Spright

"I propose we call him healer." Jumper suddenly said.

"Life boy!" Blood shouted across the table.

"Wait, no! Life man!" Blood continued energetically.

"Do I get to suggest my own?" Emile asked amidst the chaos.

"Nope. Taken in by the family, named by the family." Collector responded, "But to be fair these two are probably the worst."

Before Blood could yell out any other extraordinary names, Collector continued to hold the floor.

"Actually, how does your gift work? Knowing about it will help us come up with better names." Collector asked.

"I—I thought it was supposed to be a secret." Emile awkwardly responded.

Collector sighed and looked around the room.

"It's a secret, yes, but most secrets in life are known by somebody. It's who you tell that matters, not telling it itself. And attacking other members of the family is against our interests, so you're safe with us."

Emile held eye contact with the bubbly woman. There was something about her he didn't like. She was too…different?

One second she's playing a motherly role; unconditionally loving and caring, attentive, and joyful. Then the next she's stone cold, her entire demeanor changes into an uncaring, sadistic, creature.

Is she just good at separating work and personal feelings? Is it something more than that, an issue that exists biochemically? Whatever it was, Emile strongly felt that he couldn't trust her.

In fact, Emile liked Blood a lot more even though he's seen Blood commit atrocities. Blood grew up in an environment where murder was allowed, or maybe even rewarded, either way he was simple and easy to read.

"My gift speeds up cells, makes them split faster." Emile reluctantly responded.

"What are cells? I thought you healed?" Blood asked.

Emile looked at Blood and then at the other two people present. Jumper had a similar look of confusion on his face while Collector remained indifferent.

"Cells? They're like the little building blocks that make up life. So your bones, muscles, organs, they're all built from super small little cells that work together to create the organ or whatever."

Blood immediately started inspecting his hand, putting it an inch away from his eyes.

"I don't see anything though." He said.

"They're too small to see." Emile informed.

"How do you know this?" Blood asked.

'Wait—how do I know this? I can't just say I took biology.'

"His gift allows him to see what others cannot." Collector answered Blood's question, "Every gift does it in some fashion. Take you for example Blood, you freely manipulate and crystallize blood with your essence, we all have essence here so why can't we do what you do? Your gift naturally endows you with the knowledge to know how to perform your gift. This information is simply given to you, just as the existence of cells are given to him."

'What? That's how it works?'

"Wait—" Emile spoke out again, "so then I could theoretically learn Blood's gift?"

"Technically you could, it's not a secret or anything, but it is a lost art. Have you heard of God's Tongue? God's Tongue is this ancient technique to freely utilize your essence and apply it to anything, but again I don't think our plane even has the essence to facilitate growth to that extent."

Emile lost himself in thought. Just knowing he could fly around the world and create energy beams like his favorite characters back on Earth was an incredible motivator.

Was it good enough of a reason to contribute to the mass killings this group committed to artificially regulate the flow of essence? Emile wasn't sure, he wasn't even sure if he bought the whole essence argument to begin with.

"Okay!" Collector said loudly, returning everyone's attention back to Emile's code name, "So you speed up the process of life, I think, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Wait a second!" Blood shouted again, "Plants are life right? Can you grow plants too?!"

"Yeah I can grow plants." Emile responded indifferently.

"The Gardener!" Blood jumped with joy.

"What about Spright?" The Collector completely ignored Blood's newest suggestion. "It means alive, full of energy, it's exactly what you do."

'It's also a delicious carbonated beverage….'

"I support Spright." Jumper raised his hand in agreement.

"Oh! Spright sounds cool!" Blood joined the bandwagon.

"Then it's decided. Welcome to Graves, ninth member Spright." Collector announced as she erupted into a fit of applause.

Meanwhile, Blood and Jumper just looked at him, clearly used to and unperturbed by Collectors extravagant performance of a personality.

"Now that that's over with, Blood, Spright, you two have a mission!" Collector said, rummaging through her apparently endless bag.

"I just got back!" Blood complained.

"And now you're leaving! Isn't that exciting?" The Collector pulled two folders out of her bag and slid them across the table to Blood and Emile.

"I need you two to kill everything in this labyrinth—yup that's it! Have fun!" The Collector then stood up, pushed her chair in and walked out of the meeting hall.

"So—" Emile finally said, cutting the awkward tension in the air, "what's a labyrinth?"

Blood rolled his eyes and rested his head on the table. Jumper stood up and proceeded to leave.

"No wait! Jumper! Don't leave me with this idiot! I know you just heard him! Jumper!" Blood begged as he almost crawled across the table.

Meanwhile, Emile continued to patiently sit and watch Blood, waiting for an answer to his question. But instead, Blood stood up and left the room as well, leaving Emile alone at the table.

With nothing better to do, Emile returned to his room and began to read the two packets he had just received. One being from joining Graves, the other being a synopsis of his upcoming mission.

The Graves packet didn't contain anything particularly useful. They lived in this facility rent free, they were allowed to take anything they saw fit during their missions, and they were paid in freedom.

Completing a mission rewarded them a certain number of undisturbed days; if they wanted to earn actual, spendable, currency they had to loot it on the job.

They were, as previously mentioned, barred from doing anything against the interests of the group which included its individual members.

For example, Blood could not hunt down Emma in order to indirectly hurt Emile, since doing so would likely result in animosity between the two or result in a real confrontation, all of which affects the proficiency of the group.

The mission description was also not very detailed, it contained what Emile considered to be the bare minimum.

The labyrinth exists beneath the edge of the Hollow Mountains and the forest. It stretches twenty miles from edge to edge, and it is estimated to contain six hundred to nine hundred creatures of low-rank.

That was it. No information on the type of creatures. No information on the topography of the labyrinth itself. Just where it is and how many targets exist there.

'Six hundred?!'

'This is a suicide mission!'