Chapter 31

Knowing what Catilin was attempting with the First's youngest son, False decided his enforced recon would be best severed starting there. The second he arrived in the mess of a room, he could sense things weren't quite right. There was far too much light being emanated for a start and on top of that every drop of said light appeared to be being absorbed by another source. The other source was a school clad youth, who stood with his back to False, blocking False's view of the First's son and the First son's view of him.

Without thinking about it, False stretched his left arm out to the side of him. In a ripple of blue-purple smoke a bow appeared in his hand. Then, with his actions still moving faster than his mind, he pulled the bow into firing position. Instantly it loaded itself with an arrow, which he then shot at the school boy. It hit him in the back of his left shoulder and forced him to turn round and face False.

'What the hell,' the First's son gawked at him, 'what did you do that for?'

'He was feeding off of you,' False allowed the bow to reload itself as he prepared to shoot at the school boy again.

'Feeding off of me?'

'Your light.'

'But… but that's not possible,' the First's son shook his head, 'he… he's the… he's my…'

A strange, almost too eerie to be believed, laugh echoed out of the school boy, seconds before he disappeared. Instantly the bow and arrow False had been holding disappeared in the same rippling of blue-purple smoke they'd appeared in.

'That was the First, demon,' the other lad backed away from him, 'you shot the First.'

'If that was the First then why was he trying to absorb all your light?'

'He wasn't.'

'Yes he was, I could see it,' False held his ground, 'I was trying to save you.'

'Since when do demons care about anyone but themselves?'

'Demon? What demon?'

'I'm talking about you, you First attacking idiot.'

'I'm not a demon, I'm a Vii Sen and, as of last night, I'm also a Balancer.'

'Yeah right,' the First's son sparked a white energy ball into his left hand, 'you expect me to believe that.'

'No,' he shook his head, 'but I expect you to believe that,' he pointed towards the energy ball failing to maintain itself in the other boy's hand.

'Wow,' his eyes became wide, 'that's not right.'

'It's not right because he was feeding off of you.'

'You're saying my own father did this to me?'

'I'm sorry.'

'But why,' he dissipated the energy ball completely, 'it doesn't make any sense,' he moved himself towards his bed and slumped down on the edge. 'Wow,' he blinked rapidly, as he placed both of his hands to the side of his head. 'Wow.'

'Are you okay?' False was starting to feel more than a little concerned and not just for the other boy's sake.

'No,' he shook his head, 'no, because I know you're right. Some of my Light is gone. Not all of it, but enough to leave me completely unstable,' he stared up at False. 'I can also sense who took it.'

'And you know it's not me, right?'

He nodded.

'My name's False Gleasta.'

'Arados Lutoni,' he gave him a polite little nod. 'So are you really a Vii Sen?'

'Why would I lie about that?'

'So you summoned that crossbow you were using just then?'

For a moment he pressed his lips together; truth be told he had no idea where the bow and arrows had come from. He'd never done anything like that before in his life and even he could see it didn't exactly look good for him.

'I don't know,' False eventually sighed, 'it just… happened.'

'Have you ever done anything like that before?'

'No.'

'Have you any idea why you're able to do it now?'

He hesitated again, before a certainty rose up through him.

'Nichee.'

'What?' Arados gave him a look.

'Nichee, he did this to me; somehow agreeing to work for him… I should have known. I should have known I couldn't trust him after he went out of his way to make sure I had to work for him.'

'What are you going on about?'

'Nichee,' False tried to keep his cool, 'he's supposed to be a member of the Shadows, but somehow I doubt that's the case. He pretty much tied me into having to work for him and he was the one who sent me here on recon.'

'You think he's not who he says he is?'

'Hello, demon weapon,' he shot Arados a look, 'I didn't have one before I was forced into working for Nichee.'

'Are you sure about that?'

'I'm pretty certain I would remember something like that.'

For a few moments Arados appeared to weigh him up carefully. He then got back to his feet and began tensely scratching at the blue underside of his right arm.

'Ni,' his voice was tight, 'Nichee must be Ni. I've heard stories about him trying to recruit new Balancers, but I've never heard about him succeeding before.'

'He hasn't succeeded,' False shook his head, 'he got me by not giving me any other choice. And now that I know, do you really think I'm going to go running back to him?'

'I don't know, are you?'

'Hell no,' he shook his head, 'there's no way I want to be working for the devil. I wanted to become a Balancer to protect people, not to destroy them.'

'Well, since you saved what's left of my Light, I guess I have no choice but to believe you.' Arados's face took on a deeply thoughtful look. 'I just wish I knew why my Dad would be trying to take it from me.'

'Not all of the First's voices are good; that's one of the first things we get taught at the TA Academy.'

'So you're a TA graduate too? Does that mean you know Kisara…?'

'Kissy, yeah. I know she's met you already, I was with her earlier. That stuff in your arm,' he indicated towards Arados's right arm, 'it's called Blue Ice.'

'How do you know that?'

'I study,' he tilted his head, 'I also know what that stuff does, if you're interested.'

'Yeah, I am,' a weak smile pulled at his lips, 'but can I ask you something first.'

'What?'

'Does Kisara know what this is,' he indicated towards his arm.

For a few moments False was silent. He couldn't drop her in it, he knew that. But if he said that she didn't and Kisara later admitted that she did, he could be in a whole lot of trouble. Realistically there was only one response he could give to keep both of them out of hot water.

'As far as I know, she doesn't.'