The sunrise and a familiar green duffle greeted Clio. Picking up the bag and reentering her room she opened it to find a perfectly packed: incase of a cute boy bag. Complete with the lavender dress, white heels, and a makeup pouch. Cali had even concluded two notes: when you arrive, and when you miss home. She even left enough space for Clio to squeeze in headphones and chargers. Even the time Clio spent brushing her teeth in front of the mirror she still hadn’t gotten around to cleaning felt bittersweet.
Her parents were waiting for her by the time she made it down the creaky stairs.
“Bye, honey! Be safe. Call when you can!” Her father gave her a hug holding on as if he just held her for a little longer she would be forced to stay.
Cali surreptitiously wiped a tear from her eye. “Have an adventure, and I swear to goodness if you meet a cute boy and don’t tell me I will come to where they take you and beat the living daylight out of you.”
Clio took a minute to revel in the comfort of her family. She felt the warmth of her dad’s hug and reached out with her left hand to hold Cali’s. How long would it be before she was able to return? A small voice whispered she wouldn’t.
A warm hand rested on her shoulder, “You don’t have to leave just yet. Dad made pancakes, let’s all have breakfast together and when you return in a year we’ll do it again.” Mom said, guiding the family towards the table laden with pancakes, syrup, strawberries, and a piping hot pot of coffee.
Breakfast was spent trying to pretend that the fog of despair wasn’t hanging low over the table. Clio didn’t want the moment to end, this mundane moment with her family. Bunching the napkin in her hand she rose; her chair screeching on the floor. “I should get going?” The words come out as a question. It almost would have been better if an NHA agent was going to come to take her away instead of her having to deliver herself to the executioner.
“We’ll go with you.” Dad started clearing the plates, piling them up in the sink.
“I think it would be easier for me if I walked there. I just, if you come with me I won’t have the courage to go through the door. I won’t want you to leave.” Clio stared at the floor, bunching the hem of her shirt up, not wanting to see what expressions her family was making.
“Ok,” her mom said softly. “Remember to call and eat. Will be waiting to hear about all the amazing things you get to do.”
“I will.” Clio gave the floor a half-hearted smile.
Cali handed her the duffle, “When I awake next week, I will join you! We’ll get through this.” Despite the conviction in Cali’s voice, they both knew it was merely wishful thinking. The chances of Cali awakening were infinitesimal and there was no way the NHA would send her on whatever they had in the story of Clio.
“Yeah. I’ll see you soon.” Clio resisted the urge to glance back as she walked down the sidewalk, her feet taking her on a path that had become second nature over the years of walking to school. She did not pause to look in the cafe window. If she said Mike she would just break. Clio took a calming breath. “One foot in front of the other.” She whispered through the tangle her stomach had become. In and out, her breath came slightly faster with every step toward the formidable NHA building. Her vision was simultaneously clear and yet blurry around the edges. In. and. Out. she reminded herself. Her body alternates from tensing up into a statuesque position to shaking uncontrollably. Her hand trembled as she reached for the silver handle on the NHA’s corporate glass doors. In and out. She barely registered Hunter Harmon, guiding her to a comfortably appointed room.
As he closed the door the barricade Clio had erected to protect herself shattered. In and out. In and out. Her breaths came in rapid gasps; her eyes watered; her legs became too weak to hold her up as she slid down the wall. Staring at an unknown point in the distance.
Hunter Harmon rested a hand on her back. “Try to breathe. It’ll all be alright.”
Clio wanted to shout, “What the FUCK do you think I’m trying to do!!” But her body won’t let her. When the hyperventilation released the vice-like grip it held over her lung. Her mouth opened in a silent scream like she was holding her breath, but couldn’t stop. The vicious cycle continued until somehow she was able to regain control. Whipping the tears of fear and frustration from her eyes she opened and closed her hands a few times, reassuring herself that she was in control of her body.
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“I’m sorry.” She whispered from the floor.
