"Mono/Dialogue"

  'Inner thoughts'

  Narration

  [Message/communication apparatus]

  Date: Early October 1091

  Location: ???

  POV: ???

  [This is Veron to Nest, I repeat, this is Veron to Nest.]

  [Nest here, what’s the urgency, Veron?]

  [Our informant in the National Council had reported that K.G.C.C. and Adeptus had set aside their differences. The test reports conclude that they had put the matter of Margaret Nearl on hold. We might have no choice but to prematurely commence the next phase.]

  [Unfortunately, we had also lost contact with several of our mining teams. We have eyes and ears in the HQ, but we specute that the Grey Serpent had hidden her hand.]

  [How many cards does she have? She could always meddle in our affair without much trouble.]

  [I’m unsure, but most of her transactions were clean above the board. We had a hard time picking out her illegitimate trade.]

  [What about the Cradle?]

  [We have yet to confirm the Cradle’s position. The st search was forced to turn back after getting caught up in Cordelia’s mining expansion.]

  [Is there a chance that she is the one behind them?]

  [There is, but I heard she has a thorny retionship with Cordelian’s higher-ups. We couldn’t confirm because no matter how and why, they have tight security.]

  [Let’s forget about them, it is not too unheard of for corporations to want the Grey Serpent to train their paramilitary wing. What’s next?]

  [Could you stall for time? Columbia had traced the team in Max D.C. and they had gone dark, we had also lost units in Bolivar. Cande Sanchez could not be fooled, we lost our entire operation.]

  [More problems… I could try, but it won’t hold for long.]

  [Would the Grey Serpent impede the progress further?]

  [We managed to ensnare the Grey Serpent and put her on the sideline, the forged pieces of evidence should be ready and delivered to the National Council. We could no longer consider her an independent entity, designate her and everyone she is with to be Kazimierz aligned.]

  [Appears nothing will be easy for us. She meddled with us yet again, first Bolivar, then Sargon, and now Kazimierz.]

  [Think nothing of it, with her out of the picture momentarily, we could incite them into making a run for Maria Nearl.]

  [We are pulling out? Shouldn’t we try to at least get a hit on her?]

  [Not much we can do about it, and for the st time… we can shred her to pieces but that woman just won’t die. The highest chance to distract them would be another attempt with the Nearl.]

  [Hypothetically it could work… What is the status for other teams?]

  [Victoria could not be penetrated. We recently discovered that an unknown group called the Spectre is making a wave around the region. Caster’s and Goddodin’s forces are on high alert on their territories, while Windermere has nothing we are looking for. We are done for in Sargon, the Sand Soldier took personal offense with our operation.]

  [Probably the Taran or another Grand Duke’s toy… Very well, we will be pulling out of Kazimierz. You can expect us to scavenge enough resources by then.]

  [That we do, get to the pre-designated RV with everyone you can bring, even the useless would help. We must reach Sami before those Cyclops start demonstrating their awful witchcraft further. It was challenging and costly enough to poach someone among them that wasn’t a lost cause.]

  [Understood, see you there, Veron out.]

  Location: Section 72 High-Security Internment Block, Kawalerielki, Kazimierz.

  POV: Narrator

  “Clearance check.” A golden-haired man wordlessly shows every piece of proper documentation for his visit. This man is none other than M?ynar Nearl who came with due haste the moment he had a free time (which never came often nor was it cheap from a business standpoint). One might wonder why someone like him bothered to come to a pce like this, but he has a sole reason why.

  He wears his usual jacket and working clothes, nothing too fancy simply because he found ornate and fine dress distasteful the longer he was stuck in the meeting room. It reminds him of a time he rather left behind. Those comrades he rather never found a need to face anymore, and the face of a certain woman who sports a wistful expression the very moment he tried, accidentally or not, rekindling such memories.

  His sword, the real sword, is in the hands of a capable friend and comrade who hates his guts. He thought that letting him have it would further dampen his eagerness to gaze back at his youthful naivety. The man does not doubt that his sudden departure had fractured the group, with more than a few swearing bloody and painful death on him. It came as a surprise that no such thing occurred yet. M?ynar hypothesized whether Nyx had something to do with their docile demeanor or not.

