Rανєη Rιѕє COMPLETE 5/12/17

[frankie (dup)]

A.M Morning is a pen name

Crossposted on:
Booksie
Inkspired
Wattpad
If you see this on any sites but these, PM me! I might've just forgotten to list the site. >.>
Word count: 25113

Ｔｗｅｌｖｅ ｙｅａｒｓ ａｇｏ， ｔｈｉｎｇｓ ｃｈａｎｇｅｄ．．．

Twelve years ago, the world changed. Twelve years later, a chance arose to fix it.
When the group that called themselves The Catago started the war, no one thought they'd win. Nobody thinks the world can be saved, but maybe it can be.
One person can shift the balance, one person can make all the difference.
In this case, that person is fourteen-year-old Aiden Parrish. He doesn't know why his world is broken, and he certainly doesn't know why everyone expects him to be the solution.
But he'll do whatever it takes to save his crumbled home.

Ａｎｄ ｔｈｅｙ ｃａｎ ｃｈａｎｇｅ ａｇａｉｎ．．．

Table of Contents:
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
BOOK TWO

Extra Stuff!:
A little worldbuilding
More worldbulidng, in larger quantities!
Some random shorts
A scene that was meant to be in Chapter Seventeen

[frankie (dup)]

In the center of a room was a table. There was a chair in front of the table and there, a boy sat. He was too young for this.
The room was fifty feet big. The wall was now peeling plaster that exposed the dirt underneath. The musty smell of wet dirt and fabric plagued the room, but everyone had long gotten used to it.
The boy smiled to himself. He remembered the day he’d first entered the room with a smile.
Before him, sitting on the table, was a box, filled with leather-bound books.
Journals.
When his father had led their force, the plaster had only begun peeling. He'd told his son that he planned for that to change, soon.
The walls were never fixed, though.
When everything about everything started falling apart at the seams, so did the walls, and mounds of dirt would spill out of holes. Within a year, some parts of the wall were nothing but thick layers of duct tape.
A few dozen tables littered the room. Some had chairs, some didn't. The materials and quality varied. Some chairs appeared to glow white, while others were a deep black. Some chairs were sturdy and held together well, while others stood only because of the same duct tape that patched up holes. Those chairs looked like they could collapse if you breathed too hard on them.


It had to be at least one in the morning. It wasn't as if the dark-haired boy could tell, though. The room's only light came from a few lanterns, and since everyone was underground, it was always hard to tell what time it was.


The sense of normalcy that came with the quiet was something the dark-haired-boy at the table cherished. By seven, everyone would be awake, and just like that, his normalcy would be gone.
He shuffled through the books until he found the one that bore his name;
Rico
Rico smiled at the writing. It wasn’t shabby for his ten-year-old self. He was eighteen now, though.
He enjoyed writing in the book before him. His journal. He’d kept a journal before The Shift, and it felt familiar.
He wrote a few things,
I am Rico.
I’m eighteen.
I like coffee.
I hate tea.
His thoughts grew more and more personal, and as soon as it had come, the normalcy slipped away.
I lead a group called The Ravens.
I’m too young for this.
My dad is dead.
He shouldn’t be.
The Shift happened.
Everything changed.


The Shift had been an event twelve years prior. A group that called themselves Catago had seized control of the world. Twelve years ago, The Ravens came into existence.
But Rico thought more of two years earlier. Two years ago, when the Catago killed his father.

The main opposition to The Ravens claimed to have lots of followers, but Rico knew better. He’d seen their empty, milky eyes for himself. At least three quarters of their followers were prisoners, some of them people he'd known. All those people hated the Catago with a burning passion, and now they served them with empty eyes. It was a punishment of the cruelest kind.


The Ravens planned to fix their broken world.


As the normalcy finished slipping away, Rico relaxed. He felt unhappy at losing it, but what was done was done. He shut his eyes and before he knew what he was thinking, his hand found its way to Ravens’ Rulebook.
It wasn’t a book, just a single page pinned into a leather book. His father had never been big on having lots of rules, so the three rules kept it simple and to the point.


Rule One: Training can begin at ten, and becomes less of a focus at fourteen when missions begin. Training ends entirely at sixteen. If a member is mature and can handle the situation, they may go on missions before turning fourteen.


Rule Two: If the leader of The Ravens dies or steps down, their elder child will take their place. If the child has not completed their training, the second in command will become the leader.


Rule Three: You may not harm other members.


Rico had been holding off on something for months now. He didn’t want to change the rule, to do that would be an acceptance that times had reached their darkest.
But he had to, and he did.
The rule he was modifying was the first one.
He took a deep breath and crossed out a few lines.
He gazed at the new rule version, the beginnings of tears welling up in his eyes.


