Weheeee, I finally made it!! I created the first chapter, although I never wanted to continue the whole thing. But then my readers (Not only here ^^) came and wanted more and so... After a long time, I wrote this today.

It's shorter than the prologue and I think not good as is, but I don't mind ^.^ (I have to thing hard about a conclusion for the whole story... oO")

Erm... please note: I'm writing based on the things we learn in the manga. (It's the only 'Orphen-Medium' in German... ;__; ) The manga only goes up to volume six and ends there, although the story hasn't end yet (I think it's like up to vol. six of the novels; these two media are very close to each other), so I'm writing based on this point. This could cause slightly A/U and/or OoCness.

But, anyway... enjoy! ^_^

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Feet walked over a ground, slightly covered with a thin film of water. Every step could be heard, every single move caused a soft noise.

When the young man came to a standstill, the red headband and the leatherjacket swung after him.

The brown haired figure opened his mouth.

"So... what do you want...?"

The vibrations in the water caused by the footsteps wore off.

"Why did you tell me to come here?"

He looked around, investigated the dark and lonesome place with his eyes.

"Azalea..."

A smile.

"I'm glad, you're asking", the woman with the chin-long brown hair said, "Killiranshelo."

She walked some steps over to her little brother.

Orphen looked at Azalea like he wanted to say 'Don't call me like that again', but he didn't said so.

Azalea continued.

She graped into the pocket of her almost completely black jacket and pulled out some photos.

"Have you heard of the two dead sorcerors the tower found last week?"

Orphen shook his head. "No, and to be honest, that doesn't interest me. If it would have been famous ones, I would have heard."

"Oh, really?"

Orphen looked up. What did Azalea mean with this?

Azalea sighed, then continued.

"Well, yesterday they found a third victim."

Her hands played around with the photos, not shure wether to give them to Orphen or not.

"And?" Orphen seemed impatient.

"Like the other two, the third one was killed by magic, but by a special one. Examinations have shown that there were no internal injuries, or at least at the first two victims. Rumours say, that the tower isn't going to examin the third too, because it seemes to be the same murder. Rather they're going to bury him tomorrow."

Orphen sighed. "And what does this all have to do with me? I haven't got the time for their internal things at the tower, you know."

Azalea looked at him, surprised. "Do you really think so?"

Her little brother nodded. "I have nothing to do with the tower since that day five years ago; you should know that."

"But perhaps..." Finally, Azalea handed the photos over to Orphen. "... this third victim will change your mind..."

Orphen looked at the four photos Azalea had given him. On this picures, the condition of the corpse was documented in four different angles.

Orphen looked at the pictures silently. It took some time until he realized who this victim was.

Only now, as he looked at the last picture, which showed the victim's face, he got who it was.

His eyes widened in shock as he looked at the red hair and the freckles in the victim's face.

"No", he whispered, "That can't be..."

Azalea closed her eyes. "Unfortunately it's true. He is the one, who was killed by an unknown sorceror."

Orphen couldn't beliefe what, or better, who he saw.

"...Hartia..."

Azalea closed her eyes. "The third victim in one week... I think the elders are not very happy about that."

She waited some seconds, opened her eyes again as she didn't get a response to her comment and saw that Orphen was still looking at the pictures and he was something between deeply sad and very angry.

"Who... did this...?", he asked.

His sister sighed. "They don't know", she said, "The killer never left any trailes. Some suppose that it was you, who did this."

Orphen hissed. "How idiotic. They suspect me to do -this-?" He held one of the photos up, the one, that was showing Hartia's face.

The face on the picture was filled with fear, the young sorceror really seemed to had a horrible death. But there was no blood, no injuries. Only a scar on his left hand...

Azalea shrugged her shoulders. "It's no wonder since they think, you killed some of the elders. Now they suspect you to kill some of the tower's students, too."

Orphen was on bad terms with this topic. "That was your fault, in the end."

Azalea giggled. "Well, you're right, Killiranshelo. But the others don't know."

After one, two silent minutes, Orphen began to speak again. "So", he said, "When exactly is the funeral?"

"Tomorrow morning, around eleven. That's approximately the time when they found him in the woods yesterday."

Silence.

"Perhaps they'll get angry if you appear there, but perhaps they will throw the suspicion away, if you're making a speech."

Orphen kept on being silent. It remindet him so much of the things happened five years ago, of Azalea's funeral.

He wasn't shure wether to go to the tower the next day or not.

"After all, he was still your friend, wasn't he?"

Orphen said nothig, only sighed and then turned his back to Azalea.

Azalea watched at her little brother, the one, who was onced so small, cute and fragile, and now so grown up, proud and mature...

...Or not...?

The young man Azalea was thinking about walked off. Again his feet caused vibrations in the water, that reflectet the dark environment of the the nightly forest. Again his steps were heard quite good. And this was the only thing that was heard, everything else was completely silent.

And as he disappered in the darkness, the only thing left were the photos.

For a moment, Azalea asked herself wether to take the pictures with her or not. She decided to leave them there and disappered, too.

And so, the four photos lay on the ground, in the thin film of water. Only one could be seen completely, the others were lying under the one or with the picture side on the ground.

And the visible one showed Hartia's fearful expression...

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Ok, this was the first chapter! ^-^ More to come, but I don't know when... ^^;