It's new chapter day here, and as such, Chapter 4 is ready to drop! This one introduces Robyn’s dear, younger, sister, and yeah, she's every bit a wild card as her reputation makes her out to be! You'll find out more below in the usual place.
In other news, I'm now onto Chapter 11, so I'm still keeping steady with being 6 chapters ahead (or in terms of release schedules, 12 weeks ahead!) We're more than half way through now, so maybe looking at 18 chapters once all is said and done? Of course my original plan for Avalon Tales as a whole was 3 x 30k word Novellas (give or take) to make one single 'novel'. I'm currently at 27k words...Don't think I'm going to spread 3000 words over another 7 chapters somehow! Luckily this problem is one for the future and might be solved through aggressive editing of the early parts of this novella.
As for Brennan and Riz...Maybe next week?
Speaking of them though...
The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz
The idea translated really well into this new medium, so I may have to do it again!
Short Diversions: Avalon Tales Chapter 4
Last time on Avalon Tales, Isabelle was sent by Ramona to meet up with 'Merlin' but why? Well, you'll see but before we dive in to Chapter 4, it's new art time, and today, it can only be one person:
Rei Gouzen
Yes, Robyn’s younger sister who holds a special place within Avalon, as you'll all see shortly. While I'm not sold on the colouring here, this is one of my best pictures I feel, i love the cocky-ness she's giving off which is very in character for her. The t-shirt design is a fictional 90s punk band called painted tears. Putting that nane on there proved harder than I thought, so it stayed off.
May not be any pictures for Chapter 5, but we'll see if I stick to that!
Anyway, on with the show!
Avalon Tales Chapter Index
Chapter 4
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Chapter 4: Merlin
Isabelle continued to walk down the corridors of the North East Branch, heading towards her destination of Rei’s laboratories. Rei Gouzen, was a peculiar individual amongst all of the staff at Avalon. She’d actually been recruited at the tender age of fourteen, something unheard of in the current records. The age gap between the sisters meant that they had both entered the organisation at the same time essentially, and when Rei turned eighteen, when she would have been allowed to join normally, she’d already been pulling things apart for four years. Her inquisitive mind had lent itself well to all matters scientific, In the years after her recruitment, their anti-demon technology made impressive progress. Naturally, there was only one rank that was fitting for such a child prodigy, Merlin.
Isabelle didn’t know the connection between the two sisters till after she’d formed the relationship with Robyn, with the latter being very coy when it came to discussions about family, which Isabelle was fine with, as she didn’t have much to say about the subject other than her grandmother. By this time, Isabelle had already met Rei, much to her chagrin, when Ramona had asked her to take some reports to ‘Merlin’. Rei’s first action when she received the reports, was to shred them instantly, while acting sarcastic all the time. Needless to say, the pair didn’t get off on the right foot. This wasn’t helped when Robyn finally told her about their sibling status. Isabelle knew that Rei spoke in the language of sarcasm and barbs rather than pleasantries, so she had to learn to fight fire with fire. It was never an easy experience but she endured it as she did consider her family as well.
The space where she had set up shop this time had been an unused training area that had been hastily turned into a workshop for her exclusive use. In truth, every branch had done this, aside from the Headquarters, as that was where her main laboratory was. She filtered around from place to place on a whim.Though, no matter where she was, all her labs looked the same.
Isabelle walked into the room, and immediately had to watch her step. There was junk piled everywhere, making it hard to see what were failed experiments and what were the items Rei had actively been working on. There were no clean spaces anywhere in sight, as documents piled up unread while others were forced into paper shredders till they were all jammed. Throughout her time living with Robyn, Isabelle had discovered that she liked a little bit of mess, but her sister took that to the extreme.
“Can barely see the floor,” Isabelle muttered to herself.
“I heard that!” Rei yelled from the next room over. “If the mess is bothering you that much then grab a broom and sweep away! I won’t stop you.”
“Didn’t anyone teach you to put something away before you got anything else out?” One of Isabelle’s favourite ways to deal with her was treating her like a child, which made sense as she was four years younger than her.
“How original…”
Isabelle knew that Rei would be rolling her eyes right now, something she could confirm for herself as she fought her way through the mess and into the room where Rei was stood waiting.