Rule One: Training can begin at ten and becomes less of a focus at fourteen when missions begin. Training ends completely at sixteen.If a member is mature and can handle the situation, they may go on missions before turning fourteen.Missions begin when the member is needed to join one.
It had been such a tiny change, but it was such an emotional one.
Times had reached their darkest. People were dying in the simplest of missions, which meant that Rico had to read the letter from his father.
He remembered watching his father’s dying body, until he couldn't handle it anymore. He remembered leaving. He felt physically sick when one of his kindly friends had brought him a letter.
‘He wanted you to read it if times become dark.’
His friend had tilted his head and told him, ‘good luck.’ It was hard for a person to formulate a decent response when someone's father had just died.
For months after that fateful event two years ago, Rico had cried. He hadn’t done anything a leader needed to do. He’d had his father ripped away from him when he was far too young.
He pried open the letter.


Rico,
If you are reading this, I am probably dead, and times have reached their darkest. I was hoping that this moment would never come. But I assume it has, so please listen.
There is a boy. He is twelve years old right now and had his parents taken from him by the Catago. There is an odd prophecy which seems to detail him.
Seek him out at the New Horizons Orphanage in Vecuria.


Your Father

There was a table in the center of a room.
At the table, there was a chair.
At the chair, there was a boy.
The boy was writing a letter.
A letter that a now fourteen-year-old boy would read.
And that letter would start a ripple in the ocean of the rebellion that would change everything.

And all because at a table, in a chair, someone wrote a letter.

Next Chapter: One

[frankie (dup)]

The night was inky black and speckled with stars. The moon was bright, and was the only source of light, now that the street lights had been shut off.
It was ethereally beautiful, but one of the few people awake to see it was fourteen-year-old Aiden Parrish, and the quiet beauty of the night was the last thing on his mind.


His eyes were shut, and his hands were clasped gently over his slowly rising and falling stomach, his fingers rubbing together.

If someone had walked in right then, and not looked closely, they would’ve just left, assuming he was asleep.

But Aiden was far from asleep, his mind too preoccupied, too wild and alert for him to fall asleep.

It was one of those difficult-to-describe thoughts. Difficult to find the words, even if they were right there in your mind.

Aiden had opened biographies from before the world went to hell, and some parts of them had confused him until they were explained. Until it was explained that once upon a mere twenty years ago, things had been alright. Bad things still happened, bad people still tainted the ground they walked on, but things were better. The way things were now were not normal.


Aiden had not yet been born when the war began. He’d be born six years after it began, and two years after that… the good guys would lose. That didn’t happen in the books.

When Ada, his caretaker told him about the world before it changed, he’d asked a long flow of questions.

One of them?
Did my parents die in the war?
Ada had gone very quiet then, and shook her head.

“To my… limited knowledge, you were born in Thakar, and lived there until you were two. Your parents fled to Vecuria, where they were discovered by the Catago and Turned to their side. Not willingly, don’t worry. I’m sure your parents were good people. I found you sitting in the snow on the sidewalk.”

He couldn’t remember those events. Ada had always told him that it was because he was only two, but Aiden remembered that conversation, and that’d happened when he was seven.

Nevertheless, he’d go to Ada once a week, and she’d repeat the story. Aiden would wrack his brain, shake his head, and then leave.

Ada was a kindly woman, plump with rosy cheeks and greying brown hair in a braid flipped over her shoulder.
She had one of the biggest hearts he’d ever seen in a person, evidenced by the nine children she’d taken in and raised over the years.

Rat tat tat.

Aiden’s head snapped up and his eyes widened. He pushed himself off the bed and walked over to the window.


He looked through it for a few seconds, and at first wondered what had made the noise, until a grey beak tapped on the window again, and a piercing pair of eyes scrutinised him.

He pulled back, taking in a sharp breath. It wasn’t just because the raven had shocked him. It was mostly because of what the raven meant.
The raven was the signature animal of The Ravens, the last group still fighting The Catago.

He’d never had one come to his window. The other people living with Ada would talk about a black shape flying into the window, and then they’d light an oil lamp, grab some gloves, and help the raven get away.

The others would wonder how something so dumb as to slam into a window could bring people messages, and some small, idealistic part of Aiden pleaded that it was magic, that there was something whimsical to all this.

The raven didn’t stop tapping at the window, and it looked at him as if he was some insufferable idiot.
Aiden grabbed the oil lamp and lit it. If he turned on the lights, people in the hall would see the lights, and they’d come in. Aiden just wanted to shoo off the bird and try to get some sleep.

He slipped on the gloves and headed over to the window, fumbling awkwardly with the hinges.
The wind hissed inside and the raven pushed it the rest of the way open, flying into his room.
Aiden lept back, away from the large black bird flying so close to his face.

He lept back a little too far and rammed into a shelf. He only had a split second to register the pain before he had to rush his hands up to stop the shelf from falling.

He picked up the oil lamp, which had, in an amazing stroke of luck, landed on its bottom.

Aiden killed the flame then set the oil lamp back on his nightstand before looking up to see the large, bulky shape flying around above his bed, slamming into the walls and ceiling.


He bounded over and tried and failed to grab the raven. Eventually it found the window, bumping into it as it left and caused it to sway gently.

