Quoted By:
It is hunter's tradition that one gets to know the gods. In the untamed and unknown world a hunter prowls, they are alone, so unbearably alone.
Alone with the sun teeming through the canopies, the tall grasses hiding all manners of predator and prey, the wind that blows and the scents upon them. But when a hunter becomes aware the gods are the sun beaming through the trees, they are the grasses which provide them cover, they are the winds that blow and mask their scent, the hunter is no longer alone. He comes into communion with nature and with the very gods. With this attunement, with this consideration, and with the knowledge that the sun illuminates your enemies, the grass hides you from them, and the wind to whip upon their eardrums, a man can fell even a giant. The gods are important to your line of work, for they are always there. They would speak to you, if only you would listen.
So listen you shall. You take the book, and thank the Finn for the offer. With you learning, Kiikoinen leaves and you find a nice spot in the garden where you can read. Though it's not a real spot of nature, you can't imagine they would be offended.
In a few days, it comes time that you officially shadow your mentor on a sortie. The Stormwatch patrols had to be lightened in the wake of Lorppo's attack as many high-ranking agents had to spend time to teach new agents, and these patrols aren't meant to be adventurous as they are meant to be informative – ground once thought to be safe is now considered lost, until you and your squad can consider it safe. They make it sound like it's a war, but you can't really blame them after what has happened.
… This storm drain is utterly massive, in case you haven't noticed. Any sound you make seems to make subtle tremors for minutes as echos bounce off the many concrete columns of the storm drain's main hub underneath the headquarters. Blue LEDs fail to completely light the entire drain, but that's a herculean task tantamount to asking a candle to light a cathedral. This is just one section, underneath city center, that you are looking at. Different sections are partitioned off to support structures above them better. On top of it all, you are aware that it proceeds throughout the all the way to its outskirts, where it terminates in a fortified dam.
From what you've been told, Helsinki was partially underwater before the calamity and rebuilt the city on top of itself to escape the waters, these stormdrains the support of the new city. The climate being a much more rainy iteration of its previous snowy self proves its benefits to this day. Being built on top of the old world, there's still some architecture that was never demolished, used by squatters. Tragic, but it is what it is.
