Prytaneum
Powder Keg
Eina and I listened silently as Welf recounted what happened—from Zanis breaking into my home, to kidnapping Lili as a hostage, to forcing Welf to make magic swords to keep her safe, to stealing his magic sword again. I wasn't sure where I was even supposed to begin getting mad about that, but even as Eina's expression grew more and more terrified, I remained calm. Or rather, I made myself remain calm. It was easier than I thought it would be, but then, I'd already finished plotting out what I was going to do about it, so there was that.
"I already tried to find Hephaestus and ask her for advice," Welf continued, voice sounding frustrated. "But I couldn't find her. We need a plan—I'll never trust a guy like Zanis with magic swords, but he's going to make demands soon and we need to have something ready by then. But the truth is…I don't know what to do. I can't put Lili in danger, either, but…"
He shook his head, keeping his hands clenched at his side.
"I needed to talk to you about it," He said. "If it's for something like this, I can forge more swords, but if anything goes wrong, Lili's the one who'll pay the price. Percy…what are we supposed to do?"
I regarded him for a moment, noticing the look of mixed anger, desperation, and resolve in his eyes—and I smiled, lifting a hand to his shoulder.
"Don't worry about it, Welf," I said. "Lili's going to be okay. I'll head over to the Soma Familia right now and get her back."
For a long moment, Eina stared at me with wide eyes while Welf's expression twisted. She looked surprised and he really didn't.
"Percy, you can't," Eina said quickly. "I understand your feelings, but…legally, this is a tenuous situation. This Zanis…what he's doing is horrible, but we don't have any proof of his actions. If you do anything now, the rest of Orario will think you were the one in the wrong, for taking a member of his Familia, interfering with another Familia's business, and causing trouble in Orario. Percy, this won't help her."
I heard her, but I couldn't agree; I could think of at least a few ways it would help, assuming I did it right.
"Percy," Welf picked up when Eina paused for a breath. "I get it—but we can't just rush in there. We don't know where Zanis is or where Lili will be and even if we did, he'll probably have his entire Familia between him and us. If it were just a fight, I'd bet on you, but there's no way this is going to be any thing like fair. Zanis will have Lili close at hand at all times and if we try to push, he might—"
"Welf, this can't wait," I answered, turning towards him. "It's not just Lili's life we need to worry about—we both know what he's going to do to her, if he hasn't already. He'll make her drink Soma until she does what he says and if we let that happen, let him keep doing that, there's no way of knowing what'll happen to her. This must be a nightmare for her, Welf—her worst nightmare. I can't just stand by and allow that."
Welf fell silent, bowing his head and clenching his hands into fists, looking even angrier than before—but he knew I was right.
"Percy, I understand that, I do," Eina said, looking between us. "It's horrible what they're doing to that girl and we have to stop it—but think for a moment. If you do this, what'll happen to you afterwards? If you start a fight with another Familia like this, especially with Crozzo's magic swords in play, then the Guild blacklisting you would be the least of your worries. You could be tried for something like this or worse and that won't help her in the long run. We need to figure out another way around things, some angle this Zanis didn't prepare for, some way to leverage the law in our favor—because right now, the law says that he's acting within his rights as the head of a Familia and we've nothing to argue with."
"It's legal to bind people into slavery, use and abuse them, and imprison them against their will—but saving them is against the law," I said to her. "That make's sense."
This time, EIna was the one to clench her hands into fists.
"You know it's not like that," She said. "What they're doing is against the law, it's just—"
"It's just that the Guild's hands are tied," I said. "I get it—really, I do. I'm used to people getting their way because they're strong. But the Guild wants to fix things like this, don't they? At the very least, I know you do, Eina."
"I…" Eina trailed off for a moment, bowed her head, and then shook it. "You know I do, but we can't do it like this. The Guild can't do anything so overt, not unless we can get evidence they can't ignore. Then we can leverage things, restrict how much they make, what they sell, even what they produce—"
"What about Lili?" I asked and she fell silent. I nodded at her. "She told me about why the Guild has to act the way it does and I more or less understand. I know you can't do things like this, even if you want to. But I can. If it's gotten to this point and there's no other way to settle it, I'll do it myself and the Guild can do whatever it has to afterwards. Can you promise me something, though?"
