The founder of the Duhnovo Empire. Ilon had only been able to reach the conclusion that She was Isoko’s Blessed after a couple of context clues that she provided. The grand figure part had been a big give away, but what really confirmed it was the fact that she had a ‘sister’ as a Totem and that she had said ‘us’ when talking about the Deadzone.

 

“So Isoko’s a bigshot.” Maymun said with a bit of awe. “Who exactly is the founder of Duhnovo?”

 

Quyon answered before Ilon got the chance. “She’s one of the only recorded Culmination experts. Besides that and the fact that She had four totems, most of Her history was lost to time and the constant wars that Duhnovo’s been in.” 

 

“I’ve actually heard the Master call out Her full title before.” Ilon mentioned. The Master had rarely ever taught him and the others things outside of what a regular high end academy would teach. But there were times when she would correct wrong information or expand on certain things.

 

Quyon and Maymun leaned forward in expectation. “What is it?” Quyon asked in impatience.

 

Ilon was about to answer when he felt himself being watched. He turned his head back and noticed Isoko staring at him out of the corner of his eye. “I’ll tell you later.” He whispered to them as he lightly motioned with his head to indicate where they were.

 

“Gah!” Maymun said as she collapsed back into her chair. “Why bring it up now then?”

 

“Hehe.” Ilon chuckled which ended up sounding much more evil than he intended.

 

“Don’t forget.” Quyon gave him a death glare. She had always been interested in the history of Nyana, so something like this was beyond exciting for her. 

 

Ilon looked over to Quyon, “I also have something to ask about later as well.” Knowing her love of history there was a good chance she would know something about the Deadzone, or at the very least somewhere to start gathering information about it.

 

“Alright.” Quyon responded without asking about what. It was better to avoid talking about anything serious when in the public. Even if the crowd around them was loud enough to drown out their voices, there was always a possibility of someone eavesdropping on the conversations around them to gather information.

 

The conversation lulled into less serious things as they ate their breakfast. They kept an ear out for anyone else talking about violet eyes in a nightmare, but didn’t hear any mention of it. 

 

Eventually they finished their meal and decided to go to Ilon’s room so they could continue their previous conversation.

 

This time Ilon sat comfortably on the bed while Quyon and Maymun had to be confined to the uncomfortableness of the only two chairs in the room.

 

“What’s Her title?” Quyon asked as soon as she finished dragging the chair closer. 

 

“You’re always so impatient when it comes to things like this.” Maymun said as she sat down, her legs crossed and one arm hanging behind the chair.

 

Quyon shot her an annoyed glare and sat down as well. “I know. Now then, what is it?”

 

“Hmm? I can’t seem to remember.” Ilon said in an exaggerated tone. “Maybe if someone took over my portion of things to buy it might jog my memory.” He gave an evil smirk seeing Quyon clench her fist.

 

“Why would that jog-” Maymun started to say but was cut off.

 

“Fine.” Quyon agreed to buy his share of the supplies for their travelling in his stead. It wasn’t about the money, but instead the time it would take. He had something he wanted to do and today was the last day they would be here, so the extra couple of hours would be useful.

 

Ilon forced the grin off his face. “Oh, I remember now. The title of the founder of Duhnovo.” The Master hadn’t actually told Ilon the title, he had overheard it.

 

“The Bringer of Salvation, Ruler of the Seasons, The First Empress Zalia Duhnovo.” It had been a couple of months after Quyon and Maymun had been left behind that he heard the Master saying this. She had been talking with someone in Her tent when he passed by it.

 

He hadn’t really cared at the time he heard it, only thinking it an interesting tidbit of information. Who knew that he would run into the Totem that had Blessed one of the greatest figures in history.

 

“Bringer of Salvation?” Quyon had never heard of any ruler with a title like that. 

 

“What do you think it means?” Maymun asked. 

 

Ilon hadn’t heard anything else from the tent when he passed by. After experiencing what Isoko had done, he wouldn’t doubt it if the Master could do something similar, meaning it was very likely She wanted him to hear the title.

 

“Salvation. That would usually refer to people, right?” Ilon threw out his guess.

 

Quyon shook her head, “Titles are never that simple. They’re given out by the will of the world, unless it’s meant as saving the majority of the human race, I doubt it.” True Titles weren’t something that were earned by a group of people calling someone something. True Titles were entrenched onto the very being of a person, allowing someone to know of that person’s titles just by seeing them.

 

“What about Ruler of the Seasons then?” Maymun asked before they got too far into their contemplations.

 

“I think it might have something to do with Her totems.” Quyon responded. “On record it was said that she had four totems. I’ve never heard about what the blessings were, but it’s possible it has something to do with the elements relating to the four seasons.”  

 

Ilon agreed with her. “It makes sense. Earth, water, fire, and air have the possibility to balance each other out.” 

 

“The First Empress, I have no idea about that one. There have been a multitude of Empires before Duhnovo, even if most of them have been lost to history.” Quyon had a passion fueled hatred towards those who destroyed so many records of historical importance. 

 

“It doesn’t specify if She’s the First Empress of what though.” Ilon responded.

 

“What would she be an Empress of then? Ants?” Maymun asked sarcastically. “Empires are things of humans. It’s probably just that She was the first legitimately recognized Empress by the will of the world.”  

 

Maymun didn’t think it could be anything else. She was annoyed by the fact that Quyon and Ilon overthought things to the point where they might end up thinking that something like the moon was made of something ridiculous like cheese.

 

“That … might actually be possible. Not much is actually known from those times.” Quyon conceded. Sometimes it was better to take the simplest answer instead of overthinking it a hundred times over.

 

Quyon looked at Ilon with slight disappointment, “You never thought to research it more or ask the Master about it?” 

