We walked out of the apartment, passing a few adults and children as we walked down the stairs to the lobby. Once we cleared the lobby and were out onto the Lyre Town streets proper, I asked.

"So whose apartment was that? Better than that, how did you sneak me up there without anyone noticing? There had to be at least 20 people coming and going."

Daisuke smiled his crooked smile. Everyone has a different type of smile from the happy ones to the smug ones. Daisuke seemed to have his always locked on smug.

"The apartment is a lady friend of mine's. We have a little bit of a relationship and she asked me to water her plants while she was visiting her sister in Nox. So it made for a good temp storage place while we had our 'talk'."

I could almost hear the air quotes around "talk". Daisuke has been my friend since I was 7 but he had always been pretty unapologetic about things. Sure he had a legitimate reason but doesn't mean he can't say sorry about pulling a gun on me even if he thought he was right. Then again, that was Daisuke in a nutshell. If he thought he was truly and legitimately wrong, he'd apologize without hesitation. However if he thought he was right, he wouldn't say anything. That's the way he lived his life.

"As for no one noticing...I just used a little time magic. Just a few short bursts. No one would even notice us from the outside," he explained.

"That's a bit reckless. Aren't you the one always saying that you need to hide your magic so people don't know what you have," I teased.

"That's because I have something to hide. I skulk around in the shadows doing people's dirty work so being an unknown is a positive. You run around throwing fire and calling down lightning. You're way past hiding," he joked back.

"I also throw darkness and force. Got to make sure you add that in," I said. "I don't want you to leave stuff out if you're putting my repertoire out there."

Daisuke chuckled.

"The point is that if people know what I've got they'll be prepared for it and preparation against me makes my job harder. No amount of prep time stops you much less slows you down. I'm a bicycle and you're a train if we're putting things on horsepower levels," he explained.

Now that was definitely true. Every one that could use magic had stats. Each one went from E to A++ and sometimes even beyond that. When it came down to sheer mana, the fuel of all spells, Daisuke and I were night and day. He had a C in Mana while I had A++ in the same stat. It more or less dictated our fighting styles along with the jobs we had. I could throw around spell after spell and not get tired for a while. On the other hand, Daisuke had to move quickly and deal with an enemy before he ran out of mana.

I smiled a little bit as Daisuke changed the subject.

"So who are you coming to meet?"

"Silver's got me out on a job to give a present to her cousin for her daughter's birthday," I explained.

Daisuke laughed.

"Small world. I'm working for Suzuka right now," he said.

"Fate moves mysteriously," I commented.

Daisuke turned down another street and we kept talking and catching up as we walked towards the Stormshroud Estate.

***

As the building came into view, I...well...was blown away. I was born and raised in Epala, a city pretty much on one big cloud with all of the benefits and burdens of its location. Epala is mostly apartments because the cloud that the city was made on was only so big. And there wasn't any room for open area for people to have big personal houses unless they were really wealthy.

Granted I had traveled all over Effalia for jobs and work for Silver and such so I was used to seeing stuff that didn't come around in Epala that often. That being said, I was always awed by big beautiful houses.

The Stormshroud Estate was a large building set off to the side in the northern end of Lyre Town. It had large well kept bushes modeled into various animals like deer and foxes with a lush garden of flowers, shrubbery, and other types of greenery surrounding them. The main building seemed to be about 3 or 4 stories high and loomed over us like a falcon assessing its prey.

"This is a pretty nice place," I commented as we walked up to the house and instead of going through the front we slide around to the side of the building. A gate came into view. Two guards, one male and one female, sat at a table playing cards. They were both of about medium height and build but both carrying handguns and swords on their waists similar to Daisuke.

The man looked up as we walked within 200 or so meters and whispered something to the woman. She sighed, got up, and pulled out her handgun and trained it on me. Her arm was firm and steady, trained on my center of mass. She knew what she was doing. Which was tiring,seeing as I've had two guns pulled on me in the last day and it's already two too many...

"Stop right now," she said. Her voice was a soft squeak of a voice, think a kitten's meow when they want attention. Daisuke snickered.

"Hey Darcy," Daisuke said, still snickering.

The woman, Darcy, sighed.

"Hey Daisuke. Who's your +1?" she asked. "You know how antsy we get newbies come through the side gate."

"Friend of mine," Daisuke supplied.

Darcy rolled her eyes. "Does this friend have a name or are you the puppet he uses to talk with?"

