NOVPUBJust as Zhen Liu added the finishing touches on merging some cores into more powerful, if slightly unstable, ones, he received the weirdest bits of news from Razorstella and Frosttusk at the exact same time.
That news being...well...
’Dafuq you mean both of you found that [Time] guy?’
[As I said director,] Razorstella answered first. [That weird dude with the stop watch is sitting right here in the middle of Stone Claw, selling what appeared to be...fish-shaped cakes? I know there was a word for this...]
[Taiyaki?,] Screamira helpfully suggested.
[There we go!]
[That...doesn’t...make...sense...,] Frosttusk interjected.[Because...I...see...him...here...in...Willow... Scale...selling...people.]
’Slavery is a part of the economy there, still trying to figure out how to dismantle that.’
[He...also...looks...younger...]
’How much younger?’
[Enough...to...question...my...memories...]
’Oh...
...Several moments ago, to help provide context...
Razorstella’s and Screamira’s point of view.
"Come one, come all! Come and try some tasty Bream Bean Cakes!," the street cook yelled as he poured batter into a special pan with fish-shaped indents.
Once every indent was filled with batter, the street cook proceeded to scoop and drop in the center a dollop of red bean paste. When every dollop was finally placed, the street cook closed up the pans and began to subject them to an open flame.
The sweet smell of baked good began to waft into the air as a result of his actions, attracting a respectable crowd of hungry on-lookers.
"Oy! How much for one of those Bream Bean Cakes?"
"Only two copper coins for one!," the street cook announced while opening one of the pans in order to show the crowd what the finished product looked like.
As he did, a collective growling of stomachs could be heard.
"Well, come on then! Plenty for everyone!"
"Wooo!"
While this was all happening though, a human disguised Screamira and Razorstella were off to the side, hiding while keeping an eye on the aforementioned street cook.
The two hadn’t taken on their "mini" forms because they both felt it was unnecessary for something as simple as this...that and they didn’t feel like it.
[Hmmm. You sure this guy is the same as the one from the footage? Something about him feels...off. He also has too little facial hair,] Screamira commented as she looked over the street cook and his set-up.
She wasn’t exactly wrong when it came to that facial comment, since she remembered that the guy from the Strange Blood’s ancestral memory had a full-on beard, while this guy had a pencil mustache at most. Then again, a lot of fleshy humans looked similar to her.
Razorstella, however, was sure of it.
[I’m fairly certain, since this guy has similar looking eyes to that other guy,] Razorstella explained.[That and one other small detail.]
[You’re being mysterious now? That’s unlike you,] Screamira observed.
[Hey, just because I like to cut to the heart of things, doesn’t mean I don’t like a good mystery now and again.]
[That sounded like a pun.]
[Might’ve been, anyways, you see that chain connecting the front of his clothes to one of his pockets?]
[Yeah...]
[The director’s memory of the guy includes a pocket watch that looked off. If I had to hazard a guess, that same pocket watch is in his pocket.]
[Ah...,] Screamira nodded in understanding before stopping and realizing something. [Wait a minute, how are we gonna confirm that watch is the watch we’re looking out for?]
[Quite simple really. He’s going to willingly show us,] Razorstella answered in an oddly enigmatic tone of voice. [We just have to time it just right.]
[Time what?]
[The crowd.]
...Back on the other side of the sea...
<<Come on, come on, step lively now! Don’t want to miss a sale like this!,>> the old slave merchant shouted with an unusual amount of vigor from the deck of his vessel. <<You ain’t gonna find anything else like them! Bloodliners straight from the Radiant Feather and Umbral Spider continents!>>
<<Bloodliners, eh? What’s so impressive about them.>>
<<Didn’t you hear from where though? Radiant Feather and Umbral Spider are filled with aether beasts that specialize in Luxarii and Caligos aether.>>
<<That means their Bloodliners are able to use them too.>>
<<Ah.>>
In a series of cages behind the slave merchant, a variety of Bloodliners could be seen either standing in attention in their cages, sleeping or looking as if any semblance of life had left their eyes.
At various point, the merchant would grab a random salve and expound to on-lookers why they should buy any particular slave.
