"They just want to kill us, then?" Iggy paraphrased.
Baine sealed his lips and shook his tilted head. "No. Losing you to them might be the only way to defeat our empire. And for us, the only way to defeat theirs. You are the young king and queen, and many people are expecting you to do some amazing things."
Iggy nodded. "They just want to kill us," he concluded flippantly.
Baine turned around and came to another window and he leant into it. "Precisely."
Baine glared down at Amare who paced far below, and his expression melted into disgust as his train of thought threw itself off track. Then, he momentarily forgot the two standing there.
"The New Generation Queen," Emi whispered to herself. She looked across at Iggy and grinned. "That's a prestigious title, wouldn't you say?"
Iggy peered at Baine's back, not acknowledging her. He didn't care about titles anyways. Apparently, he had a whole family setting him up to be this person that he had never even known of. All faceless members standing on his shoulders, wielding their swords, and sending him into a battle blind. He sighed. For so much pressure, there was nearly no support. He shrugged a shoulder and replied, "a prestigious title with very little real reward."
As much as he wanted to brush it off, the blood still rushed to his head, leaving his fingers cold. He could feel a dark presence all around him. It was neither person, nor animal, but it had a body. Long reaching arms that were more like wings than limbs that stretched up to the sky and arched downward, wrapping around him. There was an eager force within them to pull him closer. He could sink into it like water. He started to feel sleepy, as if he could lay down inside of the thing, and rest. He understood the wordless promise that the darkness would take him somewhere ideal, alone, yet not. That it harbored a safe, serene place specifically for him. All he was required to do was give into it. He couldn't resist. It was too easy to convince him to disappear. He took a step back and the whole room shifted. The shadows from the domed ceiling and from all of the little nooks and crannies stretched across the walls and floor to gather around him. The darkness concentrated over him in an embrace, pulling him further in, and engulfing him entirely.
"If anything were to happen-" Baine looked back. His eyes focused over Iggy's head, then to the right and left, but never landing on the mark. He spun around. "Wh… Where'd Iggy go?"
Emi turned her head and her solid black eyes locked onto Iggy's, effortlessly. She reached her hand into the dark cloud and grasped his. The light bled from her skin into his like ink into fabric, cutting through the shadow, and revealing him inside. The warm hug of darkness washed away, exposing him, and the cold returned to his body.
Baine's lips tightened against one another and a crease formed between his eyebrows. "Umbra kinesis." He cringed. "Back home, we called that the phantom… I only know one other person who does that, and it scared the hell out of me every time." He formed an anxious fist at his side. "If our father did what I think he did, then we're going to have an even bigger problem." He looked at Emi and lifted an eyebrow. "But you can see him?"
She raised an eyebrow, too, mirroring him. "Yea, with no problem. What exactly are you calling the phantom, though? Do you think Iggy is possessed or something?"
Baine shook his head and teetered toward the ladder. "No, he's not possessed. Let's go back to where it's safe, before anyone gets lost." He pulled his leg out of the window, caught the ladder with his toes, and lowered himself down.
Emi leant over the window sill and stared at him with urgency. "I'm different, too, you know? Haven't you noticed?"
He looked up while simultaneously stepping down to the wall. "Yeah, I noticed," he returned. "But, if you ask me, your gift is silly. You're nocturnal, yet glowy? Sounds more like a curse!" As he gained distance, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "besides, even if you use your curse as a gift, your black eyes would give you away!"
She clenched her jaw. "That son of a bitch," she hissed, tightening her hand into a fist. "How dare he talk down on my blessing?" She looked up at Iggy. "You're not the only one that is special."
Iggy grasped her fist and gave her a little tug. "Of course," he grinned. He drew her hand out through the window to guide her out of the watchtower first. Silent, they climbed down one after another and regrouped at the bottom.
As they crossed paths with Amare, Baine patted him on his shoulder and spread his lips wide in a taunting smile that was more like a jester's mock than anything else. Amare tensed his shoulder. "You wouldn't mind driving the two old folks up to the house personally, would you?" Baine dug the crumpled note out of his pocket and dropped it down in between Amare's feet. "I have my hands full." As he walked away, Amare smashed the note with the heel of his foot in one last attempt at passive aggression that he could muster.
Down on the ground, they returned home the same way that they had arrived. By the time they parked out front, though, the entire house was aware of the injustice done to the food supply and no one was happy about it. Members huddled around the lit windows and doors, glaring into the night, thirsting and waiting to unleash their frustrations out on the house leader. The one responsible. The Fenderson in charge.
Baine stopped the car and got out. He rushed up to the front door and held his hands up with open palms. "Before you all jump on me," he started, "I'm here to tell you good news!"
A house member plucked their head out of the crowd and with a shrill voice hollered, "your baby brother stole more than nine portions!" The mob's glare shifted from one brother to the other.
The tension in the air was overwhelmingly thick. Perhaps Iggy was just sensitive, but either way, he lingered by the open car door, collaborating with ideas that revolved around staying outside forever to avoid walking through the bad vibes or just letting them have him on a silver platter. Slice and dine, perhaps?
Emi did much the same.
Baine lifted his hands higher, reclaiming their attention as well as claiming the responsibility to answer for the injustice. "Good news, though!" he assured them. "I found replacements!"
"Still! We aren't satisfied," another member interrupted. "This sort of selfishness is not sustainable. We're depleting all of the enemy bases that we come across, but soon, they will follow the missing faces and find us. We must keep our appetites at a bare minimum if we want to survive here!"
Iggy cowered even lower. He still couldn't remember the feeding frenzy from earlier and he sincerely didn't want to make any problems, but how was he supposed to help if he couldn't remember what had happened? He felt alone, cold, and unprotected the further away Baine was. He wanted to race to him and find shelter under his large arms like he used to. After all, Baine was the strongest one that he had on his side. However, Iggy was nearly a full grown man now, and it would be a joke on them both if he did so.