“The war with Voyca was one of the worst moments of my career. We’ve only just signed the long-awaited treaty with Nihoria, when they simply went and took advantage of the situation, and through us attacked Voyca. I didn’t want to do it, but for the good of the country I had no choice. But to this day I remember how, when coming back from a battlefield after praying - because I pray even for my enemies - I found a tiny fenec fox, which didn’t even know the common language. She was crying, bawling and shouting something in voycian. When she saw me, she ran in my direction and started rubbing against my legs. Did she see me as her hero? She was wrong, because I was her tormentor. But I couldn’t leave her there. I took her and brought her to Gormilia, officially as „war trophy, a weapon”. It was the least I could do for a child which lost its parents because of my country.”

~ Emerald Sand’s diary.

Chapter 6

The Furious Thief

He was walking through dirty alleys of a similarly dirty town. It was dark, all street lamps were broken, and the cracked glass made a distinctive sound when he treaded over it. It was irritating him, people’s laughter irritated him, the stench irritated him, but he walked on, hooded, hiding the wound on his face. It irritated him too – every time he looked into a mirror, he wanted to shatter it. He hated what it reminded him of.

What also annoyed him was the fact that although the locating spell was pointing to this village, he couldn’t feel the aura of the seal at all. Then irritation turned into real anger. He was angry that he made himself come to the dirtiest village in the whole Gormilia just to learn that the item was gone. Resigned, he sat down, and leaned against a wall of some house. His wound was itching, and, like everything around him, it irritated him. He looked at the space in front of him, not even knowing what he’s supposed to do now, or where to go next. Then he heard that distinctive cracking, it looked like someone was walking in his direction.

“You’ve got something I need” the mysterious person suddenly said.

“Oh. And what might it be, if I might ask?” he answered without a trace of emotion in his voice.

“Something, that some trash took from under my nose” he growled. “You know well what I mean. I felt the seal in this area, and now I’m feeling it from you.”

“I’m sorry. Sadly, it wasn’t me who took the one you have in mind.” He got up and looked in the direction of the person talking to him. He opened his eyes a bit wider from surprise when he saw the armor the stranger was wearing – it was golden, and in the middle of the chestplate an emerald was embedded, a symbol of Gormilia – the person standing in front of him was a soldier. He had brown hair, green eyes and tanned skin. It seemed that the man was also surprised to see Mateo, but after a moment he smiled.

“So it’s you. Well then, I suppose the fortune is smiling on me. I had enough of listening to general Sand screaming about how incompetent we all are because we can’t catch you.”

“Ah. Well, I agree with her.” He smirked. “But more than that I’m wondering what a soldier like you might want from the deity.”

“That’s my business. I don’t even want to imagine what a person like you might want from him. But it’s unimportant, since you’ll be giving me your seal soon. I’ll also ensure that you’ll hang for the death of my comrades. So come, Matevigo Jenkins! Fight with me!”

“If you insist...” He smiled disgustingly.

~

“W-We wish to inform you, G–General…” The young boy shivering, and his voice was cracking. Distinguished army men were standing right behind him, at attention. Emerald, on the other hand, was sitting with her side to them, on a chair behind a desk. Her face showed no emotion. “…That on October the fourth, of year 976… Marco of Heven clan from Nayo has been murdered. As shown by an investigation done by our detectors of mana from Pirivin village… the magic traces left there belonged to Marco himself, and to…” He stumbled.

“…And to?” Emerald pressed him.

“And to… Matevigo Sivio Jenkins, General.” He dropped his head. Emerald sat without movement for a longer while, when everyone suddenly saw her muscles tense. She was clenching her fist, and then she hit the desk with all her strength. Everyone straightened their backs again.

“What the fuck is this supposed to be?!” she screamed in fury. “What is that damned bastard thinking?! It’s the third person he killed!”

“G–General…”

“SILENCE!” she looked away from them. “I order you to get the best weapons you have, use the strongest spells and be as merciless as possible. And now fuck off. As long as you don’t catch Matevigo, don’t even dare show yourselves to me. Get out!”

