The Meanderer

by xeveningx

"The world is beautiful and pure, it's the weeds in it that ruin it." And to save the world she loves, Noé will do what she must: find her friends to free her master. But as she learns what saving it implies, discourse stirs in her. Is it really worth saving anymore? "It's not the world that's worth saving," a red cub told her. It's hard to understand his words.

14. The Lion and the Sparrow Part I

Start of the double update. Holly molly did this take long. Hope you enjoy it.

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Chapter Fourteen:

The Lion and the Sparrow.

Part I.

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iii.|

Snip. Odd. Snip. Introverted. Snip. Aberration.

It never ceased to amaze her how the illiterate and gossiping women who knew nothing more than their bordello could use such words to describe how a quiet little girl made them so uncomfortable.

Seraphina never bothered with them as a child. Living behind thin walls inside a single room and behind hallways draped only with plain curtains made it hard not to listen, however. Rumors of her being the daughter of a prostitute and influential official complicated things further. There never went a day where she didn't hear the women gossip in the hallways while her mother was away working. And though their voices quieted through the walls when her mother returned for the day to work on her sewing, they never ceased in her head.

They cut her just as deeply and finely as her mother's beautifully sharp scissors snipped away while refashioning one of Seraphina's old dresses. Now six, her old clothes were ill-fitted for her, and with the money her mother got meant for their food and lodging, it was only obvious that her mother's skills would be put to such use.

It was as her mother cut away to retailer her dress that Seraphina spoke her mind, "Mamá, am I odd?"

"Of course not, my little cherub." Snip.

"I can hear the other women talking about me, saying that I'm strange."

"They are simply jealous." Delicate and cold fingers clutched the golden scissors tightly as with one final cut her dress was torn to pieces. Seafoam green eyes followed her mother's meticulous movements as she set the scissors aside to begin sewing the piece back together with the added fabric. "You are merely different and that makes you special. You are your father's daughter, after all."

Her gaze fell on her mother's smile. One that despite seeming sweet and caring was anything but. Seraphine knew as much. That smile wasn't real. It made her wonder if her mother felt her chest as empty and vacant as she did of emotion. Hating that it reminded her of such a fault in herself, her gaze turned elsewhere and watched the sunrise outside as the rays leaked through the closed drapes.

"I don't want to be like Father. He doesn't love us."

"Of course he does. One day he will come for us, you'll see."

"Is that the day you'll let me outside too, mamá?"

Her mother's sudden movement caught her off guard as those delicate and cold fingers roughly dug their nails into her shoulders. Though it hurt, Seraphina only winced more from the surprise than anything, her fingers crawling closer to the golden scissors that her mother had dropped.

"What have I told you about the outside?"

Looking away, she stared at the drapes as the sun hit them. "It's dangerous."

"And the people out there?"

"They'll hurt me."

"So what must we do?"

Seraphine bit her bottom lip knowing exactly what her mother wanted to hear yet not wanting to voice it. When she didn't though, sharp nails dug into her jaw and forcefully turned her gaze away from the drapes back to her mother to meet her eyes. Ones that were dark and hollow unlike the bright seafoam green of hers. Her mother said nothing as she stared at her, that sickly sweet smile never disappearing and greatly contrasting that manic look in her eyes.

It wasn't until she felt her nails finally breaking her skin that she replied.

"Stay inside."

Her grasp was released instantly as she began to tenderly caress Seraphina's cheek with the back of her knuckles.

"My little cherub… You're intelligent beyond your young years, but you are still a child. You must listen to me when I tell you that out there, you will only find pain and sorrow. Here, you'll be safe from that. In here, you're with your mother. And there is no safest place out there than with me."

No safest place…

Seraphine let her mother embrace her and rested her ear against her mother's chest, closing her eyes while grasping her mother's golden scissors in her hand.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

Her mother's heart beat loudly against her ear as she embraced her back with all her strength.

How she wished that heart would just stop beating.

Snip.

—{iii}—

Why her father insisted on her bearing witness to the colosseum fights in his stead was beyond her. It was obvious he had no desire to be here, but she couldn't fathom what made him think she would care to do his duties instead.

At least it's Muu who's fighting. She would have honestly left long ago had it been anybody else.

Seraphina let out a heavy sigh as she leaned back against her lounge. It wasn't a private balcony; her father was treasurer of Reim for a very simple reason, after all. He was as cheap as they came. There wasn't a chance he would spend more than was needed. Especially not on something and someone that he didn't care about. The people around her looked to be enjoying the show very much if their cheers were anything to go by. Seraphina liked the energy and vigor of the colosseum but it bore her to no end. It wasn't even the fact that the violence was unfathomable and nonsensical—there wasn't an ounce of the other priestesses' mindsets in her head to think such things. The only reason she saw them as a bore was because they were unimaginative.

So much more could be done to make this the galore of gore and blood they so desired that at its current state, the colosseum was laughable at best.

"My lady, you have a visitor." Seafoam green eyes didn't bother looking over her shoulder at the guard that called out to her. Despite her sharing a lounge with plenty of others of her father's echelon who would happily divulge every coming and going that would occur in that place, Seraphina knew they were too indulged in the child's play going on down below to care. With a dismissive wave to her guard, she gave her answer.

"Sorry, my lady, but this visitor isn't taking no for an answer."

Finally looking over her shoulder at the sound of that voice, she was met with Rakah's smug smile as he waved from behind the threshold of the door where her guard stood impeding his way.

Fantastic.

Knowing better than to send him away, she waved at her guard again. "Let him through." The guard followed her instructions and let Rakah waltz into the lounge as if nothing was the matter. Perhaps nothing was to him but to Seraphina having him in her presence after a month of not seeing him truly soured her mood. That he walked in and leaned against the banister right where he could obstruct her sight did not help his case in the least. Her anger rose substantially with the mere sight of him, but she refused to let it show on her expression, instead of soothing it down to the point where it was just a crawl of her shadow mice through the dark behind them.

"And here I thought that after the last time we saw each other you wouldn't be returning for a while, Mister Rakah."

"What can I say, irritating you has become quite the pastime." The mice hissed in the shadows and bared their teeth as her face remained ever calm. A chuckle escaped him at noticing this and he moved out of her view to crouch beside her instead, as far away from the others and her guard as humanly possible. "I'm joking."

"I've become rather unamused by your jokes as of late."

"You've become unamused of me. There's a difference."

"There is no need to be so nihilistic."

"It's called being a realist." His amethyst eyes narrowed as his gaze lowered to the hand he brought closer to his heart. "She's becoming restless."

She...

How she hated it that he didn't treat their master with the admiration and respect she deserved. But she couldn't say anything against him. Despite her having chosen their master's side willingly, Rakah was still favored over the small handful of proxies that existed. Seraphina didn't know them. She had never met them nor heard anything about them. She simply knew they existed. And among them stood out this petulant man.

Her guess was that his mission of finding the Gifts was what placed him on such a pedestal as did being a gift-bearer himself. Regardless of the reason, the fact never ceased to infuriate her.

"She is." Seraphina couldn't reach the mark that marked them as proxies and blessed them with a part of their master's powers, but ever since a few months ago she had felt the way it grew and throbbed between her shoulder blades. Almost like an uneasy child too eager to sleep. She eyed him without facing away from the arena, the sidelong glance enough to give her a view of the blonde man. "Have you any idea why?"

"I've looked into it. Apparently, there's something big stirring east of here just across the sea that has her throwing a hissy fit."

Such simple details wouldn't have been enough to tell her anything—that would be, of course, had Reim's circumstances been any other than the ones they were right now.

"Magnostadt." Seafoam narrowed, thinking about how he could have known to look there in the first place. "How did you figure?"

"You forget that above all else, I am a broker. And at the notice of Kou's messenger's arrival, the old chancellor saw fit to call upon my services in lieu of his own court to mediate the situation."

"You brokered peace between Magnostadt and Kou?"

Her voice rose a bit in shock. If he had, it would make him a miracle worker. Something he was clearly not by how he still hadn't retrieved the remaining gifts for their master. Thankfully, he didn't disappoint in that regard by the displeased grimace on his face. He was still the failure she'd hope he would be.

Good.

"I am good at my job, little priestess, but there is no stopping the inevitable. Not only that but apparently Kou's given their ultimatum. If Matal Mogamett is a man of his word, there will be no surrender brokered between the two countries."

"Which means war will befall the magician's country soon."

"Not only from the east, I'm afraid." The slight lilt of his voice becoming more prominent made her fully turn to him as he now turned sideways to stare back. "Tell me, does Reim intend to enact their own attack now that it is a sure thing Magnostadt will be left cornered?"

"I wouldn't know." A lie. Blatantly so. But also not exactly. The only reason she knew Reim would eventually attack Magnostadt was simple deduction. The emperor wished to expand east and with Reim's military and the Fanalis Corp, they were quite the force to be reckoned with. "But as you say, it may very well be inevitable."

"Which means we must make haste with our plans here."

"Make haste?"

Rakah finally looked away as he stood back up and leaned on the banister once more, this time to stare out of the balcony. "Things are moving slower here than in...other places. The rest are moving along smoothly but with everything being out of sync as it currently is, the margin of error we have will only grow the longer we wait around. If that occurs we might lose the opportunity to reunite all the gifts altogether."

Not liking the way the conversation was headed, Seraphina stood from her seat and accompanied him. "Is there such a way to hurry it along?"

"Of course there is. And a very simple one at that." Amethyst eyes lifted to stare out across the arena. Seraphina followed his gaze only to find him staring at Noé's far-off figure as it stood in the balcony usually reserved for the Yambala as she cheered on the two fighters. "We force her hand."

