A/N: It's been...months, actually. I thought I could keep my writing pace during my semester, but I learnt the hard way that my second-to-last semester is not easier, but tougher to leave me time to write. That said, Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy this very delayed update as much as I enjoyed finally finishing it!
~Kalafinn
Lu woke up earlier than anyone else. It was one of those nights where she did not dream and did not remember seeing Ciel dreaming either. She looked at the sleeping blue-haired man to her side, his bangs were almost all combed to the side or back, leaving one of the marks of the contract in plain view. Lu smirked, finding herself thinking of how endearing it was seeing a seemingly cold-hearted man have such a peaceful expression. It had been months since she had seen Ciel without the trace of a frown or coldness in his eyes, even when he smiled. It reminded her of that...Once again, the memory was gone before it even had the chance to truly shine. The demoness frowned for a moment, before discarding that bitter thought aside. She did not want Ciel's sleep disturbed by something that insignificant.
The blue-haired mercenary buried more of his face into the pillow, mumbling something about making shoes for plushies.
Lu smirked, tempted to tease him about it later. However, they were not exactly alone for the moment and, while he did not speak much, the demoness knew that Ciel did not exactly react well to people other than her laughing at his expense. He did not get violent, but he could spit some very crue vitriol that this already fragile team did not need.
It was a shame she had to let that light-heartedness slide, but there was no helping it. The sun was barely climbing over the walls of Elder, painting the sky in a deep blue. Lu looked at the window and back at Ciel. The demoness was too awake to go back to sleep now. In fact, she wished to start her day immediately, as she always did when she woke up. Slowly, Lu slid one foot down, being careful enough to not shift her weight too suddenly. The first foot met the ice-cold floor, she almost yelped in surprise. Instead, she bit her lip to keep the silence for Ciel.
Lu glanced up to him, seeing he had not moved an inch. She softly put her other foot and slowly shifted completely away from the bed. The white-haired girl was cold with her underwear, so she took one of the improvised night gowns she had sewn for herself in Hagen from her cloth bag. The blue coloured cotton almost covered her perfectly, save for most of her back.
It was not the first time she had worn clothes that exposed her skin, but she now wanted to hide her back, of all things, as much as possible. It had become the same as her neck and hands, which she usually hid under a choker and gloves.
She stepped out of the room like a shadow and stretched herself, noticing she was still not wearing any kind of shoes.
Luciela shrugged and told herself she would simply have a short breakfast before all the merchants from the guild came flooding in through the main door. In the hall, she caught Ariel, who was dusting off the paintings.
"Good morning, Ariel," Lu lazily said.
The blonde turned around, offering the demoness a polite smile and a nod, "Good morning. You're up early today, Lu."
"Yep," she yawned, "Ariel, I don't have shoes and my feet are so cold… "
Ariel looked down at her feet and her eyes widened briefly, "Oh! Lu, you'll catch a cold walking around like that. Let me get you at least a pair of moccasins."
The woman dashed away and, once alone, Lu smirked. 'Ah, I'm gonna miss this once I recover everything. Humans let kids get away with so many things...'
The floor creaked from the hall she had come from. She turned around and saw the silver-haired hermit finally emerge from his room. He had clearly lost quite a bit of weight, as his sleeves hung wider around his wrists than what Lu remembered. He even had poorly wrapped bandages around his left hand. He did not hide his face behind his hood anymore. His hair was long enough to hide his eyes and ears and flowed free over his back, covering it completely.
Since he always had his hair tied before, Lu assumed that was the reason why it seemed shorter than what it really was.
Ariel came back as soon as Ain was only two steps away from her. She turned away from him and looked at the blonde, who was out of breath and made a sheepish smile.
"I'm sorry, Lu. I really could not find any moccasins anywhere." she looked at Ain, "Oh, you must be Ain, right?"
The priest nodded, "Yes, and you are..?"
"Ariel from Cobo services," She reached her hand out, "I am Hoffman's associate. Pleased to finally meet you."
Ain simply bowed slightly to Ariel, "Pleased to meet you. It is not my custom to shake hands."
"Oh," Ariel dropped her hand back to her side, "So you are from Resiam's Monastery. Apologies, Friar."
"Don't apologize, Ariel. Our rules on courtesies are a shock to most around here. Although it's refreshing to finally be addressed by my proper title" he chuckled softly.
Lu watched intently how quickly Ain dismissed Ariel from asking anything more about him, asking instead more and more about her until she decided to cut it off. The blonde woman looked down at Lu, who was pretending to still be dying of cold feet.
"Oh, Lu, where did you want to go so early?"
"I'm hungry."
"Well, how about you ask the Friar to give you a piggyback ride there?" Ariel suggested, "That way you don't get cold feet for so long."
Luciela froze, giving a cold glance up at Ain and turned away, pouting, "Hmph! Ain has cold hands too! I'd rather catch one thousand colds!"
Ainchase sighed, "So she says. Ariel, you could do so instead. It won't take long."
The grandfather clock on the main floor dinged six times. Each ding echoed up to them, Ariel straightened up, her eyes open wide, "Oh no, I need to be five minutes earlier!"
The blonde left in a rush, barely apologizing to them. Lu could only tell Ain had glanced at him because of how his head tilted to his right.
"Can't you fly?"
The demoness shrugged, "Can you not shake hands?"
The Celestial stayed to her side for a minute and opened the door to get down the staircase. Luciela followed, avoiding as much dirt that could hurt her feet as much as she could. Her zigzagging brought her closer to the staircase than what she expected and she lost her balance, reaching out to a flash of silver in front of her. It was surprisingly silky.
