Hugh woke up with a sudden gasp and a feeling of intense, burning fury. Where was he!? His eyes darted around the room. It was white, clinically, eerily white. He was shackled, forced to lie vertically on what felt like a bed of metal. Multiple tubes were attached to his arms and body.

He cursed loudly. His shackles were too tight, constraining his blood flow. He hated the feeling. Below him was something like a large funnel. He could feel the air being suctioned into it, and could hear the loud buzzing it produced. It was an awful, grating sound, driving him insane. He wanted to kick the tube until it stopped, but shackles held his legs in place. He kicked anyway.

He tried to assess the situation, but he could not concentrate with that horrible sound. Who had locked him in there ? If he found out, he would be sure to punch them, and hard, like he had with the guard.

Right, he thought. The guard. I’ve been captured. Did he put me here ?

He looked at his hand, although with the shackles it hurt to twist his head enough to do so. Dammit! He thought, as he pushed through the pain. He screamed, and kept going.

Strangely, his hand was intact. He frowned, but was quickly distracted again. He kicked and screamed and hurt his arms and legs from banging against the shackles but kept going. He felt driven, energetic. Angry, without it being directed at anything in particular.

Everything around him seemed to have a red hue. It reminded him of when he had exploded against lord Verdant. But he was not using Chromancy now, was he ?

There was something going on, but he could not seem to concentrate. His veins were on fire and his mind raced without thinking, only looking for things to direct his fury towards. What was happening to him ?

Below him the funnel was sucking some kind of red dust. It was all over the ground, being funnelled towards the centre of the room below him. But he could not find where the dust was coming from.

He breathed raggedly. Where was Saffron ? Had that bastard left him here alone ?

No, he thought. He did not think that. What is happening to me ?

He tried to push the phantom anger within him down, away. He did not know where it was coming from, but that was not him. It probably had something to do with the tubes that fed into his body. Whoever had put him there, they were doing something weird with him.

He took a deep breath, steadying himself. Then, he emptied his mind, tried to concentrate. Put out that flame.

It was something he had experience with. He always kept himself under control, kept his emotions down. He just needed to do it again now. So he found that strange, foreign emotion inside him and pressed it down, blocked it off. Instead, he invoked a feeling of calmth.

He closed his eyes. Slowly, he kept breathing, in, and out. Deep breaths. No thoughts. Peace. He could overwhelm that anger. It was not his, and he was stronger than it. It was a small, trembling fire and he conjured an ocean to smother it. He could see the waves, in his mind, and smell the salty breeze. He could feel the infinite waves crashing into each other, unyielding and uncontainable.

He felt a rumbling, but kept his eyes closed. He moved with the waves, gave himself over to the tides. He saw a storm building up, whirlpools forming in the infinite deep. There, in the solace of the sea, he felt at peace. He felt free.

He heard something burst. He opened his eyes. The red powder was swirling around him rapidly in a powerful vortex, but it was mixed with something blue. His shackles had cracked. He stepped down, avoiding the funnel and removing the tubes from his body.

Hugh walked across the room, leaving footprints in the red dust. He picked some of it up. It looked suspiciously like red Essence. He put some in his pocket. You never knew, and Essence was valuable.

Next, he checked out the door. It was locked, of course, but better to try. He looked around the room again. It was empty save for him, the dust, the funnel and the chair. And, of course, the suspicious tubes that had been attached to him. He thought about checking them, but they creeped him out. Nevertheless, he walked towards them. Know your enemies and all that.

Then, an alarm went off. And it was loud.

Hugh covered his ears. He lost the image of the sea that he had held a moment ago, and the blue hue around him disappeared. Did I cause this alarm ?

Then a door burst open and an older looking man in a long, dark blue trench coat stepped in. He had greying brown hair and a short beard, and an expression that seemed awfully calm for the situation.

“I’m Cerule. I’m rescuing you. Wait, how are you out of your shackles ? No matter, we’ll talk later. Now, either come with me or stay, but make your decision quickly.” He stressed the last part. Around him was a pulsating deep blue aura, similar to what Verdant had conjured up that night to protect himself.