At the thought of forcing this too hard, her grip on the iron banister tightened and her shadow mice stirred behind her in the shadows. "We cannot force her," she finally said.

"We can't afford not to."

"No, you do not understand." The scurrying behind them grew in volume as her grip tightened enough to leave her knuckles a ghostly-white. "The growth of her mark has slowed a considerable amount ever since her stay in Reim but it hasn't stopped altogether. It will propagate deeper eventually and when it does my shadows will be able to take over. You'll take the gift and I'll have her like our master promised I would if I was patient."

"I don't care about your puppets or what she promised you. Our priority stands above your petty wants. If we want that gift before the margin of error grows too large for us to do anything about it, we have to do something now."

"It won't be for much longer. Only a few more months—"

"Get it through your obsessed head, Seraphina. No matter how much her head is polluted by her rukh, she won't join us. Noé is the lapdog of her own master. One I can assure you she will never betray."

No. No, no, no. Nononononononono—

"What surly boy..."

The faint sound of her master's calm voice reverberated in her head and made her take one long and deep breath to ask, "How much time can you give me, Mister Rakah?"

"You're still on with that—"

"Master wishes to have the gifts returned to her, but she also wants the bearers by her side. That includes her."

Rakah's gaze lingered on her for a moment before it narrowed skeptically. "She's speaking to you…"

Seraphina didn't acknowledge nor deny his allegations. Firstly because there wasn't a need to. And secondly, because she relished the peeved look he sent her way at knowing that he wasn't the only special one to their master. "She values your efforts, Mister Rakah. Truly, she does. However, she says that you're not being all that truthful with me about our time limits."

"Why the hell would I lie?"

"For as much as I would love to know myself, Master says that your reasons are inconsequential. She simply wishes to see my masterpiece come to fruition."

"Well, your 'masterpiece' is taking too long."

"Which is why I am asking you until a certain summit for time."

Amethyst eyes narrowed at what she suddenly said, a part of her swearing that her ears caught the sound of thunder clapping in the distance. "How do you know about that?"

"I am only repeating what our master has told me. And she told me that your biggest margin of error always falls at that summit. Like you so wisely said before, we require contingencies were Miss Noé is concerned. I see now how true your words are. Which is why our master asks that I be given until that day. If by then I have yet to turn her, you may do as you like with her."

What a gamble.

Yes, their master had spoken just then through the shadows of her mice but it had only been the echoes of her displeasure with Rakah's approach, bemoaning his own constant failures at 'the summit'. Seraphina had no idea what that event was or when it would even take place. Extrapolating the vague information was a cheap gamble at best. Thankfully though, by the expression on Rakah's face, it might just work.

Seraphina only needed to hit the last nail on the coffin.

"You have other bearers to worry about, Mister Rakah. Far more important ones to you than Miss Noé. It is only us searching for Master's beloved gifts and their bearers. We mustn't lose sight of that."

Rakah remained quiet for the longest moment and Seraphina held her breath throughout it all the while chanting endlessly in her head as he mulled over her words.

Don't question it. Just say yes!

With a furious click of his tongue, he turned away from the banister at last. "You have until the day of the summit, little priestess. If by then you don't do your part, I'll take it off of your hands."

She didn't dare breathe again until after he left, breathing a sigh of relief when the guard retook his place in front of the lounge's entrance. The sick feeling in her stomach when he made the mere mention of quickening their plans was simply unbearable. The thought itself would've thrown her into another fit had her master's words not seeped into her head unconsciously. Hearing her settled her emotions enough to concoct the scenario she'd fed Rakah.

Thank goodness he rarely questions Master's choices.

Sitting back down on her lounge, Seraphina let the shadows quietly scurry towards her. Small as they were, there wasn't a chance for anybody who wasn't paying meticulous attention to notice them. The small rodents climbed her robes and settled on her lap, whiskers tickling the pads of her fingers as she stroked them under their jaws. But even with their company, anxiety crept deeper into her chest making her heart heavy at the idea of the noose she had just tied around her neck.

It made her wonder if the time she just cheated Rakah out of had actually bought her any actual time at all with the next thought that bubbled out of her throat.

"We must hurry." The mice she cradled in her hands turned upwards to her at those words. Caressing their backs, she spoke to them with a mere whisper. "Be more aggressive. Spread further to everything and anyone you can. Do whatever you must to deepen her rukh into her heart."

Orders given, they disappeared into the shadows and out of her grasp. Touching her fingers against each other, she felt the emptiness they left behind before clasping her hands together to pray to their master. Praying that her plan would work and that she wouldn't ruin the one thing she wanted more than anything in this world.

I won't fail...I promise.

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ii.|

"KICK HIS ASS, ALIBABA!"

There was no way Alibaba heard Noé over the rambunctious crowd, but there was simply no stopping her enthusiasm at the glorious match that had started minutes ago. Sword clashed against sword as her little disciple and the Fanalis cub fought, the sound of metal screeching against metal sending the crowd into a frenzy each time. Unlike the many times before, the sound of their cheers and cries made her blood pump with excitement as they clashed against one another. Childishly like only she knew how to, Noé bounced on her tiptoes as she watched the match ensue, cheering for Alibaba and Muu alike despite her blatant favoritism.

"Have you any semblance about the meaning of the word 'subtlety'?"

"What's that?" Chief groaned disgruntled at her demeanor which Noé easily dismissed with a chuckle. "Relax, Chief. It's friendly banter. Nothing wrong with that now, is there?"

"What if the Fanalis start questioning why you and Alibaba are so close and the magi finds out that Alibaba has a djinn?"

She had a point, but not one that Noé hadn't considered before. During the long months that she had helped him train and perfect his djinn-equip, the question of why he hadn't asked others with better and well-known expertise about the subject like Muu or Scheherazade before rose. He dodged it plenty of times which Noé let slip, but when it happened one too many times, she cornered him until he confessed. And she had to admit, his answer wasn't one she expected.

'I don't want Reim's magi to know.'

It wasn't that it shocked her. She simply didn't quite understand why Scheherazade knowing or not would be a problem. Noé supposed that it could have something to do with the fact that he was Aladdin's King Candidate and the fact that the little princas was a magi that Scheherazade didn't know personally. Something she didn't think Alibaba would be aware of or even know but she also surmised that it was more of a precaution than anything. Alibaba appeared to care very deeply about his friendship with the little princas and the Fanalis girl, a trait Noé could only admire in the young boy. He had trusted her enough to admit such truth to her and that was something she wouldn't betray.

I have standards, you know.

"Would hardly think so from how seldom that trust is reciprocated."

Things could change. Or be slighted adjusted in her case. Something she was beginning to believe the longer she remained in Reim. The thought soured her mood a tiny bit as she fell back from the edge of the balcony where she watched the match.

Time. Noé had never spent more than a few weeks in any given place and now she was bordering the end of a third month in a single country. Reim of all places. The one she always thought would be the last place she would remain for more than a day or two given her old memories of the place. But as she raised her emerald gaze in time to see Alibaba strike Muu, a smile came to her face that wiped away a bit of that uncertainty.

"Match! The winner, Sir Muu Alexius!"

Emerald eyes grew wide with shock at what transpired in less than a second right before her eyes. Right after Alibaba had but nicked the cub on the arm, Muu made quick work of the young boy, pinning him down and getting him to surrender.

What the hell happened?

"He's smart, I'll always give him that," Chief admitted. "The young Saluja knows when it's time to retreat. Must be something he learned elsewhere because Solomon knows he did not learn that from you."

Pouting at the implication, Noé ignored her djinn and instead flashed out from the balcony and into the arena, giving quite a spook to the soldiers watching over the colosseum's entrances but shockingly not Muu or Alibaba. Both turned to her with varying expressions on their faces—Alibaba's embarrassed and Muu's gladdened.

Instantly and without warning, Noé haughtily proclaimed, "I demand a rematch."

"W-What?!" Alibaba cried.

"As much as I'd love to, Alibaba seems a bit tired after this match." He chuckled at her small pout before offering a different solution, "Perhaps another day?"

"No, now," she demanded. "Against me."

Inside her head, Chief sighed, exhausted yet not surprised in the least. "Definitely didn't learn much from you other than how to equip."

Crimson eyes blinked owlishly at the sudden declaration and speechless as he was, Alibaba's mutterings rose to center stage.

"A-Against you, Noé-san?"

Noé shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, her consternated expression replaced with mild amusement as the corner of her lips quirked up to a slight grin. "I'll avenge your honor, Alibaba." And mine while we're at it for training you. That slight grin suddenly turned into a full smirk when a thought came to mind. "Besides, the little cub owes me a match."

Finally finding his voice, Muu scoffed playfully. "That I do."

"Then it's settled!" Noé took a few steps forward and slapped Alibaba's back seconds before the light around him fractured. Amber eyes widened in shock as the light around him changed and she flashed him out of the arena and onto the balcony where she'd been spectating minutes ago.

"That's a new trick," Muu commented as his gaze lifted to where Alibaba's sudden appearance made a scene with Toto and the other Yambala.

"What can I say?" Snapping her fingers, light daggers appeared in the palms of her hands much better defined than the rugged and sharp crystals she used to call knives. "I haven't just been toying around these past few months."

"I hope you show me exactly what kind of growth you've seen, Miss Noé."

Noé never ceased to be amazed by a Fanalis speed, but at this time, after all that time sparring with the Fanalis corp, she could at least follow them with her naked eye without using the refracting light as a handicap. One of the few skills she was proud of developing and that allowed her to parry the swings of his sword with her daggers.