Aiden headed over and shut the window as his door sung open and the lights were flicked on.

He turned around to face Ada, a very perplexed expression clearly visible on her face.
“There was a raven,” Aiden said. “In my room. It's gone now.”

Ada nodded slowly, then turned to face the shelf. Everything there had fallen.
“Clean that up in the morning tomorrow. I’m sure you’re very tired.”


Aiden nodded.

Ada shut the lights off, and Aiden laid down, but after a few moments, he got up and turned the lights back on.

He put everything back on the shelf and headed back to his bed, fixing his covers so he’d have a more comfortable sleep.

Something fell out of the folds of the covers.

A rolled up piece of paper, bound by a red elastic that crinkled the middle, made his heart skip a beat.

Oh no, he thought. Did it drop this?
Ravens brought letters to people, and now there was one in his room. Clearly, the raven had dropped its letter when it was in his room.

Aiden crossed his fingers that he’d be able to find the person the letter was addressed to. Vecuria was small, it wouldn’t be so difficult.

But when he took off the elastic and unfurled the letter, his heart almost leapt out of his chest.

Aiden, (Can’t say Dear, I don’t know you. Do you say Dear to everyone?)

My name is Rico. I am the leader of The Ravens, and I apologise for this letter- I can’t write one to save my life!
I know that your parents were Turned by the Catago, and from my dearly departed father, I also know that an odd prophecy appears to detail you. Actually, prophecy isn’t the right word. But hey, it’s cool to be in a prophecy, right? We’re in Parin, Ocean View Lane. Or Street, maybe Pass or Avenue. I can never remember. Please come to us.

With regards, Rico (That’s a good close, right?)

Aiden’s heart rate picked up as he re-read the letter. It was addressed to him, unless there was another Aiden, and the raven tapping on his window had been a coincidence.

He swallowed. He’d probably be told if he was the person they were looking for.

Aiden balled up the letter and shoved it in his pocket before opening the window again and climbing out.

This was the thing he’d been waiting for his entire life. A chance to change something, a chance to do something with his life instead of just wasting his life away watching other people fix things.

It was his chance to fulfill his dream, and he was not throwing it away.

Aiden’s breath turned to mist in the cool air of the August night.

He rubbed his arms. Maybe climbing out the window in thin pyjamas wasn’t his best decision…
There was a delivery to Parin soon, and Aiden hoped he could come along. He’d heard of people hitchhiking like that before.

He found the cart a few minutes later, a large man with light brown skin and very thick eyebrows loading up the last bits of cargo.

“Hello?”

The man turned around.
“Hello…? It’s very late, what do you need?”

“I need to get to Parin,” Aiden said, hoping the man wouldn’t press.

He scrutinised Aiden for a moment before shrugging. “Well, I’ve never heard of someone as young as yourself committing a hitchhike murder so… why not? Besides, if you do wind up killing me, I’ll go into the books as the first, so... “

Aiden laughed.
“You’ll have to go with the cargo. There’s nothing that could hurt you there, though.”
“That’s alright.”

Aiden scrambled into the cart and leaned back against a bag.


He eventually fell asleep.






Aiden opened his eyes to see the delivery man leaning over him.
“We’re here.”

Aiden thanked him profusely and climbed out of the cart as the man started unloading the cargo.

After a bit of walking around and asking for directions, he arrived at Ocean View Lane and walked around aimlessly a bit more.

He spotted a young man with light brown skin and black hair tapping on the shoulders of all the teens and asking them something.

The man sighed, frowned, and shoved his hands into his pockets.

Aiden bit his lip.
I wonder…

He walked up to the man, who took a deep breath before speaking.
“Are you Aiden Parrish?”

Aiden nodded, and the man sighed, clearly relieved to have found him.
“Rico, right?”
“Yeah. Follow me!”

With the sense of adventure buzzing in his veins, Aiden followed.

Previous Chapter: Prologue
Next Chapter: Two

[Ranger of the North]

Oh, I like this!
I'm curious to see whether it is Rico he's encountered, or a spy from the Catago who somehow intercepted him or something...?

[frankie (dup)]

A:N A little bit of swearing in this chapter. It's nothing a third grader can't hear and I checked to make sure CS didn't censor it.

Aiden’s blood pumped through his veins and rushed in his ears like a tiny, rapid heartbeat.

There were a million and one thoughts in his head, all clamouring to be heard and speaking over each other, but the loudest- or maybe just the simplest, the one Aiden picked out amongst the other, confusing ideas that he couldn’t quite grasp, was this can’t be real.

He wasn’t sure if that thought was pessimistic or realistic. It was hard to tell, sometimes.

“Are you alright?”
Aiden cursed under his breath, realizing that Rico was a solid meter ahead of him.

“Y-yeah. I’m alright.”
Godammit, really convincing.

