"This is horrendous," Aliane said, covering his eyes and turning his head to avoid the dead body.
As soon as Jeremiah and Aliane teleport to Tila's borders, receive their passes, and walked into the large city, Jeremiah already knows Tila--known for its birth of mighty heroes--is already starting to erupt in chaos. People are already on the streets or in the roads gossiping and talking about in the city, pointing towards the news article as many kept their heads down in solemn sadness.
Bara was known to be an underground fighter in Tila and known to protect those less fortunate, so her death is lingering among the people, causing many to become disheartened.
Although underground fighting is deemed illegal, Bara's good deeds overcame her illegial duals and behavior (and let's be real, underground fighting is a way for the less fortunate to make a living, so it's not exactly looked down upon by the poor, but definitely the rich) which is why Co-Captain Riley scouted her. He saw something in her during a underground match, and ran up to her to ask her to try to become a knight. It deems that she just received her knight ring and had much potential, so her sudden death is creating chaos within the city who cheered her on, especially the slums.
Jeremiah and Aliane stand behind a few of Tila's knights and the city's police as they note in their pads about the crime scene and more details of the murder. The scene is wrapped around with yellow magically tape to prevent civilians from interrupting the general area, yet Jeremiah knows people will become curious enough to peak their head in this area. I mean--who wouldn't want to know how such an amazing fighter easily died?
"You have any spells that would be useful this time around?" Jeremiah asked Aliane, motioning his head towards the scene.
"I could try a time-keeper spell." Aliane said, motioning to the bloody mess on the ground, "but keep in mind that I am not a time-keeper mage."
"If you can," Jeremiah said, "please."
Aliane nods his head, closing his eyes and raising two fingers onto his lips, kissing his fingers and motioning them down, as if he's slashing a sword. He shuts his blue eyes closed, taking a deep breath as he slowly breathes.
"Busira." Aliane said, shutting his eyes tight as he opens his palms wide and high above in the air until a long, thick mage staff formulates in his hands, decorated with strains of blue flowers and paint with a large gem at the top of the staff. Aliane takes in a deep breath before he slams his staff on the ground, causing the earth to quake with the pressure.
Aliane feels his body tremor, sweat producing from his temples as his vision gets fuzzy until he sees a scene before him—Bara, the young hero lies on the ground, blood flowing from the back of her neck and pouring from her mouth as a figure—his face covered by a black hoodie, but his metal clawed hands are electrified by bolts of purple lighting, raises his hand high, ready to land the final blow that kills Bara-.
Aliane staggers back into Jeremiah's arms, breathing heavy as he clutches his staff, his pale hands shaking.
"I apologize if I've pushed you too far." Jeremiah said, "Are you alright?" He asked.
Aliane nods his head, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"Yeah I...I couldn't see their face," Aliane said, "but they were using elemental magic."
Jeremiah eyes widened in surprise. "Elemental-?" He asked, but soon gets cut off by running footsteps.
"Captain Jeremiah!" A voice from afar calls. Soon after, once the figure comes into view, a familiar pair of long messy grey hair and golden eyes barges between the two men.
"It's nice to see you again, Co-Captain Riley," Jeremiah said, bowing his head, "I wish the circumstances were a bit better, however."
…
Vice-Captain Clarke huffs as she hurriedly drafts a magicial letter, carving the Viki news details to send over to Captain Jeremiah as soon as possible.
There's a soft knock at her door, followed by a woman kicking the door open, eyeing Clarke with an unphased look. Due to the impulsive reaction from her guest, Clarke stands up quickly with a surprised expression, chirping out a stuttered-out reply for the guest to walk in.
"Lia!" Clark exclaims, waving for her guest to come in her office. "Not sure why you always decide to aggressive barge in my office, but-never mind that! Please! Please come in and-and shut the door! Come!"
Lia, with her short statue and blonde pigtails, walks over to Clarke's desk with a strained smile. She's holding a large magical casting book in her hand with her mage blue and gold staff, and her blue eyes are shut closed to prevent any forms of eye rolling and attitude aimed at Clarke since Rel hates when Lia snaps at Clarke.
Lia's blue eyes eventually land to the letter shoved in front of her face; she raises an eyebrow as Clarke worriedly waves the letter in her face.
"Please give this to Captain!" Clarke exclaims, "there's trouble in Viki and I must gain his permission to send troops out!"
Lia rolls her eyes, snatching the small piece of paper in her hands before ripping it to shreds.
"Hey!" Clarke said, eyeing the pieces of shattered paper with trepidation. "How could you-?!"
"Girl." Lia said, rolling her eyes, "the fuck are you doing? You're Vice-fucking-Captain! You know what that means? You make the rules while Jeremiah is gone. Remember?"
Clarke blinks, eyeing Lia eye her before she falters.
"Right, yes I-I often forget since he's always here," Clarke said, rubbing the back of her head, "still, I should inform him of what's going on."
"Fair, sure, but you need to learn how to take action when he's not here like—he's just a man, never understood the hype. Maybe it's the handsome face? The big muscles?" Lia shrugs, looking at her newly painted blue nails in disinterest. "Like soooo last year, but yeah, anyways—why not just send the new recruits?"
Clarke blinks, slowly looking at Lia with confusion.
"As much as I'd like to agree, I-I'm not sure if they're ready—no, they can't be." Clarke said, rubbing her eyes. "It's been about more so a week and they still need so much more training before-."
"Why not think of it as like in-person training then? They can't learn the battlefield without experiencing it." Lia said. "Plus Vera are soooo like pretty weak, and I'm sure if they're worth being knights, it wouldn't hurt to take a few with ya, you know? Why make the veterans do such lousy work anyway?"
"If I could intervene-." Lia and Clarke turn their head to meet eyes with a tall blonde man and a short—very short—woman beside him."Oh sorry, I forgot to knock."
The short girl stomps on the man's foot, causing the man to wallow in pain.
"Sorry V.C. Clarke," the short girl said, "we wanted to ask a question, but it seems like we may have found a solution."
"C-come again?" Clarke asked, sharing a look with Lia.
"Well, we know you're busy and-well-me and Chase wanted to ask you how can we prove ourselves to go on the expedition with you," the short girl said, "but it looks like you're in a bit of a pickle and we're confident we can help!"
The tall man—Chase—nods, bowing his head.
"Please let Amur and I join the squad to help with the Vera at Tiki," Chase said, "we must go on this expedition with Zayn, so please—please let us prove ourselves!"
Clarke, astonished and loss for words, and Lia, very amused and entertained, shrugs her shoulders.
"How about you take these two rascals and a few of the other recruits?" Lia asked, "would you turn down recruits with dreams? Vice Captain Clarke wouldn't do that."
Clarke looks between Lia, Chase, and Amur before she lets out a loud sigh, nodding her head.
"Let me write another letter to Captain," Clarke said. "Lia, please deliver it before we make our way."
Lia raised an eyebrow. "We?"