Marius had given us both clear instructions. We are to wait for the rest of the family before attempting to start our recon mission. Yeah, right? Like Va’lis was going to wait. Him and I had formulated a great plan to confirm that Carrie was being held in that old familiar place. The Tower of London is a historic place having held many Queens prisoner before their beheadings took place in the famous courtyard. More notably the death of Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife to Henry VIII. The tourism to the place was a great cloak to what really was held behind closed walls. The Draconians had effectively purchased the rights to the tower through various entities and ghost corporations, as they did with much of the territory they held. It is heavily guarded of course, but it does have nooks and crannies that modern day prisons do not. Luckily, we had a full map of the place.
We decided to go through a shallow entry-way through the old sewers by the Well Tower. I used my Flight Gift to get us up and over the walls. We had to get wet. Something neither of us would enjoy doing. Our first obstacle, an old iron gate. Va’lis wanted to just tear through it, but I told him that would alert them to our presence and arouse suspicions. I pulled out my trusty lockpicking kit from my back pocket and proceeded to pick the lock. We went in and I replaced the lock as it was. We took a few twists and turns around the place when suddenly we heard voices. I instantly recognized the voice. It was Frank Draco.
I flushed myself against the wall and pinned Va’lis right beside me holding him back. Another voice added into the conversation, that of Kirk Draco. They were talking about who the girl was of no use to them, meaning Carrie, and how David wants to be rid of her soon. That angered Va’lis greatly, but I told him that we would serve no purpose in getting killed today so he held still. The point is to rescue Carrie, not get them all killed.
Frank and Kirk continue to talk about Carrie. It becomes apparent that because Carrie refuses to drink from Va’lis as often as newborns should, her blood is diluted. Kirk suggests, “We could use her as a trade in for the weird one, I mean since we cannot gather what we want from her blood. we obviously would need a purer source. Perhaps moving Carrie back to Sosaria would make it easier for us to negotiate a trade.” Frank says, “To move her in her current condition, since we’ve have been starving her, would be unwise — she could randomly attack anyone she comes near.” “Then throw some bastard human at her and see what she does with it. Might prove fun.” Frank agrees and says, “Its in our nature, and we cannot deny our nature.”
“You know, there is another of the line that is older than this poor sap but not as ellusive,” Kirk mentions to his father. “One that lives in Venice.” The breaking of Carrie’s moral values and the mention of Merida enfuriates Va’lis to no end. Frank responds to Kirk, “For now, I need more blood samples.” “Well she’s still down there in the dungeon cell of the far tower, I haven’t moved her yet,” Kirk answers. I could hardly calm Va’lis down at this point, I could feel the anger permeate from him, but I had to get him to be still. “Be still brother,” I dared to whisper. Kirk turns towards us, seemingly sensing something. I look at Va’lis and motion downward. They both stop breathing and sink under the water of the sewers. The water would hide their scent. Kirk, after a few seconds, dismisses it and the two men start walking towards the back tower disappearing from view.