They all walked out of her office and took the stairs at the end of the room heading down.
The metallic echo of their boots filled the narrow stairwell, each step sounding sharper as they descended.
The woman—Ingrid, Hugo presumed—moved ahead of them with unbroken posture, her stride measured and brisk.
She didn't bother to look back to confirm they were following.
Her white shirt and narrow black trousers contrasted sharply with the gray concrete around them, and her voice, when she finally spoke, carried the same precision as her gait.
"Anything else, Contractor Barns?" she asked, her tone level but her eyes glancing over her shoulder for just a second.
Barns rubbed at his neck, wearing that familiar strained smile Hugo had learned to read as embarrassed humility.
"I was hoping to say hello to my son before heading back," he admitted, voice soft, almost apologetic.
Ingrid didn't respond, only gave a faint nod and resumed walking.
Her silence seemed to dismiss the matter entirely.
They descended another level, passing through a reinforced door that slid open after Ingrid scanned her ID on the wall plate. A low hiss followed, and the moment they stepped through, Hugo found himself staring at a scene that completely shifted the tone of the Keep.
The area below was alive.
Dozens of people filled the wide space—most of them around Hugo's age or slightly older, likely late teens to early twenties.
The floor was a broad expanse of matte black metal that stretched into smaller chambers beyond.
Hugo slowed unconsciously as his eyes darted over the crowd. Every single person here seemed sharper—more sure of themselves.
The way they stood, their casual postures still somehow disciplined, told him everything. These were Vanguards in training, and they looked the part.
A few of them turned their heads when Ingrid entered, their conversations fading into whispers as their eyes fell on Hugo. Some looked curious, others uninterested.
Their expressions flickered with a blend of boredom and evaluation—like they were mentally ranking him the moment they saw him.
He tried not to meet their gazes, keeping his eyes on Ingrid's back instead.
They reached the center of the open space when Ingrid finally stopped. Her voice, though calm, carried clear authority.
"All members of Cadre 5," she announced, tone steady yet commanding enough to cut through the ambient noise, "head to the meeting room. Now."
The response was instantaneous.
Four figures rose from different parts of the room almost simultaneously—fast, efficient, and coordinated in a way that made Hugo blink.
They didn't hesitate or exchange words; they just moved, each heading toward the same corridor to the right.
He barely caught more than a blur of motion.
Two girls, one with pale hair that shimmered faintly under the lights, the other darker—almost identical if not for that distinction.
A boy, tall and broad-shouldered, his steps confident. And another girl, slender and deliberate, her hair tied tightly behind her head.
Then they were gone, disappearing into the hallway before Hugo even had time to process it.
Around them, the noise resumed—the rest of the cadets returning to their own activities—but not without stealing a few more curious glances at him.
"Follow me," Ingrid said heading in the direction the four ran off to.
The hallway ahead was narrower, more sterile.
It had the sharp tang of recently cleaned metal and faint ozone—machines running somewhere behind the walls.
At the end was a door labeled Meeting Room.
Ingrid opened it without knocking.
The space inside was moderate in size—about thirty chairs arranged in a wide semicircle, all facing a digital projection board that flickered softly on the far wall.
Four chairs were already occupied.
As Ingrid stepped in, the whispers that had been filling the room halted. Every pair of eyes turned toward the entrance—toward Hugo.
He followed behind Barns, trying not to make his steps sound too loud, though the metallic floor made every sound seem amplified. They stopped at the front, and Hugo, for the first time, got a clear look at the people who would soon become his squadmates.
The first was impossible to mistake—Blake.
Even though it had been over a decade since they last saw each other, that ginger hair was instantly recognizable.
It was the same color Barns had, only brighter under the room's white lights.
Blake's face had changed—no longer the boyish roundness Hugo remembered. His jawline was sharper now, his build leaner, more mature.
He had an easy posture, yet there was a subtle tension in his shoulders as he alternated glances between his father and Hugo.
Next, his gaze drifted to the pair sitting beside Blake—and he froze.
It was a sight he was seeing for the first time in his short life.
Twins.
Perfectly identical, at least in face and build.
Their skin tone, the shape of their eyes, their calm posture—everything was mirrored except for one striking difference: one had pure white hair, the other deep black. They sat side by side, quiet and unmoving, yet their stillness felt heavy.
Hugo couldn't explain why, but he felt watched—dissected.
Their gazes were calm but unwavering, like they were measuring the weight of his existence without saying a word.
Even when they blinked, it seemed deliberate.
He looked away quickly, trying to mask his discomfort, but he could still feel their attention brushing against him like static.
And then his eyes landed on the last person.
Another girl, this one sitting at the end of the row.
She had no remarkable features—at least not at first glance.
Her face was soft, pretty, but her expression was unreadable, indifferent. The kind of calm that could either mean peace or disinterest.
Her eyes followed Ingrid briefly, then returned to rest on Hugo without judgment or curiosity.
Ingrid stopped at the front beside them, crossing her arms lightly. Her voice when she spoke carried that same professional steadiness as before.
"As you all can see," she began, "there is a new face among us today."
Her gaze drifted toward Hugo but didn't linger. "And he's going to be joining your squad to round things back up to five," she continued, her words precise and deliberate. "So, welcome your newest member—Hugo."
"..."