A plan - Part 3

"But Lake what did you want to talk about?" I ask after the waiter leaves. I don't mind waiting for it but I also want all of this planning would be over. Lake seems to think a bit. I don't think he has to remember what we need to talk about. I have a feeling that he's thinking about how to address this. Since this is a pretty awkward thing to talk about.

I thought you would've realised what we needed to talk about. We need to talk about yesterday's portal. Because I already gave my statement there. But I think we will be asked about it again. Especially you two, since I don't think either of you gave an official statement yet." Lake explains as the waiter comes back with our drinks. I get the coffee I ordered since I do think this gives me some energy. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of coffee in and of itself. Both of them seem to have taken some sort of coffee too. Lake ordered the same thing as me. A simple black coffee. But unlike me, he doesn't need the sugar that's given with it. Kiara however ordered a capuciono something that's very effective to wake you up. But right after we get our drinks I start to really think about what Lake says. He's right about me not having given an official statement. And considering the fact that this was a delve that the association is focused on. Will make us get questioned later. And if they don't end up questioning us. Other delves will question us. But I thought we discussed that yesterday.

"Wait, didn't we already discuss that yesterday? Because it seemed like everyone believed you yesterday. And I gave a similar statement yesterday. So why would they question it later?" Kiara asks as I wonder what we need to talk about still. Because I understood what Lake said yesterday. We were wandering around and didn't see any zombies appear so we continued to collect. But that's what I heard after I got through that portal. So there might be things that I missed. So I wouldn't mind some more information about what was said.

"Well, I thought everything was already said. I just need to know what you two said exactly. Because Lake's right about us being questioned later. Yesterday was too hectic for our statements to be written down. But my story will need to match both of your stories. So I will need to know what you said to, Kiara. Since I haven't made my official statement yet. So mine has to match what you two said." I explain as I realise something else too. They will be called back to give another statement. But I have technically given a statement. However, I didn't see it being noted down so I don't know why it's written down. All of this was quite a big deal for a lower-ranked delve.

"You're right, our stories have to match. If they don't then all of us would be in trouble. I doubt that we would be in trouble just for lying. Our punishment would be a revoked delving license. If that was just it." Lake comments as he seems to be talking to himself for a bit. 'Azure, I'm trying to remember what I said. Since I can't repeat what I said word for word. I didn't say a lot though since there was a lot going on there already. And they were still trying to figure out what happened. I just said that everything went quiet for us. And that we saw no zombies during the night. Well, that's what I think I said at least I said." Lake explains as it does seem that he had hidden everything. That's the information I need. Since I shouldn't let anything slip then.

"Okay, so you told them we wandered off to collect stuff. But that doesn't explain why weren't in the cave when night fell. I think that our having wandered off far might explain a lot of stuff. Like us coming out of the portal late would be explained too." I suggest as it would be something that I would mention but Lake wouldn't mention during a statement. But I don't think that will be enough to explain us not coming back during the night. As I think about it, I have an idea. We could say we tried to sleep through the night. Lake could've kept watch and that's why he could say he didn't see any zombies. He could've woken us up and that was when we were running back to the portal.

"Yeah, we do need to explain why we didn't come back at night. But I honestly think the truth is the best thing in this situation. We wandered off quite far. We had to run to get back through the portal. You nearly didn't get through there." Lake states as I can't help but agree. I always heard that the best lies are based on truth. And thus mixing some truth within it doesn't hurt. The wandering off far was my fault if you think about it. We probably wouldn't have come so close to being stuck there if I didn't wander off to collect things.

"But didn't all that explain it? Because for me that seemed enough for an explanation for me." Kiara comments as she just drinks her entire cappuccino in one go. But honestly, I can't stop blaming myself at the moment. If I didn't wander off we wouldn't have been in so much danger. We wouldn't have encountered those wolves who started to attack us. I was the one who nearly ended up being dead there but they could've been in more danger too. If I didn't lead them there, then no one would've been in danger. Well, I'm not sure about the people in the cave. I wasn't there so I don't think I was to blame there. But then again I'm hiding the fact that I saw an unknown monster up there.

