About to head out with the two boys escorting him, he snapped his fingers as he turned back to Aria.
"Sorry, but is there any heist tomorrow?" Griffin asked out of curiosity, wondering if he would be able to follow them on the heist despite having no idea on how to steal in that manner.
She replied with a grin, "Be here tomorrow at the set time and we shall see if there is or not.."
Griffin nodded awkwardly turning around back slowly, the first boy opened the old wooden door with a creaking sound escaping it. He rolled his eyes in disgust toward Griffin.
I can't believe this dude will be part of the team now... I pray he makes a mistake and get trashed out of the team.
Griffin noticed the unhidden and sudden hatred by the two towards him, but he didn't care a bit. He was only focused on getting what he wants, and doesn't care how long it might take. They stepped out of the room, and onto the alley where the boys dropped him off and went back in.
Inside, Aria sighed and stared at the two boys coming in. "Ahh, another mouth to feed.. I have to get to work now." She muttered under her breath. Then, she ordered the two to follow her - another room existed behind the walls of the current one they were in.
The wall, that seemingly resembled solid brick, yielded with a low groan as Aria pressed a section by the wall's end. A section of the brick slid silently to the side, revealing a narrow passage lit up by a single gas lamp. The mechanism was cleverly hidden; only the faintest line of difference from the rest exposed it. The passage was barely wider than a truck, extended downwards while the air seemed cooler despite the absence of any window or air passage. After a short walk, the passage opened into a spacious room, quite different from the main room.
Instead of the empty area they'd just left, this was utilitarian; its walls were made up of rough-hewn rock, unplastered and dusty. A single gas lamp casted a dim light across the room, revealing rows of shelves packed tightly with gears, guns, and other stolen items. Another set of people were seated in front of a wide work bench, a teenage male and female, they focused intensely on the construction before them. Aria didn't bother them, she went to the next work bench with the two boys behind her. It was cluttered with various tools, incompleted gears, mortars and pestles along with scales - she seemed to be working on something big.
A large cauldron, blackned from overuse, sat on a small stone hearth, the air around it was burning hot.
"Shall we get cooking?" Aria mused, lifting her hands. Blue smoke swirled around them like a performing dragon, brightening the room. Her eyes glowed with an ethereal blue as she directed the smoke at a large rock near the edge of the room. The stone shattered into dust.
The four others praised her with enthusiastic eyes. "That's just a small practice of smoke manipulation," a woman said. "We can test it on that circled vault tomorrow, right?"
Aria gave her a sidelong glance. "I suppose so," she replied, her tone menacing.
...
Griffin still stood at the alley, reasoning with a hand on his chin, he then smirked as he turned to leave the alley. "So, there's a secret room behind the empty one we were in? Maybe another behind that one again? Quite astonishing, I'm left intrigued.."
He had noticed the slight difference of the brick while studying the room, his eyes was out for the tiniest mystery. Noticing the difference had given him a conclusion that it might be a hidden room. However, it wasn't confirmed and was simply a guess; he decided to learn more about it, confirming his suspicion in the process.
Quietly walking out of the alley and onto the busy street, he moved casually through the crowd until he arrived at Cogsworth Avenue. Suddenly, multiple Watch officers ran through the crowd with fully loaded Handvolves.
"Get out of the way, you measly miscreants!" The leader shouted as the workers shifted out of the way, including Griffin. They kept a straight face on, and once they had passed by; the workers went back to their deeds while also whispering and gossiping about the sudden appearance of so many officers.
Some claimed that another officer had been killed during a shootout from a gang clash at Whistle lane - three streets away from Cogsworth. Others claimed they came to arrest a gang after a robbery on the Upper District went wrong and their identity were disclosed, all of this was the same story with a bit of difference in which the legal news would tell the truth.
Griffin shrugged and ran back to his alley, then towards his room. He found the rascal who had tried to rob him lying on the ground, passed out. Griffin laughed uncontrollably, his door was left opened. After laughing for a while, his side began to ache, he groaned and seized his laughter.
The bag of stone was scattered across the wet floor, and the iron rod had shot out of its formal location.
I should get rid of this body, I insincerely hope he's still alive... Griffin moved closer to the body and bent a little to meet the rascal's face, placing a finger under his nostril; he was still breathing.
