"I'm your uncle..."
Albeck discreetly mouthed the name "Annan."
Annan understood, then stared in shock. "Albeck... Uncle? How did you turn into a Ratfolk Thing!?"
"The price."
Annan finally understood why Shadow had been so certain that day that Blackwatch could not go back on its word.
Albeck and the others in Blackwatch had all been turned into Ratfolk!
If the Empire had no way to reverse it, the price was far too high...
"Did the Chaos Cult force you into this...!?" Annan remembered to keep up the act for whoever was watching from the shadows.
Albeck chuckled. "No. I volunteered. It was the only way the Chaos Cult would trust me."
"Hah... You're a Ratfolk now. What about Aunt?"
"She..." A flicker of guilt passed through Albeck's scarlet rat eyes.
"Congratulations on your reunion, uncle and nephew, but there's no time to catch up."
An illusory mist drifted in without a sound and gathered into the outline of Gray Mist. "Follow my people off Montreal Mountain."
Annan was unsurprised by Gray Mist's arrival. He looked at the believers still fighting the State Religion's troops and the Guards rushing to reinforce them. "What about them?"
"We've caused the Empire this much trouble. We ought to leave it some compensation."
"Heretics!"
A thunderous roar exploded over Ring Plaza. Dust billowed into the air, and every structure taller than three meters around the execution ground was flattened by an invisible force.
"Go!"
Annan followed the Ratfolk that Blackwatch had become and Gray Mist's people into a roadside house, then down a tunnel prepared in advance.
Albeck pulled Annan to the rear and whispered so only he could hear, "Annan, you can't stay with us."
"Why?"
"Your identity was put together too hastily. The Chaos Cult has probably found something wrong with it.