Jade and Ethan ran around the next corner finally catching their breath after running for 10 minutes straight. Only shortly after they left the scene of the demon attack, they could hear the sounds of sirens and the shouting of the police force.

They stood at a street corner where shops and cafes were lined up one after the other. The people here occasionally looked up and into the direction of the sirens, but mostly kept doing whatever business they came into the city center for.

Jade took one last big breath and turned to Ethan who was wiping the sweat of his forehead.

“That was pretty intense. How are you doing? You were then one up close with it.” Jade shuddered at the memory of the husked corpse.

“I am alright, thanks. And yeah, that was pretty scary to be honest. I mean my teacher kept telling me that none of the training I did would prepare me for the real thing. He was right as always.” Ethan replied with a lopsided grin on his face.

But Jade could still see his hands shaking.

“Teacher? Are you already a disciple of a sect then?” To be honest he did not look older than herself to Jade so she was surprised to hear he already had a teacher that taught him martial arts.

“Actually, no. My teacher is an old friend of my fathers. And when I kept bothering him about his military stories, he decided to dissuade me by giving me “lessons”. He thought I would quit right away and now here we are 5 years later he is still my teacher.”

Ethan looked a little embarrassed by the story but kept going none the less. “I actually got my concept only today. It turned out to be fire like my fathers, I am sure he will be happy about it,” he said with a little bit of too much sarcasm for Jade to ask about it.

Jade looked around at the cafes and turned back to Ethan. “Why don’t we take a seat in one of the cafes and we can actually talk about what the hell just happened. Because I have some questions.”

Ethan nodded: “Probably a good idea.” He turned around and pointed at the Gold Road coffee shop. “How about that one, the make pretty decent coffee.”

Jade Shrugged and made her way towards it. “Sure, why not as good as any other one.” She was not really a big coffee drinker, if what she usually got could really be called coffee. Her mother always teased her that she was drinking mostly sugar milk with coffee flavor rather than actual coffee.

Both of them went inside lining up and ordering their drinks. Ethan order a cappuccino and Jade got a chocolate frappé with extra syrup.

As they sat down Ethan looked at the drink in Jade’s hand and asked. “That is an abomination, a disgrace for coffee everywhere.”

“Shut up and start talking, tall boy.”

“Tall boy? Well sure. Where do you want me to begin? I mean we both saw what happened.”

Jade looked around and then lowered her voice so that they wouldn’t be over heard.

“The guy who stabbed the officer, who is he? Why where you with him?”

“No Idea, I just met the guy when I came out of the heavenly Stadium. He looked like he was lost. He was looking around and searching for something. I asked him if he needed any help. I live close to the center, so I know my way around.”

Ethan took a sip of his coffee and looked at Jade with a serious expression.

“He said he was looking for an officer. I helped him look for one and when we found one, I started talking to him. What happened next you already know he pulled out this ornate knife or dagger and stabbed the officer right in the heart.”

Jade furrowed her brow thinking on what Ethan said.

“Did you see where he came from before you approached him? Was he one of the Initiates?”

Ethan looked thoughtful and stirred his coffee absently.

“Maybe, he could have come out before me, I was Initiate 53. There were 50 people out of the Stadium before me.”

“Do you think we should talk to the officials? I mean I am sure they want to know what happened so they can find that guy.” Jade chewed worriedly on her lip. She did not want to get involved if she could help it. On the other hand, she was worried the culprit would do it again.

“No, I don’t think we should come forward. We are newly awakened and are not really supposed to combat these threats. We would probably get into a lot of trouble for that. I at least can’t afford that if I want to get into the sect of my choice.”

He looked at Jade with a pleading look that screamed desperation. She did not know what sect he wanted to get into, but it was obviously really important to him. Jade did not want to be involved anyway so she said:

“Me neither, I want to stay as far away from all this mess as possible. I am going to be an alchemist and I have no interest in fighting any more monsters.”

“Then it’s a deal. Neither of us tell anyone that we were involved in this. But I think we should keep in contact in case they find us on their own. We can match our stories.” Ethan said with a glint in his eye.

“I guess this is the point where we do formal introductions. My name is Ethan Dawnbringer.”

Ethan sighed as my eyes went wide at his introduction. Dawnbringer as in one of the Emperor’s generals, as in the General of Fire whose flames are said to bring dawn even in the deepest nights.

“You are kidding, right? You can’t be related to the general?”

“No, you are correct and please be a little quieter about this. I sort of escaped my bodyguards and was not supposed to awaken in that stadium. But even my father the general can't make the officials in the stadiums do anything to decline awakenings.”

Jade was reeling from those revelations and answered:

“Well, I am no one so grand as your personage. My name is Jade Saelee and I am but the daughter of a junior alchemist.”

Ethan grinned, bowed a little and said with fake gravitas.

“It is a pleasure meeting you, Jade Saelee. Future grand alchemist of the Empire. May your journey be fruitful and your enlightenment thorough.”

Jade looked at his smug expression.

“Who here are you calling grand alchemist, tall boy. You better not get any dumb ideas.”

“Okay, okay. Here this is my number.”

Ethan held out his cellphone showing his phone number. Jade took out her own phone and wrote the number into a new contact. First, she wrote Ethan Dawnbringer, but then decide to delete the last name. Her friends would have a field day if they knew she had the number of a general’s son.

She sent Ethan a text message. “This is me, tall boy.” He looked down at his phone and then back at Jade.

“This nickname is going to stick, isn’t it?”

“Yep, you bet on it.”

Ethan sighed again and then slowly got up from his chair.

“I need to go now or things might get complicated. If I stay away too long the old man’s men are going to have a fit and start searching the whole town for me.”

Jade got up as well. Giving Ethan a wave as he left through the door of the café. She made her way through the streets until she got to a bus stop that would drop her off reasonably close to her apartment.