Who: Jaden Wright and Seren Capper What: Asking for help When: Just after sunrise 8 May Where: The Maiden Head Status | Rating: Complete | medium for descriptions of her time
By the time Seren made her way back to the Maiden it was still early enough where if she had gone to bed, she might have only gotten a few hours tops. However, given how busy last night was, she didn’t exactly get a lot of other work done for the business side of things. But that was okay, because more important things had to have happened. That and she wanted to make sure that none of the girls had slept over. It wasn’t so much that she had a problem with it, it was that she wanted to know about it, why, and if they were alone. If they needed a safe place to sleep for the night, by all means, or if they’d gotten thrown out of their place, she needed to help them figure out how to get more work, or work out something along those lines. What’s more, had to make sure that they were safe, and her mind wouldn’t settle until she knew that all of her people were safe. That and she really didn’t want another incident with one of the girls sneaking back in and raiding the bar for their own use. Yeah, that had been a fun day. Once she locked the door behind her she began her usual sweep of the place as she sipped on her highly caffeinated tea in the process. Once she’d cleared everything, she started to make her way to the office thinking that maybe if she finished up what she needed to she might be able to take a little bit of a nap before the night began. She was grateful that this really had been one of the only times she’d started to burn both ends of the candle in a while, almost forgetting how terrible it was. But no matter, things were how they were and she just had to make the best of it.
Seren unlocked the office door and hung her bag up on the wall and pushed up the sleeves of her sweater, as she began her work day. She walked over to the file cabinet where her newest labor was and after she pulled out a ledger and a notebook she automatically scanned the room as she walked back to the desk. At first she’d glanced right over it. It wasn’t that unusual to have extra supplies like blankets and such in here, however, they usually weren’t tossed on the floor like that either. As she placed the objects on the table she racked her brain for anything that she might have done the night before to have put them there, or anyone else who might have. But she was drawing a blank. She reached for her wand in her back pocket of her jeans and walked over to it, crouching down a bit, and lifted it slightly with her wand tip. Whatever she was expecting....it hadn’t been this. At all. And in all honesty it took her mind a moment to catch up. “Hello there.” Seren finally managed to speak once her brain realized as she started to think if she knew this girl from anywhere. She tried to soften her face a bit in the process, knowing she could be a bit scary if she wasn’t thinking about it. “You okay?” she asked knowing that it wasn’t the world’s best question to ask right now because it wasn’t like people actually broke into the office and hid because they had a hide-and-seek tourney going on right now. But at the same time she figured it was the best way to establish the situation at the moment at least.
*****
The moon had been. Weird. Painful. Scary. They had been unleashed on the town and her brain was in panic mode, Run. Find a family. Make a family. Find food. It had been so long since she ate. Water. Run. She had smelled everyone she had been locked up with and they all headed to the Slums as instructed. She followed because it was safest. She was small, leggy, and her paws were too big for her body as she loped along. Until she smelled home. Family. It was the orphanage, but the scent was old and lingering rather than strong. She couldn’t hear them inside. They’d been moved. Her brain went into hunt mode. Find her family Were they taken? Where had they been taken? Find them and protect them. Her nose to the ground, she ran along until she found a few different manhole covers that were strong with their scent. And some stronger ones of people coming back out. Their protectors? Dean? Rather than attack, Jade had spent the confusing and terrifying hours in the slums following trails. Then she heard the return call. A low howl that said regroup and go home. A part of her pulled toward that authority, but enough of her human side laid close to the surface with the rising sun. She hid. The girl found her way into a broken window that led to a basement. When she landed, she was immediately overwhelmed with the scent of man, human, and musky skin. The lingering scent of sex that her mind never knew before slammed her sideways, but instinct told her it was the Maiden Head.
She waited in the basement until another painful transformation took her. After shuddering through the aftershocks in pain, the girl sat up and wiped her face from the tears and sweat. Jade found clean sheets and wrapped them around her before wrinkling her nose in disgust as she wrapped a used blanket over that to hide her scent. She had a hex inlayed into her bite. A tracker. The crazy lady promised her that she could always find her lost puppies. It was how she would make sure they all behaved. So Jade had a few options: she could let herself get taken again and be tortured or ask someone for help and risk being killed or turned in. She flickered through the memories she had of what the owner of the Maiden Head was like. She barely knew of her, but she was apparently smart. Maybe she could help.
