A guiding light.

John woke up groggily. His vision was blurred and his body refused to move by his command. Nonetheless, he somehow knew it was time for him to wake. Some part of him informed him of it. As his mind sharpened, that part disappeared. When he sat up, he noticed a wardrobe in the corner of the room that he was not sure was there before. It was made out of a large set of doors opening into a wide space at the top, and a few sets of drawers at the bottom. Inside it contained a variety of fancy clothing. Two suits, one seemingly ceremonial with a blue color and a strange emblem on it. The other black and quite a bit more practical. In addition, he found a few pins with the same emblem in one of the drawers, and a few blazers of the same blue color stacked along the bottom of the space. Along with a couple of dress pants of a black color. He was still wearing the same casual clothes he had the previous day, but he changed for the spare clothes he had brought from home. The other clothes he had brought in his inventory were neatly tucked into the wardrobe. He didn’t see any reason to wear anything fancy, so he quickly washed his face, brushed his teeth, and went to the bathroom before exiting the room.

When he did, he saw the others waking up as well. All five of them were placed in the same corridor. Matthew and Bass were already standing outside, while the others trickled in a few minutes later. John was still confused about how he had woken up exactly, but that was a matter for another time. He went to greet Bass.

“Morning,” he said simply. Taking a good look at his face for a minute, the pink haired sound mage responded.

“Good morning to you too,” she smiled, “guess you aren’t used to the wake up call yet? You look like you’re all over the place.”

“Is that what it was? Was almost like-”

“Yes, it’s one of the enchantments placed on our rooms,” Matthew suddenly responded. He was standing close by, near his room’s door.

“Wow, you should be grateful John, the royalty is talking to you,” Bass cut in, her tone mocking. The cryomancer did not seem amused.

“I am not above recognizing the efforts of those below me,” he stared at John, “you have earned my respect, for now.”

“Anyways...” John sounded as awkward as he felt, “what’s our first class today?”

“We have espionage with the boss’ little secretary. I assume you know her. She brought you in the first time we saw you, didn’t she?”

John was surprised, “You mean Ember?”

“Yeah,” she looked around, “we should probably get going. Looks like everyone’s ready.” Charlotte and Yan had both exited their rooms into the corridor as well now.

A few minutes later, they all began heading towards the same classroom they had been in the previous day. As they walked, John began chatting with Bass. He wanted to know more about the Abyss, and she was as good a source as any other, and a friendly one at that. It all somehow made him think of Orianna.

’I really should have asked Ember where I could find her…’

“So, since you know Rave, I guess you’re from Springfield as well?” Bass broke the ice.

“Yeah. Lived there all my life,” John quickly answered, glad for the distraction.

“And how’d you meet her? My cousin looks kinda bland unless you’re Abyssal or you know her.”

John was at a standstill, on one hand, he couldn’t explain how he had known of Rave without further clarifying his abilities. On the other hand, Bass seemed like someone he could trust. Maybe the only one there. Unlike the others she wasn’t wary of him or hiding something, at least not as far as he knew.

“Well… I’ll tell you the truth. After all, we should be honest with each other. I don’t actually know her personally-”

“Wait, so you fucking LIED to me?”

“Give me a second to explain, please.”

“Fine, but do it quick.”

“A while back, I could see the names and levels above people’s heads. It was some sort of tutorial feature. When I was at Ashcroft, I noticed Rave had that nickname and a pretty high level. I thought it was a bit weird so I used one of my abilities that allows me to see more information on people. I’ve been told it’s similar to scrying,” preempting any questions, he continued softly, “you would’ve known if I used it on you, I think. Anyways, that’s how I know she was Abyssal, and when I heard your name I just asked that by instinct,” he paused for a moment, “I’m sorry for deceiving you, but I didn’t know what to say afterwards.”

“I get it,” she responded with a shrug.

“So, now that I told you that, I want to ask. You said you’re from Springfield as well?”

“Yeah, lived there since I can remember. My parents sent me there to stay with Rave. I liked it, so they let me stay. I don’t live with them anymore. Haven’t for a few years, but I still visit sometimes. Rave and her dad, they’re like family to me,” she continued, whispering under her breath, “more than my real one, anyway,” returning to speaking out loud, she shrugged again, “none of that matters anymore though. I’m here, I found what I always wanted to do.”

“Is that why you’re here, exploring is what you always wanted to do?”

“Yeah, sorta. I just want to get away from the Abyss. And not only is exploring the best way to do that, but I can be my own person out there,” she answered with a smile.