However much she disliked her prolonged stay, Noé had to admit that it hadn't been wasted in mere toying around. Her training with the Yambala had borne more fruit than she thought it would in the short time practicing it. And even though she was still piss-poor at it, the control she had managed to obtain in the past months allowed her to better her use of not only her own magoi but of the raw Light rukh that her Gift endlessly poured into her body. Her refined light weaponry and the fact that she could now flash people out with a mere touch were proof enough for her of her progress.

As for the other part of her training—

Muu clicked his tongue as another of his attacks was parried with mere daggers as Noé dashed in and out of range to attack and evade respectively. A smile that betrayed the struggle he was having with landing a single attack came to his face as he backed off for a moment.

"I see letting you spar with the others was a big mistake on my part."

"Too late to regret that now!"

Throwing her knives to distract him worked when Muu blocked them with his sword. Taking advantage of the opening, Noé rushed in and jumped, kicking away his sword before locking his neck around her thighs and using her weight to bring him down. She let go instantly intending to get some space between them but before she could even do that, a strong hand gripped one of her ankles and threw her aside. Skidding to a stop, Noé crouched on the gravel as Muu rose from the floor, a hand rubbing his neck as he stared at the ground. Her eyes narrowed at the odd gesture and even more so at the red tint she could've sworn she spotted at the tips of his ears.

With his large hand covering the lower half of his face, he looked up with a slight redness to his cheekbones. "Who taught you that?"

"Your sister." With a lopsided grin, she taunted him. "Gotta say, it was a pretty good view anytime she caught me. Got me to enjoy and pay attention to the lesson."

"...Damn it, My." Scoffing, he gripped his sword firmly before rushing towards her. Noé crouched lower at the charge and only moved when she saw his intended move. Despite knowing it, though, she wasn't fast enough to avoid it which earned her a knick on the thigh. "Are you alright?"

"We're in a fight, Alexius!" It amazed her how it wasn't until now that she noticed herself shouting over the crowd that so excitedly cheered on their fight. "If you're going to worry, worry about yourself!"

Charging in herself this time, Noé summoned more daggers into her hands as she switched between slashing at him and physical attacks. They weren't strong or purposeful, but they weren't supposed to be either. Despite how much fun she was having bouting with the cub, she knew that if one thing would end up being her downfall, it'd be taking him lightly. And the fact that he had yet to ditch his sword bothered her enough to force him.

He was a Fanalis. Even if he was a half-blood, there was no denying that his real prowess laid in his hand-to-hand combat. So if she truly wanted to prove to herself that these past three months hadn't been wasted time, then fighting a Fanalis with descendency from the Great Rift at his full strength would be it.

"He won't djinn-equip to fight against you, Noé. You know that."

I know. Making him djinn-equip wasn't her plan, though.

All Noé wanted was to fight that Red Lion. Something that would be a struggle in and of itself with how much he tended to keep to his human tendencies. During her stay, she had seen plenty of the other Fanalis who let their instincts take over. They were ferocious and unstoppable, even against her. But Muu...he never let his guard down. Always proper, always respectable—always human.

Noé had seen enough of that part of him. Now, she wanted to witness the beast that laid within him that he so blatantly kept restrained.

And what best way to provoke someone than to butt heads against them.

"Violence for violence's sake won't get you anywhere."

We'll see about that.

Continuing her onslaught, she didn't allow Muu a moment's reprieve as she summoned dagger after dagger, throwing one after another to find an opening in those distractions. Regrettably, after that first time she caught him off guard, he didn't let it happen again. Those crimson eyes followed every movement, every breath, and acted accordingly. Diligently and methodically. Think less, she shouted in her mind. Act more on instinct! Throwing her daggers out one final time, Noé opted for a different strategy and flashed the moment she saw his gaze fall from her.

Momentarily gone, she cut the distance between them by appearing behind and roundhouse kicking him. Before he had time to react, Noé blinked and flashed again, gaining the upper hand once more and this time landing in a punch to his shoulder. On and on, she played this cat and mouse game, finding more openings than she was missing and noticing how much this was starting to tire him out.

The moment it forced him to pierce the ground with his sword, however, was the moment she rejoiced inwardly with a smirk forming on her lips to show for it. Flashing out of sight the moment she saw this, Noé reappeared above him intent on knocking him out. But the short second he paused and looked upward to meet her shocked her out of her pattern as he snatched her ankle. Without mercy, he whirled her about, ready to throw her against one of the statues nearby. Noticing this and snapping herself out of that shock, Noé bent forward and grabbed onto his wrist in time to avoid being sent flying. Using the momentum, she spun and brought his arm back with her ready to pin it behind his back.

"No, you don't!"

His muscles tensed under her grasp as he forced her forward instead, her strength no match to force him into submission. Somehow grabbing onto her wrists, Muu easily held her high enough over the ground to keep her from touching it as his shallow breaths betrayed a low chuckle. The focused look he had this whole time vanished in the blink of an eye as he held her in place.

"That would be my win, correct?"

To his surprise, Noé scoffed as her emerald gaze lifted to meet his.

"Not yet."

The right side of her face burned instantly the moment she flashed them both out of the arena and into unknown territory for him. Stumbling down a hill, it took him a moment longer to grasp his surroundings than it did for her, giving her enough time to flash towards him and strike his abdomen with the talon of her foot. Muu let out a groan on impact loud enough to make her smirk as she jumped back when he regained his footing.

Though he only gave their new setting a brief glance, Muu never once let her out of his sight. "Flashing me out of the arena is being quite the sore loser, Miss Noé."

"You catching me didn't mean my defeat, cub. I never heard any rules about not leaving the colosseum either." Tapping her toes against the ground to disperse the pain from having hit his armor so hard, Noé focused on his every move as he held onto his stomach. "Besides, out here we can fight a little more liberally, can't we?"

Crimson eyes narrowed on her at those words. "Liberally?"

"You're not fighting me seriously, cub." Through gritted teeth and forced grin, she continued, "And it's putting me on edge."

"I could say the same thing about yourself, Miss Noé. You're still treating me like I'm a kid."

"You are compared to me," she admitted.

"But if your intention is to have a serious fight with me, then I'd say that you'd need to take me seriously as well." He pointed at himself and back at her a couple of times for emphasis. "We can't have this be one-sided because you decided to throw a tantrum."

Emerald eyes narrowed at hearing that, her cheeks flushing a bit at the insinuation. "I am not throwing a tantrum!"

In her head, Chief's roaring laughter echoed incessantly. And quite annoyingly. "I will never not find it amusing when he calls you out like that."

"Alibaba mentioned training with someone while we fought." Muu straightened out as he took methodical steps around Noé who saw fit to mirror him and keep him as far away from her back as possible. "At first I thought he meant one of the Yambala. Master Shambal did mention that he took the boy in, after all."

Stopping mid-conversation to charge at her, Noé waited long enough to dodge at the last moment and avoid any change of direction on his part. Jumping over him as if it were a game of leapfrog, Noé evaded his launch and turned just in time to miss him spinning on his heels to catch her arm with a full swing. Her teeth gritted at the strength of that single hit, her arm flaring with pain and heat the instant his fist made contact with it.

"It wasn't until I gave it a little thought that it started making sense." Muu shook his fist as if the hit he'd given had somehow hurt him as well. "You've been training Alibaba, haven't you?"

"Told you."

Shut it. Nonchalantly as could be, she chuckled as she held onto her bruising arm. "You must truly be hitting those barrels of liquor harder than I've seen, cub. Can't see how you'd make such a farfetched conclusion otherwise."

"I thought so too at first, but the more I saw Alibaba's style of fighting and how all over the place it was when he's not holding a sword, it made sense. Unpredictable movements, swift dodging, instantaneous reactions. He may be slower and much better versed in swordplay but there was no mistaking your fighting style mixed in with his."

"I don't have a style."

"Days on end of watching you have taught me otherwise."

Tired of beating around the bush, Noé stood with one hand on her hip and scoffed. "So what if I am? I knew the kid from before and saw he was having trouble learning. I lent a hand. It's not like it's any of your business."

"You're right, it's not. But what I want you to realize is that you take him far more seriously than you do me. And in terms of age, which seems to matter so much to you, he's far younger than I am, correct?"

Noé opened her mouth ready to argue but shut it almost instantly when she realized that she had nothing to retort with.

"Cub got your tongue?"

Whose fucking side are you on?

"Your point?"

With a heavy sigh, he smiled the way he did that got her stomach turning a bit. Something that she hated happening anytime she saw it. Finally, he tilted his head to one side as he said, "If you can take Alibaba seriously long enough to train him over the last three months, how about trying with me for one fight, Noé."

Her eyes grew wide at the way he spoke her name. Without honorifics or even that politeness of his, her name sounded odd coming from him. But odd in a way that wasn't bad.

Scoffing, Noé took her stance once more, digging her sandals into the ground. "Alright. If we're gonna do this, let's do it right, Muu."

Muu smiled at hearing his own name from her. Slowly, he took a stance that took Noé a bit by surprise. Much like Myron's it was poised and correct, but unlike hers, he appeared much more overwhelming as his crimson eyes narrowed. "No holding back then."

In the blink of an eye, he disappeared. Emerald eyes widened at the surprising speed but when the scent of earth and spices hit her nostrils, Noé backed off before Muu's fist could connect with her shoulder. Instead, it struck the ground where she'd stood seconds ago destroying the ground and leaving a crater behind the size of a boulder.

"He's quick."

But not that strong.

Much like it was in her case, Muu didn't have the full set of perks that came with being a pureblood. And that in itself was somewhat of a bright side to this sudden change of attitude he'd taken.

