Devilla
"What do you mean kidnapped?
"
I didn't remember striding towards Chloe. I was just
there,
in her face, resisting the urge to shake her and demand to know more.
"Woah there!" Chloe said, taking a step back with her ears folded back in a sign of fear. "I get why you're upset, but I'm going to need you to take a deep breath, alright? Alira isn't planning to hurt her, from what I can tell. She's just gotten the idea that she can outplay her granddaughter by threatening your girlfriend."
"
Alira?
"
I moved no closer to Chloe, as per her request, yet my voice was cold and distant even to my ears. "As in former General Alira? The one who's worked tirelessly to worsen my image over the years?" Not that she'd needed much help, but- No. I didn't have time to waste beating myself up. Not while Abigail was in danger.
Perhaps it was time to give people a reminder of exactly who I was though. The bratty Queen they didn't dare mess with. The fool of a ruler who'd risk tearing the tower apart in her anger, if the ones she loved were touched. Perhaps it was time to remind them
why
they had avoided me for so long.
Perhaps it was the time to deal with Alira
permanently
.
"Where is she?"
"We don't know," Chloe informed me, no longer flinching backwards in fear, but also not moving any closer towards me. "Most of what we
do
know comes from Mellany - apparently there are more holes in their information network than a starving spider's web, at least when it comes to their own house. Each faction is spying on every other faction, and even when you think someone is on your side there's always someone else waiting to stab you in the back... That's probably how Alira caught wind of our plans to move against her."
"And? Should we assume that she knows that
we
know?" My voice was even colder and seemed further away than before. "Where does that leave us? Where is Alira? I will deal with her
personally
."
"Relax, sis," Nivera said - the first words to pass her lips since my arrival. She looked pissed and her voice was almost as cold as mine. "We'll find her and we'll take her down. For this and everything else she's done. For now, though, we have to be content with knowing that Abigail's safe."
"Safe for
now
." Why did everything seem so far away? I would expect to be more upset by this. "According to Mellany, at least?"
"Yup," Chloe confirmed. "Though she didn't want to tell us at first... She wanted to try and solve all this on her own without us even knowing until afterwards. It was actually a coincidence that I found out about things as quickly as I did - my friend Beth was complaining about a couple weapons she'd made on commission for her favorite prostitute, so I promised to go talk to Abigail and went to her place - where I found out from her Mom that she never came home. Bailey says she didn't spend the night here, so of course I went to talk to-"
"Enough!" I interrupted Chloe more forcefully than I intended. "We don't have time for this.
I
don't have time for this. I'm supposed to be backing up Lucy right now..." I bit my lip, glancing down at the teleportation pad. I needed to tell Lucy what was going on. She'd understand - even if it messed up her own plans. And it
would
mess up her plans, if her companion - who the church wished to know all about - disappeared in the night and couldn't be found when asked about...
...Unless, of course, her companion
could
be found...
"Chloe." I refocused and looked at her. "I need your help."
"My help? With finding Abigail? Because I'm pretty much doing everything I can already, there. At this point we're just waiting for more information."
"Not with that," I said. "With Lucy. I need you to take my place for the night. Put on an illusion to look like me so Lucy's companion doesn't suspiciously go missing
and
I have someone I trust by Lucy's side."
Chloe shot a glance towards Nivera, who shrugged. Then she looked back at me. "Alright! So long as Lucy's okay with it."
***
Needless to say, Lucy was in full support of my plan. Though she insisted that she wasn't in danger and didn't need anyone to look after her, she couldn't deny that it would raise eyebrows if I were to suddenly disappear. So Chloe stayed with her while I paced back and forth across my bedroom with Nivera, anxiously awaiting more information from Abigail's abductor.
"I hate waiting like this," I complained. "Abigail could be suffering at this very moment, and yet I'm stuck waiting around for a ransom note or something. Some clue as to where she
is,
or what Alira wants so desperately that she would threaten my girlfriend."
Nivera gave me an odd look. "You're actually referring to her as a girlfriend now, huh? Guess things are going well for you two?"
"They are, actually," I confessed, a slight smile tugging at the corner of my lips despite the situation. "She makes me feel... like I haven't screwed everything up beyond belief, I suppose. Like there's a way forward, even for me, so long as I make the effort. Were she the one in my situation, she'd probably already have a plan that didn't involve waiting for someone else to make a move..."
"I don't know about that," Nivera replied, "but I do know something we can do instead of waiting. Chloe shot it down, though."
"What, and why?" I asked with a frown.
"We could rely on Bailey's nose," Nivera replied. "Try to track them directly."
"And the reason Chloe rejected the notion?" I asked, admittedly intrigued by the possibility.
"Well... She had a lot of them, actually," Nivera confessed, not quite looking me in the eye. "Like the fact that we might miss a communication. Also we don't really know where she was taken from, or if Bailey would be able to isolate her scent... and there's the chance of Alira finding out what we're up to and escalating things... but it still feels better than just slithering around doing nothing!"
"It might feel better, but that doesn't make it the right choice," I replied. "Much as I hate to admit it." I wanted to be chasing Abigail down. I wanted to find her, to secure her, to make sure she was safe right this
instant.
Yet to act without thought would only endanger her.
...At least, that
was
my thinking, until a new thought popped into my brain.
"There might be a more direct route we can take... Do you know where Doll is?"
"Doll?" Nivera asked. "Last I heard, she was setting up her office on the 90th floor... Speaking of which, we should probably talk about what the hell happened there at some point? I thought you hated Doll!"
"I do. Or did? Or... I don't even know anymore," I said. "It's complicated. Suffice it to say that she has access to information I need, skills I find useful, and a backstory I... can't entirely ignore, for all my mixed feelings. I'll explain more later, but for now I simply hope that she has what I need..."
Was there a holy spell that would allow me to track down Abigail? Asking Doll about it would at least be doing
something
even if it ended up not existing. Anything was better han just waiting helplessly for our enemies to make a move.
***
Abigail
***
You know, when you think about being kidnapped, you usually think of it as a terrifying thing. Not that I really thought about it at
all,
outside of maybe when dealing with fictional works where the main character or her love interest got captured by the evil sorceress or whatever, but... Still. I always sort of connected kidnapping with excitement and fear. Not boredom. So why was it that I was
bored
rather than shivering with fear?
At least my abductor seemed to be having fun. The old hag was masquerading as a cleaner in the corner, right at the edge of my field of vision. She probably didn't realize I was watching her, or else she'd have at least pretended to clean instead of just shooting glances at me and then giggling to herself repeatedly, before hurriedly running her cleaning towel over the same exact spot, again and again, as if afraid I'd suddenly turn my head around. The bitch didn't even have the right tool for the job, and was wielding a full sized bathing towel rather than a cleaning rag.
So far I hadn't given her the satisfaction of a reaction.
"Oh, enough of this!" she eventually declared, throwing down her towel and standing up from her previous crouch. Her attempt at appearing domineering was ruined by her stumbling forward a step as she rubbed her back, before standing up straight and glaring at me. "I grow weary of pretending to be a scullery maid! Especially since you insist on being the most boring captive in the world! You haven't even
tried
to strike up a conversation with the lowly maid who has clearly been left in your proximity for the clear purposes of pumping you for information!"
"And why would I do that?" I asked, wondering if this woman maybe had a screw loose. Or ten.
"So that you can pump her for information back, of course!" the old woman replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "That's how this whole thing is meant to work! Two people locked in a bottle of wits, trying to make the best use of their time! You're such a dullard that you just wasted the opportunity that had been given to you, and didn't even
try
