Luke Grimaced as he stood in front of the president. As if it were a badge of honor, the name clearly spelled Rodney Breaker, known as the king of ores. Odney smirked as he took a long cigar, chopping the tip and lighting in with a pleasured smile "took you debris long enough, I think you know why I called you three here." Iron slightly gritted his teeth as Luke sighed "yeah you got a job for us, but come on can we at least talk about the-" Rodney put his hand up as he sighed, filling the air with nothing but and intoxicating smell "you know how I am Luke, Demand has increased for silver due to the holy reckoning, and since now the Aureliahearts are in charge, I have to comply, not that I mind of course." He stood up then lightly chuckling "buisness is buisness after all, in any case I'm assigning your squad a mission. Your job is to accompany the duke's daughter on her mission for debris like you, you have a weeks' time to prepare, should be enough, right?" Luke gritted his teeth; he knew the real reason why he and his team were being sent with Ms. Mayella.
The truth was that Luke was the only one who kept a barrier between the workers and exploitation from higher staff. The city was filled with laborers who were weak and unknowledgeable, making their gift utterly useless unless it had to do with their jobs. This meant if a guard wanted to have his way with one of the debris, he could do as he pleased. That had been how it was until Luke started working for the company 5 years ago. Ever since then, he protected the workers and made sure they were given while cruel, still survivable terms to live in. He was strong, and his friends were too, so they were able to protect them. However, now would not be the case, and he knew that all too well.
Luke glanced at him, tensing his jaw "how long will we be out for, what about the other guys who work under us." Rodney laughed as he came face to face with Luke "Please, you know how long it may be, as long as the duke's daughter needs you. A few other team leaders will be joining with you of course, we have to give our best for the duke after all, but other than that im not sure about the details , you will have to get the rest from her." He then took a long drag as he blew into Luke's face, enraging iron and for once, making even Noa react "now go on shitty debris, get ready for you little vacation."
Luke nodded, as he sighed, he then turn back as he walked out, murmuring in the lowest tone "your pushing your fucking time old man…"
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Noa had been always the type to either not really care, or be calm and collected, but occasionally, even he would have a burst of slight emotion, and today was one of those days.
Today was especially treacherous, the way the old man smoked in front of his boss's face. "I should have just killed him right there, if only that archbishop wasn't there, he would be fucking dead" he thought as they descended the stairs. They made their way to the entrance, back to where Cam and the duke's daughter were. There, Luke sighed as he turned to Noa "yo, take Cam and her to our quarters, I need to talk to Andre and Steph, you think you could handle that?" Noa shrugged indifferently "sure thing boss." Luke and Iron then quickly left, as Noa stood there in front of the duke's daughter, a long awkward silence awaiting them.
Noa had taken a good look at her, and from what he could tell, she seemed like any typical girl. In all honesty, he thought she would have some sort of cockiness, or royal demeanor no matter how innocent she seemed, but for some reason, there was a sort of radiance to her, a form of purity he didn't expect. Also, he had noticed she had ben a bit pink when seeing him, which he was utterly confused about because he never had seen a person make a face like that, well except maybe Andre when he was horny. He looked to her with a bit of curiosity as he sighs "my name is Noa, I will take you to where we live." The duke's daughter hurriedly nodded "o-oh yes, please lets continue, b-by the way, my name is Ariana" she blurted in a very nervous expression, quickly following him.
They passed through the many roads that Noa had been all too familiar with in the last five years. The poverty had always seemed to overwhelm any goodwill that came in, an overbearing sense of reality. As they walked through, Noa still noticed that Ariana would give him slight glances, always checking the back of him, which he always found weird. "Is something wrong with my back?....oh well I will worry about it later." They finally reached the gates of the quarters, a tall, rusted fence stood in front of them, as the giant stone gargoyles on great obsidian pagodas seemed to be staring into the soul of whoever dared entering. Noa sighed as he faced Ariana and Cam "Whenever you go through here, always call Eidra, she's the only one who actually knows the password, otherwise the gargoyles will eat you alive" he said in a calm and indifferent tone. Cam nervously chuckled as Ariana froze up "he's not kidding, one time I saw a guard try to come into there to harass the workers, they got ripped to bits." Ariana gulped nervously as she backed away going behind Cam, Noa shrugged "it wasn't that bad, after all it was just one guard." He then sighed as h walked up to one of the pagodas. There, was a rune weirdly shaped and almost disfigured, as he sighed, he poured mana into as he cleared his voice "Eidra, I'm with Cam and the duke's daughter, you mind opening up." After a few minutes, a woman with bright red hair, and in somewhat of a waitress outfit that was a bit messed up, walked towards them very quiet steps, a very cold aroma seeping through the air around them. She then looked to Noa with an almost doll like smile "Oh no of course I don't mind, although you know the rules, if they are rowdy I will have to exterminate them."
Noa nodded as he looked to them "Cam you already know, but to tell you uhm…Ari-…. whatever, just don't mess around too much, or she will kill, doesn't matter who." Ariana now practically shaking in fear nodded in fear, as she slowly and stiffy walked up to Eidra who opened the gates "h-hello Ms. Eidra, I'm Ariana Mayella, its nice to m-meet you." Eidra lightly chuckled softly patting her shoulder "settle down I only scare the new ones, they either need a bit of an attitude adjustment, or they end up scared enough and behave well, its good to see you are the latter, and besides, why would I be rude to the person meant to help us." Ariana relieved, breathed heavily as she nodded "Yes ma'am, I will be sure to not disturb anything while I'm here."
They made their way in as Noa looked around. All the children that stayed here ran around the loose wooden floor, shaking the building every once and a while with their uncontrollable gifts. Many of the chefs and waiters carrying around barrels of spices as they rush to get the food done, the smell of the kitchen filling up the whole building. Noa always remembered this smell, the smell of for the first time of his life…a proper home to go back to.
Ariana seemed to smile as she looked to all the children playing, which for some reason made Noa a bit more intrigued about her. Everything about her seemed to be strange, yet also familiar, something he had once seen but forgot long before. In any case it was only a hint of a sensation, nothing more nothing less. They made their way through the crowds of old folk and children, as they finally ascended the second floor, Noa sighed as he took Ariana and Cam's bags into his room "yall can stay in my room for the time being, until we find room for another, its really small but its cozy enough…I guess" he said still impassive. As they came in, Ariana looked curiously to the wall. There was a long Odachi sheeted in a long white and diamond lined dragon, with a light blue and black stitched handle. "Wait….how do you have that?"
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In the mines, huge explosions can be heard as captains called for their men to duck. The heat incinerated their skin as they prepared for the final explosion, the last shift of work. "Finally, we can be fucking done with this shit, holy fucking shit I'm starving, we already lost two guys with this lets just fucking get this done" Andre whined as he slugged toward the cave, dragging his pickaxe through the ground. Steph sighed as she pulled on his ear "oh shut up, you only worked really half the time, the other half you tired to beat the crap out of a guard or slept and I had to pick up the slack." He grimaced as he held onto his tortured ear, making there way to the final mining spot, he and Steph saw nothing but gold.
Everyone in the cave's mouth dropped as they turned to one and another, They started celebrating and cheering, "Finally time everyone! We might just get out freedom back, this is our chance!" As everyone rushed to start mining away, Steph grabbed Andre's arm, not letting him cross with the other. Andre looked back, and then squinted his eyes "Steph, don't fucking say….this cave can't be…" Steph spoke, her voice shaky and low "I-….It's a dungeon Andre…"