Nivel was absolutely in love with Candence, and it was the most adorable thing Emilia had ever seen. While the clones had always looked at her with this sort of irreverence, kind and innocent when she’d been younger, a little more lascivious now that she was older, she had never seen it extended onto other silverstrains—not that she knew a lot, of course.
There was Avery, who had met a few of the clones—Grenner mostly, as Avery came from a Free Colony so tiny few Free Coloniers had ever even heard of it. There had been no silverstrains at her own school, and although there had been a few who attended other schools in the Penns, they had only ever been vaguely friendly with one another. In the end, Emilia was left with the impression that the clones who liked her had no interest in any other silverstrain. Most of them weren’t mean to other silverstrains, although Baylor certainly emitted an energy at times that told all other silverstrains he had no interest in any of them—
Well, that was a lie. It was more that, well…
So, Baylor wouldn’t ever hurt her—not in any way she wasn’t okay with, like choking on his cock or something like that. He definitely wouldn’t kill her, or anything! Except, Emilia was aware that he thought about it, sometimes. Her adorable little serial killer, who refused to give into his urges because he both knew it would complicate all their lives and didn’t trust that none of the people who loved him would treat him any different than they always had.
Emilia knew Baylor would never act on his desire to cut her open—hold each bloody piece of her in his hands and… and Emilia really wasn't sure
what
the middle triplet would do if he actually let his urges free on her. She just knew he liked cutting into people—it was what made him great at torture! Sometimes, the way his eyes skimmed over the lines of her body told her he was thinking about it—imagining what her insides would look like, his mind filled with the sound of the phantom screams that would fall from her mouth as his blades slid into her.
It was simultaneously kinda terrifying and hot because Baylor wanted that and yet would never do it and her silverstrain genes just primed her to be into virtually anything, even if her mind was very insistent they wouldn’t be engaging into some sort of kinky deathplay. Unfortunately, sometimes she saw his eyes sliding over other silverstrains in a similar way—with this yearning desire that left the silverstrains in question scurrying away from him; Baylor was both subtle and obvious in his killing urges. Had he not been a clone, Emilia didn’t think anyone would guess what he was thinking when he eyed up people like they were something for him to play with. Since he was a clone, however, it was where most people’s minds naturally went.
As a result of Baylor’s inclinations, Emilia had never tried too hard to befriend any silverstrains. While he could be trusted with her—could be allowed to look at her like that because she knew he’d never act on his desires—Emilia didn’t exactly want to purposefully put anyone into his path who might tempt him too much.
The worst thing, perhaps, was that Emilia loved Baylor. It would suck if he killed someone, but she would always be more concerned for him—for her sweet boy who was the most cheerful clone in existence and yet held a monster within himself. Baylor worked so hard to keep that monster tucked away, deep inside him where it couldn’t hurt her or his brothers. With how much it wore on him to not give in, how could she ever hate him or hold it against him if he snapped? Honestly, part of her expected that one day he would—not that she’d tell him that. It was part of why she wouldn’t ask the triplets to completely fuck off from The Black Knot, no matter how much she wished she could bury herself between them permanently: Baylor needed an outlet, and The Black Knot offered that, even if it also took all three of these boys she loved away from her.
[
Emmie:
this child is off limits
]
[
Emmie:
you gotta love them k?
]
Emilia sent along a picture of Candence to Baylor, dirty and smiling up at Nivel, his own eyes soft as he cradled her against him.
“I mean… you don’t have to love her,”
Emilia added to her messages with Baylor—she didn’t want him to think that he was failing her if he couldn’t just magically love this little child when his heart had pretty much been filled up since the moment they met!—
“but if she ends up around us more, you can’t do anything more than you do to silverstrains we pass in the street, okay?”
This was so awkward, and Emilia kinda regretted even bringing it up. How does one tell their friend who would happily become a serial killer, if only they didn’t have the capacity to love their brothers and childhood friends, that they couldn’t actually kill their perfect victim—maybe perfect victim? Emilia actually had no idea if Baylor had an age preference? She wasn’t even sure if he had a big preference for silverstrains, or if they were just one of a handful of types of people he’d be perfectly happy to carve up? What a mess. Clearly, she shouldn’t have said anything.
“I won’t kill the kid,”
Baylor’s voice laughed back at her. Well, at least he wasn’t treating this like the super awkward conversation it was.
“I promise, if I ever decide to actually enjoy a silverstrain that way, you’ll be the first to know.”
“Baylie!”
Emilia hissed through their connection, Baylor just laughing back at her and sending through the vague feeling of arousal because he was definitely thinking about it now and getting hard over it. Emilia tried not to think that was weirdly hot. She failed, a little.
The fact that a message from Halen almost immediately appeared in her head, telling her that everyone was aware that she and Baylor were doing
something
in their messages, didn’t help things—stupid stalking function. Baylor, who presumably had also been called out by someone on his end, just laughed more. A collection of dirty images of them followed, all pushing the line into something far more perverse than what she’d ever done with Rafe.
Baylor had never been quite as careful with her as Rafe, and there had been times when his hands and teeth had left their marks. Mostly, he’d been careful to leave them where they were unlikely to be seen: teeth marks on her ass, bruises on her thighs and hips, deep red cuts where his nails had left blood streaking the inside of her thighs. Those were all from before they graduated—before she’d fallen into living in the clone dorms while she tried to court Olivier.
There were a few newer pictures as well, featuring the soft cuts Baylor sometimes left over her skin, using the healing skills of the clones to gently stitch the wounds closed once he was done fucking her. Nothing that would scar, but definitely marks that would raise questions if anyone saw them while they weren’t quite healed. It was a strange thing, she knew, to trust someone who wanted to kill her—who had just assured her in a tone she trusted implicitly that if he ever caved and killed any silverstrain, she would be the first he cut up—but Emilia trusted him.
