Finding Vizavel didn’t prove to be too difficult, she was exuding immense bloodlust making it easy to point out her location.

Juruno headed southeast from the greenhouse following the trail of resentment. He found her sitting on a thick tree branch six meters above the ground, staring into empty space, one arm propped on a raised knee.

Juruno slowly approached the tree and stopped a short distance from it. Vizavel didn’t react to his approach. Her anger seemed to have subsided telling from her face. It was more relaxed now, looking more exhausted than annoyed.

“I’m sorry for causing you all this.” said Juruno calmly. “I don’t know what we might have cost you but I’ll try as much as possible to compensate you for it.”

Vizavel doesn’t respond to him, or even look in his direction. She remained as she was like he wasn’t even there.

“It must be really hard doing this on your own, even the best would find it difficult.” said Juruno.

He paused for a few seconds then continued speaking, “The stygian division is very thorough with their work. I know why you built the greenhouse, I know what you want.”

Vizavel finally acknowledged Juruno’s presence and looked down at him, a blank expression on her face.

“There's not many people that can help with that, I’m not sure if it’s even possible. By yourself, how far do you think you can go?” asked Juruno. “My name is Juruno Vaeveron, a prospect head for the clan and I have been given a mission directly from Quilofer himself. These positions give me better reach than most people. With my help you could get better materials, equipments, things that would normally be beyond your grasp. I could even ask the Mivs directly. But you’ll have to join me.”

Vizavel listened all through Juruno’s talk then closed her eyes once he finished. She was thinking, pondering on Juruno’s offer and what it meant for her, the gains and losses. She did this for several minutes and Juruno waited patiently for her answer. This was the deciding attempt, he’d have to accept whatever reply she gave.

Vizavel finally opened her eyes and spoke, “What happens when I join you, what’s the job?”

“I get orders from Quilofer and relay them to the team. I can’t tell you the details of what we’re facing till you join me.”

“How do I get on board?” asked Vizavel.

“With this.” replied Juruno. He took out the contract maker from a pocket in his top and opened his hand for her to see. “Let your drive flow through this for a minute to sign. The duration is a decade. I’ll give you identifications and further details via your gauntlet now.”

A ping sound came from Vizavel’s pocket. She reached into it took out a circular object with a screen, her “gauntlet”. Not every voyager gauntlet was worn on the wrist but they all bore the same name.

She scanned the contract details displayed on the screen with her eyes. Immediately she was done reading it, she jumped down from the tree and walked up to Juruno.

“I’ll take your offer.” said Vizavel, putting out her hand to receive the red orb.

Juruno motions to hand it to her but stops midway. “This might be dangerous, even I don’t know everything about this.” he says.

“It doesn’t matter.” replied Vizavel. Her mind was already made up. Juruno hands her the contract maker. She encloses it in her left palm and let’s her drive flow into it. A minute later it turns blue and she hands it back to Juruno.

That was it, he’d gotten the second member and a high priority one too. The orb becomes red again and he pockets it.

“I’ll contact you when it’s time to convene. Welcome to my team.” said Juruno and he left for the greenhouse.

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.

Juruno got back to the greenhouse and found Ren still at the site of the the disintegrated plants, bending over the dust, looking at loss for what to do. Ren notices him approaching and stands up right.

“What if it’s irreplaceable? It has to be rare to die from a single touch.” said Ren.

“It might be or it might but that doesn’t matter any more.”said Juruno.

“Huh, why?”

“Vizavel will be joining us, she won’t bother holding this against us.” explained Juruno.

“She accepted?”

“Yeah.”

“Even after we killed her plants.” said Ren incredulously. He stared at Juruno his expression a mix of surprised and impressed. “You’re very persuasive. I’ll need your skills sometime.”

“For what exactly?” asked Juruno.

“Forget about that for now.” replied Ren.

Juruno just shakes his head, it was probably gambling related or something of the sort.

Ren’s eyes fell to Juruno’s arms and realized he had been cradling his right arm with his left ever since he got back and Ren asked “Isn’t that the arm you used to stop the kick?”

“Yes.” replied Juruno looking down at his right arm. It hurt badly from defending that kick. “It looks like I didn’t go unscathed.”

