Day 28:
Float
His insides turned to ice as he jerked to a stop at the top of the last stretch of stairs. The healer stopped a breath away from his back.
“What is it?” Tolnoran asked, low voice cutting through the silence and carrying more than Artemis cared for.
“Do you hear that?” he whispered back as quietly as he could manage.
Silence answered him.
A silence filled with the faint sound of classical piece - something like Beethoven or Bach - playing over an old radio. It seemed to float towards him but whether from the door specifically or from somewhere below, he couldn’t tell.
The healer shifted their weight behind him. “Music?” they questioned, as if they couldn’t quite hear what he could.
“Sounds classical,” Tolnoran added before looking to Artemis. “What of it?”
A shiver of fear shot down his spine, his entire body quaking from it. “The first time I had heard that exact sound, some stranger walked out of a dense forest while camping with some friends to warn us about a storm at some ungodly hour in the morning. The second was when Elias came and got me, as he was breaking down the front door. Whatever that sound is, whatever its associated with, I have never seen nor understood why it was there.” He finally tore his gaze from the spray painted yellow 2 and sent a pleading look to Tolnoran. “I’m not crazy. Both of you can clearly hear it.”
Tolnoran gave him a serious look in turn. “I’m not doubting your experience, Artemis. Just not a hundred percent sure the fear is necessary.”
Dlmor growled. “I would take care around that sound, Tolnoran,” it warned, the growl at the back of its throat. “I was never able to see the cause of the sound either.”
Artemis wasn’t sure he was grateful or resentful when Tolnoran took Dlmor’s word over his.
It didn’t matter in the end. Tolnoran did what he needed the man to do: he took point. Artemis followed the man down the stairs leaving some distance between him and the man’s back. He stayed on the stairs, the healer at his back, as Tolnoran went to the door and carefully pulled it open.
They all blinked against the harsh light that poured in from the hallway. Artemis rubbed at his eyes in an attempt to stave off the shot of pain at the back of his eyes that made his head throb. Dlmor shifted under his hand, head pressing against his stomach as the soft Transference drifted around the pain. He wasn’t opposed to using Dlmor for his eyes as he had back at the cabin but he wanted to be able to see for himself what lay ahead of them.
The hallway beyond was quiet and it was easier to make out the classical music playing over an old radio was coming from deeper in the stairwell. Artemis found he had adapted to the light by the time he had lowered his hand from his eyes and quickly followed the healer out who had tailed Tolnoran. The hallway was equally deserted. Only two other people were in it outside their small group and both were already disappearing down some hallway or into some room by the time Artemis noticed them.
“This way,” Tolnoran ordered, taking off down the right hallway at a strong run.
Dlmor didn’t even give him the chance. The creature slipped out from under his hand only to slip between his legs and slide him onto the creature’s back. He felt Dlmor increase its size and adjust its shape until Artemis was able to lay along Dlmor’s back comfortably without threatening to fall off. The creature took off down the hallway, quickly catching up to Tolnoran. The healer - to Artemis’s surprise - was keeping pace with the soldier with apparent ease. He envied them on some level and rolled his eyes at the Transference he received. He knew he was in no condition to run. He pointed out rather amusedly that he hadn’t fought Dlmor when the creature had slipped him onto its back.
The brief Transference told him Dlmor had rolled its eyes at him in exasperated amusement.
Tolnoran ran them through the halls for quite a ways that by the time they made it to the armory Tolnoran had been talking about the healer was sucking in breaths like they couldn’t get enough oxygen. Tolnoran was breathing heavily but nothing compared to the healer. The man looped an arm around them and took the healer’s weight, directing, “Artemis, go with Ysle and tell Tucker - he’ll be the one Ysle presses into for rubs - tell Tucker that you need to be suited for scout work with extra defense. He should have what you need.”
Artemis slipped from Dlmor’s back with a nod as the creature returned to the size he was used to. Ysle had stopped at the junction of lockers and the turn of the wall ahead of them. He watched Tolnoran walk the healer towards a door on the left long enough to note where the two of them went before following after the Kret.
