Far from the simple flowing reality he was used to, Rai was so dizzy that the world made no sense. It kept churning and churning and churning. For an indescribable amount of time, this sensation lasted at least long enough for Rai to lose all sense of self.

Just when he thought it was over... Rai ended up back where he was.

Sat on the bench, beside Sin.

They were looking at the map and deciding where to go.

“Let’s see here.” He said, feeling a pang of déjà vu.

Rai traced his finger on the map over the different marks placed by the librarian.

As he did so, it was almost like he was following his own shadow, filling in the gap that he knew had to be filled.

But it didn’t make sense. It felt off, by the smallest margin.

“What’s that little mark supposed to mean?” Sin asked, for the second time today.

“I think she wrote it in the notes down here...” Rai replied. He pointed at the notes section at the bottom of the sheet, once again for the second time.

As Sin moved her face closer to the map to read the notes section, Rai felt the same déjà vu sensation again.

“Sin.” He said.

Sin turned around to look at Rai’s slightly confused face looking back down at her.

“Oh... sorry.”

She moved back a little bit, giving Rai the space to see past her.

“Thank you. Wait... no... that’s... exactly how this already played out...”

“Huh? What are you on about?”

Rai shook his head.

“I... I don’t know? Uh. Anyway. The notes here say that the next place is a... a... bar?”

“Not just a bar... look. The little marks surrounding it are other smaller shops like confectionaries, bakers, and other food-types?”

“That’s so strange... what’s the point of going to all... of those places?”

“I’m not too sure either. I would think it’d be fine to just go to one of them, like the bar since that’s got a big marker on it.”

“Well... we’re also moving way further into the city. If we look at the markers that follow, they’re all within the wall that separates Highborn Keep from the rest of Draconis. So, we’d have to go into the Keep after we’re done here...”

“I see... well, we should get a move on then.”

“Agreed.”

As Rai and Sin got up to walk out of the park, Rai felt another pang of déjà vu. He turned before the scream even came.

This time, he got to see the tri-corn leap through the air to gnaw at the batfly.

Then, the batfly’s owner screamed.

For some reason, Rai felt like he was on the edge of a precipice in his mind. It seemed as if he was missing something, but that something was just a little too far out of reach for him.

He heard echoes of himself speaking the words he was about to speak, before he said them.

“Should we...”

“No.” Sin echoed. “It’s not our business.”

Rai followed Sin back onto the main road. He, for some reason, cared not to watch the aftermath of the tri-corn eating the batfly. It seemed to him that the outcome was just going to be exactly as he’d expect it to be.

Just as Rai was about to leave down the main road with Sin, another dragon flew overhead.

With beautiful pearlescent scales, the dragon refracted the light of Zenith’s twin suns.

“How beautiful...” Sin said.

A sharp pain hit Rai’s head from within. It was similar to a headache, but felt a lot more... arcane...

Flashes.

His vision was filled by flashes.

Sin noticed Rai keeling over, and checked on him.

“Are... yoouuu... ooooo-...”

Then another voice filled Rai’s head.

“Who are you, really?! Did Amon s-...e-...”

The flashes stopped and the voice retreated.

Rai got back up from where he crouched.

“Something... isn’t right!” He said, harrowed by what just happened.

“Well yeah, you just keeled over for no reason.”

“No... that’s not it...”

Rai called forth Ghost.

Stormflow.

He zipped back to the park.

No one was there.

Even the blood that spewed out of the batfly was no longer on the ground.

Rai zipped back to Sin...

Who wasn’t where he left her.

Another pang of pain hit Rai’s head from within. This time, the pain was far stronger than the last.

That same voice came again.

“... W... Will you fina-lly tell me?! WHO SENT YOU?!?!”

Rai fell to the ground, unintentionally withdrawing Ghost. He clutched his hair tight as the pain tripled.

“TELL ME!”

...

“... fine. Fine. FINE! Then you’ll die for seeking information about Varon! MY VARON!”

Father Tully? Wait...

Power surged up from within Rai’s core towards his head.

He used Antithesis.

Rai broke free.

Back in the chapel, Father Tully was about to stab Rai in the heart with a dagger.

Stormflow.

The world crawled to a halt.

Rai looked around to get an idea of his surroundings. He noticed Sin. Fortunately, she was sat on a chair just like his, locked up by rope just like him.

The loop that he’d just had to deal with was clearly set up by Father Tully, Rai quickly realised.

Lightning flared around him slowly, with each arc emanating and holding its position longer than normal.

Rai yanked his hands free of the shackles that bound them. He got up from his chair, and did the same for Sin. He’d have to wake her up... but not before taking care of business.

Now that he was awake, and had gotten an idea of the full picture, Rai kicked the dagger out of Father Tully’s hand.

He subdued Father Tully instantly, and shoved him to the ground. Rai kept a knee on Father Tully’s back, and held his head facing directly down.

Antithesis.

Rai maintained Antithesis on Father Tully.

“Why’d you lock me up in an illusion like that? Is Sin stuck in the same place?!”

“Wh-... You were just... How?!”

“Lightning moves faster than you can think. Don’t bother trying to outmanoeuvre it.”

Father Tully tried to turn his head, but Rai shoved it deeper into the floorboards, causing a horrible creaking sound to come from the floor.

“AARGH!” Father Tully yelled.

“You’ll stay exactly like that until I’m done, Father Tully.”

“You won’t get a peep out of me! Nothing! I’ll never talk!”

Rai moved his head close to Father Tully’s ear.

His voice crackled furiously.

You’ll want to talk after I’m done with you.

*CRACK*

“AAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!!” Father Tully screamed.

“Since you seem so well versed in this kinda thing, I assume you set up a sound barrier that’s not so easily taken down. That probably wasn’t wise.

