The Fight for Salvus

Alfred was not happy to be working with someone from the Militia again, to say the least. Yes, he had heard Cairo's arguments, he knew that it was possible for someone to change. But right now, in the midst of a battle? He just didn't feel like taking that chance. As Evelyn and the others entered the building, he made sure to stay far away from the militia warrior, and kept an eye on her. Silence appeared behind him, a sudden and comforting presence, despite his scary look. 'I understand your concern,' he thought in their mental link, not through words but a chaotic mix of pictures. 'but perhaps she might know something that we don't. Cairo was correct.'

'Hmmph.' Alfred chose to not respond. Instead, he walked further inside and nodded a greeting to Walker and Hartwin and their dragons, who were all hovered around the artifact. The item sat in the center of a table in the middle of the metal room, surrounded by wires and tools and lights. "Progress?" he asked the room.

Walker shook their head forlornly. Hartwin got up from where he'd been squatting. There was oil in his hair. "None. Still can't even get this thing to turn on."

Evelyn, careful to keep her distance, eyed the device. "You got this from us, yes? Which department?"

Walker squinted at the new arrival. They motioned a hand towards Evelyn, an obvious 'who is this'. Basil hopped onto a nearby chair to gain some height and grinned in delight.

"This is Evelyn! She's changing her life around, like the epic person I always knew she was," Basil announced. Friend, by his side, nodded in eager agreement.

Evelyn paused. "I don't think you all are as bad as I thought you were."

Hartwin tilted his head, and eventually seemed to give his trust to the woman. "Aren and I went to one of your research centers. It was a room towards the center, one of the bottom floors. big and open. Pedestal in the center. Then we ran out of there." He motioned with a pencil in one hand as he talked.

Alfred ignored them. He bent down and stared at the device. Smooth sides, a gem on top. No matter what he and the others had done, it refused to open, turn on, do anything. He was so tired of waiting for results.

Evelyn was speaking. Alf refused to pay attention. He caught some of what she was saying - something about numbers and science and stuff that he didn't care to know about. Not until, at the last, she said something that caught everyone's attention.

"I helped work on this project. Part of why I was sent here, you know. In my back pocket, there's a name badge, it will turn on the device if it's pressed against the side," she offered. Everyone stopped, stared.

Alf broke the silence. "It's locked to militia members, then." And he sighed, and realized that Evelyn being present was necessary, and more than that, Basil had probably saved the entire town through his ridiculous trusting of everyone.

"Yes. We tend to be a bit overprotective of things," Evelyn explained, eyes averted from the group. She kept her bound hands at her side, and Walker walked over to take the card from her pocket. With the item in hand, they pressed it against the side of the device. A long pause, a held breath from everyone present -

- and then the gem atop the device turned on, and a panel on the side opened with a joyous click. Basil cheered, wings flapping in excitement. "Hey, we've done it! Hit the button or whatever and let's get out of here!"

Hartwin was examining the new things that had been uncovered by the opening panel. "Not yet. There's inputs here, we need to add in a bunch of numbers." He began to scribble notes down on the table itself. "Walker, help me with this," he said. Walker's dragon Agate glided over to join the group, and they began quietly discussing things among them.

Alfred and Silence hung back. Alf wanted to assist, but he also was keeping a close eye on Evelyn still. It seemed like she was coming over to him. 'Oh no,' Alfred thought to Silence, who sent back a feeling of commiseration.

"You're Alfred?" she said, leaning up against the wall next to him. She was keeping her distance, but there was a certain curiosity in her eyes that Alf didn't think he liked.

"I suppose I am," Alf replied, comforted by the presence of Sil behind him. "Why do you ask?"

"I remember hearing about you, that's all. And I've been told a lot of stories. I don't remember hearing about this dragon of yours, however. Are they new?"

Sil watched, unblinking, and said nothing as per usual. Of course Alf was left to answer the question. "This is Silence. He wasn't my dragon, not at first. Something's... wrong with me." He wasn't sure how to explain. "Dragons can't bond with anyone else after their rider dies, you know that."

"Course I do," Evelyn agreed. "And yet you managed to anyway?" It wasn't a question. More of a statement. Hartwin and Alfred's tinkering added a background hum of noise.

Why was Alf telling this woman he barely trusted everything? Well, he supposed he wanted to know the truth about things. This mystery woman, able to assist in saving the town (apparently), might know a bit more about what had happened to him, too. "Sil's rider died. I did... something. Formed a new bond when it should have been impossible."

"Oh. I'm... sorry," Evelyn said to Sil with an apologetic nod. "It's not completely unheard of, though. I've been told of several folks in the militia who went through some weird experiment, gained that power. Wasn't my department, though."

Alfred blinked, a sudden interest now in him. "Really? You think that could explain me?"