Disappointed, he mused, "Oh man, he survived that.." He then grabbed the unconscious body by his hand and dragged it along the alley rained floor to the end, near a small hill of coals where he threw him carelessly on the coals and dusted his hand while heading back to his room with a grin.
"I can't believe that trap actually went smoothly, though that was ruthless.. Amazing!"
He entered his room, sweeping the remaining stones off his doorstep with his leg. Locking the door, he dropped onto his bed with a heavy sigh.
Griffin stared at the wall clock; 10:56 AM. The day was young, but he already knew what he had to do: test his newly acquired abilities. He needed to understand their limitations, their after-effects, before they inadvertently killed him when using it in the face of danger without knowing a single detail about it. He began with the first ability, visualizing his alley – the scene of his most recent… disposal. Closing his eyes, he focused on the spot where he'd left the unconscious body.
A wave of intense heat washed over him as his body began to disintegrate into dark ash. The teleportation, while seemingly instantaneous to an outside observer, felt excruciatingly slow from his perspective. The heat intensified, a burning furnace consuming him from the inside out. He felt alarmingly close to actual combustion. Then, as suddenly as it began, the process ended. He stood before the body and the coal pile, his hands reforming from the black and red ash like a gruesome, reversed burning.
Fascination warred with apprehension. The short-range teleportation had been relatively harmless, but a long one might be... different. The heat, the excruciating disintegration, the lingering burn – it was clear that distance was a critical variable. The question wasn't if longer distances would have consequences, but how severe those consequences would be.
He needed to research further, but a cross-city jump was recklessly suicidal. Instead, he chose the Lower District's well, roughly fifteen kilometres away from his location; this was preferably a more suitable test. He closed his eyes, visualizing the well. The heat was immediate and unbearable this time, a scorching inferno that threatened to roast him for the best "human meat" to be tasted. The sensation felt like a violent combustion as If he was actually getting roasted.
I'm... presumably.. courting death at this point.
His body turned to ashes, and was getting remade to the well. Griffin manifested right in front of the well, gasping for breath, his lungs burning and heart aching, a taste of ash coating his tongue. His body was consumed by fatigue, the heat remained, a dull throb in his bones. His heart beated faster, pumping hot blood to his myocardium [1], surging through the coronary arteries [2] and aorta [3], then the pulmonary artery to his lungs [4] before being propelled through the pulmonary veins [5] and back to the left atrium [6] and all over his body.
He looked at his hands once again in trembling pain - blistered, raw, a deep purple replaced the earlier red. The long jump was a near-death experience, and the limitations were now clear to him as his body fully formed, the pain slowly reducing; distances were directly correlated to the intensity of the heat and potential death, aiming for a longer distance would had burnt him straight up.
Few seconds later, the injuries inflicted from the teleportation vanished without a trace. He dropped to the ground, overwhelmed.
"I was about to die, I can't possibly teleport back to my room; that means I would have to walk all the way back - fifteen kilometres... that's... that's literally 3 hours at a brisk walking pace!" Griffin shunned the dispersing pain and cried out in panic, thinking about the suffering ahead. Relatively, he would arrive back home by 2 PM if he had spent four minutes with all the test he had done.
He stomped the sandy ground with frustration, his eyes reddening with veins. He turned his gaze to the well, and sighed. "Just a old well, it's empty anyway, so there's no hope for water coming with me," He placed a hand on his hair and ruffened it. "You were stupid today, Griffin. If that old man was alive, he'd remove you from the family tree instantly."
The Old Well was located in the heart of the district's oldest, most dilapidated section, citizens rarely walk this spot - it sat in a fenced land, around it is mostly choked with weeds and refuse, making the surrounding a jarringly prominent area.
The well is constructed from rough-hewn stone, now pitted and unsmooth by decades of exposure to various elements. Thick layers of grime and algae covered most of its original structure, chunks had broken away from it. The well's wooden cover had crumbled, replaced by rusty metal scraps - not sufficient enough to preserve the occurrence of an accident. The water within, if any were to remain, would be likely dirty and harmful to the human body.
