Pyre Academy

The moon shone down over Pyre Academy rooftops, the red glow of the volcano below illuminate the edges of the campus. Ashe and Ariel snook across the Academy grounds to the Crystech wing, which was located on the far western side of the campus.

Even at this late hour, lorries were arriving at the depot, that sat on the side of the Crystech wing. Ashe looked through a pair of binoculars to see if she could see what they were delivering, but couldn’t make out a thing, the lorries had the Crystech logo emblazoned on the side.

The two waited fifteen or so minutes for the lorry to leave the depot, then quietly approached the wall surrounding the depot. When they arrived, Ashe gave Ariel a boost over the wall, Ariel then helped Ashe up.

They then jumped down into the depot yard, where there were two guards stood by the door. One was smoking, and the other was fiddling about with a console. Ashe and Ariel were hidden behind a crate. Ariel hated the smell of smoke, ever since she quit earlier in the year.

“How do we get past those two?” Ashe whispered

“I have an idea...” Ariel said, as she peeked over the crate.

Ariel pulled an old music player out of her bag, then threw it over the wall quietly. She then pulled out her Comm device and started the music playing a loud pop song. The Guards instantly ran over to the gate.

“Now!” Ariel whispered.

Ashe and Ariel ran quickly and quietly inside the depot, which was an elongated room, with dozens of empty shelves, seemingly the deliveries were being taken straight to wherever this ‘secret project’ was.

At the end of the room there was a corridor that led into the wing itself. Footsteps echoed from that corridor. Ashe grabbed Ariel’s arm and ran over to the shelves and crawled underneath. They watched as four men wheeled our a cargo carrier into the depot yard, and locked the doors electronically. Ashe and Ariel were now locked inside.

They both crawled out from underneath the shelf and headed to the end of the room toward the corridor, to their surprise, they found the rest of the wing had been sealed off, and a tunnel had been dug in the corridor’s floor, and led down a long dark path, lit only by construction lights hanging from the ceiling.

“Well, this is unexpected...” Ashe gulped.

“Shall we?” Ariel said, with a tinge of nervousness. She walked ahead and Ashe followed behind. They walked for two or three minutes, before they began to see ancient brickwork on the walls, with old engraves of flames.

“Could this be...” Ashe began.

“The Fire Temple? I think so” Ariel nodded, the tunnel curved around at the end and led into a large open room, with equipment scattered around the Fire Crystal. Suddenly powerful beams of light lit the two girls faces, and soldiers ran towards them both, surrounding them, more emerged from behind them in the tunnel.

“Well, shit” Ariel sighed.

Ashe looked by the Crystal, there was a machine hooked up to it, Skylar stepped out from behind the Crystal and sighed.

“I’m sorry it had to come to this” Skylar sighed. “Arrest these two, they’ve seen too much.” She added, two guards handcuffed the girls and walked them back up the tunnel.

Ariel was sat in a blinding white interrogation room, in the Crystech building, the room’s door slid open, and Amber walked in. She sat across from Ariel and began typing into a console on the desk.

“Okay, let’s begin.” Amber sighed deeply, then turned to Ariel.

“Did Aranei send you to spy on us?” Amber asked.

“My family is no longer in power, and even if they were, I turned my back on them. I have literally no loyalty to that hellhole” Ariel replied, rolling her eyes.

“Okay, did Imperistia send you?” Amber asked, leaning toward Ariel.

“No, I’m human, why would I work for them?” Ariel shrugged.

“Did Disceath send you?” Amber once again asked.

“No one sent me, for the sake of the gods!” Ariel shouted, slamming her fist on the table. Amber remained calm.

“Why did you break into a private Crystech facility?” Amber asked.

“No comment” Ariel replied.

“This is not a legal interview, Princess, no comment answers or lawyers won’t get you out of here” Amber sighed, and rubbed her forehead. “Why did you break into a private Crystech facility?” She asked again.

“We wanted to know what all the shipments were about” Ariel shrugged. “You guys have been acting weird from the moment we got here” Ariel continued.

“Crystech business is none of your concern” Amber frowned.

“You guys are hiding something, there is a reason we were sent here, and I don’t like being kept in the dark” Ariel growled.

“I am afraid that both you and Ashe will have to remain in this facility until such time as the project is ready” Amber sighed typed into the console again, she then headed out of the room, leaving Ariel alone, in the far corner of the room, a bed slid out of the wall, and behind her a sink, toilet and mirror came out of the walls.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me” Ariel sighed, she stood up and walked over to the bed, the lights in the room dimmed as she laid on the bed.

Outside the room Skylar and Rychard were talking.

“I’m afraid they saw too much Rych, they must be kept here until the project is finished” Skylar explained.

“Their friends, Roisin and Dex will get curious though” Rychard argued.

“We’ve already come up with a cover story, they have both headed on long range reconnaissance and will be away from the Academy for a few weeks.” Skylar replied. "Don't worry, once this is over, they will understand" She smiled and walked away.

"Or they'll hate us..." Rychard looked down, as he stood by himself in the long empty corridor.