Chapter Three: The fate of an ally

* Unknown Location, 9:23 A.M*

Lara was awoken by a loud knocking on the door. She groggily open her eyes. She wasn't in her bedroom at Croft Manor so her abduction was definitely not a dream. Thus everything Caylis said wasn't a dream either. After another sharp and increasingly urgent knock rang out from the door, Lara got up and opened it to face the same man who brought her here.

"Oh, it's you again." she said nearly growling.

"Well,Caylis sent me to bring you down for breakfast. Which would ordinarily have been over an hour ago if Caylis hadn't insisted on waiting for you."

"I always thought that a great archaeologist such as yourself would wake up earlier."

"What time is it?"

"Nearly 9:30 in the morning."

"It is rather late. Did the chemical you drugged me with have anything to do with that?"

"Honestly, I don't know. It was an experimental anesthetic that the faction doctor was testing for use for emergency surgeries. I'll need to tell her that it works and is as far as I can tell safe for human use. That will need to happen later, right now I am supposed to bring you to the dining room. The rest of the faction is getting very impatient, but Caylis insists that you join us for breakfast." Lara was feeling quite hungry so she nodded and followed her abductor down the hall and through the door to the stairwell and down to the second level of the foyer. They walked down the stairs leading to the ground floor of the foyer.

"This way." The man said as he turned to a door on the right side of the foyer. He opened the door and Lara followed him into a dining room. There were many people around a long table with Caylis sitting at the head of it talking to a young woman. Caylis was also holding a baby who was possibly about six months old in her arms. Once Caylis finished her conversation, she noticed Lara and waved her over to an empty seat at her end of the table. On her way to the empty seat, Lara noticed the trays of food that were untouched on the table kept warm by hot plates. So they were indeed waiting for her to join them. Lara sat at an empty chair close to where Caylis was sitting. The woman walked away to sit with a younger girl possibly her sister. A blonde woman in her mid thirties sat to Caylis's left while Vaughn was at her right. The table wasn't entirely full as several seats were still vacant.

"Where are some of the others?" Lara asked Caylis looked up from the baby cradled in her arms to scan around the table before answering.

" Well we have one young man who is currently in France with the Limoux faction for extra training and then there is my brother. He has been estranged from our faction for several years, but recently we tracked him down, but before we got to him he was mortally wounded. Ophelia, the woman I was talking to is our faction's doctor and she managed to save him from what might have been certain death. He is in the infirmary, and he is also part of why you are here."

"What do you mean?"

" You will see once breakfast is over. Please help yourself to the food. Everyone is present so we all can eat now." Caylis said before giving the ok for everyone to eat. The trays of food were taken off the hot plates and passed around for everyone to choose what they wanted. Caylis didn't put anything on her plate until everyone else had filled theirs. An empty bottle was next to her plate, so the baby had probably been fed first. Lara hadn't noticed before, but there were two children next to Vaughn, a boy and a girl who were having a bit of an argument until both Caylis and Vaughn put an end to it rather quickly. At the end of the meal, Caylis called everyone to attention once more and all chatter abruptly ceased and everyone remained in their seats. " I am holding a meeting at noon. All of you are required to attend." With that, everyone but Vaughn, Caylis, the young woman whom Caylis was talking with earlier, and a teenage girl who bore a likeness to the other woman. " Ophelia, Rosa I would like you both to bring Ms. Croft to the infirmary to expel any doubts about who we say we are. Please bring some food for your patient as well." Caylis directed.

"Of course my lady, Ms Croft, please follow us." The older woman said as she walked through a door at the far end of the room behind where Caylis sat and the girl whom Lara assumed was Rosa walked just in front of Lara and looked back every so often to make sure that Lara was still following. The door lead into a kitchen area with a very large pantry. Both women walked into the pantry which was well stocked with food and had one rectangular crate against the back wall that was padlocked. Ophelia pulled a key out of her pocket and unlocked the crate. She opened it which revealed a staircase leading down below the mansion. Ophelia and Rosa both flicked a switch to illuminate the staircase. It was a rather short trek to reach the bottom where a set of double doors, similar to the doors you would enter to get into a hospital ward lay in front of them. The two continued onwards into what looked like a hospital ward crossed with a laboratory. Each room was labeled with either "Laboratory" or "Medical" and a number. They reached a room labeled "Medical #2- Intensive care"

"How rude of me. We never introduced ourselves. I am Ophelia Boaz and this is my younger sister, Rosa." Ophelia said before opening the door to the room and turning on the lights.

" You could've warned me before turning the lights on dammit." a very familiar voice rang out as a figure laying on one of the beds in the room got up into a sitting position. It was Kurtis! The man had made it out of the Strahov alive.