Amid throngs of people pressing in from all sides and rushing from here to there like a never-ending, turbulent river, a single boy stands still in the middle of the crowd, a stone parting the water.

There is a shout.

"Hey! Over here!" he yells, waving his arms in wide arcs, his voice carrying over the white noise for a single moment before being swallowed, but it is enough to catch their attention.

His body language is rigid, tense, just about shouting for them to take notice of him and give chase, his eyes darting to one of the many alleys for a fraction of a second - perhaps subconsciously, out of his nervousness, but that is enough for them too.

A flash of movement, figures disappearing around the corner, the tail end of a skirt.

It couldn't be more obvious - the boy is a distraction, a diversion, meant to lead them the wrong way and circle back around to meet his companions after he's lost his pursuers. A simpleminded plan, one only a few kids would come up with.

The Star will not be with him.

So it's quite obvious who they should give chase too - in fact, he's probably made it even easier for them.

Nodding to each other, no words needed - all of them had the same thought - they make their way toward the alley.

--------------------

Once again, they're running, Chia leading the way through the back alleys with an easy confidence as if she's known this place her whole life instead of simply having memorized it on a cheap tourist map a little while ago.

"D'you think," she wheezes out, glancing back over her shoulder, "d'you think they took the bait?"

There is a shout of "this way!" and the sound of thundering footsteps, running in pursuit.

"Nevermind," Chia gulps, "they definitely took the bait. In fact, it sounds like all of them did."

"Well, good for Kaya and Allioni, I guess," Tam replies. "But we'd better run faster."

An unspoken "not so good for us" hangs in the air, which isn't so good for morale but definitely good for motivation, the unsaid words pushing Chia to put on an extra burst of speed and take the steps up the side of a small bridge arching over the canal between the back alleys three at the time, which, how even because Tam has already run himself ragged and she can still go faster?

Then again, he reasons the same thing every time Chia does yet another impossible feat, this is Chia they're talking about. Quite possibly the wildest, most chaotic, and most unpredictable person or otherwise to have set foot on this already very wildly unpredictable world, so.

Well. Not all that surprising when it comes to her, once again.

She skids to a stop suddenly, rushing to the banister of the bridge and looking over.

"What?" Tam asks, glancing nervously behind him - they're going to be here any second now. "If you're just suggesting we hide under the bridge, it's likely they'll spot us -"

"There's a boat," Chia points. She's right - bobbing next to a rickety wooden dock is a small boat with faded red and white paint, a row of neat black letters stamped along its side and a motor attached to the back. "And a tarp that is a perfect two-person hiding size."

She's right about that too.

It's obvious at this point they're going to run out of stamina soon if they keep up like this - and so, a silent agreement passing between them, the two instantly rush down the other steps of the bridge and then towards the dock, flinging the tarp open before diving in and pulling it back over their heads.

And not a moment too soon either, as they hear more shouts and footsteps overhead. A pause, as their pursuers presumably give the area a cursory glance to make sure they aren't hiding.

Then footsteps again, this time fading away.

Under the tarp, the two of them hold their breath.

One minute...

Two...

Three...

"I think they're gone," Chia announces, flinging the tarp off without so much as a cautionary peek to check and leaving no time for Tam to even reprimand her about it.

Thankfully, she's right, and they are.

"Right," Tam stands up as well, albeit more carefully, his footing wobbling a little as the boat rocks, water sloshing against the sides. Then he squints at the motor. "Do you think this thing has the keys already in?"

Chia rummages around in the compartments a while before shaking her head. "No luck."

"We should probably hurry, then," he sighs. "We definitely don't want to be here if they come circling back around to look for us." Clambering out of the boat unsteadily, he looks around. Excluding a lone pigeon pecking at something on the floor and the rattling sounds coming from the dumpster nearby - probably a cat, there isn't a soul in sight. If something happened to them here, no one would ever know, he can't help thinking, and shudders involuntarily.

