Once Lucian's strange morning had thankfully ended, he decided to head up to the cathedral to go confirm the Archivist position. Apparently, the nearest police station was located on a poor street of Norwund being Cedar Avenue. Lucian wasn't too excited to be there, as it was the next street down from fisher street. I suppose this road is farther away, but I'd still rather not think of having to rap my coat around Theo's bloody torso. And what's with this part of Norwund being so crappy? It's like they took a page out of Sootside's book and poorly pasted it right in the center!
Sometime later, Lucian arrived at the large, stone cathedral to see Johan standing next to the door. It seemed as if he was waiting for Lucian to return ever since the archivist position tour. "Hello Lucian, I take it your here to confirm you want the position?", asked Johan as he promoted a friendly expression.
"Of course I did. I don't believe I'll find a more beneficial job anytime soon.", joked Lucian careful not to act out of the ordinary.
Johan pretended to laugh and replied, "Perfect, if you'd like to confirm this position then please come inside." Grabbing a clipboard and paper, Johan held the door for Lucian and directed him over to a small corner where no one would hear them.
"Here, take these." said Johan as he handed Lucian the clipboard and paper along with a pencil. "All you need to do is sign your name below the others and I'll handle all the rest."
A bit confused Lucian asked, "If I may, who are all these other names?"
"Possible government spies, or other church members from different regions. We do actually have interviews but all I need to do is rig the system a small bit and then you'll be our next member. The only reason that I said you didn't need an interview is because I was feeling a bit lazy that day.
Makes things easier for me, I guess. thought Lucian as he signed his name in common Leyrith.
Johan then took back the board, "Perfect, I'll send a letter to either Eliot or Ozzus in a few days' time to let you know of your acceptance. But for now, you're all set to go about your day."
Lucian straightened himself and said, "Right then, I'll be on my way."
"May your day be guided by the goddess.", remarked Johan as he drew a line down his chest.
Not sure how to respond, Lucian did the same thing and replied, "May yours be as well."
Exiting the cathedral Lucian thought for a bit as he kept walking. I've done everything I needed to today, so what am I to do now? Exploring the city a bit more may be beneficial to my everyday life, so I guess that's where I'll start.
Flipping through the newspaper, Lucian discovered that multiple pages were dedicated to being maps across the whole city with each showing the directions to certain areas. Whilst roaming through places in Sootside, it appeared that a large section of Sootside was dominated by industrial factories used to produce everyday goods making air quality significantly worse than that of the canal's right side. I'm looking for places to go, not to avoid!
After a bit more searching, Lucian finally landed his finger on something that he might find interesting. The transit district? It's at the very edge of the city so it'd definitely be a long walk there and back, but since I have nothing better to do, I might as well.
***
Finally making it to the transit district, a large, epic marketplace awaited Lucian with three gates leading to different locations. The one Lucian had arrived from was the entrance into the city of Novus while the other two led to the train station and the airport where magnificent airships lay ready to take off. Walking around, Lucian discovered violinists and magicians scattered all over to welcome any new tourists or residence on their arrival.
The most amazing thing that met Lucian's eyes was a towering and extremely old copper statue of what looked to be a regular man with old clothes, short hair, and a carved smile. What topped the who thing off was that the statue was wearing a wooden crown. The figure was knelt down, holding its firm weathered hand out.
Just then, a mother and her child walked over to the hand and placed theirs on it. Once they took their hands off, the child's face lit up with excitement like he'd just gotten a present he'd always wanted. I wonder what could make that child so happy to just touch the hand of a statue.
Lucian then decided to go up to the statue to see what was so amazing and special about it. At the bottom on the small plinth was a worded engraving. "This statue is dedicated to the great man known as archon Valerius, the prince who became a wandering traveler and a man who was able to settle a kingdoms quarrels with just his words."
This is the man Ozzus was talking about the other night! Although I didn't at all expect a statue of him to be here of all places. Lucian then stood looking up and admiring the tall and inspiring statue for a good while before eventually turning away towards the station.
Arriving at the stone tiled platform, Lucian made it just in time to witness a large train pulling in. The trains wheels screeched across the metal bars that dug into the solid gravel, coming to a halt. A moment later, its bronze doors opened cleanly as a flood of passengers began to disembark. A number of them held large amounts of baggage whilst others carried small briefcases, but there were two specific individuals that were out of the ordinary.
Two of them, a man and a woman held cases that looked much more worn down and cheaper than the common individual. Of course, the possibility of them just being of low income was always real but if it weren't for their strange nature of looking around as if they were in danger then Lucian wouldn't have paid any mind to them. The duo eventually stopped to greet a man wearing a black trench coat and then proceeded to walk as a trio through the stations exit.
Ignoring them, Lucian looked to his left to see the enormous archway leading to the city's outside. Beyond this opening was a thick forest full of tree's greener than emeralds and the tallest mountains beyond letting Lucian see for the first time what lies beyond Novus besides the endless sea. I suppose I have something I can proudly put on my bucket list now.
