The trio of augmented were invited to the front of the white marble temple room towards the raised platform. The others inside the space took their places either sitting or respectively stranding as they waited for them to take their turn to introduce themselves. In particular Cris was especially interested in hear the background of the augmented, of a short tale of their bravery and heroism and why he had only met three of them.
The bravery of the augmented. But where did the others go? Did they all die or do they live in hiding?
Sitting next to Maxton Ge Cris was focused on the nature of the room he had found himself in. He had seen the like before inside the main temple of the Goddess Aliza but how the Lady Joanne Dee Mawr had outfitted a temple like this inside her own building as an expense he couldn’t fathom.
His attention was drawn to the statue of the Goddess Aliza as marble eyes appeared to glisten for a moment, Cris experienced an emotion wave through him of sadness and understanding. He knew that the Goddess herself was present in spirit inside this room but this was a sensation that he was privileged to accept.
When he had seen her floating in the skies of the capital city glowing brightly during the day and dimmer at night he had grown to accept her presence but there had never been any form of direct of indirect communication except through High Priests and her majesty Queen Averill.
Only those in the top ranks of the church of light and purity were able to able to directly commune with the divine. Praying silently and making the sign of the Goddess with his hands but keeping stricly seated and paying attention he watched the three soldiers approach the front marble
Captain Agnes took the lead as she glanced down at the small audience in the room and glared. Cris didn’t know that had caused her recent amount of anger but she was entirely displeased. He tried to focus on her and not on the intricate detail that had gone into the room. The fact that she had treated him with both relative kindness and mocking judgement when they had first met gave him mixed feelings about her.
Either she disliked him, was given a mission to protect him and had planned to scare him a little to help him mature or another factor wasn’t something he was clear on.
A Captain, a Sergeant and...what rank is Ricther? They didn’t call him anything.
Cris hadn’t been expecting a miracle. He had wanted hard information, not rumours mixed in with myths and stories told and re-told about their origins. Given the look on High Priest Schmid and Lady Dee Mawr both of them knew far more than he did regarding their actual origins and status.
From what he heard about the legends and myths of the augmented he was surprised that three of them were even alive after the final war. They had been the process of mixing artificial constructs with human flesh, bone and sinew and the power of light and purity magic to stave off the corruption.
Supposedly they had been created as a last resort during the end of the war, soldiers who had become corrupted had their limbs removed or lay dying and chosen a different path as the monstrous final revenge of the Dark Lord altered their bodies, minds and souls.
Through rapid experimentation they had been created, their forms strong enough to resist corruption but at a cost. A shortened life span as well as the development of severe mental and emotional disorders. He couldn’t help but look at the three, wondering about the corruption inside all three of them and why they had wanted his help as an ex-trainee priest to treat the youngest of them privately. Likely, just another part of the charade played out to convince him to join their group. He still failed to understand exactly why he was needed.
‘Attention. All of you need to pay attention. Even the youngest among us with little discipline needs to stop gawking at me and letting his imagination run wild. I am flesh, blood mixed with a few other tricks. And no, I will not remove my clothing to be examined or studied. Neither will Sergeant Marley or Ricther. We have given enough and demand little in return. Cris. Stop staring at me and listen.’ said Agnes as she pointed at each member of the small audience in turn.
Sitting up straight and realising that he had been openly mouthing his personal thoughts visibily Cris pretended that was inside a lecture room and had just been caught for not paying attention. Only a short few weeks ago he had in fact been in that situation.
When he had first met the three he had noticed that their comrade Richter was badly suffering from a breakdown inside his body, the fine balance of light magic and the augmentations reinforcing his body failing as he became more animalistic.