Hugh did not know the man. Nor did he immediately trust him. However, if the choice was between being trapped in a room and having his emotions being messed with or, well… Not that, he was definitely choosing the latter option.

“Alright, coming!” he yelled above the still ringing alarm.

He ran through the door, following Cerule. Outside was a hallway, as cleanly white as it had been inside the room but without the red hue. As they rushed through the hall, he noticed many more doors just like the one they had come out of. Are there other people stuck in those ? Shouldn’t we help them too ?

“Sir! Cerule!” Hugh yelled. The old man turned his head slightly, still running.

“What ?”

“Shouldn’t we help the other people here ?”

The man grimaced. “No time. They’ll be here any minute now. Now hurry! I’m not getting you out a second time!”

Hugh frowned. He debated stopping to open a door. It could not take that much time, could it ? Maybe Saffron was somewhere in there… Although, he supposed he might have gotten lucky by escaping himself. Breaking someone else’s shackles could take a while…

Fortunately for Hugh, he did not have to think too long about this dilemma. Unfortunately, the reason was that that was the moment when three guards dressed in black appeared from the end of the hallway to block their passage. They looked shady, but Hugh supposed he was the one breaking out of a cell.

Cerule looked at Hugh. “Step back. Another step. Good.”

The blue aura around him shimmered and expanded, pulsating harder. The building began to vibrate and dust particles started trembling on the floor. Hugh took another step back.

The three guards fell into action. Immediately, the hallway exploded into a mélange of colours, mixing and painting a wild abstract landscape. Two of the guards were using yellow Chroma, the third red, in addition to Cerule’s blue.

Immediately, Hugh was worried. This Cerule seemed confident, but against three Chromancers‌ ? Even if he had access to Chromancy himself, that seemed like a deathwish. Should I help ? Can I help ?

Before he had a chance to properly contemplate, the first guard was upon Cerule, using yellow Chroma to enhance his speed to extreme levels. Cerule… Remained still. The guard threw a punch, quickened by his Chroma- but the closer he got to Cerule, the more he slowed down, until his fist hung still in the air. He looked dumbfounded, and pulled back his fist.

The guard using red Chroma was next. Hugh was expecting him to try to bust through Cerule’s defences with a Chroma-enhanced attack, similar to what Hugh had done -or tried to do- with the guard who had captured them. Instead, he put both hands together. Hugh frowned. Then, slowly but surely, a fire formed in the palms of his hands, growing to a flickering ball of heat until it barely fit his outstretched hands.

“Dodge!” Cerule yelled. Hugh did not need to be told twice. Luckily, the attack was aimed at Cerule. Well, luckily for Hugh.

The guard threw the ball of fire. Cerule braced himself, putting up both his hands in front of him. Then, it hit… Whatever Cerule was doing to protect himself. The fire crackled, and slowed, but did not stop. Then, with a loud crack, Cerule’s barrier shattered. Cerule tried to dodge, but the fireball still grazed him, burning straight through a part of his coat and leaving a nasty burn on his side. Cerule hissed, but did not seem to be incapacitated.

The first guard had recovered and readied himself for another attack at the same time as when the third guard made his way to Cerule. He did not seem to be using Chroma to increase his speed, but the distance was short enough that he could cover it quickly anyway.

However, now it was Cerule’s turn. Before the two guards could get to him, Cerule started to humm. He produced a low, constant droning sound. Then, Hugh could see the pulsating blue hue around him start to quicken. It had been pulsing before, but now it slowly matched up to the frequency of Cerule’s humm.

And when it did, it was like a small earthquake. One guard was caught in the air, jumping for Cerule, while the other was in the midst of a punch- one second more and he would have hit Cerule in the head. That was either very well calculated or very lucky, Hugh thought.

Both guards were blasted away by the shockwave. The one who had been in the air flew back metres and crashed into a wall and did not seem to be getting up. The other was better off- but only slightly. He was on the ground, being tossed about by the rumbling. The third -the one with the red Chroma- fell to one knee, but otherwise looked fine. Hugh had fallen to the ground himself, but was not injured other than a scraped knee.

