The Mantis Variant - Book One - 22. Chapter 22 - Lahari, Part Three

"Agrell!" Lahari whispered, and the three sleepers awoke.

"What the fuck?" Dozi snapped with a start, and she repeated herself when she came face to face with Lahari's frightening appearance in the shadows. "What the fuck?!"

Agrell jumped up, grabbed a candle and Lahari's hand, and she pulled her into Dozi's kitchen area.

Lahari was startled by the physical contact, but she followed.

They could hear Dozi and Ilya whispering harshly to each other but could not make out their words.

"I've been looking for you," Agrell said to Lahari. Their hands separated. "I kept going back to your tunnel, but I couldn't find you! I wanted to let you know that Theolan is okay. Those men beat him up a little bit, but it was not too bad."

Lahari raised her scaly hand. "Agrell," she interrupted, "that's not important right now, and for the time being I've come to terms with you being a Messiah." She looked at Agrell with her sparkling yellow eyes. "We were just attacked in the underground," she declared.

"What? What do you mean?" Agrell asked. "Attacked by who?" She then added, "How can I help?"

"I don't know who they were, but there were a lot of them, and there were definitely Messiahs among them. I saw my people being abducted." She took a breath. "I ran and found the secret crevice in the bedrock near the well that you told me about. I couldn't think of anything else to do except to get out of the underground."

"I'm so glad you did," Agrell replied, and she interlaced her fingers with Lahari's.

She looked down at their hands and asked, "That doesn't bother you?"

Agrell flashed her a puzzled face. "I don't know what you mean," and she restated her offer. "I just want to help however I can."

Dozi stepped up behind them.

"What's going on? You're Lahari?" she asked, but her eyes were fixed on Agrell.

"I am," Lahari replied. "I'm sorry to have barged in here while you were all sleeping, but there was an attack on the underground," she repeated. "I fled."

"We need to help them!" Agrell implored.

"You're outta your mind!" Dozi snapped. "I'm not getting involved in some crazy Shift war! I was willing to open my home and let you use it to visit your family," she said, and Dozi found it difficult to look at Lahari, "but I do not intend on being recruited into a makeshift army. I'm just a human!" she stated.

"But I'm not," Ilya declared, stepping up behind Dozi with the crutch under one arm, "and I'm willing to fight, or help in whatever way I can."

"Ugh!" Dozi grunted. She looked at Agrell, then Ilya, and Dozi even tried to look into Lahari's yellow eyes. "Fine," she conceded, "I guess I'm in, too. What do we do first?"

"Thank you," Agrell replied, now taking Dozi's hand.

"Alright, alright, skinny girl," Dozi said, pulling her fingers free, "I feel like you force me to be a better person than I would be on my own," and she rolled her eyes at Agrell. "Please don't get me killed," she added to Lahari. "What do you want to do now?"

"I want to go tell my fathers what's happened. They will be able to help."

"They will?" Ilya asked. "They both seem too gentle for a fight."

"It's less about them, and more about who they are."

"Why, who are your dads?" Dozi asked.

Lahari informed the other three women, "They are members of UBHS."

"What's that?" Agrell asked.

"They are a foundation that supports Shifts and works to protect them," Lahari explained.

Ilya scoffed. "Nothing the UBHS ever did has made a difference in my life," she commented.

"Let’s take her to her dads," Agrell encouraged, "before the sun comes up."

Lahari wrapped herself in a thin garment that barely hid her uniqueness, and she began to climb the stairs up from Dozi's basement towards the sleeping city above.

"Wait," Agrell called after her, and she grabbed the cloak that she stole on her escape from the cult. "This will work better." She helped Lahari put it on, adjusting the hood and pulling the collar snug.

Lahari was not used to being cared for by another, and she looked at Agrell with a peculiar gaze.

Then the four women slipped out into the dark city, and soon they arrived at the mystic's apothecary. Lahari unlocked the door and they all crept upstairs. She knocked on her fathers' bedroom door.

"Ada," she called out in a quiet voice. "Ada."

Rustling sounds from within the room were followed by a muffled, "Lahari, is that you, my little moth?"

"Yes, Ada."

"Come in! Is something wrong?" he asked as she opened the door and slipped through.

After a few minutes, she reemerged and told the other three women that her fathers were coming out to talk with them.

"It is time to call together the members of Unity Between Humans and Shifts!" the mystic declared, as he and his husband came out in matching silk robes. "This violence cannot be tolerated!"

"Shouldn't we wait until morning?" Dozi asked.

"Certainly not!" replied the mystic. "Those villains did not wait until morning!"

"I agree," his husband declared. "The city is under attack by a fringe group of its own citizens. We need to do what we can to put a stop to it!"

The women returned to the shop below while the men set about dressing themselves. A few moments later, they too descended the stairs. Theolan was wearing a bright yellow tailcoat.

"Honey," the mystic said, "the goldfinches and canaries will be jealous of you when they wake up!"

There was still over an hour until the pre-dawn glow before sunrise would begin to lighten the sky.

"Hearing about the attack on the underground has given me such a case of the morbs!" Theolan declared. "I couldn't help but dress in something bright." He then turned to the four young women. "We will rally everyone in the UBHS. You'll be able to find us at the Spritehood meetinghouse, once the birds are awake," he added, giving his husband a little slap.

"We will join you there," Agrell stated. She turned, reached out, and took Lahari's hand again. "Take us to where the attack happened, maybe we can help some of your people."

"No, thank you," interjected Dozi. "I have no interest in getting involved in the middle of a battle between those empowered groups."

Agrell turned to her. "Maybe you should go with them," she recommended, reaching out towards the mystic and his husband. "I don't want you to get hurt," and her eyes were full of concern.

Lahari added, "I don't know about this idea, Agrell. You want to help because you're a Messiah, and you might actually be able to help, but I wouldn't be surprised if my people do not see what you're offering as assistance, and instead, they attack you."

"I can't just sit here and do nothing!" Agrell proclaimed. "Please, take me somewhere that I can do some good."

"I'm in, too," Ilya declared. "I know I'm not in great shape," she said, pointing at her bandaged side, "but if I can fly again, I can be your lookout."

"You can fly?!" the mystic asked in surprise.

"We can discuss that later," Agrell stated. "Take me to the fighting."✪