons and fabric, and Voss noticed the blankets and Victor said quietly "she'd like those" without looking up and Luna nodded with great seriousness and said "for mummy" and neither of them had any idea.
The residence defences disengaged without trouble when Pia's men pressed the right pattern against the coralsteel seam, the house recognising the authority in the code and yielding without resistance, and Rose had barely turned toward the sound when the first man entered and shadows flooded the room and steel flashed and someone said "don't scream, we don't want to hurt you" and another stepped closer with his gaze sliding over Felicity with unsettling interest and said "but we will" and Rose's vines surged instantly and the strike that came from behind was precise and brutally efficient and she collapsed with her magic sputtering across the stone like broken roots.
Felicity twisted against the grip that locked around her arms and her magic reacted instinctively as the world tilted, slipping loose in a thin uncontrolled ripple that spread briefly across the coralsteel floor before fading into the structure and going nowhere, and a Tidehaven officer with Pia's crest on his armour said "she belongs to Pia, touch her and you answer to her mates" and reluctant hands withdrew and the cloth pressed harder and the darkness crept inward from the edges of her vision and the room blurred and then there was nothing.
When Snow Team returned days later, Victor reached the residence first and pressed his palm to the coralsteel seam, and the door opened easily, and the lights glowed softly, and the ocean drifted beyond the glass in quiet blue currents, and at first nothing appeared wrong.
Then he smelled it.
Too many strangers way too recent. Too deliberate.
He stopped moving and behind him Luna stepped into the room still talking about the shells she had gathered along the shore and stopped mid-sentence when she realised Felicity wasn't there, and Victor's gaze had already dropped to the floor where Rose sat against the far wall with bruises darkening her skin and fury burning in her eyes and cracked stone beneath her palms where her vines had lashed out during the attack.
The room fell completely silent.
Victor's voice came out quiet in the way that had nothing to do with calm.
"Where is she?"
Rose met his gaze and didn't look away.
"They took her."