The turn of the wall only exposed more lockers. The pockets of lockers were shallow - only four lockers deep to its ten lockers wide - but there were a lot of them. He didn’t track how many they had passed but he guessed it had to have been close to ten before a pathway between two such pockets opened up and led into a new space. The lockers continued on beyond the pathway but Ysle turned onto it, padding along it until they entered the new space.
The new space was a room where the last had been a hallway, but the new space was clearly divided into areas. Ahead of them were what seemed to be more lockers but these had people at them pulling on armor or removing weapons and gear from a locker. These lockers were at least twice the size of the ones he had just walked by. Machinery moved along the high ceiling above the lockers.
Only a few personnel were finishing gearing up, the few stragglers clearly trying to finish quickly. Ysle ignored all of them and started for the left. Artemis couldn’t help but watch as they walked by.
He saw no creatures as they went.
The lockers ended at the start of a massive open space. The area was full of people lined up with weapons in hand waiting. Ysle started into the area sending cold dread through Artemis. He looked like shit - he had to in the outfit from the medical ward and with no shoes on - and yet here he was parading into the open space as if it didn’t matter, as if this was completely normal.
There were creatures here next to their Bound and every set of eyes was on him. What chatter had been happening in the space echoing back from the high ceiling quickly quieted as he followed Ysle across the floor to one of the men standing apart from the large group. Dlmor bumped up against his leg, offering him some comfort through a soft Transference.
He appreciated the effort but it didn’t do much to calm his agitation.
Ysle pressed into one of the men’s knees, a man at the heart of the group. “Hey, Ysles,” the man offered happily, leaning over to rub at the Kret that had pressed the length of its body against the man’s shins like a happy dog looking for pets. “Where’s Tolnoran?” The man’s gaze landed on him and he tried not to shrink back from the searching gaze that landed on him. “And who’s the Ylmra?”
“Artemis Lorncroft,” he offered at Dlmor’s direction. “Tolnoran said to find Tucker and tell him that I need to be suited for scout work with extra defense.”
Both of Tucker’s eyebrows rose at that. The man straightened, glancing at what Artemis was assuming - and Dlmor confirmed - were the other ranked officers. “Alright,” the man offered, a confused frown on his face. “Follow me.”
Artemis fell into step after the man, Ysle pressing in at Artemis’s other leg. The Kret’s shoulders were too low for him to touch.
They went back the way Artemis had come from but instead of turning right once they were in the hallway of lockers again, the man turned left. The end of the space was only two pockets of lockers long and the man stepped into the last pocket, going right for one of the lockers. “Strip so that I can make sure this’ll fit,” the man directed, opening the locker. “Do you need underwear?”
Artemis’s face heated up at that but he offered without shame, “A fresh pair would be nice but I can work with what I have.”
The man glanced at him before going back into the locker. “Then drop your drawers too and we’ll see if we have anything that’ll fit.”
He stepped more fully into the makeshift space and started undressing. The man put down a stack of clothing on the bench he was standing before, offering in softer words, “Try those on. If they don’t fit, let me know. I’ll be on the other side of these lockers waiting.”
The man stepped out as he offered in return, “Thank you.”
He caught the man’s cheeky grin before he stepped completely out of view. “Don’t worry about it,” carried over the top of the lockers. “Torra is a good friend of mine and a respected man here. Under Captain Vex, he’s the main man we all look up to. We were hoping once we were cleared to go out that he and the Captain would join the squad going against the Kret.”
“Tolnoran’s supposed to,” he spoke evenly, pulling the underwear on after a quick inspection. It fit well enough so he moved on to the rest of the outfit. “I don’t think Captain Vex will be able to make it, though.”
“You’ve seen the Captain?” He could make out the surprise and anticipation in the man’s words. Dlmor gave him nothing in the way of guidance on how to handle this and it left him feeling uneasy.
“We were caught at the edge of the Crell attacked. He stayed behind with Cass to make sure Tolnoran and a few others were able to get to safety before joining us. He was injured in the process but it didn’t seem life threatening.”
