"Wakey wakey, sleepyhead," Saya was saying through the fog of Silas's wet eyes. Peering open, he was greeted by the sudden sensation of warm air between Saya's face and his. She dangled over him, looking smugly into his eyes.
"Jeez, did you forget? We gotta get ready for the inspector person to show up at 9 today."
"Yeah," Silas replied groggily. He pressed a hand to his forehead, feeling the pressure mounted up against it. His head still reeled from the events of last night. The whole escapade with Charybdis, the experiments, the devices, everything. Yesterday had been so long, packed with so many events. So much to take in. Silas wondered if his "weak personality" meant he wouldn't be able to bear all the things that had happened to him recently.
His body ached like no tomorrow. He still felt where he had crashed into the wall after being attacked by Scylla, and deep within his chest was the still agonizing slow burn of his anxiety. He had been so afraid yesterday – afraid of Charybdis, Sylla, Hydra, Evelynn… yesterday had been full of fear. And he was waking up to another day… full of fear.
What would this inspector be like? Would they be nice? Would they be invasive and try and mind control him like Charybdis? Would they be ruthless and merciless like the other two dragon ladies? All the worries that clashed inside the echo chamber of his mind made him feel like he was pinned to the bed by more than Saya.
"C'mon, Silas. Get up." Silas began to feebly struggle, but his anxiety and fear made it so much harder than Silas could bear to get up.
"Do you need help?" Saya asked with a teasing tone in her voice. She smirked. Silas smiled back but found his smile instantly melted away into a frown as he averted his gaze. "Oh."
"Up you go," Saya said, and Silas startled when he found Saya's hand sliding underneath his back, pushing him up off the bed. She lifted him upwards into a seated position as he finally regained his wits. He took a deep breath and looked around him as Saya crawled bad and swung her feet around, landing with a spring upon the sleek, modern floor. She was wearing cute bunny-monster shaped white slippers and a plain white undershirt. Her messy hair, made even messier by her sleep, cascaded down her bare shoulders like restless, tangled yellow vines.
It was obvious that Saya wanted to laugh at his pathetic display, but for some reason, she held herself back. Though traces of her teasing, smug attitude still played at the edge of her lips.
Looking around, Silas could see that several articles of Saya's clothing were scattered all around the bed and on the floor, hanging precariously off of the furniture. A rumpled pair of sweatpants even lay atop the blanket, encroaching upon Silas' side. He tried to sneakily shove it back onto Saya's side without her noticing.
Saya stood at the edge of the bed beside one of her shirts… and a pair of underwear that Silas tried his best to avert his eyes from that had fallen from her bedside drawer. If Saya knew that her undergarments were out in the open, she made no inclination that she cared. She stretched, cracking her knuckles and holding her arms out in front of her, sighing.
Despite the two sleeping in the same bed and living in the same room, their sides were distinctly different. The drawers of Saya's side were askew, some of them open, some half-open, some closed, with her clothes spilling out in a heap, not even folded or organized. Her pillows were crooked and there were several snack wrappers that Saya had bought during their break. They covered the table like a miniature flower garden.
Silas' side, on the other hand, was simplistic and crisp to the point of boredom. It was essentially brand new – it looked the exact same as it did when Silas had first entered the room for the first time. Nothing had been touched on Silas' side of the room that wasn't completely necessary. The table was empty.
Silas was dressed in matching red plaid pajama tops and bottoms, wearing plain black slippers. He yawned and shook his head and his messy mop of hair as he trudged to the bathroom to brush his teeth and prepare. When he was done, Saya was already waiting impatiently by the door, dressed and ready to go. She'd dressed when Silas was in the bathroom, quickly and efficiently.
"Aren't you going to comb your hair?" Silas said, his eyes wandering to Saya's messy hairstyle. It stuck out in all sorts of places and it looked like she'd just gotten out of bed after a tussle with a nasty dragon. Silas' hair, in comparison, still looked rather messy, but at least he had made an attempt to make it look decent.
"Nah, nah. I look better with messy hair. It suits me," she smiled. "C'mon, c'mon! I want to meet this new inspector. They sound really cool."
"Yeah, the person who wants to sell us out to a foreign country to experiment on us and probably wants us dead. Sounds cool," Silas snarked, but with a slight smile. Why was he smiling? He didn���t know. But he felt some of the fear that was constantly nibbling at his heart begin to subside.
They entered the office together, arms locked, as per Saya's request, and found the rest of the group waiting for them, along with Charybdis. The Inspector of Sorreval was there, too, though she was a lot shorter than Charybdis and significantly less intimidating. Upon first glance, Silas thought that she couldn't possibly be the inspector, but upon noticing that there was nobody else in the room that could be, he determined that in fact, it was.
"This is Inspector Io, from Sorreval," Charybdis stated. Of course, Silas already knew that information, but Charybdis was acting according to plan. This was protocol. She had to follow it, and with a silent order, she beckoned for Silas and the rest of his human companions to do so as well.
