"Greetings, young ones. I am Administrator of the Axiom church, Quinella. It's a pleasure to meet the young demon slayers of this area."
Eugeo replied.
"Demon slayers?"
Quinella nodded.
"The tree you have been chopping down, it is nearly dead. The tree itself is a demon. In the sense you are defeating this powerful demon tree, that makes you slayers. I have met with previous generations of demon tree cutters before, but they were always incredibly slow at the job. Your generation appears to be full of prodigies. Kirim here is definitely of a level of her own, but you two are also immensely impressive."
Quinella was laying it on a little thick. In comparison to the talents of many others, Kirii and Eugeo were underwhelming. For the time being though, they were heavily outclassing previous generations. She could also sense that Kirim had done the majority of the damage to the demon tree. Leave it to a dark lander to absorb another who was originally a dark lander. She recalled trapping a dragon knight within the origin of the tree, and that created the demon tree. That wasn't long after her and Kirito first started travelling. Four hundred years prior was when it happened. The tree had grown so large, and the area of death around the tree, leaving other vegetation unable to grow, was much larger than back then. It was depressing, if she was honest with herself. The tree should have never gotten so large. The lumberjacks should have been more capable. What happened with the sacred task system that such weak people?
The only reason she sensed any potential from Eugeo and Kirii, was because of Kirim's effect on them. Kirim was potentially the strongest person her age would ever record. As far as statistics, she was already stronger and more skilled than most mortal adults. And her intelligence far surpassed most mortal adults as well.
"I...don't think we...compare to her at all..."
Quinella was surprised to hear that from Kirii. To her understanding, the blood elf who could be Kirim's twin was Kirito's child. There was no hint of Kirito in Eugeo so she was utterly baffled.
"Why don't you think you compare to Kirim?"
She wanted to know Kirii's honest opinion of himself before passing assessment on him.
"...she told me I would grow stronger than her...but that's definitely impossible with how strong she is. I'm just...a weakling who has been hitting this tree since getting my sacred task three years ago. Me and Eugeo did nothing to it until she came along...and in her first show of strength to us, she removed more of the tree than all generations of this sacred task combined...and it's just impossible to believe that I could catch up to her when she's still growing stronger."
Quinella sighed.
"This is disappointing..."
He shrugged.
"I'll try my best to be useful to her...but I have a feeling she'll always be so much stronger I'll never even get close to catching up."
"That attitude is the problem, not your potential. You do have the potential to catch up, possibly surpass her at least in physical strength. I'm disappointed the child of my best friend would be so quick to give up. She was the most stubborn, intensely growing person I ever met. She was always immensely more powerful than me, but I never gave up. You should be aiming to be like Kirim and your mother. Male bodies are more naturally inclined to physical strengths, while female to magic, so focus your learning on physical. And don't expect to catch up in a matter of days, weeks even months. Just aim for eventually, because eventually will come sooner rather than later the sooner you realize you shouldn't be putting yourself down. I might have caught up to Kirito had I figured it out sooner, but she had to teach me that too. Fix your understanding while you're both still young and you have many years to catch up and surpass each other. Make each other compete for being the stronger, and you'll never stop growing."
Her words echoed through the heads of all three. Kirim was included. She didn't think much of how Eugeo and Kirii could contribute to her, but if they could provide her rivalry to keep aiming higher, it made perfect sense. She didn't have to slow down on her training, she just needed to train them well.
"As well, you should know that blood elves can bring others into their lineage. They function like the dark lands monster [vampire bats], turning whatever consumes their blood into another of their kind. With two blood elves giving blood, you would be essentially a sibling. You would just lose your current hair and eye colour, and develop a hunger for blood."
Eugeo was already shaking his head before she finished.
"No thanks. If there's another way for me to live long, I would prefer staying as human as possible. No offence to my best friends, but I don't much like the sound of becoming needy of blood. I don't even know my own hair and eye colour so those don't matter, but it would be sad to lose a connection to my parents just because of ignorance."
Quinella sighed.
"The only other method I can think of is how I became immortal. I'm not sure I'm willing to give that to you. Keep this from the villagers but-"
She conversed the words directly into his head.
"I am just a normal resident of the light lands who got too comfortable role playing a messenger of the gods. I only know a traitor among them and one who supervises them. Beyond that, I'm as ignorant as anyone else who has a wealth of past knowledge in our lands."