The scoff was muffled but the words that followed were clear enough. “Heard the announcement about the attack. Hopefully we’re able to cut the Crell off from the outside.”
His fingers paused on a button halfway through its hole. “Are you going with the Crell squad or the Kret?”
“Crell.” Dlmor confirmed the annoyance Artemis thought he had heard at the edge of the word. “Would have loved to gone and dealt with Kret but they’re sending all the strongest to take care of the Crell, which, honestly, makes sense.”
He took the man’s word for it, finishing up the buttons. Silence hung over the space as Artemis finished dressing. He stepped around in a beige outfit, stiff but light. The man stood up from the bench he had been sitting on and grinned. “Good. I still got an eye for sizing people up.”
He blinked, wondering if that was a pun. The man’s grin fell slightly and he assumed so a bit too late. “Ah, enough bad jokes. Come on. A few more pieces of gear for you and you’ll be all set.”
The weapons and gear lockers no longer had people in front of them when they returned to that large space. Artemis followed Tucker back into that large space finding that a over half of the personnel that had been there were now gone. Tucker didn’t seem to notice as he walked Artemis down along the sections after sections of large lockers before stepping into one section and crossing right to another locker. Artemis followed with less hesitation this time, more curious than uneasy now.
Tucker did something with the pad on the locker door and a glance at the others showed a keypad under what was either some sort of scanner or chip reader. The locker opened for Tucker and the other man started rifling through it. Inside the locker there were a number of guns, some armor pieces, additional weapon choices, and a hardy amount of ammo. He frowned, inquiring, “Why the lockers?”
“Helps keep everything organized and counted,” the man explained easily, passing Artemis things he didn’t recognize without looking back. “Also makes it easy to distribute what each person needs without having to have physical people here to hand things out. Most of the lockers are loaded by machinery now.”
Tucker gestured towards the machinery above the lockers behind them. Artemis looked up and watched in amazement as a massive robotic arm hanging from a network of tracks reached down towards the lockers one row behind them.
“What is it?” Tolnoran asked, low voice cutting through the silence and carrying more than Artemis cared for.
“Do you hear that?” he whispered back as quietly as he could manage.
Silence answered him.
A silence filled with the faint sound of classical piece - something like Beethoven or Bach - playing over an old radio. It seemed to float towards him but whether from the door specifically or from somewhere below, he couldn’t tell.
The healer shifted their weight behind him. “Music?” they questioned, as if they couldn’t quite hear what he could.
“Sounds classical,” Tolnoran added before looking to Artemis. “What of it?”
A shiver of fear shot down his spine, his entire body quaking from it. “The first time I had heard that exact sound, some stranger walked out of a dense forest while camping with some friends to warn us about a storm at some ungodly hour in the morning. The second was when Elias came and got me, as he was breaking down the front door. Whatever that sound is, whatever its associated with, I have never seen nor understood why it was there.” He finally tore his gaze from the spray painted yellow 2 and sent a pleading look to Tolnoran. “I’m not crazy. Both of you can clearly hear it.”
Tolnoran gave him a serious look in turn. “I’m not doubting your experience, Artemis. Just not a hundred percent sure the fear is necessary.”
Dlmor growled. “I would take care around that sound, Tolnoran,” it warned, the growl at the back of its throat. “I was never able to see the cause of the sound either.”
Artemis wasn’t sure he was grateful or resentful when Tolnoran took Dlmor’s word over his.
It didn’t matter in the end. Tolnoran did what he needed the man to do: he took point. Artemis followed the man down the stairs leaving some distance between him and the man’s back. He stayed on the stairs, the healer at his back, as Tolnoran went to the door and carefully pulled it open.
They all blinked against the harsh light that poured in from the hallway. Artemis rubbed at his eyes in an attempt to stave off the shot of pain at the back of his eyes that made his head throb. Dlmor shifted under his hand, head pressing against his stomach as the soft Transference drifted around the pain. He wasn’t opposed to using Dlmor for his eyes as he had back at the cabin but he wanted to be able to see for himself what lay ahead of them.
