[Arngrim]
Arngrim waited outside, nervously and impatient. He wanted nothing more than this mission to end without incident, but he knew better than that. He looked around, scanning the outskirts of the castle. It would prove hard to escape from, and any escapees would basically have to run right past him, to really escape. Arngrim’s black cloak danced to the wind’s tune.
‘Arngrim, tell those two to get prepared,’ Rado said calmly, ‘we’re ready to go.’ Arngrim looked back towards Rado’s study, he sighed a little before walking towards some tents in the distance, not forgetting a hearty ‘Yes, sir!’ before he was out of earshot.
Cautiously he approached the tent, while most high ranking single digits were a pain to get along; this particular one was especially difficult. He parted the tent's entrance with his hand, looking inside. His expression notably dropped, as he witnessed Duph, number 3 of this generation, being fed by Cornelia, who was number 5.
‘I guess some people have it harder than others.’ Arngrim said to himself.
‘Ahh, Arngrim!’ Duph said with his mouth half full of meat, ‘Come and sit with us!’ He was happy enough, despite what was going on, during Duph’s speech bits of food had flown out of his mouth, over Cornelia who calmly wiped them off.
‘Best I sit out of range.’ Arngrim thought, lest he also be covered in waste. Remembering his purpose for being there (which also was his purpose for leaving), he told Duph and Cornelia to get ready to enter the castle.
‘I will do that – as soon as I finish eating.’ Duph said stubbornly, he wasn’t one who liked to interrupted, only those ranked higher up could tell him what to do, or so he thought.
‘No,’ Cornelia interjected, putting down the plate of meat, ‘we will go now, get your things ready, I’ve had enough of this.’
Cornelia was usually a very calm and caring person, quite rare for someone like that to attain single digit status, Arngrim knew though, that the one thing she truly hated; was Duph.
‘Thank you for delivering the message Arngrim,’ Cornelia said, both of them stood up roughly at the same time and lowered their heads respectfully ‘Duph, I don’t see you getting ready.’
‘But there’s still food left—‘ Duph was cut off by Cornelia hurling the plate across the tent.
‘Get ready, now.’ Cornelia said with a stern voice, Duph complied and got up. It would seem even though Duph was stronger than Cornelia, she was more important to the Organisation, as an eye, that wasn’t unlikely. Arngrim used this moment to escape, for fear that things could (and probably would) get worse.
‘Maybe he likes strong, assertive women…’ Arngrim thought to himself as he walked back to his post. He was hoping that if someone wanted to run away, they would have done so while he was preoccupied, though that never stopped him from doing his job before. Arngrim looked up, scanning the sky for anything interesting.
‘Yet another opportunity? Maybe I’m getting to old for this.’
[Cornelia and Duph]
Cornelia and Duph had finally gotten ready. Cornelia practically had to dress Duph, otherwise they would not be walking to the castle at this moment. They entered the large castle town gates, seeing an all too familiar scene. Duph scoffed at the idea of being sympathetic and walked towards the castle impatiently, Cornelia knew it best to not lose sight of Duph, so she quickly gave all those around her condolences and moved on hastily.
‘Well, where do we go?’ Duph questioned.
Sighing, Cornelia responded ‘We’re going towards to dungeon; there are a few rookies down there, as well as the target.’ Cornelia was less than impressed with Duph overall, but seeing how truly useless he was a reading Yoki it goes without saying her respect for him had reached an all time low.
‘So, where is the dungeon?’ Duph asked, and Cornelia looked at him condescendingly, pointing at a sign that had a prison cell on it. She walked towards the door and opened it, entering the dungeon.
‘Tch! Stuck up bitch.’ Duph muttered to himself quietly.
Inside, Cornelia looked around, even if he Yoki reading skills were far above average getting to the signals would be hard, this is where Duph would become useful. She closed her eyes and pointed in the direction were the target was. Duph looked at Cornelia; he had a slight idea of what he had to do, but still waited for confirmation.
‘Charge.’ Cornelia said, ‘But be careful of—‘ it was too late, Duph had already charged through 3 walls and 2 prison cells. Cornelia lowered her head in frustration before following Duph, who managed to plough through the walls effortlessly.
[Cecily, Sisteena and Lindy]
During their debilitation, the ground started to shake; the trio looked around in a panic, trying to locate the source of the tremors. Eventually it became evident in what direction it was coming in, and the trio moved out of harms way. A huge man came crashing through the wall with a slender woman following behind closely.
‘Get out of her, quickly! Follow the path we came from and you’ll make it out!’ the woman said, pointing behind her before quickly turning her attention ahead of her, looking up she shouted ‘Duph, it’s up there!’
