Matching a name and an image to the company that was bothering Colt wasn't anywhere near as hard as Jay had initially assumed it was going to be. She found herself in the hotel room next to the tavern alongside her other companions as Lana continued toying with her holographic interface, and Jay watched from afar with hopes that Lana would be able to uncover something.
It only took a few minutes for Lana to finally zero in on something. The Air mage cleared her throat before she started to explain to the group at large all that she had found. "As far as I can tell, the group here that we're looking into is the Otholle Corporation," Lana began to say. "That appears to be the most likely suspect, at the very least. It's a large group that's been trying to expand their reach into other fields for quite some time now."
"That's putting it simply," Jubilee snorted affectionately. "As far as I can tell, they've already got influence in all sorts of fields. They're stretching out beyond their previous limits, but that doesn't mean that their influence was minimal in the first place. In fact, I would most certainly argue that this has been a problem for far longer than any of us have been aware of."
Jay cringed at Jubilee's words and closed her eyes to think over what they had learned. She had heard of Otholle before, though she hadn't delved deep into what they were involved with in quite some time. She knew that the company had been established ages ago, back before she had been born, and their influence stretched far and wide. Some even said that the company had a stake in politics, though there was little evidence to back this up. Jay was positive that there were more than a few shady secrets hiding beneath the behemoth of the company's reputation, and she turned to Jubilee prematurely with hopes that the other girl would be able to clarify at least a little bit of what she knew.
Jubilee seemed to recognize that Jay was staring without even looking in her direction. "I can say that I've heard quite a bit about their business practices. The owner of the company lives in excess, but nobody is quite sure who it is. That's a secret that Otholle has kept for a long time in the name of trying to ensure that no trouble arrives on their doorstep... At the very least, that's the excuse they use when people get curious about everything that they're hiding," Jubilee explained. "If you ask me, there has to be something else going on there that they're simply refusing to talk about. I don't trust giant groups like that. There's a reason that I prefer to go solo when there's a choice of being with or against the rest of the world."
"I've heard something similar," Arian interjected. "I don't think that I know anywhere near as much on the subject as you do, but... I think that there's definitely something wrong here. Pardon me if I'm jumping to conclusions too quickly, but I'm positive that the person leading the company is up to something. They simply have to be. Why else would they make sure that Colt wasn't able to leave?"
"That's not a new trend as far as I can tell," Lana frowned. She pointed to a particular point on her hologram, and Ronan leaned over her shoulder to see it in more detail. "There are all sorts of employees who have been trying to speak out about their experiences with the company, but they were forced into silence before they could tell anybody what happened while they were there. Rumors have been circulating for quite a while now saying that the company underpays its employees despite the large sums of money that come in through its various assets each year."
"They want to keep everyone quiet then," Jay whispered. It didn't particularly surprise her, but she didn't want to openly say that given that it was what they were all thinking. "We have to figure out a way to get him out of there then. If Colt is really a Skylian Mage like we think, then that's the next natural step. We don't have any other leads, and if he really deals in information like we think he does, then he's going to be our key to figuring out what to do next."
"Coming up with a plan is going to be the hard part here, I'm afraid," Lana told her with a shake of her head. "Otholle keeps everything under tight wraps to ensure that no information gets out that shouldn't already be in the public's collective consciousness. I wish that I could tell you more than what I already have, but I'm afraid that I don't know much about them either. Jubilee, have you heard anything?"
Jubilee hesitated before shrugging. "It's difficult to say if anything I say will be helpful. All I've heard is that despite their pristine public image, they're far less pretty behind closed doors. Then again, it certainly doesn't take a genius to see that given what we've already heard about today. We're just going to have to stay on our toes and make sure that we're one step ahead at all times. It's not exactly great advice, but it's all that we can really do at the moment," she explained.
"If there are really problems between the employees and supervisors at the company, then maybe we could try to turn the tides and shift things into our favor," Ronan suggested. He paused to think it over before he shook his head. "Then again, I suppose that would take a long time to organize, and we don't really have much time to spare given the situation..."