The girl followed the fresher scent of cleaner and air movement through the basement and upstairs and caught a whiff of one of the stronger scents from the manhole cover. She had helped move people? Jaden adjusted her blanket barrier and looked until she found the office. A noise outside made her panic and jump inside, shut and lock it, then bundle in the corner, hoping the overwhelming smell of the blankets would hide her if this was one of Avery’s pets. After a moment, a woman’s face came into view. Confused and tired looking, but beautiful. She blinked a few times, shocked at the distinct difference between Avery’s gaze on her and this woman’s. “I… need help. Please.”
---
The look on the girl’s face broke her heart. There was no other way to describe it, the girl was alone and scared and clearly thinking that hiding in this place of all places was a safe option. Granted, Seren had worked extremely hard to make it as safe as possible, but there were limitations to even what she could accomplish. Seren let her knees fall to the floor from the squatting position she was in and sat back a little to give the girl some air, showing her that she wasn’t a threat. “Okay.” Seren didn’t hesitate to respond. “I will do everything in my power to help you.” there was nothing to think about, this kid needed help and there was no way in hell that Seren could ever turn her away. Her power might be limited, but that wouldn’t stop her from getting creative if she had to. Wouldn’t be the first time, nor would it be the last.
“What’s your name?” she asked as her mind continued to race through options, and started to get into go mode. “I’m Seren.” she kept her voice steady and soft, not quite at a whisper. Just low enough that her voice wouldn’t carry far, even though she knew that they were quite alone in the building at the moment as she tried to assess what she could. The girl was young, clearly, probably not old enough to leave the orphanage quite yet, though, if the rumors were true that didn’t really matter much. And Seren usually assumed the nasty rumors were true, even if it was on a survivalist level. Those rumors of purebloods taking younger girls into their homes, even some of the girls that had turned to working here in the past, using them up, usually made her blood boil and wanted to rip things apart. But right now was not the time for that so the mask stayed on, as she stamped down the urge. Help the girl now, bring down the establishment later.
“Can you tell me what happened so I can figure out how to help you?” She asked, trying not to sound like she was looking down on the young woman. Merely, trying to copy the tone she’d heard others used in insane situations. And really, for all she knew, this person might not remember anything. Then she had another set of problems on her hands. However, at least something would give her a direction to go in. Outside of the fact that her mind was trying to figure out how to get her food, water, and maybe some other clothing. Seren drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly through her nose steading herself and her mind. One thing at a time. she reminded herself. “Is anyone looking for you? Do you need a safe place to stay?” she asked figuring that would be the next logical thing to get in order. Figure out if the girl needed protection, then she could get to the rest. Seren had a few ideas of places she could keep her temporarily until the better solution could happen.
******
Jade watched with eyes wide and mouth slightly parted as the woman’s reaction changed. She twitched back a bit as the new voice in her mind identified the potential threat. She could smell some people she knew on her—she did not know that was why they were comforting, but it was something that smelled like home. A hint of emotions wafting through that her brain scurried to process in a deafening, confusing swarm. She blinked a few times to silence the storm inside, then nodded. She had to trust her. She was a good person, after all, right? This was the woman who had fought for their rights. Jade remembered the face from pictures. Then the woman said her name, and the girl knew she was right. This was the leader from the marches that Burke had bitched about so much. He had mentioned her being a nuisance at the brothel as well.
“Jade,” she offered quietly. The girl retreated slightly into her nest of blankets when Seren asked what happened. She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth as she warred with the new, secondary instinct in her mind. The one that was still too scared of other people to trust with the words. With the fact. So, for a moment, she watched doe-eyed and startled before unwinding her arm from the sheets to show her shoulder and upper arm. There was a mangled, gruesome, but definite bite mark of an animal. The scarring was still angry and red, only a few days old and just beyond healed enough for sutras to be taken out. She blinked back tears, knowing this was the moment. Either her gamble would pay off, or she’d be killed or set back.
