The trio stood on the very top floor of the central structure. Marcus looked around the room. His eyes stopped on a middle aged man with slicked back hair. He didn’t notice the group yet, busy staring into a visor on some sort of large device with flashing lights. The part he was holding onto reminded Edward of a periscope.

Marcus led them towards the man. “Vice commander Adam, I’ve brought Edward and Layla as requested.”

Adam stopped looking through the device, straightening up and turning towards them.

Now Edward could see the blade attached to his left hip, the hilt was adorned by some sort of insignia. It seemed familiar, but he couldn’t clearly remember which family it belonged to…

‘Middle aged, a high position… A Marked from the previous generation?’

“Hey it’s good to finally meet you two. I’m not going to go into formalities with fellow warriors. Layla The Blademaster and Edward The Mad Warrior….” The vice commander stroked his clean shaven chin.

‘Oh no… How does he know about that? Don’t tell me...’

“At least that’s how the soldiers call you,” he continued.

‘Shit…’ That’s exactly what he hoped wouldn’t happen. The nickname has spread…

“Good to meet you too Adam, I believe I also heard about you.” Layla’s words pulled Edward from his stupor.

“Hmm… Alright I’m curious to hear about everything that happened to you in the past couple of days, but I’ll wait for your report about that. For now let me ask you this, are you aware of the armies gathering near Tiberius?”

“More or less, we figured they wouldn’t send a Legend only to destroy a single camp…” Layla looked at Ed, who nodded in agreement.

“Good. This whole room serves first and foremost to observe the surroundings and scan the area.” Adam gestured around the numerous futuristic devices filling the room.Some kind of advanced telescopes were lined up next to the bulletproof windows, which especially piqued Edward’s interest. Many of them were currently being used by soldiers, who noted things down on a tablet or passed information directly through an earpiece.

“We’re currently seeing more and more movement by the enemy scouts, and as you’re already aware, Atlas is here too. From what Marcus told me, you somehow managed to hold up long enough against him to escape. That’s also one of the reasons I’m glad to have you here right now.”

Edward did his best to listen carefully, but he really wanted to get this over with. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a chance to lie down in a comfortable bed, and since he came here, that was the one thing constantly on his mind.

Suddenly slow steps came from behind the group. “Alright Adam, even I allow them to rest sometimes…” A tired voice sounded. “I took care of what we discussed, the enemy is not going to attack anytime soon, we can give them the briefing later.”

The whole trio swung their heads backwards.

“Master Tarquin?!” they said in unison.

“Yes, yes, calm down, I’m tired…” The old warrior brushed back his long white hair. “I’ll take away my students for now, hope you don’t mind Adam.”

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“Of course sir.”

Tarquin nodded, turning around and walking towards the exit.

The trio took it as a sign to follow. They also gave Adam a nod of acknowledgment and followed their teacher. Once they were back in the elevator, Tarquin spoke again.

“I am highly interested in what happened and even more in seeing your progress. But as I said earlier, we all need some rest. Go to your quarters for now. I expect you to meet me in the training hall tomorrow at ten. Marcus will show you where it is.”

“Of course,” Ed answered.

“Good, then we’re in agreement. Dismissed.” Just as he said the last word, the doors of the elevators opened, and the three warriors walked out together.

They waited for a moment until the elevator left, and Marcus spoke up.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m suddenly not that excited about tomorrow…”

“Ehh, it’s still good to see the old man,” Layla answered.

“Can’t argue with that. But I can already feel the beating coming. Edward is probably excited though…” Marcus turned his head towards the young warrior.

“Hey! I just want to show Tarquin the new trick up my sleeve.” Ed shrugged his shoulders.

“Mhm… I’m sure that’s all there is,” Layla retorted.

“Ehh… Can’t win against the two of you… Let’s just go hit the bed, alright?”

“Haha, sure man. Follow me, I made sure our rooms would be next to each other.” Marcus laughed, leading the trio.

“How cute…” Layla rolled her eyes, walking after him.

***

Edward stared at the smooth dark ceiling, reflecting his figure sprawled out on the bed. He didn’t really bother with looking over the apartment, which was large enough to deserve a tour in and of itself. He didn’t even feel like taking a shower before lying down on the king sized bed.

‘I’ll do that in the morning…’

That was his last thought before drifting off to sleep.

Once the early morning came, or what Edward hoped was the early morning otherwise he would be late, he rolled out of bed, falling flat on the floor.

“Damn.”

Sitting up, he rubbed the back of his head.

‘Alright… Guess it’s time to get ready.’

He stood up, looking around the room. The thick dark brown curtains blocked out the sun, allowing only a couple rays of light to sneak through near the edges. Thanks to this, Ed could still see everything inside the room.

The luxurious apartment was spacious enough to allow a dedicated kitchen, a sofa, a large wardrobe made out of some kind of dark polished wood and still left a large empty space in the middle of the room for a beautiful beige carpet.

It took him a moment before he found where the bathroom was.

He walked out in a white bathrobe some minutes later. Finally feeling refreshed he went over to his bed, and looked for his phone in the crumpled sheets. He turned on the screen.

‘Eight thirty, still over an hour until the time Tarquin set… Lucky me.’

Ed walked over to the nightstand leaving his phone on the charging station for now. He wondered what to do with the extra time and considered going to the cafeteria.

‘Hmm… Actually, since there is a kitchen here… Maybe there’s also more than that…’

The expectation lingered in his eyes, as he grabbed the handle of the fridge, pulling it open. Fortunately, he wasn’t disappointed. The small inside light shone upon the clearly organised stacks of products. Everything he could reasonably hope to find was there.

With a content smile, he pulled out the butter, cured meat and some lettuce. He had to look through all of the different cupboards and drawers until he finally found some sliced bread and silverware.

While making himself a set of simple sandwiches for breakfast, he thought about the upcoming training.

‘Come to think of it, Master Tarquin didn’t even call it a training session. For now it’s just a meeting in the training hall…’

He scratched his head for a moment.

‘Ok, yeah, it’s definitely going to be a training session.’