With the arrival of the morning, everyone seemed more subdued, barring Mia. She was finally at the end of her mandatory bed-rest. She was still expected to take things easier, but that couldn’t restrain her pleasure in her freedom.

“You know, I almost forgot how to walk,” she joked. She was upside-down atop her hands in a handstand, before going other various stretches and positions. One didn’t get limber after bed-rest from doing nothing. She was nothing if not committed to getting into a more functional state once again.

I was pleased that Mia was up and moving again, but my pleasure paled in comparison to Vera’s. Vera refused to leave Mia’s side, cheering for her every movement. If Vera wasn’t such a kind-hearted girl, perhaps Mia would have let out the barbs she was storing in response to Vera’s enthusiasm, but this wasn’t the day she was going to choose to kill her friendship.

“Feels good to be out of bed?” I asked, trying to gauge her well-being.

“Oh you know it, Perry. If I had to stay in that bed another day longer I think I would have lost it. As much as I love an opportunity to read books, I like to choose to do that instead of having it forced upon me. Reading is all the sweeter when I can choose to use it to procrastinate against some other task.” This was punctuated with a dramatic stretch, pushing her body to the utmost limits as soon as she could.

“Don’t you dare tax your body or you’ll be hearing a lot from the doctrine,” Vera demanded. “And don’t get me started on what I’ll have to say after that.”

“Vera, I promise you, I’m the first person who doesn’t want to be on bed rest again. I promise I won’t overtax myself.” She grasped at Vera, pulling her into a brief hug. Only light enough for contact. Not long enough to tax herself, of course.

“Fine, fine, let’s get moving on before things get too emotional,” Alain interjected, no longer willing to let things continue on this path. “Breakfast?”

We nodded in agreement, heading on down to the mess hall. It was planned on being a brief breakfast, but that plan fell apart with the arrival of Javier. “What’s going on, boss?” I asked.

Javier looked lost in thought, as though he was watching the events of something off in the distance. His face vacillated between a frown and disbelief, unable to lock on how he wanted to feel at the moment.

“You wouldn’t believe it even if I told you. The matter is unthinkable. No one would have expected this to happen.”

“Out with it, Javier,” Alain said, ever the one to cut through the fat.

“There are counter protesters representing the current model of society on the streets. It doesn’t seem to be as organized as the other effort, given it’s a handful of smaller outbreaks throughout the city. That doesn’t mean we’re in favor of it, of course. It’s just… smaller.” Our leader looked as though he hadn’t even slept last night. I could only wonder what work he was given after we turned in for the night.

Vera shoveled more food into her mouth, uncaring about the interruption to our meal. “What’s the issue then?” she said through mouthfuls of food.

“Vera, having more protesters is not the best thing, especially in light of the reason they’re protesting. Protesting against another cause that’s being championed is a precursor to conflict,” Mia interjected.

“That’s not wrong, Mia, albeit that’s not the entire problem. The boss does not love the idea that the movement is escalating so rapidly. The more these flames are fueled, the more likely we’ll arrive at internal strife for the city, brother fighting brother, sister fighting sister. For obvious reasons, we don’t want that to happen.”

“That’s right, obvious,” I interjected, covering my mouth with my hand as soon as he glared at me. Didn’t mean to have that blurted out, a snide thought that escaped at an opportune moment.

“Anyway, my boss would prefer if we managed to find the top of the prey soul ring and broke it up at the source. I don’t think that’s quite an easy goal, but it’s one we’re going to aim for. Not like I could say no.”

“So what’s the plan then?” Alain asked.

“We’re going to start our day with a follow-up from last night’s activities. Can’t say I’m too enthusiastic about the likelihood of the outcomes, but we have to be thorough in our research and ensure that we don’t leave any lead neglected. Get ready to go in five minutes.” He strolled off out of the cafeteria, leaving Vera scrambling to finish the rest of her eggs, cheeks bulging with the stored food while the rest of us cleaned up after ourselves.

We hit the streets, walking towards the temple we had sat within only the prior night. Less than twelve hours ago there was a horde within the building, listening intently to the words of one solemn woman. But in the morning, the building remained abandoned, looking worse for the wear in the morning light. “Is this place derelict?” I wondered.

“The doctrine is still strong even when not fully present,” Vera said, preemptively fighting against an unstated question. She had a defensiveness for the doctrine that I was only starting to realize the true magnitude of.

“Well, that’s great,” I muttered. “If nothing is here, where else can we go?”

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“Why don’t we take a brief look inside first,” Alain suggested. We made our way into the building, winding through the halls, seeing no traces of anyone’s presence from the prior evening.

“Did they really take the time to clean up the place?” Mia asked. It was her time seeing the place, so all she could really do was ask questions given she didn’t know what the answers should be.

“Looks like it. People usually aren’t that perfect. I would have expected to see invitations strewn about, but evidently they cleaned up after all of the guests to ensure that no trails were present,” Alain said, arms crossed over his chest.

“Didn’t the woman go into the back of the temple? Let’s check there,” I suggested. Alain nodded and lead the way, leaving us to follow him down the hallway that existed behind the podium. Most of the rooms were covered in dust, but the room at the end seemed cleaner in comparison.

“They must have been in this room, given how its clean, but cleanliness doesn’t really speak towards the truth of their activities here. It’s more like proving that they had left,” Mia pondered aloud.

