Kuvon growls at the man, annoyed. “I need you to stop taking everything I say as a joke. I will rip your throat out, daemin.” Luc only chuckles and steps past him.

“I’d like to see you try.” He grins, before focusing on the task at hand. He could crush the dog’s heart later. They step into the room and he can just smell that sweet scent wafting from their target. There is an extra person in here with her, but they can be disposed of quickly. “Oh, lanai hama. I know you’re here.” He purrs, his voice sweet and eerie.

Kuvon rolls his eyes at the tone the man has with and readies his wide sword, grabbing onto the hilt. He smirks, anticipation building up inside. The girl smells strong. Seems like she’ll give him a challenge.

He watches as a tall dark-skinned girl stands up from behind the table, holding onto the arm of a small child. Her silver eyes glare at them, before darting around the room. Something is… off. Her short hair hangs in her face with a streak of silver and there is a birthmark on her left cheek. She definitely isn’t faireborne; she is too strong. Memories of his grandmother telling him about a clan with silver eyes and silver streaked hair comes to mind and he blinks, surprise filtering through his gold eyes.

“Oh, how interesting,” he scoffs, glancing over at a grinning Luc. He knew. Everything begins to make sense. “Eme eries Eliarim, proya,” he smirks at the girl. She furrows her brows, before her own eyes widen.

She huffs, annoyed. Kuvon watches as she slowly cuts her eyes to Luc, before resting back on his. “Ye quò?” she asks. This hunt may actually be kind of interesting.

~

Evritt’s eyes widen at them. He has no idea what they are saying! The ease that Aria slips into the language has him shook. He should have noticed that when she speaks English, she speaks a bit slower and has a thick accent, but he thought that it was because she has not really spoken in years.

“How did you find us?” she asks, switching back to English. Peeking from behind her, he feels so sick at the overwhelming presence the two men have.

The man with red eyes snickers,” It wasn’t that hard, guardian. We just needed a bit more power this time.” He rests his arm on the shoulder of the other man. Who doesn’t look pleased at all. “I’m sure you know what he is.”

The other man swipes his hand off, muttering,” Don’t touch me, daemin.” He glances at Aria,” Let’s not make this harder than it needs to be, proya. Surrender and we will leave the child unharmed.”

At that, Aria scoffs,” Doubtful, kivdiner. Do you know who you’re working with? You can’t be that foolish.”

A soft laugh escapes the man’s lips and he pulls out his blade. Which is very, very wide. And long. How has he been carrying it this whole time? Evritt’s eyes widen and he can’t help but be in awe of the brute strength. “I know full well what Umbra are capable of. It’s just business.” Aria gulps, ready for any attack.

Luc steps forward, causing Aria to take a step back. He revels in the fear she has of him. It’s so riveting, like a high that he never wants to end. He grins at her,” You should know that already, right?”

Evritt clings tighter to Aria. Whatever this man is, he is nothing but darkness looking to swallow everything that it touches. And for some reason he seems to have a fixation on Aria. That is what unnerves him the most. His body moves before he could even think and he’s standing in front of Aria, in a protective stance. He stammers, his words barely making it past his lips,” Y-you w-will not touch her!”

Luc’s eyes widen in surprise. He definitely wasn’t expecting a child… but then he stares at the child for a bit and bursts into a fit of laughter. Kuvon raises an eyebrow, almost scoffing at the child’s bravado.

“Oh, how lovely, A child ajin trying to enter where he can’t even measure his strength.” Luc sneers.

Evritt doesn’t know what happened, but everything begins moving in slow motion. Suddenly Luc is in front of him, his claws out and dark red energy swirling around them as he brings his hand down towards Evritt’s face. He feels Aria’s hand yank his collar back and his eyes widen as he watches Aria punch upward, sending a gust of air up from the ground. It slams into Luc’s chin, causing him to stumble backwards.

Kuvon has his sword out and whistles as he twirls it leisurely. He steps closer, walking past Luc as he rubs is chin. “You’re so scared of the Umbra you’re not even worrying about me, proya.” With that, he swings his sword down on Aria, who is barely able to dodge it.

“Bastirè!” she snaps,” Stop calling me that.” Aria kicks her foot up, leading a trail of fire in front of the man’s face. A flash of surprise flits across his face.

He steps backwards, dodging then turns and brings his sword toward her face. Her eyes widen and she quickly bends backwards, ducking under the sword. She moves back towards Evritt, who she had nudged towards the back of the room. We are getting out of here.

Evritt gasps, Wait, you’re not going to fight them? I wanted to see you fight!

Aria raises an eyebrow, sputtering. What is wrong with this child? Just from the short trade of blows, she knows she won’t win. They’re both strong and if they’re fighting her together? She has no chance. She’s not stupid. No. Luc and Kuvon move closer.

“This is going better than I hoped,” Luc smirks. Kuvon rolls his eyes. He honestly has no care for anything the man is saying unless it is about paying him his price.

He focuses back on the girl, who looks around as if she thinks she’s going to get out of this. “Proya, I’m only going to ask one more time. Turn yourself in.” His eyes glow gold in anticipation. He is just itching for a good fight and she may be able to give him one.

“Kuo ho naesi?” Aria asks. She glances between the two of them and the door. She can do this. It’s no issue. The man looks a bit more intimidating than she would like to witness. Even though Luc is horrifying, terrifying, something about this man in front of her just unnerves her. She doesn’t like it at all.

