"Welcome back, children," the man stepped up from the boundary of light and shadow, greeted and shook his hands with every young man. Lastly, he stopped in front of me.

"Nice to meet you, Sariella," he offered me his hand,"How's your father?"

"He's fine, thank you," gosh, his hand was very rough, I thought.

He took back his hand and curled the corner of his lips, perhaps he was trying to smile.

"I'm the representative of the Paladins in Seattle, and my code is Vulture," he stepped aside, and gestured us to follow, "I'm sure Cavalier, Zmei and Twister had already introduced themselves to you, I assume we can start the sightseeing."

He gave me an uneasy feeling, and I quietly followed.

Vulture led us into the empty church, straight towards the altar and stopped right in front of it. He raised his head towards the cross, and said, "May God lead us onto the path of the righteous, so that we may not perish in evil."

"Amen," the boys replied.

Nikolai took Vulture's place then, and raised his left hand, as if he was holding a pen, began to write in mid-air. Words glowing like gold appeared as his hand left the place, and he wrote fourteen lines of Latin neat and tidy before he stopped.

"I'm pleased that you didn't leave that knowledge behind," Vulture said.

I was completely amazed by the fourteen lines of golden words, and could not make a sound. I watched a wooden red colour appearing, as a background of the words, and a castle gate appeared out of nowhere.

By now, I was completely speechless out of shock.

"Welcome, Sariella," Vulture pushed the gate open with both hands, and the boys led me in.

I found myself in a lobby, a well-decorated one. Stone-built walls were covered by weapons, shields, and flags of all sort. There was a painting of a knight killing a dragon, and around it was written... Latin words that I could not read.

The ceiling was high, and the air was filled with the smell of antiques, stones and wood. The ceiling as well was decorated with carvings of angels, monsters, knights and words.

This must be a castle, I thought.

I watched Vulture holding the sign of the key and summoned a sword. Holding the weapon in his hand, he raised it upright and kissed his fist at the fingers.

Ok, probably a key-bearer as well.

One of the boys pulled me aside, and we watched Vulture swinging his sword, pointing to the right, and holding it in both hands, he quickly pointed it towards the ground. His left foot stepped back, and he bent one knee on the ground, nailing the sword onto the ground.

This time, flames of gold appeared in front of us, and another double-door appeared. It had an arch on top, and something was written on it.

"So, the door of the twelve tribes," Vulture got back to his feet, his sword gone with a black flame.

"Twelve stones, with twelve names. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Ascher, Isachaar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin."

On the door carved two angels, one kneeling on each side, in an obedient manner.

"Let's continue."

Unsurprisingly, there were twelve doors behind this door, with a flag with different symbol hung on each door, and a plate with the name of the tribe hanging above the door, written in gold.

Vulture placed his hand on my shoulder, "I've made an agreement with the elders, and seems like, Sir William Cole of Gad can provide you further knowledge on using your arsenal. He's one of the best men with weapons you can find in our branch, and I think it's better you can meet him as soon as possible."

'Liar,' said Suriyel in my mind, 'William Cole the Scorpion, I suggest you stay away from him.'

'What should I do then?' I asked him in my mind as Vulture led us across the corridor.

'Nothing. Be obedient, quiet and try not to be stupid, let me take care of the rest.'

Vulture led me into yet another room, spacious and old. The smell of humid, mould and wet wood was too strong to be ignored.

Walls of bookshelves, swords and shields, flags of the twelve tribes and portraits of people filled up the room.

"Here," Vulture led me further into the room and reached the walls where the portraits of the leaders were hung below the symbol of the twelve tribes.

For example, a red flag with mandrake and water, outlined with golden threads, for Reuben;

As for Simeon, a green flag with city walls outlined with gold as well ;

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

A flag with red, black and white and the breastplate of priests in the middle as the symbol of Levi;

For Judah, a sky blue flag with a lion in the middle;

A dark blue flag with the sun and moon on top, shining over a saddled donkey, was the flag of Issachar;

Zebulun has a white flag with a great ship;

Dan has a sapphire blue flag with a horned-snake entangled on a scale;

Gad has a grey flag with three camps in the middle;

For Naphtali, the flag was brick colour, with a deer in the centre;

Asher had a yellow flag with an olive tree;

Joseph's flag was black, with the symbols of an oryx on the left, a bull on the right and a bundle of wheat at the top, forming a triangle;

Lastly, Benjamin's colourful flag with red, green, black, white, blue and yellow, with a howling wolf in the middle.

"Meet the leaders," He politely gestured and started the introduction.

"Meet 'Mayim', leader of Reuben. Like water, the members possess the power of healing and destruction."

" 'Akzari' of Simeon, the tribe of warriors like the raging fire, for protecting our order."

" 'Bishop' of Levi, leader of all brothers and sisters in God, providing us with religious assistance," Vulture paused for a second, then continued," including exorcism and the gift of healing."

"The leader of Judah, which is I, and we provide guidance and training for all team captains, only the best will be accepted."

" 'Ranger' of Dan, this young man provides training for the agile assassins, as well as training of the mind and spirit."

" 'Le Cerf' of Naphtali, leader of mages with the ability to transform themselves into beasts, also with the gift of connecting with Mother Nature."

