Page 46 of Forging Bonds: Part Two

“Back to the original question,” Griff says. “I think when it comes to getting the necklace from Kylen, the plan should be that you get it if theopportunity arises and it’s safe to do so. If it’s going to put you at extra risk, then don’t do it. Coen wouldn’t want you to risk yourself unnecessarily. If you can’t get it, we will figure something else out. We teach at the academy, and we can ask Ty to make sure that we’re around when they are.”

“No, we can’t,” River interrupts. “Ty said that their team would be disbanded, and they wouldn’t be working for SID when the Choosing is over.”

“That’s true, I forgot about that,” Griff replies with a frown.

“Do you think that they know that?” I ask curiously.

River shrugs, “I have no idea. We got pulled in a lot sooner than we thought we would, so Ty may not have had a chance to fill them in on the price of their actions and pulling a human into the Choosing.”

“That’s true. I’m not sure he would have told them anyway. They’re a danger, and if they have no job left to go back to, or it’s under threat at least, then they don’t really have much to lose, and they could have posed an even bigger threat to Neith,” Raiden points out.

“I’m not human though,” I say, replying to what River said. “Is that likely to cause a problem for Ty when he fires them, because technically they didn’t pull a human in?”

Van shakes his head, “I don’t think so, as far as they were concerned, they pulled you in thinking you were a human.”

“Besides, that’s not the only reason why Ty is getting rid of them. They have many faults, and they shouldn’t be SID agents,” Ransom adds.

Doc nods in agreement, “I agree, but don’t forget that they’re all pretty well connected, so it may take a while for Ty to get rid of them in the first place, and those connections could use the fact that Neith isn’t actually human to their advantage and as a reason why Ty should keep them employed.”

“I don’t think that they’re as well connected as they like to make out that they are,” Ransom says with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, I know that Kylen isn’t well connected to Draith, at least I am reasonably sure that he’s not. I didn’t see him around when I was at the Keep, and I have been there a few times now,” I reply.

“Exactly,” Evander says. “I think that he may be using something to control the others as well, not to the same extent as the control he has over Coen, but definitely something. Fetrick is not a small supernatural, or a weak one for that matter, and yet he was terrified that he had said too much when we ran into him.”

“Fetrick?” I ask.

“The supe that we ran into when we were looking for Coen after your trial with them,” Ransom explains.

“Oh, right, yeah, I remember.” I frown as I continue, “I think you’re right about it not being the same as Coen. He doesn’t have any control whatsoever when Kylen gives him an order, he has no choice but to follow, he wouldn’t still be there if he did. Whereas I’ve seen the others question Kylen and walk away from him. So even though he may be controlling them through fear, they have a lot more free will.”

“Yeah, I completely agree. I would even go as far as to say that it’s only a couple of them, maybe even just Fetrick, that are being controlled by fear, and that the others are there out of choice. Rupert certainly is,” Reed suggests.

“I think that’s a fair assessment,” Raiden agrees. “We aren’t really going to know what’s going on until Coen is free and can fill us in.”

“Is Kylen just going to let Coen go free?” River asks with a worried frown.

“He’s not going to have a choice,” I growl, but then concede. “I do see your point, though. Kylen has had Coen under his control for a long time. He most likely thinks that there is no way that Coen will ever be free of that control, which means Coen most likely knows a lot about the shit that Kylen has been doing, most likely things that Kylen doesn’t want anyone else to know about.”

“Exactly,” River agrees.

“Which means we need to be on guard when we do free him and make sure that it happens while we’re there,” Raiden starts and continues to explain, “which I know sounds odd, but I had an idea, if we can’t do it here then we could get a replica of the necklace made and switch them out so that Kylen doesn’t realize straight away and that it’s not his necklace, which would give us a chance to study the original one properly and work out how it’s controlling Coen and the safest way to break it.”

“You’re worried that there may be some failsafes built into the control which could harm Coen if we just break it,” Doc summarizes.

Raiden nods, “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m worried about.”

My eyebrows draw down over my eyes, “Why does everything have to be more complicated than it needs to be? I was hoping I could grab it and smash it, but I don’t want to risk hurting Coen.”

“It may not be easy to break either,” Van points out. “There’s no way of knowing what it’s made of. We don’t even really know the design of it, which would help us do some research and find out what we’re dealing with.”

“So really it would be better if we could wait until after the Choosing to swap the necklaces out and then break the control over Coen safely,” Ransom says.

“We would need to tell Coen that was the plan. I’m pretty sure that he has orders in place that are long-term, but we’ve all seen Kylen give Coen new orders, so he will need to know that we’ve swapped the necklace out so that he can pretend to follow,” Griff says, as the castle finally comes back into view.

“Yeah, we would,” Evander agrees. “Okay, so the plan is pretty much still the same except instead of stealing the necklace, Neith, we need you to get as much detail as you possibly can about it so we can do some research,” Evander says.

I nod, “It might be easier to take a photo from a distance and then zoom in than it would be to rely on my memory.”

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