Eugeo stared in disbelief. Kirim overheard it because she was still partially linked to him from a previous mentally shared conversation. She wasn't as surprised, but she was still curious about Quinella's situation. A normal resident of the world? A traitor among the gods of the world? Was Vector the traitor? Or was it a god of the light lands? A supervisor to the gods? Someone above other gods? She was confused.
"If you want to live a longer life, you will have to earn that through working your way to a terminal in this world. There's only one left in the light lands and it is under the safe keeping of my personal chambers in the cathedral in Centoria. That will require passing to become knights, become famous enough to become worthy of the integrity knight title, and I'll make you an integrity knight."
She left out that making him an integrity knight as it currently stood, would be tantamount to deleting his current personality and memories. She would have to work on fixing the integrity knight system. She had made it in a way that Kirito had disapproved in the past, but she had no idea how to right her wrong. She just knew they needed to prepare for the dark lands potentially invading, and having some few who were exceptional powers fighting for the light lands was invaluable. Integrity knights kept little knowledge of their prior selves, but their personalities made them more suited to certain methods of fighting. There were many who she intended to make integrity knights but utterly failed and ended up killing. She regretted it. She needed to devote more time to it.
"At any rate, the becoming a knight process will take you at least a few years, and a few more years I assume to become famous enough as a champion of the people to make you an integrity knight. You need to show promise as a warrior of some sort."
Eugeo nodded and smiled.
"You have a deal, miss Administrator!"
She smiled. There were promising youth still being born in the light lands. The dark lands had armies, while the light lands had few exceptional warriors and then mostly average to a little above average knights. She wanted to make sure the light lands could compete, and without Kirito giving her guidance on how to prepare next, she would have to rely on her son and niece.
"Well, I'm not going to hold you back. You should finish off that tree."
Eugeo, Kirii and Kirim looked back and forth between each other.
"We...were planning on stalling long enough to get Eugeo and Kirii strong enough to get sacred tasks that would let them act freely."
Quinella understood right away.
"Oh! You're worried about that. Don't worry, don't worry. I'll give you your new sacred tasks per your request after you've felled the tree. No need to collect the sacred task from the church directly."
She gave them an earnest smile.
Kirim faced her directly and gave her a firm stare.
"Enlighten me...on what exactly the taboo index does. Why I need a sacred task to exist in the light lands."
Quinella felt completely embarrassed.
"The taboo index...is something that alerts the church of dark lander invasion, governs the laws of the light land, and stops light landers from being too free. If a person is too free, then there's potential for horrible activity."
"Such as?"
Kirim didn't miss a beat. She was pressing Quinella for answers relentlessly. She needed good reason for her being bound to the taboo index. To be incapable of returning home.
"Such as...abuse of people of a less fortunate birth. The light lands can be unfortunately political. Thankfully Rulid seems to be not politically aligned, dedicated to the church. It's comforting. But examples for what people of wealthier upbringing do to those of poorer upbringing...wealthier humans tend to make poorer people into slaves to have them escape the taboo index, and they manipulate it to their means. I fully object to it but-"
"No buts right now. Just stop...just stop..."
Kirim's anger had risen once again. Quinella was stunned stiff. She had experienced it before. The natural intimidation skill of a dark lander. It had been a long time since she experienced it.
"You're the most powerful person of the light lands, yet you allow for such inequality in the people here that some abuse those of less fortunate birth. That is unacceptable. You should fix that immediately..."
The sound of her words were like a beast. She sounded like she would transform into a massive monster in the next moment, but Quinella just realized it was part of the intimidation. That she would be so intimidated by a child...
"I can't...do anything about it right now. I am sorry Kirim, but right now it isn't possible. It will take time..."
Kirim glared at Quinella and she felt her existence become as insignificant as an insect compared to Kirim.
"You will need to work hard to prove to me my purpose here is worth it. I'm here for Kirii and now Eugeo and Alice, but I did have a purpose to find if this land was worth siding with. If there's such an issue here..."
She implied malicious intent in her glare. She didn't need to finish what she was saying for Quinella to be terrified. She could never fight back against someone who looked so much like Kirito as a child. If Kirim went at her with intent to kill, she most definitely could while Quinella was frozen in the affect of being intimidated.
"You were heading to the dark lands with a disguise...use how I just spoke to you and my energy I used to hold you there to do what you need. Next time I see you, if you don't have the problems you've explained this land having at least being worked on, I will not hesitate to fight you with everything I have."
