Chapter 29: ESCAPE

The door had barely finished solidifying when someone behind Sio shouted that Vise was moving. His body turned before his thoughts caught up, and across the ruined administrative floor Vise dragged himself upright from the wreckage with one hand braced against a fractured desk.

Blood had soaked through the front of his clothes, one side of his face had begun to swell, and every breath seemed to scrape against something damaged inside his chest. None of it seemed to matter once his eyes found Arch, because the hatred there overwhelmed everything else.

Central Nexus Wayfarers were still flooding through the broken corridor behind him. Some hesitated when they saw Vise standing again, while others spread rapidly across the floor with Claims and Scars already stirring around them.

"Secure the Heliarchs!" one officer shouted while another pointed directly toward Sio. "The boy first. Don’t let Arch through that door!"

Sio heard the order clearly, and whatever controlled his body seemed to understand the danger even faster. His attention snapped toward Mira before a black opening swallowed the space ahead of him.

He emerged beside her so suddenly that Mira recoiled before recognizing him. "Sio?" she managed, but his arm had already closed around her waist.

Sio wanted to warn her that he still had no control. He wanted to tell her he could see everything, hear everything and feel every movement his body made, yet his mouth remained as useless as it had been throughout the fight.

Mira’s hands rose instinctively against his shoulders. Her wrists were still raw where the restraints had torn into the skin, red abrasions circling them badly enough that Sio’s attention caught there for a moment.

Something inside him tightened at the sight. His body pulled her closer before turning toward Arch’s doorway, while the apology Sio tried desperately to form remained trapped inside his own head.

Another blur crossed the ruined floor almost as quickly, and Fern reached Caspian before two advancing Wayfarers had finished turning toward her. She shed enough of her weight that her movement became unnaturally light, her short jacket snapping behind her as she caught Caspian firmly around the torso.

Caspian looked down at the arm suddenly locked across his chest. "I assume there’s a sophisticated explanation for this."

"Try being lighter," Fern told him, already shifting her weight again. Caspian looked almost offended by the suggestion. "That is very much your area of expertise."

Fern reduced her weight even further and launched them toward Arch’s doorway. They crossed the floor with enough speed that even Sio struggled to follow, yet Caspian still managed to redirect two attacks while being carried, twisting the vector of a compressed blast into the ceiling and curving a luminous projectile through an empty section of the office.

"Heliarch Fern!" someone shouted behind her. "Stand down!"

Fern reached the threshold without slowing. "You’re several decisions too late."

She disappeared through the doorway with Caspian, and Sio’s body moved almost simultaneously. A portal consumed his leading step and released him several metres closer to Arch’s door, carrying Mira with enough sudden momentum that she tightened both arms around him.

Behind them came the pounding of boots, shouted orders and the rising resonance of too many abilities preparing at once. Something struck the floor where Sio had been standing an instant earlier, spraying fragments of tile across his back.

Mira buried her face briefly against his shoulder to protect her eyes before looking up at him again. "Sio, slow down. You’re hurt."

His body accelerated despite her plea. Sio could feel the exhaustion tearing through him now, his vision pulsing around the edges while his legs became increasingly hollow and his arms barely seemed capable of keeping Mira against him. I know, Mum. I know.

Another black opening consumed the space ahead, and the remaining distance collapsed beneath his next step. For the briefest instant his foot touched unfamiliar ground before both he and Mira emerged safely on the other side.

Fern had already released Caspian and turned back toward the entrance, her breathing slightly heavier but her posture still ready to fight. Caspian regained his balance beside her and straightened the front of his coat with remarkable concern for a garment that had survived several explosions.

"That was unpleasant," he said, smoothing a crease from one sleeve while Fern continued watching the door.

"You’re welcome."

"I did not thank you."

"You were thinking about it."

"I assure you, I was not."

Mira barely seemed to hear them because her attention remained entirely on Sio. One of his arms still rested around her, holding her more firmly than the situation required, and she carefully raised a hand toward his face.

Her fingers touched the dark line tracing his cheek. "Sio, look at me."

His eyes moved toward her, and Mira’s expression changed immediately. Relief should have come from seeing him conscious, but whatever she found behind his eyes prevented it.

Her fingers softened against his cheek while fear remained beneath the tenderness. "You’re still in there somewhere, aren’t you?"

Sio tried to answer. His throat tightened around words that refused to come.

Across the doorway, Arch remained inside Central Nexus, and Caspian finally abandoned the state of his coat when he noticed how many Wayfarers were still pressing toward the threshold. "Arch!"