Following Tam out of the boat, she nods, looking up and down both sides of the length of the canal and the narrow paths along it, then at the two alleys - the one they had come from, and the one their pursuers had assumed they continued into. "It would... probably not be such a good idea to go into those alleys again. There should be another one around here if we follow the canal, so..." she takes off at a light jog, Tam right behind her. After a minute or so, she stops again, right in front of the mouth of another alleyway. "Aha! This is the one - it should connect right back to one of the main streets where it'll be easier to blend in, then we can head for the rendezvous point..." she breaks into another jog down the alley, past sodden plastic bags on the ground and putrid puddles of probably-not-quite water, startling an alley cat off of its perch as her foot hits the trash can its comfortably sunning itself on.

With a surprised yowl, it leaps off, fur puffed up in surprise and tail standing on end as it struts away. Chia blinks. "Wow. Didn't know cats could glare. Sorry, Mister Cat!" she calls after it.

"Chia," Tam reminds her.

"Right. Task on hand. Sorry."

Once again, they continue onwards, the silence punctuated only by the slap of their feet against pavement as, overhead, the sun glares down on them, seemingly intent on baking the concrete and everything on it.

Which, well, wonderful.

He wonders if he'll pass out from overexertion or a heat stroke first.

"Just a while more," Chia says, interrupting his train of thought on which would be the better death (probably neither). "Another few corners and we should be -"

She stops abruptly.

Crap.

At the end of the alleyway are six people very obviously blocking the exit.

All of them with guns drawn.

Instantly, all thoughts of overexertion are shoved to the back of his mind as he spins around, trying to calculate how fast they can get around the next corner and how likely it is their pursuers will shoot them and how accurate they'll be in an alley this small (likely very) and is there another escape route -

Oh, he thinks, swallowing.

Where they came from stand another seven people, once again, with guns drawn.

From behind him, someone - probably their leader, speaks: "I'd suggest you don't bother looking for any escape route - wait, where's the Star?"

Tam can't help feeling a small satisfaction despite the circumstances.

Looks like you got us - but we got you too.

He turns to face the person who'd spoken - a middle-aged woman, blond hair pulled back into a bun, so normal looking that in fact, it's the most terrifying aspect of her - the fact that she could be anyone: a mother, a shopkeeper, a teacher, anyone at all who could easily melt into a crowd and go unnoticed by everyone.

Yet the gun in her hand - safety off, Tam notes - and the calculating expression on her face labels her as something else entirely. He watches as her face clears up, the realization hitting. "Your 'distraction' wasn't the distraction at all. You were. I assume the Star is with that other boy?"

"She could be," Tam amends, his eyes still darting, looking, searching (even though one look at the gun is all it takes to leave his mouth dry and his feet locked in place, thinking what if, what if I mess up, what if I say something wrong and get us killed), maybe, just maybe he can come up with something -

"Hmm," the woman says. "Clever."

"Even if you wanted to," he says, voice shaking though he desperately tries not to let it, "you won't find them at the pier. They're gone by now. And even if you try to take us as hostages, we wouldn't be worth anything if you couldn't reach them in the first place."

"Yes," she replies. "Perhaps. But I believe one of my men said you mentioned something about a rendezvous point...?"

"We're not telling," Chia snaps, and out of the corner of his eye, Tam sees her hand reaching into the pocket of her dress to grasp their contingency plan - what they agreed they would use to signal Kaya and Allioni if the location was compromised.

"No, I don't believe you would tell," the woman replies. "But he might," she nods towards Tam.

He narrows his eyes. "What do you mean -"

Realization hits him and he spins to Chia just as the woman says, "The girl. He's more likely to crack under pressure than she is."

A blur of movement and she's suddenly yanked from behind, a gun pressed to her forehead, pushing hard against her temple.

Shit.

He's faced this before.

He has.

So why can't he move?

Why can he barely breathe?

"Well?" the woman prompts. "Do you feel more cooperative now?"

He grinds his teeth and turns back to the woman, as, behind him, Chia manages a "Tam, don't." even as her voice wobbles slightly.

You bastard, he thinks, but on the surface he keeps a thin veneer of calm and says, "If you do shoot her as a warning, you'll lose your only hostage, and I won't end up telling you anything either. We're at a stalemate."

"That is true," the woman agrees. "How would you feel if we take a finger or two off your friend instead?"

Despite her best attempts to stay quiet, Chia lets out an involuntary "meep".

"I -"

"Which finger would you like to start with? Her pinkie? Her thumb?"

"Tam -" Chia starts.

