Felicity's Beas Chapter 25: Staying Home?

Chapter 25: Staying Ho?

From a distance, Tidehaven looked serene, almost reverent. Towers of coralstone rose from the sea like pale ribs, reinforced with steel and threaded together by translucent walkways that bent the sunlight into shifting blues and greens. Water flowed everywhere, not just beneath the city but through it. Channels ran alongside the streets, and glass tunnels cut directly through the ocean itself so that fish drifted past at eye level like living murals.

Felicity stood at the edge of the upper causeway with her fingers curled lightly around the railing. Her ears tipped forward and her tail moved slowly behind her as she took it all in.

"It’s beautiful," she murmured.

Victor made a low sound of agreent behind her. His arm had already settled loosely around the small of her back in a gesture that looked casual to anyone unfamiliar with Snow Team. Every man who understood predator behavior read it exactly for what it was. Territory. Protection. A warning.

Voss stood on her other side, posture relaxed but attention sharp as he studied the city with a strategist’s focus. His gaze moved constantly, asuring distances, noting choke points and elevated positions, tracking the density of the crowd and the concentration of ard personnel. Tidehaven was impressive, but it was also crowded.

Too many people. Too many n.

They felt Felicity before most of them consciously noticed her.

Tidehaven had a pulse to it, the steady rhythm of a functioning stronghold, but that rhythm shifted subtly the mont she stepped fully into the flow of the streets. Heads turned. Conversations slowed. The air itself seed to thicken as the unfamiliar scent of a fox beastwoman threaded through the salt and steel of the harbor city.

Felicity didn’t notice the change at first. She was too absorbed in the architecture, in the way water ran through channels cut into the stone and the way the sunlight refracted through the glass tunnels above them.

Victor noticed.

His hand settled more firmly against her back as they moved deeper into the city.

"Stay between us," he said quietly.

She nodded without hesitation and kept walking.

The attention escalated quickly once they entered the main thoroughfare. rcenaries leaning against railings stopped mid conversation. Dockworkers paused while hauling cargo. Even the Tidehaven soldiers marked with Pia’s crest followed Felicity with their eyes longer than politeness allowed.

One of them stepped closer than the rest.

He was tall and broad shouldered, moving with the relaxed confidence of soone who had never been aningfully corrected in his life. His gaze slid over Felicity in open assessnt as he approached.

Victor corrected him before he could speak.

The pressure of Victor’s aura snapped outward with surgical precision. Heat and cold folded together into sothing sharp enough to sting the lungs. The soldier staggered back instinctively, boots scraping across the stone as his body reacted to the predator standing in front of him.

Victor’s voice remained calm.

"Not yours."

The ssage traveled farther than the words themselves.

A second man attempted to approach anyway, his hand lifting with a smile that suggested he thought himself charming.

Voss intervened without even looking at him.

The pressure was subtle, more like a thought forced into the back of the man’s mind than a visible attack. The effect was imdiate. The soldier flinched violently and turned away as if he had suddenly rembered an urgent appointnt sowhere else.

He left at a near jog.

Felicity glanced up at them both, confused by the tension she could only partly sense.

"You don’t have to do that," she said.

"We do," Voss replied gently.

Victor’s grip at her waist tightened briefly before relaxing again.

"You don’t see it yet," he said. "That’s a good thing."

They guided her farther into the city, moving past open markets suspended over seawater and residential structures carved directly into reefstone. Training yards appeared intermittently between buildings, where Tidehaven’s elite soldiers drilled in disciplined formations. Above them the glass tunnels carried entire rivers of fish through the sky, their silver bodies shifting in synchronized waves that made Felicity smile in quiet delight.

High above the streets, Pia watched them from the upper terraces.

Her trident rested casually against her shoulder while several of her officers observed the newcors with open interest.

"She’s softer than I expected," one of the n muttered.

Another officer shook his head slightly. "Look at how Snow Team moves around her. That’s not softness. That’s leverage."

Pia’s expression hardened.

"They won’t be able to keep her forever," she said coldly. "No one ever does."

Far below, Felicity had reached the residence assigned to them.

The structure stood in a quieter quadrant of Tidehaven away from the docks and the main barracks. The entrance ford a wide arch of reinforced glass and coralsteel, water flowing through carved channels along either side. Inside, the space opened into a broad central living area that made Felicity stop in surprise.

The room felt warm despite the ocean surrounding it. Polished stone floors were softened by woven rugs. Crystal panels embedded in the walls glowed with soft light designed to mimic sunlight filtering through water. Curved seating wrapped around a low table and shelves were already stocked with basic supplies. A compact kitchen sat in one corner while several private rooms branched deeper into the structure.

A bathing chamber occupied the far end of the residence, where filtered seawater filled a recessed pool that released gentle curls of steam.

Felicity turned slowly in place.

"This is ours?"

"For now," Victor answered. "Two exits. One vertical shaft. Pressure rated walls."

Voss ran his fingers briefly along the fra of the window that faced the sea.

"There’s shielding in the structure. Not enough to hold off a full assault, but enough to buy ti."

Felicity wandered slowly through the space, touching everything with quiet curiosity. She paused at the wide window where the ocean pressed against the glass. A silver fish drifted past, hovering at eye level as if studying her in return.

