Tiago reaches out his hand to help Thalassa up. "Thank you," she said.
"Don't ever do that kind of craziness again."
"I'm sorry, sir."
"No need to be so formal with me." Tiago takes off the sunglasses he's wearing. "Look, I also don't like the idea of walking around with two people who invaded my world just a month ago, but you're part of my group now, so don't mess up and just be yourselves. If you really want to redeem yourselves and earn my trust and the trust of the other group members, then do it through your actions. And whenever you need something, come talk to me or Alice. I'm your superior from now on, understood?"
"Yes, sir!" both replied quietly.
"Good, I'll leave you in Alice's care. I want the three of you ready for the mission in 3 hours, okay?" Tiago turns to Pedro and Gabriel. "You two, follow me. Let's take a walk."
As soon as the three leave, Alice looks at Thalassa and Selena. "This is a complicated situation, but don't do this again. Every life is precious, and I'm sure that woman would have pulled the trigger."
"I know everything you're doing is to help us both, but I feel like I won't adapt well here, and it's like Tiago said, I need to gain the group's trust, and I don't know how to do that."
"Hey, don't say that. You have me and Selena." Alice holds Thalassa's hands. "It will work out; we need your help, and your village needs your help."
They hug each other. Selena didn't understand what was happening; all she noticed was that the atmosphere was tense. Unlike Thalassa, Selena hadn't yet learned the language of these humans.
"Come with me; I'll take you to the accommodation."
They go to a three-story building, each floor with 50 rooms. It's incredible how quickly this was built, but not just this one; every week a new building like this is completed and delivered as accommodation for the soldiers.
They climb to the top floor and go to room number 120. "This room will be yours; it has 2 beds, two closets for your things, and 2 bathrooms too." Alice opens the door and signals for them to enter.
"Wow, it's much better than I was imagining," said Selena in her language.
"Anyway, I'll leave you to prepare here. Today will be a long day, but don't lose heart; if anything happens, use the radio as you were taught, and I or any other officer will come to you."
As soon as Alice left the building, she noticed two androids standing guard at the entrance.
"You don't need to be so strict; they're inside," she said to the androids.
"We know, ma'am."
Thalassa and Selena didn't know that a tracking chip had been installed under their skin. It's small, so it's almost imperceptible. Therefore, both can be monitored 100% of the time by the escort androids and the HQ.
"I don't understand, why would they accept our help?" Selena asked.
"They don't trust us, but we don't have a choice either. If we want to survive and maybe regain our freedom, we'll have to help these people find their kidnapped citizens. It's the least we can do to make up for what we helped the empire do."
"You're right, sometimes I just want all of this to end, you know? And even though these humans from another world didn't mistreat me in prison, I still feel trapped."
"Listen, Selena, it will be okay, and we will be freed. If they wanted to kill us, they would have done it a long time ago, so let's try to adapt to this, and I assure you, we'll be back home soon."
"Okay, thank you for choosing me to come back with you."
"You're my friend, and it's my fault that you're in this situation now," said Thalassa as she sits on the bed.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Selena does the same and sits on her own bed too. The bed is really soft. Both almost forget that they are in the middle of a war.
"Can you believe it? A world full of humans," said Selena.
"If someone had told me that someday, I would have thought the person was crazy, but we were there, and indeed these humans are unique in their world and always have been."
"Still, they fight without magic and manage to cause destruction on the level of an ancient dragon."
Both continue talking about how these humans and their weapons were different from anything they had ever seen.
---
Tiago took Pedro and Gabriel to an empty shooting range. "Well, I brought you here because I want to make something clear." Tiago takes off his sunglasses and continues, "You two are my responsibility now, so under no circumstances disobey a direct order from me, understood?"
"Yes, sir!" they both replied.
"I could have said this to you back there in front of everyone, but I thought it best to make it clear in private because I want the rest of the team to trust you as much as I do."
Gabriel raises his hand to speak.
"At ease, soldier," said Tiago.
"Sergeant, I have a question, but it's not even about us," he pauses for a few seconds and finishes, "it's about those two girls."
Pedro nudges Gabriel, implying that now is not a good time to ask about that.
Tiago sees their reaction and then lets out a light, sincere laugh.
"Look, I didn't like the idea of having those two on our team either, but as I said once, they are now part of our group, and I believe they will be quite useful in communicating with the local population." Tiago steps back and picks up an M4 rifle that was hanging and loads it with ammunition. "Now you two are dismissed; don't forget we have a mission in 3 hours, so I want everyone in the courtyard."
"Sir, we don't know where our dorms are."
"Regarding that, everything is on the tablet each of you received. Just input your name, and the map will show your dormitory along with a complete map of the base in real-time."