Kirim had other words in her head instead of fighting, but she didn't want to draw too much attention. She could be labelled a typical dark lander if she was known to speak in a threatening way to the highest minister of the church. She could be labelled a monster which should be killed and she would struggle to make her way to Centoria. She would struggle just to exist in the light lands with the integrity knights on her. She was honestly surprised that she didn't have integrity knights on top of her already for being so threatening to her. She assumed that there was no such taboo in the index which treated the highest minister as someone to be intimidated or threatened through implication.
"I...am sorry. I will attend what I needed to and return as soon as possible to work on fixing the problems with the taboo index and the inequality here."
Kirim wondered why a thing like equality was important in her mind. She was fond of being regarded better than goblins and other dark landers. She was viewing from a perspective of being above others, being privileged. It still disgusted her that the light landers were suffering discrimination to her. It sounded as if no matter where she went, some issues would always be present. She didn't want to admit that she was in the wrong for intimidating Quinella so much over it. She still didn't approve of the taboo index. Putting actual restrictions on the people of the light lands, making them detectable by the church so the integrity knights could be sent to correct or capture them...she understood all of the implications. She was in a difficult position and attacking Quinella even as much as she did was a mistake that she shouldn't recklessly make again.
Quinella retreated, jumping clear over the village in one hopping motion. She was trembling still. Someone powerful enough to easily hop over a village was terrified of a young girl...it was a sight to be seen. She assumed her illusion had disappeared as soon as Quinella got out of range, but stopped outputting the spell's energy when she seemed to be around the cave.
"I'm going to check in with Alice...continue as you were. It's unfortunate we can't have Administrator give you your chosen sacred tasks for peace of mind, but if she stops here on her way back, then we have no excuse to hold back from felling the tree."
Kirim left and she felt tears streaming from her eyes. She didn't understand why she was crying. It could have been from the anger, from the fear of repercussions, or it could have been something else unknown to her. She continued until she was in the church and sat in her usual spot near the doors. She had been there long enough to have a usual spot...she realized how much she had already become attached to Rulid.
She was already able to talk with relative ease to anyone in the village, even though she struggled with the church service. It felt too crowded with most if not all the village attending. She had become depended on for several things because of her strength and knowledge. It felt nice to not need to be cooped up and hiding all the time anymore. She should still be doing it so she wouldn't lose her ability at moving stealthily.
Kirim knew there were significant risks now to staying in the light lands though. She would have a significantly lower life expectancy. She thought about it more, everything she heard about Kirito from everyone who talked about her. In the end, she learned the most important piece of information from Quinella. She learned that Kirito was young for a blood elf when she passed away. That meant something from the light lands got to her. Because there was no sign of actual poison in her and she went peacefully.
"I'll have to talk to Rithi..."
Small hands covered Kirim's eyes from behind and she felt startled. She was caught surprised for once because of how wrapped up in her observational thoughts she was. She didn't know the hands which were covering her eyes. They were smaller than Alice's, the scent of the person behind her was similar to Alice, and she could tell the person was a smaller girl.
"Is it the fabled younger sister blessing me with her presence?"
The girl giggled and removed her hands from Kirim's eyes.
"Oh! It's not Kirii this time! You must be Kirim?"
Kirim nodded.
"And you must be Selka. Is Alice not available right now?"
Selka nodded in response.
"Big sister is making lunch for Eugeo and the rest of us right now. She heard the door over here close so she asked me to check on who came in."
Kirim nodded and smiled to Selka. She was adorable. As if Alice wasn't already incredibly cute, Selka took it another step as the younger sibling. Her hair was kept much shorter, but not a normal boy's hair length. Her face was noticeably younger, retaining more of the baby-face features, and her hair was a little darker.
"Let's go back there and I'll help her with lunch."
Selka nodded with a big smile and hurried along ahead of Kirim, looking back to make sure she was following. Kirim was still silent in her footsteps naturally, so often the villagers were spooked by her sudden appearance if she didn't come from straight ahead or with their head raised to see in front of them. Selka was observant and understood more about Kirim than she was expecting. It made her happy. Selka was also well spoken for her age as far as she knew the village to speak on average, but she came to understand that it was because of the sacred tasks system. She let herself get caught up in the flow. She enjoyed Rulid much more than she was letting on to most of the population however, because she truly did want to go home, she let it show on her face.
Her daily life wouldn't change for a little while at least. She decided she would make an exception with meeting Quinella once before she returns back to Centoria. She needed to confirm a few things, after all. She wanted to have Quinella fulfill her promise to Kirii and Eugeo before leaving, and to know if there was a way for her to return to the dark lands temporarily so she wouldn't be negatively affected by the over consumption of light lands atmosphere. She should also be allowed to take Kirii there temporarily. Just barely into the dark lands to get a good intake of the atmosphere.
