6 5: BoVR

Evelyn didn't wake up in the white walls of her tent-mansion bedroom, as she did her first night on Dremel. When she woke up, she was on a metal twin bed in what appeared to be the loft of some sort of cabin-like home, judging by the low slanted ceiling and wooden walls. There was a dresser in the corner of the room, a ceiling fan light above her head, and what looked to be the staircase that lead down to the main floor of the house across from her.

When she sat up, she noticed a figure was sitting on the side of her bed, wiping sweat from her hands with a damp washcloth and then rinsing it out in a small blue basin. After a very brief moment of disorientation, Evelyn recognized the person as Jay.

"Jay," she croaked, her voice not having properly woken up yet.

Jay's black eyes widened and then they smiled, "Hey, welcome back to the real world! Zara nearly has a receding hairline from worrying about you."

Evelyn wiped her eyes and looked around again, this time noticing a large window right next to her bed. It was pitch black but if she narrowed her eyes at the window, she could see a patch of woods through the slight fog.

"I've given you your dose of medicine for the day, but Jewels handles that stuff so don't ask me what the medicine actually does," Jay explained going over to place the bowl of water on the dresser in the corner. When they circled around and plopped back onto Evelyn's bed, they continued, "But you woke up just in time for dinner,"

Evelyn furrowed her brows. She could've sworn it was also night time when she passed out and had that run-in with Officer Glory. At the thought of the Transit Officer and his sickening grin, she shivered and turned to Jay.

"Can I ask you something?" she tried to keep her tone as polite as possible, "It's about the insecta thing..."

"Sure," Jay laid back on Evelyn's legs, staring up at the ceiling, "I'm an open book."

"Well, I'm not sure how to word this," Evelyn fumbled over her words, picking at a hangnail on her thumb. It was then that she noticed the hand that Officer Glory had shaken, her right hand, was wrapped in a thin, breathable green fabric.

"Um, so, how come you're, like, super nice and not evil like Glory?" Evelyn word vomitted, "Like not trying to discriminate or anything but Zara said that the insecta work for the government, but you don't for some reason?"

To her surprise, Jay laughed and nodded their head, "Yeah I'm a full-blooded insecta, but I wasn't raised by the royal family," Jay explained, "My parents weren't born the same way I was. They were created as adults, as the sixth generation insecta, more efficient and better fighters than the fifth-generation like Glory. Problem is, they were defective. And while most defective insecta get to live free as normal citizens of the kingdom, sixth gen insecta were too dangerous to live for some reason that they never told us but also too dangerous to keep close."

Evelyn's eyes widened, "Did they..?"

Jay smile dropped, "Yeah, they killed my parents. And all the sixth gen insecta at that," they didn't sound sad, just serious, "The bureau had gotten wind of what was happening, but they could barely save them seeing as our families were stationed in the capital. They were mainly only able to save the children that had just been born from the sixth gen, like me. We lived most of our lives in the caves, like the one we met in, hiding from the government. I was stationed in a cave in Riddle Kingdom, and that's where I met Jewels and Zara."

Evelyn processed Jay's story, "I'm so sorry, Jay," she looked down at their black eyes. Jay didn't have pupils, so she couldn't quite tell if they were staring at Evelyn out of the corner of their eye or actually just staring at the ceiling. Evelyn supposed the former because, seemingly without looking her way, Jay sat up and smiled.

"Hey, don't make that face. I turned out fine, I think," they gave a sad, dry laugh, "Besides I didn't even know my parents. In fact, I never got to know my own name. My parents' house was burned to the ground when the bureau arrived, all they knew was that our surname was Jabir and that we were going to be targeted that night. I don't remember anything about my past and who the Jabir family was, 'cause I was just a baby when it happened. So don't feel bad for me, I'm not the Jabirs' child anymore. I'm just Jay, and I'm happy."

Evelyn smiled, "Okay," she said softly, "I'm sorry I was scared of you last night. Or maybe it was this night. How long have I been out?"

Jay opened their mouth, closed it, and then gave a nervous laugh, "Uh, well..."

***

Raul and Jewel were in the kitchen. The former, standing on a stool over a pot bigger than his own body on the stove, stirring its contents with a long metal ladle. He frowned at the color, stretching his little arms as far as he could to reach the cabinet just the right of him, desperately trying not to fall off his stool.

He huffed, beginning to sweat (and not from the steam of the stew). Turning to the island, where Jewel currently sat on a barstool, clicking away on her cellphone, he put on his most pleading voice.

"Jewels darling, can you please get me something from this cabinet right here?" he pointed to it expectantly with a large, innocent smile.