“I’m… she is probably going to be looking for me soon,” she admitted in a panicked voice. “She put a tracker on me… I don’t know how but she would tell me constantly if I escaped, she’d find me. Make me…” Jade retreated back into her blanket nest and curled up fetal. “Don’t let her find me again. She’s doing... terrible things to people. That’s where they all went. That’s where we all came from last night.” ----
Seren sat there with her hands in her lap staying as still as possible. The more she watched the girl the more she realized that any sudden movements might accidently freak her out more so she stayed as still as she could for the moment. In the silence between when Jade had introduced herself and when she started to speak again felt like it stretched on forever. Watching her retreat further away, started to send even more red flags up in her mind. This wasn’t just her scared and hiding. She was used to seeing awful things happen around here, seeing people scared, but this was something beyond that. This was down right terror and this needed to be handled probably far more gently than anticipated. She wasn’t sure if she was quite equipped for this but she was damn well going to try. So, she waited for Jade to press on, deciding that trying to coax anything out of her right now would be a bad idea, and might push her further into herself. There was never a thought of demanding to know what happened, if only from experience that it never really worked out at all. When Jade decided to trust her enough to hold out her arm Seren’s eyes went right down to the mark on it. It looked freshly healed and her mind raced at first trying to figure out what could have possibly done that, as it looked like an animal had taken a chunk out of the poor girl.
Around the time that Jade had finished speaking, Seren’s eyes went wide as everything slid into place. She had a brief moment of panic inside of her, but then decided it didn’t matter right now. This girl had trusted her enough to tell her, she could deal with the rest later. Jade was scared, alone, and was asking for help. Not to mention Seren had given her word to help, and there was no way she was going to turn her back now. “I’m going to touch your arm now.” she said after a brief moment and clearing her throat. She didn’t have the most experience in the world, but she drew on what she’d learned worked in the past when johns got too rough with her girls or even when she'd landed in the clinic. Seren moved slowly and made sure that her touch was gentle as she examined the wound, letting Jade’s words sink in. “Do you know who it was, did you ever get a name?” Seren asked as she replayed the words over and over in her head. Not that she could do much, however, she did know a lot of people. Not that a lot of them would be sympathetic to wolves, but like hell if she wasn’t going to try. At least it didn’t look like it was infected.
“A tracker...” she said slowly out loud and drawing in a deep breath before letting it out. “That I might actually be able to do something about.” a small smile came to her lips. “I’m going to reach for my wand, okay?” she informed Jade as she reached down to the floor where she’d placed it. “Before...all of this, I was a curse breaker.” she explained hoping that this might get Jade to trust her a little bit more. She wasn’t asking for a lot, just enough for Jade to hopefully, understand that she wasn’t going to hurt her. “So if I can find the source of the charm, I should be able to remove it. It might take me a few minutes, but I’m sure I can get it off of you.” After all, she’d done much harder things in the past year. “While I work is there anything else you can tell me? Where they took you? How long you’ve been gone? Any little detail you can remember would be helpful.” Not answers she necessarily wanted, but she was going to have to report to someone, and she’d better have as many answers as she could. Before she began she gave Jade another little soft smile and started to set to her task. She didn’t care how long it took, there was no way in hell she was going to let this girl be found because of a tracking spell.
*****
Jade watched for a moment as Seren processed what had been said. For a moment, the small voice in the back of her mind begged to run again. That she’d hurt her, too. She had no proof she was nice. But then she spoke again. Still soft and inviting. Her face lost its shock and slid into something of concern. It was like her own mother’s in many ways only sharper and thinner. Large, warm brown eyes watching her as she spoke. The girl nodded and tried not to flinch when Seren took her arm and began to inspect. It no longer hurt--she did have an advanced healing property now, she noticed. She shook her head at the question and swallowed the lump in her throat that was now lessening. “No,” she replied finally. “There were no names. The man who… turned me. He was forced to transform. I don’t know how, maybe a potion or a poison, but she called him her pet. I never got her name, just when her pet called him his mistress. She was shorter. Brown hair. Looked… too kind to be nice.”
Jade had no idea what a Curse Breaker was, but if she mentioned it, that must have meant it was helpful, so she nodded hopefully. She watched, curious and excited as she did with so many others who used magic in front of her. Jaden was never around it without one of the other adults coming through. It fascinated her, this innate skill that some people had that could manifest like that. Like a Jedi. She focused on that while her mind tried to sort through the answers, Maybe the other part of her mind that was still racing was a blessing, as it supplied things she started to forget already thanks to the stress. “Only a few days. Maybe a little over a week. He had… been around the orphanage looking for me, I guess. Said she had been promised a puppy and I couldn't escape that.”
