Loyalties

The sound of the door opening could be heard as both Aiden and Mai walked through the door ignoring the looks of the other initiates.

After walking through a hall and separating from the other candidates they found Jonathan leaning by the wall seemingly waiting for them.

Walking up to him, the group exchanged knowing glances as they walked together in silence.

As they moved the crowded halls, Jonathan was the first to ask, "How'd it go?"

"Just as you said it would," Mai responded immediately earning her a smile from Landon who glanced at her with squinted eyes.

"And how did I say it would go?" Jonathan asked Mai, his head tilted innocently.

"In and out," both Aiden and Mai responded simultaneously as they chuckled.

Name: Aiden Frostfall

Age: 27

Code Name:?

Rank: Agent-Lv 4 Operative (TL 20)

Merit Points:?

Walking down the hall with Jonathan and Mai, Aiden couldn't help but stare at his identity card, his eyes betraying no emotion as the numbness of becoming an agent coursed through him.

Turning towards Aiden, Jonathan noticed his blank look and said, "Not many people make it this far."

"But we did," Mai responded happily as she flaunted her identity card as well, unlike Aiden who was at the agent rank, Mai was still a level one initiate.

Noticing Mai's enthusiasm Aiden asked Jonathan, "What is the next part of the initiation about?"

They had been told that the second part of the initiation would commence in the evening, the problem was that they weren't given a specific time.

"Your initiation is more like a briefing, a meeting where you'll be told more about the operations of the Silence," Landon said, his gaze thoughtful as he added. "Everyone will be there and by everyone I mean all the initiates the Silence has recruited since the beginning of this year, you'll also be given the permanent cure to the poison running through your veins but I don't think that applies to you, now does it Aiden."

At the end of his talk, Jonathan's tone appeared probing, and Aiden, noticing what he was after, let out a sigh, "You know I won't say any more about it."

"But why," Jonathan replied while moving in front of Aiden, walking backward as he spoke, "When you told me you gained power from consuming the souls of the dead, it made me think about the similarities between your power and Detritus ink, you collect something above the dead body, just like Detritus Inscribers do when they make ink."

Feeling confused by where Jonathan was going with this conversation, Mai asked with a raised brow, "What is your point?"

Scrunching his face at Mai's question, Jonathan asked, "Aren't you even a little bit curious about Aiden? Don't you want to know how his powers work?"

"I know, his powers are disgusting," Mai said with furrowed brows, the look In her eyes one of irritation as she added, "I can't sleep in that rented room tonight, not after all the goats we killed in there."

Hearing what Mai said, Jonathan caressed his forehead as he argued, "It's my loss, do you know how many merit points I've spent on you two? I was saving up to buy higher-level Detritus Marks, but now the delivery guys think I'm some kind of mad scientist killing goats here and there, do you know how much it cost to clean up that room? There was blood everywhere."

"Haha," Aiden chuckled a bit at Jonathan's words as he remembered their reaction after being told of the source of his powers.

Aiden had expected Mai and Jonathan to express their disgust, disappointment, or caution after hearing that he fed on the souls of dead people.

But to his surprise, their reaction had been different from what he expected.

Jonathan was intrigued wanting to know more about his powers and Mai expressed her disgust, not in the bad way but in the "I don't like the fact that you killed all these cute goats " kind of way.

They didn't judge him at all, and Aiden respected that. Of course, they did express their distaste for the fact that he had it easy when it came to advancing.

Soon they stopped in front of a door which Jonathan used his identity card to unlock.

The group walked into the room, with Mai jumping onto a bed at the first opportunity and Jonathan logging back into his computer.

"Today was so straining, I'm mentally exhausted," Mai grumbled as she gazed at the ceiling.

Laughing at Mai's expression, Jonathan quipped, "Get used to it, this is your life now."

Hearing this, Mai suddenly sat up, her eyes widened in curiosity as she asked Jonathan, "were are the hell crystals?"

Upon hearing Mai's voice, Aiden also became interested in the topic.

Before separating at the abysmal enclave, they had left the hell crystals in Jonathan's care.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Jonathan responded after a short pause, "I couldn't bring the crystals with me to the Silence, that's as good as saying we're in possession of illegally mined crystals."

"Then what did you do with it?" Aiden asked with narrowed eyes.

Seeing the look in Aiden's eyes, Jonathan responded slowly, "It's at my house, downtown, I was planning on taking you guys there tomorrow since you'd be free to leave the Silence by then."

Listening to Jonathan's excuse, Mai frowned, "Why didn't you sell them if they're so dangerous? We could have just split the money."

"Do you think selling illegally obtained crystals is easy?" Jonathan suddenly said, his tone lowering as he explained, "I've never done it before, Blood Pact was the one who pulled the strings on stuff like this, I have no connections to the underworld, one wrong move and they could trace it back to us, we can't just exchange the crystals through legal means, we'll be caught."

