A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

But first, Erik turned to Astrid. He'd made a mistake, and he refused to let it fester a moment longer.

Astrid was looking at him with some sorrow and anxiety. It felt strange to him, seeing those emotions on the usually so self-assured, strawberry-blond vampire, and even feeling them through their bond. Continue your journey at empire

Obviously, she'd drawn the same conclusions as he and Elora had, and when Erik said he should have come sooner, she drew her conclusions.

Erik's brows furrowed slightly as a little more guilt filled him and his heart broke a little, but he didn't let that stop him now. He quickly stepped closer to her, "Astrid, I—"

"No!" Astrid quickly interrupted him while pressing her fist against his chest, as if punching him without actually doing so. "I— I understand… I would never ask you to save my mother over your own! I ju—"

"Shhh," this time, it was Erik who interrupted her. He was smiling sadly and put a hand on her cheek. "What I said was thoughtless… I didn't even think about the consequences, and I'm sorry. I care about my mother, immensely, but when I married you and your sisters, you became my highest priority."

Grabbing her chin, he looked into her eyes, "You would have stayed behind if I hadn't saved your mother, we both know that, so not saving her would be the same as leaving you behind. I swear, Astrid, I would never choose anyone over you… not even my mother."

Erik and Astrid stared at each other for a short moment, and as the vampire felt his sincerity through their bond, her expression quickly melted.

"F— Fine," A blushing Astrid mumbled awkwardly. At the same time, she pulled back her fist and truly punched him this time. Quite hard, too, causing Erik to take a step back and chuckle out a cough.

Meanwhile, Astrid continued, "N— Now shut up… don't let mother-in-law suffer any longer because you're talking to me…"

* * *

With a stormy expression he didn't even have to fake, Erik moved according to Naeku's instructions. Currently, the werepanther was in his dimension, watching through the view screen, and giving him directions to the building she'd seen Edda and Runa in.

Or rather, she was telling them to his wives, who related them to him, because there was no telepathic connection between the two of them. Yet.

Regardless, Erik moved through the town as quick as he could without drawing attention. Once again, he'd introduced his wounds to the equation, meaning he looked rough and bloody, wore a torn robe, and was clutching his side as he limped forward.

Sometimes, thinking about his starving, tortured mother caused his steps to hasten to suspicious levels, but then he quickly brought them back down every time.

He'd learned from Naeku that his mother had been presumed dead for a few weeks now, and although Erik was still very interested in learning a lot more about that, for now it meant that his mother had spent at most those few weeks without food and water.

That meant the situation wasn't critical yet.

Even suppressed, a second ranked Runebound werewolf could survive for that long without too many issues. Plus, there hadn't been any other people in the same room as Runa, so there wasn't any extreme haste in getting there for now. Better he get there without raising any suspicion.

Even if it was hard to control himself.

Along the way, he continued to be confronted by this former hunter faction's wanton cruelty. Desperate or dead-eyed Runebound were everywhere. Even other humans weren't spared, as many Arcanists also found themselves in dire straits.

Yet, unlike the Runebound, who had been turned into docile workhorses and frontline infantry, the enslaved Arcanists' lot was arguably even more sinister.

At first, he was confused why so many of these enslaved humans were naked and being raped in broad daylight, but then, Elora provided the depressing answer: they were inscribed with incubator sigils.

In the wider universe beyond Earth, these types of sigils were outlawed in most places, as they belonged firmly to the sinister faction. Yet, Elora easily recognized them, because they'd always been widely used in the Obsidian Enclave, which she previously belonged to.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

These sigils had both extremely cruel, and somewhat less cruel versions, but they all revolved around the same principle: providing power through sex, to the incubator's detriment.

In the less cruel versions, the incubators use these sigils to willingly funnel aetherium into their genitals, which then gets sucked away to empower whoever they have sex with. It would significantly slow down the incubator's own progress, but it allowed them some autonomy.

In the cruel version, however, the sigils forcibly drew that aetherium out of their hosts body, and if there was no aetherium to draw, they'd take the life force instead.

This way, the host was forced to spend nearly every moment of the day absorbing aetherium into their storage as fast as they could, just so it could then be drawn away and absorbed by their rapists… assuming they didn't want to die in horrible fashion.

The Obsidian Enclave only used the less cruel versions, but that was not the case here. Both male and female Arcanists slaves in Djibouti were inscribed with the most cruel versions, and they were everywhere. Even Elora felt a little uneasy about how these people were treated.

Inside his dimension, Emma was shielding Alice from the sight, while she herself looked at it with a sad calm. The other's, however, reacted far worse. They were seething.

Emily's bloodlust surged as the red lines in her eyes flared up, Astrid's knuckles whitened as she clenched them, Seraphina trembled with barely contained rage, and even the former human haters among them, Nora and Anne, felt compassion and hatred in equal measure for the slaves and their masters, respectively.

The worst reaction, however, came from Naeku. Before the Humanitas Sangh invaded, Djibouti had been under her family's rule, and only now did she realize the true fate of her people.

Thinking they'd all been killed was bad enough, but finding out it was only most of them, while the others suffered a fate far worse than that, was truly heart breaking. Especially so for this warrior princess, who cared more about her people than even herself.

Watching the screen, and hearing Elora's explanation, she sank to her knees, hands grabbing her chest to try and protect her heart. Tears streamed from her eyes as she openly cried about the fate of her people, whether shapeshifter, vampire, or human.

"I— I'm sorry…" she whispered to the despairing faces of those she swore to protect. "I failed in my duty…" she continued, with a breaking voice, before making an emotional, sobbing promise, filled with conviction. "On my life I swear… I will never let this happen again… "