The hallway beyond was quiet and it was easier to make out the classical music playing over an old radio was coming from deeper in the stairwell. Artemis found he had adapted to the light by the time he had lowered his hand from his eyes and quickly followed the healer out who had tailed Tolnoran. The hallway was equally deserted. Only two other people were in it outside their small group and both were already disappearing down some hallway or into some room by the time Artemis noticed them.
“This way,” Tolnoran ordered, taking off down the right hallway at a strong run.
Dlmor didn’t even give him the chance. The creature slipped out from under his hand only to slip between his legs and slide him onto the creature’s back. He felt Dlmor increase its size and adjust its shape until Artemis was able to lay along Dlmor’s back comfortably without threatening to fall off. The creature took off down the hallway, quickly catching up to Tolnoran. The healer - to Artemis’s surprise - was keeping pace with the soldier with apparent ease. He envied them on some level and rolled his eyes at the Transference he received. He knew he was in no condition to run. He pointed out rather amusedly that he hadn’t fought Dlmor when the creature had slipped him onto its back.
The brief Transference told him Dlmor had rolled its eyes at him in exasperated amusement.
Tolnoran ran them through the halls for quite a ways that by the time they made it to the armory Tolnoran had been talking about the healer was sucking in breaths like they couldn’t get enough oxygen. Tolnoran was breathing heavily but nothing compared to the healer. The man looped an arm around them and took the healer’s weight, directing, “Artemis, go with Ysle and tell Tucker - he’ll be the one Ysle presses into for rubs - tell Tucker that you need to be suited for scout work with extra defense. He should have what you need.”
Artemis slipped from Dlmor’s back with a nod as the creature returned to the size he was used to. Ysle had stopped at the junction of lockers and the turn of the wall ahead of them. He watched Tolnoran walk the healer towards a door on the left long enough to note where the two of them went before following after the Kret.
The turn of the wall only exposed more lockers. The pockets of lockers were shallow - only four lockers deep to its ten lockers wide - but there were a lot of them. He didn’t track how many they had passed but he guessed it had to have been close to ten before a pathway between two such pockets opened up and led into a new space. The lockers continued on beyond the pathway but Ysle turned onto it, padding along it until they entered the new space.
The new space was a room where the last had been a hallway, but the new space was clearly divided into areas. Ahead of them were what seemed to be more lockers but these had people at them pulling on armor or removing weapons and gear from a locker. These lockers were at least twice the size of the ones he had just walked by. Machinery moved along the high ceiling above the lockers.
Only a few personnel were finishing gearing up, the few stragglers clearly trying to finish quickly. Ysle ignored all of them and started for the left. Artemis couldn’t help but watch as they walked by.
He saw no creatures as they went.
The lockers ended at the start of a massive open space. The area was full of people lined up with weapons in hand waiting. Ysle started into the area sending cold dread through Artemis. He looked like shit - he had to in the outfit from the medical ward and with no shoes on - and yet here he was parading into the open space as if it didn’t matter, as if this was completely normal.
There were creatures here next to their Bound and every set of eyes was on him. What chatter had been happening in the space echoing back from the high ceiling quickly quieted as he followed Ysle across the floor to one of the men standing apart from the large group. Dlmor bumped up against his leg, offering him some comfort through a soft Transference.
He appreciated the effort but it didn’t do much to calm his agitation.
Ysle pressed into one of the men’s knees, a man at the heart of the group. “Hey, Ysles,” the man offered happily, leaning over to rub at the Kret that had pressed the length of its body against the man’s shins like a happy dog looking for pets. “Where’s Tolnoran?” The man’s gaze landed on him and he tried not to shrink back from the searching gaze that landed on him. “And who’s the Ylmra?”
“Artemis Lorncroft,” he offered at Dlmor’s direction. “Tolnoran said to find Tucker and tell him that I need to be suited for scout work with extra defense.”