" Ascher, the tribe that provides us with all sorts of resources, including our weapons and gears, books for scholars, and the food in our canteen. The leader, 'Reichtum' is in charge of organising all those resources."

" 'Cornerstone' leads the tribe of scholars, Isaachar."

" 'Vita' of Zebulun, the lady in charge of all matters related to finance."

" Adrian the Watcher, our wise elder of Joseph, who provides us with spiritual guidance, visions and healings."

" 'Fangs' of Benjamin, the tribe of the fierce commandos and scouts."

"Lastly, Gad. The Butler is in charge of training the soldiers, only the best of the best."

Just as he finished his introduction, I heard a loud screech from the outside of the room.

It sounded like the scream of a baby, as if it was in terrible wrath, longing for attention, yet there was something else in its scream.

Vulture frowned, saying, "Now, if you may excuse me...."

He hurried away and left me alone in the room. The screams became worse, even more agonising, I began to have tinnitus and my head hurt so bad that I was breathless.

'Hey, hey!'

Suriyel appeared out of nowhere and took me by my arm, helping me with my feet.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Lukas."

"Who's Lukas?"

"You'll know later," he stood back as my symptoms wore out, "here, take a look."

The noise outside the room became louder. I heard some men muttering angrily, and the noise of fighting as well.

The baby's unpleasant scream became very hoarse at this point, his wailing and crying did not die down.

Suriyel held me by my arm and we both sank into our shadows, then he quickly led me through the corridors and stopped in front of my vembraces, hanging on the 'wall'.

"No, not them," Suriyel pulled out his sword on his right——a pure black tuck, as sharp as a needle—— and his dagger on the left.

"Put out your hands," he said, "quickly!"

Once I put out my trembling hands, he clicked the dagger at the pommel, and it stretched out two blades to each side, forming a slanted fork.

"Triple dagger," he said as he poked both my arms right below the wrist, at the middle of the two bones, "you had read it in those weapon books of yours, remember?"

I shuddered from the quick and sudden pain and nodded when the two tiny holes stopped bleeding.

"Together with its handguard, this forms a Chi-Rho symbol as well, you see?" Suriyel patiently explained, "every one of us had our unique weapons. As long as you are under my guidance, I grant you permission to use mine. You may summon them upon your will now, but, remember to keep ME secret."

He then urged me to ascend to the real world, and I parted with him.

What was that for? I wondered. My arms felt heavier than before, and my hands felt weaker as I tried to flex my fist.

Now the screaming had stopped, Vulture did not show any sign of relief, instead, he returned scowling.

"Sorry for my absence, but I'm afraid I have an urgent matter right now. Michael will continue your sightseeing, if you may excuse me..."

He left hurriedly, and Suriyel laughed in my mind. I had adapted to his scoffing all the time by now.

"Sariella? Come," Michael came out of nowhere and gestured me to follow, "there's a lot of things to show you."

"What was that just now?" I asked," I heard some noise."

"That's for later," Michael casually replied.

I heard footsteps rumbling around, and another sinister screech torn apart the still air.

"Stop this instance!" Vulture's voice followed, grumbling.

I looked at the direction of the noise, and I saw a tiny silhouette stumbling its way through the corridor. Right before I could see its face, it vanished the way as Suriyel always did.

Nelson and Nikolai appeared at the same spot within seconds, both seem to be frustrated, and turned around, talking to Vulture again.

I stood there stiffly, out of astonishment, watching the three men discussing within them, and my social anxiety lurking in the dark had decided to pop up again.

"... Come, The Scorpion wanna meet you."

Michael led me out of the corridors, back to the lobby, closing the double-door behind and watched it disappeared in a blink, giving me little time to adapt to another environment.

"Are you ok? You look really pale."

The wave of anxiety attack led me embarrassed in front of this fine young man, and I found it hard to breathe this time. I tried to breathe with my nose, it did not work, so I tried breathing with my mouth, but only droplets of oxygen could enter my pharynx.

It was painful and embarrassing, I could hear my throat muscles tightening, in hope to grasp some air into the respiratory system, only to hear myself choking and making odd noises.

Damn this anxiety attack! Damn!

Voices screaming in my head, whistles and murmurs right next to my ears, something drumming on my ears, something banging on my head...

"Breath in, breath out..."Michael's voice was smooth and calm, totally different from that on the plane, but I chose to neglect his dark side for a while.

Nikolai came back from nowhere and snapped his finger in front of me, and I coughed as I began to breathe normally again, all these noises dying out.

"Panic attack?" he asked.

For goodness sake, that was so, very, embarrassing!

Michael patted my shoulder, as caring as a brother, "Are you better now?"

I nodded.

"No pills for that?" Nikolai asked.

"No, I took too much of it before and something worse ticked off," I replied, "and the doctor stopped prescribing me any of them since then."

Nikolai did not seem to have paid attention to my explanation, and he raised his chin to the other side of the room.

"Take your time," he said coldly, "see you later."

And with these words, he walked down the dark corridor and left me with Michael, who immediately led me on a sightseeing of the fort.

'Have fun, kid,' Suriyel laughed in my mind.