Quinella stopped just as she was about to step onto the dark red dirt on the other end of the cave. She turned around and reached out to the familiar feeling of Kirim's mental linking, and listened for a minute. She confirmed that she was hearing her thoughts and began communicating.
I really want to apologize about before...I hope you will allow seeing me once more before I return to Centoria. I want to fulfill my offer of guaranteeing your sacred tasks. Can you gather all in Rulid tonight in the middle of the village who want to pick a different sacred task? I can change everything for everyone. I'm just taking in some more of the atmosphere of the dark lands until then so that I don't have too much light lander presence as I venture there.
Kirim sighed. Eugeo gave her a confused expression.
"Are you okay?"
Kirim nodded.
"Yes, just getting a message from Quinella that she'll fulfill her promise tonight. More importantly, are you okay? You, Kirii and Alice saw something rather...extreme not long ago, and only Kirii manages to face me properly now. I...hope that what happened in the cave hasn't made it difficult for you to face me."
Eugeo frowned and made another swing at the tree, putting all his strength into it. The strike at the tree chunked away just enough to make the tree start to fall over. Kirim grabbed him and jumped out of range for them to be hit, leaping back in to grab Kirii. She looked around as the behemoth of a tree descended, and pushed out a burst of wind magic to move a farmer away in the distance who was near enough to be hit by branches which would fly off from the fall.
As the tree neared the ground, the deafening sounds of snapping and splinters of wood shooting through the air precluded the absolutely too loud sound of the trunk and branches of the tree exploding in contact, rumbling the very ground beneath them as if it were going to split the bottom of the forest with its descent.
"We could have probably benefited from warning the rest of the village that it was going down...!"
Kirim's shouted voice was unneeded, but her hearing was damaged from the sudden downing of the tree. She barely had enough time to make sure that nobody in the immediate vicinity were harmed from the fall of the tree. Having much stronger hearing made it all the more intense for her. She assumed Kirii would have a similar issue since all blood elves had stronger hearing and vision than the average human by a significant margin.
When she looked to Kirii's face to see his response, and she choked back a scream as she saw blood dripping out of his ears.
"Hey! Hey! Can you hear me Kirii?!"
Kirii only responded with a confused expression. She pushed her thoughts into his mind and in their mutual lack of hearing made the connection all the stronger in the moment.
Can you hear anything at all?
Her words received a little more confusion but Kirii nodded in response.
I hear a pounding and screeching and my ears feel wet...am...I okay?
Kirim blinked back tears furiously and hugged him tight.
Right now you aren't. I need to get you help immediately. My ability to heal isn't precise enough yet to heal the damage to your ears. We need to go meet with Administrator right now.
Eugeo was on his knees with an expression of deeper terror on his face than when he saw Kirim turn the goblins to mush with the ice sword.
"If you can hear me, make sure others around are okay! I need to get Kirii to Administrator immediately because I can't heal us right now!"
She pulled Kirii onto her back, crouched down and put all the strength she could muster into her legs and bounded toward the village. She easily cleared it, heading in the direction of the cave. She sprinted with all she had, using her magic sense while moving to keep Kirii as safe as possible from the recoil as they moved and from further rough motions. He would be fine. She was terrified of him going deaf. She wanted to plead to Vector to heal him, but she couldn't rely on him anymore.
Her movement in the cave felt like it was being magnified several fold as her steps felt like they were pumping out faster and faster. They reached just short of the dark lands in seconds, Quinella baffled by their appearance.
"Please heal him! His ears were damaged from the demon tree being downed!"
Quinella stood up and nodded quickly.
"Put him down."
Kirim put him down, but she couldn't hear Quinella.
"You need healing too, so lay down."
When Kirim didn't respond to that, staring at Kirii in anticipation for the healing to be done, Quinella waved a hand in front of her face.
You lay down too, your ears are just as damaged as his. If we're not fast both of you will be deaf for the rest of your lives.
Kirim nodded there and quickly laid down beside Kirii. She saw runes floating over her head as the healing sacred art began working. It felt like it took several minutes before the runes disappeared.
"...can you hear me now?"
Quinella's voice was exhausted.
"I can hear you now, but it sounds distorted..."
Quinella nodded and did one more sacred art which hovered over them for a few more seconds. Kirim realized that the cause of the distortion was that she also had blood in her ears, and her ear plugs were removed with the blood.
"How about now?"
Kirim nodded.
"Much better. How about you, Kirii?"