Now the world can’t hear you scream.” Rai crackled.

“WAIT! Wait... Agh FUCK! Fuck!...”

“I’m waiting. Answer my question, or I’ll break another one. Why did you place me under that illusion or whatever it was, and why did you try to kill me?” Rai asked, calmly.

Father Tully panted heavily. His broken finger was bruising up.

“I’ll... never talk... not to an agent of the fiend that exiled my leader!”

“... Amon? When the fuck did we ever say anything about Amon? Why would you even assume we work for that piece of shit?!”

“... Exactly what his agent would say. YOU WON’T FOOL ME! BREAK AS MA-”

*CRASH!*

Rai slammed Father Tully’s face through the wooden floorboards.

He fell unconscious. Rai left him there, limp, as he stood up and withdrew his spells.

“Whew... If he’s so sure of himself, then there’s no point trying to convince him. What time is it?”

Rai looked around for a window, but couldn’t find one.

He initially figured that they were still in the chapel because of the interior design of the room they were in, but the more he looked around the more confused he was.

This room was filled with tools and equipment that was made to... torture people. There were tables and platforms with straps and chains... and dried blood. Spiked weapons lined some of the weapon racks. Even the glass cabinets along the room’s edges were filled with torture tools.

Rai was surprised that Father Tully turned out to be like this, but it wasn’t all that unbelievable either. If any of what he said about Rai’s father was true, then he was probably an agent under his father’s leadership.

Actually... even from how he was reacting. He seems more like he’s a diehard follower of my father... A fanatic.

Chills made their way down Rai’s spine.

... Creepy...

Rai found stairs leading up, behind a wooden pillar, eventually.

Next, he went and woke Sin up.

As she woke up, Rai filled her vision.

“What... what happened?” Sin asked. She rubbed her eyes. Then, she saw Father Tully, stuck in the ground.

“Rai...”

“He tricked us. I knocked him out, but we need to get out of here before he wakes up. We can figure out what to do when we’re out of here.”

“... Alright. C’mon then.”

Rai dragged the groggy Sin up the stairs. They had to flip open a long hatch to leave. As they left what seemed like a cellar, Rai felt more and more sure that he was in the chapel. The interior design in the cellar was the same as the design in the room they’d just emerged into with its simple but elegant themes, but there weren’t any weapons and torture tools lining these walls.

He looked out through the window, only to find Zenith’s suns suspended high in the sky.

“We’ve only been here for a couple hours... thank goodness.” Rai whispered under his breath.

As they walked to leave the chapel, Sin gained more of her balance and was able to walk on her own.

Rai kept checking back over his shoulder to make sure that Father Tully wasn’t following them.

He also checked Sin’s hand to make sure she still had her rings. Fortunately, they were right where she left them. His seals were snug on his wrists as well. Their knapsacks were just on the ground outside the room, which they grabbed on their way out.

“We’ll move a good distance away, so hopefully he doesn’t search for us.”

“Rai... could you perhaps explain to me why Father Tully’s face was underneath his floor?” Sin asked sarcastically.

“Right... well now’s as good a time as any I suppose.”

Rai explained what he figured out, and mentioned all of the things he noticed in the illusion and the way things kept getting more and more weird within it. Especially the part about the bar, which wasn’t even originally circled on the map after Rai double checked it. It seemed like a long winded way of keeping Rai and Sin knocked out while Father Tully tried to extract information out of them.

As Sin took in what Rai said, she was surprised that she wasn’t under an illusion at all, rather she was knocked out completely. She mentioned that the last thing she remembered was Father Tully’s story, so that must have been when Father Tully knocked them out.

Though, she had no idea how anything could’ve gotten past her Domain... Sin would have to check and test for different spells to see if there was an archetype that she couldn’t sense or recognise. Even now, she couldn’t understand it, but if she truly wanted to improve her Domain, then she’d have to find a way to learn what she didn’t know.

They took a moment after walking far, far away from the chapel.

By now, they’d made it to the central area of Draconis.

“Should... should we have reported that?” Sin asked.

“I don’t think so.” Rai replied. “If he used to work for my dad then... he’s probably got friends all over Draconis. I think we’d end up in more trouble than he would if we tried to report it. And even if he’s just a fanatic, we’re not going to be able to convince anyone that a priest was a lunatic torturer.”

“Maybe we can mention it to your aunt then?”

“I’m more than happy to tell her when we’re back at the Secret. He thought we were agents under the Arbiter, so clearly there’s something going on there that we don’t know about.”

“I remember dad mentioning something about the tensions between the clans right now, and that the Life clan was at the centre of all of it.”

“Yeah. We should be careful now, and try to avoid mentioning my dad at all. I’m sorry I got us caught up in all of that... my excitement got us in trouble.”

“It’s fine Rai. Yes, it was your fault, but I get it completely. If someone told me something new about my mum, then I’d be really excited to hear about it too... so I get it.”

Sin pecked Rai on his cheek, and stealthily took the map out of his pocket.

“We should move fast, and the best place to hide from him while also getting our assignment done would be the Keep. Let’s take a look.” Sin said.

She opened up the map, and looked around the wall that was very clearly drawn into it. As clear as it was on the map, it was also just as clear in person. A massive wall that they couldn’t quite tell the details of from this far away, was further up the city, separating the Keep from everything else.

“I think we go through the guard outpost at the central front area. They should let us in when we show them our student ID cards.” Rai said.

“Sounds like a plan then. Once we’re in, we’ll go to this place right here.” Sin pointed at a tavern that was circled on the map.

“Mhmm. Let’s go before he wakes up.”

As Rai and Sin left, a nun watched them walk by, through an open window. She grinned wide. Extremely wide.

“If father wants to play, then you shouldn’t run away!” She sung to herself.

The nun went into the office and opened the latch.