Nocturnio (15.8.9979AS)

“By Aetas!” Tristan screamed with all his might. Today was the final day of his summer vacation and he was spending it like he had all summer long: Training. The reason of his frustration was that he just couldn’t make any progress in his training. He was starting to think his efforts were wasted here.

“Don’t give up…” He could hear Schattenklinge panting towards him.

Both of them were no in the ‘Resonance Room’ trying to see if they could use magic in the room, but every time Tristan tried to use magic other than his ‘Gate’ the magic circle was shattered by the strange noises in the room.

“Don’t worry, I won’t.” Tristan said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

Over the past month both of them had spent every morning in this dimension. At first they couldn’t even stay in the room for more than five minutes, but now they were able to comfortably stay in the room for hours without having to leave it with nausea or other symptoms. Now that their bodies had grown costumed to the room they wanted to try out if they could use magic, but for some reason it just seemed impossible.

“How about we spar once again? I like fighting with the swords here, it feels like a real fight without all the magic you usually have around you. Schattenklinge said with a smile and took one of the swords lying around.

Tristan looked slightly annoyed, he much rather would just concentrate and try to finally succeed in casting magic inside the room. “Ok, but only for a few minutes, we can’t forget this training.” Tristan pointed at the gemstone on the ground.

***

“Tomorrow is the day of your grand return to school, but I still haven’t finished this thing!” Abigail said waving a pair of mechanic looking gauntlets around. “I just can’t get why my they don’t work like I want them! And you… All you do is go flirt around with those girls instead of staying behind and helping out figure out the secret on how to make this Fors forsaken thing!”

Abigail threw the gauntlets by side and started scratching her already messy hair before deflating in her seat deactivating her active ability making the holographic PC in front of her disappear.

“I told you not to bother with it, and to do research on other things… I mean to bring those things to work you would need a similar breakthrough I had with the Commu.” Tristan said with a mocking tone. “… And I don’t feel like they are worth my time.” Tristan continued with a cold voice. “So what about you get up and research other things than those stupid gauntlets?”

“Kyaaahhh,” Abigail shouted, trying to get rid of the frustration inside of her. “And I DID research other things than these stupid gloves!” She grabbed in her pocket and took a few lollipops from inside of it. “You see I added three other flavors to my lolli collection!” She said while pealing one of them and putting it where it belonged to: her mouth.

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“I sometimes feel like this equipment is all wasted on you.” Tristan answered within a cold tone.

“So I’m not the only one.” Abigail answered Tristan with a meek smile.

*Sigh*

“If this was all you did all day, I would have fired you long time ago” Tristan looked at the other things Abigail had helped him created in the past few years or even months.

“Then it’s good I don’t work for you.” Abigail continued with a mocking smile. “Now will you help me with this little project of mine?”

**Sigh**

“I will, but I don’t see how this can be of any use to me now nor in the future.” Tristan moaned.

“Nice!” Abigail’s face was filled with a bright smile. “For future use… Let me put it like this: When you kill Fors with it, I want you to think of this very moment.”

“Yeah, sure as if I will.” Tristan answered with a sarcastic tone.

“Anyways, do you look forward to tomorrow?”

“Not really, given that last year all of our patrols were directed to find out the ‘Clanless’ that escaped our big raid and this year’s missions probably will be the same.” Tristan said almost mechanically.

“Yeah, I totally get you; it really was a pain that all patrols were about searching for those ‘Clanless’ just because we didn’t get them, but not because they caused trouble anyone anymore.” Abigail answered bored.

“Well, if the ‘Clanless’ and other criminals don’t show up, then searching for them is the most appropriate thing to do, still it’s kinda boring. Any kind of job would be fun right now, even playing guard would be more interesting than looking for those guys. It’s not like we’ll find them anyway.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well the only ways we were able to find them up until now, was because they let us know. Do you think we could have found out about their hideouts if they hadn’t let that paper with their locations behind?”

Abigail shook her head in realization. “So they did want us to know about their hideouts… but why?”

“Beats me, the most plausible explanation is that they want to hide something big and with thanks to these ‘leaked hideouts’ are trying to make us look at a different place.”

“So they are playing us?”

“Yes, they and the people living near those hideouts too, they are all in cahoots with one another, that’s how they can play us so easily. Didn’t you see how those guys look at us every time we go there? They see us as outsiders, another species so to say, they don’t see us as fellow member of the same race, no they see as intruders trying to steal the last thing they have: Hope.”

“Hope… I see… So the ‘Clanless’ use the fact that they belong to the similar social circle and guise their actions as resistance against us, the privileged that own enough money to live in the city center without lacking anything we desire.”

“Yay, you got it!” Tristan showed Abigail two thumbs up. “That’s why we won’t get them until it’s too late; those people won’t cooperate with us, because they think we deserve to suffer a little. After all, they suffered all their lives, if it goes after their minds it’s our turn to suffer.

Tristan’s expression turned bitter. “So the question is why would they go to the trouble to reveal that many hideouts, what would lead them to have us concentrate on those stupid hideouts and their surroundings? – To be honest, I don’t know either, but it must be something big, that goes beyond stealing people’s purses, vandalism and other small crimes they were committing up until now.”

“You mean we have to change our methods, and search there we don’t expect them instead of the border districts?”

“That’s right.” Tristan answered as he looked at the clock behind Abigail.

Tristan stood up as his time here with Abigail was now over, at least for the day. Maybe he would return later to his lab, but now he had to go, go and continue his training with Laura, who was waiting on the other side of the invisible wall next to them.