"You got what you wanted," Chief reminded her. "Now deal with it."

Oh, she would.

For once, though, she felt at a sort of disadvantage. Despite a full month having passed since the incident with Rhea, her wing had yet to fully heal. She could steel her feathers again and the wing itself didn't hurt anymore, but the simple fact that she couldn't sense as well without the nerves connected to it at their fullest was seriously crippling her. By inches, Muu kept missing his attacks, some just a hair's breadth away from striking true, and Noé couldn't take a breather or even think with how unrelenting he'd suddenly become.

Spinning on her heels, she tried avoiding his hits without backing off but each time she dodged, he seemed to gain on her a foot and only getting closer with each subsequent attack. Muu wasn't letting her breathe and wasn't letting her think, and what was worse, he was deliberately trying to drive her into a corner. Despite a strange sensation slowly boiling deep in her chest anytime he got too close, she kept her wits to her, attempting to strike back and counter anytime he did. Noé knew she wasn't as strong as him—no Vastago could beat a Fanalis in strength—but speed was a completely different story. Toeing the line between being hit and hitting back, Noé did her best to counter his every move that only seemed to grow more furious and potent the longer their bout lasted. Suddenly caught off guard with one misstep, she feinted in the hopes to deviate his attack. Muu, however, caught her slight and saw through her charade with one fell swoop.

Noé acted on instinct and panic when she struck his arm with her open palm to swerve his punch. It luckily worked to diverge most of what would have most certainly been a fatal attack, but not all of it. A thin line across her cheek burned instantly from how fast he'd struck and with the force his knuckles had grazed her. With how close they were to one another now, Noé caught a brief glance of his gaze and froze.

How a mere glance that wasn't even cold nor threatening did that to her was beyond her. But it did, and it allowed Muu the window to land a hit to her stomach and send her across the field only to be stopped by the thicket not far away.

Air escaped her with a solid exhale as she fell on the ground gasping for air and holding her abdomen. Her ears rang loudly and her vision was struck with white lights blinding her, but what caught her the most by surprise was the sudden emotion that had burst the instant she realized Muu had landed his hit. Even now as she struggled to get up from the punch that left her literally breathless and aching, her trembling hands never once lost their grip as her nails dug into her palm.

Why am I afraid?

Noé could count the times she'd been this afraid in one hand. As a child, the fear of being killed and eaten had been ingrained in her so much by Theone that it would rear its head even in her sleep. Nightmares plagued her till her fear was too large for her to even leave the darkened cave she'd called home for centuries. Now far distanced from the girl she used to be after the last two thousand and odd years, Noé had thought that terror would have died along with that little girl.

But now as she stood completely baffled by how floored she was by that same long-forgotten dread, she could tell what a huge lie she had been telling herself.

"They'll maim you, Noélia." The fear was incapacitating as she watched Muu approach her, the clear expression of concern etched on his face completely disregarded when all that took over her mind was what she heard in her head. "The Red Lions will destroy you and kill you where you stand. You'll be hung by your feet with your throat ripped open for you to bleed out and die."

Sudden pain and a burning sensation came to her left arm that completely overrode the one from her stomach. As she held onto it, she could feel the heat from it along with the sharp pain that struck her. Almost like something was digging countless needles into her muscle over and over again. Shockingly though not even the pain took her attention away from Muu as he now stood mere feet from her.

"Don't let him near you, Noélia."

Noé took a step back, her feathers quivering beneath her robes as she gripped her arm tightly until her knuckles turned a ghastly white.

"Protect yourself."

Those crimson eyes grew wide with concern as he reached out his hand.

"Noé?"

"Kill him."

Emerald eyes grew wide and she let out a bloodcurdling scream as she let go of her arm and ambushed him, her fingers woven between steeled feathers as she began brandishing her wing at him. But just as she felt her own feathers cutting her fingers and the palm of her hand, a larger hand caught her wrist and grabbed her other arm to stop her in her tracks. Rapid and shallow breaths escaped her as she stood still unable to even fathom what had just happened.

It was as her brain slowly began working again that she saw something. Bright crimson bloomed from a gash on his thick neck where her steeled feathers managed to strike before he stopped her. Unconsciously, Noé took away her wing despite him still having her wrist in his hand and watched as more bright red blood flowed from the now open gash. The same warm blood that now coated her feathers and fingers. The tight grip on her wrist remained but the one on her arm slackened to reach up and stop the bleeding that seemed to seep through his fingers.

"I'm so sorry, Miss Noé. I...shouldn't have gone that far."

Now instead of fear, a different emotion flooded her and suffocated her at his words and the sudden realization that hit her because of them. Quicker than he could fathom, Noé raised her free arm to touch his before flashing him without warning.

His sudden absence weighed far greater on her than she thought possible. Without him holding onto her, that same weight seemed to pull her down to her knees as low, shallow breathes left her lips.

"...Noé?"

"W-What...what happened to me?"

"I-I don't know." Chief sounded just as baffled as she felt and that bothered her far more. "I couldn't get through to you again. It was just like the last time it happened. You just...lost control."

"No…" she corrected, her eyes frantically scanning the ground as she tried to understand what had gone through her mind. "I know...exactly what I was trying to do."

I tried to kill Muu.

Unable to take it anymore, she flashed out of the prairie and to the only place that she knew would allow her to stay, no questions asked. Noé stumbled in as she flashed into the semi-darkened room, crashing into a few ceramic bowls and glass flasks as she struggled to gather herself. A light flickered into view as the embers of a candle came into the room to vaguely illuminate it.

Deep blues eyes swept across the room before meeting hers and narrowed briefly before recognition crossed the young, dark-skinned face.

"Miss Noé?"

Noé locked her gaze with Maahes as the young alchemist went about lighting the oil lanterns spread across the room. Despite it being barely noon out, the fact that this particular space was underground excluded any rays of the hot sun outside, something that she thanked goodness for with how agitated she was.

Like this, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that she could accidentally solidify light and harm innocents if she were to return anywhere populated.

Finally heaving a sigh of relief at the sight of the young Heliohaptian, Noé dropped to her knees, crashing even more against the instruments he had propped around the tables in her attempt to soften her fall. Maahes rushed to her side the moment she lost her footing and set aside the candle in his hand before hurrying to examine her.

All Noé had to do to halt the frantic searching was to push away his hand as her labored breaths calmed down enough for her to speak.

"Miss Noé, you're hurt. I have to tend to your wounds."

"No," she whispered, still somewhat breathless. "There's something else—."

"It can wait. Your wounds come first."

"Listen to me!" When she shook him so brusquely, it seemed to finally get his attention. "I need you to look at this..."

Undoing her obi with her other hand, she let her robes fall from her left shoulder to show him the dark coloring that was now masking half of her upper arm and pulsating grotesquely in the dark. Finally, when those deep blue eyes met hers with horror, Noé knew she had his attention.

"You're the only one I trust to do it, Maahes. Help me find out what this is...please.

---

|iii.|

Gossip and rumors apparently followed her anywhere she went. She supposed being the wallflower that she was, it'd be inevitable that she'd listen in on what others would talk about when they believed she wasn't there, too.

"Did you hear about the lord's latest stunt?"

"Yes... He adopted a girl from the red light district, right?"

"Not just any girl. I heard it's his illegitimate daughter!"

"What?!"

"No, that can't be. But...ever since our mistress passed away and with no children to speak of, our lord has appeared quite down."

"Isn't it? I mean, have you seen the child? Were it not for that ghastly white hair, she'd be the spitting image of our lord. Not only that but have you heard why our lord took her in?"

"I heard it was something about her mother disappearing and a puddle of blood being left behind in her room."

"Another one? I heard a lot of prostitutes have been disappearing in that house in the past couple of years."

"With their line of work, I'm not surprised."

"One would think so but apparently they were all killed in their own rooms after business hours. The blood left behind in their rooms is pretty damning too. But they haven't found the bodies as of yet either, so there's really no telling."

"How terrifying…"

"Quiet!" The gaggle of women halted their conversation the instant Seraphina decided to walk out of her hiding spot behind a corner, doing so as naturally as possible. They bowed and smiled at her as if they hadn't just been bad talking her moments ago. "Good morning, my lady."

She didn't bother replying. She simply kept her head down and headed down the long hallway that led downstairs to the kitchen. Once she reached the top of the stairs though, she could hear the whispers of their gossiping begin anew.

Seraphina didn't care for them either way. It'd been only a week since she had been picked up from the brothel where her mother had worked. And like they all had been muttering about, it'd been due to her disappearance.

Due to her murder.

She'd been in the room when it happened. But like she told the authorities when they'd questioned her, she had been asleep in a separate room while her mother had been working out of business hours. And the law seldom questioned a young girl after such a traumatic event.

How lucky.

Reaching the kitchen, Seraphina nodded away the welcomes she received before asking for her breakfast. It was while the cook finished preparing it for her and reached for utensils that they suddenly exploded at the staff with their face completely red.

"Goddamn it all! You lot better find me knives soon or I'll cut yer heads off with the new ones I get!"

Seafoam green watched with her tray in hand as the staff apologized, swearing that they had looked everywhere for his precious knife set. The old cook pounded the counter to get their attention, all flinching at the sudden outburst while Seraphina stood aloofly at the door for a second before leaving. Taking it to her room, she only took the piece of bread and jelly with water before leaving the rest of the food on the table by her open window.

Doves from around town came in almost instantly. A week of feeding them had won her their trust where they would simply enter when they smelled the food. Seraphina watched them from the opposite wall as she ate her food and it wasn't until she was done that she crawled over to her bed to pull something from underneath it. A wooden box that she'd taken to place her treasured belongings slid right out which she easily opened to find countless knives of different sizes inside.

