Kyrian turned the page of his ‘Basics to Guiding’ manual that had been graciously left in the drawer of his nightstand.

It was rare to find physical copies of text, but it felt nice to have something tangible in his hands.

The day had been uneventful with ample time for a morning work-out and reading time, but it was far too soon to make such bold claims. It wasn’t even lunch yet, so the day was still young.

“Prime opportunity for another emergency,” he murmured out loud.

His eyes scanned the words on the page. This content was something he essentially had memorized for military school, but he continued to read with nothing better to do.

Something in his chest felt uneasy, yet another reason to not get overly comfortable. There was a heavy silence in the air that even the rumbling air conditioner units could not fill.

On cue, the vent on the wall stirred to life, but it sounded muted.

The Cerbus watch on his wrist buzzed, so he adjusted his arm to see the screen. An orange light blinked back at him. 

A summons.

He closed the manual, and stood from his bed with a brief stretch of his stiff shoulders. 

I wonder if I’m ever going to meet him properly…

His hand reached towards the hook where his shirt was neatly hanging, and he quickly slid his arms into the sleeves of the button-down uniform.

After his uniform was donned he stepped out into the hall, looping his visitor lanyard around his neck as he walked.

He passed a cluster of researchers, their heads together as they walked and whispered in hushed tones. Their conversation did not stop, but Kyrian felt their gazes like pinpricks.

“Excuse- Excuse me!”

Kyrian’s steps faltered, but he pressed on, assuming the voice was calling out to someone else. No one at this institution seemed willing to approach him, outside of a few outliers, so the possibility of them trying to get his attention was easily dismissed.

“Sir?”

When they called out once more, Kyrian stopped and looked back. His face showed more confusion than he would have preferred, but one of the researchers nodded eagerly and gestured him over.

“Yes, you! We…” The young woman wrung her hands, showing her distress and failing courage as Kyrian calmly approached the group.

The five faces watched him with fascination, though two did not seem quite as excited to be so close to him. Their gazes darted away nervously, and they lingered back with frowns and stiff postures.

“We were wondering if you had been summoned?” A young man spoke and adjusted his glasses on his nose. He was short in stature, fitting right in with the women surrounding him, and his dark curls were cleanly styled.

Kyrian glanced between him and the young woman who had initially called out to him, her brown eyes trembling.

Is she going to cry?

He sighed, and nodded his head. “Yes, I was. Is there something urgent that you need from me?”

“No we were afraid you were lost, sir!” The young woman blurted, and quickly covered her mouth, eyes wide as if startled by her own behavior.

One of the women who was lingering at the back of the group snorted in amusement, and looked away.

Kyrian raised a brow in thought, head tilted to the side. “Was I not going in the right direction?”

Heads began shaking in response, and Kyrian realized why they had been watching him so pointedly.

“Ah… Well that’s good to know, I thought I was being summoned to the Director’s office for reprimanding.” His words came out joking, but he had very much thought that was the case. 

He gave a slight bow of thanks, and gestured towards the group. “If you wouldn’t mind pointing me in the right direction, I’ll be on my way.”

The researchers shifted nervously, one even looking away altogether in obvious reluctance.

Sensing their unease, Kyrian straightened his shoulders and tried to pay more attention to their body language.

“Well,” the young man busied himself with cleaning his glasses on his lab coat, “an amber code means for called personnel to gather at the prep-zone on floor-0.”

Floor-0… 

Kyrian bit the inside of his lip.

“You can walk with us if you’d like?” One of the older researchers offered quietly, unable to meet Kyrian’s gaze.

“... Thank you, I would appreciate the company.”

It took a moment for the group to get in motion, awkwardly shuffling around unsure what to do until the young man with his oversized glasses finally told everyone to follow him.

As they walked Kyrian debated on asking them what the prep-zone was exactly, but the questions he fought to hold back were about Eiden. Were they gathering at the prep-zone for Guiding? Typically prep-zones were for military members, so he couldn’t picture what Cerberus’ idea of a prep-zone looked like.

The opportunity to ask any questions was lost once they stepped off of the cold elevator.

Kyrian recalled his first impression of floor-0, and an involuntary chill ran up his spine.

He glanced down the hall where the confinement room Eiden was kept in, hands clenched, but they passed it and continued down the main hall with muted footsteps.

His thoughts spun, wondering why they weren’t going to the containment ward where Eiden was… That was his whole reason for even being at Cerberus.

At the end of the hall was a huge steel airlock door, and as they approached the dead end, voices and machinery echoed from the opened door. 

“We need to hurry, they’ll be returning soon,” one of the group said in annoyance, “and they’ll need every single one of us to manage the rift and mana stones they collected.”

Returning? He slowed his pace, but no one offered to elaborate.

The five researchers entered the room before Kyrian, who had slowed to a halt at the doorway. 

For a moment, he was at a loss for words at the sight before him. A huge room unfolded on the other side of the door teeming with researchers and military guards. There were tables, crates, and stations set up with people assigned to their positions.

The sight before him was nothing like he had expected.

More startling was the row of reinforced polymer pods lining one end of the room. Inside each pod were medical chairs armed with full-body restraints, monitors for data collection, and IV hook-ups for sedation. 

This was all visible at a glance, but what truly unsettled him was why these pods were there to begin with. What they were meant to hold.