The Kingdom

Too Fast

Everyone had flew back to their respective kingdoms and sounded the alarm. The rulers of each kingdom had given specific orders and drills on what to do once they see the Umbra coming. Parka had doubled the amount of her Outlooks to watch out for the Arche and placed Whisper in her Overseer's Lookout. She was not to leave him alone, otherwise they would perish.

Specific orders from the Overseer, she had told Mikel and Myles to send out spies at night to see what their plans were. They were not going to attack until they attacked first. Before anything else, they would have to judge before making their move. A pre-test, one might call it.

The twins had sent out four spies that night to swiftly gather the information they needed. For their great sleight of hand, and even feet, they could go almost undetected. One by one, they jumped from island to island. The Umbra Empire had just taken over Ludere, but the heart of the Empire was just above the clouds that led into the Duo layer, the layer below Vivet. They had decided to work their way both up first, then down by settling in the middle of the four layers. The quartet had to be careful. One slip of the foot meant certain death.

Panting for breath, the four of them had finally made it to the dark Arche. Black particles were scattered and floating all over the heart of the empire and even the Arches and islands that they have captured. Slowly and hesitantly, they intruded their way into the empire. They jumped buildings, hid in various places, and they weren't spotted at all.

Finally, they had found their way into the castle. Everything was black, outlined in purple, had a scary aura, and if you were to get ambushed by these Vitae, you'd be doomed. They were labeled as merciless by everyone that has managed to make it out alive. And managing to escape was extremely hard to come by. You were more likely to get struck by lightning than to survive an ambush. Take it from the species that lives way high up in the sky.

The quartet gestured to each other to spread out and gather as much information as they can as quick as possible. It's their most effective method. However, if any one of them were to be spotted, they'd be all alone with no help at all. No communication either. They never thought of  a flawless plan, but effective was their win.

Meanwhile, Zoe had a hard time trying to process that this was happening too fast for her. "Are you serious?" she exclaimed.

Safari looked at her. "What's wrong, Zoe?"

The teen took a seat in the main room of the Praesidium castle. She was to be under protection, and eventually surveillance at Praefectus. "Oh, sorry. I'm just having a hard time processing things at the moment. It's just that I've been wanting to stop this and save my family for so long, I never knew how much time has passed." She gave out a long sigh after.

The felidae Vivere gave out a short purr and smiled. "It happens to all o' us up 'ere. Back in the past, with the team 'n' I, to me it seems as if we're in school one day and out the next."

Zoe sat straighter at the fact that all of them went to school. "Wait," she paused. "You all went to school? Like, school school?"

His ears twitched in confusion. "What's your definition of school? Homin school?"

"Schools for people like me are the worst. Even though I haven't been down to Earth in a long time I still remember back when I was like, what? Five?" Zoe answered.

Safari nodded. "Oh. I see. How did you get up here then?"

She froze. "I-I don't really remember. Now that I think about it, I dreamt that I was on a plane with my family. When I woke up, I was living in some third world village."

Safari nodded, trying to mentally figure out what might have caused her to forget. His tail wavered slightly as he wiped dust off an ancient vase. "That has been happenin' a lot recently. The majority of the Homins that arrive a' the Arches don't 'ave any memory o' any sort of transportation." Shortly after, he sneezed.