Kuvon smirks, already knowing what she’s trying to do. “Kuvon, at your service,” he answers, his eyes locked on her every move. She moves well for someone who has been imprisoned for years. “How did you manage to kill every soldier except for this daemin?” he asks, intrigued.

Aria darts her eyes over to Luc, who glares at his partner, Kuvon. They don’t seem fond of each other… strange. “Hmm,” she scoffs,” ask your teammate.” With that, she stomps on the ground, causing the ground to shake around them.

Luc stumbles to his knees, not expecting that and yells,” Don’t let them get away!” With a growl, Kuvon launches at her. Aria grabs a hold of Evritt and picks him up over her shoulder. She leaps off the ground and barely touches foot on the ceiling. Air cyclones under her and catapults her across the room and out into the hallway.

She could just imagine the look of irritation flickering across both of their faces.

She barely takes a pause before sprinting down the hall, towards the stairs with Evritt in tow. His eyes widen at the speed she is running at. He could never have guessed that she could run this fast. Everything is literally a blur as they zoom down the stairs. He glances up trying to see if there was any sign of them.

~

Elias takes a deep breath, hiding under the desk. The security wasn’t supposed to come for another twenty minutes! He can hear them fumbling around the room.

“I don’t see anyone here, Murf. If I see the kid I’ll report them to you,” the gruff voice speaks before leaving the room. He waits until he hears the sure click of the door closing and then waits an extra five minutes. He can feel the sweat trickling down his face, frizzing his hair even more. Frustrated, he yanks out the hair tie and pulls his thick curls back into a ponytail. He doesn’t have coils like Aria but wit how thick it is, it puts Evritt’s afro to shame.

Sure that there is nobody else coming, he stands and resumes typing on the screen. Elias easily gets into the system and begins clicking through file names, each name familiar due to the stories that he has heard his parents tell them.

“Palor, Peria, Pleno, ah… Prim,” he whispers triumphantly. He clicks the file and his eyes scan the document. There are some big words even he doesn’t understand but one word sticks out to him. His eyes furrow in confusion then disbelief. “The Martyrdom? They’re under suspicion of working with the rebel group and have been transported to the Citadel.” He takes a bit to process. Because the Citadel?! That is literally the area they ran from. Now they have to go back.

Elias! Elias! He hears Arias voice scream in his head that it kind of pinches a bit. He winces. I can hear you, what is it?

He listens as she rasps out, We have to leave. There are two people here after me, specifically.

Elias nods, quickly taking his own screen and scanning the document onto his before stuffing it in his bag. Curiosity fills him as he hurries out of the room. Who exactly is here? He isn’t like Evritt and can’t really sense people, so this fear of not knowing is not really doing him any favors at the moment.

He runs to the stairwell and bounds as quickly as he could up the stairs. Bursting into the lobby, he accidently bumps into someone. That someone just happens to be the older man who was sitting at the desk. “Oh, I knew you were trouble. Come with me,” he growls grabbing a hold of Elias’s arm. He drags him towards the front desk, completely ignoring the people wandering around the ground floor. Well, this is embarrassing.

Elias’s face heats up as embarrassment fills his body. “Uh, I was just looking around. No need to be so forceful,” he stammers out. Getting the civics involved is 100% worst case scenario. He sighs,” Sir, I was honestly just curious. I’m not an idiot. I just wanted to see what this place actually holds.”

The man ignores him and demands,” Where are your other cohorts? The tall broody one and the small one?”

Right on cue, the door to the stairwell slams open and Aria skids to a stop. She glances over, catching sight of Elias and runs over to him, a bit unnerved. He notices that she is carrying Evritt like a sack of potatoes and has to hold in laughter because he hasn’t seen that happen in real life before.

Elias can see the fear in her eyes and sobers up quickly. ” We need to leave. Now.” He nods, glancing at the man.

“Well, it was nice speaking to you,” he smiles, waving boisterously. Then he turns to leave, before hearing a loud thud. The sound seems to shake the building, causing everyone to stop. Stepping into the lobby are two men.

Neither were as large as that muscle head Mikaela, but even powerless Elias could feel the sheer difference in power between them and that Civic. One had weird grey skin, which is unusual for anyone, faireborne or not to have. He could see the dark veins bulging against his skin and his eyes are a deep blood red, slightly covered by straight black hair. They seem to glow and his ears are pointed, like Aria’s are. He has a wide grin on his face, showing off his sharp fangs. The other man? A completely different breed. His black coils fall down his back in a ponytail, which could only hint at how long his hair is. His eyes a golden brown and his skin is a smooth sepia color. He is tall, taller than most, and his cropped shirt shows how tight his muscles are. On his back, he is carrying a wide sword that has Elias gaping in fear.

The older man, annoyed at so many disturbances, moves away from them and walks towards the two men. “Hey, you shouldn’t be here without clearance. You need to register to tour the Arch and-“

Whatever he was going to say is cut off swiftly. Everyone’s eyes widen at the scene in front of them. The man’s head rolls across the ground, blood trailing after it. The man’s body sinks to the floor and then flops unceremoniously. Elias’s eyes stay trained on the man’s head.

Aria’s eyes dart to the man responsible, seeing the nonchalant expression and she gulps. This Kuvon has no qualms taking lives. His brown eyes flicker in boredom and he lets his blade scrape against the floor as he walks towards them.

Luc watches, impressed at the speed Kuvon has. He knew he was strong, but the simple act really proved it.

“I don’t want to have waste more energy. Surrender or I’ll just kill everyone in here,” he shrugs.