Rico pursed his lips in disbelief and opened a door that read EMPLOYEES ONLY in large red letters. Aiden followed him in, and they walked down a narrow hallway before opening another door into a brightly lit room, obscured from the rest of the city.

A red and gold mosaic was the only thing in the room. A large blue tile rested in its centre, and Rico started walking briskly towards it.

Aiden follow behind him in confusion.
“What’s this?”

Rico didn’t respond, just knelt down and pressed the heels of his palms onto the red and gold tiles surrounding the blue tile.
To Aiden’s surprise, they dipped down with a mechanical shunk.

Rico pried the blue tile up to reveal that it was, in fact, a well-disguised trapdoor.
“Make way!” The older man shouted down, and Aiden heard people murmuring and shuffling.

Rico launched himself down the hole, and Aiden moved closer, so that his toes were mere centimetres from the edge of the hole.

“Are you coming?”
Aiden swallowed and nodded, before remembering that Rico couldn’t see him and sputtered out a weak “y-yeah.”


Aiden shuffled closer and sat down so that his legs were hanging into the hole.
His heart raced and his blood roared in his ears and his head pounded as if somebody were beating his skull like a drum.

“It’s not a long drop, you’ll be fine.”
“Of course.”

It wasn’t the length of the drop that scared Aiden, but rather what could be waiting at the bottom.
If Aiden followed through his this, he’d be dropping himself into an entirely new world, one he knew nothing about. And the things he knew nothing about where the things he needed to watch out for.

He inhaled, and with his exhale, dropped into the room.

He landed in a crouch, supporting himself with his hands to stop a potentially embarrassing collapse. He reckoned that he looked like a slightly more human frog, but he didn’t want to fall on his face.

He rose to his feet, regaining his composure and trying to look somewhat dignified.
“Hello,” Aiden muttered, speaking more to his feet than the crowd.

Rico nudged him, in such a way that it silently told Aiden hey, I need to tell you something.

Aiden tucked his long, black hair behind his ear. What is it?

Rico bent down a bit so he was at Aiden’s height and whispered so quietly that even Aiden could barely hear him over the murmurs of the crowd.
“I couldn’t hear what you said very well. I’ll introduce you, but you’ll have to speak, too.”

Aiden nodded, swallowing down his fear.

Rico rose and cleared his throat.
“This is Aiden Parrish. He lived in Vecuria from the time he was two to just last night. I and my dearly departed father believe that he has some kind of role to play in all of this, but what that role is exactly, is unfortunately confidential for the time being.”

The room groaned.

“I know, I know, it’s terrible to not know things, but I promise you, knowing the role he plays would do more harm than good. Aiden is only fourteen, you see, I don’t want him weighed down by pressure.”

Rico stepped back and gestured for Aiden to take his place.

Aiden fought down his supper. Rico’s words had been well strung together, and flowed nearly perfectly from point to point. Rico’s ambiguity about whatever the hell his ‘role’ was did more harm than good, for him at least. His blood roared in his veins.
Whatrolewhatrolewhatrolewhatdoyoumean?

Rico nudged him and smiled encouragingly.

Inhaling deeply, Aiden stepped forward.
He’d been avoiding looking at the people before him until now. He had to look now.
As he’d expected, they had ravens on their chests, a silver insignia against deep blue robes. That symbol was a sign of rebellion and hope to a lot of people, but to Aiden, it was death. He’d seen that symbol on wanted posters, requesting that those bearing the symbol be turned in or killed.
Aiden swallowed down his fear. Have your crisis later.

“Um… hi. Yeah. I’m Aiden.” No, no, Rico already said that!
“I speak three languages. Common, of course, I’m speaking it right now, Thakarian, my caretaker taught me that because my parents couldn’t and I was born in Thakar, and Vecurian, because that’s where I live.”

Aiden glanced at the floor.
“Lived, I mean. I lived in Vecuria.”

Aiden rattled off a few more miscellaneous facts about himself before stopping.

“Uh, question?”

Aiden’s head snapped up to see a blond boy. His eyes were a striking blue and his skin was ghost-pale. His nose was wrinkled in confusion, and his hand was raised, as if he were a schoolboy from when school was still a thing. But he couldn’t have been a schoolboy from those twenty years ago, since he looked sixteen or seventeen at most.

“Yeah?”
“Why’d your ‘caretaker’ teach you Thakarian?Shouldn’t your parents have done that?”

Aiden tensed up. It was a perfectly innocent question, but it hurt. He swallowed.
Yeah, I wish they could’ve.

“They, um… weren’t around.”
“You’re an orphan? You don’t look it, your clothes aren’t ratty. Nothing fancy, but not how I imagined an orphan looking.”

Well, I’m sorry that I don’t live up to your expectations.

Aiden bit his tongue to stop those venomous words from slipping out.

“I’m not an orphan. I’ll find my parents again, they were taken by the Catago, that’s all.”

The blond boy shifted uncomfortably.

“Well, then they’d be working for them. Not willingly, but I’m not sure if you could find them. They could’ve been killed, or they might be halfway across the world.”

