The brisk march over the grassnds of Atntis tinued on with a slow history lesson. Eudokia expihe details about the barrier and Atntis. Most of it probably unnecessary, but once she got started it seemed difficult to stop her from going on. A glow in her fad eyes sparked when talking about old traditions.

  After more than an hour of stant walking those required to be the pack mules of the group got tired. Seiji was the most vocal, physically halting, f the rest, helping to stop as well. “Why the hell am I still carrying this damn boat of yours?!” Along with Seiji, Yuki, Haruo and Saki spaced out along the length of the boat carrying it over their heads. Most of the fatigue came from holding their arms above their heads rather tha. Saki managed most of the weight effortlessly, the rest ended up being around most for bahough Seiji was a matter of a male pride and not wanting to be shown up by a girl).

  She tilted back over her shoulder to meet with Seiji. “I have a pce to leave it. It’s further ahead.”

  “How much further?”

  Eudokia searched around the area, ag pensive for a while. She stayed silent seeking out ndmarks. Eventually, she kheir positioly. “About fifteen minutes.” After those words she tinued her lead, not giving them further ces for pause.

  Chapter 101 – Uneasy Greetings

  The arrival of a pin location unremarkable left everyone fused. Seiji gdly got rid of the boat, but still had his questions. “You just going to leave it out here in the open?”

  “No, I’m going to be burying it.”

  “We’ll be here for hours! I thought you said we didn’t have time to waste on shit like this!”

  “I’m not. Just watch.” Eudokia closed her eyes and focused on drawing s of light from her feet. As her Field came alive her clothes floated in the air uninhibited by gravity. However, their surprise came when the ground under her began to crater. The boat rose up followed by her and and lowered with her as a invisible sphere cut into the earth making it all disappear. Before she left their sight a couple of them leaned over curious.

  Itom of the crater dug out revealed a metal case. The sphere carved through the case letting the empty spaside breath out. The boat they carried became positioned over and then in the opening. Once allowed to rest, she rose back up with the grass returning in her ast. Eudokia exhaled shortly when she finished. “It’s stored now.” She received several bnk stares in respoo her method.

  Yuki watched the whole event carefully trying to uand how she ma. He still felt fused by what she achieved. “Hey, Ayumi… I thought our powers couldn’t go into the ground like that. I would have fallen through the Earth probably!”

  “Or suffocated. It takes a certain level of tration and focus to be able to achieve that. By default the surface of the Earth is where we stop.”

  The rough remark from Eudokia made Yuki swallow a little rough. He tried to ighe thought and pass on casually. “I sort of feel like that was all a little random. But that’s all pretty veo work out that way for us, huh?”

  “…yes…” Eudokia focused ba the horizon barely catg the light of a vilge. ‘Almost there… It’s a huge risk, but we don’t have a choibsp; The capital’s still more than a week away on foot…’

  B on the evening hours, the sun remained holding out for just a bit loo give them the time they o reach rest. No more than a few minutes away from a small vilge, Eudokia stopped them. She looked more serious than previously, a difficult feat for her. “Listen carefully, this is very important. Wheer the vilge speak to no one and look at no one. Don’t linger. Just follow me to the inn.”

  “Is something wrong?” Yuki searched around at the others. “Why ’t we talk to anyone? Shouldn’t we be friendly?”

  “Do you speak Atntean Greek?”

  “Of course not!”

  “Then don’t speak to anyone.”

  “But my powers—“

  “Don’t speak to anyone! Stay in the inn a me do all of the talking.”

  The rest of the group started to bee uneasy aless hearialk to them as she did. Yori leaned forward a little to get her attention. “Is there something we should know that you haven’t expio us?”

  She sighed not waiting to have to expin the obvious. “You’re all Japanese. It’s very clear you don’t belong here. Between not speaking the nguage and your appearance, you’re only going to cause trouble in the vilge. We o keep a low profile.”

  “If we’re going in I assume you have a pn for them not to be scared of fners entering their home?”

  “I was getting to expining the pn. I’m going to be using my power to ge everyone’s appearanbsp; So long as it is up you’ll look like an Atntean. We’re just going to be a vacationing group of friends from a nearby town.” She motioo the entrance of the vilge, a modest gate g any walls. A simple road ran through it uhe n and archway that made the gate. Further ihe inn waited for them. “I’ll only leave it going until we get a room. After that you stay in the room and out of sight. I’ll take care of the work of getting supplies.”

  Yori’s sister took a step forward out of the group. “That’s a lot of supplies for roup. You’ll need someoo go with you.”

  “It’s simpler if I go alone. There’ll be fewer problems.”

  “Won’t it look strahat only one person from a visiting group is going out? I’ll go with you.” She caught the look from Yori wanting to protest her going aloh Eudokia. “There won’t be any danger in the vilge, Brother. I’ll be fine.”

  Eudokia wao refuse, but khat a further debate would dey them. “Stay close to me. I won’t be able to make it st for long.”

  The South Gate Captain paused in the middle of the field viewing the terrain. He khe region well. All of the hiding pces and shortcuts were to him. Yet he remained cautious and ed about his new prey. The enemy left the entire search party retively unharmed a executed a quickly. ‘They eluded my men for hours before making a move. An odd decision sidering their success. What ged their tactibsp; Were they discovered?’

  While on their march he tried to get ihe mind of his prey to know the move. Unfortunately, he found tradis within his information. He cked the whole picture of what happehat he knew. However, he expected each a to follow a simir flow. ‘We know it was a group of individuals. None of the researchers from the bases ever stumbled in such rge groups. The aake it seem like there isn’t a leader or perhaps they don’t have unity. That could be our advantage.’ He rubbed his keeping to his statuesque figure.

