“Oh, Is that you Vin?” asked Ark as she turned her head towards Vin’s direction.

“Um… yeah, Claire said that you want to talk to me?” asked Vin, as he walked closer

“Yes. that’s right, please don’t mind the mess, please sit wherever you like,” answered Ark

Vin takes a chair and sits in front of her, with the only thing between was the fallen desk, Ark smiles at Vin, and then snaps her fingers, creating a clicking sound that echoed throughout the room, papers flew from the shelves covering the mess and creating a makeshift desk, she takes one final sip of her coffee before putting it down.

“So… Vin, do you have any questions?” asked Ark

“Yeah… a lot actually, but I’ll start with my name, how did you know? Is that the ability of your Artifact?” answered Vin

Ark responds with a nod

“Alright… um… about Claire, how long have you known her,” asked Vin

“Not as long as you, but long enough to gain her trust… and that means a lot since it’s Claire we’re talking about,” answered Ark

Vin nods and sighs, he has a lot of questions but doesn’t know what to ask, the atmosphere in the room was tense and awkward, almost palpable.

“One last thing… earlier… when we first met you, what did you do to Claire?” asked Vin, his tone becoming more serious

Ark was taken aback by his question, her lips curved into a smirk, and let out a small chuckle.

“You’re a sharp one, aren’t you?” she replied taking another sip of her coffee, “I didn’t do much, just some stuff to help prove my point, you could say that it was an unwritten story,”

Vn tilts his head, confused by Ark’s answer.

“To be honest, I planned to include you, I wanted you to see what Claire was seeing, but it looks like my Artifact wasn’t affecting you,” said Ark with a slight chuckle, “But enough about that, let’s get straight to business, I want you to join my team,” said Ark

Vin looks at Ark, he thinks for a moment, before talking.

“What exactly do you guys do?” asked Vin,

Ark extends her hand raising her thumb and pointer finger, “Gather and dispose,” she then folds her pointer finger, “Gather, we collect Artifacts from different places,” she then folds her thumb and unfolds her pointer finger, “Dispose, or in other words, kill, we kill curators and take their Artifacts,”

Vin sat in silence, his expression stoic, he felt his heart beating faster, his stomach knotting at the thought of killing someone, despite this feeling, there was something in him that prevented him from expressing his emotions, his mind was confused, was he afraid? Was he thrilled? Was he revolted? There were no answers to his questions, the only thing he knows is that he would soon be dragged into a rabbit hole, deeper than what Alice could wander.

Vin glanced at Ark, who seemed like she was waiting for him to say something.

“Killing people… so you aren’t one of the good guys?” asked Vin, seemingly absent-minded

Ark chuckles, “No, and fortunately so, there are no ‘good guys’ when it comes to being a curator, only the ones who can kill and those who can only wait until they are killed,” she replied, “It just depends on who you view as the ‘good guys,”

Vin sighed deeply, “What would happen if I joined you? And what would happen if I didn’t?” he asked

Ark hesitantly replies she anchored her elbow on the desk, as she rests her chin on her palm, her fingers leaning on her cheek, “Simple, if you choose to join, we’ll try our best to help you, show you the ropes, fight with you, and some other stuff, but if you don’t then nothing will happen, for now at least, the next time we meet, we’ll be strangers or even enemies” Ark sighs, “Unless some other groups of curators take you in, you’ll be a lone wolf, surrounded by elephants, waiting to stomp you to death,”

Vin tries to process the newfound information, leaving him in silence, to dwell upon his choices, he slumps on the chair and sighs, he can feel the tears wanting to escape his eyes, clouding his vision, he wipes his eyes, he quickly stands up and walks away.

“Give me some time to think about it,” said Vin, as he exited the room, not waiting for her response

Vin walks out of the room and sees Claire waiting for him, he gives her a small wave as he approaches her.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Let me guess, she asked you to join her team didn’t she?” asked Claire

Vin nods, “Yeah, but it looks like I don’t have a choice, all of the odds are against me,” he replied

Claire nods, “So, what are you planning to do?” she asked,

Vin looks at her and sighs, he shakes his head, not knowing what to answer, he feels trapped, surrounded by strangers in an unknown place, filled with strange knowledge, he looks down and sees his trembling hands. Claire looks at her friend, despite his stoic expression, she can see the distress in his eyes, crying for help.

“Vin…” she mumbles, holding his hand, “Tell me, if you're planning to join or not, either way, I'll do my best to help you, even if it kills me… but this decision is for you to make,”

Vin nods and looks at his reflection in her eyes, “Thanks…” he pulls away from Claire.

Vin leans on the wall, it was still morning, and yet exhaustion was visible on his face, he slides down to the floor, the sunlight creeps towards Vin’s face, he looks at the direction of the sunlight, which was seeping through a large glass door, his eyes widened, he hastily stands up and approached the door, Claire followed Vin, curious at what he was doing. As Vin was at the glass door, he turns the knob and opens it, Clarie and Vin were surprised, at the sight. A vast garden, filled with colorful flowers, and various trees.