Jewel didn't even look up, or stop scrolling through her phone, "Can't you just, like, grow or something and get it yourself?" was her reply.

Raul's smile dropped into a scowl, "That takes energy and concentration," he sighed, "I do so much for this team, you can't just lend me your legs for a second?"

Jewel opened her mouth to speak, "Fin-"

BAM

Raul and Jewel looked up the stairs where the bang had come from. The sound seemed to have erupted from the loft, where Evelyn was staying.

Jewel snorted, "I bet Jay dropped the water bucket again," before loud footsteps could be heard and Evelyn herself (followed by a frantic Jay) came stomping down the stairs.

Evelyn was barefoot and wearing a pink nightgown of Jewel's, looking like a mad patient who just run out of a hospital.

"Well look who's up!" Raul beamed, "What was that noise by the way?"

"You spilled the water again, didn't you?" Jewel rolled her eyes. Jay put their hands on their hips and huffed, "No, Evelyn bumped into it when she ran out the room. It wasn't me this time!" they insisted.

"It's been two days?" Evelyn yelled over the conversation. They all turned to her then. She looked bewildered, "I've been asleep for two whole days? I thought it was just a little fever?"

"It was a little fever," Jewel nodded, "But your body still isn't used to magic yet and so the poison that Glory infected you with wouldn't go away. You know, the poison that gave you the little fever."

Evelyn frowned, "I can't believe I've been asleep for two whole days," she rubbed her face with her hands, "Where are we? Where's Zara?"

"We're at Raul's house. One of them," Jewel said, "We had originally camped out on another side of town near the location of the princess's birthday ball. But since it's been postponed, we're going to wait out here until we can complete the mission."

"And Zara's in the backyard training," Raul added, "She's been worrying over you this whole time like a mother hen. The moment she's not breathing down your shoulder, you wake up," he chuckled.

"She's training?" Evelyn said, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice.

She didn't do it very well because Jewel smiled, "She's been out there for a while and needs to come back in now I think," she sighed, "Plus she'd be super happy to see you up and active again. Go tell her to come in and eat dinner. She's right down that hallway and through the glass door."

Evelyn gushed and followed the vague direction Jewel was pointing in. She found the thick sliding glass door that led to the backyard easily. There was a wooden porch with a red loveseat and eight dingy lit lanterns hanging across its wooden awning. About fifty feet away from porch, she could squint in the dark to see Zara.

The mage was laid out in the grassy field that surrounded the cabin. On her back, arms outstretched like a starfish, she had her eyes closed and was breathing heavily.

When Evelyn opened the door and stepped outside, Zara's hands twitched, letting Evelyn know she had heard her entrance, but she still didn't move.

The night air was a bit chilly, but not cold enough to need a coat or scarf. It was windy too with the sky almost too black to see anything, luckily those dingy lanterns were able to light most of the surrounding area of the cabin so she could see where she was going. Even with the wind though, the sky was peaceful, without a single cloud or star, just like her first night on Dremel.

As she approached, she noticed Zara was wearing pink shorts, a black sportbra, and dirty white socks. To her right was frozen gallon of water and her hair was sprawled out all around her.

Only when Evelyn plopped down onto the grass next to Zara did she open her eyes. In about two seconds flat, she went from tired on the brink of death to fully energized. She shot up like a rocked and sat up cross-legged smiling at Evelyn.

"You're awake!" she gushed, "I was so worried you would be out for weeks since your body isn't used to magic!"

Evelyn smiled back, her face growing warmer, "I'm sorry I made you worry," she sighed, "But I wanna learn how to do magic so I can fight too and not worry you guys anymore."

Zara snorted and laid back down on her back, putting her hands behind her head. "Don't you wanna find a way back home to Earth?"

"Well yeah, eventually," Evelyn said, "But for some reason, I really don't wanna go yet. I wanna be a part of this world before I leave it. I wanna help BoVR."

Zara frowned, "Just because our mission was delayed for a week or two doesn't mean this is how we usually live. Most of the time we're doing dangerous stuff," she explained, "I love your company, but I don't know if it'd be safe for you to stick around. We're agents of the bureau after all."

Evelyn crossed her arms, "Then I'll join BoVR and be one of you guys," she announced, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

The other woman raised her eyebrows, but the corners of her mouth rose slightly as well, "You what?"

"I said I wanted to get stronger and I will," Evelyn insisted, "I don't wanna be a shivering mess the next time G-Glory comes around," she cursed herself for stuttering his name, but the thought of how scared he had made her in their first meeting caused her to hesitate.

Zara looked at Evelyn for a bit, she still had a small smile on her face but there was a bit of not-so-concealed concern behind her eyes that Evelyn could see.

