"You're Adelaide's boy, huh?"
Branwyn stepped out of the shadows and stood in the middle of the room. The little light that still remained in the room was immediately drowned out; the darkness hidden in the corners stretched out to Yun, as if threatening to drag him down into the lightless depths of the Divine's Lineage Path.
"Tell me your name," he said.
Yun's face remained buried between his knees, wondering if the so-called inquisitor was finally here. He counted ten seconds in silence before being interrupted by the chair scraping against the stone floor. Branwyn had apparently decided to take a seat.
"Can you not speak?"
"..."
"A Divine has bothered to acknowledge your existence, yet you — a Tainted mutt — ignore my words."
Branwyn chuckled, much to Yun's surprise.
"You really are a child of hers."
Yun's head shot up, and he finally came face to face with the dark and dashing Divine. The look on the man's face made Yun squint despite the near-complete lack of light.
What was that? A smile? It looked genuine, too, unlike Erin's imitation.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"So you can speak? What do you think it means?"
"I—" Yun opened his mouth, but he caught himself. "No. Is this the interrogation? I'm sorry, but you're not going to find Mother like that."
"Oh? And what do you assume to know about Lady Adelaide?"
"Not much, apparently…"
At that moment, the barrier over the city switched to its moonlight stage. The bar of light bled through the window once more, this time a pearl-white sheen. Come to think of it, it was dark out. How could Yun have missed such a special occasion?
Imagine spending your last public holiday locked away.
Yun clicked his tongue. "Is this how you planned on spending your Light Banishing?"
Branwyn's forehead wrinkled in a way that betrayed his confusion. He turned his head and peered through the window towards the ghostly sky, and lingered.
"I was covered in viscera and excrement not too long ago. Could be worse."
"Guts and shit, huh." Yun loosened and lowered his knees. "My name is Yun, by the way."
"It's a pleasure." Branwyn dropped his gaze and huffed like he was about to perform a chore. "I am Branwyn of High Clan Morrigan, humanity's servant under the Law of the Divine… Severin's mercy, how tedious."
Yun was now sitting upright on the bed, with his feet cold on the floor.
"Well, are you ready to kill me now? That's what you're here for, right?"
"I hope not." Branwyn tilted his head. "But that depends on you. Do you really not know anything of Lady Adelaide's whereabouts?"
"You think I'd come here if I did—" Yun stopped himself. He lowered his eyes. "Sorry. No, Power."
Branwyn said nothing for a moment. His silence sat heavy in the room.
"Alright then."
He stood. The chair legs dragged against the stone again, louder this time. The Divine's footsteps clacked closer and closer at a sluggish pace. Yun didn't look up this time. The air had already gone cold around him, and the moonlight seemed to be pulling back toward the walls, away from where Branwyn now stood.
Yun kept his face down. His hands found the fabric of his sleeves and gripped them.
This was it. It wouldn't be wise to fight whatever came next.
"Let's go, then," Branwyn said.
The darkness came up from the floor first, at Yun's feet, then rose around him like water filling the room. It reached his knees, his chest, his shoulders. He kept his eyes shut. He felt nothing — no pain, no pressure — only the sense of being somewhere, and then nowhere, and then somewhere else entirely.
When it passed, neither of them was in the room anymore.
***
- Midnight -
- Day 3 -
Under the cover of the now dark and lonely grove outside the Morrigan compound, Yun and Branwyn emerged from the shadows.
Yun took a minute to look around and recover his senses. He found Branwyn, who was watching the sky.
"What now?"
Branwyn didn't reply immediately. His robe billowed out as he walked up to a tree, placing his palm on its trunk. Knife carvings marred its bark with unrecognizable markings.
"Now, you leave the Stone District and never come back. I'll escort you out myself."
"Why would you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Help me. Help a Tainted. This is you breaking me out, is it not?"
"Calm down, that's not what's happening here…"
"Bullshit."
"I'd advise you to watch your tone, young man."
The leaves shook under the ghostly sky, sending chilling whispers across the grove. Standing under the canopy's deep shadow, this was Branwyn's domain. Making little old Yun disappear permanently would have been nothing short of a chore.
But at this point, what was one more threat to his life?
Yun skipped over a loose root and strolled over to Branwyn.
"I'm not buying it. I've met a few of you assholes and you're the only one who sees a living being when you look at me. I can tell these things."
Branwyn's face had distorted into something almost unrecognizable.
Black tentacles shot out from the ground and restrained Yun, slamming him against the marred tree trunk. He coughed as air spilled out of his lungs. Branwyn gripped Yun's chin between his middle and index fingers.
"I'd like to dispel this confusion you seem to have. Your very existence has created a very stubborn stain on our name and status as a High Clan."
He led Yun's gaze by the chin, pointing him to various dark corners in the grove. Yun couldn't see anything, really. Maybe that was the point.
"There are eyes and ears everywhere in Descendant Society. I promise you that all the powerful Clans have long caught wind of your arrival here. You're a crack in our armour, that's what you are."
He let go.
"So, no, I can't just ignore your existence. I don't have the luxury. You're a weakness, an embarrassment Lady Adelaide decided to drop on our doorstep after sixteen years of silence."
Yun spat on the ground.
"If I'm such a stain as you put it, why don't you remove it? Who cares if your Clan's mutt just disappears for good?"
Branwyn didn't answer immediately. His fingers loosened from where they'd been folded behind his back. For a moment, he seemed more interested in the carvings on the tree than the boy standing before him.
"Even if she hid your existence from me…" Another pause. "I already lost my daughter, why would I kill her little brother?"
Yun let out a lifeless chuckle… then came to a dead stop.
It took a while for him to register the meaning of Branwyn's words.
And when they did, they struck him like lightning.
Branwyn is Keeva's father...?
"What did you say? Lost your daughter…?"
Yun growled, glaring at Branwyn with murderous hostility.
"You… where's Keeva?"