"You're not kidding anymore, are you?"
Kuro shook his head, a serious look on his usually carefree face. He was confering with another assassin, and that usually meant business. Kiro, however, was not too keen on one of her best friends conversing with another murderer.
"Kuro, what is he doing here?"
"Oh, I almost forgot. Kiro, this is Akira, a friend of mine. Akira, meet Kirono, our leader."
"Akira Hellscream. It's nice to meet you, Miss Kirono."
"Yeah, yeah...whatever...Kuro, What is he doing here?"
Akira felt about ready to lash out at this girl. Randomly attacking people wasn't exactly his style, unless that someone really ticked him off. This particular acolyte had succeeded, but he remembered that he and Kuro still had a mission to discuss. Calming himself down, he glanced at Kiro, then at the bunny eared boy.
"Is she always like this?"
"Only to assassins. Not sure why though."
"Kuro, I'm waiting."
"Alright, alright. Akira told me about this legend...more of a prophecy actually. I have a feeling it may have something to do with the Forgotten Angels."
Kiro rolled her eyes and scoffed. If it had come from a priest or a sage, she might have been more open-minded. Even bards and wizards were more credible in her eyes. But coming from an assassin, even Kuro, any legend was just that – a legend. She was a strong believer that the only fate that befell anyone was the one they made for themselves.
"Look, miss, I'm not asking you to believe me, but legends like this one should never be ignored."
For a few moments, Kirono and Akira appeared to be having some sort of staring contest, both trying their best to intimidate the other.
"Whatever."
The girl turned around and stalked off, rather annoyed that she had to deal with yet another one of those fiends who called themselves assassins.
"Aw, put a sock in it, you little disaster."
Kiro turned her attention to the yelling that seemed to originate from somewhere down the corridor. She became intrigued by the constant name-calling of two feminine voices, one familiar and one that she had never heard before.
"Well, at least I have to common sense to avoid snatching from someone I know."
"But you're not above roasting them?"
"That didn't count. He wasn't my superior, you obnoxious rogue!"
"No, he isn't, but I am, you feeble minded mage!"
The acolyte chuckled and crept closer to the arguing duo, one of which she determined to be Lilith. As she peered around the corner, she noticed that the other feminine voice she heard actually belonged to a boy. She couldn't see him well, but she could tell from the hem of his cloak that he was a mage.
"Oh can it, fungus breath."
"Stuff you, Midgard Flatlands!"
"Hello? Have you looked at me lately, old coot? Last time I checked, guys didn't need humped chests hiding under their cloaks."
Kiro couldn't hold it anymore. This insult war was getting hilarious, and if she didn't stop them, she was likely to wake a swarm of undead with her laughter.
"Lilith? What's going on?"
The rogue, who had her back to the entrance, pivoted around slowly at the sound of Kiro's voice, then quickly looked down, her face stained with embarrassment.
"Hi Kiro...what are you doing here?"
"I was talking to Kuro, but I heard you two...by the way, who's your friend?"
Lilith grabbed the mage by the shoulders and held him in front of her like a shield. It was then that Kiro recognized him.
"You're that fire mage from earlier!"
"Fire mage? This runt? That sounds like an oxymoron."
"She's right...I couldn't cast a fire spell to save my life."
"But you can to cook your peers."
The mage scratched the back of his head and gave out a soft laugh tinged with awkwardness.
"That...was an accident..."
Kiro smiled at the mage, then turned to the rogue behind him.
"Well? Are you going to introduce us or not?"
Lilith looked about ready to slap her own forehead. She released the mage and nudged him forward.
"Kiro, I'd like you to meet Felice, my bratty cousin. Lis, this is Kiro."
"Felice? I'm sue you hear this often, but isn't that a strange name for a boy?"
Lilith burst out laughing, then whispered something into the mage's ear. He looked at her as though he would punch her, pushed her away, and grinned at the acolyte.
"Maybe that's because I'm actually a girl."
Kiro blinked at the mage, dumbfounded. Here in front of her was an actual cross dresser, a magician, no less. And not just your run-of-the-mill cross dresser, this was one who really passed herself off successfully as the opposite gender.
"Felice, now might be a good time to tell Kiro why you came here...other than to annoy me, that is."
"Right. Well, I've been spending a lot of time in the library in the back of the Mage academy, and in my research of fire and ice fusion, I came across a misplaced book.
"I took it to my mentor, who identified the strange writing as runes used by the prophets of ancient Glast Heim. Unfortunately, the only phrases he could decipher were 'Angel of Blades' and 'darkness upon the holy ones.'"
"So...why did you have to tell me?"
"Well, Lilith told me that your guild calls themselves the forgotten angels, and the other parts that we managed to translate said something about a guild in the city of darkness, which can only be Glast Heim"
"Wait, hold on...I thought you said you could only decipher two phrases."
Felice tapped her elbow and thought about it. The acolyte was inclined to believe what the mage said, but inconsistencies would demerit her credibility. She watched as the jade haired girl shook her head and turned to walk away. Suddenly, as if someone had thrown a blunt object at her head, the mage remembered what her beloved mentor had said when she questioned the very same anomaly.
"Oh...that's right...three pages were already translated!"
Both the acolyte and the rogue wanted to fall down from pure shock at the mage's senility.
"Whatever. Look, I have stuff to do, so if you don't mind, I have to leave now."
"Alright, Kiro. It was nice to meet you. And for the record, Felice is a boy's name."