"We've come so far in trying to figure out everything that's going on with the Skylian Mages, but it feels like we're still clueless as to what Lyloc even wanted them to get together for," Jay muttered. "She seems to think that the Skylian Mages are going to be crucial in order to stop something bad from happening, but we don't know any details beyond that. If our foe is a Lakinya, then that's one thing, but... We're going to need a bit more than that if we're going to keep this planet from slipping into catastrophe, you know?"
"Skylia not having a central government isn't exactly helpful either. There are people who look over specific towns and cities throughout the planet, but the closest thing that this place had to a central government was the Skylox Heroes. With them gone, we don't really have anywhere to go with the information that we've gathered," Lana remarked. "Maybe Otholle will know something about all of this, but I somehow doubt that anybody from the company is just going to tell us what we want to hear. There's no way it'll be that easy."
"I haven't figured out anything beyond what I've already mentioned. If I had heard something by now, I would have either thought to search for the other Hanilia in the group or mentioned it to you guys. I haven't heard anything through collecting information in less legal circles, and Lana is clueless by collecting information in ethical circles. Seems to me like we're going to have to hope to every higher power out there that Colt has something for us to use. If he doesn't have anything, then we're going back to square one, just this time with more players," Jubilee sighed.
"I suppose there's nothing we can do now but get down to the investigation," Arian announced. He stretched his arms above his head and let out a sigh. "I'm not exactly looking forward to all the ways that this could go wrong, but we don't really have much of a choice in the matter. Let's go on and see what we can accomplish for the time being."
There were no objections to his words, and the party slowly began to file away from the room. They weren't exactly sure of where to start or where they would have to go from there, but it was something, and that was all they could really ask for at the moment. Jay could feel the tension hanging heavily in the air, but she chose not to comment on it, instead biting her tongue and watching as she placed one foot in front of the other.
Colt being a member of the group would certainly fit in with the information that they had gathered quite some time ago. However, that left one rumor that matched up with a Fire mage and a lack of a fighter in the Mystic element and its subgroups. There were five Skylian Mages if one was going off the number of elemental subcategories, and they had already gathered three. Colt would make for a fourth, but the final one was still a mystery.
Jay resisted the urge to stare at Lana out of the corner of her eye, knowing that it wasn't going to accomplish anything. Instead, she let out a small breath through her nose to try and ground herself as she attempted to focus on the mission at hand. She would have all the time in the world to focus on the final rumor after they had found Colt. For all she knew, he would wind up having the information that they needed, and her curiosity would all be for naught. Jay was hoping for that outcome, but she wasn't going to hold her breath in case it didn't wind up coming to fruition.
The future for all of them was uncertain, and Jay wasn't sure that she would be able to change such until after the Skylian Mages were together. For the time being, finding Colt had to be her priority. Everything else could wait until after this had been taken care of. It was this sense of duty and responsibility that kept Jay from getting too lost in her thoughts of Lyloc as she wondered what all of this was even meant to be for.
Cryai's words had made it pretty damn clear that there was a Lakinya involved with all that had taken place. Jay was positive that the Lakinya in question had been tied in with the attack that had happened in the ruins of Nadia as well. Lyloc's words still rang in her ears, and she wanted nothing more than to listen to Lyloc speak once again, but this time, perhaps the spirit would offer more advice beyond simply offering a task and disappearing back into the shadows.
Jay wasn't surprised by Lyloc's strange ways at all, but that didn't mean that she wasn't frustrated. Still, she forced herself to shove her upset aside, knowing that there were far more important subjects at hand. She could afford to be curious about what made Lyloc so peculiar another time, but finding Colt mattered most.
Jay gave one final glance at Lana out of the corner of her eye before they left the hotel in full. She was going to try and ask Lana about all that had taken place once again after Colt had been retrieved from the grasps of Otholle. It wasn't as if she expected Lana to open up easily, but what other choice did she have? Lana had made her stance clear, but there weren't any other easy methods to finding out the truth about the Skylian Mages.
Once again, Jay's eyes followed the rhythmic pattern of her feet being placed one in front of the other. It was oddly hypnotic, allowing the rest of her thoughts to drift away into the corners of her mind where she hopefully wouldn't have to put up with them for quite some time. There were no promises, but even a temporary belief in reprieve was more than enough for her. She could deal with all of this later. For just a moment, she needed a break, and finding Colt appeared to be just the distraction that she needed.
