04.06.3502, 06:00, in one of the run-down apartments in the black market district of Stean.
Trail:
I saw the sky slowly lighten up through the dirty window of my cramped room. There were no birds chirping, only the blabbering of some drunkards. My parents' arguing had interrupted my sleep once again and I decided that it wasn’t worth it to try and get more rest at this point.
The slatted frame creaked as I got out of my cramped bed and prepared to meet Mr. Savon aka my prude master, Smoothtalker. But I needed make myself presentable first and so I left my room and entered the small bathroom of my family.
I sighed at my reflection in the mirror, turned on the tap and lowered my head to wash my face. Trying to ignore my father’s angry shouts, I did my best to get rid of the grease that had built up due to the polluted air in this part of town.
After I was done I looked at my reflection once again, it was far from perfect, my delicate skin was still slightly oily, but there was a limit to what I could achieve with plain water.
“Smoothtalker said to meet at 10:30, which means I still have plenty of time left till then. But still, I’d rather spent the time waiting in Café Cyan than here.” With this I finalized my decision and hurried to get dressed.
After I had gotten out of my rough cotton nightgown, I started to put on the outfit Smoothtalker had generously provided for me. “A student of mine should dress appropriately” was what he had remarked when handing it to her.
“Seems that strict man can also be nice once in a while” I chuckled at this thought and did my best to put on the layers the way my master had instructed me to. First was the white shirt followed by the dark suit and black bow tie. The outfit was finished with black pants and black leather shoes.
“These must have cost a small fortune” I mused while I put on the high-quality footwear. Before I left my room I quickly threw a wide black cloak around my shoulders. It covered most of my body and hid my curves quit well, making traversing this damned district bearable.
The hairs on my neck stood on end as I recalled the creepy stares and comments I had fallen prey to on a daily basis, before I had gotten myself the cloak. “I hate this rotten district” I thought as I sneaked my way by the kitchen where my parents were having one of their meaningless arguments.
Ever since my master had taught me the basics of walking quietly, I had been able to avoid my parents noticing, when I left the house. And so I saved myself from having to dodge whatever my alcoholic father had in hand when he saw me.
Since I told my parents that I had gotten a job as a waitress at Café Cyan, it had gotten better, but I still decided to keep my interactions with my father to a minimum. “Great now you can finally provide for yourself Vyl!” was the only response I had gotten from my mother when I told her about the new job I had landed. My father wasn’t even sober enough to comprehend my words.
A small self-deprecating giggle escaped my lips as I left the apartment and entered the hallway. I quickly departed from the apartment building I called home. In the 17 years of my life, this place hadn’t bettered in the slightest, one might even argue that it had gotten worse. But I would soon leave all of it behind as my master had promised me that I would be able to live in the hideout once the upcoming mission was completed.
I had been told that I would be meeting Blur’s student today since we would be completing the mission together with him in two days. “He should be competent, with Blur as his master” this thought eased my worries about the mission's difficulty. I was looking forward to meeting the student of the infamous scientist of the Arcane Operatives.
I pulled the hood of the cloak deeper as I wandered into one of the main roads that went through the entire district, Starfall street. Since it was early in the morning it was rather empty, only a few drunkards were sitting or lying on house entrances.
While the street was technically wide enough for carriages to pass through, it was a rarity to see one due to the high crime rate in this part of town, which made the wealthy who could afford carriages avoid it.
In a hurry, I soon reached the humble establishment known as Café Cyan. As I entered the cozy joint, I looked at the wall clock plastered on the wall behind the counter. It was 6:32.
“You’re early” I heard a young voice from the counter remark. Looking down from the clock I saw a boy, probably around 14, looking at me with interest. He was wearing an outfit identical to the one I donned under my cloak and was cleaning glasses dutifully. I was vexed, he was new here!
I cleared my throat, “And who might you be? I haven’t seen you before.”
The boy was quick to respond, “I wasn’t allowed to select a code name yet, so just call me Lucas for now. Just like you, I’m a student of Smoothtalker.” He had a sad expression on his face, as he mentioned his still missing code name.
“Alright Lucas. Since we got nearly four hours left till our master arrives to pick me up, how about we play some cards? There are no customers here anyways.” I procured a deck of cards and waved it at him invitingly.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Lucas looked at me, then at the cards, obviously hesitant, “I was instructed to not leave this counter, I can’t go against orders on my first work day!”
I had to chuckle at his timid obedience, “Then we can just play on the counter can’t we? That way you are still following orders perfectly” I said and moved a chair to the counter.
“I suppose we can play then, but I’m no good at card games. So don’t be disappointed” he put the cleaning rag away and watched me, as I sat down and shuffled the cards.
Lucas' statement proved correct, as I had to explain every game we played to him in detail and he lost every time we played at the start. Nonetheless he didn’t want to stop and got better and better. When Smoothtalker picked me up he had finally won once and I could swear that I saw a smile on the cautious boy’s face.