"Percy…"
"When it's over, can you look after Lili?" I asked. "And keep an eye on the Soma Familia, too. There'll probably be a lot of trouble, but once a mess gets big enough, all sorts of things tend to come to light."
She looked down and didn't answer—but she nodded slightly.
I chuckled slightly and looked at her again.
"Come to think of it, I certainly end up apologizing to you a lot, don't I?" I asked.
"It's because you always ignore what I say," She answered, tone subdued.
"Yeah," I said, smiling at her. "I guess I do. But…I have to apologize again—because I'm not sorry about this. My friend is in trouble and I have to help her. But I want you to know, if things go south with the Guild…I'm really glad you were my advisor, Eina. You've always done everything you could to help me, but I'm just too stubborn to listen."
Bowing my head to her slightly, I made to walk passed her when she stopped me with a hand.
"Percy," Eina began before hesitating. "I'll do everything I can. So just…just don't get hurt, okay?"
"Who, me?" I said, honestly cheering up a bit before passing her the bottle of Soma. "Here; you'll probably need this more than I will."
With that said, I left the alleyway, oriented myself based on Babel, and began walking.
Welf followed.
"You shouldn't get involved," I told him, glancing his way. "There's no need to drag the Hephaestus Familia into this, too. Just pretend you didn't know I was so crazy."
"Fuck that," He said at once. "She's my friend, too—and it's because of me that she's in this mess to begin with. It's me that Zanis is after and I'm the one who wasn't strong enough to keep her safe. I'm going."
I watched him for another moment, smiled, and turned to look forward again. If that's what he felt he had to do, then so be it.
"Okay," I said, glad to have at my back. "Let's just hope I don't get you into too much trouble, then."
"What are you going to do?" He asked. "Tarnish my family name?"
"Just stay behind me when something happens," I said. "The way I figure, things are going to get a bit exciting soon."
"Exciting?" He repeated, exhaling through his nose. "I love exciting. I'm a big, strong adventurer, after all."
"Glad to hear it," I said.
"We have a plan?" He asked.
"More or less," I replied. "A few parts of it we may have to play by ear, but nothing's perfect."
"Wanna tell me what it is?"
"Like I said—we'll have to play a few parts by ear."
Welf took a deep breath at that and then nodded. We lapsed into silence as we made our way towards the Soma Familia home. When we arrived, I saw a pair of guards by the main gate, several along the walls, and people milling about in the yard. I noted their general location and walked towards the front gate.
"I'm sorry, but you can't come in here, sir," One of the men said, holding up a hand to stop us. He had the same general look as most of the Soma guys I'd seen, but he sounded polite. "This is the home of the Soma Familia and we're—"
I walked up to him, leaned back, and kicked down the front gate, ignoring the man and walking inside. Out of my periphery, I saw him go for a weapon and only then gave him a glance.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I told him, meeting his eyes steadily. Whatever the man saw when he looked at me, he hesitated. "That's right. Now…one of you go get Zanis. Tell him Percy Jackson's here to see him."
I didn't shout the words, but they carried in the abruptly silent courtyard and everyone's attention was on me besides. For a long moment, no one moved, but then another voice rang out.
"—No need," Zanis said, opening the door to the building. His expression seemed somewhat tight, but his voice was calm. "Good timing—I was just about to send someone to fetch you, Mr. Crozzo. But as I recall, I told you to keep your dog on a leash."
"And I told you before—he's not my dog," Welf replied, anger hot enough to burn slipping into his voice at the sight of the girl by Zanis' side. She stood close to him, apparently guided by the hand on her neck—the hand I'd broken earlier today, now threatening to break Lili's neck. There might have been something ironic about that, but I wasn't in the mood to look for it, because Lili looked like she'd been in a struggle. I could smudges and scraps on her face and hands, cuts on her lips and the corners of her mouth.
