Chapter 36 - Search Plan

"Welcome! Welcome everyone!" Exclaimed the Regent to each person in the battalion who passed.

 And upon entering the castle the best rooms were assigned to him, the regent even made some of his supporters give up their quarters to the apprentices. Even the aspirants were treated with perks.

 And when all was ready, Thorin retired to the Regent's chambers with him. So they could get the town's affairs in order and come up with a plan.

 "Where should I start?" Asked the regent more to himself than to Thorin.

 "You can start from the beginning," replied Thorin, not understanding the context of the situation.

 "Aham," coughed the conductor. "It all started about two months ago, at first it was just a few cases of disappearances here and there, the normal amount for a city with fifty thousand inhabitants. But then dozens began to disappear and now hundreds are almost missing. appearance of the evil responsible for our..." The man then began to narrate the events of the last two months.

 While Thorin and the regent talk about the events and how to resolve them. Pan found himself in a room almost as luxurious as the one he has in the Order. Mavis was now out of his backpack and walking around curiously.

 Apart from Edward, no one else knew about the little one's existence. Not because Pan was reluctant to tell, but simply because he went from class to room and from room to class. Stopping now and then to exchange lengths with Ava.

 'I hope that's not the case.' Thought Pan. There were many fallen that could crush or drain someone, but few that did both, there were even fewer that could be so insidious as to roam around, with only a few reports of their appearance.

 If it was what Pan thought it was. So this graduation would be much more difficult than he expected.

 'I hope it isn't.' Thought of Pan and went to sleep. The trip had drained his vitality as he couldn't sleep decently outside the walls.

 The next day, Thorin gathered the sixty assigned to Lurea outside the castle and in the castle's "backyard."

 "The Regent and I suspect that we are dealing with Siaks, a dangerous and insidious species among the fallen, they are Earth-grade soldiers," said Thorin and shortly afterward the apprentices broke out in a cold sweat.

 'How lucky for us.' Thought Pan sarcastically. He wished it were something else, but he never got his hopes up. 

 "But there is nothing to fear. Siaks act alone, or in small groups, their skin is easy to cut, being in the sixty-one in all, I don't think we will have so many problems", said Thorin encouraging the group. "We're going to start an investigation to find your nest. I'll separate you into six groups of ten, containing one apprentice and nine aspirants each. I'll stay in the castle so I can respond quickly to the first group that finds the Siaks' nest."

 Thorin then assigned nine aspirants and one apprentice to each group.

 "The cripple? Tsk," whispered a midshipman to a close colleague, when he learned that Pan would be his team leader.

 But Thorin's word was final and nothing could be done about it. Pan then took his group and began to roam the city, looking for clues or tracks left by the Siaks.

 He stole the perception of the plants and trees that had been planted here and there inside the city, to try to perceive through the green what his human senses missed.

 "Let's go to the sewers," ordered Pan much to his group's displeasure. The order came after Pan realized through a plant's senses that the sewage exhaled more than just feces, urine and rotting food. It wasn't just the normal stench, but a putrid one, the same one he'd smelled from the crumpled bodies on the salt road.

 "Sir, I think we should look in dry places! Siaks like dry places," said the same aspirant who complained that Pan was a cripple.

 "You don't think naphen," Said Pan and looked at him with half-closed eyes and his left hand on his sword scabbard. Then he put some essence on his feet and made the snowy ground explode with controlled modesty.

 "Yes, I'm sorry," replied the aspirant in a shaky voice. Crippled or not, Pan still tamed the essence.

 The group then entered the sewers. And right away two wannabes vomited with the putrid stench.

 "Silence," whispered Pan as he used his sword to cut through the tunnel's cobwebs. "If you're going to make noises, you might as well leave," he whispered harshly.

 "I'm sorry, sir," said a man twice as old as Pan.

 "Yes, we're sorry," commented the girl who also vomited.

 "Walk in line and draw your weapons now, make any noise from here on out and I'll kill you myself," Pan whispered mischievously to scare the group.

 An act that worked, as everyone drew their weapons in advance and quickly so as not to make noise when drawing them further ahead. Which made him question how much the Crusaders abused their power and how much people feared them. Pan also removed the clattering things from the backpack and set them on the floor. Making Mavis wake up from sleep.

 'Don't make no noise, little one, but keep awake.' Pan thought and Mavis nodded in agreement.

 The group then continued walking further into the tunnel for a few minutes. Until they stop in a trail of blood.