"Sorry about that," I said. "Name's Rez Proudheart. I'm the Master Servitor for Silver Stormshroud. She sent me to deliver a birthday gift to Suzuka, her cousin."

She took a moment to ponder this and whispered something nearly sub-audible to her partner, who started casually looking through some paperwork next to some water bottles.

"Here he is. Rez Proudheart supposed to visit today," he said, his voice low and gruff. He pulled out a picture of me that was back when I was 17. I hadn't changed much in the two years. In the picture, I had creatively messy long black hair that reached down to my shoulders, glasses that at the time I mostly used for reading around the house, bright sky blue eyes, a heart shaped face, and blue earrings shaped like shields hung from my ears given to me by Tamar for my birthday.

Now I still kept my hair at my shoulders and although better maintained. I didn't mess up my hair just to look cool now. I mostly kept it straight while letting it be a little spikey on the top. I had ditched wearing my reading glasses everywhere. You can only replace so many pairs before the price becomes too unreasonable. As for the earrings, I still wore earrings although I wore studs instead of drop earrings because I had earrings nearly pulled out one too many times...

"Ah I remember that picture. I had to get my identification papers renewed that day," I said. "I think I take a good picture. What do you say?"

Darcy looked at it and said dryly. "You're beautiful. You're clear to go in."

She holstered her gun, sitting back down with her partner. She picked up her cards and they started playing again.

Daisuke and I walked for a good moment through the scenic garden and lawn sculptures before I said. "They sure are on edge here. Anything happen?"

"Nah, they're like this all the time. It's more my fault than theirs," he explained. "Guests are supposed to come through the front door and check in with security there before they're escorted in. But I've been working with Suzuya for about 14 months now so I just walked to the side entrance without thinking. That's my bad. I'm sorry."

"No harm no foul," I said back.

We reached the building and Daisuke pushed opened the door with a grunt and we walked in. Once the door opened, my ears were instantly filled with music. I guess someone was running a radio? Wow not many people had those. Even when they were on sale, they were still running about 1000 Opalina just for one. The music sounded like something I'd hear if I was in Tsuchi, very upbeat and happy with a young woman singing.

"So where's Suzuka?" I asked.

Daisuke shrugged. "Follow the pop music."

We passed through the kitchen filled with shiny and well kept appliances and an immaculately kept stove. So lucky...it takes about a day for me to clean out the stove in my apartment properly. Up through a staircase behind the kitchen, the music got louder and now the light patter of footsteps in rhythm to the music joined the sound. Daisuke opened the door to a long hallway of photos and paintings only for the music to hit us at full blast. I'm not talking deafeningly loud but enough to make you want to ask for some stuff to be repeated twice.

"Is it like this all of the time?" I asked.

"Not all of the time. Suzuka's a good boss. Probably one of the few Wealthy class I respect other than Silver," Daisuke explained but then he cracked a smile. Almost like he laughed at an inside joke. "But there's no denying or lying that Suzuka's pretty quirky."

The two of us continued down the hallway, music getting louder, sounds of dancing becoming more pronounced, and even the sound of Suzuka singing along with the song added itself to the mix.

Once we reached the end of the hallway and the music was at its peak, Daisuke knocked on the door. No answer.

He shrugged again and smiled. "I tried to be the polite way. You saw."

"Ugh..." I put my hand over my eyes as if not being able to see what Daisuke was about to do would make it not real. He lifted his left boot up behind him and kicked the door...hard. Now if I had thought the music was loud, Daisuke kicking the door was at least on par with it. And Daisuke wasn't a weak guy. He wasn't stronger than me but he had a pretty decent strength stat and he did run often.

It wasn't more than a second before a small woman, no taller than a 12 year old on the high end of the bell curve, answered the door. Suzuka Stormshroud definitely similar in look to her cousin but clearly different. She had the look of someone from Tsuchi, a sloping curved face with soft teardrop shaped eyes and well kept dark brown hair that framed her face. However what was different from the usual Tsuchi born mold was her eyes. Usually you'd see a person from Tsuchi with brown eyes but Suzuka's eyes were indicative of her Stormshroud blood just like Silver's were. Her eyes were sky blue.

"Hey boss lady," Daisuke said casually with a wave of his hand.

Her blue eyes swept him up and down and sighed.

"I hate it when you kick the door," she said with firmness in her eyes. "Reminds me of my first and only time in the field."

