Reine's village is a small little town framed by a pair of giant red, black, and gold Chinese gates that leads to a dirt road, cherry blossom trees, and multiple little shops, mostly food vendors, on the sides of the road. The dirt road leads up to an intersection of four roads where if you go left it leads into another part of town with housing, apartments, and more businesses. If you go to the right, there's a sacred area down the road after a few buildings and a library. The sacred area is used for training, critical thinking, magic, and so on, according to Reine. The seven of us ended up going straight ahead, the dirt road coming to an end to meet thick stone stairs that gave off a zen, ancient vibe. After going up the stairs and passing through another gate identical to the first one, there was another little village area full of housing and more market stalls. Reine led us forwards still until we came to a giant tan palace made of stone bricks with red and gold designs and multiple potted plants, trees, and shrubbery-- specifically bamboo plants, cherry blossom trees, and lotus flowers. Off to the right was a koi pond with water lilies. Reine brought us through the brown wooden doors of the palace until we were in an open courtyard with multiple Chinese styled buildings, the biggest one being directly across from us, that lined the entire courtyard in all directions. Reine waved us forwards and off to the right, beyond stern looking guards and down a dirt pathway that led down an alley-like area where she stopped in front of a shoji screen door on a small building on the left side of the pathway, glanced back at us, and slid it open.
"Welcome to my home," Reine breathed out, looking back at us.
Now, the seven of us are sitting in her living room as the dark-grey metal ceiling fan swirls above us and the large tatami mat that's placed on the wooden ebony floors, resting under two red sofas and an ebony framed glass coffee table.
After Reine recovers everything we previously talked about, Ayette takes it surprisingly well. She purses her lips into a firm line and nods, agreeing that she won't cause any trouble and says that if she can be of any help, she will.
"Alright, Queen," Renee sits with one knee in the air and her other leg down, her one arm resting on top of her elevated knee as she raises a brow, "what do we do now?"
"Now I have to search for the rest of the chain and train everyone else," Reine explains, her eyes flickering over to me before going back to Renee, "I'm assuming you and Renji are both capable of defending yourselves."
"Yeah," Renji nods, "we'll be fine."
"Good," Reine nods, "that's very helpful and a good start."
"Where do we start?" I ask, looking at Reine.
Although everyone else seems to have brushed off my odd behavior from earlier, I haven't and neither has Reine. I can see her concern in her eyes and I can tell she knows something I don't. I'm not sure what's going on with me, but I want to find out. I need to find out.
"Unpack your things in the guest rooms," Reine says, "I only have two, so you'll have to share. When you're done, meet me in the courtyard outside."
With that, Reine stands up and walks to another room in the house without another word and the six of us exchange glances before going to find the guest rooms. I walk through her small wooden house until I come to a hallway on the left beyond the kitchen. The hallway has a small bathroom and a medium sized guest room with two small beds with red sheets that have black circular emblems in the center. The beds themselves are pressed up against the back wall that has shoji screen wallpaper and a nightstand with a lamp by each bed and a wooden dresser inbetween the two. There's a small bookshelf by the entrance to the room and there's a circular shaggy carpet that's a cream color resting in the middle of the room. Off to the right, there's a wooden door that slides open to reveal a closet with some shelving and hangers already in there.
"Well, this seems like a good place, I guess," I sigh and walk over to one of the beds, placing my bag down.
"Dude," Nathan walks in and throws his bag on the opposite bed, "no way am I rooming with Miss I'll Gut You In Your Sleep."
"I have a feeling Melantha and Ayette will have the same idea," I say as I glance over my shoulder to the doorway.
A few seconds later, Melantha comes in, followed by Ayette.
"I didn't really bring anything ahead of time..." Ayette rubs the back of her neck sheepishly, "I wasn't expecting to be dragged into another realm or whatever this is."
"That's okay," Melantha assures with a smile, "you can borrow some of my things if you need to."
"Thanks," Ayette grins and throws herself on the bed with Nathan's bag.
"Renee and Renji are rooming together in the other guest room in the right hallway," Melantha explains as she zips open her bag and goes over to the closet.
"We figured," Nathan says.
"Do you think we should go see Reine now?" I ask, "I mean, she did wander off in the house instead of going out to the courtyard like she said she would."
"Who knows?" Nathan shrugs, "we could just go check outside first."
"Let's go then," I say and Nathan follows me out of the room with a nod while the girls continue talking and Melantha hangs things in the closet.
