The sun gate opened, and with its sudden activation came the newest and most inexperienced member of the Wandenreich. Lillian stepped through, her winter coat doing little to protect her from the sheer chill of the fortress around her. Being literally as new as they could come, she didn't yet sport the official attire of the Quincy, no - instead, she wore jeans still filthy from the farm and a blue hooded sweatshirt.

Her teeth chattered loudly in the cold. Her world had just been turned upside down, and there was no sign of the man who had found her and told her she was special. She didn't feel special. In the icy palace, she just felt... numb.

"H-Hello?" She called out, rubbing her hands together. The adrenaline was starting to wear off, and a deep, unshakable sense of foreboding was beginning to creep up her arms...

"You're here" Julian said closing the door behind him that would otherwise be his office. He had expected the new recruit to report to base but he did not expect her to come looking like a civilian.

"You're to report to the store, tell whomever you find there to issue you out a standard Uniform befitting your position, and find Gau tell him he has a new squire." He said harshly, his voice conveying his displeasure at her attire and he wouldn't want to spend anymore time with her.

He turned his back to leave "That would be all recruit." Was all he said as he matched his way to the throne room.

Taken aback at Julian's sudden appearance, Lillian froze on the spot as he passed her by with barely a glance. So frightened was she that it took a long moment for his words to pierce the fog of her brain, and for her to realise she had been given her first set of instructions. 

She bowed her head politely, and replied with a simple "H-Hai!", the words replaying in her mind with all the qualities of molasses. The cold was something she had never really had to deal with before.

Passing by a huddled group of Soldats, all who looked infinitely more comfortable than she felt, she was quickly herded towards the store Julian had mentioned. She had hardly placed a foot through the door when a pristine bundle of clothes were thrust into her open arms, complete with a black pair of standard issue combat boots plopped on top for good measure.

But... where to find this 'Gau' (@justsomeanimelover) Julian had mentioned? And what did being a squire entail?

Clapping, slow and deliberate and full of sarcasm echoed through the hall and into the office. His shadow moved behind the pillars, emerging on the floor into the pillared hall at brisk intervals. "I congratulate you, Julian," Gau said when he finally did step from the shade. He glanced wanly smiling at the Soldaten, including the new addition who perhaps due to her novelty to the group hadn't gotten to know the interesting dynamic in the First Jagdarmee. Most of the Soldaten righted themselves and seemed to relax a bit.

"You've definitely proven your leadership skills to your subordinates."

His eyes fell again on the new Soldat and he shook his head in neither approval nor disapproval. "Well, what do we have here? What's your name?"

Lillian carefully examined the uniform she had been given, absorbed in the sheer novelty of her new position and surroundings. The chatter of numerous Soldats filled the air and made it difficult to differentiate individual conversations whilst she were so absorbed, but a single voice did cut through the thrumming background noise...

She glanced up and nearly dropped the boots she carried underarm - where all the people around her were simple foot soldiers, united in camaraderie by their low rank, aligned delusions of greatness and the irrepressible thirst to prove themselves, this man...

She had missed the first bit of his conversation with Julian, but her ears perked up as she was addressed.

"Lillian, sir." The quaking of her voice had eased a little in the short amount of time she had taken to calm down, but not entirely. "Lillian Grey. I've only just arrived, this is my first time in the Fortress..."

Her voice petered off to a whisper as Gau approached her - she bowed lowly and somewhat ungracefully, given she tried to juggle her armful of clothes. 

Gau nodded approvingly. Although he had never served as a Soldat — he had never served in any capacity for that matter until now — he could understand the apprehension a fresh recruit might feel. He even mused that his current circumstances were quite similar to those of the Soldaten. Sure, he held a higher office than them (and he could probably wipe the floor with all of them simultaneously) but he too was now merely a part of the pecking order. Another rung of the ladder waiting to be climbed, so to speak, or, descended more quickly than one would like. And the higher up the ladder one was, the more unpleasant a sudden 'slip' would be. Oh yes, Gau knew all about that; slipping, falling.

"Well, Lillian Grey. I am Gau Mephistoles, Sternritter—," he began and paused for a second. His eyes searched the empty air for answers. "C, yes. I heard Julian barking orders again. I take it he's making you do something." 

"It will be an honor to serve under your tutelage, Gau-sama." Lillian said, head still uncomfortably close to her knees. "The Jagdanführer commanded I report to you, something about my duties squiring?"

She was clearly unused to using such official methods of address and it was betrayed as much by the way she paused for a moment in very much the same way Gau did when settling on the appropriate honorific. 

"I'm really sorry Gau-sama, none of this makes much sense to me at all. I know little of the Quincy, beyond what I was told - that we are God's Chosen, tasked with the keeping of the order..."

He raised his eyebrows. "A squire? Julian did say he'd sent someone my way but I didn't expect anything so...medieval. But I guess you would call them squires," Gau mused while rubbing his stubbly chin and thinking of raising the next generation of knights. 

Lillian, however, seemed to have the greatest trouble understanding what that meant.

"For starters, it means you're a prospect Sternritter. If you train well, that is to say, if I train you well, you may — you may — one day receive an Epithet," Gau explained. "I didn't know they sent them this young to the front though. Even for God's Chosen, it seems a bit haughty."

"The one who sent me here..." Lillian began, finally standing normally, "was very kind. Though... I never got his name. He said there was a war going on, he showed me... things. In my head. I couldn't say no, it wasn't right."

Well. It explained how she could be so sure about a cause she knew so little about. Young minds were so impressionable, especially when they were convinced they were doing the right thing.

"It does sound... old-timey. I guess we'll figure things out as we go..."

She liked Gau. There was something... warm about him. Beyond the unknown man who had set her on such a long path, his was the first kind word, and she found herself trusting him with all the nativity in the world. "I guess I should get changed, before the Jagdanführer comes back..."