Rei did not look like your average twenty year old, her short black hair was unkempt, while her lab coat looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks, in contrast to the t-shirt, a rock band that Isabelle had never heard of, that she had on underneath it, which looked immaculate. She had bags under her eyes owing to sleep routines that were haphazard to say the least. While having a slender frame, she was anything but weak, as Robyn could attest to in the times when their arguments escalated. Isabelle had to spend a fair few nights trying to play referee. She was standing drinking from a disposable cup, and even without being able to see inside, Isabelle knew it was black coffee.
“You’re late, you know, I sent for you ages ago.”
“Ramona literally just told me.”
“What a lame excuse, ‘Ramona just told me’ I bet you were with my sister making kissy faces, while on the clock no less! What kind of work ethic is that!” Rei shrugged her shoulders like she was making some grand point.
“Don’t you question my work ethic!!” Isabelle shouted out. “How many times have I come in here to talk to you and you’re slacking off, or playing music stupidly loud!”
“It’s called making my workspace bearable, I wouldn’t expect you to understand. You get to do cool things outside. Me? I can’t even get permission to record data in the field! I have to rely on you nitwits to know how to handle my precious inventions.”
“If you’re referring to the time with that prototype sword, that wasn’t my fault. The demon fried the electronics, so I had little choice other than using it as a blunt force object.”
“And then, what did you do with it after that?! Rei pressed, taking another long drink from her cup, narrowing her eyes at Isabelle as she did.
“I don’t think that really counts does it?”
“Oh, it really does, of course it fucking counts! I’ll tell you what you did, you used it as a bloody doorstop!” Rei crushed the cup in her hand. “I bust my butt trying to do cool things, and no one cares! They break what I give them, and then to top it off, they never give me any gratitude! It’s always, ‘Rei, do this for me’, ‘Rei, make this thing now’, ‘Rei, create a demon scanner that doesn’t suck but we’re not going to use anyway’, It’s exhausting being this awesome that everyone constantly wants things,” Rei crossed her arms, letting the broken cup fall to lay amongst the rest of the rubbish.
“I do care! I always thank you for the items…That unfortunately break under exceptional circumstances…” Isabelle’s voice trailed off, admitting to herself that she was in a losing argument. She also had to choose her next words carefully, as she’d done this song and dance before, and topped it off by saying that if the quality had been better, then the items wouldn’t have broken in the first place. These had been fatal words. After the fallout, Isabelle had sworn not to take things to that extreme again.
“This is why I don’t bother giving people the reports that I’m still forced to write! No one ever reads them! If they did, they'd know how to use the things in the first place.”
“Okay, I swear that the next time you give me something, I’ll look after it, while also thanking you for all the hard work,” Isabelle proposed, wanting to steer the conversation back to its original intent.
“Like you said the last time this happened? Before the doorstop incident?”
“You’re not going to let that go are you?”
“Nope,” Rei shook her head. “Should I outlive you, I’m going to put it on your gravestone, and your memorial if you have one, here lies Isabelle, used ridiculously expensive prototypes to prop doors open.”
Isabelle knew the phase of the conversation had veered from seriousness to being plain silly. This was how Rei operated though, and it was only possible to get these moments of levity from her if she liked you in the first place. Other members of Avalon had far worse times in dealing with her because they didn’t respect her or what she did, and of course, she treated them in kind.
“I do love how you think ahead,” Isabelle said, holding back a smile.
“Someone has to in this place, I swear if I could be bothered with all the logistical bollocks, I would push to run it, but I’ll leave that to everyone else, as long as I get left to do what I do best.”
“Annoy me?”
“Wow, even for you that was a shitty comeback. Maybe there’s too much stress on you for you to actually think of a clever retort right now, I mean, this mission they’re asking you to do, how stupid is that!” Rei sometimes did allow some concern to show through, even if it was in a funny way.
“You mean with the amount of personnel we’re taking in, to clear out an area no smaller than this base? I know, its…odd. Still, it’s our duty though isn’t it.”
“Always the good little soldier, aren’t ya? You should be asking more questions! Like I do! Like earlier, when that Knight Inquisitor jackass came poking around here, I made sure to get in his face and demanded to know what he was doing in my place without even knocking!”
