“I’m only one woman.”

“You’re Echo” The angered bird said, puffing out what feathers he had in frustration, “You—you’re supposed to protect everyone”

“That works great when your world is young and new and you only have a few hundred people to watch over” Echo said, sitting in front of the two as she leaned forward onto her crossed arms, “Arx isn’t like that anymore. That’s why I have help. That’s what my Court is for.” Quispi flinched at the mentioning of the revered, and feared Court. A group of people compulsively chosen by Arx itself, and bound to Echo's own fate. He squirmed in his own skin as he fought with Finch to keep on running, “But if there’s an area that’s under watched, I’ll have to do some rearranging with assignments. This sort of thing should never have been allowed to be planned let alone executed.”

“You…Didn’t know they were doing it?” Finch said, watching disbelieving as she shook her head.

“If I did you think I’d let them do this to you? What really confuses me, though…” Echo said, eyes trailing down to Finch’s scratched and bleeding feet, “is how you got there in the first place. You’re a smart kid, I don’t for a second believe you just got grabbed without raising hell, so. What happened?”

“I---“ Finch started stalling as he tried to remember exactly what had happened. That day he’d been taken to that filthy abandoned building and handed off. “They bought me”

“Bought you?” Finch nodded, ripping blades of grass up around him as he thought

“He told me…that he just needed my help with something. Some deal he needed a face they didn’t know for. I believed him, uncle Asema’s asked me to do things like that before, I thought it was just another day” Quispi quieted, listening intently. The only clues he’d gotten of what had happened were twisted nightmares and trains of thoughts that the kid was quick to shut down before they got anywhere. “I…didn’t realize anything was wrong until he--” Finch said, making a vague motion with his hands that didn’t quite make sense to Echo.

“He beat you” Quispi said, furrowing their brow, “so you couldn’t run away”

“He couldn’t chain me. I would have panicked too quick” Finch said, lips tucking under his fangs as he absentmindedly chewed, “He took me in there, he waited until I turned my back to him” Finch said, “By the time the men he was meeting got there I was too dizzy to fight back. I—I couldn’t” Finch let out a choked sob, wrapping his arms around himself as he folded in half

Kid Quispi started, This is what you’ve been avoiding?

“And I can't tell uncle who it was…” Finch muttered

“Because you don’t know…?” Echo asked, putting her hand on his knee reassuringly.

“No" he said putting his hands over his eyes as he tried to block out the man's face. That last, grinning, chastising face he saw before he'd been blindfolded, "Because if I tell him…” Finch muttered, “I’ll tear his family apart…”