He must’ve said something else, but Aiden didn’t hear him. It was as if those words had pushed him underwater and were now holding his head beneath the surface.
I can’t breathe.

Somebody pulled him from underneath the waves.

“Do you have any idea how insensitive that was?”

Aiden looked up blearily, pulling his tear-slicked palms away from his face.

A girl in a simple white shirt and black pants stood in front of the blond boy, her ginger hair whipping against her pale face with every sharp movement that punctuated equally sharp words.

“Gods above, do you think before you open your mouth?!”

The blond boy cursed as the ginger haired girl’s fist connected with his shoulder.

People started rapidly filtering out, eager to get out of the intense scene before them.

As the blond boy left, the ginger haired girl relaxed.

Aiden expected her to leave, as everybody else - including Rico did, but instead she turned on her heel and strode over to Aiden, her movements still sharp like before, but less so now that she’d calmed down.

She extended her hand, which Aiden noticed was splashed with freckles, as was her face.

“Sorry about that. That was Curtis, and as you’ve figured out by now, he’s a bit of a jerk.”

Oh, I like this!
I'm curious to see whether it is Rico he's encountered, or a spy from the Catago who somehow intercepted him or something...?

A:N Thank you!
Definitely the real Rico, as you can probably tell after reading the chapter.
I'm glad you're enjoying this!

Previous Chapter: One
Next Chapter: Three

[Ranger of the North]

Ooh, I really liked that chapter; the suspense... the emotion... LOVE IT. <3

Hahaha. And yes, real Rico XP

[frankie (dup)]

Ooh, I really liked that chapter; the suspense... the emotion... LOVE IT. <3

Hahaha. And yes, real Rico XP

A:N Yay! I enjoyed writing the chapter! Emotions and suspense are two of my favorite things to write.
It's been FOREVER, but here's Chapter Three

Aiden stood, dumbfounded at the girl standing before him. He stared at her hand with the sort of look that could very easily be mistaken for confusion. She chuckled lightly upon noticing his expression.

“Errrrr… do you know how to shake hands?”

“Oh!”

Aiden spluttered awkwardly and then took her hand. He was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that his palms were still tear-streaked and clammy, and her pulled his hands way from hers, awkwardly wiping them on his pajama pants.

I must look ridiculous.

“So, uh, what’s your name?”

“Dulcie. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.”

The conversation ended awkwardly, and Aiden shuffled his feet while staring at his feet.
“Why did you stay, by the way? Everybody else left.”

“Rico asked my brother and I to introduce you to The Ravens. He figured it’d be a good idea for two people who were in… a similar situation, and clearly remember the feeling of being new, and were close in age to introduce you. I’m not sure if that sentence made much sense,”

“You have a brother?”

“Oh, yeah! His name is Pollux, we’re twins. I think you’ll like him. Sorry, am I rambling?”

“You’re fine, don’t worry.”


Dulcie smiled warmly, but there was a tinge of awkwardness there, too. She averted her gaze, gave Aiden a trembling smile, and it was nice to know that he wasn’t the only one in the room feeling a bit awkward.

After a bit, the silence started to nag Aiden and he said the first thing his mind conjured up.

“So… how often do new people arrive? From what I can see, this place doesn’t look like it could come close to holding a full fighting force, or even half of one.”

Dulcie cringed. “Agh. Don’t remind me. We don’t get new members a lot. We got more back in the beginning, with new members bringing in relatives and friends, but eventually, every relative and friend was brought in, and it’s not like we can just waltz up to anybody on the street and suggest they join us. We have enough room, though. We have dorms, not individual rooms.”

Aiden nodded in understanding, when another thought hit him.
“What if you run out of room?”

“Doubt it. We have a lot of room left. If we ever run out, we’ll make new rooms. As for hollowing them out into the shape and size we want… I honestly don’t know, sorry. I think there’s something magical or whatever involved. A wizard did it, I don’t know. Pollux should be here soon”

The awkward silence returned, and Aiden stared at his feet, acting as if he were admiring the dirty floor.
Somebody save me, somebody save me.
His pleas were answered, and the door opened with an audible shriek of old hinges.

Dulcie seemed just as glad as Aiden to be brought out of the awkward air, and cheerfully started to talk again.
“Speak of the de- dammit, you’re not Pollux.”

Rico closed the door, which shrieked so loudly a banshee would be jealous, and chuckled good-naturedly.

“Well, no, I’m pretty sure that I’m not.”

Dulcie rolled her eyes, her blush vivid on her pale skin.

“Anyways, Pollux got a bit held up with one of his projects. He’ll be here pretty quickly though. Dulcie, could you try being a bit nicer to Curtis?”

“He’s an arse and you know it.”

“He is impulsive and he sometimes says things without thinking, but he’s a member of the Ravens and you should try to get along with him. We don’t have time for infighting, alright?”

Dulcie nodded, pursing her lips, clearly holding back another comment.