She turned to me and said with a smile. "Ah sis sent her fav Servitor."

I offered her my hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Suzuka," I said.

I didn't want to take any chances that Suzuka was the type that got offended if Mage class people talked to her too casually.

"It's nice to meet you too Rez. Sis has nothing but good things to say about you," Suzuka said and offered me her hand. I took it. She had some small dainty hands, ones that definitely showed more work inside with her mind rather than on a battlefield.

She turned her back to us, walked up to her desk, and came back to us with a platter of warm chocolate chip cookies and milk.

"I'm sorry that I don't have anything else to give you," she said. She glanced up at the clock. "And I'm even more sorry that I don't have a lot of my time to give you."

"Why not?" I asked as Daisuke pulled out a pocketwatch of black finish from his pocket.

"Ah it's about that time for Fuuka to get out of the Academy," he said.

Suzuka puffed up with pride. "The stars will all fall out of the sky at once before I am not there to drop off and pick my daughter up from school."

I felt something warm in my chest. There were definitely more than enough times where I wasn't there to pick up Tamar from the Magic Academy. But the times that I was there we spent the whole walk home talking about what she done in school and generally getting closer and being more interested in each others' lives. It's a time I wouldn't have traded for the world.

"I get you. I'll make this quick," I told her. "How do I save a soul that's after they've eaten from the Tree of the End?"

"The Tree of the End?" Suzuka mused. "That's a tough one you're talking about. Give me a second."

And with that word, her sky blue eyes became huge and opaque like what she looked at was far away from this little room. Her pupils shrunk to the size of pins and moved from left to right like lightning almost as if she read something at inhuman speeds.

I reached out to touch her but Daisuke grabbed my hand.

"She's fine. If you touch her, you'll bring her out of it," he explained.

"What's up with her?" I asked.

"She's connecting to the Records and reading the information written down there," he explained once again.

A chill ran down my spine.

"When you say Records..." I asked and let the question hang.

Daisuke nodded. "Yeah those Records, the ones in the Beginning of Souls. The Akashic Records."

I gulped. Everything that would ever be and has ever been was written down in the Akashic Records. It was the goal of every mage to reach the Beginning of Souls and read the Akashic Records, making themselves all knowing. Or at least it was the goal of the more...unhinged academic types at the Institute.

I took a look back at Suzuka. As I watched her, her pupils returned to their original size and her eyes lost that thousand yard stare.

"Ugh my eyes hurt," she said. She reached into the pocket of her dress, pulled out a bottle of eye drops, and squeezed one drop in each eye. How she found a dress with pockets was the real magic here...

She blinked a few times before she continued.

"In order to save a person who has eaten from the Tree of the End you must find the Seven Dazzling Elemental Jewels and sacrifice them on the Altar of the Reaper in the Shadowlands."

"Wow I understood none of the words in those sentences," Daisuke snarked.

I raised my hand like I was in school. "Ditto."

Suzuka sighed and looked up at the clock. It was closing in on 3pm.

"For the cliffnotes version, it's simple. When the Goddess Twila created the world, she created Spirit Creatures and our predecessors humans. Humans were created without magic so they were tortured and used by Spirit Creature as food and their pain entertained them. It wasn't until the Goddess stepped in did things change. She created the Jewels in order to put humanity on equal footing with Spirit Creatures. She stuck the Jewels into the earth where their power seeped into the water, imbuing all humans with the ability to do magic," she explained.

She picked up a glass of milk, drank some down, and continued.

"After that the scales were more or less fixed, but the Goddess hated the fact that the Spirit Creatures used their magical abilities to torture humans so she imposed restrictions on them. Spirit Creatures cannot enter the home of a human without being invited in and Spirit Creatures cannot harm humans without a human attacking them first. Not the perfect response but it was better than what they had at the time."

Daisuke gave me a sidelong look that screamed "This is taking a long time."

Suzuka noticed the look and said. "Oh am I boring you, Daisuke? Perhaps I should tell those girls that you keep bringing around about each other?"

Daisuke Tokisaki does not blush. He did get a faint coloring of pink in his pale cheeks at those words...

"Hey hey hey, you told me as long as Fuuka didn't see me bringing girls in you were okay with it," he said.

Suzuka shrugged. "I said that. I also said that manners were really important to me. And that I'd yank your leash every once in a while to remind you you've got one."

Daisuke sighed. "I'm sorry."

Suzuka smiled with the cheer of a victor. "As long as you know what I expect, you can do whatever you want while you work for me."

