"How are you feeling?"

The question came out of nowhere. For the past four or so hours, the only sounds that occupied the world around them was the chirping of cicadas, Red's occasional grunt of effort, and the quiet chimes of the light chains that hung from Kara's wrists.

Kara paused for a split second to look back at Red. He tilted his head up at her, confirming that she hadn't imagined the question.

She turned around and continued to walk before answering the question. The rocks beneath her feet shifted and she reached up to grab a tree branch to steady herself. Red followed close behind her, grabbing the same tree and pulling himself up the steep mountainside. He grunted as he did so. Being about a foot shorter than her made climbing a bit more of an effort, but he hadn't complained yet. Kara wondered if he was going to start.

"I'm nervous," she admitted. She often was.

"Me too," Red said. "Look Kara. My hands are all shaky."

"We're on a mission, Red."

"Oh yeah. Sorry, Black."

"It's alright," she said. She hated the misuse of her name on a mission, but if Red was really shaking as he said he was, a minor mistake like that was understandable.

A short boulder blocked the path up, as tall as her chin. Already tired from the hike, she didn't have the energy to attempt to vault herself over in one leap, but with some effort, she managed to easily pull herself up. She sat herself on the edge of the rock and held out a hand. Red gratefully took it and allowed himself to be helped up.

"You wanna take a break?" Kara asked.

Red twisted his head around, using his hand to shield his eyes from the sun. "Nah, I think we're close. Hey, do you think that's our First?"

Kara turned around to look at what he was pointing at. The first thing that she noticed was that the peak of the mountain looked a lot closer than she expected it to. It would only take a few minutes to reach their destination, and while that wouldn't be the end of their mission, it would mean a moment of rest.

The second thing she noticed was what she thought was a flag, but quickly realized was a shirt that had been tied to a thin tree. Below it sat a vaguely human shaped figure, sitting with their bare back against the tree. From so far away, Kara couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman.

"Probably," she said. If it was their First, it would be a man, according to their mission debrief. Even so, Kara squinted trying to make out the figure's features more clearly, wondering if she should be covering Garth's eyes.

Eventually, she simply decided that it was their First. Even if it wasn’t, a half-naked woman could never be the most shocking thing that Garth would see in the next thirty minutes or so.

"Let's go," she said. "Might as well just get it over with if we’re already this close."

The rest of the way wasn't as steep as the rest of the mountain had been, and it took them relatively little effort to reach the top. As they approached, Kara was relieved to see the man matched the description of their third, even if the only description they were given was 'bald and old.'

The man must have heard their approach but didn't open his eyes, even when Kara and Red stopped in front of him.

Though the lean muscles that covered his bare upper body were relaxed, his posture was too straight for him to be asleep. Kara waited a few seconds for the man to acknowledge their presence. When he didn't, she coughed quietly into her hand.

"Excuse me. We're here for the cleansing. Are you our First?"

The man didn't move, but before Kara could consider asking again, he spoke.

"Yup." His posture remained unmoving and his eyes remained closed.

Kara waited for a follow-up, but none came. She turned around to look at Red, who seemed as confused as she was. When she looked down at the man, she briefly wondered if he was senile. It was rare to see a Soulblade still going on missions after forty, and this man had clearly passed that threshold long ago, but if he were senile, she supposed that would have been mentioned in the debrief.

"Umm, sir? Should we begin?" While Soulblades were to be considered equals while working, it was hard not to call such an elderly man, 'Sir'. Besides, she didn't know his name or colour.

"Shhh," the man shushed her. "I'm the First, aren't I? That technically means that I say when we go. And it's such a nice day. Who says we can't take a little picnic beforehand," the man said, opening one eye to quickly wink at her before closing it again.

The man's eye was a sea of Silver. Like all other Soulblades, his eyes contained no iris or pupil, just a sclera that painted over his eyes in the colour of his soul. If he had any hair left, that too would be Silver.

