Ch 2.90: In

Elaina really hoped that Prisma would understand later.

Five of the six daggers stopped in mid-air, stuck in their invisible targets no doubt, targets that were invisible to Elaina, at least. The sixth flew off into the distance, the target somehow managing to dodge it. She’s good, Elaina thought.

“Prisma, there!” she said, already forming traps. She wasn’t particularly keen on using bear traps against other humans, but they didn’t have much choice with how slippery these particular people could be. Six traps in the ground, five triggers, each of the people that had been struck by a dagger now ensnared to the earth as well, though that last one still managed to evade. At least I don’t have to hear their screams.

Prisma, to her credit, did recognize the situation fairly quickly for not having been let in on the plan, drawing her blade and swiping at the direction of the trapped pursuers, fire swiping out from the cut and bathing the area, leaving five vaguely person-shaped dancing flames in its path. Prisma was using [Play Fighting], right? Probably. Either way, Elaina was now really happy she couldn’t hear them.

But their was still one more, the last one.

“That really was a nice attempt,” a voice said from… well, everywhere, in the same way Temmie spoke directly into their minds. It was Shein’s voice, but Elaina already knew she was the one that got away, so that wasn’t a surprise. “Attempt over, though. I got your three friends back in range, so I’m invisible to them too now.”

Five people popped into existence, screaming and writhing in pain on the ground. Elaina turned to them, then saw a fist coming at her from the corner of her eye, right before she felt a foot hit her in the stomach on the other side and causing her to drop to her knees. That actually caught her off guard, the fake fist connecting with her, but not causing an impact. A mirage, just like the subcore on the stage had been.

“I never wanted to kill any of you, you know. Place the Temmie on the ground, and I won’t have to hurt you.”

“This doesn’t seem like you, Shein,” Elaina said, standing up and backing off, still clutching the bag to her chest. “I won, fair and square. It’s mine.”

“You know I can’t do that. I’m not sure what you state dogs want with this, but I’m not giving it up so easily.”

State dogs?

A version of Shein appeared right in front of Elaina, wearing a very loose dress, more potato sack than fine linen like she’d been wearing earlier. “It really was too easy to follow you once you split up with the Health girl,” the figure said, voice coming directly from it rather than everywhere around Elaina. “Throw on a piece of clothing without any clips, buttons, ties, and what do you have to sense me? I was a little worried about your partner in nakedness, but she’s Heat if I remember correctly, so not much trouble there, so long as we didn’t carry torches.”

“How do you know that?” Elaina said, legitimately confused, doing her best to maintain eye contact with the Shein standing in front of her.

“A modest bribe to the registrar helps me keep track of new arrivals and their aspects. It’s mostly just to make note of any that could be used for cheating, for circumventing the bracelets specifically, but it’s also handy when some upstarts start trying to encroach on our other operations. I still haven’t figured out how the the Health girl got around her bracelet to keep you energized, or how she was able to make me collapse when I had her moved from the stage, but you’ll tell me those answers soon enough. It’s been fu, honestly. I never imagined it’d go down quite like this, and I’m interested in what your motivations are. You’re not completely under the Stormshine boot, after all.”

“Stormshine boot?” Fuck, did she hear when Prisma and I were talking? No, she definitely wasn’t around then…

“I’ll say it one more time. Place the Temmie down, and then you’ll explain exactly what it is, what you want with it, and what the capital wants with it.”

“Fine, I’ll do it,” Elaina said. She had questions, many questions, but they could wait until later, she decided. She let her arms relax, the bag opening up just a little as she reached inside. “You promise you won’t hurt us though?”

“I promise,” the fake Shein said, “once you hand over the—”

Elaina used [Restraint] and her physical strength both, pulling one of the bracelets out of the bag and throwing at Shein, the real Shein that was still invisible behind her. Once the bracelet latched onto the woman’s wrist, the illusion disappeared, and she came into view as well, looking not quite herself as she usually did.

“Wait, you?” Elaina shouted.

The girl, not Shein, or yes-Shein-but-also-someone-else, was raising her hand, ready to stab or throw with her dagger, but Elaina pulled on the bracelet, snapping her hand into the air and pinning it to the sky, dagger dropping uselessly to the ground.

The woman in front of her was scowling. It was Shein, had to be Shein, but it was also the assassin from the cave, messy, short brown hair, rounder features, shorter even.

“Fuck,” Shein said, glancing around. “How did you even see me?”

“You can come out now,” Elaina said to the bushes, still eyeing her capture.

“I still don’t see her,” Tira said as she walked out of the brush, quite a ways off.

“She probably set her aspect on us when she ran up to the bushes,” Carly added as she emerged as well. “Tagged us with excess mana to make it last, then ran back to Elaina and Prisma.”

“You people that can use your aspects on anything but yourself always confuse me,” Flora said, following behind Carly, naked for some reason.

“Flora, what the hell?” Elaina asked. “When was that part of the plan?”

“What plan?” Prisma said, looking between everyone present. Elaina wasn’t sure exactly which thing she was most confused about.

“I’d very much like to know the answer to that myself,” Shein, the assassin, whoever she was said.

“First, was it you the whole time?” Elaina asked. “In the cave too?”

Shein rolled her eyes. “You said it yourself, I like getting my own hands dirty.”

“Elaina,” Tira said as she pulled thin daggers from the now mostly just whining bouncers, wiping them off and placing them in her belt. “We should get going. Guards could come by any moment.”

Elaina looked back out towards the street. There weren’t any visible, but Tira was right; it just wasn’t worth the risk. “Okay,” she said. “Carly, make sure these five don’t have any life threatening wounds. I’ll sedate Shein again, then we can get going.”

“Wait, you’ll sedate me?” Shein asked. “But your aspect isn’t anything to do with that!”

Elaina couldn’t help but grin. “You obviously haven’t been reading any medical textbooks lately. Haven’t you ever heard of chemical restraints?”