AN: I got distracted a LOT this week (there are so many precious good boys to think about after all~) but I managed to get this chapter done. Yay me! Anyway, hope you enjoy reading~

Chapter 12:

It wasn't remotely difficult for Drayce to location Fiorello's clinic, despite having been there only once. Fiorello had spent his time since joining the guild at the Crescentia and getting their personal clinic in order, which was fine as there was plenty of room for the botanist to move in if he wanted.

Drayce cleared the front stoop in two strides and hastily knocked on the door. Although slightly breathless from the run, he still called out. "Hey, Zohar? Are you in?"

He received no reply, couldn't even hear a sound from inside, so he knocked again. A little louder this time. He was greatly disappointed when he received no answer. He still couldn't hear anything from inside, so it was obvious that no one was inside.

He sighed as he leaned forward and rested his forehead against the wooden door as he tried to think. He didn't have a clue where Zohar could be as he had literally only met him once. And he honestly knew only the bare essentials when it came to necromancers. But he needed to find Zohar to help Caelem. He would just…have to walk around this entire city if he had to.

As Drayce peeled his forehead away from the door he felt a sudden chill in the air. Then, before he could react, something phased through the door right in front of him. It appeared to be that of a white wraith that honestly looked like the storybook ghosts he had seen as a child. Round and white. But it had red downturned eyes and a red upturned mouth. And it appeared right in front of his face, a mere inch away.

"Woah!" he uttered in surprise as he instinctively took a step back to put some distance between him and the wraith in front of him.

But his heel slipped off of the top step and he found himself stumbling backwards. But before he could either right him or hit the ground, his back hit something quite hard and he felt something slip around his waist, pinning him still. But keeping him upright all the same. When he felt something that was akin to a hand grabbing his shoulder in a further attempt to keep him on his feet, Drayce tilted his head back to find a pair of bright blue eyes peering back down at him.

Ahh…

"Z-Zohar?" Drayce squeaked out.

Zohar, however, tilted his head curiously to the side, never loosening his grip. "You've been searching for me?"

Drayce blinked before realisation caused him to stiffen and immediately scramble out of Zohar's arms. "Ah, yes!" he said as he spun around to face him. "I need your help with something."

Though Zohar's expression barely changed, he did arch a questioning eyebrow. "Oh?" He seemed intrigued again, much like the first time Drayce had met him.

Drayce decided to simply launch into it, being blunt and getting right to the facts really was the best method.

"There's someone at my guildhouse who has a spell etched onto his back and it supposedly leads to a treasure. I'm not interested in that at the moment though as he was the target of bandits who forced him into the labyrinth against his will. To make a long story short I want to remove that spell and Fiorello says you might be able to help."

Zohar was silent as he stared at him, again much like the first time they met. "…You are helping another in trouble, are you?" he asked as the corner of his mouth twitched ever so slightly.

Drayce blinked before he smiled and shrugged his shoulder. Again, he was reminded to the first time they met, when he was looking for a healer to help Faelen. "Oh, yeah, that's right."

"I see," Zohar replied simply.

"Do you think you can help?" Drayce asked as he gave him a pleading, hopeful expression on his face.

Zohar's gaze flickered to the side for a moment, seemingly thinking to himself. After a moment of silence, he turned his gaze back to Drayce. "I will need to inspect him for myself."

"That's fine," Drayce said with a smile as a wave of relief washed over him. "He's back at the Crescentia."

When Drayce heard a high-pitched grumbling he suddenly remembered the ghost shaped figured that had phased through the door directly in front of him and nearly made him fall down the steps. He turned around to find the ivy coloured ghost looking directly at him, its face pulled in what he could only describe as a pout.

For a second he felt a spike of fear because, well, it was a ghost. But he managed to instantly calm himself by reminding himself that necromancers had the ability to summon and control wraiths. So, clearly, this ghost was one of Zohar's wraiths.

"This is Theodore," Zohar unexpectedly said as he introduced his wraith to him.

