Bellona stood her post by the Shodai temple gates, leaning on her large sword as she watched the festivities of the new year begin to draw to a close as the sun set below the horizon. A part of her wanted to join, but festivals are rife with petty crime; pickpockets, public disturbances, missing children, plenty of things can happen when crowds gather into single avenues like this. She could not let her internal desires get in the way of her duty, no matter what.

One of her soldiers approached her and gave her a salute. “Only one missing child to report, ma’am, and they have been successfully returned,” the guard reported.

“Nothing else?” Bellona asked indifferently.

“No ma’am,” the guard replied.

“That’s odd, but good,” Bellona commented; usually the sun set brings more crimes and issues.

Another guard with two swords tied to his belt approached Bellona and gave her a similar salute. “One incident in the Sakuradai district, ma’am,” the guard sounded off.

“Go on,” Bellona instructed.

“A man was discovered dead in one of the alleys,” the guard reported. “It looked as though he was in a swordfight shortly before he died with the final injury being a sword through the heart.”

“Any witnesses?” Bellona asked.

“None,” the guard reported. “No one reported any sounds of fighting or any commotion. The body was not even discovered until one of our patrols found him. The body has been recovered and is being taken to the palace for further investigation.”

“That’s strange,” Bellona commented. “Someone would have noticed a sword fight in the streets. You can’t kill a man that quietly. Anything else to report on the matter?”

“Only one other thing, ma’am,” the guard replied. “The man still had his purse on him and a silver sword. We can rule out a robbery for this murder, but we struggle to find any other motive outside of possible revenge.”

“A silver sword you say?” Bellona asked.

The guard removed a sheathed sword from his belt and offered it to Bellona with a bow. Bellona took the sword and drew the blade, examining the sword’s condition. She admired the silver hilt inlaid with fine gold wire and leather and the small runes surrounding the hilt. As she examined the blade, she saw that it was meticulously maintained yet still bore dents and scratches, deeper than the steel should allow. This sword parried some intense blows, and yet no blood was on the blade.

She sheathed the sword and thought for a moment, running through the possibilities. “You said this happened in Sakuradai, correct?” she asked the reporting guard.

“Yes ma’am,” the guard sounded off. “He was found in the alley of the fourth ward, next to a restaurant called ‘Murana’.”

“Sakuradai, fourth ward,” Bellona wondered aloud. That area is to the northwest of the city centre, home mostly to tradesmen and businesses. Most of the residential population was just a bit north of Yakutori to the east side of the city. It may be possible that no one witnessed the crime due to the general lack of foot traffic in that district at the moment. But why commit a murder there?

“Round up patrols for the unguarded districts,” Bellona ordered. “It means stretching our resources thin, but if crimes are going on in the other districts under our noses, we need to be aware.”

“Yes ma’am!” the guards sounded off with a salute and headed off to fulfil her orders. Bellona rubbed her eyes, her blood pressure slowly rising as she imagined just how big of an investigation this will have to be.

“Bellona!” a cheery girl’s voice called out in the distance. Bellona looked up and her stress simultaneously reduced and doubled as she saw Arylos and Iris walking towards her, Arylos carrying bags of souvenirs.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” Iris exclaimed with a smile.

“I’m on guard duty,” Bellona explained to the girl. “Someone has to try and keep the streets safe with the festival going on. I see Arylos is doing his best to spoil you.”

For the first time, Arylos’s face went red as he got flustered. “I’m not spoiling her; I’m just entertaining her,” he denied with a growl and shaking his head furiously.

“Ahuh, that’s what all of those bags are?” Bellona teased, cracking a wicked smile. “How much of that stuff did you buy for yourself and how much of it is Iris’s?”

Arylos considered the question and then scoffed, confirming what Bellona already knew. “I’m just being nice, that’s all.”

“Sure~,” Bellona voiced, her smile widening as she turned to Iris. “You have him whipped, so you best keep a tight hold on that leash.”

Arylos snorted and growled while baring his fangs, trying his best to defend his honour.

“I stand corrected,,” Bellona cut in. “You better keep your pet dog on a leash.”

Iris let out a solid and addicting laugh; the idea of keeping Arylos on a leash like a dog was too much for her. And yet, strangely fitting as of now. “I’ll try my hardest, but he doesn’t make it easy,” she responded while nudging the growling Titan.

“Making things difficult is his specialty,” Bellona commented with a laugh.

Arylos scoffed and looked down to the silver sword Bellona had in her hands, recognising the colour of the hilt and the design on the grip.

