The Hidden World

Marcus waved his hand toward the wood walls of the outpost. A section of it disappeared before Yuki’s eyes, an entrance being made from the seemingly solid wooden wall. He gestured toward Yuki’s group to enter and waited for them to all pass through the wall. Yuki watched as he did another wave of his hand, the wall repairing itself in a flash.

‘A naturae dragon?’ Yuki thought. Marcus’s wings were a shade of green now that she thought about it. ‘Could be an illusion as well, but that seems unsafe for a fortress.’

As they walked through the outpost, Yuki looked around, taking in everything. There were a few small buildings off to the sides of the outpost, possibly for sleep or food. Strips of light lined the inside of the walls, giving off a soft glow that illuminated the outpost during the night. A few guards were moving about their night, armored and armed. 

They stopped as Yuki and her group passed by to raise a hand in salute. They greeted Ember, calling her “Head” before going back to their day as Ember gave them nods of acknowledgement. 

‘She must have a lot of respect from the guards,’ Yuki thought. ‘That’s good for a person in power.’

Marcus led them to what Yuki assumed was his office. It was quite small and was located in the back corner of the fortress right next to a tower. They looked connected, the office having access to the tower so that whoever was inside the office could get to a high elevation quickly.

He opened the door and let them inside the small space. There were lights strung up on the ceiling that illuminated the place. Papers filled with writing covered the top of a wooden desk. 

“I don’t have many seats for guests,” Marcus said. “Just two of them. And one of them is reserved for the head. Are you alright with standing? Or do you want me to go grab some seats?”

“I think we’ll be fine,” Ember replied with a smile. 

“Good. Now. Spill it,” he said, taking a seat in his office chair. “What happened with you and who are these people?”

Ember began detailing the events that transpired before she came here to this outpost. Yuki didn’t know the very beginning of this story about how Ember was given a scouting mission by the Dragon Council and where she went. She did know about the bird and the rock which she found quite amusing. Yuki refrained from teasing Ember about it though. 

After that, Yuki remembered it all, having been there for most of Ember’s time inside that coliseum. Marcus listened to Ember with a focused expression, cracking jokes here and there as well as shouting out expletives at certain moments. Ember fed him, laughing with him as she spoke. 

Yuki noticed that Ember left out a few details here and there. She didn’t speak about how she was bonded with Yuki or the type of magic Yuki used to help them escape from the Coliseum. She also didn’t speak about what type of dragon Yuki was.

“Then we came here,” Ember finished. “That about sums it up and now you know where I was and why I’m here.”

“That was a fucking adventure you had there,” Marcus replied. “That Fiddler man is dead too. You reported that to the Council, right?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Just making sure.”

“So. Can we get some transport into the city?” Ember asked.

“In a bit. We still have some protocols to go through,” Marcus said. “I need to still get verification from up top about this summon by the Council and then I need to do the oath for your friends there. You know, the usual.”

“Yeah, no problem. We’ll be staying the night as well if you have some rooms. Do you have any guests right now?”

“We got one in the economy rooms,” Marcus answered. “Other than that, we’re pretty open. That guy was a transfer, so we’ll be moving him in a few days. The first class rooms are still wide open.”

 

“We’ll be taking those for the night then.”

“There’s only like two. I’m counting six of you.”

“We’ll be sharing,” Ember smiled. “We’ve done that a lot recently. We’re pretty comfortable with three a room.”

“There’s one bed. It isn’t exactly the largest.”

“We’ll make it work.”

“Alright then. I’ll be doing the oath then,” Marcus said. He looked at Yuki. “You don’t need to right now. You have something else later on. The rest of your group is another story.”

“It’ll be fast,” Ember added. “Usually around a minute at most for a group like this.”

“Just repeat after me,” Marcus instructed. “It’s basically one sentence. Are you all ready?”

“Yes,” they replied.

“Good. Now, repeat what I say,” Marcus said. “I will never reveal, lead to, or hint in any way the location of this outpost.”

Marcus’s language switched to the magic tongue, making the oath a true one. The group, excluding Yuki, repeated after Marcus with everyone besides Yuna saying each word with fluency. 

“And that’s it,” Marcus said. “Ember, this is quite the group you’ve been traveling with.”

“It is. Quite pretty diverse, right?”

“Five different types of demons all rolled up in one place,” he said. “And one of them should have been extinct.”

[You can speak now,] Ember messaged to Yuki. [The oath has been said.]

‘Good to know.’

“Now, Ember can lead you to the lodging. So before you all leave, do you have any questions that I can possibly answer?” Marcus asked.

“I think we’re good for now,” Ember replied. “When we get to the city, they’ll be people more suited for answering the questions we might have. Now go back to acting like you’re working.”

“Yes ma’am,” Marcus laughed. “See you all in the morning. I’ll send you off at seven sharp.”

They left the small office and followed behind Ember as she led them to the side buildings. She pointed out some of them as they walked closer.

“Those are barracks, then the kitchens, and then the visitor rooms,” she said. “I’ll grab something for us to eat then we can mess around a bit before going to sleep. At five, you might wake up depending on how tired and how deep you sleep. The guards will be doing their routine exercise to warm up for the day.”

“I’ll go with you for the food,” Yuki offered.

“Sure,” Ember smiled. She opened the door to visitor rooms and let them inside. “The keys for each room are in the rooms themselves. The doors aren’t locked right now. You guys split yourselves up however you want and get comfortable by Yuki and I are at the kitchens.”

“Bring back something good,” Erica said before disappearing into one of the rooms. 

“She didn’t even say who she wanted to be with,” Akira sighed as she went after Erica. Mathali and Yuna followed.

“Let’s go,” Ember said to Yuki.

They left the visitor building and went over to the kitchens where Yuki could hear the sizzling of oil and the clanging of metal pots and pans. Inside, there were a few soldiers who saluted Ember as she entered. They ignored Yuki for the most part, only giving her a few glances.

“You didn’t tell me you were a general,” Yuki said softly.

“It was never important,” Ember shrugged. “In the Coliseum, I wouldn’t have said anything because I wouldn’t want the wrong people to know. Outside, there wasn’t really an opportunity or need to say anything.”

“I guess you’re right. I’m surprised that no one came to find you. You’re in such a high position.”

“It’s just how it is. As the head of the guard, I’m expected to be excellent at fending for myself,” she replied as she looked through the options on the menu. “Hmm. They changed it a bit since I’ve last been here.”

“But not even a search party?” Yuki asked.

“For someone like me, they wouldn’t risk a search party. They would hope that I can hide or get away. They did say that they were trying to find traces of me for them to locate my position using intel and all that. If they pinpointed where I was, then a retrieval party would have been called.”

“I see. That makes sense.”

“It’s how we do things,” Ember said. She paused and ordered four dishes from the chefs. “We’ll split since I’m not particularly hungry.”

“All that flying and you’re not hungry?” 

“I ate a lot a few days ago. You shouldn’t be too hungry either.”

“That’s true. I’m not.”

“Anyway. That’s also why I went to the cities as soon as possible,” Ember said. “If I can notify them that I was fine in person, then they would refrain from retrieving me. Otherwise, we might have had some guests come over during the middle of the night.”

“If someone like the council head was taken, then search parties would be sent out, right?” Yuki asked. Erica let out a small laugh.

“If the council head was taken, we would send out scouting parties.”