 

“Honestly, I didn’t really care much at the time. I was more focused on surviving what She was putting me through.” Ilon defensively responded. He barely had any time for rest, let alone researching an ancient piece of knowledge that helped him in no way.

 

“You’re right, sorry.” Quyon quickly apologized. Back then it was either throw your all into training or die, torn to shreds by a Horror.

 

“It’s alright. I also had something to ask you if you don’t mind.” Ilon politely asked, afraid that she was upset with him.

 

“What is it? Why are you talking like that?” Quyon instantly got suspicious of what Ilon was about to ask. He was someone who was polite when dealing with strangers, but she doubted her remark had actually offended him.

 

Ilon let out a nervous chuckle, “My bad. I thought you might be upset with me for not following through on the title.”

 

“Don’t be, that was just my selfish thinking. Anyways, what do you want to ask?” Quyon waved it off. There was no need to make it a big deal that could hurt their relationship.

 

“I wanted to ask you about the Deadzone.” Ilon said.

 

Quyon slightly tilted her head in confusion. “Why do you want to know about it?” 

 

“Isoko wanted me to do something for her in exchange for all the information she provided. She wanted me to try my best to find out what was causing the Deadzone’s rapid expansion recently.” Ilon didn’t know how much Quyon knew about the Deadzone, but it was at least worth a try to ask her.

 

“Unfortunately I don’t know all that much about it. Just that it started in an empire called the Perdita Empire. The expansion of it was slow and gradual before it rapidly sped up, slowing down once most of the Empire had been consumed.” Quyon explained the history she had learnt.

 

“Do you know anything about the Perdita Empire?” Having a name was a start at the very least. He would be able to stop at the central libraries in the large towns to research. He just wished that the Master would have taught things that didn’t solely focus on survival and killing more often. 

 

Quyon took a moment to think it over, pinching her bottom lip. “I don’t think I’ve read much about them. The only thing I can remember is that they used to worship some sort of figure.”

 

“A totem?” Maymun asked from the side.

 

“I don’t think so.” Quyon said unsurely. “I don’t remember what it was, but I would have remembered if it was a totem.”

 

“Sounds like I have my work cut out for me then.” Ilon sighed. He had planned to use the extra time to do two things. The first was going to the library in Mazual to research the Deadzone and second was to visit Lysa one last time to tell her about Jeraz and Tain using him.

 

Quyon crossed her arms, “Is that why you wanted me to buy your portion of supplies?” 

 

Ilon gave her a cheeky grin. “I also want to plant one last seed of revenge against Tain.”

 

“What is it?” Maymun perked up. She wanted to punch Tain in the face for getting innocents killed but never got a chance.

 

“Lysa was in love with Jeraz who was a spy for the Shamans. Tain used him to deliver the information about us being mercenaries for him to the Shamans.” Ilon explained.

 

“How is that revenge though?” Maymun scoffed at Ilon. She had expected something more, something that would actually hurt Tain, not ‘I’ll make some random girl mad at him’.

 

Ilon sighed lightly. “I wish I could do something more, but Mazual needs Tain in the future. I just want to make things just a little bit harder for him.”

 

“That pisses me off.” Maymun frowned. “He gets to do whatever he wants because he’s needed.”

 

“I doubt he wanted to do that. He seemed to genuinely care for his people and dozens of them died that day.” Ilon responded a bit disheartened. “When I visited him he seemed to be guilty for what he had done.”

 

Maymun fell silent. She had trouble believing it, but there were some good people who were forced by their situation to do something shitty. She couldn’t judge him properly because she had only met him once and the first impression wasn’t the greatest.

 

“Just because he was guilty of what he did, doesn’t mean that he’s absolved from his sins.” Quyon spoke up for Maymun. It didn’t change the fact that hundreds of people had died because of his actions that day.

 

“I don’t disagree. That’s why I want to give him some trouble for the future.” Ilon grinned.   

 

Quyon shook her head a bit. “That’s childish. I like it.” She mimed Ilon’s grin. “However, you might want to change how you do it. You might only end up hurting Lysa by telling her directly like that, even if she deserves to know.”

 

“That’s true.” Ilon said after he thought about it a bit more. “What should I do then?” He had two girls who knew how to get under someone's skin right in front of him, who could be better to ask?

 

“Make her realize that Tain was hiding things from her. If you really want to screw up their relationship, frame it in a very negative light.” Quyon replied deviously.

 

Ilon didn’t want to go too far with it. “I’ll just hint that there’s something going on. Thanks for the advice.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. We should get going though, it’ll take us a while to get everything.” Quyon said as she looked over at Maymun who was spacing off. “You should too. It’ll take a long time to find anything meaningful about the Deadzone. I’ll come by and help if it isn’t too late when I finish.”

 

“I appreciate it.” Ilon said as got off the bed. “I’ll see you later.” He nodded at the two of them as they left his room.  

 

After changing into something more suitable Ilon headed out. He slowly made his way through the streets that seemed dead in comparison to when he had first arrived.

 

A lot of people left after what was essentially a civil war between the Shamans and guards of Mazual. Fear had contaminated the hearts of the people, whether it was the fear of war in the near future or fear of the guards who now held a majority of the power in Mazual. 

 

Of course there would always be those who oppose the ongoings. Ilon had seen several people trying to rally others to call for justice against both the guards and the Mayor for allowing such a tragedy to happen. 

 

Unfortunately, most of those people only had their own interests in their heart, not that of the people. He wouldn’t be surprised if they used it as an excuse to raise money so they could pay people to ‘bring about  justice’, only to disappear once they gathered a considerable amount.

 

After a bit he finally reached the entrance to the guard station Tain had brought them to. He had planned on visiting Lysa but he realized he didn’t have a way to contact her, nor did he know where she would be, so this was his best bet.