"I know I technically called us the good guys but," she stopped and gathered her thoughts again, "but not everyone in BoVR is good. In fact, there is a specific group of mages in the bureau that are very bad people."

Evelyn raised her brows, "Who?" She thought they were the superheroes, the only kind and just people in this world. That is how they made it seem to Evelyn at least.

Zara sighed and sat up, "Okay so there are five main sectors of BoVR. There's sectors like the executive branch where the higher ups are and there are allies that are technically part of BoVR but those people are not technically agents," she found a patch of dirt where there was little too no grass on the ground and began tracing lines in it with her index finger, "This is the symbol of BoVR. The conjoined three X's are a very common symbol of magic, so you might see it a lot. But this arrow lets you know that its BoVR."

The graphic she had drawn in the dirt, showed a wide and short X that, on either line had another line through it, creating two more Xs. In between the X's was a downward-facing arrow.

Zara continued, "But anyway, the five main sectors of BoVR," she messied up the drawing she made in the ground by wiping the water bottle through the dirt, "The first group is the Proper Policing Unit, or the PPU for short. This is what Jewels and Jay do.

Their goal is to basically control the KOs and TOs that are around from the sidelines, while also provide a sense of policing around each town, since the KOs won't do their freakin' job. That's partially the reason why Jewel and Jay are never home during the day. Sure, they go to caves and party, but a lot of the time, they're just going around making sure the KOs don't get out of line. Also when we're on missions, they're really good at fighting from a distance, without being seen, which comes in handy when trying to stop a corrupt KO but you don't wanna get caught."

"But they still travel and go on missions and stuff?" Evelyn a leaned forward, leaning onto her knees, "Wouldn't it be smarter to, like, assign a PPU agent per town?"

"Maybe, but it also might make it easier to figure out which agents are stopping the KO and their cover would be blown. Having different PPu agents coming in and out will throw off their trail," Zara shrugged, "Also, each team has to have a PPU agent and each team has to travel to wherever their mission is, because they're are also in charge of distracting and fending off the KOs or TOs during group missions. Speaking of which, each team also has an Intel N' Insider Division agent, or an INI agent. That's what Raul does."

"The people who pretend to be normal citizens," Evelyn nodded, "The inside men."

"Yeah, but there are also some INI agents who work without a team," Zara explained, "Those guys are the real deal and they actively infiltrate government buildings, either in person or through hacking, to gather information and keep the bureau updated on what the royal families are doing."

"Do they go on missions?" Evelyn asked, "The INI agents, I mean. Do they, like, infiltrate castles all by themselves? Don't they need a team or are they all really strong."

"If they're already working on their own, then they're probably pretty strong," Zara paused and then added, "Although, if they think they might need help or the bureau thinks they might need help, then they might recruit an OCO or an On-Call Officer."

"Another sector?"

"Mhm," Zara nodded, "They mainly work alone and are not allowed to be on an official team. But they congregate around each other and tend to have unofficial teams of their own, even though they separate a lot.

As their name suggests, they are agents that are always on-call. They have to be able to go anywhere the bureau asks them too, alone, and help out whoever is in need nearby usually. Since they primarily work alone, I'd say they're some of the strongest in the bureau. That's why most of them are magicians."

"What's the difference between a mage and a magician?" Evelyn asked. There was a piece of blonde hair between Zara's eyes that she had been staring at. She so desperately wanted to flick it out her face for some reason, but restrained herself.

Zara's eyes widened and she sat up, "Oh my god, a magician!" she said, looking at Evelyn as if she should've had a revelation at her words, "A magician could help you learn how to use magic!"

"Really!" Evelyn sat up at that, "What are they, like, the elders of this world or something?"

Zara laughed, "Not exactly. The magicians were sort of like the first mages. They were the ones who mastered magic first and they continue create and discover new forms of magic," she explained, "Usually a mage would need to learn how to use magic before the age of ten, but it might not be too late for you if you get help from a magician!"

"How do we find a magician?" Evelyn beamed, "Do we, like, schedule an appointment, like at a doctor's office?"

Zara threw her head back and laughed, "Not exactly," she grinned, "They've been targeted by the royal family for a while now, so most of them are either enslaved, dead, or in hiding. Luckily for us, I happen to know one very well and she's not too far from here."

"No way," Evelyn couldn't help it, she grabbed Zara's hand in excitement and squeezed it, "I'm really going to learn magic?"

Evelyn was too happy to see Zara's eyes light up at her touch. She fought back a blush and nodded, "Y-yeah, well I think so," she explained, "She's not an OCO, not even a member of BoVR actually, just an ally. But she and I go way back and she gives me intel and magical help from time to time for the right price. Her name is Robyn Vi. She lives in Waru City in this kingdom."