Griffin looked around as he stood up from the ground, his back ached a bit. He sighted a opening in the wooden planks used as a fence, wide enough to fit him through. He walked over to it with a deep groan, clearly cursing himself and the unavailability of the lowest form of transport in the Lower District. Even If there was, he wouldn't be able to afford it as he wasn't financially balanced enough to even afford breakfast.
Grr! (Low)
Griffin's stomach began to stir. The first sign wasn't a loud rumble, but a shifting - a gentle, internal gurgle like pebbles being rearranged in a glass jar. This was followed by a low, barely far from imperceptible grumbling, a deep one that only Griffin himself could feel at first, a bit pressure against his insides. As the hunger intensified, the growling grew louder, evolving Into series of distinct, low rumbles that vibrated through his torso. Literally, these were the insistent, demanding growls of a stomach. Each growl was punctuated by a tightening sensation, a hollow ache that spread outwards. The sounds grew louder, demanding that he urgently and desperately needs food.
"My insides are staging a full-blown rebellion! They're demanding cake. And possibly a pint. It's more demanding than the old man." Griffin held his stomach tightly, staring into the clear sky. The sun was now hidden by two white clouds, though its bright and scorching light still penetrated through it. He kept his head down, focusing on walking till he arrives home to munch on the last piece of cheese he had left and drink some water on it.
He quickly protruded through the fence and began his long walk... this was going to be a harsh arc for him. Well, lovely, many would love to hear such a story.
To keep the long journey short, he finally arrived at Cogsworth Avenue three hours and some minutes later after stopping at multiple sections; Ronny's Section - to stare at people eating, therefore increasing his hunger. Riverside - to drink the water that flowed down from Iron River. Neil and Cuts - to stare at gears while his stomach was being held captive by the water he had recently consumed. Dilas - to accumulate some knowledge about new gears, begging for three cups of water in the process. And so he visited many spots before arriving home. His stomach was barely full, and he still craved his cheese madly.
He wandered into his alley, realising that the unconscious body was now gone; his conclusion was that he had woken up and regretted his actions while also preparing to tend to unbearable pains till the next morning. He unlocked his door, inserting a tiny iron that bared resemblance to a toothpick - about the same height and width. He turned it, opening the door and running right under his bed in search of the cheese, nestled inside a small wooden chest, the size of a canned food. He grabbed it, revealing a fresh cheese.
It was no bigger than his thumb, its rind were almost mahogany brown, also surprisingly smooth. He took a nimble, and the insides was a hidden discovery (To him!) - a satisfying crumble that gave way to a creamy interior. The taste exploded on his tongue as he threw it into his mouth; a small, tangy bite followed by a wave of nutty sweetness that remained pleasantly. It was rich and full, not too far from oily, coating his palate with a luxurious warmth.
The gnawing hunger that had been a brother to him through his harsh journey, a fellow ache in his belly began to recede with each tiny bite. It gradually melted away, like ice dissolving in the spring sun. It was quite satiating, somehow replacing his temporary roommate. By the time the last crumb vanished, the ravenous hunger became a distant memory that will be remembered and mourned for its untimely death.
"Friends, countrymen, lend me your ears... or at least your sympathy. For I stand before you today as a... a starved conqueror. My hunger, glorious, gnawing hunger is gone. Vanished like a rogue soufflé, it has deflated," Griffin paused for dramatic effect as he placed a hand on his left chest. "It's been a long and harsh journey, your stubbornness is not to be reckoned with. And for that, we shall forever remember you... yeah, make me laugh. Goodbye, you unlikable fella!"
He chuckled and went to his workbench, pondering whether to test his next memory. He'd glimpsed the third one, but hadn't thoroughly experimented with it; he planned to do so later. He finally decided to try the second tomorrow...
Hours and hours passed by, slowly 2 PM became 11 PM, and this was Griffin's night time.
The night sky was a deep, inky black, contrasted by a blood - red moon hanging low in the sky. Its crimson glow casted an error light across the city, painting the streets in a macabre crimson shade. Hundreds of gas lamps around the Lower District struggled to pierce the redness, throwing pools of yellowish light across the district's landscape.
