City of Fate

The Gym

Emelia walked down the hall and Galadon hurried to catch up. " Wait, hold up." He said, cutting in front of her to stop her opening the door. " This is the Gym, where we train and hang. Inside is an eclectic group of Watchers." He turned to the door. "Just want to warn you it may be a bit unnerving."

Bouldar strolled up and added, "They are all vetted and are our brothers and sister, they can be trusted."

" Okay, this has all been a lot, the last, what, six hours, have been a lot." Emelia said hands on her hips. "I'm not sure that there could be anything else you can show me that would surprise me." She reached past the two standing in her way and opened the door.

Inside was a huge space, high ceilings, exposed ductwork, a modern and sleek space. One corner was filled with workout equipment, treadmills, weight machines, free-weights and any manner of other equipment for fitness pursuits. Along one wall was an area of rubberized floor with 15 foot circles painted at intervals. They walked through the cool room and Emelia saw a women, tall and slender, wearing what looked like the clothing a Shaolin monk would wear, except upgraded, red silk embroidered a silver pattern that Emelia didn't recognize. She had a long slender double edged sword and was elegantly and smoothly transitioning between positions in a beautiful dance-like display of swordsmanship. As the woman spun her long, dark hair made a halo around her and Emelia noticed the long pointy ears common to the Elven race.  Emelia tried to take her eyes off the woman and move on but the way the Women moved was enchanting. Galadon gently grabbed her arm to keep her moving. "That's Britannia Watcher, we call her Britt. She is a Forest Elf  from the highlands of what you know as India and is the most proficient in the sword arts within our group. She also welds the Green Art, you'll learn more about all that tomorrow, when your LifeSteam education begins." he said as he continued walking toward the back of the Gym.

In the center was a large area covered with padding, again with evenly spaced circles, obviously a hand to hand combat training area. She noticed, in the middle circle, a small man. He stood only about 4 foot tall. Dressed in a tan suit with a gold vest and, to Emelia's surprise, was bare footed, it made for a funny image. He had shaggy white hair and a immaculately and ornately trimmed mustache and beard of stark white. He nodded as the group past and with an unexpected shout he went into a well practiced and intricate fighting routine, stomping, punching and kicking, mostly knees and elbows, in what Emelia believed was a Mui Thai routine. Emelia noticed, as he spun around swinging a powerful elbow, he had a shoulder harness, conspicuously devoid of guns.  Again Galadon pulled her along, trying to finish the tour of the Gym. "Gormley Watcher, he's a Gnome and one of the sweetest Fae you could ever meet. Don't let his short stature and amiable personality fool you, he is an expert in almost every style of hand to hand combat and long range weapons, both modern and ancient. He's also our healer." Galadon stated as if he was reading it from a manual.

Emelia ran ahead of Galadon and stopped him. " So, I just noticed something, I don't know why I didn't see it earlier." She pulled on the amulet through her shirt unconsciously. "You all have the same last name, but obviously are not related. What's up with that?"

"Oh that, yeah. We are of the same Order. We are a highly trained, and financed, team who, from an early age, pledge ourselves to watch over important entities. This group, our Order of Watchers is tasked with the honor of watching and protecting you. In our culture your second name is usually your job, LifeSteam proficiency, or as the dwarves do, a memorable moment in you life." Galadon recited. 

"Ooookay, This is all really weird. As you guys know, I'm not exactly opposed to the idea of weird, but all of this is making me want to hit something." Emelia said as she continued to walk in a daze of confusion.

In the far back corner was a huge glass room, roughly rectangular in shape, the walls stretched from floor to ceiling. As they approached, Emelia saw flashes of light and heard muffled booming, something like distant fireworks. Emelia turned to Bouldar with a questioning look noticed that he was no longer following. She looked around, spinning in a full circle,and saw he was engaged in a sparring match with Gormley. Bouldar had quite a different style, more like a mix of boxing and street fighting. Even though Bouldar had a good 6" on Gormley and about 100 lbs. of muscle, the Gnome was making light work of Bouldar, knocking him around with ease. 

"Wow, Gormley is good." Emelia exclaimed. She was starting to feel antsy and wanted to get in a good work out. "Let's move on." 

"Right. Now this next part I'm excited to show you, I think you will really enjoy this, and there is a another surprise for you. Don't get all human on me and get mad, but I was told to show you around first before revealing this to you. No offence meant on my part."

"I can't promise anything." Emelia said, already feeling slightly offended by the "human" remark.

As Emelia and Galadon approached the glass room, the first thing she noticed was a women in workout clothing, yoga pants and training bra. The women's back was to them and she crouched, hands flexed in a claw-like gesture, knees bent and feet wide spread. To Emelia's surprise the women's hand were glowing with a crackling electricity, like her hands were incased in a plasma globe. A drone flew around like a pesky bug and the women hurled balls of sparking and effervescent energy at it, a spectacular explosion of sparks burst forth with every impact. Emelia was utterly amazed, mouth opening and closing like a fish, as if she was about to say something but couldn't find the words. "Hmmm." was all she could muster.

Galadon walked close to the glass and rapped on it three times with his knuckles. Emelia waited, the moment dragged, her breathing heavy and heart pounding. She felt like something was going to happen, something incredible. It seemed like it would take forever for the women to turn and face them. The women spun to see what made the sound, a puff of smoke obscured her face for a fraction of a second and what Emelia saw, as the smoke dissolved, could not have been more shocking of she had been struck by lightning. The women who had just been shooting mafic from her hands was the last person she expected to see, the last person who could have been here. The women in the glass room was her adoptive mother, Ruth.