Suzuka turned to me and said. "And that's the story."

"Okay I understand how the Jewels came around but why do they work like that? Where are they now?" I asked her.

Suzuka glanced up at the clock once more. 5 minutes to 3pm.

"Okay to make this quick, because of what Twila used them for the Jewels have a conceptual power of progress within them. People that use them can use them to make mage-kind and even themselves grow and become more prosperous. Sacrificing those Jewels brings stagnation or at least a slowing of that progress that the Jewels normally bring to the world. And the ultimate stagnation is death so the sacrificing and destruction of the Jewels summons the Reaper and you can use that summoning to make your case to them to give the person you lost back. Do you get it now?"

I nodded. "Seems simple enough."

Suzuka gave me a smile and started out of the room but before she left, she turned around to me and Daisuke. She bowed once to me specifically and said. "As my older cousin's servitor, I welcome you into my home and grant you guest right within it. Feel free to take one of my rooms and use the food in the fridge as you see fit."

And with that, she left down the stairs in a flurry of pitter pats.

***

So what happens when you leave two young guys, one 19 and another 21, in a nice house with a full fridge and permission to use the fridge? Daisuke wanted to invite some girls over but instead I went through the fridge, found some beers that had a familiar label, and set up to make some lunch. It had only taken me ten minutes before we had some fresh toasted sandwiches, some potato wedges, and some ale from a friend of mine's bar in Epala. All in all, a good afternoon. After a beer or two, Daisuke didn't miss the girls at all.

"Are you sure that you can do this, Rez?" he asked me, swigging back another gulp of beer. "The whole sacrificing the jewels thing."

I looked at him over my sandwich, he was still in it. Daisuke was definitely no lightweight and could hold his beer good enough.

"Are you talking about the stagnation thing?" I asked. He nodded so I continued and told him what I had thought during my moments cooking. "I'd like things to move up just as much as the next mage on the streets. Look how much trains have done for Effallia. But I don't want to live in a future without Tamar. And if progress was so fragile that one guy could break it all then we were building on a house of cards anyway."

Daisuke took a bite of his sandwich and stared at me for a moment.

"That's selfish and self centered as heck," he said. He nudged me in the ribs. "I'm finally starting to rub off you."

I chuckled and said. "I hope not. I don't want to catch your skirt chaser disease."

"I can't help that the girls come keep coming after me," Daisuke said, grabbing another sandwich. "So how's Silver?"

"She's doing good. She's hired on a new Servitor since you left. Origami Nakano, new kid, only about 16. She's a paper mage and she's pretty good," I told him.

I saw the glint in Daisuke's eye and I knew what was coming.

"Is she cute?" he asked.

"Are you 21?" I countered. "You should be hitting on women your age. Not some girl that just became an adult last year and got her first real job."

Daisuke laughed. "I'm just joking. I don't like em that young anyway. Unseasoned newbies get on my nerves for some reason."

I eyed him for a moment but let it go.

"She's also got a lot more contractors lately. Made friends with a lady named Anat. We trade recipes a lot and listen to her radio," I told him.

Another bite of a sandwich and Daisuke asked. "Thank the goddess. I thought you were going to end up a hopeless homebody. So is she cute?"

I smirked and said. "She is. Super pretty lady. About 24. She's from the desert between Tsuchi and Luxeria so she's got this coppery tan to her skin, long black hair, and dark brown eyes."

Daisuke leaned in closer. "So when's the first date?"

"Never. She's widowed with a kid and taking care of her mom," I explained with a laugh. I enjoyed messing with Daisuke. Yeah I enjoyed staying at home while I was in Epala but that didn't mean I didn't go out. I just didn't do the "going out" that Daisuke did. His version of a night on the town would be a lot of alcohol, one or two women, and a hotel room lately.

He sighed. "Ugh you got me. Girls with kids definitely no good for me."

"I like kids but I don't like Anat like that anyway," I told him. "Just friends is fine. You do know you can just be friends with women right?"

"I know, I know," Daisuke said. "What about Tamar?"

I picked up another sandwich and chewed before answering. I didn't really want to think about the money that I needed to come up with before the end of the week. But maybe Daisuke could help. I told him the story that Lydia told me.

"That freaking sucks," he said. "Did you ask Silver for help? Maybe she'll give you the money."

"I couldn't. I don't have the money to pay Silver back."

