Jose woke up several years younger. The cacophonic morning bell rang through the colony but they represented something different to him today. It was the dawn of a new day and his achievements were still present.

He was still a winner, a proud claimant of an expedition position that was sure to kickstart his adventuring career. He shuffled out of bed and sat upright next to his bedside table, the familiar puzzle box shining blue with yesterday's statistics and today’s randomly generated puzzle.

He grabbed the box in earnest and traveled through its labyrinthine ley lines as best he could. His soul was still fatigued from being overused and even the simple task of fiddling on the machine was a trial, but the end result and the stats from yesterday painted the picture of the upward growth he was yearning for.

Did that mean you just blamed your crutch for your own failures?

Jose shook his head, pushing the intrusive thought aside. His inadequacies are plenty but they were not going to sour his mood so early in the morning.

Especially with such an important meeting ahead of him.

“Brrrrrr.” The journal on his nightstand vibrated with a message. Taking a quick glance, it was a message from Laura in the cabal line. There was another notice from Lysa, her private message obscured by Laura’s more recent one.

“Congrats, Lysa and Jose! I’m so proud that-” the rest of her message was cut off.

“I’ll read it later.” Jose murmured before getting up from the bed and dressing up in casual attire.

“G’morning my love…” Emma groaned as she turned around on the bed to face him, “Good luck at your meeting tell me all about it…” She slurred her words. Jose leaned over to give her a hug and a kiss on her forehead before walking out of their home and onto the carved path off the hillside.

Jose had managed to enjoy his time with Emma and his friends at the bar but the conspiracy hung heavy in the back of his mind. They had to be careful not to give Isabella leverage on this expedition and he couldn’t dismiss the possibility she was messing with things behind the scenes elsewhere. The elder had already displayed she was willing and capable of sabotaging a whole event. Jose very much doubted she’d stop at that line.

He waited at the crossroads for Lysa and after finding the encroaching humidity and heat unbearable, walked on ahead without her. She’s probably already at the committee room with the rest of the group. Their team had to pour into the contents of the remaining volunteers' final event and pick out the best of the best.

Jose pulled out his journal and leafed through his notices. Laura’s full congratulatory statement read, “Congrats, Lysa and Jose! I’m so proud that you’ve made it onto the expeditionary team. Radolfo and I are going to miss you in the office for now but I’m sure neither of you mind. Looking forward to helping you out in this next stage! Good luck.”

A small smile crept up on his face, his heart warmed by the words of encouragement. She was so eager to help too, it was a side of her that he hadn’t witnessed. He swiped his finger on the journal and read through Lysa’s statement. What was she doing up so early in the morning?

“Hey Jose. Can’t sleep. Had nightmares. Nora is asleep. Don’t think I can talk to her about the nightmares without her attacking the source. Help me talk it through.” Her messages were split up one after the other.

Jose took a detour from his path once he reached the outskirts of town and made his way to Federico’s Bakery. He ordered two cups worth of coffee and milk and a box of pastelitos filled with a varying assortment of fruit jams and ground meat.

Waiting for his order to be attended to with a number of other patrons ahead of him in line, he sat down with his opened journal and turned to the news line. There were only two local news lines to speak of in the Over/Under and the Ileahian Herald, with coverage of news beyond their strip of the world being filtered through the government operated Oh, Odalla!

His mother had a palpable disdain for the journalistic integrity of the intercontinental new line and it had rubbed off on him once he was old enough to work in the Annals and discern that their coverage soft balled a lot of their failures if they focused any attention on it at all.

The Ileahian Herald was chock full of event highlights from yesterday. He winced at his front page picture, the image of a sweaty thirty something year old meatball yelling out to cast a spell in the second event. Jose sunk in his seat, incapable of reading through their analysts assessments without dying of embarrassment.

He turned to the Over/Under for solace and found it more tempered with its coverage of the event, highlighting the victory Barnacle Bay experienced with having two representatives in the Del Mar siblings as part of the expedition.

“The festivities held in Barnacle Bay were vibrant. Many lanterns were light and hung on the corners of each rooftop as far as the eye could see. Music blared throughout the night and many games were held to celebrate the momentous occasion. One Bay resident described it as ‘A cry of victory to be seen as the capable residents we are’ with another pointing out ‘It’s not everyday we get residents from down here doing great things. Those Del Mar siblings are real salt born and we’re proud to have ‘em.”