Drayce didn't realise that necromancers had pet wraiths, but it was still kinda cute. And honestly so was Theodore itself.

Theodore suddenly waved its arms at him as it made a comically disgruntled face, almost as if reacting to Drayce's thought of it being cute.

"Theodore says that it is fury and fright," Zohar told him in a deadpanned manner. "Not remotely cute."

And Drayce couldn't help but laugh aloud with genuine amusement. "Of course you are, Theo."

Theodore proceeded to actually huff and folded its arms crossly in front. It also appeared to be pouting. Honestly Drayce had the almost impossible to resist urge to pet the wraith on the head. He didn't know if the ghost would appreciate it, though.

Enough of that. He needed to lead Zohar to the Crescentia so that he could help Caelem.

"You're free now, right?" Drayce asked as he turned his attention back to Zohar. "Because I would like your opinion on this as soon as possible, if that's ok?"

"Hm, now is fine," Zohar replied.

"Ok, let's go then," Drayce said as he turned to lead Zohar back to the Crescentia.

He was honestly relieved to have found him so quickly. Though Caelem had said that he had dealt with that spell on his back for a couple of years now, Drayce still wanted to remove it from him as quickly as possible. He didn't know whether literally carrying a spell around on his back was detrimental to his health, but he couldn't imagine it would be good for him at all.

The walk back to the Crescentia was a silent one with Zohar walking a step or so behind him, though Drayce didn't realise this until they reached the gates of the guildhouse as he was too busy lost in his thoughts. He thought Zohar was just being polite in some way so chose not to comment on it.

Instead Drayce led him to the front entrance and pushed open the doors, motion with his a wave of his hand over his shoulder to Zohar to follow.

"We're back!" Drayce called out the second he stepped over the threshold.

"Took you long enough," a familiar voice chided lightly to hide his over-protectiveness.

Drayce resisted the urge to roll his eyes and turned to face his friend. "Hey, I wasn't gone that long."

Blayke continued to frown (honestly, it looked more like a disgruntled pout in Drayce's opinion) before his eyes flickered over Drayce shoulder. And his expression hardened slightly with caution. "So this is…?"

"This is Zohar," Drayce immediately replied before he turned to regard the tall necromancer. "And this is my suspicious best friend, Blayke."

Drayce didn't need to look at Blayke to know that he bristled wildly. "I wouldn't be suspicious if you weren't so god damn charitable!"

"You make it sound like a bad thing," Drayce said with a frown. But that soon turned into a half smile when he realised that the seating room behind him was completely empty. "Anyway, how did Shashi handle the revealing of the library?"

Blayke folded his arms across his chest as his eyes drifted toward the ceiling. "He tried to strangle Ashton for not telling him sooner."

Drayce just had to laugh at that. Poor Ashton, though he really should have expected as much. Ah, he probably did, hence the reason why he was desperately trying to put some distance between him and the Celestian before Drayce ran out to find Zohar. He was sure the two would kiss and make up later.

"I take it everyone is upstairs, too?"

"Yeah," Blayke nodded.

Good. The sooner they figure out how to help Caelem, the better.

Drayce turned back to Zohar, who had been silent the entire time. He paused for a moment when he realised Zohar was glancing at their surroundings with an openly curious and intrigued expression on his face.

He figured that Zohar was just fascinated by the mana and energy stored inside the Crescentia. Kamali was after all. And he was fine with letting the necromancer wander around if he wanted. But right now they had something they needed to do. Exploration of the guildhouse could wait.

Drayce cleared his throat to grab his attention. "Come on, Zohar," he said as he motioned toward the stares with his hand. "We've got to climb to the third floor where the library is."

Zohar nodded idly as he turned his face around to look at him. His lips parted, as if he wanted to say something but grew immediately silent when Blayke unexpectedly released a high-pitched sound. Like a squeak, honestly.

"What the fuck is that?"

Drayce immediately turned around with an expression of concern. He was about to ask him what was wrong when he paused himself. Hovering in front of Blayke, with what could only be described as a cheeky grin on its face was a round, white ghost. It appeared that Zohar's wraith had accompanied them, also.