However, looking up at the ceiling. Dust particles were falling from it as everything kept vibrating. He was starting to doubt the continued structural integrity of the building.

“Ehmmm… Mr. Cerule ?” Hugh called. Cerule turned around briefly. “I’m not sure the building can take much more…”

Cerule blinked. Then, the vibrations stopped, and Cerule’s blue aura calmed and faded, slightly. Hugh breathed a sigh of relief. He felt significantly safer now that there was no imminent risk of any ceilings collapsing on his head. However, the fight was not yet over.

“You’re up, kid. You’ve got Chromancy, right ? Otherwise you wouldn’t be in here. Back me up a bit.”

Hugh blinked. That was unexpected. He supposed it was a bit cocky to assume this man would take care of the threat by himself… But he seemed to have everything pretty under control. Had that just been closer than he let on ?

Additionally, Hugh was far from confident in his ability to do much against these guards. One of them seemed incapacitated, at least. However, he had noticed one thing that could maybe give him an edge…

He started to concentrate, to rally himself and his emotions. It was more difficult than he had thought. He could find some anger- his current situation, being imprisoned and all that, warranted some. But he wasn’t furious. He was more confused than anything else. So, that little bit would have to do.

At his command, the world around him got a slightly more red tint. If he had not been looking for it, it was likely that he would have missed it. He tried to conjure some fire in his right hand, similar to what the guard had done. Actually, now that he looked up he saw the guard had begun preparing for another attack, so he had to be quick.

Ow, fuck! He hissed, and shook his hand. It burned. There was no sign of a fireball in his palm. Had he just been cooking his own hand ? That technique might be a step too complicated. Luckily, he still had an ace up his sleeve. Quite literally, as he still had the card from before in the pub. But also figuratively.

He rushed up to the guard that was on the ground but was not yet incapacitated. He was getting up, so Hugh had to be quick. As soon as he was within reach, Hugh put his hand in his pocket and brought out a handful of the red dust that he had picked up from his room/cell. He breathed in deep, and mentally reached out through his outstretched fist towards the powder. If it really was Essence…

The powder burst alight at his command. Quickly, he threw it towards the guard. Please do not be lethal, he thought. The guard’s clothes caught fire. It was not a pretty sight. However, it was effective.

The guard opened and dropped his coat, leaving him bare-chested. Hugh snatched it and quickly backtracked while the guard was still busy trying to extinguish his pants. He seemed less inclined to dispose of those.

Now, if I’m right… He fumbled through the inside of the coat. There!

He pulled out a small pack of yellow powder. I knew it! He thought. Real Chromancers were rare, and most were deployed in the war. That made it unlikely that these three guards were true Chromancers. Additionally, their auras had seemed faint in comparison to Cerule’s and that of the Pristine Palace guard.

It had been a guess, but a calculated one. And it had paid off. Assuming the guard did not have a second pack hidden elsewhere, which was still a distinct possibility, he would now be rendered mostly harmless. Hugh, on the other hand, had just acquired a very valuable weapon. One that he had even less experience with than red Chromancy, but valuable nonetheless.

Hugh turned his head towards the red guard. He was in a standoff with Cerule, both seemingly waiting for the other to strike. That seemed like a perfect opportunity for Hugh to step in. He opened the pack of yellow Essence, and took out a smidge.

Now, how does this work ? He thought. Do I just…

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He concentrated. He had seen the guards use the essence to speed themselves up. If he could do that too, then he might be able to reach the red guard without him throwing a fireball at him. He tried to absorb the Essence, somehow. Make it do something. He shook it around a bit.

It burst into light. Bright, radiant light emitting from the palm of his hand. He blinked, temporarily blinded. So much for reaching the guard unnoticed.

“Look out!” He heard Cerule call.

Hugh looked around, blinking rapidly to clear the afterimages from his vision. He could make out something moving…

Then something heavy hit him as two arms forced him to the ground. He groaned. That hurt. His vision was just starting to clear, but it did not reveal much; he was lying face down on the ground. He turned his head to find the first guard atop him, holding him down. Hugh had assumed him to be out of the fight… Perhaps unwisely so.