~~~~~
At one point in time, Colt had actually liked his job.
It was something that not even Colt himself could believe given how far he had fallen from the graceful times of his glory days. He had changed since he was first employed by the higher-ups of Otholle, and he had come to absolutely hate everything that he had to do in order to earn his keep on a daily basis. Just thinking about his work was more than enough to elicit a roll of his eyes, and that was the best outcome. At worst, he muttered a few vulgar phrases under his breath while threatening to kick a rock straight into the sun.
Colt had been sent out on yet another mission to gather information. There weren't even any details on the subjects that he was meant to be investigating. Then again, was he really meant to expect a better briefing than simply to 'get it done'? He hadn't received more than that in quite a while, and that was only one facet of his many frustrations with his work. It was the one that he could describe the easiest, but it was still only a fragment of why he detested the job that he had been given with such incredible passion.
Colt had been hearing whispers for quite some time that there was something new taking place on Skylia. He heard his supervisors, elaborate people who wore far too much jewelry for their fragile bodies, whispering amongst themselves that there was a group of Hanilia moving together once again. It was more than simply the organization effort being led by the Draconic Superiors as far as Colt could tell, but nobody ever seemed to be willing to tell him anything about it beyond the fact that something was happening.
Perhaps it was this sense of curiosity that had drawn him to Jubilee in the first place. Under most circumstances, Colt was meant to gather information with as little help from others as possible to keep from making people suspicious. It was a rule that he had grown used to a long time ago regardless of how much he hated it. Still, Jubilee was known by many people to be an expert when it came to gathering information that no others would be able to get their hands on otherwise. She was a smart person who knew how to use her wits to her advantage, and that was too much for Colt to pass up on.
He didn't know what he expected, if he was being perfectly honest. Colt just wanted to hear something that might get his irritating supervisors off his back for once. He had been in this business for longer than he could remember, but he never seemed to get a break. After all, he was their perfect little worker bee, and perfect little worker bees had to keep on buzzing until their wings felt like they were about to fall off.
Colt did his best to shake himself free of his bitterness, knowing that it wasn't going to help him in the slightest. If he was going to get something done, he was going to have to focus. He let out a small huff of a breath as he kept walking. He stopped when he came across an alleyway that nobody had bothered to watch over, and he drew a circle in the sky before passing through the portal that had been created in the space between the lines.
Colt stepped out soon afterwards, and a heavy sigh left his lips as he turned his attention up towards the sky. Resting on the horizon was the palace that had once belonged to the Skylox Heroes. Colt was moderately familiar with it after having passed through the area many times, though he hadn't ever been given the chance to enter the building while its original owners were still alive. Once the Skylox Heroes fell, Colt simply grew too busy to bother visiting, not that he even wanted to as long as the space was empty. Colt wasn't afraid of ghosts or any other unholy power, but he still knew that he would prefer to stay as far away from an unoccupied building like that as possible.
Hearing that there were people moving back into it after so much time had passed was a surprise, to say the least. Still, Colt hadn't given much thought to it. He knew that there was an effort being made to pull the Hanilia together, and he had to admit that he was impressed with all of the attention that Tuila Raigh was putting towards a project that hadn't been attempted in so many years. Still, he did his best to keep his distance as he moved closer to the palace.
Colt raised one hand to keep the sun from burning into his eyes. The star was positioned perfectly on the edge of the skyline to the point that it threatened to temporarily blind Colt if he wasn't careful, and he did his best to keep from swearing when he accidentally moved his hand out of place. He narrowed his eyes once he had been grounded once again and tried to focus on the figures shifting in front of the building while still taking care to not give his position away.
There were seven of them, and Colt was able to figure out easily that the tallest among them was Tuila herself. She was standing with six younger people, and Colt realized that they were probably the Clan Leaders. Tuila gestured for them to gather together, and they did so without hesitation. All it took was a brief snap from Tuila for all six of them to disappear in a shower of light. Once again, Colt let out a vulgar string of words as the illumination temporarily stole his vision.
