Two officers flanked a man sitting at his desk, wielding drawn, shimmering blades. His uniform was golden with black trim, compared to the ones beside him which had mere golden trim lining their black uniforms. The cornea of one eye was white, with chemical burns marking around it and along the side of his head. Despite his wealthy appearance, his teeth were stained yellow, marking his unhealthy lifestyle as he began to speak.
"I am Commander Zenith," he began with a heavy rasp like a smoker. His speckled, pale bald head glistened unhealthily under the light. "Theft. Stealing from alchemists in the city—"
"We didn't-" Jade began, but Noland interrupted her, speaking up loudly.
"Yes, we're sorry. We were looking to make extra coin selling it back into the market."
The officer stared at Noland with a deadpan expression. He could feel his heart racing, becoming uncomfortable as the silence stretched on. It was as though the man was mapping his face with his opaque eye. A white droplet dribbled down his eyelid without so much as a blink, and Noland shifted anxiously.
'We can't let him know we manufactured it. Otherwise, we're more fucked... Thieves still have a chance to get back onto the street. Hiding an ancient alchemical formula...'
"Continue- Jade," the Zenith said, briefly glancing down at a paper on his desk. "You didn't what?"
"I already told you-" Noland began when a sharp pressure was applied to the back of his leg, and a hand with unforgiving force slammed his face against the desk.
He sputtered and gagged for a moment as blood streamed from his nose. His vision was blinded with tears and white specks as the officer dragged him roughly back to his feet. White noise dominated his hearing, unable to catch the panicked words from Jade.
"I see," Zenith said slowly, folding his gloved hands before him. "Found near the dumpsters as 'thrown-out waste'. Hard to believe, but plausible. One of the reports that returned marked it as a 'faulty but historical alchemical product.'"
"But that does not explain your forced entry into the sewer system, nor returning with stolen alchemical supplies."
As he stood up, one of the men immediately grabbed Noland by the hair as Zenith leaned forward. His gloved thumb roughly marked Noland's bloody nose, and he continued to speak with cold, unrelenting pressure.
"Nor does it explain your friend's magic," Zenith said. One of the guards also grabbed Jade's hair as he smeared his bloody thumb across her face. "It does not explain your weeks visiting the library. It does not explain your shift in production, nor your lack of respect toward my men. The bruising my poor men suffered."
And with a harsh slap and a high-pitched, pained yip, his glove backhanded Jade's blood-smeared face as they forcibly kept her upright as she staggered.
Zenith's gaze shifted between them before he let out a disgusted sigh. "I would be very tempted to believe this story, considering your reckless and poorly executed stunts. But your pathetic lies are like those of children."
"We were only trying to help Fenrik," Noland said weakly, flinching as he heard shuffling behind him. But Zenith shook his head.
"Now it's because of Fenrik? Left it by a dumpster, trying to help Fenrik- finding alchemical relics but refusing to report it..." he drawled at the end, as if he already knew the truth.
Both of them unconsciously flinched, remembering that Lucky was no longer with them. Unamused, unimpressed, and looking disappointed, Zenith sighed again with annoyance as he watched their expressions and movements.
"Your friend is dead. He spilled everything. I know everything," Zenith declared coldly, before shifting to a sorrowful, reminiscing tone. "Fenrik was a good man- too good. It is a shame his health has deteriorated..."
"And it is a shame he must now live his final days knowing you've been banished."
"Banished?" Jade squeaked. "W-why banished? Isn't that worse than—"
"Skin blackening as you char and dehydrate," Zenith quoted softly. "Creatures that devour you from within and steal your sanity day by day. One day, you will find yourself praying for death, but they will not let you die. Not yet, not ever."
"P-please, not that. We'll clean the sewers, or- or we can triple our weekly production!" Jade pleaded, but Zenith shook his head. His disgusted gaze moved between them. "Or throw us back into the cells!"
"Under normal circumstances, that would be ideal to preserve resources- execution and dead bodies save us resources. You two have both witnessed the truth. Fenrik personally asked for your banishment."
"Why...?" Noland asked, his heart twisting. He couldn't bring himself to distrust the man, especially with the circumstances. So the only question that came to mind was, 'Why does Fenrik want a fate worse than death upon us? Didn't he support our plan?'
"Perhaps your stupidity, despite his efforts to raise you, angered him?" Zenith said with a rhetorical tone. "I would be disappointed in you three if I raised you from birth and you pulled this stunt, knowing the consequences."
Silence fell. Jade and Noland, with their heads hung, glanced guiltily at each other. Noland especially felt he had become the biggest failure as the Zenith's words cut deep.
An authoritative voice rose from Zenith as he declared judgment, freezing their hearts.
"Noland and Jade. You are hereby banished from the Iron City. You will be thrown beyond the Chemical Sea, where you will meet your pitiful deaths with shame and guilt. Officers, take them away."
With tears streaming down her face, between sobs that mixed with blood, Jade finally broke down. Noland felt the blood leaving his face, as if enough hadn't already, and his body felt cold as the consequences of failure solidified.
It was a sad sight, to say the least, as the two were escorted out while onlooking officers watched with disdainful, judgmental expressions and crossed arms. From outside, they hadn't heard their fate, but didn't need to after bearing witness to these scenarios so many times before. In their eyes, they were judged guilty and vermin.
Even when they struggled, hoping to break away at some point, they were mere tussles of disgruntled children in the hands of hardened officers- officers capable of using magic while they were restrained. And under the dusk of night, despite their resistance, they were thrown onto a singular government iron boat. Each district had one, and they were thrown into their own.
Without delay, the boat moved. It moved much more quickly than their tiny little iron boat with two officers using magic to propel it forward as they sat in the middle, restrained. By the time the moon was high in the sky, they were in unfamiliar seas- not that they could see them- and by dawn, they had arrived.
The sun crested over the Chemical Sea behind them to the east. And before them, a vast desert with dunes that stretched seemingly with no end.
----------------------
Zenith's expression twisted with disgust, eyeing Lucky- restrained and unconscious- on the table.
"Were the others banished?" the doctor's disapproving tone echoed through the operation room.
"Yes," Zenith rasped, eyeing the discolored skin around Lucky's right eye. "How was the procedure?"
"The Metallum Animatum lives in abundance- its highest grade is assured."
"The boy disclosed the location of their supply, correct?"
"Yes. It is a simple find. Our lives may change for the better," the doctor giggled. "Fancy food and more experiments."
"May?" Zenith frowned.
"I will keep this boy alive. Put a leash on him. We must know whether long-term use of the completed alchemical relics has side effects."
"The boy will not comply."
"He will if he believes his friends are being held captive. These kids are naïve. Otherwise they wouldn't have dared do what they did."
Zenith's frown deepened. A simple con game and the boy wouldn't know. "It truly is a shame this happened to Fenrik..."
"Do you plan on helping him?" The doctor's gaze, fixated on Lucky with curiosity, rose to Zenith with an inquisitive tone. "After all this time? To live a few more years in despair?"
"I've disagreed with him but I've never hated him," Zenith said, turning abruptly to leave, his golden uniform glinting under the light into the doctor's eyes. Wincing, the doctor turned away.
"Reminiscing? Emotional stupidity."