Hugh struggled, but the man was much larger than him. The guard snatched the Essence pouch out of Hugh’s hand. Cerule approached quickly to help, and the guard moved to dodge- but not before reaching into the Essence pouch and accelerating his movements. Within seconds he was standing next to the red guard. And, to his dismay, Hugh found both his hands bound together by a thick rope.

Cerule bowed down next to Hugh, looking him in the eye.

“Seems like you’ve got yourself in a bit of a situation, hmm ?”

Hugh groaned. “Could you, maybe, erm… Release me ?”

Cerule laughed. “Give me one minute. I am going to clear the way first.”

He cracked his knuckles. He breathed in slowly and deeply. The red guard’s eyes widened and barked a command. The yellow guard next to him immediately sprinted with superhuman speed towards Cerule, leaving a telltale trail of yellow.

But even with his speed, he was too late. Cerule smiled. “Sorry,” he said.

Then the guard flew away from Cerule, crashing into the wall. He kept hanging, pressed motionlessly by some invisible force. The air trembled and rippled with a tinge of blue. As Hugh looked around, he found the other two guards in similar conditions. Everything else was unaffected.

Hugh had to resist visibly gaping at the sight. Such a degree of control was… Well, he had not seen much Chromancy in action, but he doubted it was common. Who exactly was this man  ?

“Alright, come on, let’s move,” Cerule said, interrupting his thoughts. Hugh was glad to oblige. They exited the hallway, and Cerule made sure to lock the door shut behind them. They practically ran up a flight of stairs, passed some doors that, in the split second Hugh had to look through windows, seemed to lead to some sort of laboratories, and finally made their way to what seemed like a back door. It did not seem to be in much use, judging from the spider webs that lined the walls and the dust on the floor.

Cerule led the way, opening the door and revealing daylight. Hugh was all too happy to follow.

Then, in a flash of yellow, a girl stood before them. Hugh immediately took a step back and adopted a defensive position. Another guard ? She doesn’t look like one, but maybe…

Cerule grinned. “She’s with me. This is Joanne. Joanne, this is…” he frowned. “Actually, what is your name ?”

Before Hugh was able to respond, Cerule continued. “Nevermind, we need to get away from here before any other guard -or worse, Grey himself- arrive.” He punctuated his statement by closing the door behind them.

“Joanne, could you do the honours ?” he asked.

She smiled. “But of course!”

Cerule stretched out his hand toward her and motioned for Hugh to do the same. Hesitantly, he obliged. “Here we go, might tickle!” she said. Before Hugh could process what was happening, a yellow cloud surrounded their group, and he felt something pulse through him.

When Joanne let go of his hand and he pulled back his arm, he almost slapped himself. He had meant to simply return his hand to his side, but instead it came at him with incredible speed. He stumbled backwards- and in doing so, hit the building they had just come out of. Hard. He had been three metres away from it.

He grimaced. Joanne just laughed, and appeared in front of him in an instant. “Takes some getting used to,” she said with a smile. “And I’m not completely comfortable with this technique yet. But don’t worry, I’ll get better at it!”

She seemed very enthusiastic about… Well, just in general.

Cerule interrupted. “Well, shall we get going ?” he extended a hand towards Hugh, pulling him up. “Move slowly, and deliberately. Try to think of every motion you want to make beforehand- you don’t really have time to adjust. Now, let’s go, before the effect wears off.”

Joanne zipped away, moving fairly naturally- just very quickly. Cerule followed, moving much more rigidly. He waited at the end of the street for Hugh to follow.

He breathed in. He projected a straight line towards Cerule. He would stop about halfway there; that way he would not bump into him if he overshot. Then, he moved.

He ended up around 2 metres in front of Cerule. He did not feel very stable, but it had worked. Joanne clapped and cheered.

Then the door they had come out of burst open and two figures walked out.

Cerule looked apologetic. “Sorry. Time for training wheels is over. Follow us. Joanne, keep an eye out for him. Try not to hit too many walls.”