"Let my hair go," Ainchase coldly said, his head was tilted up under the weight of her pull.
Luciela looked at her hand, noticing there was not even a trace of celestial power trying to melt her. There was something really off about Ainchase as a Celestial.
She just had to find out what it was. It was perhaps the key to see the face of that man in her memories much more clearly. He was perhaps hiding something, too.
"If you say please, maybe."
"Well, if I don't move, you can't move either. I don't mind staying here all day."
"Hmm, I see," she relented, reaching out for Ain's cloak and loosening her grip on his hair.
"Do you always wake up feeling suicidal or do you just wake up brainless?" He glanced back at her, or so she thought, seeing how his head turned to the side again.
"Neither. I am merely realizing that you do not wake up feeling like killing me. Or perhaps you are the one waking up without a brain. Either way, it is a great discovery."
"What do you want at this point? Why don't you just leave me alone?!" he hissed.
Luciela blinked, not quite expecting to get him to sound so angry and...strangely sad. It was just a gut feeling, but she could hear that hint of true sadness in his voice. It was very different from the way he usually wielded emotions, as if they were simply another kind of magic.
This was the real thing, a muddied and crude mixed bag. It was the kind of emotions demons devoured like the most delicious delicacy besides human souls. But Luciela's appetite only shrank and shriveled like a dry leaf. It looked appetizing, sure, but perhaps it was too good to not be poisoned.
'...What a roundabout way to try to do what all Celestials are created for.'
She let him go and looked away, "Right now, nothing. I woke up feeling slightly sick, so I wanted to go make myself some tea. What about you?"
"...thank the goddess you're truly the real one," Ainchase muttered, too fast and too quietly for Lu to get what he said. He sighed, then, looked back in front of him and continued his way, "I'm in the same boat as you, demoness."
Lu raised an eyebrow at him, noticing that he grabbed onto the railing as tightly as someone afraid to lose their balance. Moreover, his left hand was sloppily bandaged. It certainly was not Rena's work.
"He will make bandage-flavoured tea if he keeps that as it is," she grumbled before following him to the main lounge.
The guild's main room, despite having reopened, was as dead silent as it had been for the past week. There was no one to even give a glance at the bony, clearly sick priest nor the barefooted white-haired girl whose eyes reflected anything but childishness.
Lu looked around at the empty room, rubbing her hands to cast off the chilly breeze that filtered through small holes in the wall. The room really felt different this early in the morning, when not even Ariel had turned the fireplace on. The flags, the neatly organized chairs, the empty counters, tables and abandoned board of offers and quests just gave her an odd feeling. It just seemed that something was around them, something that should not be there.
The demon countess glanced at the silver-haired man, crossing her arms cautiously before using her strength to propel herself high enough to sit on the chairs in front of the counter. She watched Ainchase crouch and open the second drawer behind the counter. He took out one box, opened it then discarded it, putting it back where it was.
Lu took a deep breath, looking at the shelves above him, knowing that the green tea Rena usually made for him was right there, isolated from any other spice, dried food or even alcohol.
'Let's see how long it takes him to figure it out,' she thought as she stretched her arms with a yawn.
Ainchase calmly put back the first five small wooden boxes he took out, most of them containing spoiled candies. Once he took out the box of dried jerkies, the sixth one in his search, he clicked his tongue and slammed the door of the drawer before getting up, tapping his fingers over the counter as his head turned around from one side of the aisle behind the counter to the other. He had gotten the filter out and kettle out, but those had been his only successful findings.
There were, if Lu remembered correctly, about ten drawers in total, all full with items that Ainchase did not need for making tea.
"Do you want me to give you a hint?" she said, resting her head and arms over the counter.
"Why would I need your help?" he grumbled.
The demoness straightened up with a short, exasperated sigh, "Well, maybe because you would like to drink some tea fairly soon, just as much as I do."
"I can find it without your help. And I'm not making tea for you."
Lu shrugged, "I was not expecting you to. As for you needing my help, I seem to remember that last time you ignored my advice, we spent hours walking in circles, freezing our fingers off."
She looked at him, expecting her taunt to cause some kind of riposte, but Ainchase wordlessly continued his search.
'...Not even a 'shut up'? That is rather bizarre.'
The demoness glanced around her, still feeling that a foreign energy was circling around them. Perhaps it was simply the lack of light, but it seemed to her that the wooden walls had lost part of their colour. She sighed, shaking the thought off, but she could not completely dismiss it. Luciela remembered that Cizin telling her…
The memory slipped away before she could even reach it, as it had usually done. She furrowed her brows, 'Everytime I come close to it...' She passed a hand around her neck, 'What a troublesome curse. Just how strong can it be for its remnants to bind parts of my memories away like this?'
The back door leading to the second floor opened again. Both demoness and Celestial glanced at the new visitor, only to hear Rena's voice wishing someone a good day before walking into the main room.
She had her hair tied in a loosened ponytail, which almost hid perfectly how unevenly cut her hair was after their fight with Lua.
Her green gaze briefly widened when she saw Ain, but he soon looked away, crouching again to scramble his search through the wrong places. The elf, sometimes, made Luciela remember how she had been before...or rather what she had tried to be.
Rena's presence always had that je-ne-sais-quoi that made her the natural maternal figure, that matriarch everyone followed.
The forest elf walked towards the counter, and, although she smiled gently at them as she greeted them, Luciela could tell she was trying to hide her worry.
'Worry about what?' The demoness wondered as she nonchalantly greeted the elf. Rena sat next to her and her bright green gaze sank a little after glancing at Ain. She looked at the door, right at the opposite side of where Ain was, and yawned.