"Now, don't be rude," Drayce said with a grin. "That's Theodore. He's Zohar's pet wraith."

"And its' thrilled that someone appears scared of it," Zohar added with a deadpanned voice, though Drayce was certain he could detect a sense of mirth in his tone.

Blayke took a half step back as Theodore lifted a hand towards its mouth, as if greatly amused. "I-I'm not scared," he muttered.

Drayce could see that despite his claims, Blayke was indeed highly uncomfortable in the wraith's presence. And Drayce was against teasing anyone (especially Blayke) to the point of making them genuinely uncomfortable.

So he shot Blayke a sympathetic look before he turned his attention to Zohar. "Sorry, but do you mind?" he asked.

Zohar, fortunately, knew immediately what he meant. He turned those sharp blue eyes toward him and nodded his head once. He then turned his gaze back toward Blayke and the wraith Theodore. "Enough now," he said in a commanding tone. "You should sleep for now."

Theodore did that huffy, disgruntle wave of its arms like it had done to Drayce earlier, but it soon folded its arms and faded from sight. And along with it, that subtle prickly feeling on the back of Drayce's neck.

"It will not return unless summoned," Zohar explained plainly, yet in a way that was probably supposed to be reassuring.

Blayke immediately looked relieved. "Ok, good," he muttered.

Blayke then muttered something else under his breath, but Drayce couldn't exactly make out what he said. He deduced that the blue-haired fencer had muttered something about not being afraid of ghosts. Again, he chose not to say anything.

Instead he turned his attention back to the stairs, motion for both Blayke and Zohar to follow him up.

Once again they walked in silence, only the sound of the footsteps on the slightly creaky stairs accompanying them. Drayce couldn't help but notice something peculiar, though. On every fourth step of the stairs leading to the second floor the boards creaked softly. The ones in-between didn't though. And on the stairs leading to the third floor, every third step creaked.

That was…extremely odd, to be honest. Were those steps hollow underneath?

He didn't have much time to muse about it and he pushed that strange information to the back of his mind when he heard the voices of Ashton and his guildmates. Quickly ascending the stairs, he immediately made a beeline for the library, noting that the doors were both wide open. He mused that maybe Shashi had wrestled the key from Ashton and was the one to open the doors.

"Hey, Ashton," Drayce called out the second he stepped into the large room, noticing with a smile that the green-haired Earthlain's shirt was slightly ruffled and dishevelled. "Still in one piece I see."

Ashton gave him a half smile as he absentminded smoothed down his shirt. "It was close."

Drayce chuckled lightly and looked around the large library, assuming that Shashi had promptly gotten himself lost amongst the many bookcases as he couldn't see the purple-haired Celestian anywhere.

But he could see the rest of his guildmates, along with Caelem, situated at a table in the middle of the library.

Fiorello was the first to turn around to greet them and a cheeky smile immediately appeared on his lips. "Good, you found Zohar!"

Drayce sent the botanist a half smile. "He actually found me, but whatever works, right?"

Caelem's ears perked up and he turned around to face them. There was a flicker of hopefulness in his eyes, but his body language gave the indication that he was still cautious and wary. "Ah, so…?"

From just a step behind him, Drayce heard Zohar make a small humming noise under his breath. Then he strode forward to approach Caelem, the Therian stiffening out of both intimidation and unease. He stayed perfectly still though as Zohar held his chin in thought as he circled him, blatantly inspecting him.

"I see," Zohar muttered as he stopped to stand directly behind Caelem, the Therian seemingly too scared to move. "So you're the one then?"

"U-uh, yeah…" Caelem murmured, his hands fidgeting by his sides.

"No need to be intimidated," Fiorello said as he walked over to stand next to Caelem and patted him on the leg. He then turned and slapped Zohar leg. "And you, no need to be intimidating."

Zohar glanced down at Fiorello before he looked back at Caelem. Thankfully, definitely in Caelem's opinion, Zohar dropped his arms to his side and took a step back from him. "My apologises," he said simply.

