Chapter 22 - Masked ascend

Taking a few interviews and embellishing them for her own purposes was easy work for Tanya and she quickly finished with her task. Truth was in most cases a rather subjective thing for humans after all. Throughout the whole procedure she felt the watchful eyes of her accompanying superiors on her which caused her to internally smile. With any luck they would report her diligence and further her promotion!

Afterwards they hurriedly left Ozen´s hideout, because they were clearly unwanted in her home. The Forest of Temptation could at times be annoying to navigate and was home to many ravenous animals, but compared to the dangers of the lower layers this one was a joke. Especially if your team mates where three Black Whistles.

Tanya even got a look at a famed Corpse Weeper with its bizarre asymmetric eyes before it got decapitated by Byolo! Nature was so exciting at times!

Another beautiful thing was the direct sunlight that broke through the clouds. All the light in the layers below had been reflected and rebound many times by the forcefield of the Abyss and as a result had lost much of its strength. It did its job to illuminate the caverns of the netherworld, but it could not be compared to actual, not warped sunlight directly from the source.

Soon they would reach the first layer which could basically be seen as the outskirts of Orth. The strain there was so mild that she would barely even notice it. This close proximity with civilization brought problems with it though.

Tanya originally had planned to enjoy the clear ocean air and the warm sunshine when they arrived at the upper levels, but she wasn´t so sure if that was a good idea anymore. Her meeting with Ozen had been enlightening in many things. Mainly, if people´s instinctive reaction to seeing an Umbra Hand were hatred and distrust then she couldn´t just walk around without fear of getting assassinated like her dear father.

Should she keep her mask on then the distinctive blue light of the device would inform everybody about her employer which would negatively affect how they treated her. On the other hand, should she show her real face while associating with her fellow co-workers then she would give away her identity which could negatively impact her future. Neither of these options was good.

But how else could she walk around the surface world to organize her project?

In a disguise naturally!

And just to be sure she needed a fake name as well. Never giving away critical information for free was one of the ground rules to success after all. Only when the PR campaign had cleared the name of her company would she openly appear in public to further strengthen the image of her father´s business. As long as Bondrewd was happy she could be happy as well.

Her idea was easily accepted by her companions, but the exact details of the implementation of said plan was unclear. Where could they get convincing disguises that did not consist of tent-cloth and leaves?

Other delvers obviously.

The question was just how forceful that acquisition of material was allowed to be without branding them as criminals.

∞•۞˂Bondrewd´s point of view˃۞•∞

Convincing Ozen to help with anything that had his name on it was an extremely difficult feat. He knew that well. As soon as his name became part of the equation many people would react with fear or anger, but it mattered not to him. Those fools could only see the barest hint of the netherworld´s true potential. Their greed for its treasures blinded them to the true perils and riches that lurked below.

That was the reason why he was (as so often) immensely proud of his adoptive daughter. Her brilliant mind and steely determination had managed to sway even Ozen the Immovable to their cause. With the use of an artefact on his host´s body he had heard every word of their conversation and was astounded by the craftiness of the little girl. She must have picked her trading skills when she was but a half-frozen orphan.

It had been a good idea to send her on this mission despite her age. Every day she seemed to flourish more and more. Her innate talents were awe-inspiring. When she would finally reach the peak of knowledge and skill...

Multiple of his bodies shivered at the thought of what marvels she would be able to accomplish once he had given her access to his sanctum, his best protected secret:

The Zoaholic.

Also known as the "Soul-Slave-Machine" by less open minds. (All his hosts had agreed willingly to undergo the procedure after all.)

What would she do when she had distributed her consciousness to other bodies as he had? What marvels would she achieve? He couldn´t wait to find out.

∞•۞˂Riko´s point of view˃۞•∞

Riko was having not the best day. Well, to be honest it was pretty bad. First she had fallen asleep during the Director´s class and that had earned her a sharp slap to the face and a verbal humiliation in front of all the other kids. It wasn´t her fault that she needed sleep after she stayed up the whole night beforehand.

Sadly she had blurted out that last bit and had been sternly questioned why she had not used the night to rest. She had tried to find an excuse, but the icy eyes of the Director had quickly broken all resistances that she put up. The real reason why she had no slept at all was because she had used that time to closely examine an artefact that she had borrowed from storage.

Another bad decision on her part to reveal that information.

Her room had been searched and she had gotten a proper punishment. Three hours of being tied up naked was not fun. Not to mention the tedious lecture about not touching stuff that didn´t belong to her. Blah, blah, blah...

She was nine years old already! Not a small child! She knew the rules! But she had just been dying to get a closer look at the thing her siblings had brought with them yesterday. Sometimes delvers had to take risks, everybody knew that, and she was on her way to become a legendary White Whistle like her mother. So in the end she felt totally justified in taking the artefact. (Not that she told that to the Director's face.)

When she had finally been unbound from the itchy rope she had immediately taken off to her Super Secret Hideout in the attic where she had hidden her Extremely Important Notes. She had known that she couldn´t keep the relic forever after all and so she sketched it to the best of her ability.

But then she couldn´t find her papers! Had she misplaced them? The orphanage was big and it was possible that she had accidentally left them somewhere else. Riko searched and searched, but she couldn´t locate her drawings! Nobody she asked knew anything about their whereabouts.

After hours of running around like a headless chicken (she had learned that phrase from a few sailors at the festival last year) she couldn´t take it anymore. She tried to hold the tears back, because she was too old to cry and didn´t want to further embarrass herself. Her siblings would surely laugh at her for crying like a baby! Nonetheless her emotions began to overwhelm her, so she ran out of the back door and unto the street.

Riko´s eyes were clouded by tears which led to her having no idea where she was running until she suddenly crashed into somebody and fell to the ground. She rubbed her eyes and stared at the girl she had bumped into.

"Oww... Ah, sorry. – sniff – I just – sniff – ran and... and... y´know?"

"Ah, no worries. I should have seen you coming." replied the stranger with a cute voice.

"Oh, have you seen my glasses. – sniff – They must have fallen..."

"Here. Take them."

"T-thanks."

Suddenly the world became a whole lot clearer for Riko. The unknown girl who now seemed to smile from under the scarf she wore over her mouth, although her shimmering, blue eyes looked not as friendly. Her long, blonde hair was held back by a bandana and the rest of her petite form was concealed from head to toe by a professional looking mantle. Around her neck hung a red whistle.

"Wow. Are you a Red Whistle? So cool! I wish I was. What´s your name?" Riko asked excitedly, her sorrow temporarily forgotten.

"You may call me... Rose."