The figure nodded.
“Azure’s the name, I’m the Silverwings agent who’s supposed to wait for you where you were told to be but I was too tired to climb up the mountains so…” the mask of the man fell off, revealing a beautiful young man with pale skin “…here I am—“ he paused to breathe “—to get your answer of yes or no”
The figure nodded.
“Azure’s the name, I’m the Silverwings agent who’s supposed to wait for you where you were told to be but I was too tired to climb up the mountains so…” the mask of the man fell off, revealing a beautiful young man with pale skin “…here I am—“ he paused to breathe “—to get your answer of yes or no”
What is it with this kingdom that insists on making nearly all my encounters with men? she wondered. There was the exception of Cat, but she really hadn't met many others, much less the other Zodiac. "Depends on how it will affect my current position," she replied, seeming less vexed. She turned on her heel as she opened the window the rest of the way to allow Azure inside. Or at least inside enough to where he wouldn't fall.
Azure got inside and started…
“It will affect your position as a Knight but… you cannot allow any of the generals know about this as that can cause troubles later on” he answered, drinking from the bottle he had brought with him. He had a rifle strapped on his back, a decorated and enhanced one as well. It was stained with blood, definitely not Azure’s either.
“In case you’re uncomfortable with your position right now… one of the other Zodiacs have already agreed to join us… and that would be Pisces if that will make your choice any easier”
Thump.
Pasha's heart skipped a beat as he watched the Dryad's head become decapitated from his body. The man was alive???
"You're right, I would like to leave now." Pasha chuckled nervously, forcing his eyes back to the man in front of him. Then his laughing ceased and his eyes glared daggers at Medusa. "Though I don't appreciate you calling my life pathetic."
“Well… you can’t stop me unfortunately…” the Medusa Knight had his hands in his pockets “…if you want to leave now, do so, otherwise I might change my mind… sending you where this waste of space went…” the Knight lowered their scarf, allowing the three white serpents that were around his neck to eat their way through the Dryad. One of the serpents sunk their teeth into Dryad’s stone chest, biting and pulling out his still-beating heart while the other two started pulling out stone covered flesh.
"Oh I intend to leave. I just have one question…" Pasha's stance softened a little. His eyes drifted to the snakes, held their gaze, then looked back up at Medusa.
He looked to be quite an intimidating fellow, and his recent actions definitely proved he was not one to be messed with, but there was a sort of sadness in the knight's actions. Pasha exhaled a gentle sigh, removing the helmet from his head so he could properly look at Medusa. "Who hurt you?"
The Medusa Knight froze in shock, opening his mouth just slightly as the serpents pull back the pieces of flesh they were eating.
“One question I might not be able to answer… it is true though that someone has caused me to be the man I am today and I do intend to kill her if I was given the chance but as for now… she is the one holding the very last essence of my life… her name cannot be said outside the area of ours by myself nor the ones within our branch under lord Indas’ commands…” the Knight mentioned, their body facing that of Pasha.
“Find the man you call Tucana, he had the chance to meet our precious lady before by complete accident…” the Medusa Knight pulled their scarf up, covering the serpents and walked away just like that; one hand in his pocket, the other holding the scarf up.
As the Medusa knight walked away, only one word repeated on Pasha's mind. Tucana?
What had the bird done that had gotten him involved with Medusa? And how would he even be able to get ahold of Tucana? The earpiece! Of course, he had forgotten everything in the encounter with Dryad and Medusa. He fell silent for a moment, staring at the remains of the Dryad knight, trying to ignore the churning of his stomach. "Speak to T." he said softly into the earpiece, praying that it would work.
“Tucana answering, still on patrol, who is calling and what’s the matter?” a response came almost immediately after the call from Pasha. The man’s voice was surprisingly clear through the earpiece, the creator really made sure that the earpieces worked and worked well.
