"Die...Die! We can't die...!"
"You don't deserve to die yet."
Both fear and regret spoke up at the mention of death. It was a sore spot that hit the mark as Stephan expected. The boy knew he was trying to manipulate him but the pain he felt earlier was enough to shake the boy's confidence...at least enough to ask.
"What…Seed?" Between pained huffs, he voiced his question. The question left Stephan silent. His mood seemed to sour a bit, but the plastered smile made it hard to tell what was going on in his mind.
"IT SPEAKS! And they said I would make a terrible father!" Stephan laughed as the cyan hand clapped only to stop in place as the man looked at the boy. "Let's cut to the chase. You signed a verbatim."
Seeing the shock...the confusion...and whatever else was swirling in those yellow eyes. It made Stephan elated. Now that he got a kick out of it, he continued.
"You...my dear puppy made a pact with something beyond words and had the audacity not to live up to it."
"To tell you the truth I'm surprised you're alive. When seeds usually bloom, they have a factor to filter the chaotic malaise." Seeing a lack of understanding, he elaborated further.
"The raw energies of the world...the things that makes us...well us or as some drunk hasbin decided to call it...the malaise." Everything finally made sense when the boy's eyes drifted towards the cyan hand which waved back at him.
Fear and panic took over him as he stumbled backwards and away from Stephan.
"Ahhh...so you do know what canite is." Stephan motioned to the cyan hand and had it ruffle the boy's hair.
"Now that's no way to treat one of your own...we're brothers now..."
"No...no...no...I didn't listen...I didn't do it!" Asher snapped not accepting what Stephan was trying to say.
"Listen...do...not really of consequence once you accept the verbatim...although incomplete you're a bonafide menace to society." Stephan laughed again as the boy shook his head.
Snapped out of his shock by a slap from the cyan hand, the boy digested what Stephan had said.
"Have you had a recent look in the mirror my little puppy?"
Hearing the remark the boy unconsciously stared at a long mirror to his right. Both his face and limbs looked frail and thin barely wearing the white patient garb. His once long disheveled black hair was streaked with white from the crown to the very strands. As for his skin, it was sickly pale almost ghostly.
"To tell you the truth I don't care to know how or why...all I know is that your better half...the horrible eldritch monstrosity asked me to take care of your in return for something of course but I'm not one for charity cases." He crossed his arms and looked at the boy.
"You either want to stay or don't...The ichor I fed you should keep your seed in tact for a couple more months before..." The cyan hand crossed its thumb across Stephan's neck again but the boy didn't react.
"Still nothing...well yeah before you die."
"Now you could get back to wherever you came from...granted you'll experience a horrible-horrible death...ooor stay here and have me for delightful company till we figure out a replacement for the missing factor." Stephan sighed remembering the events a few nights ago.
"Why?" The boy questioned in a weak voice. He didn't ask for this. He didn't want anything to do with it. He just wanted to live in silence or what silence the voices gave him between their outbursts.
"Frankly…I don't know how your other half knows about me but I'm to assume it contacted me to help you get adjusted...us Canites aren't exactly the welcomed sort."
"You can have a few days to decide...till then don't cause any trouble." He walked over to the boy and placed his hand on top of his head. Cyan flames slowly gathered at his fingertips as energy began to seep into the boy's body.
"There…Your body should stabilize in a few minutes…enough to leave at least. Being a Canite is not as dandy as the powers make it out to be. You'd be choosing the easy way out."
Saying these words Stephan left the room. The Cyan hand waved at the boy before following behind its master.
As for the boy, he stayed still on the bed. He remained motionless for a couple of minutes before gathering some strength to move to the window. Whatever this place was...it was two stories high and not far from the edges of the Cleave.
He was clearly still in the capital. He recognized the streets of Lethica. They'd been his unwelcoming home for the last six months. From Clara's and Stephan's clothes, he gathered that it could be a licensed apothecary or mortuary with some underground ties judging from the lab and coffins he experienced below. Quite the well-off one to afford electricity considering this room's bulbs and tailored furnishings.
