Ravendell, as always, sitting in his office, was reading Benston's report of the Observers last meeting. It was a bit more unusual than normal. There was, for example, the ongoing mysterious plague in Fallel with little progress being made so far. The people there were getting new diseases despite the fact that the city was protected by the Varyion wall. Squad three is currently working on that case, but the Observers have requested to consider forming a new squad that could assist them with their mission.
Another topic mentioned a rumor that has started to form in this city concerning Ayuki's intrusion. The timing of her intrusion and the Dark nature attack was too close to be considered a coincidence so some people are now accusing Ayuki to be responsible for it, claiming that the so called intrusion girl somehow attracts the Dark nature with her special Fes ability. This was a serious matter that Ravendell didn't want to ignore.
At the moment though, he rather wanted to wait until more information could be confirmed before handling such rumors. Dedroy is currently responsible to discover her Fes capabilities in order to find out more about it. Ravendell deliberately decided not to tell Dedroy about Ayuki's intrusion. Dedroy actually thinks she's from Fallel, visiting Varyion to receive his special Fes training. This was to make sure that Dedroy wouldn't be biased by the possible negative rumors so that he would evaluate Ayuki fairly.
Continuing the report, the Observers were basically nagging regarding the use of Ellyia's E-link introduction on Ayuki. As they would phrase it "not the best decision to treat an intruder" and so on. Well, so far the nagging report. Time to switch to Dedroy's report.
Let's see, he discovered that her Fes develops in her eyes, making her either an enhancer or an attainer. What her power was still remained to be seen. The training got interrupted by the cyllius and he decided to postpone their training somewhere this morning. Dedroy finally concluded his report with a proposal coming from Ayuki... Ravendell widened his eyes now and remained silent before bursting out in laughter. "Join the Order Elites? Haha, why didn't I come up with that?!" Well, there were a couple of reasons why he never considered it, but that didn't matter now. It was a great idea and he would totally support her with it if she's serious about it. Where did this proposal come from? He couldn't tell until he read Wester's report, confirming her activity in the library.
One can easily be a recruit of the Order with its many functions, but the Order Elites, that's totally something else. Does she even know how hard it is to be part of it? Difficulty aside, if she does manage it, it would definitely clear her name from the Order's suspicion and also of the citizen's suspicions of her. The Observers might even prefer her to be in it so that she'll be more outside the city than in it. Anyways, it was an exciting proposal Ravendell instantly approved of. How would the Observers react to it? He couldn't wait to find out. The only thing left to do now is to notify Dedroy about the admissions since the timing of her request is quite fortunate.
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Ayuki heard the news that her proposal was quickly approved by Ravendell. He can be quite bold so she figured he might find the idea amusing of a person, seen as an intruder, joining their organization. There were, of course, other reasons why she came up with this proposal, like gaining more trust from the people, the Order, and the Observers, but she also felt it was necessary for her own survival.
Judging by the history books she read and her only experience outside the city, Varyion won't last forever. Focusing solely on protection won't solve their main problem. The Dark nature is real, it's a life threatening, and it gets stronger as time passes. Something has to be done to stop it and it has to be done outside the city. In other words, currently, only the Varyion Order Elites has the key to survival. Sure you could ignore the problem and just try to live comfortable in a protected area the rest of your life, unaware how much longer you'll be safe, but that wasn't very tempting for Ayuki. If anything, she hated the idea of living an ignorant life. If there was a way to prevent a disaster, she wanted to know it or even better, be part of the ones that fought for it.
Dedroy had informed Ayuki about the General Admission to enter the Order that will start in eight days from now. Everyone is allowed to join the Order, but which department you'll end up joining will be decided by a couple of things. In the General Admission, you have to undergo a couple of tests and based on your results, they will give you a recommendation. If your recommendation meets the requirements of your department of choice, you can simply join it. If it doesn't however, you will have to continue with the Specialized Admission which consists of training and examinations until you meet all the requirements. Quite a hassle, Ayuki thought.
Now although her plan was to join the Varyion Order Elites, Ayuki wasn't really that determined to be part of it yet. She never even met one of them so risking her life for the people that she didn't really have a connection with, didn't sounded that appealing. The idea, for now, was to see how they train the squads and deals with certain situations, gain a better understanding of it, and then decide whether it is worth fighting for or not. If it wasn't then she could just simply switch to a supportive role within the Order instead, something safe. At least show the effort to care for a greater good and then see where it goes from there.
"Are you ready to continue where we left off?" Dedroy asked her. They were now in the Outer City Park again, resuming the training that got canceled by the last cyllius attack.
"Yeah. Sorry, my mind wandered a bit off there." Ayuki said.
"Can't blame you. Lots of stuff happened, right?" Dedroy smiled now. "Okay, so last time I noticed that the Fes developed in your eyes. Do you remember seeing something different yesterday?"
Other than Dedroy, the circle and the ice crystals, nothing else took notice of her at that time. "Not particularly, really."
"Hmm... well first thing first," Dedroy said. "The fact that your Fes did develop so quickly means that you do have an inheritable Fes, Fes you have gained through your ancestors. Also based on the first test we did, you're most likely an instinctive Fes user, which is a good thing. It means you can use the Fes naturally, not having to think too much about it and automatically activate it rather than stressing over it. So, today we'll be focusing on practical exercises and see what kind of results we'll get from that."
"Okay." Inheritable Fes huh? This confirmed that she does have a family somewhere in this world, right? It would also mean that learning her inheritable Fes will be easier and faster than an indirect one. It sounded at least way better than learning something for years with slow results in return.
"Great! Now let's start with something easy. Here, catch." Dedroy threw a wooden TAG at her. When she caught it with her hands and inspected it, she noticed it had another design than her communication TAG. "That there, is a Barrier TAG," he said. "Just like our Varyion Wall, this TAG will cast a barrier around your body. It's probably the most important TAG there is to use since it will protect you from basically any danger."
Wow! That's very useful. "Can I have this?" She asked him almost desperately.
"Haha, sorry. This belongs to the Order. Once you're in the Order Elites though, you can have one for sure. Now listen up," he said enthusiastically. "I want you to use this TAG now. Just like your other TAG you have right now, applying pressure will activate it."
She did as Dedroy told her and sure enough, a barrier instantly appeared around her. Just like the Varyion Wall, this was a barrier that was semi-transparent, you can still see everything but it blurred your vision a bit. She tried moving around to see what would happen. The barrier actually moved with her at the same pace as she walked.
"Good. Now keep the pressure as long as you can. The TAG will absorb your Fes output. Oh, uhm...Fes output is basically the amount of Fes you can emit."
Ayuki did her best to put pressure on the Barrier TAG. It was quite surprising to see how easy this worked. After a full minute though, she felt her energy being drained and started to shake a bit. Then the barrier disappeared.
"Not bad for a start. This is basic training, so I want you to keep doing as much as you can. The more you use it, the better your Fes output will increase. Well, since you told me your wish to join the Order Elites, let's not take the easy road and use our remaining time well to prepare you for the General Admission. We can train so hard, you might end up the first person to instantly pass to join the Order Elites," Dedroy said while letting out a laugh.
Damn it. Should I have not mentioned him my proposal plan? The easy road sounded nicer actually. "Thanks..."