The Embers Book I: The First Fires Of War

Chapter Six: Lessons

Making their way over to the main building along with countless others, men and women of all ethnicities but all were young, ranging from their early twenties to early thirties. Gradually theyfiled in through the main entrance as Taylor and Jamie followed Mylar to the right of the reception desk. They entered into a huge rectangular hall with at least twenty tables in it able to seat at least ten to each one and half of them had already been filled.

"Whoa, I hope there's enough to go around," said Taylor, marvelling at the sheer number ofpeople in the huge hall taking their seats to eat.

"There's more than enough," said a voice from behind. Taylor jumped and turned to see Ryne smiling wickedly at his reaction.

"That's just creepy Ryne," said Mylar.

"I have to get my fun from somewhere," chuckled Ryne.

"But seriously, there is more than enough food to go around. We’ve got a whole kitchen of cooks. It's not gourmet cooking but it does the job," said Ryne.

He gestured for them to follow him to a table in the middle of all the others. Taylor saw Tobias and the two other heads of the Arturions sitting down with the twins Taylor took the spare seat by Tobias and wondered when the food was going to be ready his stomach had started to groan again and he hadn't thought to eat before going to sleep.

"Oh, by the way, Taylor, there's going to be some fresh clothes waiting for you when you get back. Unfortunately we've been so busy with other things we weren't able to get them sorted sooner," said Ryne. He looked unhappy with current events as they were.

"Thanks Ryne It'll be good to get out of these things and feel clean again," replied Taylor smiling.  He examined the state of his clothes seeing the ash still staining the hoodie and the burnt off sleeves from his outburst

"I look absolutely ridiculous," thought Taylor examining himself and then deciding to take what was left of the hoodie off and hang it on the back of his chair.

He caught a whiff in the air of a mix of sweat and burnt clothes just realising that it was him! "God I'm looking forward to a shower and some clean clothes later," tucking his arms to his sides to prevent the odour escaping his armpits but he could still smell it anyway.

"So what's happening about our families?" asked Jamie suddenly turning to Tobias, as it was all he'd thought about since they found out about the Cyturion's new recruit.

"They’re safe. I've arranged for them to be brought here by car. We can't bring them here with our usually way of transportation. Unfortunately it's far too soon for them to know who we are," replied Tobias looking to Jamie

"Okay," was all Jamie could say in return.

 He'd returned to keeping to himself as he did during the times he was worried about things. It also worried Taylor. He hated seeing his friend like this; it was difficult, to say the least. He glanced over at the other leaders of the Arturions, Cecilia and Argus. During the meeting it was revealed that Cecilia was the leader of the Arturions based in Ireland while Argus was in charge of Scotland.

The food finally arrived. It smelled divine, and it was lasagne with salad and a small portion of chips. This to Taylor had always been his favourite meal above all others. He cut into the lasagne taking a chip and some salad with it and moaned audibly as it melted in his mouth. He didn't know if it was because he was so hungry but it tasted better than his mum's.