Alice
"So, Alice, how are you today?"
She hummed in response, shifting uncomfortably on the recliner chair, more of a lounge seat. Her hands were folded together awkwardly on her stomach, nervous without the familiar weight of her scythe in her hands. She looked at the ceiling light with half-closed eyes, replying, "Perfectly fine, Doctor, as I have been the past fourteen sessions."
She always hated having to come here, but Sefia herself had ordered her to after her sixth 'incident'. Apparently, losing control of your body and attempting to go on killing sprees was socially unacceptable.
She and the Doctor sat within a homely and cozy office, a bookshelf stood against one wall, landscape paintings of comforting scenery covered the other. The walls, floor and ceiling were made of deep brown planks of wood. The Doctor, a middle aged man with thinning hair hidden under a ridiculous brimmed hat, sat in a worn grey suit next to her.
The Doctor asked calmly, "Do you-"
"Have any homicidal tendencies?" Alice asked mockingly. "No, or murderous thoughts, or violent compulsions. It seems that your therapy has been very effective for me, I feel totally sane and one hundred percent socially functional. Could we make this quick? I've got a ticket for the 1:30 match at the Arena and I don't want to miss it."
"Hmph, very funny," the Doctor gruffly said. "How about the nightmares? Are you still having them?"
Alice tried to hide her cringe at the mention of her dreams. She lied, "No."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow but didn't pursue the issue, instead he pulled out a bunch of white cards with black paint blotches on them.
Alice groaned, "Not the cards, please."
"Yes, the cards." He raised the first one, an incomprehensible series of black shapes and lines. "What do you see?"
She rolled her eyes, muttering to herself, "This is stupid."
"What do you see?" he insisted.
After another bout of eye rolling, Alice looked at the card. "I see a few black paint stains."
The Doctor smiled. "What more do you see?"
Alice narrowed her eyes at the card. "I… I see… myself, in a room, sitting down…"
His eyes widened in interest and he leant forward. "Go on."
"I'm sitting down in the room, next to a man, an old doctor subjecting me to ridiculous therapy."
Alice leant back and smiled to herself as the Doctor sighed exasperatedly. She hummed a little tune to herself contentedly, before there was a tiny buzzing noise and her communicator vibrated in her pocket. As the Doctor face palmed Alice discreetly took out her communicator and saw a message flashed across the glass screen.
'Sender: Ophelia
Selected for mission. Dangerous. Come to Survey Office, will be briefed there. Be quick.'
Alice smiled softly. "You had me at 'Dangerous'."
She slid her communicator back into her pocket and recited, "I was joking, Doctor, I see a house in a sunny field on a bright morning, a young boy is running along a path with a puppy besides him, a corgi specifically."
The Doctor began, "Wha-"
"I'm pretty sure that conforms to what a 'healthy' person sees." She forced out a broad smile and slid off the chair. "I just love these therapy sessions with you, I feel saner every day!"
He didn't even try to stop her, instead he set his cards down on his mahogany desk wearily. "Just remember to come again next week."
She looked back. "Don't worry, I'm looking forward to it."
And with that, Alice promptly left the room and slammed the door.
Farlon
"Why can't they ever send us to any place nice?"
Farlon followed behind a rather disgruntled Rina, her golden cape shockingly conspicuous against the forest's green walls of leaves. The sun came through the roof of branches and leaves in thin beams of dusty light, stretching down the shadowy, leaf paved roads of the forest.
He looked at her quizzically, "A quiet stroll in the woods on a sleepy morning, how much better could it get?"
"Even without the monsters," Rina jumped at a rustling sound behind her as a squirrel scampered down a tree, "I'd much prefer to be back in the city. Greenery doesn't… agree with me."
Farlon didn't say it but he would too. In a cold bar with a colder drink in his hand, relaxing with his friends. But of course, Sergio had to double patrols into the forests around the capital, then double those double patrols. It was tiring, to say the least, walking the same route through the forest several times, four times a week.
He spun around at the sound of more rustling, holding his crimson blade a bit closer, uneasily following Rina's loud path through the forest. To calm himself he tried to make some smalltalk, "So… how's the old gang?"
Rina swung her spear and chopped down a row of sprigs, smiling. "Not much has changed, Raydn still spends most of his time at the arena, Ophelia, as you know, still spending too much time working."
"I keep telling her it's not healthy to stay in the Office for days without sleep," Farlon sighed sadly. "And she's been in there a week now. I'm getting worried for her."
"Lunaris is still Lunaris, depressed and lonely, Alyut, when he does leave the office, is-"
She yelped as her foot fell into a rut in the ground. Farlon slid to her side and helped her up, frowning at the pothole, "This wasn't here the last time we came around. Who leaves holes in the ground?"
Rina brushed aside a few of the leaves, "Not holes, tracks."
Her cape splayed out over the forest floor as she bent down, Farlon knelt next to her. She was right. She ran her hand along the edge of the tracks, "Hoof prints, a Unicorn maybe? Pegasi?"
"No, they don't leave tracks this deep," it was more of a small gorge than a track. Farlon narrowed his eyes. "It's something big, extremely heavy."
Rina tried to pick up some of the grass around the tracks and it crumbled between her fingers. "Brittle and charred, something with fire?"
