Knights Apocalyptica

Chapter 155: Animal Planet

As the memory faded away, it startled Erec to find Dame Robin hovering over him. She looked concerned as she turned his face from left to right. He blinked, the light of midday cutting into him and stirring him out of the daze.

Dame Robin let him take a deep sigh; Erec took in the scene—the broken bottle from the girl was still next to him.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“No,” Erec replied, his mind reeling from the image of his mother. With some help, he got to his feet, yet his heart kept thrumming as a surge of energy filled him.

She was alive.

Why the hell was she working with Seven-Snakes? He’d had the bastard in his hands and had no clue. And that girl—where did she go?

“We need to find the girl,” Erec said, desperately scanning the street. He couldn’t have been out for long. Letting her use that talent might’ve been a mistake, alone, but none of that mattered now. Did she have more answers?

“The one from the library? She was with you when I arrived. As soon as I walked up, she handed you over and thanked me. Told me she was done with all of this, and that you had everything you might need. What did she mean by that? I was afraid she might’ve drugged you, and I couldn’t chase down and look over you at the same time.”

“She used her Talent and showed me a memory. She saw my mother, Robin. My mother and Seven-Snakes were working for someone… That other-worlder? There was a map—“ He cut himself off, eyes going wide. “Paper—we need paper!”

There was a scramble, as Robin, not quite understanding, was helpful nonetheless. They had to ask several times, and in the end, didn’t find paper at all. But a piece of wood and some chalk.

He’d grown so used to VAL noting details that the sudden revelation that it was something only he’d seen was quite a shock. But thankfully, he gave an approximate rendition of the map on the piece of wood with the machine’s help and marked the points before it faded out of memory. He recalled the words about ‘not letting silver eyes see,’ but frankly, didn’t care. If these were places his mother wanted something from, it meant that if he tracked them down, he might see her again.

[Ah.] VAL said as the three of them examined the marked-up piece of wood, an approximate map of the former United States hastily drafted onto it. [That’s too big of a coincidence to ignore. That location on the coast is the same one that Enide referred to, I believe. It’s our facility I want to investigate. Another appears to correspond to Pacific City… At least, the last known coordinates. I’d thought it likely for it to somehow succumb to the ocean, but perhaps not? Unless it is on the bottom of the ocean, which good luck reaching, buckeroo.]

Fate. It had to be fate then—the tug of what should be, and what needed to be, and this location was a crux of it all. But so had Worth. Whatever Seven-Snakes were after there, he hadn’t gotten it since they’d interrupted him. But neither had the Knights. And that ‘route’ was now sealed, since they’d destroyed the Rift to that world at the request of the otherworldly being from it.

“She showed you this?” Dame Robin said carefully, sitting next to him near one of the half-broken abandoned hovels on the outskirts. “It is most definitely a map from the old-world. How accurate are these locations? And what do they signify? Vaults? It’s centered on Worth—I believe, right? One of them?”

“As much as I could manage. They didn’t want to leave it on a map. I think they were nervous about a priest seeing it, for whatever reason.” But that issue wasn’t theirs. Maybe it should be. With a nervous look, Erec glanced around at the street. None of the red-robed men were there.

“We can force that girl to provide more information, or see if she has more. But I’m willing to bet she’s going to go into hiding again, and out here…” she gestured to the rest of the slums, “We’ll have a difficult time finding one ordinary girl mixed in with this lot if anyone can even identify her.”

“She doesn’t know as much as he does,” Erec said, trying to cut through his disappointment. With how Seven-Snakes treated the poor girl, he doubted past the map that she’d picked up many details at all. And… the more time he’d found to calm himself, the more her feelings of being trapped and used for this damn map rang through him. It would be wrong to force her into this again after she offered the information. Part of him knew that, but as Robin went on about sending out a small group to search anyway… Could he argue against that?

Anything that might draw him closer to his mother again, to find her… She wasn’t dead.

Wasn’t dead at all.

But she was wandering around as what, hired muscle? He didn’t understand why she was working with that man, or what they meant by paradise.

Only one person was qualified to answer those questions, and that bastard had escaped the custody of the Council. Perhaps that was a blessing in disguise. Erec turned toward Vega; the image of the blue dome designating hunting grounds. Fire surged through his veins. Somewhere within that was his prey, avoiding the search of the Magi. Prime for him to track down and force out the answers he wanted.

He’d reached a decision. After filling Boldwick in, regardless of what the Master Knight said, even if he couldn’t find Seven-Snakes, he’d be going to that Vortex Industries facility on the coast with the Pendragons.

And if they wouldn’t take him, he’d go alone.

