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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2123130" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 180: Friend of a FriendThe children had eventually padded off, pouncing each other and growling the whole way. As Akan got back to his feet, he looked up to see a small ship passing over and quickly dropping in altitude. He watched it go over and then disappear behind another of the large buildings before sighing. It reminded him of Loki. Sure, it was exactly the same...but it was close enough. And reminding him of Loki reminded him of everything else. There were too many things that needed to be done and he was stuck here in the middle of who knew where without any idea of what to do. Well, that wasn’t true. He knew what to do. That was simple: Get Shadow back. Of course, the how was what caused it to be a problem. So did the where.    “Marix...?” a voice sounded behind him. Akan raised an eyebrow, turning around to see a new Alraxian standing not to far off. He was taller than Akan, with short, emerald coloured hair. The colour was not lost on Akan. In fact, for a moment, it was all Akan could see until the man suddenly rushed over and grabbed Akan by the collar, “Where is she?! What have you done with her?!”    Roughly, Akan forced the man off and took a step back, “Hold on a second there, pal. Who the hell are you, anyway?!”    But before any response could be made, Akan threw up his arms, “And don’t touch me! I’ve had it with this damned, Alraxian touchy feely crap! That is one thing I’ve had damn well enough of and...”    Slowly, Akan trailed off. Not only because the large Alraxian was glaring at him, but because a memory clicked. Not Akan’s memory, but Shadow’s. Which was...odd in its own right. The link had provided them with a bit of memories that had seeped through on both ends. And one of those stray Shadow memories put a name with a face. Kyren. This was Kyren! Trustworthy. Right...now...    “Um...sorry about that,” Akan said quietly, taking another small step back just in case and noting Kyren’s expression went from glaring to somewhat confused, “Just a little jumpy lately. Name’s Akan. You would be...Kyren, right? Because if you are, then we’ve got to talk.”    Still, Kyren said nothing. His face was a very odd mix of deep set rage and outright confusion. Akan couldn’t really blame him, though. Sighing, he shrugged, “Well...nice to meet you, too. Unless you’d like to assist me in the impossible, then I’ll be moving along and leaving you be again.”    Giving up, Akan turned and started back to the palace to get some things gathered up. But as he got close, Kyren reached over and yanked Akan up off of his feet to bring them eye to eye. The confusion turning back to anger, Kyren growled, “Listen! I didn’t understand half of what you just said! I’ve just come back from losing all of my pack in a battle against Marix calling herself ‘Nine’! So if you don’t start making sense and tell me what’s going on I’m going to tear your tail off and feed it back to you until you DO make sense!”    There was a pause. Akan didn’t doubt that Kyren would do that. For a short moment, the two Alraxian men stared each other down. Then, slowly, Kyren’s face softened and he let go of Akan, dropping him a few centimeters back down to his feet. The tension faded away between them and Akan slowly explained what was going on from his understanding. About Nine and Ket...and then about Shadow, saying she had been summoned and hadn’t seen her since.    “Summoned?” Kyren sighed heavily and shook his head, then gave Akan a critical look, “Why aren’t you part of the Network?”    But Akan just held up a hand, “Not important right now. What is important is that I need to find where my weapon is being kept. Then, I need to find out where she is.”    “Get me some food and we’ll talk,” Kyren said tiredly before sitting down in the grass. Akan sighed but went anyway, taking nearly half an hour to actually find the kitchen and getting lost twice on the way out. Someone finally led him back, and Akan dropped the plate of food in front of Kyren.    “I’m not feeding you,” he grumbled as Kyren dove into the food, “Now you’ve got your food, so let’s talk.”    “Was she okay when she was summoned?” Kyren asked, a little desperately, between large bites of food, “Tell me what she was like...how she was acting. What she looked like...I...haven’t seen her in ages...”    Akan raised an eyebrow at that. A little bit of something at least close to obsession was in Kyren’s voice. But Akan told him anyway. He talked about how she’d been before they’d gotten to Alraxian space. For some reason, Akan found himself emphasizing how well they got along and such. He then went on about how she’d changed in the last couple of days. Through all of it, though, Akan omitted anything about how Shadow looked. That was conscious, too.    “She was just all...rigid and acting like some kind of servant,” Akan finished, waving a hand vaguely, “Unlike herself. Can’t even feel her through the link right anymore.”    He sighed and trailed off. It was that bad. He felt like...”No,” he mumbled quietly to himself, “Don’t start thinking like that, Akan. You just need to get some rest and then we can go and get my Shadow back.”    Kyren suddenly went stiff. Seeing this, Akan raised an eyebrow, “Are you alright?”    Suddenly, Kyren’s arm lashed out and grabbed Akan’s shoulder, “Just...just what did you mean by ‘my’?”    Truthfully, Kyren wasn’t all that sure who ‘Shadow’ was, but the Network was slowly informing him of the other details. Apparently, this Akan referred to Marix as Shadow. Why, wasn’t really known, but then again, the general opinion of Akan was that he was good kid, but just slightly unhinged.    But Akan’s face was suddenly confused as he shrugged Kyren’s hand off, “What are you talking about? You’re hearing things. Look, I’m really tired, and I’m going to go get some sleep.”    “You said...my...” Kyren grabbed Akan before he could leave, still not giving up on it.    Cornered, Akan’s face went red. He stumbled over a few non-words for a few minutes before finally managing, “Didn’t say my...nothing at all.”    Kyren sighed, “Fine. Look, I’ll see what I can do. Meet me here tomorrow morning at sunrise. Then we’ll do what we can. But you have to understand, where Marix is, is a very dangerous place for the rest of us. You’ve better be ready for failure. I don’t even know if we can find the place.”    “In the morning,” Akan said, ignoring the doubtful words and getting up and heading off to his...Shadow’s...their...whoever’s room it was.</blockquote>

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