The Spectre

The Origin and The Truth

The morning after the day of the ambush, they had all rested up and woken up to a rather peaceful morning in the temporary camping area they had made. When Ivana and Boron got out of their tents they found Strycore sat next to the now already extinguished campfire stoic and guarded as usual, but he knew very well that his teammates would not rest without more information about Kate and frankly he would rather tell them than have them bother him for the remainder of the trip, and so he did.

"Sit," he said to them as he pointed towards the log next to him, "you want to know more about her correct? fine, I will tell you". Ivana sat down looking at him with a serious expression and focus while Boron had a more juvenile expression on his face and remarked: "This has got to be good". Strycore had no intention of indulging his childish antics and as such just carried on to speaking about the past, explaining exactly what happened years ago.

He explained that he and Kate were childhood friends, even before starting their training they knew each other well because they were outcasts not the same as other people, they were orphans cast out from even orphanages for being abnormal. When a baby is born they have their seals power within them already if they were blessed with the gift of having one, and a few hours or even days after their birth, a seal will form in their hands starting as a small sphere of light and then materialising into a seal. Seals do not all look the same, there are standard ones which share similar shapes but always retain different markings and colours or there are the more obvious ones like Boron who has a seal which is in the shape of a silver coin which he can manipulate to his own will because he has the power to do so though some seal bearers can only harness the power from the seal not control it like the case with Ivana who can draw on her seal's energy to become invisible. This was not the case with Kate, after her birth she was normal to the point where people thought she had no seal at all, but after her one years birthday her parents fell ill and passed away, being a baby, of course, no one expected her to even know what was going on but to those who were holding her at the time of her parent's last breath they saw her left eye glow red and the colour slowly intensifying to a brighter colour until it darkened and slowly began forming a red crosshair on her left eye, from then on her left eye remained crystal red while her other eye remained its original colour which was blue. This phenomenon was not something new to the world but it was such an uncommon thing that at some point within the ages it became a myth entirely. People with this sort of abnormality were referred to as "The scar seal bearers" and this is because their seals did not manifest as physical objects at all but instead they manifested within the person themselves so in Kates case, her left eye was her seal, the Quake-Sight seal to be precise and since the seal was directly interfaced into her body she had a tremendous amount of control and strength with it. Once that power manifested people started fearing her potential as a person, with this much power she could be dangerous and as such they shunned her. She never had a stable home and when she was around 8 years she was kicked from the orphanage for breaking down part of the playground when some kids of her age were making fun of her. She spent the next few weeks getting by with stealing what she could from markets until she was one day came across a very shy boy who was hiding in an alleyway in the dark. She approached him but as she started getting closer all she felt was fear so she stood back and tried to talk him into coming out of hiding which he eventually did and from then on they would struggle on living by street rules until the age of 10 where they were found by Optis who took them to the academy in hopes of giving them a better life and hopefully teach them how to control their abilities. 

As the years went by, more and more people began fearing Kate more for her power for unlike Strycore who could directly instil fear, she had the power to cause pinpoint accuracy quakes at whatever target she chooses with the blink of an eye. Her training companions did not want to be around her anymore and everyone else would try to avoid her line of sight. She went through the days pretending like it did not phase her but one day one of the more troublesome Students was speaking about Kates parents death and remarking that she was the reason for it, this did not sit well with Kate and as she heard the student laugh and continue to joke around she lost her control and demonstrated her most lethal move on him,  a precise quake directly as his chest which immediately took him down but her fury was not over just yet, she began crumbling buildings around her in a rampage until the elders contained her and had her expelled. After the events of that day, she felt betrayed and like she did not belong there anymore so she left the city never to be seen again and Strycore having lost his only reason to even be there in the first place also left the training behind and lived his secluded lifestyle.

"And that is the truth about her," said Strycore towards his team. Ivana seemed sympathetic to Kates story but still having come close to death by her attack still held a grudge, Boron had a more serious expression now having truly understood the full depth of the situation. Strycore stood up and said "now you know what happened, and so I'm sure I don't need to explain why I am going to go find her and find out why she has become this" which Ivana and Boron responded to by standing up and grabbing their gear ready to follow him. "The journey may hold dangers but I will have your back," said Boron as he put his hand to Strycores shoulder, Ivana walked in front of them and looked back saying "we better get moving, we don't want our target to get too far away besides I am the only one who can actually track her". Strycore looked back at Boron with a slight smile on his face and then looked in front of him at Ivana and nodded. "well then let's get going" said Boron and with that the journey continued.