Sitting back against the wall, she took the handle of one to carefully aim before throwing it at the doves. A ruckus of fluttering and a cry blew in the air as the birds rushed out of the window. The ones that could anyway. Seraphina walked over to where one was helpless to fly away with how one of its wings was pinned against her wall. Grabbing the dove's body, a gelid air took over her hand as her magic manifested itself without warning to slowly freeze the dove with a thin layer of ice.

Magic wasn't too well looked upon in the city of Reim—it barely was allowed to exist thanks to a certain magi among the city—but Seraphina, sheltered as she was, hadn't known that when her powers first manifested. It was the first time that her mother ever raised a hand against her and the only time she ever saw that smile disappear from her face.

That was seven days ago.

Now, despite not being able to control it well, she could do simple things like capture the birds she caught in her trap. What simpletons, she thought. It never occurred to them that the offerings that they found every day inside her room were mere bait. Even when they knew to be cautious, their own survival instincts urged them to risk themselves for their sustenance. Nature at its finest would always work in her favor. She knew how it worked, after all.

Most got away. One never did.

"Pretty little bird." Seraphina watched as her ice encased the bird with its wings outstretched, forcing it the best she could to stop it from completely covering its face. With her thumb, she gently petted the dove's head as it cried out in panic and walked over to her box to search for one tool in particular. "Pretty, pretty little bird."

Its head thrashed around in feeble attempts to escape but Seraphina knew there was no way for it to get away. It was trapped. Just like she was.

Not anymore, she reminded herself.

From her box, Seraphine took out a pair of golden scissors. The only memento she had brought from the bordello. Her mother's golden scissors with rusted days' old blood still staining its blades. Opening the blades with a creak, she placed the bird's wing between the open blades.

"But you'd look prettier and livelier in red."

Just like her mother.

Snip.

---

|ii.|

"What is that?"

"I wish I knew…"

Noé tapped the small glass plate where a good-sized piece of her darkened flesh now quietly sat. Scraping it off was a bitch, hurt like one too, but luckily Maahes's hand was a swift one and cut the sucker right off her arm. Curiously enough, two things were learned when he did that. First, despite what it looked like, that part of her was still very much alive, which meant that cutting with the sharpest dagger he had lying around was quite painful. But the second and frankly far more important matter than her aching arm was that it grew back—the small hole he'd made from cutting off a sample grew back like moss over a rock except much, much faster.

"Don't touch it."

Her finger retracted as she stood up straight when Maahes announced his return while carrying all kinds of flasks and instruments in his arms. Donning an odd pair of headgear and leather gloves, he set all his instruments in order before placing the glass plate with the specimen high on a small metal stand on the table. With a pair of tweezers, he took the small piece of flesh and snipped an even tinier piece off before placing it on another plate.

"What are you going to do with it?" she asked as she sat back on a stool to watch him work.

"Experiment on it." Placing a few drops on top of it of some liquid, he waited a minute before jotting down on a parchment he'd set to one side. "Whatever this is, it's composed of something able to influence you as it is. And though I'm no expert in magic, I have studied their formulae plenty while working on my alchemy and aiding in the research into chemistry."

"Chemistry?" she asked as he placed another substance on it.

"A branch similar to alchemy. Very similar actually. A lot of my research has gone on to fortify what the chemists in that sector have already been working on for years from what Commander Ignatius tells me."

"Natty should be thankful for the hard work that you give out for free."

"This laboratory is gratitude enough, in my opinion."

"They should've decorated you with a medal in mine."

Maahes chuckled at her quip as he finished with the first batch of chemicals he had brought over. Taking another chunk of the specimen, he began applying different forces to it now, starting with flames. Noé chuckled nervously when the embers were a little too close for comfort. Leaving him to focus on his work, she rummaged through some of Maahes's drawers until she found bandages she could use to cover the nasty spreading mark on her arm. Meticulously wrapping it so that not an inch of the rather large tar-looking scab could peek out, Noé finished quickly enough and turned back to Maahes.

A smile came to her lips as she watched the boy work on with such concentration etched on his face. It truly never ceased to amaze her how the little Heliohaptian slave she had saved all those years ago had not only found a life he could be proud of in a completely different country but also tended to her needs and kept the small cabin she had once called home from decaying. The boy had done much more than she would have ever thought anybody would do for her. The whole saving him from a life of slavery notwithstanding.

"It's something you tend to do, kid. Pull unfortunate children from their unfortunate circumstances."

Never intend to. It just happens.

"Then perhaps it's a secret power of yours. One I'm sure people like Maahes appreciate."

Noé wasn't so sure. True, there were people like Maahes whom she helped that ended up being grateful for what she did, but for every Maahes there were at least ten Nikotis's. For every grateful soul, there would always be ten more that would cower and fear her for what she was.

A monster among humans.

"This is...incredible."

Emerald eyes blinked out of their stupor at Maahes' sudden exclamation. Standing from her seat, Noé came over to stand by his side as he stood back from the plate he'd been experimenting on.

"What happened?"

Pulling back his headgear, deep-blue eyes looked over his shoulder to her while pointing at the specimen with the small scalpel he held in one hand. "This thing is alive."

The odd statement made Noé recoil. "What?"

"I know it sounds strange but it's the only thing that makes sense. Look." Reaching into the plate with the sharp blade, Maahes cut into the piece of flesh. Doing so made the tiny piece react once cut as it tried to latch onto the blade only to slide off. The cut that had been made on it rapidly stitched back together seamlessly until no sign of injury was left. "It's sentient enough to attack whatever hurts it. Not only that it seems to have incredible regenerative abilities as well."

"So, what? Is this thing like a parasite or something?"

"You know, that might not be all that far off."

Covering it up with a lid, Maahes left to the other room and came back with a small animal cupped in his closed hands. From where she stood, Noé spotted the tiny head of a rodent poking out before he placed it inside a glass box with etched holes all around it, small enough for it to breathe through but not large enough to escape. A box he made, she supposed, because she'd never once seen one like it. The mouse scurried around in its tiny enclosure and while letting it be, Maahes took the specimen with his tweezers and dropped it into the box.

Both bent forward to watch and stared in awe at what rapidly ensued. The curious mouse came close and pawed at the specimen and, as if sensing something that was alive, the black piece of her flesh latched onto the rodent. Almost instantly it went into a frenzy, crying out loudly in pain as the black flesh took over and engulfed it completely in a matter of seconds. A blob of black flesh with beady blue eyes was left in its place as it slid around the glass box. Almost instantly when spotting them however, it began to thrash around, pushing against the walls in an attempt to escape its prison.

"That thing—"

It's exactly how Perseus and the villagers from Maladh were absorbed and transformed.

So whatever had attached itself to her was the same exact thing that had infected them too, huh? Even Maahes who had no idea of those events surmised as much with what little he had just seen.

"It looks like it assimilates any living form it comes into contact within a matter of seconds." Maahes held the box in place, his hands carefully kept away from the holes where it had begun to slip its tendrils out of. "And it seems to recognize larger lifeforms like us as well. I wonder...what could possibly neutralize it?"

Noé instantly perked up at the idea of killing that thing.

"Oh, I know."

"You do?"

"Yeah, it's easy."

"Easy?" he repeated, incredulously.

Patting his hand away, Noé placed her own above the lid before calling upon Chief's magic. In the blink of an eye, sharp blades of light erupted inside the cage in a blinding light. Like a lantern, the blades lighted the darkroom and pierced through the blob multiple times. It writhed and let out a shriek that lasted a second before the light dissipated the blob into a dark mist that harmlessly floated away to disappear completely.

She grinned as she dusted her hands off before gesturing at a job well done. "See? Easy."

"Light magic does seem to do the trick." Maahes' white-haired head tilted to one side pensively as the light daggers disappeared into specks and left the room as dark as before. "Have you ever tried any other kind of magic on it?"

"I only have Light magic, Maa. I can't fight it with no other magic—no, wait." With a snap of her fingers, a figurative light came on above her head at the realization that dawned on her. "Fire magic works too."

"You used it against it?"

"Somebody else's Metal Vessel. It could injure monsters that I guess come from that black blob too."

"You've met monsters like those?"

"Yep. Ugly ones too," she added with a chuckle and a smug grin.

"Focus," Chief reminded her.

Clearing her throat, Noé nodded. "They're something I don't think you've been unfortunate enough to meet, thankfully. They're called dark djinn."

"Dark Djinn?" Noé took a moment to explain everything to him, from her encounters with other dark djinns to how different these new ones were.

"But these aren't like the normal ones," she summarized. "In fact, I don't think even calling them Dark Djinn does them justice. They certainly come off as a completely different breed if you ask me. They were far stronger and intelligent than the usual bunch I get. Not to mention that they could turn humans into copies of itself as that thing did to the poor mouse you fed it."

Maahes stood upright and took a moment to think through what information she'd given. "But if it works as quickly as we've seen and as you claim it does, then...how are you still here?"

Her mouth fell open ready to question what he meant by that but stopped short when a stirring nearby caught her attention. The crimson feathers behind her ear bristled at the disturbance, making her spin on her heels to confront whoever had barged in on them. Steeled feather in hand, Noé held Maahes back with one arm while brandishing her blade towards the entrance only to be met with a mildly nervous chuckle.

"Whoa there. Please try being more careful with where you point that, Noé."

That voice…

Noé clicked her tongue at recognizing that familiar lilt before placing her feather back behind her on her wing. "What do you want, Rakah?"

