Operator story: Ines
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Ines is a mercenary that was mainly active during the most recent civil war of Kazdel, working alongside "W" (the initial owner of the alias) and Hoederer, as their fellow squadmate. She has been operating under both Babel and the Reunion after the former was dissolved. Even though Ines has associated with Sarkaz mercenaries and initially appears to be one, she is actually a Caprinae; according to W, she has been "filing" her horns to make them resemble a Sarkaz's for unknown reasons.
Ines' Originium Arts allow her to read someone's "shadow," and get an impression of what sort of person they are. Ines claims she is unable to read thoughts, however. The specifics of this ability are unknown, but she has been seen to use it on figures such as the Doctor.[1]
Ines first appeared in Darknights Memoir before being introduced as an Operator with the release of Episode 12.
Plot
Darknight's Memoir
After losing their squadmate "W", Ines and Hoederer decided to leave his corpse behind. Some time later, the two met a Sarkaz girl with red horns, carrying the weapons and gear of the fallen "W." Ines told Hoederer to leave her be, but Hoederer refused, resulting in initial hostility between the three. It turned out the new W wanted to join their mercenary squad.[2]
On their way to deliver some cargo to Babel, even though the group had by that point, been cooperating for some time, Ines expressed that she still doesn't trust W, leading the two to cross blades.[3] Before the two could apologize to one another for the outburst, they were ambushed, and their squad was annihilated.[4] The strife was interrupted by the sudden arrival of the Sarkaz King, Theresa, on the battlefield. Both Ines and W were promptly sent to the landship Rhodes Island to have their injuries treated.[5]
After serving Babel for some time, both Ines and Hoederer decided to leave. On the other hand, W decided to stay out of her interest in Theresa. Despite going on their separate ways, both Ines and Hoederer continued their cooperation with Babel as an act of loyalty towards the King.[6] This, however, would only last until the fall of Babel in the year 1094.
Ines and Hoederer eventually met W once again after the fall of Babel. While the squad attempted to steer clear of an incoming Catastrophe, they discussed W's changes in personality, signs of the impact Theresa's death had on her. They were interrupted by the Catastrophe's coming closer, and W's absence. After searching for her, Ines was dismayed after she finds W moving towards the storm, who claimed to be "enjoying the Catastrophe." She would later express her concern to Hoederer over W's seemingly dwindling sanity, calling her "no [mere] storm cloud" but the Catastrophe itself.[7]
Much later, during the Chernobog incident, Ines was responsible for keeping watch of Scout, another former Sarkaz mercenary turned Babel/Rhodes Island operative, after he was mortally wounded by the Reunion Movement's Sarkaz mercenaries. They exchanged words over how they had all changed, most notably Scout musing that W would not have bothered learning the names of those she killed previously. He fired a shot at Ines to distract her, and fled towards the core city. When she caught up to him, Scout asked that she, and fellow "Sarkaz" stop letting others use them, and ordered her to use her Arts for the good of the King. By doing so, Ines witnessed not only Talulah's shadow, but also another, which, unbeknownst to Ines, belonged to Kashchey. As Scout tried to take advantage of Ines' confusion to flee again, Hoederer mortally wounded him with a stab in the back. Ines immediately warned Hoederer that they needed to tell W what she had seen.[8]
On her way to warn W, Ines was intercepted by Reunion soldiers, who questioned her. However, this was a pretense; they were sent to silence her on Talulah's orders. They promptly attacked her, the resulting fight seemingly resulting in Ines' death to an explosion. Although they were certain to have killed Ines, they still needed to "make a show of it" to W, and so one of their own agreed to be killed and disguised as Ines' corpse, left for W to see.[9]
In Victoria, Hoederer conversed with a "Sarkaz Messenger" about the sticky situation they found themselves in, stuck under "house arrest" under the Regent's watch, and Hoederer mentioned in passing how upset W would be about the death of "a certain mercenary." The speech patterns of this Sarkaz Messenger, along with their seeming familiarity with Hoederer and W, suggest that that "Messenger" might be Ines herself.[10]
W's promotion record also contains the following interaction:
| “ | "So you didn't actually..." "Death is a great way to get people off your trail. It was his idea to sneak out and meet you here, that's all." | ” |
It is implied that this exchange occurred between W and Ines.
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