But worst of all, her eyes were strangely glazed as she looked towards us, like she was and wasn't looking our way.
I could have chewed up swords and spat out paper clips or made lakes boil with the hate that came surging back at the sight of that, but I took a slow breath, reminding myself to prioritize. I was here for a reason and it wasn't to lose my temper. Not yet, at least.
"Ah, good," I said, noticing how Lili shook at the sound of my voice. "You brought her with you—that makes this simpler. Now let her go."
Zanis raised an eyebrow and then began to laugh loudly. It sounded like something was dying, which gave me more ideas than it really should have, but I put that aside.
"I don't think she wants to go with you," Zanis said after suppressing his mirth, tapping a finger against Lili's pulse smugly. The desire to brutally murder him was steadily rising. "You see, after all the trouble I went through to save her, Lili and I have gotten very close. Isn't that right, Lili?"
"Y-yes, Lord Zanis," Lili replied, stumbling over the words slightly in her rush to get them out.
"There, you see?" Zanis asked, smiling smugly at us both. "You certainly have a lot of nerve to come here after kidnapping someone from my family, but I won't have it—Lili would rather die than leave Soma."
Lili was silent for a moment, but when Zanis shook her slightly, she seemed to remember to nod. She looked out of it, like her mind was already somewhere else, but at the same time—
"I wonder if that's true," I said, looking at Lili. "Personally, I think it's the other way around—I think she'd rather die than have to drink your Familia's shitty wine anymore."
A chorus of scandalized gasps went through crowd around us, several of them actually taking steps forward and drawing weapons—but a few glares stopped most of them and Zanis' held back the others with a raised hand.
"A ridiculous claim," He said. "Lili's more at home than ever and she's quite happy to be back—"
"Lili," I said, long passed tired of hearing Zanis talk. "Let's go back home now."
"…Home?" Lili asked, her tone heartbreaking—like she wasn't even sure what home was supposed to be anymore, much less how to get there.
"You are home, Liliruca," Zanis said, voice almost soothing in an absent, uncaring way.
"No, you're not," I said. "Because you're still stuck with all of these guys who do stuff like this to get what they want out of you. This isn't your home, Lili—not anymore."
"Not anymore…?" Zanis asked, trailing off with a laugh. "Do you hear yourself? She's a member of the Soma Familia—she always has been and she always will be."
The words were spoken harshly as if to scare anyone who even thought otherwise.
"No," I replied, shaking my head. "That's not true—because I'm here to keep my word. Lili's leaving the Soma Familia tonight."
"Enough!" Zanis snapped, growing irritated. "I don't know what you think you're doing, but—"
He was cut off by a murmur at his side.
"Lili wants…" She whispered, but everyone's eyes were on her, attention as fixated as if she were fire out of her eyes.
"Soma," Zanis said warningly, trying to finish for her—and the word made her entire body shake like a leaf in a storm. "That's what you want, isn't it Lili?"
"…Lili," Welf said behind me. "I'm sorry—I said I'd never let something like this happen, but I did. But now…I'm going to make things right. You haven't lost it, Lili; this bastard's not strong enough to take anything from you."
Lili continued shaking and she lower her eyes to the ground, but just as I thought the silence was going to stretch on endlessly, she answered.
"Lili doesn't want any more Soma," She mumbled. "Lili just wants to go with Mr. Welf and Mr. Percy."
I smiled, truly and honestly, raising my head and looking at Zanis askance.
"Well, you heard her," I said, cracking my neck. "Now then. For the sake of everyone involved—for Lili and the rest of you Familia and everyone else—I'm giving you one last chance, Zanis."
Zanis didn't answer me at first, looking down at Lili like he couldn't believe his eyes. Lili herself continued to shake like a leaf, as if horrified by the very words she'd just said, and everyone in the courtyard was staring at her like she was a freak of nature.
"To let her go?" Zanis finally said, sounding bitter now, instead of smug.
"No," I said. "This isn't just about her, anymore—and besides, you're going to let her go one way or another. This is about more than that, now. So here's the deal. Let her go. Surrender your hold over the Soma Familia and come with me to the Guild to confess what you've done and give your Familia a chance."
