After leaving the Great Coliseum of Vouno, Lucina and the others decided to explore the island. Lucina walked at the front of the group along with Eri, while the others lagged behind chatting.
Palgia really was a beautiful city, Lucina realised as they wandered through the streets. She was acting like Eri, and she knew that because they were doing the exact same thing. Walking at the front of the group their heads spun around at every new sight. Mesmerized by the smooth white buildings of varying shapes and sizes and the vibrantly coloured roofs to intricate and complex architecture of ancient mausoleums, temples, monuments and museums all recording and depicting the country’s vast history. Lucina didn’t know much on the topic, but she did know Thalassi was one of the oldest countries in the world along with Elysia. As they made their way further through the city Lucina began to wonder what the countries other islands looked like.
“Why are the roofs coloured like a rainbow?” Eri asked.
“Absolutely no idea” Lucina admitted. “Looks pretty?” she joked.
“Elysi should do it as well” Eri mused.
“As fun as that would be, I doubt it’d fit with our country’s dynamic” Kate joined in from behind, “There is a reason for it. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I believe it had something to do with Athena and her principles on warriors. Lewis would know but …”.
They all glanced round to see her brother was still missing. He’d once again vanished from the group without saying a word. In fact he done it so often it no longer surprised any of them, they didn’t even bother to try and find him anymore, because he’d show up again sooner or later.
‘Probably stayed behind to speak to Princess Sera’ Lucina guessed. She hadn’t looked in a good state after her loss. Lucina imagined all the eyes being the next heir to Elysia got you could be quite stressful.
They strolled into a circular plaza. It was nowhere near the size of the plaza beside Elysi’s Great Cathedral, however, was still huge.
“Temple of the Silver knight of Nisi” Kate commented.
‘Nisi isn’t that one of the Thalassi isles. What’s one of its temples doing here?’.
At the centre of the plaza, sitting on a high foundation of stone steps, a temple towered over everything.
Forged from grey chiselled pillars and a thick, flat patterned roof it easily stood out.
“Who’s that?” Eri asked, “The Silver knight”.
“I couldn’t tell you” Kate said “Someone from the old age I imagine. I just saw this place on the map”.
“Whoa! What’s that?” Eri asked. That girl must have the shortest attention span of all humankind.
Eri sprinted off before anyone could react. She arrived at the edge of plaza and was staring at a pair of light wooden boards which had been placed up against a wall. The rest of the group quickly joined her.
“Are these … wanted posters?” Lucina asked confused. Securely stapled to the light wooden boards were rows and columns of neatly placed layered posters. However, it was quite clear that from the paper’s condition that they were old and no one on the island paid the board much attention nor was interested in what the posters had to say.
On each poster it stated ‘Wanted’, big and bold. Below that it stated a name or title with a picture or drawing. Beneath the image was brief information on the target and a reward bounty and in the bottom left was a smaller reward along with contact information.
“Yeah. Old school like, but countries still have to put them up” Kate stated.
“Have to?” Lucina asked.
“They’re usually issued by the World Government, for what they deem as international threats. If you look at the posters you can see two prices. One is for their capture and the other is for any information you can give them that they deem valuable” Kate informed her.
“So these are all dangerous criminals?” Eri asked stunned at all the posters. On the two wanted boards there must’ve over thirty posters.
“No. Well not of all of them” Kate said.
“Some of them will be vigilantes” Eric said from behind them.
“What’s that?” Eri asked.
“Somebody who takes the law into their own hands to do what they think is right” Eric said.
“So they’re like good guys?” Eri questioned.
“They try to be” Eric replied. He seemed conflicted. “But. If you truly want to help people you’re better off joining your country’s military or law enforcement division”.
“Why doesn’t everyone just do that then?” Eri asked confused glancing again at all the posters.
“Because sometimes following the rules stops you from doing what’s right” Kate cut in.
“… Like with me” Eri realised, and Eric nodded.
“You two seem to know a lot about this” Lucina inquired wanting to change the topic after seeing Eri’s mood drop. Lucina couldn’t imagine recalling the events two years ago being fun for her.
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“We’ve had to deal with them on past investigations” Kate said, “Like you”. Lucina quickly looked away. Why did she ever open her mouth?
“Don’t feel too bad Luce. All of us here have been involved what can be classed vigilantism. Most of the time the world’s came out a better place because of it” Eric tried to comfort her. “But sometimes you need to know when not to get involved”.
Lucina nodded and then turned back to the wanted boards. She went along all the rows and columns.
‘Wait’. She doubled back to the top left corner.
She knew him. She stared at the poster at the top left. Lucina then glanced along the row. She’d heard about all of them. Every single one had a faded drawing, clearly made using only a brief description. All of them wore a variety of masks, seemingly all designed after creatures found across the world. All the wanted posters used the titles or nicknames the people had been given or claimed.
‘Alchemist’, who wore a mask similar to the ancient plague doctors, there was a brief description, tall, black hair, don’t engage. Next along was ‘Owl’, female, blonde hair, vice-leader?. ‘Kitsune’ she wore a mask based on the Haji’s ancient fox, known to use air magic and kunai’s, don’t engage. ‘Frost bear’, very tall, very large, uses ice magic and relic like hammer, don’t engage. ‘Kraken’, blonde, uses trident, don’t engage. ‘Magician’ it wore no mask and instead his or her face was completely hidden inside the darkness of their cloak, utilising unidentifiable magic, don’t engage. ‘Hybrid’ he wore a mask designed after some sort of roaring primate, extremely strong, don’t engage. ‘Death’ it wore a hooded skull mask, don’t engage. Finally she glanced out the top left poster, the one that stood out the most. ‘Captain’, they wore a plain smooth mask based on no creature and seemingly had glowing eyes with a messy hair that fell of the top of the mask. But what caught Lucina’s attention was the poster’s description, ‘Group leader, under no circumstances engage’.
