I remember I was listening to "Blaze" from the third Escaflowne OST when I wrote this, so if it sounds a bit tragic in the middle, blame the song, if you can download it and listen to it while reading this, maybe you'll get the same mental pictures I did.

.

.

.


Chapter 24: Ken's POV

"What!?"

"As I said, the whole tribe was killed" Ulrike repeats with hurt on her voice.

"But how? And how come you didn't know about this?" I look at Shinou, I have an excuse, I was living on Earth at the time, as Christine if I'm doing the math right. If not, I still wasn't here, the life previous to that one I wasn't a mazoku either.

"I did. I mean, I do, I forgot" I blink once, twice... I want to punch him.

"What? It was over fifty years ago, and I was otherwise occupied with choosing Sussana Julia's soul as the one my chosen one would be given" I sigh and try to get myself together, before answering in a calmer tone.

"Why didn't you stopped it?"

"You know as well as I do that my presence at that time was limited. I was being consumed and couldn't afford to waste energy in anything other than our plan. Stoffel's ploy only got to the temple after the harm had been done." he says with a slash of guilt. I feel guilty too actually, I crossed the line there.

"It's true. If Lord Stoffeld hadn't order us to erase any record of the tribe from the shrine's library we would have never known for sure" Ulrike adds with a sad expression. But wait... then that means...

"Ulrike, are you saying he never asked you to confirm the disappearance of the tribe?" Ulrike and Shinou both get where I'm going with my question immediately and a smile appears on her childish features.

"No! He did not" she says clapping her hands together.

Ulrike, being the Genshi Miko, has the power to sense almost every type of power or energy, and almost always find said power, in other words, figure out the location of the power's owner. Stoffel has always been an overconfident person in this cases, and probably did not bother asking her to perform the search after his massacre, being sure his soldiers had ended the lives of every person in the tribe, which is highly unlikely, considering how powerful they were. So that means...

"They could still be alive somewhere" Shinou finishes my trail of thought.

For a moment we feel relieved of the weight of carrying yet another tragedy on our shoulders. Many, if not all, of the dramatic events that have come after our time were somehow involved in our plan to destroy the Soushu. I'm no one to tell that the end does not justify the means, in this case I'm sure it did, but that doesn't make it less painful.

But then it hits me...

"Shit, this is not good... if some of the people from the tribe are, in fact, still alive, then Wolfram would be their perfect target for revenge. He's not only the son of the Maou that was supposed to give the orders back then, he's not only the nephew of the man who actually gave the order, he's also the descendant of the man who initially took their lands away from them, Rufus von Bielefeld."

The pact for the lands was made peacefully, I remember it now, but I doubt the story has remained straight through the years, it almost never does.

Ulrike freezes and Shinou looks at me worriedly, knowing I'm not finish with the bad news.

"Moreover, we have no idea of how powerful they are, not even Yuuri was able to manage with them using all of his strength. We don't know if the Wolfram von Bielefeld I saw this afternoon is the actual Wolfram von Bielefeld. We have no idea who our enemy is or where they are... We have nothing... And as we speak, Wolfram's light becomes weaker..."

In other words, we're doomed. This can't be possible. I sit down on my bed and rest my chin on my right hand trying to think. There has to be something we can do. I do have a certain affection for Wolfram, but Shibuya is the one currently on my mind.

This is the man he loves that we are talking about, the one that Shibuya was willing to sacrifice his life to save. What will happen if the blond now sharing his bed is not the real Wolfram. What will happen if Wolfram is dead, or if he dies while the three of us knew something was wrong and did nothing. He hasn't even confessed yet... Shibuya would never forgive us, but more importantly, he would change. The kind Maou with the goofy smile... would he be able to survive losing the one person he loves?

"Did you not learned anything else on your visit to the castle today?" Shinou asks sitting next to me, now in his full form. I shake my head.

"I was only there for a little while, because training with no majutsu was pointless, although I didn't tell Wolfram that of course. I talked to Dr. Rodriguez before the training session, but he just keep telling me something about dreams and Freud and..."

"Who is this Freud?" Shinou interrupts me, damned his curiosity, does that really matter? Whatever, I'll just answer in the simplest way I can.

"Freud was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis. Trying to explain it would take forever, but what the doctor was referring was Freud's theories about dream analysis. He's probably using this method to treat Wolfram, maybe trying to reach his forgotten memories through his subconscious by analysing his dreams. Personally I do not agree with many of Freud's theories".

Probably because I know idiotic Great Babies can alter one's dreams at will.

"However, Dr. Rodriguez seems to think Wolfram's dreams hold the key to his memories." When I finish talking I see Shinou is suddenly smirking. What in hell can he be smirking about in a moment like this?

"Well my Sage, there is just one way of finding out if the doctor is right"

Oh... I see. I momentarily forgot Shinou is the biggest voyeur I have ever met.

"Tonight then?" I ask and Ulrike looks at us with a puzzled, somehow scolding expression. She doesn't know what we are going to do, but she probably figures we are up to no good.

"What moment better than the present?"

Shinou smiles and leads the way back to Ulrike's meditation room.