Nagi immediately took him back to their home where she had Kazuki and Michiko take care of him. She left right after, saying she needed to attend some kind of business. While he thought he’d be bored doing nothing all day, since she said he wasn’t allowed outside, he found himself exhausted the moment he laid on his bed and fell asleep.

When he woke, it was night. Unable to fall asleep, he quietly walked down the hall and went outside to the back of the house where the large pond was. The flowers weren’t anywhere near as lively as when he saw them last, even the lack of sunlight couldn’t explain how different the scene was. Checking around for other people, he went up to the pond and looked at his reflection in the dim moonlight.

Though he looked similar, his nose, his eyes, and his cheeks were slightly different. Coating his eyes with Essence, activating Raah, he saw the lingering traces of her magic. It’d bought him a few seconds during his first encounter with his pursuers, possibly saving his life… How much longer would it last? How much longer could he hold onto this last remaining piece?

Kieran slapped the water, distorting his image.

Emotions were beginning to well up. It swirled inside him, clouding his thoughts and bringing him into darker places.

“The world is cruel, Young Master,” Alexandra had said. “That is why you must train.”

He turned his attention to the shadows at his feet. They twisted and curled like smoke from a candle as they rose to the desired height. His training had taught him greater control and the limits of his current power. If he used a sudden burst of Essence, he could conjure a strong enough shadow to act as a barrier. It was slower, but more efficient. If he used nothing but shadow bolts, he could unleash anywhere from eight to ten. Aside from those basics, Alexandra had been teaching him how to more finely manipulate his Flow.

He willed the shadow to wrap itself around a blade of grass. It inched its way up, all the way to the tip, nothing but a string thin shadow. Then he lost focus. The shadow’s thin shape distorted, wrapping all around the blade of grass until he stopped supplying it with Essence.

Even if he practiced day in and day out, and managed to obtain a Path, like some of the assassins that attacked the castle, what would he do with it? What was the point? It was all too late now.

Hushed voices caught his ear. He left the pond and made his way to the front of the home. Standing a few feet away from the entrance were two people, one was Nagi, who was stone faced as ever, and the other was a young man around the same age. Half of his face was obscured by a white, crescent mask marked with a lotus blooming out of a puddle. His long hair was tied in a ponytail, and he wore a padded vest while carrying a spear, no, a glaive.

“Nagi,” he said.

“If you’re calling me by my name, don’t speak to me about the subjugation.”

He seemed to think for a moment before saying, “Saintess, please reconsider. If you were to be harmed, the festival would be in ruins.”

It was hard to see anything in the dark, especially since the rooftop was blocking the moonlight from shining on her, but he knew her stone-cold expression hadn’t slipped by the tone of her voice. “Regardless of what anyone wants, I must participate. It is my duty, as it would have been the Saintesses’ before me.”

“That’s exactly what the temple wants and you’re playing into their hands because of what happened back-” he stopped himself mid sentence. After a second, he continued, “That is what the temple wants. We have seen this in the other major villages as well. The Coolwind Saintess has already relinquished most of her authority to the temple. If the Flowingwater Saintess hadn’t left for her pilgrimage, the same may have occurred there as well.”

Nagi didn’t respond.

“Please, Saintess… Nagi. Just think it over one more time, okay? We’re worried about you.”

“Leave, Alknoi.”

He gave a deep bow.

“She’s kinda nasty to everyone, huh?” Kieran whispered.

“Who’s there?” Alknoi turned around with his glaive pointed in his direction. “Come out.”

For a second he contemplated not complying. Not that there was anything he had to hide. Kieran stepped out from behind the wall. Alknoi’s guard didn’t lower. He barked out a question, “Who are you and why are you here?”

Nagi sighed, “He is our guest, the one they found at the foot of the mountain.” From the shadows he felt her eyes boring holes in his skull.

Alknoi snorted and put his weapon down. “I forgot that Lady Amaya and Lord Mirth had taken him into their home. It sickens me that a man, an outsider at that, is allowed within the sacred home before your pilgrimage.”

Kieran kept a neutral face as best he could. Alknoi, was being an asshole on purpose. Guys like him were best ignored.

