“I have a couple of more questions if you don’t mind.” Ilon said after he finished pepping up Tain. He had already gotten the information that he wanted, that Bi’wan had consumed some sort of violet orb which was the cause of his turn into an artificial Horror. He had also told Tain about it, hoping that he would spread the word so that more people would be on the lookout for anyone collaborating with the person with violet eyes.

The person with violet eyes was playing with the fundamentals of the world, which in every tale, story, or first hand account he ever heard had never ever turned out well. All it did was usually cause irreparable damage, both to the world and to the families it ripped apart.

“I’ll tell you whatever you want, go ahead.” Tain said once he snapped out of his whirling thoughts. He seemed to have more determination in his eyes, a reason to bear the guilt of all the lives lost that day.

“I was wondering how you found Bi’wan to get him to help you with fighting Hellion.” Ilon had a couple of things that didn’t exactly line up according to what Tain had told him.

“We always knew where he was once we got tipped off that it was him.” Tain said.

“But you said that the guard didn’t know?”

“I lied.” Tain said with a half smile, the left half of his face hidden behind bandaging. Ilon had a feeling that was the case, but he wanted to give Tain the benefit of the doubt. Looks like he had been too trusting to have believed everything he said.

Ilon frowned as he inquired further. “And how exactly did you know where he was?”

“We had spies in the Shamans faction. They also had a couple in the guards that we knew of and used to send specific information. Jeraz was his name, I believe.” Tain dropped an explosive barrel on him. “Make sure not to tell Lysa about it though, it’s better for her not to know.”

“Of course.” Ilon fell silent for a moment. It seemed that he was dancing on the palm of the man in front of him the entire time, heck maybe even his depression was faked to evoke sympathy from him. Ilon remembered Tain saying that he had gotten too used to politics, so the entire personality of the person before him might be a facade.

“What about the declaration of the Mayor? That you weren’t allowed to investigate the Shamans.” Ilon assumed that the Mayor was on Tain’s side the whole time, but maybe that wasn’t the case. It was possible that Tain was playing the Mayor just as much as he had played them.

“Publicly. It’s true that the Shamans pressured him into making the declaration, but it’s not like the Mayor would take action against us for investigating them. Azeus did have a massive grudge against Hellion that he always wanted revenge for.” Tain said in a way that tempted Ilon to ask, his curiosity perked.

Ilon couldn’t resist as he asked, “What would that be?”

“Azeus had a daughter who had been blessed by a totem of considerable strength. At the time Azeus had just been appointed Mayor and Hellion befriended Azeus. I’m not sure of the exact details, but the totem of Azeus’s daughter had to do with healing through her blood. Once Hellion realized this he decided to become her teacher, but instead of teaching her anything he used her as a blood bank in order to try to create elixirs. Eventually her young body couldn’t handle it anymore and passed.“ Tain explained.

Perhaps being used wasn’t such a bad thing if it resulted in the death of a scum like him. Ilon thought as he felt his rage being reignited. He quickly calmed down as the person in question had already been killed and the Mayor’s revenge had been enacted.

“I see.” Ilon said in sadness.

“Do you have any other questions?” Tain said, maintaining his smile.

“Just one. You said that your specialized people had been disappearing and that the Shamans had some as well. Was it the work of Killian and Duhnovo?” Ilon asked. It was something that had been bugging him ever since he heard of it.

Tain painfully shook his head. “Not that I know of. As far as I know, no one from Killian or Duhnovo has arrived at Mazual. It was like all traces of them had disappeared, no body or witnesses left behind.” Tain’s smile disappeared. His face became extremely serious as he talked. “No traces.” He repeated as his eyes slightly widened.

“You don’t think-” Ilon said as he paused as well. There had been a case just recently where someone had disappeared before their very eyes.

“It’s possible. I’ll have to have more people look into it, but so far absolutely nothing has been found about them.” Tain responded.