In that instance, he loses.

Or maybe he had already lost anyway.

(His resolve had always been the weakest, after all.)

"Fine," he grits out. "I'll tell you. Just, don't. Don't do anything to her."

"Alright," the woman says, the glint of victory in her eyes. "Let's hear it."

He opens his mouth. "It's -"

There is a thud, a grunt, the sound of a match being struck and sparks and then -

"BANG!" the fireworks go off - a symphony of sound and sparks, right above their heads, and though there isn't much color and it isn't really visible, it's enough.

The sound, that is.

"That," Chia wheezes out, the lit match still in her hand, "was our signal. To call off the rendezvous. The location is useless now." She grins, her satisfaction evident at the fact that she had turned the woman's victory onto its head. "We won this round."

A pause, a flash of anger in the woman's eyes.

"If you want to play it the harder way, then," she says, and then claps her hands together. "Let's take them hostage - we'll have to find a way to reach the Star about her friends'... predicament."

Tam doesn't even manage a warning before the man who had briefly taken Chia captive before hits her over the head with the hilt of his gun, loud enough for a dull 'thud' to resound in the alley.

And then there's the sound of footsteps behind him, a flash of sharp pain, and darkness.

--------------------

Halfway across the city, two people look up to the sky at the sound of fireworks and freeze in the middle of the crowd.

The throngs of people around them quiet for a moment, whispering to each other in confusion, wondering if there were fireworks scheduled for anywhere in Altissia today and they had been set off early by mistake, or it was just some accident from a random person who had messed up - soon, however, they move on from the topic just as quickly, and the city resumes its normal pace.

The two of them, however, know the truth, and what the fireworks actually stand for.

Kaya can feel her stomach dropping down as she spins to Allioni, saying, "That was the signal. For when our rendezvous point would be compromised. It - they - the location was compromised. That means they..."

They've been captured.

Or worse.

And it's all your fault, isn't it? a small voice whispers to Kaya from the back of your mind. Getting in trouble for you, getting hurt for you, going halfway across the world for you... and now, maybe even dying for you...

No, she thinks desperately, her breaths hitching in her chest, and she wants so badly to sink to her knees and clap her hands over her ears and block it out, block the voices out and the world out and she's so stupid how could she have been so stupid how could she have dragged them into this -

Her fault.

This is her fault.

She should've gone along with her mother's plans and destiny and the Starcurse and just died.

She should've just died.

At least then, no one would've gotten hurt except for me.

"Kaya?" A hand on her shoulder, and she flinches, gaze focusing back on Allioni once again. "We need to figure out our next move," he reminds her gently, his gaze sympathetic and she wants to scream because why are you still being nice to me, you should hate me, you should -

She takes a deep breath, voice cracking, and offers him a wobbly, fake smile. "Right. We need to - we need to figure out where Tam and Chia are, and then go after them. But it's not likely we'll be able to do that on our own, so -"

"We need to contact Yara," Allioni agrees.

"Except..." she grimaces, "we can't. We don't have a way to."

Silence again.

Come on, she thinks, racking her brain. There has to be some way. Come on, come on, come on -

It's Allioni who gets it first, his eyes lighting up with realization as he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a piece of paper. "You're right," he says. "We don't have a way to reach Yara. But," he holds up the paper, displaying the phone number scrawled on it in pencil, "we have a way to contact someone who can."

--------------------

In the dark of a house full of glass bottles and stacked-up boxes and dust in corners, a phone rings.

And rings.

And rings.

"Coming," the woman grumbles, stomping over with a bottle full of liquor in hand. "Jeez, shut up already, would you?"

Her complaints cut off abruptly as she presses the receiver against her ear, as, on the other end of the line, a girl's wobbly voice comes through, sounding near tears: "This is Anya, right? It's - it's Kaya. The Star. We need- we need to contact Yara." And then, a deep breath: "Something bad's happened."

--------------------

She sits on the couch with her back against the wall, hands in her lap and yellow light shining down on her from overhead. Briefly, she shoots a look at the doctor's office, wondering how long this time's "medical consultation" will take.

Mrs. Rivyet had taken off the instance they reached Altissia without so much as a word, sending Raine off with the house butler, Yara and an extra bodyguard "for security" before disappearing to who-knows-where - wherever she is, though, it probably concerns Kaya, so Yara can only hope it's nothing too serious.

