003 | Know Your Enemy

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A GAME OF TAG

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A GAME OF TAG. That was the strategy Emma thought for the kids to train their minds and skills. A tactic smart enough to fool Isabella to think that they were just playing a simple game match of running when in truth it was a preparation for the escape.  "How offensive, your plans, I mean," Callixta started uncomfortably as Ray read the remaining last chapters of the book he had left.

But that was the art of war, after all. To subdue the enemy without fighting, instead maneuvering the opponent in their own way.

The sky  was an ocean of clouds, seemingly like one of Claude Monet's paintings and the bracing breath of wind played with her hair as it moved in a steady tranquil pace, like it was content to meander its own tempo. It was a mother's gentle kiss to their cheeks.

Ray replied with a grumble, indicating he was listening to her. As he leaned on a big tree and sat on the grass, she stood under the tree's vast shade with a distance between them. He wasn't actually reading, of course. More like half-reading and half-peaking at her figure between the pages. Her back faced towards him, and she seemed to be letting her gaze wander past the different shades of the forest. "Shut up. Why don't you leave me alone and help them, idiot?"

"Didn't you say I'm on your watch? And what a smooth way to talk to me," she scoffed. "Weren't you taught to be gentle to girls?"

"Tch, old hag."

"Tch, " she mocked him with a harsh tone. "Beer Monocle."

"Pffft," Both of them turned to the newfound voice and there in front of the two laid Thoma, hands cupping his own cheeks with a teasing smile sent to them which caused Ray to roll his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

The younger one pouted before whining and beside him was Lannion who shared a high-five with Callixta after giving him a faint 'good work' , "Norman caught me. And I thought I had made a perfect escape, too." She tried to suppress a small smile to cross her face at his bluffing. Ray reaches a hand up to pat his head and says, "Merely wiping out your footprints is insufficient. Your intentions are crystal clear to Norman."

Piercing roseate eyes roamed past the children, a figure they were supposed to watch over had vanished from their sights in a blinding flash of light, like a shadow thrown by a passing cloud, leading to a look of great bitterness to swept across her face. Her renewed silence caught Ray's attention and when he gazed at her, her eyes, usually gleaming with amusement and full of keenness, were narrowed as it fixed upon a certain place.

Thoma shivered at the tension between the two of them. He was young but not dumb to not realize the atmosphere that had somewhat felt unsettled, even to him; Ray glaring at her and Callixta's behavior adding up more to the awkwardness. 

What's with her now? The answer to his question to no one in particular was answered right away as soon as his eyes followed her stare— Sister Krone was no longer there.

𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 | rayWhere stories live. Discover now