Both of them leave, and in the background, they hear the sound of M4 gunfire being discharged by the sergeant.
--- One week earlier, detention center for non-humans ---
Thalassa is in her cell, if she can even call it that. She's reading a book as usual; she's definitely fallen in love with the books by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. His tales of everyday life caught her attention. She also read his biography, and he died 116 years ago according to the counting system of this world. To her, that would be just like any other day.
She often thinks she'll soon be out of this prison since these humans are surely unsure about what to do with her; otherwise, why would they teach her their language?
As she reads the book, the white door of her cell opens, and again, that guard enters with Dr. Alice, but this time they're not alone; they're accompanied by a tall man wearing a black suit, he certainly seems important.
"Hello, Thalassa," says Alice as she extends a handshake to her. "This is Mr. Luiz; he has a proposal for you."
"Hello, Dr. Alice," she waves to Luiz shortly after.
"Your Portuguese is really impeccable," said Luiz.
"Thank you very much," replied Thalassa in a low tone without looking into the man's eyes.
"No need to be afraid of me; I'm not here to harm you."
"He's right, Thalassa. Listen to what he has to say."
Thalassa nods in agreement.
"Well, let's get straight to the point," he begins. "You are an extraordinary being; you learned our language in such a short time and seem to understand the situation you're in right now. Dr. Alice was specifically assigned to you, and it seems we made the right choice since you two are getting along very well." He opens his briefcase and removes a document with dozens of stapled pages and hands it to Thalassa, who feels uneasy before finally deciding to take the papers. "Look," says Luiz, indicating for her to flip through the pages. Before flipping through, Thalassa thinks about how these people are good at making these types of papers, both for books and like these here in her hand that seem simpler but are undoubtedly a thousand times better than any paper ever produced in her own world.
She opens the first page, and a new word that wasn't in her vocabulary catches her eye, "confidential." She thought about asking the meaning but gave up as she turned to the next page.
On this page, she sees the image of an imperial knight; he's wearing the same prisoner outfit as her, which means he's here too. She's also impressed by how these humans have mastered the art of painting; these images are so real and vivid. She flips through dozens of following pages, all containing images of knights, some elves, and even goblins. But she stops at one specific page; she recognizes Selena.
"Is she alive and here too?" Thalassa asks with a more empowered and hopeful voice.
"It seems we have something here," said Luiz.
"Do you know her, Thalassa?" Alice asked.
"Yes, she was with me for much of the time I spent in this world." Thalassa hands the document back to Luiz, "but why were these paintings shown to me?"
"Actually, that was the reaction I was looking for," said Luiz seriously.
Alice looks confused at Luiz, "what do you mean by that?" Alice said, looking seriously at Luiz and wondering what this man is planning.
"I should sit down first," he sits in a chair near the center table, "it's going to be a fun story to tell," he laughs lightly before he starts talking.
He tells that four days ago, this particular prisoner said a word while asleep; in fact, it was the only thing she said since she was captured, "Thalassa." That was the word she said.
This made Luiz question the connection between the two; he looked into the records and files and found that both were captured in the same place, at a hospital in Campinas, which led him to the conclusion that both were part of the same group or were very close. He then decides to test if Thalassa recognized the girl, and bingo, Thalassa had the reaction he expected.
Alice interrupts him, "wait a minute, what does all of this have to do with the proposal you mentioned to me earlier for Thalassa?"
"Right, I haven't said why I'm here and why I showed this girl's photo," he looks directly at Thalassa, who feels intimidated by this man; throughout her life, she has never felt fear or discomfort with any human, truth be told, no human has made her feel fear or discomfort; to her, most of them were irrelevant, "do you want your freedom?"
Thalassa is confused to hear this question; it's obvious she wants it, but due to the circumstances, she doesn't expect to get it anytime soon.
"What's your level of loyalty to this empire you mentioned, Thalassa?"
"None," she promptly replies, "I'm only here because my village needs money and supplies to survive the next winter."
"If that's true, work for us, and I guarantee we'll help your village, and you can take this girl with you, and thus you'll obtain your freedom when you complete your mission."
"What kind of mission?" Thalassa asked confused.
"You learned Portuguese, and so far, you're our only option to communicate with the people on the other side of the gate. I want you to be our interpreter and help us rescue my people who were kidnapped."
Thalassa finds this a noble mission, noble even for her.
"I'm not sure if I have the right to do this after the things I helped the empire do against your people."
"You have the right, Thalassa," says Luiz.
"Help us rescue our people, and I promise we'll help yours, and we'll give you and all those who deserve it their freedom who are imprisoned here too."
She is hesitant to accept, but in the end, she agrees and accepts.
Luiz assigns Alice to accompany Thalassa and Selena on this mission; he believes Thalassa will trust her word more if Alice is around.