[Can’t Opt Out]

“Can you walk?” Olivier asked Xavier, brushing his fingers through the little boy’s matted hair. Someone had clearly been trying to care for the tight curls, but it had not been particularly effective, and the boy would need to be taken to someone who actually knew how to handle hair like his—something that was liable to be difficult in Baalphoria. Perhaps someone who knew what they were doing could be found in the Grey Sands? Or one of the southern Free Colonies? There must be someone in Seer’ik’tine, if only because so many diplomats from western nations would have similar hair to the little boy’s.

A problem for later, but definitely a problem that needed to be sorted out sooner rather than later—there was no way the boy’s scalp wasn’t constantly aching from the tension of the misshapen mats.

The more immediate problem was Olivier was currently responsible for moving three children through the city, his arms laden down with Porsq and the still sleeping little girl and there was no conceivable way he could carry Xavier. He would figure it out, if it were an emergency, but as they were currently trying to not attract more attention to themselves than necessary, he didn’t much want to force yet another child into his arms. Still, while it wasn’t a long way to the nearest alleyway, and as much as there were now hundreds of people wandering the streets once more, having to ask the little boy to walk wasn’t ideal.

It was, however, necessary.

While Porsq had implanted an inability to hear the holding cells’ alarm going off and a desire to wander the streets into the minds of all the people his abilities had touched, it wouldn’t last forever. The problem was, while the preteen was holding his area of influence around them, there were already people slipping free of his abilities.

Essentially, Porsq had reached his abilities to their limit, implanting that inability to hear the holding cells’ alarm going off into everyone in the vicinity, then added in the desire to wander the streets. Then, of course, his range hit its limit. It was an impressive range, reaching out well over a kilometre, but he could only hold it at that maximum for a moment before it contracted.

Had he done only that—only reached his abilities out and infected everyone with his abilities before pulling them fully back into himself—the result would have been haphazard. Some people would go about as though the alarm weren’t still blaring in the distance. Other people, especially those who were less susceptible to manipulations of the mind, would quickly realize something wasn’t right. Depending on their personality and how much they wanted to get involved in whatever was happening, those who had escaped Porsq’s abilities might remain inside, intent to stay out of it; alternatively, they could go and attempt to break the illusion for others.

“For something like this, with this many people being effected and a more generalized idea, all it will take is someone being told the alarm is still going for them to hear it again,” Porsq had explained when Olivier had first explained his plan to use the boy’s powers to bring the people back out, and thereby create something between a distraction and cover for them.

It was a risky plan, as it would all but guarantee that Hwris—and potentially other people loyal to Fräthk—would realize that Porsq at the very least had escaped. As they also didn’t want to linger there too long, or risk Hwris coming closer, everyone had agreed to his plan.

“I can keep my abilities out, for maybe… the size of the courtyard? A little bigger, if I push,” Porsq had added, slow and meticulous. His eyes had shifted as he worked things through, mumbling this or that consideration into the air because while Olivier—and Xavier—were listening, the preteen was the only one who really knew his abilities or the full scope of them.

Only he knew what he was capable of, and while Olivier could ask questions and offer potential solutions, in the end, he was only the one who had asked if bringing the people who had tucked themselves out of sight back into the roads were possible.

It was, the proof of that now moving around them. All these people, going about their lives as though nothing were happening—as though by asking Porsq to do this, they hadn’t put all these people in danger.

It was—hopefully—relatively unlikely that Fräthk’s people would kill this many civilians. While they were known for killing people who got in their way of retrieving people with valuable irregular deviations, this had been relatively contained. Relatives. Employers. People who were actively inhibiting their kidnappings. Even when Porsq had told his story, explaining that he had pushed parents away from their children, so Fräthk’s people could snatch them up, it had been clear that he hadn’t been asked to kill the parents.

While parents were often the driving factor in law enforcement actually doing their job and continuing to look for missing children, the reality was both that the Drinarna in this city—possibly the nation as a whole—were corrupt and that Fräthk had created a shadow of fear amongst those with irregular deviations and parents of children who possessed them. Some parents, Olivier had no doubt, had pushed the Drinarna to find their child—to go raid Fräthk’s various holding cells to find them. Many of those parents, Olivier suspected, had either been ignored or silenced by the Drinarna themselves. Perhaps their names had even been slipped to Fräthk, so they could send their people to deal with them.

It wouldn’t take much for even someone as seemingly incompetent as Fräthk to force enough fear into people that they would accept the loss of their child. Searching for them was fruitless—the child wasn’t coming back, and trying to find them would only cost more people their lives.

Such an odd thing, Olivier thought as he heaved himself up, for Fräthk to seemingly have reasonable plans in some areas, but not others. It made Olivier think they weren’t acting alone. Someone else had to be helping them, offering suggestions and aid in some things, while offering them none in another because in what world would anyone have taught Porsq how to use his abilities? Yes, for the moment, the boy’s abilities weren’t powerful enough for him to have attempted using them to escape the holding cells themselves, but eventually, they might have become enough.

Even without someone properly training him, Porsq had admitted to training himself—Izurial and Xavier in particular had often let him practice on them, apparently, while the boy had often used his abilities on the guards and those on the few floors above his own—all with the goal of one day being able to escape.

If Olivier had been running Fräthk’s operation, perhaps he would have tried to use them boy’s abilities, impressive and terrifying as they were, but for one thing, he would have treated the child like a king. Kindness and friendship brought in more loyalty than cruelty and torture. If this theoretical, crime-lord Olivier had, for some inane reason, gone the route of keeping his captives miserable, however… No, the moment Porsq attempted to escape, Olivier would have had him killed or imprisoned away from other captives.