It's not like she can exactly take off right now as well to check on them, though - she's stuck in this stuffy waiting room for the time being with a very untalkative bodyguard currently absorbed in the paperback novel he's reading, while Raine has yet another consultation with yet another medical specialist as the butler accompanies her.

Though it's really just a front for the whole "hunting down a Star and sacrificing her so Raine can get her sight and legs back" thing. But then again, Yara supposes it's important Mrs. Rivyet maintain the façade lest Raine gets suspicious, since it probably wouldn't go over her all that well.

However, once again, to reiterate, this also means Yara is stuck. Here. Unable to do anything or make any progress except watch the hands on the grandfather clock opposite her move painfully slowly -

Abruptly, she hears the sound of a door opening, and she startles, looking up -

But it isn't the door to the doctor's office that opens, but rather the door to outside the clinic.

A pause because the woman standing there looks oddly familiar -

A second passes.

It clicks.

And then she does a double-take once she realizes who the woman is, nearly hissing out her name in surprise before stopping herself just in time as the bodyguard looks up curiously, eyes searching for a second before shrugging and going back to his book.

Yara fixes her eyes resolutely on the grandfather clock opposite her, watching Shu Anya approach casually out of the corner of her eye, and, as she's sitting down beside her and making herself comfortable, Yara asks in a bare whisper: "What is it?"

She's lucky the grandfather clock is loud and right beside the bodyguard, as well as the fact that whatever book he's reading must be incredibly interesting because he doesn't even so much as twitch.

Replying with the same, barely audible whisper, Anya says: "The kids have gotten themselves into trouble."

"Where?"

"Right here." Yara blinks in surprise, but then again, she had estimated their train would arrive in Altissia around this morning. With how hectic things have been, it hadn't even occurred to her she might be in the same place as Kaya and the others.

And that they might be in the same place as the person who's been after Kaya since the beginning.

Stupid, she reprimands herself. That was a major detail you overlooked on your part.

"Tam and Chia have disappeared," Anya continues, Yara looking up in shock. "Likely they've been captured - apparently it was while they were attempting to lead their pursuers away from Kaya. And from what I've heard, there were a lot of them. No clue where they've been taken or by whom, but it's quite possible they're based in this city, so it'll be nearby."

Yara nods slightly. "I'll go look for them immediately." (Though really, she'd prefer if she got Kaya, as well as Allioni, as far away from here as possible, she also knows they would never agree to leaving the others behind, stubborn as they are.) "Any tips, things to look out for?"

Anya shakes her head. "Not really. It could be anyone, especially in a city this big. But if it is who I think it is... well," she purses her lips together, actually looking worried for once, "be careful. He's a real nasty piece of work, and I doubt he'll hesitate to get at what he wants. He already did it before, after all," she mutters under her breath darkly. "I'll be taking my leave, then," she says, standing up as another one of the offices open and some random patient comes out and heads toward the door, Anya trailing right behind as if she knows him so as not to make the bodyguard opposite Yara suspicious.

The door leading outside shuts again with a cheery jangle of the bell.

Abruptly, Yara stands up, marching over to the bodyguard as her brain runs through a list of excuses she could use before settling on the most effective one.

"Excuse me," she announces, and the man looks up, a wrinkle between his brows, annoyed at having been interrupted, "it's currently my time of the month."

The man very quickly turns pale.

Internally, Yara smirks, and continues: "Right now the cramps are very bad and I don't have a pad - I ran out of my supply of them, and the one I'm using right now is, as I'm sure you can understand, loaded with a lot of menstrual blood." The man is gradually looking more and more uncomfortable. "So if it would be alright, I would like to head to the nearest market to purchase some painkillers and period pads -"

He caves. "Alright, alright, I get it, you're dismissed, I'll explain your situation later -"

"Thank you," she bows, swiftly heading out of the room towards the door before he's even finished his sentence. She should probably use this method more often, she muses - it's extremely effective (and hey, if she has a little fun with it, who can blame her?).

The bell jangles cheerily again as the door shuts behind her.

Once Yara's outside and around the corner of the building, she bursts into a run.