“Wha…What?!?” Lindy was shocked that the surrounding walls fell and 2 figures emerged from it; the power and impact of such a move was never seen before. It was impressive. The duo; they looked like warriors, similar like her, for she could tell from the way they dressed and also from their Yoki. They were obviously of higher rankings for they appeared unscathed and out of harm’s way in the dangerous castle. The woman pointed the exit to them; it was what they had been searching for all along. She was tired of the many winding tunnels and countless similar looking stone paths. The many man hours spent wandering around aimlessly, she was tired of that. Lindy needed no reminder, she turned and her eyes interlocked with those of Cecily as they communicated silently.
The trio used this chance to escape the castle both Cecily and Lindy helped Sisteena up and ran towards the exit.
“Let’s go!”
[Kaiserin]
Hearing a whole bunch of loud crashes and tremors, Kaiserin decided it would be best to pocket the diary and make a run for it. She headed through dark corridors in a panic, trying to find a way out of this maze. Time passed and she had gotten no where, the ceiling above her rumbled and shook, she stared at it intently, she wasn’t going to find the way out of this place normally, so perhaps she would have to make a path open up. She felt the Yoki of a few very powerful forces, there wasn’t much to go on, and it seemed both sides were being fairly reserved but it didn’t take an expert to realize what was going on. Soon after completing her observations the ceiling caved in on top of Kaiserin, who frantically pushed the rubble off herself.
‘An opening?!’ she thought to herself, and managing to pull herself up to the upper level of the dungeon. The place was a mess (even for a dungeon) and looked like it was close to being destroyed completely. Being alone and so close to these powerful forces Kaiserin made a break for the entrance, she had enough of dark, stinky and grimy places for one day and lusted for fresh air and natural light. Eventually she made it out of the castle completely, and thusly, out of the town into the harsh desert, being overlooked by Arngrim.
[Arc]
In a very similar situation to Kaiserin, Arc was attempting to find his way out of the dungeon; the battle raged on below, something this fierce could destroy the entire castle. Arc had observed that the castle didn’t have the best foundations, and concluded that retreat was the best course of action, and given his bearings and experience with the castle, getting out would certainly be easier than getting in. Arc had marked the walls in the middle sections of the castle, though his work would soon go to waste with the state the castle was about to be in. Eventually he made it out, and was quickly rounded up by Arngrim.
[Arngrim]
It had been about an hour since Cornelia and Duph had left to enter the castle. Arngrim figured since they had entered a whole bunch of rookies would be exiting, thinking he was wrong, he decided to ease up on the look out duty. He had been leaning on a strong oak post for the longest time; they were quite acquainted by now. Arngrim looked around, bored. It had been a long time since he had a real job, killing Yoma instead of trainees and escapees. He felt a few weak signals coming from the castle.
‘Is it over already? Or perhaps it’s time for me to start…’ Arngrim rose to his feet, grabbing his extraordinary sword and holstering it on his back before covering it completely with his black habits. He marched quickly to the three Yoki signals he had felt, two of them were strong, but one of them was quite weak.
‘An injury perhaps?’ Arngrim questioned as he picked up the pace. In no time he had reached the three rookies who looked up at him with fear in their eyes ‘Heh, no one’s ever happy to see me are they…’
This time however, he didn’t kill them, they had explained that the only reason they had left the castle was because Cornelia told them to escape and Sisteena was hurt. Arngrim had no intention of killing them in the first place, since he loved to play on technicalities which is handler, Rado threw at Arngrim in order to get his way. Well, it seemed to work both ways, though rarely in Arngrim’s favour.
‘Head towards to medical tent, get your friend some aid and wait there for me,’ Arngrim paused to make sure they understood him, ‘go on then? What are you waiting for?’
Arngrim walked past them towards more Yoki signals, one was on the upper level of the castle and the other was heading towards him now.
Arngrim finally got the rookie in sight; it was a male warrior, who looked like he had seen hell. Arngrim approached him and as the rookie opened his mouth Arngrim interjected
‘No need to say anything, I think I understand already. Go to the medical tent and wait for me there.’
The rookie looked at him, and without a word headed towards the Organisation camp site.
‘Not a bad day’ Arngrim said to Arngrim, smiling a little.
The last signal took a bit of time to get to him, when he finally had the rookie in his sights his smile faded as he examined her. He had a few automatic prerequisites when it came to deciding who lived and who died, with these it was easier to stay in Rado’s good books, despite Arngrims contemptuous attitude.
No battle wounds, energetic and with no reason to have left the scene, it looked grim for Kaiserin, who faced Arngrim with wide eyes.