It was them. Years ago when she was younger, they’d had they’d been supposedly causing havoc all over the world. She remembered they’d showed up in Elysia and encountered Alex and then vanished without a trace. Didn’t they also run into Lewis? Or had he just been there? She’d have to ask him later.
“What is it?” Kate nudged her, snapping her back to reality. Only then did Lucina realise how intensely she’d been staring, as she’d been lost in thought.
She gestured to the posters “I remember them”. Kate followed her gaze, and Lucina could’ve sworn she looked surprised.
“Salvation” Kate stated, “Looks like they’ve almost the entire group here”.
“What?!” Euna questioned. She, Hafbor, Ike, Nerin and, Arthur all stormed over and looked over all the posters. “… Why are they all here? The only ones ever in Thalassi were Captain, Owl, Alchemist and Kraken”.
“Must’ve pissed off enough people that there everywhere” Eric suggested with a smile.
“What?” Lucina said confused.
“Four years ago, those four were apparently over in Thalassi. It’s said that their visit didn’t go as well as they liked and that they possibly had complications with the royal family” Kate explained.
Lucina had no idea they were ever here, she’d only ever known about their appearance in Elysia. Everything else she’d heard had just been rumours.
“How do you know all this?” Lucina questioned.
“They were quite famous years ago, or more accurately stated infamous. The stories we liked to follow didn’t speak of them in the greatest light” Kate told her.
“What happened to them?” Eri spoke up.
“No one knows” Kate said. “Almost two years ago, they just vanished”.
“And no one has idea why?” Lucina questioned. Hadn’t their encounter with Alex Athra been around two years ago?
“With their increased fame across the world came even greater threats. They probably felt like were too deep and decided to call it quits while they still had their lives” Eric said, “Well if they are still alive, who knows maybe the shadows got to them”.
Suddenly Kate’s phone alerted her. “Well I’ll tell you something I know. No one from ‘Mov’s Salvation’ or anyone on these boards in here at Palgia so there is no need to worry” Kate said after giving the device a quick glance
Lucina’s brows creased. “I wasn’t worrying-”.
“Lewis just text me where he his. Let’s go” Kate announced before spinning on her heels and walked off.
‘She can be really weird’ Lucina considered as they all followed suit.
They met up with Lewis a few streets away. To her surprise he’d changed into a white top.
“Where have you been?” Eric questioned.
“Speaking with Iason” he told them.
Excitement rose within her. She hadn’t seen Iason in years-.
“Iason!” Ike stated from behind making Lucina jump. She glared behind to see he’d instantly shut his mouth and looked embarrassed at his outburst, inciting laughter all round.
“Just catching up. Or?” Eric asked giving the swords a comforting pat.
“You can ask him when you see him later” Lewis stated, knowing well it would annoy half the group. Her brother then shot the group an evil grin. “I bet Nerin knows, and you could probably break him. Especially Kate”. The group spun to their tall, blonde friend. He stared blankly at Lewis, betrayed.
“I-I know nothing” Nerin tried to deny it and laughter broke out within the group.
“Yeah sure we believe you. But don’t worry that’s not what I’m curious about” Kate said before focusing back on Lewis. “Who else did you meet?”.
“What?” her brother asked. He looked completely stunned. ‘How the tables have turned’. Lucina found it hilarious and had to stifle her laughter.
“It was Korra, wasn’t it. I saw her put the note in your pocket”.
“You’re off you head-”.
“You met her apprentice”.
“I haven’t. Not yet”.
“What’s she like?”.
Lewis gave up. “I’m not telling you anything”.
“Because of Korra?”. Kate titled her head.
“She’s kicked my ass for less” Lewis shrugged.
“Fair” Kate nodded. She looked like she was remembering her own experiences of unfair discipline at the Pantheon’s hands.
“What about me?” Eric eagerly jumped in, “together I reckon we could take her”. Lewis stared at him blankly. “Ok maybe we could successfully run away”. Lewis continued his stare. “I just want to know something Kate doesn’t. Think how much it would annoy her”. Kate gave Eric a terrifying glare.
A childish grin appeared on her brother’s face, but he quickly wiped it off before Kate could notice. “We should head back to the hotel. The celebration is soon, and you need to get ready” he stated.
They began walking back through the city, this time following Nerin. Their travel route back was a lot less chaotic.
‘Who’d have thought, the person who lives here knows his way around’. Why hadn’t they let him lead the whole time?
“What are you wearing to the celebration?” Lucina asked her brother. She’d never seen him in formal attire since his school days and was very curious on his fashion choice.
“I’m not going” he said casually. Lucina’s brows scrunched.
“Weren’t you personally invited” Nerin asked.
“I was”.
“You don’t want to come?” Lucina asked confused.
“I couldn’t imagine anything worse” Lewis said. He then glanced back at them and smiled. “I hope you all have a good time though”.
They made it back the hotel and its seemed like they were the last ones there.
“Alright everyone go sort yourselves out” Lewis said with a clap. He turned to their foreign friends. “You lot fuck off to were you need to be, we’ll see you later”.
“Aye aye Captain” Euna stated with a joking salute.
He sighed as he watched them all wander off. Lewis then turned to Eric, grinning. “Need to speak with you in my room. Just you”.
“Assholes” Kate grumbled.