Welcome To My Dark Side

Chapter 14 Blamed And Framed

Phantom membrane is a strange and wonderful thing. It is used to repair elytras. It can be stitched into place but the unusual thing happens after a few hours where the membrane starts to form a seamless line with the rest of the elytra like living tissue would. This allows elytras to be repaired as many times as one wants because it performs exactly how the elytra would have done if it had not been damaged in the first place. The best part is that there remains no evidence of any repairs done, allowing an old elytra to look as though it had been made yesterday. How the phantom membrane actually works is yet to be uncovered. No one really knows for sure if it is magic or if there is a scientific explanation for its unique properties.

However this did not matter particularly to Lyria when she was stitching her torn elytra. She had retrieved it in the late hours of the evening after Fractureverse Azura had dismissed her and because it was so late she decided to repair the elytra in the morning. By the time she had been able to get hold of some phantom membrane it was now the afternoon. The morning's sun had gone in to be replaced by a light snowfall. Lyria looked up from her elytra and over to the window of the tavern and watched the snowflakes fall gently. She was glad to be inside in the warm shelter of the tavern. The tavern had emptied out since lunchtime and so she was able to keep to herself. Unfortunately this did not last the entirety of the afternoon.

Fractureverse Hilda was not having a great day when she entered the tavern. Someone had set fireworks off in her office to which she had witnessed going off from afar. Upon reaching her office the culprit had long gone and had left the smoldering mess of what remained of her paperwork. She was absolutely mad with rage and was determined to find the guilty person. She had one major suspect, however little did she know that this suspect was innocent and that there were multiple culprits. Fractureverse Lyria's squadron of soldiers had wanted to get payback ever since the commander had severely punished them by refusing to pay their wages for their refusal to obey their captain's orders. Together they had planned the perfect opportunity to get revenge on both the commander and the captain.

By setting off fireworks in Fractureverse Hilda's office would be of great frustration to her as she would have lost important documentation, not to mention the huge mess she would have to clean up and her number one suspect would undoubtedly be Fractureverse Lyria then she would be the one blamed for this catastrophe. It was not uncommon knowledge that Fractureverse Hilda loathed the very sight of the troublesome teen and would do everything within her power to make Fractureverse Lyria's life a misery. In turn Fractureverse Lyria would often choose the commander as a victim for one of her pranks and thus she would be the one to blame. Although this stunt was likely to be one of Fractureverse Lyria's tricks, she could not have done so for the simple fact that she was not there and as for Lyria if she had not spent the day repairing her elytra, she would have never purposely set of fireworks indoors.

"Captain Lyria stand up and face me at once!" Fractureverse Hilda ordered upon seeing Lyria seated facing away from her in the corner of the tavern. "Oh..um...yes Commander." Lyria replied standing up to both salute and face Fractureverse Hilda."Drop the formalities. It's no good pretending to be all diplomatic. I know what you've done." Barked Fractureverse Hilda as she walked towards Lyria. "You set fireworks in my office!" She yelled. Lyria could hardly believe what she was hearing as she stuttered. "C..C...Commander I...I haven't been n...near your office t..t...today. I..I've been repairing my elytra." She explained. "Excuses, excuses, excuses." The commander ranted. "Fireworks don't go off by themselves and they weren't in my office when I went there first thing this morning." She continued.

Lyria was about to tell her that she was very much mistaken but Fractureverse Hilda had not yet finished. "There's no point in denying it. Only elytra corpsmen would have easy access to such a large amount of fireworks and be able to wander around with crate fulls of the things without raising suspicion." Fractureverse Hilda said as she carried on. "Now everyone knows that you have the best motives and it's just the kind of practical joke that you would do." She exclaimed. The young girl looked at the commander completely dumbfounded. She knew that the commander had been rather unfair to her lately and that she had been warned about the commander's apparent hatred of her, however setting off fireworks indoors was something that she could never see herself doing just for the fun of it.

"While I would have a reason to be upset with you Commander, anyone in the elytra corps would have an easy time getting hold of them, which doesn't directly point the finger of suspicion at me and I am not the only person who is not on the best of terms with you." she pointed out. Fractureverse Hilda thought for a moment as Lyria had made a valid argument. Outside the snowfall became heavier which dimmed the overall light inside the tavern. The orange flickering glow of the lanterns really set the mood for what Fractureverse Hilda was about to say. "That may be true, however I must warn you to watch your step from now on." Fractureverse Hilda warned as she started to head over to the door. She glanced back at Lyria over her shoulder as she said this. "Misplace another foot wrong and that'll be the end of you." She threatened and with that she disappeared into the flurry of snow swirling around outside.