She briefly considered the offer of taking a break, but she looked back at Red. His teeth were clenched and his eyes focused on the scenery past the mountain peak. She doubted that he was even hearing the conversation that was happening in front of him.

She sighed and shook her head, shaking off the nervousness that she felt as well. "If it's okay with you, Silver. I think we'd rather get started quickly,” she said, addressing him with his Soul’s colour.

The old man, Silver, opened his eyes and looked at them curiously. Or at least she could only assume. Without a pupil, it was often difficult to tell exactly where a Soulblade was looking.

"Well I suppose we could do that too," he said.

Using a low hanging tree branch to pull himself up, groaning as he did, he patted at the seat of his pants to brush off the sand that clung on to the fabric.

"Which one of you is my second?" he asked.

Red didn't respond. Though his crimson eyes contained no pupils either, it was clear that they were locked onto the writhing mass of bodies that covered the land below.

Silver eyes darted between Kara and Red. "It's him, isn't it," he said, in more of a statement than a question. "It's his first time?"

Kara nodded.

Silver nodded back and shuffled over to Red. Red didn't respond to his presence until the old man knelt down and threw his arm over his shoulders.

Red blinked rapidly and his eyes turned to the strange old man who had suddenly had him in his grip.

"You have fun in your own little world, buddy?" Silver asked.

"Huh?" Red replied.

Silver gave Red a grin and looked back out towards the scenery past the mountain peak. A fair distance away, a writhing mass of solid black stood out against the orange-red stone that covered the mountainside. It was too far away for Kara to make out the individual bodies, but she knew from the mission debrief that they were Umbras. Bone Rats to be specific.

"Gross little things, aren't they?" Silver asked, his voice as casual as if he were talking about the weather. "They give me the creeps."

Kara found herself agreeing, even if he wasn't talking directly to her. Bone Rat exterminations were by far her least favourite missions to be assigned to, even if she never got involved directly. Bone Rats were among the smallest of Umbras, being about the size of a young child, but they were equipped with razor sharp claws and horns. It was said that an average adult man would likely be able to kill two Bone Rats without a problem, but that was never a theory that could be tested as Bone Rats were never found in groups of fewer than a dozen.

That rule proved to be true in excess for this mission. In the rock crevasse below, the shadowy cowls that wrapped around each Bone Rat’s body seemed to merge together, creating the illusion of a single amorphous blob of darkness. The debrief had mentioned that the colony probably numbered in the hundreds, if not the thousands. Nobody had been brave enough to go close enough for more than a vague estimate.

"So first mission making you nervous, kid?" Silver asked. Kara turned towards him instinctively, being young enough that the term 'kid' could still be applied to her, especially from someone so old. But Silver wasn't looking at her.

"Yeah," Red said quietly, though his voice didn't shake.

"Eugh. Rough choice for the Kingdom to send a novice to get rid of Bone Rats. But I suppose the company they chose for you ain't so bad. Beautiful young lady and an old codger like me," Silver toussled Red's hair and pushed himself up, still wearing his wide smile.

Red looked up at Silver and then back at Kara, whose only response was to shrug at the old Soulblade's eccentricity.

"Welp. Since it's your first mission, I'll give you a one time offer," he said, leaning from side to side to stretch his muscles.

"What do you mean?" Red asked.

"How many Bone Rats do you want?" Silver asked, moving on to a different stretch.

"Huh?"

"How many of them do you want me to leave you, boy? I won't accept zero for an answer, you still got to get your feet wet, but I'd like you to leave this cleansing with as little trauma as possible. So? Take your pick."

Kara raised an eyebrow at that. "Standard practice says that each Wave should deal with an equal amount of Umbra. A soulblade should only be kept active for a maximum of five minutes at a time."

Silver made a face at that. "Aw c'mon, kid. Don't be like that. I'm trying to do your cute boyfriend here a little favour."

Red's face immediately turned as red as his eyes and hair. "I'm not her boyfriend!" he protested.

