Invited

Chapter 21: We're Here!

"Hey, are we there yet?" Xander tapped on the shoulder of the silver-haired driver. He left his arm hanging on the front passenger seat, waiting expectantly for an answer.

"Almost, just a few more minutes." The driver replied, completely focused on the road ahead of him.

Xander returned to his spot, looking out the window as the scenery passed by in a blur. They had already arrived in Vesta, but still had a ways to go to reach the estate. Large estates, one by one, flashed by in a variety of colors. There were no other cars around, the car carrying Xander and Kite to the Lucan-Azure Estate was the only one for as far as the eye could see.

While Xander was excitedly watching everything around him, Kite was slumped in his seat, lazily watching the outside.

The car slowed to a stop, parking right in front of shiny gray metal gates. The driver pulled the lever under his seat to open the car trunk behind them. He got out of the car to retrieve the items sitting in there.

Xander fumbled with his seatbelt, eager to unbuckle himself and leave the car. Kite hesitated, on the other hand, to bring himself outside. The two of them stood faced with the towering gates that seemed to touch the sky from where they were standing. On the left half of the gate, giant metal plates spelling out 'Lucan' in script writing covered from one side to the other. Equally, another set of metal plates in script writing the same size spelling 'Azure' sat parallel on the opposite half of the gate.

The area around them was silent, except for the occasional breeze, birds chirping in trees, and the driver shuffling their bags out. It was completely different to their Region, Apollo having been famous for people passing by their house with instruments of all kinds.

A gate attendant tapped the window beside her, alerting the two young men who to turn their attention to.

"Excuse me, are you here for Lady Layla Azure's Council Selection?" She asked, pulling out papers from under her window.

"Yes! Can you let us in, please?" Xander ran over to the window, leaning himself onto the small ledge that held the thin frame.

The woman shook her head, and handed him a small stack of papers. She pulled out a board from the same area she got the papers out of, and placed it between the open frame of the window.

"What's this?" Kite finally walked over to the window, taking the papers from Xander's hands.

"You'll need to go through an inspection process, before you are let in." The driver came over and dropped each of their bags in their hands, "Your bags. Have a nice day now." He tipped his head to the two, and got back into the car to drive off.

Kite examined the papers in his hand, ignoring the dumbfounded Xander next to him.

"Aw, can't you let us in? We promise to be good." Xander pleaded with the woman in the window. He flashed the biggest smile, and raised his eyebrows, hoping to impress his way with her.

"Protocol states that we must inspect outsiders. Drop your bags next to that door, I'll have someone check them, while you fill these papers out." The woman pointed to the door a few steps away from her window, where Kite went to place his bags on the ground. Xander begrudgingly followed Kite, dragging his feet to the door. Two young men came out to take their bags into a room behind the gate attendant. They watched as their bags were turned inside out.

As Kite watched his bags being emptied out onto the table piece by piece, he instinctively grabbed onto the necklace hanging off his neck.

While their bags were being inspected for things they didn't know what the people were looking for, the woman handed them a pen and started pointing to different sections of the papers to fill out.

The papers were full of questions pertaining to, but not limited to; full name, birthday, Region, emergency instructions, lineage, and occupation.

Kite hesitated for a moment when he reached the area asking about his lineage, careful not to write down an answer too fast.

"Who do I put for lineage?" Kite looked at Xander, who had already finished his own paperwork.

Xander briefly went over to Kite, pushing his hair out of his eyes to see the paper. "Just be honest, it's not like they won't be able to find out the truth. You'll get in trouble if they see you lied on official paperwork."

Kite quickly scribbled down an answer, and handed the stack back to the woman. She quickly read through the answers, and placed the papers into an envelope, then sealed it shut by folding over the top edge to meet the other side.

"Did you find an identification in their bags?" She walked over to the two men finishing up their job of rummaging through the bags. One handed her two wallets, and continued with placing the items back where they found them.

"Is there anything in here I should know about?" The woman asked the man who handed her the wallets.

"Clear, proceed with the next step." He answered, zipping up the part of the bags he just packed up.

Another woman, younger than the one that was handling the wallets, brought over more papers with a small box in one of her hands. These papers were slightly smaller than the ones they had just filled out, but there were more of them in the stack.

The young woman glanced to see the two standing on the other side of the window, Xander staring straight into the room. She instead shifted her gaze to Kite, her cheeks flushed red at the mere sight of him. Kite, having already looked away, paid no attention to the woman completely fixated on him.

"What are you doing? Get their fingerprints." The older woman snapped at the younger one, waving her hand to her to move.

The young woman broke her gaze for a second, then walked over to the window where the two stood. She opened the small box to reveal a black sponge sitting inside.

"Please place your dominant hand's thumb on this ink pad, and stamp your thumb into the papers I give you." She mumbled together her words, still glancing over to Kite as she laid out the papers in front of them.

Xander placed his right hand on top of the ink pad first, then pressed his thumb into the ink. He followed the instructions of the quiet mumbles coming from the young woman, who sloppily showed him the areas he needed to mark his fingerprints on.

She turned to Kite, after finishing with Xander, with the same paper. He copied the steps to get the ink onto his thumb, whereas he used his left hand instead.

The older woman came over with small packages in her hand. She handed one to both Kite and Xander, which they stared straight at the packages in confusion.

"Wipe the ink off your fingers, we don't want you putting that carelessly inside the estate." She showed her own thumb, indicating they needed to clean off the ink as they were told.

While they scrubbed off the ink, and found a nearby trash can to drop the used soaked tissues, the two women placed the papers to the side, and took the bags to the window.

"Come by the door, we will hand your bags back to you. Your wallets have been returned to their original place." The older woman walked over to the door and opened it to hand their bags through, then shut the door and pressed a button by the window.

The gate moved slightly, opening enough for a person to fit through.

Xander was the first to rush through the gate, excitedly waving to Kite behind him.

Kite's eyes followed the long path from where he stood to Xander, then up towards the estate at the other end of their path. A small group of people stood where the path ended, the estate standing tall behind that group.

"I think we are supposed to go there." Xander whipped himself around to the direction of the estate. He waited for Kite to catch up with him and they walked towards the group.