  Waiting for the officer to finish checking his clearance papers, he looked around the reception area. This building’s name had existed since the founding of Kazimierz, rebuilt after each Catastrophe strike, and not served as a maximum-level detention center.

  Nothing to feast his eyes upon, this pce is as bnd as one could get. The so-called Cube-style building mimics those of Mansfield State Prison in Columbia but is more… traditional. There is little ventition in the room, and there are even fewer windows which are reinforced with steel fences and screens. He wonders if K.G.C.C. will try to commercialize the pce once it serves its purpose. Kazimierz is famous for never eschewing money-making schemes if possible, after all.

  The only green would be a pair of small pine trees fnking the doorway. A fact couldn’t understated, the Tenebrous Hero is not so na?ve to think that the walls aren’t purposefully built to not have hidden storage for automated turrets or when judging by their helmets, a sleeping gas of sorts, just to name a few.

  He doubted it would affect her, however, and it would only be mildly annoying for him.

  There are more than dozens of securities and Kazimierz-equivalent military police patrolling the hallways, this is not a usual schedule for a visit. He would certainly appreciate it more if they stopped watching him with dread and fear pouring out of their very being. He is retired after all, he is done pying a hero of justice, and he is done trying to show a sliver of respect to this abhorrent country he so despised.

  He sighed listlessly amidst the ticking sound of the civilian officer processing his permit. M?ynar has little joy in gaining the permit, with the exhaustive investigation and rather insolent questioning he was subjected to. A silver lining is that he is a well-respected company manager in Cordelia. They couldn’t strong-arm such a major corporation’s employee without provoking thoughtless conflict in the already strained situation.

  Margaret Nearl. Margaret, the Radiant Knight.

  He wished so badly to ugh at that kind of nickname. His father was dubbed as the Hero of The Prairies, his brother as the Finest Knight of Nearl, his sister-in-w a capable shield maiden and Archeotech researcher, his ‘companion’ as the Grey Serpent, and he as the Tenebrous Knight.

  All of them had fallen. One is because of responsibility, two and three is due to their duty, and the fourth is under suspicion of felonies, and thus the st ends as a meager departmental manager. All these great people could do is to face reality… What of Margaret?

  The Tenebrous Knight had once concocted and minded of crippling her and be done with all these tomfooleries. He rationalizes that forcing Margaret to be unable to continue would knock some sense into her. Yet for all his power, by the end of the day, he is still just a civil servant and corporation contractor with middling influence. He would rather get run over by a battleship and ridiculed than be turned into some cheap casus belli.

  Not to mention how a stubborn and positively overprotective Pythia would be hounding his life. She won’t resort to some extreme methods, but he could predict the painful situation he would be in otherwise. Personal and logical lines of thought aside.

  His primary reason is much, much simpler.

  He has enough of seeing his family being used for all manners of political backstabbing. Familial fealty demands him his due, and he had paid him in full. He resolutely made up his mind that the Nearl shall never associate with either K.G.C.C. or the Adeptus once this debacle had been taken care of.

  Margaret might be the Knight Primus, but she is too blind to the affairs and power bance between each faction. He is aware that his father would move behind the scenes to rectify all these problems, but he doesn’t know what Kirin Nearl the Hero would do. He understands that Nyx is setting up a stage for him, but he doesn’t know what that idiotic woman will sacrifice in the process.

  Thus the light of the afternoon dimmed, and started packing up for the day, accompanied by his visit in silence. His feet tapped the floor once or twice, eliciting a minuscule twitch from the officer processing his permission.

  “Papers are in order, thank you for your visit Mr. M?ynar. I hope you shall abide by our rules that the visit could not be longer than an hour. Security and safety reason, of course.” The civilian officer offers him the brightest smile one can ever muster. Their damp backs were from the awful ventition and airflow, without question.

  “Thank you for the reminder, keep up the good work, and good afternoon to you.” He stands up from his seat and straight towards the elevator. He met a few faces along the way, but he never deigned to show even the slightest desire to socialize with them. After a few more minutes of walking, he reached his destination.