Plus, everyone had to die, and if Baylor one day snapped and killed her, well, at least she’d gotten more than a few good orgasms out of it? Not that she thought he’d ever snap in her direction. Something would have had to go massively wrong for him to ever truly be a threat to her.
“Why is Nivel there?”
Taylor asked in her main group relay with the triplets. It was where they usually communicated, but sometimes there were just things that needed to be said directly to a single one of them. Evidently, as Baylor had shared what they were talking about with his brother, he didn’t consider this one of those times.
“He’s gonna get the kid out of here… and brought some meds for olthagri,”
she said, skipping over to Nivel and grabbing the bag of supplies he had gotten them—meds, some emergency medical supplies for more normal injuries, more food. She would have given him a little kiss on the cheek, but he was so enamoured with Candence he probably wouldn’t have noticed.
“Why?”
“Just curious. I didn’t realize he was visiting the city,”
Taylor said, sending through a video of their movement through Dion and seriously! How had Halen managed to get them moving that fast! It was a good thing the guy was smart and had added extra safety precautions into it, otherwise even Valor, Rafe and Levi would have been hurting when they fell off—Emilia had also been sent a video of that by Samina, and thankfully it was more funny than traumatic—to say nothing of how injured Leerin would have been.
Then again,
that
was part of why Emilia thought bringing Leerin along was stupid.
The triplets were in agreement with that as well, Valor adding his own opinion into the mix when she mentioned her thoughts on the speed and safety of it.
“I believe Darrie tried to talk her into staying. She refused.”
Even through the connection, none of the triplets purposefully sending their exasperation with Leerin down the aether to her, Emilia could feel it. None of them wanted her there; none of them thought she’d be of any use to them—if anything, she’d just be a hindrance, which was about the same as what she’d gotten out of Halen during their brief conversation before the group had gotten back on the aetherstream.
The other thing she’d gotten out of Halen? He’d rather have Mikhail there than Leerin. Unfortunately, Emilia couldn’t even disagree! Mikhail could be a dunce, but at least he never gave up. Leerin was the sort to get a little hot and give up!
“Does Nivel know of any other ways to get into the city?”
Taylor asked.
It took a moment for Emilia to figure out why Taylor would be wondering about something like that: Nivel had been stationed in Lüshan when he was younger. With so many clones, some of them staying in the same locations and positions for a long stretch of time, others shifting here and there, into this and that job, it was sometimes difficult to keep track of exactly what sort of life every one of them had lived.
From what she could remember, Nivel had lived and worked in various Lüshanian cities for a few decades. As the embassy was the main place the clones were stationed, only going off to other cities when the rare Baalphorian visitor caused issues or a diplomat needed an escort, Nivel should know the city well. So yeah, maybe he’d know how to get in or out of the city some other way, maybe not.
It didn’t hurt to ask, except…
Except, for one, she couldn’t just ask in front of Vern and Jerrial. While she might trust them, more or less, she also didn’t want them knowing she had random friends heading their way in case something happened. Even if she didn’t think they’d purposefully betray her, they could give up information about her expecting reinforcements if they were caught. So no, no sharing that information where they could hear—and while she could speak Baalphorian, who knew if they understood that; certainly, some of the words Vern used indicated that while homeless, he was also educated. So, while it wasn’t exactly common for Lüshanian civilians to speak Baalphorian, she wasn’t willing to risk it.
The other issue? Nivel would have to tell Malcolm and the rest of the clones what was happening. Hence, when she messaged the clone, she sent it over in her personal version of The Black Knot’s locked relay. In the same way as Olivier would have had to do earlier, Nivel had to accept the lock if he wanted to read her message. Fortunately, while the clone—who was in his mid hundreds—shot her a questioning glance, he opened the message easily enough.
Emilia could tell that he wanted to glare at her. Unfortunately for him, the locking off of what he read meant he couldn’t show his displeasure with it any more than he could audibly tell her she and all her friends were stupid. Unlike her, he also couldn’t manoeuvre his way around the locking either—not as far as she knew, anyways. Minimal as the ability to work around the lock was, it was definitely a special skill that only she, Rafe and probably Halen could do, their own code pushing at the boundaries of the relay until it bent, just a little bit—just enough that she could talk around what she had learned through the relay a tiny bit more.
Perhaps she should teach someone in The Black Knot how to get around it, in case they ever found out about something and needed to share it? That was actually a bit of a concern with both {A Private Moment} and the relay locks: that they could be abused to keep information secret. After all, if someone was about to crack information open, revealing it under the obligation of secrecy was a good way to keep it secret. All of those obligations could be talked around, but without even the ability to push at the lock, it would take a lot more shifting of details—like, because of her pushing at the lock, she’d been able to tell her friends that Cameron was being weird, whereas with the push, she wouldn’t have been able to say anything about the Drinarna being weird because she’d already guessed that Cameron was sent to babysit her because something weird was happening in the city. As talking about the situation brewing in the city was locked, so too should any connection she made because of that information be locked. It was rather annoying, as her friends were currently headed her way without knowing the whole of the situation, and unless they figured more out, she couldn’t tell them much more!
So, as she listened to Nivel both tell her they were all stupid and give her all the information he had ever heard about where an alternative entrance to the city might be located—not one that would be easy to use, given even criminals didn’t seem to utilize it—Emilia made a note to teach at least a few of the clones how to get around the relay locks.
There had to be at least a few who could be trusted not to abuse that ability, right?
Arc 9 | Chapter 396: Don’t Worry, You’ll Be the First to Know
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