Alain looked around the room, studying the walls. “My guess is they did whatever preparation they needed in this room and took everything with them when they left. I doubt anyone was watching the final exit from the temple to notice the last stragglers of the night. We should have stayed longer.”

“What, to try and capture them when they exited the place? I can’t conceive a non-violent outcome contingent on us trying to trail after the woman who gave the speech,” I said, frowning at the thought of a confrontation with her.

Alain shrugged back at me, unwilling to argue the point. It wasn’t as though it was his call to make. It would have been Javier’s, who chewed over all we had noted without saying a word.

“I think we’ve determined all we can here. Time to move on from the temple. Let’s see if we can find that informant again,” Javier said, stroking at his goatee. We walked through the winding streets, looking for the beggar that had directed us to the temple, but when we hit the street they were on the prior night, they were nowhere to be found.

“That doesn’t definitively mean anything,” Alain said. “Beggars do roam depending on their circumstances.”

“And yet, why do I feel like their departure was to ensure that no one could follow them and ask further questions?” Javier groaned, bending over. “Great, we’ve lost all our leads. Everything we’ve had has vanished. There’s nothing left to look for. Shit.”

I hadn’t seem him so expressive before. Something was pulling at him, beneath the surface, echoing the subtle shock he had shown the night we thought Alain had been captured or worse. “So can’t we just find new leads?”

“Kid, we were lucky to find what we did in the first place. If we fail to produce results, the team might not last. I can’t hide that from all of you. We need to do well or we’ll do nothing at all.” He sighed, rising from his bent over position.

The fear must have shown on our faces at the thought of the team being disbanded, given his haste to alleviate our anxiety.

“Sorry, I’m just frustrated that we were so close and it’s all been pulled away. I’m sure we’ll continue on. We’re doing good work. This is just one small hiccup in the grand scheme of what we’ve done so far.” His fingers trailed around his head, nails scratching into his coarse hair.

“Why don’t we eat something first before we panic ourselves into an ineffective state,” Vera said.

She was always one to care for others, even when we were distracted with our work. Perhaps it was even the true core of the team. Without her care for Mia, we may have been in a worse state, Mia’s mental wellbeing suffering from the lack of concerted care. But we had Mia with us, weakened but functional, hopes shining in light of the grave injury she had suffered. All of the care Vera had lavished upon her showed great results, which only reflected back on Vera.

Javier looked as though a weight had lifted from his shoulders. “Fine. Fine. Fine. Let’s go get lunch. I’m sure new ideas will spring to mind with food in our stomachs.” We left the alleyway, unable to face the reflection of our own failure.

The walk back was quick and eating was even faster, which meant that we were back in the classroom, thinking over our next steps.

“We could interrogate the locals to see if they know more about the beggar,” I offered.

“That’s only going to raise further questions, Perry. We’re currently flying under the radar. I don’t know if that would persist with drawing attention to ourselves,” Alain said.

“More eavesdropping at a tavern?” Vera said, tone betraying how much confidence she had in the strategy, which was none. Her downcast face was clearly lingering on Javier’s earlier words, even if she had suggested lunch for us to get past the mental roadblock.

“That didn’t seem to work before, Vera,” Mia said. “However, I wasn’t there last time. Maybe if you had me you would have heard something worth hearing.”

I severely doubted that and was sure that look was mirrored on Alain’s face.

“Know what? I’ve got an idea,” Alain said, running over to Javier and whispering in his ear.

“I don’t know if I like that, but let’s see what the boss thinks,” Javier said, frowning back at Alain. He stepped out of the room, leaving the rest of us staring blankly at our teammate.

“What was that about?” I asked.

“Not gonna share until it’s been confirmed by the boss,” Alain replied.

“Oh, so it’s about me then,” Mia snarled. “Asking Javier to let me do light duty again. I’m not doing that, Alain. Not once I’ve finally left the bed. You can’t keep me behind any longer.”

Alain shook his head, eyes blinking rapidly. He leaned against the wall, as though taking strength in the sturdy foundation behind him. “Mia, what? No. That isn’t it at all. Even though you’ll likely find out soon enough with his return, I’ll give you a mild spoiler that it’s about me, not about you.

Well, I suppose you could consider it indirectly about you, but it’s not about keeping you from fighting again.”

“Mia, you can’t displace your anger at being bed bound at Alain. You know that’s wrong,” Vera chided. Mia had the good temerity to grow flushed in response to Vera’s words given she wasn’t retracting her own claim.

We didn’t need any further questioning though, given Javier’s speedy return to the classroom. “Surprisingly, or perhaps not to you, Alain, Amalaris is in favor of your plan. We’ll have you stay behind and search up further leads unfettered by the rest of the team, while we handle some more traditional work for the guard. I know you well enough to understand that you’re more than able to find another lead, given enough time. You have that resourceful nature to you. You can find what others are hiding. Do us proud, Alain.”

“You’re letting him go off on his own?” Mia cried. “That’s not safe at all.”

“It’s safer than what we’re going to be doing, given the time of the year it is, Mia,” he said, a pained smile on his face.

I raised my eyebrows, unsure of what I was missing. “What’s wrong? What’s coming up?”

Mia’s face had grown pale, all the color fading away. “It’s the Culling Night, isn’t it? I didn’t realize it was so soon.”

In a few days I would come to learn what my ignorance had shielded me from within the village.