  Nyx could be seen lying on her back and staring at nothing, with a pencil pyed around her fingers. He spotted a newspaper with crosswords half-done. She still wears her usual grey apparel, and because of the unique situation she is in, her jail cell is not completely sparse. He spotted a bundle of books by the corner, sheets of bnk papers, and the Pythias as the sole inmate.

  Thus it comes off as luxurious that a cell has been transformed into the guards’ break room to keep an eye on a person they have 100% of ending up in a hospital on a good day. There are also a couple of pairs of them walking around the hallway. So his entrance made them jolted up with even tenser shoulders. There might or might not be someone among them who’s pying around with the idea of why vacation or retirement sounds very appealing for their prospect.

  Then again, it might have been deliberately done for the sake of other inmates’ well-being and sanity. Catching a glimpse of the dreaded Grey Serpent is vicious enough of a punishment, sharing a cell with her would be too cruel even for the jailer.

  Nyx's limp tail swayed gently or scrapped loudly on the floor when she noticed someone coming her way. She rose from her bed to see someone she cherished still with the same scowl looking at her.

  “Oh hi, Mwi… um… guess I messed up, huh?” She tried to smile but it came out forced seeing how he didn’t buy it even for a second. His eyes never left hers, and soon the Grey Serpent averted her vision instead. The two stand between the steel bars separating their worlds. On the sides would be those aforementioned securities fidgeting and exchanging discreet gnces.

  One of them steps inside their break room and returns with a foldable chair in hand. Their colleague silently cheered the trembling guard with all their hearts. Thus the proactive guard timidly approached the golden-haired Kuranta.

  “Sir M?ynar?” He turned his head halfway, his scowl now directed at them. Unfortunately, a certain someone looked at them with her trademark bnk stare simultaneously. After swallowing a heavy lump clogging their throat, they speak again with an even politer tone. Hell, they even threw a smile that was left unseen because of the helmet.

  “If I may Sir, please have a seat.” The security sets the chair in front of the jail cell and steps back, turning full 180 and pretending nothing ever happened. They immediately disappeared from view. Nothing happened for a solid minute, before with a sigh the man sat on the offered chair.

  “… Lady Nyx I’m here on the behalf of Cordelia. I must admit, this is an unpleasant conduct of mine is a breach of ethics, yet I must implore your forgiveness. The dire circumstances surrounding you had forced our company to be proactive.” Her body twitched hearing how he addressed her, with a slight grimace cracking her mask, her tail hanging limply on the floor.

  “There is nothing to apologize for, and is there anything Cordelia wishes to negotiate with me, Mr. M?ynar?” The sensuous undertones usually found underneath her words are gone.

  “It pertains to the situation you find yourself in. Mr. Adenaver found the current situation to be undesirable from a business standpoint. He explicitly stated that the accusation of being involved with state felonies is a critical consideration in our partnership moving onward. Your actions actively harmed this trust we had built over the years.”

  To further drive his point home, he brought out a kind of notebook to type and record the situation. Normally, the guard would step away but her situation is an exception on top of exception. M?ynar doesn’t seem to care about it. His free hand rummaged inside his breast pocket to pull out a gss. Nyx patiently waited on him until he nodded at her to continue where he left off.

  “I understand. The situation has necessitated me to take an independent approach to matters pertaining Catastrophe Intervention Act. Unfortunately, I’m under a Non-disclosure agreement with the Parliament, thus I’m afraid I’m not allowed to eborate on the matter.” He watched her tail quietly glide through the flooring.

  “Very well, then I wish to understand your stance moving forward.”

  “I have no desire to make a foolish decision that would harm my future endeavor. The situation at hand was but a minor miscalcution on my part. No one is born perfect, and I’m well aware that I am cking in many areas.”

  “It is indeed prudent to admit your limitation, but that would provide little comfort and confidence if your current situation be swept aside as merely a minor miscalcution.”

