Rogues

Episode 32 | First class

As soon as the sun had fully set, Sunshine led a small team out of the Ministry and into the area nearby. She was accompanied by Swiss in the air and any available earth ghouls, including Poppy and a soldier the council had very begrudgingly sent to help, followed along on the ground.

It had become very clear that the Zafer Rokur had done exceedingly well at covering their tracks, so the only way to find a lead would be to go out and search for one.

Other than the very limited information Santos had let slip, they knew relatively nothing about the Zafer Rokur. So they'd been instructed to report anything out of the ordinary, no matter how seemingly random it was.

Sunshine groaned, feeling her wings starting to ache as they aprouched their third hour of searching. She'd hoped to last longer than this but clearly the fates had other plans.

"You good?" She heard Swiss call out to her. "Is it the wings?"

She glanced behind her, seeing the genuine concern on his face. All multi ghouls were very aware of just how much care their wings required, being the most pivotal part of their element's individual culture and all. So he'd learnt to tell when she was overdoing it, knowing she'd never admit it herself.

Sunshine sighed. "I should be able to hold out a little longer. Let's just get to that darker street up ahead and then we'll all take a break."

It had been risky enough to fly over the city, despite doing so at night, but they still needed to prioritize secrecy. Any area that they landed down in needed to be dark as to keep them hidden from anyone that might just happen to be watching.

Swiss nodded, his expression giving away the hesitance he was trying to hide. He dove down to let the Earth ghouls know where to meet up before rejoining Sunshine in the sky as they slowly made there way over to the empty street.

They touched down a moment later, Sunshine sighing as she tucked her wings away, feeling their weight disappear in an instant.

The city was always quiet at night, which they'd been very glad for. No cars on the roads, no wandering civilians that might catch sight of them, no risk of publicity. It was always peaceful, at least usually.

The recent threat of, not only Santos, but the Zafer Rokur too had made every moment of silence seem suspicious, every tiny thing seem out of place. Sunshine hated to admit it, but the paranoia that all caused had been starting to get to her. She had no intension of leading her team into a trap, but she feared she wouldn't recognize the threat until it was too late.

"Hey," Swiss' voice broke her out of her thoughts and she turned to see him sat on the pavement, leaning back again the wall of some random building. "Is something wrong?"

Sunshine sighed, wandering over to join him on the floor. Her gaze drifted up to the sky, the endless sea of stars that taunted her. It was so different to the magesty of the nights in her home world and she frown, suddenly missing how simple her life had been before she'd been summoned.

"Do you ever wish...we hadn't gotten on that train?" She asked, completely ignoring his question.

Swiss followed her gaze, thinking back to the train they'd all gotten on. The one that had taken them to the Council building where they'd been tested and personally trained to become Clergy ghouls.

Well, them and many others.

Though almoust every ghoul would go to the academies and gain at least some musical skill there, only the Dark Lord's selected few of each element would be sent invitations to be properly prepared for their roles. At least, that's how it had worked for them. The ghouls would be split into groups for each instrument that would need to be played and, by the end of their week of training, only one ghoul from each group would be chosen.