"It's a very cold morning, huh?"
Luciela silently nodded, rubbing the soles of her feet against one of the chair's legs to clean her feet, even if it wasn't too effective.
"...It is." Ain answered through his teeth. Both the demoness and the elf glanced at him, wondering if he was in pain, but it did not seem so. He stood behind the counter with his fists clenched, looking down at the side of the counter he had filled with the contents of the drawer where the tea was not.
The elf glanced at Lu, her green gaze carried enough coldness to make clear her question as she rose an eyebrow.
Luciela rolled her eyes before turning herself to face the elf, 'Of course, it has to be my fault if that man is acting strange.'
The demon countess leaned back, crossed her arms and looked down at Rena, "As far as I know, Ainchase is merely looking for tea and failing miserably at it." She pointed at Rena, eyebrows furrowed "And just for the record, I did offer my help. But you know how he is."
With those words, the demoness turned away from both. Rena got up from her chair and walked down the aisle towards Ain, "Let me help you, Ain. The others will wake up soon, I think. How about we prepare something together?"
"Alright. I'll turn on the stove first, Rena. It's really cold."
The demoness gave the two a brief glance, and was baffled to see the Celestial offer a genuine, albeit timid, smile to the elf. She turned away, tapping her fingers over the table, but stopped once she heard Ainchase call the elf by her real name. It was in a much friendlier tone. She looked down at the table and clenched her fists. The demoness clicked her tongue and looked towards the door, where the chilly breeze was filtering from. The sight of that rare smile briefly crossed her mind again, she gritted her teeth, then took a deep breath.
'You really woke up with the Second Torment by your side, huh, Russiela?'
After taking yet another deep breath, the brief anger faded away. But not completely. Something was still seething inside her. She could try to test herself and look at the quiet chatter between the elf and that man, but her blood only boiled more at the thought of catching a mutual smile or even an embrace. It would not be strange, considering that Rena had always been the one who spent a good part of her time near him.
Merely thinking about that possibility tensed her fists and deepened the frown on her forehead. Luciela could only tap the counter softly with her fist to not cause any unnecessary commotion.
'But why a Celestial?' she asked herself, 'Why is a Celestial the one who is making me realize my memories are still incomplete?'
She sighed, passing her hands over her face, as if to try to swipe the answer off her face to read it. She stared at the palms of her hands, covered by blue velvet gloves, hiding away vicious scars of burns. The demoness remembered getting those after donning a prototype of her armour and trying to use her blue flames through them. Although the gauntlets looked finished, the protective runes were not, and she ended up burning herself.
'They offered them to me to try them, they looked beautiful and I put them on. I lowered my guard.'
Her blue eyes widened as she repeated those same thoughts in her head, more slowly. Maybe that was it. Ishmael did not tolerate seeing any demons, especially nobles, roaming about Elrios. It would not be too much of a stretch to think that the goddess had created a Celestial to look like someone she had loved to lure her in until she had completely let her guard down. Only then would Ainchase strike to kill.
'Even so...I have to get to the bottom of this. I can't stand having parts of myself missing.'
'What's up with that overwhelming jealousy, Lu?'
The demoness straightened up at the sound of Ciel's voice inside her mind, feeling her cheeks grow pink, 'Did it wake you up?'
'I guess so.'
'Sorry, Ciel.'
'It ain't a big deal, I feel fine. It was just strange to feel that way when all I was doing in my dream was repairing plushies.'
Luciela smiled softly, remembering the brief moment of tranquility of her morning, 'That sounds like a very pleasant dream.'
"Lu?" Rena called her.
The demon countess looked at the Elf, who was stirring something on the stove. Judging by the smell of it, it was probably oatmeal. The demoness glanced around the counter, looking for Ainchase, but he had vanished.
"Where did he go?"
Rena combed back a few locks of hair that had escaped from her ponytail, "Ain got his tea and went back to his room. You're going to have breakfast with the rest of us, right?"
Luciela nodded, resting her chin over her closed fist, "May I ask you something, Rena?"
"Of course."
The elf took out a small spoon to taste what she was cooking. She blew on it to cool it down before bringing the spoonful to her mouth. The green-eyed elf smiled at her result and continued to stir with a big wooden spoon.
As a demon, Luciela had more control over which thoughts transpired into Ciel's mind, but it was a whole different matter for emotions. She wanted to ask Rena if Ainchase had told her something about his vessel, or what she was worried about when she saw him. Lu even thought about asking her about her relationship with him, but that would be an unnecessary affront.
"I was wondering, Rena, if elves understand what Celestials are as perfectly as demons do. Namely what Ainchase is going through."
The elf raised an eyebrow, "Did you just...call him by his name?"
The demoness rolled her eyes, taking her arms off the table to let the elf put the plate of oatmeal and a wooden spoon in front of her. With a frown, she took a spoonful of the breakfast, "Is it really that baffling? I cannot consider him a Celestial now, and he has never been a priest. Would you still call someone by something they are not?"
"Well," the elf uneasily looked to the side, "I believe all spirits preserve their nature until they die."
The demoness chuckled haughtily, leaning back on her seat, "That's naive."
"Maybe, but right now, I just want to make his agony just a little less painful."
Luciela raised an eyebrow at the elf, "Why?"
The elven ranger looked down, a sad smile on her lips, "Elves have a legend about Celestials. So, in my eyes, Ain's really not that different from us. You haven't been fighting much since you came back from the Cathedral, and I think it's good for him. Souls should never move on with hatred weighing down their wings."