Both of Tucker’s eyebrows rose at that. The man straightened, glancing at what Artemis was assuming - and Dlmor confirmed - were the other ranked officers. “Alright,” the man offered, a confused frown on his face. “Follow me.”
Artemis fell into step after the man, Ysle pressing in at Artemis’s other leg. The Kret’s shoulders were too low for him to touch.
They went back the way Artemis had come from but instead of turning right once they were in the hallway of lockers again, the man turned left. The end of the space was only two pockets of lockers long and the man stepped into the last pocket, going right for one of the lockers. “Strip so that I can make sure this’ll fit,” the man directed, opening the locker. “Do you need underwear?”
Artemis’s face heated up at that but he offered without shame, “A fresh pair would be nice but I can work with what I have.”
The man glanced at him before going back into the locker. “Then drop your drawers too and we’ll see if we have anything that’ll fit.”
He stepped more fully into the makeshift space and started undressing. The man put down a stack of clothing on the bench he was standing before, offering in softer words, “Try those on. If they don’t fit, let me know. I’ll be on the other side of these lockers waiting.”
The man stepped out as he offered in return, “Thank you.”
He caught the man’s cheeky grin before he stepped completely out of view. “Don’t worry about it,” carried over the top of the lockers. “Torra is a good friend of mine and a respected man here. Under Captain Vex, he’s the main man we all look up to. We were hoping once we were cleared to go out that he and the Captain would join the squad going against the Kret.”
“Tolnoran’s supposed to,” he spoke evenly, pulling the underwear on after a quick inspection. It fit well enough so he moved on to the rest of the outfit. “I don’t think Captain Vex will be able to make it, though.”
“You’ve seen the Captain?” He could make out the surprise and anticipation in the man’s words. Dlmor gave him nothing in the way of guidance on how to handle this and it left him feeling uneasy.
“We were caught at the edge of the Crell attacked. He stayed behind with Cass to make sure Tolnoran and a few others were able to get to safety before joining us. He was injured in the process but it didn’t seem life threatening.”
The scoff was muffled but the words that followed were clear enough. “Heard the announcement about the attack. Hopefully we’re able to cut the Crell off from the outside.”
His fingers paused on a button halfway through its hole. “Are you going with the Crell squad or the Kret?”
“Crell.” Dlmor confirmed the annoyance Artemis thought he had heard at the edge of the word. “Would have loved to gone and dealt with Kret but they’re sending all the strongest to take care of the Crell, which, honestly, makes sense.”
He took the man’s word for it, finishing up the buttons. Silence hung over the space as Artemis finished dressing. He stepped around in a beige outfit, stiff but light. The man stood up from the bench he had been sitting on and grinned. “Good. I still got an eye for sizing people up.”
He blinked, wondering if that was a pun. The man’s grin fell slightly and he assumed so a bit too late. “Ah, enough bad jokes. Come on. A few more pieces of gear for you and you’ll be all set.”
The weapons and gear lockers no longer had people in front of them when they returned to that large space. Artemis followed Tucker back into that large space finding that a over half of the personnel that had been there were now gone. Tucker didn’t seem to notice as he walked Artemis down along the sections after sections of large lockers before stepping into one section and crossing right to another locker. Artemis followed with less hesitation this time, more curious than uneasy now.
Tucker did something with the pad on the locker door and a glance at the others showed a keypad under what was either some sort of scanner or chip reader. The locker opened for Tucker and the other man started rifling through it. Inside the locker there were a number of guns, some armor pieces, additional weapon choices, and a hardy amount of ammo. He frowned, inquiring, “Why the lockers?”
“Helps keep everything organized and counted,” the man explained easily, passing Artemis things he didn’t recognize without looking back. “Also makes it easy to distribute what each person needs without having to have physical people here to hand things out. Most of the lockers are loaded by machinery now.”
Tucker gestured towards the machinery above the lockers behind them. Artemis looked up and watched in amazement as a massive robotic arm hanging from a network of tracks reached down towards the lockers one row behind them.