Zack woke in a dark place with a trembling figure clutching tight to his side. “What? Where?” He mumbled. His mind was slow to react and understand the situation, as though a thick fog permeated everything.

“You finally awake?”

“That you Tessa?” He asked blearily, vaguely recognizing the blurry voice.

“Yes, Zara is here as well.”

The fog was clearing from his mind with each passing second. Finally, he recognized the small shivering shape of his sister, clinging wordlessly to him. His eyes adjusted to the dark gloom, and the general shape of a small room came into focus.

“Where are we? What happened?” He rested a hand on Zara’s shaking head, giving her the small amount of comfort he could manage in the situation. A situation that was entirely too familiar for his liking.

“I am not sure; I only woke myself a few minutes ago.” The dark shape of her body was pressed against the wall across from him. A hand was pressed against her neck. “I think someone used darts coated in something to put us to sleep and then we were taken.”

“Did they get your mother and father?” He asked, growing worried with how Zara was acting. She hadn’t said a word during the short time that he had been awake. Looking around the darkroom, his eyes struggling to pierce through the darkness, he realized why.

He muffled a curse and held her tighter. Zelda and George, her constant companions and protectors, were nowhere to be seen. Even in the institute, Zelda had been there with her every step of the way. They were quite literally the things that allowed her to function as somewhat normally as she did.

Without them… Well without them, she was left as a terrified mess of a little girl with the stunted emotional maturity of someone much younger.

“I doubt it. Father would have been in his laboratory, and mother should have been in her office.” Tessa dropped her hand and leaned against the rock wall. The light coming in from the gaps around the door provided enough illumination to see by once their eyes had adjusted.

“You seem pretty calm.” Zack pulled his sister fully onto his lap and cradled her in his arms.

“Mother will organize our rescue soon enough, and even if she doesn’t, they won’t dare to hurt us.” She had begun to relax some.

Zack, on the other hand, understood something that she had missed. She was safe due to her status as a noble. He and his sister had no such protection.

The flooring of the hallway outside the room creaked as someone approached. A shadow blocking the gaps the light shone through. The sound of multiple latches and locks being undone echoed throughout the small room.

A moment later, the door was thrown open, and light flooded in, blinding them. An individual wearing a dark outfit and a mask stood before them. Strapped to their thigh was a small blowgun, with three lines of darts beside it in a small leather bandolier.

“Good, you’re all awake.” The voice was muffled and distorted in an effort designed to disguise their identity.

Tessa blinked furiously against the hot tears the sudden bright light caused. “Why were we taken? What is it your employer wants with us?”

The mask-covered head tilted to the side. “You recognize us?”

The teenage girl nodded, doing her best to look unafraid. “Partially, I’ve heard the stories about a team of people who will work for any noble able to throw enough coin at them. No one else would be stupid enough to attack a noble household.”

“Lower-noble.” The person corrected. “Even we wouldn’t attack a proper household of nobles. You are correct; however, we were hired to retrieve you and your father. The other two were merely a bonus for when we couldn’t find him. This brings us to the main reason I am here. Where is he?”

The focus on those specific two people, combined with the lack of knowledge about her mother and the real status of her family, told them all they needed to know. They had likely been hired by either the Albrights or Spencer’s VanCamp family. It was a clue that neither of the coherent teens missed. Zara was another matter, with her mind shutting down in order to protect her.

The question for Tessa at least was how to leverage that information without making the situation worse. For the siblings, it was a much harder and more urgent problem. If their employer learned they had captured Zack, regardless of which family was behind their capture, it would be bad.

Tessa wiped the tears from her eyes as they finished adjusting to the light. “Who was it that hired you? The Albrights, or the VanCamps?”

There was no visible reaction to the question, with any clues hidden beneath the mask.

The girl shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, I suppose, just know that this isn’t a job that your group should have taken.”

The person shrugged. “We had no choice in the matter, and for what it is worth, I even agree. However, that doesn’t change anything. Now tell me, where can we find your father?”

“Or what?” She asked, genuinely curious as to what they would do. The group, from the little she had heard, operated within a certain boundary when it came to nobles.

“Or we start hurting your little friend over there. Make no mistake, our options when it comes to you may be limited. For him and the girl, however, that is not the case. They are not nobles or even people with any power.” Again, they showed a frankly woeful lack of information in regard to the identity of their other captives.

It was Tessa’s turn to tilt her head in confusion and laugh. “Are you sure about that?”

Zack watched the show with bated breath, unsure of what each side was playing towards.

“I had heard that your… group.” Tessa hesitated, as though she was about to name them. “Was better than this when it comes to gathering information on your targets. I can only assume that this must have been a rush job if your information only goes this far.”

The atmosphere surrounding their captor changed in the blink of an eye. Her words had managed to anger them, while also forcing a whisper of doubt into their mind. The dark-clothed figure backed away until they reached the door.

“Our organization is not so rash as to rush into injuring someone with sufficient backing.” They pulled the door mostly closed before saying one last thing. “And we were indeed forced to rush into pulling off this particular job.”

The door closed with a clunk, leaving only a thin strip of light around the edges once more.

Zack watched the door close in confusion. “Uh, that isn’t how these things normally go in the stories. Aren’t they supposed to threaten us, cut off some flesh, and just generally terrorize us into submission?”

Zara whimpered and hugged his side tighter.

“Sorry,” He apologized, rubbing her back affectionately. “Don’t worry, I won’t let them hurt you.”

Tessa relaxed back against the bare wall and breathed out explosively. “I can’t believe that worked! I’d heard rumors that the way they worked was different, that they operated with a certain amount of honor. It’s the only way they could have remained in business for so long otherwise.”

“What are you talking about! Who are they?” Zack kept his voice low, so as to keep from scaring his sister even more.

“They’re called ‘Faluers’ Fist’, they have been around for years now. Normally, the crown would have stamped them out without a second thought. Instead, for whatever reason, the king and queen at the time decided to make a deal with them. One that would reportedly benefit both sides.” The back of her head knocked against the hard wall. “Ever since, as long as they follow certain rules, then they will be allowed to continue operating.”

“And let me guess, one of these rules involves how they treat the nobles?”

“Yup, and those under their protection.”

He snorted. “The sufficient backing, they mentioned.”

She made a noise of assent. “Yup, those are the only reason we are being treated differently from what you expected. If I wasn’t a noble, and you and your sister weren’t unknowns, then what you mentioned might indeed have been a reality.”

Zack held Zara close and settled into place next to Tessa against the wall. “I would love to understand why the crown decided to let them keep operating.”

“It’s not that hard to understand. They were a known quantity, and above all else, they were willing to follow the rules imposed on them. At least, that is what I believe. Only the king and queen from back then could say for sure what their reasoning was. What I don’t understand is their lack of decent information.”