"I'm going to set you free."
The 10 of them shook at these words. To them, Isaac was a demon; he probably meant he was going to set them free from this mortal coil!
"When I let you go, crawl through the streets back to your houses – and use the main roads where everybody can see you. If anybody asks, say Isaac Dahl did this to you. If any of you decide to travel through the backstreets, I'll find you again and cut your legs off."
The group breathed a collective sigh of relief – being threatened had never felt so great! So long as they could keep their lives and leave this place, they would do anything Isaac asked.
After they nodded in agreement, Isaac undid each person's bindings and lifted them out of his window – they couldn't climb out themselves with their near-crippled bodies. Then he clambered out of the window as well and watched as those 10 people crawled down the street away from him.
Their hunchbacked forms looked broken, almost destroyed, as they made their snail-paced escape. Many people stared and pointed as the 10 people crawled by, but they didn't care. They simply focused on putting one hand in front of the other and getting away from the devil who was watching them from behind.
Isaac watched until the 10 disappeared into the blackness of night. Then he realised he still needed to pay somebody a visit.
The team was meeting tomorrow, but he still hadn't invited Eva Damsgaard to come along. She'd said she would evaluate the team herself before deciding whether to join, so she would probably come – he just needed to tell her about the meeting.
Isaac made his way through the winding maze of streets, walking for 20 minutes before arriving at Eva's house. When he was there, he gave a good, hard knock on the door.
There was silence. It was just like the first time he'd come to meet Eva – he could see light coming from under the door so he knew she was inside, but she didn't come to answer the door.
"Eva! It's Isaac!"
He wasn't going to wait outside and knock for half an hour again, so he just shouted out his name. About 3 minutes later, the door creaked open, revealing Eva standing there dressed in thick white robes. She wasn't the most elegant of women, nor the most beautiful – in fact, her looks were the epitome of average. However, she caried a certain aura around her that made her feel untouchable.
There was an unbreakable pride etched into her features and each of her movements was performed with utter self-confidence, like an icy empress who ruled everything beneath her.
That confidence stemmed from effort, devotion, and strength. It didn't originate from something as petty as her appearance or status.
Her eyes revealed slight amusement and poorly veiled interest when she looked at Isaac – if he was here, he must've found a final member for his team. His last visit had truly kindled the curiosity within her, and she was looking forward to meeting his team. She didn't say this though,
"Isaac. I assume you've got a complete team since you've come to find me."
"I wouldn't have come otherwise. We're all meeting tomorrow – if you want to meet the team, it's the best chance you'll get."
"I'm training tomorrow but I might find time to come. What's the address?"
Eva went back into her house to get a pen and piece of paper. Then Isaac wrote Johan's address on it with his elegant handwriting. His room had boarded-up doors and was filled with mess. Each and every surface in the house had blood on it somewhere; all in all, it was a poor meeting place for the team, so Isaac decided to borrow his deputy's residence instead. He was sure Johan wouldn't mind.
"I'll see you tomorrow at 10 o'clock. It's best to meet early, since we can start thinking about taking our first mission if you do decide to join us."
"I wouldn't get too ahead of yourself if I were you. I'll come tomorrow and we'll see how things go from there."
Isaac thought this was a satisfactory answer. He nodded, said farewell to Eva, and left. It was quite late by now, so he went straight home and went to bed.
*************************
The next morning, Isaac woke up long before sunrise. Today was the first day of spring but the weather wasn't much warmer than it had been in winter. The only noticeable difference was that the sun rose just before 9 am now, compared to rising at 10:30 in the middle of winter.
It was still dark when Isaac left his house and headed to the training grounds. He followed the main streets which were lit by lamps and quickly made his way there. He only had a couple of hours before he needed to return for the meeting, so he split his time between practicing swordsmanship and using the Snowshoe Anima.
After 2 hours of hard practice, Isaac returned home. It was still 9:40 when he got back, so he had time to bathe quickly and prepare before the meeting began. Just as he was drying his hair after washing, Isaac heard a knock on the door. It had to be Johan, since he was the only person that didn't know the meeting was happening at his house.
Isaac shouted, "Johan is that you?" as he hurriedly got dressed. He only heard a muffled "Yes." in reply.
When he was done changing, Isaac put on his coat and stepped out of his window. He went around to the front of the house to meet Johan,
"My place is in ruins – it's impossible to hold team meetings there, at least for now. I told the other 2 members to meet at your house. It'll make a much more presentable meeting place than mine would."
Johan was frustrated that Isaac kept acting without consulting him, but he couldn't help remembering the state of Isaac's house last time he visited. His own residence was clearly a better meeting place and Isaac had already informed the others, so he had no choice but to accept it.
He launched a brief rant against Isaac for deciding everything by himself, but Isaac mostly ignored him. In fact, he had to shut Johan up when he saw Abbie Ibsen turn the corner into the street. He brought Johan with him as he went up to greet Abbie. Johan also welcomed her politely. Then the 3 of them went back to Johan's house to wait for Eva.
When they entered the house, Isaac was surprised by how neat and tidy everything was. Not a single thing was out of place; the bed in the corner of the room was perfectly made, and every surface had been cleaned until it was spotless.
Johan preferred order and regularity to his life, so everything in his house was well organised. Even the door which had previously been broken down was now back in place. It was a sharp contrast to Isaac's door which was still boarded up.
Abbie was also somewhat of a clean freak, so she felt right at home here. As she and Isaac sat down at the low table in the middle of the room, Johan went to offer them tea. Both accepted, and Johan went to make some. When he opened his cupboard, Isaac caught a glimpse of food boxes which had been perfectly stacked and 3 rows of cutlery arranged into soldier-like regiments.
As Johan was boiling water for the tea, there came a knock on the door. Isaac got up to open it and Eva strutted right in.
She walked into the main room and cast her eyes over its 3 occupants, silently evaluating them. Then she spoke to Isaac,
"Is this it?"
Johan noticed her dismissive tone and turned around to glare at Eva. Meanwhile, Abbie just glanced at her before going back to whatever she was doing. Isaac answered calmly,
"I assume you know better than to judge people based on their appearances. Johan and Abbie are valuable members of this team and I can assure you they're both highly skilled. But I know it's not enough for me to tell you that – you've already made it clear you want to see it for yourself."
Johan had finished making the tea already so brought 3 cups over and put them on the table. As he did so, he spoke bluntly,
"We also want to see your skills before we accept you, so why don't we test them?"
Eva didn't seem flustered at Johan's words. After all, she wanted to see their skills so it was only fair they got to see her in action as well. Besides, she always welcomed a challenge – there was no chance of her backing down.
"What do you mean?"
"Why don't we all take a mission together. You get to observe our team, while we get to observe you. Then we can decide whether to accept you or not after the mission."
Isaac decided not to intervene and allowed Johan to handle this. It was better this way: Johan and Eva's competitive spirits would be ignited and they would both try their hardest to outperform the other.
It might cause slight discord within the team, but it was nothing Isaac couldn't mediate. Besides, the team members didn't have to like each other; they just had to work well together. Some competition would do them good, since they'd always give their best on missions.
There was only one issue. Abbie blew on her tea and then asked,
"How should we distribute the mission rewards?"