  His team searched the area for clues to the path of their intruders. Only a few clues remained making it difficult to trad uaio the high traffi the patrols. A more important clue deduced from them worried him more than anything else. ‘Most intruders fall asleep upoering. Yet they did not. Even being lucky or careful wouldn’t at for that. They must have had a termeasure to it. If so they had to be aware of the barrier and its effects. This could be a deliberate invasion. But how? And who?’

  He only had specution and supposition to rely on. Nothing could be prove, but the unease he felt persisted. When such a feeling lingered he ko trust it. The Captain motioned out to his team t them babsp; “We’re moving out! Send out the signal to Delta Team!”

  The young soldier nodded and stiffly pressed his fist against his chest in salute. “Yes, Captain! Where should I tell Delta Team to search?”

  A map of the region came out in his mind to pn his move. ‘They couldn’t have gotten too far on foot. There’s only two vilges withiime that they’ve had.’ The border vilges of Skoupa and Kaped within range of the break-in point. Both received much traffi the soldiers on the border. They were used to their presence, but like the rest of the nd knew nothing of the outside world. Intruders never made it so far before. The pani fners in their vilge could give rise to new problems. He had to be swift. “Sea to Kapni. I want to iigate Skoupa personally.”

  “Captain? Wouldn’t it be more likely they’d go to Kapni? Kapni is closer to the border.”

  “You’d expect that of someone panicked and scared trying to find a new hiding pce as quickly as possible. But not this foe. This foe is uhe others. My gut is tellihey went to Skoupa. They know they’re being hunted and expect us to search Kapni first. They have intelligend ess in their as.”

  Seiji and Saki sneezed roughly in their room. The rest of the group looked back at them a little surprised by how loud they were. It took them a few moments to recover from the full body rea. Saki and Seiji gnced up at each other feeling a little odd. “That was strange.”

  “I’m gd we got in without any troubles” Yuki dropped himself on the edge of the bed. Their room only had two beds, but enough room on the floor as Eudokia said. They had no pns on staying past the m. Where their powers didn’t strain and force them to remain awake. He weled the break.

  As pnned, Yori’s sister and Eudokia shopped for the group to resupply their nearly spent food. In all of the traveling aement, they had nothing to eat for the majority of the day. While no one said anything about hunger, everyone khat it lingered ohoughts. So they wasted no time going out while the rest waited. The waiting made it more difficult not to focus on the ck of food.

  Fumiko hung by the window though keeping out of sight. She saw a few vilgers passing by carrying farming tools back from a long day of work. “For being so legendary, the people seem pretty normal and average. …it’s a little disappointing…”

  Yuki nodded remembering their uneasy walk into the vilge. Everything that he saw up before the vilge gave a fantastic appearanbsp; A barrier protected aire people ahem secret. The legendary city of Atntis turned real. He expected to find something more akin to a fantasy setting. Yet the citizens looked no different than any other fner. Their homes shared nothing with an unreal setting, very practical in fabsp; They had a rustid a appearance like from history books, but nothing out of pbsp; “Yeah I know… I know Ayumi said most of the people were normal, but being Atntis I just thought they would be really advanced in teology ical something…”

  “sidering the powers that some do possess, it is strange.” Yori sat on the floor with his back propped against the hand carved wooden dresser. “I would have expected they would have made use of that, but I’d dare say they are stu the past. It’s like time stopped for them.”

  Chiharu spun a kunai around her finger leaning against the wall. “I wouldn’t uimate them. It’s exactly because they appear this way that we should remain cautious. Unlike A Greece they are surrounded by the me. The citizens might not have muowledge of the world, but I doubt the leaders keep a blio the outside.”

  “Caution is best for now. I doubt that we’ve heard anywhere near everything about Atntis yet.”

  From he door, Seiji pounded his fist into his hand. He seemed to be psyg himself up. “Well it doesn’t matter all the hell much if they have sticks uns. We’ll deal with them the same way. We just have to stop whoever the hell is sending out assassins!”

  “Simplistic as always…” Her voice mao be picked up by Seiji's unusually good hearing. She gave him a cold stare. The look only enraged him and triggered him to charge for her. Unfortunately, it proved impossible for him to catch her.

  The words that Seiji mentioned got to Yuki. ‘…the assassins…’ He hadn’t given it too much thought since he decided to front the problem. The focus required of him during the boat and snow plow made it slip away from him. However, whenever he saw Eudokia tely, hesitation began to build into uainty. ‘She takes this all very seriously… I tell her that I ’t be the person she wants me to be?’

  Solitude ed around him, burrowing him further into his mind. ‘I came for my own reasons, but I don’t even know how I’m supposed to fix it…’ His reasons floated by him trying to provide strength. However, errant thoughts from the vilge came to him. He saw them hurrying around and most seemed to be ag normal, but he noticed a couple looking strange. When he saw them it got burned into his mind. ‘I couldn’t uand them, but they seemed uled and nervous… The more that I saw them the more it felt like the whole vilge had an air of unease…like they feared something…’

  He tilted over toward the closed window. The vilgers faded through his vision addi to his worries. ‘She said the King maintains them… What happens if there’s no King? How much do they need a King?’ Yuki tightened his hands, balling up the b of the bed into his hands.

  Across the room he found Saki silently waiting. She didn’t meet his gaze, but it still felt like she looked disappointed with him. ‘Saki… I abandon them? Leave them alone? Do I have a choibsp; Is this my fate? I’m sorry, I ’t keep my promise…’