Dinner was uneventful.
The headmaster had warned them that the attendance for the campus tour was significantly higher than usual. A handful of representatives would usually turn up, offer a generous donation, and ignore the tour in its entirety. On occasion, sponsored students would make the journey with their not-quite-convinced parents to view the campus. That group came early on the first train and left as soon as the tour was over, not wanting to risk the expense of an overnight stay.
This evening, the dining room was filled to capacity with opportunistic childless-pretenders seeking to enlarge their net worth through contracts with the Council and Omega Corp. Astral counted the children attending the event. One. Herself.
It was with a quiet request that a meal was brought to her suite. She retired early in the night to detoxify from the corrupted wants of the gathered souls.
‘They aren’t bad people,’ Astral had to remind herself.
There were so many people in one place; it was too easy to lump them all together instead of measuring their worth individually.
The knock came an hour after she had finished her meal in the stillness of her suite. Three successive knocks, firm and quick. Damien, her uncle, was calling on her.
Philip answered the door without screening the person beyond the threshold.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Damien’s arrival was expected.
A silent moment passed between them before the bald bodyguard turned toward Astral.
She glanced to the door, to her uncle who tipped his white hard hat at her with a slight bow of his head. He had a shattered soul that tried so hard to maintain its brilliant purity, but the scars ran deep, and his faith, his hope, was in rapid decline. Seeing the crumbling state of him hurt her deeply.
A shattered soul is rarely self-inflicted.
His aura had fractured, shining like an aurora over and around him. His self-loathing marred the dull colors of his aura. He was on the verge of complete emotional numbness. When he set his cold grey gaze onto her, a chaotic haze of color flooded his aura. He had so much hope, so much faith in her, it was crippling.
“Boss man said you aught be apprenticin’ with the shield tech tonight,” he told her, pretending to be his own staff. Had he been staff, he wouldn’t have spoken directly to her, and definitely not in the form of a command.
Her uncle wore an ill-fitted black canvas jumper, stained at the knees, elbow, and bum, all signs that he had been working as hard as his employees on installing the new equipment. The corporate logo, a combination of the Omega and infinity symbols, were stitched over his heart and back.
Another man, dressed in a white E.M.I. uniform waited at attention behind Damien in the hall. Neither entered the room.
Damien gestured to the soldier in waiting. “This here is Sergeant Noland. You saw him on the Testimonial feed back in June.”
The sergeant saluted. “I’m here to escort you to the site and back.” One soldier. Safety wasn’t a concern.
Astral glanced to Philip, who nodded toward his former employer. Not so much permission, but acknowledgement. She was going with her uncle.
She followed them into the hall, toward the staff elevator. Philip took his leave to rejoin Dezmond, a silent cue to her grandfather that Astral was with one of the two people authorized as her keeper.