Everyone obeyed the order, left the room and closed the door behind them. Emerald threw everything that was on the desk on the ground. She was panting from stress.

‘I don’t remember the last time anyone got under my skin like this… Ah, Master… You’re not proud of me, right?’

~

“Excuse me? Huntress Ivory really said that she… loves you?” Kyoko asked in disbelief. Lorenzo nodded. They were sitting together in the hideout, waiting for Edward.

“Well, to me she’s a perverted hag anyway.” Eris hissed out. “Someday I’ll beat her up, damn it…”

“Kind of too fast to fall in love, don’t you think?” asked Aru. “Although I don’t know much about all that stuff.”

“Well, actually… she said that she believes in reincarnation. And that I make her think of someone she knew once” he replied and took a loaf into his hand.

“Don’t stuff yourself, I went to the marketplace for this!” Eris shouted out.

“Hey, I’m hungry…!”

“You’re always hungry, d o r k.”

“Calm down, you’re both acting like children” Kyoko said calmly, herself taking a piece of bread. “Reincarnation… Might it be related to the Twelve’s religion?”

“Or the faith of the Cosmos” Aru added. “But is it possible? Ivory is younger than Lorenzo, after all.”

“Or not” replied the violet-haired girl.

“How old is she really? She looks at least… fifteen?” Aru thought out loud.

“Hmm…” Lorenzo muttered, chewing the loaf. ”Maybe she’s older than we think?”

“Maybe she’s lived for at least ninety years?” Eris laughed disgustingly.

“Stop it, even if she made her herself younger using spells, you can’t turn a ninety year old into a teenager” replied Kyoko.

“Then maybe she’s around thirty?” proposed Aru. “She was rather skilled in battle, wasn’t she?”

“We’ll ask her someday.” Lorenzo shrugged.

Suddenly the doors opened. Through them came Edward with Kasei, both of them also eating loaves.

“Oh. I see we’re not the only ones that got bribed with the smell” said the redhead and took another bite.

“Apparently.” Edward pushed the rest of the loaf inside his mouth and stepped closer. He was holding three books under his arms. “Arthur said that he’ll kill us if we come back so late again. He also added that it’s morally wrong that I can “party” with you, and he can’t.”

“Yeaaah. You party.” Aru giggled. “Are those the books?”

“Right. Unfortunately, you have to look through them yourself. I have to help Arthur in library, and also to guard him, so no one realizes he took any books out.” He put them in the red-haired girl’s hands. The rest took a closer look at them and became breathless. They were beautiful - they had leather covers with embossed, detailed patterns.

“They’re lovely…” Aru said, amazed.

“Hah, I reacted similarly the first time I saw a book from that closed section. So I’ll go now. Come to the library if you’ll be needing anything. Kasei, are you coming?”

“Um… Could I stay? I’ll help them.”

“If you want to, then sure. I’m going.”

“Alright. Well then… let’s start!” Aru spoke ceremoniously. “I and Kyoko will look through this white book, Lorenzo and Kasei through the brown one, and Eris through the black one.”

“Fine then.” The bunny girl took the black tome, and Lorenzo the brown one. They prepared paper and a fountain pen with ink as well, to write down important excerpts. Kasei gave them a scrap of paper, on which she and Ed earlier noted down individual surnames. Each of them found something and read it out loud for everyone else. After several minutes of writing they decided to rest for a bit.

“Actually…” Kasei spoke. “It’s a good moment to learn more about each other, isn’t it?”

“You’d like to know something about us, Kasei?” Aru asked.

“Weeell, yeah, a bit. But I can tell you about myself too! Just so it wouldn’t only be you talking. When I look at you, I see you make a good team… But how did you meet?”

They looked at each other.

“It’s not really a happy story” Kyoko said. “But… one by one, let’s tell how we met. I think you have a right to know, since now you’re one of us, hm?” she smiled. The little redhead blushed a bit and as an answer also smiled.

“Well then… I’ll start!” Lorenzo exclaimed, taking another loaf.

“You ate everything!” Eris screamed at him.

“S h u s h” he said. The black-haired girl took offense. “So…”