Chapter 7

A Moment of Reprieve

"If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit."

-Unknown

I walked with the man down the road, the rain now beginning to calm. Thankfully, the rest of the walk was uneventful, only small talk between us, before parting ways as we reached the city gate.

Dolgow, I paused for a moment, pondering over my journey so far while taking in the view of the city around me. Finally here... I looked down to the tattered map and looked for anything further on where to find whoever Qara wanted me to find, only to find nothing on it at all. Although discouraged, I also had a hint of carelessness. Rest for a day, then keep looking. That thought appealed to me, Just a day, that's all. I thought.

At that moment, I began to just walk aimlessly around the city, looking at the buildings that reached the sky, and the vast array of people that lived here. Some stood high above the crowd, while others couldn't help but stay close to the ground. One building, however, caught my eye, it held a sign above its door, that had no words, but instead a symbol. Two glowing red axes came together to form the outline of a heart, the faint outline of a drop of blood underneath. People wearing armor with all kinds of damage walked in and out from the building.

Curious, I followed in behind a shorter person who had a shortened mace attached to her side. As I walked in, I watched as a elven-looking man was tossed over the edge of what looked to be a raised hexagon platform before hitting the padded ground. On his armor, faint sparks could be seen that soon stopped as he got back up to his feet.

"Fair game man, fair game." He said as he got back onto the platform, before shaking the other mans hand.

"What is this place?" I asked aloud, a man turned around from a group he was talking with to face me, as gruff yet kind voice came from his bearded face.

"It's the Bleeding Heart, they got training for all your competition needs. Pretty popular this time of year with the Gala happening tomorrow and everything."

"What's a Gala?" I asked, the man took a step to a board and pointed at a large, blue flier. I stepped towards it, and read:

...

Attention!

The 47th Gala will be happening tomorrow at noon at the city's newly finished Hexa-gala at the center of Dolgow.
We will be having a wild card tournament to fill two slots in the final tournament, so be sure to apply before then if you want to have a chance at making your form of magic the victor this year!

Past Victors:
46th - Dark
45th - Nature
44th - Water
43rd - Light

...

"Huh..." I muttered to myself, grabbing a flier and walking back outside, shoving the paper into a pocket. I continued my wandering as the day continued, looking through different stores and buildings, just to appreciate it all. As the night began to envelop the city, the streets beginning to die down, and the stores closed, I knew that I needed some rest after both the long travel to Dolgow, and from the encounter I had with both Merand, and the woman.

For a moment, it reminded me of what Jinn told me, before sending me off.

"...the world is about to face off one of, if not its greatest threats..."

Something about that reminded and confused me as to why I'm here, not only to help Charlie, but to help save the rest of the world. Dolgow, the rest of Fanto, hell, everything was in jeopardy. Other than why I was here, I couldn't help but ask myself questions. Who or what was this threat Jinn talked about? How would I find Charlie Kyle, and what makes him so important in all of this? These were all questions about my journey, but one question, unrelated to Fanto, was one that had stayed in my mind ever since I started this whole journey with Vade and Jinn.

Would I ever find out something about myself?

Dan, Bruce, and the rest of us entered the meeting hall, slowing down to see that Charlie and Eve were left amazed at the large yet intricate design of the enormous interior. Even with the carpet, faint echoes could be heard as we walked towards a stairwell leading upwards.

"The William's up here in the discussion room, I think he'll be... eager... to see you two, Charlie and Eve." Bruce said as he began to ascend, us following right behind.

"Alright," A hint of reluctance was in Eve's voice as he responded. "I just... find it odd that someone we've never heard of wants to meet us. I mean, we were in that forest for practically our entire lives."

"I understand your concerns," The comforting tone of Bruce continued as he reached the top of the steps, "But I assure you, he only wants to know about anything regarding Aura that he doesn't already know about, which already isn't much."

"Well, I guess we'll help as much as we can," Charlie's confident voice coming from behind us.

"That's the way to look at it!" Bruce responded as he halted at a doorway, standing to the side to allow us to walk through the door. "After you..." He said with a cunning smirk.

Dan and I pushed the two doors open to reveal what looked to be a meeting table, which was surrounded by chairs that were all neatly tucked into the table. The carpet inside was a deep blue, much like that of Charlie's blade. Seated at the end of the table, were two men, one who wore a deep maroon jacket with an accent of gold around the inside of the vest. The other man stood next to him, instead of sitting, but he was still the same height, even while the other was seated at the table. His large and very notable ginger beard covered over half of his visible face, the other of which was covered by a horned helmet made of a silvery metal.

As Charlie and Eve stepped into the room ahead of us, Bruce spoke.