"Hello," Io said without a hint of malice. The glint in her eyes was one of curiosity, not unlike Charybdis, instead of the condescending, baleful glare that Silas was expecting, something that would come from the likes of Scylla. Silas noticed that her voice had a strange lilting accent to it – she sounded somewhat like Saya, though Saya's accent was much less pronounced. Her voice was quiet and meek, and she looked very young – not much older than Silas himself, maybe around the same age as Yona or Jayken.
Io had very dark brown skin, and wore muddy black clothes with neon green highlights. There was no doubt as to what type of monster Io was – her large and long crocodile tail swayed shyly behind her. Her entire getup was very reminiscent of swamp – dark greens, blacks, browns, and a glowing lime afterglow that made her seem almost… radioactive. Her eyes were bright yellow, cutting through the darkness of her figure like neon headlights through the night.
"Which two of you are Evelynn Violet and Axel Ford?" She asked, looking hastily at a few screens she was projecting with her wristband projector. Silas tried to steal a glance at the information that she was viewing, but couldn't decipher it in time before she whisked it away with her magic.
"I'm Axel," Axel said stoically. His expression was steely, but he didn't seem angry or bitter. He looked at Evelynn, who looked down at her hands as if she were expecting them to turn into wolf claws at any moment. "This is Evelynn," he said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. That snapped her out of her trance and she looked at Io forlornly, as if resigned to some deadly fate.
"Good. Come with me, you two," Io said gently. She reached out her hands. With a brief hesitation, Axel and Evelynn each took one. Silas marveled at the interaction – did Io really not mind holding hands with humans? Silas watched her leave.
"I'm trusting you six to stay put," Charybdis told them. "Hydra, Scylla, and I are going to meet with Io about Evelynn and Axel. In the meantime you're free to help yourself to a cup of coffee. And of course, make sure to put everything back exactly how you found it," she said with a wink, leaving them alone once again.
"She's really going to leave us alone in the middle of her office?" Saya wondered. "Interesting, I suppose."
"It's really clever, actually," Silas spoke up. Everybody turned to him once again, and his cheeks began to flush, but he continued anyway. He was confident that he wouldn't embarrass himself this time. "She's leaving us in her office because she's giving us an excuse to look around. She took Hydra, Scylla, and Io away to make sure that we can look at whatever we want without getting caught."
"I don't like this," Rekka muttered. "We're trapped in her office. In the dragon's den. We're all collected together, with no escape. All it would take was a group of trained personnel to round us up and take us down."
"Sure, but aren't we already supposed to be subdued already?" Jasper reasoned. "There's no need."
"I-" Rekka started, sighing exasperatedly. "Fine. Fine. I just really do not like how things are playing out. We shouldn't leave our future in the hands of someone we don't know we can trust. Are we really humans if we're leaving the entire future of our species up to some unknown? Up to some third party? We're existing simply at the whim of Charybdis and the others. We're playing their games. Like little chess pieces on a board. Does that seem like any way to live? We may survive, but will we live? We can't lose sight of our individuality. We need to be independent as a species, we can't just give in to them like this. Who knows what Charybdis is truly capable of. We don't know anything about her."
"Well, then, do you have a better plan?" Silas blurted, a little bit of edge creeping into his voice. He hadn't meant to say anything, but he couldn't hold himself back. Frustration was already seeping through his bones at Rekka's stubbornness.
He had almost forgot that he had the same mindset when he had first met Charybdis. But now he'd had a change of heart. Doubt suddenly wormed itself into his mind again – he knew Charybdis could see into his mind. He wouldn't put it past her to know how to influence him subtly so that he would buy into her plot. Rekka was right, but still…
He couldn't bear living in so much fear all the time. Part of his body desperately yearned for the ability to trust again. He realized that all the little things he had done earlier – from leaning on Saya, opening up to her and asking for the hug… he had finally begun to trust, even if it was just a little bit. And yes, he was very, very scared of being wrong about Charybdis. But part of him was too desperate to care. He needed something, someone, anyone to rely on. He wasn't confident he couldn't make it through this insane dystopian world alone.
Rekka was quiet. She simmered in silent frustration. It seemed like the vast majority wanted to go along with Charybdis' plan, and that must have scared her, seeing as though it felt like she was losing her leadership. Instead, it was Charybdis who was leading them, and that made Rekka incredibly uncomfortable.
Still, Silas hoped that now, now that Rekka wasn't the one everyone was relying on, that she could finally catch a break. After her initial anger died down and she settled herself on a plush chair next to Macy, her shoulders slumped. Out of anyone, the rings underneath Rekka's eyes were the darkest. Macy lay a small hand on her wrist and Rekka closed her eyes, leaning her head back.