Rico turned and left, shutting the door behind him.

Dulcie resumed her intense staring contest with the floor, wrapping her arms around her body and shifting back and forth.

The door opened again, this time slower. The shriek was less intense, but longer.
As soon as Aiden saw the face of the person who had opened the door, he knew it was Pollux. The boy looked around their age, and had very similar facial structure to Dulcie, with high cheekbones and a sharp chin. His eyes were the colour of polished jade, and his light ginger hair was neatly combed and parted. His freckles were more prominent than Dulcie’s, but there were less of them.

He seemed to be out of breath, panting as he braced himself against the wall. His long, dark blue jacket was slipping off his shoulders, and one of the shoulders of his shirt was tugged down. His jeans were torn, and one of his black boots was half off. He clutched a large, black, overstuffed briefcase to his chest, pinning it there as if the papers were about to fly out. That wasn’t as unlikely as it seemed, Aiden noted, as the boy- Pollux, scrambled to grab a paper that had just fallen.

“I’m sorry I’m so late getting here. I was in the aviary, just measuring the wingspan of the ravens there, and they attacked me! Can you imagine that.”

“Quite well, actually.”

“Oh, and the average wingspan was way bigger than it should’ve been. I really think that there’s something different about these birds, Dulcie!”

“Yeah yeah, talk to the newbie like you’re supposed to.”

A sheepish look crossed Pollux’s face and he dropped to his knees to stuff his papers back into his briefcase and then spent a solid minute zipping it back up.
“I’m sorry for the odd entrance,” Pollux said, extending his hand in greeting. “I’m Pollux, glad to meet you.”

Aiden nodded politely and shook Pollux’s hand, silently thanking himself for not stalling awkwardly.

Pollux sat down, discretely tugging up his light blue shirt and smoothing his jacket out, and pulled his boot back on.

“Alright. So, fire away with any questions you’ve got.”

“Okay, I’ve got a few. First off - Rico seems really young to be leader. As in, young enough to be my brother.”

Although he didn’t phrase it as a question exactly, Pollux still responded.

“His father was the leader of The Ravens, but he died abruptly. Rico wanted to make Bryson, the second-in-command at the time, the leader, the rule we have is that the current leader’s eldest child takes over, or the second-in command if there isn't an eldest child, or they’re too young. For the first little bit, Bryson did pretty much ran The Ravens, while coaching Rico through his loss and being a leader, but about… ten months ago? Rico took over the position. Bryson is still a big part in all of Rico’s decisions.”

Aiden nodded slowly. That makes sense.
It only took a moment for his next question to strike him.
“What would happen if somebody reported me missing? The Catago would figure out where The Ravens have gone, right?”

Dulcie shook her head.
“Nope. We’ve got double agents here, people who feign working with The Catago in order to get access to the files and delete Ravens from them.”

Something about Dulcie’s statement nagged Aiden. It was all clean and orderly, but there was something… off about it that Aiden couldn't quite place.
He shrugged it off and moved on.
“How do the ravens track people down? They shouldn’t be able to just find anybody without knowing exactly where they are and who they are.”

Pollux’s eyes lit up at Aiden’s comment.
“I have reason to believe that there’s something different about the ravens here. In fact, they may not even be ravens. They fly longer without flapping their wings, fly faster, have longer wingspans, have extremely high intelligence… but unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how they’re able to track people down.”

Dulcie patted her brother on the shoulder.
“Shush. Don’t bore the newbie to death.”


Pollux blushed and averted his gaze, mumbling something that Aiden didn’t quite catch.

Dulcie leaned forward.
“Do you mind if we ask you a couple questions, so long as you don’t have any more to ask?”

“I don’t. Ask away.”

Dulcie looked uncomfortable as she asked her question.

“So… you were in an orphanage before here, yeah? Since when?”

Aiden inhaled sharply.
“I dunno… since I was two?”

Dulcie nodded slowly.
“Okay… why weren’t you adopted? Little kids get adopted faster, don’t they.”

Aiden shrugged.
“I guess orphanage isn’t actually the right word. Our caretaker, Ada, pretty much just takes in kids and raises them.”

“Oh.” Dulcie nodded, understanding. “So it’s more like she adopts you?”

“I guess so.”

There was a brief, awkward pause before Dulcie spoke again.
“I’m sorry about Curtis. He’s not all bad, he just… says stuff without thinking it through properly.”

Pollux bolted upright from his relaxed position.
“Now that I’m thinking about it, Dulcie and Curtis are similar. They’re both impulsive, they both say things that they don’t mean, they both-”

Dulcie clamped a hand over her brother’s mouth.
“Okay, that’s enough about the similarities between me and that douche. He’s okay, but not that okay.”

The door swung open with another loud squeal, and Aiden flinched as Rico entered the room, leaving the door open.
“Hey. Wrapped up your questions yet?”
The trio nodded.
Rico smiled.
“Good. Have you told Aiden about our tradition yet?”