Luciela ate her spoonful, biting the spoon as she took it out of her mouth, leaving a dent on its edge. She pursed her lips as she swallowed. Her heart beat louder, to the point each beat ached. The elf served herself a bowl and sat next to her. She combed her ponytail to the side and blew softly on her first spoonful. Despite the acid bitterness that was burning through her every thought, she found a way to smirk. She even chuckled.
"Make his agony less painful? Now, that is amusing. You choose to ease his pain and run off to scout for clues even when those kids ask for you to stay. I'm no mother figure to replace you. Most of all, it is inappropriate for you to ease Ainchase's pain. You do not even understand it, do you?"
She picked another spoonful, but did not eat it yet. Instead she glanced at Rena. The elf ate slowly what was in her spoon, pushing slightly the remaining dish away. A frown was growing on her face.
Rena's glare was as cold as always, her voice even more so, "You're right, I don't. I think it's funny, Lu, that you think you could do better. You, of all people. Isn't that a bigger joke?"
Like a bucket of cold water, those ice-cold words brought back her rational mind to the surface, the one that understood she held no feelings for a Celestial, but rather who he was shaped after. With a heavy sigh, the demoness backed away from the fight, turning her eyes at what was left of her meal.
"Do not misunderstand, Rena," she finally said as she scrapped the bowl to fill a spoonful, "I never said I want to ease anyone's pain. In fact, I merely want to dissect it. I do not care if I make it better or worse in the process."
The door opened to the sound of the usual childish bickering between Aisha and Elsword. Not so far behind him, Ciel came in, his hair still slightly wet. He yawned, holding the door for the two who were too deep into their arguing to even notice his kind gesture.
"You totally were snoring out of your mind, grape-head!"
"Hmph! Girls don't snore. Are you sure it wasn't your snores, dummy? Because when you get those going, it's louder than a Trock warhorn!"
The two children quickly walked over to get seated, but when their eyes met Lu's, they looked uneasy. They muttered their good mornings to both Rena and her, too quietly to be normal.
'Ciel, were we loud?'
'Not really. We were just really close when you guys were just about done. I was probably the only one who heard anything before Rena mocked you.'
The half-demon walked behind the counter, filling two extra bowls for Aisha and Elsword, who took their meal with a nod of thanks before sitting at a different table, at the back of the room. Rena turned around and her ears drooped at the sight of the two energetic kids blabbering about who snored the loudest and who was the slowest with their training. She turned back to her plate, eating in a rush.
"Rena," Lu calmly said, "You and I should both train them for today. Ciel could do the scouting. We have to find the Band you told us about. Between us and Ciel, he knows his way around slums and the like far better."
The half-demon cleared his throat, "Not with my current status. Assuming that Ara girl who brought you back is part of them, they're gonna be careful around me. And even if she wasn't, Elder folks just don't feel that friendly to me. Could be because I'm not from Lurensia or because I'm simply not from Cobo."
'Ciel, did you just see how Rena reacted to the place those kids decided to sit?'
The mercenary put a spoonful of oatmeal in his mouth, 'Yeah, but one day is not gonna make a difference. Our best agent to connect the dots is Rena, like it or not. Tough luck, but I think it's better this way.'
'Perhaps. But it should not be.'
'Lu…'
The mercenary glanced at her, but his unspoken thoughts said more to her than any gestures or words thought or spoken.
'I know, Ciel. You do understand why I worry, even if it is meaningless.'
Ciel weakly nodded, finishing his meal.
The elf looked down, a joyless smirk crooked her expression, "That's true. I haven't seen Ara lately, so our only link is gone. But there's no way I could not find that Toto guy or that Elder Hie."
She got up, taking her empty bowl with her, "It's what's best for the team right now, so, leave it to me!"
'Her cheerful smile is too perfect,' Lu thought as she watched the same woman she had argued with go out of the room, humming a lullaby she did not know. She looked around her, noticing that both Aisha and Elsword were staring at the closed door.
"Instead of making long faces and sitting on your thumbs, go and talk to her, you dumb kids!" Luciela hollered at them, arms crossed.
"Should we?" Aisha asked with an uneasy smirk that was closer to a pained grimace.
The demoness huffed, "I do not remember hesitation being part of your training. You chose defence when you came in and realized it was the wrong move. So now what do you do?"
Elsword's eyes brightened first. He got up with that fire in his eyes and a closed fist, ready to follow the lead she had shown him, "We attack!"
The demoness nodded, unaware of the genuine smile that was crawling on her lips, "Correct, soldier. How about you, Aisha? What do you choose, battle mage?"
The purple-haired girl was taken aback by the way the demoness called her, "B-battle mage? Me?"
Luciela tilted her head to the side, resting it over her knuckles, "Yes. You scored a hit on me without using your magic yesterday. You are at the level of a novice battle mage, and I am giving you that rank using demonic standards."
"That hit was pure luck, though," the girl muttered, rubbing her hands together.
The demoness closed her eyes for a moment, "So what if it was? You simply have to remember it well, and repeat it until that luck becomes skill."
Elsword turned towards Aisha, patting her shoulder. The girl looked up at his contagious optimism, "Come on, Aisha. Lu doesn't praise us every day!"
The Sanderian girl finally drew half a smile on her face, "You're right. Let's find Rena together."
Elsword grabbed her hand to help her get up, and they both walked side by side out of the room, leaving the two demons in silence.
Ciel was the first one to break the silence, "You look like a proud mom, despite all your complaints about those kids' incompetence."
Luciela pressed her lips, leaning back until her head was comfortably resting on Ciel's lap, "Do I?"