“Where did you get that?” he asked, confused and concerned.

Bellona looked down to the sword that the guard gave her. “This? It was taken off of a man who was killed in the Sakuradai district not long ago.”

The words punched Arylos in the gut as he looked up to Bellona. “He was killed?” he asked softly.

“Yeah,” Bellona replied in confusion. “Did you know him or something?”

“No,” Arylos answered, still processing what he was told. “I thought he was someone else when I saw him, but we cleared up the confusion and went our separate ways. I never even got his name.”

“You mean the guy who saw us at the market the other day?” Iris asked.

Arylos slowly nodded, unable to feel anything but sadness. “What happened to him?”

“Got in a sword fight, apparently it was pretty bad on his end,” Bellona explained. “I haven’t examined the body yet, but from what I can tell from the damage on this sword, it was intense, although no one saw anything.”

“How was he killed?” Arylos asked softly.

Bellona hesitated before relaying the information. “Stabbed through the heart is what my patrol tells me; that’s what did him in.”

Arylos growled and looked away, unable to face the two women. He had wild thoughts flood his mind. He hoped he could have at least cleared up the confusion he had with the man. He hoped he could have done something. All of this happened while he was out having fun with Iris and he couldn’t shake this emotion; an emotion that stung deep but he couldn’t identify. He just felt he could have done something to help and he was angry at himself for it.

He knew then what this new emotion is; guilt.

He felt a tug on his sleeve and when he turned, he saw Iris looking at him with concern in her eyes, an unspoken ‘are you okay?’ was painted on her face, unable to hide her concern. As he looked at her, his spinning emotions faded and he felt some calm come back to him.

“I’m alright,” he answered her silent question before turning to Bellona. “If possible, I would like to help.”

Bellona thought for a moment before finding her answer. “Alright, I’ll let Sentarus know you’ll be by, but I’m sure he would prefer the Khymr stay out of this.”

“I understand,” Arylos replied with a nod of his head and he turned to Iris. “Come on, let’s go home.”

Iris nodded and the two made their way down the street, heading back to their home in the Mutsukanai district, Arylos with an added burden on his shoulders and Iris with a new concern.

“Is it something we have to be concerned about?” Iris asked.

“Possibly,” Arylos responded. “I’ll just take a look and make sure we’ll be fine. Worst case scenario, we have a new enemy on our hands.”

“Do you think it was Baldr?” Iris asked, doing her best to stay close to Arylos.

“I don’t think so,” Arylos replied with a shake of his head. “Swords didn’t seem Baldr’s style, and I’m willing to bet that man was a good swordsman, of passing skill at least. Baldr would have likely just punched his organs into a bloody mess, on top of trying to destroy the city.”

“So you think this was isolated?” Iris summarised.

“No, I hope this was isolated,” Arylos corrected as they finally approached the front door of the house and opened it. “For now, let’s try and enjoy the new year before we worry about what’s going on, okay?”

Iris nodded and took some of the bags from Arylos and took them to her room, setting them on the table next to her bed as she flopped onto her bed, feeling exhaustion from the excitement for the day. A part of her worried about Arylos; finding out about that man that was killed got to him. She felt her desire to help him, but didn’t know how this time. She could only hope that things like the festival would be enough for Arylos to move on so he doesn’t spend his time worrying.

She buried her face in the pillows as she felt a need to sleep but lacked the desire to move or change clothes. If anything, she felt jealous. She was close to getting Arylos to experience all of the same emotions she does and forget about his past only for him to find out about the murder and ruin all of the progress she had made.

It made her mad. It made her frustrated. It made her anxious. She just wanted everything to be normal; she just wanted to be left alone. But the image of Arylos smiling came to her mind. She remembered how happy he looked, how he lived without a care. How he opened up to her. She wondered if it all wasn’t as bad as she thought as she closed her eyes, thinking about that fanged smile of his.

She genuinely wondered about the creature on the inside, thinking back to the being of stone and fire she saw in Arylos’s memories. One thing concerned her about the vision. She knew Arylos was inhuman, a monster, a creature beyond her world. She was once afraid of him, afraid of the monster, yet she meant what she told Arylos; she was no longer afraid of him. She wanted to know more about him. However, when she looked at the vision of Arylos as a Titan, she could only think of one emotion; one thing that filled her mind and heart.

Iris thought he was beautiful, in a haunting way.

She remembered the red eyes and a featureless face and his many wings on his back and his taloned hands and feet. Yet she could not help but admire the flames and the shadows that emanated from him.