But I didn’t sense any Horrors appearing. Ilon thought to himself. There were three possibilities that Ilon could think of then. The first was that they were simply mistaken and the person with violet eyes had no hand in it at all. The second was that the people were out of his range of sense. The third was that none had been as successful as Bi’wan, so they didn’t even register in his sense as Horrors.

He prayed to Ikiyoka that it was one of the first two options. If it was the third option then it meant that the person with violet eyes was making progress in creating artificial Horrors. He had no clue what it was that made a person into an artificial Horror, only that any progress made was something to truly fear.

“Thank you for answering my questions.” Ilon said with sincerity. Although he didn’t like what Tain did or how he reacted to what he had done, or the fact that he lied to them and used them for his own schemes, he did appreciate that Tain was upfront with him. He wasn’t sure if they would ever meet again, and he wasn’t sure if he would ever want to see him again, but at least he could leave a single positive impression amidst all the negative.

“No, thank you for everything you’ve done. I’m sorry for everything that I’ve done to you, but I hope you understand that it was necessary.” Tain said with what Ilon considered a ‘somewhat apology’. Apologize, but sidestep the blame.

“Then, I’ll take my leave.” Ilon said as he got up out of his chair. He was still worried about the person with violet eyes performing more acts of atrocities on the citizens of Mazual, but that would have to be left to those with much greater strength than either him or Tain. For now, they needed to head to the capital in order to report what they had seen to the other Cursed.

“Take care. You’re going to be leaving Mazual, correct? If you’re thinking about going anywhere near the capital then I suggest you be cautious.” Tain said with a stern tone. If Ilon remembered correctly, there was something about turmoil going on in the Capital.

He tried to remember what Tain had told him a couple days ago. “I’ll make sure to. There was a group causing trouble, right? What was their name again?” Ilon had only heard it once before and didn’t put much attention on it.

“They’re called the Armani. They’re a group consisting of Demi-humans who claim to be enacting revenge for the slaughter of a Demi-human clan. They named themselves after that clan and pledged that every person responsible would pay their dues.” Tain explained. “At least that was their original goal, but they’ve gotten more and more violent over the past couple of months.”

“The Capital hasn’t been able to deal with them?” Ilon asked in disbelief. If they had been around for months then that meant they were an actual threat.

“It’s mainly because of the head of the Armani. He was the grandson of the Chief of the original Armani clan. He should be around tier 5 or 6 of the manifestation realm.” Tain said. He himself was only at the second tier of the manifestation realm and it had taken over five years after he reached the manifestation realm.

“Anyone else of note?” Ilon questioned. They needed to go to the Capital as soon as possible, so it was better to know what sort of potential enemies there were beforehand.

“The Armani has three Vice-leaders. I don't have much information about them but they should be around my strength, maybe a bit weaker.” Tain said. “Besides that, some of them have resorted to attacking villages for more supplies, so watch out.”

Ilon nodded his head at Tain. “Thanks for the info.” He looked at Tain for a moment longer before finally saying, “Take care. You’ve got a lot on your plate now.”

“I’ll try to handle it the best I can. No, I have to do the best I can.’ Tain said with determination.

Ilon didn’t say anything further and left the room. Lysa had already left, probably off to drown herself in work. He doubted that she would wait considering their conversation took around half an hour or so. As Ilon walked down the long corridor that was filled with groans of pain from patients, he saw someone walking towards him.

The man had his head down so Ilon couldn’t see his face, but he noticed that he had similar black hair to himself and a slim yet muscular stature. Ilon gave him a nod as he continued on his way down the corridor before he stopped. A weird sense of deja-vu overtook him as he struggled to remember where he had seen this person before, but nothing came to mind.

He turned around to look at the person, but he was already gone. It was highly possible that he was just here to visit a friend and one of the guards let him in, but Ilon couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. His curiosity drove him forward as he took a peek into each and every room in the corridor, yet he caught no sight of the black haired man.

After several apologies to the nurses and patients that he intruded on, he arrived before the only room left, Tain’s. He felt it a bit awkward to return for no reason so he tried to think up an excuse and realized something relatively important. He had never reported to Tain about Fessal not remembering the person with violet eyes.

