Arieon Flare

I slip out of my bed and into the corridors quite easily. I had assumed there must be much more security considering the Shadows took down the rulers of Evercrest, but I find none more than two guards at each entrance or exit.

Perhaps they are waiting for news on Ashton's mission. I hope everything went according to our plan and not theirs, even if it means Leona dies. They already think the Unscathed are monsters, we should at least try to live up to our reputation.

"You are Arieon, right?" a young boy asks catching upto me. He looks like someone we would easily overlook. Kind black eyes with matching hair and boots make him appear younger than he is. I can't help but smile at his innocent face. "Colonel Agnor needs you at the command room."

Colonel? How did I become important enough to meet him? I had neither met nor heard about him in the little time I spent here. As far as I knew, Leona was the highest ranking officer here.

"Did he say why?" It is quite weird to ask for information from a kid but I can not help it. He just shrugs and motions me to follow him. I could try to lose the kid and make a run for it. But like my mother used to say, my curiosity is my strength as well as a weakness.

By the sunlight seeping in through the windows, I would guess we are going to the southern part of the base. The air gets damper as we keep walking deeper into the corridors.

I try not to show the comfort I feel in the warmth. Azela's words echo through my mind from when Ash and I were barely seven years old. She would sneak out to the garden with us every tuesday night, her stories are one of the only memories I have of my family ever being truly happy.

Flare finds Flare. I hope her words are true. I hope my brother is safe with Ashton. I hope ignoring my lessons about how dangerous hoping can be, is the right call.

The boy stops in front of an iron door different from the other wooden ones. It is almost dramatic how he pulls open the door and heads in. I almost expect smoke to flow on the floor like I had watched in a movie from the old times with my siblings, but it does not.

This place would make a wonderful crypt. The room has no windows whatsoever, the door being the only way one can escape. Perfect place for an assassination. I ignore my instincts telling me to get out of this place, instead I make myself comfortable against the wall near the door.

The same grey haired man from the infirmary stands to our left near a few screens showing pictures of my father. I notice the now familiar room for civilians in the screens ahead of us. To our right, papers flow out of their cabinets, while a single man tries to get the million of them in control.

"Everyone here?" the grey haired man asks, scanning the other civilians in the room.

"Everyone except the Millers, Colonel." the boy answers quickly. He just nods and turns back to the screens. Everyone drops into a comfortable silence giving way to the storm brewing in my mind. Questions I can't answer drown all my other thoughts untill the door bursts open.

Leona strides in with Luca, Katrin and two others in tow. As I start debating whether I can make it outside if I start running, Ashton walks in too. She meets my eyes, and for the first time I can not say what emotion she is hiding behind her mask of confidence.

"So you failed Captain?" Colonel asks without looking away from the screens. If they failed, we succeed. Then how are you still alive Flare? It does not make sense.

"Our information was wrong Colonel Agnor." Leona speaks up, I notice her hands are shaking before she clasps them behind her back. "Yes, we failed." she adds when the Colonel does not say anything.

"Where is my sister? Where is Rory?" the boy from before asks unable to keep calm. Leona drops her gaze, unable to speak.

Realization dawns on the young boy, he tries to keep his pace steady as he walks out the door knowing that she is never coming back. For a moment I wonder what I would do if it was Ashton who had been killed and not Rory.

"What about the body?" Colonel speaks chosing to ignore the last few moments. I am surprised how much this man and my father have in common, calm, collected and annoying, always.

"There was no time, we had to burn them." Katrin replies in Leona's stead, her voice breaks at the end. That is quite smart, not even the strongest of House Xonos could retrieve information from a body destroyed.

~~♡~~

Ashton's room is quite unlike the civilian room I got used to. There are nor laughing or crying children, neither are the snores of the older people in the room. The sharp sound of Ashton's boots colliding against the concert floor as she paces, is the only thing audible in here.

"I failed." she spirals again. "I could not even protect our little brother. I killed one of our own guards. You could have been killed. All for nothing." Our father trained her personally to fear failure. I suppose in his own twisted way he thought this would stop her from failing at anything.

"Stop." I say softly as I put my hands on her shoulders to stop her from moving. She has never been such a mess. "Breathe. It is not your fault that the rats can not any information right."

I know by now that telling her failures do not matter as much as mother told us they were is useless. Rather giving her someone else to blame works miraculously. Before she can set fire to anything, or anyone, I speak up saying the words she carves to hear since the day we ended up here.

"Let's leave."