Crimson Hail and the Secrets of Valour — Chapter 5.b : Your new home

The grey room was large, with no windows, and a low ceiling. There were plenty of chairs and tables, as well as beds for those unable to sit. Crimson with Nisbah’s help placed Marx on one of the beds, then sat with Ronan and Zeik. They caught the eye of a well-dressed woman standing confidently in front of the room. She clapped twice, cleared her throat, and there was silence. All eyes were on her, all ears attuned. After pushing her glasses back with her index finger, she began to speak.

‘Welcome outsiders! I’m sure you have a lot of questions about this place. Where it is, how you got here, and what will happen to you now. I will do my best to answer all of them. I am Dorcas and I am here to give outsiders like yourself, the basic information they need to understand this place.’ Crimson had never been so attentive. All the questions he had would be answered at last. ‘You are on an island called–Valour.’ On hearing this, everyone looked at each other, and a light murmur began to rise.

‘Silence please!’ again, the crowd went quiet as Dorcas turned on a blue hollow cylinder by clicking her fingers. The cylinder projected a holographic map.

‘As you can see Valour is divided into five sections. The bottom left is Node, top left Scheva, top right Ki-Patria, bottom right Cynitax, and the centre is Epsilon. Valour was founded by our Great Mother along with a handful of others. I won’t bore you with the details, but our Great Mother is from another…