“I think we’re due to report this all back in and come up with the plan from there,” Dame Robin said to his side, standing up, hiding away the piece of wood. “For now, we’ll keep this out of the sight of any priests. Best to heed words you don’t understand before taking on an unknown risk. I’ll ask for an old-world map around Vega. I’m sure there are records of some we can transfer this information to…”

She paused as she looked at Erec, sitting below. It was hard to truly focus on her words, as he thought of his mother.

How long had it been? She’d been out here the entire time, doing what exactly?

Those were the answers he needed to hear from her, and that reminder after seeing her face for the first time in years was enough to cut through all the indecision and fear. A reminder of what he’d set out to do so long ago. Bedwyr couldn’t bring her back. He’d dedicated himself to the Kingdom upon the belief that it was his destiny. So Erec would drag her back.

“Listen, Erec.” Dame Robin cupped his chin, making her look into her eyes. “The past is the past, and the future is what we make of it. I can see the pain in you, and I know this is something you’ve been looking for. That much is clear. But when you find it, it might not be what you expect. Are you prepared for that?”

“I expected her to be dead. I want answers.”

“You’re closer now to finding them than most people get. We’ll see what we can do. You know that.” With that, Dame Robin pulled away and let Erec get to his feet.

They found Gwen not that much later and called it a day considering the new information they found. Three hours later they were headed up to the hotel, only to find that Boldwick was at a conference with the Council, hashing out the details of the trade and diplomatic potential with Vega. Not having permission to go elsewhere, and waiting to deliver his report, Erec was stuck in his room. Luckily Garin was there and was well, an anxious mess. Olivia had gone off to talk to Gwen—which left them plenty of time for Erec to share what he found with his friend.

But voicing his concerns was not enough.

There was a clear missing piece to his questions, and if the Council found Seven-Snakes, or if the Snake used his connection on the Council to leave the city, where would that leave them?

He realized they needed to find him first. If they rediscovered that bastard, grilled him for the information, and then handed him to Council, it would be the best case for all the involved parties; which brought an idea to Erec’s head.

The Council was searching for Seven-Snakes with magic, that had to be the case. But with his connection to an Arch-Magi, there was bound to be some sort of heavy spell work preventing them from scrying his location in the city, meaning that searching with magic would be unfruitful for how many resources they could dedicate to it. That much was easy to infer, based on the way this city worked and those in power, and that they hadn’t recovered him yet.

But…

“Garin, I have an idea,” Erec said, staring out the window and looking at the city. All the birds flying around inside, having called it home—all the rats crawling around and feeding off the waste of humanity. In the Kingdom, it was the same vermin. For a long time, he considered Munchy under the same category.

Squirrels had become numerous enough that their population readily grew out of control in the environment. Tracking them down and dealing with them was equally a pain in the neck, because of the vast number of places they could flee.

“Mhmm?” Garin asked, sulking on the couch. His whole day had been spent here, alone or with Olivia, which didn’t suit his friend. He always wanted to meet new people, and being in a massive city and trapped in a hotel was paramount to torture, Erec was sure. But it would make him more willing to try this…

“Have you ever tried to interact with an animal besides Munchy?”

“Yeah, a few cave mice and lizards. Understood basic instructions, but I couldn’t really take them along with me.”

“How much can they understand?”

“Well, it’s like I press my will and ideas into their mind… and they sorta understand; whether they go along with it depends on what’s in it for them. Most of them are pretty simple, a bit of food and they’re happy. Not all too useful.”

“You’re dead wrong.” Erec cut him off, tired of this train of logic. Again and again, his friend complained about how useless his Talent was but failed to grasp the complete picture. There was a wide degree of places vermin and other small animals could go that would be difficult to search for humans—but what were the limits of this ability? Garin said he tested it, but he never pushed it the way Erec did. “…Garin, I think you have one of the most useful Talents for scouting that I’ve ever heard of.”

“No, it’s just animals. They can’t do a lot.“

“Find Seven-Snakes for me,” Erec went over, grabbing his friend by the wrist, staring into his eyes with enough intensity that he felt Fury flare. He needed this, needed him to find the man. And Garin was the only one who could do it if only he could fucking see what was plain as day. “Use any animal you can connect with—offer them whatever food they want. We have thousands of chips between all of us. Find him. Use them all.”

Garin went quiet, his eyes going wide. “You think…”

“You can do it. So do it.”

“I can try.”

“There is no try,” Erec replied, his fingers tightening as the surge of desperation and confidence rolled through him. He saw the fire ignite in Garin’s eyes as he realized he was needed. That Erec believed in his ability, one that he didn’t believe in himself.

“We’ll find that motherfucker, then!” Garin shouted, wearing a crazed grin.