Alknoi walked up to him. The guy was half a head taller and significantly more muscular. In a fight without magic, there was no contest. “Know this. Should you try anything, should you harm the Saintess or her family in any way, the entirety of this village and its people shall come for your head, Outsider.” He said the last word with particular hatred.

“Alknoi, I thought I told you to leave,” said Nagi as she stood beside them, arms crossed.

“Yes, Saintess.” He gave her another long and deep bow before leaving, still glaring at Kieran.

Nagi waited until he had disappeared from view before speaking. Her words and tone weren’t any kinder than his, “First you interrupt my training, next you eavesdrop on my conversation. Were you raised with no manners? Perhaps if you are so intent on moving around, you should leave.”

“Hey, it was just an accident, alright? I didn’t know it was you guys talking here and I didn’t know I was interrupting your little dance. Hell, I didn’t even know where I was.”

“Little dance?”

For a moment, anger flashed across her face.

“A man like you… That dance is more important than you could ever understand. If you wish to continue your recovery here, I suggest you tread carefully. I have no time to waste on you.”

 

---

 

“Are you awake?” said Kazuki and Michiko in unison.

“What if I say no?” Kieran muttered. After his encounter with Nagi last night, he had trouble falling asleep. The thoughts of what he should do from now on were also heavy on his mind.

“Miss Nagi said it was okay to throw this water on you,” Michiko answered.

“Aren’t I supposed to be a recovering guest?”

They both shrugged.

“Fine,” he said, getting out of bed. He quickly changed and met them in the hallway where an ominous bucket of water was tucked off to the side. “What do you need from me?”

“Miss Nagi brought it up to her father, Lord Mirth, that it might be good for you to get some light exercise and he agreed. You are to accompany us to the shrine once a day and assist us in cleaning it,” Kazuki said as the pair led him outside. It was clear they didn’t mean the temple when, instead of going out the front door, they went out the back and behind the large pond.

They followed a path that curved and went a bit further up the mountain. Hidden in a smattering of trees, with its own stone staircase that led to an alternate path connected to the body of water and village below, was a shrine that struck him as oddly familiar. It was supported by small red pillars that acted as its legs and its dome was silver tiled. Two black doors considered small for even a child, hid the inside from view. Around its base were an assortment of plantlife.

Michiko pulled out two sickles and handed one to Kazuki. They began clearing the grass and other plant life around the shrine while Kieran hung back. “What are you doing?” Michiko asked. “Come and assist us.”

“B-But I don’t have a sickle.”

“You have hands,” Kazuki said. “Use them.”

“Wait. Why am I the only one who has to use his hands?”

“So you can build strength,” Michiko answered.

“Miss Nagi said so.”

They had stopped and were looking at him as if asking, “Are you going to come or not?” Of course, he went. The closer he got to the edge, the weaker his legs became. Unlike his previous encounters with these huge cliffsides, none of them were out as far as the shrine was. He crawled to the shrine and began plucking the grass.

“Scared of heights?” Michiko asked.

“I wouldn’t say I’m scared…”

“So he will lie to his saviours,” Kazuki commented. “Miss Nagi would love to know this information.”

“Were you two born like this?”

They shared a look and nodded. “Yes,” said Kazuki. “It was decided that we would serve the Mizuno Family upon our birth. We are not related, if that is what you are wondering.”

That wasn’t what I was wondering, thanks.

“I am from Pine Village, about an hour away from here, while Kazuki is from the village of Yummo.”

“The other major villages?”

“I would not expect an outsider to know,” Kazuki said. “We are from subordinate villages. Simply put, think of the main villages, all which are named after water, as Kheonyth Kingdom’s territories or Marharden Empire’s vassal states. Normally, retainers of a Divine Family would be from the main village, but we are exceptions.”

“Yes, Kazuki and I were both born under the full moon during the Union Festival. Such a sign of luck made us perfect candidates to Miss Nagi, who was only four at the time,” Michiko said as she cut swaths of grass and let them drift away with the wind.

The Union Festival? In summer?

He’d never heard of it. Nothing in the books or teachings about Mist Union mentioned it. If he had to guess, it was likely to do with their agreement to act as one nation when dealing with outsiders, namely Kheonyth and Marharden.

