Lindon was used to people being mad at him. Heaven's Glory, the Sandvipers, Jai Long, the Skysworn, the Akura clan, the Seishen Kingdom, etc. It seemed that no matter where he went, he could count on people trying to kill him. Was it his path? His attitude? His appearance? [Maybe it's how you brutally murder the people they care about] Dross chimed in. Lindon ignored him.
[Say what do you think?] Dross materialized beside Lindon and flew close to the blue, sputtering face of Seishen Daji. [Why do you want to kill Lindon? I mean I think I know—well I know why I would want to kill him.] Dross' tone was cheerful and inquisitive, completely oblivious to the physical state of the oxygen deprived Prince whose throat was clutched in Lindon's remnant arm. Lindon, as it turned out, was also oblivious.
"Um, honored Underlord, forgive me for speaking but I don't think he will be able to answer your questions if he's dead." A gold woman with wide, awestruck eyes bowed as she spoke to Lindon.
"Oh." Lindon said and promptly released his grip, letting Daji collapse to the ground in a heap of shaking limbs and sputtering cries. "Sorry, this thing has a mind of its own." Lindon glanced sheepishly at the woman who bowed two more times before running away.
Lindon crouched down and sat on the warm, golden sands beside Daji. He made a futile show of brushing away some grains of sand that gusted out with the wind to fleck his dark robes and gave Daji a fond smile. "We need to talk."
Daji made a hacking sound that was a cross between the bleat of a sheep with its throat cut and a mountain lion trying to hack up a bone-it sounded like the prince's deathrattle. Lindon took it to mean 'yes.' "This was the fourth attempt this week, surely you must be getting tired by now?"
Daji pulled his head out of the fetal position and mustered up a glare.
"I thought it was a joke at first. I remember how you waited until my back was turned and then tried to shove a sword through my chest. We both had a laugh afterwards." Dross flashed Lindon a vision of the incident that clearly showed Daji not laughing.
"And the time you slipped Sandviper poison into my soup." Dross showed Lindon another vision, this time of him casually sipping his supper while an incredulous Daji watched from the corner.
"And how could I forget when you lined my room with seals scripted to explode?" A series of increasingly gruesome images flipped through Lindon's mind. They had needed a lot of bandages for the unlucky Lowgold cleaning crew. Lindon happened to have been out hunting dreadbeasts.
"The point is that we had fun. But now this is starting to interfere with my points. It needs to stop." Lindon's voice grew low and menacing and a tinge of blackflame red entered into his eyes as he loomed over Daji.
"I-I'll never forgive you for what you did!" Daji sputtered at Lindon, his voice a mixture of rage and fear.
"That's where we have a misunderstanding Daji," Lindon's arm shot out and grabbed Daji around the throat and hauled him up and close. The Seishen prince thrashed and clawed at Lindon's hand but the grip was stronger than steel. Lindon's eyes glared a hole into Daji's as he spoke, "I'm not asking for forgiveness."
Daji's face paled and his eyes went wide with the expression of prey about to be snapped up in the jaws of a predator.
A throat cleared behind Lindon and he suddenly felt a presence that was not there a second ago. His instincts screamed at him and he turned around, ready to launch a bar of blackflame through whoever it was—!
Akura Charity stood before him, her midnight hair tied up carelessly in a dull, brown rag and her Akura robes covered up in a ratty old cloak. Her face was placid as she took him in, and a solitary eyebrow rose with all the gravity of a drifting glacier. "Am I interrupting something?" She spoke in the same cool, detached voice he had become accustomed to hearing from her. Her eyes were purple, a deeper shade than Mercy's, and they flicked from Daji's squirming to Lindon himself.
He let go of both his blackflame madra and Daji at the same time. The prince fell unceremoniously into a heap on the hot sand and the blackflame receded from Lindon's eyes. He turned fully to face Charity, putting his back to Daji, and brought his fists together as he bowed. "Apologies, I was handling a...minor issue."
"Yes, indeed." There was disregard in Charity's voice as she gave Daji the sort of brief, dismissive look reserved for pesky flies or bits of dust clinging to clothing. "Now if you don't mind I'd like to speak with you somewhere away from prying eyes." She didn't wait for Lindon's response and gracefully proceeded ahead to a spot in the middle of the field.
Lindon looked around and saw almost every single member of the Akura delegation in the area staring at him and the Sage of the Silver Heart.
"This isn't exactly private, you know." He mentioned.
Charity waved her hand and suddenly the little sand dune they were standing on was encased in shadow. Lindon felt it writhing over him like some ethereal, probing entity and he shivered. Within moments they were completely cut off from the outside world. There was no getting in—or getting out.
Lindon immediately began to cycle his madra.
"Relax." Charity scoffed and pulled out a pair of simple folding chairs from thin air, placing them down on a precariously shifting foundation of sand. She gestured to them and Lindon hastily sat down, immediately having to fiddle with his chair to prevent one leg from digging into the sand and keening over.
"Now then," Charity began as she sat down across from him, having none of the difficulties he had, "I have been receiving some… interesting… reports about you."
Lindon held his hands out placatingly. "Now hold on, I only did that to Daji because he's been—"
"—Trying to kill you. Yes, I'm aware." Charity said it so casually that she might have been describing the weather and not a plot to murder Lindon. "But no, that's not what this is about."
Lindon scrambled to think what else this could be about. "Wait, wait, I don't know what you may have heard, but there are no rules against stealing points—"
"Again, that's not what this is about." Charity repeated in the same calm voice.
Lindon let out a deep, defeated sigh. He slumped back in his chair and looked at Charity with clear trepidation in his eyes. "Fine. I admit it. I've been trying to harvest power off of Akura Fury while he naps. My sincerest apologies." He brought his closed fists together in front of him and gave a quick bow.
Charity's eyebrows shot up in surprise and her mouth opened but no words came out. She blinked, snapping out of it. "That… is concerning. Actually I'd love to know how you managed to pull that off…" She admitted, looking contemplative. "But no, this isn't about that either."
"Oh." Lindon replied dumbly. He scratched his head and thought about it for a moment but had nothing else in mind. "What exactly have you heard honored Sage?"
Charity snapped her fingers and a sheet of paper materialized in her hand. She cleared her throat and spoke, "...Wei Shi Lindon Arelius, overzealous… heavy-handed...ruthless…scaring the golds… Ah! Here we are."
Lindon, who had been paling with every word spoken, sank into his seat as he awaited her scorn.
"It seems you have been—ahem—gallivanting with valued Akura combatants and distracting them from their duties, and behaving with a callous disregard for how your actions reflect on the Akura clan." Charity read out without betraying a hint of what she thought about the accusations.
Lindon had no idea what she was talking about.
Charity looked up from her paper, her purple eyes boring into Lindon. "What do you have to say for yourself, Wei Shi Lindon?"
"Apologies, but it's hard to say anything about such vague charges."
Charity nodded slowly, as if his answer was expected. "You left your home at a young age did you not?"
"I was practically still a child by the standards of Sacred Valley." Lindon admitted. An unsouled was still an adolescent no matter the age.
Charity nodded again. "Tell me Lindon," Charity leaned in towards him and he suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable, "are you aware of where babies come from?"