"I thought you said it never rains here?" Enid asked, stepping through the narrow mouth of the hollow the two refuged within. She gestured pointedly with a jab of her thumb towards the surface, the red velvet cloak she bore gently dusting the rock.
Hardly ever - there's a distinction," replied the fire spirit, unfurling herself from the tangle of ratty old blankets they'd piled in the corner of the room. Standing and stretching out to her full height, she continued, "I assume it's raining right now?"
"Not right now, but it's bound to be soon enough." The cat answered, flipping her hood down. "While we're on about it, didn't you mention a magical barrier that prevents pretty much all weather from passing through here?"
"Not so much a magical barrier in the strictest sense, but I suppose. It's more like... an aura, or... a presence. It doesn't even prevent everything from getting through anyway."
"So... shouldn't the storm have, I don't know, dissipated by now? Or at the very least have lightened up?"
"Yes, unless something's changed."
"Changed?"
"I thought I told you this?"
Enid tilted her head to one side quizzically. "No, I don't believe you have."
"I could've sworn I... no matter. The main source of magic here in Subcon comes from the Snatcher - I'd hope you know who that is by now," Charlotte replied with a look of questioning.
"...The big purple guy? Of course, I do - what do you take me for?! I've been here long enough!"
"Just checking. To get on with my point, he is the one who exudes most of this "magical barrier" that you're talking about. It's strongest around the manor, for obvious reasons."
"I can't say I'd know those obvious reasons. I've never been," replied Enid with a smile, though it was all too full of teeth. Charlotte didn't seem to notice.
"It's not a place you should ever think about visiting, unless you want to say, 'goodbye forever' to the mortal coil."
"I... see." The cat nodded in agreement. She loathed to lie to the fire spirit like this, but she had yet to find some open space in their search in which to tell her what she'd found. What she knew that she didn't.
...Except it wasn't really that, was it? More so it was a fear of the repercussions; a fear of what would be in store for her if Charlotte knew she'd been lying to her face for so long. It was something that had been engrained into her very being from the time she was small, an orphan raised by the Empress - trying to smooth talk the the Empress with edited truth was a fatal mistake, one she had seen made by far too many cats who were none the wiser. So had she learned to internalize the things she needed to keep hidden, and instead only tell the truths that she felt would please the boss.
Enid was an excellent liar then, so why was it so hard now? Perhaps she had let her guard down? Perhaps, even, Charlotte had helped her to begin to break down some of those walls, those mannerisms that she adopted to protect herself.
Perhaps.
Enid shifted on her feet. "Well... for lack of anything better to do, I guess I'll be outside."
"In the rain?" Charlotte questioned. "I thought you hated water?"
Enid rolled her eyes playfully. "How rude, stereotyping us metro cats like that. I'll have you know that I, myself, love a good storm from time to time." She winked, gesturing in mock bravado.
Charlotte scanned her over with a poignant air but relaxed quickly, craning her neck as if she were rolling her eyes. As Enid turned to leave, she could see her start to wring her hands together nervously.
"Ah... I hate to bring this up at such an inconvenient time, but... when we get around to it, as much as I loathe to say so, I think the manor is an apt place to start looking for answers."
So this was it, then. From the way this last conversation was starting, Enid knew she probably wasn't going to get through it without some inadvertent reveal of how much she really knew. No more running, she supposed.
Charlotte would hate her for it.
"Start looking? Charlotte, we've been looking for answers since I got here - you've been doing this for so long, have you not found even a single one?"
"They're not the answers I'm looking for."
"What do you mean?"
"Everything I've gleaned up to this point tells me what happened, generally speaking, but not the details. What really happened - the how, and the why. I still don't know where this 'Snatcher' figure came from, or why he is the way he is. I don't know what happened to the royal family, I only know what Vanessa's become. I suppose I do know that the Prince is dead, and that his body is now in the possession of Subcon's one and only moon spirit. But given all the other general trickery that's been inflicting its misery upon this place I don't doubt for a second that the Prince's soul is still out there. Unless, heaven forbid, it's already been stolen."
She stopped for a moment but continued quickly before Enid could get a single word in.
"Not only all that but I'd also adore being capable of traversing the forest that I' have called home ever since I was born without being afraid of dying a second time, this time via having my soul stolen. And thusly being completely banished from existence. As much as I know that's never going to happen, a woman can dream, can't she? Even a dead one?"
Enid had stepped up onto the outcropping of rock that led up and out of the hollow when she turned around and looked, really looked, at Charlotte.
"And what will you do when you find out?"
"Find out what?"
"What, exactly this... Snatcher, is? Who he is? What will you do then?"