She sighed and swallowed again. “I don’t know where I went. Outside of the slums, but I was brought there quickly. I don’t even know if we walked or I was carried, but it felt instant. It was a laboratory. Big. A few people in cages. A lot of them were sickly. Uhm, we were all released last night and told to come here and attack anyone outside. I don’t know more, just that we were supposed to follow him back somewhere. And I broke in here instead because I smelled you here and by the sewers where my friends were brought. Are they safe? The other kids?” Her mind suddenly snapped to them all. Had they actually gotten out safe? She didn’t smell blood, but what if they were not safe down there, after all? “Is Dean okay?”
---
Seren filed away every bit of information that Jade was giving her. As much as she wanted to sit here and figure it out, she also knew that wasn’t her job. She filed it away and would get it to the people that she trusted enough to take care of it. Who needed to know and maybe actually do something about it in the long run. Right now, she had to do what she could do in order to help Jade and that was get this spell off of her. And really, Seren had no idea how long it would be before someone started to zoom in on that spell. Last thing either of them needed was some deranged person thinking they had a right to reclaim their property. Naturally, Seren wouldn’t let that happen, but she was really hoping to avoid that kind of a fight. Given that there were a lot of unknown factors right now she wasn’t sure it was something she could win right now. One way or another, and she had to keep herself from getting arrested on top of everything else. Not that she wouldn’t be willing to take the risk, however, there were smarter ways to go about this. as she worked to locate the source of the spell and undo it. Tracking spells weren’t that complicated when they were on inanimate objects, and really in a lot of ways they were the opposite of unplottable charms so in theory it wouldn’t be too hard to break it. However, that being said, on a human being, well, that’s usually when things got a little more complex. It took her awhile to really get at it, but in the end and with a triumphant little ah-ha! accompanied by a little swirl of blue light coming up signaling that the spell had been broken.
“Done.” Seren replied with a content little sigh. “They won’t be able to track you now.” she confirmed as she gently dropped her hands and placed them back in her lap and listened. The worry and panic in the girl’s voice made her stomach clench. A feeling she was far too familiar with. “They’re okay.” Seren replied quickly. “I promise they’re safe right now. And they’re going to be. Nobody is going to mess with them.” she knew she couldn’t tell the girl how right now. Not until she had a plan in place, but hopefully, this would pacify the girl for the moment. “Dean is okay.” she replied with all seriousness. “He’s with the rest of the kids right now.” the kids seemed to like and trust Dean. He’d been one of the major reasons they’d even been able to get the kids to safety at all, so it didn’t shock Seren to find that this one too was close with him. “Look,” she said after a moment. “I can get you some clothes, some food, and then we’ll figure out how to get you to him if you want.” she offered. There were a lot of steps that needed to happen, and a lot of factors. Including that it was now daylight and the slums would be crawling with people looking for bodies, survivors, and probably the wrong kind of law enforcement. Sneaking down wasn’t exactly going to be easy at the moment. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t worth doing or figuring out. That and she had to get a hold of some people too. This was a lot of valuable information and rushing into things head first wasn’t going to cut it. Anything worth doing was worth doing it smart and doing it well. Not to mention safely, above all else, safety was the name of the game right now. And she’d promised Jade to help, and that would also include this if the girl wanted it.
***
When Seren said she got the charm off, Jade was abruptly overcome and hunkered down into the blankets. A few heavy, deep heaves came out before the girl reached out for Seren to hold onto her. The girl’s body shook as she sobbed into the woman’s arm and felt the relief wash over her. Her family was safe. Dean was safe. She was not going back. It was all too much for the moment and she just needed someone to be there. She had not properly cried in far too long for a child, and now that this stranger opened herself up to help, it was the moment when the dam broke. And it took a few moments for her to get it under control again. When she did, she cleared her throat a few times and wiped her reddened eyes. Then nodded with that stiff upper lip she had put on behind the fear. But she also knew that she was a threat to Seren’s safety and that was not okay. So she shook her head and swallowed. “Clothes, yeah, but I should go. They may have figured out where I am by my scent. The sooner I leave, the safer for you.”
Jade adjusted the blankets and cringed at the smell that wafted off of them. At least it was potent enough for now. “I can go on the run and stay out of sight until I find him. Just. Maybe tell him I’m out there if you could? I don’t have my journal. He, we took one so I could talk to him after I came back last time. I don’t know where it is now, but. I can run.” She sighed and rubbed her nose. “Thank-you. I mean it. I.” How do you tell someone it was that or death? Maybe she knew it already. No one worked that efficiently without questions without understanding what it was like. So, she said nothing and sighed. “Thank-you.”