Siren's Elegy Volume 1: Orphans of Ashen Earth

Chapter 12: Unravel

July 20, 4021 03:00 [Matriarch 07- Girls' Dormitory]

A loud pinging violently roused Vivian from her slumber as she groggily looked around the room for the source of the racket. She checked the time on her HoloPad, groaning at the odd hour chosen to be awoken so abruptly. The pinging concluded just as suddenly as it had started, replaced by the pleasant voice of a woman over the speakers.

"All personnel, please report to the Amphitheater immediately, for an emergency meeting. Please be advised, failure to arrive will result in the termination of your contract with Lunar Gate, effective immediately. I will repeat this announcement once more—"

"Urgh, what is it now? Is this the announcement Commander Huā was talking about?" Aisha had also woken up, speaking to Vivian for the first time in weeks.

"I think so. We better hurry up," Vivian answered, content to be conversing with her roommate once more.

The two quickly got dressed and made their way to the Amphitheater, looking for the others as hordes of staff and soldiers filed into the enormous cathedral-like hall. Vivian spotted Cecil amongst the crowd, his head peeking above the rest. She grabbed Aisha by the arm, directing their course towards their taller comrade, knowing that the other boys would be close by. When they edged closer to Cecil, Akula, and Mirai came into view. Mirai, spotting the ladies first, waved over to them. Vivian waved back, although Aisha turned her head, ears red. The five of them greeted one another; Mirai and Aisha exchanged pleasantries awkwardly. As they shuffled into the Amphitheater behind the crowd, Vivian noticed something amiss.

"Where's Indra? Didn't he come with you?" She looked around the packed hall.

"We thought you might know. We checked his room, but the door was unlocked and his bed was empty. Maybe he just arrived early?" Akula yawned.

The Homunculi and Vivian scanned the seats for any sign of Indra to no avail. He had disappeared, his absence leaving Vivian a nervous wreck.

"This is awful! We have to find him! They'll cancel his contract if he isn't present during the meeting!" she said, clutching her head.

Cecil frowned. "There must be a reason he's not here, there's no way he would miss this announcement. It's been eating at him for weeks."

Vivian flinched; she was sure the arrival of the announcement wasn't entirely responsible for Indra's worries. Amongst all the conversations resounding throughout the enormous auditorium, three figures walked on stage. It took only moments for people to notice their presence, a silent hush enveloping the crowd as Kǔ Shén appeared on stage once more, adorned in yet another regal outfit, this time in jade cloth laced with golden tapestries depicting a serpentine dragon. Flanking him on both sides stood a woman dressed in aquamarine military gear similar to that of Commander Huā's and a man casually dressed in pure white techwear. Both wore golden faceplates in the shape of a hyena's snout.

The three commanded an imposing presence on stage that suffocated Vivian. Kǔ Shén grabbed hold of the microphone on stage and addressed the huddled masses sternly, "My fellow Homunculi and staff of Matriarch 07, it is with the utmost pleasure that I announce that the culprits behind the terror attacks carried out across Yuèliàng have been identified. Militants from Levante infiltrated our borders and staged these attacks under our watchful gaze. The circumstances in which each group was apprehended varied, regardless, this victory is in part thanks to the brave Homunculi of our Matriarchs who were able to keep casualties to a minimum—" A roar of applause erupted from the audience.

Kǔ Shén waited until the noise subsided before continuing. "Ahem. Yes, yes. As I was saying, Homunculi soldiers were able to stop the threats before they could cause excessive damage to our cities. The capture of these terrorists allowed us to uncover a plot to destabilize our country, spearheaded by the current King of Levante, Rahman bin Alsamawi Al Mumit. During our interrogation process, we were able to extract critical information from the attackers, who have turned out to be Traitless Homunculi, defectors in fact. In uncovering this information we made a swift but difficult decision to cordon off contact with Traitless Homunculi in all of our Matriarchs until their loyalty can be proven. At the moment we cannot prove the presence of embedded intelligence operatives with one-hundred percent certainty so we will be moving them to a separate Matriarch for processing," Kǔ Shén explained.