The mercenary combed back strands of her hair behind her ear, uncovering the mark of their contract on her forehead. He returned a soft smile at her, "I wouldn't lie about things like that, would I?"
The demoness chuckled, reaching out to hold his wrist, "That is a fair point, Ciel."
The mercenary slid his hand into hers, holding it in his as one would do with a sibling. Other times, when she did not know that she was still incomplete, Luciela felt at peace with his warmth near hers. Before she realized it, a tear was rolling down her cheek.
Ciel's eyes widened for a moment and he let her go, cleaning away her tears, "We shouldn't be doing that anymore, right? Not until...well, you sort that part of your past out."
The demoness stopped his hand as it was cupping her cheek, holding her with both of hers, "I despise these feelings, Ciel. I hate being here."
The mercenary's smile was more regretful than happy. Luciela let his hand go and he simply combed her bangs completely away from her face, tracing with his fingers the mark of their contract, "Yeah, it really wasn't what we signed up for. But we won't have to put up with the bad reminders for long."
The demoness softly nodded, "Yeah. In the end, we will leave them behind."
Hoffman dropped his quill, staining the parchment he was writing on. He was receiving the usual weekly report from Ariel and Camilla from his office in the Palace, which was not that different from the one he had in his guild. He furrowed his brow at the two informants the owner of Cobo Services had lent him.
"Are you sure they said that, word for word?"
The black-haired mercenary nodded, taking a magic orb from her side pocket, "I had to be very discreet to put this underneath the floor of the tavern. Most of them are really sensitive to magic, so it was not easy. But there's no mistake about this recording."
Hoffman scratched his balding head, his blue eyes focused on the notes he had ruined, although he was not interested in it. He took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his chubby nose at the end, "Elder Hie, huh? I wasn't expecting him to be involved. I'm worried about that girl. Everyone in that group considers her a demon. Is it true?"
The two young women looked at each other. Camilla shrugged.
The fat merchant leaned back on his chair, making it creak under his weight, "What, you don't know if she's what she claims to be? Don't you work for the Church of the El?"
Camilla clenched her fists, remaining otherwise as silent and fearsomely calm as a tiger approaching its prey. The black-haired woman took a step forward. Ariel put her arm in front of the black-haired mercenary, calmly answering their boss's question, "Demons are monsters from old legends. They can't look human. That girl is strange, but she has never used any kind of forbidden magic. I suspect she might be a pursuer of eternal life."
Camilla rolled her eyes, but stepped back, glaring at the man she regrettably had to call 'boss' for the year to come.
A smirk lit Hoffman's face with greed, "Oh? A pursuer of eternal life? A successful one, I suppose. What kind of magic did she use?"
The blonde adjusted her ponytail with a sigh, "I'm not even sure if her magic is part of the known records. I would have to look in the Index for any registry of ancient elemental magic or elemental artifacts that could grant Eternal Youth."
The biggest merchant of Elder tilted his head, "A runaway priestess, perhaps?"
Camilla interjected before Ariel could answer, "You think we wouldn't have noticed if she was?" she walked to the window to the right and laid her back over the wall, arms crossed, "My best guess is that she's a mage from any of the tiny kingdoms that existed before the Elrian Kingdom." She combed her spiky hair behind her ears, revealing a small bandage over her left cheek, "Whatever it is, it isn't Resiam. There are no records of albinos."
Ariel cleared her throat, "I would not discard Resiam just because of her skin tone. Some artifacts change their bearer's appearance."
Hoffman leaned slightly forward, his gaze focused on Ariel again. The blonde adjusted her hat and continued to talk, "And since she didn't look like her tribe, there's the chance that she could've fooled the Rebels, even as the last Resiarin warrior. Her gauntlets are very similar to Modern Freturnier armour. The only difference is the colour."
The leader of the commercial guild of Ruben leaned forward, looking down at his notes, only to tear the page he had ruined and throw it away. He refilled his quill with ink and started to take notes anew, barely raising an eyebrow at what he had heard, "If those are really the last remnants of Classic Freturnier armour…"
He stopped his writing, tapping with his sausage-like fingers the edge of the table where his free hand was resting. The eyes of the middle-aged merchant looked back at his two young guests, "What about the priest?"
The blonde mercenary nervously passed a hand over the nape of her neck, "By all accounts he acts normally and he's even friendly, but there's something that…"
Ariel fidgeted in place, turning back to look at her partner.
Camilla nodded and walked next to Ariel, then she walked even closer to Hoffman's desk, arms crossed and looking down at him. The merchant looked up at her, his eyes commanding respect. The young woman huffed and walked back at the five-step distance Ariel had kept before answering nonchalantly, "The recordings are clear as to what his team thinks that's going to happen to him. And I believe it. He silenced his room, so we can't get as much intel on him as the rest."
Hoffman laughed, "I'm not interested for the moment whether he's dying or not, Steel Cross."
He put back the cork over the small flask of ink and set his quill back into its elegant silver sheath. His chair creaked even more as he leaned forward to do so. The smile vanished from his face, leaving place to a worried frown, "However, I want to know exactly what you mean by 'he silenced his room'."
"We can't hear, or see or even sense through magic what happens inside, no matter what we try." Camilla shrugged, "We figured it was better to simply analyze a very small amount of the mana that made the runes. We confirmed it was Forbidden Magic. The kind that's too toxic to even keep around. I had to use my..."
Hoffman listened absentmindedly to Camilla, more interested in the strange reaction of the other Steel Cross. Ariel scratched her sleeves, as if to try to get a stain off her uniform, but as soon as her gaze met Hoffman's, she let it go, putting her hands immediately behind her back, standing straight as a soldier.
