"Hey!" Marco heard a voice call out from the outside. The guards on duty grunted. "Took you guys long enough. Now get in line and make sure no one leaves the area!" "Sir yes, sir!" The two substitutes replied, their armors making a clinging sound when they straightened their bodies. The other two then left signaled by loud footsteps. When the two were sure that the other two were gone, they looked inside the cell. Marco knew he had to send the code. He did it like last time, whistling to keep the message a secret.
Erik stared ahead, trying not to draw any attention to himself, even going to stop rubbing his chains against each other.
"Thank goodness," one of the guards said when he came inside the cell, unlocking the door. "You're safe. I thought that you were in danger after being banished." He then motioned his friend to unlock the chains bounding Marco to the ground. The Black Mage held his wrists for a while before smiling. "Thanks for holding up the group while I was gone." "Well, it's been hard. You've been gone for a lot of months already and people were beginning to lose faith." The guy who unlocked Marco's chains proceeded to remove the chains from Marina, Erik, and then Zaria, all in order. Marco nodded. "No need to worry. I'm back now and we can take all of them down."
Zaria qas slightly confused. "After this you better tell everything" she said mad while rubbkng her wrists
Erik tried to ignore the pain from his own wrists, and looked over. "So, uh... who are you?" Were they Marco's own gang or something?
Marco looked at Zaria and Marco. "Well, the people who helped us are people who no longer find the actions of the Scarlet Wolves justifiable." The other man continued what Marco had said. "When we first joined the Scarlet Wolves, we thought that they were working to help the poor and take from the rich. But as the group grew, they began attacking everyone... even the poor ones." "We joined the group because we thought they were fighting for the poor people. But it turns out that the leader and his close subjects just want everything for themselves." The other guy then proudly revealed a badge beneath the Scarlet Wolves' badge. "The Phoenix Flames."
"Wait... working to help the poor and take from the rich... oh... nice," Erik commented, as a thought dawned on him. Oh no. He gestured to Marina and Zaria behind his back, motioning for them to talk alone and in secret later.
Erik kept his eyes straight ahead and mouthed a quick talk later to his two allies (save Marco who he doesn't count as one any more). "Phoenix Flames... say, did you raid a market earlier today?"
"What do you mean raid?" One of them looked at Erik in confusion. "We don't steal from people. The Phoenix Flames are here to try and stop them from the inside."
"He means the part where you stole from the rich and give it tl the poor. Stealing no matter the reason is always bad. Everyone single human being fights hard to get where they are now. So after this I bring you all to justice" Zaria anounced with a strong voice.
Erik still kept an eye on Marco's friend. "So, if you're not stealing... did you set anything on fire earlier?"
"No - that part of stealing from the rich and helping the poor was something we thought that the Scarlet Wolves were doing. We thought they were helping the poor citizens of Invidia by taking from corrupt and greedy officials." The other guy explained, his confusion even greater. "We don't steal and we don't set anything on fire. The Phoenix Flames just want to take down the Scarlet Wolves. That's it."
Erik paused for a moment. "So, if you thought the Wolves were doing that... who else could it be?" Who were those mystery thieves we attacked? Hm.
"You must be referring to another group there," Marco looked at Erik. "There are two groups of thieves in Merlourn. The Scarlet Thieves is one of them, but there is another group somewhere near Dysmia called the Cerulean Tigers." The other person nodded in agreement to what Marco had said. "I don't see a reason why they wouldn't target Myriad. It's awfully close to Dysmia." When all was quiet, Marina looked at everyone in annoyance. "We have a feast to attend. Can we all get a move on, please?" One of the Phoenix Flames members looked at Marina. "Uh, hate to break it to you, but you're all defenseless. You've got no weapons. I'm pretty sure they're part of the items that they celebrate in the feast."
This time Zaria couldnt hold in. As she grabbed one of them by the collar. "Than go grab them now" she hissed losing her sense of justice
Erik sighed, grabbing Zaria by the shoulders and trying to pry her off. "Sure. Let's waltz into there and get killed. They're right - the best we can do in terms of weapons is literally just grabbing those chains from back there and throwing them around. We'd probably blow our cover and lose Atlantis." And my brother.