"Well considering the fact that I already heard that they want to talk to us again, makes me think it didn't. It was not an official message. So don't worry about being questioned in a few days. However, I think we should expect that we're going to get questioned soon." Lake explains as he honestly looks quite worried. But I'm not that surprised. It seems pretty obvious that we will have to explain everything again. I haven't really had to do that before but it does sound normal. I wouldn't be surprised if we had to explain it a couple of times to the association. However, I do think that if we stick to the story we will be questioned less. Since we would have less information they would need. One group that will still question us is other delvers. They might be curious about what happened and will ask us questions about it. But honestly, Lake doesn't know what the message is about. What if it's about something completely else. Kiara looks pretty surprised though, probably because she didn't know about the multiple statements.

"What was the message you got? And is the person you got the message from a trustable source? Because what the message says could determine how much trouble we're in. And honestly, I don't like the amount of trouble we are already seemingly in. But certain things could influence that." I ask as I really want to worry less. I probably don't know who he even got the message from. I just want to know whether or not that person is someone that could be trusted knowing that information. And honestly, I can't read Lake's relaxed attitude for this. It just doesn't give me any clues.

"Well, all I'm saying is that we have to be prepared. But that doesn't that we should be too worried. But I also still have a question for you Azure. Where the hell did you get that scar? Like I didn't question it too much yesterday. Because yesterday was way too hectic. But where did that come from?" Lake asks as I honestly don't know what to answer. What am I supposed to say? You two were sleeping and a monster came in. That monster spared us but still felt the need to slash my cheek and I just happened to forget to mention that. That seems like a huge thing to forget to mention to someone.

"So you didn't have that scar beforehand. I thought I didn't see it when we entered the portal. But did it just pop up out of nowhere? Like it seems like you would know where the scar would come from." Kiara asks as I have to make a split decision. That decision is if I should hide it or not. If I should stick with what I'm saying or if I should just fess up. But it just feels weird if I were to come out and talk about this.

"Honestly, I didn't know I had this scar till you mentioned it. So I have no clue where it came from. I didn't feel like my cheek was hurt. If it were a recent scar it wouldn't be a fully healed scar already." I comment as I hope it's not clear that I'm lying. But I truly don't know how it healed this quickly. For it to look like this it would have to be healing for weeks already. Yet it already got to this state in a few hours.

"Wait, so what you're saying is that you don't know? It's a scar on your face. How do you not know how you got it?" Lake questions in pure confusion. However I don't know how to explain it. I don't know how it healed this quickly. All I know is how I got it, not how it got to this point. I just realised I'm even known to heal quickly. I'm known to be hospitalised a lot. So my healing so quickly would be ridiculous.

"I heard that wounds on the face hurt quite a bit. I heard that those have to be very deep to form scars that stay. So, you should've felt it. How did you not feel how you got a deep wound on your cheek?" Kiara asks as she informs me about scars. And she's right, the wound did hurt a whole lot when it happened. I probably didn't feel as much pain because I had so much adrenaline. All I know is that the wound was still open before I passed out.

"I don't know how I didn't feel it either. The scar just appeared, I don't remember any wound being there." I comment as I take a sip of my coffee. Which has already gotten quite cold at this point. I nearly drink half of it as I start to feel pretty tired at this point. The extra energy would do me some good. I however have trouble drinking it all since the coffee is that strong in a place like this. "Can we please go back to how we tell the story?"

"You're right, we should make sure our stories match. Since they have to sound natural and such. I know that I have been busted for lying quite a bit as a teenager so not sure if I can help a lot." Lake explains as he basically puts the responsibility of making a plan onto me and Kiara. While he can just sit and drink his coffee calmly. "It would be bad if we mess this up, right? All of us could be in trouble then."

"Well for a good lie, you can't sound rehearsed. Which is probably the hardest thing to do in lying. Since if one of us is discovered to be lying. Then all of us would be discovered. I remember this group of girls in school who did something. They got discovered because their stories sounded too much alike." Kiara tells us as she brings up a very good point. We can't all be telling the same story. That way we could be discovered to be lying very quickly. The same goes for sounding to rehearsed.

"Well, yeah we can't sound rehearsed. I thought that was obvious? I'm pretty sure that's the first rule to lie well. But what else do we have to do? Because if we have to be confident while telling it then that won't be a problem. But let's be honest that seems obvious too." Lake interrupts as I have a feeling that he didn't really understand what Kiara meant. But he's right about having the confident part down. He would have absolutely no problem with that. But Kiara was talking about the fact that none of us should sound repetitive. I feel like that would reveal everything pretty quickly.

