Noth followed behind Elillith as they navigated through the streets. They’d decided that to avoid peak traffic, leaving 2 hours before midday would be best. The boy had spent the past few days before they’d left memorizing, and then subsequently practicing asking, all the questions for the pet shop they were headed to. As they navigated through the crowd that was small and yet somehow still far too large for Noth’s comfort, he ran the list of questions through his mind on repeat, trying not to forget a single one. And at the end of the list, he included a reminder to purchase a cat dish. The idea of the poor feline eating all of her meals off of the dirty ground wounded him in a way he couldn’t quite understand, and a regular plate or bowl would have been much too big for the small thing.

Occasionally Elillith would glance back at him, making sure to ask if her young master was still doing alright, or if he wanted to stop off somewhere and take a break. Every time she asked, her eyes would quickly scan over his face, or sometimes a hand would come up to check his temperature, and the young teen couldn’t help but be touched by how much care the stoic woman was showing him. A piece of his heart already thought of her like the big sister he never had, and this trip was already nailing that thought in all the more. How nice would it be if he could just choose his family. If so, then perhaps he’d have a much bigger one than he did now. Noth thought he would have quite liked it if he’d had a handful of brothers and sisters on his side growing up. They all would’ve had to have been older than him, though; the boy didn’t have the faintest of ideas on how to care for someone younger than him.

The angel that had been soaring happily above the crowd while they’d weaved through it suddenly called out to Noth, telling him to stop in the nearby alley. He tugged on Elillith’s sleeve and led her to where the angel had pointed, and once there he turned to try and watch the graceful descent of his angel, but instead was barraged with a wave of worry from Elillith. The boy hadn’t considered that his sudden departure from the streets would alarm her so, but thinking back on the reason for this little trip before the pregnant cat fiasco, and also the fact that she’d already been on the lookout for him having some kind of adverse reaction and needing a break, it made sense.

“I’m fine. The crowds were tough, but that’s not why I pulled us here. My a-... my [Gift]? -told me to come here.”

Technically he hadn’t lied, but Noth felt odd having to twist his words around while speaking to a friend. As it turns out he was doing it at her request, but that didn’t make it any less awkward to do. He’d tried to talk to her about [Gifts] many times over the past few years as he tried to gain her friendship, and he thought that telling her about his first would help ease her into the idea, but the stoic woman would always stop him. The first time he’d offered to tell her, she quietly replied that she'd already heard what it was and didn’t care. It was a fitting response from someone always so unaffected by things, although Noth was a little peeved that even the unsociable and uncaring Elillith already knew about it. However, when he tried to tell her that he somehow acquired a different [Gift], the woman immediately stopped him once again. She’d given him a harsh reprimand about why you should never tell others what your [Gift] was, and each subsequent time he’d tried she’d given him the exact same speech. Even after the two had become friends, she still refused to let him tell her, citing her own past as an example. So now, in an attempt to respect her wishes, if he ever had to reference his angel or powers in front of her, Noth would just call it all his [Gift].

If Noth was being honest, it was actually a rather good thing that he was getting into the practice of hiding his [Gift] from others. That’s what you were supposed to do in polite company anyways, unless it was for work or interpersonal reasons. The fact that he didn’t talk to many other people frequently besides his angel, who was literally a part of his [Gift], his father who was his only family, and Elillith, who was his only friend, meant that he didn’t really have any experience with trying to hide a piece of himself. The only real practice he’d gotten in that was with his teachers, or with Jeck. But in the instance of his classes, he had other subjects being taught to him and focused on, so he didn’t really have much talking of his own getting done, and in the instance of Jeck, he absolutely hated and avoided the man until his final confrontation with him. Noth had absolutely no practical application of keeping secrets in a casual environment, so really, he should have been reasonably pleased with this turn of events.

But no, deep inside of him, a childish part of his heart felt a little sick about these perceived ‘lies’ he was telling to people who cared about him.

At Noth’s words, true to her usual nature, Elillith nodded and dropped her outstretched arm that had been headed towards the boy’s face, then turned her body to look away, giving him some privacy. The reaction happened so fast that Noth couldn’t help but feel a little bit hurt at how quickly she’d given up, even if it was to be expected. As he gave a small wry smile at the tiny wave of unreasonable rejection he felt, the angel finally landed, strolling up close to the pouting boy and giving him a cheshire cat-like smile.

When the boy turned and gave her a look the angel giggled in reaction, and then gently took hold of his head and turned it back to look at the kitchen maid as she whispered in his ear.

Her words immediately set off warning bells in Noth’s mind. Was he being attacked again? Did he have to send Elillith away because she might get caught up in the crossfire? Usually his angel only did something like this when bad things were about to rear their ugly heads, but the fact that she hadn’t explicitly mentioned a person or approaching event this time just made Noth even more worried. His previously upset face turned grim and sharp instantly. He couldn’t help asking how ugly everything might turn out to be this time.

“Should I be worried? Am I in danger? Are we?”

Noth bit his lip. If this favour was anything like the one that made him get close to Elillith, then it wasn’t going to be dangerous. But at the same time, Noth had been told to meet her during the time he’d been entangled in his scuffle with Jeck, and in fact he’d really only met her for the first time while he’d been served the poisonous cookies. If you looked at it from that angle, it was possible that this ‘favour’ might actually have its own bit of danger to it too. In that case the angel was right; In the face of an unknown danger, Noth needed to send Elillith away. But how? If his angel was right and everything wasn’t going to take very long, then…

“Hey, Elillith?”

