Chapter 59: Separated

Far above the lower floors Gideon opened his eyes on a floor of cracked marble. He lay still for a long moment, listening. The only sound was wind through broken windows. He sat up.

He was in a hall with a high ceiling. Half the ceiling had fallen in. Banners hung in tatters from the walls, and on each one, faded almost to nothing, was a sword on a blue field. It was from The Heavenly Sword Guild.

His hand went to his belt, where the cracked silver badge hung. He touched it with two fingers, like checking a wound.

"Ten years," he whispered. He stood up and walked to the nearest window. Outside was Floor 50.

It looked nothing like he remembered. The old pioneer camps had been replaced by tall glass towers with gold trim. Giant red banners ran along the sides of the buildings. They showed a rising sun with wings.

The Radiant Dawn. He watched a patrol of guards in crimson capes march across the street. They didn’t look at his hall. They walked past as if the old base were nothing, a stain on the corner of a nice city.

’They built over us,’ he thought. ’They took everything, painted it red, and called it new.’

He turned from the window and looked around the hall. Every table was overturned. Every cabinet was open. Someone had searched this place a long time ago, and they hadn’t been careful.

But in the far wall, behind a toppled bookshelf, there was a small door he didn’t think they had found. He walked toward it.

’My squad’s room,’ he thought. ’Where we kept the real records.’

He put his hand on the handle. He stood there for a while, with his eyes closed, and breathed.

"All right," he said quietly. "Let’s see what you left me." He pushed the door open.

....

Then we saw Floor 1 gate hall.

A line of fresh hunters waited by the wall, holding their badges and chatting nervously. Guards in blue uniforms walked between them, checking papers. The doors at the end of the hall led out to the tunnels, and a light came through the crack.

In the middle of the floor, the air shimmered. A small black circle opened, like a drop of ink in water. It spat out a body and closed again.

The body hit the ground with a soft thud. Nobody noticed at first. Then a girl in the line turned her head. "Hey. Did you see that?"

A woman was lying on the ground. She had long hair that spread across the floor like spilled ink. Her skin was clean, and her face was as perfect as a statue’s. She wore a torn dress under a long cloak, and the dress clung to her body where it was still whole. The cloak had fallen open at the front and the skirt was revealing her legs. She was breathing slowly. Her eyes were closed.

The hall went quiet. "Is she dead?" someone whispered.

"No. Look, she’s breathing."

"She’s... wow."

A tall hunter with a scar on his chin walked over first. He stopped few steps away, and his eyes went from her face down to her neck, her rising and falling chest, and her thin waist. His gulped.

"Lost one," he said, with a smile. "Probably a noble girl. She must have teleported by mistake."

"She’s hurt," a smaller man said, coming up beside him. "Should we call the guards?"

"We are the guards," the scarred man said. "Close enough."

Three more hunters joined them. Then five. They formed a circle around her, and it slowly got tighter. Nobody said what they were thinking. The quiet in the hall had turned into something different.

The girl in the line took a step forward and stopped. Her mouth opened to say something, then closed. She looked at the guards near the door. They had their backs turned.

"I’ve never seen a woman like that," one of the men breathed.

"Look at her skin."

"These clothes isn’t ordinary."

"Whoever she belongs to won’t miss her for a while." The scarred man crouched. He reached one hand out, slowly, toward her chest.

"Easy," he said softly. "Easy now. We’ll take care of you."

His fingers were an inch away .A cold wind passed through through hall, It came from the woman on the floor, in a breath, and every hunter near her felt the hair rise on their arms.

Her eyelashes trembled. The scarred man froze, with his hand hanging in the air. Slowly, very slowly, her eyes opened

"...Dante..." She said.

"Where," she whispered, and her eyes turned toward his face, "is my King?"

Then she feels something. ’My wings’, she thought, a sudden panic fluttering in her chest. ’Where are my wings?’

She raised a trembling hand to her forehead. Smooth, unblemished skin. ’No horns’. She reached back frantically, but there was only the line of her own spine, there was no tail.

[Teleport error detected. Host form reduced to Human Mode.]

[Floor Core status: Dormant. Recovery time unknown.]

[Power output limited to 20%.]

’Twenty percent’, she mused, her lips twitching into a faint, bitter line. ’Fine. Still more than enough to slaughter every worm in this room.’

Then she noticed the shadow. A hand hovered in the air, barely an inch above her shoulder. It belonged to a towering man with a scar splitting his chin. He was staring down at her with a grin that made her stomach turn. Around him, a tight ring of hunters pressed close, their eyes tracing the lines of her exposed collarbone and the curve of her body.

’What are they doing?’ , she thought, her fingers curling against the stone. They think I’m a prize.’

Her nails began to lengthen, sharpening into dark, lethal points. It would take less than a heartbeat. Just a flick of her wrist, and she could tear his throat out.

Then a voice come in her mind.

"Four. You don’t threaten, hurt, or lock up anyone I haven’t told you to."

Esabella stopped She forced her breath to slow, letting her fingers go entirely limp against the floor.

’No’, she reminded herself, a desperate, fierce ache blooming in her chest. I promised him. If I break his rules on the very first day, he’ll leave me. "

She looked up at the scarred man, forcing her voice to drop into a small helpless purr.

" remove your hand," she said softly.

The man’s grin tightened, pulling back his hand with a theatrical slowness, as though granting a grand favor. "Easy there, little lady. We’re just trying to be neighborly. You were looking awfully lonely down there on the floor."

"Thank you." Esabella sat up as she tightly gathered her cloak around herself. "Where am I?"