Arch backed toward them while three Wayfarers continued trying to cut him off. His body had reached the point where every step looked like an argument with his own injuries, one hand pressed against his ribs while the other stayed close to the open door.

He ducked beneath a glowing strike, stumbled backward and caught himself against the frame. "I’m coming. Some of us have accumulated significantly more years than the rest of you."

Caspian stared through the doorway. "You picked an excellent moment to notice."

Arch managed another step, but movement exploded through the crowd before he could take the next. Vise tore between the Wayfarers with his damaged chest forcing him into a crooked posture, blood running from his mouth while each breath came harsh and uneven.

His eyes never left Arch. Vise shoved one Nexus officer aside and nearly went down over the remains of a desk, but rage carried him through the stumble as he roared, "ARCH!"

Fern shifted toward the doorway, ready to intercept him, but Caspian saw Arch cross the threshold first and caught her arm. "He’s through."

Arch stepped fully onto their side and immediately turned for the handle. Vise lunged after him before the door could begin closing.

His hand crossed the narrowing opening and caught the back of Arch’s coat, jerking the older man violently backward. Mira flinched, while Fern started forward again until Arch lifted one hand sharply toward her and strained out, "Don’t." The look he gave her made Fern stop.

Vise buried his fist deeper into the fabric. For one dangerous moment they stood on opposite sides of the threshold, connected only by the arm stretched through the doorway and the torn coat clenched inside Vise’s hand.

He pulled hard enough to drag Arch half a step toward Central Nexus. Blood stained Vise’s teeth as he rasped, "You think you walk away again? After everything you and Silas did?"

Arch lowered his eyes toward the fist gripping his coat before looking back at Vise. The exhaustion did not leave his face, but something unexpectedly youthful crept through it, and Sio noticed the small, almost mischievous smile beneath the blood and bruising.

Vise noticed it too.

Arch wrapped his fingers around the handle, and recognition reached Vise a second too late. His grip loosened as he tried desperately to wrench his arm back through the narrowing gap.

Arch slammed the door.

The edge caught Vise across the forearm with a wet crack powerful enough to carry through the room. Bone gave beneath the closing frame, flesh tore immediately afterward, and blood sprayed across the threshold as the severed portion dropped onto Arch’s side with its fingers still tangled in the remains of his coat.

The door completed its movement, cutting Vise from view. For several uncomfortable seconds, nobody spoke while blood spread slowly beneath the severed arm.

Caspian stared down at it, his expression tightening with the weary recognition of someone whose former employer would eventually expect an explanation. "That is going to make the paperwork unpleasant."

Fern looked at him as though the severed limb bothered her considerably less than his priorities. "You are still thinking about reports?"

"I spent fourteen years writing them. Apparently institutional damage is permanent."

Arch barely heard either of them because his attention had moved toward Sio. The satisfaction in his expression gradually faded as he studied the dark Scar across the young man’s cheek, replaced by something older that carried grief and affection in equal measure.

For a moment, Arch seemed to be looking beyond Sio entirely. "Did you see that, Silas?" His voice came rough from exhaustion, but the faint smile returned. "I still got it in me."

Sio heard the name and felt something inside him recoil.

Silas. Dad?

The thought struck harder than any blow he had taken during the fight. Why was Arch talking to his dead father as though Silas had somehow been standing in the room with them?

Sio tried to turn toward him, and for the first time the force controlling his body seemed to loosen rather than redirect him. His fingers slipped from Mira’s clothes as strength abruptly abandoned his arms, and his knees folded before he could understand what was happening.

Mira caught him before he reached the floor. "Sio!"

His head dropped heavily against her chest while she wrapped both arms around him, lowering herself with his weight despite the raw pain in her wrists. Whatever had held Sio upright moments earlier simply disappeared, and the dark line across his cheek began to fade.

"Sio, stay with me." Mira supported the back of his head and drew him close enough that he could feel her heartbeat against his ear. "You’ve done enough. You don’t have to keep fighting. Just open your eyes for me."

He could still hear her, although every word sounded farther away than the last. Sio wanted to tell her he was fine, wanted to ask Arch why he had spoken to his dead father as though Silas had somehow been standing beside them, and desperately wanted to know who had been using his own body better than he could.

Darkness reached him before any of those questions found a voice. Mira felt the last tension leave his body and held him tighter against her.