"...Both shards were pitch-black less than an hour ago. I've never seen pure El get corrupted that fast."
Seeing how her partner was standing, Camilla took a simple step forward, as if trying to hide her. Hoffman raised an eyebrow at it, but there had been no moment when he fully trusted them, and he knew they felt the same way about him. Yet, that was not very troublesome. They all shared the same goals, in some way or another. The goal mattered more than their reasons or morals.
"Any other questions, boss?" Camilla asked.
'Such a shame that the local Steel Crosses got killed in that attack against the Cathedral...'
The merchant took out his pocket watch, flipped it open, and listened to the tics of the gears within it. He pressed his lips and closed it, putting it back where it belonged.
"I see," he said, looking back at them before he sighed, "Well, thank you for your efforts, both of you. You can take a rest for now."
He opened one of his drawers and got out a small tin box filled with tobacco, a small fire gem and his wooden pipe, "I'd say enjoy the town, but," he scrambled the papers over his desk until he found a small silver spoon he used to put some tobacco in his pipe before putting a minimal amount of mana on the firestone to light it up, "There's not much to enjoy in a rundown place like this. You might be here out of duty to The Pope, but I really want to thank you for your work. You're doing the El's work."
He raised his eyebrows for a mere moment, "Things will get on the right track again. Call the crazy albino for me, will you?"
Ariel and Camilla straightened up and nodded before walking to the left, where the double door entrance to the room was. He noticed Camilla was the last one to get out. There was no doubt about it anymore, Ariel had suffered some kind of injury or trauma trying to analyze the mana of the priest. Or maybe they had fought and she had been forced to retreat. There was no way for him to know for sure, but whatever it was, it scarred her. Why else would her oh-so-friendly partner act so defensively on her behalf?
Hoffman took a puff of his pipe, exhaling the smoke through his nose before getting up. He paced slowly back and forth from the closed doors up to his window, pondering if he should have started moving sooner.
He stopped in front of his window, admiring the morning sun as it slowly reached its peak. From this distance, there was no telling how filthy and decrepit Elder really was. It was the only view of the town Wally ever got, and tyrants were never too inclined to see the reality of what their awful decisions were causing. Especially for business. He had hoped to avoid negotiating with the invasive company of the Felfords, Cobo services, but if he wanted to keep his position within the Velder's merchant guild, he had to play nice with the new Minister of Finance. It was a miraculous coincidence the goals of The Pope himself seemed to align with Owen Felford's to that point. In any other circumstance, Hoffman knew he would have gotten some second-rate adventurer or a rookie. Hoffman knew that, since he was not part of the Velder nobility, he could not even the playing field, even against a family as disgraced as the Felfords.
"And with the current head getting that position," Hoffman mumbled, scratching the back of his head, where there was still hair left, "their status is bound to go up and up…"
He took another puff of his pipe, 'Maybe Wally had the right idea; seceding from the Velder Kingdom might be better in the long run.'
He closed his eyes for a minute, 'Hopefully Hagus is still managing to get by. Spring will come late this year.'
Hoffman glanced at the grandfather clock that stood to his right. Add would be in his office in a matter of minutes, or hours, depending on his current level of obsession over a new upgrade to his small Nasod army.
He sighed, letting the smoke of his tobacco spread around him. He did not like the obsession Add shared with Wally, but he could at least respect that he was, despite his insanity, the most straight-forward person within the Court, for better or worse. Mostly for worse.
The merchant walked back to his desk, taking small puffs from his pipe. He opened the notes he had closed before and took one last note on the page reserved for the progress of the day. Hie turning traitor changed little in the great scheme of things. In fact, it helped quite a lot. Banthus's faction was no longer fighting for Wally, and it was safe to assume The Band he had heard from was directed by Banthus himself. Their raid tactics targeting foreign merchants or caravans of travellers were too elaborate for a mere group of bandits.
Hoffman tapped his fingers over the table, scanning the pile of parchments to his left. He took the one at the top and unscrolled it over the table. The red ink marking the site of the raids were all outside of Elder's fortress, but not too far from the suburbs. Most of them had been south-west, with the only outlier being the most recent one, which took place south east, not far away from where the District of Flowers was.
'South-west, huh?' the merchant thought, his eyes travelling to the inscription over the forests that surrounded the region up to the north west: Shadow Forest.
He had made out a habit of looking at this map, still looking for explanations that were not obvious. Nobody made it out alive from the Shadow Forest, and he would rather believe that demons were at their doors that the vicious attacks on the men from his Commerce Association came from vengeful spirits.
'But if Hie is with them, then he becomes their safe passage through that place. I should talk with Vergnert.'
Even behind the doors of his office, Hoffman heard the muffled hollers in a foreign dialect and Add's colourful response to them:
"It's your own damn fault you got in my way, dumbass! And fuck you, too, just in case!"
The merchant put the scroll back where it was and received his guest with a polite nod as he slammed his foot to open the two doors. The albino took a deep breath, erasing the frown on his face and took himself to the chair in front of Hoffman's desk with his little artifacts. He leaned back and crossed his arms, "So, what you got for me?"
"That depends on you," Hoffman replied, noticing the tobacco had almost completely burnt out. He leaned towards the small bin he kept and swiftly dumped what remained in his pipe, "You like your Nasods more than working for Wally, am I right?"
The teen smirked, "What is this, a trick question?"
The man chuckled, "Surely a young inventor has the brains to figure it out and give me an answer."
