Vengance of the Keys

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Chapter 3: Reylyn ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

 They were late to curfew. By one minute.

Reylyn tapped her foot against the wooden floor of Etta's home. White painted walls with peeling paint littered the walls. There were fourteen of these in the sect. Harkin had his arms folded over his chest once again, and his eyes were darting everywhere. For an escape. Escaping their current situation sounded very amusing to her.

"This is the one time I cannot read your mind," Harkin tried to lighten the mood with his humor. Normally this would make Reylyn mad, but she could use some humor currently. "Think the darkest and dirtiest thoughts ever and I won't ever know."

"What? How nice it would be for you to be transferred out? Does that work?" She didn't want to admit, or read in Harkin's case, that the sect would be depressing without him. He was the humor of the duo. Reylyn shifted in the wooden chair.

He chuckled slowly. "Yeah. That works," he shifted his head resting on his right fist to the left. They had been here for about thirty minutes, and curfew issues were usually the top priority. Not like she was complaining or anything. Maybe Etta was finally getting her priorities straight, starting with the conflicts between the two countries surrounding town square.

"Harkin and Reylyn, please follow me," Evdan, Etta's brother, and assistant called from the door to the spare room of the home. It wasn't quite a guest room, but kids who needed a sect could sleep there as long as they needed. Reylyn remembered being offered the bedroom, but she politely declined and slept on the carpeted floor with a memory foam pillow and a soft blanket. That morning she had woken up with rug burns across her arms and legs.

The pair stood up and followed Evdan to Etta's office, which was hidden away from the living room and the 'recruit' room. According to some higher ranked people in the sect, she hid top secret plans for a war there.

Reylyn didn't believe Etta could convince the rest of the sect leaders to join her possible plan, let alone attack Feswan by just a few of them. But, she had learned some people aren't who they appear to be the hard way. She fidgeted with her red leaf choker as Evdan knocked on his sister's door.

Etta opened it with disheveled strawberry blond hair and tired eyes. Her fingers were littered with ink, doodles of plants and smiley faces littered across them. "Come on, please. We have important matters to discuss," She opened the door wider, just Enough for the three of them to walk in single file. Etta had changed it since the last time she was here. The walls were painted lavender instead of white. Two rows of four chairs framed the room, as well as the two next to her blackwood desk. Evdan stat in the fourth chair in the back row of the right side.

Reylyn took the left seat closest to the desk and Harkin took the one to the right. They already knew the protocol, only speak if asked to. Write your opinions and ideas down on the notebooks placed to the right of the desk with the red pens.

She leaned forward and frowned at the pair's unshaken faces. "I thought you two would be.. Erm... more nervous for your service for missing curfew..."

Harkin leaned back in his chair and rested his forearms across the armrest. "You eventually know what to expect when your sect leader is extra strict about curfew," he snapped his fingers. "Oh, that's my bad.

Reylyn covered her mouth with her fist to mutter the laugh that wanted to erupt from it. Harkin's under pressure jokes were maybe another reason why she liked him, but the reasons why she hated him still overpowered the list by plenty. She flipped her loose braid to the side of her head. They hadn't checked her for any weapons and Harkin still had his own. She would be willing to attack if the punishment was brutal enough.

"Now. From the inspectors from the arena," Etta began.

Reylyn tapped her fingers angrily across the desk. Inspectors were slowly being introduced to the sect for 'safety reasons.' She didn't really believe it was for safety reasons, it was for control, and possibly for recruits for the war.

"They spotted you two being disruptive in the arena. Endangering people,"

Harkin's pen snapped suddenly to her right. Small black pieces of plastic scattered across his lap and the desk. "We weren't being disruptive or endangering people," his eyes narrowed. "That was called aiming practice,"

The red head gasped at the broken pieces of pen. "Harkin, please keep your temper down. We have new recruits here, we don't want to scare them,"

"Might as well keep doing it. It'll encourage them to leave," Reylyn interjected.

Etta's face turned. "You spoke without permission, both of you."

"And?" He flicked the plastic closer to Etta's arm.

"And you disrespected me and my family," she screeched slightly as a few bits of plastic touched her elbow.

"You think every teeny tiny bit of violence disturbs you and your family," Reylyn leaned back in her chair and kicked Harkin in the shin. Their signal of tension rising in the room.

He hid his wince at her sharp kick and kept his determination at their sect leader's ignorance. "Please, if you don't mind, it's late," He gestured with his finger towards the windows which brought in the natural light of the room. The sun was almost completely down, the room's light tinting a warm orange color. "I would like to head to bed, and not cause any more disruptions,"

Reylyn reached for the dagger resting in her front pocket as Etta's expression turned into slight annoyance at Harkin's pleading and stubbornness not to listen to her. She sighed loudly.

"It is getting quite late, isn't it?" Etta spun around in her peeling leather chair. "But we still need to discuss the punishment for being late to curfew. My brother here will escort you to your separate chambers,"

Evdan hummed and stood up from his chair. Reylyn and Harkin followed behind him, both now clutching their hidden daggers beneath their clothes.