Colt took in a deep breath before letting it out a moment later, and he realized that the Clan Leaders were probably returning to Earth since their work was done for the time being. He allowed his hand to fall back down away from his face as he turned away from the sun, fully slinking into the shadows. He was immediately accepted as the master of the darkness, and nobody would be able to see him without peering far closer than they would have originally liked to. Such was the nature of his magic, and it was one of many reasons that Colt had been dragged around by Otholle for so long. His secrecy made it easy to gather information for better or worse.
Colt wasn't so foolish as to ignore his talents due to spite for his occupation though. In fact, when he had the chance to use his innate abilities to find information, he took advantage without hesitation. Otholle was troublesome, yes, but Colt knew how to manipulate a situation so that he would be able to find out what he was looking for. He had picked up a few tips of the trade in his many years of field work, and Colt was more than positive of the best ways to use each piece of information.
For example, his finest piece of work was a catalogue that he was keeping only for his own gains. As far as he was concerned, Otholle's members didn't even realize that it existed. Colt snapped his fingers, and the shadows coiled together to create a stand for a book made of blue magic that quickly became solid soon afterwards. It was a difficult trick, simply creating the one of a kind book out of nowhere, but Colt found it to be far more reliable than using any Infinity Box. After all, if he happened to drop the object, the pocket dimension found inside would be under the full control of whoever picked it up. That was a risk that Colt simply couldn't take given how many secrets he was intent on keeping until death or escape did him part from Otholle's filthy grasp.
Colt slid his hand along the surface of the book. It was pale blue in color to match the Water magic that Colt often fought with. Its cover was covered with characters in an ancient language from the times of Hyperion herself, proof that Colt had more than done his research in his time as a gatherer of information. He slipped his fingers underneath the cover and pulled it free as he started to flick through the pages.
This had taken far more research than Colt would have cared to admit, but given the situation that he was in, he had nothing but time to find out all that he wanted to know. It was a project that he had started back when he was first created to be a field work investigator for Otholle, and even after so many years had passed by, he still hadn't let it go. At first, his job had been difficult since it involved looking at the past in excruciating detail, but the pieces started to slide into place after the investigations into the past came to a close so that he could focus on the present.
Colt had been alive throughout many generations of changing Hanilia. When he first started gathering information, he had created this book as a way of cataloguing all of the Hanilia that he was aware of. As far as he could tell, he hadn't ever missed out on a member of any specific team. The pages were old and worn but still seemed incredibly sturdy when one touched them. Colt was the only one who was even aware that such a volume existed, and it was the culmination of everything that Otholle had taught him, albeit repurposed into something that Colt would have been able to use even long after he left behind his forced employment.
The Clan Leaders were found near the back of the book where all current Hanilia were located. There were more gaps in the current generation than Colt liked, but he didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. For the most part, the newer Hanilia hadn't come out into the light, and that was nothing new. It took a while for people to recognize that they had some sort of higher destiny, and Colt needed time to gather information even after they were shoved into the public eye. In fact, there were only a few sections of his book that were complete for the current generation.
The Clan Leaders, Draconic Superiors, and Fearbringers were all easy enough to fill out. The Clan Leaders had been marked down months prior when they first appeared in Daragon, and the Draconic Superiors had been there for years due to the lengthy lifespans of Rauleighans. The Fearbringers had been a bit harder to narrow down, but Colt had still managed to do it after the war involving Mersall had drawn to a close. It had certainly kept him busy at the time, but with everything all marked down and organized, he didn't have anything else notable to do with the book anymore.
Colt let out a measured sigh as he fingered the edge of one page between his fingers. It always helped to relax him when he was getting particularly tilted at the actions of Otholle. It was easy for him to lose track of himself and the emotions he had been forced to hide for so long when Otholle started to step out of line and intrude on his life, but Colt had to stay calm. The last thing he wanted was for his current sense of freedom to be restricted by something unexpected. He certainly wouldn't have put it past Otholle to assign him with a partner upon realizing that there was something wrong about the way that he was operating on his own.
