Vondell stared at him in frozen confusion for a moment. "A child of spring?" he asked, inspecting the man's suit. It had the symbol of the royal crown on its chest pocket, and flowery designs covering every other inch of it.
~So he's part of the King's army,~ Vondell thought to himself.
"I'm not quite the youthful man I used to be, but Persephone is my matron yes," the man replied, stroking his beard as he inspected Vondell. He seemed thoroughly unimpressed.
"So what is this? Are you trying to kill me or not? I have somewhere to be," Vondell replied. He wasn't sure what exactly was going on anymore, but he was at least certain that assassins didn't dress like this.
Gregory reached into his pockets, but before he could pull out his hands, Vondell raised his own, one movement away from snapping his fingers.
"You might not die from the blast, but it'll hurt. Whatever you're pulling from there better be worth that handsome face," Vondell warned.
"You're a violent one, aren't you," Gregory replied raising his freehand. "We're on the same side, you know," he added, slowly pulling out a black tag. It was standard issue from The Hall, outlined with silver streaks, meaning he was both a Lord and the leader of a guild.
Vondell quickly reached into his inner pockets and pulled out a dagger. It glowed red hot for a moment, before he sent it rushing at Gregory with a twitch of his finger.
The dagger wrapped around the tag and with another twitch of Vondell's finger it came back to him. He caught the tag, letting the knife swing freely on the smoke string.
~It's an original,~ he thought to himself. The tags were made of Alurium, a metal found on the 50th floor of the oasis. No one out of The Hall could get their hands on this, unless of course they pried it off a Lord's corpse, but Vondell didn't know any of his comrades to be conventionally mortal. It'd take quite the weapon to keep them dead.
"So you're a Lord? What guild?" Vondell asked, before tossing the tag back at Gregory.
Gregory snapped his fingers and the tag appeared in his hands, its space in the air replaced by a flower. "Moonflower," he replied with a smile. "I'm currently in search of new recruits if that's why you're asking," he added. "Though you'd have to ditch the ugly armor."
Vondell scoffed at that, before putting his vials and dagger away.
"I don't know what kind of bullshit you have going on in Leeds. But in Antras, you don't tail someone unless you want an early eulogy," he replied, before turning to leave.
"Neutras," he whispered, and the smoke and purple field slowly faded away.
"Wait," Gregory called out. "You have something that belongs to me."
Vondell stopped with a sigh. He had wasted enough time as is, in fact, he could already hear Itzel going on and on about how Lords were supposed to set examples. Nothing was more annoying than being scolded by younger men.
"So you followed me across the city, and made me waste my coin, instead of just asking?" he asked.
"Yes," Gregory replied. "I wanted to see if you were up to the task. And though it took you some time to realize I was following you, I say you passed. You're worthy of being Ser Gregory's partner," he said.
Vondell thought over this for a moment. ~Partner? Wait...~ He turned around, and inspected Gregory once more. "You're supposed to Marco's partner?" he asked. It was unheard for new recruits to be given the title of Lord in Antras, even if they were powerful. And it was even more unlikely for them to be given an onyx directive on their first day. Whoever this guy was, clearly had connections to Helen. Which only made Vondell like him that much less.
"I was just as surprised when I learned that The Rat gave his quest to a black-donned barbarian. Yet here we are," he replied.
"You can take the day off. Go smell some flowers or something, I don't care. I don't need your help," Vondell replied before walking away.
"That's not your decision to make," Gregory shouted, however, Vondell didn't turn around. He had wasted enough time as is.
"The onyx directive was a trade deal, The Hall owes it to me," Gregory added, as Vondell made his way down the corridor.
"Then go take it up with Helen. I already used the coin Marco gave me. I'm completing this quest," Vondell replied lazily, before turning into another corridor.
"Do you even know why you're going to The Plains?" a voice called out. Vondell's eyes landed on one of the moonflowers high up on the hedge. ~This guy's commandment is annoying,~ he thought to himself.
Only a very select number of scions were awarded sanctions by their gods. Special abilities that gave them control over environmental aspects of their patron god. It seemed that Gregory, had a high level one, that was if he could control every flower in his vicinity as Vondell suspected.
"I don't need to know anything. Everything is written in the directive," Vondell replied, throwing a dagger at the flower.
"Not everything is written there. There's a reason Marco and I were partnered. There are things that I know, that he and the directive wouldn't," another flower replied.
Vondell sighed, pulling out a handful of daggers from his inner pocket. The smokey string attached to them, and he sent them all out towards the highest part of the hedge walls. With a tug, he thrust himself into the air.
He soared high above the Labyrinth, getting a bird's eye view from above. As the wind rushed against his face, he pondered. He pondered how blissful it would be to just soar away from all this. Away from his responsibilities in Antras, away from whatever organization was hunting him, away from the mission he had set himself on.
But that was only for a moment. Even if he could run away from all this. The weight on his chest would not wane, the burn of his scars would not fade, and the nightmares would not vanish. He was what he wanted to run away from, but he already knew that.
Surth sent out streams of smoke as he began to descend.
~I know. We'll continue until the end,~ he replied. ~It's good to daydream once in a while.~
Twitching his fingers, he drew some of his daggers back, and cast them out again, pulling himself close towards the end of Labyrinth.