Finally, she had arrived with her team to Ezlus, the beautiful caves that had invited them to discover the wonders it held.
Sylren glanced over her shoulder with a smile, pointing ahead. "This is it, everyone. Now we can see for ourselves what the fuss is all about." But her team didn't look half as enthusiastic as her.
"Water…" Arold said in between his huffs, wiping the sweat on his forehead. "I'm dying…" Her son was wearing a cute hat above his green and yellow shirt and brown shorts, an empty water bottle hanging from his neck.
"Don't you know all the water in the world comes from Ezlus?" Sylren asked. "So shouldn't we hurry there?"
"Really?" Arold asked, amazed.
"No," Sylren said flatly. "I was just playing." Arold frowned.
The dark-blue-haired wildlife researcher Malaro took out his own bottle, which was strapped to the right side of his massive backpack, undoing the cap and peeping inside it. He flipped the bottle over and shook it, a few drops of precious blue leaping out to the dry land.
Trixina, his daughter, who stood right by his side, caught the drops with her tongue, hydrating her mouth. "Not enough…" The light-skinned young girl wore her elbow-length yellow hair in a high pony, a butterfly bow tied around it.
There were supposed to be four more members—two married couples—joining Sylren's team for this little adventure of theirs. But they weren't able to group with Sylren in Sonas and so decided to go ahead, planning to meet inside the caves themselves.
"You should all be more like me," Sylren said, hands on hips as she faced the others. "Do you see ME complaining?"
"It's because you drank all of our water!" Malaro said loudly.
"That's right, Mrs. Tonidex," Trixina joined her father.
Arold frowned.
Sylren simply turned around and walked onward. "Past's past us." She raised a fist high above her head. "Let's move to the future." Her 10-year-old son smiled as he followed right behind, hands on his bottle. Sylren leaned to ruffle her boy's curly green hair as he got beside her.
"Walking away without answers…" Malaro clenched his fist but then sighed immediately, shaking his head with a palm on his face. "She'll never change." He quit complaining and started following behind with his daughter, who was also of Arold's age.
They reached the gate of the fenced facility shortly, Sylren walking ahead to talk to the guards posted there, each having a "L55" patch on the right shoulder of their skyguard uniform. She took off one of the padded straps of her backpack from her shoulder, unzipping a smaller pocket and fishing out her ID before handing it to one of the guards.
Both guards took turns to check it as Sylren strapped the pack back on. They gave it back just moments later. "We'll have to wait for one of the captains' approval for you to proceed further," one said. "I'll call them right away." The guard walked to a booth to the side.
"They have audiophones down there?" Sylren said, pocketing her ID. "That's technology for you folks."
"Actually we don't," the second guard said, toting a Subjugator rifle. "Communication cuts down there so we have to rely on primitive methods."
Malaro raised a brow at the guard's weapon, tapping a foot. "We sure there's no skallo beneath our feet?"
The guard looked confused. "Oh," he finally said, tapping the side of his gun. "This thing. Volants don't raid lucentum mines—not commonly, anyway—so if they come here, they'll come for that thing…" He pointed behind and to the other side of the whole facility. "We need to protect that from any and all damage. That's basically the main reason we're posted here, to not let suspicious individuals near that thing."
"What is it?" Sylren asked, shading her eyes to look at the gigantic metal structure.
"If you'd never seen a Skybridge under construction before," the guard said, "well here it is." The structure in question was being constructed by a team of well over a hundred people, including all the engineers, workers, architects, and many others.
"Rare sight," Malaro said as Sylren took off her hat, fixing her green hair that fell to the sides of her pointy ears—on one of which she wore an earring gifted to her by her handsome husband. "They usually finish it behind heavy curtain-ry. Where does it lead to?"
"No people out here to meddle with the process, maybe that's why," the guard said as the other returned. "It'll only lead to Welkis when it's finished. But there's time."
"Captain is here," the returning guard said, walking to his original position.
"Which one?" the other asked.
"It's Captain—"
The gate to the facility opened and a group of three men emerged from beyond, all wearing a dark brown coat over their vests and shirts, "L55" patched onto their right shoulders as well. The middle skyguard bore the insignia of a captain on his uniform while the others were of a lower rank than him.
The captain stepped closer to the researchers, greeting Sylren and Malaro with a handshake. "Sorry to keep you waiting," he said, pointing to them individually. "I was expecting you. That is, if you're Sylren Tonidex and you are Malaro Adlem."
Sylren nodded after Malaro. "So the Vurils and Salonesas beat us to it, it seems."
The captain smiled. "They'd been waiting for the past three hours now." He looked down at Arold and the boy hid behind his mother's leg. "Don't be like that, buddy," the captain said, squatting down and pulling out a small transparent box filled with round pink balls from his pocket. "Do you like candy?" He shook the matchbox-sized candy case, the balls inside making noise.