She laughed softly.

"I’ve never lived anywhere like this."

Victor watched her like the entire room had rearranged itself around her presence.

"You deserve a castle, not this," he said simply, his eyes fixed on the horizon as if he could see golden spires there.

Above the district, Pia’s officers continued observing.

"She settles quickly," one of them noted.

"If we wait too long, it’ll be harder."

Pia tightened her grip on the trident.

"Then we don’t wait."

Snow Team barely had ti to acclimate before orders arrived.

An escort mission had been assigned. A trade caravan moving between Tidehaven and a smaller inland base required protection. The cargo included weapons, supplies, and information valuable enough to attract attention from every hostile group in the region.

Victor accepted the mission imdiately.

The shift in the room was subtle but unmistakable. His posture straightened and the warmth he carried around Felicity slid behind command. Voss began outlining potential routes in his head before the briefing had even finished.

"You’re staying here," Victor told Felicity.

Her smile wavered slightly but she nodded.

"I know."

He pressed his forehead briefly against hers before stepping away. Voss rested a hand lightly on the top of her head for a mont longer than necessary before turning toward the door.

"We’ll be back."

Victor insisted that Luna and Frost accompany them.

"They need exposure," he said calmly. "Real terrain. Real threats."

Felicity knelt to adjust Luna’s travel straps while the team prepared to depart. Her hands were gentle and careful as she worked.

"You’ll do great," she told them both.

Frost attempted to look brave, though his tail betrayed his nerves.

Luna wrapped her arms around Felicity’s legs in a tight hug.

"I’ll bring you shinies."

Victor smiled faintly at that before leading the team out.

The door sealed behind them.

Water resud its slow drifting movent outside the glass.

Only Felicity and Rose remained.

Rose paced the periter restlessly. The vines beneath her skin shifted faintly with every step.

"I don’t like this," she muttered.

"Too quiet."

Felicity laughed lightly.

"You hate quiet."

Rose shook her head slowly.

"Not this kind."

High above the district, Pia’s n waited patiently.

They watched until Snow Team’s signal faded into the distance.

Then they moved.

The residence defenses disengaged easily when the correct pattern pressed against the coralsteel seam. The house recognized the authority embedded in the code and opened without resistance.

Rose had barely turned toward the sound when the first n entered.

Shadows flooded the room.

Steel flashed.

"Don’t scream," one of them said calmly. "We don’t want to hurt you."

Another stepped closer, his gaze sliding over Felicity with unsettling interest.

"But wewill."

Rose’s vines surged instantly, but the strike ca from behind before she could fully react. The blow was precise and brutally efficient. Her body collapsed to the floor and her magic sputtered across the stone like broken roots.

Felicity froze as hands seized her arms. A cloth pressed tightly against her mouth.

Her magic reacted instinctively as the world tilted. The room blurred while darkness crept inward from the edges of her vision. Power slipped loose in a thin uncontrolled ripple that spread briefly across the coralsteel floor before fading into the structure.

No one noticed.

"Careful," one of the n murmured. "She’s valuable."

Another voice laughed quietly.

"We could take turns before.."

"No."

A Tidehaven officer stepped forward, his crest visible on his armor.

"She belongs to Pia," he said coldly. "Touch her and you answer to her mates"

Reluctant hands withdrew.

Felicity’s consciousness slipped away.

Monts later, Rose’s eyes opened.

The room swam as she forced herself upright. Her head throbbed and the floor beneath her palms was cracked where her vines had lashed out during the attack. The scent of strangers filled the air.

But the absence struck harder.

Felicity was gone.

Rose pushed herself against the wall, breathing slowly through the pain as her vines slid across the stone floor, tasting the lingering traces of the n who had taken her.

Victor was going to burn this entire city down.

Miles away, Snow Team fought through the escort route as it collapsed into chaos.

Zombies surged from ruined buildings, their bodies hardened with fused bone and tal. The caravan nearly broke apart when one trader was dragged screaming into a collapsed storefront.

Victor tore space open in violent bursts, swallowing wreckage and undead bodies alike.

"Close ranks," Voss ordered sharply.

The formation snapped back together under pressure.

Luna unleashed a wave of telekinetic force that crushed three undead at once while Frost held the shield line beside her with stubborn determination.

Between engagents Victor gathered anything useful he could find. Food. Weapons. Fabric.

Voss noticed the blankets.

"She’d like those," Victor said quietly as he stored them.

Luna nodded seriously.

"For mummy."

They had no idea.

When Snow Team returned to Tidehaven days later, Victor reached the residence first. The door opened easily when he pressed his palm against the coralsteel seam.

At first nothing appeared wrong.

The lights glowed softly and the ocean drifted beyond the glass windows in quiet blue currents.

Then Victor slled it.

Too many strangers had been inside.

He stopped moving.

Behind him Luna stepped into the room, already talking about the shells she had gathered along the shore. She stopped mid sentence when she realized Felicity wasn’t there.

Victor’s gaze had dropped to the floor.

Rose sat against the far wall with bruises darkening her skin and fury burning in her eyes.

Victor spoke quietly.

"Where is she."

Rose t his gaze.

"They took her."

The room fell completely silent.