Visiting Hours Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

[Sharei]

Koji could only stare back mutely. Marchelute's long-awaited return to the mountain was good news indeed, and in happier times he would have congratulated the tiercel on the successful hunt, but the question burned in the air between them. Something in his ears was humming, a high-pitched wine that flickered in and out of audible. The wine seemed to match the pressure behind his eyes, in his temples, pounding through his skull. 

Koji caught himself on the railing, his complexion white. It was a struggle to take the breath to speak, to force the words, and his irises crackled burnished orange as he did.

"We - need to talk," he said slowly, joining Sohl on the landing. 

"Before you go anywhere else."

[MP]

Aaron looked between them, looked at the burnished hue of Koji's eyes, and put a foot forward. His voice was quiet. An offer.

"Koji. I can brief him."

The smile slowly faded from Sohl's features. He stared at Koji, then the agent, the silence stretching into cold dread.

"Something's happened," he said at last. "How bad?"

Weeks of Father's wan features flashed through his mind. Father had been stretched too thin for far too long. The network had been supposed to help the strain. Had he reached the limits of his strength too soon? The Guard had tricks, techinques - Sohl could take up the burden - it couldn't be unrecoverable. Serious, but not unrecoverable.

[Sharei]

Koji put a hand up to stall Aaron's approach even though he cast his friend a grateful look. He appreciated the offer, but this was a matter for the pack. So while he'd rather anyone else be in his place, Koji drew in a steadying breath and turned back to Sohl with an appraising eye. By the look in his friend's eyes, Sohl had already guessed at the contents of Koji's confession, but that didn't make it any easier to say.

"There was a - disturbance," he said, fluttering his good hand uselessly.

"We don't know Sarkany's current state. Atol attacked the anchor team while the operations were underway, and while your father and Decker managed to minimize the damage and drive Atol away..."

Koji put a tentative hand on Sohl's shoulder, the touch as light as a feather, as if unsure it was welcome.

"He was hurt and taken captive. They suspect Atol took him back to Sidelis."

[MP]

We don't know Sarkany's current state.

The words sent a chill through his core. It had finally happened - Father's tether had snapped. He'd lost the anchor. A dozen terrible scenarios flashed through Sohl's mind. But what followed was even worse.

Captive. Captive to a murderer - a torturer. Koji's scars were proof enough of what was waiting for Father in that place. Sohl, more than anyone, understood what that would mean to Kanagi.

The youth's face had drained of color, but the gaze he turned toward the floor was oddly blank. Detached. He clasped his hands together gently.

"I see," he said faintly.

The operations had left Father exposed. He had left Father exposed. For all their arguing, it was only now that he understood Father's reluctance for what it was. Not cowardice, not control - vulnerability. Father couldn't protect the membrane and the agents and his sons. In the end, he hadn't been able to protect himself.

You overruled him. You left. And the last thing you said - the very last thing-"

Sohl drew in a breath. Fought the storm rising in his chest. He focused his thoughts on the weight of Koji's hand on his shoulder. When he felt he could control the change behind his eyes, he looked up.

"I need to speak with - with the director." And Sjira, he thought. How would he tell Sjira? "So I can see the footage, if there was any."

Sohl's gaze lowered slightly. His voice dropped to a softer pitch.

"We need to look at our options."

[Sharei]

"Your father worked with Decker to alter the outcome of the fight with Atol," Koji said, weighing the shadows he saw in Sohl's eyes with the brightness he remembered to be there. "He arranged for a bio-empathic plant for the area just before the incident went down. There's good coverage."

Koji, for all his willingness to adhere to WDSA protocol lately, still refused to refer to Decker as 'Director.' That was a privilege reserved for the only one in Koji's mind to have earned it. But his private grievances with the man weren't helpful to the here and now and he closed his one eye, hair falling across the dark eyepatch, and squeezed Sohl's shoulder reassuringly. His voice softened, but there was something in it, something that spoke of a deep understanding and sympathy for the position Sohl was currently in.

"Sohl... I'm not going to tell you to stay out of it," he said quietly. "But you don't have to do it alone. You shouldn't do it alone. Let me help you build your case to Decker. Be a second set of eyes."

[MP]

Stay out of it.

Sohl's eyes flashed. For a brief moment, though he would never know it, the look was very much his mother's. Cold steel and the fighting will to challenge a storm. As if he would let anyone tell him that now - to stand by and shirk what little help he could give. He'd like to see them try.

But the rest of the words filtered in, and the gentle hand on Sohl's shoulder was just that - not cautioning. Just reassurance. No one was saying that - certainly not Koji. Sohl nodded and attempted a small smile.

"Alright. If you're okay with it."

After all, it could hardly be pleasant for Koji, dealing with that particular director on top of the loss at hand.

Aaron, doing his best to stare somewhere both inconspicuous and far away from the private exchange, nodded.

"You should submit the request form in advance. If Decker agrees, he'll still need that first. I'll send you a copy and let WESC know it's a priority."

[Sharei]

For a brief, heartwrenching moment, Koji had to question where the determination he was seeing came from. The desire to rescue Sarkany, or the same guilt Koji felt twisting his gut like a knife? But as he looked at Sohl, watching the interplay of the light on his face, he decided that it didn't rightly matter at the moment.

"Aaron's right," Koji agreed. "I'm helping check the building's ward security, but I'll be done in a little bit. They could probably use your help down in medical - I'll meet you there?"

If it was alright? Koji shook his head.

"I can bring a copy of the forms."

[MP]

Sohl nodded.

"I'll need a little bit too. I need to make a stop first."

That was as far as he could mention, and to anyone but Koji, the words would have meant nothing at all. The true meaning was in the slightest lowering of Sohl's eyes, and the shared knowledge of the Instance. Before Decker, before the anchor team, Sjira would need to be told.

[Sharei]

Despite all of the love and affection that Koji had for Aaron he simply nodded, wordless, and pat Sohl on the shoulder one final time. He might have said try to be gentle, but Sohl hardly needed telling, and the words sounded hollow even as he thought them.

'Poor Sjira...' he thought. 'Atol just keeps taking and taking. Our alpha missing, some of our best fighters kidnapped or incapacitated... Our pack has never been in such a sorry state.'

It hurt to think it, especially because Koji remembered how it had once been. Of course he felt for each individual member and their suffering, but he also mourned the wound to the whole.

"I'll text when I'm done," Koji said aloud, banishing guilty thoughts of the Storm's inevitable breakdown from his mind.

[ We'll find him.  ]

[MP]

How will I tell him?

The question came again and again, spinning his vision, unbalancing his steps as Sohl wandered down the hall. The wall jarred his shoulder, spun him slightly as he took the corner too fast, too blindly. He stared hard at it, as if it might have the answer written there for him.

Still blank. Still just as empty. These walls hadn't been the protection Father hoped for. Hadn't been the protection he needed. Sohl should have stayed. Should have tried harder to convince him. Should have listened.

His vision blurred dangerously, rage and grief pressing at his throat. Sohl's fingers curled. Fell against the wall as a dull, lethargic fist.

How will I tell him?

That didn't matter, did it? Sjira had been a part of everything - father's plans and his own. Sohl wouldn't do him the disservice of holding it to his chest now. He'd tell him what he knew.

With a rush of salt tang and a merging of natural and indoor light, Sohl stepped into the Instance. He climbed the hill, descended down the seaside stairs, and turned the corner. He met Sjira's eyes and struggled, hollow-eyed, to form the words.