"No need to be so cold." Those amethyst eyes were visible even in the darkened room as he walked in far more leisurely than she would've liked. "Especially when I'm here to say 'hello'."

"H-How did you gain entrance to this place?" Maahes stammered from behind her.

Without pause, Rakah pointed his thumb behind him, surely gesturing towards the entrance of the laboratory. "Door was left open."

"Right," Noé deadpanned. "Why are you here? And don't give me any of your bullshit. Not in the mood for it at the moment."

Rakah sighed audibly at hearing that, his shoulders slumping considerably. "Seems like nobody is recently." Clearing his throat, he turned sideways before gesturing outside. "If we could talk outside."

"Whatever it is, you can spit it out here."

"Are you sure?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "It's about the other bearers."

A moment of silence overtook her as she quickly thought over her options. Chief, however, had her mind made up the instant he spoke that moniker.

"Leave, Noé. It's best young Maahes not be involved in this."

Right.

"Meet me outside the workshop. I'll be out in a minute."

Through the dimness of the laboratory, she swore to have seen a smile come to Rakah's lips a second before he bowed and made his leave. Once she was sure to have heard the door close and his footsteps gone, she turned back to Maahes as he pulled down the headgear that covered his eyes.

Those brilliant oceanic eyes fleeted downward for a moment before they rose to meet hers. "I know it's not my place to say anything but are you sure you should be doing business with that man?" Nervously, his hands wrung each other until he held onto them with an iron tight grip. "He...gives me a very bad feeling."

"He's not the most trustworthy for sure, but what business I have with him is all under control." Noé smiled before ruffling his head and getting him to relax a bit. "Trust me, Maahes, everything's fine. I'll leave after this but can you continue to do some more research on that black blob?"

Maahes nodded firmly. "Leave it to me."

Assured of that, Noé traversed through the various rooms leading out to the entrance of Maahes's workshop and met Reim's boisterous afternoon streets for the first time that day. Flashing directly into the workshop without stepping outside of the colosseum proved to have hidden just how busy the large community was that day. Amongst the crowd that bustled through however, she still caught sight of Rakah who would've fit quite well among the Remians would it not be for his bright amethyst eyes. Noé made her way through the crowd to him and changed course when he stood straight to walk away into the crowd. He wanted to be followed, obviously, but she was seriously not in the mood to play his games.

But it's about them.

So long as that was the case, she would begrudgingly play along.

Trudging through the crowd, Noé followed the head of bright gold that threaded through the same people and found herself in an open plaza where many were occupied decorating the place while others seemed to poise their stands ready with food and souvenirs. A brief moment was all she took to take the odd scenery in before leaning against the wall next to where Rakah took a seat.

"So? What's this news you're so eager to tell me?"

Rakah chuckled under his breath as he leaned back on his hands. "Someone's cranky."

"I am," she deadpanned with a serious glare that she decided to direct at nothing in particular. Her irritation however was quickly interrupted when the sudden darkening of the sky took her attention, the clouds above rolling with quite the speed to darken it. "Now spill it before I decide to leave."

"Very well. I've found the rest of the bearers."

What?!

"That's impossible. For one person to have found them all…"

Noé kept her nonchalance close not wanting to let her emotions betray her. Had he really done what she had spent the entirety of her life in just a few short months?

"That's...not possible," she slowly interjected, managing somehow to remain calm at his proclamation.

"Not as impossible as you might've thought."

Standing straight from where she was, she took the few steps closer to him. "Who are they?"

"I can't tell you that. Not yet, anyway."

The light around her refracted almost instantly. Half-formed spears making contact with beams that held decorations up made them crack under the pressure but luckily Chief calmed her down before the light could completely manifest and cause serious damages.

"Compose yourself, Noélia."

Taking a minute to do just that, Noé took a deep breath and dispersed the light turning it back to normal before turning to look down at Rakah. "You're testing my patience, boy."

"I was really trying to avoid such a thing from happening."

She clicked her tongue almost immediately. "You're failing majestically at it. So I highly suggest you salvage however much you can of it by explaining to me why the hell you can't tell me who they are."

"They haven't manifested their gifts yet."

"Then how do you know they're bearers?"

"Metal Vessel Users have turned out to be quite the magnets for seals," he explained. "You and the Banquet of Flames fell into that mold quite readily. Can't see why Silver Echoes won't do the same with the suspect I have in mind."

"And the others?" she asked.

"What about them?"

"We're supposed to be seven, Rakah," Noé pointed out, showing her hand off while crossing her arms over her chest before showing off three fingers. "Even with us and the two others you claim you've found, we'd still be three short. And the prison won't open without all the keys."

"Calm down, I know." The glare she sent his way that clearly said her patience was on a razor's edge urged him to explain himself further. "Well, about them...they've all made contracts with me already much as you did."

Emerald eyes narrowed at that. "You convinced them? How?"

"I don't think I need to describe to you of all people just how bothersome it is to carry these gifts and how much of a burden they can be to those ill-prepared to pay the toll for such powers." Rakah made a gesture towards her very much dismissively, but something about it caught her attention as well as Chief's.

"Did his fingers just...move?"

They're twitching. Her fingers dug into her arm as she folded them back into place.

He definitely didn't have to tell her about the burden of their gifts. She was well aware of the whole 'great power comes at a great price' and all that. At least that's what her meistras always told her about magic. Regardless of its source, magic was a double-edged sword. 'Such natural and raw energy cannot be controlled; only guided,' she would say. That applied to any who used magic, magicians, and Metal Vessel users alike, and certainly to her and Rakah as bearers most of all. The usage of their gifts wasn't true control, it merely appeared as such. As Gift Bearers, they were nothing more than glorified reservoirs that could act as channels to guide and mold the raw power as well as their capabilities allowed them to. It's why now after months of training with the Yambala she could better work with Grace of Sunlight's rukh and the magoi it granted her.

But by the mere fact that there was no real control, it meant that it could harm them too. The simple thought made her reach up to her throat that felt just as dry as the day that she obtained her gift. As its bearer, Grace of Sunlight granted her the ability to absorb and manipulate Light magic and rukh, but in exchange, it kept her perpetually in a state of desiccation.

'With Grace of Sunlight, it is as if you hold the sun within you,' Teosa told her one of many nights spent around a roaring bonfire. 'It shines and invigorates you while simultaneously baring you from every drop of water in your body to the point of barely being sustainable.'

It was a tradeoff. Clear and simple. Or as Teosa had called it, a penance.

Noé knew of hers having experienced it for the last two thousand odd years, and because of her meistras, she had some notion of what the others had to suffer through as well. If the jerking movements Rakah was so diligently hiding were anything to go by, then she supposed she could also guess his.

Reading into this from her quietness, Chief spoke up to ask, "What is it?"

Electricity. Tiny bursts of it channeling through his body from all the lightning that courses through him. That's what's making him lose control of his body.

From the many things she learned through the years, the one that always stuck the most was about how little they knew about the human body. Of what little they did know, the most fascinating was how it worked on currents. Noé applauded Musta'sim's magicians whom she'd learned this from; after years of overhearing such information, it finally became useful to explain something. Much like a lantern functioned on oil, the body also used energy much like lightning that powered its movements and thinking. The rather unsavory experiments she came across while on her trip to the small country were quite the demonstration of that. Certainly made her mull over how perfectly humans had to be made to be able to work so precisely.

Because one little lightning current to his brain or into his heart would be deadly.

"And would make your job far easier."

Instinctively, she smacked her arm in a feeble attempt to quiet the voice that rose with the rather cynic thought. She retook the conversation where they left it off after the brief pause it took for her to think.

"They'd rather give you the gifts than suffer the penance."

"Can't blame them, honestly," Rakah said, a smile pulling at the edge of his lips. Slowly, he stretched out one of his arms before him as he opened and closed his fists a couple of times. Now that she bothered to look closer, it somewhat bothered her to see firsthand how his muscles spasmed from time to time under his skin so visibly with each minute twitch of his arm. "It's hard enough to be alive in our times as it is. No need to add to it such things as all-powerful magic that electrocutes you every other second or that leaves you parched no matter how much you drink."

"What about Banquet of Flames and Silver Echoes then?" By now her tone had softened a bit, her annoyance depleting in waves as she stood back wanting to know more. "Are they involved in contracts with you?"

"I've been trying to convince the Banquet's bearer for some time now. A rather stubborn one that one, I'll tell you. But it'll be a matter of time before she sees things our way." That snarky attitude of his fell short as something came to his mind, his eyes falling and his smirk with them. "Silver Echoes still needs some convincing though."

"Will you be able to handle it?"

Rakah nodded resolutely. "I will. I know her too well not to. Ceara won't say no once I talk things through with her."

That name...why does it sound familiar?

The sound of Chief taking a breath as if preparing to answer reached her ears but was cut off by Rakah's sudden words.

"I've made contact with all of them already, Noé. Another complete stranger inquiring them about something they have no knowledge of will only entice them to learn more." Noé scoffed the moment he started making sense, hating every minute of it. "And that will only make matters harder for us than they already are. I wish to take the gifts peacefully if possible, after all."

Her eyes narrowed at the implications of what he just said. "And if they refuse?"

It was a coy question and Noé knew it, but the way he'd said that last bit didn't sit well with her.

It's like he knows there is another way.

"I don't doubt he does."

Noé hoped Chief was wrong for once. For Rakah's sake anyway. Because if she wasn't, Noé would forfeit all alliances with the magician on the spot. She would not have her brethren's descendants slaughtered like lambs.

"At least not unless it's by your hands."

Be quiet.

Amethyst eyes met hers briefly before smiling, "Then we keep trying. We have to convince them to join us in our cause. If not by giving us the gifts then by coming along with us if necessary."

