The fighting hadn't gone on long—just long enough to prove the point—and then it was done and Bly seemed satisfied. Surprisingly, Inferi and her friends didn't seem interested in holding a grudge. If anything, they seemed impressed.
Moments later, an alarm klaxon sounded throughout the habitat level and the lights dimmed. You briefly considered refusing the summons, but Bly shook her head. Not wishing to draw attention to yourselves on your first day underground, you and Bly made your way back to your cells. In the surprisingly calm quiet that followed, you managed to fall asleep.
Dark dreams weighed on you, and you were visited by a spectral vision of yourself. It spoke to you and its words resonated within your spirit, strengthening you greatly. It seemed to linger, waiting for a response. (This choice greatly increases the associated stats.)
It's true, what that voice said to you in that darkest of hours. Despair will never hold you under its sway as long as you know yourself and never lose sight of who you are. You remembered the day Ahote brought you into the elders' training chamber before the war. His words rang out sharply in the dark, dredged from the lonely shores of timeworn memory:
"Strip away the mask of your humanity. The lies. The doubt. The pageantry of day-to-day life. Gnothi seauton. Know thyself."
Next
When you woke up to the morning alarm, one of the guards ducked into your cell and handed you a small bundle of clothes while grumbling to himself about how badly "the animals need to bathe." It took all your self-control to keep your mouth shut—you couldn't afford to draw too much attention.
At breakfast you found yourself sitting with the Circle of Chiefs—the Nail's elder council. Elder Naki, a small bony man, insisted on asking you questions about the outside world. It seems he'd been a mentor of sorts to Haken, Haven's old forgemaster and the instigator of the battle that now seemed to be so long ago. He demanded to know what had happened to Haken after the battle, but you couldn't be sure. There was so much chaos…so much blood.
Naki was interrupted when his leader, Elder Hanska, pulled you to the side to speak with you in private. Hanska explained that he understood Sonoma's plan and that you needed to be careful who you spoke to about the specifics. The Nail had eyes and ears everywhere. Compartmentalization of the breakout plan would be key to its success.
Next
After breakfast you were approached by one of Inferi's wolves, a brawny scrapper named Slayer. He told you that you'd been summoned to speak with one of the Nail's main scientists, a werewolf named Maker. You weren't sure how a wolf had managed to get into a position of power, but it seemed like she was well respected not only by her peers, but by the human staff as well.
The doors to Maker's lab split open down the center with the mechanical whir of a hidden motor, and you stepped through into an entry parlor of sorts. Five motley chairs lined the wall of the small room, and you could see the workroom itself through a large plexiglass window. The room's single occupant had her back to you, her long dark hair sweeping down over the length of a stark white lab coat. That must be Maker, you thought. To the right of the window, a single thin glass door led into the lab proper.
The dark-haired figure bent down over a spotless steel table to pick up a large microphone with a flat metal base and brought it to her lips. "I'll be right with you, Houka," a speaker above the door intoned. "I couldn't be certain when you'd arrive, and wasted time is, well, wasted time." She turned around and looked at you then; her face was angular, skin stretched and pale as she nodded to acknowledge your presence before returning to her work.
You took a seat to wait, and before you knew it your eyes had closed. You had no idea why you drifted off so suddenly or how long you slumbered, but when you woke, you weren't alone.
Next