Kirii had a hand over one of his ears while his shoulder covered the other one and arm covered his eyes. He was crying.
"I...can hear...but not see..."
Kirim stared in astonishment.
"Can he not be healed any further?"
Quinella's expression was darkened with frustration.
"Maybe magic can do it, but sacred arts can not. Maybe you can heal his eyes with time, but I think right now is the most important moment to save his vision..."
Kirim grabbed a small unused leather pouch she had on her, covered her mouth and let out a scream into it that made her ears ache. She didn't damage them, but her frustration got through.
"Why your eyes...? The eyes are so important to us blood elves...without them, we're limited in pursuit of magic and archery...aaaagh!"
She slammed her fists against the ground beneath her, leaving clear marks where her fingers collided and a small impact crater around where she punched. Quinella staggered back. She worried in such an emotional state that one intimidating glare and rash move from Kirim could end her hundreds of years of perseverance.
With a few deep breaths and healing her hands which were bloodied from the slam she made at the ground, she sat down and looked at Kirii.
"I can't fix your eyes...but I can swap one of each of ours. It's something for only emergencies among our kind. I can only do this for you right now, but I'll constantly be working on my ability with magic so I can fix the rest of our vision in the future. I'm sorry for not being competent enough right now to save your vision completely..."
She took Kirii's hand which was covering his face and pulled it away. The redness in his face from the sky of the dark lands wasn't enough to reflect how much he was crying. It was intense. His arm where it covered his face was slick wet with tears.
"Don't cover your eyes. Now, your dominant hand is your left?"
"...mhm..."
She sighed and braced herself mentally for what she was about to do.
"I don't have the strength right now to numb the pain, could you handle that with sacred arts?"
Quinella nodded and a barrier of runes closed around them. She closed her eyes for a good few seconds. A part of her was resisting with every bit of her will that she almost stopped herself from doing it, but she managed to shut off her mind, and got to work. It took a few minutes to do it. She had to clean her hands and faces with water magic, she had to warm up their heads so that they would part with the eyes they were popping out without as much resistance as with normal temperature, and used a magic with extending her fingers to a smaller, dull point so she could extract the eyes they were exchanging, one by one so that it wasn't too much stimulation as their bodies refused what they were going through. Their bodies convulsed and tried to stop her from proceeding with the still painful procedure, but accepted each other's eyes when she put them in. She had to heal the connective tissue and nerve endings but found herself short of enough energy to connect the new eyes properly so they would work.
"...not...enough energy...finish please...connecting...eyes..."
She was about to pass out from the extremes they were going through. Their bodies if they could protest, if they had a voice separate from the minds, would be screaming in fury at the act she just committed. She blinked a few times after seeing another set of runes appear then disappear with the pain nullifying runes. Indeed, the eye she received from Kirii was providing her no vision.
Kirii put everything he had into sitting up and hugging Kirim with all the meagre strength he had left in him at that moment. Quinella gently pulled them into a hug and let her own tears flow.
"I have faith you can restore the rest of your vision. You're both so strong to go through something like that. Now...rest for a while. We'll all need to take in some surrounding energy, and I assume Kirii needs some of the dark lands in him since I overheard your thoughts earlier that what took Kirito away from us might have been a lack of energy from the dark lands. I really need to clear you from the integrity knights' hunt orders under the taboo index..."
She was cursing herself in her mind. Why did she have to make such a dangerous thing exist? For the security and convenience of her people and finding those with enough will to make into integrity knights. What did it end up doing? It trapped her best friend, and her child and her niece. The taboo index didn't directly kill Kirito, but in the end it's what claimed her. The inability to cross into the dark lands for the energy of that land.
"Where did Kirito pass?"
Kirim kept her eyes closed and imagined the moment as clearly as she could in her mind and shared it with Quinella.
"This was her final moment. It was just at the other end of this very cave. She was looking for Alice and met me. I think that maybe a little dark lands energy from me made her body realize what it was missing and shocked her to death after thinking about it for longer, but Kirii and I would benefit greatly from being able to cross onto the land a little. Just being near it isn't enough. We can get the scent of the dark lands on us for staying near the border like this, but it wouldn't be enough to absorb a decent amount of energy."
Quinella nodded.
"Well, time to add a unique sacred task to the index for now then...there. You both share the unique sacred task, adventurer. This gives you the ability to go anywhere unimpeded. Travel based taboos are ignored by this sacred task."
With that, they moved to sitting on the red sand and relaxed, waiting for their energies to balance out. When night came, Kirim let them know so they could keep her promise to the village.