After Lucian and Eliot stepped out of the stopped carriage, a small residence laid in front of them. The house was only one floor, with blacked out windows and the outside looked as if it had a fight with time itself.
Eliots purple eye shined as he said, "What? Were you expecting something like your mother's house?"
"N-no, it's a wonderful house."
"You don't need to lie, everyone else has the same thoughts about its Aswell. If we Ethereals are to have a residence, then it must be in the lower class. It's encouraged that we make our homes look as poor as possible, it makes us less noticeable by the government, and we don't have very many funds."
"Are you enemies of the government?"
"Not exactly, if the government knew about us then they'd attempt to use us, or mass produce our powers which is extremely dangerous. That aside, our real enemy is the churches.", stated Eliot while pulling out a pocket watch with blessed salt laid in intricate symbols.
"How come the church? Don't Ethereals have a strong connection to the gods?
"That is the very reason they see us as threats. They believe we are stealing the god's attention away from everyone else and think we should be eradicated."
"That's rather extreme, is it not?"
"Not to the church.", remarked Eliot as they stepped onto the small front porch. Before saying anything else, Eliot gave four knocks on the old wooden door, two fast and two slow.
Not too long after, a young woman opened the door. She had auburn-red hair tied up into a bun, with long wispy bangs framing her delicate face and a few soft strands falling to either side of her cheeks. Her bright golden eyes brought about the aura of an angel and looked as though they knew everything. She wore the same attire as Eliot and held a thin book in her hands with some paper's sticking out.
"Ah, welcome back Eliot."
"Hello Lilith, have things been running smoothly?"
"Quite so, may I ask who this young man is?", said Lilith with a warm smile.
"This is Lucian Crowe; he has just passed the set-up mission, though he has yet to agree to join us.", stated Eliot while glancing at Lucian.
"Pleasure to meet you.", exclaimed Lucian with a calm demeanor.
"The pleasure is mine; it's not every day we get a possible new ally."
Lilith guided the two through the unfurnished yet somehow organized house to a large rectangular table. The table had a total of eight seats with three on each long side and two at each end. Lucian and Eliot both sat in a middle seat on the long side of the table.
"Would you like anything to drink?", asked Lilith in a formal tone. Eliot asked for a coffee with one sugar cube while Lucian politely declined.
"I brought you here to explain to you what being an assistant and Ethereal is like and why we gave you that test mission. I get this is a little fast paced, but we have our reasons."
Lucian was indeed curious to hear about this...well, not just this, but everything!
"I appreciate your kindness; I never expected to be given such opportunities to obtain knowledge of this stature. I was afraid I'd be wandering around Novus like a toddler until I ended up in the slums."
"Ah, about that, I'm sorry you lost your memories. Priscilla's still rather new and her ability is still developing."
"W-what do you mean?"
"You see, if Priscilla had been advanced further in her abilities, you could have retained some of your memories, but alas, fate had decided otherwise.
Are you kidding me? Fate, FATE!? You're telling me that if any other person with these abilities was on board that ship, I'd have some of my memories!? FUCK!
"My, what a fowl mouth you have, haha."
The realization that Eliot could read all of Lucian's thoughts suddenly struck him. "Oh, my apologies, I suppose there's nothing you guys could have done.", Said Lucian as a few drops of nervousness rolled down his cheeks.
"Not to worry, that's a normal reaction we get from those like you, but they usually try to express it physically or verbally. It's a good trait to have self-control like that."
"I suppose it's not all bad, it's like starting a new book or drawing a new picture for me."
"Exactly, and I'd like to help you with the rough draft.", expressed Eliot as the corners of his lips slightly curved upwards.
"How exactly?"
"If you are to agree to our terms and conditions, I will see to it that assistants Theo and Lilith teach you more knowledge than you could ever learn from a university or library. That includes knowledge of Ethereals, why we want you to be one, and why Ozzus was so open to you."
Now that Lucian had a way to get the info he wanted, he was eager to join Eliot and Ozzus, but there had to be a catch or two.
"What are the terms and conditions?"
"The only ones are that you must obey any commands that I give you, you will go on all missions with I, Ozzus or our other two Ethereals currently stationed in Novus, and you must remain completely covert in any and all activities related to Ethereals. The goddess's seals can only protect you so much."
As Lilith walked into the room and gave Eliot his coffee, Lucian pondered on whether he should accept or not.
The first and third ones seem easy enough, or...at least not hard, but it's the second one that bothers me. Just how frequent are these "missions"? Are they all dangerous like the one I had a moment ago?
The awareness that Eliot was most likely peering into his mind made him shift in his seat uncomfortably.
There's a possibility that they aren't to frequent. Ozzus seemed very lax on the ship and hasn't gone on any missions so far as of my knowledge. Plus, he said we still need regular jobs to make a living for ourselves. If I were to be absent to many times, wouldn't I be fired? I need to put some careful thought into this. He said I could learn way more than I could from a school or library, but just how much more? For all I know he could be lying through his teeth.
As Lucian was still in his head, Eliot spoke up, "Our missions aren't frequent, if fact, they're only assigned on an average of three times a month. And they aren't too dangerous unless you become an Ethereal."
Lucian let out a long sigh, "I knew you were prying into my head with that ability of yours."
"My apologies, it's a bad habit of mine, hehe."
"I appreciate the insight though.", said Lucian with a responding chuckle.
After a few seconds of silence after their light laughter died down Lucian spoke out in a serious tone and stern look. "I believe I would like to become an Ethereal, I'm not sure about what happened in my forgotten life, but if this can get me even an inch closer to finding out the truth, I'll do whatever it takes."
Eliots mouth lightly curved again as he pulled out something from his pocket, "Perfect, to fully agree to the Ethereal terms and conditions, I want you to draw an imaginary circle on this piece of paper."
As Lucian drew the imaginary circle, a split-second spectacle popped in and out of his mind. It was a more defined circle that had many different shapes and inscriptions in it that seemed almost unnatural. A few seconds later, Lucian felt a deep coldness on the back of his neck where the Oath of secrecy was marked.
"You'll feel something like that anytime you do something that binds you to a concept. It's nothing to worry about." Stated Eliot in a calm demeanor as his singular purple eye shined.
"I understand. If you don't mind answering, when do I start?"
Eliot shot grin at Lucian, "Right now."