“What the… where are we?” asked Vin completely shocked by the sight

“Are we… in a different country?” asked Claire

Questions flowed through their mind, an unfamiliar place, completely different from the ones they were used to seeing. Everything so far had been an unfamiliar sight, but this one was the epitome.

The both of them were too engrossed in the sight that they weren’t able to notice someone approaching from behind.

“This is a subspace,” said the person

VIn flinched, he turned around and saw Ark, while Claire ignored her as she continued to stare at the vast garden.

“This house is an Artifact,” said Ark

Vin’s eyes widened in disbelief, “Wait… but how can this be an Artifact?” he asked

Ark smirked, “It’s bigger on the inside, on the outside, it’s just a small normal house, but on the inside, it’s like a mansion, complete with its own yard and garden, plus we can use it for storage,” she explained in a boastful tone

“So… what’s the story of this house?” asked Vin

Ark shrugs, “This house is a stolen Artifact,” she answered,

VIn tilts his head in confusion, “Stolen Artifact?”

“After killing an enemy Curator, we can use their Artifact three times before it destroys itself,” explained Ark,

“Wait… but aren’t you guys using it now?” asked Vin

“Not really, the subspace is just part of its physical appearance, we’re not using its abilities… yet,” explained Ark.

“So this is where you train your members huh?” asked Claire still focused on the garden

Ark responds with a nod

“That’s amazing… what kind of training do they do?” asked Vin

“Just some simple combat training, some sparring here and there, and occasionally would fight for real,” Ark explained

“So you don’t train them to use their Artifacts?” asked Vin

“We can’t, every Artifact has a distinct ability, so much so, that it’s impossible to encounter someone who has the same ability, even if they have the same use,” Ark explains, “Finding out how to use and navigate through the abilities of your Artifact is more on self-learning,”

Ark smiles and pats the both of them on the shoulder, “Why don’t the two of you go and explore the garden, it could help clear out your minds,”

Vin hesitantly nods, he looks at Claire whose gaze was drifting far away, beyond the gardens, he waved his hand in front of Claire, once he saw her eyes shift to his hand, he points at the garden

“Let’s go for a walk,” said Vin

Claire nods. The two of them walked through the garden, the smell of leaves and soil filling their nostrils, their steps were audible under the dry leaves and fallen branches, the sight was beautiful and yet the walk was silent, they didn’t talk to each other, as they were preoccupied with their own thoughts, and they were both torn in their own choices. As their walk continued, they came across an open area within the garden. Claire grabbed Vin’s clothes and pulled him back, right before a blade was able to hit him. Vin gasped in surprise.

“What was that?” asked Vin

Claire points at the two people who breathing heavily, one of them were covered in paint and holding a book, while the other one was holding a sword larger than her body, they seemed like they were, fighting, their surroundings were distorted, the ground was filled with a black liquid, and the trees around were cleanly cut in half, as leaves flutter about, dancing in the tides of the wind, the once smell of trees and soil were soon replaced with blood and a slightly sweet yet pungent odor.

“That’s Chroma… and the lady from last night,” said Vin in a whisper,

Claire crossed her arms, the two of them watched, as the scene before them unfolded. The woman holding a sword lunged towards Chroma at great speed, creating rifts on the ground, Chroma quickly reacts, she opens her book, emitting a dim glow, a pair of wings emerged from the book, the wings flapped and emitted a strong gust of wind, covering Chroma under its feathers, the woman swung her sword at the wings, creating a loud shockwave that echoed throughout, the wing blocked her swing and her away, that sent her flying and crashing into a tree, destroying its trunk. Chroma flipped the pages of her book, and there emerged a pair of enormous clawed arms, Chroma pointed in the direction where the woman landed, the hands then landed a barrage of attacks, landing blows non-stop until the spot was completely destroyed, with no signs of the tree that used to stand tall.

Claire shook her head and walked back, seemingly having lost interest in the fight.

Vin glanced at Claire who was already at a significant distance away, “Where are you going? Aren’t you curious who’d win?” he asks before turning his attention back to the fight.

Claire halts for a moment, “It’s already obvious who’d win,” Claire replied, “It’s the woman with the sword,”

Vin’s ears perked up, he looked at Claire with a confused expression, “What?... how’d you know?” he asked

“You can call it an instinct,” she smirks as she turns around to look at Vin, “When you’re like me, you’ll be able to-”

“Vin! Look out!” a familiar voice screamed his name interrupting Claire.

Vin and Claire glanced in the direction of the voice, and the sword flying toward Vin at great speed. Claire hastily ran towards Vin, however, the speed of the sword was too fast, and she was too far away. Vin stood there, not knowing what to do, he instinctively reached out his trembling hands and closed his eyes.