The next afternoon came, by which time the Anbieter had returned to the Black Shield base and had started scrubbing himself clean in the bath. If anyone were to be in the same bathroom as him, he would be shielded from them by a translucent barrier of glowing, purple energy. This served as a sort of shower curtain which hid his features, while still allowing the silhouette of his slim but muscular body to be seen from the other side.
The door to the room opened and promptly closed. Someone had joined him in the bathroom.
“Damn it, Jay,” the Anbieter groaned in mock annoyance. “Just because you’re the only one I allow in here; doesn’t mean you absolutely need to be here.”
“Just finished interrogatin’ that Hugo fella,” he said, washing his bloodstained hands, the tap water running red as the fluid cascaded off of his skin. “I’m just cleaning up.”
“How’d it go?” the Anbieter asked.
“The guy wouldn’t stop running his mouth about how he was going to save the whole world, and how Gareth put an end to his plans by capturing him. Still doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s a sick bastard who used those girls like tools.” Jay explained.
“So you couldn’t get anything off of him?”
“Hell no,” Jay exclaimed. “The guy is the living embodiment of zeal. Or should I say was, because… I think we roughed him up a bit too much.”
“So you killed him?” the Anbieter asked.
“Wasn’t like we could get anything useful off of him,” Jay sighed. “He was stubborn until his last breath.”
“Jay, has anyone told you that you’re a bit too trigger-happy for a southerner? Your people are pacifists, and here you are killing your prisoners like… man, I don’t even know like what.”
“Ain’t that why I’m your second in-command?” Jay laughed.
“Well, that you are,” the Anbieter chuckled. “But how are we going to find out what he was planning now? If he’d been allowed to progress, he would’ve interfered with our objectives. I would’ve liked to know as many possibilities as we could.”
“My bad, my bad,” Jay said, putting his hands up in surrender. “Well, we do know that his actions were inspired by a tome Vi came across when she searched that village. You reckon we give it a look?”
“That’s our only option,” the Anbieter sighed. “You and I will look through it with Vigdis once I’m out.”
“Understood,” Jay said, turning off the tap and drying his hands on his shirt. “Good time for Anwen to meet her new immediate superior, too.”
-
“Alright, then.” Jay said, putting the ancient leather book on the Anbieter’s desk, as dozens of Black Shield soldiers strolled around, who were all either switching positions from support duty on Marius, helping with the upkeep of the base, or taking part in casual conversations with their comrades. The atmosphere of the organization allowed soldiers to self-regulate themselves, and meetings between all three members of the top brass were not very common.
“Our crafts took quite a bit of damage during the pogrom,” a tall woman who wasn’t more than 28 years of age said, moving some of her messy, black chin-length hair away from her face. “Make this quick, I need to get back to the hangar.”
“Work is all you do, Viggy,” Jay chuckled. “Why not partake in some harmless chitchat with your colleagues?”
“You really just brought me here to make use of my memory,” she sighed. “Well then, let’s get on with it.”
“Is this something we should be doing without Gareth’s knowledge?” Anwen yawned, still tired from her restless night. “He found that book. And also, why am I here?”
“So you can tell him, obviously. We have other work lined up for Gareth. Some Stefan work, to be specific.” the Anbieter disclosed.
Stolen novel; please report.
Anwen pouted, remembering Jay’s words from the previous evening. This had hardly anything to do with engineering or building. She wasn’t supposed to relay messages.
“You need to loosen up with the directness.” Jay said, rolling his eyes at his leader.
“Sugarcoating doesn’t help anyone. Sorry, miss.” the Anbieter shrugged.
“Hey,” Vigdis said, putting a hand on Anwen’s shoulder. “I’d like this to get going, too. We have a few words to exchange, after all.”
She elbowed Jay in the rib, who nearly gave in to spewing out a storm of profanities at his colleague as he hadn’t said anything that would slow down their rendezvous.
“Well, right off the bat,” the Anbieter said, flipping the flaking, leather front cover of the book. “I see something that might be of interest.”
“What is that?” Jay asked, noticing a painted image with intricate patterns in the shape of a shield.