Having an excuse to enter the room now, he knocked on the door and opened it. As he opened it he expected Tain to be talking with someone, but there was no sign of the man with black hair anywhere, sending chills up Ilon’s spine.

“You’re back? Did you forget something?” Tain asked upon seeing Ilon once again.

“I forgot something to mention to you.” Ilon said as he walked over and took a seat in the chair once again. He looked over Tain trying to see if there was anything wrong with him, but didn’t notice anything different than before.

“What is it?” Tain asked. Tain had no clue as to what would be so important that the boy before him would have to come back to tell him.

“It’s about the daughter of the innkeeper of the Bronze Cudgel.” Ilon said, trying to gauge any oddities about Tain.

Tain took a moment, attempting to remember who Ilon was talking about. “What about her?”.

“She was the one that told us about the information that allowed us to identify Bi’wan as well as the other culprit. A couple of days ago we talked again and she couldn’t remember the person with violet eyes.” Ilon told him. It was something that had slipped his mind over all the chaos that occurred, but he figured that it was actually important enough to warrant him returning.

“I remember reading the report about her identifying Bi’wan, but what’s this about violet eyes?” Tain said as he furrowed his brows.

Ilon instantly froze as he heard this. A cold sweat filled his back as his hands clammed up. Just a minute ago they had been talking about the person with violet eyes, now Tain had no memory about it.

“Ahaha, you’re joking, right?” Ilon asked in disbelief. His mind halted as a faint memory on the edge surfaced. He had come back because he had forgotten to report Fessal’s missing memory, so why did he feel like something was missing.

“What are you talking about?” Tain questioned the strange behaviour of him. Ilon put his hand to his forehead as he tried to remember. He had come here to report, no to look, no, to report about Fessal’s missing memories of … of what?

A shooting pain seared through Ilon’s head. It felt like someone had pumped his head full of air to the point that it was about to explode. Missing memories, Fessal’s missing memories.

I’m missing memories. Ilon realized as another shooting pain resounded throughout his head.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Your nose is bleeding.” Tain said in concern. From his point of view, Ilon put his hand to his head and his nose started to bleed like crazy.

About what? What am I missing? It felt like it was on the tip of his tongue, yet nothing was coming through. He felt the pain get worse and worse the more he tried to think about it, quickly he realized that something very wrong was going on with him.

Violet energy flashed through him as he willed it to his head. He felt it encounter something small, nestled away in his brain, resembling a leech. He carefully weaved the violet into small threads that surrounded it in a cocoon, before gently plucking it off. He felt it easily come off, yet as soon as it did, it faded into a black mist.

Memories about the person with violet eyes flooded him as the pain in his head faded.

“Ilon, what’s wrong?” Tain asked in a concerned and serious voice. Ilon opened his eyes and noticed that his shirt was covered in blood from his nosebleed, which had luckily stopped after removing the leech-like thing. He was already feeling a bit woozy and light headed.

“Give me a second.” Ilon said as he tried to refocus himself. Several questions were rampaging through his head, but there was one that was bothering him the most. Who did this? Ilon had only left the room for around a minute and he hadn’t seen anyone else in the corridor. “Did anyone come into the room while I was gone?” Ilon asked.

“No. I was alone the whole time. What’s going on?” Tain asked with worry.

Ilon stood up and almost stumbled. “Tain, I need to check something with you. There was something that was affecting my memory, and you’re missing some memories as well.”

“Go ahead. It’s not like I’d be able to stop you in my current state. Plus, you don’t seem like the type to unnecessarily kill.” Tain said with a bit of a smile. He was freaked out at the situation, but Ilon seemed like he had a good grasp of what was going on.

“Focus on letting my energy in. If you try to repel it with your aura unconsciously, then it could cause injuries.” Ilon said as he put his hand on the top of Tain’s head.

“Alright. I’m ready.” Tain gave the signal to start.