Daisuke shook his head. "Silver loves you idiot. Who said anything about having to pay her back? I swear she treats you better than most people treat their own siblings. She'd probably do it if you asked."

"But what if she doesn't? Worse, what if she says yeah and decides that I need to pay her back with interest? Too maybe variables there. I'll figure something out."

Daisuke sighed and shook his head. "You think too much. Good on the battlefield but not that good with people."

I rolled my eyes. "So aren't you going to ask about Vector?"

Color filled Daisuke's face. "No I just thought she was fine since you didn't bring her up."

A devious idea crept into my head. I let it play out.

"She has been as far as I've seen but lately she's been coming home late from the daycare. I know she'll have a drink with her co-workers sometimes but it's been going on for the last two months now."

"Who's she dating?" he asked.

I gave him a confused look. Or at least I hope it looked confused.

"You really think so?"

He nodded. "He's probably some tall handsome guy with a good job, maybe a government type."

I nodded to him, urging him to continue. "What else?"

"Got his own place. Probably mid to late 20s. No kids. Merchant class of course.They probably go at it for a while, have dinner, and then he takes her back home"

I smiled. "That's a pretty good fiction. I wonder where you got that from. Seeing as Vector's been spending the last few nights at home reading lately."

"What? You just told me she was going out all night?"

I shrugged. "I lied. And you just made your own epic novel filled with steamy sex scenes and romantic trysts all by yourself."

Daisuke didn't say anything. Or rather he tried to but all that came out was frustrated babbling. He was off balance. I went in for the kill. I had a question for a while. Vector had given me her answer but I didn't hear the story from Daisuke.

"Why did you two break up last year?" I asked.

It's as if I shot him in the chest. He stopped breathing for a moment and then looked at me like I was crazy.

"It's nothing. I just wanted to spend some time playing the field. And I've been doing good at it. Never a dull night and never an empty bed."

I pushed him. "She was really torn up about it for a long time. She'd stare in the mirror for hours, looking for something. I think she was looking for something that she thought was ugly. That you thought she was ugly."

"What? Vector's incredibly beautiful. No sane person would ever call her ugly," he told me. His eyes were wide like he was on some type of drug.

"Love makes us crazy," I shrugged. "She moved on eventually but she hasn't really dated much. Just one guy here or there or just a first date."

He let out a breath. "At least she's moving on."

"Moving on doesn't mean she's happy. She never stopped smiling when you guys were dating. And you guys never fought so I have to wonder-"

And then Daisuke interrupted me...okay that what happened but it doesn't convey the scale...

"I BROKE UP WITH HER. DEAR GODDESS STOP ASKING ABOUT IT!" he told me.

A small surge of pride flowed through my chest. I knew he'd crack eventually.

"Why?" I asked him.

He looked away from me to the kitchen window. It felt like he wasn't there anymore like he was far far away from this small kitchen.

"Because your sister deserves better than an assassin that runs around the world killing people. She's too good for me. That's what I figured out last year and that's why I ended it," he said in a whisper.

I groaned.

"And you never told Vector, your girlfriend, about any of these feelings?" I asked.

He looked back at me and his purple eyes were colder than ice.

"You two don't know anything about my job except the stuff that I tell you. I've done some shit that will make you sick. And after a job, I realized that I didn't deserve it. None of it. Not the girl, the relationship, the happiness. It wasn't for me. I got that then. Vector deserved better so I set her free."

I stood up and faced him down. We were face to face and nose to nose although I was a little bit taller than he was.

"Daisuke, if you think you don't deserve her then that's fine. That's your opinion, but Vector's a grown woman. She's the only person that gets to decide what she wants and deserves in her life."

Daisuke's eyes grew colder. Energies in the air started to move and congeal as we stared each other down. I could swear we were seconds away from fighting before the door opened.

"We're home!" Suzuka said.

We both looked towards the direction of the door.

"Mr. Daisuke! Let's play!" another voice sounded. Probably Suzuka's daughter, Fuuka.

"Coming," Daisuke said. He turned back to me and said. "I'm sorry Rez but it's just not going to happen. She deserves better."

And with that, Daisuke left me in the kitchen alone. The happy sounds of a young child filled the room as Daisuke walked over to Suzuka and Fuuka.

"How do you know if you're not the best thing she's ever had?" I asked. "How do you if she doesn't care what you are or what you've done? The only way to know is to ask her."

I sighed. And started cleaning up the kitchen.