A deep breath came in and left her as something akin to relief washed over her at his words. Certainly not because she cared, though. She just didn't want to prove that nasty voice in her head right any longer.

"I suppose you're right. My interference would be rather impractical," she finally admitted to which Rakah nodded. Playing nice was the best strategy she had for now since bickering with him now would certainly not gain her anything other than a headache. "I'll give you space but I won't hesitate to barge in if things get too out of hand for you, either."

A quiet chuckle came from him as he lowered his head to scratch it. "Way to cheer for me."

Cheeky ass brat. Stomping her foot down forced him to lift his gaze and meet hers once more.

"We're doing this together with the same goal in mind, Rakah. I'm not trying to antagonize you. I'm only being diligent."

One corner of his lips lifted as his eyes slightly softened, his hands slowly falling from his hair as he took what she said in. Without another word, he rose from his seat and faced her with a much smaller smile coming to his lips. That expression—so soft and vulnerable—actually made him look like what he truly was, a young man amidst a destiny he seemed to want no part in.

"I know. It's what you taught me, after all."

The way he said that struck her as strange and out of turn but what caught her most off guard was that for a moment she could've sworn that she saw melancholy touch those cold eyes of his.

"What did you—augh!" The sudden pounding from her arm caught her off guard as pain shot through it and across her body.

Rakah's brow furrowed at her sudden pain and immediately reached out to where she held her arm without a word. Reacting instantly, Noé released her shoulder to slap his hand away, but at doing so jerked her own robe, uncovering her shoulder and bringing to light the blemish that marred her arm. Amethyst eyes widened at the sight of it which didn't go away even after Noé covered her arm back up.

"That mark—"

"It's nothing."

"But it is…" Suddenly growing pensive, he held his chin between his fingers. "Have you...fallen into depravity?"

Saying that the comment caught her off guard would be a great understatement. "What?"

"Don't misunderstand! I don't mean to insult you," he quickly interjected while raising his arms in surrender. "But that's black rukh, and I've only seen it on those who have fallen."

"I haven't."

"I believe you." Sure you do. He couldn't have sounded more sarcastic if he'd tried. "But if you haven't, then…" Rakah took a moment to think quietly before speaking again, this time in a much more serious tone. "Have you ever heard of something called miasma."

Her brow furrowed then at the name. "Miasma?"

Rakah nodded, then deftly began his history lesson. Apparently, during his time with a particular Toran tribe in the southwest near the Great Rift years ago, he'd read about some plague that had stricken the villages nearby, including that one. It described the plague as a fog that mysteriously spread during one night and infected them, leaving behind stains on the skins of anybody who'd come into contact with it. Humans, animals, vegetation—it spread across anything that lived and attached itself to them. It killed them vegetation instantly. Animals rotted from the inside out becoming inedible the instant they were infected. As for people… It killed them eventually, but before that, it seemed to corrode their minds with delusions and voices.

"Voices?" she repeated, feeling a cold sweat beginning to fall down her back.

"Yes. From what the scrolls told, it deranged them to the point where it helped spread the disease after the fog was gone."

She feared to ask but couldn't help doing so. "How did they cure it?"

"They didn't," Noé swore her stomach fell upon hearing that. "Those who hadn't been infected fled the village and left their sick to perish along with the disease. It took months from what the records said before those areas were cleared of any infected."

Almost instantly her voice rose, baffled. "Months?"

"But how can that be?" Chief said, voicing her own confusion. "That thing that young Maahes showed you devoured the rodent almost instantly."

It didn't make sense. But that there was a record of others lasting longer than a few moments before being taken over was its own kind of respite.

Answering her query, Rakah continued. "From the look of things, magic had a lot to do with it. The Toran aren't magicians but they say that a magician did aid them in quelling the infection's spread long enough to move the healthy."

A magician near the Great Rift? It would appear that both she and Chief had the same thought when a certain green-hatted, dark-loving magi came to mind.

If what he says is true and these Toran villagers suffered through whatever I have and salvaged it with magic, then maybe I can too.

"Why not ask the magi, Yunan?"

Noé knew to not expect too much of Yunan. Of course, she could try and visit his home at the bottom of the rift but the chances that he would be there were slim as it was. For as much as she empathized with the eccentric magi, she knew that the man wouldn't be found unless he wanted to be found. And it's not like I have a whistle to call him with, either. Though the village was a good bet for information, it was a nonstarter. She doubted that they would even allow her in their village in the first place if she told them why she was there. And it wasn't like she could just flash into their villages either.

"There's nothing stopping you."

My oath is.

As a recorder, she swore to maintain and protect history, and in this world, the Toran people were the very definition of walking and talking anthologies. Threatening their existence wasn't something she was about to do, even vicariously by bringing that same miasma that almost wiped them out years ago. For now, knowing that magic could stop it would have to suffice while Maahes went about doing his research. Reaching up to her shoulder, she placed her palm over as much of the mark as possible before summoning part of Grace of Sunlight's rukh. Something in the back of her mind screeched before dying off into a faint echo. Suddenly that oppressiveness from before lessened greatly and let her breathe a little better, but she could still feel whatever was left on her skin wriggling disgustingly.

"Is that what you plan to do with it?" he asked, incredulously. "Quell it's spread?"

"It's what I can do without a cure."

"Now that I think about it, if magic can quell it, maybe her magic being as powerful as it is could maybe wipe it off entirely—"

The sudden brilliantly sounding idea that Noé instantly followed by the emphasis of the single word was cut off when a voice came through shouting her name.

"Noé!"

Noé knew who it was even before she heard his voice. The scent of fresh earth and spices gave it away. So seeing Muu as he made his way through the crowd to her wasn't much of a surprise. A mild panic set in at the thought of him finding her with Rakah however. Ready to send said magician scurrying off before the cub could spot him proved needless when she found the spot where Rakah had stood completely empty.

When did he—

"I...don't know. I didn't notice."

"Finally…" Despite still being utterly baffled, Noé turned to meet a rather out of breath Muu as he held onto his side and gave her a boyish smile. "I thought you'd left Reim for good when I didn't find you in any of your usual places."

"I'm not about to leave yet," she mildly admitted, her bewilderment not letting her hold her tongue as well as she knew how to.

Muu laughed at hearing this and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Y-Yeah, Alibaba and I hoped as much. Ah, which reminds me, we should go look for the boy. I left him searching the other side of the city for you, so we should—"

Even with her paying attention to him, Noé couldn't help how his voice was completely drowned out by her own thoughts as she spotted something. On his neck was a bandage that hadn't been there before. Though it looked fresh, a thin line of brown was just barely seeping through. A wound? The instant she recalled from where though, she gasped, her hands coming up to cover her mouth.

Noticing her sudden change, Muu's silliness dropped as worry etched onto his face at the same time that one of his large hands came over to hide as much of the bandage on his neck as he could.

"Noé, it's not as bad—"

"I did that."

It hit her like a ton of rocks. How stupid of her to think she could shove that fact to the back of her mind just by running away. Truly stupid. Being with Maahes had cleared her mind and talking with Rakah had taken her mind away from it entirely, but now that she had him before her once again, Noé couldn't help but react.

I did that. I was so close to killing him.

"Good."

Heaving heavily, her chest rose and fell rather fast at remembering how she had almost slit his throat during the crazed frenzy she'd gone into. Her body reacted in response to her mind as it raced with what to do. Quicker than she knew, she took a few steps back with nothing in mind other than to get away from him.

For his own safety.

Around her, the light fractured for a split second. Crimson eyes widened at the sight of that and instantly reacted, reaching out to catch her wrist in his large hand. Noé felt his tight grip as she attempted to flash away but couldn't think straight enough to cancel it out. Flashing out of the middle of the crowd without warning, the two crashed onto fields that she didn't bother trying to recognize as she fought tooth and nail to pry his strong grip from her wrist.

"Please, wait! Noé—"

Her panic-flashing made him eat his words.

This time they broke through the surface of the ocean and sank almost instantly with their added weight. An arm around her waist propped her upward and broke her through the surface once more for a gasp of air. This, however, did not force him to let go. The completely opposite.

"Let me go!" she shouted.

"I can't let go now!" Thrashing against him, his grip began to slip and when she noticed this, she flashed again to any and every place she could think of.

A prairie. A cave. A village. The middle of military barracks. The middle of a market. Middle of the sea. Reim. Sindria. Kou. Kina. Parthevia. Heliohapt. The bottom of the rift.

Her mind literally went through every single place she could think of to flash to and did so with such blurring speed that the only way she knew where she'd flashed was because of the brief thought she had of the place before doing so. But no matter how bad of a neck-breaking pace she took, that grip remained steady around her wrist, adding to her desperation and quickening every attempt.

Please let me go! Please!

White petals flew into the air and clouded her vision when she finally crashed onto the ground exhausted beyond belief. Still, that grip on her wrist remained. Desperately, she tried to flash away but just as the light started to refract, something in her snapped and knocked the air out of her even more than before immediately sending her into violent hacks from the sudden pain in her throat.

W-Why… Noé attempted once more only to arrive at the same result that sent her into another fit of coughs. Why can't I…?

"Enough foolishness!" It amazed her how she could still hear Chief's voice through her coughing. "I won't allow you to recklessly flash and hurt yourself any further!"

"Don't fuck with me—" Another fit of hacks didn't let her finish off her threat. It was as she struggled to catch her breath that a hand soothingly stroked her back with restrained desperation she could feel by how it bunched her robe in its grip.

"Please...calm down. Breathe."