The knight took a deep breath, surprised the call had actually gone through to Tucana. "It's the Pisces knight." For some reason it felt both odd and completely natural to refer to himself as the Pisces knight. Sure, he didn't really feel like a knight, but the name seemed to fit. "I have something I want to ask you but I think it would be better to talk about it in person."
Tucana paused for a bit before replying…
“Alright, I’m almost done with my shift. Where are you right now?” he asked calmly. The Knights’ patrol missions aren’t usually easy, especially during the night but Tucana seemed unfazed by the mission he was given.
Azure got inside and started…
“It will affect your position as a Knight but… you cannot allow any of the generals know about this as that can cause troubles later on” he answered, drinking from the bottle he had brought with him. He had a rifle strapped on his back, a decorated and enhanced one as well. It was stained with blood, definitely not Azure’s either.
“In case you’re uncomfortable with your position right now… one of the other Zodiacs have already agreed to join us… and that would be Pisces if that will make your choice any easier”
Lata wasn't convinced without more detail in how being a Knight would change. "Affect it how exactly?" she asked, taking a seat on her bed. It was quite soft, but not enough to lack support. About a medium firmness. It took some willpower to not simply fall back and take a short nap.
"I'm also sorry to break it to you, but I have no idea who any of the other Zodiac are, aside from Sagittarius," she said with a small shrug. Staring at Azure a bit longer, she noticed the blood on his rifle. It didn't intimidate her as he might expect from a girl, but it raised a few unspoken questions.
“Well, it’s just that you’d get blacklisted by the generals if they found out that you are in another organization outside of Selas. Three times on the blacklist and they will supposedly ‘teach you a lesson’. I’m not exactly sure what that means either” Azure stated for the first part before nodding for the second.
“It’s completely fine, you don’t need to know each other as you would most likely get different missions anyway. But it might be better to know that you’ve got company” he claimed. He turned to look inside the room and thought something deep to himself, something he couldn’t have brought up. He stood up.
“As stated, our job is to take care of foul and sinful souls across the kingdoms and with that brings the risk that is your life to weigh against others in stressful situations. We aren’t the ones making the rules here, we work by the situation fate throws at us so—“ he turned back to look at Lata.
“—is it a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’?”
Lata hummed, a bit unsure. If she said yes or no, she'd be risking her life anyways. The blacklist thing sort of threw her off a bit, and she'd really miss this bed if she ended up somewhere else for a Silverwings mission. However… it seemed like this opportunity was unbiased about what kingdom to fight for. She would combine her training here with experience out there. Whoever Pisces was would be able to help in a cover-up story a well.
The girl stuck out her hand to the man before her, a grin spreading on her lips. It seemed right.
"Yes."
Azure nodded and shook her hand with a soft smile.
“Welcome aboard—“ he released her hand and got out somethings from his messenger bag; an earpiece, a badge, and a photograph “—now, this will be important” he mentioned as he handed her the first item; the earpiece.
“This will be our method of communicating as well as the way to communicate with our ‘seniors’; specifically Shayne who is the leader of ours but in reality, he’s just a friend who’s the strongest of the group and the one who created the idea… anyways, to contact another agent you would have to say to the earpiece ‘Speak to…’ followed by their code. For example, my code is ‘A’ so to contact me, say to the earpiece ‘Speak to A’… your code is ‘L’; both for Lata and Libra, that’s all you need to know for now about the earpiece. As you meet more agents, they’ll assist you along the way” he mentioned before turning to pick up the second item; the badge.
“This is just a souvenir from us, a symbol to show that you are in our group” he handed over the badge with a soft smile then onto the last item; the photograph.
“This will be your first mission—“ the photo was one of a woman in white “—this here is an escaped prisoner from Liestha who was spotted in Selas earlier in the day though we were unable to capture her. Your mission is to find her and contact one of us and we will do the capturing so you don’t have to risk anything on your first mission, any questions so far?”
Tucana paused for a bit before replying…
“Alright, I’m almost done with my shift. Where are you right now?” he asked calmly. The Knights’ patrol missions aren’t usually easy, especially during the night but Tucana seemed unfazed by the mission he was given.
