It wasn’t long before another request from Raina came across the Rune Knights desk. This time it specifically asked for Kazimir. He had taken it already knowing he would accept it regardless of what it was and read it on the way. The paper said he simply needed to do some work for her at the lab but mentioned nothing of why he was asked for specifically.

The laboratory was the same as always. Its glass door revealed the inside walkway of the premises. Kazimir opened the door and called out over the hum of the water testing machines, “Raina are you here? I got your request.”

There was a rustle of some boxes and Raina appeared from around a corner. Her hands full of boxes up to her eyes. Barely seeing over the top of them, “Oh Kazimir. I’m glad you accepted it. Can you...”

Before she could finish, Kazimir crossed the room and lifted the boxes into his own arms, “Of course I’ll help you. What do you need me to do?”

Raina moved the hair from her face with a small pleased grin, “Thank you. You’ve helped me with a lot already and I know I can trust you.” She passed by him and gestured where he could put down the boxes by the front door.

Kazimir set the boxes down and turned around almost bumping into Raina as she walked behind him. They both jumped back a little, giving the other space, and Raina spoke first, “Sorry about that,” extending a clipboard with various papers on it.

“Don’t worry about it. You just startled me a bit,” he said as he took the clipboard awaiting the rest of her instructions. “What am I checking for?”

“You’ll need to take over for me for the day and watch what the fish do. Just write it down there and then feed them when that is done. I’m sure you can handle it.”

Kazimir nodded, “Not a problem, I hope whatever it is your doing goes well.” He stepped out of her way and she left the building with one small box in hand leaving Kazimir to the day to day tasks.

“Alright then, what do we have here,” he flipped through the papers to see what animals needed to be monitored first and was surprised at the number of animals in the tanks.

They were down a hallway away from the white noise of the machines constant sound. As he got closer, the only sounds were water pumps and the occasional splash.

“First up is the…blue sturgeon?” he asked looking up at the various tanks lined against the walls. He scanned it not knowing at all what he was looking for when he noticed a note on the clipboard that read

'All the tanks are labeled for you'-Raina

Kazimir shook his head with a smile and moved further into the room to examine the tanks. Eventually, he found one labeled ‘blue sturgeon.’ He watched its activities for a few moments and jotted down all he could.

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‘Well this is certainly an easy task,’ he thought to himself, still moving between tanks to scribble notes down on their various activities. The fish were surprisingly similar in most of their actions and everything felt relatively routine.

He stopped as he wrote on another page of the clipboard and flipped it over to a reveal another fish to be tended. It was the fourteenth tank. Kazimir stood at the end of the hallway, tanks on both sides, all checked and with another brief glance over the room he counted thirteen in total.
A single door was behind him with no distinctive markings aside from a singular word in yellow letters.

-caution-

He wasn’t sure if he should enter but then noticed the final sticky note attached to the clipboard that said,
‘The room marked caution is the final one. Watch from the observation deck and don’t go in. Food is in the deck.’

A shiver ran through him. He was trained for a variety of things, but it was the unknown that was the true source of his hesitation. He reached his hand out to the handle, stopping inches before it. His fingers curled back away and then stretched out again to grasp the handle with a shallow breath following.

The door slid open quietly. Silence gripped they atmosphere as the door eased to a half-way point. The light patter of water behind him stopped. Giving way for the singular loud splash from a formless motion in the dark room beyond.

He opened the door fully. Knowing that Raina would not send him to do something he was not capable of. He envisioned her helping hand that brought him into the rickety rowboat now guiding him into the room.

With his first step, the light lacrima illuminated the whole room to reveal a lone large tank in the room. It had walls that came up five feet, almost as tall as Kazimir, and it seemed to go down deep.

A set of stairs was to his right that also led down spiraling beside the tank. Kazimir followed it around until he saw that the tank was made of thick clear glass.

There were many obstacles in the tank mimicking a habitat and he squinted to see through the impediments. Eventually, he saw the reason for the tank. Emerging from behind the rocks were five large sharks all swimming together.

He watched them in awe. It was his first time seeing a group of sharks especially this large and being taken care of. There was a beauty in their movement through the water. He was lost in thought for what seemed like a long time before snapping back to write down all he remembered from their actions. Eventually, he saw a bucket of food next to a ladder. He knew what was next. He grabbed the bucket, climbed the ladder to an elevated platform above the sharks and heaved it over. They fed immediately and with a predatory tenacity.

In watching them he realized how offensive they were and that a tiger would be much the same. How could he have ever thought the blessings of the tiger would be purely defensive. After feeding all the other fish he returned to the sharks to see them in action until Raina returned.

“Kazimir, I see you’re enjoying yourself here. I thought you might,” Raina said as she pulled herself up from the ladder, his reward in her hand.
“Yeah, it is a sight. Seeing it made me think a lot about myself. Not as a predator, but the nature of power and how we use it.”

Raina sat beside him and talked for some time about her thoughts on the aquatic animal kingdom and what it meant to her.

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