‘Why did you leave the area of operations? Do you have a good reason?’ Arngrim questioned firmly. He believed in giving his would be victims a chance to explain themselves, most of them rarely did so at this point it was a mere pleasantry. Kaiserin though, was oblivious to Arngrim’s profession, and answered him earnestly. Bribing him almost, with the diary she found. The Organisation would certainly be fond of something like that. His smile returned, for the rookie had given him enough reason to not kill her. He sent her off to the medical tent as well, to wait there until he returned.
The situation inside the castle was getting out of hand, although Duph and Cornelia were more than a match for the monster inside (truth be told, Arngrim alone could have handled the monster with ease, for he was much stronger than he let on to be), the foundation surely would not hold. Along with that, there were still two rookies inside, as well as a more experienced soldier. What they were still doing in there was a mystery to Arngrim, even though he was quite a perceptive man, he wasn’t nearly on the same level as Cornelia when it came to reading Yoki.
[Rado]
Rado was busy writing a log of all the events he had heard in a report, as a side dish for his superiors he wrote a little (for him) bit on Ortre’s negligence and disappearance. He cursed under his breathe each time he wrote something new about Ortre.
‘Quick, put her down there!’ he heard a panicked voice say, ‘Rookies…back already?’ he thought to himself, curiosity hadn’t gotten the better of him though, he continued scribbling away. It wasn’t until he heard another rookie’s voice, male and soon after that a loud female voice along with a crash that he decided that it would be best to quell this ruckus.
He looked inside and noted 5 rookies, 4 of them gathered around one who was injured. The male noticed Rado first and alerted his comrades who turned around and saluted Rado lightning fast. Rado looked at the rookies for a short time before questioning, ‘Where is Arngrim?’
Silence fell, none of the rookies knew who Arngrim was, and one hesitated to ask ‘Is he the big scary fellow?’
‘You could say that’ Rado replied, scanning the rookies.
‘He told us to wait for him here…’ one of the rookies said, voice trailing off a little in the end.
‘Well, if they aren’t dead I suppose he found a technicality to play on, damn that man,’ Rado turned around, he was half leaning in the tent, doing so meant he was now facing the castle, somehow he had hoped to see Arngrim so he could get some answers.
‘Well, for now, wait here.’ Rado said before leaving to go back to his study, he heard one of the rookies say,
‘We were going to do so even without you telling us.’
What impertinence! If Rado could have placed the voice to a face or name, he would have had them hung, drawn and quartered. But he had more pressing matters on his mind.
Some time passed, a man walked into Rado’s study, observant of his mood he said quietly and in the most respectful tone he could muster ‘Arngrim has returned, he’s in the medical tent with the rookies. Cornelia and Duph have yet to return.’
‘Tell them all to come here.’ Rado said without even looking up to acknowledge the man.
‘Yes, sir’ the man said as he sulked away.
In a few minutes all but the damaged rookie were standing side by side in his study. He glazed over them for a moment before writing some evaluation notes on all of them, the rookies stood nervously as Rado’s quill scratched and chipped away at his parchment. Finally Rado looked up.
‘Explain the situation’
And after a jumbled and confusing explanation from all the rookies, detailing (roughly) the events that had happened at the castle Rado nodded his head.
‘Very well, Arngrim, Arc and Cecily, you may leave now.’
The rookies left without hesitation but Arngrim was a little let down. Rado looked at the rookies,
‘You there, let me see this diary that you picked up.’ He said to the rookie, who gave him the diary without a second thought.
He skimmed through the diary, slowly at first but quickening every time he flipped to another page.
‘Shit… This is amazing; if it’s true then the Organisation might be in jeopardy.’ He sat down slumped in his chair.
‘You…tell me exactly what you saw, every little detail, I want to know.’ Rado said to the rookie who gave him the diary. She explained the whole thing slowly, trying to not make any mistakes but she often stumbled on her words and stuttered. Rado was writing everything down word for word, mistakes in speech included. Next he turned to the other rookie, getting a detailed account from her as well. Eventually he called the injured rookie into his study, and made her explain everything in detail as well; she stood slanted and explained everything in immaculate detail while being embraced by the rookies for support.
Finally Rado spoke, ‘I see, very interesting…’ his voiced trailed off a bit. ‘I hope you three realize the predicament you’re in. From now on, I’m going to refer you all back to the Organisation, who will no doubt have important tasks for all three of you.’ He looked at their faces, pleased was not a word used to describe it.
He laughed a little ‘You should look happy, this is basically a promotion.’ He said, thinking ‘if you don’t die, that is.’ right afterwards.
The Eve project, what madness is this…