  “A very understandable concern, but my track record had been more than enough to prove my reliability as both colborator and contractor.” M?ynar diligently does his duty while the securities start feeling awkward that they are inadvertently being dragged into a corporate business. Woe be these poor fellows…

  They continued with this impromptu interview. He asked her about several other topics, mainly regarding her involvement in keeping her end of the bargain. She has been contracted time and time again, but there should be a limit that crosses over their tolerance. Both sides are aware of this and never once did they talk in a circle more than necessary.

  It dragged on for almost a half hour until the Kuranta posited his st question.

  “Next, what Cordelia wishes to be eborated upon is your role and how it reflected on companies you have ties with.”

  “Rumors and gossip are hardly reliable.”

  “Yet none can deny that there had been precedents where those could be used to glean and screen information. At the barest minimum, it could provide some measure of parameter for further understanding and discussion.” Nyx’s expression turned pensive.

  The guards are not saying anything, even those who are patrolling or lounging in their rooms listen carefully. No matter what their misgivings and feelings, they are professionals on the lookout for secret message exchanges.

  M?ynar watches, while his fingers hover over the notebook’s keypads, as Nyx is mulling over her answer. The quietness of the jail cell is palpable.

  ‘How odd… she is very cooperative and talkative, but it almost feels like she is fishing an information or a cue from me instead. What did I walk myself into?’ He creased his brows in contemption while waiting for her side of the conversation. The Pythia noticed his suspicion, and her eyes scrunched over and soon smoothed into a thin smile.

  “Indeed, I had been notified that several personal agreements and arrangements I had made were terminated or put on hold… Does it mean that Cordelia wishes to renegotiate rights and our continued retionship?”

  “Not quite… Mr. Adenaver had given me a directive to terminate our partnership, effective immediately. Cordelia shall be pulling out of the Contingency Contract.” Her eyes widened, and her gaze fell onto the floor. Her tail’s slow sways had turned a notch faster.

  “… I thank you for the courtesy of sending someone of your stature,” Nyx said nothing else. Her expression and actions felt strange to him. It was brief, but he watched as a heavy shock fshed through her eyes. It burned red before the serene amber pink returned, and an imperceptible smirk formed on her lips. The cons of rarely smiling is the moment she does, it would be child’s py to spot. Especially for him.

  ‘I have my suspicion, turns it is true.’ His inner thought was reflected by his own eyes, and finally, Nyx looked positively remorseful. She couldn’t meet his gaze, and he didn’t know what to feel. He found several facts in that single pse in her concentration.

  One, Cordelia has a deeper tie with her. It is not out of the question that he was inadvertently used. He should have realized that such a suspicion shouldn’t have weakened so considerably just because he was never promoted above his current station.

  Two, Nyx is pnning something very dangerous, and he is too te to stop her. He couldn’t care less about how she used and maniputed him all these years. Simultaneously, he wondered if Nyx didn’t trust him enough to confide with her problem or if her attraction had devolved into obsession. Ultimately, he was left knowing the fact that he never really understood her.

  Three, she does it for them at the cost of herself, just like that day when she moved out of turn to force him and his former brothers and sisters to act. More damningly, he sees Schnitz and Ionta’s vanishing figures behind her, a perfect mirror of what he saw that day when he froze on his feet.

  If it were any personal setting, he would have berated her recklessness. As, he must be content with his fingers digging through his leather gloves and a yer of flesh. The Tenebrous Hero has been pyed inside a game he never knew to be participating in. Appears, The Grey Serpent had sensed his growing bitterness on this whole debacle.

  “Thank you for your understanding. I shall take my leave, and I hope you well.” After uttering so through the tightened jaw, he stood up from his seat, Nyx dragged her face to witness his receding, like recording every millisecond of it.

  A part of her wanted to cw at him to come back, to confide with him the design for the future she selfishly imposed on those she loved. However, that is not her choice to make, not with hundreds if not thousands of eyes scrutinizing every bit of her. She must persevere, the pn is in motion and this is too far too te into the game.

  All she could muster was but a feeble shake of her head, and stretching her body back on the bed. She has half a mind to reach out to a book and spend her time quietly. Nyx wanted to do so, but her body was so unbelievably heavy, and every single nerve of hers was burning with a not-so-foreign sensation.