“I believe those outside of Mist Mountain call it the Mending Festival?” chimed Kazuki.

Guess I was wrong.

“Why is it called the Union Festival?”

“Too much talking. With another person here, things should be going faster, not slower,” Michiko barked.

They sped up their pace, cutting and cleaning the area until the shrine looked brand new. Kieran was so tired of crouching that he forgot his fear of heights for a moment and was almost blown away by the sight. From his vantage point, he finally grasped the full scale of the village of Stillwater. It encapsulated most of the plateau and chunks of the mountain were turned into terrace farms. Peaking out of the trees to the east was the tip of the temple’s rooftop.

“Try not to suddenly remember your fear,” commented Kazuki.

As soon as he said that, Kieran felt a pit in his stomach and stepped back from the shrine. Michiko shook her head and guided them down the other path that led back to the village. She was holding onto a bag he hadn’t noticed before. Walking through the slowly waking village, the two assistants were met with warm greetings.

They stopped in front of a particular shop that smelled strongly of multiple scents. Of the few he could identify, the strongest was mint. The sign at the front said “closed” but Michiko whistled three times in four short bursts and a ruckus came from inside. A boy who didn’t seem older than ten opened the door. His hands and sleeves were dirty despite being rolled up. “Michiko, Kazuki!"

“Good morning, Slenn. We’ve brought the clear herbs. Thank you! I’ll tell father right away.”

Clear herbs. Kieran had learned about them a few years ago after the Loftus Manor incident. They were the part of the treatment used to restore his Essence after he’d exhausted most of it. One reason for the relationships maintained with the Union of Mist by both Marharden and Kheonyth was because of the clear herbs that they could ‘regularly’ supply. The vast majority of clear herbs were from trade with the Union of Mist as the Vayson and Lancur Mountains were difficult to navigate and filled with dangerous and territorial monsters. Strangely enough, the Haald Plains were also said to be a source for clear herbs but it was a battlefield first and foremost.

The boy’s father came to the door. Despite his preconceptions about herbalists, the man was burly and looked more than capable of taking care of himself. Behind him, Kieran could see an angry looking mask laying on the table. “Thanks for always delivering ‘em, you two. Sorry to hafta trouble you.”

“No trouble at all,” said Michiko with a smile.

“Who’s the young man with you? A new attendant?”

“A guest,” answered Kazuki. “He will be helping us with some tasks every now and then. Please be kind to him.”

The herbalist nodded and they said their farewells. Kieran thought back to the exchange, “He isn’t going to pay for those?”

“No. As the divine family, the Mizunos have always provided clear herbs and spiritual services to the villages. Miss Nagi used to deliver these herself before we started attending to her. She insisted on continuing the delivery even after we arrived. Were it not for Lady Amaya, Miss Nagi might still be doing this today.”

“She does seem pretty stubborn,” Kieran said offhandedly.

Kazuki’s nostrils flared. “Do not insult Miss Nagi. Her stubbornness is not of the same kind as a child’s.”

“So you can call her stubborn but I can’t?”

His eyes narrowed, “I am not sure if you are playing with me or if you are simply clueless. You may see her stubbornness as a vice, but I, as well as many others in the village, understand why she is so set in her ways.”

He nodded, letting the situation die down. Regardless of his personal opinions, there wasn’t any point in antagonizing the people who took him in. They wanted nothing to do with him, and he wanted nothing to do with them. Right now, he was just paying them back for saving him, and he’d be on his way when it was done.

The question was, where would he go?

Fortunately, or unfortunately, he didn’t have to worry about that right now. Kazuki and Michiko had brought him to the center of the village and both pointed at the boards. “You will complete one of these tasks each day,” they said in unison.

 

---

 

Hansgath was spending another long night at his desk. The candle illuminating his work space bothered him so he changed it for a lantern, and finally for a crystal. “So? Have they killed him?” A cloaked man was kneeling, the window opened behind him.

“Yes, Your Highness. According to their reports, the Fifth Prince was slain with an arrow through his back and left to a pack of wolves under the dominion of a langqart.”