The suggestion was silly, with Red being six years old and her being fifteen, but she could recognize that the embarrassment drew some attention away from his anxiety. Maybe that was Silver's intention. A short wink from the old man confirmed it.

"Why do you sound so offended at that, Red?" Kara asked, playing along with the little game. "You don't think I'm pretty enough?"

"No!" Red shouted. "That's not- I mean-" As Red fought against his embarrassment to find the right words to say, Silver laughed and patted the boy's back.

"As much as I'd love to tease you for longer, I'm sure you're itching to get this done," Silver said, ruffling Red's hair again. "So before I go, let me know. How many do you want?"

Kara frowned and opened her mouth to repeat the standard practice, but Silver raised a finger.

"Now, little Miss. I know what you're going to say. And don't you worry, I won't be breaking any rules. I've been following the words of the Grand Treaty for longer than you have. No way I would risk the wrath of a Guardian. I could eradicate this colony in a minute if I wanted."

Kara raised an eyebrow in surprise, but she couldn't find any hint of a lie in Silver's voice. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Red looking at her.

"Oh," Kara said. "Then in that case, I'm sorry I doubted you."

At Kara's approval, a look of relief washed over Red's face. She pretended she didn't notice.

"So boy, with your girlfriend's approval, how much of the Bone Rats do you want?"

Though Red's face still turned red, he powered through the embarrassment, likely accepting that nothing he could do would deter the old man.

"Twenty percent?" he asked, as if uncertain of his answer.

Silver smiled down at him and nodded.

"Twenty percent it is."

After finishing a final set of stretches, Silver leaned against the tree where his shirt hung from and pulled off his boots and then his socks, stuffing them neatly inside the discarded boots. After placing them at the base of the tree, he leaned over and pulled off his pants, leaving him wearing nothing but a pair of silky silver briefs.

"Could you kids do me a favour?" he asked. "Could you hold on to my clothes for a moment, make sure they don't blow away in the wind?"

Kara shrugged and took the pants from the old man's hand. "There isn't much of a breeze blowing right now."

Silver smiled and retrieved his shirt, bringing it down from the branch it hung on, and handed that to Kara as well. "There will be," he said. "Watch my boots too, boy. If you don't mind."

It was the last thing he said before taking off into a mad sprint and leaping off the mountain.

Kara and Red both cried out in surprise. The mountain wasn't steep enough that the old man would fall for very far, but the rock face was dangerous and unstable and with how fast he'd launched himself, Kara was certain that the old man would roll down the mountain for a long time, breaking most of his bones along the way.

Kara rushed forward, as if she could do anything to prevent his fall, but her eyes widened at the sight before her. The fabric of the world warped around the old man's airborne body as he drew magic into his body. What was he doing?!

"DOWN!" she screamed, as she launched herself backwards instinctively, barreling into Red and tackling him onto rock. Red screamed in surprise, but she ignored him, covering as much of his body as she could from the incoming impact.

But there was no explosion. A strong breeze sprung to life, carrying away the shirt that she'd thrown away in a panic, but that was it.

Just in case, Kara waited for a few more seconds before she lifted herself off of the ground. Below her, a terrified Red stared back at her, very much alive and unharmed, though she suspected she may have scraped his skin when she tackled him down.

Kara frowned, stood up, and walked over to the edge of the cliff.

Below her, Silver was flying. With a silver halberd in his hand, the nearly naked old man floated down in a controlled descent along the mountainside, leaving destruction in his wake as a sphere of raging winds surrounded him, picking up rocks, dirt, and whole trees and swinging them around like they were small toys.

The awe-inspiring level of control he had over his magic did nothing to slow her pounding heart or curb her irritation.

"Old bastard couldn't have warned before he did that?" she asked aloud.

It fell on deaf ears as Red gaped at the sight before him. "Wow," he said. "I've never seen someone manifest like that. We would've died if he wasn't good."

"Yeah. We would've," Kara muttered, uncaring for the abject admiration in Red's voice. "Ass."