Ilon focused on his violet energy and just like before, he separated his energy into threads. He combed where he found the leech in his own head and found an identical one to his own. Using the same strategy he wrapped the leech into a cocoon and slowly pulled it off.

The only difference was that the process took longer since his control wasn’t as good and he was afraid of making a mistake. Ilon was able to pull it off successfully and the leech faded into a mist. This time he was prepared for it and focused his senses.

The disintegration of the leech was very similar to that of the Horrors, but Ilon managed to see that the leech was a black glob of gelatinous energy. He had no clue what it was, how it came about, or how it erased certain parts of the memory. The only thing he could tell was that it was the furthest thing from natural.

“Huh?” Tain exclaimed in shock as Ilon finished removing the leech. He quickly retrieved the last of his energy and removed his hand from Tain’s head as Tain grunted out in pain, his memories rushing back to him. “That was?” Tain asked.

“I have no idea. It’s probably the reason why Fessal lost her memories about the person with violet eyes as well.” Ilon replied.

“Do you think it was done by them?” Tain asked, trying to make some sense of the situation. What had just happened filled him with dread. The fact that someone could come into his room without him realizing and alter his memories scared him beyond belief. And if they didn’t come into his room, it made him even more scared because it meant they could do it from a distance.

Ilon considered it for a moment. “It’s possible. But there was another person who was there with the violet eyed silhouette. Fessal couldn’t remember anything about them at all, right? It’s possible that it was them.” Ilon rationalized. He was just making assumptions, and maybe they weren’t related at all, but the only thing they could do was guess in order to reduce their fear even just a bit.

“I had forgotten about them.” Tain said before he realized something. “Why did Fessal remember Bi’wan so clearly, yet only the violet eyes and nothing about the other person?”

“Maybe Fessal was infected by one of the leeches and it erases the memory over time. The person had it erase all memory of themselves first, then the silhouette with violet eyes, and then it would have erased about Bi’wan. It’s possible we got the information just in time.” Ilon theorized. They had no way of knowing if it was correct or not, but any theory would be helpful to them at this point.

“It’s possible. They also could have purposely altered Fessal’s memory so it would be like that. The only reason we knew it was Bi’wan was because of Fessal remembering.” Tain also came up with a theory.

“Why would they leave only the violet eyes then?” Ilon debated.

Tain had a feeling that something was off. “I’m not sure.” The more and more he thought about it, something felt off to him.

“The only thing that you forgot about was the violet eyes, correct?” Ilon suddenly spoke up.

“Yeah, I remembered everything else perfectly fine.”

“You remembered me talking to you about the artificial Horror?” Ilon asked with a slight shake in his voice.

“Yes.” Tain responded, getting more tense as Ilon questioned more and more.

“You remembered both Hellion and Bi’wan being involved with something to do with it.” Ilon said gravely.

“Yes.” Tain said in a quiet voice.

“So, if you didn’t remember the person with the violet eyes, what would you have assumed?” Ilon asked.

“Most likely … “ Tain trailed off as he widened his eyes. “That they were involved in creating an artificial Horror.” Tain spoke slowly, almost unable to believe his words.

“And if you reported that to your higher ups?” Ilon followed through on his thoughts.

“They would have investigated and found it to be true. There were a lot of people that witnessed the events. Which would mean ... “ Tain stopped as he was about to say it.

“Immediate war.” Ilon said in his place. “And not just a regular war, but an all out war that wouldn’t stop until one side was destroyed.” The people of the Killian Empire had extreme views regarding Horrors. They believed them to be the cause of the spreading Deadzone in the north and wanted all Horrors eliminated from the world. If they found out that their most hated enemy was potentially researching how to create artificial Horrors through the use of living humans, there could only be one ending in that situation.

“We almost got played.” Tain said. His original actions of massacring the Shamans would lead to war in months to years, but the ploy of the person with violet eyes would have caused a war to happen in weeks at most.

“We were dancing on the palms of giants.” Ilon grimly said. Now he understood why the Master had always tried her hardest to avoid politics and to get them to avoid it.