"I'll do what I have to, with what I'm given."
"And what might that be? You've already expressed the fact that there's not much you can do, so I can't even begin to imagine what impossibly brave thing you plan on doing."
Charlotte scoffed. "What do you take me for? Some seasoned old warrior? I'm not some expert fighter, Enid, and the most likely outcome is that I find better ways to adapt, by making smart judgements based upon the info I piece together, and live the rest of my afterlife to the best of my abilities."
"So you don't plan on disposing of possibly the greatest threat to not only your life, but the continued survival of any future visitors to your forest?" Enid retorted, though it took all of her effort to not scream at Charlotte the answer's been under your nose the whole time and the Snatcher is literally the person you're talking about.
"Must this all end in violence, dear?"
"Allow me to get a few things straight about your first few statements, and then we can move on from there. Firstly, it is not my forest; in fact, it shouldn't really belong to anyone, as much as old purple out there likes to lord his ownership of it over everyone's heads. Secondly, there has only been a singular person who's beaten the Snatcher, ever, and not just in recent memory. And that, dear, would be those two children... and... Wait a moment."
Enid snorted. "What's wrong now?"
"The storm... the children... I see."
"Spit it out already, would you?"
"The magic hold on Subcon - like I said, it's because of the Snatcher. And the fact that it is dissipating must mean something is changing. Either as a result of his defeat, or as a result of those two children's constant visits. And I believe it's the latter, given its recent prominence."
"So, the old man must be growing soft, then?"
"That has to be it," said the fire spirit, looking vigorously lost in thought - and when she met Enid's gaze with uncharacteristically open eyes there was a newfound spark in them that hadn't ever been present before. Already so much different from when they had first met, so few months ago; she'd gotten bolder.
She must've rubbed off on her.
"We're so close, now, to finding the answer. You know what this means, don't you, Enid?"
"I suppose I do, but why don't you enlighten me?"
"If we can find some way to... I don't know, talk to those children - they must know something, if they've continued to come back here, of all places - we can finally find the missing piece of the story, and we'll know the full story of what happened here. Perhaps even why it happened."
There was nothing particularly alarming about that statement, but reflexively Enid pinned her ears back. At this point she could hide it no longer; the truth was bound to come out anyway, and she opted instead to steel herself and her gaze.
"What's the matter?" Charlotte questioned, though she'd already started digging her claws into the earth.
"There's something I need to tell you."
Charlotte's expression sank. "Enid, you're... you're worrying me." She eyed her with a side glance, "Whatever you're going to tell me, I..." Enid knew why she stopped. As much as she could tell the fire spirit wanted to tell her she 'didn't have to know', the cat knew she did.
"I've been looking, on my own time, and... I've put things together and I've... I've already been talking with those kids you mentioned. And you might not necessarily like what I've found. Or learned."
The fire spirit watched her with a concerned expression.
Enid stared back, and as she was trained to do, wiped away the emotion lingering on her face.
"Eh, the Snatcher is... who you've been looking for. This whole time."
Charlotte's eyes flickered from side to side underneath their lids, frantic in thought, before she settled her scrutiny back on Enid. "You mean to tell me that you knew?"
The metro cat nodded.
"How did... why did..." The spirit stared at her hands, claws curling in. "How long have you known?" she asked suddenly, a hint of venom trailing her voice - she seemed more surprised than angry by the revelation, but Enid could tell she was upset, and rightfully so.
"A couple weeks, now. I... I'm sorry, Charlotte, I should've told you sooner - I swear, I meant to, I really did, but there was no real good opportunity to, and..." She trailed off. How atypical of her, she thought, scrutinizing her own behaviour. How weak. She'd let her guard down far too much; and now she was going to pay the price and lose yet another person she cared about. How had she fallen so far? Lying had gotten her through so much before, she'd spent her whole life getting good at it, especially after Cheyenne had convinced her to become an informant - but now her air of coolness was gone. Obliterated.
She could only stare at Charlotte, desolately, praying silently for her mercy.
-And that, she received. Despite her frustration, the fire spirit gathered her composure, and with a long inhale she finally spoke, gazing right into the metro cat's red eyes.
"I... I understand why you lied, by omission at the very least... but I need some time to think. Leave me be." She emphasized that last part, with all the force she could currently muster in her voice. "Please."
With one last glance back, Enid turned, stepped up the rest of the way, and began to climb her way out of their shared hovel, pulling her hood back up as she exited. The edge of the storm had shown up, by now, bringing with it strong winds which blew both dead and young foliage from the trees. With a heavy sigh, the cat pulled her cloak closer around her before heading out, away from the forest's heart.