"What?" Zanis asked, sounding baffled, as if I were speaking another language.
"Look at what you've done here, Zanis," I said. "Look at your Familia—your family. But they aren't that, not really. You've used them, made them work and bleed and die for you, and worse. So this is your last chance to do the right thing for your own Familia and at least know you did that much. It doesn't make up for what you've done, not remotely, but it would be something."
"Or what?" He asked.
"Or I'm going to do something for my Familia," I replied.
He spat.
"So that's it," He said, sounding angry. I think Lili resisting the Soma had pissed him off more than the way I'd broken his hand—but Lili deserved to show this guy up, so I was proud of that fact. "You think you've won?"
"Yup," I said.
"And how the hell do you figure that?" He asked with a sneer. "Are you going to try and match Lili's word against mine and see who the Guild believes? Or was your big plan to turn my Familia against me? Ridiculous. All you have is the word of a liar and a thief and yet you come her making demands. You injure me and my men, steal a member of my Familia, invade my home, and you make demands? I have had enough of you—and I have no interest in you to begin with. Nothing has changed, whatever you've said. Crozzo! I hope you have a good deal to make up for your dogs manners."
As he spoke, he shook Lili, eliciting a slight cry from her—probably intentionally, to remind us he still had all the cards.
"Let go of her," I said evenly. "Now."
"Shut up!" He snapped at me.
Also, he didn't let go.
"It wasn't a request," I said. "If anything, it was a warning."
"And now you try to threaten me?" Zanis asked incredulously. "You…just really don't understand where you stand, do you? You have nothing."
I watched him silently for a long moment before answering.
"Actually, I have a dog," I said. "You like dogs, don't you?"
"What?" He asked, confused by the sudden question—and then I whistled.
Suddenly, the ground beneath Zanis' feet, covered now by growing shadows as the sun began to set, erupted. Mrs. O'Leary didn't rise from the darkness like she usually did, but instead emerged like she'd been auditioning for Jaws—teeth first. Dagger like blades appeared around Lili and Zanis in a rough oval, snapping closed to reveal the whole of Mrs. O'Leary's enormous head. The jaws closed around Lili and nearly bit Zanis in half in the process, but to the man's credit, he reacted fast enough that he nearly escaped unscathed.
Nearly.
As the head of the Soma Familia stumbled away and screamed, looking at the stump that had once been a hand—the hand that he'd held Lili with and you couldn't say I hadn't warned him there now could you?—I looked at my friend.
"Get her somewhere safe!" I commanded before Mrs. O'Leary even finished emerging. "Guard her until we're done!"
She growled, casting a leer around the courtyard before obeying, vanishing back into the shadows and taking Lili and Zanis's arm along with her.
"Do something!" Zanis shouted desperately to his Familia. "Stop them! I'll reward anyone who—ah!"
He cut himself off to grab at his handless arm, but his Familia, most of them looking shocked and terrified themselves, still closed in around Welf and I—but we'd both already drawn our swords.
"What was that!?" Zanis demanded from the back of the crowd, sounding abruptly terrified and agonized, blood splattering everywhere as his arm shook. "What did you do!?"
"Don't worry about it," I said. "Losing a hand is probably not the worst thing that's going to happen to you today."
Zanis stared at me with wide and wild eyes, steadily backing away.
"You're mad," He snarled, holding the stump close to his chest and trying to keep his voice steady. "Bringing a monster into the city, mutilating the head of another Familia in his own home, kidnapping a member of the Soma Familia, threatening me…you think you'll get away with this, you bastard!?"
"No," I said. "But I'm not afraid of sacrificing myself for someone I care about. As for you…like I said, don't worry about it."
"Damn you," He said, hyperventilating. "Damn you."
Maybe it was the pain or the shock or the bloodloss—or maybe he'd just gone well and truly insane. But despite having dozens of members of his own Familia between us, Zanis went from his magic sword—
"Percy!"
"I know."
—And swung.