"Oh my god, I don't wanna get my hopes, but I-" Evelyn stopped, "Oh wait, I interrupted you. You didn't finish talking bout the different sectors."

"Oh yeah, where was I?" Zara thought for a second, looking down at their joined hands, "Um, I don't think I told you about the Specialists yet." Evelyn shook her head.

"Alright, so the Specialists," she switched the position of their hands that hers was on top and then absentmindedly traced circles around the back of Evelyn's hand, "Basically they're like the wild cards.

They don't fit into any of the specific roles or talent in a team, but they're useful for missions and usually really strong. For whatever reason, either not powerful enough or just prefer working in a group, they're not OCOs. I'd actually say most agents are probably Specialists but don't quote me on that."

Evelyn nodded and asked softly, "And the fifth one?" when they were that close, close enough to be holding hands (a fact that made Evelyn's ears burn profusely), she was almost scared to speak too loudly.

"The fifth is the most important. I need you to listen to me very closely, Evelyn. Because these are the bad people I was talking about," She stopped rubbing circles in Evelyn's hand and squeezed it instead, not hard enough to hurt, but enough to get her attention.

"The last section is the Red Coat Division or the RCD. But most people just call them Red Coats," Zara explained, "They work together or they work alone, and they generally don't reveal themselves because the work they do is pretty confidential."

"What do they do?" Evelyn frowned deeply.

"They're assassins," Zara explained, "They kill people (big, important people to the government) for the bureau. Usually, whenever a figure like that is out in the open or about to enact some evil plan, the Red Coats come in to put a stop to them. Permanently."

"Oh," was all Evelyn could say. She supposed, in hindsight, it was inevitable that there would be killing. They were at war for freedom; it was a revolution after all. Still, however, it was a bit shocking knowing that the supposed good guys of this world actually hired assassins. This wasn't just inevitable bloodshed on the battlefied, this was calculated murder.

"They're bad people, Evelyn," Zara stressed, "I need you to promise me that if you ever come in contact with one, you'll run. Don't interact, don't try and tell them you're in the bureau. Anyone sick enough to kill on command is not someone you'll be able to reason with and not someone you'll want to stay close to." She released Evelyn's hand and replaced it with the gallon of ice water. She took a swig and heaved a big sigh.

"But if you wanna join the bureau, you'll first need to visit Robyn," she said after a moment of them staring at their now empty hands in disturbed silence, "She doesn't like me very much, but she's very useful. And if there's anyone that can help you learn some form of magic, it's her."

"Do you think Robyn could also figure out how I got here?" Evelyn placed her elbows on her knees and leaned against her palms again, "Like how that lightning bolt somehow transported me to a different freaking planet, since apparently, that's not a normal thing that happens around here."

Zara raised her brows and cocked her head to the side, nodding slowly, "You know what, there is a good chance she might have some ideas," she answered, "And she might even have a few ideas on how to get you back to Earth."

Evelyn looked up at the sky, not even the moon was out that night. "I need to face Glory. I need to face him, and then I need to fight him." It was clear and crisp, but her previous excitement to see Zara had kept her warm. Now that the night air and their somber conversation had sobered her adrenaline, the events of their night with Officer Glory drove a chill up her spine, reminding her that it was still the beginning of Fall. "I want to help the people here. I want to know more, and do more. Then I'll leave."

"You know, in order for us to get to Waru City, we'll need to take the train," Zara informed her, "I usually avoid it, but it's probably the only way for us to get there in a day with all the traffic. But, as you probably guessed..."

"Glory said he frequents the train stations," Evelyn nodded, "So what you're saying is that we'll probably see him."

"Yeah, well..." Zara gave her a soft smile. "Until you learn magic and get stronger, me and the others will protect you. I promise, Evelyn, I'm not going to let Glory hurt you again. And I'm going to help you get stronger until you're ready to go back to Earth."

"This is my Spiderman Phase. I know it," she whispered, more to herself than Zara.

"It's so annoying how you always say things you know I don't understand," Zara laughed. They were further away than before, but Zara reached over to grab Evelyn's hand again. Even though her hand was cold because of the water gallon she was previously holding, for some reason, it warmed Evelyn right up. "You're lucky you're cute."

***

media for this book as well as additional concepts from the lore can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1k7Tr97m7cLtodWvn94f1x3toUvvdsdcA?usp=sharing

WebNovel doesn't allow chapter art or in-line media like w*ttp*d does, so ya'll can use this google drive folder link to see the art I put for each chapter. It will be updated with each chapter as frequently as I can! <3