Unable to do anything else, she listened to Muu as she allowed herself to breathe through the dryness of her throat. Once they somewhat died down, her gaze lifted to meet his and finding it completely full of concern only turned her stomach further.

"Stop that!" she yelled furiously.

"What do you—?"

Noé punched his shoulders and arms where there was no armor to protect him in an attempt to get him as far away from her as possible. But it proved as useless as trying to pry his iron grip from her wrist. In the end, everything finally boiled over as her panic and strife took over.

"STOP CARING AFTER I TRIED TO FUCKING KILL YOU!"

It was utterly unbearable how the silence took over so easily. Thankfully, her shallow breaths and thunderous heartbeat didn't take long to overtake the quietness. The grip on her wrist finally gave way then, slowly slipping from around her and falling just outside of her space. Emerald eyes never left his hand, afraid he'd grab onto her again, but they kept a steady distance she appreciated.

For a moment, they remained still as could be. Neither dared move. Noé feared if she did she would lash out again. Willingly. Even now she could feel it pounding on her arm and finally thought of that parasite for what it was: vermin. Yet even in that silence, she could hear its whispers if she let herself focus too much on it. It called for her to spill blood to save herself. It urged her to do something. It pled for her to survive.

Just like when she was a child.

"Noé, please...I know you would never do such a thing."

"What the hell do you call my almost slitting your throat then?" she barked back, holding her hands against her chest to keep from doing anything she'd regret. Noé scoffed then and let her acerbity take over. "I can assure you it wasn't playful fighting at that point. I tried killing you because I felt...I felt threatened by you. For that split second, I—" I was afraid. Biting her lip, she groaned as her nails dug into the palms of her hands at thinking such things. "Fighting seriously against you was a mistake. Against the other Fanalis, as well. It has me too on edge. At this rate, I'll really kill someone. If not you, then surely one of them."

This appeared to finally make him see some logic, spotting just out of the corner of her eye how he seemed to tense at her threat. A dry chuckle escaped her at the response she'd been wanting for so long, but one she didn't expect to hurt as much as it did. He cared about the Fanalis; threatening harm against them was her best bet to get him to leave her alone.

He has to choose one...and it won't be me.

"You're going to have to try a little harder than that to push me away."

Her eyes grew wide at the sudden declaration, her head snapping back to meet his gaze. Now, instead of concern etched on his expression, there was this calm sense of understanding that freaked her out at first. In defense, Noé attempted to flash away again but forgetting what Andromalius said cost her and had her coughing up dry bits of blood from deep in her throat. This time when he tried to soothe her pain, she caught his wrist in a death grip as she struggled to yell at him.

"I'll kill you!"

A calm smile spread across Muu's face. "You won't."

"I'll kill Myron! I'll kill Lo'lo and Rhea! Razol, Yaqut! All of them!"

"That's not true."

"I'll kill Scheherazade!"

"It won't happen."

"Yes, it will!"

"No. I know you wouldn't do that."

His confidence in her crushed her like nothing else had. Without her even noticing in the least, sobs began to choke her empty threats as tears pricked her eyes. Desperation clawed at her mind, wanting to make him understand what she did. Something was wrong with her. Something she didn't understand and couldn't control. Noé knew there was no way she had fallen into depravity, but it certainly felt like it. Being overcome so blindly without control over herself and forced to hurt others...

Such a thing scared her.

It scared her that she could hurt them against her will. That she could hurt the people she'd foolishly come to care for now without her even wanting to. A part of her even came to hate herself for caring in the first place. The mistake she'd made before and swore never make again...repeating itself.

Unable to even put her thoughts into words anymore, her tears finally spilled as she let out a deafening cry. The hand that grabbed her then and brought her close didn't even bother her anymore. Noé didn't care. All she wanted was all that fear, frustration and pain out of her system.

Minutes felt like hours of screaming and left her voice raspy and her throat even sorer than before. Finally, when she had no more voice left to scream and no more tears left, she let herself slowly sit up from where she'd unknowingly leaned into Muu. Brushing her fingers against her face, she wiped away at the tears that were still clinging to her face.

"How are you feeling?"

His voice was softer than she'd ever heard it before. No, not true. Noé could vaguely recall a moment when he spoke to her with such tenderness. It felt almost like remembering a dream. The way a warm hand touched her cheek and cradled it so delicately and how his voice sounded so pleasing from up close. The faint memory—a dream?—gave her enough mind to reply.

"...tired." Strange how she could barely recognize her own voice from how quiet and raspy it was.

"I'd imagine," he quietly said. "Do you want to rest here for a bit before heading home?"

Home?

Her vision suddenly focused on their surroundings and finally noticed the flowers around them. Familiar white flowers. Looking around proved her slow mind correct as she found herself in her own garden and cottage. Noé turned to it and tugged at the part of his tunic that she'd gotten ahold of without knowing.

"Home," she repeated.

"You want to go home now?"

Slowly she shook her head and attempted to stand despite her wobbly feet shaking underneath her. Muu found himself quickly standing to support her as she stood and pointed at the cottage. "It's my home."

Crimson eyes followed her pointing finger and smiled tenderly. "I see. Let's head inside then."

As he did that, Noé could faintly hear Chief's voice soothingly calming her. "You're alright, kid. Nothing's gonna happen that you don't want to happen. You're in control."

Funnily enough, despite finding out what she had about the parasite that apparently would take over her, she felt like she was. At least for the brief moment. Noé kept her shoulder as far away from Muu as possible as she guided him through her cottage by pointing and speaking the least she could until finally arriving at her bedroom. Maahes must've come by as he usually did, she thought, seeing how the sheets were fresh and the mess she remembered leaving behind last time tidied up. Standing in the middle of her small room with him, Muu took a glance about before turning to her.

"Would you like me to get you anything?" Her eyes averted for a moment before raspily asking for a glass of water. With a smile, he nodded and opened the door to leave but turned when she reached out to close it and promptly stopped her. "Would you mind...leaving it open? I'm afraid you'll vanish on me again."

"I can't…" she confessed sourly, stopping briefly to catch her breath. "Chief cut off...my magoi flow somehow. I can't flash away even if...I wanted to."

Muu gave her a wry smile and chuckled mildly. "To be honest, you've left me traumatized after doing it so many times. Having you in my sights helps calm my nerves."

"Alright." Feeling herself coming back to normal little by little, she lifted her arms to show off the heavily soaked clothes she still had on. "But I'm changing out of these. Feel free...to look if you want."

His face instantly turned beet red as his eyes darted from her to the door before finally clearing his throat and rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "I-I'll just leave it open enough to know if you do leave then. And no, I won't peek as you say."

She chuckled. "Shame." She then gave his armor a couple of pats. "Feel free...to change too. I don't have clothes for you but...maybe something of Maahes' might fit."

Though they both doubted it, Muu still nodded. "I'll see about it. I'll be back with your water."

Nodding back, she watched him leave the door just open enough where a slit remained looking into the kitchen outside as he left. Once alone, Noé changed quickly into a simple dress not bothering to replace her robe in the least and going barefoot instead of searching for dry sandals. As she returned to her bed and took a seat, a sudden wave of exhaustion hit her body all at once making it and her eyelids extremely heavy.

"All that reckless flashing took too much from you, child. You should rest."

"It'll eat you. The Red Lion will—"

"He won't."

Saying it aloud to herself made Noé more sure of what she believed. No matter what that cynical voice in her head said, no matter what that dark rukh tainting her wanted to force down her throat, she wouldn't believe it. Much less something as silly and idiotic as Muu hurting her. All the while she laid down wanting only to rest her tired eyes for a brief moment while he returned, her whispers continued under her breath in an attempt to silence that voice. And even when she felt her mind starting to slip, the words echoed in her head until exhaustion finally took over.

I know he wouldn't.

---

iii.|

Snip. Snip. Snip.

National festivities were such a hassle. Aberrant swine gallanted between their wine and food without a care in the world with the most disgusting expressions she'd ever seen on a human being. If it were up to her, they would be imprisoned and flayed where they stood for indulging so carelessly in their vices. Regardless of her personal feelings towards it, a Regalia had the duty to attend, more so her as a newly anointed one.

"What a nuisance." Carefully, she lifted the dress that she'd been toiling on for the better part of the past month. Beautiful and delicate silk worked by her diligent hand only was now a masterpiece ready to be worn.

All in hues of gold and crimson.

Snip.

A pleased smile reached her lips then as she trimmed the remaining thread and finished the last touches. Laying it over her bed, she examined every little part of it to ensure that it would be perfect. Seraphina thanked whatever gods existed that her mother's talents for sewing were passed down along to her. Surely, from all the Regalia ascended she would be given the right to govern over them after tomorrow night. And that would bring her one step closer to where she needed to be for her plan to fully come into fruition.

"A Gift is nothing but a reservoir of magoi. A channel for the rukh to connect to your world. It is nothing but raw power too much for just anybody to harbor. And if you are not powerful enough to contain it, it will tear you apart from the inside out."

The warning had been loud and clear the day she brought the question up of whether Seraphina should take on one of the Gifts to bring to their master. Alas, their master had declined her offer, calling her weak with every other word imaginable except itself. But if all a Gift was was a reservoir of magoi then there wasn't a need for the reservoir to be alive.

Or sentient for that matter.

And Seraphina knew the perfect puppet where she could transfer such a powerful magic seal into without suffering the consequences herself. It was all a matter of getting to it. After all, in every generation of Regalia, there was always one who could join the rest in serving Lady Scheherazade personally.

"And there will be no better choice than I."

---

A/N:

I'll save my spiel for the next chapter! Love you guys, hope you're loving this double update :D

- Evie