Far away from them, Central Nexus convened before the blood on its administrative floor had even dried. The chamber used for the meeting was circular and almost entirely dark, with narrow bands of white illumination running along a table occupied by senior Nexus officials, national Wayfarer authorities and projected representatives from governments beyond Central Nexus itself.

Some faces remained concealed in shadow, while others were deliberately distorted by their transmissions. Footage from the incident hovered above the centre of the table, showing Fern and Caspian standing against Central Nexus personnel, Sio moving through the battlefield under circumstances nobody in the chamber could satisfactorily explain, and Arch eventually opening the door that carried all of them beyond Nexus control.

One of the officials leaned forward. "Two Heliarchs defected during a containment operation."

"They did more than defect," another voice replied from the darkness. "They fought our personnel to protect Arch."

A woman seated among the national representatives folded her hands. "Then perhaps someone should explain how Arch managed to pull two decorated Heliarchs away from the organization."

An older man near the far end gave a humourless laugh. "Because the bastard has been doing this for years. He finds people who begin questioning us, gives them somewhere else to stand, and eventually another operation collapses around one of his doors."

"Fern and Caspian made their own decision."

"I am aware. That makes them responsible for treason. It does not make Arch any less dangerous when he keeps becoming the common factor."

Sio’s image replaced the footage.

NINETEEN YEARS OLD.

MULTIPLE IRREGULARITIES.

THREAT CLASSIFICATION UNDER REVIEW.

A national official studied his face. "And now Arch has Silas Eloran’s son."

The name shifted the atmosphere around the table. Someone farther along the chamber leaned forward, their face still hidden beneath the deliberate darkness.

"That family should have been watched from the beginning. We knew exactly what Silas was capable of, and we knew who his wife was, yet somehow she and the child were allowed to disappear into ordinary life after his death."

Another official leaned back and regarded Sio’s image with open contempt. "Apparently we convinced ourselves the problem ended when Silas died. Now his son has become another irregularity while Arch stands beside him. Like father, like son."

"Potentially worse," someone replied from farther around the chamber. "Arch caused enough damage with Silas beside him. Give that bastard time to shape the boy and we may eventually be dealing with someone raised specifically to tear at this organization."

"You’re assuming he intends to weaponize Sio."

"I’m assuming Arch remains Arch."

That ended the argument more effectively than anyone seemed comfortable admitting. The figure seated at the head of the table finally raised a hand, and the remaining voices fell silent.

"Fern and Caspian are stripped of Heliarch authority effective immediately. Designate both rogue and put bounties on their heads."

Their files changed before the order had finished processing, and Mira appeared next. A senior officer studied her face without sympathy.

"Silas Eloran’s wife. We should have investigated her and the child far more aggressively after his death instead of allowing both to disappear from our attention."

Another voice came from deeper in the darkness. "She gave birth to the very irregularity now standing beside Arch. Whatever benefit of the doubt she once possessed ended today."

The figure at the head of the table did not hesitate. "Put a bounty on her head as well."

Mira’s image vanished and Sio returned to the centre of the chamber. The figure studied him for several seconds before issuing the next order.

"International bounty. His irregularities are too dangerous to leave uncontrolled. Eliminate him if retrieval cannot be guaranteed."

Several officials exchanged looks, but nobody challenged the decision strongly enough to delay it. Arch’s file appeared last, and the number already attached to his name dwarfed every other bounty discussed that night.

A Nexus commander stared at it for several seconds. "Increase it again."

"How much?"

"Enough that the bastard cannot enter a populated region without someone wondering whether killing him would change their life."

A national representative frowned. "That will attract independent hunters, criminal Wayfarers and every opportunist willing to gamble against him."

"Good," the commander replied without hesitation. "That is precisely the point."

The figure at the head of the table enlarged Arch’s file. "He has compromised facilities, disrupted operations and undermined Central Nexus authority for years. Two Heliarchs have now turned against us after falling into his orbit, and Silas Eloran’s son is travelling with him."

The revised bounty appeared, high enough to draw a visible reaction even from people accustomed to assigning prices to dangerous lives. The figure at the head of the table allowed them a moment to absorb it before continuing.

"Arch is no longer a recovery target. Termination is authorized on sight."

Nobody objected, and one of the national leaders remained watching the bounty notices as they began moving beyond the chamber. "And when these reach the independent networks?"

A voice from the darkness answered with complete certainty. "They start hunting."

By the time Sio opened his eyes again, strangers he had never met would already have a reason to know his face.