“If she’s strong enough to hurt your arm I don’t want to think about what my head would be like if you didn’t push me out of the way.” said Ren.

In spite of Juruno’s throbbing arm he was rather pleased with the result. The pain was proof that he made the right choice in recruiting Vizavel.

“Guess we’re done here.” said Ren, looking ready to leave. “From here on out it’ll be just you doing recruitment.” He walked up to Juruno, patted him on the shoulder and moved past him.

“Thanks for the help.” said Juruno.

“Not a problem, contact me when it’s all ready.” replied Ren finally before vanishing from sight.

Ren was gone, Vizavel hadn’t returned to the greenhouse and Juruno alone was left in the building. He’d be leaving shortly too, to find the next recruit. There wasn't a moment to spare.

Things weren’t looking promising at the start but Ren’s grave mistake somehow pushed things in the right direction and he successfully recruited Vizavel. Two more to go.

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LOCATION : DANDEL TOWN

Juruno’s next team member prospect was a woman named Gyunne Osyre. The most information recent information on her was that she was living in a town called Dandel, located on a less advanced planet.

Juruno arrived on Dandel in the middle of the day, the sun shining brightly over head. Dandel was a fairly small town, the kind of place where everyone knew everyone. Which was a good thing because it meant finding Gyunne here would be easier than in something like a city.

Dandel was surrounded by hills and trees and its houses were made from brick. Most of its buildings were residential aside a few essential structures like stores.

Juruno headed for the first home in sight to ask if they knew anyone named Gyunne, but they didn’t have any idea who he was asking about.

“A lady named Gyunne, in this town? Been here twenty years never seen no one like that.” replied the woman who owned the home.

“Thank you for your time.” said Juruno and left.

He stopped by several other houses and their answers were more or less the same, none of them had heard of Gyunne. He came across two men sitting under a pavilion and asks about her, showing them a picture of Gyunne on his gauntlet.

“Gyel?” one of them asked.

“No, Gyunne.” Juruno corrected.

“Harry, you know any Gyunne?” the man asked his friend.

“Nah, I don’t. If there was anyone like that here I woulda asked her out already. She looks like one fine woman.”

Juruno left the pavilion and headed for the next house. He got to a house with a garden by the side. There were three people working in the garden and he asked them about Gyunne.

“Yeah, I knows a gyunne.”

“No you don’t, Jerry.”

“Shut up, I said I knows Gyunne and I ain’t lying.” replied Jerry angrily.

“Ok, where you know her from?”

“Met her ten years ago inna club.”

“You made that up.”

“You don’t know that!” screamed Jerry.

“I don’t need to, you lie about everything!”

An argument ensues between the three of them. Insults and curses are thrown between themselves. Juruno quietly left the garden to check the next house.

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.

.

Several hours had passed since Juruno had gotten to Dandel and he wasn’t any closer to finding Gyunne than he had been at the start. Thoughts of leaving Dandel, concluding that she couldn’t be in the town had crossed his mind but he wanted to be completely sure and thorough in his search.

Night was approaching and the sun was almost completely below the horizon. Tired from the search Juruno walked into a bar located near the end of the town.

He found an empty table and sat there, away from the crowds of people drinking and discussing in loud tones. Juruno had no interest in drinking, he only entered the bar to rest for a short while before leaving Dandel altogether. He’d been more thorough in his search than he needed to be and there was no word of her in the town, there was nothing left to do.

Thirty minutes later Juruno was ready to leave but before left he decided to make one last inquiry. A few tables away were a group of people drinking and laughing.

He walked up to the them and asked about Gyunne. The response was the same as it had been all day, they all shook their heads unable to recognize Gyunne except for one them.

“Sounds like you’re looking for the witch at the old hotel.” said the man. He was sitting at the opposite end of the table from where Juruno stood.

“A witch.” repeated Juruno.

“No such thing as witches.” said the one closest to Juruno.

“Then how do you explain the weird mist we’ve been having for a while. Or those strange noises that sound like the dead and those weird flashes coming from the old hotel.”

“You’re just superstitious, and how do you know what she looks like?” asked the man close to Juruno.

