14.

A summer night at high noon

“Vaine.”

Aster’s eyes widened in surprise as he spotted it too. Dominic slowly stepped past him, looking up at the map. He couldn’t read any of the names of nations or cities. The dashed lines that marked borders were in strange places. This was a map of a continent that was long gone. This was a record of countries and empires that no longer existed. This had outlived all of them.

“Can you read any of what it says?” Dominic asked.

“…A little bit,” Aster replied, pursing his lips.

He pointed up at a point that marked a city on the southern coast.

“That one is ‘Sela,’ but that one—” His finger moved towards another one just a bit left of it. “—starts with ‘Fr,’ but I can’t read the rest. It looks kind of like ‘Fr-ch-sa,’ but that’s obviously wrong.”

Dominic nodded. It was probably an older version of the modern script anyway. Aster, who had been scanning the map for other words, pointed to another label. It was a nation this time.

“Oh, that one says ‘Kesmer,’” he said. “And that one’s, uh, ‘Orsa’? ‘Orzza’?”

He listed off the ones he could make out. Haxa. Azanel. Aliax.

Dominic’s eyes wandered around the map, but none of the names Aster listed off rang any bells.

“Hm? There’s something weird over here.”

He glanced over to where Aster was looking, and his body unintentionally froze up. Inside a huge bay on the coast, a crater had been carved into the map. It was like somebody had forcefully cut it out, erasing whatever had once been written there.

“…What is that?” the boy asked, looking a little unsettled by it. “I don’t think it’s supposed to be that way.”

Aster was lucky he couldn’t smell it. Dominic could feel a grudge of unimaginable force gathering there. It was dense and almost solid, far more powerful than the foggy aura the viscount had given off. It swirled in a speeding torrent, black as night, clinging to the surface of the map and poking into it like needles. It was an old grudge, a grudge from a time when those nations still existed, and yet even now it continued to roar. He could still feel the emotions that had been left by the person who had been here back then. Boiling rage. Stabbing that one location again and again until their hands bled and the knife broke, then clawing at it with their fingernails. How dare you. How dare you. How dare you. Bring my world back.

“What do you think was there?” Aster asked, oblivious to the malice radiating off the area.

“…I don’t know,” Dominic lied.

How dare you. Hot, acidic tears rolled off their face as if to melt holes into the floor they fell on. Their fingernails broke off, leaving bloody trails that glistened across the black stone. I will never forget. I will curse you until heaven hears. How dare you.

Dominic tore his gaze away and looked back down into the display cases.

“Weren’t we looking for bracelets?” he said. Aster seemed to finally remember, and turned his attention to the ones in front of them.

The crater in the map continued to roar in his ears. Aster was lucky he didn’t know.

The headquarters of the Ashan Church was still located in that exact spot, to this day.

∞

It was a little difficult to keep looking for bracelets with that swirling mass of thousand-year-old rage above his head, but Dominic eventually managed to help Aster pick out a few for his siblings. They weren’t halinium, but the enchantments written on their tags seemed useful. Lia and Ria and Moore might never really need the speed enhancements or defensive abilities that had been imbued, but it was better than having nothing.

Dominic kept them for the time being, except for Aster’s ring. The four of them still lived in the slums, so it wasn’t particularly safe to have them walking around with such obviously expensive jewelry on display. He’d have to ask Thelo to arrange better lodging for them first and foremost—a house with a real roof and walls and locks.

Aster was giddy as they traversed the aisles, slowly making their way back to the entrance. The boy practically skipped along, an uncontained grin pasted all the way across his face.

“Are you going to stay for lunch, Aster?” Dominic asked.

Aster turned around with a gasp.

“Can I?”

“I don’t see why not. You can bring some back for the others too.”

His expression somehow brightened even further.

“Free food!” he shouted, throwing his hands up. He popped back into crow form, wings still up in the air in a celebratory pose.

“Don’t eat too much or your stomach will hurt.”

“I promise nothing.”

Dominic chuckled. The crow did loops in the air, twirling his way towards the doors. They seemed to sense his presence automatically this time, because the magic mechanism below his feet began to activate on its own.

The gears groaned as the doors slowly cranked open. Aster flew right out, humming a song. Dominic was following close behind him, when suddenly something immense shifted in the air.

It was like a ringing in the ears, a muted ringing like they needed to pop but couldn’t. The doors slammed shut, screeching on their hinges. This wasn’t anything that had been programmed into the magic that controlled them. The mana below had been completely disturbed, the doors forcefully closed, ripping them from their magic circuits, disabling the lights and dipping the entire treasury into darkness. A huge gust of wind went through the room at the sudden movement, making Dominic put up his arms defensively on reflex. When the air settled, he lowered his hands and found himself perfectly alone.