"Don't get distracted!" Fear spoke up again with the usual boyish harshness.
"Always finding trouble. Always making others responsible. Always being useless." Regret took its turn to jibe at him, but the last remark made him lose his temper.
'Why don't they understand...why don't they get.' Everything was beyond the boy's control. It was a lapse of judgement...a single mistake...and now they just kept harping at him without any remorse.
He grabbed the vase and smashed it into the wall. The impact sent shards slashing him across the arm.
He fell to his knees. This time he was covered with water instead of ichor. The boy shuddered as he grabbed his hand which flinched with pain. He watched the blood cascade down drop by drop.
'I didn't have a choice...I had to accept the deal...the-the verbatim.' The boy's head fell to his knees. 'I can't trust them...it...anybody...not again.' The boy's hand darted towards one of the larger shards of the vase just as Clara walked inside the room.
Once she noticed the blood she rushed to the boy's side. She kneeled next to him and grabbed his bandaged arm to check for injuries despite the boy's sluggish struggle.
"You should be more careful." That was all she said. She didn't berate him. She just asked him to be more careful and turned her back to a nearby drawer to grab a new bandage.
"DO IT!" Fear screamed as the boy's grip tightened around the shard which felt suddenly very heavy in his hands. He gritted his teeth and tightly familiarized himself with the piece till blood began to spill from his palm.
"DO IT!" Fear screamed again and the world became silent, leaving him with the sound of his heart thumping and his anxious thoughts.
'But-but...' He hesitated at the display of unusual kindness.
"Yes...go on...repeat the same mistakes again." Regret was the one to speak this time.
"DO IT!" Fear shouted a third time and the boy obliged with a swift dash towards Clara. He stabbed her in the waist and made his escape.
"Don't think!" "Don't think!" "Don't think!"
He repeated these words like a mantra. They were the fuel for his escape from the room to the corridor, then the stairs, and eventually through a glass door that led to the well-cobbled streets of Lethica's mid-class society.
His tenacity didn't last long against the pain and fatigue. Soon he slowed down and hobbled by road's side as he avoided the disgusted stares of the passing pedestrians. This prompted the boy to retreat to his own thoughts.
He was free and the fact that he hurt that woman didn't matter. It shouldn't matter, at least not as much as his conscience made it out to be. He hated himself for doing what he did but otherwise, he would be at their mercy, and he'd rather die than be subjugated to the whims of another person again.
'She's-she's a witch...she'll be alright...focus...' He sighed and doubled his resolve to move forward.
Whatever Stephan did gave the boy's body enough energy to weave his way across the crowds of men, sylphs, and Dremin. The men scoffed at his figure, the long-eared sylphs avoided him like the plague and the long black figures of the Dremin gave him curious glances.
A few rests to catch his breath and the boy finally reached the Rim-markets. The boundary of commerce that separated the undercity and city proper of Lethica. The boy's destination of course was the slums in the undercity...there he'd just be another escapee or miscreant, and nobody would give him another glance.
He couldn't take the elevators down the Cleave of course. Those were heavily guard and needed identification as well as fee which he lacked. The alternative to scale down the 2000 feet abyss was the ventilation shafts and vents running across the walls of the chasm.
It took some effort but he managed to sneak to one of the vents. The constables turned a blind eye to these kinds of entrances. The boy slid down from one tube, vent, or ladder till he made it towards the first level of the undercity.
It wasn't tough...or maybe he's done it enough times that it didn't seem tough anymore.
"I'm a street rat now...a canite street rat...how much more could they be disgusted." The boy scoffed as he walked forward. He still had a long way till he made it to a somewhat safe area.
"Better than that power…" He affirmed loudly in hopes of shutting down whatever insult companions were brewing but to his annoyance they remained silent.
Just as the boy was about to rest again, a hand grabbed him by the shoulders.