With that, he was gone. Hugh followed. It could have gone worse; he crossed the first two alleys quickly and decently smoothly. When they had to cross a busier street, he almost ran into a passerby, but luckily the man stopped to inspect a market stall just in time. There was no way Hugh would have been able to dodge.

Next, he almost hit a wall; he would have, if Joanne had not corrected his course with a nudge. “Woops, there you go!” she added. Hugh stood still for a moment- he gasped for air, then looked around, turning more quickly thaen he had anticipated. He winced as he felt a muscle in his neck being pulled. But their pursuers were approaching. He turned back around, attempting to do so very slowly. The muscle still hurt, but at least he did not cause more damage. He took a breath, then continued on his swift path.

Joanne had to step in quite a few times to help him, and even then, he felt that he would end up the next morning with more than a few bruises and scratches. But he was alive and intact, and their pursuers were nowhere to be seen. Gradually, he felt his movements become sluggish, until at last it felt like the air was thick and viscous and held him back from moving at any speed. With some confusion, he realised he was back to normal- although nowhere near enough to allow for proper control, he had acclimated to his boosted speed somewhat.

Hugh felt like they had been running for a half hour or so- but he was sure that his sense of time had not been accurate. In any case, they had arrived at a fairly large house all the way at the east side of one of the upper rings. It spanned two floors. They stood in front of the front door on one ring, while the back of the house on the second was likely to lead to the next ring up, as was common for many larger houses as it gave easy access to both rings.

Cerule took out a bunch of keys and led Hugh and Joanne in.

“Are we safe here ?” Hugh asked.

Cerule grimaced. “As safe as we’ll be. I did just break out a prisoner, and Gray is likely to know it was me. And, of course, my home is well known to him. The question is whether he’ll be willing to act. If I have analysed his plans correctly, then he will not… Not yet, at least.”

“That’s not very comforting,” Hugh remarked as Cerule closed the door behind them.

“No,” he responded. “It is not.”

That seemed to end the discussion, at least for the moment.

Hugh looked around. The house was smaller than Verdant’s mansion, and a bit less lavish- but not much so. Both floors had high ceilings with intricate lamp designs and beautiful tapestries on the walls. Hugh found a set of three depicting the three colours of Chromancy in action, one red wreathed in flame, one blue surrounded by torrentuous waves, and one yellow bathed in a luminous glow from above.

Even moreso than before, Hugh wondered who this lord Cerule was. Evidently, he was a Brilliant; otherwise he could not afford a house like this. But why would anyone of that stature risk rescuing him from that place ? And why did he know about it anyway ?

Pressing even more heavily on his mind was another question; where was Saffron ? Hugh decided he would ask Cerule and Joanne for help, but not yet- he wanted to find Saffron, but he did not trust them quite yet.

They sat down in the living room, Cerule and Joanne on a dark brown sofa while Hugh was directed towards a large chair.

“So, Hugh it was ?” Cerule asked. He spoke calmly, yet his voice had a booming, imposing quality to it. “Do you have any idea what you have gotten yourself caught up in ?”

Hugh blinked. “Ermm.. No, sir, not really no.”

He looked downwards. It had been a poor idea to rebel against lord Verdant from the start, and he had known it.

Cerule smiled, shaking his head. “I don’t envy you. However, there’s little you- or anyone else- can do about it; you’re in this game now and you’re not getting out. At least, I can help reveal something of what is going on, but be aware that for every secret I’ve discovered there are two more in the dark.

“To start off with: that place we just rescued you from was what some would refer to as the ‘Essence Factory’. I don’t quite like that name, but alas. I’m still trying to understand the finer details of what they are doing, but the principle is simple: you might have heard that using Chroma influences your emotions, in a sort of positive feedback loop. Well, that extends to Essences as well.”

Hugh nodded. Reflecting back on his few experiences with Chromancy, he had felt the anger build up more and more as he dialled up the heat.

“Now, if one uses Chromancy…,” Cerule continued. Remaining seated, an aura of pulsating blue suddenly emanated from the man, creating a soft, but urgent feeling of pressure that made Hugh’s ears pop. Then it vanished as quickly as it had begun.