<<Take a look at this big brute, eh? See these markings shaped like stars on his forearms and that vicious maw? Those are the tell-tale signs of a Bloodliner with the heritage of a Nightmare Grizzly from the Dark Forest Coalition of Umbral Spider. Perfect for the gladiator ring or to act as your personal bodyguard, assuming you can get him to heel. Do I hear six hundred silver?>>
<<Six hundred!>>
<<Good man! Now this next one is a real beauty, a Bloodliner with the heritage of an Aurora Peacock King! Just look at these feathers!>>
<<Oh wow, she’s gorgeous!>>
<<Yeah-wait a minute, I thought only males naturally develop feathers like that.>>
<<That’s what makes it better!>>
<<Good point, eight hundred gold coins!>>
<<Sold!>>
As this crowd of wealthy socialites, sect leaders and nobles alike partook in this immoral exchange of coin for life, a trio of out-of-place warriors kept their eyes on the proceedings from afar. More specifically, they were watching the man who was selling the slaves.
[You know, I never really met this guy and I already don’t like him,] Kit commented as they watched the man sell a teenager with fox ears to a guy who looked how he smelled. [If I were a more impulsive individual I would-Rodenia, out the barrel down.]
[But this is wrong!,] Rodenia replied while still keeping a barrel filled with rotten fish firmly in her grip over her head.
[Rodenia, don’t blow our cover. Good intentions are good, but the key is figuring out when to act on them. Doing it now does nothing but spook our target and probably makes things worse for them,] Kit replied while gesturing to the slaves being sold. [Besides, if you wanna do something like free them, you need an escape plan and plan to care for them along the way. Otherwise you’re just condemning them to a cruel death.]
[Fine...,] Rodenia relented while dropping the barrel. [Still can’t believe that this guy was somehow friends with the Storm Queen...]
[Indeed.]
[Hmm...]
Despite not being physically present to the Strange Bloods meeting, Kit and Rodenia were given a rundown and memory share of what had occurred during the aforementioned event. As such, they could see the physical similarities between this seller of flesh to the guy who helped rescue their lord’s girlfriend, they just couldn’t believe it.
How could someone, who was friends with the embodiment of rebellion and anti-slavery, also be a seller of slaves?
It didn’t make sense.
Then again, despite having very similar looking faces, it didn’t help that this guy looked a lot younger than the guy who appeared in the Strange Blood’s memories.
[Hmmm...I have...idea...to see...if...it’s...him...,] Frosttusk eventually rumbled as the group continued to watch people being sold left and right like cattle.
[Oh?]
[When...jarl...first...met...him...he...had...a...pocket...watch...with...a...chain,] Frosttusk explained. [If...we...get...close...we...can...confirm...]
[Okay...how are we going to get close enough though?,] Kit asked, while dreading the obvious implications.
[How...else...?]
<<And sold to the lady in the red kimono! I hope you find your Sakura Spirit Bloodliner attendant to be as every bit attentive you hope her to be.>>
<<Oh I will, good sir. I will.>>
Rodenia and Kit looked on at the exchange happening with increasingly angry expressions on their faces.
There was no way in this world or the next that they would-
<<The next item on the list! Feast your eyes and be amazed! A proud warrior from the Blizzard Howler tribe, straight from the Echoing Valley between here and the Soaring Gryphon Continent!>>
"WHAT?! Where did he say she was from?"
[Whoa!]
[What the fuck?]
That is...they weren’t going to do it until they heard Frosttusk verbally shout for the first time...and in a coherent sentence.
...
<Hey, uh...you’re better at record keeping than me, so...do you recall this [Time] guy like at all, or...>
=Drawing a massive blank, but...i feel like there might’ve been a reason why I have a folder here literally labelled, "If [Time] is detected"...=
<Hmm...we’re gonna have to drag that asshole here kicking and screaming then.>
=Probably...non-zero chance they’d use [Time] shit to slip out of our grasp though.=
<Which explains the folder!>
=It does...huh.= 𝘯𝑜𝑣𝑝𝑢𝘣.𝑐𝑜𝑚
<What?>
=It says here that one of the ways to lock someone with [Time] abilities down is to use the blood of a certain type of cat aether beast. One that can exist in life and death at the same time.=
<Cat aether...wait a minute...>