Pollux shook his head.
“Nope. Sorry, were we supposed to?

Rico shrugged.
“Doesn’t really matter either way, don’t worry about it. Anyway, Aiden, what I usually do is take each member out to get some new clothes, food, and anything relatively cheap that they want.”

Aiden raised an eyebrow in confusion.
“Why?”
Immediately after speaking, he recoiled. That must’ve sounded rude. Rico was doing something nice and now he’d screwed it up. He opened his mouth to apologise, but Rico cut him off.

“No. It’s alright, I understand your confusion. The reason…”
Rico faltered, trailing off as if he didn’t want to finish his sentence.
“I don’t know how much longer all this will go on for. I don’t know when you, or when any of us will get the chance to do normal things again. I take new members out for one last normal day. It’s the last one they’ll be having for who knows how long.”

Aiden gulped.
“Okay. Do we go now?”
Rico nodded, and motioned for Aiden to stand.
“We’ll get food from somewhere, then you can get clothes and a haircut if you want?”

Aiden nodded, walking beside Rico out of the room, turning to wave goodbye at Pollux and Dulcie as the door closed.
“That’d be great, thanks.”

“Then come on, we can use the ladder this time.”




The restaurant they eventually decided to go to was nothing special, although the rice and chicken that Aiden got was pretty good. The two walked in silence for a short while until they reached a barber’s shop.

Aiden got his hair cut a bit shorter than it was before. It had been long and tangled earlier, but he was used to it being long, so he kept it chin length. It took a few washes to get all the grime and tangles out, but once the barber was done, it was still naturally curly, bouncing back in place whenever he pressed a lock down.

He bought eight simple shirts and pants, two pairs of shoes, three pajama sets, and three jackets. Aiden planned to do his laundry every week, and he figured that those clothes would be enough for a while, at least until he started to outgrow them or had to do his laundry less often for whatever reason.

Aiden still wasn’t… the most comfortable with the man walking beside him, and he hid his face behind his bag of clothes.
Eventually, the awkward silence started getting to him, and he cleared his throat.

“So, do you-”
He never got to finish his sentence, as somebody zipped out of the crowd and bowled into Rico, knocking him over.

Aiden leapt back in shock as Rico struggled to his feet, trying to push the other an off him while also avoiding the knife they held.

The blade the other man held was short, broad, and jagged, the grip being simple, black leather. The knife’s crossguard was long, thick, and completely straight, so that it didn’t slip at all.

There were a hodgepodge of deep black symbols crudely
etched into the side of the blade, as if scratched into the metal by a piece of charcoal.

And Rico was currently avoiding being skewered by the razor-sharp tip of that decorated blade.

Aiden hovered off to the side, pulling his collar up and over his mouth. He had no idea what to do - hide? Help? Run?

Eventually, the world took pity on them and Rico got the upper hand, throwing the other man to the ground and stepping on his chest.

With a huff of what seemed less like exhaustion and more like annoyance, Rico leant down and picked up the knife.


“Hmm. Nice weapon, poor user.”

“H-hey! That’s a family heirloom! Give that back!”

“A family heirloom that you just tried to kill me with. I’ll be keeping it, thanks.”

The man pulled himself to his feet and glowered after them as Rico and Aiden speed walked down the street, though he couldn’t chase after them thanks to his weakened state.

“Will he be a problem?” Aiden asked, his voice trembling and going up and down octaves.

Rico shook his head and smiled.
“Nah. He was just some lowly Catago operative who wanted to get in with his leader by killing me. I’ve faced tons of guys like that, and none of them have ever been problems.”

“Oh, okay. That’s good, then?”

They walked in silence for a few more moments as a dark thought struck Aiden.
“Uh… will one of them attack me?”

“No! Of course not. Not yet, at least. You’ll be properly trained before you go out into the field. Don’t worry, you won’t run into one of them yet.”

“What’s training like?”

“It depends on the instructor and the class. You’ll see. Anyway, here we are.”
Rico swung open the EMPLOYEES ONLY door and made his way to the center of the mosaic, lifting up the tile to reveal the drop down.
Down he went, and Aiden quickly followed, shutting the tile behind him.

“Your first class is right now. Down that hallway, at the very end.”

With a thankful nod, Aiden set his stuff by the wall to move later, and made his way down the hall.
What will training be like?

Previous Chapter: Two
Next Chapter: Four

[Ranger of the North]

*waits intently for more with a puppy's expression*

[frankie (dup)]

*waits intently for more with a puppy's expression*

A: N Glad you're enjoying it!
A shorter chapter this time around. Chapter Five will be a little different from the other chapters, it'll be from a different character's point of view. Here are a few hints:
-Aiden knows them
-They are not in the rebellion
-They are older than all the other characters we've met so far.

Aiden opened the door to the training room and raised an eyebrow. Had Rico really given him the right room?

He’d been expecting the room to look like a gym. He expected there to be punching bags, treadmills, weightlifters. In the brief few seconds before he opened the door, he’d fantasized so much about what the room would look like.