“Some kids saw em.” replied the man at the other end.

“Kids say a lot of things.”

“Head to the abandoned hotel, you’ll find your witch.” said the man at the other end finally.

“Where can I find it?” asked Juruno.

“On the outskirts, keeping heading down this road and you’ll get there. It’s really big, you can’t miss it.”

And with that information Juruno left the bar. He headed further down the road as the man had instructed, the concentration of houses becoming more sparse the farther he got from the bar.

Going to an abandoned hotel on claims of a witch residing there was a thought Juruno found amusing. The existence of things like “witches” was something any voyager would find ridiculous. Any living thing there was, was either human, animal, plant or some sort of beast. There was no harm in trying though, he’d just see what this witch was about.

Long before Juruno hit the end of the road, the hotel was already visible from where he stood. A large gray building spotting many darkened windows. It looked old and dreary in contrast with the much more vibrant town.

Its walls were cracked in several places and most of the paint had peeled off. The hotel looked so aged it felt like someone had pulled it out from a different point in time. It had to be a century since it was last used. It was five storeys high and a about a hundred meters in length.

Juruno shortly made his way to the hotel. To the rear of the hotel was a cluster of hills that went on as far as the eye could see. On the right, a ways away from the building- were children playing. Chasing themselves and squealing in high pitched tones.

In front of the building was a short flight of stairs. Juruno began ascending the stairs but was interrupted half way to the top by the voice of a child calling out him.

“Wait! Sir!”

He turned around to see who had called him. One of the children, a boy, was calling out to him from the right end of the building. Confirming he had gotten Juruno’s attention the boy ran towards him and stopped a step below where Juruno stood.

“Wait….. wait.” said the child in between pants. He took a minute to catch his breath before speaking.

“Are you going into the hotel?!” the child asked in alarm.

“Yes, is there a problem?”

“Don’t go in there, that’s were the emerald witch lives.” warned the child.

Emerald. “I’ve been told about this witch.” said Juruno sounding unconvinced.

“No, I’m serious!” exclaimed the child. “There really is a witch.”

“Ok, could you tell me more about it?”

“Me and friends used to play here but we don’t go in there any more.” began the child. “This place used to be fine until some months ago, weird flashes of light were coming from the roof and the town whole was spooked. Brave kids we were, we came to check it out. This was our place no one would scare us out.

We went in, five of us, everything seemed normal till something real weird happened. One of us, Lucas, got dragged up in the air by the foot, but nothing was holding him up, it was just empty air. Or so we thought but we saw it, it was the witch. For a second we saw her form. She had green hair and two horns coming sticking out of her head. We didn’t see her face though. She was really strong but somehow we pulled him down and ran for our lives. We never went in the hotel again."

“I see. Don’t worry too much about me, I just want to check something really quickly and I’ll be gone in little time.” Juruno assured the child.

“Ok……” said the child and he ran back to play with his friends.

Green hair and horns. That description fit Gyunne’s and he could already sense someone inside the hotel.

Juruno walks up the rest of the stairs and gets to the large double door mounted at the entrance. He pushes them with both hands and they swung open into the hotel, creaking loudly as they moved.

He steps into the hotel and pauses just in front of the entrance on the inside, taking a moment to observe the area.

The entrance of the hotel led into a large reception area, shrouded in darkness aside the area lit by the light coming from the open door. Everything in the hotel, from floor to ceiling was covered in dust and mould decades old.

Several meters beyond the entrance was a very wide staircase leading to higher floors. Juruno took the stair case and head up to the fourth floor. Once he was at the fourth he headed straight for the room at end of hall, where he could sense a presence.

Juruno put his hand on the handle and gently opened the door. The inside of this room was a spacious master suite having a large king bed and other luxurious furniture.

Unlike the rest of the hotel, this room was in perfect condition. All the dust and mould had been cleaned up and it looked like it might’ve been when the hotel was still up and running.

Next to the head of the king bed, sitting a chair was a woman. She had dark green hair and dark black eyes. The top of her head spurted two short horns and her skin was a light brown tone.

Juruno walked slowly into the room and stopped at the foot of the bed.

“Gyunne.” said Juruno.