Kimen followed after Forte, gawking at the castle and the guards standing out in front and feeling a little nervous. "Are you sure this is okay, Mr. Forte? Do we need a pass or something to go in?" She asked, clinging tightly to the bundle in her arms. She didn't really have a bag anymore to hold her belongings, but she did have a bed sheet, and that was where most of her stuff was currently being held; wrapped up tight in a heavy looking bundle in her arms. What she couldn't carry in the bed sheet drifted silently at her shoulders like balloons tied to an invisible string. A commonly used spell of Kimen's that came in handy on days where she had to carry a lot of groceries home for her bothers.

Forte waved dismissively. "Ah, these guys look rough, but trust me, everyone in the castle is actually pretty cool." Walking up to one of the guards, Forte nodded to the man. "Hey Ted, how's your wife?" "Oh, hey there. She's pretty well, got a kid on the way soon!" The guard produced a clipboard from behind his shield, making a mark on it before looking to Kimen. "The kid with you?" "Yup. Little scamp needed a place, so I'm going to fit him in my room. Maybe talk to the bosses about a few things." "Alright, move along then." The guard waved Forte past, before giving Kimen a wide smile. "Be good in there kiddo!"

"I will sir, no worries." Kimen smiled back at the guard and nodded before he quickly followed after Forte. "Do you know all the guards who work here?" He asked as his eyes wandered over his new surroundings.

Forte shook his head. "Nah, not as well as Ted there. Him and I just get along because we go drinking every month or so." Forte stopped at the desk of a green-dressed woman, before flashing her a smile. "Hey Shelinda. Can you give the kid here a guest pass?" The woman looked to Kimen and shuffled a stack of papers to one side, before giving her a smile. "Well good afternoon, Miss. Welcome to Guardia Castle. Have you ever been here before?"

As Forte approached the desk Kimen was still gawking. It had been a long time since she had been in a castle, and this one was far nicer. Everything seemed more business like and professional. Realizing that the woman was addressing her Kimen turned back to the desk, returning the smile, "Ah um, no ma'am! This is my first time here." Kimen admitted.

Forte nodded to a group of guards that walk past the reception area, as Shelinda nodded along. "Well it's nice to have you visit. If you could give me your name, I'll give you a pass that lets you walk around with Mr. Forte here, and see all the cool things that go on!"

"My name is Kimen." The child answered before turning to Forte, "So then you give tours here too, Mr. Forte? That is so cool of you! I bet you know all of the neat places around here!" And maybe later if he could Kimen thought he could do some exploring as well. Castles always had secret rooms and hidden treasures after all.

Shelinda gave a guest pass to Kimen, complete with his name written on it, before giving one last smile. "Have fun, dear." With that, Shelinda returned to her paperwork, and Forte grinned widely. "Right, first things first, I need to stop by the offices real quick. Come on, kiddo." He beckoned to Kimen before heading off down the left hand hallway.

"Thank you, ma'am." Kimen hurriedly put her bag down and took the sticker from the woman, placing it directly at the center of her shirt so that the guards could read it. "Alright Mr. Forte, I'm coming!" Kimen scooped up her belongings and chased after him, an assortment of books, pans, pens and papers drifting along after.

Forte lead Kimen through several large hallways, including one that smelled enticingly like food, before ending the short journey before a large oaken door, set in the middle of a different hall. A plaque read simply 'MoMA' to identify the room to the castle inhabitants.

Opening the door, Forte entered an odd looking office, owning a large wooden desk, laden with paperwork and notes and other important business notices. Also inside of the office are several odd seats, ranging from proper chairs, to stools, to a milk-crate with a cushion on it. The oddest thing about this office would, of course, be the fully stocked bar in the back.

Kimen followed forte into the office frowning a little at what he saw. "This is really your office, Mr. Forte?" The child was a little disappointed by the sad state of it. Surely they could provide the man protecting this countries inhabitants with something a little better than a crate with a cushion and stools! Poor Mr. Forte!

