C99

13. Strings

Running along the long corridors of Vestigial as the blue flames of the candles that lined the walls flickered to and fro, I was in a rush to meet with the head for another of my hopeful expeditions. Passing by many associates of the society, I cannot help but bump into one by the shoulder rather hard, making a loud clang when our armor collided with one another and paperwork flew in the air.

"Hey! Watch it! After I polished it well for hours too...Damn!" A female shrieked at the top of her lungs and complained, making a scene with others chiming in. Ahh, what a pain.

All I could do was apologize with a half-hearted smile and laugh, brushing off the female knight's rage as I was off again in haste, not giving anyone the luxury of wasting my time further.

Vestigial is a secret society created by the three queens of Jiuevel after there were many attempts of assassination. With Facelle being a rather friendly kingdom, some see the lethargic attitude of not conquering more land as a sign of weakness; thus the birth of Vestigial. Those chosen are to be part of a solemn brotherhood that collects information all around in a discreet manner. Everyone is to be expected to make a report at the end of the day.

Hidden upstairs in the mess hall of the local barracks, no one would bat an eye and suspect anything; not with everyone getting wasted daily. Fortunate enough, we were the ones in charge of the area to keep a close eye on anyone acting suspicious. Authenticated members such as myself, have a small invisible mark on the nape blessed by the queens, which enables us to pass through a certain mirror decorating the floor. The average person would merely use it to stare at their shoes or as a way to peep on unsuspecting people. Kind of distasteful. Though I can't complain, it's easy to get transported inside Vestigial by falling into it.

Most of us work at the late hours of the night to avoid high suspicion. Or not sleep at all. It is truly helpful that we were urged to move in with the promise of comfort as we picked our rooms. To build a connection as a family of some sorts to further have trust amongst the members. What sets us apart from the normal knights is that our duties are to weed out potential dangers around the kingdom with very thorough planning. Even if it meant being out of its boundaries.

We are the owls who linger in the shadows to take care of 'cleaning' those unseen by the public eye.

Our protection consists of mediumweight ebony armor that never reflects any kind of shimmer with neon green linings all over. The helmet is rather peculiar, to say the least. It looks like a thick androgynous mask that only has the lower half of the face visible, so that we can at least read lips and not sound muffled whenever we want to speak. In my case, I never take it off. Maybe out of insecurity in a world full of infinite possibilities that can happen.

If you ask me, the job is like collecting gossip while getting a bed to sleep on and have food on the table. I managed to grab onto this opportunity after merely being passed along as the sickly errand boy that always feels random bouts of pain. The only work I can have was to be an assistant for newcomers to train to become adequate knights three years ago. What it meant was: picking up weapons, fixing dummies, cleaning the students' mess, and eating scraps from their plates when the hunger took over the pride. Unlike in the peaceful village of Veshoal, or the Desert Dunes where we rely on simple instincts to survive; it proved difficult for me to get used to the customs of the city life that requires money all the time.

In their eyes, I only wanted attention whenever I felt waves of pain course through my body. I was only but a naive nineteen year old at the time. A few months later, I got handpicked by some veteran knights after they saw I have some potential of going far when they discovered I was hacking up some dummies when I thought I was alone. They probably did it out of sympathy after thinking that I may be waltzing with death everyday. I wouldn't blame them.