“Cade?” Isabelle asked, surprised. “What did he want? I didn’t think your lab was part of the inspection process given your status of doing whatever you feel like.” Isabelle couldn’t deny that there was a bit of envy in that last part.
“I am exempt from all inspections unless it’s your dad doing the inspecting, as you know, my rank only goes so far. That guy though wouldn’t leave me alone! He was all ‘we gotta sort this out now’ and ‘I’m just trying to get to the bottom of this!’. I was just like, ‘you want me to talk to ya? You’re going to have to respect my lab first’. Made him say sorry for barging in.”
“You don’t even respect your lab though…” Isabelle mumbled under her breath.
“Remember I’ve still got something to give you when you’re making comments like that,” Rei got closer and gave her a suspicious look.
“Sorry…What was he trying to get to the bottom of?”
“Well…” Before Rei could say anything else, the walkie talkie attached to her waist started going off. “Always in the middle of a conversation,” Rei rolled her eyes. “Hang on snow white.” She held a finger up to Isabelle to pause their conversation before answering the walkie talkie.
“Hello? You do know this thing is only for me calling you right? Not the other way round. If you want me, come down and talk to me yourself!” Rei yelled at whoever was on the other end. “...What? You want her?...Fine, if you must know I was about to give her the thing and send her back to you!”
Isabelle had a theory on who Rei was talking to, though her attitude wasn’t an indicator, as far as she knew, she talked like that to everyone. Not even her dad was immune from her rants from the stories she’d bread coming out of headquarters.
“That Ramona?” Isabelle asked, but her question was met with the finger again, this time being waved around more forcefully.
“Yes, I get that it’s been a while, but your briefing isn’t my concern…Well, maybe you should have started it when she got back! …Right, just let me deal with it then! Bye!!” Rei went to slam the walkie talkie down but realised she couldn’t without breaking it, and huffed instead.
“Apparently they want you back pronto as they’re going to get ready to go in a minute. They said I was keeping you far too long, when it’s only been about five minutes tops. The nerve of some people!”
“Was it Ramona?” Isabelle asked.
“Well, duh. Who else would be ringing down for you? My big sis knows better, as do most other people. Whatever though, I’ve got my own things to be getting on with, so…” Rei stepped back and started looking throughout the various piles. “Now, where did I put it…” In a matter of minutes, she'd turned the mess that was already there upside down and made it look like a natural disaster had blown through.
For her part, Isabelle looked around where she was standing, and noticed an object that had been wrapped up in brown paper, looking almost like a gift, if the person giving it hadn’t cared at all about the oil stains and other dirt on it. It stuck out like a sore thumb to the other bric-a-brac that was around. She tapped it with her foot but found it was heavier than it looked.
“Is this it?” she asked as she pointed at it. Rei immediately stopped her digging and turned to the discovery.
“Yes! That’s it!” Rei said with glee, as she rushed forward and grabbed it before Isabelle had a chance to do anything. As she struggled to pull it out, Isabelle could see that whatever it was, it was long and thin. Rei looked it over, checking to see if the paper was damaged in any place before mustering all her strength to unceremoniously toss it back at Isabelle.
“What?” Isabelle said in surprise as her reflexes kicked in, allowing her to catch it.
“Don’t say I never do anything nice for you, as I’m not being nice, I need this testing.”
Isabelle pulled at the paper which gave way to show a white handle that was roughly made with bandage wrapped around the metal core. Grabbing hold of that, she pulled the object free of its badly designed protection. The object was a sword that was patch work in its construction, the flat part of the blade looked no different than the other swords that Isabelle had used in the past, the handle and hilt were different shades of whites indicating different materials. Along the blade's edge was a curious strip of a blue metal that had faint writings etched along it. On the reverse of the sword's cutting edge, there was a thick cable that connected it to something that seemed hidden in the hilt.
“You made me a new sword?”
“This is a prototype Saviour Blade, a mk…” Rei started counting on her fingers as she thought back. “Seven, I think? In order to comply with the desires to mass produce a weapon of a similar quality, I also had to make it as cheap as possible so the only part that is actually Saviour Metal is that strip around the main part, which isn’t a lot on it’s own, but when you touch that button in the centre of the hilt,” Rei gestured to the point she meant, and Isabelle duly touched it as it seemed the sword burst into life, it’s edge glowing a neon blue now.