The boy called out to the kitchen maid. She belatedly turned around at the sound of her name, her face stiff and yet somehow still exactly the same as always. Her movements were cautious, as if she was worried about what she might catch a peek of. Noth had to suppress a sigh at her actions. What did she think she’d see? There were more important things going on, so the boy would just have to let that one go.

“Something came up. Head to the store without me and I’ll meet you there after a little while.”

The kitchen maid’s eyes flashed with worry for a moment, perhaps misunderstanding why he was saying all of this. However, her determination not to delve into something that was seemingly related to his [Gift] was strong, and after a moment she dutifully bowed, entrusting him with a hand drawn map she’d made earlier just in case, before departing for the store. Noth watched after her until she turned the corner and disappeared from his sight, hoping for her continual safety during her trip. Once he was sure she was fully and truly gone, he turned to his angel, a serious look pervading his countenance.

“What do I need to do?”

His angel gently laced her fingers in his, slowly floating along backwards as she tugged him towards the other end of the alley. Her smiling eyes never left his, and even when they reached their destination, she pointed the way without even a single look.

Noth didn’t believe her, and rightfully so. The things she listed as being ‘simple’ were rarely ever so easy to accomplish. But that didn’t matter right now, if there was some grand reason that the angel pointed this particular event out to him, then he had to follow along with it. Who knows how important this could end up being? There was no time to waste on being apprehensive. Noth put on the most resolute face he had, standing up tall and running to the corner. The scene that met his eyes was far different than what he’d thought he’d see.

When the angel said ‘cargo’, he hadn’t thought it would be this.

There in the alley was a large man loading 3 children into a steam-powered, motorized cart. They were bound and gagged, but you could tell they were desperately screaming and wiggling, doing their utmost to get free or get help. The sight of these children being taken like this was absolutely disgusting to Noth. He was burning up inside. His throat felt tight. His hands were clenching so tightly that he could feel his nails cutting into his flesh.

These kids were getting stolen.

They’d end up a slave like Elillith.

They’d end up locked away, just like he was.

They’d get sold.

They’d have to suffer in worse ways than even he himself had suffered.

How could someone do this, and to kids of all things? They looked so tiny, like they’d only just received their [Gifts]. Is that why they were being stolen then? Was it really just like what happened to Elillith? How awful. How horribly awful. Noth’s eyes felt like they were on fire as he called out to the man.

“Hey you big chunk of meat! What do you think you’re doing?!”

The thug turned around, looking understandably surprised and confused, but also looking very annoyed. He crossed his arms and jerked a finger back, pointing at the children behind him.

“What does it look like? I’m hauling away some slaves.”

Noth felt himself unconsciously grind his teeth at the man’s unabashed reply. He really sounded like he didn’t see anything wrong with what he was doing. The boy couldn’t help the way he growled out his next words.

“Those aren’t slaves, they’re children.”

A tired sigh escaped from the muscled man’s mouth. He uncrossed his arms and reached for a nearby club, patting it threateningly against his palm a few times.

“Look, I’ve got a deadline here. Are you gonna stop pestering me and go away quietly, or do I gotta make you?”

It was strange, but suddenly Noth felt cold, almost icey. Maybe he was just too used to being threatened, or maybe he’d just gotten so mad that his rage circled back around, but he felt surprisingly calm now. It felt like as his tensed body relaxed and straightened back out, all the released heat and tension instead came up to accumulate in his mouth and eyes. His eyes started to change colour and glow, and as he spoke, the words from his mouth somehow felt powerful.

“Oh? Why don’t you be the one? Last time I checked, bugs like you don’t talk.”

The man was clearly unimpressed by the boy’s words, and he opened his mouth to give a derisive reply back, but… for some reason he couldn’t talk. He grabbed and massaged his throat, but not a single sound would come out, not even a cough. If anything, he felt like he was stuck holding a breath, not able to inhale or exhale at all. As he tried desperately to figure out what had done this, his gaze focused back onto the teen in front of him, and that’s when he noticed the new glowing half-colouring to his eyes. He knew right away that this must be related to some [Gift]. That meant that the only way to get his voice back was to stop the one who’d used their [Gift] against him in the first place. He quickly raised his club and started dashing towards Noth, but the boy’s words reached him far faster than the man’s attack.

“Why don’t you on the ground like the revolting bug you are?”

Suddenly the man flopped down on the ground, his arms and legs scrambling around randomly, every which way. He couldn’t make a sound, nor could he move how he wanted to. The thug was truly and thoroughly scared.

“What a useless looking bug.”

Noth so desperately wanted to remove this odious man who would dare do such vile things to kids from existence, but he could feel the frightened stares of the kids pointed in his direction. His priority was saving those kids, not punishing this particular monster. Even if he’d vowed to be a monster slayer, saving others came first, and it wouldn’t do if he ended up traumatizing the kids, after all. Noth sighed and decided to make the right choice.

“ little bug, before you get squashed.”

And just a few seconds later, Noth watched as the man was launched away, off over the rooftops.