As they moved down the hall, flanked by another guild mber leading them to the squad they had been assigned to, their chatter barely registered in his ears. Riven’s thoughts drifted to the human female from earlier.
The branch master.
Arxia’s voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
"Father... that human female..."
"I know," he replied silently. There was sothing about her, sothing that set off alarms he could not ignore.
She was cautious and calculating. Her gaze had lingered on them longer than polite curiosity allowed, sharp and probing.
"You could tell?"
"Well... not personally," he admitted, letting a faint exhale escape the corners of his mind.
"But I could see and feel everything you were feeling. So I could tell sothing was off about her."
There was a subtle weight in his words, an acknowledgnt of the hive link’s reach, the way it let him perceive the world through his daughter’s senses, sothing even he could not see. The phrase people see things differently suddenly carried more aning.
"Your senses are really sharp, Arxia. I can tell that much. I am really impressed," he said playfully, causing her to puff up her chest and look up with childish pride.
The hall ahead was filled with chatter and other guild mbers going about their business. Yet through it all, the intensity in the branch master’s eye lingered in his mory, a reminder that not all humans were simple and not all were easy to read.
And that thought quietly unsettled him more than he cared to admit.
The woman guiding them, Lynelle, had introduced herself earlier. Now she led Riven and Arixa toward the administrative wing.
She was calm yet sowhat enthusiastic, as if she had shown newcors this path dozens of tis before.
They stopped before a wide office door left half open. Voices drifted from inside.
A working squad.
Lynelle tapped the fra gently. "Alright, recruits. This will be your unit."
The door was pushed open.
Inside, three figures looked toward them.
The first was Harrow, the hothead from earlier, standing with his arms crossed. He did not glare this ti. He looked more like he winced at the sight of them, as if fate itself had played a joke on him.
Lynelle gave an apologetic sigh. "Do not mind him. Harrow’s bark is loud, but it is mostly because he is actually a softie. Dangerous work makes people blunt."
Harrow’s ears reddened instantly. "I did not say... I do not care about..."
He stopped, sighed and dropped his shoulders. "Never mind."
Lynelle swatted the back of his shoulder with the flat of her hand. "See? Hopeless."
Arixa tilted her head, whispering through their link.
"He is embarrassed. Interesting."
Riven did not respond, but he felt the sa.
The second person stepped forward, a tall guy with an innocent, cute face and black hair tied in a lazy knot, green eyes behind a pair of glasses. He gave a small wave, his expression making it obvious he was very easygoing and almost sleepy.
"Na’s Daven," he said. "If anyone here breaks sothing important, it will probably be ."
His smile widened slightly. "I am a bit clumsy, but I am great in a fight, so that balances it out."
The way he said the last part with a hint of enthusiasm made Riven slightly worried for him.
The third was a woman perched on a desk, flicking through a holopad. Dark blue ponytail. Bright analytical blue eyes. She did not bother standing.
"Talia," she said without looking up. "I am the one who will be patching you up if Harrow gets overexcited and charges into an industrial drill again."
Harrow spluttered. "Ugh! That was one ti!"
"And yet there were also other tis," Talia murmured, still scrolling, causing Harrow to wince silently.
Clever. Sharp. Observant. The sort of teammate who would probably stress over proper procedure and planning. The type of person who liked to keep things dangerously organized.
Lynelle clapped her hands once. "Good. Everyone has t. This is your squad. Try not to kill each other, or let the job do it instead."
She waved, turned around and left.
As Riven stepped further inside, he caught a flicker of sothing in Harrow’s gaze.
Not hostility.
Not even resentnt.
Just the uneasy realization that their arrival was going to change sothing, and he was not sure if he liked that or not.
Riven’s thoughts whispered, almost unconsciously.
"This might be trouble."
A strange tension settled over the room.
"Better to act normal. Blend in."
He offered a small, polite smile toward the group.
"So, what exactly are we supposed to do around here?"
Talia finally lifted her eyes from her holopad.
"Weren’t you already filled in?"
Riven felt heat crawl up his neck. He rubbed the back of his head.
"Unfortunately... no. Sothing about a scheduling mix up, or a mo that never arrived."
Talia exhaled, a clear sign that this was expected rookie behavior.
"Fine," she said. "Our job is simple."
Her eyes hardened slightly.
"We find undercover monsters hiding in human society and get rid of them."
The floor seed to shift beneath Riven’s feet.
A cold instinctive chill ran along his spine, like soone had spilled ice water down the center of his back.
He swallowed.
"Um... sorry. Do you mind repeating that? This ti with an explanation?"
Before Talia could respond, Harrow clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Rookies," he muttered. The single word managed to combine judgnt, amusent and a bitter I told you so tone all at once.
Talia rolled her eyes at Harrow’s comntary but continued.
"You will get the full details in the new mber orientation," she said. "But the short version is this. Intelligent monsters walk among humans. They hide. So blend in better than others. Our branch specializes in identifying them before they start causing trouble. Then we get rid of them."
Her gaze slid to Riven again, assessing him more carefully than before.
"Does that clarify things?" she asked with mild annoyance.
Riven forced a nod.
"Yes. Very clearly."
Arixa’s voice whispered faintly in his mind.
"Father... I do not think we picked a very safe job."
And Riven could not disagree.
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