Forte raised an eyebrow at Kimen. "What, this place? Hah! No, this is the main office. We all gather up here and address big issues from time to time. God, I wish I had an office this big." Forte checked a large bulletin board in the back of the room, but shook his head as he scanned over the pieces of paper tacked on to it. "Right, nothing new. Come on then, kiddo, we'll hit my room, drop off the stuff, and then go to the actual office."

Kimen's frown deepened. For a main office this place looked really depressing. With a worried look, the child followed after Forte with a feeling of dread as her imagination started suggesting what might be to come.

Forte brought Kimen once more through the maze of Guardia castle's inner halls, this time they delved down a set of stairs, past several turns, and through a doorway with a golem standing as a guard. All of this seemed perfectly okay to Forte, however, and after retrieving a key from his pocket, he unlocked one door in a hallway of many other identical doors, this one bearing a plaque with his name on it.

Inside Forte's room could be described as a bit Spartan. A military cot occupied one corner, and a desk bearing a computer is pushed against one wall. The oddest feature would probably be the metal lockers, which would be more at home in a school, that take up the entire back wall of Forte's room. One other door exists in the room, probably leading to a bathroom.

The main office was a sad sight, but Forte's room was even sadder. Kimen's shoulders sagged as he wondered if the man was sure this was a better place than the abandoned house the child had been living in. He stayed silent as he placed his wrapped up belongings in a corner and started plucking the remaining items from the air and stacking them on top. Once his hands were free he turned back to the room and began a closer examination of it. The place wasn't exactly homey. In fact it seemed a bit stale and bare. When Kimen was done he turned to Forte and folded his arms, clearly showing his
displeasure. "Mr. Forte needs a better place than this, and a better office!"

Forte raised an eyebrow at Kimen. "What? Come on kid, you haven't even seen my office yet. Anyways, this place has everything I need. A place to put my stuff;" Forte jerked a thumb to the lockers. "An internet connection, And a place to sleep. And; what's better, I have -my own bathroom-." Obviously this was something he considered impressive, because Forte opened up his bathroom to reveal a toilet, a standing shower with no chance of being used as a bath, and a sink.

A few moments went by before Forte sat on his cot, and he heaved out a small sigh. "Okay so yeah it's not like, super good. But the place is structurally sound, I don't pay anyone to live here, and I'm not going to be attacked in the night. It's a lot better than when I lived in the Imp Warrens for a few months."

Kimen flinched. "I hope you are at least being paid well. Do the castle guards have a set up similar to this? What is your boss doing?" If Kimen was going to do one thing here, she was going to find a way to make some improvements. Sure, Mr. Forte could have his room set up how he wished, but he certainly deserved more than this. And the main office needed to be better organized and more presentable too.

Forte shrugged. "No idea. Haven't seen the head bitch, er, Valpuri, in a few years. Anterus is off doing god knows what. I haven't seen Silas either." Forte paused for a few moments before sighing. "Okay probably most of MoMA's command structure are missing or dead. It's me and Ivan. Which is why we act more as a support structure for the Guardian Knights now. As for pay, most of MoMA's budget goes to the captains, me and Ivan get a smaller cut. Maybe, half or three quarters of a knight?"

Forte's description did not paint a pleasant picture of things. Kimen clenched her teeth as she listened to what forte was describing to her. "The knights are here to protect Truce and the Castle. But MoMA handles the rest of the country, right? You need more money coming in and a much larger force than that of the castle and city guard. How can you possibly be expected to accomplish your goals if a force of two is all there is protecting this country? You clearly do not have the manpower to enforce anything effectively! The this a serious issue not only for MoMA but for the rest of the country and its security. Why is it being swept under the rug and ignored?"

Forte raised an eyebrow as Kimen began going off the hook. "Whoa there, kiddo. It's not like it's two people who literally watch the rest of the cleft. There are other cities and kingdoms out there, with their own guards. I mean, are we understaffed, yeah sure. But it isn't exactly a threat to everything Guardia stands for."