"You two, I would like you both to meet William Riker and his closest companion, Skilod Hendrew." Bruce walked to the side of who I could only assume to be William, before William himself spoke up to us.

"Welcome everyone, please, you may all grab a seat." William spoke, his appealing tone drawing us towards our chairs. As we took our seats, he continued. "Now that you're here, I'm going to give it to you straight-" He began, before Skilod, under his ginger beard, loudly interrupted.

"We're going to make you fight to the death with a bloody load of other people!" His loud voice filled the room, but was dwindled once William stared his own friend down with a look of burning rage.

"You bloke! You fucked it up! I was going to ease it in with everything else but you just had to ruin it!" He shouted, as his friend laughed away, almost as quickly as the professional atmosphere that just left the room.

"Oh man!" Skilod laughed, ignoring his friends shouting and swearing. "The looks on you two's faces, bloody brilliant!"

"Woah woah woah," Eve nervously asked, "What exactly do you mean when you say 'fight to the death'?"

"No!" William, still angry, nearly shouted, "It's not like that- well it is but- GAH!" He shouted to himself. "You always do this to me, every fucking time!" He exclaimed towards the still snickering Skilod. Before William continued, he seemed to stop for a moment, gathering his thoughts, before sighing and continuing.

"I assume that you all know about the Gala right?" He asked, watching as we all nodded in response. "Good. Every year, the city of Dolgow is the host of a Gala by the same name. People from all across Fanto come to compete, most are the best of the best, and each team, represented by it's form of Aura use, fights against each other simultaneously, and the winner is crowned the Aura Champion for the next year, until the next Gala."

"We know that already," Charlie spoke out, now being the one interrupting. "But why do you want us to be a part of it?"

"Because of that," William replied as he motioned to Charlie's back, his crystalline blade faintly glowing. "That is something that we have neither heard of, nor seen until this past week when Dan informed us of you two. We aren't going to dissect you or anything like that, but instead observe how you, your blade, and other Aura users react to it, and after the tournament, we'll ask a few questions, then that will be the end of it."

"See? You didn't need to butter them up before breaking the news." Skilod said with a wide grin.

"Because you told them immediately, you dick!" He quickly snapped at him, before turning back to Charlie.

"So, Charlie, what do you say?"

"Sure," He replied crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat.

"Good, and you, Eve?"

Eve, slightly unnerved, replied, "I think that..." She trailed off for a moment, "There are more people that could do a better job than me, sorry." She apologized.

"That's fine, you have until tomorrow to decide, if you change your mind, give me a shout. But for now, I think that you've all had a rough day, so rest up, and we can take care of this in the morning, I already have a place set for you all."

Without chit-chat, we got up and went to rest, anticipating what tomorrow would hold.

A man stood in a large control room, monitors up at both desks and the furthermost wall. Each monitor carrying its own set of information towards one specific person. Her face was put up at the large monitor, centralized on the wall. Her dim yellow eyes on her expressionless face stared off into nothing, the strands of brown hair almost obscuring her vision.

"Sir?" The man was cut off from deep though, as another man wearing a gray coat drew his attention. "We have an update on the project."

"Good, may I see them?"

He seemed reluctant to answer, almost as if something was wrong.

"Let me correct myself, show me." He spoke with a more dominating tone.

"R-right this way." The man with his gray coat nervously reacted, walking quickly, his higher up following shortly behind. They walked out of the room and through a long corridor, lit brightly by several overhead lights. Neither said anything as they reached a door, the gray coat moving to the side, allowing his higher up to barge in, causing all the small talk to quickly pause.

"What happened?" He demanded, one of the workers jumping up to reply.

"We got reports that a... civilian came across one of our operating bases." He firmly spoke.

"And they took care of it, right?" He asked, anger slowly bubbling in his voice.

"Well..." He trailed off, before the man quickly moved to him, pinning to him to the wall.

"You have five damn seconds to tell me what the hell is going on before I get someone to turn you into paint on the wall."

"M-merand went out a-and tried to take him out, but-"

"But?" He nearly shouted, rage fuming from his face

"B-but he managed to slip away,"

"Then send someone after him dammit!" He angrily shouted, letting the man go from the wall.

"O-one more t-thing Sir," The other worker stammered, his higher-ups eyes quickly shooting towards him with an almost death-glare. "H-he managed to steal the Umbrella."

"What?" The question pierced the room as he stormed over towards a hand held monitor, picking it up and staring at two blinking dots, before angrily throwing it towards the wall.

"Find this guy now. I won't let a simple... mistake, jeopardize everything we've worked for." He angrily shouted, before storming outside. Shortly after, the gray coat walked out, looking back to the other two.

"I'll make the call." He said, before walking out.