The book, as helpful as it was, did have one weak point, and that was the matter that drew Colt's attention as he waited in the alleyway. The shadows seemed to recognize that there was something wrong, and they curled closer to him as a way of concealing him further from any wandering eyes. Colt flicked to the segment that was meant to highlight the Skylian Mages before his fingers came to an abrupt halt.
The Skylian Mages were most certainly an interesting subject as far as Colt was concerned. It was difficult to properly say what sort of people would be in the group because there had only been one team. Lyloc had defined the group once, saying that there was one member for each of the elemental subgroups. Seeing people with multiple elemental abilities was incredibly rare, but someone possessing five elements that happened to fall into one of the five elemental subcategories was something special, and it was an easy clue that somebody was involved with the Skylian Mages.
Colt was far from being a fool, and he knew exactly what powers he possessed. He was hesitant to show them due to his unfortunate dealings with Otholle, but he was still positive that his magic was far more than what met the eye. In fact, he was almost completely sure that he was a member of the Skylian Mages. There simply wasn't any other explanation for the strange power that he had been granted. Him being an immortal as a result of his artificial creation also fit the criteria of only one team ever being founded. After all, there was no reason to reincarnate if the mages in question never died of natural causes or old age. They would be around for as long as anyone could imagine.
However, Colt still hadn't bothered to pen down such important information. To him, it was a risk that he simply preferred not to take. He was sure that the book on hand wouldn't fall into the wrong fingers, but he still figured that it was best to be safe rather than sorry. He kept it on his person or hidden with magic no matter where he went, but Colt wasn't one to take unnecessary risks. He would keep this secret until after he had managed to escape Otholle, and it would likely remain something that he knew about alone long after he had left behind the company as well.
Colt allowed the book to disappear as the shadows came to curl in closer around him. This wasn't the time for him to engage in activities like reading. There were far more important subjects at hand, and he had to figure out something to keep the company off his back for just a little bit longer. He was tired of this dizzying cycle, but it wasn't as if he had a way to escape it. If there was a way for him to get out, he surely would have found it already.
Otholle's grip was simply too large. Their range of vision was huge, and Colt knew better than to outrun the impossible if he could avoid it. Even if he managed to get away from his employment, the workers at Otholle would find a way to track him down, and when that happened, Colt would lose all of his freedom. He was going to wind up in serious trouble if he even attempted to leave without a plan. To stand up to Otholle was treated like an affront, and Colt couldn't help but think bitterly that there was a reason that nobody had ever bothered to get rid of them before.
Skylia was a complicated planet for all of its perceived simplicity. Without the lack of a central government, each individual city functioned on its own. The Skylox Heroes had made it easier to run the planet given how organized they were, but it had been months since they were last alive, and there weren't any people who bothered to try and establish order from the chaos. It was too much hassle for a planet where nobody seemed to really care about what happened outside of their own tiny little bubbles. People lived in their blissful ignorance and pretended that the world at large was safer than it was, leaving all ideas of risk up to the back of their minds rather than placing it at the forefront of their imaginations.
Some would have argued that this system was stronger than what other planets had at their disposal. It meant that nobody had to put up with frustrating figures such as the princess of Daragon, and there were no figureheads that anyone felt the need to listen to. Instead, there was simply the idea of the people existing for themselves, and that was all that anyone particularly cared about.
In Colt's eyes, people were being foolish by thinking that this was going to work forever. Otholle was a dangerous group, and if they were left unchecked, they were going to start making more blatant grabs for power. Everyone knew that they were somewhat involved with politics as it was, but there was something strange about the way that they operated in the shadows that kept anyone from bothering to dig any deeper. All people who were curious simply shrugged it off as soon as the next distraction appeared, and all thoughts of Otholle were shoved to the wayside just as quickly as they had appeared in the first place.
Colt shook his head as the shadows consumed him fully, giving him the power to slink in between the darkness of the buildings in the capital city of Skylia. One of these days, everyone was going to realize that Otholle was far from being a group to be trifled with. Soon enough, the people would recognize that something was wrong, and Colt wasn't looking forward to what happened when the truth came crashing down on the ignorant masses who had turned an uncaring eye to the problem for so many years.
Because, of course, it would wind up as his mess to clean up. It always did.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm going to go beat a Fire Emblem game and nobody can stop me
-Digital