Toward the West of the town, Damion and Tasue were getting closer to the graveyard from the information they received earlier. The closer they got, they found quite the number of people scattered around the area. However, they all seemed unhappy, frustrated, others' faces were frowned, others had their fists clenched. Damion continued to hear more and more rumors from people in the streets until he finally heard Spire's name from one of them. He decided to approach them and ask why they despise him as much as they do. The pair were an old man who had lost his son to his life in the Syndicate and a kid who had lost his father to bandits.
"Excuse me," he began. "What has this Spire done to this town??"
The old man turned to look at a man who was clearly a tourist to the town of Gami. His expression, both body and facial were filled with despair and weakness that definitely didn't come from his age, but from a disturbance that seemed to drain his energy faster. "He came a couple months ago and drove all visitors and well wishers out of the graveyard saying that he had to keep it uninterrupted in case enemies arrived and he needed to power up. He also left a couple syndicate troops along with two coffins that they had been carrying with them at the center of the site." The old man answered.
"I can't go visit my father's grave because of him!!" The boy cried.
"He's desecrating the bodies of our fallen in the name of gaining power!! It's unforgivable!!" The old man cried once more.
"Coffins??"
"Yes. What's more is that whoever gets close to that grave gets punished, however, there are those in this town that wished to correct it. They wished to ambush those who kept us down, but they had a few problems with that.
1. They had no idea where it was, since his hideouts change almost on a daily basis,
2. Even if they were to find him, he uses a strange power that brings people's corpses back from the ground…"
Thanks to the second reason, he explained that whenever he used that power, most people knew some of the corpses being used like puppets so they were often terrified and disgraced when they tried to defy him, leaving them no choice but to submit to his rule.
The people had decided on another plan instead, which was to steal the coffins that were at the center of the graveyard, but their only obstacle was the guards. Lucky for Damion and Tasue, this happened to be exactly what they needed to deal with, so he made up his mind to help them.
"Old man, I wanna help these people, could you show me where they are??" He was then directed to the side of a shop across the street where a few people were planning how the heist would work, it wasn't easy to manage since none of them had abilities, let alone one that would cause the distraction they needed to confuse the guards.
*****
The footsteps remained, a constant tempo was given from them as they got closer and closer. Before long, the steps arrived at the doorman and he was lucky enough not to receive the same blows that the guy watching the currently not-so-secret wall did. The figure waltzed in, the light in the room illuminated her as she stepped in. Alloy finally glanced at her and the first word she uttered was her confirmation of the figure's identity.
"Ritta?!?!" She sighed and continued. "That was scary…"
"I've been looking for you." She began.
"Ah… sorry about that, I…"
"Ritta Avenaugh…" The malicious voice spoke once more.
"It's been a while, Spire." She replied.
"It has… I'm glad the two of you know each other. It saves us the trouble of unnecessary wastes of time." He got up from the thick wooden desk in front of him and turned his back to one of the darkened windows that surrounded the dust-filled room. Spire was tall, just a few inches taller than Damion. He had a simple dark gray linen shirt on with a dark navy jacket hanging from his shoulders. The subtle hints of darkness in the room dimmed the inside of the jacket but the little spots of light that shone in the edges of the covered window right in front of his desk, also shone on two silver daggers that hung from a black leather utility belt.He also had dark gray trousers to match his shirt and next to the bottom right of his jacket was a badge that held a simple pendulum at the bottom of a balance scale. It was the symbol of The Arcane Syndicate. What stood out was the steel crescent at the bottom of the pendulum. It was merely a pin, but it had it's own meaning that Alloy would come to know soon enough. He turned once more to face the company that announced itself.
In Alloy's eyes, his build looked similar to Damion's. Spire's was definitely taken care of compared to his though… his ebony black hair lay frizzled on his head, but it shone enough for her to know he actively kept it conditioned. On the other hand, it didn't take long for Ritta to notice an amber pendant hanging on his neck as the light shone on it. She pointed at it and asked…
"Why do you wear that??"
He looked down on it, held it slightly with his right hand and left it to hang as he glanced back at her.
"It is mine."
"It is not… it belongs to your brother."
Alloy noticed it, reminding her of the story they were told and kept that fact in mind.
"Is that why he's here with this girl?? What is he planning??"
"Nothing," Alloy intervened. "We're here to get you to quit this game of yours."
He chuckled.
"How do you think you will manage that??"
"By beating you…" her teeth grit. "…and taking back what you have that's his."