Pasha glanced around his surroundings, where was he? There were no significant buildings he could have listed, but he could see the palace not for from him. "I'm just south of the palace, on the main paving." he was about to tell Tucana that there was also a bleeding statue next to him, but thought ot would be best to leave that for the knight to find out himself.
“Ah, gotcha, I’m just south by the harbor… I’ll be there in a sec—” with that came a small explosion from where Tucana said he was; by the harbor. Thankfully, it wasn’t exactly where Tucana was as he can be seen soaring through the skies towards where Pasha was, looking at the smoke emitted.
He landed and glanced around warily before he calmed down, straightened his posture and turned to face Pasha alongside the Dryad’s bleeding statue.
“Apologies, that was just the people by the harbor messing up their electronics… so, first off, I welcome you to the Silverwings, second thing, what is it that you want to talk about?”
Pasha was silent for a moment, was it really that important that he had to ask Tucana right away? Well, he was here now, the damage was done. He gestured to the bleeding statue. "The Medusa knight. He mentioned a woman, one whom you had the chance to meet on accident. Who is she?"
Tucana seemed a bit shocked.
“From the myths, came the embodiment of the first woman in existence but in a corrupted form… Pandora…” he stared at the ground.
“Just thinking of her… scares me…” Tucana’s voice was a bit shaky. He soon got a hold of himself as he turned to and started to examine the statue of Dryad.
“Did Medusa do anything to you…?”
He shook his head. "He gave me the choice to leave, which is funny considering he was the one who walked away."
Pandora huh? The name is familiar.. Dismissing his thoughts, Pasha also turned to the Dryad. "Such a shame.. He could have been a decent ally."
Pasha immediately felt sick with himself for thinking that way. The Dryad Knight was still a person whether he was alive or not, to think of him only as an ally or foe seemed somewhat dehumanizing. His eyes wandered and rested on Tucana, feeling a little happier about the whole situation with him there. "Sorry for disrupting you."
“Nah, it’s fine… I had nothing to do after my shift after all” Tucana reassured. He touched his arm which was bleeding slightly before smiling with his thoughts.
“Perhaps fate is playing tricks on us…” he turned to the horizon south of the kingdom as wind blew pass him, swaying his hair with it.
He turned back to Pasha, still holding onto his arm.
“We should head back to the palace, we don’t want the generals to see us walking around outside during nighttime now do we?” He tilted his head and grinned.
"No, I suppose not." Pasha breathed, feeling his body start to weaken. Something red caught his attention, and in one swift movement he gently touched the arm Tucana was holding. "You're wounded?"
“Well yes but… it’s nothing to worry about, it’s from the latest mission I was assigned” Tucana reassured.
“Sad thing about it though, I couldn’t follow the man I was after as he shot both of my wings before he flew away and left me there…” with that, his wings were spread, revealing bullet holes through them.
“Don’t worry though, I’ll have Eridanus heal me later… if I can find him that is” he chuckled a bit at the end.
Horror turned Pasha's throat cold as he stared through the holes in Tucana's wings. He wanted to cry, he wanted to reach out and touch them—as if that would have made them better. But more than anything, he felt the need to hug Tucana. His eyes shone a little dangerously as he clenched his fists, he was trying to stop himself from being angry at the person who had injured the other knight. I swear, if I ever meet that guy I will personally feed him to sharks.
His anger seemed to fade a little upon hearing Tucana's chuckle. "Who is Eridanus?"
“The River Constellation. To be honest though, no one ever knows where he is. He just shows up and disappears whenever he wants” Tucana answered as he turned to Pasha.
“Come on, don’t think about it too much, stress won’t do you any good especially if you’re stressing more than someone else is” he gave a warm smile. The time was about 2 AM… maybe even 3 but who even keeps up with the time anymore. He spread his wings, covering Pasha from the chilly wind from the harbor as he gently pushed Pasha with him towards the palace.