Cerule traced his finger over the glass table. “There is the familiar colour that surrounds them, associated with the type of Chroma they are using. That is not just a visual effect.”

He showed Hugh the tip of his index finger. Although faint, Hugh could see a hint of blue on it.

“Heavily simplified, that is what Essence is. There are some more steps, but those are not important and I do not know them exactly. The thing that matters is that Essence is created by Chromancy, the more powerful the Chromancy is, the more Essence it produces. So, Hugh, if you wanted to produce loads of the stuff, how would you do it ?”

Hugh looked up, shaken awake when he was mentioned. He thought for a moment. “Use a lot of powerful Chromancy ?” It seemed too simple of an answer, but he went along with it for the moment.

“In a sense, yes. But reaching the emotional threshold necessary to perform powerful Chromancy, especially on a longer timeframe, is difficult to impossible. Except…” He pulled out a little pouch. “With Essences.”

Hugh frowned. “They use Essence to make Essence ? Isn’t that kind of contradictory ?”

Cerule smiled. “It is, isn’t it ? And yet…As I said before, Essences fuel the associated emotion the same as Chromancy does. Provide a supply of Essence to the body efficiently, and you can increase that emotion enough that the Chromancer will produce more Essence then they consume- much, much more. They aren’t using Essences in the regular sense, as a source of Chroma; they just use it to riot their emotions, and then draw from regular Chromancy. Willing or not, with enough Essence pumped into them any Chromancer will become an Essence-producing machine.”

Hugh swallowed. The tubes that had been attached to him, the intrusive emotions, the dust along the ground… How long had they been planning to keep him there ?

“Who are these people ? Harvesting Chromancers for Essence seems…”

“Inhumane ?” Joanne finished his sentence.

Cerule interrupted. “The man in charge is called Gray; he is the Primary of Chromancy, you’ve probably heard at least a little about him. His monopoly on Essences is what secured him his position in the first place. And yes, inhumane is a good descriptor for what he is doing there.”

Hugh frowned. “But where are they getting these Chromancers ? Aren’t only Brilliant supposed to have Chromancy ?”

Joanne tilted her head. “Not to burst your bubble, but… Have you considered, exhibit A; you ?”

Hugh could appreciate the lightheartedness, although he did not find himself smiling.

“I’m sure it’s not a common occurrence though, otherwise we’d hear about it more,” he said.

Joanne was about to start speaking, but Cerule put a hand on her shoulder, cutting her off with a quick glance.

“It’s not common, exactly, but not uncommon either. The Iridescent… Or rather, the Pristine Guard is just… Very efficient at rounding up suspected non-Brilliant Chromancers. And then…”

Hugh’s eyes widened. “So that whole facility I was at, it’s all full of…”

Cerule nodded. Hugh stared blankly for a second, then remembered something important.

“What do they do with non-Chromancers they take ?”

Cerule furrowed his brow. “The Iridescent doesn’t generally capture many non-Chromancers; they have no need to, and don’t want to be too conspicuous. But if so, I’d wager they’d be sent to the military. Why ?”

Hugh panicked slightly. He supposed it was better than being kept and harvested for Essence, but only marginally. “My friend, he was with me when I was taken by the Pristine Guard.”

Joanne seemed to jump at that. “Oh no!” she exclaimed. “Don’t worry, we’ll find him!” she added with a bright smile. Hugh could not help but smile a little at that. He still did not know precisely who these two people were, but he did find himself starting to trust them. In any case, he was fairly sure he was better off with them than he had been in that prison.

“Of course, we will try to help,” Cerule said. “But I’m afraid there are some things we have to do first. I know more about Gray’s practices than most, but still far too little. This was the first time we have managed to break into the place, the fruit of months of preparation, and even then it was a closer call than I would have liked. Suffice to say, we need you to tell us what you can about the facility you were in. Any little detail could make a difference.”

Hugh thought in silence for a moment. How long had he even been in there ? A couple of hours, maybe ? It seemed incredibly lucky that he had been rescued so soon after being put in there. Then again, he had not remembered much when he had woken up, and he was not sure he could trust his sense of time. He hesitated, afraid of what the answer would be, but then asked:

“What day is it today ?”

