Arakias trudged along the poorly lit path, guiding himself through the debris of the city by his previous experiences with the place. How many times, he wondered, had he found his way through this place by the shade of the moonlight? It seemed natural to him that he was aimlessly walking in the dark, and as he finished that thought, he caught glimpse of what he'd been searching for. A narrow crevice between two of the fallen buildings, a space barely large enough to squeeze through.
Kariyanna heard him coming and felt her stomach knot and her heart drop. She swung her legs on the edge of the wall, with her arms in her lap, hands clutching her sides. She was biting her lip as he sat down next to her, and immediately she felt the tears begin to come. Arakias sat next to her. Many times the two inseperable friends had sat here on this very ledge. They were sitting on the outerwall of their sea-side home of Toron, the greatest Kingdom in their world. It was a bustling city, full of soldiers and militiamen. The headquarters of the Theorom, was in Toron.
It was a beautiful night as the two sat alone staring towards the celestial creations. The sky was a canopy of diamonds, glistening on the water surface that stretched as far as the eye could see. A moonlit night, the entire sky visible with onle two clouds slighty darkening Kariyanna's face... "Kariyanna," Arakias thought to himself. "Something is wrong with her."
"Hey, is everything alright?" he asked. "You seem a bit shaken up tonight."
She looked frightened, even desperate, and he saw the tears welling in her eyes. Her lips only trembled in response, as she said nothing. Instead, lifted her eyes to the sky, and the tears began to fall. He wrapped an arm around her, and pulled her face to his neck.
"I hate Theorom," came a muffled, weak voice. "They've taken everything. Our pride, our homes and even our traditions. You've seen the Mechina's Arakias! Seen them with your own eyes. You've seen the way tear familys apart, and murder without a thought. They are mindless machines. I know, its your dream to continue your familys tradition of military service, but you have to see this isnt what your family fought for. These are not the same ideals they believed in. Search you heart Arakias and put your own ambitions aside for just a moment. Think about everything your ancestors fought for!" She was screaming now, clutching his hand as the tears streamed down her cheaks.
Thoughts began racing through his mind. Pictures of his father in uniform, of his father's father, and so on. None of them had achieved as high a rank as Arakias had already done. They had all tried to garner the rank of Dragon Corporal. The Dragon Riders, as they were more frequently called, were the elite military force of Theorom, dedicated to enforcing the Emperor's law and will upon the disobedient. Few tamed dragons existed, and of those few, all belonged to Theorom and it's Dragon Riders.
"Kariyanna, I've given my family hope, and not only that, but you have to see that the Mechina's are there to make the world a more secure place," Arakias replied.
"But they're inhumane!" She protested. "They jail those in the slums for petty crimes. They kill without a sense of emotion. Everything was fine before. You find it a coincidence that the explosion that took both our familys occured when the first Mechina's were introduced?" Kariyanna sobbed.
She raised her eyes to his, and he saw her already white face, pale to a much further extent.
"Arakias," she whispered, her eyes locked to his. "If the mechina's are pure, tell me what is in Sector-X".
Arakias lost his breath as his stomach flipped. He was completely unprepared for that.
Theorom's headquarters was divided into 26 sectors, each represented by a letter of the alphabet. Sector A, for example, was the front office used for simple file storage and recruitment. Sector D, was the soldiers barracks. Sector X... was the only sector that Arakias was never given clearance to enter. The only soldiers with permission to, were the Machina operators and constructors, who's names were undisclosed. Those soldiers, lived in Sector X, literally and were allowed to leave headquarters very rarely.
"Kariyanna, I've told you before. I don't know," he replied.
"And why!?" She demanded. She wiped her face with the backsides of her hands quickly. "If Theorom has nothing to hide in Sector X as they claim, then why? Why would a Dragon Corporal, the highest ranking officer below the Leader of the Dragon Riders, not have access to something so trivial as a factory?" she asked. He didn't have an answer and she knew it. "Arakias," she started, "I'm going to find out." Arakias laughed and shrugged off the notion.
"You laugh?" she asked angrily.
"Females, cannot even enter Theorom headquarters. How could you possibly get all the way to Sector X without being caught?" he answered.
She trembled... "Because Arakias, I'm not going alone.."
*************
Arakias watched the shadows of the flames dance on the wall across from his bed. He sat still at the end, completely lost in thought.
"How could she ask me to do this?" He questioned aloud.