He looked around in alarm, but nothing had fundamentally changed. There was no one with him, and no one nearby that could’ve done anything like this. Aster’s voice was shouting with concern from the other side of the door and the guards were frantically trying to pry it open, but all of it was too muffled to make out any details. Someone had forced the room to act in a way it had never been designed to do. Someone who wasn’t even here.

A ripple seemed to go out in the mana that rested in the room—slowly, calmly, reaching Dominic and muting the voices outside the door even further. It was like the air had turned to water, sinking further, the surface disappearing from sight—one thousand feet deep. All sound receded, leaving only the current pushing and pulling around the empty room.

Dominic’s breath hitched.

He knew this place.

He looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of that ripple. It moved again every few seconds, pulsing like a heartbeat—pulsing like the sound of a breath.

Closer. He needed to get closer. This kind of chance might never come again.

He raced through the shelves, waiting, listening desperately for that ping of movement in the mana that slowly came and went. He was afraid it would disappear before he could find it. It was impossible to know if the one he was feeling had actually been the last.

They continued, ignoring his gathering anxiety, leading him to a display of necklaces on an inconspicuous wooden shelf. They were hung simply together on cascades of hooks. Gold and silver. Cheap in comparison to everything else in the treasury.

A ripple went through the room again, so close now that it felt as if Dominic was being swallowed up by it. He was underwater and something huge had swum over him, circled, and came back for another look. He was being watched—no— something was waiting for him.

Dominic stuck his hand into the rungs of necklaces and sifted through them quickly, so focused he was no longer listening to the muted shouts of alarm from the other side of the treasury door, everything but the metal in his fingers falling into black.

He touched one—a gold necklace with a pendant shaped like a figure-eight, nothing really of note—and suddenly, everything ground to a halt.

The mana stilled and slowed to a stop, the ripples and currents freezing completely. There was no motion, no sound. And when Dominic looked up, he wasn’t even in the treasury anymore.

The landscape had changed. The shelves, the display cases, even the walls were gone. The floor had turned to dirt and grass and wildflowers, reaching up to his knees and swaying in a warm wind. A dense, lush forest of green shot towards the sky around him. He knew he was still standing in the treasury in reality; he knew instinctively that he had not changed locations, that his feet were still planted on the same, stone floor. And yet his senses were telling him that the space around him had been warped—he had been left alone in a place where time didn’t pass, where it was deep night at high noon.

A vast blue expanse of sky twinkled with stars above him, the moon a beautiful crescent. Fireflies had begun to come out from the grass, yellow flickers of brilliance roving through the darkness. A slow wind blew, and it was humid but soothing on his skin. A familiar place. Dominic knew it was going to disappear. This moment would only last a millisecond. Soon everything would be gone again, and he’d find himself back in the treasury.

His grip on the necklace in his hand tightened. He didn’t want to let it go.

A breeze floated by, and it caressed his cheeks tenderly. It was warm—not like fire, but like sunlight. Like the warmth that came with blankets on a cold night. Like the warmth that came with touch. Like there was a caring hand, fingers stroking his face, smiling and telling him how much he’s grown since the last time he was here. Look at you. You’ve gotten tall and strong. How long it has been, Dominic.

Dominic bit the inside of his lip, his eyes shaking, his grip on the necklace digging crescents into his hand.

He leaned into the touch. How long it has been, indeed.

The warmth on his cheeks lifted with laughter. He didn’t hear it, but he felt it. That’s what the mana said. It spoke of mirth and pride and celebration. It smelled like sunlight. I missed you. You’ve done well. Let’s meet again. It laughed with happiness and then, just as quickly as it had come, it receded mercilessly back into the night.

All of it disappeared. In an instant, he was back in the treasury, the lights overheard flaring back on and blinding his eyes. The sound of the guards pounding on the door from the other side returned, shattering the calm air. He was alone, and whatever had been here had already gone.

Dominic shuddered out an unsteady breath, getting his bearings again. He looked down at the pendant tightly clenched in his palm. It wasn’t a symbol he had seen before—something like a figure eight with pointed ends—and he didn’t feel any magic energy coming from it. It was just a normal, gold necklace.

His mind was racing despite his calm expression. Is that it? Is that all? Give me a little more time. Let me return to that place. Tell me what you mean. And more than anything—

Dominic slowly wrapped his fingers around the pendant. He closed his eyes and kissed his fist.

—I hope I don’t have to wait another ten years to meet you again.

He placed it gently in his inside pocket, took a deep breath, and headed towards the door.