Kara watched as the ball of destructive wind drew closer to the mass of Bone Rats. As it travelled, faster as it got closer to its destination, the wind grew more violent. The tightly contained ball of air grabbed more and more debris, until the ball became almost opaque with the trees, boulders, and dirt that swirled around within. It was hard not to imagine being caught up in that, especially when Silver had manifested so close to them.

Silver was clearly skilled, by far the most skilled Soulblade she'd ever seen in person. Though the power of destruction within his sphere of wind wasn’t anything special amongst Soulblades, it was impressive how the destruction was contained in such a well defined sphere of wind. With the spinning dust clearly defining the boundaries of Silver's influence, Kara was confident that she could walk up to the sphere and as long as she did not dare to enter the boundaries, she would be safe. It was the kind of stuff you heard about in legends.

It still didn't prevent her from muttering under her breath again.

"What an ass."

Red glanced at her, as if to protest, but he tilted his head instead. "You let go of his clothes."

Kara looked down at her empty hands and huffed. She spotted Silver's shirt a few feet down the mountainside, stuck in a small bush of what she hoped was burrs. She had no idea where the pants flew off to.

"I thought we were going to die. If he didn't want that to happen, he could've warned us."

Red shrugged, though she suspected he might've defended the man out of sheer admiration if her words weren't so true. Shockingly, Kara noticed that he wasn’t shaking in the slightest, somehow becoming more calm after a near-death experience.

Not having anything else to say, Kara stared at the ball of destruction that was currently tearing its way through the swarm of Bone Rats. Many of them were picked up into the sphere of wind until it darkened with spiralling black blood and gore.

"You think he could really kill all those Bone Rats in under a minute?" Red asked.

Kara didn't doubt it but the moment that Red mentioned the time, she was reminded of her role as the Guardian of the group. Reaching into her shirt, she pulled out the timepiece that hung from her neck. After making sure that it hadn't cracked when she fell, she wound up the gear at the top.

She was late by a few seconds, but if Silver's claims were true, he would be done long before the timer went off.

"Oh, he's coming back up," Red said, confirming her suspicions.

As the ball of destructive wind reversed its path, travelling back towards where they stood, it became gradually smaller in size, depositing the various objects within as it travelled.

"You're up, Red," Kara said.

Red nodded and started to strip off his clothes. His shirt, pants, and socks were all folded before he placed them neatly into his backpack. He took off his hair-tie last, letting his long waist-length hair fall down behind him. After putting his backpack and boots next to Silver's, he pulled out a pair of cheap shoes made of wood and straw.

Clad in nothing but a pair of red briefs and disposable sandals, he peered over the cliff. "You think it's safe to go down there?" he asked, eyeing the approaching ball of wind cautiously.

Considering the amount of control that Silver had, it probably was but Kara still shook her head. "Wait until he dissipates his magic."

As Silver got closer, the ball of churning winds grew slower and slower until it gently deposited Silver on a flat part of the mountainside on his feet. Kara narrowed her eyes at the sight of the shining silver halberd that remained in his hands, but as her eyes scanned the rocks and trees around them, she couldn't see any hint of there being a breeze.

"Kar- Black?" Red asked, catching himself before he said Kara's name.

Kara wasn't sure why Silver hadn't dissipated his magic yet, but with none of it actively swirling, it was safe. He was likely just showing off.

"You can go," she said, nodding towards Red while still staring at Silver. "Good luck."

Red nodded once before he started to run down the side of the mountain. Using the path of destruction that Silver had carved with his ball of wind, he slid down the smooth rock, hoping over the various pieces of debris that littered his path to the surviving Bone Rats. On the way, he passed by close to Silver, whose cheery wave went ignored as Red focused on keeping his footing.

Silver kept his hand up for a few more seconds, but dropped it after it became clear that Red didn't have the attention to spare. He looked up at her instead, but Kara crossed her arms, refusing to show any sign of friendliness.