"We should look for documents on Sorreval," Jasper suggested. He was already rifling through Charybdis' personal belongings and through the drawers behind her desk. She hadn't left her laptop open for them, so they had to look through whatever they could find within her folders.
"Check this out, I suppose," Saya gasped in wonder. "Sorreval is another country, just like Leagionis."
With a flick of her wrist, she brought out a holographic screen from deep within the cabinet. It flew right past Jasper, who held it open. His expression was full of shock as Saya knew immediately which file to select, without even looking through any of them.
The small holographic card expanded as Saya used her magic to position it at the front of the room where everyone could see. They gathered around, some, like Julia, stood, while others like Silas slumped into chairs in need of well-earned rest.
"Sorreval, a small country, about half the size of Leagionis. Unlike Leagionis, which only has a couple hundred kilometers of coastline on its northernmost border, Sorreval is an island in the middle of the ocean. Sorreval is incredibly technologically advanced and wealthy, dominating the continent's trade markets. As such, it has already purified all the radioactive fallout caused by the humans' nuclear war fifty years ago. Living standards are much higher than Leagionis', the air is cleaner and there is less poverty. Some of the most advanced tech and research institutions in the world are located in Sorreval," Saya read, the notes having the distinct style of Charybdis' dialogue.
"Sorreval has also completely eradicated their human population. They were one of the first countries to do so, being so technologically advanced and small. But now, after they received words from RimTech agents that there are still eight humans still alive in Leagionis, they are willing to pay an exorbitant fee in order to own two of them."
"A million golden talons are more than enough to fund the purification projects to purify the entirety of Leagionis. We could really fix so many of our country's problems with this new land… and we could even form an agricultural market. We wouldn't have to rely so much on imports and production… it would be a new era for our country. It's an incredible deal…"
"Perhaps it is selfish for me to want these humans to myself. Maybe I should be more concerned with the future of my country… but still. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Is it so greedy of me to want just one?"
"I might have to just be content with observing Dr. Huxley Sylannister. I might just be able to convince the others to spare his life, just for me. I won't be able to watch him mature like the others… but I guess it will have to do. Simply getting to know these kids is enough for me."
"Wait…" Silas gasped as Saya reached the end of Charybdis' notes. "There's another human? There's another one of us out there?"
"By the looks of it, he seems to be an adult. Dr. Huxley," Rekka mused. "Do you think he's still alive? He must be if Charybdis wrote this recently."
"Maybe he knows who we are!" Macy exclaimed hopefully. "He can't have lost his memory, too, right? He probably knows about Last Stand and who we are!"
"Saya, see what else you can find on Dr. Huxley."
"Wait," Silas said, a sudden realization popping into his head. But nobody heard him. Or if they did, they were too caught up in the excitement of another human being found to notice.
"Wait!" he said again, but they didn't hear him over Saya, who was pulling out another slide of notes eagerly.
"Dr. Huxley is the last survivor of Hy Industries. He and a group of other scientists hid inside an underground base, but because we were able sense a Mark of the Chimera on one of the people there, we were able to find it."
"Upon further inspection of the base, the holder of the Mark of the Dragon was nowhere to be found. We lost all traces of it and haven't been able to relocate it. One can only assume that the Mark had been burnt or destroyed by a reckless PSEF agent and the holder was too mutilated for the Mark to be recognizable."
"Until the discovery of the eight humans of 'Last Stand' these group of scientists were originally thought to be the last humans alive, and Dr. Huxley was kept alive to be the last human, used for experimentation to develop biotechnology and magical infusion."
"Now Dr. Huxley is awaiting interrogation for information about 'Last Stand' by Wyvern and Leviathan in the PSEF barrier room. Once they are done, I must try and convince Wyvern and Leviathan to let Huxley live. Perhaps they'll even let me hold him in permanent residence in a cell. I doubt it, though. Some organization will most likely try and buy him, too. But until then, I must try and get a hold of him while there still is a chance."
"The PSEF barrier room? That means he might be in the building!" Saya said, her voice giddy. "I bet she has a map, too!"
Quickly searching, Saya found the map in no time. Rekka diligently activated her projector and snapped a quick photo of the map for reference. Silas lamented his inability to help, but at least Saya seemed to have everything covered.
"We should talk to Charybdis about this. Maybe we can work out a plan to see him and talk to him after he's done with… these Wyvern and Leviathan people."
"That's a great idea," Julia agreed, her eyes alight. "I hope he's nice."
"I'd feel much better about having an adult human fill us in on the world we're in, instead of relying on info that may or may not be true, from a source that we don't fully trust," Rekka added.
"Then it's settled," said Macy. "After Evelynn and Axel come back, let's try and find Dr. Huxley."
Silas nodded, lost in thought. Sylvannister… that was Huxley's last name, wasn't it? Suddenly, he remembered the tattoo on his thigh, identifying him.
Silas. Silas Sylvannister.