“That’s the coat of arms of the Karesti clan, one of the families that has ruled over Titan. Someone in the family either wrote this book or commissioned it to be written at some point.” the Anbieter explained.
“I’d say this thing’s hundreds of years old, if not a thousand. Probably not very long after the First Invasion.” Vigdis said.
“You aren’t just an engineering nerd, you’re a history buff too!” Jay chuckled.
“And the only one who has something upstairs between us two,” Vigdis scoffed. “Keep turning the pages.”
The next half hour was spent flipping through the 250 or so pages of the book. The pages consisted of drawings, which when pieced together, told stories. They were hieroglyphic in nature, and it was concluded that they taught a multitude of techniques regarding Utrium, including how to manipulate ones’ own Reserve and how to strengthen the body and mind using Pool. However, it seemed that none of them had anything to do with Hugo’s ambition—anything to do with using another person’s Reserve to increase their power.
“Stop, stop,” the Anbieter beckoned to Jay as he was about to turn a page. “This looks… promising. Let’s try piecing this together.”
The first image depicted a male, presumably adult, silhouette, approaching the figure of a woman’s silhouette. The second one showed that same woman with a bulging belly—made pregnant by that man. The following picture was one of the man from the first image, accompanied by a youth, no longer a young child, but certainly not an adult yet.
Is this the Leistung protocol? The one that was rumored about during my childhood? the Anbieter wondered quietly.
The next one depicted the man plunging what could have none other than an Utrium sword plunged into the chest of the youth, an undeniably fatal injury. A purple glow was shown traveling through the sword in the next image, and in the final image, the man’s entire body glowed purple.
A similar diagram was shown in the next few pages. The only differences were there were multiple women, therefore multiple children. The man at the end of the diagram glowed an even deeper shade of purple, whose light reached further.
“My goodness… is that what Hugo was trying to do with all those young ladies?” Jay said in audible surprise.
“Power… what he wanted was power… the madman really did want to snuff out the Titanian Empire on his own…” the Anbieter said, his mask doing little to suppress his level of astonishment.
“What a disgusting man…” Vigdis said, the grip of her hand on Anwen’s shoulder becoming tighter unconsciously.
“Knowing this now does little good since Jay here decided to rub out our person of interest… but, this book might be useful to us somewhere down the line.” the Anbieter said, coming to conclusion.
“This is… not really related, but I want to say something…” Anwen said shyly and softly.
“We’re all ears.” the head of the organization encouraged.
“Well, that coat of arms things, I…”
“You...?” Jay asked as the girl seemed to lose her trail, unable to complete her sentence.
“Ah, never mind. I can’t seem to remember. Sorry.” Anwen said with a forced smile.
“Well, in that case, you’re all dismissed,” the Anbieter said. “Anwen don’t forget to pass along what we’ve gone over. Vigdis, you have a new apprentice. Show her how the Black Shield does things.”
“No need to tell me.” Vigdis said, rolling her eyes as she left the Anbieter’s office, by which time a curious crowd of soldiers had gathered around the desk. She simply used her arm to push through them, making way for both her and Anwen.
It was a good thing I didn’t say anything else, Anwen thought. Gareth has a tattoo of that coat of arms on his back, but they don’t need to know that. They already distrust him enough.
“You’re a lucky girl,” Vigdis said as they stepped up in front of an elevator. “I don’t normally take in apprentices.”
“You don’t?”
“It’s a damn pain in the ass to have to teach impatient kids how to fix together things that aren’t even from this world. But Jay put in a good word for you, says that Gareth might’ve taught you a thing or two about engineering and the like. It’s up to you to prove him right, though.”
“W-What do you mean from this world?”
“We can’t even build carriages without them having to be pulled by horses, you think we’re able to make gigantic metal jars that use light to fly?”
“N-No.” Anwen said, feeling ashamed for whatever reason.
“Good. I’m more of a shower than a teller, so you’ll understand what I’m talking about soon. But first,” Vigdis said, entering the elevator and pushing a button that indicated a lower floor than the one they were in. “I apparently need to take you to Gareth so you can tell him what we found in that book.”