The albino raised an eyebrow at this, his right eye glowed briefly, "Your head will roll if you take me away from my lab, old man."
The blue-eyed merchant nodded, still keeping a confident smile on his face, "And I know that just as much as you do. So, what's your real interest here? Is Wally a means to an end or the end itself?"
The albino burst out laughing, "I'd be the greatest of fools to chain myself to a delusional old man!"
Hoffman opened one of the drawers of his desk and took out a parchment, and put it on the edge of the desk, the closest to where Add was, "So, consider this."
The grin on Add's face vanished, his eyebrows furrowed as he grabbed the parchment and unscrolled it in a rush. His eyes went through the contents at lightning speed, and barely five minutes passed before the albino found an answer, "If you want to give me a part of it, then why not just let me take it all?"
"Because people here need it, Add."
The albino shrugged, "And why is that my problem?"
The merchant sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "And he says he's not a Felford..."
Add clicked his tongue, "You people in the Court are dense motherfuckers! Always asking me the same shit: 'Are you a Felford? Oh, is your father a Felford?' I already told you I got nothing to do with those Felford people."
"Well, you certainly look and sometimes act like one. But I don't care whether you are or not. And I can say it's in your best interest to accept the deal as it is."
The albino shook his head, "I don't see it benefiting me if all it's gonna give me is just a slice of the cake I'm already eating. I want the whole thing."
"The other day, I believe, I saw you talking a bit with Echo. The only alchemist left in town. And the youngest in the town's history, if I may add."
Add rolled his eyes. He rolled back the parchment and threw it over Hoffman's desk, "By the El, I don't care if she gets killed. I just helped her out because she was going to muddy my clothes if I just let her be. Get better leverage, old man."
The merchant put a hand over the parchment, leaning slightly forward to look the Albino in the eye, "Her father, Lucius, was an adventurer. He found quite a few interesting things in his travels Altera. I saw you seem interested in a particular Nasod. I believe that is the Ancient Queen of Nasods. Am I right?"
Instantly, Add stopped crossing his arms, leaning closer to the desk. He looked briefly at the scroll, "Yes. What did this Lucius guy find? What else?"
"A lot more. He wrote seven books on his travels, and there is an eighth one, albeit incomplete. Lucius is the 'traitor' you've heard Wally mention from time to time."
Add's gaze lingered on the parchment Hoffman was slowly pushing closer to himself, "Is the deal off?"
Hoffman smirked, taking his hand off the parchment that was now laying on the middle of the table, "I haven't taken it off, have I? I couldn't list all the benefits on the parchment. You won't see the books. I keep all my fellow merchants very reliably informed, so Echo won't tell you anything until your name isn't signed here."
The albino sighed, "Fine, old man. Have it your way."
Ara sat on a dead tree, slowly eating the roasted hare leg one of the Brure Phorus had captured for her. The boar-masked man was as tall as a bear, and, although Ara was told spirits can't be cold, she still felt bad to see such a big hunchback only wear clothes that seemed to be made out of cotton in this cold.
Banthus's men had given her one made of wolf fur, made to her new height on top of military boots made of enchanted leather, which kept her feet warm. The girl had cut her hair, just enough to have it slightly shorter than before she strangely grew up. Most importantly, she had a stolen military spear resting over her lap. Elder Hie had assured her Feitan Steel was among the best, but Ara still felt like the black and gold spear lacked the artistry she knew. It was much better than being completely defenceless, and she took care to simply roughen up the merchants she had met over Wally's Bridge.
Ara, I still don't think we should spend time acting like petty thieves after we witnessed that. Talk to Hie again.
Ara raised an eyebrow as she continued to eat; the juices of the meat dripped off her mouth 'Eun, this is the last raid we can make from this side of the town. I plan on continuing to keep an eye on those demons. I think it's better we're here now, actually. Leader Evans is closer, and he'll be the first to listen.'
Ara, child, I know you don't like to hear this, but the chances the story Hie told us about Banthus Evans being true is almost nil. As an ancient spirit myself, I can tell you I would never invite a human into my realm.
Ara cleaned her mouth with her white-and-grey sleeve, 'Hie is not a foreigner, Eun. He would not lie to me. If the forests chose Banthus and are not turning against him, then it must be him who brings back reason to Elder.'
A Mars, the smallest of the Phorus, came running towards them. Without wasting his breath, it clapped twice. The carriage was in sight.
Ara took one last bite of her meal before dropping it to the snowy ground and dashing right behind the two Phorus to make her second and possibly last raid of the season. The rules were to simply knock the merchants away and take only the goods they needed. Today's targets were Dragonstone and a supply of fire and light orbs.
Just as they emerged from the forests, Ara noticed another group of people were heading exactly where they were going to. They came from Elder's gates.
She clenched her spear. She had heard Wally sent his guards to steal everything from merchants, but she had never seen it until now. It was time for a change of plans: She would stop her two partners from taking anything, but they would show no mercy for those corrupt men.
Aisha, Elsword and Rena were wondering about the neighborhoods near Wally's bridge, after a day of 'scouting'. It really did not feel that way to Aisha. She sniffled.
Elsword turned his head to look at her, "Aisha, I know Luichel gave us the best bread we've had in months, but don't cry about it anymore."
The girl rolled her eyes, "It's the cold that's making me sniffle, you dummy! But that bread...Rena, do you know how she got it?"
The elf looked at Aisha, "Hm? Well, she's mentioned that she wasn't always a shop owner, so maybe she has good connections."
Elsword nodded, rubbing his chin with a grin on his lips, "Huh, so we got a runaway princess as a friend… Maybe she has good meat too."