“So he’s a new student of yours?” I asked my master, while we made our way towards the hideout. Like always he walked confidently, his businesslike attire unfitting of the environment. It made me question how he was able to walk around without someone attempting to mug him every two steps. “Must be his reputation” I reasoned.
“He isn’t an official student of mine yet. He’s still on probation. I got informed about a kid asking to work at the Café and decided to see if he has the ambition needed to join us. If Lucas proves that he fits our organization, he will be allowed to chose a code name and become an official member. He will work at the café in the meantime” Smoothtalker's voice stayed steady throughout his answer, radiating an air of calm calculus.
“Thank you for the explanation master” Due to my master’s love for proper mannerisms, I tried to always stay formal and polite when speaking with him. Unfortunately, I still lacked the refinement he had, because of my background and lack of education.
In the four years that I had been under his care, I had spent nearly two just learning things like reading and writing, this lead to lacking combat-orientated skills in comparison to other students.
The one ability that I had learned so far was Trail: Bygone Path and currently I wasn’t able to learn any more because I was only at link might 8. “Hopefully I reach link might 7 after the mission. Then I could finally learn another ability.”
My advancement should be near since I had completed numerous missions after my initial link with Terex. I longed for a more attack focused ability, as the sole one I currently possessed leaned heavily towards information gathering. It allowed me to stay aware of areas I previously passed.
Lost in thought, I didn’t realize that we had long entered the hideout and were descending down into the basement.
Suddenly my master spoke, his voice even more serious than normally. “I want you to be on guard when we met Blur. If you do something boneheaded, it will seem like I failed at training you.”
I had to use every ounce of self-control I had to not burst out laughing. It was common knowledge among students that Blur always reminded Smoothtalker of his own unrefined past when she saw him scold one of his students for being crude.
Regaining control of my emotions I quickly answered my master obediently. “I will do my best to show how well you have taught me, master.”
He acknowledged my answer with a short nod and soon after we had reached the training room of the hideout, I witnessed the boy I had seen the day before getting his legs swept from under him by Blur.
I felt sympathy for my peer as a resounding thud reached my ears. I had been in a similar situation many times when training with my master. And speaking from experience, such a fall was sure to leave painful bruises, which would take days if not weeks to fade.
Following my master, I closed the distance between Blur and the boy on the ground swiftly. From up close I could make out the boy’s short black hair and his tired brown eyes, which were fixated on the ceiling.
Blur seemed to tell the lying figure something before she walked up to my master. “Good to see you Smoothtalker, I will leave my student in your care now. That way you can explain the mission details to Trail and Mimicry at the same time. I will be back in like, an hour.” With that the pale scientist turned and left the basement room with decisive strides.
“So the boy must be Mimicry then. He’s the one I’m gonna be teaming up with?” as I thought this he unexpectedly got to his feet and slowly stood up with a groan. “That’s some tenacity” I applauded inwardly and taking a second look, noticed his muscles flexing while he got up. His unremarkable build had hidden his well-toned body.
I was about to compliment him, since he surely had to go through a hellish training schedule with his master to have reached this physique. But I held myself back when I remembered that my master was still standing next to me.
My master chose this moment to start laying out the mission, “The information we have about our target is minimal, this way the advancement progress received will be greatly heightened. We will infiltrate the central police department and assassinate a detective, who has recently began investigating us. I only have a rough description of his appearance, a middle-aged man with blond hair and blue eyes. He’s around 1,80 meters tall and wears silver-rimmed glasses. I will locate the target and the two of you will eliminate him together. This way you two will reap the achievements and potentially grow even stronger.”
“Achievements?” I was bewildered at this term. My master had explained the advancement progress which came with the completion of mission to me before, but the term achievements was new to me. “Master please forgive my ignorance. What are achievements?” I inquired.
My master sighed at my question, but still responded succinctly, “Achievements are what we call the main parts of the mission, since they lead to the additional blessing of Terex. Which in turn, expand your tattoo, allowing you to learn more abilities.”
While Smoothtalker was talking, I briefly looked over to Mimicry and saw him listening attentively. “Did Blur not tell him this important piece of information?” I wondered.
My master finished his monologue with a short command, “I will be attending to other matters now, spar until Blur returns.” With that he marched over to the medical station and instructed Twin briefly. After that he stepped towards the room’s entrance and left swiftly.
“So you are Trail?” I heard a voice ask from behind me.
I turned around to see Mimicry knocking dust off his clothes. “Yes I am, but shouldn’t one first introduce themselves before asking for someone else’s name?” I replied while simultaneously pulling my hood back, revealing my shoulder length black hair.
His voice tinged with embarrassment as he responded hastily “Oh yeah, you’re right. I’m Mimicry, student of Blur and I’m 16.”
My lips curled into a mirthful grin at his shame and I drew a dagger out of a hidden sheath in my cloak. “So Mimicry, how about we heed Smoothtalker's instructions and spar till your master returns?”