Oldalthur’s words came to her; “The sight of such terror and the knowledge that such a creature exists in this world fills my soul with dread, and yet I gaze upon the beauty of destruction in awe and worship!”

She understood what he meant; she saw a creature beyond her understanding and should have been horrified, and yet she could not help but admire him. Her mind swam in this endless dream, spiralling down into the unknown as she questioned what she thought she knew about him. As she questioned what she believed about him.

Iris opened her eyes, free from the maelstrom in her head, and felt sweat on her skin; a reminder that she was still wearing her yokui. She lifted herself up but found that a blanket rolled off of her as she did; a blanket she did not remember putting on herself.

She rubbed her eyes and took off her yokui, replacing it with a light robe, and made her way into the hallway as she saw lights glow from the rooms downstairs. She slowly made her way down the stairs and at the landing of the stairs, she saw the fireplace in the living room burning with a familiar shadow on the sofa in front of it.

She climbed down and entered the living room to see Arylos sitting on the sofa reading a book.

“I wondered if you were going to sleep all day,” Arylos announced, aware of Iris’s presence without looking at her.

“I’m sorry, I just blacked out when we got back,” Iris told him in a nervous voice.

“No need to be sorry; I expected as much,” Arylos answered as he folded a corner of the page he was reading and set the book down as he turned to face her. “I prepared some curry for dinner last night that should be a good breakfast.”

Iris heard the word and felt her mouth water at the idea. “Wait, breakfast?” she blurted out, snapping out of her hypnosis.

“The sun will be rising shortly,” Arylos answered with a laugh. “I set some chairs up in front of the house if you would like to go out.”

Iris smiled and gave Arylos a light hug from behind, leaning over the sofa to do so. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Arylos laughed and patted her shoulder. “I’ll bring some tea outside if you want to head out there.”

Iris nodded and let him go as she went outside. As he told her, two wooden rocking chairs sat on the walkway and faced eastward. She looked up and saw the sky was still dark, but none of the moons shone overhead and from the east the sky started to turn from black into a soft blue.

Iris took a seat and admired the dark before dawn, counting the stars and awaiting the coming morning. Before long, she heard the front door open and then close and she saw Arylos coming out with two small cups and handed one to Iris as he took a seat.

“We can watch the sunrise before I finish making breakfast, alright?” Arylos told her.

Iris nodded but had a thought come to her. “I didn’t think you would be into this. This is a human thing.”

Arylos chuckled while he took a drink of his tea. “The new year starts now, making this the first sunrise of the year. I may be inhuman, but I’m not entirely heartless.”

“Wait, really?” Iris asked while taking a drink herself. “You were able to figure out why it’s important?”

Arylos sighed but left a soft smile on his face. “Starting from when I was younger, I spent my time admiring the stars. I enjoyed their beauty, their light, their fire. They were simple by nature but marvellous to behold. To watch them grow and evolve, change over the course of time and become even more beautiful. I often found myself wishing that I could take them home with me so I could enjoy them.”

“All for stars?” Iris asked, finding the idea that Arylos collecting stars like a giddy boy entertaining.

Arylos laughed under his breath as the sunlight broke through and began to shine and he watched, admiring the light. “You see twinkling lights at night, or a burning ball during the day. I see a chaotic being singing a song that can only be felt but never heard. A wind and heat that buffets you and yet kisses your skin with a soft and velvet touch. I feel their pull, their gravity as they draw you in, never giving you up like an embrace as they give you everything they have to you while also taking away everything you are.”

Iris found his metaphors hypnotic, romantic even, as she watched the sunlight of the new year fill the sky.

“I guess you could call me a weird one,” Arylos confessed as he beheld the morning sun. “But the first true love I ever experienced was with a star. I loved everything about it, and when it neared its death, I felt pain and sadness. Yet when it finally died, the light it gave off was incredible; enough to blind me as I felt the explosion rock my soul as it gave me one parting gift.”

“What gift was that?” Iris asked.

Arylos sighed as he reminisced. “It shone with all of the light and fire it could ever give me; enough to outshine every other star in the sky. It gave off the light of a thousand suns and the fire that was its corpse became new stars; children of my first love that would grace me with a similar light. With that final gift, it took all of my pain away.”

Iris smiled, feeling the same emotions Arylos felt as she watched the sunrise. She felt his love, his emotion. And for the first time in her life, she understood what it was like and she wanted more.

For the first time, she fell in love with the sunrise.