Leaving Porsq alive when he had already proven a flight risk was stupid. Perhaps Fräthk had hoped that over a few years, the boy’s allegiance—or perhaps desperation for something other than those holding cells—would shift him into someone who could be loyal to their organization. Clearly, it had worked to break some captives, after all.

After only spending a few hours with the boy, Olivier was almost positive Porsq would have eventually shown his loyalty, but it would have been a manipulation—a way to get closer to Fräthk and their loyal before he broke them to pieces. Porsq was intelligent, in part due to the training he had received, and while Olivier could imagine a world where the boy’s soul broke and twisted into something evil, he couldn’t imagine him ever being beholden to someone like Fräthk either.

“That’s an odd mix of faith and mistrust you have in me,” Porsq mumbled into Olivier’s neck, where he was continuing to hold his area of influence taut around them. It was draining on him, however. Every person, save those in their group, had to be held within a place where they didn’t hear the alarm and wanted to continue wandering about, while anyone who tried to enter his area of influence had to be checked over to see if they were still infected with his initial implantation, or if they were intent to break more people free of his influence.

In the distance, Olivier could hear at least two people yelling about how everyone needed to get back inside—yelling about how the alarm was still going and about how the information lockdown meant they needed to shelter in place, the latter of which Olivier didn’t know what to think of—and Porsq must also be dealing with that somehow as well. Perhaps he had erased the ability of those within his grasp to hear such things; perhaps he was overriding their awareness of it as they heard it—repeatedly erasing the thought or reinserting the idea that everything was fine.

Later, he would need to ask. Currently, he was more concerned with getting them out of the courtyard and away from Hwris’ abilities. Plus, Porsq was focusing, the sustained effort exhausting and consuming of the boy’s energy and mental stamina; hence, he couldn’t walk and Xavier was being forced to walk instead.

The preteen wasn’t entirely dead weight, at the least. One of his arms was wrapped around Olivier’s neck, while the other was helping to keep the little girl from toppling out of Olivier’s other arm. Porsq’s legs were also wrapped loosely around Olivier’s waist in an attempt to lessen the weight of his small body on the arm Olivier had scooped under his butt. It was neither helpful nor hindering at the moment—although, it was likely better than if his legs had been left to dangle, as the little girl’s were, against Olivier’s side. Beside him, Xavier waddled along as they worked their way through the crowd towards the closest alleyway, his hand gripping into Olivier’s pant leg.

At the base of his skull, Olivier’s Censor continued to burn as he focused on both making sure Xavier was still beside him as well as keeping an eye on Hwris—thankfully, despite the sudden influx of people, each seemingly unconcerned with the alarm that they originally fled from, the man hadn’t started towards the courtyard. Neither, however, had he moved nor even looked away, and it was terrifying.

Around them, Olivier had a defensive skill—recommended by the war simulator function, of course—running. He was only one man, however, and neither combat nor defensive skills were things he had more than the most basic of experience with. Having fed all he knew about Hwris’ abilities into the function, Olivier trusted it when it said this was the skill most likely to actually keep him and the three children safe. The function, however, was meant more for games than actual combat. As a result, it told him exactly how likely it thought the combination of his questionable control of the skill and the skill itself were to stop an attack by Hwris.

The function wasn’t particular confident, and Olivier was working to ignore that little note of warning. Really! Who wanted to know that their efforts might be completely useless!? Lying was bad, but at the moment, he needed optimism, not the stupid function telling him that if Hwris decided to attack them, they were all likely to end up in pieces!

“I know how easy it is for people’s hearts to turn cold,” he told Porsq, partially because he didn’t want the boy to think he thought him something that would become evil, partially because they were only a few steps from the alleyway and this was the point in the horror story where one of them lost their head and he needed a distraction. “As I said before, I’m going to make sure to protect your heart, so that doesn’t happen.”

The preteen didn’t say anything, but the grip on his pants tightened, and Olivier wished he could do more than glance down at Xavier. The little boy, tired and sucking on his fingers of his free hand, should be in his arms, but that wouldn’t be possible. They had decided that getting out of the courtyard was the priority. Unfortunately, as they had been spread through the courtyard, this meant their group had been split into four: himself, Porsq, Xavier, and the little girl; Izurial and Cheska; Renton and Cordk; Cravena and the nameless teenager. The latter two groups were close enough that they would likely be able to meet back up relatively quickly.

Izurial and Cheska’s group was located about halfway between Olivier’s group and what he was choosing to think of as Renton’s group—the man had taken the lead through most of their travels, and despite being on the quieter side, he did have the focus of a leader. The problem was that, in terms of where they all thought the embassy to be located, Olivier’s group was closest.

Izurial and Cheska could either try to catch up with his group, or wait for the other four to reach them. In turn, Olivier could wait for the other groups to catch up, but really, with the children, they would be slower in moving through the city anyways and—

And there were no good options, each one filled with a thousand what ifs.

The what if one of Fräthk’s people catch up with us was the biggest issue, as they had no ability to communicate with one another, aside from Porsq potentially being capable of implanting knowledge into other members of their group. That was only one way, however—as much as Porsq could attempt to decipher whatever readings he got back from members of their group, it would in no way be accurate enough to serve as an actual form of communication. More importantly, Olivier had a feeling the boy would be passing out as soon as everyone had made it a little ways away from the courtyard.

That left them all with the reality that they needed to keep moving towards the embassy with their group alone. Porsq—assuming he was awake—and Cheska would keep their minds open and searching for the other groups, but they were going to have to go on as though they might never see the others again.

It was terrible, but they couldn’t wait around for people who might never come, either due to simply taking a path through the chaotic maze of the city that would never cross with a path the other groups were on, or due to running into problems. They were still too close to the holding cells, and it wouldn’t take long for Fräthk’s people to begin doing a sweep of the area.

None of them wanted to be around when that happened.