Hansgath put his pen down. “No body?

“There was nothing to recover.”

“Good. I wish he could have gone out in a quieter fashion, but the matter is settled. What of the situation at Telash Castle? I hear Overlord Maidak investigated it himself.”

“Yes, but there were no issues with him. The servants were all killed following the plan’s completion and the soldiers who participated would never leak what happened.”

“Then why have heard so much commotion about it?” Hansgath asked as he glanced at the blank parchments on his desk. The text on them could only be read when fed with Essence from a certain crystal. Once, Lyla had almost given him a heart attack when she entered while he was in the middle of reading it.

“The Bone Demon has been looking over the scene very closely. He suspects foul play,” the cloaked man answered.

“Have Overlord Kaal’un order him to prepare for battle. The first clash should be upon us soon. That should be as good of an excuse as any to lead him off the trail.”

The man was momentarily silent, and that annoyed Hansgath. So far, the plan to get him on the throne was going smoothly, save for the news that Kieran had somehow managed to escape. However, with him now gone, there shouldn’t have been anything left in his way. Why was it that the Bone Demon was giving him so much grief?

“Is that not possible?” Hansgath asked.

“No, Your Highness. It seems that per your father’s orders, he was to serve the Fifth Prince.”

“But his body is set up among the others, is it not?”

“There were some difficulties finding the double for the Fifth Prince in time so we had to make use of a Colorless who fit his general profile.”

“Did he somehow manage to identify the body’s Flow?”

“No, Your Highness. He seems to have met the Fifth Prince before the attack on Telash Castle. He claims the Fifth Prince was wearing a particular pendant around his neck that was not on the body we prepared.”

Hansgath took a breath to hold back his anger. He knew about the Bone Demon, Kalstras Ywenir, and his ties to his brother, Kieran. Surely a foolish act done seemingly out of lack of knowledge about the inner workings of the council couldn’t have moved a man like the Bone Demon so much. Kieran was far from ambitious. Even if their parents hadn’t kept him so far removed from the responsibilities of royalty, he would have turned out no significant results and been nothing more than a name lost to history.

There were times in their brief moments together that Hansgath had caught a glimpse of something more, but that little glimpse felt more like staring into a dead campfire, filled with only dead wood and embers. His brother’s spark, if he had one, had been thoroughly snuffed out.

And now they were telling him that Kalstras Ywenir, a Blessed of High Demon rank and Name Bearer who possessed the only wings seen amongst their kind in the last hundred or so years, was looking for that ambitionless prince? If he had the disdain that his older brother, the first prince Drastan, had he might be laughing right now.

“What did the pendant look like?”

The man repeated what the Bone Demon had said.

“Is there no other like that? Could we not have planted one in his quarters?”

“The Bone Demon has already searched through the Fifth Prince’s belongings. As it stands, he is more adamant than ever that there was conspiracy from within and his demanding that the teleportation destinations be revealed to him.”

Hansgath thought about tit for a moment, then began laughing. He laughed until the fatigue in his body faded. “Then we will give it to him. If he wishes to search for my brother so much, let him on the condition he will return to duty should he find nothing within the next month.”

“Your Highness, would that not mean he would miss the first battle?”

“He would. However, we have a much stronger piece than him who will participate now that the royal family is gone. Once again, the empire and theocracy shall know terror.”

“And what of the traitor he and the Overlords suspect?”

Hansgath thought for a moment, and then there was a knock on his door. He’d been expecting it so he wasn’t surprised. He allowed the servant in. It was one of his subordinates and he was tasked with collecting the personal items that belonged to the royal family and their servants. Lyla had wanted to see them and reminisce, though he was against it. He eventually gave in, with the idea that it would make sense for him as a grieving family member.

As he searched through the piles of items, he noticed a diary belonging to one of the attendants. They were common for nobles, but certainly not for anyone else. As he read the name of the book’s owner, an idea began brewing. Keeping the diary, he ordered his servant out with the other items.

Hansgath held out the diary with a grin. Of all the books and pages he’d read in the last few weeks following his plan, this one was the most useful.

“What is that, Your Highness?”

“Our scapegoat,” he said.