there is no greater pain
or punishment than memory

Somewhere, deep, deep down, Quinn remembered what it was like to be divided from his first parents and how it had hurt. He had felt the loss of family knawing at him for months while he had been sent away. He had never been apart from them for very long, not really. True enough that they were on the neglectful side when he had lived at home with them, but they were still there, in the house with them. Unless Scotia was out at the hospital with Calan or Amery was off doing clan business or something along those lines. Quinn had never questioned those things. Never felt the need to. Clan business had not been his, though he had known that they were looking favorably at him as a fighter; more than happy to prod him along in those studies. Quinn hadn't looked into that deeply, because the studies and training had been what he wanted. What he thrived upon in his youth. Then again he thrived pretty well on it now.

Or the practise and battle where he used it. The clan's plans for him had been more sinister; a thing that Quinn did not realize until later, much later. They had wanted him to use those skills for the rest of the clan, for the shady business that they had. Having understood the intent behind it was not a memory that Quinn relished, but it was the truth and he'd had to deal with it. There were worst things about family that Quinn had to find out the hard way, too. The fact that they had betrayed him and lied to him so many times. Had given up on him, sent him to a place that he was suppost to die in. There were so many mixed emotions over that part, because he had changed in that place. He had found his north star there, and that had been such a rocky road to travel on, but so much later, things had worked out for the better in that area. Until they didn't, of course. But that was no fault of theirs. They had enough faults to be lain at their feet.

Telling him that his little brother, Calan, had died, when really Calan had been shunned from the family. They had begun to just cut all of their losses -- lost or not -- and clean up the messes left behind. None of that matters now, because Quinn knew that Calan had been safe some years later. He knew that the rest of the clan were no more, and it was good that way. Blemishes wiped from the board. As for parents after that, he had nothing good to say of those, either. He had been ignored, abandoned, sold off; and family only meant something to him if he chose them for himself. Aside from Calan, who had never lost faith in him, even when the clan had spun their lies to the boy a couple years before cutting him loose, too. And even chosen family left and betrayed, so Quinn found difficulties with the term overall. One would think that he wouldn't want more to add to that list, wouldn't want to try again, and yet? He did. He wanted to hope.

A certain name catches his attention as he wandered the grounds near the castle, and a small smile curled over his lips. Sounded like Angela was out of sight of those who watched over her. That could go well for him, if he found her first. So he kept looking for anyone that looked like they were trying to play keep away from those looking for her. He was in the right angle, however, to spot one such person. A very little one. A child hiding behind a rosebush. He had only just caught sight of her, having been walking up from the side, but it was a very good spot to hide, that much was for sure. Commendable, and it was keeping the others from finding her. If she was indeed who they were looking for. But Quinn was honestly hoping that it wasn't her. That this was not Angela that he was looking for, because if she was, then that meant that he had to kidnap her and hold her for awhile before giving her to that one guy on the mountain top.

Quinn did not like this idea, not one little bit. He wasn't exactly sure if it was worth it. Was trading her to someone else and taking her from her family worth him getting another chance at a family of his own? It certainly wasn't the right thing to do, but regular morals weren't really his thing, either. Children were not something he usually liked to mess with at all. He liked to avoid them when he could. Was it true that he had killed them before? Yes. For a similiar reason as this one, but that had been a bit different. It was their lives for the lives of his own children, except that those ones had already existed, and he couldn't force himself to lose his own kids for the sake of letting the other children live. He doesn't like the idea that he might have to make a choice not too far from that one now. Though he could tell himself that this one wasn't being harmed; he didn't have to do that. He just had to take her aay and give her to someone else.

It was still not something that he felt good about. The choice was a hard one with so many variables to it. But first thing was first; he had to find out, without a doubt, that this child was the Angela that he was here to take away. So he proceeded over to the rosebush, dreading it in each step that he took towards her. He had to make sure, had to check the situation out. After he was close enough to the rosebush and the child hiding there, Quinn stared off and away from said rosebush and child so he wouldn't be obvious or give away her hiding place when he might had to stealthily steal her away from it in the first place. "Are you Mallos' daughter Angela?" He asked evenly, reminding himself that he looked different right now; he did not look like himself because he did not want to be connected to this if he could help it. Not if this went in the direction that had been requested of him. And he waited to hear what her answer would be.