There was a short silence after Jonathan's words until Aiden spoke while giving Mai a look, "We understand, we're sorry for doubting you, Jonathan."

"Hmm," Jonathan hummed while saying, "and you can say that when you show your distrust for me another time, I'm sticking my neck out for you guys, you think I don't want to be a team?"

"You're intrigued by something new, you could turn on us as soon as your head's out of the table," Mai replied calmly earning her a frown from Aiden.

Eyes widened in shock, Jonathan opened his mouth and closed it, not knowing what to say until he finally managed to squeeze two words out, "Get out."

"Come on Jonathan, you know how Mai is," Aiden said, trying to remedy the situation.

Hearing Aiden's tone, Jonathan shook his head as he said, "We might not have known each other for long, but I genuinely wanted to help."

"Why do you want to help?" Mai stood up from the bed, her tone probing as she added, "I don't trust you more than I can throw you, Jonathan, it just doesn't make sense, we threatened you, held you, hostage, how can you want to help us after that?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

Jonathan suddenly yelled his eyes widened in aggression.

Letting out a breath, Mai said, "You think Aiden doesn't know that you're hiding something from us? Why do you think he didn't choose to expand on the topic of his powers? He doesn't trust you."

"Oh please," Jonathan said while pointing to Aiden who had chosen to be a spectator in this scuffle as he argued, "do you speak for AI-"

"Save it, Jonathan," Aiden suddenly interrupted Jonathan as he said, "We know you tipped off the disciplinary committee, now you didn't expose us, but you left a back door for yourself, if we had been caught, you could've used the fact that you reported us to escape punishment, now I don't know how that would've helped you get off the charge of illegal crystals mining, but you know more about these things than I do."

Silence, all that reigned after Aiden's words was silence, and after a while, Jonathan finally spoke, "How did you find out?"

"I'm not naive Jonathan, I've been watching you closely, do you think I need to sleep at night?" Aiden muttered while folding his arms.

Last night before the morning of the initiation, Aiden had seen Jonathan leaving the room to take a call. That wasn't a problem but the fact that a disciplinary committee captain, Miss Ace, appeared for the test was disturbing, fortunately, although she was strong she wasn't as perceptive.

The Silence might have held the initiates in high regard, but they didn't take them so seriously to send a captain of the disciplinary committee to oversee their rankings, and if not for Aiden's understanding of the Silence's dynamics he wouldn't have noticed the oddity of the situation.

Of course, all these lose facts weren't enough for them to tie this to Jonathan, it was just a speculation birthed from Aiden's overthinking, he had told Mai about it, and she had acted on that knowledge, based on Jonathan's reaction they weren't far from the truth.

Looking toward Aiden, Jonathan's expression turned into one of guilt as he said, "I'm sorry, but I'm not omnipotent, there was a possibility that my plan could fail, as you said I don't know you enough to help you unconditionally."

"Then let it be known that your help only applies when we're on the same boat," Mai said prompting Aiden to let out a sigh.

Jonathan's report had made their mission harder, fortunately, they managed to survive.

He hadn't expected this, but then again he had, in the world of Contractors everyone wanted to survive, Aiden didn't put all his cards on Jonathan, but for now, they were stuck with him so they would have to make due.

Looking towards the computer, Aiden changed the topic, his voice becoming colder as he asked, "Where is the second part of the initiation being held?"

"It's held at the conference room on the second floor," Jonathan replied dimly before darting in, "as you know, this doesn't require any preparation since it's just a welcome into the Silence, I assume you both have your tags because that's what you'll use to collect your rewards."

"I've got mine," Mai replied dryly as she slid a hand into her inner pocket, bringing out an orange tag.

Seeing Mai's tag reminded Aiden of their time In the abysmal enclave, they had lost their tags along with their armor, but thanks to Jonathan who took the tags of another team they wouldn't be missing out on being rewarded.

"Whatever happened to that team anyway?" Aiden suddenly asked, his brows furrowed in thought.

Feeling confused, Mai asked, "Which team are you talking about?"

"The one we abandoned at the enclave, the owners of your tags," Jonathan said before adding as he turned to Aiden, "We can't possibly save everyone, the fewer people who knew that we met in the enclave the better."

Hearing Jonathan's words, Aiden nodded as he searched his inner pocket, suddenly his brows furrowed as he searched his outer pocket.

Seeing Aiden's behavior, Mai asked, "What is it?"

"I can't find my tag," Aiden responded as he pulled out a folded piece of paper from the inner pocket of his coat.

Seeing this piece of paper, the group came together as Aiden unfolded it, it seemed to be a business card of sorts, and on it was a single name, "Medusa."