“I can understand that, I think I’m the same way. I guess perhaps we all are looking to be our own people, for our own purpose.”

“How should I know, I don’t know everyone here that well.”

John looked around just in time to see the classroom was right next to them. The others had already entered. The two of them quickly did the same, finding Ember waiting inside.She was wearing what seemed like a more traditional military uniform, if it was the 18th century. A buttoned up jacket of sorts dominated the outfit. It was navy blue in color, and had various insignia and emblems placed on the right side of her chest. Her pants were much less fancy, just a simple pair of a similar color. John’s attention was drawn back to her face as both he and Bass sat down.

“Now that everyone’s here, let’s begin. Today, we’ll be starting our studies into espionage with a practical training exercise. As you all know, an important skill for any explorer to have is the ability to act as a spy as well. Occasionally, you will be placed in unknown situations and be required to get obscure information to deliver back to us or to get a better sense of the circumstances on the ground. These skills will help you get that information. You will all be placed in a part of this base that has been notified of your arrival and tasked with stealing certain documents as a team. Remember to stay quiet and avoid detection. The defenses will be heavy and your safety is not guaranteed if fighting starts. The location of the documents inside the designated area is yours to find. Follow me and good luck.” Ember was cold as ever.

She completely ignored John as she began walking out of a class and through various corridors. Her students quickly followed her as they advanced quietly through the wooden hallways into industrial ones.The lights went dark soon after, and John felt his mind slipping.

His eyes opened in a split second. He knew he was in danger and that he needed to act now. When he jumped up to look around, he found a dark mostly empty room and heard someone quieting him down. There was something about the situation, like his head wasn’t quite adjusted yet. It felt like the world was spinning, even if he couldn’t see anything.

“Shhh! We don’t want them to hear us,” the voice of Matthew stated, John could barely see him with how dark the room is.

“Where are we? And where are the others,” John whispered.

“How should I know? You’re the boss, aren’t you?” The cryomancer was not exactly helpful.

“I’m guessing we are wherever the documents are then?”

“I suppose it does seem so. I wouldn’t say that’s exactly certain, but that is our best bet. It also is likely that the others are closeby,” the black haired man responded, being uncharacteristically nice.

John grasped in the darkness, attempting to find any sign of a door or something else of use. His first instinct was to summon Orb of Light but every time he tried he fell out of focus. It felt almost like he was seeing double, while he couldn’t quite see at all. Strangely, Matthew started grasping around as well. The walls were made of the same kind of metal as the industrial ones, but there was nothing on them. Nothing he could find, at least. It took him a long while before he found anything at all, and when he finally did it was just a small groove in the wall. That’s when suddenly he heard a loud crashing sound, and a grunt of pain a moment later.

“Fuck!” the ice mage shouted out from somewhere to the right and below John, “I can’t see anything in here!”

’Guess even he’s human. I should probably go help him…’

The Gamer quickly grasped in his direction, trying to find him. When he realized Matthew wasn’t standing he crouched. Moments later, he found him. Helping him back up, the cryomancer started talking again.

“There’s something quite large here. I fell because of it.”

They both soon found what it was, a massive desk of some sort. On it was something a bit unexpected, a desk lamp of some sort.

“I think I felt a lamp here, maybe if we can find some way to turn it on we can get out of here.”

Matthew grunted in annoyance, but helped look anyways. A minute or so later, a button was found and pressed, and light burst into the room. It was a small lamp, but that’s all they needed. With the light came back John’s focus as well. Seemingly, both of them were in an office. A pretty standard one, though no computers could be found. The door was on the other side of the room, hidden by a small wall. The room was completely empty of any documents, so John was sure it was not their destination.

“We should be careful from now on, so stay behind me and be quiet, please.” John was not in the mood to play games. And so they did, except, the door was locked.

“Shit,” was the last thing John said before the door was quietly opened. From beyond it appeared the three other members of their rag-tag team.

“Yo, good to see you two are still alive,” Yan was the first one to walk in, the others trailed behind.

Charlotte was back to her usual self, as she went to stand in the corner of the room. Yan seemed to be waiting for something, and after a few looks between the three, Bass addressed John and Matthew.

“They split us up, but we woke up almost twenty minutes ago so we managed to get out of our room and get here. Our room was just down the corridor, so we heard some shouting coming from here. Luckily, we don’t think anyone else heard it. We got a sense of the area on the way,” Yan showed a small map with the corridors surrounding them shown on it, “the doors around us are blocked, so our guess is they’ll open up once we have the documents. There are a few guard patrols but most of the rooms are empty, so we can hide in there,” Bass quickly explained.