Kimen sighed and took a seat on the floor, crossing his legs. Forte was right. But really it did not seem like there was enough, at least in the child's eyes. As much as Kimen loved Mr. Kent, there never seemed to be any sort of authority coming to talk to him about his behavior. It was just Kimen trying to calm him down, pulling at his cloak and begging. People drew their weapons over trivial matters. People killed without batting an eyelash because snuffing out a life was of no consequence. People didn't rely on city guards or police, they relied on themselves. And why was that? Because they were not as effective as they should be. Kimen stared down at the floor trying to decide if Mr. Forte was right and she had simply just been around the wrong kinds of people since coming here. "Mr. Forte," Kimen said after a long moment of contemplation, "Could you... show me just how safe Guardia is?"

Forte regarded Kimen for a several moments while he processed this request. "So, what. You want to come with me on one of my patrols? Or, you wanna talk to the knights, see how well trained they are?"

"I want to go with you on patrols sometimes, Mr. Forte." Kimen said, looking Forte in the eye. The child wanted to see the side of Guardia that he hadn't seen and this seemed like his best opportunity to do so.

Forte considerd this for a moment. "You realize you're asking me to put you into situations that could be dangerous. That would both affect my ability to properly solve conflicts, and at the same time give me something I would need to look after while working." Forte scratched the back of his head. "Look, I'll- Sure. I know you want to. You've got that look about you, and I wanna help you out. Just, you have to listen to me when we're out there. If we get into a situation and it's dangerous, you have to listen to what I say, even if it's running away as fast as you can. Okay?"'

"I promise to do everything within my power to keep myself from being a liability to you, Mr. Forte." Kimen said, the serious look on his face unwavering, "Even if it means that I can only observe from a distance, I want to see Guardia from the perspective of someone who strives to keep it a peaceful place."

Forte nodd, and then stood up, stretching his back. "Alright then Kiddo. You can come along and see how things work. I can't promise anything exciting, or even interesting will happen, but at the very least you'll get to travel lots."

Kimen nodded slowly. "Thank you Mr. Forte." She smiled lightly, then turned her attention to the rest of the room. "I'll try not to stay here long either Mr. Forte. But I want to find Mr. Edmund before I go back home to Shrike and if I can, talk to him about Mr. Kent some more."

Forte nodd along with the kid. "Alright then. While you are here though;" Forte stepped over to one of the lockers and opened it up, revealing several stacked boxes inside. "Here, you know how to read, right?"

"Yes," Kimen answered, climbing to his feet and making his way over to the set of metal lockers Forte had just opened. He peered inside at the stack of boxes then looked up at the man unsure of what he was planning to show him.

Inside the boxes in Forte's Locker were comic books. Hundreds of them. There was no actual defined theme to them, and most of them are actually in unreadable languages. To that end, there are also ones that were in extremely poor condition, seemingly being through fires. "This; this is my collection. I try to get my hands on a copy of every comic book that falls into the Cleft. Granted I can't read half of 'em, but you don't always need to read them to enjoy them."

Kimen's expression was brightened by the colorful display of books sitting in front of her. She really hadn't had very much exposure to comics but they looked interesting, colorful even. "Am I really allowed to read them Mr. Forte?" Her hand hesitantly reached for one sitting at the top of the pile.

Forte nodded happily. "Go ahead, Kimen. Just, try to be careful with the older ones. They can be a bit fragile" Opening another locker, Forte pulled some coins from his pockets and put them into a jar. "I'm gonna go to the offices, and deal with some work. Want me to pick up some food on the way back, Kiddo?"

Kimen nodded and then wastes no time taking the comic into his hands and opening it up to the first page. "Oh um... Sure!" Kimen answered, slightly distracted.

Forte chuckled as he made his way back out the door. He needed to do some paperwork to get Kimen clearance to come with him on patrols, but it wouldn't be that hard. That, and he could probably get the kid some cake from the kitchens on the way back. Forte nodded to himself, surely children like cake for dinner, right?