"Ok!" Caelem squeaked out, still unwilling to move or even look at Zohar.

And he didn't move until Kamali approached him, took his wrist in his hand and led him over to a chair. He promptly sat down, his hands resting on his knees. A moment later his ears folded flat against his head and he breathed a sigh of relief, the tension in his shoulders sagging as both Kamali and Faelen (along with Nashoba, of course) tried to comfort him.

"So," Fiorello started as he turned the focus back to Zohar. "Since you figured out he's the one, do you think you can help?"

"It is a powerful spell, alright," Zohar said as he folded his arms across his chest and looked down at the floor in front of him in thought. "Destroying it will not be easy."

"How about removing it?" Drayce questioned as he walked over to him. "Like, can you transfer it onto something else? Like a scroll, tome, or even a pendulum or compass?"

Zohar unfurled an arm so that he could hold his chin, once more appearing in deep thought. "Hmm…" he murmured before he fell silent for a minute or so. "A scroll that has been infused with mana is feasible," he finally said. "We will need materials."

Again, Drayce was relieved. Finally they were getting somewhere. "What do we need?" he asked.

"Gemstones, mostly," Zohar replied.

Ah, good. They wanted to collect mining samples, anyway.

The sound of footsteps caused Drayce to turn toward the tall bookcases and he watched as Shashi emerged from behind one, a book in his hands that he was idly flipping through. "I should be able to create a mana infused parchment," he unexpectedly said. "Though it will take time."

"Hey Shashi," Drayce greeted with a grin as he motioned to the room around them with his arms. "What do you think of the library?"

Shashi continued to idly flipping through the pages of the book in his arms. "I'm moving in," he said simply.

And Drayce laughed. "That's fine," he said before a curious expression appeared on his face. "I don't suppose you've found information, have you?"

In a library this big? Yeah, it would be absolutely miraculous if he did.

"Well," Shashi unexpectedly drawled. "I did find something of interest."

No way!

"What is it?" Drayce asked as he made his way over to him.

"There are many references to the moon, especially in regards to its radiance," Shashi said as he flipped to a page and pressed a fingertip onto it. "But I've found only one reference to a Radiant Moon. More specifically, Radiant Moon of Compassion."

Drayce glanced down at the book, Shashi angling it slightly so that he could see. On the page that Shashi had indicated to was a rough sketching of a sceptre. From the black and white drawing, he couldn't tell what size it was and there didn't appear to be any details on its appearance.

There was a quick remark to the Earthlain royalty, though.

"There is little information on it, I'm afraid," Shashi said with a subtle tone of disappointment. "But the Earthlain's royals were mentioned, as where the Celestians. But little else."

"Do you think the royal family had kept its presence a secret?" Ashton was the one to ask.

Maybe. Or it happened to long ago that it had become forgotten over time.

The words, however, still felt familiar to him. Could that sceptre, that Radiant Moon of Compassion, be a treasure he had heard when he was a child? About how only the moonbeams from a partly cloudy sky will lead the way to the moon's true compassion?

"Well, this is a fine prelude to the world of treasure hunting, isn't it?" Blayke abruptly said from where he stood next to the table where the others had gathered. "And we still need to complete the first mission."

"Let's go speak to Ramus then," Drayce decided. "Explain to him that things will take longer than previously thought. I want him to know about those bandits anyway. After that, I would like to speak with Virgil as well. He might have seen something, or had heard something."

Though it was mid-afternoon now, he was certain that Ramus and probably Virgil wouldn't mind an afternoon visitor.

Seemingly eager for the possibility to physically do something, Blayke nodded his head. "I'll go too, then," he said without room for argument.

"Return here once you are done speaking with Ramus," Ashton all but commanded as he folded his arms across his chest. "We should have the material list done by the time you return so that you can retrieve the samples of stones while you're there speaking with the guard."

Ah, that sounded more than reasonable.

"Sure thing," Drayce said as he and Blayke moved to leave. "We'll be back as soon as we can."