He licked his lips.
The purple-haired mage giggled, "Hey, come on, Elsword. Your saliva is going to freeze half your face at that thought. I didn't have meat often, and I'm from a noble family."
His ruby eyes widened at her words, "Wait what? Don't all nobles just eat whatever they want all the time?! They simply have to tell their butlers and they bring it to them."
"It depends on how much money and principles they have. A good Sanderian noble family restricts their cuisine from being tainted with foreign ingredients. We have the best cuisine as it is."
The boy lifted an eyebrow, "You got rules for your food?! That's ridiculous."
"That's what made me stronger than you, dummy," she immediately answered back, poking his shoulder.
"Not for long. I almost got you on a spar."
"Almost doesn't count."
The mage caught a glimpse of Rena and saw a far brighter smile on her face as she guided them to the bridge, which was surprisingly unguarded. The elf stopped at the small balcony that was built to the side of the stone bridge, overlooking the river.
They would have continued to talk, if it was not for Rena, "Quiet down."
Her voice was grave, and the two kids did as she told them. Elsword made it a rule to always leave with his sword around his belt, and he put a hand over it. Aisha had carried her wand with her, but was feeling a bit less protected without her shield.
Soon, Aisha heard the trot of horses coming through the bridge, "Rena, who are those people?"
"Merchants. But I'm hearing something coming from the forests. They might be The Band. Let's go!"
The two kids nodded and followed behind Rena.
The further away they got from the town, the darker it got. The only light in the distance was the one coming from the oil lamps hanging to the sides of the merchant's carriage. Elsword and Aisha had learnt to trot at the same speed, the boy lead the way, Aisha following just a step behind him. She crouched slightly, pouring slowly mana in a semi-sphere to defend from attacks that did not come from the front, where Elsword would take the brunt of the melee force. Aisha could not provide him with mana to make their formation perfect, but it was still much more effective than fighting separately.
Rena ran much faster than them and, from the way the wind began to whistle around them, both kids realized the combat had already begun. Aisha saw a metallic glow from the corner of her eye, turning just in time to see a boar-masked man, swinging a gigantic wooden club at them. Aisha put her hand over Elsword's shoulder, and he did not tense up. He merely closed his eyes and relaxed as the mage teleported them both out of the range of the club. The wind whistled as it went through it. Then, it crashed against a tower, cracking the stone. Their attacker, who had a hunchback and magenta hair that went just a little further than the nape of his neck.
His hands were deformed, too bony and with claws that grew like tree roots over the man's four fingers.
The masked man pulled on his weapon, hoping to get it out, but the spikes over its tip had firmly dug themselves to the stone. Elsword only had to nod once before Aisha took it as a signal to teleport forward, right behind the man. The young knight swung his sword vertically, leaving a deep cut over the bandit's wrist.
The man yelled like an animal, turning towards them to crush them. The mage was still holding onto Elsword and teleported them, once again, in the opposite direction from where the brute was attacking. It turned to attack them again, but the momentum of his fist made him lose a balance. It merely took him a couple of seconds more to pivot to attack the kids again, and Elsword had taken that chance already to score two more swings, cutting through the man's flesh. This time, Elsword aimed for the legs, right on the spot on the femur where Lu had told him he could make any opponent bleed to death in minutes.
His first cut was not deep enough, and he had to take a step back, raising his sword to parry the force of the hit that would inevitably filter through Aisha's shield. The punch broke the mana barrier Aisha had redirected to defend Elsword, but by the time it hit the flat part of the blade, it barely felt like a tap on his weapon.
The masked man readied another fist, which Elsword ducked, pivoting to the left, lunging in closer to cut what was a fatal hit. This time, he had put enough force for blood to gush out from the bandit.
The boar-masked man fell to his knees, screaming as the puddle of blood beneath him grew uncontrollably. The boy glanced at the mage behind him and nodded. It was best to teleport where Rena was, since that seemed to be where the brunt of the fight was. They could not leave her alone for too long.
Smaller bandits were surrounding the elf, and, despite her magic, some of the enemy daggers had grazed her legs and hands. Aisha tapped Elsword's shoulder twice. It was time to switch positions. The boy stepped back, letting the mage take the lead as she absorbed back some of the mana of her shield, channelling on the tip of her wand. She pointed it in front of her, mumbling the last part of her spell.
Aisha fell silent for a moment, the mana on the tip of her wand charged the air itself, making some strands of hair stand up on both of their heads.
"Lightning Bolt!" Aisha yelled as the mana she had charged snapped to life, transformed into dozens of energy bolts that paralyzed the people surrounding Rena. The elf, strangely, did not look towards them, but up. Her eyes widened and she finally looked at them, screaming an order that was full of worry "Run!"
Aisha grabbed, this time, Elsword's hand in her hurry to get them away as a dark, yellow glow was rapidly growing to their left. The two teleported to Rena's side, shocked to see strange orbs of dark energy crash where they had just stood. They dissolved on their own, but the mist that each projectile left behind made the few flowers that grew in-between the stone wane away.
A black-haired, young woman leaped down from the hills that surrounded the bridge to the left. She had blood on her wolf-skin coat, as if she had been kneeling over a puddle of blood. She turned slowly towards them, revealing a golden gaze stricken by rage tainted by grief.
"Rena, you were so kind to me. I thought you wouldn't be part of the people who hurt Elder Town. Nor anyone else. Why did you kill the only people who have ever helped me?"
The elf's eyes widened, "Ara?"
"Yes, Rena. It has been quite a few moons," She made her weapon spin, readying herself for combat.