"Definitely." Farlon stood, "It's a few tons at least…" he looked up and slid off the well-trodden dirt path, Rina and him following the deep tracks into the forest. "Four hooves," his sword traced the outline of broken branches and trampled plants. "Tall, three metres at least, a Centaur of some sort maybe."
Rina's voice came from behind, meek and quiet, "It's not a Centaur…"
"No," Farlon agreed. He pulled aside a few bushels of leaves and saw that the tree trunks were lined with pale scars, sap slowly pooling, "The thing has horns, armour too, sharp."
Rina hissed, "How about a double ended halberd? And a head of white hair around yellow eyes?"
"How do you-"
She grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, pulling him down behind a bush in the same motion. Farlon began, "Wha-"
Then he saw what. On the road, where they'd been before, was some great red beast, a monstrous beast with the physique of a giant Centaur, burnt tattooed skin under horned and spurred, gilded scarlet armour, dirty yellow eyes framed by a mask of red and sickly purple horns poking out of a long mane of pale. Fire streamed from halberd in its hands and the base of its armoured hooves.
The thing was huge, even larger than Farlon had expected, its horns scraping the roof of leaves, his hooves leaving the ground tilled and charred. It scanned the ground with its fiery eyes, swung its halberd in great arcs, cutting down whole trees that hung over the road.
Farlon looked at it nervously, they were too close to it, nothing but a few sparse branches and leaves hiding them from it. His red armour and Rina's golden cape and tiara weren't exactly camouflage.
He gripped his sword tightly, "We can't take this thing on! We need to fall back and call for reinforcements."
Rina's eyes had glazed over with a concentrated air. "I recognise him, Kagutsuchi, why would he come so close to the city…"
"Well this Kagutsuchi could slice us in two if he glanced us!" he whispered hurriedly. "We retreat now, contact Sergio, when we have reinforcements we can track him down and-"
"Sergio's instructions," Rina reminded, her anxiety dispelled and replaced with steely determination, "were to patrol the outskirts and dispatch any monsters we find. And that includes this mongrel."
"What happened to wanting to get back to the city?" Farlon hissed.
She readied her spear. "Orders are orders! We can't disobey orders from a commanding officer!"
"It won't matter if we're dead!"
A buzzing noise sounded through the quietness, Farlon and Rina both looked down to their sides as their communicators vibrated. The Kagutsuchi growled lowly and turned to their hiding spot. Farlon sighed, "Oh Gods…"
Rina checked her glass communicator even as the beast blazed towards them. "Oh, it's a group message from Ophelia about a mission, something important. A real shame, I was hoping to catch the afternoon Arena match."
He sighed, first doubled patrols, now a mission. The week kept getting better and better.
Rina rose and flourished her spear, "Well, let's clean up here then. Orders are orders."
The Prisoner
His eyes felt heavy, the light of the single bulb in the grey ceiling painful to his vision. The room's shadowy corners seemed to grow darker as he watched.
His hands, gauntlets of black metal, scorched and scored with scars from battle. He wrung the thin cuffs around them, the bonds stronger and heavier than they seemed.
He could see it when he closed his eyes, visions, dreams, memories, strange beasts, satin curtains, rain of blood, rain of ash, and fire, always fire.
His eyes began to droop, his arms began to sink, his back began to bend in the metal chair and he hunched over the plain metal table as sleep's fangs sunk into him.
Archers! Draw!
Pacing along the battlements, his sword drawn and flourished, the men along the city walls armoured in black as he was. Fiery torches and braziers spanned the length of the defences, glowing like fireflies into the distance. Wood groaned as bows were nocked and strings stretched. The sky was dark and glowed with a deep red depth where the moon was, countless horned beasts surrounding the city on all sides. He held his breath, his hand clenched in the air overhead. Then he pointed his open hand forward.
Fire!
Eyes forced themselves open, he was thrown back into the chair as if by someone else, he wrung his metal fingers nervously, Don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep.
The door to the room opened, the man in the blue coat didn't come, this time it was the girl, the one with green hair. She sat in the chair across from him, her eyes just as tired as his but still with a hint of resolution behind them.
She smiled at him, "So, I heard you haven't been very cooperative with my partner?"
He narrowed his eyes behind his visor. "I want my sword back."
She smiled softly again, "And you'll have it, you have my word. But first, we need to know who you are. Where did you get your sword? Who forged it for you?"
Her voice was beguiling to him, soft and reassuring. He furrowed his brows, "I… I don't know, I should but I don't."
The girl nodded understandingly. "What do you know of the Agni Republic? Do you hail from there? And what of the former Emperor?"
His eyes narrowed again, the questions drawing him from his trust. "You presume much, and ask proud questions, girl."
That last title seemed to make her cringe. He smiled at the effect.
"What makes you think I'm not crazy? Your colleague said it himself, the Agni Republic is gone, so it seems."
A buzzing sound, the girl's eyes looked away and she pulled a glass screen out of her pocket. She read a message flashed across its front before pushing it back in. The prisoner raised an eyebrow under his helmet. "A previous engagement?"
"A match at the Arena actually, but work does not allow for such comforts." She folded her hands on top of the table. "I realised that we've talked for such a time and I still don't know your name."
"And I've no care to share it with my interrogator."
Her smile didn't waver. "My name is Ophelia."
He watched her warily, but if they were telling the truth, if Agni had somehow fallen fifty years ago, then what use would his name be of to them?
"You may address me as Agni."