"Well, our stories have to match. But they can't do too much either. People do view certain things happening differently. You could say we would be talking about a similar event but from multiple perspectives. You know how certain books do that. Showing the same event over and over again. Just the only difference is the character who's describing the event and how they feel during it." I explain in an attempt to make clear with Kiara meant. That is if I actually understood what Kiara meant. The fact that Kiara nods at what I'm saying shows me that I understood her correctly.

"Can you two stop repeating the obvious? Also, Azure that description is so far-fetched. I get it that our stories can't match. At least not match completely but still match a bit. But there was no need for such a weird metaphor." Lake says as he harps on how bad my book comparison is. Well, I thought it was a good comparison. I should've made it a movie one, or one about a tv show.

"The stories still have to match. So we will have to be very careful with our wording of things." Kiara explains as I nod. I look over to Lake who seems to nod to while he's seemingly relaxing. But we will have to work together to get through this. Since if someone invents something in the story, all of us have to be in the loop. "Well, I can add the fact that I was excited during the delve. Since it was my first delve I didn't know what was going on. I could also add that I thought that all of this was normal. I was so excited that I barely could sleep through the night but eventually did rest a bit.

"Azure, I suggest that you go the opposite route. Since you being exited in portals doesn't sound real." Lake jokingly comments on what Kiara said. But I was already planning on going a different route. One that would sound more realistic to someone like me. That route would make me sound anything but brave. But it would be the realistic route, which helps with a lie like this.

"Well, I was already planning on saying something else. Because my being excited about a delve doesn't sound that realistic. Because it has to be believable and that would not make me sound very trustworthy. I will just say that I was collecting during the day. Which caused us to wander off quite far. But once the sun started to set I became nervous. Because at any time zombies could appear. However, we didn't end up encountering any. That didn't make me less scared which caused me to get little to no rest. And the reason why I was nearly stuck was because I was slow." I explain what I was going to say if they questioned me. I can't help but want to leave at this point. I would like to train again a bit today. Since I want to see for how long I can obtain those points.

"Let's be honest, even when they know that we're lying. They will never be able to find out the truth. The only people who will know what really happened to us are us." Lake states as he's technically speaking right. But no one will truly know everything that happened. Since everything will have a different view of how everything happened. Stress can make stuff like that confusing to deal with. We won't truly know what happened inside that cave. And those in the cave will never really know what happened to us. However, those who went asleep will never know what happened on the second floor of that temple.

"Do you think that will be enough to convince everyone?" Kiara asks looking pretty uncertain about it. But it isn't like we can do anything else. They can't prove otherwise since the portal has closed. There's no way to go back and do everything right so everyone's okay. Sadly enough that's impossible to do.

"There's no way to know if it will work. I haven't even been able to see people's reactions to what you and Lake said. But right now this is the only thing we can do. We don't know what we can tell them that would convince them. We don't even know what questions they would ask. The only thing we can do is stick with the story. Because consistency is key." I comment as all I can hope is that it turns out alright. I honestly don't want to think about it too much.

"You're right, we don't know what will happen. The only thing we can do is hope that it will turn alright." Lake adds as he too seems pretty unsure about all of this. All I know is that we should stay calm.

"I think all we can do is stay calm. I feel that if we were to panic that we would mess it up for all of us. So the best thing we can do is stay calm." I explain as I try my best to follow my own advice. I don't think that either of them would have trouble following that. I think that I would have the most trouble following it. Since both of them seem to have less trouble keeping their cool.

"Has something like this ever happened before? By that, I mean finding things that shouldn't belong in a portal of that rank?" Kiara asks as I don't really know. I had never seen something like this before. And I don't know my history on portals well enough for this.

"Personally, no I haven't seen something like this before. And from what I heard from people they haven't seen something like this before. Nor did they even hear about something like this happening." Lake responds as seemingly looking around for a bit.

"Well, I haven't seen something like this happened before. But I now encountered two strange portals. Those being right after one another since today's portal was strange too." I jokingly say as I refer to today's portal. With that strange text that was inside there.

"Azure, are you serious? What happened inside that portal?" Lake asks as I realise I might have said a bit too much about it.

A plan - Part 3

Complete

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Sword fighter

Known users: Delialah Stone

Rank required: F rank