“With that, you should cut through anything!”
“Should?” Isabelle raised an eyebrow at the comment.
“That’s why I want you to test it, you idiot! Though, I’m not too worried, they let me actually study the Morrigan Sword we’ve had locked up for years to get data for this one, so it should be my best one yet!”
“The what what?” Isabelle asked, her words coming out within a second of hearing what Rei had said.
“Wait…Is that classified above or below your security clearance? Hmmm…Maybe it’s best to forget I said anything, okay?” Rei quickly tried to cover her tracks but realised that her attempt wasn’t going to cut it. “Okay, I’ll give you the briefest of details, we obtained the Morrigan Sword fourteen years ago during an expedition, I forget where abouts we got it from now. We had True Saviour Blades before, but not like this, this was master-crafted to another level. We know it belonged to a Saviour the early humans called Morrigan…There that’s everything in a nut shell, now please don’t tell anyone I told you that, or they may stop me from poking at it.”
Isabelle knew about the Saviour, the mythical race of beings that supposedly guided humanity when they’d barely moved out of caves. There were many rumours that it was one of the last Saviours who founded Avalon alongside the real King Arthur over a thousand years ago. She also knew that Avalon had been in possession of several so-called True Saviour Blades, weapons that they themselves used in prehistory. Cade wielded one himself, and Isabelle believed that it was her father’s weapon of choice when he went into battle. This was the first time she was hearing of one however that had a name attached to it.
“Who else knows about that then, other than you?” Isabelle was curious at what security level one would need to learn of its existence.
“Pretty much the entire top brass, maybe a few Knight Masters? Definitely not people on your pay grade. Now, before you leave and continue not breathing a word about this to anyone else, I should point out that you can’t have that blade on all the time, I advise you to turn it off when you’re not using it, or else!” Rei wagged a finger at Isabelle.
“Or else what?”
“Or else you’ll kill the battery in the hilt and they’re a pain to change at the moment, I’m hoping to get it fixed in the next pass through the design.”
“Is that it?”
“There’s also a chance it could explode I guess if the energy decides to react with the Saviour Metal, so there’s also that.”
“What!”
“Well, that’s all the time we have, you better get going! I expect fully detailed notes on the sword and how well it works in real combat in my hands tomorrow, got it? Now go! Oh, and don’t forget to keep quiet about that Morrigan Sword thing okay? Can’t stress enough how you shouldn’t know about it!” Rei started pushing Isabelle out of the room at this point, and while Isabelle had more questions, she also knew it was pointless to ask them now, the moment had passed.
“Fine, I’ll take the weapon and leave, need to see who I’ve been put with for the operation anyway…” As Isabelle was going to walk out, she spotted something keeping one of the doors open that led deeper in the lab, a broken sword not too dissimilar to the one she was carrying.
“A broken sword as a doorstop?” she said mockingly, turning to Rei.
“I’m allowed, you’re not. Now go!” Rei slammed the door in Isabelle’s face.
“Just wait till I tell Robyn about that!” Isabelle shouted through the door. She turned her attention back to the sword in her hands, and took a moment to appreciate it, holding it like she was standing against an enemy. The weight was hard to get used to, as it wasn’t massively lighter than the ones she was used to, but at the same time, there was a difference, and it appeared to throw her timing off slightly, which could be life or death once on the battlefield. All the while though, the other information that Rei had inadvertently given was swirling in her head, The Morrigan Sword, Cade’s impromptu visit, the whole strangeness with the mission. Her snowflake scar started to throb slightly, as the thoughts tumbled through her head. She wasn’t going to let it stop though, she had a job to do.
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Next Chapter (not live yet)
That's all for this week!
We're almost out of the beginning phase with Avalon Tales, so I'd like to offer my gratitude to all those who have been reading this far. Thank you!
While no new chapter next week, the week after though, Isabelle gets to meet the two people who'll be in her command for the operation...then...It’s go time!
Till then...
Keep on writing!
Peter James Martin
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