  -

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  -

  M?ynar’s footsteps contrasted with the noisy sidewalk he trudged open. Whereas others are spending their time; busying themselves watching over his niece, enjoying, or even doing nothing but drowning themselves in the many attractions that dotted the mobile city, he could never feel such a thing.

  His eyes are cast on the paved road, hands in his pockets, and every office appliance neatly tucked inside the briefcase. His breathing is level and calm but noticeably when one listened closely, it would come out ragged, and the hands hidden from the world are clenched tight to draw a smattering amount of blood.

  The revelry of the 22nd Kazimierz Major never registered to him. Each time it was the same bread and circus with gdiatorial games on top. A few hours before his visit, he had been dealing with Cordelia’s business partner who kept compining about the ck of manpower. He needs to recall several people from their vacation, and that should have been it for the day.

  Yet life just could never be so easy.

  ‘What are you doing… why? Why did you keep doing this? The harder I tried… we tried to push you away, you forcefully throw yourself into the upcoming storm.’ He found a painful realization, Nyx had become something he couldn’t recognize. Perhaps it was him that had strayed so far away that he couldn’t fathom her anymore?

  The answer eludes him, crity escapes through his mind, and the work that he diligently undertakes feels inconsequential at this very moment. Seconds stretched unto minutes, and minutes faded into hours. The Kuranta found himself sitting on a bench in the middle of the sparsely poputed park.

  He didn’t know why, but his face was buried inside his palms. How pathetic, how unsightly, how unseemly… Those words crashed like torrential tidal waves. Ravaging his clear mind with chaotic thoughts. Breathing in and out, he leaned back on the bench. He spotted a half-finished crossword in a newspaper from days ago.

  It has been drenched with rain, crumpled by being sat upon, and so many blemishes but the newspaper doesn’t seem to be carried by the wind. He shouldn’t be doing this, he is certainly being watched and it would put his family in danger… but…

  ‘What does she want from me?’ He is convinced that Nyx was the one who orchestrated that visit. It is frustrating that she stands stark naked for everyone’s pleasure. She deliberately humiliated herself for something, and he doesn’t know why. That woman had turned into a Pandora Box; an enigma that he couldn’t reconcile with the sad and wistful woman who stared longingly on a wedding dress back in Siesta.

  ‘… Does she want me to contact them?’ The man sighed with the soles of his feet tapping impatiently on the ground. A few pedestrians stared at him dubiously but otherwise left him be. A new maelstrom brewed inside his mind, and he didn’t seem to be fond of such a possibility.

  ‘That is not outside the realm of possibility. She might deliberately put herself in harm's way…’ M?ynar finds himself back on familiar roads. The same roads where he stood frozen while Schnitz and Ionta were whisked to god knows where. Would he witness the same thing happening again at this moment?

  He used to be negotiating with Haughty Nobles, Greedy Merchants, and even deceitful colleagues… what were the terms Nyx gave him? He couldn’t answer or god forbid, he doesn’t want to be the one to answer it.

  Maybe the lower lip he bites upon until it bleeds was the answer. It was chaffed with sharp canine teeth he never barred for years, and it felt surreal. Swallowing back a string of curses, and quite a few choice of words. He clenched his small terminal and decided on the course of action. Standing up from the bench, the man leave for a pce he shouldn't have visited.

  He takes care not to intrude or block the clogged traffic of crowds milling about the park, he steeled himself. Others would see just a very sullen office worker back from yet another all-nighter. He doesn’t care about them. There are better things to do.

  ‘I need to talk with Father, and set the record straight…’

  [END OF CHAPTER]

  Author's Note:

  Yo there, this is me, myself, and I, the author who realized that soda is a good way to de-stress at the cost of health.

  Oho, what’s this? Is M?ynar taking an action himself? Did he overreact, or perhaps he was reasonably worried? Wouldn’t that be unwise? We see what happen.

  This is the st update of the month.

  I’ll see you again, I hope.

  Ciao