Jose turned the page, “The festival turned up the heat in a tragically literal manner as the Crows Nest, a residential building, caught fire last night. The catalyst of the blaze is unknown at this time but our sources indicate that the starting point of the fire was near the top of the building and roared downward. Vanguard authorities have not ruled out arson as a probable cause. Fortunately a number of residents were able to escape the worst of the inferno with minor burns but those on the top floors were not so lucky. We will provide an update as we learn more about this tragic event.”

“Order up for a Mister Ileria?” The baker in his dirtied smock called out for Jose. Jose leapt up from his seat and grabbed the contents off the man, thanking him as he left the building in haste towards the Elders Council Hall. He fumbled to get a pastry from the box, eating a small circular treat in two bites, lightly honeyed pastry flakes sticking to his fingers that only a napkin could cleanly remove.

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The inside of the Elders Council Hall reminded him of the Annals in a lot of ways. Both organizations felt antiquated and of a different era, a feeling that wasn’t alleviated with the imposing presence of Overseer Richardt and the gloomy pristine atmosphere of his working environment.

At least the Elders Council Hall had a vibrancy to it despite the off-colors on the walls and in the paintings nailed to them.

He walked through the hall until he found the room he was informed to meet in and opened the door.

“Jose,” Lysa rushed out from her seat and gave him a spine cracking hug, “Good to see you!” She put him down and the air rushed back into his lungs with a wheeze. They locked at one another and he could see the thin red lines surrounding the edges of her eyes and the sunken bags they rested in.

“You look like death.” Jose responded sympathetically, handing her the coffee cup and pastries to set down on the table. Sitting at the end of the table were Carmina and Matteo as well as Elder Nero and the Overseer Richardt. Carmina’s head was buried beneath her arms while Matteo struggled to nod and keep awake with the Elder's droning conversation. Overseer Richardt locked eyes with Jose but made little acknowledgement of his presence, quietly fidgeting in his seat.

“Did you get a look at my message?” Lysa asked in a hush tone pulling Jose’s attention away from the dour presence of their boss.

“Yeah. We can talk it through once we’re done here.” Jose placed his hand on her back and gave her a reassuring smile. “Did you manage to read through the report,” Jose raised his voice to address his other two teammates present, “Did either of you two read it?”

Carmina lifted her hand from underneath her head and gave a thumbs down.

“We were out celebrating below last night. Mina’s trying to handle the aftermath. I did not read the report.” Matteo elaborated. Jose turned to look at Lysa and she responded by pulling out her journal. Scribbled on the page were notes underlining and circling details of each participant and their exploits.

“I had a little help from Laura while I was up last night. She’s still sifting through the playback while I read through the report and made a preliminary list of potential additions.” Lysa answered with a half-eaten pastelito shoved in her mouth.

Ah. That’s what Laura had meant in her message earlier.

“Should we wait for Joanna?” Matteo asked.

The door opened with his summons, a bleary eyed Joanna and Izirrary crossing through to take a seat at the table. Following behind them was Elder Tessa, walking past their group with the same graceful airs of yesterday.

“Elder Nero, it appears that Elder Isabella will be unable to attend today's debriefing.” Elder Tessa revealed. The madcap expression remained on his face but Jose couldn’t help feel the sharpness in his eyes and their lingering stare gave off something tense.

In an instant the tension was relieved with a laugh from Elder Nero, “Kids these days. They think just because they have all the time in the world that the rest of the world can make time for ‘em.” He clapped his hands together and took a passing assessment of the group. “Before we begin this debriefing, I’d like to congratulate you all for volunteering to serve your colony in such a dangerous capacity. My gratitude is incalculable. Thank you.”

Carmina raised her head from the table, stretched, and yawned, “Get on with it, viejo. Everyone here’s benefitting in some way or another with this expedition. No need to tug on our heartstrings as citizens.”

Matteo forcefully nudged Carmina on her side and the two shared dirty looks.

“What’s she doing here?” Lysa pointed at Izirrary, who was currently feeding her familiar a mango slice.

