Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

Chapter Twenty-Two: Otholle

Matching a name and an image to the company that was bothering Colt wasn't anywhere near as hard as Jay had initially assumed it was going to be. She found herself in the hotel room next to the tavern alongside her other companions as Lana continued toying with her holographic interface, and Jay watched from afar with hopes that Lana would be able to uncover something. 

It only took a few minutes for Lana to finally zero in on something. The Air mage cleared her throat before she started to explain to the group at large all that she had found. "As far as I can tell, the group here that we're looking into is the Otholle Corporation," Lana began to say. "That appears to be the most likely suspect, at the very least. It's a large group that's been trying to expand their reach into other fields for quite some time now."

"That's putting it simply," Jubilee snorted affectionately. "As far as I can tell, they've already got influence in all sorts of fields. They're stretching out beyond their previous limits, but that doesn't mean that their influence was minimal in the first place. In fact, I would most certainly argue that this has been a problem for far longer than any of us have been aware of."

Jay cringed at Jubilee's words and closed her eyes to think over what they had learned. She had heard of Otholle before, though she hadn't delved deep into what they were involved with in quite some time. She knew that the company had been established ages ago, back before she had been born, and their influence stretched far and wide. Some even said that the company had a stake in politics, though there was little evidence to back this up. Jay was positive that there were more than a few shady secrets hiding beneath the behemoth of the company's reputation, and she turned to Jubilee prematurely with hopes that the other girl would be able to clarify at least a little bit of what she knew. 

Jubilee seemed to recognize that Jay was staring without even looking in her direction. "I can say that I've heard quite a bit about their business practices. The owner of the company lives in excess, but nobody is quite sure who it is. That's a secret that Otholle has kept for a long time in the name of trying to ensure that no trouble arrives on their doorstep... At the very least, that's the excuse they use when people get curious about everything that they're hiding," Jubilee explained. "If you ask me, there has to be something else going on there that they're simply refusing to talk about. I don't trust giant groups like that. There's a reason that I prefer to go solo when there's a choice of being with or against the rest of the world."

"I've heard something similar," Arian interjected. "I don't think that I know anywhere near as much on the subject as you do, but... I think that there's definitely something wrong here. Pardon me if I'm jumping to conclusions too quickly, but I'm positive that the person leading the company is up to something. They simply have to be. Why else would they make sure that Colt wasn't able to leave?"

"That's not a new trend as far as I can tell," Lana frowned. She pointed to a particular point on her hologram, and Ronan leaned over her shoulder to see it in more detail. "There are all sorts of employees who have been trying to speak out about their experiences with the company, but they were forced into silence before they could tell anybody what happened while they were there. Rumors have been circulating for quite a while now saying that the company underpays its employees despite the large sums of money that come in through its various assets each year."

"They want to keep everyone quiet then," Jay whispered. It didn't particularly surprise her, but she didn't want to openly say that given that it was what they were all thinking. "We have to figure out a way to get him out of there then. If Colt is really a Skylian Mage like we think, then that's the next natural step. We don't have any other leads, and if he really deals in information like we think he does, then he's going to be our key to figuring out what to do next."