Cerule frowned, while Joanne kept her seemingly ever-present smile; “It’s Thursday! November 14th, to be precise!” she said enthusiastically.

Hugh froze. Two weeks. He had been in there for two weeks. He opened his mouth to speak but he choked on his words.

“Are you alright ?” Joanne asked worriedly.

“I…” he managed to stammer. “It’s been two weeks. I thought it was just a day, but it’s been two weeks. That means that Saffron…”

Cerule’s face darkened. “Hmmm. I.. I’m sorry, but we have plans, plans we have worked on for years. We can’t afford to deviate and risk losing the progress we have made. I’m sorry, but your friend will have to wait. Of course, I won’t stop you from trying to find him after you’ve told us what you know about Gray’s establishment… But we can’t help you, not yet.”

Joanne turned towards Cerule suddenly with a surprised expression. “No! You can’t mean that! Cerry, we have to help him!”

Hugh took a moment to process everything. He would go after Saffron, of course. But he was unlikely to succeed. And getting rescued a second time… Well, he could not bet on it.

Cerule looked at Joanne with a pained expression. “Joanne…” he began.

She simply shook her head, a matter-of-fact expression on her face. “You’d come and get me if I was taken by the Pristine Guard would you not ? Hugh is part of our team now, so we have to help him.”

Hugh frowned. Part of the team ? He did not contradict her; if that was her reasoning for helping him find Saffron, then he would take it. But he was far from certain he was willing to help them with… Whatever they were actually doing. Something to do with Essence harvesting, and with the Primary of Chromancy, and the Iridescent… In short, something beyond him. His scope had always been limited to a single household. That was expanding, but that did not mean he was immediately ready to go against the government of a city-state.

The man sighed. “I… Let me think about it. I’ll see if I can change up our plan to allow for it. We’ll have even less room for error than before, but I’ll see what I can do. First, though, I would like to hear whatever you can tell us about your time in Gray’s…” he hesitated,. “Establishment.”

That made Hugh a bit uncomfortable. It was the least he could do, but… He really did not remember much of it. He told them what little he did know, and tried to dig as deep as he could- but he could tell that they had been expecting more. It did not seem to bother Joanne much, but so far it seemed that nothing could break her mood. Cerule tried to hide it a little, but it was clear from his expression that he had been hoping for a more detailed account.

“Maybe I’ll remember more later. I’ll tell you if I can think of anything else,” Hugh tried.

Cerule nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”

It was silent for a short while then. Everyone seemed deeply in thought. Hugh was trying to remember more from the last two weeks, as he had promised; but he was also thinking of Saffron. Hugh had lost two weeks, and who knew what could have happened to him in that time. He also thought of Verdant. He had undoubtedly heard that they had been captured by the Pristine Guard. He probably thought everything was taken care of with that. Hugh did not intend to change his mind. If he ever ran into him again… Well, that would be a problem for later.

Finally, it was Cerule who broke the silence.

“So, Hugh. You’re safe for now, away from Gray and the Pristine Guard. But they won’t be happy about letting you run free. Everything you know, you’ve seen, is highly confidential information- I doubt most of the Iridescent even knows how Gray conducts his business. You’re a Chromancer, but- no offence intended- not a good one.” He looked at Joanne. “If Joanne agrees, I would like to invite you to join us. I can train you to better utilise your Chromancy, and we can protect you, at least partially, from whoever comes after you.”

Joanne nodded. “I agree!” she said. “I think you could be very useful for our team. It would fill out our little group very nicely! Me for yellow, Cerule for blue, and you for red Chroma!”

Hugh had to suppress a shudder. He did not want to use Chromancy any more than strictly necessary. But a team… People to help him find Saffron… That would be nice.

“Thank you,” he said. “I’d be pleased if you would have me.”

Joanne smiled brightly, and he could see a hint of the same on Cerule’s face as well.

“Great,” Cerule said. “Now, you get settled, I’ll show you the room you can stay in. Joanne, could you get started on dinner ? I have some plans to alter. And maybe, coincidentally, they could happen to lead us through some military camps.”