Nathan and I walk through the house until we come to the shoji screen front door and open it, stepping back outside into the street. The sound of clashing metal clangs in the distance and the two of us exchange a curious glance before heading down the path back to the courtyard. Upon reaching the courtyard, my eyes widen in surprise and I see Reine standing there in a black tank top with a dark green jean jacket, a pair of tall black boots, and a pair of dark green colored pants with thigh holsters that carry knives and a pistol. Reine's lavender hair is tied up in a long ponytail and she turns her head slightly to the side, looking at us out of the corner of her eye. A smile creeps up her face slowly before she turns back to watching the scene that made my eyes go wide.
A short girl with strawberry blonde hair that's tinted more strawberry under the light of the sun is fighting a taller girl with wavy black and white hair. The blonde is simply moving her hands around and forming fiery symbols in the air that burn off flames as she hits with her hands and kicks with her feet while the other girl is swinging a longsword, making clean, precise, and lethal strikes. The blonde manages to get one last hit in, her fist connecting with the other girl's blade and sending her sliding backwards multiple feet as she braces herself.
"Ciana, Aislinn," Reine calls out and the two stop sparring, turning their attention towards her, "I hate to interrupt your training, but I'd like to introduce you to some people."
The blonde smiles and jogs over, her long straight hair blowing in the wind as she does so. The other girl's expression remains neutral as she sheathes her longsword and walks over, seemingly more serious than the other girl.
"Hi," the blonde beams, her amber eyes joyous, "I'm Ciana. You must be two members of the chain."
Nathan nods wordlessly, dumbstruck at the appearance of the beautiful girl before us. Ciana chuckles and pats down her outfit, which consists of a strawberry colored tank top, a black velvet choker, a silver chain necklace with a clear teardrop shaped opal hanging from it, black ripped shorts, black finger-less gloves, strawberry and black colored braces on her wrists, strawberry colored thigh-highs, and black boots with multiple straps and buckles on them that go slightly beyond her knees.
"This is Aislinn," Ciana gestures to the girl standing beside her, pointing a thumb in her direction, "she's not really fond of people."
"That's not true," Aislinn scowls, her yellow eyes narrowing, "I'm just cautious."
Aislinn sighs and crosses her arms against her chest as she studies us, standing there in black pants with white knee high boots, a white belt with a gold buckle, a black form fitting crop top with long sleeves that rests over top of a lavender tanktop, and a long white jacket that trails down to the top of her boots as her longsword is sheathed across her shoulder and over her back.
"The fashion here is amazing," Ayette breathes out when she and Melantha catch up to us.
"Who're they?" Aislinn nods towards the two of them and Reine smiles faintly.
"One of them is also in the chain and another one holds a valuable relic," Reine explains.
"Right, well, names would be nice," Aislinn raises a brow and looks at us expectantly.
"I'm Nathaniel, but you can call me Nathan," Nathan makes finger guns towards the two of them and winks, making Aislinn roll her eyes.
"Melantha," Melantha smiles and waves.
"Ayette," Ayette grins and waves her index and middle finger together sharply.
"Gabriel," I say.
"Where are Renee and Renji?" Melantha asks and looks around.
"They're fine staying inside," Reine waves a hand nonchalantly, "they can meet Ciana and Aislinn during dinner. I would like to get in a basic training session before we go inside and leave tomorrow."
"Well, in that case," Ciana smirks, "I'm Ember and Aislinn is Riptide. It's a pleasure to meet you all."
"Nathaniel is Insight, Melantha is Aquais, and Gabriel is Energy," Reine explains, "we have an even number to spar one on one. Ayette, you'll have to watch at a safe distance for now."
"Fine by me," Ayette says, smirking, "try not to get your ass kicked, little bro."
"I don't even know how to do anything," I glare at Ayette as she walks back to the house and watches from the street, chuckling.
"Alright, everybody pair up respectively," Reine instructs, "the three of us will give you basic training instructions before we begin once we're paired up."
"I'll take Melantha," Ciana smiles, "fire and water naturally go against each other."
"Sounds good to me," Melantha smiles back.
"I guess that leaves you with Aislinn," I say to Nathan, whose eyes widen.
"Wait, what--" Nathan starts.
"I'm pairing with Reine," I say determinedly, staring into her eyes as she holds my gaze.
"So be it," Reine says, her voice unwavering.
I need to figure out what's going on with me and nothing is going to stop me. No matter what.