Spire eyed Hari. "Fortunately, you're one of a kind. Calm down, squirt," he said, not unkindly, but not exactly warmly, either. This spazzy kid was going to be a handful, he could tell.
As each recruit responded to Spire's call by heading to the corner, Spire made mental notes of their notable traits to help him learn their names. Mind you, he didn't care to learn them in the slightest, but he needed to do a meticulously good job with these runts to prove he'd learned his lesson so that he wouldn't have to go through this next year.
-
Aedric studiously pretended not to know his cousin/step brother the same way Spire studiously pretended not to notice him. After exchanging a grin of eager anticipation with Abigail, Aedric glanced at Silas and his smile faded. "Hey--Are you all right?" he mumbled, a hand half-extended, ready to steady him if he fainted or something, genuinely concerned that the guy might be having some kind of medical emergency.
-
"All right," said Spire when they had all gathered, half-dropping the air of formality now that he had a bit of distance from most of the experienced Hounds - at least the ones who wanted his blood. So far, he had gotten along with Lyda just fine. She seemed competent and had thusfar failed to annoy him in any poignant way. Tough enough, but reasonable and patient. She seemed to make a good Yin to his Yang. "Time to show all you around. If you have any questions, I'll respond to Agent Schippers. Or sir. Hell, just Spire if I like you enough."
He paused a moment, his pale eyes settling on each recruit for a few seconds. Half of them looked like scrawny teenagers. And even among those who looked to have a few more years of life experience under their belts, Spire could see expressions of fear. Spire often failed in interpreting subtle emotional changes on peoples' faces, but this fear wasn't subtle - especially on one young man, the pale, dark-haired one; the blanched terror on his face gave Spire a vague flicker of familiarity (someone he had spoken to on a hunt in a town, somewhere, perhaps?).
They were going to get eaten alive. Possibly literally. He had meant to save this for last, but he had an inkling to separate the wheat from the tares now.
"First of all, I'm going to take you to meet a friend of mine." He moved toward one of the buildings, unlocking and holding open the large, wood-carved door for the flood of future Hounds with a flourishing gesture.
Past the entry hall, along a corridor, through a locked door, down a very, very long flight of stairs. The walls were sturdy stone, marked here and there by stark decoration - banners and memorial tokens. Spire was taking them beneath the Hunter's Court.
At the bottom of the staircase stood two identical, thick, iron-enforced doors, each adorned with several layers of locks and deadbolts, one leading left and one leading right. Spire set his hand on the door on the right, lit by a humming fluorescent light overhead. "Fragment cells are through this way. Each one is kept in isolation. It's rather the whole point of our operation here." He set about unlocking the other door, the one on the left. "And this way is the, ah, power supply for the tech around here."
Behind the the door was a small room, and yet another door. A technician sat before a panel that blinked with dials and electronic readouts - technology that would look strange and new to many of the recruits.
"You know what to do," Spire said lazily to the technician.
The technician had opened this door for Spire before, but never with an entourage. His gaze slid over the recruits nervously, and he gave Spire a worried glance, followed by a questioning one at Lyda to make sure this was really okay, but then he did as he was told.
Stiflingly warm air rushed out of the opening. Spire smiled into it as it ruffled his hair, and he crossed the threshold, guiding his little herd of underlings through after him.
Aedric thought he knew what was coming, but he nevertheless felt the blood draining from his face as an involuntary lurch of pity mingled with horror twisted in his stomach.
A much larger space greeted them on the other side, though its occupant didn't seem able to enjoy much of said space. She was what looked like a tall, red-haired woman, bound by chains and four thick beams of heat-conductive metal which thrust through her arms, between the radius and ulna, and apparently bored straight through her shins.
Spire turned his back on her to face the recruits, smiling placidly as though unaffected by the nightmarish scene behind him. "This is The Red Beast. You may have heard of her. We go way back." He winked briefly over his shoulder. "Don't we, Red? Now listen, all of you, stay behind the line unless you want your skin melted off," he directed, indicating the bright white band painted onto the concrete floor in a wide arc around the Fragment, an indicator of how far one must stay away to avoid any projected attacks from the creature.
Spire, however, did not follow his own advice, and he turned back to the Fragment and stepped tauntingly just over the line.
"Hello, Red, how's work?" Spire asked in a cheerful, playful tone. "Would you like to say hello to the rising generation of Hounds?"