"Welcome back, Kael."
"How many times are you going to come back here, Lyra?" Kael asked while walking up the stairs to the balcony.
Kael looked at the girl who was in a lotus pose, sticking both palms onto the spider web array that she was sitting in the middle of. Lyra had a slender figure, yet that was not to be mistaken for a skinny woman. While not fully muscular, she was not just skinny, having the perfect mix. Her skin was a bronze color that seemed to soak up the lighting of the cave while also shining it off her body at the same time.
Covering her body was a school uniform completely identical to the one that Kael wore, except for the pants, which were substituted with a skirt that reached her thighs if she stood. Her hair was a platinum flow that flowed off her shoulders all the way down to her mid-back. The hair framed her amethyst eyes perfectly, blue currents clearly sparking through the eye in every way possible.
Kael knew the palms of her hands were adorned by tattoos of spiderwebs originating from the center of the palm, stretching out to encompass the whole palm, even having some strings stretch out and wrap around her fingers on both hands. Visible on her back were small spots that were from the massive spider tattoo that adorned her back. The tattoo started with the body of the spider on her midback, and the legs of the spider had two reaching the nape of her neck, while another two reached her shoulders, another pair on her left thigh, and the final pair on her right thigh. Each leg of the spider was evenly spaced to mimic a true spider. The unique thing about Lyra's tattoos was that, unlike normal tattoos like Kael's, they were white, turning blue when activated, contrasting with her skin. Meanwhile, Kael's where black, which turned purple when activated.
Then there was the most important thing, the red string that started and extended from her heart.
Straight into his heart.
He couldn't stop staring at the thing of beauty, the simplicity of the single red line. Yet it was everything. It was his future.
Her future.
Kael finally broke out of his stupor when he heard Lyra's voice again.
"As many times as I want, good sir, now, Ariadne. Please give him the request we got," The annoyed female voice responded before she immediately turned completely still, almost like a statue.
Crawling out from her back came a black spider with silver accents marring its body; it was the size of Kael's palm. The spider had two legs that seemed to glint much like Nyx's own mechanical feathers. Crawling to Kael's computer, it sat in a docking area that seemed to fit all eight legs of the spider perfectly, as if made for the spider comfortably. Next to it, there seemed to be a nest made in an extremely similar format where Nyx was already sleeping.
As the spider sat in the docking area, the monitor screen flickered on, showing a downloading text file in progress.
Quickly glancing over the screen, Kael commanded, "Myth, display the file on the table."
"Yes, sir,"
"Would the Master and Madam care for any snacks or changes to the environment?"
"Don't call her that, Myth," retorted Kael, rubbing the bridge of his nose before taking a seat on a sofa in front of the table.
"I'd love a Sync-0 if you have any left, Myth? Kael would like a Flow, most likely." Lyra responded before finally getting up and taking a seat on the sofa next to Kael.
"Yes, Madam." Myth said, acknowledging Lyra, while visibly annoying Kael.
The table Kael and Lyra sat at was very similar to the one Professor Song taught at the academy, yet it was also very different. While the one professor Song used was state-of-the-art, it wasn't built by Kael, making it subpar compared to the one in front of the pair.
This table could not only show information holographically, but also be able to build small electronics, much like an assembly line. While it wasn't as efficient as the assembly line that Kael owned on the lower floor of the factory, it was still very effective in creating small chips or prototypes, while the other one was made in order to manufacture large amounts of objects.
When both of them sat, a compartment opened from the armrests of the weathered sofa. Out came two cans, one sparkling white with colorful letters spelling "SYNC-0" seemingly graffitied on the can's cover. While the other was a dark black can with the letters "FL0W" with a zero for some reason cut into the can in dark blue etching.
Opening their cans, they both took a swig before they got down to business.
"Now, why are you here, Lyra?" asked Kael while swirling his drink in his hand.
"Do I really need a reason to visit my favorite person in the world?" Lyra retorted sarcastically.
"Get to the point." Kael, annoyed by the woman wasting his time, stated before taking a long swig of his drink.
"The downloaded file is being shown on the table." Myth interrupted the conversation.
Both of them looked up at the image being projected, while Ariadne and Nyx started to crawl and fly over, respectively.
Nyx's voice rang out for all of them to hear, "What's the mission this time, Lyra? It better not be another one of those hostage ones. I hate hostages."
"I couldn't agree more with you, feathers. Hostages are stupid. Why care for something that just weighs you down?" rang Ariadne's feminine voice throughout the room.
"Now, now, I hate saving hostages as much as the next person here, but it pays well, so we do it. Creating things out of nothing isn't cheap or easy, folks. But that's not the mission this time."
"So get to the point," Kael said before putting his drink onto the armrest, only to run his fingers through the feathers of Nyx, purposefully avoiding the metal feathers rampant around the crow.
"Damn, alright," responded Lyra before muttering under her breath, "Someone's got a stick up their ass."
"What did you say?" Kael said angrily before just sighing and sinking into the backrest of the sofa, before adding, "You know what, never mind, just continue."
"Alright, our mission this time issss," Lyra droned while purposefully dragging the last syllable to create tension.
She failed.
"Damn tough crowd."
"Oh well, it's an extraction, or as more properly known by us, stealing," said Lyra, finally giving up the secret of the mission they were about to complete.
None of them reacted in the slightest.
"It's a code?" added Lyra, trying to get a reaction out of the three of them.
It failed.
"Oh come on, be more excited people, and you, Ardiane, we are going to have a talk, girl." Lyra sighed, exhausted from the lack of reaction from the crowd.
"Whatever, I guess, I'm going to get ready," Kael stated before leaving the group to move towards the computer.
Lyra muttered under her breath, "Worst soulmate ever, I swear."
"I heard that," yelled Kael from across the room.
"Well, act like you didn't then."
"What beautiful blush you put on today, Madam," Myth chimed in.
"I-i didn't."
"Oh, my mistake, madam."
Lyra swore to ignore the AI for the rest of the day.
That lasted a total of five minutes.