Before Arold almost shook his head, Trixina jumped up. "I'd like some."
Malaro smiled, putting a hand on her shoulder, showing a finger with the other. "But one's enough. Right, Trixi?"
Trixina looked at her father with thin eyes, puffing her cheeks.
The captain smiled at her, turning away from Arold. "You would?" He gave her the five pieces of pink candy he shook out of the box. "Here you go."
Malaro exhaled softly with a smile as Trixina's eyes sparkled after she thanked the captain and ate one of the candies. "Thank you, sir…" Malaro said as the captain rose and pocketed the candy box.
"Captain Marseth," the skyguard with slick black hair said with a smile. "But just call me Lexnal." He turned to the gate. "Now shall we?"
"Like you need to ask that," Sylren said with a big smile, walking past Lexnal and into the facility. "Don't get left behind, you guys." She'd always leave Arold with people she trusted so that the kid could break out of his shell.
Arold had told her that he wanted to talk to people but didn't know how. Not having experienced this herself, all Sylren could think of was to just put him around other people, forcing him to learn what he wanted.
Malaro led his daughter and Arold inside as well, following Lexnal. "Don't walk in front of the captain, Sylren." The gates behind them closed.
Sylren found tens of transport trucks parked about and right ahead were around two dozen buildings lined up, each one the copy of the other. They walked right between the rows of wood and stone boxes, Lexnal stepping beside her.
"The skyguard quarters," Lexnal explained, pointing ahead. "We always have those last couple empty just for situations like this. You can unload your stuff inside quarter 20-R before I lead you to the rest of your team who've already done that."
Sylren shook her head. "It's fine. You can take us to them."
Malaro walked up to her other side. "How about I drop all our stuff while you group with the others?"
Sylren wrapped her arms around the pack behind her. "Go ahead. I'm carrying something I can't let away from me." She looked behind. "Come on, Arold, time to go."
Arold looked away from the conversation he was having with the little girl but Trixina kept talking, not looking at him. He started sweating as he opened his mouth to tell her that he needed to go, troubled as to if he should interrupt her or not.
"Come with me, Trixi," Malaro said. "We'll join them shortly."
Arold let out a word but the girl cut herself off and ran to her father with a smile, not paying any attention before leaving Arold by himself.
Arold sighed, walking to his mother.
She ruffled his hair, both following Lexnal, the Adlems going off to unload the gear and equipment in the offered quarter. "Why didn't you say anything?" she asked her son.
"Er…" Arold said, not meeting her eyes. "If I'd said anything…she'd have gotten mad at me like last time…" The kid had no friends and didn't know how to make any.
Sylren reached down and grabbed Arold's hand. "She didn't get mad at you for talking, Arold. She just didn't like what you said." She found Arold frowning. "Now it's up to you to decide whether you're going to change the way you talk to her or change the one you talk to."
Lexnal glanced over his shoulder from ahead. "Won't that just isolate the kid, Ma'am?"
"The world is too big to be alone," Sylren replied with a smile. "We find friends even when we're not looking for them."
"There's plenty air in the water, isn't there, mom?" Arold said absently. "Then why do people still drown?"
Lexnal's eyes widened and he turned away, leading them to a building on the left. "That was…"
"Simple," Sylren said flatly. "Because we're not fish."
Arold frowned.
Lexnal led them downstairs and into a hallway going straight, which split in front of the wooden door along the left into a path going right. "Commander Befir's office. He oversees all the work down here." They passed the room, turning right, an elevator waiting for them straight ahead. "This'll lead us straight down to the mines."
Sylren pointed behind her as they walked to the elevator. "Shouldn't the Legion Master also have his own office?"
Lexnal pressed a button beside the elevator door. "Our Legion Master oversees the work of all the platoon commanders scattered around Imperos. Legion 55 has other places to deal with as well."
"I see." The elevator doors slid open and all three stepped inside, Lexnal pressing a button to start their descent into the caves filled with wonders. After getting out of the elevator and into Ezlus Mines, the other members were nowhere to be seen.
"They must've gotten tired of waiting and started the research without you," Lexnal said. "I'll go look for them. You two just wait here."
"It's fine," Sylren said with a smile. "You've already done more than enough. We'll take it from here."
"But the only other map we had of these caves," Lexnal said, "it's with them."
Sylren turned away from the elevator, deciding which path to take. "Discovery is part of my job, Captain Marseth. A piece of paper doesn't get to decide which way leads to the answers."
Lexnal's lips drew to a line. He nodded. "I'll be off to find Commander Befir, then. He'd shared the information about the case with the ones that arrived before you, but I think it'll benefit everyone if he also tells—"
Holding Arold's hand, other on the strap of her pack, Sylren ran headfirst into the cave to the right, dark and distant. "I'll start from here," she said with a smile. "You just wait, troublemaking Etherbeasts! I'll discover everything about you and reveal it to the world!"