Hunter Harmon slid down next to her, “You have no reason to apologize. You’re going through a lot. A lot more than someone your age should be expected to. Do you want some water or food before we continue?”
Clio shook her head, but with a skeptical look from Hunter Harmon, she relented. “Some water would be nice.”
“Alright, I’ll be right back.”
Clio took the moment of solitude to refocus. She closed her eyes and whispered, “This is not me, this am I not.” Over and over until she felt her muscles relax. By the time Hunter Harmon returned with a paper cup of water and two sugar cookies held in a napkin. Clio had managed to move to the grey armchair facing a wall-mounted monitor.
“Here you are. I took the liberty of freeing some cookies.” Hunter Harmon said with a smile handing the water and a cookie to Clio, popping the other cookie into his mouth. “Do you feel able to start the briefing or do you need some more time?”
“I think I’m ready. Thank you so much for helping me. I’m sorry I acted like such a wreck.”
“Again you have nothing to apologize for. Every recruit has a different way of dealing with their anxiety. At least you didn’t try to set the place on fire,” He shuddered at the memory, “An none of them had your special circumstances.” He took that as an opportunity to turn the lights off and start his presentation complete with an official slide show.
Hunter Harmon had clearly put some effect into the slideshow, given the number of effects included in it. Images popped in and vanished illustrating the Ludacris location they were sending her to: Antarctica.
The sheer unbelievable broke what was left of the hold the anxiety still had on her. “Sir, you have to be kidding,” Her voice dripping with disbelief, “Some of the strongest gates in the world are located there. They have a gate break, like once a week. Surely this is a mistake”
“I am afraid it isn't. The US is one of the countries required to send a hunter this month and it was deemed that this was the ideal situation to try and activate your magic abilities. During your stay in the Boreas Hunter Base (BHB), you will serve as a porter in at least three gate raids a week. You will be assigned specific tasks to do around the base and like every Active Division hunter on base you are expected to be ready to assist in gate breaks at a moment’s notice. You will learn more about the living situations in transit and at base. It is important to note that you will be the lowest rank person there; everyone else will be at least B rank, even the few passive division members located at BHB.”
Clio shifted in her seat at that news. She had the sneaking suspicion that the social dynamics on bases were going to be stranded at best.
“You will take a plane from here to Ushuaia, Argentina at 16:00 today. It will take roughly 15 hours. The plane landing at about 4:30 ART. At 8:00 the boat will be waiting at the port to take through Drake’s passage, around 2 days, before meeting a portal user at Villa Las Estrellas. The portal user will take you to BHB located in Kemp land. Do you have any questions about the logistics for the next few days?”
“No”
“Good, we’ll go get you your equipment now, you will be receiving more at BHB and then you can relax for what time is left.”
The next who knew how long was spent going from warehouse to closest back to a different warehouse. Clio slumped in the same armchair she started in but with significantly more stuff. She had been given a black shirt, cargo pants, and a pair of steady boots. All of which she had changed into storing her civilian clothes in her inventory. That was weird thinking about. She was no longer a civilian. She was now a hunter. She had also been provided with extreme winter gear all of which were also safely stored in her inventory.
More excitingly she was given her first gate items! One was a fairly standard hunting knife now hanging from her belt loop the other was a hair clip that looked like a dagger’s handle with gold embellishment. When she pulled it out magically extended into a spear. The only reason she had been allowed to take the magic item was that it required a high intelligence stat that no melee fighter could use, but it wasn’t a focus so no mage wanted it. Clio felt an odd kinship with the piece, both seemed like they should have been useful, but when people looked deeper they discovered the truth. She chuckled as she pulled her hair back into a messy bun and fixed the hair clip over her right ear. “Maybe we’ll both prove them wrong,” She said to the hairpiece. Shaking her head she refocused. Down the path of talking to inanimate objects lay madness.
She had around two hours to kill before she would be taken to the airport, taking out her phone to fill her family on the day’s events she noticed the 15-odd missed calls from Mike. “Shit, I never told him.” She realized. Quickly moved to remedy that. Mike picked up on the first ring.