This was not one of his fantasies.

It was a swimming pool, really. It was a wide, open square of water. There were a few logs floating in it and they looked real enough, so Aiden assumed they were taken from outside. At the bottom and sticking to the sides were rocks. There was grass, fake grass, but grass none the less at the sides of the pool.

Dulcie and Pollux waved him over. Funny, no one there was wearing a swimsuit.
He sat down beside the twins. “What kind of training is this?” He asked, gesturing at the pool.

Pollux only groaned in response. “The worst kind,” he grumbled. “It’s with Ms. Antonelli.”
For the next few minutes, Dulcie and Pollux ranted about Ms. Antonelli. He was on edge the entire wait, the gears of his imagination turning.

Aiden had pictured an old hag with a screechy voice, certainly not the young woman who walked through the door.

He knew it was the woman Dulcie and Pollux had been talking about immediately. They’d described her as ‘haughty and full of herself’ and the way she held herself was less confident looking and more of a ‘bow down to me you plebeians’ kind of walk.

She had pale skin, small green eyes, and curly, dull blonde hair that reached her shoulders. Aiden had mistaken the silver streaks in her hair for gray hairs, but she knew that couldn’t be right. She didn't look like she was much older than twenty-five, and the hair wasn’t the natural grey that came with age, but rather a striking, metallic silver.

“There’s a new student in our class today,” she said. “Aiden Parrish.”
There was no fanfare, just a simple, ‘oh, yeah, this is a thing,’ and then she moved on.

Her eyes bore into Aiden. “You can call me Regina, or Ms. Antonelli. I don’t really give a damn. You got any questions?”

Aiden was about to shake his head no, but realised that he did have a question. Well, he had a million questions, but he doubted Regina could answer most of them.

He asked one, simple question.
“Are we swimming? I don’t have any swim trunks.”

Regina looked at him as if he’d just told a preposterous joke. “Do you think you’re going to have swim trunks out in the real world, facing real danger?”

He didn’t answer, but his silence was enough of an answer for Regina.
“Welcome to survival training!” Regina looked away from Aiden and instead surveyed the whole class.
“Today, we’ll be learning how to get away from someone attempting to drown you.”

Aiden felt… shaken by this. What had he gotten himself into? Could someone… actually try to drown him? What if they were to… succeed. What would happen to the prophecy Rico had mentioned. The prophecy… Aiden hadn’t really thought about that. He was just excited for a taste of adventure away from his home.

Aiden had to watch as people struggled around in swirling water as something pushed them down. Only three out of the nineteen people who made attempts were able to get out of the water in the five minutes they were given.
Unsurprisingly, Dulcie was one of them. She had spirit and drive, and she’d trained for three, nearly four years. Pollux had almost made it, but he toppled off the ‘pool’ edge at the four minute mark and flailed around for the next minute just trying to reach the edge.

Then it was Aiden’s turn. He descended into the water, grimacing as his clothes were soaked. He kept his head above water for about three seconds before being forced under,

He would occasionally be able to surface and make it closer to the edge, but time after time again he was dunked back under.

Once he hit the three minute mark, Aiden found himself suddenly unable to swim up. His arms hurt, his head hurt, his chest hurt. The pressure lifted, and Aiden floated upward. He pulled himself out of the water and took a deep breath before rising to his feet.

He glanced around the room. No one was laughing, thank goodness. But no one was exactly cheering for him. There were no ‘nice tries,’ either.

Everyone filtered out, and as Aiden moved to leave, Regina stopped him. “Stay,” she ordered.
Aiden raised an eyebrow. What reason did she have to make him stay?

Regina was quiet for a minute before speaking.
“Everyone else was able to make it the whole five minutes. I suppose I can shrug it off for now, but…” She shook her head. “If you can’t at least make it five minutes, you’ll die within minutes of stepping onto the field.”

Aiden gulped. He did not want to imagine actually being drowned. This was just a simulation.
He felt a strong desire to defend himself, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find the words. He just opened and closed his mouth like a moron for several moments before finally speaking.
“Rico said that I might be in a prophecy.”
He knew it was the wrong thing to say immediately, and inwardly grimaced, waiting for the backlash.

Regina just sighed and rolled her eyes. “Aiden,” she cautioned. “It doesn’t matter what Rico said or did not say. It doesn't matter if you’re in a prophecy or not. It doesn’t matter what you could do for the world, only what you are doing.”
She narrowed her eyes. “And before you go… remember this; You. Are. Not. Immortal.”

Aiden nodded slowly and left. Regina said nothing as he left, only watched him intently.
He pulled the door open and stepped outside, trembling.
I could die.

Previous Chapter: Three
Next Chapter: Five

[Ranger of the North]

Oh my gosh, that would be terrifying D:

However, despite Regina's roughness, I get the feeling she's only trying to keep them alive. I'm glad she scared Aidan tbh, because it reduces the risk of him doing something rash XP