Finally exiting the train station, Lucian made his way over to the airport. It didn't look much different from the train station except for just being much larger. On each side was two spiral staircases leading up to the ten different floors with each airship lessening in size the higher up. On the ground floor were battleships the size of manors while at the top contained small passenger crafts.
As Lucian ogled at the towering ships, someone tapped him on the shoulder. "Am I to presume that you are trying to leave Novus."?
"E-Eliot!? Why are you here?", Asked Lucian, confused by the sudden appearance of this higher up.
"Me? I've been here since the crack of dawn waiting for three bums from Primstad. Oh, and also, I found you because your thoughts rattle louder than an empty boiler. Now back to my question.", Eliot said forwardly.
Lucian straightened up and replied politely, "Oh, the only reason I'm here is because I wanted to explore the city a bit more. Getting a good lay of the land would be beneficial to me so I don't have to have everything shown to me."
"Interesting, has the boy woken up yet? I still can't forget that moment when you walked through the door carrying him on your shoulders like that. Your mother must have been baffled out of her mind!"
"Sigh, He actually woke up this morning and has been turned over to the police so he can be given a new home, but he did make me and Ozzus's morning quite eventful."
Eliot let out a short chuckle and replied, "That's good to hear."
Lucian then had a question that he'd been pained about come to mind, "If I may ask, what happened to my partner Jade after the mission? I feel bad thinking that I may have gotten her in trouble."
"If you're worried that she got a scolding then yes she did, but I did understand your actions that day. Sure, it's important that the mission is carried out to its fullest, although there are some exceptions in certain cases, and I believe saving that boy was one of those exceptions. The one reason that Ozzus was a bit upset about it is that he gets a cog up his ass when it comes to that stuff.", Eliot replied sarcastically.
"Got it. Who are you waiting for anyway?"
"Three Ethereals from the empire's capital land. The two that we lost were extremely valuable assets in combat and undercover detective work that the higher ups had to send three replacements! I've already received two of them at the train station and am now waiting for the last to come down one of those staircases."
Is it possible that that was them with the cheap brief cases at the train station? How could I have missed that!
Just then, a loud electronic voice sounded through the whole of the construct. "Attention ladies and gentlemen, if you are one of the individuals that have been patiently waiting for flight A-43 coming from the capital city of Primstad. I advise you to head over to stair way number two to wait for your expected passengers. Thank you."
"You should come with me; I think you might want to meet this man.", Exclaimed Eliot with an eager look as he began to walk.
"Ok, sounds good.", Lucian answered, sure to keep it short so he could focus on yet another thing. Just what the hell was that voice? Some kind of an invention I'm sure, but how on earth was that man able to project his voice all throughout this place?
"I can definitely see why you'd ponder about something so mind bending as a loudspeaker.", Joked Eliot.
Lucian nearly lost his words, "Ehehm, I forgot you read peoples mind so openly like that. Guess I just got used to being around Ozzus lately."
"Do forgive me, but it's more efficient to know how my subordinates sift through and connect their thoughts. That way putting missions together with the right people is easier, in fact, that is why you were paired with Jade."
"Personally, I don't see how putting me and her together was efficient for that mission. It appears that she was the one who was most productive in that investigation.", said Lucian as the two stopped in their tracks to view the descending passengers on the spiral stairs.
A smirk curved up Eliots face, "Actually, what you just stated is almost entirely contradictory to what Jade reported to me, so I don't believe that one bit."
"How so?", If I recall correctly then Jade was the one that found the corpse belonging to the holy mandate and discovered the blood stained room that Orion was in. All I did was cower in fear and resent the people that put me on that mission.
"During our way back to my abode, Jade explained that you were the one who reported the carnage on the stairs which then led to her discovery of the HM's involvement evidence. You were also the one that made the decision to get that young boy out of there. As for why I paired you with her, that is because Jade struggles with making decisions against the mission, so I deduced that you were the best counter to that flaw. This also means that future missions may heavily involve you and her, but other partners will be assigned regularly as to get you accustomed with working with a variety of individuals." After finishing his explanation, Eliot noticed someone within the crowd and spoke, "Ah, it seems that our awaited star has made it."
After a second or two, Lucian determined who Eliot was looking at. Within the crowd was a well-suited man in brown from top to bottom with the only exception being his black gloves, tie, and dark grey flat cap. Within his mouth was a thin cigar that seemed to have just been lit.
Arriving right in front of Eliot, he took his cigar out of his mouth and spoke, "Didn't think there'd be a welcome party for me." His voice was extremely low and gave a sense of powerful intuition. His eyes were a whirling grey as wrinkles curved symmetrically down his face. What was even more disturbing was his unwavering gaze of focus that made a man's blood run cold.
Eliot straightened his tie, "Who wouldn't want to welcome our most enthusiastic Ethereal? Plus, I don't think you'd be able to locate any of us if you just winged it."
The man then turned his attention to Lucian, "Before getting into a useless talk Mr. Forche, do you mind telling me who this is?"
"Of course, this is Lucian Crowe, a new member that we've just recently acquired. Lucian, this is Dean North, an unwilling Ethereal."