‘Listen up. To describe who and what we are is restricted information. The same goes for our exact missions and affairs within the city. I don’t care much for Lady Dee Mawr and the rest of you I barely even know. We are only here at the strict promise that none of us are ending up within the asylum of the Queen as test subjects or worse. Granted she’s meant to be doing good work there and while I think her reputation is good I don’t trust any of you with the lives of those under my command. There are several amongst you whom we made fast friends with but that doesn’t translate into giving up information about the situations of any other augmented either within or outside of this city. I’m going to talk first, then Sergeant Marley and then Richter if he decides he wants to. And if he does not want to talk openly then nothing is going to make him. I do not care for this street theater but none of us had fought openly together and bonding needs a start. Sergeant Marley, you will keep a close eye on Richter. He should be stable enough. Richter. Be patient.’
As it was the way that the young curly-haired man with feminine features green eyes failed to register to him as fully human. More like someone who had been either brought up in the wilderness and then abandoned from human contact.
‘I am an augmented.We were built to die truth. For the Goddess, the Kingdom and the Queen. We fully accepted this when we chose to become more and less than human after the final conflict. Because I doubt that any of you even stepped a single foot near it I’m not going to talk about it and I never will. None of you deserve to hear how many died keeping the hordes of corrupted soldiers and supporting civilians from killing the farmers, the countryside and ending in the total destruction of the Kingdom of Nurburg. You who lived in these walls were lucky, luckier than my friends who died for you. And we three live, in their name, in the names of the ones whose augments failed them and they died screaming. Power comes at a cost and we alone survived. Do we need to demonstrate our abilities or is this story of kiss and tell finished?’ said Captain Agnes.
There was a look of pure hatred that flashed through her eyes as she looked at both High Priest Schmidt who turned his head to avoid her gaze and a Lady Joanne Dee Mawr whose own appearance was hidden beneath the white veil she wore on her priestess robes.
Neither of them responded when Sergeant Marley moved forward and put a hand on the shoulder of the Sergeant as he tried to tug her back without success. He instead waited for her to finish glaring before she turned and tried to throw a punch straight at the statue of the Goddess Aliza before her arm froze in mid-air and she growled in anger. He didn’t know if she was still talking to the small audience of the Goddess but her words were raw emotion and none disturbed her as she muttered her words.
Cris assumed that becoming an augmented came with side-effects. His own time as a trainee priest in the academy was similar. They had been warned of the dangers of overdrawing upon the powers of the Goddess Aliza.
The woman on the white platform continued talking to the statue of the Goddess, her words clearly audible to everyone else in the front. Looking around Cris saw that none of the others present looked to intervene. High Priest Schmid had a tear rolling down his face from one of his eyes as he shook his head gently but when he saw Cris looking at him he just gave a sad smiled and held up a hand to indicate to wait.
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Whether he was telling the others or him directly Cris didn’t know. His own sense of faith wanted him to intervene in this form of desecration of a symbol of the Goddess inside the hidden holy temple.
‘Never talking, always wanting more. The Queen talks to you but she doesn’t tell the rest of us. You have your goals, your missions and you stay silent. Not a single word even as you continue to hang in the skies above the city saving thousands of lives every single day. We died. Everyone on my squad, everyone I went to war with died and you keep silent. Just as well then. Sergeant Marley, you speak for yourself and behalf of Richter. I don’t need him overreacting in this room, we’ve little enough space as it is and he’s clearly growing uncomfortable trapped up in here.’ said Captain Agnes and she tore her arm back with a visible effort as though it suddenly unfroze as it moved further away from the silent white marble statue.
The gesture she made was unknown to Cris but judging from the look on her face it was a rude one which was also noticed by High Priest Schmid whose face reddened a little. Lady Joanne Dee Mawr simply looked bored and waved a hand in a rolling motion as though to tell Captain Agnes to carry on talking and introducing herself.
‘My rank is Captain. Damn you for making us live. Damn you. Bless the Goddess Aliza for protecting the kingdom but damn her for keeping me alive. I need some space. Sergeant Marley, take over.’ said Agnes as she leaped off the platform at the front and landed with an impact on part of the white marble floor as it began to repair the damaged caused.
With one last deep look at the statue of the Goddess Aliza she took a seat at a marble bench with was unoccupied and stand down behind it with her back to the platform as she pulled her robe over her head and tucked her legs and hands in.
