Half-Bloods R • 1: Fallen World

C • 16 : Twist the Bone, Bend the Back

"Come on, Kid," Vaelan said as Anna ran up to him.

Anna had been released from the hospital for two days now, the hospital had provided her with clothes for the first day and Demi immediately took the cybernetic girl shopping to get a week and a half's worth of clothing. Anna was wearing a beige shirt with the title of the band, Burn the Ballroom, on it. She wore tight blue jeans and had her shoulder-length blonde hair in a ponytail.

They had made their way to the hospital to check on Christopher. Elizabeth, after a long phone call, had finally been convinced by Vaelan to leave the hospital for a day and take time for herself.

"Excuse me, Sir," a woman's voice caught his ear.

Vaelan turned to see a woman in a black dress and white jacket with golden hair, its edges orange, braided back in a large black bow. Beneath each eye, resting gently on her light cheekbones, were two X marks. She stood tall, though still shorter than him, and held out a flyer with a stack of handouts in her arm.

She smiled and said, "You look like a proud humanth, care to aid our charity event to build the first-ever Church of the Merciful here in America?"

Vaelan pulled out his wallet and extracted a twenty, and then handed it to the woman, "Sure."

"Thank you, and can I have your name to add you to our growing list of donors?"

"Of course, put me down as Vaelan," he said.

"Wait, are you the Vaelan, Chimera, and revolutionary?" She asked with wide eyes.

"The one and only, though I didn't know my name carried weight in the kerronasen community."

She reached out an open hand, "Your name carries weight in all communities, and let me say that it's amazing meeting you," she laughed.

"And it's a pleasure meeting you," he said shaking her hand, "Miss?"

"Audrey, you can call me Audrey."

"Well it was nice to meet you, Audrey," he said, slowly walking away as the conversation closed.

As he and Anna approached the hospital entrance, he heard the woman shout, "Thank you for joining the battle against MES!"

Anna tugged on his shirt as they walked up to the reception counter, "Hey Talv, what's MES?"

"I'll explain in a sec," he said as they approached the reception desk.

The receptionist quickly asked him the purpose of his visit, and when he told that he was visiting, she told him a room number and let the two go up through the elevator to the third floor. Vaelan had to admit, he wasn't too comfortable in the elevator, it was silent, but every slight creak sounded like a break in the metal, and every shift felt like the lunge of a broken cable. Out of sheer anxiety, he began to feel heat crawl up his neck.

"Talv?" Anna snapped him out of his head.

"Right, MES," he stated, "It's an abbreviation that stands for the Magic Eradication and Suppression act. It states that all magical entities, whether foreign or native to Earth, shall not be tolerated. Non-sentient entities, such as items, plants, and animals, shall be eradicated, destroyed, or disposed of. Sentient entities, like Anthraahlans and Humanths, shall be suppressed magically and culturally, any who fail to conform will be jailed or eradicated if they pose a threat to human society. It essentially removed most basic rights from any magical races and said that they needed to conform to Human cultures. Obviously, it was one of the many reasons that the Rebellion was formed."

"That's," the words caught in Anna's throat, "Horrible."

He nodded and sighed, "Luckily, not every country is controlled by the Order, though the number of those countries is few, and they can't exactly act as a safe haven considering how small they are."