“Part of my contract with joining your team was the guarantee that my master would be added onto the expeditionary forces once the event ended.” Joanna answered in a droll voice. Lysa turned her attention to Jose, who merely nodded in agreement and shrugged.

Elder Tessa coughed and waited for everyone to turn their attention to Elder Nero, who was fiddling with his journal and a console at his end of the table.

“We’ve revealed to the public so far that the expedition involves entering a vessel and acquiring its forge.” Elder Nero started.

“With the decoding efforts of Mister Ileria, we at the Annals were able to pull out the vessel's forge function and maiden name. The fortress we will be having you all explore is the Telm-Pao, the Evasive Mockingbird. The vessel is dated before the advent of the Veil and its forge function when it operated in the far past was in the creation of Chariots.” The Overseer mechanically read through his notes without realizing the bomb he’d dropped on the rest of his team.

Jose had kept it a secret from near everyone when he decoded the manual, just for the moment to savour the incredulous looks on their faces.

“You’re fucking kidding.” Irizzarry shouted in an uncharacteristic reaction.

“Did you fucking know about this?” Lysa turned to Jose and he couldn’t keep the shit-eating grin off his face. “Of course you knew! You rotten-”

The Overseer cleared his throat and pushed past their excited murmurs and inquiries, “The kinds of Chariots the forge once created is unknown but it is suggested from their blueprints that they focused on maneuverability and speed. It is likely given the environmental conditions that the vessel inhabited that these Chariots are all-terrain vehicles. The prospect of assimilating the inert forge into our own is one that not even the Annals can deny is a worthwhile prospect, with the assumption that the forge is even operable.”

The caveat at the end was what Jose worried about. Part of the danger posed by the expedition that didn’t make itself apparent to him until the final event of the tournament was the prospect that the forge they’d find would be broken beyond repair or use. Their next best option would be pilfering through their records to find blueprints about Chariot creation and make an artificial forge in Ileah or smuggle a fleet of functional Chariots if their hangar wasn’t waterlogged.

“I hope you all can understand why we’ve been keeping the details of the vessel vague for the rest of the citizenry now.” Elder Nero gave everyone a knowing look. “It would benefit us at the council and the rest of the populace if none of you reported this classified information to news sources. Your group is small enough that we’ll know who did it and I can assure you, that greed will only serve your doom.”

A silence clung to the air with guillotine precariously hanging above their heads. Jose struggled to gulp.

“To continue, those enlisted in the Mire Men caravan provided a cursory inspection of the site and the surrounding area. As we reported publicly, there are alligators that have been assimilated into the Infected nest held within the vessel itself. What evolutionary traits this Nest has delved into is unknown at this time but the behavior is apparent; these creatures are capable of organized ambush and primitive territory displays to intimidate potential invaders.” The Overseer ended his statement and looked at both of the Elders. “I have fulfilled my duties here. I’m going to leave now.”

Overseer Richardt slowly gathered himself upright from the chair and took measured steps out of the meeting hall. He gave Lysa and Jose a bemused stare before staring off ahead of him.

Elder Nero clapped his hands together, getting everyone to shift their attention, “Speaking as an expert on Infected myself, those bastards are a crafty sort. I’d recommend pouring into our resources at the Vanguard if you’d like to squeeze some knowledge before you depart.”

Elder Tessa followed up, “We need a confirmation of your team in two days. We’re fastly approaching the anchoring point and can only remain anchored for two days at most to avoid any shipment delays with our local businesses and shipping contracts with those abroad.”

Only two days to have a vetting process and avoid a mole. Five days to gauge everyone's motivations and minimize risk if we do let on one of Isabella’s cronies.

“You’ve already received a report on the volunteers that failed to acquire the position you’re currently in. Make informed decisions on what your crew lacks and shore up those deficiencies. Succeed in this endeavor and not only will the colony benefit from your contributions, but we ensure any artifacts you reclaim in the process remain in your possession and you, or your loved ones in the event of a death, receive monetary compensation for your efforts.” Elder Tessa’s calming delivery belied the harsh stakes presented to the group.

Jose looked around the room as the rest of the group looked to him to take the first step forward. This wasn’t like the cabal.

He felt capable this time, confident.

“Let’s pull out the report and go through the selection process. If we make good time on this, all of us can be home by dinner.” Jose pulled out his set of notes on the report and got started.