OLD - Week 1 Day 5 Evening

As the sun dipped below the horizon, once more hidden by the hills in the distance, they rode the cart through some woods to a large building standing on its own in a concreted plaza. Seth parked outside and Acorn was left to guard the cart again. Without the sun the wind was quickly chilling them and Ellyn began to shiver. Seth noticed and took off his jumper and draped it over her shoulders, she did not protest. Ellyn saw that Seth was wearing a black long sleeved shirt; it had some sort of crest on it which she did not recognise. They quickly hurried towards the building; it was a large building with a clock on the outside, which was not working. The windows were boarded up but there was light streaming from the gaps, and voices could be heard from within. Seth linked arms with Ellyn to keep her close, he muttered something about appearances and it’s her first time but most of his words were stolen by the wind. They approached the bouncer at the door, a wall of a man that stood with his muscles showing, pretending not to care about the temperature. Seth reached into the pocket of his jumper, with a little awkwardness, as it was still on Ellyn, and presented the man their cards, he took them ripped them a little to indicate that they had been used, and then returned them to Seth. This time he put them in his trouser pocket. The bouncer opened the door and they stepped inside. The air in here was filled with smoke from the various patrons. Seth seemed to know where to go so Ellyn just stuck with him. He led her up a flight of stairs and down a hallway. There was less smoke here and there was a thick red carpet on the floor. At the end of the hallway Seth stopped at a door labelled “Not 2B”. He knocked hard twice on the door paused the knocked twice more. The voices from inside hushed to a whisper and Ellyn heard footsteps approach the door. It swung open and a small man with a set of thick lensed glasses stood by it. He was wearing a charcoal grey suit, black shirt like Seth but with a bright, pink and yellow bowtie.

The room was dark so the man at the door must have taken a few seconds to be able to see Seth face but when he did…

“Seth?” the man asked

“In the flesh, Julian” Seth replied with a bow, which the man – Julian, copied.

“Oh, where are my manners?” Julian said, turning to Ellyn. “My name is Julian, Seth here is my brother!” continued Julian who tried to put an arm around Seth’s shoulders but only reached his armpits.

“I’m Ellyn” said Ellyn starting to curtsy but instead getting crushed in an embrace from Julian.

“He never told me he had a brother” Ellyn said, scowling at Seth. Julian chuckled, “Yes, well, we are not born brothers,” Julian beckoned them to come inside. The room was warm and stuffy, there was a large table in the centre of the room, it a dark blue light pointing down  on it, the light from it was peculiar as it made all the white in the room stand out, Ellyn looked at Seth who turned to her and grinned, his teeth shining bright. The other people in the room got up from their bean bags to greet the visitors calmly, but when Julian announced that it was Seth, and his friend Ellyn, it turned to chaos. Multiple cheers for Seth erupted from the room, everyone else pushing and shoving to try and get a moment in with Seth, shake his hand, high five etc. Ellyn observed from a distance with Julian who indicated a bean bag for her to sit on. The people in the room were of a wide range of ages, some looked only just older than Seth and her, while others were pushing the gravestone. When everyone had calmed down, Ellyn got up and walked over to Seth, crossed her arms and said “Care to explain now?”

Seth began to speak but a man with grey hair and a long bushy beard spoke over him;

“Seth here is a hero!”

“A hero?” Ellyn looked at Seth “What is this place, really?” Everyone in the room chuckled; the bearded man spoke again, “he didn’t tell you?”

“I’m sure there are a number of things Seth hasn’t told me, and no, he didn’t…” Said Ellyn. A younger man with a curly moustache spoke this time;

“This is – We are – The Regal Syndicate”

The moustache man continued; “We are a group of peoples who believe that the faction system is, well, bollocks.” He straightened his tie, “while there is nothing we can do to change them, we act as a sort of information broker, between the factions.” Seth spoke up “We spread the secrets of the factions to try and cripple their operations”

“Right…ok, makes sense I guess, but how does it make you a hero?” Ellyn asked Seth. Seth stood awkwardly until an ond man in a wheelchair said “he saved my life!” a dark skinned man stood up and said “mine too”.

This was quickly followed by more and more of the people in the room.

The bearded man- “mine too”

The moustache man- “mine too”

A man wearing a sash- “mine too”

And lastly Julian said “mine too” With that, they all looked at Seth who just sat down on one of the bean bags, looking deflated. Everyone else sat down now too, Ellyn taking a seat next to Seth. For the rest of the evening the members of the Regal Syndicate reminisced about past times, drinks and food were handed out periodically. After a while Ellyn went back down to the cart to Acorn, Julian who had gone with her, had gotten more than his fair shares of “kisses” from Acorn. Julian also knew Seth’s cart so when they took Acorn off, he applied all the correct security measures, and locked the gate to the parking area. Acorn was warmly accepted among the members as one himself and late into the night, Seth excused himself, Ellyn and Acorn and directed them to one of the many apartments within the building. The room was warm, but not stuffy; there were two bedrooms and a small common area. Naturally Ellyn took one room Seth the other. Acorn slept perfectly between the two rooms.