Tears of joy streamed over her face as Aclysia showered the slime in kisses. “It was true,” she whispered, not minding the taste of dirt on her lips as she pressed herself against Apexus. His body may have been hidden by the robe still, but she could feel his wings, easily mistaken as a grotesque hunchback, twitch under it. “It was all true, oh darling, I thought I would never see you again.”

“My Aclysia, my melody,” Apexus responded instinctively wrapping his arms around her as well. It had been nerve-wrecking enough to get there, wondering the entire time if having the mere shape of a humanoid was enough of disguise to get where he needed to be. It had been a combination of sheer luck and mediocre stealth that had allowed him to get where he was.

The guards had already known that he was able to take the shape of a humanoid from his resurfacing incident. What they weren’t aware of, however, was his new skin. The original blue appearance would have thrown them off, but Apexus had found that it could shift its colour. Only as a whole, if he wanted a bit of him to be green, all of him to be that exact shade of green, and only over a number of minutes, but something he could use for limited camouflage regardless. Having that ability proved vital to blend into the crowd. A light brown was much less conspicuous to human eyes, as it turned out, than any shade of blue.

Confusingly, wrapping his face up in bandages had decreased the amount of attention he had gotten. Glances of disgust had changed to pity. Apexus didn’t quite get it, but the people had found his normal face too smooth and the faux-nose he was wearing (there in an almost correct appearance but without function) to be disturbing. With the bandages, he looked more like a burn victim and that invoked a level of compassion.

He had gotten all of these clothes from the underground warehouse the smuggler, Trebby, had run until he had been captured. Much of it had already been picked clean, but Apexus had found what he needed. Except that his wings didn’t quite fit under the robe. He could have shrunk them down, but didn’t want to be without his best chance to escape in case things went south.

Ultimately, it had all worked out, leading him to this point where he once more had the metal fairy pressed against him. Were it not for the layers of cloth separating them, he would have encapsulated her entirety in a hug so thorough only a slime could give it. As it was, these rigid appendages called arms would have to do.

Her body was so soft in such wonderful ways. Her lips, most of all, especially when they met his. Apexus had never had lips before to feel a proper kiss. The area was remarkably sensitive and he quickly understood why she always liked to press her mouth on him. It was tingly in the best way, allowed him to feel her in so many details.

“You changed,” Aclysia said, it wasn’t a comment for better or for worse, just an obvious observation that he was less blobby than the last time they had seen each other. Carefully, she reached for the bandages on his face. “Can I see?”

Apexus was about to confirm, when the Cardinal loudly cleared his throat, reminding them where exactly they were. Had he not, they would have indulged in the sheer joy of seeing each other for a long while. “You lover’s reunion, touching as it is,” Remezan said, “should be located elsewhere.”

The crowd had thinned out, but there were still some people watching. That people made the correct assumption about Aclysia was basically a given, at the very least the mention of her moth-like wings would inform the people that knew. If Apexus now also revealed himself, that would very quickly escalate things – probably even into a full-scale riot.

If they took things back to the church now, they had the chance to get their business done before believable rumours had spread far enough for the people to be more interested in them than the fesitivities. The longer they lingered and the more people saw more clear things to talk about, the lower their chances. That aside, the Cardinal had to get back to powering the barrier.

‘I still have time,’ he thought, ‘but I shouldn’t risk too much… I just need these two to come along as well.’ He felt the hope of a blessed day. The luck of the gods must have been smiling on him on that day, that he got two important actors in the recent times of trouble delivered to him on the Day of the First Ascension was nothing short of a miracle. “Please, you will be my guests, I swear by this very day and all gods that you shall not be harmed. I have learned my lesson and will atone for how I wronged you,” Remezan stated.

Apexus was infinitely thankful that he had Aclysia to look at for guidance. Reading humans was still far from his strong suit. That she smiled, indicated clearly that she believed the Cardinal. “Thank you, your holiness. Aside from meeting Apexus again, I have also come to deliver a warning today. Our companion, Reysha, she has been convinced to go after your life.”

Remezan furrowed his eyebrows as they started walking towards the temple. Some of the things she just said didn’t line up. “You say that like you knew you would find him here. Who told you and who convinced - Reysha, was it? – to kill me?”

“The answer is the same person, but differing facets of him,” Aclysia’s answer immediately turned the hope Remezan felt into a knot of despair in his stomach. “Gizmo and Apotho.” Upon hearing the names, the knot turned into a deep abyss, in which all the blessings he had felt were buried in absolute darkness.

“Gizmo also sent me here,” Apexus added. “Told me to talk to you before you could get back to the church, to see Aclysia again… Are you not well, small, broad man?” the slime didn’t know the name nor real significance of this priest, he had never met him before. That he was becoming as pale as a sheet of paper, however, was something even Apexus realized as a generally bad thing.

Because Remezan realized the true meaning behind all of this. ‘Apotho would have never sent a beginner adventure after me as an assassin and these two were placed exactly so they would delay my return to the temple.’ He turned to look at them intensely. The innocence in them was clear as day, they had been played like pawns, all because they did not know what was under the temple but he did.

Just before he could decide to disregard their existence for the moment and make a run back to the deepest secret under this church, something in the very fabric of the leaf cracked. A magical circle that had been affecting the entire forest that made up the centre of this world suddenly became unravelled. A glade without set location was rammed back into real space, a barrier set for generations burst open.

A gargantuan pillar of green fire exploded in the distant horizon, rose high into the sky and spread like a spiderweb. People were screaming, confused, although the phenomenon was happening in a massive distance, nobody thought this could be anything good.

“The seal is broken,” Remezan gasped, causing Aclysia to understand, at least in rough terms, what had happened as well. Her eyes went wide as she realized that her very effort to play against Apotho’s plan had made her play right into it. He had known what she would choose with the information she was given.

The Cardinal now had no more need to guide them back to the temple. Anything he wanted to ask them about Apotho was now redundant. One more hard look he took at them, wondering whether he should squash them right then and there. It was their fault that this was now happening. However, he had tilled the ground this seed had now grown on. The guilt in Aclysia’s eyes and the raw confusion in Apexus’ were too clear to be an act. To find and judge Reysha by the same standard, he didn’t have the time.

The pillar of flame fizzled out, the cracks in the sky slowly mended themselves. An aura hung in the air, creeping anxiety clung to everyone, but people more or less started to relax and talk about this supernatural phenomenon. The Cardinal knew better than to be at ease, this was simply the sign of the storm to come.

There was just one more way this whole thing could be solved without any tragedy.

“Guards!” he shouted loud, so that everyone could hear him. “Run! Run to Heralry. Evacuate the city! Make the people leave behind everything, there is no time. Flee into the forests, run along the edge of the world, head as far east as you can and don’t stop! Every man, woman and child. RUN!”

With that, the Cardinal stormed at speeds most people could barely even follow.