This was the result of a rare lunar phenomena, a total lunar eclipse coupled with a particularly dense layer of atmospheric dust. Perhaps, recent volcanic activity far from the city had sent plumes of ash high into the stratosphere. The fine volcanic dust could spread across a vast swathe of the sky, acting as a filter and scattering the blue wavelengths of sunlight while allowing the longer, red wavelengths to pass through. (I'm sad to say that I'm unable to explain more about this.)
Griffin had long drifted into dream land with his oversized underwear on. He lay sprawled across the bed, his legs were flung out at odd angles; one, tucked beneath him, while the other dangled over the edge, inches from the cold, wooden floor. A hand curled into a loose fist, rested on the ground beside his leg. His snores were a low, guttural rumble, followed by the occasional snort. The cold night air whisked around his exposed skin. Despite the chilling sensation, the only sound that could be heard was his breathing. He shifted frequently, his body turning in an uncomfortable movement against the bedding. Each sent a ripple through the covering, briefly disturbing the stillness..
Ten hours and forty minutes later - 9: 34 AM, the persistent sunlight, stabbing through his eyelids, ripped Griffin from sleep, leaving him frustrated. He cursed at the sun, turning to gaze at the time... His annoyance instantly grew!
"Bollocks! I was actually targeting on sleeping till noon 'Cause I have literally nothing in my stomach this morning, and prayed to manage until then. But this sun kept that wish far away... Ahh!" He tightened his fists, and got off his bed with anger.
He went straight to his workbench and sat down, crossing his arms in the process while also fuming. He decided to stare continuously at the brass clock until the due time for his meeting with Aria reached. Perhaps, that might help him sway "hunger" away. He began yapping like a dog...
Finally, the clocks' hands rested on 1 PM, Griffin quickly got dressed into the same clothing he wore yesterday. Putting on his worn - out ankle length boot, he raced out the door and locked it behind. This time, he didn't set down a trap due to being in a haste.
He jugged down the busy street, and straight into Arcana Way, then to the alley. He found Aria leaning on the wall, she came off it and walked to him. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she said, "So, let's get to work.."
Uhh, I knew there would be an heist today. With well-planned steps then surely I'll be able to not make a mistake..
She led him to the wooden door, and opened it.
Creak!
Inside the empty room, the other four stood around the table, staring at a large cardboard map. Aria clapped to get their attention, it echoed through the hollow room. "I suppose we didn't do any introductions yesterday, but now we're a team, so let's begin! First, this is Rayden." She pointed at one of the boys Griffin met yesterday, the one that was called "dumb" by the second "narrator". Rayden's face was a bit rugged; a faint zig-zag scar ran above his left eyebrow, and his nose was slightly crooked. He had a athletic figure just like Griffin, but standing at 175 cm. Rayden sent a cold gaze towards Griffin...
"Next, meet Liam," Aria continued, gesturing to a tall, lanky young man with a mop of unruly brown hair and harsh eyes. He was the "narrator" of yesterday. Liam's look towards Griffin bared no difference from Rayden's.
Well, Griffin also ignored them, and didn't bother to say "Hi!" or show off a smile.
Then, Aria pointed to a stockier boy with close-cropped black hair and a serious expression. He seemed to bare no hatred nor any kind of expression to Griffin. "And this is Kai." Kai nodded curtly.
Finally, Aria indicated to the female with long, wavy auburn hair that stretched down her shoulders, framing an oval face with bright, brown eyes. Her figure was slender. With a bright smile, she waved enthusiastically, "Hi!" Griffin waved back with a smile.
"That's Eleanor."
"Now the four of you: meet Griffin." Aria gestured back at Griffin with her lips curled up. She then rubbed her palms together mischievously. "Not to waste any of the limited time we have, shall we revise the plan?"
....
[1] Myocardium: The muscular tissue of the heart.
[2] Coronary arteries: The arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle itself.
[3] Aorta: The main artery of the body, supplying oxygenated blood to the circulatory system.
[4] Pulmonary artery: The artery carrying deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs.
[5] Pulmonary veins: The veins carrying oxygenated blood from the lungs back to the heart.
[6] Left atrium: One of the four chambers of the heart; it receives oxygenated blood from the lungs.
[Unnumbered] Bollocks!: as an exclamation of anger or frustration is a forceful expression of annoyance, disbelief, or exasperation. It's a stronger, vulgar version of saying "Darn!" or "Blast!"