A World With/Out Home

Chapter 8: A Midnight Escape before the Dawn. (Part 2)

In the passages of the training ground Kyle was experiencing a strange thing. Since his last misadventure leaving the Garden the most he had done was go by Melissa's office to chat. The honest truth was that he wasn't used to the other members of the Hero's Guard and Lillia not coming back didn't help. With Valandus guiding him he thought it would be smooth sailing as the driver was decently respected throughout the guard, or at least he believed so. It was odd then that wherever Kyle walked he could feel eyes pointed towards him and the occasional whispering voice.

"Is that her?"

"Shh she can hear us."

"So she actually exists."

"She's cuter in person."

"What division is she in?"

The word snippets of conversation repeated themselves as he went by but he couldn't tell if they were talking about him. In Kyle's mind there was no reason for the members of the Hero's Guard to know who he was. Also there was the fact that they kept referring to a 'she', though at this point even he was acknowledging that they could actually mean him.

"Umm Valandus is it just me or are people looking our way?"

"Call me Val, and no, I don't see anything," though his words said one thing, the driver had a smile Kyle couldn't quite place.

Kyle couldn't help be suspicious, "Are you sure."

"Of course," he laughed. "Come on it's this way."

The two turned away from the main corridor into a wider passage. Not far down was a solid door and in front of it armed guards. It was the first time Kyle had seen a guarded entrance. Even the Garden didn't have a lookout aside from Melissa, though the entrances were quite hidden and locked. The two men beside the door however looked much more menacing than the humble secretary and held the guns beside them ready to fire.

"Identification please," the taller man of the two stepped in front of them. Valandus flashed a pass and the man checked it with a device before turning to open the door. "Please proceed."

For a moment Kyle thought they wouldn't let him through as their eyes stared daggers at him but as he came closer they made no move to stop him. The stares themselves didn't feel all that threatening and if anything curious, not that Kyle felt any better about them.

As the door closed he looked to Valandus, "That's quite tight security."

"Mostly for show," Valandus replied. "It's common knowledge that the Eternal Hero resides past this point. Well really they don't but we like to keep up appearances. Only the tiptop of the Hero's Guard are let through there."

"So you really a big deal...."

"You thought I wasn't?" the driver feigned pain. "It's actually pretty hard to get an officer's rank not that you would know. Aside from special positions there are only two ranks above mine."

"And somehow I was let through." Kyle sighed, "I really am cheating to be here."

"No I think you deserve it."

"Really?" Kyle looked at him dubiously.

"Well looking after the children is one thing but you've done other 'things' as well."

He didn't quite like the way Valandus had emphasised his words but didn't have time to ask as suddenly they had reached another heavy set door. This time Valandus took out a key and opened it himself revealing an enormous rectangular room. A fake sky like the one in the Garden shone down on them, the ground was made from hardened earth and the walls rock. One look however told Kyle that the surfaces were much more than they seemed. He had read up enough on magic to know they were ingrained with small etched circuits, though the function he could only guess. On one end of the room was a sheltered area and an office built into the wall with windows pointed out. What caught his attention the most however was the Heroic figure standing in the centre. Adorned in full armour like the day he had first seen them, was the Hero. Lillia would be inside and from the looks of her slouched back she must have been tired.