Chapter 406: And Eyes To See
Anko finally stabilized about three days after her collapse, by Malzkael’s reckoning. It was hard to tell with the sun so obscured.
One moment, she seemed to be in a fugue state, sweat beading on her skin as she whispered between breathes, and the next she was lucid. Her stomach rumbled heavily as she asked, "Have we got any dates left?"
Malz and Ferro stuffed her with as much food and water as they could, smiling truly for the first time since Anko’s collapse. And then Malz told her the plan.
"I’ve filled in a few gaps with Ferro about how sound and vibrations work. He’s going to put his hands on the door and amplify his voice through it. If the demon in there doesn’t come out, we’ll move on to Plan Two," Malz explained.
Anko quirked an eyebrow, speaking with a slightly full mouth. "Isn’t it usually plan-"
"I refuse to be limited to thirty plans," Malz interrupted. "Anyway, plans two through fifty are increasingly aggressive without being actual attacks. After that, we thought we might incorporate your enhancement skills..."
"The Kir I remember doesn’t mess around," Anko raised her voice when she was able to get a word in edgewise. "He could kill any one of us like that," she snapped three sets of fingers at once. The last hand had a half-eaten date in it.
Malz paused. Not because she hadn’t considered an aggressive response from the demon, but because she finally remembered a concern that had been in the back of her mind ever since Anko became her interrogator.
Rainier had mentioned having a relationship with a man named Kir. Never often, but enough that Malz knew he’d cared for him. She had no idea if the name was common to Ayther, but if Anko’s Kir and Rain’s Kir were the same person, then the odds of this already insane situation being a coincidence would have to be zero.
"You were delirious, are you sure that’s him?" Ferro asked.
"Absolutely. A couple of years back, Maledict opened up a thingy so I could get a look at him. He was just sleeping though, and Maldict didn’t want to waste a lot of mana..."