100

--The Enclave--

A think-tank turned company, Varier Corporation was founded about fifteen years ago when they successfully developed the dream learning technology via the Blue Chimera Engine, currently used by TheirWorld and several other applications.

Hands clasped tightly together in against her face, Dassah had already scrolled through a number of sites, sitting back at her desk at the university. In-game, the rest of her free time had been spent staring into nothing and trying to wrap her mind around the situation instead of being any kind of productive. She’d tried to call Grim a few times now, only to be met by his voicemail. Now she felt like she was simply buying her time till the reaper came for her.

She nibbled on her knuckle as she did the only thing she could think of that felt like an appropriate response to a bizarre situation: research.

Though many of the members of the founding group remain anonymous, Gren Yilin and Merlyn Jace were leaders for the technological giant from its inception.

Today, the company’s history is marred by a tragedy six years ago, when a programming fault in the testing succeeding Red Chimera Engine caused the deaths of more than two hundred people. Gren Yilin was found guilty of causing the fault, and was fried even before he became a suspect in the following criminal investigation, where he was later convicted and sentenced to prison. In light of the deaths, the Chimera Engines’ legacy was also put to an end.

It is likely that the swift actions of CEO Adrias Dunnar and Head Developer Merlyn Jace is what allowed the company to flourish through adversity.

In the short time between the ending of the Chimera engines and the release of TheirWorld, Merlyn Jace and his team of specialists released the now widely used Ethriaidren Engine and have promised to keep the safety of the users as the paramount priority of Varier Corporation.

Finishing the article, she leaned back and spun around in her chair. The lines of the ceiling tiles made her dizzy as she watched them turn into circles.

Varier Corporation. Merlyn Jace. Jake…

The names echoed in her head.

If the article was to be believed, then Merlyn Jace was practically a savior — for the company, at least, if not life as many knew it to be today because of the company and its products. She was certain that it was the person that she’d met, too. Plenty of images of his face were scattered around on the internet. There was even a reason of the odd appearance of his eyes, according to sources: They were robotic; the result of a laboratory accident that gave him the perfect tragic backstory for a comic book hero. Or perfect monologuing material for a villian, she thought.

The case that the article brought up was fresh on on everyone’s mind now since the reopening of the investigation into Gren Yilin. And weren’t they doing that because they were thinking that there may have been a co-conspirator? Who could be a more perfect partner in crime than the guy that seemed to benefit the most?

Hero or villain, though, she still had no idea what he would want with her.

And then there was the matter of Jake. She was still set to meet with him today; he’d even made sure to confirm it this morning. The first time she had met Jace… what that the first time that she had met Jake?

Dassah leaned back into her computer and checked her calendar. It had been what… a week? Two? Frowning, she tapped her desk. What good was looking at the timeline when she had nothing to go off of?

No calls. No messages. I wish he’d have given me a backup number…

She supposed that she could call police without going through Grim, but what would she say to them? At least it would be better than asking to see Silver Hound…

“Das, you want some coffee?” Stella’s face appeared in front of hers without warning. “You look stressed.”

“Stressed…” Dassah went, still tapping her finger on the desk. “That’s one way to put it.”

“She’s probably still hungover,” Bahena grunted.

Choosing to ignore the disapproval in her boss’s voice, Dassah clicked her tongue and looked out the window. It was a nice day. It was always a nice day on the Enclave.

“Hangover?” Stella went. “Was there a party that I wasn’t invited to? Why does she have a hangover and I don’t? That’s an absolute tragedy.”

“Apparently neither of us was invited,” Bahena casually replied. “I just got to see the end of it.”

“Tssh,” Dassah hissed through her teeth. “If two people somewhat accidently drinking more than they meant to in depression and anxiety is a ‘party’, then I really need to re-evaluate my life.”

Bahena’s gold eyes sharpened as she lifted her gaze. “‘Somewhat accidently’?”

“Who were you drinking with?” Stella’s voice was all too excited about the prospect. “Oh my god, was it Jake? Did he message you? Are you two…” The young woman gave a bemused grin as she waved her finger in circles.

Groaning, Dassah said, “No, but I don’t wanna talk about him. He was basically the reason any of it happened in the first place.”

“Oh?” Stella went. “Do tell.”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Dassah said, picking at her fingers. “Yet.”

“Yet…? So there is something,” the woman said coyly, the tilted her head. “But if you weren’t with Jake last night, then who were you drinking with?”

“My brother,” Bahena said. A stack of papers fell on her desk with a loud thump! “And I do expect some kind of explanation for that.”

Dassah spun her chair around and looked at the disgruntled garule woman. “Why?” she asked, then sighed. “I don’t know for sure about Sathuren,” she said. “But I don’t think either of us cared either way about how conscious we ended up at the end of the night.” I did try to stop myself from being too far gone, she winced. I’m not sure I can say the same for him.

“My brother —”

“If you are going to tell me anything along the lines that your brother ‘isn’t like that’ or try to insinuate that he is ‘fragile’ in any way, please keep it to yourself, Bahena,” Dassah told her, rubbing her eyes. “You aren’t his keeper any more than he is yours, and I’m getting really tired of having to field the ground between you guys either apologising for the other or being mad at eachother for something that I said or did.”

Would Sathuren possibly know anything? Though she hadn’t really seen the two together, she did remember that they were supposed to be a part of some kind of group.

“Excuse me?” Bahena went.

“I had my reasons for drinking, he had his, and we had our self defense class last night so we kept each other company. End of story,” Dassah finished, fiddling with her smart watch. She tried calling him again — but again it went to voicemail. “Some cop you are,” she muttered at the watch’s face before looking back up at the ceiling.

“Repeat that.”

“Repeat what?”

“What you just said to me,” Bahena’s voice sounded harsher than usual,

“What did I say?” Dassah asked, looking over lazily — but seeing the bronze garule’s expression, she straightened up. “W-What…?”

“I don’t know how you humans handle your families — I’ve read they can be quite negligent towards one another — but I suggest that you leave mine to me,” growled the garule woman, lifting her head up high enough so that she was looking down so far down at Dassah that her pupils barely showed.

Prey. Dassah shuttered, then tilted her head. Prey? No. Not prey. The look that Bahena was giving her now was not dissimilar to the one she’d given Sav when she found out he was the healer they’d recruited.

Blinking, Dassah asked, “Am I a threat to you?”

Bahena’s face went from disbelief to irritation with the flick of her tail. Dassah heard Stella gasp from over on the other side of the room, and like a popped balloon, her confidence deflated. Shrinking into her chair, she turned back to her computer. She tried to not imagine the exchanged glances between her coworkers as she opened up a file she’d been working on before she started looking at the Varier Corp. information.

“D-Das? You… alright?” Stella timidly asked. “You’re acting kinda… not yourself…”

Biting back a sharper than needed reply, she replied, “I’m fine.”

The rest of the day was spent mostly in silence after that. Dassah kept going back and forth between apologizing and telling Sav to deal with it.

Near the of the day, she was able to take a blessed hour for herself and sat out on the office balcony to take a rest from the tension in the office.