Rekka eyed the bookshelf with a scrutinous gaze. The odd relics were indiscernible in purpose and origin, and they taunted her with her inability to figure out the puzzle that was Charybdis' room.
"I still haven't found anything yet. You think our mystery informant was right, I suppose?" Saya asked grumpily. It was clear from the disappointment in her voice that she was anxious, even more so than Silas. If someone were to come the pressure was all on her.
"I can't sense anything other than the relics in this room. They're too strong! They're outputting so much mana it's overloading my senses. I can't tell if someone's coming or not," Saya explained. "We should hurry up and get the heck out of here. I'm getting the willies."
Rekka huffed. "We might not get another chance like this again. But you're right. We should go before Charybdis gets ba-"
Rekka paused, her breath catching in her throat as the bookshelf her hand was on began to rumble and shake.
"She's coming!" Saya whispered, dashing to the door and hastily pouring her mana in to try and get it to open. However, she was unsuccessful. She was too panicked to concentrate.
Rekka could do nothing but stand stock still as the bookshelf slid slowly to the side the reveal Charybdis standing behind it in a dark tunnel.
"Rekka?" Charybdis asked coolly. Her tone was polite and curious, but Silas saw beads of sweat form on her already drenched face. Her beautiful and exotic indigo hair flowed like a river down her soaked lab coat. Rekka began to shake as she noticed blood splattered all over Charybdis' shoulders. She could smell it, too. The smell of wet blood and sweaty metal suddenly permeated the room, drowing out the pleasant stuffy odor of steamy hot coffee.
"What are you four doing in my office? I thought-" Charybdis reached out her arm in front of her and activated her projector. She rapidly scrolled through screen after screen before selecting a certain button. The screen that the button brought up was nothing but static.
"Someone's deactivated my cameras," Charybdis gasped. "Only I can access them, they're linked to my very own magical signature… how-" she looked at Rekka with newfound fear. Unless…
Charybdis remembered what Redd had said when they had fought.
"You won't have them for long, Charybdis. You'll never be able to catch them."
Why would Redd still stick around PSEF headquarters? Why would she not leave, or run away? Why would she tell Charybdis that unless… she had hacked into the security system and were helping them secretly?
Redd was definitely powerful enough to use Charybdis' magical signature. After all, she'd been exposed to it for years. Charybdis swallowed. Was this what she meant?
"Are you four trying to escape?" she asked without any hint of malice. Rekka refused to answer, standing her ground like a cornered animal. Saya quickly tried to open the door, but found it had been sealed and wasn't accepting her mana. Charybdis had closed it in the blink of an eye.
"Your silence tells me that you are. You were trying to explore my office while the cameras were down to find the secret passage, weren't you?"
Charybdis grabbed one of the still steaming hot drinks from one of the tables, passing by Silas. He shivered as the woman towered over him. He saw a grizzly sight on her back – her lab coat was torn,in several claw shaped streaks, revealing a black and blue undershirt and light white skin, sullied by wet blood. Her entire upper back was discolored. Charybdis was trying her best to hide the pain, but Silas could see her flinch as she leaned against her wound, settling down into the chair in front of her desk.
She swiveled around on the chair, crossing her legs and spinning back and forth, sipping from her coffee mug. She motioned for the four humans to take a seat on the plush chairs facing her.
"Were you being helped by anyone? Receive any secret messages on your device or meet someone in or outside of this building? Any external help at all."
Silas suddenly felt compelled to answer, as if he had no choice but to say the truth. It was Charybdis with her mind delving again. He could feel her prying into his memories just like she had done before.
"Yes," the four of them said in unison, jumping at how scarily in sync they were.
"I see," Charybdis nodded to herself.
"I got to give it to her," she mused. "It's not that bad of a plan. But it doesn't involve me."
Silas felt Charybdis' influence ebb from him and saw her slightly satisfied smile that told him that she'd extracted from him all that she needed to know.
"And you kids too. I applaud you at being so proactive. Really stellar work. I can tell that all of you, each and every single one of you, are very intelligent," she said, beaming proudly through her shoulder pain. In her eye was something Silas could barely see. Was it… hope? Suddenly, Charybdis' eyes hardened as if she'd resolved to something deep inside her mind.
"But that proactiveness will get you into trouble. Listen to what I'm saying here. Tomorrow, there will be someone that will come and check up on you and your friends, Axel and Evelynn. She's an inspector from a nearby country called Sorreval, and she's here to make sure that you are in pristine condition to be bought by the Sorreval government."
"This is incredibly essential. You must be on your best behavior and refrain from any escapades like this tomorrow. After all, the money that we receive from this deal will be enough to fund a project to purify the atmosphere around Leagionis."
"As you might have already guessed, here in Leagionis we have a huge living space problem. We have to survive in city states protected by barriers because this land is so rife with radioactive fallout it's impossible to live outside of our cities. We have huge poverty issues, and quality of life is low for the poor. But with the money we get from rich Sorreval, we can start expanding, taking back the land and giving our people a much better life to live. So that they don't have to die in the streets… so that they don't have to suffer so much trauma and torment in a cramped and closed environment that traps them…" Charybdis thought of a certain girl as those words left her mouth.
She sighed heavily, and suddenly she could not keep up the weak façade of a controlled and calculating mastermind. She set her mug heavily down on her desk and a little bit of her drink splashed onto the wood.
"This is so hard for me. You have no idea how much I want to help everyone," Charybdis pleaded. "All those poor little babies, those kids, suffering in the streets because there's nowhere for them to live, no place to hide, or cry…"
"But at the same time, you're just as important to me. I want to save all of you… you can see where I'm coming from, right?"
Charybdis took a deep breath before continuing. She uncrossed her legs and leaned forwards, looking each of the four in the eyes, as if to memorize them all.
"But don't you worry. I have made my decision. I've made my choice. I'm not content with watching or sitting back and just letting terrible things happen to people around me. You want to escape?"
Charybdis stood up, her expression serious.
"I'll help you escape. You have my word."