Code of Shadows

Chapter 10: Belle

I entered my private study to find Aala already waiting.

"How did you get in here?" I asked exasperated.

Aala gave me a small frown then pointed over to the corner where a large blue tinted cylinder sat.

"What is that?" I asked.

Aala chuckled. "That is one of the newest inventions. It is a Cyclopos, pretty much a teleporter. Your Cyclopos has only a few determined destinations in it though. It has the capitol building, the training room, and the docks. Only a few people have access to this new invention, and may I warn you they do give you some odd feelings when you go through them."

"Oh..." I said.

"Yeah. They are pretty cool. Anyway, I am suppose to get you to training. Just follow what I do." Aala strode over to the Cyclopos, and touched a button, then disappeared with a flash of blue light.

I approached the tube with a little more caution. I hadn't seen anything like this before. The tube looked beautiful and could easily be dismissed as a decoration. I cautiously put a hand to the outside of the tube. A small glass door flashed open for me. I stepped into the contraption. As soon as I had passed completely into the tube, the lid flew shut.

I turned around, and banged on the glass. I normally didn't act like a hooligan when trapped in small spaces, but this tube did it. My panic level rose every second I couldn't get out of the tube

"Ms. Agathist. When you are ready, please press one of the buttons to head to your intended destination." I glanced up to see a speaker in the ceiling. Great, now the tube can talk to me. Is it not enough for it to trap me?

I looked down at the panel next to me. Slowly I pushed in the button that said 'training room.' As soon as my finger came of the button, the machine went into action. The same blue flash as before showed up in front of me. The tube jerked down, and I shot through a passageway. I calmed myself, this wasn't so bad.

A moment after I thought that several sensations crashed down on me all once, and none of them were pleasant. I really had spoken too soon. I was falling, then the air was being sucked out of my lungs, my stomach was in my throat, and finally, the tube slowed its break neck speed to hiss to a stop in a gym area. The glass side opened with a swoosh, and I stumbled out.

I had taken a few steps out of the Cyclopos when my stomach caught up to me.

I bent over and heaved the contents of my stomach out. 

"Oh yeah, an odd feeling," I moaned. "That was more like death coming to greet you, eating you, then spitting you out."

She laughed. "You will get used to it.  It's not that bad after a while."

"Yeah sure." I said as I stood up. Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

I got a good look around the training room. The ceilings were high and exposed to show the metal trusses. The room consisted of four sections, each in a corner.  One had exercise equipment, another had a bunch of weird obstacles stacked together, the next had a few tables and shelves, and the final corner had all the weapons that you could dream off. Nothing took up the middle of the large room. 

My eyes finally settled on a short, stubby, thin man in the middle of the room. As soon as my eyes met his, he spoke.

"Hello, Cait. I am your instructor. My name is Guru. Let's get started."

And with that, he threw a card, whispered something unintelligible, then watched as a large obstacle came flying towards me.

I stared at the obstacle in surprised, but my reaction took too long. The obstacle bulldozed me.