It took him about a minute for Silver to climb up to her, using the magical halberd he wielded to help pull himself up.

"You didn't hold on to my shirt," he said as he pulled himself up to her level. "Or my pants."

"Only because I thought I was going to die," Kara said, without looking at him. She was too busy tracking Red's descent into the Bone Rat nest. "When a Soulblade manifests at such a close range, it's generally a death sentence."

"Generally," Silver agreed. "But I'm good."

"How the hell was I supposed to know that?"

"Oh. You didn't know?"

If Kara was feeling forgiving, she would have taken note of the genuine surprise in Silver's voice. But before she answer his question with a scathing remark that she hadn't quite prepared, the timer in her hand rang out with a loud metallic clanging.

"Five minutes," she said dryly, glancing at the old man, who was still leaning on his halberd. "Disperse it."

Silver opened his mouth as if to say something, but sheepishly looked down and clenched his fist, shattering the magical halberd in his grip. The pieces fell slowly to the ground, and dissipated in silver smoke before they landed. Unlike the explosion that manifestation usually was, dispersing a Soulblade caused little to no destruction.

Satisfied, Kara stopped the alarm and turned back to watch Red, who was now about halfway down the mountain.

"Sorry," Silver said from behind her. "Not to be arrogant, but I'm somewhat of a legend among the Soulblades. I'm sure you've heard of me. Silver Winds? I just thought you’d know."

The name was familiar to her, and surprise hit her when she realized who the old man was, but she didn't react. "I didn't think you were real," she admitted.

"Well I am. And whenever I'm sent on a mission with novices, I try to show off. It's not every day you kids get to see what you could grow up to be. I try to instill a sense of wonder, you know?"

Kara shrugged.

So he wanted her reaction to be more like Red's. Though her heart still pounded at what she had assumed to be a near death experience, she was calm enough to appreciate what Silver had tried to do. She was no less irritated, but she didn’t want to divert her attention from what was going to happen next.

As she watched Red's descent, she kept a hand on her timer, ready to wind it at the very second that she saw him manifest his magic. He ran far enough that he'd reached the threshold where he was allowed to manifest, but hadn't reached the Bone Rats yet.

As he drew closer, the amorphous blob of Bone Rats, shivered as it readied itself against the next assault.

To Kara's surprise, Red showed more composure than she had expected, waiting until the Bone Rats launched their assault before drawing in his magic. Knowing what was coming next, Kara shielded her eyes.

The world below exploded in a sea of flames.

"Ow, that's bright," Silver complained.

Kara ignored him as she started her timer.

Unlike Silver, who had enough skill to manifest without endagering his immediate surroundings, Red's manifestation was explosive, coating the entire mountainside in fire. Such was his lack of control that even from more than a kilometer away, she could feel the heat of his magic.

"Aw man. He has fire magic?" Silver whined. "Cover your nose, kid. Trust me."

Kara ignored him, even though she knew it was a good suggestion.

She watched the sea of flames travel across the mountain, with Red at its center and his crimson sword in his hand, a perfect circle of destruction engulfed the mountain and the Bone Rats that inhabited it. A few seconds later, the horrid scent of burning meat and hair filled the air.

Kara resisted the urge to cover her nose and willed herself to suffer in the horror that Red was living in.

Gripping her timer tight, she watched the scene before her, pleading silently for Red to dissipate his magic soon.

She let out a sigh of relief when, after four minutes, the fire started to die down, leaving the single shoeless boy in the middle of a razed field of bodies. She couldn’t see him dissipate his sword from so far away, but unlike Silver, Red had no reason to show off. Her heartbeat finally started to calm down. The mountainside vegetation and Red's disposable sandals were the only casualties, along with a thousand or so Bone Rats.

Picking up Red's boots and hair tie, she jogged down the side of the mountain, eager to deliver him something to replaced the sandals that he had burned away. She ran down with a relieved smile, glad that the mission passed by peacefully without her having to kill anyone.