Legend of Mautau: Angelorum Lux

Ch 10: Good Intentions

“Very good. Now then, what is it you’d like to talk about Scott?” said Alexander.

For a moment Scott thought about what he wanted to ask them.

He had already had several of the things he wanted to know explained, and finally he said, “You’ve already cleared up so many things that I didn’t understand, but for one I’d like to know what your objective is. Are you fighting Altera Veritas? You showed up first in the Celestis storage district, then the Imperial Library… Do you have some kind of lead on them?”

Grey leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling as he said, “Yeah. That day one year ago, I swore I’d take revenge on Altera Veritas for everything they made me do. When I first arrived in Celestis, I was following a tip that they had someone on the inside helping them steal shipments from the Imperial Research Laboratory that contained stuff related to the development of EDE weaponry. I was about to search the storage district for crates that contained the stuff and get their serials to match up in the library’s computer, but I wound up stepping in to save Amy when Altera Veritas tried to kidnap her.”

Scott looked over at Amy, who waved nervously and said, “Nice to meet you…”

Then Grey went on, “Without any serial numbers to go by I just checked all the shipments within the last three years. I found a suspicious shipment that had been sent to Abnoct, and well… here we are…”

Scott was staring at Amy, and getting unnerved, she said, “Wh-what?”

Scott realized he was being rude and said, “I’m sorry, it’s just that… When I saw you before back at the school, I could tell you were an energist, but to be targeted by Altera Veritas… I must have been greatly mistaken about your abilities.”

Amy’s face went red and she quietly said, “Actually I don’t understand why they’d want me at all now that you mention it. I’m not really able to do anything…”

Sorry he’d brought it up, Scott said, “Oh…”

However something else was bugging him about Amy, so Scott decided to just ask her outright, saying, “Amy, forgive me if I’m wrong but… have we ever met at all before that time at your school? For some reason I feel like…”

Before Amy could answer and before Scott even finished, Grey said “Hey Matthews I, um…”

Alexander bailed him out saying, “I’m sorry Scott, but can we talk about that later? We have something important we want to talk to you about.”

Taking his lead, Grey added, “Yeah, what Alexander said.”

Scott was a bit confused, but said, “Sure. What is it?”

Alexander thought for a moment, and then said, “Well Scott, the fact is you’re still a member of the Special Forces. We are grateful for how you helped us in Celestis. I assume it was also your work sabotaging the wanted posters.”

Scott nodded, feeling he already knew what Alexander was going to say.

Staring at Scott with a serious look on his face, Alexander continued, “Still, it seems to me you’re putting your entire career at risk, as well as your work towards bettering our society as well. Do you truly intend to throw this away for an old friend, or is this talk here a way of settling some lingering feelings that have been keeping you from performing your duty? Forgive me if you take offense to such a question, but we have already explained our objective. It seems only fair we hear yours…”

Scott had a feeling the question would come up, and he honestly did not know the answer himself.

After taking a moment to think, he said, “I don’t know… It’s not important to me if I lose my career or status, but the work I’ve done to make the lives of others better, to end the discrimination people like us suffer, I’d be throwing that away too. I’ve always hated how The Guild has turned people like us into their private army, not to mention the system they set up with the Sanctuaries. Enforcing those very laws as a member of the Special Forces isn’t something I wanted, but I put my feelings aside so I could accomplish two things…”