‘Acceptable. Barely. I’ll permit it but you will come back and explain more. You can consider further treatment from the Church of Light and Purity as your main payment for this work. I expected more from the famous Captain Agnes. Someone with your skills has far more to express about themselves than a simple curse against a life that was saved by a Goddess. Not this tantrum from a grown woman who had completed more missions than I’m prepared to discuss.’ said Lady Joanne Dee Mawr lightly as she gestured for Sergeant Marley and Richter to introduce themselves.
The young man growled when Sergeant Marley placed a hand on his shoulder before Captain under her hood raised a gloved hand and made a series of gestures. By this point Cris was able to recognise them as being used before. All he knew was that the young man had been treated for corruption magic and he looked to be barely older than Cris.
Inside this hallowed place of the Goddess Aliza and given the statue and the detail that the marble stone floors were able to repair themselves without any outside input the powers of the divine were strong inside this place. If the young man had truly been corrupted then he would have caught fire or broken apart as light and purity magic opposed his very existence.
Ricther settled down and shrugged his shoulders before he grabbed his own neck and shifted part of it a little. Underneath his baggy cloak Cris was certain that there was a device of some kind, he knew that the augmented had direct alterations made to their bodies but he supposed it would be replacement limbs or reinforced teeth.
He would need to wait and see what they had to say for themselves. Inside the white marble temple, the construct Ren had taken a position next to the door and stood as still as the foreign statue he resembled as Maxton Ge simply smiled and gestured for Cris to focus on the platform.
‘Young Master, if you keep staring they’re going to be too nervous to talk. Would you like me staring at you when you stand there? I think not. Even our good friend with no name is holding back his curiosity and trust me and believe me he is very, very interested in these half-machine base level superhumans. For me? Not so much, I prefer the organic. The gene-bonds they share are valuable though. Hard to replicate. A shame their genetic structure is breaking down. Ah, they’re beginning to settle. Captain Agnes, I cheer for your success!’
Cris tried to make out as though he understood the words from the man with the golden eyes. His accent was reasonable although a little rough and part of his vocabulary didn’t make a great deal of sense. He picked upon breaking down and understood that indeed, the components which had built the augmented were in need of repair. He had been tasked with boosting the remaining purity energy of Marley but at this point he didn’t know if it had all been a test or an actual request for help.
Sergeant Marley took the stage before he snapped his fingers a few times to draw the attention of the audience.
‘Hello Ladies, Gentleman and guests who stole my money after cheating while teaching me a new foreign gambling game with chicken scratches for words. Joking. I lost but give me a few more rounds and I’ll get my scrip back. My name is Sergeant Marley. I have excellent detection and tracking skills as well as a few other tricks. I’m also hard to kill or injure and I could probably snap the spine of an average corrupted in two in less time than it takes to take a breath. I am called a partial site bog by my new best friend Maxton there. Hey Maxton. Uh...I’m here because Captain Agnes saved me more times than I’ve healed cut flesh and broken bones. Are we done now? I could try and get Richter to talk but he might also bite my fingers. He’s a good sort. Wait a moment. I’ll see if he wants to share anything. Oh and I like gambling and beating up bad people for money. Sorry, I like to beat up people for bad money. My mistake. The old head doesn’t quite work as well as it used to. Richter here wants to talk. Bear in mind he needs to be brief.’ said Sergeant Marley as he gave Maxton Ge a hand gesture and received a smile and the same in return.
Cris waited for Sergeant Marley leave the platform but he folded his arms and stood to the side as he grabbed hold of Richter who had been waiting on the side and pulled him onto the platform next to him. Then he placed a gloved hand on the shoulder of the young man with green eyes and whispered in his ear as he pointed directly at the audience.
Inside this room with the holy power of the Goddess Aliza, his own powers had effectively been muted as Cris was unable to use his own magically boosted senses to hear what the older man had spoken.
The young man stretched up and stood to his full height before he ran a hand through his hair and stood rigid straight with both hands folded over behind his back. The statue of the Goddess Aliza pulsed with a single glow of white light as those in the audience waited for him to speak.