"It's possible." Evelyn brought her tied hands up to scratch an itch on her face, while Alfred watched warily. "Tell you what. If your town gets out of this alright and we're all still alive at the end of this, I'm willing to look into things more for you."

"You're going back to the militia?" Alf asked.

Evelyn paused. "I owe them a lot. Been working with them all my life. But if they've been lying to me about you all? No."

"Well. Your card thing had better not be a trap, first. Then we'll see," Alf said, still very suspicious. He could see something good in this woman. But he was still so skeptical.

"Trust me, it's not one."

Hartwin, over by the artifact, jolted as Basil leaned in and said (loudly) "You're all taking this too seriously! Just stick in the cord-inates and let's get out of here! Right?" Walker turned to stare at Basil, and Alf and Evelyn's conversation fell by the wayside by this sudden loudness.

"How do you know its coordinates?" Hartwin asked. The dirt in his hair had moved down onto his face since Alf has last looked. Sil sent a mental image of Hartwin rolling in mud to his rider. Perhaps that would be the next step for the poor guy with the ever growing amount of dirt on his person.

"Uh. Hmm." Basil thought for a moment. "Well, I don't, really. But I bet we could send someone out around town and find the exact numbers of the place, right?"

"And you're volunteering?" Hartwin asked.

"Duh! My dragons and I are so willing to wander around the battle and obtain confusing numbers. Or we would, if I knew math," Basil said sheepishly. "Walker's good with numbers, though, why not send them?"

Walker paused in their work, and gave a hesitant thumbs up to the group. Agate spoke brightly. "We are very good indeed."

Hartwin put one hand on Walker's shoulder. "If you're going out there I want you to be careful, that's all. And take Basil with you. If any of you die..." he shook his head, refusing to think about it. "Well. I'll have Minerva bring back your ghost so I can scold you."

Basil winced at that, but not in the usual way someone might when bringing back spirits is brought up. Something else was afoot. But Alfred didn't know what, and Silence offered no help in deducing it. The moment passed. "Of course we'll come with!" the red panda said, back to energy and cheer at once. "Maybe we'll find more cool folks like Evelyn, who knows?"

"Please don't get killed trying to talk to all the soldiers," Hartwin added, in exasperation.

"Won't happen. We've got this."

Hartwin opened his mouth, about to protest further, but decided against it. "Alright, fine. Good luck out there. Alf and I will keep tabs on this thing."

"We sure will," Alfred agreed, glad he wasn't being sent out somewhere else. He needed to think, and preferably stay far away from the Militia he'd spent so long trying to get away from. Silence offered a simple mental hug, but outwardly did nothing. Still, Alf appreciated the gesture, and as Walker, Basil, and dragons left fairly quietly through the door to examine the outskirts of the town, Alfred leaned back into Silence's cold scales and sighed.

Evelyn and Hartwin began a discussion on the other side of the room, and Alfred let them talk. He needed a bit. 'It would be nice if she actually knows,' he thought to his dragon. Silence nodded in response. The two took to watching out the boarded up window of the room, on lookout for danger. Alf had been tense ever since news of the Militia arriving had reached him. 'Are we actually going to get away, you think? For real?'

All Alfred received from Silence was a hopeful emotion, at least at first. But then the feeling blossomed into a picture - a mental scene.

In it, the sky was shining a bright golden, and cloud were wandering overhead. Alfred found himself in the vision, laying in the grass. There were flowers in his hair and a smile on his face - he was laughing. And all his dragons were there, too - Myr, Hiraeth, Kubrow, Aspenfall - and Silence, of course.

They were all sitting around a large bonfire, and Myr was casting illusions as illustrations to a story she was telling. The grass was warm, the world was alive, and all was well. It was a lovely mental picture. 'Is this really what you think we'll be able to do?' He took it all in, a spot of brilliance amidst all the chaos of the present time.

Silence offered another mental picture as answer - him waving a wing to the sky, which was filled with picture after picture of different planets and places. 'We'll be free, for good, and we'll be able to go on any type of adventure you like,' Alfred interpreted.

'Thanks, Sil,' Alfred thought to his dragon. 'I hope that's what happens.'

He got up from where he was leaning - Silence helped him up - and Alf strode over to where Hartwin and Evelyn were still conversing. The time for introspection was over, Alf thought. There were things to be done, a town to save, and now that they were all so close to escaping, he was energized like never before to do whatever he could.

He interjected into the conversation - "You aren't forgetting the up and down of the space we're transferring, right? Don't want to take a thin sheet of the area over, we want to bring the whole place across."

Silence didn't follow, but he was pleased all the same to see his rider back in action, and accepting Evelyn's odd presence. He gazed out the window, ears alert for any sign of trouble, and when he found none, he sent a mental message to the rest of Alf's dragons, whom were out in the battle itself.

'I think we're all going to be just fine.'